Tags:world literature
The Black Widow
#1 NYT Bestseller#1 USA Bestseller#1 WSJ BestsellerAn Amazon Editors' Best Book of the YearA Kirkus Best Fiction Book of the YearAn iBooks Book of the Month“Fascinating, suspenseful, and bated-breath exciting…. Silva proves once again that he can rework familiar genre material and bring it to new life.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review“Silva builds suspense like a symphony conductor.... A winner on all fronts.” — Booklist, starred reviewBestselling author Daniel Silva delivers another spellbinding international thriller—one that finds the legendary Gabriel Allon grappling with an ISIS mastermind.Gabriel Allon, the art restorer, spy, and assassin described as the most compelling fictional creation "since Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond" (Rocky Mountain News), is poised to become the chief of Israel’s secret intelligence service. But on the eve of his promotion, events conspire to lure him into the field for one final operation. ISIS has detonated a massive bomb in the Marais district of Paris, and a desperate French government wants Gabriel to eliminate the man responsible before he can strike again.Acclaimed novelist Daniel Silva has thrilled, entertained and educated readers with eighteen thoughtful and gripping spy novels featuring a diverse cast of compelling characters and ingenious plots that have taken them around the globe and back—from the United States to Europe, Russia to the Middle East. From its shocking opening to its explosive denouement in Washington, D.C., The Black Widow reveals itself as Silva’s most timely and powerful novel yet. Following the success of his smash hit The English Spy, this electrifying thriller showcases Silva’s consummate skill and brilliant imagination, and is sure to be a must read for his multitude of current and future fans.
Amazing Tales: Ling Mengchu
A Perennial Bestseller on Townsfolk Life Amazing Tales-First Series together with Amazing Tales-Second Series authored by Ling Mengchu (1580-1644), a famous writer of venacular stories, have topped the best-loved works of Chinese fiction in the past centuries. Stories from the collections are known to almost everyone in China. In close-knit plots, often punctuated with surprising denouements, and vivid colloquial language, these stories cover a wide range of subjects, from young men and women in love and family disputes to complicated legal cases. Now both books have been translated into English. In Amazing Tales-First Series 18 stories are selected from the original 40 to sing the praise of fidelity of love and all-weather friendship, expose the greed of some nefarious monks and nuns for sex and wealth, and urge the authorities to uphold justice in handling cases. While enjoying these fascinating tales, the reader can get a glimpse of the ethics, customs, and social life of seventeenth-century China.
The Rainfall Market
DISCOVER THE KOREAN BESTSELLER AND STEP INTO A MAGICAL WORLD WHERE ANYTHING IS POSSIBLEAn uplifting and healing gift of a book that asks would you trade your life for another one?'A warm and wondrous story [...] Gentle, affirming, and utterly transportive' Julie Long, author of The Teller of Small Fortunes----On the first day of the monsoon an old ramshackle building appears.This is The Rainfall Market. Inside you will find magical bookstores, hairdressers, perfumeries and anything your heart desires.But you cannot enter without an invitation.Serin, who lives in a small flat with her mother and dreams of a bigger, better life, can’t believe her luck when she receives a ticket inviting her to step inside The Rainfall Market.Once inside she will have the opportunity to swap her life for a new one.A better one.Accompanied by Isha the cat and followed by a mysterious shadow, Serin tentatively steps inside. There she is told she has just one week to choose the perfect life and find true happiness.However, there is a catch.If she doesn’t find her dream life, she'll be trapped inside the market forever . . .----Readers are loving The Rainfall Market‘Hooked in an instant’ 5 ***** Reader Review'The literary equivalent of wrapping yourself up in a warm blanket. I loved every minute of it’ 5 ***** Reader Review‘Cool story, cute characters’ 5 ***** Reader Review‘I loved this! It's lovely and sweet and has a wonderful message’ 5 ***** Reader Review
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
*PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*Toru Okada's cat has disappeared.His wife is growing more distant every day.Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving.As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.'Visionary...a bold and generous book' New York Times'Murakami weaves textured layers of reality into a shot-silk garment of deceptive beauty' Independent on Sunday'Deeply philosophical and teasingly perplexing, it is impossible to put down' Daily Telegraph'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times
The Strange Library
Fully illustrated and beautifully designed, this is a unique and wonderfully creepy tale that is sure to delight Murakami fans. 'All I did was go to the library to borrow some books'. On his way home from school, the young narrator of The Strange Library finds himself wondering how taxes were collected in the Ottoman Empire. He pops into the local library to see if it has a book on the subject. This is his first mistake. Led to a special 'reading room' in a maze under the library by a strange old man, he finds himself imprisoned with only a sheep man, who makes excellent donuts, and a girl, who can talk with her hands, for company. His mother will be worrying why he hasn't returned in time for dinner and the old man seems to have an appetite for eating small boy's brains. How will he escape?'The best novelist on the planet' Observer
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World takes a tour through two parallel narratives, exploring consciousness, the subconscious and identity.A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim.This book is science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel.Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.*ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*
1Q84: Book 3
Book Two of 1Q84 ended with Aomame standing on the Metropolitan Expressway with a gun between her lips. She knows she is being hunted, and that she has put herself in terrible danger in order to save the man she loves. But things are moving forward, and Aomame does not yet know that she and Tengo are more closely bound than ever.Tengo is searching for Aomame, and he must find her before this world's rules loosen up too much. He must find her before someone else does.
