Other books that might interest you

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  Once We Sang Like Other Men

  John MacKenna

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  'I'm not an impulsive person. Twice in my life I've done impulsive things. The first time was when I packed a bag, walked out on my wife and kids, left my job and hit the road to follow the Captain. Goodbye was all she wrote.' These wide-ranging stories follow the disparate disciples of the Captain – a mysterious, powerful and magnetic figure whose violent and chaotic death at the hands of the army radically alters their lives in myriad ways. From rural North American farms and dive bars to the suburbs of Ireland and the sands of Palestine, we witness their struggles to find a place, a peace, in a world that is fractured and incomplete. Once We Sang Like Other Men is a surprising, mysterious, lyrical and affecting collection with a stunning range of voice from a recognised master of the form.

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  A Strange Story - Turgenev...

  Ivan Turgenev

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  Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born on 9th November 1818 in Oryol, Russia to parents from the nobility.  He and his two brothers were raised by their mother on the family estate.  Surrounded by foreign governesses he became fluent in French, German, and English.  Their father spent little time with them and this undoubtedly had an effect on him and his brothers.  When he was nine the family moved to Moscow to give their children a better education. 
   
  Turgenev studied for a year at the University of Moscow and then at the University of St Petersburg to study Classics, Russian literature, and philology.  During that time his father died from kidney stone disease.  In 1838 Turgenev studied philosophy and history at the University of Berlin for 3 years before returning to St Petersburg for his master's. 
   
  He started his career with the Russian Civil Service and it was only in 1852, after several earlier publications, that he made his name with his short story collection, ‘A Sportsman's Sketches’, based on his observations of peasant life and nature. 
    
  That same year he wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogol: "Gogol is dead!... What Russian heart is not shaken by those three words?... He is gone, that man whom we now have the right (the bitter right, given to us by death) to call great."  The St Petersburg censor banned publication but the Moscow censor allowed it.  He was dismissed but Turgenev was held responsible and imprisoned for a month, and then exiled to his country estate.  
   
  Along with many other intellectuals Turgenev left Russia and settled in Paris in 1854.  During this period he wrote his finest stories and four novels.  
   
  Alexander II ascended the Russian throne in 1855, and the political climate relaxed.  Turgenev returned home.  
   
  ‘Fathers and Sons’, Turgenev's most famous and enduring novel, appeared in 1862. Its leading character is considered the first ‘Bolshevik’ in Russian literature. But the hostile reaction prompted Turgenev's decision to again leave Russia.  
   
  His health declined during his later years.  In January 1883, an aggressive malignant tumor was removed but by then it had metastasized in his upper spinal cord, causing him intense pain in his final few months of life.  
   
  Ivan Turgenev died on 3rd September 1883 of a spinal abscess, a complication of the metastatic liposarcoma, in his house near Paris.  He was buried in St Petersburg.  
   
  In this tale a young girl, Sophia, endures difficult circumstances before several years later becoming the companion of a devout, but pitifully poor, vagrant holy man wandering the countryside.

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  The White Mouse - The Chronicles...

  JT Lawrence

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  In this dystopian tragedy, life has a way of surprising Jana with gifts as much as it does taking them away. 
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  This is the second standalone story in the dystopian series "The Chronicles of Akeratu".  
  No matter how bleak and violent the future looks, humanity still has a way of shining through. 
  Click now to start listening.

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  Art is Life and Life is Gritty -...

  Karif Battle

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  From the dark and light side of my moon, I bring you tales of the ineffable. And some mo stuff.

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  Yellow Book The - Vol 1

  Henry James, Henry Harland, Ella...

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  During the Victorian era the publishing of magazines and periodicals accelerated at a phenomenal rate.  This really was mass market publishing to a hungry audience eager for literary sustenance.  Many of our greatest authors contributed and expanded their reach whilst many fledging authors also found a ready source for their nascent works and careers. 
   
  Amongst the very many was ‘The Yellow Book’.  Although titled as ‘An Illustrated Quarterly’ it was sold as a cloth-bound hardback and within were short stories, essays, poetry, illustrations and portraits.  It was edited by the American author Henry Harland, who also contributed, and its art editor was no less that the formidable Aubrey Beardsley, the enfant terrible of illustration. 
   
  Its yellow cover and name gave it an association with the risqué and erotic yellow covered works published in France.  It was a visual shorthand for ideas that would push many boundaries of Society to more open interpretations. Being complete in each volume and slightly aloof it stayed away from serialised fiction and advertisements.   
   
  Within each lavishly illustrated edition were literary offerings that included works by such luminaries as Henry James, H G Wells, W B Yeats, Edith Nesbit, George Gissing and many others from the ascetic and decadent movements of the time.   
   
  The other notable inclusion was women both as contributors and amongst its editing staff, which was at odds with the then patriarchal gender norms.   
   
  Although it only survived for 13 issues its reach and influence were second to none.   > 
  1 - The Yellow Book - An Introduction. Volume 1 
  2 - The Death of the Lion by Henry James 
  3 - Irremediable by Ella D'Arcy 
  4 - A Lost Masterpiece by George Egerton 
  5 - Modern Melodrama by Hugo Crackanthorpe 
  6 - The Gospel of Content by Frederick Greenwood 
  7 - A Responsibility by Henry Harland

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  Void Vast Infinite

  Lawrence Winkler

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  A young boy wakes up on a Goldilocks planet, somewhere far out there. He wonders about the Silver River Galaxy and why he has no memory of his father. A locked room in the school basement will lead him to the meaning of life—through a mainframe computer and a mysterious ship on the cold border of the habitable zone. 
  Void Vast Infinite is a short story of a long journey. If you see far, you will go far.

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