Jordan

Bruna Guedes

Husain Kothari

FRNK

Uendi Prifti

Abdul Hasib

Loughlin Sullivan

Delaney Knopp

Auriel W

Blake Molmen

Dani Shahar

Luis Javier Campos nieto

Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "the finest book to come out of Europe this year," The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is acclaimed Irish playwright Sebastian Barry's lyrical tale of a fugitive everyman. For Eneas McNulty, a happy, innocent childhood in County Sligo in the early 1900s gives way to an Ireland wracked by violence and conflict. Unable to find work in the depressed times after World War I, Eneas joins the British-led police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary—a decision that alters the course of his life. Branded a traitor by Irish nationalists and pursued by IRA hitmen, Eneas is forced to flee his homeland, his family, and Viv, the woman he loves. His wandering terminates on the Isle of Dogs, a haven for sailors, where a lifetime of loss is redeemed by a final act of generosity. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is the story of a lost man and a compelling saga that illuminates Ireland's complex history.

One of the most dazzling and adventurous writers now working in English takes on the enigma of the Cambridge spies in a novel of exquisite menace, biting social comedy, and vertiginous moral complexity. The narrator is the elderly Victor Maskell, formerly of British intelligence, for many years art expert to the Queen. Now he has been unmasked as a Russian agent and subjected to a disgrace that is almost a kind of death. But at whose instigation?As Maskell retraces his tortuous path from his recruitment at Cambridge to the airless upper regions of the establishment, we discover a figure of manifold doubleness: Irishman and Englishman; husband, father, and lover of men; betrayer and dupe. Beautifully written, filled with convincing fictional portraits of Maskell's co-conspirators, and vibrant with the mysteries of loyalty and identity, The Untouchable places John Banville in the select company of both Conrad and le Carre.Winner of the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction"Contemporary fiction gets no better than this... Banville's books teem with life and humor." - Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review"Victor Maskell is one of the great characters in recent fiction... The Untouchable is the best work of art in any medium on [its] subject." -Washington Post Book World"As remarkable a literary voice as any to come out of Ireland; Joyce and Beckett notwithstanding." -San Francisco Chronicle

French writer and film director (1914-1996)

On a languid midsummer’s day in the countryside, the Godley family gathers at the bedside of Adam, a renowned mathematician and their patriarch. But they are not alone in their vigil. Around them hovers a clan of mischievous immortals—Zeus, Pan, and Hermes among them —who begin to stir up trouble for the Godleys, to sometimes wildly unintended effect. The Infinities—John Banville’s first novel since his Booker Prize-winning and bestselling The Sea—is at once a gloriously earthy romp and a wise look at the terrible, wonderful plight of being human -- a dazzling novel from one of the most widely admires and acclaimed writers at work today

The publication of a new book by William Trevor is a great literary event. Trevor's last collection, A Bit on the Side, was named a New York Times Notable Book and hailed as one of the Best Books of the Year by papers from coast to coast, including The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. And his earlier collection, After Rain, published in 1996, was named one of the eight best books of the year by The New York Times.  Trevor's precise and unflinching insights into the hearts and lives of ordinary people are evidenced once again in this stunning new collection. From a chance encounter between two childhood friends to the memories of a newly widowed man to a family grappling with the sale of their ancestral land, Trevor examines with grace and skill the tenuous bonds of our relationships, the strengths that hold us together, and the truths that threaten to separate us. Subtle yet powerful, his stories linger with the reader long after the words have been put away.  These twelve exquisitely nuanced tales of regret, deception, adultery, aging, and forgiveness confirm Trevor's reputation as a master of the form and one of literature's preeminent chroniclers of the human condition.

William Trevor's astonishing range as a writer--his humor, subtlety, and compassionate grasp of human behavior--is fully demonstrated in these two short novels. In Reading Turgenev, a lonely country girl escapes her loveless marriage in the arms of a bookish young man. In My House in Umbria, a former madam befriends the other survivors of a terrorist bombing with surprising results. Nominated for the Booker Award.

