Sonata for Miriam

Sonata for Miriam PDF Author: Linda Olsson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780143114703
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
A haunting novel of loss, love, and human connection from the author of Astrid & Veronika Linda Olsson's first novel, Astrid & Veronika, introduced readers to her gorgeous prose, and her extraordinary understanding of human relationships. With her second novel, she once again charts that terrain in a novel that also explores the significant impact of history on individual lives. In Sonata for Miriam, two events occur that will change composer Adam Anker's life forever. Embarking on a journey that ranges from New Zealand to Poland, and then Sweden, Anker not only uncovers his parents' true fate during World War II, but he also finally faces the consequences of an impossible choice he was forced to make twenty years before-a choice that changed the trajectory of his life.

Sonata for Miriam

Sonata for Miriam PDF Author: Linda Olsson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780143114703
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
A haunting novel of loss, love, and human connection from the author of Astrid & Veronika Linda Olsson's first novel, Astrid & Veronika, introduced readers to her gorgeous prose, and her extraordinary understanding of human relationships. With her second novel, she once again charts that terrain in a novel that also explores the significant impact of history on individual lives. In Sonata for Miriam, two events occur that will change composer Adam Anker's life forever. Embarking on a journey that ranges from New Zealand to Poland, and then Sweden, Anker not only uncovers his parents' true fate during World War II, but he also finally faces the consequences of an impossible choice he was forced to make twenty years before-a choice that changed the trajectory of his life.

Astrid and Veronika

Astrid and Veronika PDF Author: Linda Olsson
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0143038079
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Readers of Anne Tyler and Jodi Picoult will appreciate the lyrical prose and expert rendering of the themes of heartbreakk and loss."—Booklist An unforgettable novel about friendship, love and loss. With extraordinary emotional power, Linda Olsson’s stunningly well-crafted debut novel recounts the unusual and unexpected friendship that develops between two women. Veronika, a young writer from New Zealand, rents a house in a small Swedish village as she tries to come to terms with a recent tragedy while also finishing a novel. Her arrival is silently observed by Astrid, an older, reclusive neighbor who slowly becomes a presence in Veronika’s life, offering comfort in the form of companionship and lovingly prepared home-cooked meals. Set against a haunting Swedish landscape, Astrid & Veronika is a lyrical and meditative novel of love and loss, and a story that will remain with readers long after the characters’ secrets are revealed.

Kindness of Your Nature

Kindness of Your Nature PDF Author: Linda Olsson
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1742532209
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Set on the desolate, moody coastline near Kawhia, this beautifully written and insightful novel paints a warm and sensitive portrait of the many forms love takes – the destructive, the forbidden and, ultimately, the healing. Marion Flint lives alone on the wild west coast of New Zealand's North Island. One day she meets a small boy, Ika, on the empty, rugged beach, and an unlikely friendship begins between the Swedish doctor and the solemn child with webbed feet and a fear of being touched. As Marion's involvement with Ika deepens she is forced to revisit her own lonely childhood in Sweden, where neglect and a destructive home environment had deadly consequences. But Marion's most deeply buried hurt is that she had to lose the love of her life twice over. As Marion and Ika grow closer, both begin to learn that human closeness can heal as well as destroy, and when it looks like Ika might have to return to his dysfunctional family, Marion must fight for him to stay with her – for his sake and hers. Also available as an eBook

Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs

Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs PDF Author: Linda Olsson
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1742539262
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
A stunning first novel that was to become an international bestseller. Veronika, a writer in her early thirties, rents a house in the Swedish countryside to finish her novel. She is also cocooning herself from her past. She befriends Astrid, a reclusive older woman who has lived in the village all her life. Olsson leads us through the flowering of their unusual and tender friendship, as they slowly and carefully reveal their life histories and sometimes heart-rending pasts. The Swedish landscape is always a powerful presence and measures the progress of the women's relationship; as the icy winter and bare trees give way to spring and then summer, the women's friendship deepens. Also available as an eBook

A Sister in My House

A Sister in My House PDF Author: Linda Olsson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 152470556X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Astrid & Veronika, a lyrical novel of two sisters bound together by a tragic moment from their past. Maria and Emma have not seen each other since their mother’s funeral two years ago. But now, Emma has come to visit Maria at her house in Spain, an unsettling intrusion on Maria’s quiet and solitary life. Over six days in the seaside town, the sisters cautiously recount the years of their separate adult lives. Their walks through the quiet town and evening talks on the terrace reveal almost more than Maria can deal with, until finally, the sisters confront their unspeakable family history. A Sister in My House is a compelling drama of grief and betrayal, but ultimately it is a story of hope and forgiveness.

