Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

They called him Bane the Bastard - though none said it to his face. Born of treachery, his name a curse, he grew up among the warriors of the Rigante. They valued his skills in war, but they feared the violence in his heart. And when, as a Wolfshead and Outlaw, he left Rigante lands, they breathed sighs of relief. But Bane would return, the destiny of the Rigante in his hands, the fate of the world resting on his skills with a blade.

"The Star" is an 1897 apocalyptic short story by H.G. Wells. In January (about 1900, presumably), the people of Earth awaken to the notion that a strange luminous object has erupted, into the Solar System, after disturbing the normal orbit of the planet Neptune. Indeed, such object is a luminous celestial body, whose luminosity is distinguishable on the sky about the constellation of Leo.

Kostya ha dieci anni quando si mette in viaggio per arrivare dalla nonna Irina, domestica a Napoli. Nello zaino, la foto di una madre mai conosciuta e un indirizzo. Suo padre è al fronte per difendere l'Ucraina appena invasa. Tra soldati che cercano di bloccarlo al confine e sconosciute che gli dànno una mano, il bambino riesce ad arrivare. Vita, la signora per cui la nonna lavora, lo scopre addormentato sullo zerbino. Quattro anni fa lei ha perso suo figlio e ora passa le giornate da sola, o con Irina, che ha letto Dante e parla italiano come un poeta del Duecento.

第155回（2016年）芥川龍之介賞受賞作

36歳未婚女性、古倉恵子。
大学卒業後も就職せず、コンビニのバイトは18年目。
これまで彼氏なし。
オープン当初からスマイルマート日色駅前店で働き続け、
変わりゆくメンバーを見送りながら、店長は8人目だ。
日々食べるのはコンビニ食、夢の中でもコンビニのレジを打ち、
清潔なコンビニの風景と「いらっしゃいませ！」の掛け声が、
毎日の安らかな眠りをもたらしてくれる。
仕事も家庭もある同窓生たちからどんなに不思議がられても、
完璧なマニュアルの存在するコンビニこそが、
私を世界の正常な「部品」にしてくれる――。

ある日、婚活目的の新入り男性、白羽がやってきて、
そんなコンビニ的生き方は
「恥ずかしくないのか」とつきつけられるが……。

現代の実存を問い、
正常と異常の境目がゆらぐ衝撃のリアリズム小説。

Impetuous Ali Anderson has always been a loose cannon. While she’s still trying to come to terms with the death of her baby son and subsequent divorce from Elliot, she takes it upon herself to play God with her best friend’s incomprehensible marriage. Ali’s meddling has disastrous consequences. Finding herself cut off from those she loves, she comes to realise that a little forgiveness goes a long way...

Introduction written and read by Rachel Maddow Narrated by Frances McDormand The first novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s bestselling San Francisco saga, and inspiration for the Netflix original series, Tales of the City “A consummate entertainer who has...

Au grand jeu du destin, Mimo a tiré les mauvaises cartes. Né pauvre, il est confié en apprentissage à un sculpteur de pierre sans envergure. Mais il a du génie entre les mains. Toutes les fées ou presque se sont penchées sur Viola Orsini. Héritière d'une famille prestigieuse, elle a passé son enfance à l'ombre d'un palais génois. Mais elle a trop d'ambition pour se résigner à la place qu'on lui assigne.

萩原朔太郎の長女が描く、壮絶な物語２篇「天上の花」は、詩人・三好達治を、幼いころから三好にかわいがられていた著者ならではの目線で描く。三好は前妻（佐藤春夫の姪）と別れ、朔太郎の妹・慶子と付き合うようになるが、きらびやかな生活を好む慶子と、貧しくても平和な暮らしを望む三好の愛の生活は、やがて破滅的な最後を迎える――。

Tony Pagoda è un cantante melodico con tanto passato alle spalle...

The first novel in Jan Karon’s bestselling and beloved Mitford series--now available in a new 20th Anniversary Edition, including an introductory letter by the author It's easy to feel at home in Mitford, North Carolina. In these high, green hills, the air is pure, the village is charming, and...

