Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 9780864733351
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
When Clifford Stilton dies, his son Gene crams his carefully kept diaries into a hall cupboard - but Clifford's words have too much life in them to be ignored, and start to permeate his family's world. Clifford taught Gene about how to find rocks and fossils, and about how to kill birds and fish. Gene passes on a similar inheritance to his daughters, Bridget and Christina - they have their own ways of digging and discovering the past, keeping an account of life, watching out for the varieties of death that lie hidden. Etta their mother tells a very different story of her 1940s childhood. In a fishbone church spans continents and decades. From the Berlin rave scene to the Canterbury duck season, from the rural 1950s to the cosmopolitan present, these five vivid lives cohere in a deeply affecting and exhilarating novel. In a fishbone church, Catherine Chidgey's acclaimed debut, won the Hubert Church Award for Best First Book in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, the Adam Award, the regional Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel, and a Betty Trask Award in the UK, where it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. First published in 1998, it has been a bestseller in New Zealand and has been published around the world.
In a Fishbone Church
Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 9780864733351
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
When Clifford Stilton dies, his son Gene crams his carefully kept diaries into a hall cupboard - but Clifford's words have too much life in them to be ignored, and start to permeate his family's world. Clifford taught Gene about how to find rocks and fossils, and about how to kill birds and fish. Gene passes on a similar inheritance to his daughters, Bridget and Christina - they have their own ways of digging and discovering the past, keeping an account of life, watching out for the varieties of death that lie hidden. Etta their mother tells a very different story of her 1940s childhood. In a fishbone church spans continents and decades. From the Berlin rave scene to the Canterbury duck season, from the rural 1950s to the cosmopolitan present, these five vivid lives cohere in a deeply affecting and exhilarating novel. In a fishbone church, Catherine Chidgey's acclaimed debut, won the Hubert Church Award for Best First Book in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, the Adam Award, the regional Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel, and a Betty Trask Award in the UK, where it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. First published in 1998, it has been a bestseller in New Zealand and has been published around the world.
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 9780864733351
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
When Clifford Stilton dies, his son Gene crams his carefully kept diaries into a hall cupboard - but Clifford's words have too much life in them to be ignored, and start to permeate his family's world. Clifford taught Gene about how to find rocks and fossils, and about how to kill birds and fish. Gene passes on a similar inheritance to his daughters, Bridget and Christina - they have their own ways of digging and discovering the past, keeping an account of life, watching out for the varieties of death that lie hidden. Etta their mother tells a very different story of her 1940s childhood. In a fishbone church spans continents and decades. From the Berlin rave scene to the Canterbury duck season, from the rural 1950s to the cosmopolitan present, these five vivid lives cohere in a deeply affecting and exhilarating novel. In a fishbone church, Catherine Chidgey's acclaimed debut, won the Hubert Church Award for Best First Book in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, the Adam Award, the regional Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel, and a Betty Trask Award in the UK, where it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. First published in 1998, it has been a bestseller in New Zealand and has been published around the world.
In a Fishbone Church
Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 0864736886
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
When Clifford Stilton dies, his son Gene crams his carefully kept diaries into a hall cupboard – but Clifford's words have too much life in them to be ignored, and start to permeate his family's world. Clifford taught Gene about how to find rocks and fossils, and about how to kill birds and fish. Gene passes on a similar inheritance to his daughters, Bridget and Christina – they have their own ways of digging and discovering the past, keeping an account of life, watching out for the varieties of death that lie hidden. Etta their mother tells a very different story of her 1940s childhood. In a Fishbone Church spans continents and decades. From the Berlin rave scene to the Canterbury duck season, from the rural 1950s to the cosmopolitan present, these five vivid lives cohere in a deeply affecting and exhilarating novel. In a Fishbone Church, Catherine Chidgey's acclaimed debut, won the Hubert Church Award for Best First Book in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, the Adam Award, the regional Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel, and a Betty Trask Award in the UK, where it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. First published in 1998, it has been a bestseller in New Zealand and has been published around the world.
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 0864736886
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
When Clifford Stilton dies, his son Gene crams his carefully kept diaries into a hall cupboard – but Clifford's words have too much life in them to be ignored, and start to permeate his family's world. Clifford taught Gene about how to find rocks and fossils, and about how to kill birds and fish. Gene passes on a similar inheritance to his daughters, Bridget and Christina – they have their own ways of digging and discovering the past, keeping an account of life, watching out for the varieties of death that lie hidden. Etta their mother tells a very different story of her 1940s childhood. In a Fishbone Church spans continents and decades. From the Berlin rave scene to the Canterbury duck season, from the rural 1950s to the cosmopolitan present, these five vivid lives cohere in a deeply affecting and exhilarating novel. In a Fishbone Church, Catherine Chidgey's acclaimed debut, won the Hubert Church Award for Best First Book in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, the Adam Award, the regional Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel, and a Betty Trask Award in the UK, where it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. First published in 1998, it has been a bestseller in New Zealand and has been published around the world.
