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An Absolute Turkey (Oberon Classics)
by Peter Hall Georges Feydeau Nicki FreiGeorges Feydeau (1862-1921), the supreme master of farce, devoted his skills to exploding hypocrisy in a very self-important age. An Absolute Turkey (Le Dindon) is one of his best loved plays. He displays all his dramatic tricks as the characters are pulled back and forth by an escalating series of complications. This translation received its London premiere at the Globe Theatre in January 1994.
Absolute Zero: BookShots
by James PattersonJames Patterson’s BookShots. Short, fast-paced, high-impact entertainment.Fear the man who has nothing left to lose…Cody Thurston is working his usual shift at the rough East London pub he calls home. When a group of out-of-towners walk in looking for trouble, Thurston sends them on their way using some not-so-gentle persuasion.As a former special forces operative in the Australian military, Thurston can handle trouble. But these men are more dangerous than he realises, and the actions they take will leave Thurston homeless, alone and seeking revenge.
Absolutely and Forever: An electrifying love story from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lily
by Rose Tremain‘Gorgeous’ Observer * ‘Profoundly moving’ Financial Times * ‘Electrifying’ Daily MailHow do you find the courage to make your own life? An electrifying novel about first love set in 1960s London from the bestselling Rose TremainMarianne is fifteen when she falls helplessly and absolutely in love with Simon. Simon owns a Morris Minor, is in his final year at school and has a dazzling future ahead of him. Desperate to escape the stifling 1950s suburbs she has been raised in, Marianne feels sure she will be able to find true happiness with him.However a twist of fate sees Simon’s glittering future dashed and with it Marianne’s dreams. He flees the country and Marianne, realising she will now have to make a life of her own, moves to London determined to reinvent herself. But Marianne cannot let go of that first all-encompassing love and all the while Simon is in Paris, nursing a secret that will alter everything.‘A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… Remarkable… Tremain shows us the things that make every human life extraordinary’ The Times‘A complex tale of becoming that’s moving, evocative and mesmerising in its acuity’ Mail on SundayA Sunday Times Book of the Year * Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction *READERS LOVE ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:'Heartrending, funny, unputdownable' 5*****'An undoubted modern classic' 5*****'Marianne will remain with me as a friend' 5*****'A masterclass in character and world building ... the writing is just sublime' 5*****
Absolutely Perhaps
by Luigi PirandelloA brand new adaptation of Pirandello's first play.No one has ever seen Signor Ponza's wife and her mother, Signora Frola together. Also, the neighbours have become suspicious because Signora Ponza never leaves her home and start asking questions. Ponza claims that this wife is really his second wife, the first having died in an earthquake that destroyed all records. Meanwhile his wife only pretends to be Signora Frola's daughter to humour Signora Frola, who, he claims, is insane. Thoroughly bewildered, Agazzi demands to meet Ponza's wife, who arrives heavily veiled proclaiming herself as both the daughter of Signora Frola and the second wife of Signor Ponza. Absolutely! {Perhaps} is brilliant comedy on the elusive nature of identity and reality and, like all of Pirandello's work, shows truth as subjective and relative and drama itself a mystery.Absolutely! {Perhaps} is published to coincide with the production at London's Wyndham's theatre starring Joan Plowright and directed by Franco Zeffirelli.
Absolutely Perhaps (Methuen Fast Track Playscripts Ser.)
