Download or read book Noontide Toll written by Romesh Gunesekera and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2010-11-09 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In postwar Sri Lanka, a hired driver observes his passengers—tourists, soldiers, businessmen, and others—in these linked stories by a “master storyteller” (The New York Times). Vasantha retired early, bought himself a van, and now works as a driver for hire. As he drives through Sri Lanka, carrying aid workers, entrepreneurs, and visiting families; meeting lonely soldiers and eager hoteliers, he engages them with self-deprecating wit and folksy wisdom—while revealing to us their uncertain lives with piercing insight. On his journey from the army camps in northern Jaffna to the moonlit ramparts of Galle, in the south, Vasantha slowly discovers the depth of his country’s troubles—as well as his own—while catching a glimmer of the promise the future might hold. From the Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Reef comes a collection of “gracefully crafted road stories” that draws a potent portrait of postwar Sri Lanka and the ghosts of civil war (TheGuardian). Praise for Romesh Gunesekera “Monkfish Moon strikes the reader like a hammer blow. . . . Gunesekera’s subtly erotic prose animates Sri Lanka’s natural luxuriance, veined with menace.” —Voice Literary Supplement

Download or read book The Sandglass written by Romesh Gunesekera and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 1999 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From The Author Of Reef, Shortlisted For The Booker Prize, Comes A Stunning New Novel And A Masterpiece Of Storytelling. Profoundly Moving And Often Sharply Funny, The Sandglass Unravels The Many Stories Of Transformation, Disappearance And Loss That Haunt The Ducal Family From The Moment Pearl S Husband Purchases His Dream-House-Arcadia-Which Lies At The Centre Of Both The Vatunas Estate And A Bitter Feud. It Follows Pearl S Courageous Flight From Her Homeland And Traces The Consequences Of Her Children S Efforts To Find Their Own Dreamlands In England, America And Modern-Day Sri Lanka. The Sandglass Is An Intricate Novel Of Love And Longing That Transforms The World We Know Into One We Wish To Know More About; A World In Which Hope Has To Survive The Darkest Truths.

Download or read book The Prisoner of Paradise written by Romesh Gunesekera and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-02-02 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucy Gladwell arrives in Mauritius from England to live with her aunt and uncle at their grand plantation house. Under the surface of this beautiful island paradise, poised between India and Africa, there is unease, and Lucy cannot help but feel discomfited by the restrictions she sees around her, and by the strangely attractive Don Lambodar, a young translator from Ceylon. It is 1825: the age of slavery is coming to its messy end, and word is lapping against the shores of the island of a charismatic new Indian leader who will shine the light of liberty. For Lucy, for Don, for everyone on the island, a devastating storm is coming...

Download or read book The Match written by Romesh Gunesekera and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a teenager from Sri Lanka, Sunny is living the typical life of an expatriate in 1970s Manila—a privileged, carefree existence—until one day when the secret behind his mother's tragic death years earlier is accidentally revealed to him, turning Sunny's world upside down. His life takes a series of unexpected turns—first in England, where he falls in love with the luminous Clara, and later in Sri Lanka, where he returns during a brief lull in the country's brutal ethnic war. Reminiscent of V.S. Naipaul in his nuanced treatment of the melancholy of exile, Gunesekera takes the reader on an utterly absorbing journey across the late twentieth-century postcolonial world. Spanning three continents and thirty years, The Match is a "beautiful and atmospheric" (Irish Times) exploration of the nature of loss and displacement, the search for identity and love, and the possibility, in the end, of redemption and renewal.

Download or read book Suncatcher written by Romesh Gunesekera and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The internationally celebrated (and Booker Prize–shortlisted) author returns with a dazzling coming-of-age story set in post-independence Sri Lanka "A master storyteller." —The New York Times Ceylon is on the brink of change. But young Kairo is at loose ends. School is closed, the government is in disarray, the press is under threat, and the religious right are flexing their muscles. Kairo's hardworking mother blows off steam at her cha-cha-cha classes; his Trotskyist father grumbles over the state of the nation between his secret bets on horse races in faraway England. All Kairo wants to do is hide in his room and flick through secondhand westerns and superhero comics, or escape on his bicycle and daydream. Then he meets the magnetic teenage Jay, and his whole world is turned inside out. A budding naturalist and a born rebel, Jay keeps fish and traps birds for an aviary he is building in the garden of his grand home. As Jay guides Kairo from the realm of make-believe into one of hunting guns and fast cars and introduces him to a girl— Niromi—Kairo begins to understand the price of privilege and embarks on a journey of devastating consequence. Taut and luminous, graceful and wild, Suncatcher is a poignant coming-of-age novel about difficult friendships and sudden awakenings set among the tumult of 1960s Sri Lanka, that confirms Gunesekera's status as one of today's most lyrical writers.

