Чимаманда Нгози Адичи4.3 Красавица Оланна из богатой семьи никогда не отличалась дерзостью, как ее сестра-двойняшка Кайнене, но именно Оланна решилась оставить полную комфорта жизнь ради любви. Переезжая в маленький городок, где жил и работал ее будущий муж, профессор местного университета, она вряд ли понимала, что бесповоротно меняет свою судьбу. Деревенский мальчик Угву, поступивший в услужение в профессорский дом, тоже не догадывался, что отныне его жизнь изменится необратимо и непредсказуемо. Застенчивый молодой англичанин Ричард, приехавший в Нигерию, чтобы написать книгу, вовсе не собирался оставаться здесь навсегда. А непокорная и избалованная Кайнене вряд ли думала, что взвалит на свои хрупкие плечи ответственность за жизнь огромного числа людей. Но война, обрушившаяся на страну, не только корежила судьбы людей, но и меняла их самих, вытаскивая наружу то, что в обычной жизни скрывается за лоском цивилизованности. Оланне, Угву, Ричарду и всем остальным героям романа предстоит пройти сквозь немыслимые ужасы войны, не раз лицом к лицу столкнуться со смертью и вновь обрести себя после страшных испытаний. Полный напряженного драматизма роман "Половина желтого солнца" рассказывает истории нескольких людей, — истории, которые сплелись самым поразительным образом. Читатели назвали роман Адичи "африканским "Бегущим за ветром"", а британские критики присудили ему престижнейшую премию "Оранж".
Ребекка Говерс0.0 One part Melissa Bank and another part George Saunders, When to Walk is a laceratingly funny and deeply compassionate take on how one woman reinvents herself and learns that, no matter how late, there can always be a new beginning in life. When Ramble’s husband calls her an “autistic vampire” and abruptly ends their marriage over lunch, she isn’t quite sure what to do. She has no rent money, a looming deadline for work, and new neighbors who seem to have involved her in petty crime. Faced with the dissolution of a life she hadn’t really wanted, Ramble takes stock of what she has left. In Rebecca Gowers’s sharp debut, Ramble begins to reconsider everything her screwy family and unreliable but loyal friends have taught her so far. She spends a week taking apart her life and deciding which parts she wants to keep. Called “a mercurial delight” by the New Statesman and “brilliant . . . unforgettable” by Scotland on Sunday, When to Walk is a disarmingly honest portrayal of a young woman coming into her own—lit with hope, rich in magnificent characters, and hilariously wise.
Patricia Ferguson0.0 A novel connecting disperate women at different times in their lives, and in history. Sylvia, a brilliant and successful eye surgeon is nevertheless amazed to find herself pregnant, despite taking no precautions. Iris, a timid young woman in love with a man from a different social stratum. And Ruby, a 1950's housewife who receives poison pen letters, which she believes she thoroughly deserves. Linking these women is a fascinating thread that weaves their lives together. Peripheral Vision is a powerful new novel about love and the lack of it; about loss, mothering, sight and insight, from this prize-winning author. Patricia Ferguson's last novel, It So Happens, was listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005. Now read on.
Нелл Фройденбергер0.0 From the PEN/Malamud Award-winning author of Lucky Girls comes a bold, intricately woven first novel about an enigmatic stranger who disrupts the life of one American family.
Yuan Zhao, a celebrated Chinese performance artist and political dissident, has accepted a one year's artist's residency in Los Angeles. He is to be a Visiting Scholar at the St. Anselm's School for Girls, teaching advanced art, and hosted by one of the school's most devoted families: the wealthy if dysfunctional Traverses. But when their guest arrives, the Traverses are preoccupied with their own problems. Cece—devoted mother and contemporary art enthusiast—worries about the recent arrest of her son, Max. Unable to communicate with her husband, Gordon, a psychiatrist distracted by his passion for genealogical research, she turns to Gordon's wayward brother, Phil. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Olivia Travers is just relieved that her classmates seem to be ignoring the weird Chinese art teacher living in her pool house—at least until a brilliant but troublesome new student appears in his class.
The dissident, for his part, is delighted to be left alone. His relationship to the 1989 Democracy Movement and his past in a Beijing underground artists' community together give him reason for not wanting to be scrutinized too carefully. The trouble starts when he and his American hosts begin to see one another with clearer eyes.
A novel about secrets, love, and the shining chaos of everyday American life, The Dissident is a remarkable and surprising group portrait, done with a light, sure hand. Reviewing Lucky Girls, the Seattle Times praised Freudenberger's "merciless and often hilarious eye for family dynamics, and her equally sharp eye for cultures in collision." These talents and others are on full display here, as the author captures her characters in their struggles with art, with identity—and with one another. As the New York Times Book Review observed, "Young writers as ambitious—and as good—as Nell Freudenberger give us a reason for hope."
