The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman

Author: Denis Theriault
Publisher: Oneworld
ISBN: 9781786070531
Category : Letter carriers
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
Bilodo lives a solitary daily life, routinely completing his post round every day and returning to his empty Montreal apartment. But he has found a way to break the cycle - Bilodo has taken to stealing people's mail, steaming open the envelopes and reading the letters inside. And so it is he comes across Segolene's letters. She is corresponding with Gaston, a master poet, and their letters are each composed of only three lines. They are writing each other haikus. The simplicity and elegance of their poems move Bilado and he begins to fall in love with her. But one day, out on his round, he witnesses a terrible and tragic accident. Just as Gaston is walking up to the post-box to mail his next haiku to Segolene, he is hit by a car and dies on the side of the road. And so Bilodo makes an extraordinary decision - he will impersonate Gaston and continue to write to Segolene under this guise. But how long can the deception continue for?

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman

Author: Denis Thériault
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1786070545
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 86

Book Description
*Selected for Simon Mayo’s BBC Radio 2 Book Club* 'Quirky and charming' Guardian For readers of The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly and The Guest Cat comes this passionate, bittersweet love story that will move readers old and young Secretly steaming open envelopes and reading the letters inside, Bilodo has found an escape from his lonely and routine life as a postman. When one day he comes across a mysterious letter containing a single haiku, he finds himself avidly caught up in the relationship between a long-distance couple who write to each other using only beautiful poetry. He feasts on their words, vicariously living a life for which he longs. But it will only be a matter of time before his world comes crashing down around him.

The Postman's Fiancée

Author: Denis Thériault
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1786071142
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Book Description
The much-anticipated follow-up to the Radio 2 Book Club-favourite The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman Twenty-two-year-old Tania has moved to Montreal to study, fine-tune her French and fall in love. Finding work as a waitress in an unpretentious down-town restaurant, she meets Bilodo, a shy postman who spends his days perfecting his calligraphy and writing haiku. The two hit it off. But then one stormy day their lives take a dramatic turn, and as their destinies become entwined Tania and Bilodo are led into a world where nothing is as it seems. A charming standalone work that reunites readers with the touching and much-loved characters first found in The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, The Postman’s Fiancée is an enchanting, poignant and bittersweet love story that will move readers, young and old alike.

Senselessness

Author: Horacio Castellanos Moya
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811219844
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
A Rainmaker Translation Grant Winner from the Black Mountain Institute: Senselessness, acclaimed Salvadoran author Horacio Castallanos Moya's astounding debut in English, explores horror with hilarity and electrifying panache. A boozing, sex-obsessed writer finds himself employed by the Catholic Church (an institution he loathes) to proofread a 1,100 page report on the army's massacre and torture of thousands of indigenous villagers a decade earlier, including the testimonies of the survivors. The writer's job is to tidy it up: he rants, "that was what my work was all about, cleaning up and giving a manicure to the Catholic hands that were piously getting ready to squeeze the balls of the military tiger." Mesmerized by the strange Vallejo-like poetry of the Indians' phrases ("the houses they were sad because no people were inside them"), the increasingly agitated and frightened writer is endangered twice over: by the spell the strangely beautiful heart-rending voices exert over his tenuous sanity, and by real danger—after all, the murderers are the very generals who still run this unnamed Latin American country.

The Time of Green Magic

Author: Hilary McKay
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1534462783
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
Five starred reviews! “An instant classic.” —The New York Times Book Review From award-winning author Hilary McKay comes “a memorable family story” (Booklist, starred review) about a girl adjusting to her new home—with the help of a little magic. When Abi’s father marries Max and Louis’s mom, their families start over together. Abi suddenly finds herself the middle child, expected to share far too much—especially with grubby little Louis. Then they move into an eerie, ivy-covered house, big enough for all of them. But for the children, strange things start to happen in that house. Abi reads alone, and finds herself tumbling so deep into books, they almost seem real. Louis summons comfort from outdoors, and a startling guest arrives—is it a cat or something else? Max loses his best friend…and falls in love. Meanwhile, Louis’s secret visitor is becoming much too real. Now Abi, Max, and Louis must uncover the secrets of their new home—for there can be danger in even the most beautiful magic. From award-winning author Hilary McKay comes a story that is at once enchanting and thrilling—if you don’t get lost in it first.

The Bookseller

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Book Description

Nagasaki

Author: Éric Faye
Publisher: Gallic Books
ISBN: 1908313757
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 60

Book Description
In a house on a suburban street in Nagasaki, meteorologist Shimura Kobo lives quietly on his own. Or so he believes. Food begins to go missing. Perturbed by this threat to His orderly life, Shimura sets up a webcam to monitor his home. But though eager to identify his intruder, is Shimura really prepared for what the camera will reveal? This prize-winning novel is a heart-rending tale of alienation in the modern world.

Our Riches

Author: Kaouther Adimi
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811228169
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 143

Book Description
The powerful English debut of a rising young French star, Our Riches is a marvelous, surprising, hybrid novel about a beloved Algerian bookshop A Library Journal Best Book of the Year Finalist for the PEN Translation Prize Winner of the French American Foundation Prize Our Riches celebrates quixotic devotion and the love of books in the person of Edmond Charlot, who at the age of twenty founded Les Vraies Richesses (Our True Wealth), the famous Algerian bookstore/publishing house/lending library. He more than fulfilled its motto “by the young, for the young,” discovering the twenty-four-year-old Albert Camus in 1937. His entire archive was twice destroyed by the French colonial forces, but despite financial difficulties (he was hopelessly generous) and the vicissitudes of wars and revolutions, Charlot (often compared to the legendary bookseller Sylvia Beach) carried forward Les Vraies Richesses as a cultural hub of Algiers. Our Riches interweaves Charlot’s story with that of another twenty-year-old, Ryad (dispatched in 2017 to empty the old shop and repaint it). Ryad’s no booklover, but old Abdallah, the bookshop’s self-appointed, nearly illiterate guardian, opens the young man’s mind. Cutting brilliantly from Charlot to Ryad, from the 1930s to current times, from WWII to the bloody 1961 Free Algeria demonstrations in Paris, Adimi delicately packs a monumental history of intense political drama into her swift and poignant novel. But most of all, it’s a hymn to the book and to the love of books.

The Swallows' Flight

Author: Hilary McKay
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1665900938
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
“A triumph.” —Philip Pullman, bestselling author of the His Dark Materials saga Four young lives are forever changed at the dawn of World War II in this “stirring and unforgettable” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) novel from award-winning author Hilary McKay. In England, Ruby has no friends because of the speckled blotches on her face that kids say look like dirt. And Kate is sickly all the time, her older siblings each taking turns looking after her. Ruby and Kate’s first meeting is nearly disastrous, but the two lonely girls soon strike up a friendship. Their connection becomes all the more important when England joins the war against Germany and the blitz begins overhead. In Germany, Erik and Hans are best friends filled with plans for their future: Erik taking over their beloved local zoo, and Hans serving pastries right outside the gates. They never expected to be forced to join the national service, training as pilots and tasked with hurting people. And in London a mistreated dog roams the streets looking for handouts, and for a friend. All of these lives will cross in the most surprising ways in this heartrending tale of war and compassion, and hope that can be found in even the most unexpected friendships, brought to life by award-winning author Hilary McKay.

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

Author: Kelly Anne Jones
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 038575552X
Category : FICTION
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
Through a series of letters, Sophie Brown, age twelve, tells of her family's move to her Great Uncle Jim's farm, where she begins taking care of some unusual chickens with help from neighbors and friends.