Even his present desperate situation couldn’t spoil his memories of other days in the woods; like the lovely, lazy day he shot eleven squirrels

A rip-roaring novelisation based on the bestselling League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series by Alan Moore, soon to be a major motion picture starring Sean Connery and Stuart Townsend. London, 1899. As the British Empire lies in mortal jeopardy, a top-secret initiative unites several of the most illustrious (and sometimes infamous) personages of the age: Allan Quartermain, famed explorer and adventurer; Captain Nemo, master of the undersea submersible Nautilus: Dr. Henry Jekyll and his brutish alter ego, Mr. Hyde; Rodney Skinner, the Invisible Man; Dorian Gray, the ageless subject of a diabolical portrait; Mina Murray (nee Harker), surviving victim of the late Count Dracula and a scrappy American secret agent named Tom Sawyer. Together they form THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. When a criminal mastermind known only as 'The Fantom' plots to hurl the world into war, The League must race across the globe to foil the masked madman's insidious scheme. But they may not have reckoned with the traitor in their midst…

Paul Chapin’s college cronies have never completely forgiven themselves for the tragic prank that left their friend a twisted cripple. Yet with their Harvard days behind them, they thought it was all in the past — until a class reunion ends in a fatal fall, and mysterious poems swearing deadly retribution begin to arrive. Now this league of frightened men seeks Nero Wolfe’s expert help. But are Wolfe’s brilliance and Archie’s tenacity enough to outwit a most cunning killer?

Brimming with passion, laced with humor, Jane Feather's tantalizing historical romances have been called "well-written and fast-moving...entertaining" (Booklist) and "great fun" (Publishers Weekly). Now the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Bride makes her exciting hardcover debut with this irresistible tale of a bookish beauty who has never met a man who could best her, tempt her, or seduce her...until now. Brimming with passion, laced with humor, Jane Feather's tantalizing historical romances have been called "brilliantly crafted" (Affaire de Coeur) and "vastly entertaining" (Rendezvous). Now the nationally bestselling author of The Accidental Bride makes her exciting hardcover debut with this irresistible tale of a bookish beauty who has never met a man who could best her, tempt her, or seduce her-until now. -> One moment Lady Olivia Granville is strolling along a path, her nose buried in a tome of Greek philosophy; the next she is plunging down a rocky cliff. Only when she regains consciousness-naked and unwittingly trapped on an unknown ship-does she discover that she owes her life to a stranger who is clearly not a gentleman! Wickedly handsome, disturbingly mysterious, the gray-eyed master of the Wind Dancer admits to making his living from the sea. But it doesn't take long for Olivia to realize that the rogue who'd so intimately tended her wounds is a brash pirate whose schooner is bearing down upon a Spanish galleon. She knows she should be appalled. Instead Olivia is shockingly entranced...and recklessly attracted to an outlaw whose gaze holds bothchallenge and invitation. Anthony Caxton has known from the first that Olivia Granville is no ordinary woman. But who would have thought that the sheltered daughter of a marquis would have a genuine taste for piracy? Delighted by her response, teased by her beauty, he welcomes her as the newest of his crew, confident that it is only a matter of time before he wins her surrender. Yet even as Olivia welcomes his embrace, she remains unaware that Anthony is harboring a devastating secret...one that will lead them to heartache, scandal, and betrayal. For Anthony is much more than a common pirate. He is the mastermind behind a perilous plot of royal intrigue that could change the course of history. And in this enterprise his opponent is none other than Cato Granville...Olivia's father. Anthony knows the success of his scheme-and his very life-depends upon minute planning, on anticipating every possible difficulty. But he never imagined that he would fall in love with the daughter of his most formidable enemy. And he never dreamed that the dangerous game he was playing would leave Olivia vulnerable to the attentions of a cunning villain-one who wants to possess the dark-haired temptress almost as much as he wants to see Anthony Caxton hang.... With more than four million copies of her novels in print and twelve consecutive national bestsellers, Jane Feather is poised to capture ever more of the voracious romance-reading audience. In this new novel, she delivers her unique take on the classic Pygmalion tale: a young woman transformed by love, who embarks on the adventure of a lifetime. THE LEAST LIKELY BRIDE is Olivia-young, chronically shy, and addicted to ancient Greek literature. As she walks on the sands of an island off the coast of England, her nose buried in a book, she takes a fall - and wakes up days later on what seems to be a pirate ship. Her captor, though, is no ordinary pirate. He possesses the skills of both a physician and an artist. He is also the most gorgeous male Olivia has ever encountered. Most disconcerting of all, when he looks at her, he sees-not the stammering, hopelessly bookish young girl Olivia has always been-but a desirable, beautiful woman. Feather weaves together plot and passion into a mesmerizing whole that is perfect for fans of Julie Garwood

Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg have faced many a tough problem in their lives, but never one so dismal as the one they come up against now. Circumstances beyond their control (and for once, beyond their ability to twist, sidestep, or disregard) force the boys either to take jobs in order to cat or to sit out a Chicago winter on a park bench. So, fighting every inch of the way, they become the employees of “the Leather Duke,” Chicago’s biggest operator in the leather business. Most leather workers grind drearily along for years with nothing to break the monotony. Not so Johnny and Sam. Before they’ve been there half a day, Sam finds a corpse where he should have found a barrel of leather counters. Then the uproar begins. Whether they’re fighting in poolrooms in Little Italy, mixing it up at Turnverein dances, or merely adding a fine new lustre to their well-developed art of deadbeating, these two lads are at it every minute. Johnny Fletcher fans will find this full of excitement. So will everybody else

One morning, Deming Guo's mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon — and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he's ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents' desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel — as he grows into a directionless young man — and Polly, Ko's novel gives us one of fiction's most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heartwrenching choice after another. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It's a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past

A visitor should be fed, but this one could eat you out of house and home ... literally!

A visitor should be fed, but this one could eat you out of house and home ... literally!

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD AND THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE YEAR 1969 URSULA KROEBER LE GUIN, daughter of A. L. Kroeber (anthropologist) and Theodora Kroeber (author), was born in Berkeley, California in 1929. She attended college at Radcliffe and Columbia, and married C. A. LeGuin in Paris in 1951. The LeGuins and their three children live in Portland, Oregon. Ursula LeGuin's previous novels include ROCANNON'S WORLD, PLANET OF EXILE and CITY OF ILLUSIONS, and THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, all published by Ace Books. Like THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, each novel is complete in itself, but they are all part of a greater, growing mosaic of far-future history that is consistent from novel to novel. With the awarding of the 1975 Hugo and Nebula awards to The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin became the first author to win both awards twice for novels. scanned & proofed by Binwiped 10/11/02 v1, formatting updated, missing pages scanned and restored, the whole compared to the 14th ACE print run of June, 1977 by MollyKate for #bookz, (26.10.2002); then released in #bookz by MollyKate, downloaded from http://torrents.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=463754 and after that imported to fb2 by soshial (20.05.2008)

Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary'. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a vast and desolate place – a place without joy or hope. Most of its occupants were taken there as boys and for years have endured the brutal regime of the Lord Redeemers whose cruelty and violence have one singular purpose – to serve in the name of the One True Faith. In one of the Sanctuary's vast and twisting maze of corridors stands a boy. He is perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old – he is not sure and neither is anyone else. He has long-forgotten his real name, but now they call him Thomas Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming, violent and profoundly bloody-minded. He is so used to the cruelty that he seems immune, but soon he will open the wrong door at the wrong time and witness an act so terrible that he will have to leave this place, or die. His only hope of survival is to escape across the arid Scablands to Memphis, a city the opposite of the Sanctuary in every way: breathtakingly beautiful, infinitely Godless, and deeply corrupt. But the Redeemers want Cale back at any price…not because of the secret he now knows but because of a much more terrifying secret he does not

Sardonic and merciless, this satire of the entire apocalyptic enterprise provides a humorous and timely interpretation of the bestselling Left Behind series—the adventures of those "left behind" to battle the Anti-Christ after all Born-Again Christians have ascended into heaven. From predatory preachers and goth lingerie to Indian casinos and “art cars” at Burning Man, this religious spoof deftly pairs the personal with the fictional. Featuring an extensive author interview and biography, this contemporary parody also includes the unique one-act drama, Special Relativity, which asks the question: When Paul Robeson, J. Edgar Hoover, and Albert Einstein are raised from the dead at an anti-Bush rally, which one wears the dress? Terry Ballantine Bisson is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories, including “Bears Discover Fire” (1990), which which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, as well as They're Made Out of Meat (1991), which has been adapted for video often

