Frank Wynne Libri

In kidnapping cases, the first few hours are vital. Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven has nothing to go on: no suspect, no leads, no hope. But as he begins to understand more about Alex, he starts to realise she is no ordinary victim...

LGBTQ writing from ancient times to yesterday, selected by award-winning translator Frank Wynne.

Michel Houellebecq's dark and disturbing novel Atomised sees him establish himself as a unique and important voice in European letters. With his first work, Whatever, Houellebecq had created a sassy, street-wise bulletin of disaffected existentialism, and here that voice brilliantly extends its range. Atomised (from the French Les Particules élémentaires) is the story of two half-brothers, Michel and Bruno, who seem to represent two sides of Houellebecq himself (there are more than a few moments in the book where we feel we are reading a strange roman à clef). Michel, a molecular biologist, finds ordinary, human emotions inexplicable, making him seem abstruse and cold. Bruno is his opposite: a frustrated libertine trapped in a body most find repellant but still holding sex up as his most validating moment. Through these skewed archetypes an intricate, sometimes quite moving story of the brothers' lives is formed. Houellebecq obviously has a formidable intellect and, like the best French writers, manages to rail against anthropology, psychoanalysis, New Age philosophy and modern society in general without losing sight of his narrative--indeed the narrative is controlled quite beautifully, the pacing excellent, the switching from one brother's story to the other's done with a quiet grace. While some of Houellebecq's views are at the least questionable, and while there are moments when the conclusions to be drawn from his broadsides are disturbing, this never negates the value of the work. This is an ambitious book in which Houellebecq asks important questions: if sex is continually degraded by its increasing commodification and, concomitantly, genetics increasingly offers us the opportunity for procreation without recourse to it, where does that leave us? How do we navigate ourselves, afloat as we are, in this new moral universe? What does the increasing pace of scientific change mean to the conversations non-scientists have about our lives? What place does something called spirituality, whatever that means, have in this brave, new world? This is a big, bold, clever book that has already achieved more than cult status in France. Houellebecq should be read, and read carefully, if not always believed. --Mark Thwaite

A major novel that tackles one of the great taboos of Muslim culture - the Shoah. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Michel, quarant'anni, parigino, è un funzionario ministeriale spento e apatico, annoiato da tutto, incapace di emozioni. Appena colpito dalla morte del padre, ha deciso di partire: una vacanza in Thailandia, l'oblio, l'immersione in un paradiso di piacere. Nell'oasi del turismo sessuale, Michel vive un incontro di imprevista intensità: quello con Valérie, una dirigente di "Nouvelles Frontières". Nell'umanità ordinaria e insensata che da anni circonda Michel, Valérie è un'eccezione: è capace di piacere, sa vivere i suoi desideri, non insegue fantasmi. Tornato a Parigi, conquistato dalla vitalità di Valérie, Michel intraprende, con lei e un suo collega, un'avventura finanziaria: creare una rete mondiale di villaggi turistici in cui il sesso sia libero, i desideri in vendita, la prostituzione autorizzata. Il successo dell'iniziativa è immediato. Il precipitare in tragedia altrettanto. Vite annoiate, piaceri degenerati, occidentali disillusi, integralisti di ogni sorta, sullo sfondo di un amore autentico, assoluto. Un romanzo che, raccontando il cinismo erotico del mondo consumistico, ha immediatamente sconvolto la Francia. Lo sguardo raggelato delle "Particelle elementari", il grigio soffocante dell'"Estensione del dominio della lotta", l'ironia feroce e stralunata di chi sa cogliere, impietosamente il non-senso ordinario degli umani commerci.

Historia życia i pracy genialnego fałszerza Hana van Meegerena.W 1945 roku niewiele znaczący holenderski handlarz dzieł sztuki został aresztowany za sprzedaż bezcennego skarbu narodowego ? obrazu pędzla Vermeera ? marszałkowi III Rzeszy Hermannowi G�ringowi. Jedyną możliwą karą za zdradę była śmierć. Jednak Han van Meegeren gnił w zimnej i wilgotnej celi więziennej, nie mogąc wydobyć z siebie dw�ch prostych sł�w, kt�re dałyby mu wolność: jestem fałszerzem.To ja byłem Vermeerem jest zdumiewającą, niezwykłą opowieścią o człowieku, kt�ry minął się z czasem i powołaniem. Od wczesnego dzieciństwa marzył, żeby zostać malarzem, ale w skandalizującym świecie sztuki wsp�łczesnej jego malarstwo krytycy wyśmiali jako beznadziejnie staroświeckie. Wściekły i rozgoryczony uknuł plan zemsty na swych przeciwnikach. Było to oszałamiające, zręczne oszustwo, dzięki kt�remu w niespełna dziesięć lat zarobił r�wnowartość pięćdziesięciu milion�w dolar�w; zyskał akceptację właśnie tych krytyk�w, kt�rzy wcześniej z niego szydzili i... zobaczył swoje obrazy wiszące tuż obok arcydzieł Rembrandta i Vermeera. Jako malarz Han poni�sł klęskę, jako fałszerz był niedościgniony. To ja byłem Vermeerem jest niewiarygodną, a jednak prawdziwą historią największego fałszerza wszech czas�w, trzymającą w napięciu opowieścią o zachłanności, nieposkromionej pysze, braku umiaru, zdradzie i sztuce.