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Book The Light That Failed   Complete with Original Illustrations

Download or read book The Light That Failed Complete with Original Illustrations written by Rudyard Kipling and published by . This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Light That Failed is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling that was first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine dated January 1891. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan and Port Said. It follows the life of Dick Heldar, an artist and painter who goes blind, and his unrequited love for his childhood playmate, Maisie.It is Kipling's first novel, written when he was 26 years old, and is semi-autobiographical; being based upon his own unrequited love for Florence Garrard. Though it was poorly received by critics, the novel has managed to remain in print for over a century. It was also adapted into a play, two silent films as well as a drama film.The story begins with Dick and Maisie as orphan children in a seaside boarding house under the care of Mrs. Jennet (a sadist drawn from Kipling's own childhood experience with a Mrs Holloway). Dick confesses his infatuation with Maisie but she informs him that she will soon be leaving to complete her education.Years later, Dick is working as a painter and artist among the British armed forces in Sudan. He meets a war correspondent named Torpenhow who, witnessing his skill, arranges for Dick to be hired by the syndicate that he works for. The two men quickly strike a friendship and help each other in their respective trades. Dick is later injured by a sword-cut to the head and spends a night in delirium, moaning about Maisie. Once the campaign is over, Dick returns to London where he eventually reunites with Torpenhow. His war sketches have drawn attention in England and when his former employers try to withhold his submitted works, Dick bullies their representative into returning them. He shares a rented apartment with Torpenhow in London where the two spend their time working and discussing "Art" along with a few other friends. Dick runs into Maisie again who is also working as a painter and a student under Dick's former teacher, Kami. He asks her about their relationship and though she rebuffs his advances, she asks him to visit her every Sunday as she values his advice about her work. He relents, assuming that she would grow to love him as he loves her. He also meets Maisie's roommate, a red-haired girl who immediately despises him.While discussing her work, Dick enters into an argument with Maisie about her attempt to paint the "Melancolia" from the book, The City of Dreadful Night. Dick says that it is beyond her ability and challenges her that he can do it better. Maisie soon departs for Paris to work under Kami for some months and Dick sees her off at the harbour. He finally convinces her to give him a kiss, making the red-haired girl furious. When he returns to his room, he discovers that Torpenhow has brought in a pretty young prostitute named Bessie whom he found collapsed in the hall. Taken by her face, Dick convinces the girl to return to his studio so that he can paint her in return for payment. Eventually, Bessie tries to seduce Torpenhow though they are interrupted by Dick, who rebukes Torpenhow and sends him away. Bessie is furious at Dick but continues to model for him because of the money. Dick hits upon his notion for the "Melancolia" who he models on Bessie but discovers to his horror that he is going blind due to a past battle injury. He still manages to complete the painting a week after Torpenhow returns, relying on whiskey to help his failing vision. However, Bessie destroys the painting in revenge for his earlier interference. Torpenhow hides the fact from Dick, who is now completely blind, regretting that he ever helped the girl.

Book The Light that Failed

    Book Details:
  • Author : Rudyard Kipling
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 1892
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 298 pages

Download or read book The Light that Failed written by Rudyard Kipling and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Light that Failed

Download or read book The Light that Failed written by Ivan Krastev and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark book that completely transforms our understanding of the crisis of liberalism, from two pre-eminent intellectuals Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only there but also back in the heartland of the West. In this brilliant work of political psychology, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of history turned out to be only the beginning of an Age of Imitation. Reckoning with the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist xenophobia that began in Eastern Europe stems from resentment at the post-1989 imperative to become Westernized. Through this prism, the Trump revolution represents an ironic fulfillment of the promise that the nations exiting from communist rule would come to resemble the United States. In a strange twist, Trump has elevated Putin's Russia and Orbán's Hungary into models for the United States. Written by two pre-eminent intellectuals bridging the East/West divide, The Light that Failed is a landmark book that sheds light on the extraordinary history of our Age of Imitation.

Book The Light that Failed by Rudyard Kipling   Delphi Classics  Illustrated

Download or read book The Light that Failed by Rudyard Kipling Delphi Classics Illustrated written by Rudyard Kipling and published by Delphi Classics. This book was released on 2017-07-17 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Light that Failed by Rudyard Kipling - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Kipling includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘The Light that Failed by Rudyard Kipling - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Kipling’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Book The Light That Failed   Classic Edition

Download or read book The Light That Failed Classic Edition written by Rudyard Kipling and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Light That Failed is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling that was first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine dated January 1891. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan and Port Said. It follows the life of Dick Heldar, an artist and painter who goes blind, and his unrequited love for his childhood playmate, Maisie. It is Kipling's first novel, written when he was 26 years old and is semi-autobiographical; being based upon his own unrequited love for Florence Garrard. Though it was poorly received by critics, the novel has managed to remain in print for over a century. It was also adapted into a play, two silent films as well as a drama film.

