Download or read book Alexander and Alestria written by Shan Sa and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: re-creating the lives of two of the most intriguing rulers in history, Shan Sa brings us a novel filled with the sound of hooves, the whistle of arrows, blood, passion, and betrayal. The familiar figure of Alexander the Great comes to new life in this richly imagined tale, which entwines his historical legacy with a fantastic love affair set in a wartime between Western and Eastern civilizations. Abused by his father, King Philip, who loved and hated his beauty; shadowed by his mother, the mystical and overbearing Queen Olympias; educated by Aristotle who wanted him to be a wise philosopher of Macedonia, Alexander develops a complex character. He becomes a brutal warrior, a pitiless strategist, and a poet longing for the world's wonders. Meanwhile, in the remote steppes of Siberia, an abandoned girl grows up among the wild mares, then adopted by the queen of the Amazons—the tribe of female warriors who dominates a wild world of snow and volcano. As a future queen, the young girl is trained to hate men and to fight against all invaders. In the course of his great conquest of Asia, Alexander first meets the stunning Alestria on the battlefield. Surprised to find that his adversary is a woman, he is instantly smitten by the fierce queen. Dazzled by his strength, she decides to kidnap him and make him her "wife." At last, this legendary king—renowned for his beauty and love of men—has found his equal. And at last, this indomitable young woman has found a reason to leave her tribe. Their love, deeply passionate and problematic, evolves against an exotic backdrop of warfare and political turmoil, sweeps from antique Greece to Egypt, across the ancient Iraq and Iran, unto the mysterious kingdoms of India.
Download or read book Empress written by Shan Sa and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Such is the voice of Shan Sa's unforgettable heroine in her latest literary masterpiece, Empress. Empress Wu, one of China's most controversial figures, was its first and only female emperor, who emerged in the seventh century during the great Tang Dynasty and ushered in a golden age. Throughout history, her name has been defamed and her story distorted by those taking vengeance on a woman who dared to become emperor. But now, for the first time in thirteen centuries, Empress Wu (or Heavenlight, as we come to know her) flings open the gates of the Forbidden City and tells her own astonishing tale—revealing a fascinating, complex figure who in many ways remains modern to this day. Writing with epic assurance, poetry, and vivid historic detail, Shan Sa plumbs the psychological and philosophical depths of what it means to be a striving mortal in a tumultuous, power-hungry world. Empress is a great literary feat and a revelation for the ages.
Download or read book The Disappearance written by Genevieve Jurgensen and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2000-06 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do you do, how do you live, when both of your daughters are killed on the same afternoon? Jurgensen found herself facing that question when she lost her daughters, ages four and seven, to a drunk driver. "A lyrical and haunting memoir".--"Kirkus Reviews".
Download or read book The Persian Boy written by Mary Renault and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times–bestselling novel of the ancient king of Macedon and his lover by the author Hilary Mantel calls “a shining light.” The Persian Boy centers on the most tempestuous years of Alexander the Great’s life, as seen through the eyes of his lover and most faithful attendant, Bagoas. When Bagoas is very young, his father is murdered and he is sold as a slave to King Darius of Persia. Then, when Alexander conquers the land, he is given Bagoas as a gift, and the boy is besotted. This passion comes at a time when much is at stake—Alexander has two wives, conflicts are ablaze, and plots on the Macedon king’s life abound. The result is a riveting account of a great conqueror’s years of triumph and, ultimately, heartbreak. The Persian Boy is the second volume of the Novels of Alexander the Great trilogy, which also includes Fire from Heaven and Funeral Games. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author. “Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.” —Hilary Mantel
Download or read book The Girl Who Played Go written by Shan Sa and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Japanese military invades 1930s Manchuria, a young girl approaches her own sexual coming of age. Drawn into a complex triangle with two boys, she distracts herself from the onslaught of adulthood by playing the game of go with strangers in a public square--and yet the force of desire, like the occupation, proves inevitable. Unbeknownst to the girl who plays go, her most worthy and frequent opponent is a Japanese soldier in disguise. Captivated by her beauty as much as by her bold, unpredictable approach to the strategy game, the soldier finds his loyalties challenged. Is there room on the path to war for that most revolutionary of acts: falling in love?
Download or read book Death in the Dordogne written by Louis Sanders and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When you moved out of North London to a picturesque hamlet in the Dordogne no one said it would be like this in February: freezing cold, dark by mid-afternoon and so quiet. Members of the Caminade family keep dying in suspicious circumstances, and the doctor knows more about it than he's prepared to reveal. You're sure there's a murderer at large: could it be the Old Dutch Woman or her deranged son, or the Mad Englishman from over the hill, and could you be the next victim, maybe you're imagining things, maybe it's the whisky, but then what's that scratching sound coming from the other half of the house... The first in a series, Death in the Dordogne portrays a rural France very different from A Year in Provence and other saccharine tales of expatriate derring-do. It is an essential book for everyone planning to go on a French holiday.
