Download or read book The Paying Guests written by Sarah Waters and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestselling novel that has been called “a tour de force” (Wall Street Journal), “unputdownable” (The Washington Post), “a delicious hothouse of a novel” (USA Today), “effortless” (The Economist), “seductive” (Vanity Fair) and “pitch perfect” (Salon) “Superb, bewitching…Forget about Fifty Shades of Grey; this novel is one of the most sensual you will ever read, and all without sacrificing either good taste or a "G" rating” – NPR “One of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels…a love affair, a shocking murder, and a flawless ending … Will keep you sleepless for three nights straight and leave you grasping for another book that can sustain that high.” — Entertainment Weekly (A rating) “Volcanically sexy, sizzingly smart, plenty bloody and just plain irresistible." —USA Today (4 stars) It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be. Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.

Download or read book The Little Stranger written by Sarah Waters and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2009-05-05 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules. Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds. But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely. Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today.

Download or read book The Paying Guest written by George Gissing and published by The Floating Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of his literary careeer, George Gissing emerged as a chronicler of Britain's emerging middle class. In novels such as New Grub Street, he took it upon himself to outline the challenges facing this new demographic niche, which he described as "well educated, fairly bred, but without money." The Paying Guest explores same of the same themes -- class tensions, intrigue, and the grit beneath the glittering surface of the Victorian era.

Download or read book The Night Watch written by Sarah Waters and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I thought everything would change, after the war. And now, no one even mentions it. It is as if we all got together in private and said whatever you do don't mention that, like it never happened. It's the late 1940s. Calm has returned to London and five people are recovering from the chaos of war. In scenes set in a quiet dating agency, a bombed-out church and a prison cell, the stories of these five lives begin to intertwine and we uncover the desire and regret that has bound them together. Sarah Waters's story of illicit love and everyday heroism takes us from a dazed and shattered post-war Britain back into the heart of the Blitz, towards the secrets that are hidden there. Olivier-nominated playwright Hattie Naylor has created a thrilling and theatrically inventive adaptation of a great modern novel. The stage adaptation of The Night Watch was premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, on 16 May 2016.

Download or read book Fingersmith written by Sarah Waters and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Oliver Twist with a twist…Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses. A pulsating story.”—The New York Times Book Review The Handmaiden, a film adaptation of Fingersmith, directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Kim Tae-Ri, is now available. Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.

Download or read book Affinity written by Sarah Waters and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-02-03 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eerily brilliant and spooky tale of spiritualism and deception 'Now you know why you are drawn to me - why your flesh comes creeping to mine, and what it comes for. Let it creep.' From the dark heart of a Victorian prison, disgraced spiritualist Selina Dawes weaves an enigmatic spell. Is she a fraud, or a prodigy? By the time it all begins to matter, you'll find yourself desperately wanting to believe in magic. 'Refined, repressed and simmering... a delicious tale of Victorian spiritualism' Independent on Sunday 'Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written' Val Hennessy 'Beautifully, atmospherically written, this is a tale to thrill your very soul' Metro 'Sexy, spooky, stylish... a wonderful book' Guardian

Download or read book Arabella of Mars written by David D. Levine and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century after Captain Kidd's first expedition to Mars, Arabella Ashby is set to leave her Martian plantation home for London to learn to be a lady, until her home is threatened and she joins the crew of a Mars Trading Company ship disguised as a boy.

Download or read book Guests written by Scholastic, Inc. Staff and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 1996-12 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduce your students to these award-winning books with these engagin teaching guides. Each guide includes an author biography, background information, summaries, thought-provoking discussion questions, as well as creative, cross-curricular activities and reproducibles that motivate students. For use with Grades 4-8.

Download or read book What Shines from It written by Sara Rauch and published by Alternating Current. This book was released on 2020-02-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eleven stories in Sara Rauch's What Shines from It are rife with the physical and psychic wounds of everyday life. In "Beholden," girl meets boy meets the unsettled spirits of post-9/11 New York City, but her future can't hold them all. In "Kitten," a struggling veteran and his wife argue over adopting an abandoned kitten, deepening their financial and emotional rifts. In "Abandon," a ghost-baby ravages a woman's body following a late-term miscarriage, marring her chances for new love. And in "Kintsukuroi," a married potter falls for a married geologist and discovers the luminosity of being broken.What Shines from It is populated by women on the verge of transcendence-brimming with anger and love-and working-class artists haunted by the ghosts of their desires. Abiding by a distinctly guarded New England sensibility, these stories inhabit the borderlands of long-established cities, where humans are still learning to embrace the natural world. Subtly exploring sexualities, relationships, birth and rebirth, identity, ghosts, and longing, Rauch searches for the places where our protective shells are cracked and, in spare, poetic language, limns those edges of loneliness and loss with light.

