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  Rabies - A tale of disease from...

  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

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  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez was born in Valencia, Spain on 29th January 1867.  
   
  At university, he studied law and graduated in 1888 but never felt the urgency to practice - he was more interested in politics, journalism, literature and women.   
   
  Politically he was a militant Republican partisan and, in his youth, founded a newspaper, El Pueblo (The People). The newspaper was taken to court many times and he made many enemies. In one incident he was shot and almost killed. In 1896, Ibáñez was arrested and sentenced to a few months in prison. 
   
  Despite this colourful background he found time to write novels. His first published work was ‘La Araña Negra’ (The Black Spider) in 1892, a work that he later repudiated although at the time it was a useful vehicle for him to express his anti-clerical views. 
   
  In 1894, he published ‘Arroz y Tartana’ (Airs and Graces), about a late 19th Century widow in Valencia trying to keep up appearances in order to marry her daughters well.   
   
  Ibáñez’s next sequence of books studied rural life in the farmlands of Valencia and failed to gain much of an audience.   
   
  His writing now took on a new direction with its now familiar sensational and melodramatic themes in 1908 with ‘Sangre y Arena’ (Blood and Sand), which follows the career of Juan Gallardo from his poor beginnings as a child in Seville, to his rise to becoming a famous matador in Madrid 
   
  However, his greatest success was ‘Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) in 1916, which tells a tangled tale of the French and German sons-in-law of an Argentinian land-owner who find themselves fighting on opposite sides in the First World War.  It was a literary and commercial sensation and became the best-selling book of 1919.  It also propelled Rudolph Valentino to stardom in the 1921 film. 
   
  Ironically his fame in the English-speaking world has come not as a novelist but as the stories behind some of Hollywood’s greatest silent movies. 
   
  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez died in Menton, France on January 28th, 1928, the day before his 61st birthday.

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  Spy Story

  Len Deighton

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  After six weeks in a nuclear submarine gathering computer data on Soviet activity, the mysterious, bespectacled spy known as Patrick Armstrong is desperate to return home. But when he arrives at his London flat, it appears to be occupied by someone who looks just like him—and he finds himself propelled into the heart of a conspiracy stretching from the remote Scottish highlands to the Arctic ice.

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  Newly Made a Gentleman

  Andrew Wareham

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  Winner of Amazon KDP Select All Stars 
   
   
   
  Nick Turnhouse knows how lucky he has been, and has little choice other than to ride the wave of his good fortune, regardless of where it may take him. He has made himself into Bloody Nick and must continue to take risks and hope to survive them if he is to make his fortune at sea. 
   
   
   
  His orders base him on Gibraltar, part of a small squadron commanded by a new rear admiral who comes to value him and acts as his patron. In between missions to Africa and Barcelona, Nick is introduced to the Assistant-Governor, the senior official on the Rock, and his grown-up daughter. At just under a fathom, she's tall and outstrips most men, but Nick stands a comfortable hand taller than six feet and makes her a most welcome partner in the dance. And then at other social occasions . . .

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  Sister Deborah

  Scholastique Mukasonga

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  In a four-part narrative brimming with historical asides, alluring anecdotes, and murky questions left in the margins of colonial records, Sister Deborah heralds "a life that is more alive" as it explores the tensions and myths of Rwanda's past. 
   
   
   
  When time-worn ancestral remedies fail to heal young Ikirezi's maladies, she's rushed to the Rwandan hillsides. From her termite perch under the coral tree, health blooms under Sister Deborah's hands. Women bear their breasts to the rising sun as men under thatched roofs stand, "stunned and impotent before this female fury." 
   
   
   
  Now grown, Ikirezi unearths the truth of Sister Deborah's passage from America to 1930s Rwanda and the mystery surrounding her sudden departure. In colonial records, Sister Deborah is a "pathogen," an "incident." Who is the keeper of truth, Ikirezi impels us to ask, Who stands at the threshold of memory? Did we dance? Did she heal? Did we look to the sky with wonder? Ikirezi writes on, pulling Sister Deborah out from the archive, inscribing her with breath. 
   
   
   
  A novel that works in the slippages of history, Sister Deborah at its core is a story of what happens when women—black women and girls—seek the truth by any means.

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  Rip Van Winkle

  Washington Irving

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  Step back in time to the era of the American Revolution with Washington Irving's classic tale, "Rip Van Winkle," brought to life by the engaging narration of Anthony Pica. This timeless story follows the adventures of Rip Van Winkle, a kind but idle man who escapes the troubles of his nagging wife by wandering into the mountains. There, he encounters mysterious figures who offer him a drink that leads to an extraordinary slumber. 
  Rip awakens twenty years later to find that everything has changed—the world he knew is gone, and the United States of America has emerged as a new nation. As he navigates this strange new world, Rip's story becomes a poignant reflection on change, time, and the enduring human spirit. 
  Anthony Pica’s captivating narration draws listeners into the enchanting world of Irving’s imagination, making this audiobook an immersive experience for all ages. Whether you're a fan of classic literature or discovering this story for the first time, "Rip Van Winkle" is an essential addition to your audiobook collection. 
  Perfect for those who love historical fiction, folklore, and tales of adventure, this audiobook offers a unique window into the past while exploring themes that resonate with modern listeners.

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  The Best of Enemies

  William W. Johnstone, J. A....

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  Introducing Trace and Chaw: a pugnacious pair of Civil War veterans who nearly killed each other in battle—but lived to fight another day. Together . . . 
   
   
   
  They met in a bloodbath. Two demons in uniform caught in the middle of one hell of a war. Private Chaw, the Rebel, liked chewing tobacco and fighting blue-bellied Yanks. Private Trace, the Yankee, hated Southerners, especially ornery cusses like Chaw. But when the smoke cleared after the Battle of Deadeye Gap, the Blue and the Gray of their uniforms didn't matter anymore. Both were stained blood red. And both were the last men standing . . . 
   
   
   
  This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 
   
   
   
  Now that the war's over, Trace and Chaw travel the West together. They're handy with six-guns and gut-shredders, fond of women and liquor, and always ready to raise hell. Somehow, the unlikely partnership works—until Trace and Chaw sign up with a freighting company run by a beautiful woman. Her company is caught in the crossfire of two rival mine owners who want to control the freight routes. Like it or not, Trace and Chaw are stuck in the middle of another war. And this one's going to be every bit as bloody—and maybe their last . . .

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