For amiable city trader Jimmy Corby money was the new rock n' roll. His whole life was a party, adrenaline charged and cocaine fuelled. If he hadn't met Monica, he would probably have ended up either dead or in rehab. But Jimmy was as lucky in love as he was at betting on dodgy derivatives, so instead of burning out, his star just burned brighter than ever. Rich, pampered and successful; Jimmy; Monica; and their friends lived the dream, bringing up their children with an army of domestic helps.

Esme Posorsky is an enigma. For as long as people can remember, she has been part of community life in the quaint Cornish fishing village of Tremarnock, but does anyone really know her? She is usually to be found working in her pottery studio or at home with her beloved cat, Rasputin. But when an old school friend turns up with a secret from the past, nothing will ever be the same again.

A new year at Ragley-on-the-Forest School... It's 1981, the time of Adam and the Ants, Rubik's Cube, the Sony Walkman and the Falklands War, as head teacher Jack Sheffield returns to Ragley-on-the-Forest School for another roller-coaster year. Vera, the ever-efficient school secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled computer - and enjoys a royal occasion - while Ruby the caretaker rediscovers romance with a Butlin's Redcoat. And for Jack, wedding bells are in the air. But the unexpected is just round the corner...

Ed is having a hard time - at work, in his love life and, well, generally. Then he meets an unlikely Buddhist - who drinks and smokes and talks his kind of language. Bit by bit, things begin to change...Ed doesn't always take Geoff's advice. Or, when he does he lapses at the crucial moment. His path to understanding is not a straight one, especially as life keeps throwing more and more 'stuff' at him.

This is... Denise. Married to Ray, her first and only love, Denise has never, for one moment, regretted putting the husband she idolised on a pedestal above everyone and everything else. But, after forty years of marriage, he is gone, leaving Denise to discover that their perfect marriage was fatally flawed. Now she faces a future alone. But first, she must face the betrayals of the past. This is... Claire. The estranged daughter of Denise, the woman who put her husband before her children, Claire took the opposite path and devoted her life to raising her family, sacrificing.

Uno strappo che sembrava impossibile da ricucire, una famiglia che nel corso degli anni ritrova la strada nella forza dei legami. Ci sono libri che ti entrano dentro, che ti accompagnano per mano nella vita di tutti i giorni. È ciò che succede con l'esordio magnetico di Roberta Recchia, una storia da cui non ci si stacca, con protagonisti vivi, autentici. Come Marisa e Stelvio Ansaldo, che nella Roma degli anni Cinquanta si innamorano nella bottega del sor Ettore, il padre di lei.

Fay Langdon and Julia Morton might have met far earlier, since Fay was once a successful singer and Julia a famous diseuse. From the outset, theirs is a precarious friendship, both out of step with their times, allied by the disappointments that age brings.

Lifelong friends, now in their sixties, James, a teacher, and Hugh, a TV personality, both live with attractive women 25 years their junior. But the age difference is a time bomb, ticking away at the heart of both relationships. Kate's hunger for a life more in keeping with her own age threatens to bring her eight years with James to an end. And how is Julia to cope when her own career begins to blossom while Hugh's is withering before their eyes? The arrival of Miss Beatrice Bachelor, a razor-sharp Oxford spinster, fuels the discontent in both girls.

Late one summer evening, antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow is returning from a client visit when he takes a wrong turn. He stumbles across a derelict Edwardian house, and compelled by curiosity, approaches the door. Standing before the entrance, he feels the unmistakable sensation of a small cold hand creeping into his own, ‘as if a child had taken hold of it’. At first he is merely puzzled by the odd incident but then begins to suffer attacks of fear and panic, and is visited by nightmares.

At Lost Lake, a few of the students and instructors feel a tremor that arrives with a wake-up call—or those willing to listen and act. Wild life veterinarian, Josephe Rondeau, suspects that someone at the New York State lab may be purposely “losing” the bodies of wild creatures she has sent to determine the cause of their suspicious deaths. Among the students, Rocco is now driven to save to a beautifully marked bear cub he nursed back to health now sought by a trophy hunter.