Download or read book The Perfect Guests written by Emma Rous and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-01-07 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The ultimate house party mystery . . . old secrets and new dangers collide in this deliciously thrilling tale' Lisa Gardner, No.1 New York Times bestselling author 'Anyone yearning for a page-turning gothic story with a big house - and a shocking family secret - at its heart should gatecrash The Perfect Guests immediately!' Eve Chase, Sunday Times bestselling author Eight strangers One deadly invitation Welcome to Raven Hall . . . After years of abandonment, Raven Hall has been restored to its former glory. For one night only, it is playing host to an evening of murder mystery. The guests have gathered. The roles have been cast. But someone is playing a sinister game, one with devastating consequences. And as the guests are about to discover, the truth is much darker than fiction. Raven Hall is waiting for you . . . Praise for The Perfect Guests: 'A richly atmospheric time-slip mystery with the pulse of a thriller, The Perfect Guests is deliciously evocative and absolutely spellbinding' Christina McDonald, USA Today bestselling author 'Twisty and gripping, with a deliciously sinister murder mystery backdrop, The Perfect Guests had me utterly hooked, from its intriguing start right up until its heart-in-mouth ending. Dark, thrilling and expertly layered with secrets and suspense, it's a story you'll find impossible to put down' Holly Miller, bestselling author of The Sight of You 'A fabulously atmospheric setting, a cast of intriguing characters, and layer upon layer of mystery - this is a brilliant read' C. J. Cooper, bestselling author of The Book Club 'Stunningly written, simmering with secrets and tension, I cannot recommend The Perfect Guests highly enough' Jenny Ashcroft, bestselling author 'A large, old house with a tragic past; a murder mystery weekend turning sinister; strange games of pretend being played within a family . . . What's not to love? Gripping from start to finish' Helen Cooper, author of The Downstairs Neighbour 'A page-turning tale full of suspense, secrets and shocking revelations . . . The Perfect Guests is a deliciously compulsive read' Saskia Sarginson, bestselling author of The Twins 'Twisty and utterly engrossing, I raced through it in one sitting and didn't stop until I reached the jaw-dropping ending' Lindsay Cameron, author of Just One Look 'The Perfect Guests is a Gothic mystery with an intriguing sense of place and a story that slowly unfurls with sinister tension. This page-turning novel, where games are always dangerous, takes on a life of its own' Lisa Ballantyne, Richard & Judy bestselling author 'This will keep you turning those pages. The characters are still playing on my mind' Jane Corry, bestselling author of My Husband's Wife 'Spine-chilling fun' Morning Star

Download or read book In the Company of Others written by Jan Karon and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-30 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow Father Tim and Cynthia on their journey to research his Kavanagh ancestry in the Irish countryside in this novel in the beloved Mitford series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jan Karon. Vacation—the very word has been foreign to Episcopal priest Tim Kavanagh. Now retired from tending his flock in the village of Mitford, he is making good on a promise to show his wife, Cynthia, the charming land of his Irish ancestors. But after arriving at a Lough Arrow fishing lodge in the midst of a torrential downpour, the charm disappears. They find their holiday upended by an intruder, a treasured painting is stolen from the lodge, and a family conflict dating back nearly a century turns even more bitter. As three generations struggle to find deliverance from the crucifying power of secrets, Tim and Cynthia stumble upon a faded journal that might just explain the crime—and offer a chance at redemption.

Download or read book A Dog s Ransom written by Patricia Highsmith and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2002-08-17 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long out of print, this Highsmith classic resurfaces with a vengeance. The great revival of interest in Patricia Highsmith continues with the publication of this novel that will give dog owners nightmares for years to come. With an eerie simplicity of style, Highsmith turns our next-door neighbors into sadistic psychopaths, lying in wait among white picket fences and manicured lawns. In A Dog's Ransom, Highsmith blends a savage humor with brilliant social satire in this dark tale of a highminded criminal who hits a wealthy Manhattan couple where it hurts the most when he kidnaps their beloved poodle. This work attesets to Highsmith's reputation as "the poet of apprehension" (Graham Greene).