The Wish Child
Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1640092676
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
This internationally bestselling historical novel that "fans of The Book Thief will enjoy" follows two children and a mysterious narrator as they navigate the falsehoods and wreckage of WWII Germany (Publishers Weekly). Germany, 1939. As Germany’s hope for a glorious future begins to collapse, two children, Sieglinde and Erich, find temporary refuge in an abandoned theater amid the rubble of Berlin. Outside, white bedsheets hang from windows; all over the city, people are talking of surrender. The days Sieglinde and Erich spend together will shape the rest of their lives. Watching over them is the wish child, the enigmatic narrator of their story. He sees what they see, he feels what they feel, yet his is a voice that comes from deep inside the ruins of a nation’s dream. Winner of the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Awards “A remarkable book with a stunningly original twist.” —The Times (London)
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1640092676
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
This internationally bestselling historical novel that "fans of The Book Thief will enjoy" follows two children and a mysterious narrator as they navigate the falsehoods and wreckage of WWII Germany (Publishers Weekly). Germany, 1939. As Germany’s hope for a glorious future begins to collapse, two children, Sieglinde and Erich, find temporary refuge in an abandoned theater amid the rubble of Berlin. Outside, white bedsheets hang from windows; all over the city, people are talking of surrender. The days Sieglinde and Erich spend together will shape the rest of their lives. Watching over them is the wish child, the enigmatic narrator of their story. He sees what they see, he feels what they feel, yet his is a voice that comes from deep inside the ruins of a nation’s dream. Winner of the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Awards “A remarkable book with a stunningly original twist.” —The Times (London)
Remote Sympathy
Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Europa Editions
ISBN: 1609456289
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
This polyphonic novel of an S.S. officer, his ailing wife, and a concentration camp survivor “marks a vital turn in Holocaust literature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Being appointed administrator of the Buchenwald work camp is a major advancement for SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn. But as the prison population begins to rise, his job becomes ever more consuming. His wife, Frau Greta Hahn, finds their new home even lovelier than their apartment in Munich. She enjoys life among the other officer’s wives, and the ease with which she can purchase nearly anything her heart desires. When Frau Hahn is forced into an unlikely alliance with one of Buchenwald’s prisoners, Dr. Lenard Weber, her naïve ignorance about what is going on so nearby is challenged. A decade earlier, Dr. Weber had invented a machine: the Sympathetic Vitaliser. At the time he believed that its subtle resonances might cure cancer. But does it really work? One way or another, it might yet save a life. A tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, Remote Sympathy compels us to question our continuing and willful ability to look the other way in a world that is once more in thrall to the idea that everything—even facts, truth and morals—is relative. Shortlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
Publisher: Europa Editions
ISBN: 1609456289
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
This polyphonic novel of an S.S. officer, his ailing wife, and a concentration camp survivor “marks a vital turn in Holocaust literature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Being appointed administrator of the Buchenwald work camp is a major advancement for SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn. But as the prison population begins to rise, his job becomes ever more consuming. His wife, Frau Greta Hahn, finds their new home even lovelier than their apartment in Munich. She enjoys life among the other officer’s wives, and the ease with which she can purchase nearly anything her heart desires. When Frau Hahn is forced into an unlikely alliance with one of Buchenwald’s prisoners, Dr. Lenard Weber, her naïve ignorance about what is going on so nearby is challenged. A decade earlier, Dr. Weber had invented a machine: the Sympathetic Vitaliser. At the time he believed that its subtle resonances might cure cancer. But does it really work? One way or another, it might yet save a life. A tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, Remote Sympathy compels us to question our continuing and willful ability to look the other way in a world that is once more in thrall to the idea that everything—even facts, truth and morals—is relative. Shortlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
The Transformation
Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 9780864734655
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
Tampa, Florida, 1898: a frontier where the old world meets the new, and where miracles of transformation are possible. Dominating the town is the new Tampa Bay Hotel, with its tangle of Moorish minarets, cupolas and arches, its Byzantine domes and thirteen crescent moons, and its electric lighting designed by Edison. This fairy-tale castle anchored by the water's edge is a winter magnet for the best sorts of people - bankers and industrialists, stockbrokers and shipping merchants, attorneys and architects and celebrities who come form the big northern cities and from Europe. But the hotel does have one permanent year-round resident, a most exotic creature by the name of Monsieur Goulet III, wig-maker to the rich and glamorous, and indeed to any resident of Tampa whose desire for the transformations he creates is keen enough to meet his price. As the winter of 1898 nears its end, Goulet is entranced by the head of hair belonging to the young widow Marion Unger. But the raw material he needs to complete his greatest masterpiece is hard to come by, so he drives his gifted night-scavenger - a teenage cigar-maker who is a refugee from the war in Cuba - to increasingly extreme efforts. As these three unlikely accomplices become ever more tightly entwined, the secret depths of Goulet's nature rise to the surface, leading to an electrifying conclusion.
