Download or read book Aetherial Worlds written by Tatyana Tolstaya and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Playful and poetic . . . A foxy, original writer. Memory fuses with wonder, and wonder with worship." —The Wall Street Journal “Marvelously vivid, perfectly tuned. . . Tolstaya is well known in Russia as a brilliant and caustic political critic, but her memories of her Soviet childhood have a tender, personal quality.” —The New York Times Book Review “Grimly hilarious ... Everything in this generous writer’s hands is vivid and alive …Tolstaya is divinely quotable—slangy, indignant, lyrical, crude...It’s all sublime...the swerve and cackle, the breeziness and dark depths...the torrents of language and the offhand perfect touch…She has been compared to Chekhov. Absurd...Tolstaya barrels by him and knocks him in the ditch.” —Joy Williams, Bookforum From one of modern Russia's finest writers, a spellbinding collection of eighteen stories, her first to be translated into English in more than twenty years. Ordinary realities and yearnings to transcend them lead to miraculous other worlds in this dazzling collection of stories. A woman's deceased father appears in her dreams with clues about the afterlife; a Russian professor in a small American town constructs elaborate fantasies during her cigarette break; a man falls in love with a marble statue as his marriage falls apart; a child glimpses heaven through a stained-glass window. With the emotional insight of Chekhov, the surreal satire of Gogol, and a unique blend of humor and poetry all her own, Tolstaya transmutes the quotidian into aetherial alternatives. These tales, about politics, identity, love, and loss, cut to the core of the Russian psyche, even as they lay bare human universals. Tolstaya's characters--seekers all--are daydreaming children, lonely adults, dislocated foreigners in unfamiliar lands. Whether contemplating the strategic complexities of delivering telegrams in Leningrad or the meditative melancholy of holiday aspic, vibrant inner lives and the grim elements of existence are registered in equally sharp detail in a starkly bleak but sympathetic vision of life on earth. A unique collection from one of the first women in years to rank among Russia's most important writers.

Download or read book Grail of the Summer Stars written by Freda Warrington and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A painting, depicting haunting scenes of a ruined palace and a scarlet-haired goddess in front of a fiery city, arrives unheralded in an art gallery with a cryptic note saying, "The world needs to see this." The painting begins to change the lives of the woman who is the gallery's curator and that of an ancient man of the fey Aetherial folk who has mysteriously risen from the depths of the ocean. Neither human nor fairy knows how they are connected, but when the painting is stolen, both are compelled to discover the meaning behind the painting and the key it holds to their future. In a haunting, powerful tale of two worlds and those caught between, Freda Warrington weaves an exciting story of suspense, adventure and danger that fulfills the promise of the Aetherial Tales as only she can. "--

