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From the Diary of a Snail
Par Günter Grass. 1972
Probably the most autobiographical of his novels, From the Diary of a Snail balances the agonising history of the persecuted…
Danzig Jews with an account of Grass's political campaigning with Willie Brandt. Underlying all is the snail, the central symbol that is both model and a parody of social progress, and a mysterious metaphor for political reform.From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and author of The Tin Drum.Flatland (Penguin Science Fiction)
Par Edwin Abbott. 2020
The book that influenced writers from Carl Sagan to Stephen Hawking, Flatland is set in a two-dimensional world where life…
exists only in lines and shapes - until one of its inhabitants, 'A. Square', has his perspective transformed forever. This brilliantly eccentric classic is an invitation to see beyond our own reality.'At once a playful brainteaser about geometry, a pointed satire of Victorian manners - and a strangely compelling argument about the greatest mysteries of the Universe' Wall Street Journal'Flatland could lead to very profound thought about our Universe and ourselves' Isaac AsimovErewhon
Par Samuel Butler. 1970
Setting out to make his fortune in a far-off country, a young traveller discovers the remote and beautiful land of…
Erewhon and is given a home among its extraordinarily handsome citizens. But their visitor soon discovers that this seemingly ideal community has its faults - here crime is treated indulgently as a malady to be cured, while illness, poverty and misfortune are cruelly punished, and all machines have been superstitiously destroyed after a bizarre prophecy. Can he survive in a world where morality is turned upside down? Inspired by Samuel Butler's years in colonial New Zealand and by his reading of Darwin's Origin of Species, Erewhon (1872) is a highly original, irreverent and humorous satire on conventional virtues, religious hypocrisy and the unthinking acceptance of beliefs.Let bestselling author Judy Astley sweep you away with this insightful, uplifting and hilarious novel where a family holiday turns…
into more of a torment than a treat... Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Milly Johnson and Trisha Ashley."I just love Judy Astley's books" - JILL MANSELL"Wickedly funny" - DAILY MAIL"A funny, warm and moving novel" - SUNDAY MIRROR"If I am feeling in need of blue skies and sunshine and none are to be had here I just pick [this] up and settle down to while away an hour or two" -- ***** Reader review"A really light and amusing story" -- ***** Reader review******************************************************IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, DON'T BRING THE FAMILYAs a penniless and partnerless house-painter with an expired lease on her flat and a twelve-year-old daughter, Lucy could hardly turn down her parents' offer to take them on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Caribbean.She'd just have to put up with her sister Theresa (making no secret of preferring Tuscany as a holiday destination) and brother Simon (worrying that there might be some sinister agenda behind their parents' wish to take them all away) with their various spouses, teenagers and young children.In a luxury hotel, with bright sunshine, swimming, diving, glorious food and friendly locals, any family tensions should have melted away in the fabulous heat. The children should have been angelic, the teenagers cheerful, the adults relaxed and happy.But some problems just refuse to be left at home.Dead Souls
Par Nikolay Gogol. 2004
Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in the provincial town of 'N', visiting a succession of landowners and making each a…
strange offer. He proposes to buy the names of dead serfs still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them, and to use these 'souls' as collateral to re-invent himself as a gentleman. In this ebullient masterpiece, Gogol created a grotesque gallery of human types, from the bear-like Sobakevich to the insubstantial fool Manilov, and, above all, the devilish con man Chichikov. Dead Souls, Russia's first major novel, is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy.The Diary of a Nobody
Par George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith. 1999
'The funniest book in the world' Evelyn Waugh'The jewel at the heart of English comic literature' William Trevor Mr Pooter…
