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Rex
D H Lawrence
'Rex' is a riotous story of the turmoil caused in a household by the arrival of a puppy. The setting is similar to the one found in 'Sons and Lovers' but Lawrence thought this scene deserved the fuller treatment of a short story. The question of the destructive force of unconditional love is left open.
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Martin Eden
Jack London
Smitten with a beautiful and cultivated young woman, a bright but uncultured sailor determines to better himself intellectually and socially. Martin Eden turns his attention and energy from drinking and brawling to an aggressive pursuit of self-education through reading. Martin's determined striving leads to a resolve to become a writer himself, but his success comes at the price of disillusionment, leaving him stranded between his proletariat origins and the bourgeois world. Originally published in 1909, Jack London's semi-autobiographical novel reflects the painful struggles with learning that led to his eventual achievement of literary fame. Martin Eden addresses the author's internal conflict between his dream of a cooperative socialist utopia and his survival-of-the-fittest evolutionary views. Widely considered London's most mature work, the book abounds in memorable characters and settings as well as thought-provoking explorations of the nature of love, the importance of remaining true to personal aspirations rather than others' expectations, and the injustice of class divisions.
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This Other Salt
Aamer Hussein
Betrayal, bereavement, exile, belonging - these are the themes that resonate throughout This Other Salt. A writer, torn between two loves, looks for his lost words in the gaps between memory, mourning and desire in the title story; in 'The Lost Cantos of the Silken Tiger' a poet revenges herself on her faithless lover by turning their romance into a legend of biblical proportions; and a teenage boy's life uncannily begins to resemble the role he plays in a school operetta in 'The Blue Direction'. Combining satire, legend, poetry, history and memoir, the linked stories of This Other Salt reveal an author of uncommon talent at the height of his craft. 'Extraordinarily controlled, written in a tactile, musical prose, with a very individual sense of beauty.' -- Amit Chaudhuri 'Each story, remarkable in both expansiveness and precision, sings with heartbreak, intelligence and elegy. A stunning collection.' -- Kamila Shamsie 'Poetic perfection … Drawing on legend, history, memoir, literature and film, Hussein's stories are meant to be cupped in both hands and savoured slowly, like a cup of cardamom chai.' -- Guardian 'These stories are a treat for readers.' -- Newsline
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Words from a Glass Bubble
Vanessa Gebbie
This passionate new book gathers together for the first time many of Vanessa Gebbie's award-winning stories. Described by Maggie Gee as 'a prodigiously gifted new writer', this is a natural storyteller; her narratives unfold with a deceptively light touch, exploring with compassion what it is to be human and flawed. 'Words From a Glass Bubble' is about coming to terms with the cards we are dealt. The stories pivot around the recognition that those who seem powerless can prove to be the strongest catalysts for change, both in themselves and in others. Vanessa Gebbie never shies away from difficult subjects, creating an intensely emotional and at times distressing world, but it is never totally dark or despairing. Sparks of the unexpected and flashes of humour light the whole collection with an indefatigable optimism. This is a writer with a boundless imagination, who breathes life into the most unlikely characters and events. Batty Annie fishes for her son's soul in a disused railway tunnel. Tom's grandmother flies on a circus trapeze. Spike relates to cacti better than people. Eva Duffy befriends a statuette of the Virgin Mary. Pepito pretends he is a priest and suffers the consequences. Shelly has a colonic irrigation to rid herself of the past. Billy hears stones when he shakes his head. Dodie from The General Stores falls for a man who teaches her 'to think', and Mikey mourns his wife through graffiti. From Ireland to Czechoslovakia to Wales to Alaska to Ibiza, from contemporary New York to a clinic in the future, this collection will take you on a journey. And Harry? He just goes fishing.
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Lot No 249
Arthur Conan Doyle
Unexplained events are happening at Oxford these days. Several students have been attacked at night by some strange form of wild animal. It can scale walls with cat-like agility. Its arms are as thin and as strong as steel bands. And there is one student who conducts midnight studies in his room with certain Egyptian artifacts. The most significant of which is a 6'7" tall mummy.
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The Pistol-Shot
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 – 1837) was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. He was notoriously sensitive about his own personal honour and is believed to have fought as many as twenty-nine duels... the last of which proved fatal for him.A duel is the crux of his masterful short story "The Pistol-Shot" - but it is a duel with a difference. It starts out normally enough... an insult, a challenge, a meeting with pistols at dawn. But when the first shot misses, the insolent nonchalence of the first shooter (who goes on eating cherries while is adversary takes aim) prompts the other dueller to delay taking his shot until such a time as shall suit him. He is determined to pick a moment when death will be most unwelcome and inconvenient for his adversary. One day a letter arrives for him... and he knows that the moment has come.
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