by Luigi PirandelloA brand new adaptation of Pirandello's first play.No one has ever seen Signor Ponza's wife and her mother, Signora Frola together. Also, the neighbours have become suspicious because Signora Ponza never leaves her home and start asking questions. Ponza claims that this wife is really his second wife, the first having died in an earthquake that destroyed all records. Meanwhile his wife only pretends to be Signora Frola's daughter to humour Signora Frola, who, he claims, is insane. Thoroughly bewildered, Agazzi demands to meet Ponza's wife, who arrives heavily veiled proclaiming herself as both the daughter of Signora Frola and the second wife of Signor Ponza. Absolutely! {Perhaps} is brilliant comedy on the elusive nature of identity and reality and, like all of Pirandello's work, shows truth as subjective and relative and drama itself a mystery.Absolutely! {Perhaps} is published to coincide with the production at London's Wyndham's theatre starring Joan Plowright and directed by Franco Zeffirelli.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: A Novel (Jacob’s Ladder #1)
by Hank GreenIF YOU CAME ACROSS AN ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE THING AT 3 A.M. IN NEW YORK CITY . . .WOULD YOU KEEP WALKING?OR DO THE ONE THING THAT WOULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER?**************** The Carls just appeared . . .While roaming the streets of New York City at 3 a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture she calls Carl. Delighted by its appearance - like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armour - April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. There are Carls in dozens of cities around the world - everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires - and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the centre of an international media spotlight. Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us . . . Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with how the social internet is changing fame and radicalisation; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration can follow a life in the public eye. ***************** 'A fun, contemporary adventure that cares about who we are as humans, especially when faced with remarkable events' Kirkus (starred review) 'Hank Green hasn't just written a great mystery adventure (though he has), and he hasn't just written the most interesting meditation on the internet and fame I've ever seen (but he did that too), Hank has written a book [that] expands your mind while taking you on a hell of a ride' Joseph Fink, author of Welcome to Night Vale'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is pure book joy' Lev Grossman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians Trilogy 'Fun and full of truth. To be honest, I'm a little irritated at how good the book is. I don't need this kind of competition' Patrick Rothfuss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kingkiller Chronicles
Absolutely Smashing It: When #fml means family
by Kathryn Wallace***Unmissable, hilarious and kind, this is the first novel from Kathryn Wallace, who blogs as I Know, I Need to Stop Talking***"SAM! AVA! Get downstairs, NOW. Have you done your TEETH? HAIR? SHOES? Come on, come on, come on, we're going to be bastarding late again. No, I haven't seen Lego Optimus Prime, and nor do I give a shit about his whereabouts. Sam, will you stop winding your sister up and take this model of the Shard that I painstakingly sat up and created for you last night so that I wouldn't be in trouble with your teacher. I mean, so that you wouldn't be in trouble with your teacher. No, it doesn't smell of 'dirty wine'. Well, maybe it does a little bit. Look, Sam, I haven't got time to argue. Just hold your nose and get in the car, okay? AVA! TEETH! HAIR! SHOES!" Gemma is only just holding it together - she's a single parent, she's turning 40 and her seven-year-old daughter has drawn a cruelly accurate picture which locates Gemma's boobs somewhere around her knees. So when her new next-door neighbour, Becky, suggests that Gemma should start dating again, it takes a lot of self-control not to laugh in her face. But Becky is very persuasive and before long Gemma finds herself juggling a full-time job, the increasingly insane demands of the school mums' Facebook group and the tricky etiquette of a new dating world. Not only that, but Gemma has to manage her attraction to her daughter's teacher, Tom, who has swapped his life in the City for teaching thirty six to seven year olds spelling, grammar, basic fractions - and why it's not ok to call your classmate a stinky poo-bum...It's going to be a long year - and one in which Gemma and Becky will learn a really crucial lesson: that in the end, being a good parent is just about being good enough.Readers love this hilarious, fast paced slice of family life:***** Utterly hysterical - NetGalley Reader***** Brilliant... Funny, touching and modern... just amazing - NetGalley Reader***** I have been a mum at the school gates and the observations in this book are spot on. I shall be recommending it to all the school mums I know - NetGalley Reader**** A perfect read to snort with laughter over whilst lying in a bath with a glass of bubbles (if you can get the kids to stay out of the bathroom for long enough)! - NetGalley Reader**** Kathryn Wallace has Absolutely Smashed It with this novel. I loved it and couldn't put it down... had me properly laughing out loud several times - NetGalley Reader**** This will make you giggle about life as a parent where we are all spinning plates of different sizes and at different speeds. I would recommend wholeheartedly to fellow friends who are also spinning their own plates! - NetGalley Reader***** A hilariously, honest, open, recognisable and highly relatable story - NetGalley Reader***** A light hearted but honest look at mummies, yummy mummies and can't quite manage everything mummies - NetGalley Reader
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman AlexieAn all-new edition of the tragicomic smash hit which stormed the New York Times bestseller charts, now featuring an introduction from Markus Zusak.In his first book for young adults, Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. This heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written tale, featuring poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, is based on the author's own experiences. It chronicles contemporary adolescence as seen through the eyes of one Native American boy.'Excellent in every way' Neil GaimanIllustrated in a contemporary cartoon style by Ellen Forney.
