Download or read book The Housing Lark written by Sam Selvon and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The humorous yet poignant novel of West Indian migrant life in London that adds an iconic voice to the growing Caribbean canon A Penguin Classic Set in London in the 1960's, when the UK encouraged its Commonwealth citizens to emigrate as a result of the post-war labor shortage, The Housing Lark explores the Caribbean migrant experience in the "Mother Country" by following a group of friends as they attempt to buy a home together. Despite encountering a racist and predatory rental market, the friends scheme, often comically, to find a literal and figurative place of their own. Will these motley folks, male and female, Black and Indian, from Trinidad and Jamaica, dreamers, hustlers, and artists, be able to achieve this milestone of upward mobility? Unique and wonderful, comic and serious, cynical and tenderhearted, The Housing Lark poses the question of whether their "lark," or quixotic idea of finding a home, can ever become a reality. Kittitian-British novelist and playwright Caryl Phillips contributes a foreword, while postcolonial literature scholar Dohra Ahmad provides a contextual introduction.

Download or read book The Housing Lark written by Sam Selvon and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The humorous yet poignant novel of West Indian migrant life in London that adds an iconic voice to the growing Caribbean canon A Penguin Classic Set in London in the 1960's, when the UK encouraged its Commonwealth citizens to emigrate as a result of the post-war labor shortage, The Housing Lark explores the Caribbean migrant experience in the "Mother Country" by following a group of friends as they attempt to buy a home together. Despite encountering a racist and predatory rental market, the friends scheme, often comically, to find a literal and figurative place of their own. Will these motley folks, male and female, Black and Indian, from Trinidad and Jamaica, dreamers, hustlers, and artists, be able to achieve this milestone of upward mobility? Unique and wonderful, comic and serious, cynical and tenderhearted, The Housing Lark poses the question of whether their "lark," or quixotic idea of finding a home, can ever become a reality. Kittitian-British novelist and playwright Caryl Phillips contributes a foreword, while postcolonial literature scholar Dohra Ahmad provides a contextual introduction.

Download or read book Gardenias written by Faith Sullivan and published by Milkweed Editions. This book was released on 2006 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A month after the United States enters World War II, the country is in upheaval and so is the Erhardt family. Nine-year-old Lark, her mother Arlene, and Aunt Betty are heading for San Diego, far away from Harvester, Minnesota and Arlene s shiftless husband. In the booming wartime economy, Arlene and Betty are soon at work, leaving Lark alone to explore their new neighborhood, a wartime housing project full of others with similarly uprooted lives. Away from prying eyes and small town expectations, the two women begin to forge new lives and new dreams dreams that Lark isn t always comfortable with. This richly detailed novel, told through Lark s observant eyes, reflects the era s tumultuous events in the everyday dramas of its memorable, finely nuanced characters."

Download or read book Lark Rise to Candleford written by Flora Thompson and published by David R. Godine Publisher. This book was released on 2009 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flora Thompson (1876 to 947) wrote what may be the quintessential distillation of English country life at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1945, the three books Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941), and Candleford Green (1943) were published together in one elegant volume, and this new omnibus Nonpareil edition, complete with charming wood engravings, should be a cause for real rejoicing. The books have inspired two plays that ran in London, and the trilogy has been adapted into a multi-part, long-running television drama series by the BBC. The first series of ten episodes is scheduled to be syndicated on various PBS stations throughout the United States. A second series of twelve episodes, currently being broadcast in the United Kingdom, will follow in the United States shortly after.

Download or read book The Lonely Londoners written by Sam Selvon and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-09-25 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century London novels At Waterloo Station, hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies step off the boat train, ready to start afresh in 1950s London. There, homesick Moses Aloetta, who has already lived in the city for years, meets Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver and shows him the ropes. In this strange, cold and foggy city where the natives can be less than friendly at the sight of a black face, has Galahad met his Waterloo? But the irrepressible newcomer cannot be cast down. He and all the other lonely new Londoners - from shiftless Cap to Tolroy, whose family has descended on him from Jamaica - must try to create a new life for themselves. As pessimistic 'old veteran' Moses watches their attempts, they gradually learn to survive and come to love the heady excitements of London. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Susheila Nasta. 'His Lonely Londoners has acquired a classics status since it appeared in 1956 as the definitive novel about London's West Indians' Financial Times 'The unforgettable picaresque ... a vernacular comedy of pathos' Guardian

Download or read book Random Family written by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-23 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times Set amid the havoc of the War on Drugs, this New York Times bestseller is an "astonishingly intimate" (New York magazine) chronicle of one family’s triumphs and trials in the South Bronx of the 1990s. “Unmatched in depth and power and grace. A profound, achingly beautiful work of narrative nonfiction…The standard-bearer of embedded reportage.” —Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted In her classic bestseller, journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the world of one family with roots in the Bronx, New York. In 1989, LeBlanc approached Jessica, a young mother whose encounter with the carceral state is about to forever change the direction of her life. This meeting redirected LeBlanc’s reporting, taking her past the perennial stories of crime and violence into the community of women and children who bear the brunt of the insidious violence of poverty. Her book bears witness to the teetering highs and devastating lows in the daily lives of Jessica, her family, and her expanding circle of friends. Set at the height of the War on Drugs, Random Family is a love story—an ode to the families that form us and the families we create for ourselves. Charting the tumultuous struggle of hope against deprivation over three generations, LeBlanc slips behind the statistics and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and distinctly American true story.