Rachel Seiffert0.0 Rachel Seiffert’s first book, The Dark Room, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, announced the arrival of a major writer; Afterwards fulfills that promise with a stunning novel about war and its brutal after-effect.
Alice is the protagonist of Afterwards, but this book is about the guilt harboured by people around her. There are two men in her life: her maternal grandfather, David, recently widowed, and her boyfriend, Joseph, each of whom keeps his past from his loved ones. David served in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion; Joseph, during a stint in the British army, served in Northern Ireland. Both, we learn, live with the memory of having killed in the line of duty.
As Alice’s relationship with Joseph develops, she senses there is something about his past that he keeps hidden. This is particularly galling given the personal and emotional details she has revealed to him (namely, that Alice has never met her father, and her attempts to establish an epistolary relationship with him in adulthood foundered). After her grandmother’s death, Alice finds the time spent with her grandfather awkward. She doesn’t know him the way she did her grandmother, but feels obliged to visit and offer support. Gradually, it emerges that David’s cold manner is traceable to events in Kenya, where he and his wife met. And as Alice tries to get to the bottom of Joseph’s reticence, a series of heated family discussions brushes ever closer to David’s secrets.
Kiran Desai3.6 In foothills of Himalayas sits a house - home to three people and a dog. There is retired judge dreaming of colonial yesterdays; his orphaned granddaughter Sai who has fallen for her tutor; the cook, whose son writes untruthful letters; and judge`s dog. This book shows how new world is clashing with old, and future offers both hope and betrayal.
Jane Harris4.0 Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her past, Bessy Buckley takes a job working as a maid in a big country house. But when Arabella, her beautiful mistress, asks her to undertake a series of bizarre tasks, Bessy begins to realise that she hasn't quite landed on her feet. In one of the most acclaimed debuts of recent years, Jane Harris has created a heroine who will make you laugh and cry as she narrates this unforgettable story about secrets and suspicions and the redemptive power of love and friendship.
Маргарет Форстер0.0 Don and Louise's eighteen-year-old daughter Miranda has died in a sailing accident. While Louise takes steps to move on with her life, Don cannot come to terms with the chain of events that led to her death. Instead, he is determined to bring someone to account. The surviving children handle the loss of their sister better than their parents, but what they can't handle is their family being torn apart...
Taut, heartbreaking and immensely moving, Over is a novel about love and loss, grief and hope, pain and resolution, and about what happens to human beings when tragedy strikes like lightening.
Дебора Робертсон0.0 A seemingly insignificant, careless act can sometimes set tragedy in motion.
Eight-year-old Pearl tries very hard to get things right. Attuned to her mother’s brittle moods, she watches over her younger brother while carefully guarding her private passions. But a senseless act of violence at summer camp shatters Pearl’s family, and nothing may ever be right again.
In a cooler, greener suburb, Sonia is learning to live alone after the death of her husband, a furniture designer who will soon be commemorated by an exhibition of his work. At the edge of the city, the young sculptor Adam Logan is hoping that his controversial new exhibit will change his fortunes. Connected by grief and longing, and united by a shared goal to create a memorial for the city’s lost children, these characters’ lives become entangled in ways that none could have foreseen.
Combining the intimacy of a family’s heartache with the suspense of a thriller, Careless is a gripping, seductive novel about the ties of caring and responsibility that are both formed and broken in today’s society and about the resilience of the human psyche.
Го Сяолу3.8 Роман Го Сяолу написан от лица молодой китаянки, отправляющейся в Лондон учить английский язык. О жизни в Европе она не знает ничего; ее представления о Западе - причудливая смесь отрывочных фактов из школьной программы и голливудских клише. Поэтому с первого же дня жизнь в Лондоне становится для нее постижением нового, чужого мира, где все не так: и еда, и грамматика, и отношения между людьми. На помощь ей приходит любовь. Кажется, в симпатичном одиноком англичанине средних лет она находит свое счастье, свое будущее, свой "дом". Но ее возлюбленный - человек очень непростой. У него своя, давным-давно сложившаяся система ценностей, в которой многое противоречит мировоззрению юной Чжуан. И вот парадокс: чем лучше влюбленные узнают друг друга, тем выше вырастает между ними стена непонимания...
Язык - еще один главный герой этой книги. Продираясь через тернии английской грамматики, Чжуан постигает западную культуру и образ жизни, картину мира западного человека.