Absolution: 2012 WINNER OF THE SPEAR’S FIRST BEST BOOK AWARD
by Patrick FlaneryWinner of the Spear's First Best Book Award, 2012 Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, 2012 Longlisted for the Guardian Book Award, 2012 Longlisted for the Green Carnation Prize, 2012 Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2014 In her garden, ensconced in the lush vegetation of the Western Cape, Clare Wald, world-renowned author, mother, critic, takes up her pen and confronts her life. Sam Leroux has returned to South Africa to embark upon a project that will establish his reputation - he is to write Clare's biography. But how honest is she prepared to be? Was she complicit in crimes lurking in South Africa's past; is she an accomplice or a victim? Are her crimes against her family real or imagined? In the stories she weaves and the truth just below the surface of her shimmering prose, lie Sam's own ghosts.
Absolution (Claymore Straker #4)
by Paul E. HardistyIt’s 1997, and eight months since vigilante justice-seeker Claymore Straker fled South Africa after his explosive testimony to Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.In Paris, Rania LaTour, Claymore’s former lover, comes home to find that her son and her husband, a celebrated human rights lawyer, have disappeared.On an isolated island off the coast of East Africa, the family that Clay has befriended is murdered as he watches.So begins the fourth instalment in the Claymore Straker series, a breakneck journey through the darkest reaches of the human soul, as Clay and Rain fight to uncover the mystery behind the disappearances and murders, and find those responsible.Relentlessly pursued by those who want them dead, they must work together to uncover the truth, and to find a way to survive in a world gone mad.At times brutal, often lyrical, but always gripping, Absolution is a thriller that will leave you breathless and questioning the very basis of how we live and why we love.‘A trenchant and engaging thriller that unravels this mysterious land in cool, precise sentences’ Stav Sherez, Catholic Herald‘This is a remarkably well-written, sophisticated novel in which the people and places, as well as frequent scenes of violent action, all come alive on the page...’ Literary Review‘Gripping and exciting … the quality of Hardisty’s writing and the underlying truth of his plots sets this above many other thrillers’ West Australian‘Searing … at times achieves the level of genuine poetry’ Publishers Weekly‘A stormer of a thriller - vividly written, utterly tropical, totally gripping’ Peter James‘Beautifully written, blisteringly authentic, heart-stoppingly tense and unusually moving’ Paul Johnston‘The plot burns through petrol, with multiple twists and turns’ Vicky Newham‘A solid, meaty thriller – Hardisty is a fine writer and Straker is a great lead character’ Lee Child‘A fast-paced action thriller, beautifully written’ Tim Marshall, author of Prisoners of Geography
Absolution
by Alice McDermott'Absolution is one of the finest contemporary novels I've read. It is a moral masterpiece.'ANN PATCHETT'Her writing has a luminous kind of clarity, a grace and scope that fills me with wonder'RACHEL JOYCE'Damning and dazzling, this is the story of a Vietnam we never got in history class' OPRAH DAILYYou have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives. 1963. Saigon. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney working for US Navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. The two women form a wary alliance as they struggle to balance the pressure to be respectable wives for their ambitious husbands, with their own dubious impulses to “do good” for the people of Vietnam. Sixty years later, Charlene's daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam veteran, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, discovering how their lives as women on the periphery - of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands' convictions - have been shaped and burdened by the unintended consequences of America's tragic interference in Southeast Asia. Exploring the disaster of the Vietnam War through the lives built by American wives in 1960s Saigon, this is a virtuosic novel about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice and the quest for absolution in a broken world.