Download or read book Midsummer Night written by Freda Warrington and published by Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the the American Library Association’s Top Ten Fantasy and SF Novels of 2010. A sensuous, suspenseful modern fantasy of love, betrayal, and redemption. An “Aetherial Tales” novel that can be read as a standalone, Freda Warrington’s Midsummer Night is a powerful contemporary fantasy, beginning with a prank that turns lethal when supernatural forces are unwittingly set loose. A century may not be enough to undo the terrible consequences of one fateful night’s mischief. Decades ago, at the remote Cairndonan estate on a storm-lashed coastline where the veil between our world and the Aetherial realm is thin, Juliana Flagg’s uncle – a young man called Adam – vanished in mysterious circumstances. Now Dame Juliana, a visionary artist, has inherited Cairndonan where she sculpts and runs a summer art school. However, all is not well, as she is plagued by ghosts, money troubles and her sinister ex-husband. A young athlete named Gill arrives to rent a cottage on the estate, in order to escape her own problems; a monstrous betrayal and an accident have destroyed her Olympic hopes. Now all Gill wants is solitude, but soon she’s entangled with the mischievous, flamboyant artist Peta, the creepy manservant Ned Badger and other residents of the great house – not least Juliana herself. One day Gill wanders into a strange village called Boundry that appears on no map. There she meets the seductive Rufus and his equally attractive but silent, brooding companion, Leith. The encounter leaves her unsettled. Soon after, during a violent storm, Leith comes through the portal in a state of distress and begs shelter at Gill’s cottage. Though he can explain nothing of his past, his innocence and charm capture her heart. But Leith becomes the focus of increasingly vicious arguments among the estate’s residents. Who is he – and who is the charismatic, cruel Rufus who claims to be his brother? Are these two young men as innocent as they seem – or are they poised to visit vengeance, death and heartbreak upon the human world? Gill, aided by Peta, stumbles into ever-greater danger as she tries to untangle the mysteries of Cairndonan’s past. But only when Dame Juliana finally dares to reveal Midsummer Night – the sinister, haunted sculpture to which she’s devoted years of her life – will the full storm break loose at last. A magical, romantic and suspenseful story filled with intrigue and adventure, Midsummer Night is a “moody and spine-shivering” (Publishers Weekly) follow up to Elfland, which won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for “Best Fantasy Novel of 2009.” This standalone novel will appeal to readers of urban and modern fantasy and grab the attention of fans who love dark and sinister tales. Praise for Midsummer Night “Warrington doesn’t miss a beat with this sinister, ghostly tale of some of the darker aspects of the Aetherial world and its denizens’ dealings with humanity.” —Publishers Weekly “Each book is a stand-alone volume and an absolute delight.” —Charles de Lint, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction “With its elegant but not over-the-top flowery prose, immersive setting, well-developed characters, natural dialogue and mystery-filled plot, it has left me eager for more Aetherial Tales.” —Fantasy Café “A powerful sense of wild landscape and strong characterization, plus a resonance of ancient magic, make Midsummer Night a truly compelling read.” —Liz Williams, author of The Ghost Sister “Delicate as gossamer, rich as darkest chocolate, Midsummer Night is a delicious, delectable, ravishing concoction of a book that fills the senses and satisfies the dreaming mind.” —Kari Sperring, author of Living With Ghosts “A sumptuous contemporary fantasy, rich with mysterious characters, romance and intrigue. Beautifully written, a delight to read.” —Justina Robson, author of Glorious Angels “One of the things that defines great fantasy is a Mythos that ‘speaks’ to the reader... In Midsummer Night, and the book in the series before it, Elfland, Freda Warrington shapes a rich Mythos. But Midsummer Night is not just a fantasy set in another world; it's also a contemporary mystery, thriller and romance. I thoroughly enjoyed it, lost myself in Freda's world quite happily for hours at a time and look forward to more.” —Storm Constantine, author of the Wraeththu Chronicles “Now let’s see why I found Midsummer Night so impressive... The plotting of the novel is superb with all the aforementioned secrets slowly revealed... This seamless integration of character back story and forward action is another major strength and Midsummer Night just flows with no narrative walls... all integrated in a tapestry.” —Fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com “Like so many British and Irish fantasy writers, Warrington writes beautiful prose with lush descriptions. She digs deep into her characters, and, as they develop, the readers learn surfaces are far different from the real people. The sculptures of Juliana form an apt metaphor for the complex personalities of both human and the Aetherials. They are different people by the end of the novel and she excels at weaving in tantalizing bits of past history to show why they act and react as they do.” —SF Revu

Download or read book White Walls written by Tatyana Tolstaya and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Tolstaya carves indelible people who roam the imagination long after the book is put down.” –Time Tatyana Tolstaya’s short stories—with their unpredictable fairy-tale plots, appealingly eccentric characters, and stylistic abundance and flair—established her in the 1980s as one of modern Russia’s finest writers. Since then her work has been translated throughout the world. Edna O’Brien has called Tolstaya “an enchantress.” Anita Desai has spoken of her work’s “richness and ardent life.” Mixing heartbreak and humor, dizzying flights of fantasy and plunging descents to earth, Tolstaya is the natural successor in a great Russian literary lineage that includes Gogol, Yuri Olesha, Bulgakov, and Nabokov. White Walls is the most comprehensive collection of Tolstaya’s short fiction to be published in English so far. It presents the contents of her two previous collections, On the Golden Porch and Sleepwalker in a Fog, along with several previously uncollected stories. Tolstaya writes of lonely children and lost love, of philosophers of the absurd and poets working as janitors, of angels and halfwits. She shows how the extraordinary will suddenly erupt in the midst of ordinary life, as she explores the human condition with a matchless combination of unbound imagination and unapologetic sympathy.

Download or read book Rage Across the Heavens written by Jackie Cassada and published by White Wolf Games Studio. This book was released on 1999-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Werewolf: The Apocalypse is about anger over the loss of what the shapeshifting Garou hold dearest: Gaia, the Earth itself. Corruption from without and within has caused the destruction not only of the Garou's environment, but also of their families, friends and culture, which extends in an unbroken line to the very dawn of life. No matter how righteously the Garou hold themselves, no matter how they prey on their destroyers, the corruption spreads. Now the time for reconciliation is past. This grave insult against Gaia can end in only one way: blood, betrayal... and rage. A book about Garou prophecies and celestial influences, detailing the greater forces at work in the Umbral skies and providing many heavenly Gifts.