Penguin Classics is proud to welcome William Trevor—"Ireland’s answer to Chekhov" (The Boston Globe) and "one of the best writers of our era" (The Washington Post)—to our distinguished list of literary masters. In this award-winning novel, an informer’s body is found on the estate of a wealthy Irish family shortly after the First World War, and an appalling cycle of revenge is set in motion. Led by a zealous sergeant, the Black and Tans set fire to the family home, and only young Willie and his mother escape alive. Fatherless, Willie grows into manhood while his alcoholic mother’s bitter resentment festers. And though he finds love, Willie is unable to leave the terrible injuries of the past behind.First time in Penguin ClassicsWinner of the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award

CONTAINS SPOILERS The main character comes across at first as a special ed kid, but as the story evolves we see that he is truly mentally disturbed. He’s an older teenager who is cast aside by his family. He has no father and his mother and older sister are good buddies, laughing, smoking, eating together, while he fends for himself on leftovers in his room. So he wanders the town stealing petty things and small amounts of money, getting into trouble and doing odd jobs for people. He’s the type who tells corny puns, repeats them and then says “do you get it” and still explains it to you. A minster with infinite patience tries to help steer the young boy straight.The boy hatches a plan to present a bizarre play in a local talent show. It’s a parody of a famous murderer who killed women in their baths --- just what you want at church-sponsored event in a small town. But with age he has become vicious; basically blackmailing people to get the props he needs for his play. He gets his blackmail material from what he has seen peering and listening through windows and spying around town. He knows why a son has ruined his parents by running off, never to come home again; he knows that the retired military commander has his eyes on the cub scouts at the beach; he knows which women regularly meet the local Lothario in the public restroom. (Thus the origin of the expression “Get a room!” although we know that unmarried people could not do that in those days in a small Irish town.) Two other main characters are a young girl and boy whose parents just married after the death of the man’s wife. The malicious kid concocts a story with just enough bits of truth that has them believing that the man, now their father, murdered his first wife. It’s a good read. Like other Trevor stories, it’s about lonely, listless people trapped in a stifling small town in Ireland a generation or more ago. My thanks to Nancy Oakes for recommending this book to me. photo from inroadsireland.com 

After Rain - Twelve remarkable stories by the master storyteller William TrevorIn this collection of twelve dazzling, acutely rendered tales, William Trevor plumbs the depths of the human heart. Here we encounter a blind piano tuner whose wonderful memories of his first wife are cruelly distorted by his second; a woman in a difficult marriage who must choose between her indignant husband and her closest friend; two children, survivors of divorce, who mimic their parents' melodramas; and a heartbroken woman traveling alone in Italy who experiences an epiphany while studying a forgotten artist's Annunciation. Trevor is, in his own words, 'a storyteller. My fiction may, now and again, illuminate aspects of the human condition, but I do not consciously set out to do so.' Conscious or not, he touches us in ways that few writers even dare to try.

With a career that spanned more than half a century, William Trevor was regarded as one of the greatest writers of short stories in the English language. Now, in Last Stories, the admired master storyteller delivers ten exquisitely rendered stories that illuminate the human condition which will surely linger with the reader long after closing the book. Subtle yet powerful, Trevor gives readers insights into the lives of ordinary people, from the relationship between a former teacher and student to the tragic past of a former dancer. With the inclusion of six previously unpublished stories, this special collection is a gift to lovers of short stories and Trevor's many readers.

