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The international successes of Amores Perros and Y tu mama tambien alerted the eyes of the world to the riches to be found in Mexican cinema, from the talents of directors Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Alfonso Cuaron to the poster-boy looks and electrifying screen presence of Gael Garcia Bernal.
When a genius inventor is seduced by a mysterious firm to create a robot, technology may save him - or be his undoing ... Lose yourself in this dystopian novel by the bestselling author of The Alexandria Quartet.'A superb craftsman and stylist.' New York TimesFelix Charlock is a world-famous inventor. His scientific genius draws him into the web of a sinister multinational corporation called Merlin who recruit him for their own ends. When Felix is married into this wealthy family, 'The Firm' sets him an impossible project, demanding that he reinvents his former lover as a living, breathing replica. But creating this perfect robot facsimile heralds a new era of destruction, threatening not only Felix's sanity, but his very existence ...Consisting of two novels - Tunc and its sequel, Numquam - The Revolt of Aphrodite is a dystopian novel of ideas, rich in mystery and drama, with an epic global sweep and dazzling cast. Showing literary master Lawrence Durrell at his most conceptually ambitious, this tale of a modern Frankenstein will revolutionise the way you view technology forever.'Scenes of wild and deliberate fantasy ... [of] peculiar and disturbing poignancy.' New Statesman 'Such readability ... Few writers can tell a story better.' Observer
From bestselling author and winner of the Blue Peter Best Story Book Award, Uki and the Swamp Spirit is the fifth title set in the world of Podkin One-Ear.Uki had the sensation of a sickly green light, spreading out through the networks of water. Of tendrils connecting all the creatures of the marsh in a web . . . Linking itself so it could poison it all and destroy it.Uki and his friends have two more spirits to find and capture. After defeating Valkus, they make for Clarice, who is spreading disease through the swamps. Can Uki and his friends outwit him - all whilst they themselves are being chased by the Endwatch and Jori's clan of assassins?'Storytelling perfection.' Sophie Anderson'One of my sons very favourite authors.' Romesh Ranganathan'Superb.' Max Porter'It's jolly good fun ... expect sequels to breed like... well, rabbits.' SFX on The Legend of Podkin One-Ear
The pop world accelerated and broke through the sound barrier in 1966. In America, in London, in Amsterdam, in Paris, revolutionary ideas slow-cooking since the late '50s reached boiling point. In the worlds of pop, pop art, fashion and radical politics -- often fueled by perception-enhancing substances and literature -- the 'Sixties', as we have come to know them, hit their Modernist peak. A unique chemistry of ideas, substances, freedom of expression and dialogue across pop cultural continents created a landscape of immense and eventually shattering creativity. After 1966 nothing in the pop world would ever be the same. The 7 inch single outsold the long-player for the final time. It was the year in which the ever lasting and transient pop moment would burst forth in its most articulate, instinctive and radical way. Jon Savage's 1966 is a monument to the year that shaped the pop future of the balance of the century. Exploring canonical artists like The Beatles, The Byrds, Velvet Underground, The Who and The Kinks, 1966 also goes much deeper into the social and cultural heart of the decade through unique archival primary sources.
The germ of the idea for The Feast - Margaret Kennedy's ninth novel and perhaps her most ingenious, first published in 1950 - came to the author in 1937 when she and a social gathering of literary friends were discussing the Medieval Masque of the Seven Deadly Sins. The talk turned excitedly to the notion that a collection of stories might be fashioned from seven different authors, each re-imagining one of the Sins through the medium of a modern-day character. That notion fell away, but something more considerable stayed in Margaret Kennedy's mind over the next ten years, and so she conceived of a story that would gather the Sins all under the roof of a Cornish seaside hotel managed by the unhappy wife of Sloth...Among The Feast's entertaining cast of characters are a clergyman, a gaggle of adolescents and children, a quarter of lovers, and a clutch of frustrated husbands & wives - all serving Kennedy's dark and witty moral fable, which bears out the Biblical adage that many are called but only a very few chosen.
