A Ladder to the Sky

A Ladder to the Sky PDF Author: John Boyne
Publisher: Hogarth
ISBN: 1984823035
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
“A satire of writerly ambition wrapped in a psychological thriller . . . An homage to Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, but its execution is entirely Boyne’s own.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent—but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel. Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall. . . . Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling, and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso. Praise for A Ladder to the Sky “Boyne's mastery of perspective, last seen in The Heart's Invisible Furies, works beautifully here. . . . Boyne understands that it's far more interesting and satisfying for a reader to see that narcissist in action than to be told a catchall phrase. Each step Maurice Swift takes skyward reveals a new layer of calumny he's willing to engage in, and the desperation behind it . . . so dark it seems almost impossible to enjoy reading A Ladder to the Sky as much as you definitely will enjoy reading it.”—NPR “Delicious . . . spins out over several decades with thrilling unpredictability, following Maurice as he masters the art of co-opting the stories of others in increasingly dubious ways. And while the book reads as a thriller with a body count that would make Highsmith proud, it is also an exploration of morality and art: Where is the line between inspiration and thievery? To whom does a story belong?”—Vanity Fair

A Ladder to the Sky

A Ladder to the Sky PDF Author: John Boyne
Publisher: Hogarth
ISBN: 1984823035
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book Here

Book Description
“A satire of writerly ambition wrapped in a psychological thriller . . . An homage to Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, but its execution is entirely Boyne’s own.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent—but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel. Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall. . . . Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling, and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso. Praise for A Ladder to the Sky “Boyne's mastery of perspective, last seen in The Heart's Invisible Furies, works beautifully here. . . . Boyne understands that it's far more interesting and satisfying for a reader to see that narcissist in action than to be told a catchall phrase. Each step Maurice Swift takes skyward reveals a new layer of calumny he's willing to engage in, and the desperation behind it . . . so dark it seems almost impossible to enjoy reading A Ladder to the Sky as much as you definitely will enjoy reading it.”—NPR “Delicious . . . spins out over several decades with thrilling unpredictability, following Maurice as he masters the art of co-opting the stories of others in increasingly dubious ways. And while the book reads as a thriller with a body count that would make Highsmith proud, it is also an exploration of morality and art: Where is the line between inspiration and thievery? To whom does a story belong?”—Vanity Fair

Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang PDF Author: Guoqiang Cai
Publisher: Prestel Publishing
ISBN: 9783791352428
Category : Art, Chinese
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Featuring stunning, never-before-published works, this is the most intimate book to date on the renowned Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. Produced in close collaboration with the artist, this volume documents new projects commissioned for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, alongside Cai Guo-Qiang's own survey of his artistic journey and the personal cosmology that informs his work. CONTRIBUTORS: Jeffrey Deitch Jeffrey Deitch is the Director of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Rebecca Morse Rebecca Morse is Associate Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Philipp Kaiser Philipp Kaiser has been a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art is Los Angeles since 2007. From 2001 through 2007 he was Curator at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel. He has written numerous contributions on contemporary art and has curated solo-exhibitions with Louise Lawler, Johanna Billing, Christian Philipp Müller, Simon Starling, Amelie von Wulffen, Sterling Ruby amongst others but also large-scale thematic exhibitions like »Flashback - Revisiting the Art of the 80s« and »Index - California Conceptualism«. He is currently working on the first American retrospective of Jack Goldstein. Philipp Kaiser will assume the post of Director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne in late 2012. About Shen Kuiyi Kuiyi Shen is Director of the Chinese Studies program and Professor of Asian Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the University of California, San Diego. Lesley Ma Lesley Ma, former Manager of Cai Studio, is earning her PhD in Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the University of California, San Diego. It features a rich sampling of Cai's wonderfully diverse oeuvre, including explosion events, gunpowder drawings, and installations. Informative essays and a conversation with the artist explore Cai's influences, from traditional Chinese scrolls and his father's miniature paintings to Asian philosophy and memories of his grandmother. Including never-before-published new works and unprecedented contributions by the artist himself, this book promises to be an important reference on Cai's art for years to come. ILLUSTRATION: 175 colour illustrations

Ladder to the Moon

Ladder to the Moon PDF Author: Maya Soetoro-Ng
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 076366667X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 49

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Book Description
From Maya Soetoro-Ng, sister of President Obama, comes a lyrical story relaying the loving wisdom of their late mother to a young granddaughter she never met. (Ages 4-8) Features an audio read-along performed by the author! Little Suhaila wishes she could have known her grandma, who would wrap her arms around the whole world if she could, Mama says. And one night, Suhaila gets her wish when a golden ladder appears at her window, and Grandma Annie invites the girl to come along with her on a magical journey. In a rich and deeply personal narrative, Maya Soetoro-Ng draws inspiration from her mother’s love for family, her empathy for others, and her ethic of service to imagine this remarkable meeting. Evoking fantasy and folklore, the story touches on events that have affected people across the world in our time and reaffirms our common humanity. Yuyi Morales’s breathtaking artwork illuminates the dreamlike tale, reminding us that loved ones lost are always with us, and that sometimes we need only look at the moon and remember.