is a man of modest ambitions, content with his ordinary life. Yet he always seems to be troubled by disagreeable tradesmen, impertinent young office clerks and wayward friends, not to mention his devil-may-care son Lupin with his unsuitable choice of bride. In the bumbling, absurd, yet ultimately endearing character of Pooter, the Grossmith brothers created a wonderful portrait of the class system and the inherent snobbishness of the suburban middle-class suburbia - one which sends up the late Victorian crazes for Aestheticism, spiritualism and bicycling, as well as the fashion for publishing diaries by anybody and everybody. This edition contains the original illustrations by Weedon Grossmith and an introduction by Ed Glinert, author of The London Compendium, discussing the novel's serialisation in Punch, the growth of the suburbs and the figure of Mrs Pooter.George Grossmith (1847-1912) initially worked as a journalist, reporting Police Court proceedings for The Times. In 1870 he began his career as a singer and entertainer, creating some of the most memorable characters in Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas. Weedon Grossmith (1854-1919) brother of George, was educated at the Slade and the Royal Academy with a view to following a career as a painter, and exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Royal Academy. Joining a theatre company in 1885, he toured the provinces and America. The best-known of his many plays, The Night of the Party, was published in 1901.'True humour ... with its mixture of absurdity, irony and affection ... a masterpiece, immortal' J.B. PriestleyDiary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, & Selected Stories
Par Nikolay Gogol. 2005
Author, dramatist and satirist, Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852) deeply influenced later Russian literature with his powerful depictions of a society dominated…
by petty beaurocracy and base corruption. This volume includes both his most admired short fiction and his most famous drama. A biting and frequently hilarious political satire, The Government Inspector has been popular since its first performance and was regarded by Nabokov as the greatest Russian play every written. The stories gathered here, meanwhile, range from comic to tragic and describe the isolated lives of low-ranking clerks, lunatics and swindlers. They include Diary of a Madman, an amusing but disturbing exploration of insanity; Nevsky Prospect, a depiction of an artist besotted with a prostitute; and The Overcoat, a moving consideration of poverty that powerfully influenced Dostoevsky and later Russian literature.Blind Faith
Par Ben Elton. 2012
Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where 'sharing' is valued above all, and privacy is considered a…
dangerous perversion.Trafford wouldn't call himself a rebel, but he's daring to be different, to stand out from the crowd. In his own small ways, he wants to push against the system. But in this world, uniformity is everything. And even tiny defiances won't go unnoticed.Ben Elton's dark, savagely comic novel imagines a post-apocalyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a sex-obsessed, utterly egocentric culture. In this world, nakedness is modesty, independent thought subversive, and ignorance is wisdom.A chilling vision of what's to come? Or something rather closer to home?Black No More (Penguin Science Fiction)
Par George S. Schuyler. 2021
'A liberating and lacerating critique of American racial madness, capitalism and white superiority ... Schuyler's wild, misanthropic, take-no-prisoners satire of…
American life seems more relevant than ever ... Afrofuturist before such a term existed' New York Review of Books Telling the extraordinary story of a mysterious process that can turn black skin white in 1930s America, Black No More is a pioneering and caustic work of Black speculative fiction from one of the great Harlem Renaissance authors.'A clever and biting satire' Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times Book Review'No one is safe from Schuyler's biting mockery' The New York TimesFight Club: A Novel (Biblioteca Polirom Ser.)
Par Chuck Palahniuk. 2005
The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club. Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his…
generation’s most visionary satirist in this, his first book. Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basements of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.Invisible Monsters: A Novel
Par Chuck Palahniuk. 2012
"A harrowing, perverse, laugh-aloud funny rocket ride of catastrophes…Gutsy, terse and cunning, Invisible Monsters may emerge as Palahniuk’s strongest book."…
—Greg Berkman, Seattle Times She’s a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better. And that salvation hides in the last places you’ll ever want to look.Bad Becky in Trouble
Par Gervase Phinn. 2005
Bad Becky is cheeky (but charming), opinionated and always in some kind of trouble. But you can't help loving her!…
