Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

A Lansquenet, quieto villaggio al centro della Francia, la vita scorre placida. Un po' troppo placida: è una comunità chiusa, dove sono rimasti soprattutto anziani contadini e artigiani, dominata con rude benevolenza dal giovane curato Francis Reynaud. È martedì grasso - una tradizione pagana avversata dalla chiesa - quando nel villaggio arrivano Vianne Rocher e la sua giovane figlia Anouk. La donna è assai simpatica e originale, sexy e misteriosa, forse è l'emissaria di potenze superiori (o magari inferiori).

‟Questo libro è costruito come una città, come l'idea di una città. Mi piaceva che il titolo lo dicesse. Adesso lo dice. Le storie sono quartieri, i personaggi sono strade. Il resto è tempo che passa, voglia di vagabondare e bisogno di guardare. Ci ho viaggiato per tre anni, in City. Il lettore, se vorrà, potrà rifare la mia strada. È il bello, e il difficile, di tutti i libri: si può viaggiare nel viaggio di un altro? Quanto ai personaggi – alle strade – c'è un po' di tutto."

Pay It Forward is a wondrous and moving story about Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts the challenge that his teacher gives his class, a chance to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world for the better - and to put that plan into action.

It was all too frighteningly familiar. For the second time in his life, Alex Penn wakes up in an alcoholic daze in a cheap hotel room off Times Square and finds himself lying next to the savagely mutilated body of a young woman. After the first death, he was convicted of murder and imprisoned, then released on a technicality. But this time he has to find out what happened during the blackout and why, before the police do.

At St Oswald’s, a long-established boys’ grammar school in the north of England, a new year has just begun. For the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, the eccentric veteran Latin master, is finally – reluctantly – contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs.

Hierdie aangrypende roman oor ’n ongeletterde Nama-vrou van die Richtersveld speel af in die 1950’s. Katryn Jonis word van moord aangekla, maar sy kom agter die pro deo advokaat glo nie in haar onskuld nie en besluit dan om haar eie verdediging in die hof te behartig. Die vindingryke en berekende wyse waarop die reguit en passievolle Katryn die waarheid uit die staat se getuies in die hof trek, boei die leser deurgaans. Daar is baie vrae: Wie het dan die moord gepleeg, en hoekom?

Digyen Burmah is a forensic auditor and corporate spy. An old friend needs his help in finding his wife and coworker, who mysteriously vanished during an official tour. Apparently, the company is also frantically trying to find his elusive wife.

Der einst gefeierte und inzwischen als Kassengift geltende Filmregisseur Jakob wird alt und glaubt, alles verloren zu haben. Seine Karriere ist vorbei, seine letzte Beziehung über zehn Jahre her, die Haare sind grau, der Körper schwach und der Kopf ohne Ideen. Es gibt nichts zu feiern, verkündet er dann auch am Morgen seines Geburtstages. Doch seine beste Freundin Ellen ist anderer Meinung. Sie schickt ihn auf eine Reise durch sein Leben, die er bis zuletzt für eine Kette von Zufällen hält.

Christopher Lucas, unsure of his own beliefs, is wandering through Jerusalem, working on an article about religious mania. When he meets Sonia Barnes, dusky nightclub singer, devoted Sufi and mystic, he is entranced. As Sonia helps Lucas meet some of the visionaries and gurus who fill the city, the two suddenly find that they have become pawns in a fanatical bombing plot.

Songwriter, poet, and best-selling author Travis Hunter was named Author of the Year by readers of the Atlanta Daily World. In The Hearts of Men, a reformed player, a workaholic trying to overcome his past, and a faithful husband diagnosed with lung cancer all struggle to be the men they hope to be. But life and human frailty have a way of throwing stumbling blocks before the best of intentions.

Über Schlaf und Schlaflosigkeit, über Träume und die Geister der Vergangenheit. Im Leben der jungen Wissenschaftlerin Mara Lux dreht sich fast alles um das Thema Schlaf. Die Wahl-Londonerin ist eine führende Forscherin auf diesem Gebiet, gleichzeitig leidet sie selbst seit vielen Jahren unter quälender Insomnia. Sie fürchtet ihre Träume, die bisweilen auf unerklärliche Weise in die Wirklichkeit zu schwappen scheinen. Mara, die nicht nur durch und durch rational ist, sondern die auch gerne alles unter Kontrolle hat, macht das sehr zu schaffen.

