Editorial Content for Ancient Light
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Reviewer (text)
ANCIENT LIGHT, the 18th novel from Man Booker Prize-winning Irish novelist John Banville (THE SEA), is the tragicomic story of a 15-year-old boy’s affair with a woman more than twice his age, told in the wistful, knowing voice of the man that boy has become half a century later. Read More
Teaser
Is there any difference between memory and invention? This question haunts Alexander Cleave, whose stunted acting career is suddenly revived by a movie role portraying a man who may not be who he says he is. Cleave explores memories of his first love affair with his best friend's mother, as well as those of his daughter, lost to a kind of madness of mind and heart that he can only fail to understand.
Promo
Is there any difference between memory and invention? This question haunts Alexander Cleave, whose stunted acting career is suddenly revived by a movie role portraying a man who may not be who he says he is. Cleave explores memories of his first love affair with his best friend's mother, as well as those of his daughter, lost to a kind of madness of mind and heart that he can only fail to understand.
About the Book
The Man Booker Prize-winning author of THE SEA gives us a brilliant, profoundly moving new novel about an actor in the twilight of his life and his career: a meditation on love and loss, and on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives.
Is there any difference between memory and invention? That is the question that fuels this stunning novel, written with the depth of character, the clarifying lyricism, and the heart-wrenching humor that have marked all of John Banville's extraordinary works. And it is the question that haunts Alexander Cleave as he plumbs the memories of his first --- and perhaps only --- love (he, just fifteen, the woman more than twice his age, the mother of his best friend; the situation impossible, thrilling, devouring, and finally devastating)...and of his daughter, lost to a kind of madness of mind and heart that Cleave can only fail to understand. When his stunted acting career is suddenly, inexplicably revived with a movie role portraying a man who may not be who he says he is, his young leading lady --- famous and fragile --- unwittingly gives him the opportunity to see with aching clarity the "chasm that yawns between the doing of a thing and the recollection of what was done."
ANCIENT LIGHT is a profoundly moving meditation on love and loss, on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives, on how invention shapes memory and memory shapes the man. It is a book of spellbinding power and pathos from one of the greatest masters of prose at work today.
Editorial Content for Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
One could legitimately ask, upon encountering BOOKS TO DIE FOR, if yet another extended checklist with commentary of iconic mystery novels is really needed. My response is “YES,” particularly when it is as well-conceived and crafted as this one. Editors John Connolly and Declan Burke’s introduction is worth the price of admission all by itself. It is a summation of the heart of the mystery genre itself, as well as an answer to the question of why people who do not read mysteries should, and why those who do read mysteries do. Read More
Teaser
In the most ambitious anthology of its kind, the world’s leading mystery writers --- including Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs and Ian Rankin --- come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, over a hundred authors from 20 countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers.
Promo
In the most ambitious anthology of its kind, the world’s leading mystery writers --- including Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs and Ian Rankin --- come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, over a hundred authors from 20 countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers.
About the Book
The world’s most beloved mystery writers celebrate their favorite mystery novels in this gorgeously wrought collection, featuring essays by Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs, Ian Rankin and more.
In the most ambitious anthology of its kind, the world’s leading mystery writers come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, over a hundred authors from 20 countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Agatha Christie to Lee Child, from Edgar Allan Poe to P. D. James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Lord Peter Wimsey, BOOKS TO DIE FOR brings together the best of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and for those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover.
This is the one essential book for every reader who has ever finished a mystery novel and thought…I want more!
Editorial Content for Death in the Floating City
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Reviewer (text)
Lady Emily Hargreaves, accompanied by her husband Colin, is on her way to Venice to help a childhood friend named Emma Callum. A better description would be a childhood nemesis --- Emily and Emma were not exactly the best of friends as children, and Emily did her best to distance herself from Emma whenever possible. However, Emma has asked for her help and Emily can’t turn down that plea, even when it comes from Emma. Years ago, Emma ran off with an Italian Count and caused a bit of a scandal at home, but is now in desperate need of Emily’s detective skills. Read More
Teaser
Emily's childhood nemesis, Emma Callum, turns to Emily when her father-in-law is murdered and her husband vanishes. Emily soon realizes that to solve the present-day crime, she must first unravel a centuries-old puzzle. But the past does not give up its secrets easily, especially when these revelations might threaten the interests of some very powerful people.