A novel concerned with human greed, lust and ambition, which tells of a Welsh miner's daughter who marries a Romany gypsy boxer contending for the World Heavyweight Championship and of how a legacy left to her affects her family

Legend meets history in this mesmerizing novel from #1 *New York Times* bestselling author Caleb Carr. Demonstrating the rich storytelling, skillful plotting, and depth of research he showcased in *The Alienist,* Carr has written a wildly imaginative, genre-bending saga that redefines the boundaries of literature. Some years ago, a remarkable manuscript long rumored to exist was discovered: The Legend of Broken. It tells of a prosperous fortress city where order reigns at the point of a sword — even as scheming factions secretly vie for control of the surrounding kingdom. Meanwhile, outside the city’s granite walls, an industrious tribe of exiles known as the Bane forages for sustenance in the wilds of Davon Wood. At every turn, the lives of Broken’s defenders and its would-be destroyers intertwine: Sixt Arnem, the widely respected and honorable head of the kingdom’s powerful army, grapples with his conscience and newfound responsibilities amid rumors of impending war. Lord Baster-kin, master of the Merchants’ Council, struggles to maintain the magnificence of his kingdom even as he pursues vainglorious dreams of power. And Keera, a gifted female tracker of the Bane tribe, embarks on a perilous journey to save her people, enlisting the aid of the notorious and brilliant philosopher Caliphestros. Together, they hope to exact a ruinous revenge on Broken, ushering in a day of reckoning when the mighty walls will be breached forever in a triumph of science over superstition. Breathtakingly profound and compulsively readable, Caleb Carr’s long-awaited new book is an action-packed, multicharacter epic of a medieval clash of cultures — in which new gods collide with old, science defies all expectation, and virtue comes in many guises. Brimming with adventure and narrative invention, *The Legend of Broken *is an exhilarating and enthralling masterwork

In this first novel in a bold new Western series, crooked Sheriff Harry Gauge rules the town of Trinidad, New Mexico, with an iron fist. His latest scheme is to force rancher George Cullen into selling his spread and to take Cullen’s beautiful daughter Willa for his bride — whether she’s willing or not. The old man isn’t about to go down without a fight. He sends out a telegram to hire the west’s toughest gunslinger to kill the sheriff. But when a stranger rides into Trinidad, no one’s sure who he is. Wherever he came from, wherever he’s going, it’s deadly clear he’s a man who won’t be pushed — and that he’s a damn good shot... With stirring authenticity and heart-racing drama, Spillane and Collins add Caleb York to the roster of unforgettable western heroes

He is the destroyer of worlds and the frightener of children. He has started wars and slaughtered millions. He is a man, an alien, a robot, and the devil himself. His legendary physique cripples feminine inhibitions, and his strength can move mountains. He is a gladiator, a scientist, a warrior, a poet, a lover, and a master spy. He saved a flailing transport filled with nuns and sent it spiraling into a sun. He swam in vacuum without protection. He punched a dinosaur. He is Ivan. In a galaxy where technology has outpaced structure and reason, the name of Ivan is known far and wide. Thousands of stories ranging across the realm of absurdity flit about in every corner, and no one quite knows if Ivan even exists. Sid, a half-machine, human recorder known as an Archivist, travels throughout the galaxy in search of the truth behind Ivan’s great myth. He gathers and interprets information, discarding the outlandish and seeking the tiny kernels of reality in each tale. As pieces of the legend fall into place, narrow escapes and near-deaths threaten an end to the Archivist’s hunt. Unyielding, he is drawn ever deeper into the convoluted pool of madness behind Ivan’s tale, and questions grow ever more alarming: What exactly did Ivan do to become so famous, and why is Sid not the only one looking for him?

