"Tired of gathering banal quotes from the B-list on the sidelines of the red carpet. Emma Swanson publicly yearns for a more substantial career but privately dreams of a hot shot boyfriend to transport her into the beating heart of the Hollywood scene. Instead she meets Jessica - beautiful, cavalier, manipulative - who shamelessly trades sex for the gifts it can bring. Convinced that writing a story about Jessica and her ilk would seriously boost her journalistic cred, Emma soon finds herself sucked into a world where the luxuries of prettied-up prostitution may cost more than she ever expected."--Cover p. [4].

All Whom I Have Loved is the haunting story of a Jewish family in Eastern Europe in the 1930s as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable nine-year-old boy. The beloved only child of divorced parents, Paul watches helplessly as his family and his world dissolve around him. At first he lives with his mother—a secular, assimilated schoolteacher, whom he adores until she “betrays” him by marrying a gentile. He’s then sent to live with his father—once an admired avant-garde artist, but now reviled by the critics as a “decadent Jew,” who drowns his anger, pain, and humiliation in drink. Paul searches in vain for a life of stability and meaning. The earthy peasant girl who briefly takes care of him, the pull he feels toward the Jews praying in the local synagogue, and his fascination with Eastern Orthodox church rituals give him only tantalizing glimpses into worlds of which he can never be a part. The fates that Paul’s parents will meet with Paul as terrified witness, and his own fate as an orphaned Jewish child alone in Europe in 1938, are rendered by Aharon Appelfeld with extraordinary subtlety and power, as they foreshadow, in the heart-wrenching story of three individuals, the cataclysm that is about to engulf all of European Jewry.

Tristan Brodsky, sprung from the asphalt of the Depression-era Bronx, goes on to become one of the swaggering Jewish geniuses who remake American culture, but slowly suffocates his poet wife, who harbors secrets of her own. Nina Hricek, a driven young Czech photographer, escapes from behind the Iron Curtain with a group of black American musicians, only to find herself trapped yet again, this time in a doomed love affair. And finally, Tris Freedman, grandson of Tristan and lover of Nina, a graffiti artist and unanchored revolutionary, cannibalizes his family history to feed his muse. In the end, their stories converge, and the survival of each requires the sacrifice of another.

""Open Every Door"" by Zelda Popkin is a novel about a young girl named Sarah who grows up in a small town in the early 1900s. Despite her humble beginnings, Sarah is determined to make something of herself and escape the limitations of her small town. She dreams of becoming a writer and attending college, but her family and community hold her back with their traditional values and expectations.As Sarah navigates the challenges of growing up and pursuing her dreams, she also grapples with issues of identity and belonging. She feels torn between her desire to fit in and be accepted by her community, and her need to be true to herself and follow her own path.Throughout the novel, Sarah encounters a variety of characters who help shape her journey, including a supportive teacher, a rebellious friend, and a mysterious stranger who offers her a glimpse of a different world. As she learns to navigate these relationships and find her own voice, Sarah discovers that the key to unlocking her potential is to open every door and embrace every opportunity that comes her way.""Open Every Door"" is a coming-of-age story that explores themes of identity, ambition, and the power of perseverance. It is a poignant and inspiring tale that will resonate with readers of all ages and backgrounds.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

"Moods by Yoel Hoffmann--"Isreal's celebrated avant-garde genius" (The Forward)--supplies the magic missing link between the infinitesimal and the infinite. Part novel and part memoir, Yoel Hoffmann's Moods is flooded with feelings--about his family, losses, loves, the soul's hidden powers, old phone books, and life in the Galilee, with its every scent, breeze, notable dog, and odd neighbor. Carrying these shards is a general tenderness accentuated by a new dimension brought along with "that great big pill of Prozac." Literature's so pathetic. We peddle fabric with a sun painted on it and no one even looks up... Beautifully translated by Peter Cole, Moods is fiction for lovers of poetry and poetry for lovers of fiction--a small marvel of a book and, with its pockets of joy, a curiously cheerful book by an author who once called himself "a praying mantis inclined to melancholy" --

Past Continuous is a brilliant tour de force, a Joycean panorama of the lives of three men, their families, their lovers, and their friends in the quintessentially modern city of Tel Aviv. It is as much a novel about Tel Aviv-its landscape, its idiosyncratic atmosphere, and its history-as it is about the human condition.

