Download or read book The Amazing Absorbing Boy written by Rabindranath Maharaj and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventeen-year-old Samuel, naïve and inexperienced, leaves his home in Trinidad for Canada following the death of his mother. He hasn't seen his father since he was six years old and now, thrust into a new life together, Samuel soon realizes that he is considered a burden. Undaunted, though still wide-eyed, and propelled by a comic book sensibility, Samuel begins to explore the vast foreign landscape that is Toronto. There he encounters molemen, super-villains, chimeras, trolls and a host of sidekicks. With his fourth novel, Rabindranath Maharaj gives us his best work yet, a powerful and funny story of a naive young immigrant who is wise in the culture of comic books, and a portrait of big-city Canada we have never seen before.
Download or read book Fatboy Fall Down written by Rabindranath Maharaj and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A heartrending novel about one man’s search for meaning in a difficult life A child ridiculed for his weight, a son overshadowed by a favored brother, a husband who falls short of his wife’s ambitions, an old man with a broken heart… As Orbits’s life passes, he doggedly pursues a simple dream — a little place in the country where a family might thrive — while wondering if he can ever shake free of the tragedies that seem to define him. Fatboy Fall Down is the lush and heartbreaking musings of a man trying to understand his place in the world. Though shot through with sadness, Fatboy Fall Down is also full of surprising moments of wry humor, and Rabindranath Maharaj's deft touch underscores the resilience of the human spirit.
Download or read book Adjacentland written by Rabindranath Maharaj and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today is a new day but yesterday was the same day. In this disquieting new work from award-winning novelist Rabindranath Maharaj, a man awakens in a strange institution called the Compound with no memory of his past. Struggling to make sense of his surroundings, he is skeptical of the administrators who try to convince him he is mad and dangerous, and begins to suspect he has been the subject of recurring experiments, which have caused episodes of amnesia. In dreamlike prose Maharaj weaves a story of fragments, where our narrator comes to believe that he was once a comic book writer who warned in his stories that the reliance on artificial intelligence would make the imagination obsolete and subversive. As the narrator searches for clues he may have left for himself before his memory loss, both he and the reader learn of Adjacentland, a primitive land of misfits and outsiders. It is only in Adjacentland that the imagination has survived. With a motley group of other inmates from the Compound, the narrator decides to make his way there, but during the journey he discovers a terrible secret about himself and his companions.
Download or read book The Book of Ifs and Buts written by Rabindranath Maharaj and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-05-14 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “For so long I imagined I was making some long journey which would make sense when I had reached the end, but now I realize there are no journeys, just imprints in other people’s dusty footsteps.” -- from Journey of Angels Recognized for his first collection of short fiction, The Interloper, with a nomination for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, Rabindranath Maharaj displays that distinct talent again in The Book of Ifs and Buts. Part of our new Vintage Tales series, these stories tell the experience of immigrants as they take up new lives, often alone, in strange lands. With passion and a discreet comic sensibility, Maharaj brings poignancy and enduring beauty to lives that prosper, suffer, endure heartbreak and realize dreams.
Download or read book So Long See You Tomorrow written by William Maxwell and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this magically evocative novel, William Maxwell explores the enigmatic gravity of the past, which compels us to keep explaining it even as it makes liars out of us every time we try. On a winter morning in the 1920s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois. A man named Lloyd Wilson has been killed. And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers—one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy—has been shattered. Fifty years later, one of those boys—now a grown man—tries to reconstruct the events that led up to the murder. In doing so, he is inevitably drawn back to his lost friend Cletus, who has the misfortune of being the son of Wilson's killer and who in the months before witnessed things that Maxwell's narrator can only guess at. Out of memory and imagination, the surmises of children and the destructive passions of their parents, Maxwell creates a luminous American classic of youth and loss.