Absolution
by Alice McDermott'Absolution is one of the finest contemporary novels I've read. It is a moral masterpiece.'ANN PATCHETT'Her writing has a luminous kind of clarity, a grace and scope that fills me with wonder'RACHEL JOYCE'Damning and dazzling, this is the story of a Vietnam we never got in history class' OPRAH DAILYYou have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives. 1963. Saigon. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney working for US Navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. The two women form a wary alliance as they struggle to balance the pressure to be respectable wives for their ambitious husbands, with their own dubious impulses to “do good” for the people of Vietnam. Sixty years later, Charlene's daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam veteran, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, discovering how their lives as women on the periphery - of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands' convictions - have been shaped and burdened by the unintended consequences of America's tragic interference in Southeast Asia. Exploring the disaster of the Vietnam War through the lives built by American wives in 1960s Saigon, this is a virtuosic novel about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice and the quest for absolution in a broken world.
Absolution: An Anderson and Costello Thriller (Anderson and Costello #1)
by Caro RamsayCaro Ramsay's Absolution is the first in her much-loved Anderson and Costello series.The Crucifixion Killer is stalking Glasgow ... leaving victims' mutilated bodies in a Christ-like pose. DCI Alan McAlpine - a renowned and successful police officer - is drafted in to lead the hunt, supported by local officers DI Anderson and DS Costello.But the past holds horrific memories for McAlpine. He last worked this beat some twenty years earlier, when he was assigned to guard a woman - nameless and faceless after a sadistic acid attack - at a Glasgow hospital. An obsession was born at that hospital room that has never quite left McAlpine . . . and now it seems to be resurfacing. For a reason.As the chase to halt the gruesome murders intensifies, so Anderson and Costello find chilling cause for concern uncomfortably close to home . . .Reissued with a stunning new package, Caro Ramsay's Anderson & Costello thrillers have been widely recognised as one of the most significant new series in the genre in recent years and Ramsay's utterly unique investigators are ready to become the nation's favourite Scottish cop duo. Absolution is the amazing opening to this stunning series. Subsequent titles include Dark Water and Singing to the Dead. Fans of Ian Rankin and Val McDermid will love this series.Praise for Caro Ramsay:'Brilliant in twisting the tension tauter with each page' Guardian'Ramsay handles her characters with aplomb, the dialogue crackles and the search for the killer has surprising twists and turns' Observer'Many shivers in store for readers, followed by a shattering climax' The TimesCaro Ramsay was born in Glasgow and now lives in a village on the west coast of Scotland. Absolution is her first novel, which was shortlisted for the CWA's New Blood Dagger for best debut of the year. This success was followed by two further DI Anderson and DS Costello novels, Singing to the Dead and Dark Water. The fourth book in the same series, The Blood of Crows, is also released this summer.
Absolution: A Novel Of Suspense (Anderson and Costello thrillers #1)
by Caro Ramsay'Glasgow comes alive in Ramsay's dark, vivid and daring thriller' VAL McDERMID ‘A cracker of a debut . . . Many shivers in store for readers followed by a shattering climax’ Times The Crucifixion Killer is stalking Glasgow, leaving victims’ mutilated bodies in a Christ-like pose. DCI Alan McAlpine is drafted in to lead the hunt, supported by local officers DI Anderson and DS Costello. But the past holds horrific memories for McAlpine. He last worked this beat some twenty years earlier, when he was assigned to guard a woman – faceless after a sadistic acid attack – at a Glasgow hospital. An obsession was born at that hospital room that has never quite left McAlpine and now it seems to be resurfacing. As the chase to halt the gruesome murders intensifies, so Anderson and Costello find chilling cause for concern uncomfortably close to home . . .
