As late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders - two men and a dangerously magnetic woman - arrives on the woodland borders triggering a series of events that will see Walter Thirsk's village unmade in just seven days: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, cruel punishment meted out to the innocent, and allegations of witchcraft. But something even darker is at the heart of Walter's story, and he will be the only man left to tell it ...
Dalla pluripremiata autrice Annie Proulx, una delle raccolte di racconti più celebrate del nostro tempo. Il linguaggio magistrale di Proulx e il suo profondo amore per il Wyoming emergono in queste storie di solitudine, violenza repentina e amori sbagliati. In "The Mud Below," l'ossessione di un rodeo rider segna le fratture sempre più profonde tra la sua vita familiare e l'isolamento autoimposto. In "The Half-Skinned Steer," un anziano sciocco si dirige verso il ranch della sua infanzia per il funerale del fratello, morendo a un miglio da casa. In "Brokeback Mountain," la difficile relazione tra due cowboy sopravvive a tutto tranne che all'intolleranza violenta del mondo. Queste sono storie di disperazione, tempi difficili e gioia inaspettata, ambientate in un paesaggio sia brutale che magnifico. Animate da racconti popolari, voli di fantasia e dettagli del lavoro rurale, giustappongono il carattere tradizionale del Wyoming e le sue attitudini—confronto con problemi difficili, pregiudizio, perseveranza di fronte alle difficoltà—con i valori più benigni del nuovo west.
""Troy meant one thing only to the men gathered here, as it did to their commanders. Troy was a dream of wealth; and if the wind continued the dream would crumble."" As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young and innocent woman blood that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail. And when Iphigeneia, Agamemnon's beloved daughter, is brought to the coast under false pretences, and when a knife is fashioned out of the finest and most precious of materials, it looks as if the ships will soon be on their way. But can a father really go to these lengths to secure political victory, and can a daughter willingly give up her life for the worldly ambitions of her father? Throwing off the heroic values we expect of them, Barry Unsworth's mythic characters embrace the political ethos of the twenty-first century and speak in words we recognize as our own. The blowhard Odysseus warns the men to not "marginalize" Agamemnon and to "strike while the bronze is hot." High-sounding principles clash with private motives, and dark comedy ensues. Here is a novel that stands the world on its head."
Mabel Stark was one of the most famous women of her time, the centre-ring finale act of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus in the 1920s and 1930s when circus was the most popular form of entertainment in North America.
The author ponders the redemptive power of secular love in this novel. Their bodies had expired, but anyone looking at them could see that Joseph and Celice were still devoted, the couple seemed to have achieved a peace the world denies, a period of grace, defying even murder. They were still man and wife, quietly resting, dead but not yet departed
Als de hoofdpersoon, een fervent jager, in het Chopping-district komt wonen, stuit hij bij zijn jacht naar korhoenders toevallig op een verlaten en halfverwoeste boerderij: Steenstad. Op datzelfde ogenblik staat hij oog in oog met Banger. Banger is een afstotelijke vijftiger, die alleen om zijn uitmuntende talent als jager en kenner van het jachtgebied door iedereen wordt gerespecteerd. Banger ontwijkt vragen over Steenstad. Toch krijgt de hoofdpersoon beetje bij beetje het gruwelijke verhaal over Steenstad en zijn bewoners te horen. Een verhaal dat sterk verbonden blijkt met Bangers leven.
In her debut novel Proulx tells the tale of Loyal Blood, who is forced to abandon his Vermont farm when he mistakenly commits the most terrible of crimes. Beginning a cross-country odyssey, the ever resourceful Loyal mines gold, prospects for uranium, hunts fossils, farms, ranches and traps, ultimately to survive and endure.
Annie Proulx's highly acclaimed, international bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Quoyle is a hapless, hopeless hack journalist living and working in New York. When his no-good wife is killed in a spectacular road accident, Quoyle heads for the land of his forefathers - the remotest corner of far-flung Newfoundland. With 'the aunt' and his delinquent daughters - Bunny and Sunshine - in tow, Quoyle finds himself part of an unfolding, exhilarating Atlantic drama. 'The Shipping News' is an irresistible comedy of human life and possibility.