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 9780864734655
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
Tampa, Florida, 1898: a frontier where the old world meets the new, and where miracles of transformation are possible. Dominating the town is the new Tampa Bay Hotel, with its tangle of Moorish minarets, cupolas and arches, its Byzantine domes and thirteen crescent moons, and its electric lighting designed by Edison. This fairy-tale castle anchored by the water's edge is a winter magnet for the best sorts of people - bankers and industrialists, stockbrokers and shipping merchants, attorneys and architects and celebrities who come form the big northern cities and from Europe. But the hotel does have one permanent year-round resident, a most exotic creature by the name of Monsieur Goulet III, wig-maker to the rich and glamorous, and indeed to any resident of Tampa whose desire for the transformations he creates is keen enough to meet his price. As the winter of 1898 nears its end, Goulet is entranced by the head of hair belonging to the young widow Marion Unger. But the raw material he needs to complete his greatest masterpiece is hard to come by, so he drives his gifted night-scavenger - a teenage cigar-maker who is a refugee from the war in Cuba - to increasingly extreme efforts. As these three unlikely accomplices become ever more tightly entwined, the secret depths of Goulet's nature rise to the surface, leading to an electrifying conclusion.
The Beat of the Pendulum
Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Eye & Lightning Books
ISBN: 1785631101
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 487
Book Description
The book of the year... Every day for a year, Catherine Chidgey recorded the words and language she came across during her day-to-day life – phone calls, television commercials, emails, radio shows, conversations with her family, street signs and satnav instructions. From these seemingly random snippets, she creates a fascinating portrait of modern life, focusing on the things that most people filter out. Chidgey listens in as her daughter, born through surrogacy, begins to speak and develop a personality, and her mother slips into dementia. With her husband, she debates the pros and cons of moving to a new town. With her publisher, she discusses the novel she is writing. While, all around, the world is bombarding her with information. InThe Beat of the Pendulum, Chidgey approaches the idea of the novel from an experimental new direction. It is bold, exciting, funny, moving and utterly compelling. 'For those who love books, Catherine Chidgey is a find' - Ali Smith
Publisher: Eye & Lightning Books
ISBN: 1785631101
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 487
Book Description
The book of the year... Every day for a year, Catherine Chidgey recorded the words and language she came across during her day-to-day life – phone calls, television commercials, emails, radio shows, conversations with her family, street signs and satnav instructions. From these seemingly random snippets, she creates a fascinating portrait of modern life, focusing on the things that most people filter out. Chidgey listens in as her daughter, born through surrogacy, begins to speak and develop a personality, and her mother slips into dementia. With her husband, she debates the pros and cons of moving to a new town. With her publisher, she discusses the novel she is writing. While, all around, the world is bombarding her with information. InThe Beat of the Pendulum, Chidgey approaches the idea of the novel from an experimental new direction. It is bold, exciting, funny, moving and utterly compelling. 'For those who love books, Catherine Chidgey is a find' - Ali Smith
Hit the Bullseye
Author: Paul D. Borden
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 0687043719
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
This book is not an attempt to offer hope, help, or even advice on what denominations need to do. However, it is a book about a significant turn-around of a middle-level administration of justice in one Protestant denomination and it does offer hope that other like administrations might be able to experience a better and more effective existence. Everyone's experience is unique and therefore cannot be replicated. However, the implementation of foundational all-encompassing principles, the development of new strategies, and the performance of specific tactics that are successful in one situation does offer hope to others that their modeling of the principles, adapting the strategies, and creating specific tactics to fit their context can bring change. "Thisbook is a gutsy look at denominational life, leadership and vision, and offersnew paradigms for the local church, middle judicatories and nationaldenominational life. A must-read for anyone interested in bringing renewal tothe local church and our denomination. Clearly, Borden has hit the bull's-eyewith regard not only to our denomination's needs but also how renewal begins inthe local church." - ABE News Forewordto Hit the Bullseye byLeith Anderson July 2003 "Somelook at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and askwhy not?" --George Bernard Shaw There are approximately 400,000 churches in the UnitedStates and the vast majority of them belong to denominations. Some are healthy, vibrant, and growing. Most are tired, struggling, not growing, and don't know what to do. Plenty of critics and cynics take surveys, analyze data,and write books about what is wrong with the churches of America. As if following the theology of Chicken Little they are convinced that the sky is falling and there is little wecan do except seek cover. Proposals for renewal often are offered by theoristswho tell practitioners what to do but have never actually done it themselves. What if? What if there was a way to help declining churches to grow? What if we could teach pastors how to lead their congregations tospiritual renewal? What if thousands of churches changed from maintenance tomission? What if a movement beganwith 200 churches that grew to 200,000 