"Born at the turn of the 21st century, The Storyteller, also known as Ishkwegaabawiikwe (Last Standing Woman), carries her people's past within her memories. The White Earth Anishinaabe people have lived on the same land since time immemorial. Among the towering white pines and rolling hills, each generation is born, lives out their lives, and is buried. The arrival of European missionaries changes the community forever. Piece by piece, government policies rob the people of their land. Missionaries and Indian agents work to outlaw ceremonies the Anishinaabeg have practised for centuries. Grave-robbing anthropologists dig up ancestors and whisk them away to museums as artifacts. Logging operations destroy traditional sources of food, pushing the White Earth people to the brink of starvation. Battling addiction, violence, and corruption, each member of White Earth must find their own path of resistance as they struggle to reclaim stewardship of their land, bring their ancestors home, and stay connected to their culture and to each other. In this highly anticipated 25th anniversary edition of her debut novel, Winona LaDuke weaves a nonlinear narrative of struggle and triumph, resistance and resilience, spanning seven generations from the 1800s to the early 2000s."--

This hilarious novel follows the continuing adventures of the simple peasant Ivan Chonkin, who has been arrested as a traitor to the motherland after spending World War II happily tending a garden. Lacking evidence against him, the bumbling bureaucrats base their case on a rumor in his home village that he is the illegitimate son of a prince. the comic case of mistaken identity escalates as they accuse this unlikely prince of working in league with Hitler to restore the monarchy.

This remarkable collection excerpts and reproduces some of China's most significant and eclectic literary works created between the founding of the Ming Dynasty in 1368 through the era of China under Mao Zedong, which ended with his death in 1976. Expertly rendered into English by noted China expert Sidney Shapiro, these classic works are noted for their unique prose and subtle characterizations which at once dispel the notion of China as outside and mysterious. Instead, we are drawn into the strangeness of a distant land and different culture, where human qualities seem remarkably familiar. This journey through the world of Chinese literature is framed according to four distinct "Feudal Fiction" is represented by "Outlaws of the Marsh", the great picaresque classic novel. "War and Revolution" reflects the uprising of an outraged people against domestic oppression and foreign invasion. "Transition" graphically describes China's intellectual ferment and ethical conflicts in an era of revolution, while "Satiric Verse" gives a glimpse of the bitter, sardonic prose of the twentieth century. This work is an ideal introduction to China's finest fiction and its vivid illumination of Chinese history.

The first English translation (by Aliza Shevrin) of Aleichem's (1859-1916) Yiddish novel about two college students -- Hersh, a Jew, and Grigory, a Russian -- who trade places so that Grigory can find out for himself what it is like to be a Jew in anti-Semitic Russia. The plot thickens when Grigory is accused of the ritual murder of a Gentile boy. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

In the surprising world that Sami Michael reveals, Shula, an Ashkenazic Jew, is the center of a web of brilliantly drawn characters: Israeli Arabs, Palestinian refugees, "black Jews," and "white Jews." Swirling in and out of Shula's story are poignantly drawn minor players - an Arab/Israeli couple, their ever-more-militant son, a seductive Arab poet, and political outsiders in a fragile society at war. Sami Michael was born in Baghdad in 1926, fled to Iran during WWII, and eventually made his way to Israel. His first novel, Equal and More Equal was published to critical acclaim. Refuge was his second major work, written originally in Hebrew but, he adds, "with the emotional baggage of the Third World."

Yehoshua Hankin had two loves: love for his wife Olga, many years his senior, and a love for the land. The two competed with each other, but he never preferred one over the other. Displayed for the reader, against the backdrop of the atmosphere in the Land of Israel toward the close of the Ottoman period and into that of the British Mandate, is a broad slice of life spread over fifty years of the man dubbed by constituents as the “Redeemer of the Land,” and of the figures who accompanied him.The characters, events, times, and places described in this historical novel are to a great extent a faithful representation of reality, and they are interwoven into a multi-faceted biography illuminating the period and forgotten actors in a new light. Joining forces in writing this book were Irit Amit Cohen and Ruth Kark, who combined Irit Amit Cohen’s literary work in the genre of the historical novel with Ruth Kark’s long-term research endeavor on Yehoshua Hankin, which even encompassed oral documentation from his close associates.

The storm of controversy over Helen Demidenko and her novel, 'The Hand that Signed the Paper,' raised huge cultural and political questions. Robert Manne, the influential historian and commentator, was a key participant in that debate. In 'The Culture of Forgetting, Manne tells the fascinating story of Demidenko's triumphal march into the honors list of Australian literature, the furious argument she provoked, and her astonishing unmasking as Helen Darville, the daughter of English immigrants. In his pursuit of the truth, Manne is driven by one inescapable question: what is the relationship between 'The Hand that Signed the Paper' and the greatest tragedy of twentieth-century Europe, the Holocaust? 'The Culture of Forgetting' is a powerful and moving book about fiction and free speech, a deeply personal response to the Demidenko puzzle, and a brilliant account of the history at the heat of the affair.