Download or read book The Jade Boy written by Cate Cain and published by Bonnier Publishing Fiction Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if the Great Fire of London wasn't an accident? London, 1666. Eleven-year-old Jem Green is a lonely but resourceful kitchen boy, always in trouble with the cook for pilfering from the larder. He's fascinated by the wealthy visitors he glimpses in the Dukes' household but when the powerful and frightening Count Cazalon requests to meet him, it becomes clear that his life might actually be in danger. And he is not the only child involved in the Count's sinister plan. As Jem starts meeting secretively with Ann, a young sorceress, and Tolly, a mute slave boy who can mind-speak, the three of them piece together the Count's terrible plans to devastate the City of London, and try to understand why Jem is at the heart of it all. 'Recalls Joan Aiken and Sally Gardner in its confident blend of historical fact with creepy fantasy' THE TIMES
Download or read book Devil House written by John Darnielle and published by MCD. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “It’s never quite the book you think it is. It’s better.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times From John Darnielle, the New York Times bestselling author and the singer-songwriter of the Mountain Goats, comes an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, and the dangers of storytelling. Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him. Years later, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success—and a movie adaptation—to his name, along with a series of subsequent less notable efforts. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: to move into the house where a pair of briefly notorious murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected teens during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Chandler finds himself in Milpitas, California, a small town whose name rings a bell––his closest childhood friend lived there, once upon a time. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected—back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is. Devil House is John Darnielle’s most ambitious work yet, a book that blurs the line between fact and fiction, that combines daring formal experimentation with a spellbinding tale of crime, writing, memory, and artistic obsession.
Download or read book Wonder Boys written by Michael Chabon and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “wise, wildly funny story” of a self-destructive writer’s lost weekend by a Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling author (Chicago Tribune). A wildly successful first novel made Grady Tripp a young star, and seven years later he still hasn’t grown up. He’s now a writing professor in Pittsburgh, plummeting through middle age, stuck with an unfinishable manuscript, an estranged wife, a pregnant girlfriend, and a talented but deeply disturbed student named James Leer. During one lost weekend at a writing festival with Leer and debauched editor Terry Crabtree, Tripp must finally confront the wreckage made of his past decisions. Mordant but humane, Wonder Boys features characters as loveably flawed as any in American fiction. This ebook features a biography of the author.
Download or read book Three Day Road written by Joseph Boyden and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-04-25 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in Canada and the battlefields of France and Belgium, Three-Day Road is a mesmerizing novel told through the eyes of Niska—a Canadian Oji-Cree woman living off the land who is the last of a line of healers and diviners—and her nephew Xavier. At the urging of his friend Elijah, a Cree boy raised in reserve schools, Xavier joins the war effort. Shipped off to Europe when they are nineteen, the boys are marginalized from the Canadian soldiers not only by their native appearance but also by the fine marksmanship that years of hunting in the bush has taught them. Both become snipers renowned for their uncanny accuracy. But while Xavier struggles to understand the purpose of the war and to come to terms with his conscience for the many lives he has ended, Elijah becomes obsessed with killing, taking great risks to become the most accomplished sniper in the army. Eventually the harrowing and bloody truth of war takes its toll on the two friends in different, profound ways. Intertwined with this account is the story of Niska, who herself has borne witness to a lifetime of death—the death of her people. In part inspired by the legend of Francis Pegahmagabow, the great Indian sniper of World War I, Three-Day Road is an impeccably researched and beautifully written story that offers a searing reminder about the cost of war.
Download or read book The Story of Edgar Sawtelle written by David Wroblewski and published by Bond Street Books. This book was released on 2009-03-19 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Oprah's Book Club Pick A #1 New York Times Bestseller A National Bestseller Beautifully written and elegantly paced, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a coming-of-age novel about the power of the land and the past to shape our lives. It is a riveting tale of retribution, inhabited by empathic animals, prophetic dreams, second sight, and vengeful ghosts. Born mute, Edgar Sawtelle feels separate from the people around him but is able to establish profound bonds with the animals who share his home and his name: his family raises a fictional breed of exceptionally perceptive and affable dogs. Soon after his father's sudden death, Edgar is stunned to learn that his mother has already moved on as his uncle Claude quickly becomes part of their lives. Reeling from the sudden changes to his quiet existence, Edgar flees into the forests surrounding his Wisconsin home accompanied by three dogs. Soon he is caught in a struggle for survival—the only thing that will prepare him for his return home.