churches? What if millions of unchurched people came into lasting relationshipswith Jesus Christ and the church? Whatif the denominations of America with all of their people, property, andpotential became the epicenter of this spiritual earthquake that became known asthe Great Awakening of the 21st Century? Maybe all this sounds too good to be true. Well, it has already begun. Centeredin the earthquake zone of northern California, the American Baptist Churches ofthe West have demonstrated that a plateaued and declining region of mainlinecongregations can become a model of healthy and growing congregations. They have overcome the usual excuses that "our churches are toosmall," "we have too many older people and congregations," and "propertyhere is too expensive." Theyfollowed a powerful formula of biblical strategies, courageous leadership, andmuch hard work. What is mostamazing is that the turnaround took less than five years. Why not? Here is the dream. Denominationalleaders, executive ministers, bishops, district superintendents, regionaldirectors, seminary teachers, pastors, and lay leaders will discover what Godhas done in northern California and say, "Why not here?" "With a few creative adaptations we can do the same thing in ourdenomination and in our churches." They will start small and multiply. They will risk their traditions, finances, staff, and jobs. They will respond to misunderstanding with teaching and take criticismwith grace. Then there will be onesuccessful church transformation--new vision, new faith, new people, and newexcitement. One will become ten andten will become one hundred. Churchby church, region by region, denomination by denomination--a true reformationwill bring a great new era to the people and churches of our generation. It can be done. Ithas been done. This is a dream ofthe way things can be. Be amongthose who say, "Why not? Let'sdo it!"
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 0687043719
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
This book is not an attempt to offer hope, help, or even advice on what denominations need to do. However, it is a book about a significant turn-around of a middle-level administration of justice in one Protestant denomination and it does offer hope that other like administrations might be able to experience a better and more effective existence. Everyone's experience is unique and therefore cannot be replicated. However, the implementation of foundational all-encompassing principles, the development of new strategies, and the performance of specific tactics that are successful in one situation does offer hope to others that their modeling of the principles, adapting the strategies, and creating specific tactics to fit their context can bring change. "Thisbook is a gutsy look at denominational life, leadership and vision, and offersnew paradigms for the local church, middle judicatories and nationaldenominational life. A must-read for anyone interested in bringing renewal tothe local church and our denomination. Clearly, Borden has hit the bull's-eyewith regard not only to our denomination's needs but also how renewal begins inthe local church." - ABE News Forewordto Hit the Bullseye byLeith Anderson July 2003 "Somelook at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and askwhy not?" --George Bernard Shaw There are approximately 400,000 churches in the UnitedStates and the vast majority of them belong to denominations. Some are healthy, vibrant, and growing. Most are tired, struggling, not growing, and don't know what to do. Plenty of critics and cynics take surveys, analyze data,and write books about what is wrong with the churches of America. As if following the theology of Chicken Little they are convinced that the sky is falling and there is little wecan do except seek cover. Proposals for renewal often are offered by theoristswho tell practitioners what to do but have never actually done it themselves. What if? What if there was a way to help declining churches to grow? What if we could teach pastors how to lead their congregations tospiritual renewal? What if thousands of churches changed from maintenance tomission? What if a movement beganwith 200 churches that grew to 200,000 churches? What if millions of unchurched people came into lasting relationshipswith Jesus Christ and the church? Whatif the denominations of America with all of their people, property, andpotential became the epicenter of this spiritual earthquake that became known asthe Great Awakening of the 21st Century? Maybe all this sounds too good to be true. Well, it has already begun. Centeredin the earthquake zone of northern California, the American Baptist Churches ofthe West have demonstrated that a plateaued and declining region of mainlinecongregations can become a model of healthy and growing congregations. They have overcome the usual excuses that "our churches are toosmall," "we have too many older people and congregations," and "propertyhere is too expensive." Theyfollowed a powerful formula of biblical strategies, courageous leadership, andmuch hard work. What is mostamazing is that the turnaround took less than five years. Why not? Here is the dream. Denominationalleaders, executive ministers, bishops, district superintendents, regionaldirectors, seminary teachers, pastors, and lay leaders will discover what Godhas done in northern California and say, "Why not here?" "With a few creative adaptations we can do the same thing in ourdenomination and in our churches." They will start small and multiply. They will risk their traditions, finances, staff, and jobs. They will respond to misunderstanding with teaching and take criticismwith grace. Then there will be onesuccessful church transformation--new vision, new faith, new people, and newexcitement. One will become ten andten will become one hundred. Churchby church, region by region, denomination by denomination--a true reformationwill bring a great new era to the people and churches of our generation. It can be done. Ithas been done. This is a dream ofthe way things can be. Be amongthose who say, "Why not? Let'sdo it!"
