Author: Paul Auster
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0312990960
Category : Absence and presumption of death
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost silent film by comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years. When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico-supposedly written by Hector's wife. "Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever. This stunning novel plunges the reader into a universe in which the comic and the tragic, the real and the imagined, the violent and the tender dissolve into one another. With The Book of Illusions, one of America's most powerful and original writers has written his richest, most emotionally charged work yet.
Author: Tom Savini
Publisher: Imagine (PA)
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 146
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Book Description
Author: Andreas Reckwitz
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509545719
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 167
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Book Description
We live in a time of great uncertainty about the future. Those heady days of the late twentieth century, when the end of the Cold War seemed to be ushering in a new and more optimistic age, now seem like a distant memory. During the last couple of decades, we’ve been battered by one crisis after another and the idea that humanity is on a progressive path to a better future seems like an illusion. It is only now that we can see clearly the real scope and structure of the profound shifts that Western societies have undergone over the last 30 years. Classical industrial society has been transformed into a late-modern society that is molded by polarization and paradoxes. The pervasive singularization of the social, the orientation toward the unique and exceptional, generates systematic asymmetries and disparities, and hence progress and unease go hand in hand. Reckwitz examines this dual structure of singularization and polarization as it plays itself out in the different sectors of our societies and, in so doing, he outlines the central structural features of the present: the new class society, the characteristics of a postindustrial economy, the conflict about culture and identity, the exhaustion of the self resulting from the imperative to seek authentic fulfillment, and the political crisis of liberalism. Building on his path-breaking work The Society of Singularities, this new book will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, politics, and the social sciences generally, and to anyone concerned with the great social and political issues of our time.
Author: Richard Langton Gregory
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0192802852
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 253
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Book Description
It looks so easy. Open your eyes, and immediately there is a world of objects in glorious Technicolour. It takes no time or effort - perception just happens. Or does it? As this book discusses, the more that has been discovered about the senses and the brain, the more we know that seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting depend on incredibly complicated physiology. This book is about the phenomena of perception. It covers the evolution of the sense organs, through to how perception really works and the phenomena of illusions as keys for unlocking secrets of perception.
Author: Abimbola Lagunju
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595376053
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 205
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Book Description
Hillview, a densely populated and poor working class neighborhood is the melting pot for all those who dream to make it to the Plateau, the plush city center, a seemingly unrelated appendage to the squalor in the country. It is also a rallying point for those who had made it to the Plateau and rolled down its very steep sides. Disillusioned by the persistent failure of politicians to deliver on many pre-election promises and crushed under the weight of economic hardships, Hillview inhabitants conclude that they are on the brink of imminent extinction. Under the guidance of the local barman, the Association for the Prevention of Extinction (APE) intended to secure funds from the IMF and the WWF is conceived. The struggle to occupy important posts in the APE leads to an early break up of the association into three factions. Akinola Igwe, an easy going, honest and law-abiding inhabitant of Hillview and a reluctant leader of one of the factions of APE soon becomes entangled in intrigues, manipulations, and threats . Days of Illusions is a satire on contemporary African politics.
Author: Laure Maj
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781770857568
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
An incredible 365 optical illusions.
Author: Aprilynne Pike
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062077090
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 330
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Book Description
"I don't do patrols, I don't go hunting, I just stick close to you. You live your life. I'll keep you safe," Tamani said, sweeping a lock of hair from her face. "Or die trying." Laurel hasn't seen Tamani since she begged him to let her go last year. Though her heart still aches, Laurel is confident that David was the right choice. But just as life returns to normal, Laurel realizes that a hidden enemy lies in wait. Once again, Laurel must turn to Tamani to protect and guide her, for the danger that now threatens Avalon is one that no faerie thought would ever be possible. And for the first time, Laurel cannot be sure that her side will prevail.
Author: Andrew Bacevich
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1250175097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144
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Book Description
A thought-provoking and penetrating account of the post-Cold war follies and delusions that culminated in the age of Donald Trump from the bestselling author of The Limits of Power. When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington establishment felt it had prevailed in a world-historical struggle. Our side had won, a verdict that was both decisive and irreversible. For the world’s “indispensable nation,” its “sole superpower,” the future looked very bright. History, having brought the United States to the very summit of power and prestige, had validated American-style liberal democratic capitalism as universally applicable. In the decades to come, Americans would put that claim to the test. They would embrace the promise of globalization as a source of unprecedented wealth while embarking on wide-ranging military campaigns to suppress disorder and enforce American values abroad, confident in the ability of U.S. forces to defeat any foe. Meanwhile, they placed all their bets on the White House to deliver on the promise of their Cold War triumph: unequaled prosperity, lasting peace, and absolute freedom. In The Age of Illusions, bestselling author Andrew Bacevich takes us from that moment of seemingly ultimate victory to the age of Trump, telling an epic tale of folly and delusion. Writing with his usual eloquence and vast knowledge, he explains how, within a quarter of a century, the United States ended up with gaping inequality, permanent war, moral confusion, and an increasingly angry and alienated population, as well, of course, as the strangest president in American history.
Author: Gianni Sarcone
Publisher: Arcturus
ISBN: 9781848378308
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Throughout the book, each image is accompanied by an explanation of how it works, the story behind it – when it was discovered or who invented it first – and the details of exactly why it fools the human brain. The book includes many new and previously unpublished illusions, as well as new adaptations of lesser-known illusions. It also includes works by well-known illusion artists such as Bridget Riley, Salvador Dalí, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Oscar Reutersvärd, René Magritte, István Orosz and Rob Gonsalves. There are chapters on the following subjects: optical illusions from the real world (mirage, refraction, afterimage), ambiguous figures, impossible figures, color adaptation, moving illusions and paradoxical illusions.
Author: Chitra Divakaruni
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 0330478656
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 388
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Book Description
The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half-history, half-myth, and wholly magical; narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the five Pandava brothers, we are - finally - given a woman's take on the timeless tale that is the Mahabharata Tracing Panchaali's life - from fiery birth and lonely childhood, where her beloved brother is her only true companion; through her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna; to marriage, motherhood and Panchaali's secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy - The Palace of Illusions is a deeply human novel about a woman born into a man's world - a world of warriors, gods and the ever manipulating hands of fate. ‘A mythic tale brimming with warriors, magic and treachery’ Los Angeles Times ‘A radiant entree into an ancient mythology . . . Charming and remarkable’ Houston Chronicle ‘A woman’s look at crime and punishment, loyalty, promises, love and vengeance . . . With The Palace of Illusions, Divakaruni has proven that her storytelling talents put her right up there with the best’ Miami Herald