Download or read book The Lagahoo s Apprentice written by Rabindranath Maharaj and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-01-14 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trapped in a loveless marriage, Stephen Sagar returns eagerly to his native Trinidad when he is commissioned by a powerful island politician to write his biography. Expecting to discover a lost innocence, Stephen is at once disillusioned - old friends are no longer recognizable and strangers view him with indifference or hostility. To piece together his own past, he explores the lush island landscape and encounters a woman who once loved him. In her need to love again, his own longing begins to awaken and intensify.
Download or read book The Burgess Boys written by Elizabeth Strout and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Burgess Boys:From thePulitzer Prize-winning authorof Olive Kitteridge A stunning story about the tragedies and triumphs of two brothers, from the bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge. Exploring the ties that bind us to family and home, this novel will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. ‘This is as much a state-of-the-nation novel as one of small-town life. Elizabeth Strout has written a novel that makes you feel: this is what it's like to be alive.’Sunday Times Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown for New York as soon as they could. Jim, a successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, something that Bob, a legal aid attorney who idolises Jim, has always taken in his stride. But when their sister desperately calls them back home to Shirley Falls to help her teenage son out of trouble, long-buried tensions begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever. Praise for Elizabeth Strout ‘Astonishingly good’ Evening Standard 'So good it gave me goosebumps.’Sunday Times ‘Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force.’ The New Yorker 'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own.' Hilary Mantel 'Strout's prose propels the story forward with moments of startlingly poetic clarity.' The New Yorker
Download or read book Jimmy Corrigan The Smartest Kid on Earth written by Chris Ware and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2000-09-12 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first book from Chicago author Chris Ware is a pleasantly-decorated view at a lonely and emotionally-impaired "everyman" (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth), who is provided, at age 36, the opportunity to meet his father for the first time. An improvisatory romance which gingerly deports itself between 1890's Chicago and 1980's small town Michigan, the reader is helped along by thousands of colored illustrations and diagrams, which, when read rapidly in sequence, provide a convincing illusion of life and movement. The bulk of the work is supported by fold-out instructions, an index, paper cut-outs, and a brief apology, all of which concrete to form a rich portrait of a man stunted by a paralyzing fear of being disliked.
Download or read book A Perfect Pledge written by Rabindranath Maharaj and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2006-07-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Perfect Pledge is at once a beautifully detailed novel about family life, a lively and abundant portrait of Trinidadian society and an ambitious, universal story of striving and strife. Following four decades of tumult – both national and domestic – this third novel by acclaimed author Rabindranath Maharaj is both deeply perceptive and strikingly unsentimental; it is full of singular characters and memorable, often hilarious dialogue. A Perfect Pledge is a major addition both to Canadian literature and to the literature of the Caribbean. The novel begins with the birth of a child to Narpat and Dulari in the village of Lengua in the late 1950s. Geevan, known universally as Jeeves, is the son that Narpat, an irascible cane farmer, has long wished for to add to his three daughters. But, growing up in his father’s shadow, Jeeves develops into a scrawny, quiet, somewhat sickly boy–not helped by Narpat’s unusual dietary pronouncements, including his insistence that Jeeves eat properly purgative foods. On one level, A Perfect Pledge is a compelling story of the intricacies of family life – of the complex relationships between husband and wife, parents and children – set in a lopsided hut with, when the book begins, no electricity or indoor plumbing. Narpat, the patriarch, is an engrossing character, a self-proclaimed “futurist” with no patience for religious “simi-dimi.” His ideas to improve his family and his village’s lot are sometimes inspired, but sometimes seem crazy; occasionally they fall somewhere in between. The novel follows the family’s progress, from the purchase of a cow named Gangadaye, through the children’s schooling, to Narpat’s almost