Download or read book Reef written by Romesh Gunesekera and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 1996-02-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "incandescent" (New York Times Book Review) coming-of-age-story and debut novel by the acclaimed Booker Prize finalist Romesh Gunesekera Triton loved living in Mister Salgado's house. It was the biggest house he had ever seen--filled with floors to sweep and silver to polish and meals to cook and adults to impress and a brilliant master whose voice was poetry. And people from all over the world came to the house-- to sell their wares, to talk, to live, for this was where life took place. Even the sun would rise from the garage and sleep behind the del tree at night. And in the house, life was good. But beyond Mister Salgado's house and their Sri Lankan village there was a world. And all around them, it was falling apart...

Download or read book Ravel written by Jean Echenoz and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2011-05-31 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ravel is a beguiling and original evocation of the last ten years in the life of the musical genius Ravel, written by novelist Jean Echenoz. The book opens in 1928 as Maurice Ravel—dandy, eccentric, curmudgeon—crosses the Atlantic abroad the luxury liner the SS France to begin his triumphant grand tour of the United States. A “master magician of the French novel” (The Washington Post), Echenoz captures the folly of the era as well as its genius, including Ravel’s personal life—sartorially and socially splendid—as well as his most successful compositions from 1927 to 1937. Illuminated by flashes of Echenoz’s characteristically sly humor, Ravel is a delightfully quirky portrait of a famous musician coping with the ups and downs of his illustrious career. It is also a beautifully written novel that’s a deeply touching farewell to a dignified and lonely man going reluctantly into the night.

Download or read book This Divided Island written by Samanth Subramanian and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samanth Subramanian has written about politics, culture, and history for the New York Times and the New Yorker. Now, Subramanian takes on a complex topic that touched millions of lives in This Divided Island. In the summer of 2009, the leader of the dreaded Tamil Tiger guerrillas was killed, bringing to an end the civil war in Sri Lanka. For nearly thirty years, the war's fingers had reached everywhere, leaving few places, and fewer people, untouched. What happens to the texture of life in a country that endures such bitter conflict? What happens to the country's soul? Subramanian gives us an extraordinary account of the Sri Lankan war and the lives it changed. Taking us to the ghosts of summers past, he tells the story of Sri Lanka today. Through travels and conversations, he examines how people reconcile themselves to violence, how the powerful become cruel, and how victory can be put to the task of reshaping memory and burying histories.

Download or read book Heaven s Edge written by Romesh Gunesekera and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marc, in search of a dream, leaves London and sets out for the island where his grandfather was born and where his father's plane was shot down in flames. It is an island once said to be near the edge of heaven, but now ravaged and despoiled by war. There by a glittering lake he sees the subversive Uva, an eco-warrior releasing emerald doves. Finding her launches him into a world of passion and difficult choices. But their affair is cut short when she disappears. Desperate to find her, Marc embarks on a final terrifying journey that will test all his beliefs as he confronts violence in a quest for love.

Download or read book The Last Friend written by Tahar Ben Jelloun and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-01-30 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned for his compeling , humane portraits of everyday Arab lives, Tahar Ben Jelloun has affirmed his place in the literary world by winning such awards as the Prix Goncourt and Prix Maghreb. In The Last Friend, Ben Jelloun presents a spellbinding coming-of-age story and a dazzling portrait of Morocco in an era of repression and disillusionment. In Tangiers in the late 1950s, two teenagers, Mamed and Ali, strike up an intense friendship that will last a lifetime. But lurking just beneath the surface is a deep, unspoken jealousy in danger of destroying them both.

Download or read book Jeeves and the Wedding Bells written by Sebastian Faulks and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new Jeeves and Wooster novel"--Jacket.

Download or read book Wisha Wozzariter written by Payal Kapadia and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-05-24 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘I wish I was a writer,’ sighed Wisha. ‘Well, you are Wisha Wozzariter,’ said the Bookworm. ‘So I am! But I don’t quite know where to begin.’ ‘At the beginning, of course,’ said the Bookworm, rolling his eyes. Ten-year-old Wisha wishes to be a writer. When she meets Bookworm, she stops wishing and starts writing. With him, she rides on the Thought Express to the Marketplace of Ideas, the Superhero Salon and the Bargain Bazaar, and encounters a motley crew of characters. Along the way, she discovers the creative process by which anything beautiful and lasting is created, a process in which Faith, Luck and Destiny play no mean part. Roger Dahl’s zany illustrations bring Wisha’s imaginative world to life. Join Wisha on this rollicking writer’s adventure and find out how she finally fulfils her dream of becoming a writer!

