Джаспер Ффорде4.3 Если силовые ведомства, транснациональные корпорации и личные враги По Ту Сторону наступают на пятки, самое время взять отпуск и провести его там, где никто не достанет,- в Кладезе Погибших Сюжетов. Житье в книжном мире не лишено своих преимуществ. Не надо заправлять машину, никогда не ошибешься номером, всегда есть горячая вода, а мешки для пыли вынимаются из пылесоса только через верх или сбоку. А главное, всегда узнаешь плохих парней с первого взгляда. Но и здесь все не просто. Таинственные силы норовят подорвать самые основы существования литературы, один за другим гибнут друзья и соратники. И Четверг Нонетот снова берется за дело.
Андрей Курков4.2 Viktor – last seen in Death and the Penguin fleeing Mafia vengeance on an Antarctica-bound flight booked for Penguin Misha – seizes a heaven-sent opportunity to return to Kiev with a new identity. Clear now as to the enormity of abandoning Misha, then convalescent from a heart-transplant, Viktor determines to make amends. Viktor falls in with a Mafia boss who engages him to help in his election campaign, then introduces him to men who might further his search for Misha, said to be in a private zoo in Chechnya.
Debora Moggach0.0 Enticed by advertisements for a luxury retirement home in India, a group of strangers leave England to begin a new life. On arrival, however, they discover the palace is a shell of its former self, the staff are more than a little eccentric and the days of the Raj appear to be long gone. But, as they soon discover, life and love can begin again, even in the most unexpected circumstances.
Алексей Сейл0.0 When TV comedians announce that they're about to produce their first novel, the pulse doesn't always race faster. But perhaps some excitement is in order, as Alexei Sayle's first novel, Overtaken triumphantly demonstrates what wonderful results can be produced when the comedian is as skilled with words as Sayle is.
That acerbic Liverpool accent we know so well is always at the service of some sharp and surrealistic scripts when the hefty Sayle is on stage in those two-sizes-too-small suits, but his writing has already demonstrated that his skills don't just rely on that in-your-face personality. His inventiveness, his wildly surprising turn of phrase made Barcelona Plates and The Dog Catcher hilarious and bitterly entertaining. However, writing a full-length novel is a different ball game, and within a couple of pages, it's clear that we're in the hands of a real novelist, surprisingly closer to the fiction of David Lodge and Malcom Bradbury than the self-conscious wordplay of Ben Elton. Sayle's hero, Kelvin, has slipped imperceptibly into his 30s, coping with an unexciting life in an insignificant Lancashire town. His greatest pleasure is the time he spends with his close friends. He joins them on artistic excursions, lapping up theatre, concerts and anything else that comes along. But relationships remain a problem for him, and Kelvin finds his life taking a sharp turn for the worst. And instead of enjoying various diversions with his friends, he finds himself grappling with some pretty thorny philosophical issues: the value of art, the redemption of the soul and the nature of happiness.
