Open Doors and Three Novellas

Open Doors and Three Novellas PDF Author: Leonardo Sciascia
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
“A miniature masterpiece [by] one of the most distinctive voices in 20th-century European literature.”—The New York Times Book Review From one of modern Italy’s greatest writers come four flawless novellas that combine history and fiction while mapping the treacherous relations between individuals and the state. Whether set amid the paranoia of the fascist past or the criminal and political labyrinths of present-day Italy, the novellas in Open Doors are thrillers of Kafkaesque moral gravity, beautifully written and relentlessly engrossing. “During the last quarter century, Sciascia has made of his curious Sicilian experience a literature that is not quite like anything else ever done by a European.”—Gore Vidal “Sciascia has claimed a niche in the critical pantheon comparable to [that of] Pirandello and Borges.”—Washington Post Book World “Combining fiction, historical meditation, philosophy and intellectual detective work . . . these novels [are] a poignant gleam of the elusive gold standard in literature.”—Newsday “Our century’s most brilliant writer-detective.”—Village Voice

Open Doors and Three Novellas

Open Doors and Three Novellas PDF Author: Leonardo Sciascia
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
“A miniature masterpiece [by] one of the most distinctive voices in 20th-century European literature.”—The New York Times Book Review From one of modern Italy’s greatest writers come four flawless novellas that combine history and fiction while mapping the treacherous relations between individuals and the state. Whether set amid the paranoia of the fascist past or the criminal and political labyrinths of present-day Italy, the novellas in Open Doors are thrillers of Kafkaesque moral gravity, beautifully written and relentlessly engrossing. “During the last quarter century, Sciascia has made of his curious Sicilian experience a literature that is not quite like anything else ever done by a European.”—Gore Vidal “Sciascia has claimed a niche in the critical pantheon comparable to [that of] Pirandello and Borges.”—Washington Post Book World “Combining fiction, historical meditation, philosophy and intellectual detective work . . . these novels [are] a poignant gleam of the elusive gold standard in literature.”—Newsday “Our century’s most brilliant writer-detective.”—Village Voice

Three Novellas

Three Novellas PDF Author: Thomas Bernhard
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022607420X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Thomas Bernhard is "one of the masters of contemporary European fiction" (George Steiner); "one of the century's most gifted writers" (New York Newsday); "a virtuoso of rancor and rage" (Bookforum). And although he is favorably compared with Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and Robert Musil, Thomas Bernhard still remains relatively unknown in America. Uninitiated readers should consider Three Novellas a passport to the absurd, dark, and uncommonly comic world of Bernhard. Two of the three novellas here have never before been published in English, and all of them show an early preoccupation with the themes-illness and madness, isolation, tragic friendships-that would obsess Bernhard throughout his career. Amras, one of his earliest works, tells the story of two brothers, one epileptic, who have survived a family suicide pact and are now living in a ruined tower, struggling with madness, trying either to come fully back to life or finally to die. In Playing Watten, the narrator, a doctor who lost his practice due to morphine abuse, describes a visit paid him by a truck driver who wanted the doctor to return to his habit of playing a game of cards (watten) every Wednesday—a habit that the doctor had interrupted when one of the players killed himself. The last novella, Walking, records the conversations of the narrator and his friend Oehler while they walk, discussing anything that comes to mind but always circling back to their mutual friend Karrer, who has gone irrevocably mad. Perhaps the most overtly philosophical work in Bernhard's highly philosophical oeuvre, Walking provides a penetrating meditation on the impossibility of truly thinking. Three Novellas offers a superb introduction to the fiction of perhaps the greatest unsung hero of twentieth-century literature. Rarely have the words suffocating, intense, and obsessive been meant so positively.

The Diving Pool

The Diving Pool PDF Author: Yoko Ogawa
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1429924950
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
The first major English translation of one of contemporary Japan's bestselling and most celebrated authors From Akutagawa Award-winning author Yoko Ogawa comes a haunting trio of novellas about love, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures may contain a hairline crack of cruel intent. A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool--a peculiar infatuation that sends unexpected ripples through her life. A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, taking meticulous note of a pregnancy that may or may not be a hallucination--but whose hallucination is it, hers or her sister's? A woman nostalgically visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo, a boarding house run by a mysterious triple amputee with one leg. Hauntingly spare, beautiful, and twisted, The Diving Pool is a disquieting and at times darkly humorous collection of novellas about normal people who suddenly discover their own dark possibilities.

Seeking Sicily

Seeking Sicily PDF Author: John Keahey
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0312597053
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Explores the unique culture of Sicily, discussing its history, archaeology, food, the Mafia, and politics.

Contemporary World Fiction

Contemporary World Fiction PDF Author: Juris Dilevko
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1598849093
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 554

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Book Description
This much-needed guide to translated literature offers readers the opportunity to hear from, learn about, and perhaps better understand our shrinking world from the perspective of insiders from many cultures and traditions. In a globalized world, knowledge about non-North American societies and cultures is a must. Contemporary World Fiction: A Guide to Literature in Translation provides an overview of the tremendous range and scope of translated world fiction available in English. In so doing, it will help readers get a sense of the vast world beyond North America that is conveyed by fiction titles from dozens of countries and language traditions. Within the guide, approximately 1,000 contemporary non-English-language fiction titles are fully annotated and thousands of others are listed. Organization is primarily by language, as language often reflects cultural cohesion better than national borders or geographies, but also by country and culture. In addition to contemporary titles, each chapter features a brief overview of earlier translated fiction from the group. The guide also provides in-depth bibliographic essays for each chapter that will enable librarians and library users to further explore the literature of numerous languages and cultural traditions.