Download or read book The Truth of Things 4 Lark written by Anthony McGowan and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2019-01-17 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An uncompromising and heartbreaking end to the story of Nicky and Kenny, the beloved brothers of the Carnegie shortlisted Rook, beautifully told in McGowan’s gritty realism.

Download or read book The Japanese Lover written by Isabel Allende and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: House of the Spirits, The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change"--

Download or read book Echoes written by Maeve Binchy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-11-04 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An emotional story of love, betrayal, friendship, and family from #1 New York Times bestselling author Maeve Binchy. David Power and Clare O'Brien both grew up dreaming of escape from the battered seaside town of Castlebay, Ireland, but they might as well have had the ocean between them. David is the cherished son of a prosperous doctor, while Clare lives with her large family behind their faltering store, longing for a moment of quiet to study. When they both go to university in Dublin—he as a matter of course, she on a hard-won scholarship—their worlds collide. They find freedom in each other—until the families, lovers, and secrets they left in Castlebay come back to haunt them... “Laughter and tears, it’s what Binchy does best.”—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review “The Castlebay Maeve Binchy creates is a marvelous place.”—The New York Times Book Review

Download or read book Red Doc written by Anne Carson and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A literary event: a follow-up to the internationally acclaimed poetry bestseller Autobiography of Red ("Amazing" -- Alice Munro) that takes its mythic boy-hero into the twenty-first century to tell a story all its own of love, loss, and the power of memory. In a stunningly original mix of poetry, drama, and narrative, Anne Carson brings the red-winged Geryon from Autobiography of Red, now called "G," into manhood, and through the complex labyrinths of the modern age. We join him as he travels with his friend and lover "Sad" (short for Sad But Great), a haunted war veteran; and with Ida, an artist, across a geography that ranges from plains of glacial ice to idyllic green pastures; from a psychiatric clinic to the somber housewhere G's mother must face her death. Haunted by Proust, juxtaposing the hunger for flight with the longing for family and home, this deeply powerful verse picaresque invites readers on an extraordinary journey of intellect, imagination, and soul.

Download or read book Moses Ascending written by Samuel Selvon and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-03-27 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sam Selvon�s Moses Ascending depicts West Indian Immigration in England. Moses, a Trinidadian who has been in England for some years now represents immigrants who come from all corners of the world to seek a better life. Like many immigrants he is hard-working. After years of living in a dingy basement he saves up enough money to buy a house. Moses calls this his dream house in the beginning of the book but later on he realizes that the house is a piece of garbage.

Download or read book The Widower s Son written by Alan Sillitoe and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raised by a career soldier, a working class Englishman tries to find his place—both in and out of uniform—in this compelling novel of love and war Charlie Scorton sees his best friend killed beside him in the mine, and resolves to join the army. His father throws him out for deserting the coal miner’s life, but Charlie never looks back. For twenty-four years, he roams the empire, a king’s soldier who is finally left with no choice but to come home. He has a child, his wife dies, and the old soldier dedicates himself to raising his boy. Charlie trains his son, William, to be an artilleryman from birth. William finds a home in the army, the sort he has always longed for, and makes his mark during World War II, performing heroically during the retreat at Dunkirk, risking his life to save thousands. But soon, he will be forced to answer the question his father never could: What does a soldier do when war is over? Alan Sillitoe, the bestselling author of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, examines where the fight ends and life begins for a soldier in this story of love and war, and the blurred lines between them.

Download or read book Lark Rise written by Flora Thompson and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-10-10 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lark Rise By Flora Thompson The last words are true of the hamlet of Lark Rise. Because they were still an organic community, subsisting on the food, however scanty and monotonous, they raised themselves, they enjoyed good health and so, in spite of grinding poverty, no money to spend on amusements and hardly any for necessities, happiness. They still sang out-of-doors and kept May Day and Harvest Home. The songs were travesties of the traditional ones, but their blurred echoes and the remnants of the old salty country speech had not yet died and left the fields to their modern silence. The songs came from their own lips, not out of a box.