«È così che inizia l’amore, appartenersi senza saperlo? A guardare indietro sembra così.»Solitudine.Ricerca di amore.Follia.Quanti romanzi giocano con queste tematiche?Quanti romanzi lo riescono a fare in maniera inconsueta, con delicatezza e misura?Una disperazione che può essere sopportata solo vivendo in una dimensione parallela fatta di ricordi e letture (per certi versi mi ha ricordato Giorni di spasimato amore di Romana Petri), piuttosto che di angoscia e di alcolismo.Mary Louise sposa un uomo molto più grande di lei, per convenienza, per noia e anche un po' per dispetto. Non sa cosa voglia dire sposarsi, sottovaluta tutto ciò che un matrimonio del genere porterà come conseguenza, in particolare non pesa in maniera opportuna l'obbligo di convivere con le sorellastre... ehm sorelle zitelle del marito, pessime al punto da fare un baffo a Genoveffa e Anastasia.Sottovaluta la pochezza del marito, la sua inconsistenza, la sua mancanza di autorevolezza, l'incapacità di decidere o di opporsi alle sorelle. Un uomo con cui non riesce a condividere nulla, neanche il talamo nuziale. Impotente fisicamente e caratterialmente, il marito diviene a poco a poco un alcolizzato. Un uomo privo di spina dorsale.Quali possibilità restano a Mary Louise per sottrarsi a questo modus vivendi tutt'altro che accettabile?Leggendo Trevor lo scoprirete.Un libro di una tristezza senza pari.L'ambiente descritto risulta talmente asfittico, da uscire dalla lettura con fame d'aria.Un libro potente e misurato nel contempo. Una scrittura minimalista ed incisiva, mai retorica, mai esagerata, molto raffinata: mi chiedo come mai Trevor sia così poco conosciuto.Sono arrivata a questo libro grazie a Caro Amico di Li Yiyun, in cui un intero capitolo era dedicato allo scrittore e al suo sguardo su persone e cose.

Wealthy widow Norah O’Neill wonders if she will ever marry again. When her son decides to close the family’s failing toy factory, the manager, a decent man who dances the quickstep beautifully, becomes unemployed. Suddenly, Norah sees her chance for happiness, in a new venture of her own.United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love’s endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love…

The Collected Stories - a stunning volume of William Trevor's unforgettable short storiesWilliam Trevor is one of the most renowned figures in contemporary literature, described as 'the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language' by the New Yorker and acclaimed for his haunting and profound insights into the human heart. Here is a collection of his short fiction, with dozens of tales spanning his career and ranging from the moving to the macabre, the humorous to the haunting. From the penetrating 'Memories of Youghal' to the bittersweet 'Bodily Secrets' and the elegiac 'Two More Gallants', here are masterpieces of insight, depth, drama and humanity, acutely rendered by a modern master.'A textbook for anyone who ever wanted to write a story, and a treasure for anyone who loves to read them' Madison Smartt Bell'Extraordinary... Mr. Trevor's sheer intensity of entry into the lives of his people...proceeds to uncover new layers of yearning and pain, new angles of vision and credible thought' The New York Times Book Review

The stunning new novel from highly acclaimed author William Trevor is a brilliant, subtle, and moving story of love, guilt, and forgiveness. The Gault family leads a life of privilege in early 1920s Ireland, but the threat of violence leads the parents of nine-year-old Lucy to decide to leave for England, her mother's home. Lucy cannot bear the thought of leaving Lahardane, their country house with its beautiful land and nearby beach, and a dog she has befriended. On the day before they are to leave, Lucy runs away, hoping to convince her parents to stay. Instead, she sets off a series of tragic misunderstandings that affect all of Lahardane's inhabitants for the rest of their lives.

Felicia is unmarried, pregnant, and penniless. She steals away from a small Irish town and drifts through the industrial English Midlands, searching for the boyfriend who left her. Instead she meets up with the fat, fiftyish, unfailingly reasonable Mr. Hilditch, who is looking for a new friend to join the five other girls in his Memory Lane. But the strange, sad, terrifying tricks of chance unravel both his and Felicia's delusions in a story that will magnetize fans of Alfred Hitchcock and Ruth Rendell even as it resonates with William Trevor's own "impeccable strength and piercing profundity" (The Washington Post Book World).

books

Active tastebuds