The Absolution: Children's House Book 3 (Freyja and Huldar #3)
by Yrsa SigurdardottirThe new novel from the internationally bestselling, prizewinning, queen of Icelandic crime. All he wants is for them to say sorry. The police find out about the crime the way everyone does: on Snapchat. The video shows the terrified victim begging for forgiveness. When her body is found, it is marked with a number 2...Detective Huldar joins the investigation, bringing child psychologist Freyja on board to help question the murdered teenager's friends. Soon, they uncover that Stella was far from the angel people claim - but even so, who could have hated her enough to kill? Then another teenager goes missing, and more clips are sent. Freyja and Huldar can agree on two things at least: the truth is far from simple. And the killer is not done yet.A brilliantly suspenseful story about the dark side of social media, The Absolution will make you wonder what you should have said sorry for...Praise for Yrsa Sigurdardottir 'Iceland's outstanding crime novelist' Daily Express 'A magnificent writer' Karin Slaughter'The undisputed queen of Icelandic Noir' Simon Kernick 'Believe all the hype - this is crime at its best.' Heat
Absolution by Murder: The first twisty tale in a gripping Celtic mystery series (Sister Fidelma #Bk. 1)
by Peter TremayneABSOLUTION BY MURDER is the brilliant and evocative first novel in Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma series, bringing 7th-century Ireland vividly to life.PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTION BY MURDER: 'In the simultaneously sharp-tongued and full womanly figure of Sister Fidelma, Tremayne has created a heroine whom many readers will willingly follow. Even Brother Cadfael might have tolerated her' Kirkus Reviews As the leading churchmen and women gather at the Synod of Whitby in 664AD to debate the rival merits of the Celtic and Roman Churches, tempers begin to fray. Conspirators plot an assassination, while mysterious, violent death stalks the shadowy cloisters of the Abbey of St Hilda. When the Abbess Etain, a leading speaker for the Celtic Church, is found murdered suspicion inevitably rests on the Roman faction.Attending the Synod is Fidelma, of the community of St Brigid of Kildare. As an advocate of the Brehon Court, she is called on to investigate the murder with Brother Eadulf, of the Roman faction. However, the two are so unlike that their partnership is described as that of a wolf and a fox - but which is which?More gruesome deaths follow and the friction among the clerics could end in civil war. Can the solution to the mysteries avert such a conflict?What readers are saying about ABSOLUTION OF MURDER:'Superb storytelling from a usually neglected era. Read this and you will certainly want to read the rest of this excellent series''I was transported back in time; Peter Tremayne brought the location and characters to life''The story moves forward with Fidelma weaving her way through to the end with skill and intelligence. Well worth reading'
Absolution Gap (Gollancz S. F. Ser. #4)
by Alastair ReynoldsTake another awe-inspiring leap into the darkly imagined future of REVELATION SPACE, where it is time for Humanity to meet its Unmakers.Mankind has endured centuries of horrific plague and a particularly brutal interstellar war ... but there is still no time for peace and quiet.Stirred from aeons of sleep, the Inhibitors - ancient alien killing machines - have begun the process of ridding the galaxy of its latest emergent intelligence: mankind. As a ragtag bag of refugees fleeing the first wave of the cull head towards an apparently insignificant moon light-years away, they discover an avenging angel, a girl born in ice. She has the power to lead mankind to safety, and the ability to draw down their darkest enemy.And on a planet where vast travelling cathedrals crawl towards the treacherous fissure known as Absolution Gap, an unsettling truth becomes apparent: to beat one enemy, it may be necessary to forge an alliance with something much, much worse ...
The Absolutist
by John BoyneSeptember 1919: Twenty-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a clutch of letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War. They trained together. They fought together.But in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield and declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.The letters, however, are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep within him. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. Whatever happens, this meeting will change his life – forever.
