Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

• 

  Queen of the Sun Coast

  Gaurav Garg

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.   
  Born in the crushing poverty of Valparaíso, Isabella "La Víbora" Velasco clawed her way to the bloody pinnacle of the international cocaine trade. From the violent streets of Nueva Esperanza to the sun-drenched, bullet-riddled avenues of Costa del Sol, she built an empire on innovation, ruthlessness, and a mountain of corpses. They called her La Madrina, the Godmother, a woman who commanded loyalty through fear and eliminated rivals with chilling precision, pioneering terrifying tactics like the motorcycle assassin and the infamous "Sol Marina Mall Mayhem." 
  But as her power grew, so did her paranoia, her cruelty touching even her own family, turning her sons into reluctant heirs of a cursed dynasty. Hunted by Colombian cartels, pursued by relentless US federal agents like Frank Miller, and betrayed from within, Isabella's reign of terror could not last forever. "Queen of the Sun Coast" is a shocking, fictionalized saga of ambition, power, and the devastating price of a life steeped in violence, inspired by one of history's most notorious female crime lords.

  Mostra libro

• 

  A Revolver to Carry at Night - A...

  Monika Zgustova

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A captivating, nuanced portrait of the life of Véra Nabokov, who dedicated herself to advancing her husband's writing career, playing a vital role in the creation of his greatest works. 
   
   
   
  Véra Nabokov (1902-1991) was in many ways the epitome of the wife of a great man: keenly aware of her husband's extraordinary talent, she decided to make his success her ultimate goal, throughout fifty-two years of marriage until his death in 1977. The first reader of his texts, Véra worked as typist and editor. She organized their lives in exile, as they traveled to Berlin, Paris, Switzerland, and, most importantly, the US, where she convinced Vladimir to focus on writing novels in English. She not only controlled the family's finances and contract negotiations, but also attempted to control his friendships—particularly with women—going so far as to audit his classes. 
   
   
   
  In this rich, sweeping novel, Monika Zgustova immerses us in the daily life of this remarkable couple, offering insights into their complex personal and professional relationships, as well as the real people behind characters such as Lolita. Véra considered herself an independent woman, but was she really, when her husband took up so much space? And without Véra, could Nabokov have become one of the twentieth century's greatest writers?

  Mostra libro

• 

  Killing Gilda

  Yahya Gharagozlou

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A beautiful nineteen-year-old named Gilda becomes the mistress of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. She dreams of becoming his wife. The narrator, in love with Gilda, follows clues about her death two years after the affair. 
  During an assassination attempt on the Shah, he gets shot on the steps of the Marble Palace. As he puts it, "I took a bullet for my king up the ass and got a jester's seat, the best seat, to watch the fall of the Persian Empire." 
  Killing Gilda is infused with intrigue, but at its heart, it's a love story that follows the best traditions of classics like The Beauty and the Beast. We enter the rarified atmosphere of the court, the young woman's life, and the reasons for her death. We follow the characters through the Paris of Madame Claude, the Shah's ski resort at St. Moritz, and Doctor Pitanguy's plastic surgery clinic in Baden Baden. 
  The story, with its scheming characters and rare glimpses into Shah's private life, eschews easy labels. The Shah's sexual adventurism didn't stop his liberal policies for women's rights.

  Mostra libro

• 

  Maybe Esther - A Family Story

  Anonimo

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An inventive, unique, and extraordinarily moving literary debut that pieces together the fascinating story of one woman’s family across twentieth-century Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Germany. 
  Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree, charting relatives who had scattered across multiple countries and continents. Her idea blossomed into this striking and highly original work of narrative nonfiction, an account of her search for meaning within the stories of her ancestors. 
  In a series of short meditations, Petrowskaja delves into family legends, introducing a remarkable cast of characters: Judas Stern, her great-uncle, who shot a German diplomatic attaché in 1932 and was sentenced to death; her grandfather Semyon, who went underground with a new name during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, forever splitting their branch of the family from the rest; her grandmother Rosa, who ran an orphanage in the Urals for deaf-mute Jewish children; her Ukrainian grandfather Vasily, who disappeared during World War II and reappeared without explanation forty-one years later—and settled back into the family as if he’d never been gone; and her great-grandmother, whose name may have been Esther, who alone remained in Kiev and was killed by the Nazis. 
  How do you talk about what you can’t know, how do you bring the past to life? To answer this complex question, Petrowskaja visits the scenes of these events, reflecting on a fragmented and traumatized century and bringing to light family figures who threaten to drift into obscurity. A true search for the past reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated, Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost, and Michael Chabon’s Moonglow, Maybe Esther is a poignant, haunting investigation of the effects of history on one family.

  Mostra libro

• 

  The Dartington Bride

  Rosemary Griggs

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  1571, and the beautiful, headstrong daughter of a French Count marries the son of the Vice Admiral of the Fleet of the West in Queen Elizabeth's chapel at Greenwich. It sounds like a marriage made in heaven…
  Roberda's father, the Count of Montgomery, is a prominent Huguenot leader in the French Wars of Religion. When her formidable mother follows him into battle, she takes all her children with her.
  After a traumatic childhood in war-torn France, Roberda arrives in England full of hope for her wedding. But her ambitious bridegroom, Gawen, has little interest in taking a wife.
  Received with suspicion by the servants at her new home, Dartington Hall in Devon, Roberda works hard to prove herself as mistress of the household and to be a good wife. But there are some who will never accept her as a true daughter of Devon.
  After the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Gawen's father welcomes Roberda's family to Dartington as refugees. Compassionate Roberda is determined to help other French women left destitute by the wars. But her husband does not approve. Their differences will set them on an extraordinary path…

  Mostra libro

• 

  Far Creek Road - A Novel

  Lesley Krueger

  • 0
  • 2
  • 0

  “With the charming and very funny Tink, Krueger has created an unforgettable character whose innocent curiosity busts through the societal conventions of early 1960s Canada. This is a masterful depiction of an atmosphere tense with fear and fuelled by grownup transgressions, where adult morality is contaminated by politics that tear communities apart.” — Sheila Murray, author of Finding Edward
  		 
  It’s 1961, and Mary Alice (Tink) Parker lives with her parents in a Vancouver suburb where many fathers are traumatized veterans of the Second World War and almost all the mothers are housewives. They believe they’ve earned secure and prosperous lives after the sacrifices they made during the war. But under the conformist veneer seethe conflicts and secrets that make the serenity of Grouse Valley precarious.
  		 
  This is the story of the unravelling of a neighbourhood. It’s told by Tink, an eccentric child who is funny, observant, and impossibly nosy, who has an unnerving tendency to blurt whatever’s on her mind. Bucolic at first, the story darkens as McCarthy-era paranoia infects the adults and spills over into the lives of the children. The parents of Tink’s best friend Norman are schoolteachers with leftist beliefs. When the Cuban Missile Crisis threatens, Norman’s parents face a witch hunt while the boy becomes a target of bullies. Tink does her best to defend Norman. But as she looks for help, she stumbles on a web of secrets that triggers events beyond anyone’s control. Gripping and perceptive, the novel portrays a divided era with eerie similarities to our own.

  Mostra libro