Fishbone's Song
Author: Gary Paulsen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481452282
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 91
Book Description
An orphan reflects on the lessons he was taught by the wise old man who raised him in this lyrical novel that reads like poetry from three-time Newbery Honor–winning author Gary Paulsen. Deep in the woods, in a rustic cabin, lives an old man and the boy he’s raised as his own. This sage old man has taught the boy the power of nature and how to live in it, and more importantly, to respect it. In Fishbone’s Song, this boy reminisces about the magic of the man who raised him and the tales that he used to tell—all true, but different each time.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481452282
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 91
Book Description
An orphan reflects on the lessons he was taught by the wise old man who raised him in this lyrical novel that reads like poetry from three-time Newbery Honor–winning author Gary Paulsen. Deep in the woods, in a rustic cabin, lives an old man and the boy he’s raised as his own. This sage old man has taught the boy the power of nature and how to live in it, and more importantly, to respect it. In Fishbone’s Song, this boy reminisces about the magic of the man who raised him and the tales that he used to tell—all true, but different each time.
Golden Deeds
Author: Catherine Chidgey
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 0864737211
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
A tale of murder mystery and Meccano Golden Deeds tells the story of the middle-aged Patrick Mercer, lying unconscious in a hospital bed: of the teenaged Laura Pearse's disappearance and the grieving of her bereft parents; and the story of Colette, a young woman seeking a new life in a strange city. In warm, compassionate and beautiful prose, Catherine Chidgey delineates the connections which, however fragile, bind people together across continents and generations. 'Magnanimous and merciless, a work reminiscent at times of darkest Atwood...A witty and melancholy alchemy of heat and chill, a work of craft and fluency, which revitalizes the book in all its guises...for those who love books, Catherine Chidgey is a find' TLS
Publisher: Victoria University Press
ISBN: 0864737211
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
A tale of murder mystery and Meccano Golden Deeds tells the story of the middle-aged Patrick Mercer, lying unconscious in a hospital bed: of the teenaged Laura Pearse's disappearance and the grieving of her bereft parents; and the story of Colette, a young woman seeking a new life in a strange city. In warm, compassionate and beautiful prose, Catherine Chidgey delineates the connections which, however fragile, bind people together across continents and generations. 'Magnanimous and merciless, a work reminiscent at times of darkest Atwood...A witty and melancholy alchemy of heat and chill, a work of craft and fluency, which revitalizes the book in all its guises...for those who love books, Catherine Chidgey is a find' TLS
Originals with Key
Author: Clare West
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521140501
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Originals introduces intermediate-level students to a wide range of authors and encourages them to develop their English by reading for pleasure. The book contains extracts from classic and modern fiction and non-fiction, written in English by authors from many different countries. There are extracts from classic novels and short stories, spy and ghost stories, thrillers, war, fantasy novels, a biography and contemporary fiction. The texts has been carefully selected for the level so that intermediate students, and those preparing for the Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET), will be able to understand them with the help of the notes and exercises.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521140501
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Originals introduces intermediate-level students to a wide range of authors and encourages them to develop their English by reading for pleasure. The book contains extracts from classic and modern fiction and non-fiction, written in English by authors from many different countries. There are extracts from classic novels and short stories, spy and ghost stories, thrillers, war, fantasy novels, a biography and contemporary fiction. The texts has been carefully selected for the level so that intermediate students, and those preparing for the Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET), will be able to understand them with the help of the notes and exercises.