Author: Wally Lamb Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780060391621 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 884
Book Description
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
Author: Hank Green Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1524743453 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 352
Book Description
THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Sparkling with mystery, humor and the uncanny, this is a fun read. But beneath its effervescent tone, more complex themes are at play.” —San Francisco Chronicle In his wildly entertaining debut novel, Hank Green—cocreator of Crash Course, Vlogbrothers, and SciShow—spins a sweeping, cinematic tale about a young woman who becomes an overnight celebrity before realizing she's part of something bigger, and stranger, than anyone could have possibly imagined. The Carls just appeared. Roaming through New York City at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship—like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor—April and her best 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. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world—from Beijing to Buenos Aires—and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight. Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety, and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us. Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring for the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. The beginning of an exciting fiction career, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a bold and insightful novel of now.
Author: Tom King Publisher: DC Comics ISBN: Category : Comics & Graphic Novels Languages : en Pages : 28
Book Description
Suspected of murder, [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] find themselves on the run from the super-hospital called Sanctuary —with each thinking the other one is the real killer! It’s up to Batman to solve this heinous crime, but suspicion falls on him when Superman and Wonder Woman ponder just how much Sanctuary’s A.I. is telling them. Meanwhile, [REDACTED] tries to make a shady deal to hide from the Trinity, while [REDACTED] searches out an old friend to help him out of this mess—and only gets deeper in trouble.
Author: Dennis E. Taylor Publisher: Worldbuilders Press ISBN: 9781680680584 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
Bobiverse fans: a signed limited edition of all three books in a boxed set, signed by the author, is now available on Amazon. Look for The Bobiverse [Signed Limited Edition] on Amazon Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.
Author: Craig Alanson Publisher: ISBN: 9781973292418 Category : Languages : en Pages : 299
Book Description
United Nations Special Operations Command sent an elite Expeditionary Force of soldiers and pilots out on a simple recon mission, and somehow along the way they sparked an alien civil war. Now the not-at-all-Merry Band of Pirates is in desperate trouble, again. Their stolen alien starship is falling apart, thousands of lightyears from home. The ancient alien AI they nicknamed 'Skippy' is apparently dead, and even if they can by some miracle revive him, he might never be the same.
Author: Ebony Williams Publisher: Lulu.com ISBN: 1312228520 Category : Humor Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
Hope is 32 years old and after a horrible break up she finds herself in the grand tradition of chunky monkey ice cream and chick flicks. Her friends see that she's in a slump and urge her to try a popular social networking site. Soon Hope turns into a total diva. She slowly turns into that person we all love to hate. Posting pictures of her food, taking obnoxious selfies, and speaking in acronyms; the once so simple Hope is now a nightmare. Can Hope's friends and family get back the old Hope they were so eager to change?
Author: Kimberly Rundell Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc. ISBN: 1638605386 Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 180
Book Description
Curled up in a tight ball with her small back wedged in a corner, illuminated only by a thin sliver of crescent moon light, twelve-year-old Rylee Scott realized without a doubt that her nightmare would never end. Under the cover of darkness, no matter how much she begged and cried, she knew evil would always come through her bedroom door and steal another piece of her soul. Suddenly startled into silence, she stopped rocking and lifted her head to listen. Panic rose up and threatened to close her throat. All she could hear was the sound of her own shallow breathing and her heart quickening in her chest. She held her breath and listened intently, her wide terrified blue eyes darting back and forth. A piercing scream broke the silence as the door once again slid open to reveal a shadow looming in the moonlit darkness.
Author: Sandra Hill Publisher: Hachette+ORM ISBN: 0446197424 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 218
Book Description
The Jinx Inc. treasure-hunting company has a new mission - to find the 'cave pearls' rumoured to exist in the bottom-most cavity of an ancient cave. But first, mission leader Caleb Peach has to find an expert consultant. An ex-Navy SEAL, Caleb is used to getting his man but Dr Claire Cassidy, archaeologist extraordinaire, is proving hard to pin down. Only after he tracks her down on her fishing holiday and proves that Jinx Inc. is an upstanding, responsible company does the she sign on the dotted line. The attraction is immediate but Caleb and Claire are very different people. He's buttoned up and goes by the book and still carries a lot of bitterness because of a painful past. She's a free spirit and truly self-sufficient and independent, yet she's not opposed to the possibility of love in her life.With Claire's help, along with the assistance of Cajun Healer, Tante Lulu, Caleb and his family reconcile. At about the ame time, adventure and hilarity abound as the crew of Jinx Inc. begin the search for and find the fabled cave pearls.
Author: Wally Lamb
Author: Hank Green
Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Author: Tom King
Author: Dr. Seuss
Author: Dennis E. Taylor
Author: Craig Alanson
Author: Ebony Williams
Author: Kimberly Rundell
Author: Sandra Hill