This captivating Mediterranean novel was written by Lawrence Durrell immediately after finishing his exquisite vignette about Corfu, Prospero's Cell, and a decade before Justine. The story is set on Crete just after the War, as an odd assortment of English travellers come ashore from a cruise ship to explore the island and in particular to examine a dangerous local labyrinth. They include an extrovert painter, a spiritualist, a Protestant spinster with a fox terrier, an antiquarian peer and minor poet, a soldier with guilty memories of the Cretan resistance, a pretty convalescent and an eccentric married couple.To some extent the book is a roman a clef and Durrell's characters talk with great reality about their experiences, themselves and a certain psychological unease that has led most of them to embark on their journey. The climax is a disastrous visit to the labyrinth, with its reported minotaur. The novel is a gripping piece of story-telling, full of atmosphere and the vivid first-hand writing about Mediterranean landscape and people of which Durrell was a master.
First published in Paris in 1938, Durrell's third novel is the story, told from the inside, of the lives and loves of a group of struggling writers and artists in a seedly London hotel.. Controversial at the time because of its sexual frankness, the book was finally published in its complete form only through the efforts of Henry Miller.
'No one else casts such a shrewd and gimlet eye on contemporary life.' - William BoydComic, dark and insightful, What Happened? is Hanif Kureishi's new collection of essays and fiction.
August Kleinzahler has earned admiration for his musical, precise poems that are grounded in the people, places and language among which he has lived. Snow Approaching On The Hudson is a collection of poetry that moves back and forth across the country and abroad, and through the realm of dreams, past and present, and inner and outer landscapes. The haunting, shifting atmosphere Kleinzahler creates is peopled by characters intimate, historical, and imaginary.Kleinzahler's signature rhythmic propulsion serves as the engine for his newest collection, and his always-masterful free verse conveys a life thoroughly lived and brilliantly perceived.
'Eimear McBride is that old fashioned thing, a genius.' Anne EnrightA nameless woman enters a non-descript hotel room she's been in once before, many years ago.
A budding poet and his adoring mother are the central characters of this intriguing early novel by Milan Kundera. He takes us through the young man's fantasies and love affairs in a characteristic tour de force, alive with wit, eroticism and ideas.
'Necrophilia is not one of my failings, but I do like graveyards and memorial stones and such...'Following the publication In My Mind's Eye, her acclaimed first volume of diaries, a Radio 4 Book Of The Week in 2018, Jan Morris continued to write her daily musings.
Shakespeare's position as England's national poet is established and unquestionable. But as James Shapiro illuminates in this revelatory new history, Shakespeare has long held an essential place in American culture.
She is about to publish a book based on her pet theory: women don't value their intuition about men, leading to serious trouble later on. But how well does Grace know her own husband?
Lotti's horrible aunt and uncle want to send her away to boarding-school (when she has just so successfully managed to get expelled from her last one!) And Clara, their young teacher, is waiting for news of her missing fiance. Just as they think they've found their feet in the new order, disaster strikes, and Lotti and Ben must get away.
The Vivien Eliot Papers is a groundbreaking new biography of Vivien Eliot, comprising two sections: her Life and her Papers.
With the same dazzling mix of emotion and idea that characterizes his novels he illuminates the art and artists who remain important to him and whose work helps us better understand the world.
In this entertaining and always stimulating collection of seven essays, Kundera deftly sketches out his personal view of the history and value of the novel.
Klima, a celebrated jazz trumpeter, receives a phone call announcing that a young nurse with whom he spent a brief night at a fertility spa is pregnant. She has decided he is the father and so begins a comedy which, during five madcap days, unfolds with ever-increasing speed.
This collection contains stories about the sport of love - Don Juanism, ageing, male and female power and seductions undertaken for all kinds of intriguing motives. Milan Kundera is author of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting".
and Rabelais with his heirs - the great novelists.In the light of their wisdom this book examines some of the great situations of our time. the testaments, the betrayed testaments - of Europe, of art, of the art of the novel and of artists.
It's the summer holidays and Flora has gone off with Dad to the exotic set of his new film and Mum is at home having a much-needed rest with baby Pumpkin. Bluebell, Twig and Jas have been sent to stay with Grandma at Horsehill in the countryside.With Grandma keen that the children get as much fresh air as possible, they are sent off on bikes to go wild swimming and befriend the boys next door. With so much freedom, they can't help but get into trouble, and Grandma doesn't seem to be as capable as looking after them as she should be...
Just when Bluebell thought her crazy family were behaving normally, her parents make an announcement that could turn everything upside down.If only Zoran, their au pair, would come back to live with them. Unfortunately he's too busy teaching guitar to his new protege, Zachary Smith. Blue is jealous at first, until Zach starts helping her little sister with a secret project and becomes a regular visitor at the Gadsby house.Then Zach goes missing. Blue needs her family to pull together if they're going to find him...
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