Book Complete Novels of Rudyard Kipling  The Light That Failed   Captain Courageous  A Story of the Grand Banks   Kim   The Naulahka  A Story of West and East  Illustrated

Download or read book Complete Novels of Rudyard Kipling The Light That Failed Captain Courageous A Story of the Grand Banks Kim The Naulahka A Story of West and East Illustrated written by Rudyard Kipling and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2024-01-08 with total page 1232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: "Complete Novels of Rudyard Kipling: The Light That Failed + Captain Courageous: A Story of the Grand Banks + Kim + The Naulahka: A Story of West and East (Illustrated)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. "Stalky & Co." is a novel about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. Reflecting its origins, the novel is episodic in nature, with self-contained chapters. It is set at an unnamed school referred to as the College or the Coll., which is based on the United Services College in Devon, which Kipling attended. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself, while the charismatic character Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford and Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts. "Kim" is and adventure novel about the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor Irish mother who have both died in poverty. Living a vagabond existence in India under British rule in the late 19th century, Kim earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore. "Captains Courageous" follows the adventures of fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon, after he is saved from drowning by a Portuguese fisherman in the north Atlantic. "The Light That Failed" is a psychological novel. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan or India. The Light that Failed follows the life of Dick Heldar, a painter who goes blind. "Naulahka: A Story of East and West", is an adventure novels, the story of a priceless Indian jewel. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children.

Book The Lights that Failed

    Book Details:
  • Author : Zara S. Steiner
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2007
  • ISBN : 0199226865
  • Pages : 955 pages

Download or read book The Lights that Failed written by Zara S. Steiner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 955 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 'The Lights that Failed', Steiner challenges the assumption that the Treaty of Versailles led to the opening of a second European war and provides an analysis of the attempts to reconstruct Europe during the 1920s"-OCLC

Book The Complete Novels of Rudyard Kipling  Illustrated Edition

Download or read book The Complete Novels of Rudyard Kipling Illustrated Edition written by Rudyard Kipling and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2017-12-06 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Stalky & Co." is a novel about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. Reflecting its origins, the novel is episodic in nature, with self-contained chapters. It is set at an unnamed school referred to as the College or the Coll., which is based on the United Services College in Devon, which Kipling attended. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself, while the charismatic character Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford and Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts. "Kim" is and adventure novel about the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor Irish mother who have both died in poverty. Living a vagabond existence in India under British rule in the late 19th century, Kim earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore. "Captains Courageous" follows the adventures of fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon, after he is saved from drowning by a Portuguese fisherman in the north Atlantic. "The Light That Failed" is a psychological novel. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan or India. The Light that Failed follows the life of Dick Heldar, a painter who goes blind. "Naulahka: A Story of East and West", is an adventure novels, the story of a priceless Indian jewel. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children.

Book The Artist s Way

    Book Details:
  • Author : Julia Cameron
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Release : 2002-03-04
  • ISBN : 1101156880
  • Pages : 295 pages

Download or read book The Artist s Way written by Julia Cameron and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-03-04 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.

Book Delphi Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling  Illustrated

