Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Flodden - Tudor Warrior Book 3

  Griff Hosker

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  The exciting third instalment of Griff Hosker's incredible Tudor Warrior series! 
   
  James of Ecclestone is now a rich man, a family man and a respected landowner. Once the spy of two kings, his life is peaceful. When a Scottish raid touches his family he is forced to draw a sword and go to war once more and when the Scottish king opts for belligerency and threatens war then James has to don a cloak, take his dagger and become a spy once more. Retelling the greatest defeat in Scottish history, Flodden narrates the battle from the viewpoint, not of the great and the good but the billmen who won the victory against all odds.

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  The Bird Tattoo

  Dunya Mikhail

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  Helen is a young Yazidi woman, living with her family in a mountain village in Sinjar, northern Iraq. One day she finds a local bird caught in a trap and frees it, just as the trapper, Elias, returns. At first angry, he soon sees the error of his ways and vows never to keep a bird captive again. Helen and Elias fall deeply in love, marry and start a family in Sinjar. The village has seemed to stand apart from time, protected by the mountains and too small to attract much political notice. But their happy existence is suddenly shattered when Elias, a journalist, goes missing. A brutal organization is sweeping over the land, infiltrating even the remotest corners, its members cloaking their violence in religious devotion. Helen’s search for her husband results in her own captivity and enslavement. She eventually escapes her captors and is reunited with some of her family, but her life is forever changed. Elias remains missing and her sons, now young recruits to the organization, are like strangers. Will she find harmony and happiness again? For fans of Elif Shafak, Samar Yazbek's Planet of Clay, and Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad, Dunya Mikhail's The Bird Tattoo chronicles a story full of great upheaval, love and loss, and beauty and horror that was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

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  The French Baker's War

  Michael Whatling

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  Absence isn't a hole. It's a presence living inside you, eating its way out. 
   
   
   
  Occupied France, 1943. Returning home from the daily hunt for the rationed ingredients necessary to keep his family pâtisserie open, André Albert finds his four year old son in the street, his wife gone, and a Jewish escapee cowering behind the display case. 
   
   
   
  Without Mireille, the foundation of André's world crumbles. He desperately searches for her, but finds more trouble than answers. Lives are further jeopardized when he agrees to hide Émilie, the escapee, and a Nazi officer shows up to investigate Mireille's disappearance. 
   
   
   
  André will do anything to bring his wife home, catapulting him, their son, and Émilie on a perilous journey impeded by temptation, past trauma, and stunning revelations. 
   
   
   
  The French Baker's War is as relevant today for its themes of duty to strangers and sacrifice for family. 
   
   
   
  Recommended for those who enjoyed The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Book Thief, and The Nightingale.

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  King Coal

  Upton Sinclair

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  "King Coal" is a novel written by Upton Sinclair, first published in 1917. The book explores the harsh conditions and exploitation faced by coal miners in the United States during the early 20th century. Sinclair, known for his social and political activism, used "King Coal" to expose the oppressive working conditions, corporate greed, and corruption within the coal industry. The novel follows the protagonist, Hal Warner, a wealthy young man who decides to experience life as a coal miner. As he immerses himself in the harsh realities of coal mining, he witnesses the struggles of the working class and becomes an advocate for workers' rights. The story delves into themes of social justice, labor exploitation, and the impact of industrialization on the lives of ordinary people.

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  Luigi Pirandello - A Short Story...

  Luigi Pirandello

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  Luigi Pirandello was born on 28th June 1867 into an upper-class family in Agrigento, in Sicily. 
   
  In 1880, the family moved to Palermo and there he completed high school and thence to the University of Palermo, at that time the centre of what became the Fasci Siciliani movement.  Although not an active member he had close friendships with many of its leading ideologists.  Pirandello then completed his university studies in Rome and Bonn, receiving his Doctorate in March, 1891. 
   
  His time in Rome had provided him with the opportunity to visit its many theatres. "Oh the dramatic theatre! I will conquer it. I cannot enter into one without experiencing a strange sensation, an excitement of the blood through all my veins..." 
   
  1894 brought marriage, at his father's suggestion, to a shy, withdrawn girl: Mara Antonietta Portulano.  The marriage encouraged his studies and writings and, the following year, the first part of the ‘Dialoghi tra Il Gran Me e Il Piccolo Me’ was published. 
   
  In 1903 the flooding of the sulphur mines in which his father had invested the family capital and Antonietta's dowry, brought financial catastrophe.  She, on hearing the news, was mentally broken.  Pirandello would now work a full day and then watch over his troubled wife at night. Somehow he found time to write ‘The Late Mattia Pascal’.  It was an immediate and resounding success.  
   
  In 1909, Pirandello began his collaboration with the prestigious Corriere della Sera.  Whilst his fame as a writer was increasing his private life was poisoned by the suspicion and jealousy of Antonietta who now turned physically violent.  His plays were now being regularly performed but, within a decade, Antonietta had to be placed into an asylum from which she never left. 
   
  In 1921, in Rome his play, ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’ debuted.  It was a failure.  However, when presented in Milan it was a great success, as it also was in London and New York. 
   
  In 1925, Pirandello, with Mussolini’s help, assumed the artistic direction and ownership of the Teatro d'Arte di Roma.  He now described himself both as ‘a Fascist because I am Italian’ and ‘I'm apolitical, I'm only a man in the world...’  However his later conflicts with fascist leaders meant he fell under close surveillance by the OVRA, the secret police. 
   
  In 1934 he won the Nobel Prize but asked that the medal be melted down for Italy’s occupation of Abyssinia Campaign to which he had given his support.  
   
  Pirandello's canon stretches across novels, short stories, poetry, essays and some 40 plays.  His tragic farces are often cited as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. 
   
  Luigi Pirandello died on the 10th December 1936 at his home at Via Bosio, Rome, Italy.  He was 69.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Henry James, Mark Twain, Booth...

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  A new century dawns, one in which America would become pre-eminent as its industrial might and military power rose above all others.  In literature too its authors tackled new forms and new ideas, they shied away from little, immersing themselves and their readers in the promise of a new Century.   
   
  1 - The Top 10 - The 1900's - The Americans - An Introduction 
  2 - The Great Good Place by Henry James 
  3 - Eve's Diary by Mark Twain 
  4 - To Build a Fire by Jack London 
  5 - Paul's Case by Willa Cather 
  6 - The Gift of the Magi by O Henry 
  7 - The Scapegoat by Paul Laurence Dunbar 
  8 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane 
  9 - The Defense of Strikerville by Damon Runyon 
  10 - The Screaming Skull by F Marion Crawford 
  11 - Ariel's Triumph by Booth Tarkington

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