"Domani mattina troverai un'auto sotto casa tua con un biglietto aereo per raggiungermi a Parigi. Non devi pensare a niente, ho già pensato a tutto io. Sarà un weekend indimenticabile." Luca è bravissimo nelle sorprese, ha il talento di rendere speciale ogni momento, anche le pause pranzo. È un uomo molto indipendente, però non gli piace stare da solo. Ha una storia importante alle spalle, finita non ha capito bene come ("quand'è che le cose belle poi diventano brutte?").

Poet, forger, and genius, Thomas Chatterton died in 1770, aged 18. His death was thought to be suicide: But what really happened? Two hundred years later, Charles Wychwood and Harriet Scrope become obsessed with decoding the clues in an 18th-century manuscript. Their investigation raises some intriguing questions....

A century before, as 19th-century artist Henry Wallis paints his celebrated portrait of Chatterton lying dead in an attic room, he, too, becomes fascinated by the mystery. Then Chatterton himself steps forward, with his own story....

"I'll see you in twenty-five years." Laura Palmer. "Also, ich musste wieder auf ein paar Tage nach Zürich. Es war ganz schrecklich. Aus Nervosität darüber hatte ich mich das gesamte verlängerte Wochenende über so unwohl gefühlt, dass ich unter starker Verstopfung litt. Dazu muss ich sagen, dass ich vor einem Vierteljahrhundert eine Geschichte geschrieben hatte, die ich aus irgendeinem Grund, der mir nun nicht mehr einfällt, 'Faserland' genannt hatte. Es endet in Zürich, sozusagen auf dem Zürichsee, relativ traumatisch."

" J'ai souvent touché le fond, sauf qu'à chaque tasse bue, je remonte plus vite qu'une torpille. Renié par ma mère pour anormalité physique, je me réinvente au gré de mes joies. J'aime rire, déconner, me faire mousser et rêver de sacres improbables. J'ai appris une chose dans la vie - pour se dépasser, il faut savoir prendre son pied là où l'on traîne l'autre. Même avec des béquilles ou avec des prothèses, je continuerai de marcher dans les pas du temps en randonneur subjugué. Je ne lâche rien. "

Shadow Moon has been away from America for nearly two years. His nights are broken with dangerous dreams. Sometimes he almost believes he doesn't care if he ever returns home. In the Highlands of Scotland, where the sky is pale white and it feels as remote as any place can possibly be, the beautiful and the wealthy gather at a grand old house in the glen. And when the strange local doctor offers him work at the party, Shadow is intrigued.

昭和39年12月から翌年の11月まで、約1年に渡って朝日新聞に掲載された『氷点』は、三浦綾子の故郷である北海道旭川を舞台に、人間の原罪をテーマに描かれています。

Eiko è preoccupata che i compagni di scuola stiano bullizzando suo figlio Yuta, e si sente totalmente impotente e sola di fronte a un problema che non sa come risolvere. Le cose cambiano quando ha l'occasione di parlare con il saggio Yaguchi, che le offre un metodo straordinario per guardare alla sua vita da una prospettiva del tutto inedita, imparando ad affrontare i fantasmi del passato, a perdonare e voltare pagina. Se nel nostro cuore serbiamo infatti rancore per qualcuno verso cui dovremmo essere grati, quella sofferenza si riverserà sul nostro presente.

Rachel and Rose, now women with grown children of their own, find themselves face-to-face at last with the destiny that has haunted them nearly half a century, since the two of them were switched at birth in the chaos of a hospital fire.

What confronts them now threatens to uproot a lifetime of deeply buried secrets: the impending marriage of Rose's capable and caring son to Rachel's emotionally troubled daughter.

Der Weltbesteller von Fredrik Backman als ungekürzte Lesung. Ove ist 59. Er fährt Saab. Und wir alle kennen jemanden wie ihn: den grummeligen Nachbarn von nebenan, der kontrolliert, ob der Müll richtig getrennt ist, und heimlich die Falschparker aufschreibt. Doch niemand wird als grummeliger alter Nachbar geboren, und einst war auch Ove glücklich. Bis das mit seiner Frau passierte, und dann das mit der Arbeit. Jetzt macht nichts mehr wirklich Sinn. Noch einmal richtig aufräumen, dann ist Ove bereit, für immer zu gehen.