Human Love - A Novel

Andrei Makine

Summary

“A haunting, often very tender story written in a kind of meditative fury . . . Makine has written one of the best novels about Africa in a long time” (The Guardian). Love for another person. Love for humanity as a whole. Are the two compatible or mutually exclusive? In his most ambitious novel since Dreams of My Russian Summers, Andreï Makine takes us into the heart of Africa. His hero is Elias Almeida, a black revolutionary whose father was killed when Elias was still a child, and whose mother, to feed him, was forced to prostitute herself. Saved from death by a Catholic priest, Elias becomes a brilliant pupil destined for greatness. However, the memory of his parents turns him into an important cog in the worldwide revolutionary movement, sending him to Cuba and the Soviet Union to be trained for espionage and sabotage. He begins in his native Angola, still struggling to liberate itself from the colonial yoke, and moves to other political hot spots. But what happens when a black revolutionary dedicated to bettering the world falls in love with a white woman who wants only to live a peaceful, simple life? “[A] powerful meditation on the price of ideology and the nature of love.” —The Daily Mail “Makine’s prose . . . injects a sense of beauty into even the most horrific descriptions of depravity . . . This, his tenth novel, is a movement toward hope.” —Foreword Reviews “Andreï Makine has witnessed history transform his country. His sombre, perceptive fiction reflects each ebb and flow; his quiet voice is unique. Even here, in one of his minor works, he again articulates the profundity of human experience—no small feat.” —The Irish Times

Available since: 10/31/2011.

Other books that might interest you

In Their Mother's Footsteps

Mary Wood

In Their Mother's Footsteps is a moving saga set at the eve of the Second World War, by the author of the Breckton series, Mary Wood.Two girls. One horrendous war. The chance to unite a family . . . 
Edith and Ada run Jimmy's Hope House where they care for unmarried mothers, and where Edith, a doctor, offers free medical help to the poor of London's East End. 
Both are struggling to overcome trauma from their past. For Edith there is the constant ache and yearning for her twin girls Elka and Ania, from whom she was separated in 1918. For Ada there is the threat of her sister returning . . . 
As the Nazis strengthen their grip on Poland, sisters Elka and Ania are forced to make a difficult decision: travel to England to find their birth mother or stay and fight against an increasingly desperate regime? 
In times of war, no choices are ever easy to make. But making the right choice could keep you alive . . .

Show book

Plowed Fields Book One - The...

Jim Barber

On a cold December day in 1960, Joe Baker finishes plowing the largest field on his family’s farm in South Georgia and acknowledges the well of restlessness running deep inside him. Joe appreciates the good life provided by his parents, but his heart yearns for something else. So begins "Plowed Fields," setting the stage for a conflict that will nag at Joe for the next decade as he tries to reconcile his own desire and ambition with loyalty and responsibility to his family. Book One in the Plowed Fields Trilogy begins with “The White Christmas,” introducing Joe and his family, along with a host of friends and acquaintances who will shape their fates during the next decade. The Baker family is anchored by patriarch Sam, whose pirate’s appearance disguises a gentle giant of goodness, and his son, Matt, who is capable of strength and force when necessary but unafraid of tenderness when the moment requires a softer touch. "Plowed Fields also features Lucas Bartholomew, a black farm worker, and Bobby Taylor, the spitting image of a civil rights-minded Yankees’ vision of a racist. Tensions erupt early between the Bakers and Taylors, sparked by a senseless act and fueled by Bobby’s campaigns for the sheriff’s job against Matt’s best friend, the aristocratic and troubled Paul Berrien. In “The Train,” Joe confronts racial prejudice in his school and community and feels the strain of taking an unpopular stand. A girl claims his heart and a heroic deed plants a seed of hate that will fester as the decade unfolds. Beautifully told, slow-burning and haunting, Plowed Fields is a mesmerizing saga of people coming together and falling apart, relying on God and losing faith, and pushing forward and fighting back in times of crisis.

Show book

Spanish Brothers

Deborah Alcock

The daughter of a minister, Deborah Alcock wrote novels on a Christian theme. The Spanish Brothers is set in the sixteenth century and deals with Protestant martyrdom during the Spanish Inquisition. Follow the fortunes of brothers Juan and Carlos as they face the trials and pressures of remaining true to their faith despite hardship, imprisonment, torture and even the agonizing deaths of those dear to them. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Show book

The Mannequin Makers - A Novel

Craig Cliff

In early twentieth-century New Zealand, a grieving man embarks on a bizarre project: “A story about obsession gone horribly wrong . . . spellbinding and original.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) 
 
Excitement is rare in the small town of Marumaru, New Zealand. So when a young Maori man arrives on the morning train one day in 1903—announcing the imminent visit of a famous strongman—the entire town turns out to greet him, save one. Colton Kemp, a department store window-dresser, is at home, watching his beloved wife die in premature childbirth. Tormented by grief, he hatches a plan to make his name and thwart his professional rival, the silent and gifted Carpenter: over the next sixteen years he will raise his newborn twins in secrecy and isolation, to become human mannequins in the world’s most lifelike window display. 
 
“At once fantastical and deeply human. Reminiscent of the likes of Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda or Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, there is something delightfully off-kilter, imaginative and original in Cliff’s storytelling . . . a superb novel of parental obsession, the lure of the unattainable and the tragedy inherent within human nature.” —The Hoopla 
 
“A book that makes grand promises and delivers.” —The New York Times

Show book

A Slave of the Shadows

Naomi Finley

In 1850 Charleston, South Carolina, brutality and cruelty simmer just under the genteel surface of Southern society. Beautiful and headstrong Willow Hendricks lives in an era where ladies are considered nothing more than property.  
Her father rules her life, filling it with turmoil, secrets, and lies. She finds a kindred spirit in spunky, outspoken Whitney Barry, a northerner from Boston. Together these Charleston belles are driven to take control of their own lives as they are plunged into fear and chaos on their quest to fight for the rights of slaves. Against all odds, these feisty women fight to secure freedom and equality for those made powerless and persecuted by a supposedly superior race. 
Only when they’ve lost it all do they find a new beginning. 
Book 1 presents Willow and Whitney—and the reader—with the hardships the slaves endure at the hands of their white masters.

Show book

Kenilworth

Sir Walter Scott

An Elizabethan era historical novel by Scotland's master of fiction, Sir Walter Scott. With a cast of historical and created characters, including the Queen herself, Scott presents the sad history and tragic consequences of the secretive marriage of young Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leicester. (Summary by SK)

Show book