After the Quake
*PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*Tales of upheaval and confusion, longing and love in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake.For the characters in after the quake, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago. Satsuki has spent thirty years hating one man: did her desire for revenge cause the earthquake? Miyake left his family in Kobe to make midnight bonfires on a beach hundreds of miles away.Fourteen-year-old Sala has nightmares that the Earthquake Man is trying to stuff her inside a little box. Katagiri returns home to find a giant frog in his apartment on a mission to save Tokyo from a massive burrowing worm. 'When he gets angry, he causes earthquakes,' says Frog. 'And right now he is very, very angry.'In a dance with the delights of Murakami's imagination we experience the limitless possibilities of fiction. With these stories Murakami expands our hearts and minds yet again' The Times
Wind/ Pinball
Discover Haruki Murakami's first two novels.'If you're the sort of guy who raids the refrigerators of silent kitchens at three o'clock in the morning, you can only write accordingly.That's who I am.'Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 are Haruki Murakami's earliest novels. They follow the fortunes of the narrator and his friend, known only by his nickname, the Rat. In Hear the Wind Sing the narrator is home from college on his summer break. He spends his time drinking beer and smoking in J's Bar with the Rat, listening to the radio, thinking about writing and the women he has slept with, and pursuing a relationship with a girl with nine fingers.Three years later, in Pinball, 1973, he has moved to Tokyo to work as a translator and live with indistinguishable twin girls, but the Rat has remained behind, despite his efforts to leave both the town and his girlfriend. The narrator finds himself haunted by memories of his own doomed relationship but also, more bizarrely, by his short-lived obsession with playing pinball in J's Bar. This sends him on a quest to find the exact model of pinball machine he had enjoyed playing years earlier: the three-flipper Spaceship.*PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*
Kafka on the Shore
Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy.The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down.As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle - one of many which combine to create an elegant and dreamlike masterpiece.*PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*'Hypnotic, spellbinding' The Times'Cool, fluent and addictive' Daily Telegraph‘Addictive... Exhilarating... A pleasure’ Evening Standard
Super-Frog Saves Tokyo
‘What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real’ A lavishly illustrated edition of Murakami’s classic short story.Katagiri found a giant frog waiting for him in his apartment. It was powerfully built, standing over six feet tall on its hind legs. A skinny little man no more than five foot three, Katagiri was overwhelmed by the frog's imposing bulk.‘Call me “Frog,”’ said the frog in a clear, strong voice.Katagiri stood rooted in the doorway, unable to speak.‘Don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you. Just come and close the door. Please.’Briefcase in his right hand, grocery bag with fresh vegetables and canned salmon cradled in his left arm, Katagiri didn't dare move.‘Please, Mr. Katagiri, hurry and close the door, and take off your shoes.’Fully illustrated and beautifully designed, this special edition of Murakami’s celebrated short story sees the bewildered Katagiri find meaning in his humdrum life through joining forces with Frog in an effort to save Tokyo from an existential threat.‘No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades’ Financial Times‘A master storyteller’ Sunday Times
Killing Commendatore
*PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*We all live our lives carrying secrets we cannot disclose.'Beguiling... Murakami is brilliant at folding the humdrum alongside the supernatural; finding the magic that's nested in life's quotidian details' GuardianWhen a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he holes up in the mountain home of a famous artist. The days drift by, spent painting, listening to music and drinking whiskey in the evenings. But then he discovers a strange painting in the attic and unintentionally begins a strange journey of self-discovery that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt and a haunted underworld.A stunning work of imagination, Killing Commendatore is a surreal tale of love and loneliness, war and art.