Absorption
by John Meaney600 years from now on the world of Fulgor Roger Blackstone, son of two Pilots (long-time alien spies, masquerading as ordinary humans) aches to see the mythical Pilot's city of Labyrinth, in the fractal ur-continuum of mu-space.In 8th century Norseland, a young carl called Wulf kills a man, watched by a mysterious warrior who bears the mark of Loki the Trickster God. In 1920s Zurich, Gavriela Silberstein enters the long, baroque central hallway of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule where Einstein so recently studied. And on a nameless world, not knowing his human heritage, a silver-skinned youth tries to snatch back an Idea - but it floats away on gentle magnetic currents.There are others across the ages, all with three things in common: they glimpse shards of darkness moving at the edge of their vision; they hear echoes of a dark, disturbing musical chord; and they will dream of joining a group called the Ragnarok Council.ABSORPTION is the first novel of RAGNAROK, a new space opera trilogy of high-tech space warfare, unitary intelligences made up of millions of minds, the bizarre physics of dark energy, quantum mechanics and a mindblowing rationale for Norse mythology.
The Abstinence Teacher (Readers Circle Ser.)
by Tom PerrottaA sharp, funny and beautifully observed satire about the disturbing influence of the Christian right from one of America’s most cherished authors.
Abstraction in Post-War British Literature 1945-1980 (Oxford English Monographs)
by Natalie FerrisIn a catalogue note for the 1965 exhibition 'Between Poetry and Painting' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the poet Edwin Morgan probed the relationship between abstraction and literature: 'Abstract painting can often satisfy, but "abstract poetry" can only exist in inverted commas'. Language may be fragmented, rearranged, or distorted, abstract in so far as it is withdrawn from a particular system of knowledge, but Morgan was of the mind that to be wholly 'disruptive' was to deprive a poem of its 'point' as an 'object of contemplation'. Whilst abstract art may have come to fulfil or or fortify an impression of post-war taste, abstraction in literature continued to be treated with suspicion. But how does this speak to the extent to which Britain's literary culture was responsive to progress compared to its artistic culture? Abstraction in Post-War British Literature 1945-1980 traces a line of literary experimentation in post-war British literature that was prompted by the aesthetic, philosophical and theoretical demands of abstraction. Spanning the period 1945 to 1980, it observes the ways in which certain aesthetic advancements initiated new forms of literary expression to posit a new genealogy of interdisciplinary practice in Britain. At a time in which Britain became conscious of its evolving identity within an increasingly globalised context, this study accounts for the range of Continental and Transatlantic influences in order to more accurately locate the networks at play. Exploring the contributions made by individuals, such as Herbert Read, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Christine Brooke- Rose, as well as by groups of practitioners. It brings a wide range of previously unexplored archival material into the public domain and offers a comprehensive account of the evolving status of abstraction across cultural, institutional, and literary contexts.
Abstraction in Post-War British Literature 1945-1980 (Oxford English Monographs)
by Natalie FerrisIn a catalogue note for the 1965 exhibition 'Between Poetry and Painting' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the poet Edwin Morgan probed the relationship between abstraction and literature: 'Abstract painting can often satisfy, but "abstract poetry" can only exist in inverted commas'. Language may be fragmented, rearranged, or distorted, abstract in so far as it is withdrawn from a particular system of knowledge, but Morgan was of the mind that to be wholly 'disruptive' was to deprive a poem of its 'point' as an 'object of contemplation'. Whilst abstract art may have come to fulfil or or fortify an impression of post-war taste, abstraction in literature continued to be treated with suspicion. But how does this speak to the extent to which Britain's literary culture was responsive to progress compared to its artistic culture? Abstraction in Post-War British Literature 1945-1980 traces a line of literary experimentation in post-war British literature that was prompted by the aesthetic, philosophical and theoretical demands of abstraction. Spanning the period 1945 to 1980, it observes the ways in which certain aesthetic advancements initiated new forms of literary expression to posit a new genealogy of interdisciplinary practice in Britain. At a time in which Britain became conscious of its evolving identity within an increasingly globalised context, this study accounts for the range of Continental and Transatlantic influences in order to more accurately locate the networks at play. Exploring the contributions made by individuals, such as Herbert Read, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Christine Brooke- Rose, as well as by groups of practitioners. It brings a wide range of previously unexplored archival material into the public domain and offers a comprehensive account of the evolving status of abstraction across cultural, institutional, and literary contexts.