Download or read book Enough About Love written by Herv# Le Tellier and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestselling and Goncourt Prize-Winning Author of The Anomaly Any man—or woman—who wants to hear nothing—or no more—about love should put this book down. Anna and Louise could be sisters, but they don’t know each other. They are both married with children, and for the most part, they are happy. On almost the same day, Anna, a psychiatrist, crosses paths with Yves, a writer, while Louise, a lawyer, meets Anna’s analyst, Thomas. Love at first sight is still possible for those into their forties and long-married. But when you have already mapped out a life path, a passionate affair can come at a high price. For our four characters, their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down by the deliciously inconvenient arrival of love. For Anna, meeting Yves has brought a flurry of excitement to her life and made her question her values, her reliable husband, and her responsibilities to her children. For Louise, a successful career woman in a stable and comfortable marriage, her routine is uprooted by the youthful passion she feels for Thomas. Thought-provoking, sophisticated, and, above all, amusing, Enough About Love captures the euphoria of desire through tender and unflinching portraits of husbands, wives, and lovers.
Download or read book Wolves of the North written by Harry Sidebottom and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Ancient Roman warrior is sent north to face a brutal enemy in this third-century epic by the acclaimed author and eminent historian. In AD 263, the Roman Empire is in turmoil as a violent uprising threatened to shatter the fragile balance of power. In the north, tribal raids are becoming increasingly bold. Ballista must undertake his most treacherous journey yet. He must face the Heruli—the Eaters of Flesh, the Wolves of the North—and try to turn them against one another. As Ballista and his retinue make their journey, someone—or something—is hunting them, picking them off one by one, and leaving a trail of terror. Ballista is in a strange land, among strange people, but the greatest threat he faces may come from within his own circle. Renowned for their skilled blending of action and historical accuracy, Sidebottom's Warrior of Rome novels take the reader from the shouts of the battlefield to the whisperings of the emperor's inner circle. Endnotes and an extensive bibliography reveal the fascinating research and scholarship brought to life in this exciting tale.
Download or read book Framed written by Tonino Benacquista and published by Bitter Lemon Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Antoine's life is good. During the day he hangs pictures for the most fashionable art galleries in Paris. Evenings he dedicates to the silky moves and subtle tactics of billiards, his true passion. But when Antoine is attacked by an art thief in a gallery his world begins to fall apart. His maverick investigation triggers two murders - he finds himself the prime suspect for one of them - as he uncovers a cesspool of art fraud. A game of billiards decides the outcome of this tale, laced with riffs about the world of modern art and the parasites that infest it."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Tehran Lipstick And Loopholes written by Nahal Tajadod and published by Virago. This book was released on 2010-03-04 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wry and humorous account of the author's quest to get her Iranian passport renewed. She embarks on a bizarre and circuitous journey, meeting a colourful cast of characters along the way: two photographers who specialise in Islamic portraits, a forensic surgeon who trades in human organs, a madam who wants to send prostitutes to Dubai and a grandmother who offers a live chicken to an implacable official. Tehran, Lipstick and Loopholes is a fascinating look at the constraints and contradictions of contemporary life in Tehran from the author's unique standpoint of being both a native of Iran and a foreigner.
Download or read book The Gardens of Consolation written by Parisa Reza and published by Europa Editions UK. This book was released on 2017-01-12 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful love story unfolds against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Iran. In the early 1920s in the remote village of Ghamsar, Talla and Sardar, two teenagers dreaming of a better life, fall in love and marry. Sardar brings his young bride with him across the mountains to the suburbs of Tehran, where the couple settles down and builds a home. From the outskirts of the capital city, they will watch as the Qajar dynasty falls and Reza Khan rises to power as Reza Shah Pahlavi. Into this family of illiterate shepherds is born Bahram, a boy whose brilliance and intellectual promise are apparent from a very young age. Through his education, Bahram will become a fervent follower of reformer Mohamed Mossadegh and will participate first hand in his country's political and social upheavals.
Download or read book The tale of Alexander written by Alexander (the Great) and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Love Theodosia written by Lori Anne Goldstein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Romeo & Juliet tale for Hamilton! fans. In post-American Revolution New York City, Theodosia Burr, a scholar with the skills of a socialite, is all about charming the right people on behalf of her father—Senator Aaron Burr, who is determined to win the office of president in the pivotal election of 1800. Meanwhile, Philip Hamilton, the rakish son of Alexander Hamilton, is all about being charming on behalf of his libido. When the two first meet, it seems the ongoing feud between their politically opposed fathers may be hereditary. But soon, Theodosia and Philip must choose between love and family, desire and loyalty, and preserving the legacy their flawed fathers fought for or creating their own. Love, Theodosia is a smart, funny, swoony take on a fiercely intelligent woman with feminist ideas ahead of her time who has long-deserved center stage. A refreshing spin on the Hamiltonian era and the characters we have grown to know and love. It’s also a heartbreaking romance of two star-crossed lovers, an achingly bittersweet “what if.” Despite their fathers’ bitter rivalry, Theodosia and Philip are drawn to each other and, in what unrolls like a Jane Austen novel of manners, we find ourselves entangled in the world of Hamilton and Burr once again as these heirs of famous enemies are driven together despite every reason not to be.