In recent years, an unprecedented interest in novel and revolutionary space missions has risen out of the advanced NASA and ESA programs. Astrophysicists, astronomers, space systems engineers, mathematicians and scientists have been cooperating to implement novel and ground-breaking space missions. Recent progress in mathematical dynamics has enabled development of specialised spacecraft orbits and propulsion systems. Recently, the concept of flying spacecraft in formation has gained a lot of interest within the community. These progresses constitute the background to a significant renaissance of research dealing with astrodynamics and its applications. Modern Astrodynamics is designed as a stepping stone for the exposition of modern astrodynamics to students, researchers, engineers and scientists. This volume will present the main constituents of the astrodynamical science in an elaborate, comprehensive and rigorous manner. Although the volume will contain a few distinct chapters, it will render a coherent portrayal of astrodynamics. * encompasses the main constituents of the astrodynamical sciences in an elaborate, comprehensive and rigorous manner * presents recent astrodynamical advances and describes the challenges ahead * the first volume of a series designed to give scientists and engineers worldwide an opportunity to publish their works in this multi-disciplinary field.

An exploration of fidelity and identity, Lopate's novel follows the lives of three young New Yorkers caught in a tangled love triangle. Eric, returning to the Big Apple after years on the west coast, becomes infatuated with his best friend, Jack's, girlfriend, Marie. When Marie returns Eric's affections, and Jack discovers the affair, all three adults must confront their identities and choices they've made.

Have you ever wondered: How the world would react to a real superhero, even one whose methods left his criminal victims dead? If those outlandish stories about Big Foot, Batboy, and Elvis being alive and living in a trailer park in Lickskillet, OH published in that supermarket tabloid were true? Why a world famous 1960s screen comic would risk everything to get his screenplay-a comedic romp through World War II with Adolph and Eva-produced? Is it inspiration that drives creativity, or something deeper...and bloodier? No problem if you haven't. Paul Kupperberg has done the wondering for you in the sixteen stories in this collection, tales ranging from the real world to the realm of the fantastic, from the last thoughts of a man going knowingly to his death to the musings of a young woman waiting on the arrival of a blind date. "In My Shorts stories range from quite humorous to very disturbing, with side stops to sardonically entertaining...including "Reflected Glory," which offers up a view of the world's first superhero...and the lowbrow p.r. flack with less than pristine moral standards who seeks to mine the hero's celebrity for his own purposes to a truly novel conclusion." -Robert Sodaro, Examiner.com

Skyline is a vibrant novel set in contemporary times in a run-down block of flats in Long Street, central Cape Town. Through this novel, narrated by an adolescent girl, the book explores the lives of African refugees who come to South Africa seeking a new life and better place, having fled wars and poverty in their own countries. The narrator and her sister befriend a warm and caring refugee from Mozambique called Bernard. They help him battle the terrible sadness and loneliness his country's civil war has inflicted upon him. He in turn, along with others from Zimbabwe, Sudan and Congo, introduces the sisters to the music, wisdom and energy of Africa. There is sadness in this story, for it gives a hard look at the emotional carnage caused by war. But there is also hope and humour and friendship.

The Devil's Stocking is the story of Ruby Calhoun, a boxer accused of murder in a shadowy world of low-purse fighters, cops, con artists, and bar girls. Chronicling a battle for truth and human dignity which gives way to a larger story of life and death decisions, literary grandmaster Nelson Algren's last novel is a fitting capstone to a long and brilliant career.-Back cover.

Tova's lacklustre life - days spent running the Kwik Kleen Laundromat, nights spent brooding about being dumped by her girlfriend - picks up its pace when her friend Gina disappears. Gina works as a stripper in a local bar, and the cops don't show much interest when sex trade workers go missing. Reaching for a boldness she didn't think she possessed, Tova begins her own investigation. Throwaway Angels is a compelling whodunit, a fast-paced novel about friendship and living with courage.

After the sudden death of his wife, Daniel abandons home and security, setting off to find the freedom he knew as a boy. This novel follows his wanderings from a seaside boarding house to a hospital bed, introducing the strange characters he meets and recording his even stranger adventures.