Promo
Emily's childhood nemesis, Emma Callum, turns to Emily when her father-in-law is murdered and her husband vanishes. Emily soon realizes that to solve the present-day crime, she must first unravel a centuries-old puzzle. But the past does not give up its secrets easily, especially when these revelations might threaten the interests of some very powerful people.
About the Book
Editorial Content for Mick Jagger
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Reviewer (text)
When Michael Philip Jagger made his entrance into the world in Dartford, England, in 1943, his parents, Joe and Eva Jagger, surely had no idea of the magnitude of fame, notoriety and wealth their little boy would one day possess. By the time the rest of us became acquainted with Mick, however, there were definite signs of things to come. Read More
Teaser
From exclusive interviews with those closest to Mick Jagger, such as ex-girlfriends Chrissie Shrimpton and Cleo Sylvestre, which shed light on little seen aspects of Jagger's personality, to record-straightening revelations about Jagger's infamous 1967 drugs bust and the notorious Altamont concert, Philip Norman's groundbreaking biography crafts a vivid portrait of the real man behind the swagger, little glimpsed and much misunderstood.
Promo
From exclusive interviews with those closest to Mick Jagger, such as ex-girlfriends Chrissie Shrimpton and Cleo Sylvestre, which shed light on little seen aspects of Jagger's personality, to record-straightening revelations about Jagger's infamous 1967 drugs bust and the notorious Altamont concert, Philip Norman's groundbreaking biography crafts a vivid portrait of the real man behind the swagger, little glimpsed and much misunderstood.
About the Book
A supreme achiever to whom his colossal achievements seem to mean nothing...
A supreme extrovert who prefers discretion...
A supreme egotist who dislikes talking about himself...
Philip Norman has long towered above other rock biographers with his definitive studies of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Buddy Holly, and John Lennon --- legends whom the world thought it knew, but who came to life as never before through the meticulousness of Norman's research, the sweep of his cultural knowledge, and the brilliance of his writing.
Now Norman turns to a rock icon who is the most notorious yet enigmatic of them all. Throughout five decades of fronting the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger has been seen as the ultimate arrogant, narcissistic superstar, whose sexual appetite and cavalier treatment of women rival Casanova's and whose supposed reckless drug use touched off the most famous scandal in rock history. Now a grandfather nearing 70 and a British knight of the realm, he still creates excitement at the mere mention of his name; still remains the model for every young rock singer who ever takes the stage.
Norman shows Jagger to be a character far more complex than the cold archseducer of myth: human, vulnerable, often impressive, sometimes endearing. Here at last is the real story of how the Stones' brilliant first manager, Andrew Oldham, transformed a shy economics student named Mike Jagger into a modern Antichrist...of Jagger's vicious show trial and imprisonment on minuscule drug charges in 1967...his remarkable feat at the Stones' Hyde Park concert in making a quarter of a million people keep quiet and listen to poetry...his unpublicized heroic role at the Altamont festival that brought the sunny 60's to a horrific end...the cavalcade of beautiful women from Chrissie Shrimpton to Jerry Hall, whom he has bedded but not always dominated...the enduring but ever-fraught partnership with his "Glimmer Twin," Keith Richards.
While playful about some aspects of Sir Mick, Norman gives him long overdue credit as a songwriter, whose "Sympathy for the Devil" is one of the few truly epic pop singles, and as a harmonica player fit to rank among the great blues masters who inspired the Stones before money became their raison d'etre.
MICK JAGGER above all, explores the keen and calculating intelligence that has kept the Stones on their plinth as "the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band." for half a century.
Editorial Content for The Caller: An Inspector Sejer Mystery
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Reviewer (text)
I have found within a relatively short period of time that there are few greater joys than cracking open a Karin Fossum novel. Fossum’s protagonist is an unassuming Norwegian police inspector named Konrad Sejer, a widow with a semi-doting married daughter who has settled into a life divided with equal comfort between the professional and the personal. The older Sejer and the younger Inspector Skarre make for an interesting though not quite odd couple, enjoying some occasional low-key but good-natured banter that does not get in the way of their criminal cases. Read More
Teaser
Inspector Sejer is called to the hospital to try to figure out who was responsible for carrying out a sinister prank on a young couple. Later that night, he hears a knock at the door and receives a note that has him worried about what is to come. The postcard in question bears a short message: Hell begins now.
