The Earth Hums in B Flat

Author: Mari Strachan
Publisher: Canongate U.S.
ISBN: 0802197671
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
The Earth Hums in B Flat is a story of dark family secrets unraveled by the shrewd insight of twelve-year-old Gwenni Morgan, a child with an irrepressible spirit living in a Welsh village that is reluctantly entering the modern age. From the small bed that she shares with her sister at night she flies up into the starry sky above her village and looks down on the lives of its inhabitants. And when the family that she babysits for is rocked by the sudden, unexplainable disappearance of their patriarch, Gwenni is determined to solve the mystery of Ifan EvanÕs whereabouts. Turning amateur detective, she is unaware that the trail will lead her closer to home than she ever imagined. Told with a breathtaking, irresistible blend of freshness and wisdom, the voice that sixty-two-year-old Welsh debut novelist Mari Strachan has created with Gwenni is vibrant, charming, and full of heart. An unforgettable character, GwenniÕs unique way of seeing the world lends her the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary. A magical novel about the trials of youth, familial duty, and understanding, The Earth Hums in B Flat will transport you to another time and place.Ê

Blow on a Dead Man's Embers

Author: Mari Strachan
Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books
ISBN: 9780753189467
Category : Large type books
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
With her husband shattered by war, does one young woman have the strength to bring him back to life? In the aftermath of the Great War, Non Davies wakes one morning to find her husband crouching under the kitchen table in a cold sweat and with fear in his eyes, shouldering an imaginary rifle. Non decides she must discover what has changed her Davey so completely. A mysterious letter addressed to Davey gives her the clue she needs and takes her to the city of London in search of an answer. When she returns home Non realises that the dark secrets of Davey's behaviour are working their way ever closer to the surface - secrets that will shatter the fragile happiness of their community if they ever become known.

We Sinners

Author: Hanna Pylväinen
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 0805095349
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
This stunning debut novel—drawn from the author's own life experience—tells the moving story of a family of eleven in the American Midwest, bound together and torn apart by their faith The Rovaniemis and their nine children belong to a deeply traditional church (no drinking, no dancing, no TV) in modern-day Michigan. A normal family in many ways, the Rovaniemis struggle with sibling rivalry, parental expectations, and forming their own unique identities in such a large family. But when two of the children venture from the faith, the family fragments and a haunting question emerges: Do we believe for ourselves, or for each other? Each chapter is told from the distinctive point of view of a different Rovaniemi, drawing a nuanced, kaleidoscopic portrait of this unconventional family. The children who reject the church learn that freedom comes at the almost unbearable price of their close family ties, and those who stay struggle daily with the challenges of resisting the temptations of modern culture. With precision and potent detail, We Sinners follows each character on their journey of doubt, self-knowledge, acceptance, and, ultimately, survival.

Dear Lucy

Author: Julie Sarkissian
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451625731
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
Lucy is a young woman with an uncommon voice and an unusual way of looking at the world. She doesn't understand why her mother has sent her to live with old Mister and Missus on their farm, but she knows she must never leave or her mother won't be able to find her again. Also living at the farm is a pregnant teenager named Samantha who tells conflicting stories about her past and quickly becomes Lucy's only friend. When Samantha gives birth and her baby disappears, Lucy arms herself with Samantha's diary--as well as a pet chicken named Jennifer--and embarks on a dangerous and exhilarating journey to reunite mother and child.

The Best Thing That Can Happen To A Croissant

Author: Pablo Tusset
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 1782114238
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Book Description
An easy-riding, ball-busting comedy of bad manners, this is one of the most surprising and entertaining literary debuts of recent years. Pablo Baloo Miralles, a fat, useless and flatulent thirty-year-old, is the black sheep of his obscenely wealthy family. While he dedicates his days to online philosophy chatrooms and his nights to whatever pleasures he can find, his brother, 'The First,' is president of his booming family business. But, when 'The First' suddenly disappears, Pablo finds himself being sucked into a hair-raising, mind-bending adventure - an adventure in which he must use all of his well-honed survival instincts to come out alive.

Blindsight

Author: Peter Watts
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429955198
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Factourism

Author: Ferdio
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1507214316
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
Discover remarkable information about science, animals, history, and more with this collection of 150 interesting and intriguing facts. Did you know peanut butter could be turned into diamonds? Or that one teaspoon of honey is the life work of a dozen bees? Or that babies have 95 more bones than adults? These are just a few of the facts that you could learn in Factourism. Featuring 150 of the most extraordinary things that happen in the world every day, you’ll find amazing pieces of trivia accompanied by bright, colorful illustrations. Each beautifully designed page holds a trivia tidbit that will leave you brimming with knowledge.

The Earth Hums in B Flat

Author: Mari Strachan
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 1847675557
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
Gwenni Morgan is not like any other girl in this small Welsh town. Inquisitive, bookish and full of spirit, she can fly in her sleep and loves playing detective. So when a neighbour mysteriously vanishes, and no one seems to be asking the right questions, Gwenni decides to conduct her own investigation. Mari Strachan's unforgettable novel was one of the most acclaimed and successful debuts of 2009. It is a heart-breaking and hugely enjoyable story.

White Noise

Author: Don DeLillo
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440674477
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • An “eerie, brilliant, and touching” (The New York Times) modern classic about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology. “Tremendously funny . . . A stunning performance from one of our most intelligent novelists.”—The New Republic The inspiration for the award-winning major motion picture starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig Jack Gladney teaches Hitler Studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in “American magic and dread.” Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an “airborne toxic event” unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the “white noise” engulfing the Gladney family—radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings—pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Author: Becky Chambers
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1473619777
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 608

Book Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEY'S WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 'A quietly profound, humane tour de force' Guardian The beloved debut novel that will restore your faith in humanity #SmallAngryPlanet When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The ship, which has seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants. Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet. They'll earn enough money to live comfortably for years... if they survive the long trip through war-torn interstellar space without endangering any of the fragile alliances that keep the galaxy peaceful. But Rosemary isn't the only person on board with secrets to hide, and the crew will soon discover that space may be vast, but spaceships are very small indeed. PRAISE FOR THE WAYFARERS 'Never less than deeply involving' DAILY MAIL 'Explores the quieter side of sci-fi while still wowing us with daring leaps of imagination' iBOOKS 'So much fun to read' HEAT 'Chambers is simply an exceptional talent, quietly and beautifully redefining the space opera' TOR.COM 'The most fun that I've had with a novel in a long, long time' iO9