The Ladder

The Ladder PDF Author: Halfdan Rasmussen
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
ISBN: 9780763622824
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
A jolly ladder, left behind by a strange carpenter, takes on a life of its own and embarks on a grand journey through the countryside where it encounters people and animals, who, after climbing it to the top and disappearing into the sky, return in a special way!

Ladder to the Light

Ladder to the Light PDF Author: Steven Charleston
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 1506465749
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Darkness will not last forever. Together we can climb toward the light. They were as troubled as we, our ancestors, those who came before us, and all for the very same reasons: fear of illness, a broken heart, fights in the family, the threat of another war. Corrupt politicians walked their stage, and natural disasters appeared without warning. And yet they came through, carrying us within them, through the grief and struggle, through the personal pain and the public chaos, finding their way with love and faith, not giving in to despair but walking upright until their last step was taken. My culture does not honor the ancestors as a quaint spirituality of the past but as a living source of strength for the present. They did it and so will we. In the same voice that has comforted and challenged countless readers through his daily social media posts, Choctaw elder and Episcopal priest Steven Charleston offers words of hard-won hope, rooted in daily conversations with the Spirit and steeped in Indigenous wisdom. Every day Charleston spends time in prayer. Every day he writes down what he hears from the Spirit. In Ladder to the Light he shares what he has heard with the rest of us and adds thoughtful reflection to help guide us to the light Native America knows something about cultivating resilience and resisting darkness. For all who yearn for hope, Ladder to the Light is a book of comfort, truth, and challenge in a time of anguish and fear.

Ladder to the Stars

Ladder to the Stars PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780645651409
Category : Sculpture, Australian
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


We Walked the Sky

We Walked the Sky PDF Author: Lisa Fiedler
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451480813
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
A stunning, multigenerational story about two teenagers: Victoria, who joins the circus in 1965, and her granddaughter, Callie, who leaves the circus fifty years later. Perfect for fans of This is Us. In 1965 seventeen-year-old Victoria, having just escaped an unstable home, flees to the ultimate place for dreamers and runaways--the circus. Specifically, the VanDrexel Family Circus where, among the lion tamers, roustabouts, and trapeze artists, Victoria hopes to start a better life. Fifty years later, Victoria's sixteen-year-old granddaughter Callie is thriving. A gifted and focused tightrope walker with dreams of being a VanDrexel high wire legend just like her grandmother, Callie can't imagine herself anywhere but the circus. But when Callie's mother accepts her dream job at an animal sanctuary in Florida just months after Victoria's death, Callie is forced to leave her lifelong home behind. Feeling unmoored and out of her element, Callie pores over memorabilia from her family's days on the road, including a box that belonged to Victoria when she was Callie's age. In the box, Callie finds notes that Victoria wrote to herself with tips and tricks for navigating her new world. Inspired by this piece of her grandmother's life, Callie decides to use Victoria's circus prowess to navigate the uncharted waters of public high school. Across generations, Victoria and Callie embrace the challenges of starting over, letting go, and finding new families in unexpected places.

Up the Ladder, Down the Slide

Up the Ladder, Down the Slide PDF Author: Betsy Everitt
Publisher: HMH Books For Young Readers
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Children go to the park to have a picnic together and play on the slide.

The Second Child

The Second Child PDF Author: John Boyne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781405622707
Category : Domestic fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description


A Stairway to Paradise

A Stairway to Paradise PDF Author: Madeleine St John
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921656115
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Alex and Andrew are friends. And Barbara...Barbara is a goddess. Here is the eternal triangle, the story of three people in an unhappy tangle of emotions, none able to articulate the precise quality of their longing and dissatisfaction. Are any of them truly interested in reaching the ‘paradise’ they claim to be seeking, or are they actually trying to avoid it? In St. John’s hands, what is commonplace is transformed and transcendent. This is the work of an extraordinary writer.