Creator of Travis McGee, and author of over sixty novels, John D. MacDonald (1916-) is most highly regarded as a mystery writer. But he has also written three science fiction novels, including that delightful fantastic mystery, “The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything”. Recently, a collection of his shorter fantastic fiction, “Other Times, Other Worlds”, was released, and perhaps the best of them is “The Legend of Joe Lee,” a touching portrayal of social crimes and generational conflict

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is classic of American fiction and display the authors ability to depict American landscapes and culture

Enter a powerful realm of legend, dark sorcery, and conquest, where the mighty Drenai warrior Druss faces his most deadly opponent. . Druss the Legend, the dark axman known as the Deathwalker, must join the warrior Talisman on a mission of blood and glory. Only the stolen Eyes of Alchazzar-mystic jewels of power-will save Druss's dying friend, then unite the Nadir tribes against the evil of the Gothir. Druss agrees to help look for the twin gems-hidden for centuries in the shrine of Oshikai, the Demon-bane, the Nadir's greatest hero. It has been prophesied that with the recovery of the stones, there will come the Uniter, a magnificent fighter who will free the Nadir from brutal oppression. But Garen-Tsen, the sadistic power behind the Gothir throne, also seeks the gems. To control them, he will send five thousand men against a handful of savages, Talisman, and the one Drenai warrior

According to the legend, six novices living in a Cornish convent strayed from their vows and were turned to stone. The seventh faced quite a different fate. Years later when the convent became the family mansion of the St. Larnston family, fate beckoned to another young virgin. Kerensa Carlee was only a cottage girl, but she possessed great ambition and greater beauty -- and she knew how to use them both. Working in the legend-haunted mansion as a lady's maid, Kerensa began her perilous journey into womanhood. She stirred old memories and mysteries, and brought to that quiet corner of Victorian Cornwall moonlight madness and an ancient vengeance

SUPERB COLLECTION OF CLASSIC MYSTERY TALES The Legendary Detectives II is a real treat for aficionados of classic detective fiction: Eight tales of the greatest fictional sleuths who prowled in search of murder and mystery through the era of gaslight and hansom cabs. A follow-up to the bestselling e-book, The Legendary Detectives, grand treats await inside. To wit: the rarest adventure of that legendary blind detective, Max Carrados, "The Bunch of Violets," never reprinted in any Carrados collection. Then for lovers of the exotic, Mr. Commissioner Sanders untangles a web of intrigue along the remote outposts of the Congo River, in "The Ghost Walker." The exotic as well as the scientific are in display in "The Silent Bullet," the very first story to feature that Golden Age scientific sleuth, Craig Kennedy. The exotic is also front and center in "The Headless Mummies," an adventure of Fu Manchu creator Sax Rohmer's extraordinary detective Moris Klaw. Next is a pair of tales featuring the two most famous brains among gaslight detectives: the Man in the Corner in "The York Mystery," and The Thinking Machine in "The Great Auto Mystery." Next, that inimitable, priest-detective, Father Brown, tackles the case of "The Head of Caesar." Included is the last adventure of the world's greatest detective, "His Last Bow: An Episode from the War Service of Sherlock Holmes." The aging sleuth is dragged from retirement to match wits with the Huns master-spy in the darkest days of World War I, in this story recorded by his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. There are hours of mystery reading pleasure in this exclusive e-book, selected and introduced by Jean Marie Stine

Being expelled from an air lock into deep space was the legal method of execution. But it was also the only way a man could qualify for—The Legion Of Lazarus

In this short story by T.C. McCarthy, one ordinary woman with nothing to lose joins the French Foreign Legion and finds herself, and her comrades, pinned down in a bunker surrounded by enemies. Thousands of the mantis-like creatures swarm towards them and with no communications and little ammo, survival is a desperate hope. She is a volunteer and a soldier, and to save herself, her squad, and the refugees they defend, she must remember the life she left behind. Word count: ~ 14,000 McCarthy brilliantly weaves together the interlocked plots of past and present… creates gripping characters in strange but relatable circumstances… does a brilliant job of storytelling. A writer to watch, without doubt

Their friend Marcel Proust had killed himself after the fall in diamond shares, a collapse that annihilated a part of his fortune. This is the first-ever translation into English of this startling tour-de-force by one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. The Lemoine Affair was inspired by the real-life French scandal involving Henri Lemoine, who claimed he could manufacture diamonds from coal and convinced numerous people — including officers of the De Beers diamond mine company and Proust himself — to invest in the scheme. In a series of pastiches — imitations written in the style of other writers — Proust tells the story of the embarrassment rippling across high society Paris in the wake of the scandal, poking fun at himself (in one story, a character declares that Marcel Proust is so embarrassed he’s suicidal) while lampooning some of France’s greatest writers, including Flaubert, Balzac, and Saint-Simon. Full of sophisticated wit and dazzling wordplay, and rife with allusions to his friend and fictional characters, many Proust scholars see the dead-on mimicry of The Lemoine Affair—written soon after Proust’s rejection of society life — as the work by which he honed his own unique, masterly voice