Absynthe
by Brendan P. BellecourtSome it kills. Others it transforms. See beyond the illusion. CHICAGO, 1928.The Great War has been over for years, and a brave new world forged. With it, Liam's world has transformed as well. He grow up poor, but now works for one of the richest families in Chicago, reaping the benefits of his friendship with the family's son and heir.Now he's at Club Artemis: a palace of art-deco delights and debauchery, filled to bursting with the rich and beautiful. And tonight they're all drinking one thing. Absynthe. The green liquor rumoured to cause hallucinations, madness – even death.While gilded youths sip the viridescent liquid, their seemingly perfect world is crumbling. Their absynthe is no mere folly: some it kills, others it transforms.But in Liam something different has taken place: he can see the world without its illusion. And it isn't the perfect world the government want people to believe...'Bellecourt's sci-fi debut is complex, ambitious, and sweeping in scope.' Publishers Weekly 'A complex feat of world-building that raises evergreen questions of truth and power with dizzying verve.' Daily Mail
The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old And New (Canons #56)
by Annie DillardAnnie Dillard has spent a lifetime examining the world around her with eyes wide open, drinking in all things intensely and relentlessly. Whether observing a sublime lunar eclipse or a moth consumed in a candle flame, the trembling of lily pads on a pond or hundreds of red-winged blackbirds taking flight, Dillard's awe at the fragility of the natural world rejuvenates and inspires pleasure and heartache. Precise in language and deeply meditative in spirit, this is a landmark collection from one of America's masters.
Abundance: Unputdownable and heartbreaking coming-of-age fiction about fathers and sons
by Jakob GuanzonLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION'A tense, yet tender portrait of a father and son trying to escape life on the margin. Determination and despair collide in this unforgettable debut, with an ending that broke my heart' Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie BainEvicted from their trailer on New Year's Eve, Henry and his son, Junior, have been reduced to living out of a pick-up truck. Six months later, things are even more desperate. Henry, barely a year out of prison for selling drugs, is down to his last pocketful of cash, and little remains between him and the street. But hope is on the horizon: today is Junior's birthday, and Henry has a job interview tomorrow.To celebrate, Henry treats Junior to dinner at McDonald's, followed by a night in a real bed at a discount hotel. For a moment, as Junior watches TV and Henry practises for his interview in the bathtub, all seems well. But after Henry has a disastrous altercation in the parking lot and Junior succumbs to a fever, father and son are sent into the night, struggling to hold things together.Each chapter of this deeply emotional and compassionate novel begins with amount of money in Henry's pocket, showing how literally father and son's fortunes can turn on a dime. Can they make it through tomorrow?What people are saying about Abundance:'Extremely heartbreaking, I constantly had a pit in my stomach... My heart hurt so much...I loved it! The emotions and feelings in this story were just written so beautifully.' Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'I guarantee your heart will not leave your throat for one second reading this... Will haunt you long after you set the book down.' Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Broke my heart but I couldn't stop reading.' Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Full of beauty, honesty and unexpected grace.' Gary Shteyngart'A quest, a page-turner, and above all a love story, Abundance lays bare one father's brutal, tender hustle to care for his son in a winner-takes-all world.' Mia Alvar'Gut-wrenching... Truly heartbreaking... Told with compassion and vivid detail... Feels tense right to the very end... Brilliant.' Goodreads Reviewer'Will rip your heart out.' Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