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  Death and the Devil - A Novel

  Frank Schätzing

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  In the year 1260, a great cathedral, the most ambitious ecclesiastical building in all of Christendom, is rising high above the bustling city of Cologne under the supervision of the architect Gerhard Morart. Far below the soaring spires and flying buttresses, a bitter war rages between the archbishop and the city's ruling merchant families—a deadly conflict that claims Morart as the first of its many victims. But there is a witness to the murder of the unfortunate architect, pushed to his death from the cathedral's scaffolding. A cunning, street-smart, politically naive petty thief called "Jacob the Fox" has seen it all—and seeing has made him the target of a relentless and ruthlessly efficient assassin who's been stripped of his humanity by dark, hidden secrets. Ensnared in the strangling vines of a terrifying conspiracy, the Fox must now run for his life. But who—and what—is he running from?

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  The Cricket on the Hearth

  Charles Dickens

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  John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his wife Dot (who is much younger than he), their baby, their nanny Tilly Slowboy, and a mysterious lodger. A cricket constantly chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family, at one point assuming a human voice to warn John that his suspicions that Dot is having an affair with the lodger are wrong.The life of the Peerybingles frequently intersects with that of Caleb Plummer, a poor toymaker employed by the miser Mr. Tackleton. Caleb has a blind daughter Bertha and a son Edward, who travelled to South America and seemingly never returned. Tackleton is now on the eve of marrying Edward's sweetheart, May.In the end, the lodger is revealed to be none other than Edward. Tackleton's heart is melted by the Christmas season, like Ebeneezer Scrooge, and surrenders May to marry her true love. It is suggested ambiguously that Bertha regains her sight at the end. (Wikipedia)

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  Hermanos!

  William Herrick

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  The Spanish Civil War was the last in Europe to be fought for idealistic reasons. When it ended, idealism had been totally and tragically defeated.  Hermanos! is about the men and women who came to Spain as volunteers from every corner of the world—Germany, Ireland, the USA and Britain—to join the International Brigades in what they saw as a crusade against fascism. It is about the cruel war they fought, and the terror and murderous fury of the battles in which most died. It is also about the politics of international socialism and of those who infiltrated into Spain and intrigued for power, and the weapons—distortion, secret police, terror, death—they used in a ruthless and cynical exploitation of idealism for their own ends. And it is about those who fought in the streets, crying, “Unios! Hermanos proletarios!”   William Herrick’s Spanish Civil War is far different from Hemingway’s. Equally tragic, equally conscious of the dignity and nobility of the men involved, nevertheless it reveals the harsh and painful reality of the workings of politics. It is also memorable for the passionate story of Jacob Starr and Sarah Ruskin, and for its battle scenes in which Herrick manages to convey, in his sharp, idiosyncratic and sardonic style, the hope and optimism that turned to despair and inevitable defeat.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth...

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  For women the odds have always been dauntingly against their works being recognised.  But one glance at the names here and you realise this is but a speck from an unlimited pool of immense talents.  Genius in every name. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - The English Women - An Introduction 
  02 - An Unwritten Novel by Virginia Woolf 
  03 - The Old Nurses Story by Elizabeth Gaskell 
  04 - The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley 
  05 - Man Size In Marble by Edith Nesbit 
  06 - Passed by Charlotte Mew 
  07 - Miss Ogilivy Finds Herself by Radclyffe Hall 
  08 - Her Murderer by Mary Cholmonderly 
  09 - Cohen of Trinity by Amy Levy 
  10 - Irremediable by Ella D'Arcy 
  11 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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  The Frost on His Shoulders

  Lorenzo Mediano

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  “Fuses a traditional rural folk tale with the kind of political allegory popular around the time of the Spanish Civil War . . . A satisfying twist” (The Wall Street Journal). 
   
  In 1930s Spain, in an isolated valley of the Pyrenees, an aging teacher reconstructs a bloody and tragic event that seemed destined to remain forever hidden behind a wall of silence. He alone can penetrate appearances and grasp the iron laws determining the lives of all those who live in this place—this valley where nature is miserly and leaves little room for poetic contemplation or an excess of feelings. He alone remembers his protégé, Ramón, a shepherd, who, no more than a child, fell in love with Alba, the only daughter of the region’s most powerful and influential landowner.  
   
  The rich and powerful conspire to thwart the love between Ramón and Alba, and in doing so they incite a feud that will extend beyond all reason. Thus begins a vigorous, dramatic story of rebellion and a heroic quest for freedom that “offers both passionate, romantic derring-do and a vivid picture of class-driven mob hysteria” (The Wall Street Journal). 
   
  “A story that is sweeping in its narrative and evocative in its detail . . . The sort of romance to stir the coldest of hearts.” —The Irish Times

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  The Maid's Version - A Novel

  Daniel Woodrell

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  The American master's first novel since Winter's Bone tells of a deadly dance hall fire and its impact over several generations. Alma DeGeer Dunahew, the mother of three young boys, works as the maid for a prominent citizen and his family in West Table, Missouri. Her husband is mostly absent, and, in 1929, her scandalous, beloved younger sister is one of the 42 killed in an explosion at the local dance hall. Who is to blame? Mobsters from St. Louis? The embittered local gypsies? The preacher who railed against the loose morals of the waltzing couples? Or could it have been a colossal accident?  Alma thinks she knows the answer-and that its roots lie in a dangerous love affair. Her dogged pursuit of justice makes her an outcast and causes a long-standing rift with her own son. By telling her story to her grandson, she finally gains some solace-and peace for her sister. He is advised to "Tell it. Go on and tell it"-tell the story of his family's struggles, suspicions, secrets, and triumphs.

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