I mean wouldn't you rather hear a story about a princess who gets gobbled up by the dragon rather than another soppy one wher the prince saves the princess? And if a magician at a party was rubbish wouldn't you point it out? And who wants their horrible Great Aunt Mildred visiting? So really, Becky is just doing everyone a favour...A wickedly funny new series for readers gaining confidence. Bad Becky's got attitude!Araminta's Wedding
Par Jilly Cooper Obe. 1993
A Country House Extravaganza Story by Jilly Cooper. Pictures by Sue Macartney-Snape.Rufus, fifth Earl of Atherstone, has no son and…
gloomily contemplates his vast Lincolnshire estate passing into the hands of his plain but good-natured daughter, Araminta, and her grasping cousin, Piggy Atherstone, who is determined to marry her. A serious rival for Araminta's hand, however, materialises in Bounder Cartwright, a debonair money-market gambler, whose sexual conquests are as prolific as his investments are suddenly catastrophic. By Ascot he has won the day and the wedding is fixed for September.Then, at the last minute, the events of the previous Boxing Night catch up with the Atherstones in a surprising way. Will the wedding take place or not? The combination of Jilly Cooper's irreverent tale of country house life with the colourful and perceptive paintings of Sue Macartney-Snape which inspired it, presents a wickedly funny portrait of the English upper classes at play. Araminta's Wedding is irresistible fireside reading for even the coldest of stately homes.Abroad (Penguin Specials)
Par Penelope Lively. 2013
A brilliantly funny original short story from Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively.'Anyone artistic needed Abroad in the 1950s.'Paul and…
his girlfriend are artists in need of subject matter. Arresting, evocative subject matter. So they decide to go Abroad, as much as possible, for as long as possible. Because Abroad is full of well furnished scenery. Particularly peasants. Real, earthy, traditional peasants. Except you shouldn't really call them peasants should you? 'Country people'. Abroad is full of country people.In this funny, deftly written short story, Penelope Lively satirises an arty student of the 50s, a precursor of the gap year traveller, who hasn't learnt as much from her time Abroad as she likes to think . . .Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.Teenage Dirtbags
Par James Acker. 2024
From the author of The Long Run comes another unflinchingly raw and boldly hilarious novel about an unlikely group of teens coming…
together to exact revenge on the person who wronged them.All&’s fair in love and revenge…Phil Reyno is a &“troublemaker.&” With a punk aesthetic and a quick temper, Phil knows that it&’s surprising to see him dating universally beloved Cameron Ellis, whose viral coming out video made him an internet darling.Jackson Pasternak is a &“good guy.&” Junior class president, star rower, and Ivy bound, Jackson is burnt out and misses the only person who ever truly knew him—his ex-best friend, Phil.When Cameron dumps Phil and torpedoes his already-iffy reputation in the process, Phil hatches a plot to expose Cameron as the two-faced liar he truly is. And he finds the perfect weapon in his old pal Jackson, who agrees to infiltrate Cameron&’s circle and uncover dirt.But as Phil and Jackson rediscover their friendship—and more—they start to wonder… Will knocking Cameron off his pedestal really solve their problems?Praise for The Long Run&“Written with equal doses of heart and ferocity, this is a fabulous debut.&” —Abdi Nazemian, author of Stonewall Honor book Like a Love Story and The Chandler Legacies&“Raw, real, electric, and unputdownable.&” —Steven Salvatore, critically acclaimed author of And They Lived…&“James Acker is a splashy new voice with an unforgettable romcom about tough guys with soft hearts.&” —Adam Sass, award-winning author of Surrender Your Sons and The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers* &“A stunning novel.&” —Bookpage, starred reviewBestselling author Stephen R. Lawhead's Dragon King Trilogy--now available in one volume.In the Hall of the Dragon KingCarrying a sealed…
message from the war-hero Dragon King to the queen, Quentin and his outlaw companion, Theido, plunge headlong into a fantastic odyssey and mystic quest. In his valiant efforts to save the kingdom and fulfill his unique destiny, he will cross strange and wondrous lands filled withbrave knights, beautiful maidens, a mysterious hermit, and a deadly, giant serpent.The Warlords of NinIt has been ten years since Quentin helped the Dragon King battle the monstrous sorcerer Nimrood. Since then, there has been peace in the land of Mensandor. But everything changes when an urgent message summons Quentin to the dying king. The brightening Wolf Star is an omen of impending evil that might just herald the beginning of the end of mankind.The Sword and the FlameThe Dragon King who now rules the land of Mensandor is none other than Quentin, whose courage and heroism have slowly transformed him from an orphaned servant into a war hero, respected leader, and a fierce man of faith. Shattered by the death of a dear and trusted friend, the abduction of his beloved son, and the loss of his enchanted sword, Quentin finds his faith tested like never before.Magic Holidays (Magic Adventures of Arina Solovyova #3)
