835 results for "History"

A Perfect Life A Novel

Eileen Pollack
A luminous and insightful novel that considers the moral complexities of scientific discovery and the sustaining nature of love. A young researcher at MIT, Jane Weiss is obsessed with finding the genetic marker for Valentine’s Disease, a neurodegenerative disorder. Her pursuit is deeply personal—Valentine’s killed her mother, and she and her freewheeling sister, Laurel, could be genetic carriers; each has a fifty percent chance of developing the disease. Having seen firsthand the devastating effect Valentine’s had on her parents’ marriage, Jane is terrified she might become a burden on whomever she falls in love with and so steers clear of romantic entanglement. Then, the summer before her father’s second wedding, Jane falls hard for her future stepbrother, Willie. But Willie’s father also died from Valentine’s, raising the odds that their love will end in tragedy. When Willie bolts at a crucial moment in their relationship, Jane becomes obsessed with finding the genetic marker to the disease that threatens both their families. But if she succeeds in making history, will she and her sister have the courage to face the truth this newfound knowledge could hold for their lives? A Perfect Life is a novel of scientific and self discovery, about learning how to embrace life and love, no matter what may come. Eileen Pollack conjures a thought-provoking, emotionally resonant story of one woman’s brilliance and bravery as she confronts her deepest fears and desires—and comes to accept the inevitable and the unexpected.
HarperCollins 2017-01-10 384 pages

The unloved

Levy, Deborah
When a group of hedonistic West European tourists gather to celebrate Christmas in a remote French chateau, an English woman is murdered. Tatiana, 'the unloved child', declares she knows who did it. The subsequent inquiry into the death proves to be more of an investigation into the nature of love, insatiable rage and sadistic desire, framed within an unfolding narrative of colonial violence which will change the tourists' version of history for ever. The Unloved is a pivotal novel in Levy's career, first published in 1994 and reissued now for a new generation of readers.
Bloomsbury 2015 199 pages

TJ: Johannesburg photographs, 1948-2010

Goldblatt, David
This publication is the product of the collaboration of two of the finest creative individuals at work in South Africa today, a photographer and a novelist, on a project that is the city of Johannesburg. 'Johannesburg is a fragmented city. It is not a place of smoothly integrated parts. And it has a name that does not roll easily off the tongue.' So begins David Goldblatt's introduction to TJ, a book of photographs of Johannesburg. Commencing in the 1950s, his masterful lens probes, documents and comments on life over six decades in this incomparable African city. Selected from a massive body of work, this superb distillation presents a unique pictorial history of the city. A new novel by Ivan Vladislavic partners the book of photographs. In Double Negative, a young man in Johannesburg receives an induction into the intricate nature of photography and artistic representation. The novel traces the young man as he heads into his career that takes him overseas and back, developing in the process an ever widening perspective on not only the social and political change in the country but also on questions to do with observation and the observing subject. It brings into sharp focus the history of South Africa's recent past and the difficulty of imaging and re-imagining it.
Contrasto 2010 203 pages

The book of memories

Shua, Ana María
The Book of Memories, originally published in Spanish in 1994, is a humorous yet moving exploration of a Jewish family's history, as seen through the eyes of three generations of women. The story begins with Grandfather Gedalia leaving Poland with forged papers to escape the army and sailing to Argentina, the "other America." Sometimes charming, sometimes stingy, this patriarchal figure, a peddler and sometime moneylender, heads a clan that includes, among others, the feisty and foul-mouthed Aunt Judith, and Uncle Silvester, a seducer of young girls who has such high principles that he turns himself in after missing the Argentine police raid on his socialist printing press.
University of New Mexico Press 1998-09-01 178 pages

Daughters of Castle Deverill

Montefiore, Santa
From number one bestselling author Santa Montefiore It is 1925 and the war is long over. But much has been lost and life will never truly be the same again. Castle Deverill, cherished home to the Deverill family in the west of Ireland for hundreds of years, has burned to the ground. But young and flighty Celia Deverill is determined to restore the sad ruin to its former glory. Celia married well and has the wealth, after all, to keep it in the family and she cannot bear to see it stand neglected. But dark shadows are gathering once more, as the financial markets start to shake. And everything that felt so certain is thrown once again into doubt. A compelling story of family and history, from the author of the top ten bestseller Songs of Love and War . ***PRAISE FOR SANTA MONTEFIORE*** 'Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore' JOJO MOYES 'An enchanting read, overflowing with deliciously poignant moments' DINAH JEFFERIES 'Santa Montefiore hits the spot for me like few other writers' SARRA MANNING 'One of our personal favourites' The Times 'Accomplished and poetic' Daily Mail 'Santa Montefiore is a marvel' Sunday Express
Simon & Schuster Ltd 2016 534 pages