solitary efforts to build a factory on his land, interspersed with accidents, weddings, conflict and much more besides. Through these events A Perfect Pledge becomes a subtle portrait not only of Narpat but of the forbearance and irritation of his wife Dulari and their daughters’ clashing personalities, often seen through the observant, hungry eyes of the young Jeeves. But A Perfect Pledge takes up other subjects too. As well as the story of a family’s struggles, it is a vivid portrayal of Trinidad over the last four decades – a deprived and sometimes mad place lurching into modernization. Rural life on the island is particularly hard in the 1960s; the infrastructure is ramshackle and always on the cusp of being taken back by nature. But the village of Lengua is a cauldron boiling with village politics, Hollywood movies, neighbourly rivalries, ayurvedic healing and much else. And while it is both panoramic and empathic, A Perfect Pledge is also a deeply pleasurable read: its elegant narrative tone is enriched by the astonishing improvisations of a Trinidadian English infused with Indian, British, American and other influences. Not a page passes without some jaw-dropping turn of phrase, from icy hots to scrapegoats, dreamsanhope to couteyahs. A Perfect Pledge follows its characters through years of growth, challenges, and in Narpat’s case, eventual decline. As he gets older, Narpat stiffens into himself, his plans becoming ever more Quixotic and even dangerous. Jeeves, meanwhile, is trying to step clear of his bad beginnings and become an independent, self-sufficient man, while honouring his family ties (something his sisters conspicuously fail to do). A Perfect Pledge is a funny and moving book that portrays the struggles of an entire society; but the difficult relationship between father and son is ultimately at its heart.
Download or read book The Enemy written by Lee Child and published by Dell. This book was released on 2009-05-19 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING JACK REACHER SERIES THAT INSPIRED TWO MAJOR MOTION PICTURES AND THE STREAMING SERIES REACHER “A thriller that gallops at a breakneck pace.”—Chicago Sun-Times Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier’s son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army’s brightest stars. But in every cop’s life there is one case that changes everything. For Jack Reacher, this is that case. New Year’s Day, 1990. In a North Carolina motel, a two-star general is found dead. His briefcase is missing. Nobody knows what was in it. Within minutes Reacher has his orders: Control the situation. Within hours the general’s wife is murdered. Then the dominoes really start to fall. Somewhere inside the vast worldwide fortress that is the U.S. Army, Reacher is being set up as a fall guy with the worst enemies a man can have. But Reacher won’t quit. He’s fighting a new kind of war—against an enemy he didn’t know he had. And against a conspiracy more chilling, ingenious, and treacherous than anyone could have guessed. The Enemy, like most of the books in the Jack Reacher series, can be read as a standalone thriller.
Download or read book Glorious Boy written by Aimee Liu and published by Red Hen Press. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An absolutely gorgeous historical novel . . . set against the backdrop of a tribe in the Andamans struggling with British rule . . . Just magnificent.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You One of Booklist’s Top Ten Historical Fiction Books of 2020 Glorious Boy is a tale of war and devotion, longing and loss, and the power of love to prevail. Set in India’s remote Andaman Islands before and during WWII, the story revolves around a mysteriously mute four-year-old who vanishes on the eve of the Japanese occupation. Little Ty’s parents, Shep and Claire, will go to any lengths to rescue him, but neither is prepared for the brutal and soul-changing odyssey that awaits them. “A riveting amalgam of history, family epic, anticolonial/antiwar treatise, cultural crossroads, and more . . . a fascinating, irresistible marvel.” —Library Journal (starred review) “The most memorable and original novel I’ve read in ages . . . evokes every side in a multi-cultural conversation with sympathy and rare understanding.” —Pico Iyer, author of Autumn Light Shortlisted for the Staunch Book Prize New York Post’s Best Books of the Week Good Housekeeping’s 20 Best Books of 2020 Parade’s 30 Best Beach Reads of 2020
Download or read book My Boy written by Philomena Lynott and published by London Bridge. This book was released on 1996-11-01 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Phil Lynott as told by his mother. It is also her story, from the days as a single mother bringing up a young black child in Manchester and Dublin, through the heady success of Thin Lizzy, to the tragic chain of events which ended her son's life and plunged her into depression.