Vision requires more than good optics…

Мифы и  легенды Pride Lands

Renard, Lord of the Ravenstow estate and Crusader knight returns from Antioch, but he does not return alone. He brings with him a mistress, Olwen, a beautiful but untrustworthy dancing girl. Renard has returned home because of his father's ill health and imminent death. Also there is tension locally caused by the dispute over the succession to England's throne. He must also think about his arranged marriage to a nearby heiress. Though he is preoccupied with the political battles going on around him, Renard is pleasantly surprised by his new wife and soon becomes disenchanted with Olwen, his mistress. But her scheming poses danger not only to his marriage, but everything he owns

A savage murder interrupts an ill-fated marriage set to take place at Brother Cadfael's abbey, leaving the monk with a terrible mystery to solve. The key to the killing is hidden among the inhabitants of the Saint Giles leper colony, and Brother Cadfael must ferret out a sickness not of the body, but of a twisted mind

It is 1320 and civil war is looming in England as the monk Ralph of Houndeslow rides into Crediton. Ralph faces a daunting task in his new position as Master of St Lawrence’s, the leper hospital. Not only are his charges grievously ill, they are also outcasts of society, shunned and feared by all healthy folk. The citizens of Crediton have other concerns as well. The murder of goldsmith Godfrey of London and the assault on his daughter Cecily, for instance, crimes all too easily attributed to John of Irelaunde, a womaniser who has in the past tried to defraud the church. Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, is not convinced that John is wicked enough to commit murder, and soon he is following other leads, with the able assistance of Bailiff Simon Puttock. But only when they discover the identity of the man overheard talking to Cecily before the attack will the astounding truth begin to emerge. Meanwhile, feeling against the lepers is growing, fed by rumours deliberately spread. Unless the burghers of Crediton can be made to see reason, Baldwin and Simon could have full-scale slaughter on their hands …

Based on a true story, The Less You Know the Sounder You Sleep is a tale of survival and self-determination, innocence and lies. ‘We’re waiting. I squeeze my eyes shut and dig my fingers into Masha’s neck where I’m holding her. She digs hers into mine. The curtains slowly open. I can’t see anything because the spotlight is on us, bright as anything and blinding me, but I can hear the gasp go up. They always gasp.’ Dasha cannot imagine life without her sister. Masha is feisty and fearless. Dasha is gentle, quiet and fears everything; from the Soviet scientists who study them, to the other ‘defective’ children who bully them and the ‘healthies’ from whom they must be locked away. For the twins have been born conjoined in a society where flaws must be hidden from sight and where their inseparability is the most terrible flaw of all. Through the seismic shifts of Stalin’s communism to the beginnings of Putin’s democracy, Dasha and her irrepressible sister strive to be more than just ‘the together twins’, finding hope – and love – in the unlikeliest of places. But will their quest for shared happiness always be threatened by the differences that divide them? And can a life lived in a sister’s shadow only ever be half a life?

From the writer of one of the most memorable debuts of recent years, a story of first love and redemption. One night in London an eighteen year old girl, recently arrived from Ireland to study drama, meets an older actor and a tumultuous relationship ensues. Set across the bedsits and squats of mid-nineties north London, The Lesser Bohemiansis a story about love and innocence, joy and discovery, the grip of the past and the struggle to be new again

The secret is, vampires are real and I am one. The secret is, I’m stealing from you what is most truly yours and I’m not sorry— New York City in 1978 is a dirty, dangerous place to live. And die. Joey Peacock knows this as well as anybody—he has spent the last forty years as an adolescent vampire, perfecting the routine he now enjoys: womanizing in punk clubs and discotheques, feeding by night, and sleeping by day with others of his kind in the macabre labyrinth under the city’s sidewalks. The subways are his playground and his highway, shuttling him throughout Manhattan to bleed the unsuspecting in the Sheep Meadow of Central Park or in the backseats of Checker cabs, or even those in their own apartments who are too hypnotized by sitcoms to notice him opening their windows. It’s almost too easy. Until one night he sees them hunting on his beloved subway. The children with the merry eyes. Vampires, like him… or not like him. Whatever they are, whatever their appearance means, the undead in the tunnels of Manhattan are not as safe as they once were. And neither are the rest of us

