"Claudio Bianchi has lived alone for many years on a hillside in Southern Italy's scenic Calabria. Set in his ways and suspicious of outsiders, Claudio has always resisted change, preferring farming and writing poetry. But one chilly morning, as though from a dream, an impossible visitor appears at the farm. When Claudio comes to her aid, an act of kindness throws his world into chaos. Suddenly he must stave off inquisitive onlookers, invasive media, and even more sinister influences" -- provided by publisher.

Persephone loses her innocence in the Underworld, but finds herself. She is Everywoman coming through darkness, betrayal and disillusion to discover a new life, a new sense of herself. And she is many women in Jenny Joseph's extraordinary novel, which retells the Greek myth of spring and winter, of good and evil.Demeter the earth goddess is every worried mother struggling to understand her daughter. Hades is the reckless man, brutal, possessive, but mellowed by the girl he takes for himself, the woman who goes back to him.In Persephone, Jenny Joseph has created a new kind of novel, a story made up of many stories, our stories, using poetry, narrative, parody and many other kinds of writing. Like the myth itself, Persephone is unforgettable. The book won her the 1986 James Black Memorial Prize for Fiction.

"Legends from Vamland is one of the most beautiful stories about human struggle against fear. The author blends together Romanian legends and myths with those of cultures throughout the world. One can hardly find any noble and beautiful human aspiration in all the cultures of the world whose reflection is not to be found in Legends from Vamland. The work is also intended to be one of science fiction, as the author provides the image of the spiritual life of an imaginary people from an imaginary land. The result is a book of splendid originality. One of the first Romanian writers of science fiction, Vladimir Colin was also an important representative of Jewish culture in Romania. Among his most important works of science fiction are Legends from Vamland, a work in many ways similar to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. These tales have been abridged and retold for English readers by Luiza Carol. Luiza Carol is associate editor of the international poetry magazine Voices Israel. She is an award-winning writer, poet, and translator and a member of the Federation of Israeli Writers and the Academy of American Poets"--