Sicily

Sicily PDF Author: Sandra Benjamin
Publisher: Steerforth
ISBN: 1586421816
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Take a tour through the Mediterranean’s largest island in this fascinating history of Sicily for armchair travelers, history buffs, and anyone planning their next trip to Italy. PLUS: Includes Sicily travel guide resources like maps, pronunciation keys, and suggestions for further reading! The emigration of people from Sicily often overshadows the importance of the people who immigrated to its shores throughout the centuries. Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, Spaniards, Bourbons, the Savoy Kingdom of Italy—and countless others—have all held sway and left lasting influences on the island’s culture and architecture. Moreover, Sicily’s character has been shaped by what has passed it by. Events that affected Europe, namely the Crusades and Columbus’ discovery of the Americas, had little influence on Italy’s most famous island. A fascinating history of Sicily for the general reader, this book examines how location turned this charming Mediterranean island into the epicenter of major historical conquests, cultures, and more. Complete with maps, biographical notes, suggestions for further reading, a glossary, and pronunciation keys, this is at once a useful travel guide and an informative, entertaining exploration of the island’s remarkable history.

Organized Crime on Page and Screen

Organized Crime on Page and Screen PDF Author: David Geherin
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476654743
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Thanks to writers like Mario Puzo, filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and actors like Al Pacino and James Gandolfini, American and Sicilian Mafia characters are well-known figures in contemporary popular culture. Other powerful organized crime groups appearing in popular media include the Neapolitan Camorra and Mexican drug cartels. This book takes a close look at all these examples of organized crime by examining the different ways these organizations and their members have been portrayed in many of our most popular novels, movies, and TV series, and how the gangster figure has evolved from its earliest depictions in a trio of Hollywood films in the 1930s up to the present day.

Spectral Shadows: Three Supernatural Novellas

Spectral Shadows: Three Supernatural Novellas PDF Author: Robert Westall
Publisher: Valancourt Books
ISBN: 194391043X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Three supernatural novellas by Robert Westall, hailed as the finest British author of ghost stories since M.R. James, collected together for the first time BLACKHAM’S WIMPEY Why should three successive crews flying a Second World War bomber – Blackham’s Wimpey – be driven to madness, despair, even death, though the plane returns from each mission without a scratch? ‘A writer of disturbing brilliance’ – Times Educational Supplement THE WHEATSTONE POND Too many deaths, too many suicides. It was more than coincidence. The Wheatstone Pond was a killer. When it’s drained, antique dealer Jeff Morgan gets interested, hoping there’ll be a few valuable wrecks of model boats down there. He isn’t prepared for the horror he will

The Collected Novellas & Short Stories of Anton Chekhov (200+ Titles in Multiple Translations)

The Collected Novellas & Short Stories of Anton Chekhov (200+ Titles in Multiple Translations) PDF Author: Anton Chekhov
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN: 8027201403
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 2868

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Book Description
This unique edition of Anton Chekhov's collected novellas and short stories has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Excerpt: "Life is a vexatious trap; when a thinking man reaches maturity and attains to full consciousness he cannot help feeling that he is in a trap from which there is no escape.”Ward No. Six (1892) Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is often referred to as one of the seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. He made no apologies for the difficulties he posed to the readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them. Contents: Living Chattel Joy Bliss At The Barber's Enigmatic Nature Classical Student Matter of Classics Death of A Government Clerk Daughter of Albion Trousseau Inquiry Fat and Thin Tragic Actor Slanderer Bird Market Choristers Album Minds in Ferment Chameleon In The Graveyard Oysters Swedish Match Safety Match The Marshal's Widow Small Fry In an Hotel Boots Nerves Country Cottage Malingerers Fish Horsey Name Gone Astray Huntsman Malefactor Head of the Family Dead Body Cook's Wedding In A Strange Land Overdoing It Old Age Sorrow Oh! The Public Mari D'Elle The Looking-Glass Art A Blunder Children Misery Upheaval Actor's End The Requiem Anyuta Ivan Matveyitch The Witch Story Without an End Joke Agafya Nightmare Grisha Love Easter Eve Ladies Strong Impressions Gentleman Friend Happy Man Privy Councilor Day in the Country At a Summer Villa Panic Fears Chemist's Wife Not Wanted Chorus Girl Schoolmaster Troublesome Visitor Husband Misfortune Pink Stocking Martyrs First-Class Passenger Talent Dependents Jeune Premier In The Dark Trivial Incident Tripping Tongue Trifle from Life Difficult People In the Court Peculiar Man Mire Dreams Hush Excellent People An Incident Orator Work of Art Who Was to Blame? On The Road Vanka Champagne Frost Beggar ...

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture PDF Author: Gino Moliterno
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000947556
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1249

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Book Description
This rigorously compiled A-Z volume offers rich, readable coverage of the diverse forms of post-1945 Italian culture. With over 900 entries by international contributors, this volume is genuinely interdisciplinary in character, treating traditional political, economic, and legal concerns, with a particular emphasis on neglected areas of popular culture. Entries range from short definitions, histories or biographies to longer overviews covering themes, movements, institutions and personalities, from advertising to fascism, and Pirelli to Zeffirelli. The Encyclopedia aims to inform and inspire both teachers and students in the following fields: *Italian language and literature *Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences *European Studies *Media and Cultural Studies *Business and Management *Art and Design It is extensively cross-referenced, has a thematic contents list and suggestions for further reading.