Download or read book Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain written by Barney Norris and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Times bestseller 'Wonderful...I was hooked from the first page. It's the real stuff.' - Michael Frayn 'Deeply affecting' - Guardian 'Superb' - Mail on Sunday 'Barney Norris is a rare and precious talent' - Evening Standard 'There exists in all of us a song waiting to be sung which is as heart-stopping and vertiginous as the peak of the cathedral. That is the meaning of this quiet city, where the spire soars into the blue, where rivers and stories weave into one another, where lives intertwine.' One quiet evening in Salisbury, the peace is shattered by a serious car crash. At that moment, five lives collide – a flower seller, a schoolboy, an army wife, a security guard, a widower – all facing their own personal disasters. As one of those lives hangs in the balance, the stories of all five unwind, drawn together by connection and coincidence into a web of love, grief, disenchantment and hope that perfectly represents the joys and tragedies of small town life. Barney Norris's third novel, The Vanishing Hours, will be published in July 2019.
Download or read book Turning for Home written by Barney Norris and published by Random House. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The deeply moving second novel from the author of the award-winning FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN. 'Courageous...memorable...moving' - Guardian 'One of our most exciting young writers' - The Times 'Life-affirming, beautiful and achingly poignant' - Donal Ryan 'Isn’t the life of any person made up out of the telling of two tales, after all? The whole world makes more sense if you remember that everyone has two lives, their real lives and their dreams, both stories only a tape’s breadth apart from each other, impossibly divided, indivisibly close.' Every year, Robert's family comes together at a rambling old house to celebrate his birthday. Aunts, uncles, distant cousins - it has been a milestone in their lives for decades. But this year Robert doesn't want to be reminded of what has happened since they last met - and nor, for quite different reasons, does his granddaughter Kate. Neither of them is sure they can face the party. But for both Robert and Kate, it may become the most important gathering of all. As lyrical and true to life as Norris's critically acclaimed debut Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, this is a compelling, emotional story of family, human frailty, and the marks that love leaves on us.
Download or read book Undercurrent written by Barney Norris and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Lyrical' Daily Mail 'Beautiful' Spectator 'Skilled' Financial Times 'Vulnerable' Guardian 'Deft' Independent 'Profound' Observer 'The beginning of summer. Perhaps it crosses my mind even now while I wait for news of Amy that something is coming towards us. Like sighting the first slow swell of a wave.' Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He's been living in London for years - some of them good - but he's stuck in a relationship he can't move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can't shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story. Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.
Download or read book Hitch written by Kathryn Hind and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amelia stands beside a highway in the Australian desert, alone except for her dog and the occasional road train that speeds past her raised thumb. After her mother’s funeral, Amelia was confronted by Zach and reminded of the relationship they had when she was a teenager. She feels complicit and remains unable to process what happened. So she ran. Her best friend, Sid, is Zach’s cousin and the one person in the world she can depend upon. But, of course, the road isn’t safe either. Amelia is looking for generosity or human connection in the drivers she finds lifts with, and she does receive that. But she is also let down. Hitch is a raw exploration of consent and its ambiguities, personal agency and the choices we make. It’s the story of twenty-something Amelia and her dog Lucy hitchhiking from one end of the country to the other, trying to outrun grief and trauma, and moving ever closer to the things she longs to escape. Kathryn Hind, winner of the inaugural Penguin Literary Prize, writes with acuity, empathy and wisdom. She is a shining new light on the Australian literary scene.
Download or read book Heart of Darkness written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Vanishing Hours written by Barney Norris and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Shot through with compassion . . . this dreamlike, winding tale is a joy.' A. L. KENNEDY 'Moving and unconventionally wise' Guardian This was how I heard the most important story of my life, the thing that decided me, the story that determined who I was in the end. At a hotel bar in a quiet English town, two strangers meet by chance and share their stories. Hers is of an inconspicuous life, shaken by heartbreak and scattered with unfulfilled dreams. His is a dizzying tale of an unending quest for someone he lost in his youth. From the blustery cliffs of Dover to the confines of a dark prison cell; from the courtroom witness box to the West End stage, we join him as he slips through time. Extraordinary though his story is, what she has to reveal is even more surprising, and will take them to a place neither of them – or you – expected. From the bestselling author of FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN comes this captivating novel about love, abandonment, and the power of stories to help us find meaning in a confusing world – a world that can sometimes threaten to overwhelm us, but one that is rich with possibility, and always full of wonder.