The stunning sequel to Elizabeth Kerner's Song in the Silence, THE LESSER KINDRED continues the story of Lanen Kaelar, a young woman who embarked on a search for the great dragons of legend and discovered not only the reality of the myth but her own true love. The course of happiness is not always an easy one, however, and Lanen must make some hard choices. Her decisions could spell the salvation of an entire race-but at the cost of all that she holds dear

Loring is a widow and chess master who makes her living giving chess lessons; her newest student, who might be a prodigy, bears a striking resemblance to her dead spouse. Has her chess champion husband found a final move beyond the grave? A chess fable from the wildly inventive, immensely talented author of A Cure for Suicide and Silence Once Begun, “The Lesson” is a surprising, poignant, macabre tale of games, children, and the unknowability of the beyond. Channeling the chess masterpieces of Nabokov and Stefan Zweig, Jesse Ball's newest is a fabulous and entertaining novella that astonishes from first move to last

When Detective Bill Corde looks at the beautiful face of the murdered girl in the mud, he does not know his own life is about to turn into a terrifyingly real nightmare. For the girl's killer is now on the trail of Corde and his unsuspecting family

Hidden away in an Oxford back street is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess a key to its unassuming front gate. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous. Mark gathers around him an impressionable group of students: glamorous Emmanuella, who always has a new boyfriend in tow; Franny and Simon, best friends and occasional lovers; musician Jess, whose calm exterior hides passionate depths. And James, already damaged by Oxford and looking for a group to belong to. For a time they live in a charmed world of learning and parties and love affairs. But university is no grounding for adult life, and when, years later, tragedy strikes they are entirely unprepared. Universal in its themes of ambition, desire and betrayal, this spellbinding novel reflects the truth that the lessons life teaches often come too late

When Donald Sales' 22-year-old daughter is brutally murdered while at law school, he comes undone. In a fit of rage, he accuses his daughter's professor, Eric Lipton, of killing her. Lipton hires Casey Jordan as his attorney and maintains his innocence throughout the trial. Then just as the jury announces its verdict of "not guilty" Lipton leans toward his lawyer and whispers a confession of his guilt – knowing he is protected bt attorney-client privilege. Now, Casey has to decide: will she uphold her legal oath to protect her client, or will she join forces with an obsessed father who demands that a killer be brought to justice?

This volume presents an outstanding new translation of two favorite comic novels by the preeminent Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916). The Letters of Menakhem Mendl and Sheyne Sheyndl portrays a tumultuous marriage through letters exchanged between the title character, an itinerant bumbler seeking his fortune in the cities of Russia before departing alone for the New World, and his scolding wife, who becomes increasingly fearful, jealous, and mystified. Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son is the first-person narrative of a mischievous and keenly observant boy who emigrates with his family from Russia to America. The final third of the story takes place in New York, making this Aleichem’s only major work to be set in the United States. Motl and Menakhem Mendl are in one sense opposites: the one a clear-eyed child and the other a pathetically deluded adult. Yet both are ideal conveyors of the comic disparity of perception on which humor depends. If Motl sees more than do others around him, Menakhem Mendl has an almost infinite capacity for seeing less. Aleichem endows each character with an individual comic voice to tell in his own way the story of the collapse of traditional Jewish life in modern industrial society as well as the journey to America, where a new chapter of Jewish history begins. This volume includes a biographical and critical introduction as well as a useful glossary for English language readers

Now recognized as one of the giants of postwar American fiction, William Gaddis (1922-98) shunned the spotlight during his life, which makes this collection of his letters a revelation. Beginning in 1930 when Gaddis was at boarding-school and ending in September 1998, a few months before his death, these letters function as a kind of autobiography, and are all the more valuable because Gaddis was not an autobiographical writer. Here we see him forging his first novel The Recognitions (1955) while living in Mexico, fighting in a revolution in Costa Rica, and working in Spain, France, and North Africa. Over the next twenty years he struggles to find time to write the National Book Award-winning J R (1975) amid the complications of work and family; deals with divorce and disillusionment before reviving his career with Carpenter 's Gothic (1985); then teaches himself enough about the law to indite A Frolic of His Own (1994), which earned him another NBA. Returning to a topic he first wrote about in the 1940s, he finishes his last novel Agape Agape as he lay dying