Download or read book Delphi Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling Illustrated written by Rudyard Kipling and published by Delphi Classics. This book was released on 2013-11-17 with total page 8605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rudyard Kipling is a paramount literary figure, having created an impressive corpus of work as varied as treasured children’s classics, compelling novels, accomplished poetry and critical war writings. This comprehensive eBook presents Kipling’s complete works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 5) Features: * illustrated with many images relating to Kipling’s life, works, places and film adaptations * annotated with concise introductions to the novels and other works * images of how the novels first appeared, giving your Kindle a taste of the original texts * ALL the novels and each with their own contents table * THE JUNGLE BOOK and other popular collections are fully illustrated * all of the short stories, with excellent formatting, and contents tables * rare short story collections like ABAFT THE FUNNEL – first time in digital print * includes all of Kipling’s non-fiction war writings – spend hours exploring Kipling’s studies of World War I – many available in no other collection * EVEN includes Kipling’s poetry with special contents table – find that special poem quickly! * the rare history textbook Kipling contributed to for schools * the fully illustrated war text THE GRAVES OF THE FALLEN which Kipling was commissioned to write by the British Government * boasts a special criticism section, with works by writers such as G.K. Chesterton, Orwell and Gallienne, examining Kipling’s contribution to literature * SPECIAL BONUS text of Kipling’s autobiography - explore the author’s interesting life! * scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres, allowing easy navigation around Kipling’s immense oeuvre * features critical works, including THE LESS FAMILIAR KIPLING AND KIPLINGANA by G. F. Monkshood * UPDATED with improvements, corrections and a detailed NCX toc for navigation Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to see a full list and browse our other titles CONTENTS: The Novels THE LIGHT THAT FAILED THE NAULAHKA, A STORY OF WEST AND EAST CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS KIM The Shorter Fiction THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT QUARTETTE PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS SOLDIERS THREE AND OTHER STORIES UNDER THE DEODARS THE PHANTOM RICKSHAW AND OTHER EERIE TALES WEE WILLIE WINKIE AND OTHER CHILD STORIES LIFE'S HANDICAP MANY INVENTIONS THE JUNGLE BOOK THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK THE DAY'S WORK STALKY & CO. JUST SO STORIES FOR LITTLE CHILDREN and many more... The Short Stories CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF SHORT STORIES ALPHABETICAL LIST OF SHORT STORIES The Travel Writing FROM SEA TO SEA – LETTERS OF TRAVEL: 1887-1889 AMERICAN NOTES and more The Poetry LIST OF THE COMPLETE POETRY The Non-Fiction A FLEET IN BEING A HISTORY OF ENGLAND THE NEW ARMY IN TRAINING FRANCE AT WAR and many more The Speeches THE BOOK OF WORDS The Criticism LIVING MASTERS—RUDYARD KIPLING BY DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY RUDYARD KIPLING - A CRITICISM BY RICHARD LE GALLIENNE RUDYARD KIPLING BY JOHN PALMER ON MR. RUDYARD KIPLING AND MAKING THE WORLD SMALL BY G.K. CHESTERTON RUDYARD KIPLING BY GEORGE ORWELL The Autobiography SOMETHING OF MYSELF Visit www.delphiclassics.com to see a full list of titles

Book The Light That Failed

    Book Details:
  • Author : Rudyard Kipling
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2020-11-12
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 251 pages

Download or read book The Light That Failed written by Rudyard Kipling and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: n 1/1878 Kipling was admitted to the United Services College, at Westward Ho!, Devon, a school founded a few years earlier to prepare boys for the armed forces. The school proved rough going for him at first, but led to firm friendships & provided the setting for his schoolboy stories Stalky & Co., published years later. During his time there, he met & fell in love with Florence Garrard, the model for Maisie in his 1st novel, The Light That Failed, initially published in 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine.Dick Heldar is a war correspondent & an artist, known for the drawings he sends home to the London papers from wars in exotic places like Sudan. When he returns to London, he attempts to make a career for himself as a serious artist & encounters his childhood sweetheart, Maisie. They fall in love. Then he learns that a minor problem with his eyes is actually the onset of blindness, incurable--the result of a head wound he took during the war. As his vision fails, the light of everything around him--his life, his hopes, his dreams--fail with it. There are terrible choices to be made between the love of the woman he treasures & the love of the men who stood by him at the front.

Book The City of Dreadful Night and Other Sketches

Download or read book The City of Dreadful Night and Other Sketches written by Rudyard Kipling and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book All the Light We Cannot See

Download or read book All the Light We Cannot See written by Anthony Doerr and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

Book The Art of Michael Whelan

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael Whelan
  • Publisher : Bantam Dell Publishing Group
  • Release : 1993
  • ISBN : 9780553074475
  • Pages : 200 pages

Download or read book The Art of Michael Whelan written by Michael Whelan and published by Bantam Dell Publishing Group. This book was released on 1993 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning artist Whelan has illustrated the work of almost every major author in speculative fiction. Here are featured all the artist's major recent paintings, as well as a series of 25 never-before-seen works produced especially for this book. Over 100 full-color reproductions.

Book Academy and Literature

Download or read book Academy and Literature written by Charles Edward Cutts Birch Appleton and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Between the World and Me

Download or read book Between the World and Me written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and published by One World. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Book I Know This Much Is True

    Book Details:
  • Author : Wally Lamb
  • Publisher : Cambridge University Press
  • Release : 1998-06-03
  • ISBN : 9780060391621
  • Pages : 884 pages

Download or read book I Know This Much Is True written by Wally Lamb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.