Promo
Inspector Sejer is called to the hospital to try to figure out who was responsible for carrying out a sinister prank on a young couple. Later that night, he hears a knock at the door and receives a note that has him worried about what is to come. The postcard in question bears a short message: Hell begins now.
About the Book
One mild summer evening, a young couple are enjoying dinner while their daughter sleeps peacefully in her stroller under a tree. When her mother steps outside she is stunned: The child is covered in blood.
Inspector Sejer is called to the hospital to meet the family. Mercifully, the child is unharmed, but the parents are deeply shaken, and Sejer spends the evening trying to understand why anyone would carry out such a sinister prank. Then, just before midnight, somebody rings his doorbell.
No one is at the door, but the caller has left a small gray envelope on Sejer’s mat. From his living room window, the inspector watches a figure disappear into the darkness. Inside the envelope Sejer finds a postcard bearing a short message: Hell begins now.
This is classic Fossum --- and the critics are saying this is her best book since THE INDIAN BRIDE.
Editorial Content for The Exceptions
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Reviewer (text)
David Cristofano’s THE EXCEPTIONS is much more than a fine sophomore effort. His debut novel, THE GIRL SHE USED TO BE, won critical accolades that included an Edgar Award nomination. It told the story of a young lady named Melody Grace McCartney who, at six years of age and in the company of her parents, wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time and inadvertently witnessed an act of unspeakable violence. Read More
Teaser
The son of a prominent mobster needs to kill the woman whose testimony can put his father in prison, but he can't bring himself to do it. Rather than end her life, he decides that he will make it his duty to protect her. It isn’t long before he finds his mind and his heart more and more devoted to her.
Promo
The son of a prominent mobster needs to kill the woman whose testimony can put his father in prison, but he can't bring himself to do it. Rather than end her life, he decides that he will make it his duty to protect her. It isn’t long before he finds his mind and his heart more and more devoted to her.
About the Book
No loose ends. It's the Bovaro family motto. As part of the Bovaro clan, one of the most powerful and respected families in organized crime, Jonathan knows what he must do: take out Melody Grace McCartney, the woman whose testimony can lock up his father and disgrace his entire family. The only problem: he can't bring himself to do it.
Had Jonathan kept his silence, Melody and her parents would never have been identified and lured into the Witness Protection Program, able to run but never to hide. So he keeps her safe the only way he knows how --- by vowing to clean up his own mess while acting as her shield.
But as he watches her take on another new identity in yet another new town, becoming a beautiful but broken woman, Jonathan can't get her out of his mind...or his heart. From the streets of Little Italy to a refuge that promises a fresh start, Jonathan will be forced to choose between the life he's always known, the destiny his family has carved out for him, and a future unlike anything he's ever imagined.
Editorial Content for Salvation of a Saint
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Reviewer (text)
These are wondrous times. We in the United States no longer need wait for ships from overseas to come bearing books, as they did in Dickens’ day; we merely need to wait patiently while translators perform their often under-appreciated work before we discover what mystery fans of other nations --- in this case, Japan --- have known for years. Keigo Higashino is arguably the most popular contemporary author in Japan, on a level equal to that of Stephen King and James Patterson here. Read More
Teaser
Yoshitaka, who was about to leave his marriage and his wife, is poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee and dies. His wife, Ayane, is the logical suspect --- except that she was hundreds of miles away when he was murdered. The lead detective refuses to believe that she could have had anything to do with the crime. His assistant, however, is convinced Ayane is guilty and calls upon Professor Manabu Yukawa to solve this impossible murder.
Promo
Yoshitaka, who was about to leave his marriage and his wife, is poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee and dies. His wife, Ayane, is the logical suspect --- except that she was hundreds of miles away when he was murdered. The lead detective refuses to believe that she could have had anything to do with the crime. His assistant, however, is convinced Ayane is guilty and calls upon Professor Manabu Yukawa to solve this impossible murder.