Download or read book One Step Behind written by Henning Mankell and published by New Press/ORIM. This book was released on 2002-02-01 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sweden’s most tenacious detective races to unlock the twisted logic behind a madman’s crimes: “Lyrical, meticulous, and stunningly suspenseful” (St. Petersburg Times). On Midsummer’s Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the beautifully clear twilight, they don eighteenth-century costumes and begin a secret role-play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses. And his plans have only just begun to take shape. Meanwhile, Inspector Kurt Wallander is just back from vacation. Constantly fatigued, he soon learns his health is at risk—but there’s no time for rest when a fellow officer is murdered. Wallander soon discovers that the two grisly crimes are connected. A serial killer is on the loose, and the only lead is a photograph of a strange woman no one in Sweden seems to know. Forced to dig into the personal life of a trusted colleague, Wallander steps into a nightmare worse than any he could have imagined. Can he find his way out of the darkness before it’s too late? A pulse-pounding thriller and an incisive investigation into the mysteries of human nature, One Step Behind is “typical of the dense, intricate intelligence that Mankell brings to detection and crime writing” (The Washington Post Book World).

Download or read book Abb Mouret s Transgression written by Émile Zola and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book After All This Time written by Nikita Singh and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if you find out it's the end of the road for you? Lavanya gets the shock of her life when she discovers that she's HIV positive. The revelation shakes her out of the monotony that her life has become. It's time for a change. She finally dumps her loser boyfriend, quits her high-paying but extremely demanding job and goes back home to meet her family after nearly seven years. At home she finds a bucket list and she knows it's a sign of what she needs to do. With her is an old neighbour and friend who's just broken off with his girlfriend. Sparks begin to fly! However, what she learns is that you need to really live before you begin to love!

Download or read book The Fleet at Flood Tide written by James D. Hornfischer and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The extraordinary story of the World War II air, land, and sea campaign that brought the U.S. Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower Winner, Commodore John Barry Book Award, Navy League of the United States • Winner, John Lehman Distinguished Naval Historian Award, Naval Order of the United States With its thunderous assault on the Mariana Islands in June 1944, the United States crossed the threshold of total war. In this tour de force of dramatic storytelling, distilled from extensive research in newly discovered primary sources, James D. Hornfischer brings to life the campaign that was the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender—and that forever changed the art of modern war. With a close focus on high commanders, front-line combatants, and ordinary people, American and Japanese alike, Hornfischer tells the story of the climactic end of the Pacific War as has never been done before. Here are the epic seaborne invasions of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam, the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, the first large-scale use of Navy underwater demolition teams, the largest banzai attack of the war, and the daring combat operations large and small that made possible the strategic bombing offensive culminating in the atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a stirring, authoritative, and cinematic portrayal of World War II’s world-changing finale. Illustrated with original maps and more than 120 dramatic photographs “Quite simply, popular and scholarly military history at its best.”—Victor Davis Hanson, author of Carnage and Culture “The dean of World War II naval history . . . In his capable hands, the story races along like an intense thriller. . . . Narrative nonfiction at its finest—a book simply not to be missed.”—James M. Scott, Charleston Post and Courier “An impressively lucid account . . . admirable, fascinating.”—The Wall Street Journal “An extraordinary memorial to the courageous—and a cautionary note to a world that remains unstable and turbulent today.”—Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, author of Sea Power “A masterful, fresh account . . . ably expands on the prior offerings of such classic naval historians as Samuel Eliot Morison.”—The Dallas Morning News

Download or read book Ashoka written by Charles L. Allen and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2012-09-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through his third century BCE quest to govern the Indian subcontinent by moral force alone, Ashoka transformed Buddhism from a minor sect into a major world religion. His bold experiment ended in tragedy, and in the tumult that followed the historical record was cleansed so effectively that his name was largely forgotten for almost two thousand years. Yet, a few mysterious stone monuments and inscriptions miraculously survived the purge. In Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor, historian Charles Allen tells the incredible story of how a few enterprising archaeologists deciphered the mysterious lettering on keystones and recovered India's ancient past. Drawing from rich sources, Allen crafts a clearer picture of this enigmatic figure than ever before.