Saving Lincoln A Screenplay

Salvador Litvak,Nina Davidovich
Saving Lincoln is a visually unique film, set within actual photographs of the American Civil War. This special edition of the Saving Lincoln screenplay features authentic images from the period, many of which were used in the film. The book also includes the filmmakers' notes on the story, its characters, and the Civil War, plus storyboards and rare images of Ward Hill Lamon. "An important film that must be seen. Saving Lincoln is moving, ingenious, original and impressive." - Michael Medved, syndicated radio host "A film with personality... shows the human side of the President." - Louis Saenz, NPR Saving Lincoln is the unforgettable true story of President Abraham Lincoln and his closest friend, U.S. Marshal Ward Hill Lamon. When the first assassination attempt occurs on the way to Washington in 1861, banjo-playing, pistol-wielding Lamon appoints himself Lincoln's bodyguard. From this unique perspective, Lamon witnesses every aspect of Lincoln's fiery trial as Commander-in-Chief, soothes his friend's tormented soul, and saves him from repeated attempts on his life. Lamon is away on a mission when Lincoln is killed, yet it is Lamon who redefines that tragic event in a surprising and uplifting way. ..".it is not the least accomplishment of this film that in its own way it saves Lincoln by bringing him back to life as a man who loved, laughed, and enjoyed the company of one Ward Hill Lamon. Lincoln loved a good story, and what follows is one of the best in American history." - From the foreword by noted Civil Ward Historian, Brooks D. Simpson "Brilliant and entirely factual... a brave, tough, and incisive film." - Harold Holzer, Lincoln authority and author "An indie flick with heart and brains. Through Lamon, we savor Lincoln's homespun wit, sly self-possession, periodic rages, bouts of moodiness, depression, and self-deprecation, restless drive, nagging uncertainties, and deep love for his family. It is a thoughtful and moving portrait." - Gene Santoro, American History Magazine
Saving Lincoln, LLC 2013 91 pages

Golgotha

Tidhar, Lavie
Two men, decades apart, are ensnared in the deadly search for a fabled treasure in the conclusion to Lavie Tidhar's epic and audacious Maror Trilogy. 1882, Jerusalem The foreigner. A man with no name, twin guns at his hips, a wide-brimmed hat on his head. A European exile in the backwaters of Ottoman Palestine, The foreigner is a bounty hunter in pursuit of a thief. 1948, Haifa Burton. A man with one name, a detective inspector in the crumpled khaki uniform of the Palestine Police Force's CID. With just seven days before the British Mandate ends, he must find a murderer and a missing aristocrat, as order collapses around him. Both men are outsiders in a land that is a palimpsest of ruins and loyalties, legacy of a history written in blood on a landscape that remembers everything. Both men will treat with bandits and mystics, dreamers and killers as they pursue their quarry; both will be ensnared in a lethal search for the fabled treasures of the Second Temple, long-lost amid the rise and fall of peoples, nations and empires. And both will be haunted by their dreams: burning red skies, a mountain of skulls, echoes of a vision from the dawn of humanity. Before Jerusalem, before Jericho, there has always been Golgotha.
Apollo 2025-09-11 352 pages

Secret of the sands

Sheridan, Sara
It is 1833 and the British Navy is engaged in surveying the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula. Young and ambitious, Lieutenant James Wellsted is determined that his Navy career will be a path to glory. His plans go awry when two of his shipmates go missing while gathering intelligence and Wellsted must mount a daring rescue. Slavery is still rife throughout Arabia. Zena, a headstrong Abyssinian beauty, torn from her village, is now being offered for sale in the market of Muscat. However, her fortunes change when she finds herself the property of the Lieutenant. She must accompany him on his hazardous mission, little knowing the fate that awaits them. Each will be forced to make a choice - one that will change their lives forever.
Charnwood 2012 528 pages

Holy Week: a novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Andrzejewski, Jerzy
As armed battle rages in the Warsaw ghetto during the week preceding Easter of 1943, Jan Malecki, a Polish architect and cold, indecisive leftist, reluctantly takes in his Jewish old flame, Irena Lilien. Irena was a wealthy, bewitching beauty, but is now an embittered homeless fugitive with forged Aryan papers. Jan's pious and pregnant wife, Anna, is kind if condescending to Irena, and Jan's brother identifies with the Jewish insurgents. But Irena is informed on by the neighbor's acidly anti-Semitic wife.
Ohio University Press 2007 149 pages

Apology for the woman writing

Diski, Jenny
Marie de Gournay was eighteen when she read, and was overwhelmed by, the essays of the French philosopher Montaigne. She had to be revived with hellebore. When she finally met Montaigne, she stabbed herself with a hairpin until the blood ran in order to show her devotion. He made her his adopted daughter for the two months they knew each other. He died four years later, after which, though scorned by intellectuals, she became his editor. Jenny Diski engages with this passionate and confused relationship between 'father and daughter', old writer/young acolyte, possible lovers, using both their voices. Much of their story is about absence of the people they love. In Jenny Diski's hands it becomes a fascinating tale.
Virago 2008 282 pages