Honestly, I think this is one of the five or so best novels I've ever read. It's four novellas, actually, and the first and third are just astonishing. The prose is so good it takes your breath away (even though, at times, it can be a bit much). But what I love most is its ability—one that all my favorite novels have—to transport you into a world that's utterly foreign, dangerous, and mysterious, and is yet so rich with sensory detail that you grow eerily comfortable in this Alexandria, with its noisy bazaars and esoteric religions and vast desert romances. It's a masterpiece of masterpieces, a living experience as much a work of literature.
Rediscover one of the twentieth century's greatest romances in Lawrence Durrell's seductive tale of four tangled lovers in wartime Egypt that is 'stunning' (Andre Aciman) and 'wonderful' (Elif Shafak)
'A masterpiece.' Guardian
'A formidable, glittering achievement.' TLS
'One of the great works of English fiction.' Times
'Dazzlingly exuberant ... Superb.' Observer
'Brave and brazen ... Lush and grandiose.' Independent
'Legendary ... Casts a spell ... Reader, watch out!' Guardian
'Lushly beautiful ... One of the most important works of our time.' NYTBR
Alexandria, Egypt. Trams, palm trees and watermelon stalls lie honey-bathed in sunlight; in darkened bedrooms, sweaty lovers unfurl.…
Livy's monumental History of Rome is a standard in the classical canon, but one thing I think classicists don't often recognize is how the various volumes are so much like novels. The War with Hannibal, Books XXI-XXX, has everything: world-conquering heroes and villains, ransacked cities, civilizations lost and reborn, small moments of hope and despair, great loves, tragic heartbreaks. Truly, I didn't know that history could be so fun, or even so suspenseful.
This graphic novel was, for the two hours it took to read, like living my teenage years in the 90s all over again. It's witty, charming, hilarious, heartwarming, simultaneously heartbreaking, and as true and honest as anything I've ever read. Jeremy Massie has a gift for emotional subtlety, and perhaps an even greater gift for making you care about these troubled teenages and their fated rock-and-roll dreams. Truly, truly a wonderful read.
The complete Holler series—an ode to the "Grunge 90s," music, and friendship—collected as a graphic novel!
Mark lives in a tiny town in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia in the early 1990s. He doesn't fit in and feels out of sync with his family and the mostly-conservative crowd there. Lucky for him, he finds an escape—the grunge band he forms with his best friend, Jay!
As the lead guitarist in Magnesium Mama, Mark and his bandmates make their time in their hometown bearable. Between gigs, there are a lot of ups and downs, and, luckily, Mark can remember most of…
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it died of a broken heart.
Yet, more than anything else folks ponder in the town of Trinity, one question lingers: why did this angel-toned preacher’s son, just as his fame seemed ready to light the Appalachian nightsky forever, disappear completely?
