William Boyd Libri

È l'estate del 1976, un'interminabile calda estate inglese. Ruth Gilmartin è giunta in macchina nel minuscolo villaggio di Middle Ashton dove vive sua madre. Il paese ha l'aspetto di sempre: una Shangri-La all'incontrario nel cuore perduto dell'Inghilterra dove, come per un misterioso sortilegio, tutto sembra diventare a ogni istante più vecchio, ammuffito, decrepito. La grande casa del XVII secolo al centro del villaggio traballa sui suoi legni divorati dai tarli; la chiesa è sempre più buia e umida, soffocata dagli alberi che sprofondano il villaggio in un crepuscolo perenne; la villetta di Sally, la madre di Ruth, è immersa come sempre in un verde selvaggio e incolto. Tutto sarebbe tediosamente uguale alle innumerevoli volte in cui Ruth è accorsa a Middle Ashton col piccolo Jochen al seguito, se sua madre non avesse un comportamento a dir poco bizzarro. È comparsa sulla soglia della casa seduta su una sedia a rotelle, con le braccia allargate come per accogliere in grembo figlia e nipote. Una volta in casa poi, è balzata giù dalla sedia, si è chinata per dare un bacio a Jochen e ha raggiunto la finestra schermandosi gli occhi per sbirciare fuori, verso il bosco di querce, faggi e noci. Ruth ha avuto la netta sensazione che stesse accadendo qualcosa di strano. Una sensazione che è diventata angosciosa certezza quando Sally ha afferrato un raccoglitore di cuoio e le ha detto porgendoglielo: "Vorrei che lo leggessi". Sul contenitore c'era scritto: "Storia di Eva Delektorskaja".

A collection of twenty-four tales told in bold, distinct voices from Brazil to Africa and from Nice to Hollywood.

Any Human Heart is William's Boyd's classic, bestselling novel - now a major Channel 4 dramaEvery life is both ordinary and extraordinary, but Logan Mountstuart's - lived from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century - contains more than its fair share of both. As a writer who finds inspiration with Hemingway in Paris and Virginia Woolf in London, as a spy recruited by Ian Fleming and betrayed in the war and as an art-dealer in '60s New York, Logan mixes with the movers and shakers of his times. But as a son, friend, lover and husband, he makes the same mistakes we all do in our search for happiness. Here, then, is the story of a life lived to the full - and a journey deep into a very human heart.Any Human Heart will be enjoyed by readers of Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby and Hilary Mantel, as well as lovers of the finest British and historical fiction around the world. It was recently adapted for a major Channel 4 four-part drama series scripted by William Boyd and starring Kim Cattrall, Gillian Anderson, Jim Broadbent and Tom Hollander. This edition features beautiful cover artwork from the television series.'Astonishing, touching, extremely funny. A brilliant evocation of a past era and an immensely readable story' Sunday Telegraph'Superb, wonderful, enjoyable' Guardian'A terrific journey through the twentieth century. Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable' Jeremy PaxmanWilliam Boyd was born in Ghana, where his father was a doctor, and was educated there and in Scotland. His first novel A Good Man in Africa won both the Whitbread First Novel and Somerset Maugham Prizes, and his subsequent novels have gone onto win many awards. His books include: On the Yankee Station and Other Stories, An Ice-Cream War, Stars and Bars, School Ties, The New Confessions, Brazzaville Beach, The Blue Afternoon, The Destiny of Natalie 'X' and Other Stories, Armadillo, Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960, Any Human Heart, Restless, The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth, Ordinary Thunderstorms, Fascination, Bamboo and Waiting for Sunrise. He divides his time between London and south-west France.

A thrilling, plot-twisting novel from the author of the Richard & Judy bestseller Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year

In the 1930s, Kay Fischer is a modernist architect. When she is approached by a stranger claiming to be her father, she is uncertain how to react. But as he pursues her, she finds herself drawn to him and when he asks her to accompany him on a mysterious pilgrimage to Lisbon, she accepts

An autobiography of John James Todd, a Scotsman born in 1899 and one of the great self-appointed (and failed) geniuses of the twentieth century.

Duncan Thaw, the narrator, has to cope with a loveless family and the drudgery of growing to maturity in Glasgow. Elsewhere the author moves Thaw into fantasy when he sends him to Unthank, a city he is condemned to after his death. From the author of "Something Leather".

One May evening in London, Adam Kindred, a young climatologist in town for a job interview, is feeling good about the future as he sits down for a meal at a little Italian bistro. He strikes up a conversation with a solitary diner at the next table, who leaves soon afterward. With horrifying speed, this chance encounter leads to a series of malign accidents, through which Adam loses everything—home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, cell phone—never to get them back. William Boyd's electrifying follow-up to the Costa Award-winning Restless, Ordinary Thunderstorms is a profound and gripping novel about the fragility of social identity, the corruption at the heart of big business, and the secrets that lie hidden in the seamy underbelly of every city.

Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives- joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days. As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic.

From the internationally bestselling author of Restless and Any Human Heart comes a compelling story of one woman's extraordinary life - and a heart-wrenching tale of love and war in the twentieth century