Download or read book Aetherial Worlds written by Tatʹi︠a︡na Tolstai︠a︡ and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Slynx written by Tatyana Tolstaya and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A postmodern literary masterpiece.” –The Times Literary Supplement Two hundred years after civilization ended in an event known as the Blast, Benedikt isn’t one to complain. He’s got a job—transcribing old books and presenting them as the words of the great new leader, Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe—and though he doesn’t enjoy the privileged status of a Murza, at least he’s not a serf or a half-human four-legged Degenerator harnessed to a troika. He has a house, too, with enough mice to cook up a tasty meal, and he’s happily free of mutations: no extra fingers, no gills, no cockscombs sprouting from his eyelids. And he’s managed—at least so far—to steer clear of the ever-vigilant Saniturions, who track down anyone who manifests the slightest sign of Freethinking, and the legendary screeching Slynx that waits in the wilderness beyond. Tatyana Tolstaya’s The Slynx reimagines dystopian fantasy as a wild, horripilating amusement park ride. Poised between Nabokov’s Pale Fire and Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, The Slynx is a brilliantly inventive and shimmeringly ambiguous work of art: an account of a degraded world that is full of echoes of the sublime literature of Russia’s past; a grinning portrait of human inhumanity; a tribute to art in both its sovereignty and its helplessness; a vision of the past as the future in which the future is now.

Download or read book Trading Futures written by Jim Powell and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'With his gallows humour and observational wit, Jim Powell gives us a vivid portrait of a man in meltdown.' Daily Mail When I was small, my mother showed me how to grow a carrot from a carrot. She filled a jam jar with water, cut the top off a carrot, ran a cocktail stick horizontally through the stub and suspended it over the jar, just touching the water. In time, roots sprouted, and when they were long enough and strong enough, the plant was translated to the garden and new carrots grew. This was one of the many exciting ways in which I was prepared for adult life. This is Matthew Oxenhay at sixty: a stranger to his wife, an embarrassment to his children, and failed former contender for the top job at his City firm. Seizing on his birthday party as an opportunity to deliver some rather crushing home truths to his assembled loved ones, it seems as though Matthew might have hit rock bottom. The truth, however, is that he has some way to go yet . . . With forensic precision and mordant wit, Matthew unpicks the threads that bind him: a comfortable home in the suburbs, a career spent trading futures and a life that bears little resemblance to the one he imagined for himself at twenty. When he unexpectedly bumps into Anna (the one who got away), the stage is set for an epic unravelling. Darkly funny, Trading Futures forces us to confront how change, like death, is an inevitable fact of life: feared by most, it can transform or overwhelm us. This is a brilliantly observed novel, for fans of works such as John Lanchester's Mr Phillips and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. It also featured as Radio 4's Book at Bedtime.

Download or read book Sorcery of Thorns written by Margaret Rogerson and published by Margaret K. McElderry Books. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller! “A bewitching gem...I absolutely loved every moment of this story.” —Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series “If you loved the Hogwarts Library…you’ll be right at home at Summershall.” —Katherine Arden, New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an “enthralling adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom. All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them. As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

Download or read book A Taste of Blood Wine written by Freda Warrington and published by Titan Books. This book was released on 2013-05-03 with total page 661 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tale of passion, betrayal... and blood... On a First World War battlefield vampire Karl von Wultendorf struggles to free himself from his domineering maker, Kristian. The Neville sisters flourish in decadent, hedonistic London society in 1923: champagne, parties and the latest illegal substances. All except Charlotte, the middle of the three sisters who hides in a corner wishing she were back in Cambridge helping her professor father with his scientific experiments. When Charlotte meets her father's new research assistant Karl, it is the beginning of a deadly obsession that divides her from her sisters, her father and even her dearest friend. What price are they willing to pay to stay together? "Not merely one of the finest fantasy novels of recent years, but one of the finest ever. Should not be missed." Brian Stableford "A cross between Anne Rice and some of the more edgy modern paranormal romances, only with Freda Warrington 's incredible voice... This author truly has a gift for story telling." Not Your Ordinary Book Banter

Download or read book On the Golden Porch written by Tatyana Tolstaya and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mama Day written by Gloria Naylor and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “wonderful novel” steeped in the folklore of the South from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Women of Brewster Place (The Washington Post Book World). On an island off the coast of Georgia, there’s a place where superstition is more potent than any trappings of the modern world. In Willow Springs, the formidable Mama Day uses her powers to heal. But her great niece, Cocoa, can’t wait to get away. In New York City, Cocoa meets George. They fall in love and marry quickly. But when she finally brings him home to Willow Springs, the island’s darker forces come into play. As their connection is challenged, Cocoa and George must rely on Mama Day’s mysticism. Told from multiple perspectives, Mama Day is equal parts star-crossed love story, generational saga, and exploration of the supernatural. Hailed as Gloria Naylor’s “richest and most complex” novel, it is the kind of book that stays with you long after the final page (Providence Journal).