The Memory of Love

The Memory of Love PDF Author: Linda Olsson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143122436
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
From the beloved author of Astrid & Veronika, a moving tale of friendship and redemption Fans of Astrid & Veronika and Chris Cleave's Little Bee will be thrilled to read Linda Olsson's third novel. Here is Olsson doing what she does best: illuminating the terrain of friendship and examining the many forms that love can take. Marion Flint, in her early fifties, has spent fifteen years living a quiet life on the rugged coast of New Zealand, a life that allows the door to her past to remain firmly shut. But a chance meeting with a young boy, Ika, and her desire to help him force Marion to open the Pandora’s box of her memory. Seized by a sudden urgency to make sense of her past, she examines each image one-by-one: her grandfather, her mother, her brother, her lover. Perhaps if she can create order from the chaos, her memories will be easier to carry. Perhaps she’ll be able to find forgiveness for the little girl that was her. For the young woman she had been. For the people she left behind. Olsson expertly interweaves scenes from Marion’s past with her quest to save Ika from his own tragic childhood, and renders with reflective tenderness the fragility of memory and the healing power of the heart.

Earth and High Heaven

Earth and High Heaven PDF Author: Gwethalyn Graham
Publisher: Cormorant Books
ISBN: 1770860312
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
When Erika Drake, of the Westmount Drakes, met and fell in love with Marc Reiser, a Jew from northern Ontario, their respective worlds were turned upside down. Set against the backdrop of the first three years of the Second World War, Earth and High Heaven captured the hearts and minds of its generation and helped to shape the more diverse and inclusive culture we have today. Published in 1944, this classic novel was very timely; it spoke of the prejudices of its time, when Gentiles and Jews did not mix in society. Earth and High Heaven was the most successful novel of its time, winning many awards and prizes, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1945 (an award founded to reward books that exposed racism or explored the richness of human diversity). It was translated into eighteen languages and the film rights were purchased by Samuel Goldwyn for a remarkable $100,000. Earth and High Heaven was the first Canadian novel to top the New York Times bestseller list for the better part of a year.

Second Person Singular

Second Person Singular PDF Author: Sayed Kashua
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802194648
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
An award-winning novel of love, betrayal, and Arab Israeli identity by the author of Dancing Arabs—“one of the most important contemporary Hebrew writers” (Haaretz). A successful Arab criminal attorney and a social worker-turned-artist find their lives intersecting under the most curious of circumstances. The lawyer has a thriving practice in Jerusalem, a large house, and a Mercedes. He speaks both Arabic and Hebrew, and lives with his wife and two young children. To maintain his image as a sophisticated Israeli Arab, he makes frequent visits to a local bookstore and picks up popular novels. But on one fateful evening, he decides to buy a used copy of Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata, a book his wife once recommended. Tucked in its pages, he finds a love letter, in Arabic . . . in his wife’s handwriting. Consumed with suspicion and jealousy, he decides to hunt down the book’s previous owner—a man named Yonatan. But Yonatan’s identity is more complex than the attorney imagined. In the process of dredging up old ghosts and secrets, the lawyer breaks the fragile threads that hold all of their lives together. Winner of the 2011 Bernstein Prize, Second Person Singular is “part comedy of manners, part psychological mystery” (The Boston Globe) that offers “sharp insights on the assumptions made about race, religion, ethnicity, and class that shape Israeli identity” (Publishers Weekly). “[Kashua’s] dry wit shines.” —Los Angeles Times “Kashua’s protagonists struggle, often comically . . . making his narratives more nuanced than some of the other Arabs writing about the conflict” —Newsweek “Sayed Kashua is a brilliant, funny, humane writer who effortlessly overturns any and all preconceptions about the Middle East. God, I love him.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet PDF Author: Jamie Ford
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345512502
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
"Sentimental, heartfelt….the exploration of Henry’s changing relationship with his family and with Keiko will keep most readers turning pages...A timely debut that not only reminds readers of a shameful episode in American history, but cautions us to examine the present and take heed we don’t repeat those injustices."-- Kirkus Reviews “A tender and satisfying novel set in a time and a place lost forever, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet gives us a glimpse of the damage that is caused by war--not the sweeping damage of the battlefield, but the cold, cruel damage to the hearts and humanity of individual people. Especially relevant in today's world, this is a beautifully written book that will make you think. And, more importantly, it will make you feel." -- Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain “Jamie Ford's first novel explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut.” -- Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept. Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart. BONUS: This edition contains a Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet discussion guide and an excerpt from Jamie Ford's Love and Other Consolation Prizes.

Jim and Louella's Homemade Heart-fix Remedy

Jim and Louella's Homemade Heart-fix Remedy PDF Author: Bertice Berry
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0767909895
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
A sizzling, smart, and utterly engaging novel about sex, love, folklore, and family history from the author of Redemption Song and The Haunting of Hip Hop. With her characteristic sense of humor and a good dose of motherly wit, Bertice Berry spins the endearing tale of Jim and Louella Johnson, an elderly couple in a southern town who have settled into a marriage that has long lost its pizzazz. Louella, fed up with her lackluster love life, decides to contact her departed ancestors for some advice. Conjuring up her mother, grandmother, and aunt in a dream, she receives a delightful lesson in the art of reigniting the fires of love. Even more startling, the Johnsons discover they can help others rejuvenate their passions, heal their hearts, and mend their souls Written in language that is folksy yet eloquent, Jim and Louella's Homemade Heart-Fix Remedy is an uplifting and flat-out funny celebration of the connections between past and present, the importance of family, and the pleasures of the body and the heart.