About the Book
From the author of the internationally bestselling, award-winning THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X comes the latest novel featuring "Detective Galileo."
In 2011, THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X was a hit with critics and readers alike. The first major English language publication from the most popular bestselling writer in Japan, it was acclaimed as “stunning,” “brilliant,” and “ingenious.” Now physics professor Manabu Yukawa --- Detective Galileo --- returns in a new case of impossible murder, where instincts clash with facts and theory with reality.
Yoshitaka, who was about to leave his marriage and his wife, is poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee and dies. His wife, Ayane, is the logical suspect --- except that she was hundreds of miles away when he was murdered. The lead detective, Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi, is immediately smitten with her and refuses to believe that she could have had anything to do with the crime. His assistant, Kaoru Utsumi, however, is convinced Ayane is guilty. While Utsumi’s instincts tell her one thing, the facts of the case are another matter. So she does what her boss has done for years when stymied --- she calls upon Professor Manabu Yukawa.
But even the brilliant mind of Dr. Yukawa has trouble with this one, and he must somehow find a way to solve an impossible murder and capture a very real, very deadly murderer.
SALVATION OF A SAINT is Keigo Higashino at his mind-bending best, pitting emotion against fact in a beautifully plotted crime novel filled with twists and reverses that will astonish and surprise even the most attentive and jaded of readers.
Editorial Content for The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets
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Reviewer (text)
The phrase “proximal alphabets” refers to the names of three odd people whose bonds form the focus of this unique, darkly rich debut. Ida, Jackson and James are a thick-as-thieves trio who remain so throughout their early childhoods and adolescence, well into the majority of their adult lives. The destructive power of their love begins to take on a life of its own, however, becoming evident in their earliest years and morphing into a thing that becomes ever more haunting and malicious, a force that quite literally tears them apart from the inside. Read More
Teaser
Ida, yearning to fill a void in her life from growing up in a single-parent household, forms a familial-like bond with her neighbors, two brothers named Jackson and James. Fissures form in the trio when Ida and Jackson start to fall for one another, discovering the dangers of love in the process.
Promo
Ida, yearning to fill a void in her life from growing up in a single-parent household, forms a familial-like bond with her neighbors, two brothers named Jackson and James. Fissures form in the trio when Ida and Jackson start to fall for one another, discovering the dangers of love in the process.
About the Book
Ida grew up with Jackson and James --- where there was “I” there was a “J.” She can’t recall a time when she didn’t have them around, whether in their early days camping out in the boys’ room decorated with circus scenes or later drinking on rooftops as teenagers. While the world outside saw them as neighbors and friends, to each other the three formed a family unit --- two brothers and a sister --- not drawn from blood, but drawn from a deep need to fill a void in their single parent households. Theirs was a relationship of communication without speaking, of understanding without judgment, of intimacy without rules and limits.
But as the three of them mature and emotions become more complex, Ida and Jackson find themselves more than just siblings. When Jackson’s somnambulism produces violent outbursts and James is hospitalized, Ida is paralyzed by the events that threaten to shatter her family and put it beyond her reach. Kathleen Alcott’s striking debut, THE DANGERS OF PROXIMAL ALPHABETS, is an emotional, deeply layered love story that explores the dynamics of family when it defies bloodlines and societal conventions.
Editorial Content for The Facility
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Reviewer (text)
In his career as both a journalist and an award-winning novelist, British author Simon Lelic has gained a reputation as a writer with a deep social conscience. This is abundantly evident in his second novel, THE FACILITY. Read More
Teaser
Simon Lelic introduces readers to a totalitarian near-future Britain wherein citizens are snatched from their daily lives and imprisoned in a clandestine, government-controlled facility in order to protect the so-called greater good. Only one socially conscious journalist has an opportunity to expose this injustice --- if he can keep himself from being locked up in the process.
Promo
Simon Lelic introduces readers to a totalitarian near-future Britain wherein citizens are snatched from their daily lives and imprisoned in a clandestine, government-controlled facility in order to protect the so-called greater good. Only one socially conscious journalist has an opportunity to expose this injustice --- if he can keep himself from being locked up in the process.