Download or read book Roar written by Cora Carmack and published by Tor Teen. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raised to rule, despite not having the abilities her ancestors did, Aurora becomes betrothed to a prince who possesses the magic needed to keep the kingdom safe.

Download or read book Aetherial Worlds written by Tatyana Tolstaya and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize In this dazzling collection of stories from one of Russia’s most important writers, ordinary realities—and our yearnings to transcend them—lead to miraculous otherworlds. A woman’s deceased father appears in her dreams with clues about the afterlife. A man falls in love with a marble statue as his marriage falls apart. A child glimpses heaven through a stained-glass window. Tolstaya’s tales—rendered with the emotional insight of Chekhov, the surreal satire of Gogol, and a unique blend of humor and poetry all her own—transmute the quotidian into aetherial wonders. As these stories explore politics, identity, love, and loss, they cut to the quick of the Russian psyche even as they lay bare human universals. Whether contemplating the intricacies of telegram delivery in Leningrad or the meditative melancholy of holiday aspic, Tolstaya limns the stark elements of existence and our vibrant inner lives in an extraordinary vision of life on earth.

Download or read book Pushkin s Children written by Tatyana Tolstaya and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2012-07-18 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Tolstaya’s essays in this compact, historically significant volume offer a fascinating, highly intelligent analysis of Russian society and politics” (Publishers Weekly). These twenty essays address the politics, culture, and literature of Russia with both flair and erudition. Passionate and opinionated, often funny, and using ample material from daily life to underline their ideas and observations, Tatyana Tolstaya’s piees range across a variety of subjects. They move in one unique voice from Soviet women, classical Russian cooking, and the bliss of snow to the effect of Pushkin and freedom on Russia writers; from the death of the tsar and the Great Terror to the changes brought by Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin in the last decade. Throughout this engaging volume, the Russian temperament comes into high relief. Whether addressing literature or reporting on politics, Tolstaya’s writing conveys a deep knowledge of her country and countrymen. Pushkin’s Children is a book for anyone interested in the Russian soul. “Tolstaya is simply the most fearless female observer of the very male-centric culture . . . of the USSR.” —Ben Dickinson, Elle

Download or read book The Outside Lands written by Hannah Kohler and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: San Francisco, 1968: Jeannie and Kip are bereaved and adrift, their mother dead under mysterious circumstances, and their father--a decorated World War II veteran--consumed by guilt and losing control of his teenage children. Kip, a dreamer and swaggerer prone to small-time trouble, enlists with the Marines to fight in Vietnam. Jeannie finds a seemingly safe haven in early marriage to a doctor and motherhood. But when Kip is accused of a terrible military crime, Jeannie is seduced--sexually, emotionally, politically--into joining an underground antiwar organization. As Jennie attempts to save her brother, her search for the truth leads her into two dangerous relationships, with a troubled young woman and a grievously wounded veteran, that might threaten her marriage, her child, and perhaps her life. This is the story of a family caught in the maelstrom of sweeping change, where social customs and traditional values are overturned by events that will transform America. An emotionally wrenching and morally complex novel, The Outside Lands is Hannah Kohler's powerful, confident debut and announces her as a remarkable new literary talent.

Download or read book The Beautiful Bureaucrat written by Helen Phillips and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2015-08-11 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2015 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by Time Out, Bustle, The Atlantic, Electric Literature, Kobo, Kirkus and more... "Riveting... thrillerlike...drolly surreal...Ultimately, The Beautiful Bureaucrat succeeds because it isn't afraid to ask the deepest questions." The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice "A joyride..." -Karen Russell NAMED A MUST READ OF THE SUMMER by the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Bustle, The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, HelloGiggles and more... A young wife's new job pits her against the unfeeling machinations of the universe in a first novel Ursula K. Le Guin hails as "funny, sad, scary, beautiful. I love it." In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as The Database. After a long period of joblessness, she's not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings-the office's scarred pinkish walls take on a living quality, the drone of keyboards echoes eerily down the long halls. When one evening her husband Joseph disappears and then returns, offering no explanation as to his whereabouts, her creeping unease shifts decidedly to dread. As other strange events build to a crescendo, the haunting truth about Josephine's work begins to take shape in her mind, even as something powerful is gathering its own form within her. She realizes that in order to save those she holds most dear, she must penetrate an institution whose tentacles seem to extend to every corner of the city and beyond. Both chilling and poignant, The Beautiful Bureaucrat is a novel of rare restraint and imagination. With it, Helen Phillips enters the company of Murakami, Bender, and Atwood as she twists the world we know and shows it back to us full of meaning and wonder-luminous and new.