Download or read book Tipping The Velvet written by Sarah Waters and published by Virago. This book was released on 2011-02-03 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the oyster huts of Whitstable to the music halls of Victorian London, Tipping the Velvet is the glorious first novel from this much-loved author 'Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that I had ever seen.' A saucy, sensuous and multi-layered historical romance, Tipping the Velvet follows the glittering career of Nan King - oyster girl turned music-hall star turned rent boy turned East End 'tom'. 'Erotic and absorbing... Written with startling power' New York Times Book Review 'An unstoppable read, a sexy and picaresque romp through the lesbian and queer demi-monde of the roaries Nineties' Independent on Sunday 'Waters is an extremely confident writer, combining precise, sensuous descriptions with irony and wit' Observer

Download or read book The Feast written by Margaret Kennedy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-06-06 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Kennedy is not only a romantic but an anarchist." —Anita Brookner Summer, 1947. A bizarre catastrophe rocks a seaside village in Cornwall when a cliff tumbles down on the Pendizack Manor Hotel. The hotel is obliterated, and seven guests are killed in the disaster. Everyone else makes a narrow escape. As the survivors tell their stories, the events of the previous week are revealed, and a parade of sins exposed. Gluttony, Lecherousness, Sloth, Pride, Covetousness, Envy and Wrath: all are in residence at Pendizack Manor, and as the day of the disaster creeps closer, it becomes clear that who’s spared and who’s lost might not be as arbitrary as first assumed. A modern upstairs-downstairs comedy with an old-fashioned morality play tucked away inside, The Feast is sly, kaleidoscopic, and utterly ingenious, a novel that only Margaret Kennedy could have written.

Download or read book Swimming Lessons written by Rohinton Mistry and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-08-08 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Firozsha Baag is an apartment building in Bombay. Its ceilings need plastering and some of the toilets leak appallingly, but its residents are far from desperate, though sometimes contentious and unforgiving. In these witty, poignant stories, Mistry charts the intersecting lives of Firozsha Baag, yielding a delightful collective portrait of a middle-class Indian community poised between the old ways and the new. "A fine collection...the volume is informed by a tone of gentle compassion for seemingly insignificant lives."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Download or read book Then We Came to the End written by Joshua Ferris and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2007-03-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Book Award finalist and debut novel by the bestselling author of The Dinner Party: "A readymade classic of the office-novel genre. . . . A truly affecting novel about work, trust, love, and loneliness." --Seattle Times No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.

Download or read book Jazz Moon written by Joe Okonkwo and published by Kensington Books. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A passionate, alive, and original novel about love, race, and jazz in 1920s Harlem and Paris—a moving story of traveling far to find oneself” (David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife). On a sweltering summer night in 1925, beauties in beaded dresses mingle with hepcats in dapper suits on the streets of Harlem. The air is thick with reefer smoke, and jazz pours out of speakeasy doorways. Ben Charles and his devoted wife are among the locals crammed into a basement club to hear music and drink bootleg liquor. For aspiring poet Ben, the heady rhythms are a revelation. So is Baby Back Johnston, an ambitious trumpet player who flashes a devilish grin and blasts dynamite from his horn. Ben finds himself drawn to the trumpeter—and to Paris, where Baby Back says everything is happening. In Paris, black people are welcomed as exotic celebrities, especially those from Harlem. It’s an easy life, but it quickly leaves Ben adrift and alone, craving solace through anonymous dalliances in the city’s decadent underground scene. From chic Parisian cafés to seedy opium dens, his odyssey will bring new love, trials, and heartache, even as echoes from the past urge him to decide where true fulfillment and inspiration lie. Jazz Moon is an evocative story of emotional and artistic awakening set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age–Paris—a winner of the Edmund White Award and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. “Jazz Moon mashes up essences of Hurston and Hughes and Fitzgerald into a heady mixtape of a romance: driving and rhythmic as an Armstrong Hot Five record, sensuous as the small of a Cotton Club chorus girl’s back. I enjoyed it immensely.” —Larry Duplechan, author of Blackbird and Got ’til It’s Gone