Download or read book Thais written by Ivan Efremov and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thais, the best-selling novel by Ivan Yefremov, a prominent Russian scientist and writer, was first published in Russia nearly forty years ago. It has sold millions of copies and to some extent has shaped the national cultural outlook on femininity and true humanity.Set in the era of Alexander the Great, the book tells a story of an Athenian hetaera Thais, whose fascinating image captures readers' hearts and minds from the very first chapter and makes you fall in love with the heroine, or more precisely the image created by Yefremov - the image of a Muse, a word that has gone out of use, as well as the concept itself. The novel embraces the authentic historical overview and, with more relevance to our time, offers a unifying distinction of the ancient philosophies and religions through the prism of the universal humane values of all times. The pivoting point of the novel is the female aspect of divinity, the disregard, and diminution of which led to the domination of machismo reflected in spiritual and social trends, culture and ultimately human progress. The time has come for the rest of the world to discover Thais in order to remind us all of what true feminine beauty is - a combination of beautiful body, mind, and spirit; the very ideal of a woman.
Download or read book The Pen and the Brush written by Anka Muhlstein and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scintillating glimpse into the lives of acclaimed writers and artists and their inspiring, often surprising convergences, from the author of Monsieur Proust's Library With the wit and penetration well known to readers of Anka Muhlstein’s previous books, The Pen and the Brush revisits the delights of the French novel. This time she focuses on late 19th- and 20th-century writers--Balzac, Zola, Proust, Huysmans, and Maupassant--through the lens of their passionate involvement with the fine arts. She delves into the crucial role that painters play as characters in their novels, which she pairs with an exploration of the profound influence that painting exercised on the novelists' techniques, offering an intimate view of the intertwined worlds of painters and writers at the time. Muhlstein's deftly chosen vignettes bring to life a portrait of the nineteenth century's tight-knit artistic community, where Cézanne and Zola befriended each other as boys and Balzac yearned for the approval of Delacroix. She leads the reader on a journey of spontaneous discovery as she explores how a great painting can open a mind and spark creative fire.
Download or read book Sandalwood Death written by Mo Yan and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerful novel by Mo Yan—one of contemporary China’s most famous and prolific writers—is both a stirring love story and an unsparing critique of political corruption during the final years of the Qing Dynasty, China’s last imperial epoch. Sandalwood Death is set during the Boxer Rebellion (1898–1901)—an anti-imperialist struggle waged by North China’s farmers and craftsmen in opposition to Western influence. Against a broad historical canvas, the novel centers on the interplay between its female protagonist, Sun Meiniang, and the three paternal figures in her life. One of these men is her biological father, Sun Bing, an opera virtuoso and a leader of the Boxer Rebellion. As the bitter events surrounding the revolt unfold, we watch Sun Bing march toward his cruel fate, the gruesome “sandalwood punishment,” whose purpose, as in crucifixions, is to keep the condemned individual alive in mind-numbing pain as long as possible. Filled with the sensual imagery and lacerating expressions for which Mo Yan is so celebrated, Sandalwood Death brilliantly exhibits a range of artistic styles, from stylized arias and poetry to the antiquated idiom of late Imperial China to contemporary prose. Its starkly beautiful language is here masterfully rendered into English by renowned translator Howard Goldblatt.
Download or read book Last of the Amazons written by Steven Pressfield and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2003-07-01 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Steven Pressfield's The Profession. The author of the international bestsellers Gates of Fire and Tides of War delivers his most gripping and imaginative novel of the ancient world–a stunning epic of love and war that breathes life into the grand myth of the ferocious female warrior culture of the Amazons. Steven Pressfield has gained a passionate worldwide following for his magnificent novels of ancient Greece, Gates of Fire and Tides of War. In Last of the Amazons, Pressfield has surpassed himself, re-creating a vanished world in a brilliant novel that will delight his loyal readers and bring legions more to his singular and powerful restoration of the past. In the time before Homer, the legendary Theseus, King of Athens (an actual historical figure), set sail on a journey that brought him into the land of tal Kyrte, the “free people,” a nation of proud female warriors whom the Greeks called “Amazons.” The Amazons, bound to each other as lovers as well as fighters, distrusted the Greeks, with their boastful talk of “civilization.” So when the great war queen Antiope fell in love with Theseus and fled with the Greeks, the mighty Amazon nation rose up in rage. Last of the Amazons is not merely a masterful tale of war and revenge. Pressfield has created a cast of extraordinarily vivid characters, from the unforgettable Selene, whose surrender to the Greeks does nothing to tame her; to her lover, Damon, an Athenian warrior who grows to cherish the wild Amazon ways; to the narrator, Bones, a young girl from a noble family who was nursed by Selene from birth and secretly taught the Amazon way; to the great Theseus, the tragic king; and to Antiope, the noble queen who betrayed tal Kyrte for the love of Theseus. With astounding immediacy and extraordinary attention to military detail, Pressfield transports readers into the heat and terror of war. Equally impressive is his creation of the Amazon nation, its people, its rituals and myths, its greatness and savagery. Last of the Amazons is thrilling on every page, an epic tale of the clash between wildness and civilization, patriotism and love, man and woman.