Par Kryuchkova Elena, Kryuchkova Olga. 2019
The second kitten named Tudor appears in the family of Arina. However, the girl's parents do not suspect that Tudor…
is, in fact, a creature from the wizardly world. Miranda calls for Arina’s help again. Ancient artefacts disappeared in the wizardly community: the hair of the goddess Seth, the spinning wheel of the goddess Frigg and the wings of Thumbelina. An evil magician Fedel who had escaped from the prison and his insidious grandmother Snow White seized them, dreaming to have control over the wizardly worlds. Therefore, all the efforts were hurled into the search for artefacts, in particular, the Knights of the Golden Tree. But suddenly, Miranda and Arina found out that the missing artefacts were somehow connected with the mysterious abduction of Rapunzel. She was kidnapped by a knight in flying sandals right from the open window of her tower. Amazing adventures of Arina Solovyova go on. What will be the end of another fascinating story full of mysterious events?Las Dagas en la Taza de Té (El Rastro del Complot Libro 6 #6)
Par McDowell Brains. 2021
Sin desprender sus dedos del ratón, Siva no pudo darle clic al botón para enviar su respuesta. No de nuevo.…
Richard le acaba de prevenir que él está bailando con la muerte nuevamente, probablemente, él no sobrevivirá esta vez. A Siva le encanta su prometida y previa modelo. Y a él le aterroriza el pensar en perderla. Pero la investigación del escándalo del dinero de Siva necesita pruebas y evidencias de forma desesperante. En LAS DAGAS EN LA TAZA DE TÉ, la sexta novela en la serie popular del Rastro del Complot, McDowell Brains nos guía hacia un Genocidio Terrible por un General retirado llamado Magodo quien mantiene su amistad con Siva y espiándole. Él debe hacer todo para salvar esta investigación hasta que él logre ponerle a salvo para quien sea que le importe el ejecutar la evidencia después que él sea asesinado.Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas
Par Christian Kracht. 2016
An outrageous, fantastical, uncategorizable novel of obsession, adventure, and coconuts In 1902, a radical vegetarian and nudist from Nuremberg named…
August Engelhardt set sail for what was then called the Bismarck Archipelago. His destination: the island Kabakon. His goal: to found a colony based on worship of the sun and coconuts. His malnourished body was found on the beach on Kabakon in 1919; he was forty-three years old. Christian Kracht's Imperium uses the outlandish details of Engelhardt's life to craft a fable about the allure of extremism and its fundamental foolishness. Engelhardt is at once a sympathetic outsider—mocked, misunderstood, physically assaulted—and a rigid ideologue, and his misguided notions of purity and his spiral into madness presage the horrors of the mid-twentieth century. Playing with the tropes of classic adventure tales like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe, Kracht's novel, an international bestseller, is funny, bizarre, shocking, and poignant—sometimes all on the same page. His allusions are misleading, his historical time lines are twisted, his narrator is unreliable—and the result is a novel that is also a mirror cabinet and a maze pitted with trapdoors. Both a provocative satire and a serious meditation on the fragility and audacity of human activity, Imperium is impossible to categorize, and utterly unlike anything you've read before.The Pyramid of Needs
Par Ernest Price. 2024
Darkly funny family drama about transphobia, political identity and family dynamics. Perfect for fans of My Year of Rest and…
Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and The Dinner by Herman Koch.Cover Blurb:Linda Taylor is livestreaming her glamourous life as an alternative health guru when she trips over in front of her followers ‑ and can't get up. When Linda's children, Jack and Alice, find out she's broken her hip and can't care for their ailing father or pay her bills, they decide to help. There's just one problem: Jack hasn't spoken to Linda since he came out as a trans man over a decade ago.As the family gets together in Noosa and thunder clouds gather overhead, will family ties be enough to disentangle years of hurt, prejudice and pyramid-scheme brainwashing? Or will Jack have to cancel his mother for good?The Pyramid of Needs is a dark, wry and deeply illuminating examination of family dynamics in a world full of division and misinformation.