Download or read book Undercurrent written by Barney Norris and published by Transworld Publishers. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Lyrical' Daily Mail 'Beautiful' Spectator 'Skilled' Financial Times 'Vulnerable' Guardian 'Deft' Independent 'Profound' Observer 'The beginning of summer. Perhaps it crosses my mind even now while I wait for news of Amy that something is coming towards us. Like sighting the first slow swell of a wave.' Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He's been living in London for years - some of them good - but he's stuck in a relationship he can't move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can't shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story. Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.
Download or read book Travels with Charley in Search of America written by John Steinbeck and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1997-04-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers A Penguin Classic In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante. His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York. Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life—a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South—which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand—Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by Jay Parini. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book Sophie s World written by Jostein Gaarder and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 735 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Download or read book My Year in the No man s bay written by Peter Handke and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1998 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of stories in which an Austrian writer analyzes the craft of writing and describes the people he met over the years. One of them is a former Miss Yugoslavia with whom he had a romance.
Download or read book The Contested Plains written by Elliott West and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deftly retracing a pivotal chapter in one of America's most dramatic stories, Elliott West chronicles the struggles, triumphs and defeats of both Indians and whites as they pursued their clashing dreams of greatness in the heart of the continent.
Download or read book The Road written by Cormac McCarthy and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). • From the bestselling author of The Passenger A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.
Download or read book Shambala Junction written by Dipika Mukherjee and published by Aurora Metro Publications Ltd.. This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Virginia Prize for Fiction A young American on a vacation trip around India with her boyfriend, steps down off the train for a bottle of water at Shambala Junction, only to find herself stranded at the town with no phone or money, she has to rely on the kindness of strangers... A journey into the heart of India, Iris is forced to question her beliefs and values and to learn what really counts. "... a refreshingly original viewpoint on the traditional ‘coming of age’ story, brimming with powerful women, a complex society and fundamental human truths laid out in all its gritty beauty.” -SkyLightRain “An enlightening and enjoyable read. As much a cultural exploration as it is a love story, the book is a remarkable webbing of different viewpoints. Mukherjee is able to translate captivating realities to a wide audience through pulsing characters, with a natural story-telling ability that is inviting and enlightening.” -Windy City Review “My hat is off to you for making Shambala Junction a compelling, suspenseful novel that illuminates the personal and social consequences of corrupt adoptions.” - Umberto Tosi author of Ophelia Rising and contributing editor of Chicago Quarterly Review “... fluid prose that takes firm hold of the plot to produce an invigorating, engaging, and dynamic story.” -World Literature Today “A truly engaging and lovely read, Shambala Junction is a book that tugs at the reader’s morality while at the same time telling a truly inspiring coming-of-age story.” -9/10 – Star2.com “Shambala Junction takes hold of you and leads you with absolute confidence into one of the most extraordinary journeys any of us ever embark on: the discovery of India.” -- Barney Norris, author of Five Rivers Met On A Wooded Plain About the author Dipika Mukherjee made her debut as a novelist with Thunder Demons (Gyaana Books, 2011), long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. She won the Platform Flash Fiction competition in April 2009. She has edited two anthologies of Southeast Asian short stories: Silverfish New Writing 6 (Silverfish, 2006) and The Merlion and Hibiscus (Penguin, 2002). Her first poetry collection, The Palimpsest of Exile, was published by Rubicon Press in 2009. Her short stories and poems have appeared in publications around the world, including World Literature Today, Asia Literary Review, The South Asia Review, Del Sol Review and Postcolonial Text among others, and have been widely anthologised. She curates an Asian/American Reading Series for the Guild Literary Complex, Chicago. Dipika holds a doctorate in English (Sociolinguistics) from Texas A&M University. She has taught language and linguistic courses in China, India, the Netherlands, United States, Malaysia, and Singapore and now teaches Sociolinguistics at Northwestern University and is Faculty Affiliate at the Equality Development and Globalisation Studies (EDGS), Roberta Buffett Centre for International and Comparative Studies. She lives in Chicago with