Download or read book Good Night Mr Wodehouse written by Faith Sullivan and published by Milkweed Editions. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “More than forty years of history bookend a lifelong love affair with reading for the resilient heroine of [this] novel set in Harvester, Minnesota.” —Kirkus Reviews A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of the Year When Nell Stillman’s boorish husband dies soon after they move to the small town of Harvester, Minnesota, Nell is alone, penniless yet responsible for her beloved baby boy, Hillyard. Not an easy fate in small-town America at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the face of nearly insurmountable odds, Nell finds strength in lasting friendships and in the rich inner life awakened by the novels she reads. She falls in love with John Flynn, a charming congressman who becomes a father figure for Hillyard. She teaches at the local school and volunteers at the public library, where she meets Stella Wheeler and her charismatic daughter Sally. She becomes a friend and confidant to many of the girls in town, including Arlene and Lark Erhardt. And no matter how difficult her day, Nell ends each evening with a beloved book, in this novel that celebrates the strength and resourcefulness of independent women, the importance of community, and the transformative power of reading. “Sullivan describes small-town life through the eyes of an intelligent, generous narrator who fights off gossip, pettiness and tragedy with compassion, perseverance and forgiveness. Who wouldn’t want to spend a late-summer afternoon or two in the company of such a person?” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Her novels are a reliably inviting world, full of friendly faces and intimate dramas. However you first make your way to Harvester, you’ll want to return.” —The Wall Street Journal “[An] inspiring novel, which should find its way onto the reading lists of book clubs.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book The Land Before Avocado written by Richard Glover and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new book from the bestselling author of Flesh Wounds. A funny and frank look at the way Australia used to be - and just how far we have come. 'It was simpler time'. We had more fun back then'. 'Everyone could afford a house'. There's plenty of nostalgia right now for the Australia of the past, but what was it really like? In The Land Before Avocado, Richard Glover takes a journey to an almost unrecognisable Australia. It's a vivid portrait of a quite peculiar land: a place that is scary and weird, dangerous and incomprehensible, and, now and then, surprisingly appealing. It's the Australia of his childhood. The Australia of the late '60s and early '70s. Let's break the news now: they didn't have avocado. It's a place of funny clothing and food that was appalling, but amusingly so. It is also the land of staggeringly awful attitudes - often enshrined in law - towards anybody who didn't fit in. The Land Before Avocado will make you laugh and cry, feel angry and inspired. And leave you wondering how bizarre things were, not so long ago. Most of all, it will make you realise how far we've come - and how much further we can go. PRAISE Richard Glover's just-published The Land Before Avocado is a wonderful and witty journey back in time to life in the early 1970s. For a start, he deftly reclaims the book's title fruit from those who have positioned it as a proxy for all that is wrong with today's supposedly feckless and spendthrift young adults. Rather than maligning the avocado (and young people), he cleverly appropriates the fruit as an exemplar of how far we have come since the 1970s' Richard Wakelin, Australian Financial Review 'This is vintage Glover - warm, wise and very, very funny. Brimming with excruciating insights into life in the late sixties and early seventies, The Land Before Avocado explains why this was the cultural revolution we had to have' Hugh Mackay 'Hilarious and horrifying, this is the ultimate intergenerational conversation starter' Annabel Crabb PRAISE FOR FLESH WOUNDS 'A funny, moving, very entertaining memoir' Bill Bryson, New York Times 'The best Australian memoir I've read is Richard Glover's Flesh Wounds' Greg Sheridan, The Australian

Download or read book Winterfolk written by Janel Kolby and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This gorgeous and lyrical debut novel is perfect for fans of Nova Ren Suma, Laura Ruby, and Nina LaCour. Rain doesn’t wish on stars anymore. For as long as she can remember, her home has been among the Winterfolk, a group of homeless people living outside Seattle. Being homeless has taught Rain how to be invisible. But when she discovers that the city plans to sweep out the Winterfolk’s camp, her world is shattered. Determined to face the world like she’s never had to before, she convinces her friend King to take her to Seattle. The city is full of strange sights, sounds, people—and memories. When Rain and King are separated, she must fend for herself, and realizes that she’s not invisible after all. And if she’s going to save herself, King, and the Winterfolk, she’ll need to find a star big enough to make all of her wishes come true.

Download or read book A Brighter Sun written by Samuel Selvon and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There have been many great and enduring works of literature by Caribbean authors over the last century. The Caribbean Contemporary Classics collection celebrates these deep and vibrant stories, overflowing with life and acute observations about society. 'Tiger thought, To my wife, I man when I sleep with she. To bap (father), I man if I drink rum. But to me, I no man yet.' Trinidad is in the turbulent throes of the Second World War, but the war feels quite far away to Tiger - young and inexperienced, he sets out to prove his manhood and independence. With his child-bride Urmilla, shy, bewildered and anxious, with two hundred dollars in cash and a milking cow, he sets out into the wilderness of adulthood. There is no map or directions for him to follow, he must learn for himself and find his own way. Suitable for readers aged 15 and above.