her husband and they have two sons. Reviews “This vividly written, courageous book... a refreshingly original viewpoint on the traditional ‘coming of age’ story, brimming with powerful women, a complex society and fundamental human truths laid out in all its gritty beauty.” --SkyLightRain “An enlightening and enjoyable read. As much a cultural exploration as it is a love story, the book is a remarkable webbing of different viewpoints. Mukherjee is able to translate captivating realities to a wide audience through pulsing characters, with a natural story-telling ability that is inviting and enlightening.” --Windy City Review “My hat is off to you for making Shambala Junction a compelling, suspenseful novel that illuminates the personal and social consequences of corrupt adoptions.” --Umberto Tosi author of Ophelia Rising and contributing editor of Chicago Quarterly Review “... fluid prose that takes firm hold of the plot to produce an invigorating, engaging, and dynamic story.” --World Literature Today “A truly engaging and lovely read, Shambala Junction is a book that tugs at the reader’s morality while at the same time telling a truly inspiring coming-of-age story.” --9/10 – Star2.com About previous books: “Dipika Mukherjee uses vibrant imagery and brutally honest observation to create a humanistic portrait of a modern nation still coming to grips with its past.” --City Weekend (Shanghai) “Longlisted for the Man Asian Prize in 2009, Mukherjee’s novel is not unlike Miguel Syjuco’s IIustrado, which won the prize in 2008. Both are grim state-of-the-nation novels based in East Asia, written by peripatetic authors. Both have lead characters who leave relatively comfortable lives in the United States of America to travel back to the troubled East and tragic pasts.” Paperback Pickings, The Telegraph
Download or read book Just Good Friends Level 3 Book with Audio CDs 2 Pack written by Penny Hancock and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-20 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern, original fiction for learners of English.
Download or read book Perfect written by Rachel Joyce and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spellbinding novel that will resonate with readers of Mark Haddon, Louise Erdrich, and John Irving, Perfect tells the story of a young boy who is thrown into the murky, difficult realities of the adult world with far-reaching consequences. Byron Hemmings wakes to a morning that looks like any other: his school uniform draped over his wooden desk chair, his sister arguing over the breakfast cereal, the click of his mother’s heels as she crosses the kitchen. But when the three of them leave home, driving into a dense summer fog, the morning takes an unmistakable turn. In one terrible moment, something happens, something completely unexpected and at odds with life as Byron understands it. While his mother seems not to have noticed, eleven-year-old Byron understands that from now on nothing can be the same. What happened and who is to blame? Over the days and weeks that follow, Byron’s perfect world is shattered. Unable to trust his parents, he confides in his best friend, James, and together they concoct a plan. . . . As she did in her debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce has imagined bewitching characters who find their ordinary lives unexpectedly thrown into chaos, who learn that there are times when children must become parents to their parents, and who discover that in confronting the hard truths about their pasts, they will forge unexpected relationships that have profound and surprising impacts. Brimming with love, forgiveness, and redemption, Perfect will cement Rachel Joyce’s reputation as one of fiction’s brightest talents. Praise for Perfect “Touching, eccentric . . . Joyce does an inviting job of setting up these mysterious circumstances, and of drawing Byron’s magical closeness with Diana.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Haunting . . . compelling.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “[Joyce] triumphantly returns with Perfect. . . . As Joyce probes the souls of Diana, Byron and Jim, she reveals—slowly and deliberately, as if peeling back a delicate onion skin—the connection between the two stories, creating a poignant, searching tale.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Perfect touches on class, mental illness, and the ways a psyche is formed or broken. It has the tenor of a horror film, and yet at the end, in some kind of contortionist trick, the narrative unfolds into an unexpected burst of redemption. [Verdict:] Buy It.”—New York “Joyce’s dark, quiet follow-up to her successful debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, could easily become a book club favorite. . . . Perfect is the kind of book that blossoms under thoughtful examination, its slow tendencies redeemed by moments of loveliness and insight. However sad, Joyce’s messages—about the limitations of time and control, the failures of adults and the fears of children, and our responsibility for our own imprisonment and freedom—have a gentle ring of truth to them.”—The Washington Post “There is a poignancy to Joyce’s narrative that makes for her most memorable writing.”—NPR’s All Things Considered
Download or read book The Sun Also Rises written by Ernest Hemingway and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book We Have Always Lived in the Castle written by Shirley Jackson and published by Lightyear Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Merricat Blackwood protects her sister, Constance, from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers after murders occur on the family estate.
