Recommendations based on "Booth"
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By Alice Winn
A gripping, heart-shattering love story between two soldiers in the First World WarIt's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood.The front is horrific, of course, and though Gaunt tries to dissuade Ellwood from joining him on the battlefield, Ellwood soon rushes to join him, spurred on by his love of Greek heroes and romantic poetry. Before long, their classmates have followed suit. Once in the trenches, Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, but their friends are all dying, right in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.
By Franzen Jonathan
The Instant New York Times Bestseller A Guardian Best Fiction Book Of 2021 An Independent Book Of The Year A White Review Book Of The Year A Lit Hub Best Book Of The Year 'his Best Novel Yet ... A Middlemarch-like Triumph' Telegraph Set In A Historical Moment Of Moral Crisis, Crossroads Is The Stunning Foundation Of A Sweeping Investigation Of Human Mythologies, As The Hildebrandt Family Navigate The Political And Social Crosscurrents Of The Past Fifty Years It's December 23, 1971, And Heavy Weather Is Forecast For Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, The Associate Pastor Of A Liberal Suburban Church, Is On The Brink Of Breaking Free Of A Marriage He Finds Joyless - Unless His Wife, Marion, Who Has Her Own Secret Life, Beats Him To It. Their Eldest Child, Clem, Is Coming Home From College On Fire With Moral Absolutism, Having Taken An Action That Will Shatter His Father. Clem's Sister, Becky, Long The Social Queen Of Her High-school Class, Has Sharply Veered Into The Counterculture, While Their Brilliant Younger Brother Perry, Who's Been Selling Drugs To Seventh-graders, Has Resolved To Be A Better Person. Each Of The Hildebrandts Seeks A Freedom That Each Of The Others Threatens To Complicate. Jonathan Franzen's Novels Are Celebrated For Their Unforgettably Vivid Characters And Their Keen-eyed Take On The Complexities Of Contemporary America. Now, For The First Time, In Crossroads, Franzen Explores The History Of A Generation. With Characteristic Humour And Complexity, And With Even Greater Warmth, He Conjures A World That Feels No Less Immediate. A Tour De Force Of Interwoven Perspectives And Sustained Suspense, Crossroads Is The Story Of A Midwestern Family At A Historical Moment Of Moral Crisis. Jonathan Franzen's Gift For Melding The Small Picture And The Big Picture Has Never Been More Dazzlingly Evident.
By Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange is the daring and electrifying book by Anthony Burgess that inspired one of the most notorious films ever made, beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'What's it going to be then, eh?' In this nightmare vision of youth in revolt, fifteen-year-old Alex and his friends set out on a diabolical orgy of robbery, rape, torture and murder. Alex is jailed for his teenage delinquency and the State tries to reform him - but at what cost? Social prophecy? Black comedy? Study of freewill? A Clockwork Orange is all of these. It is also a dazzling experiment in language, as Burgess creates a new language - 'nadsat', the teenage slang of a not-too-distant future. 'Every generation should discover this book' Time Out 'A gruesomely witty cautionary tale' Time 'Not only about man's violent nature and his capacity to choose between good and evil. It is about the excitements and intoxicating effects of language' Daily Telegraph 'I do not know of any other writer who has done as much with language...a very funny book' William S. Burroughs 'One of the cleverest and most original writers of his generation' The Times Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917. He studied English at Manchester University and joined the army in 1940 where he spent six years in the Education Corps. After demobilization, he worked first as a college lecturer in Speech and Drama and then as a grammar-school master before becoming an education officer in the Colonial Service, stationed in Malay and Borneo. In 1959 Burgess was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and decided to become a full-time writer. Despite being given less than a year to live, Burgess went on to write at least a book a year - including A Clockwork Orange (1962), M/F (1971), Man of Nazareth (1979), Earthly Powers (1980) and The Kingdom of the Wicked (1985) - and hundreds of book reviews right up until his death. He was also a prolific composer and produced many full-scale works for orchestra and other media during his lifetime. Anthony Burgess died in 1993.
By Michael Morpurgo
This is the story of Aman, as told in his own words - a boy from Afghanistan fleeing the horror of the Afghan war. When a western dog shows up outside the caves where Aman lives with his mother, Aman is initially repulsed - it is not customary for people to keep dogs as pets in his part of the world. But when Aman and his mother finally decide to make a bid for freedom, the dog Aman has called Shadow will not leave their side. Soon it becomes clear: the destinies of boy and dog are linked, and always will be...
By Irvin D. Yalom
Asked to treat Friedrich Nietzsche for his suicidal despair following a broken love affair, eminent Viennese physician Josef Breuer devises an ingenius approach that would force Nietzsche to apply his own theories to cure himself. Reissue. 15,000 first printing.
By Arthur Koestler
Originally published in 1941, Arthur Koestler's modern masterpiece, "Darkness At Noon," is a powerful and haunting portrait of a Communist revolutionary caught in the vicious fray of the Moscow show trials of the late 1930s. During Stalin's purges, Nicholas Rubashov, an aging revolutionary, is imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the party he has devoted his life to. Under mounting pressure to confess to crimes he did not commit, Rubashov relives a career that embodies the ironies and betrayals of a revolutionary dictatorship that believes it is an instrument of liberation. A seminal work of twentieth-century literature, "Darkness At Noon" is a penetrating exploration of the moral danger inherent in a system that is willing to enforce its beliefs by any means necessary.
By Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, Kressmann Taylor
Kressmann Taylor's Address Unknown is a rediscovered classic. Originally published in 1938 - it is now an international bestseller, and reveals the extraordinary power of the pen as a weapon. This is a book that needs to be read.Thanks to word-of-mouth recommendation from reader to reader, Address Unknown has been reprinted 11 times.Short but shattering, it will linger in your memory.Can friendship survive in a divided world? Written on the eve of the Holocaust as a series of letters between a Jew in America and his German friend, Kressmann Taylor's classic novel is a haunting tale of a society poisoned by Nazism. First published in 1938, Address Unknown met with immediate success in English but was banned in Europe by the Nazis. Tragically prescient about what was to come, it was one of the earliest works of fiction to warn against the growing dangers of fascism and antisemitism in Europe. It became an international bestseller and has been translated into more than twenty languages.A novel of enduring impact with a memorable sting in its tail, Address Unknown stands as a powerful reminder of the dangers posed by the rhetoric of intolerance.
By Jonathan Franzen
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A GUARDIAN BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2021 AN INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR A WHITE REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR A LIT HUB BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'His best novel yet ... A Middlemarch-like triumph' Telegraph Set in a historical moment of moral crisis, Crossroads is the stunning foundation of a sweeping investigation of human mythologies, as the Hildebrandt family navigate the political and social crosscurrents of the past fifty years It's December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless - unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem's sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who's been selling drugs to seventh-graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. Jonathan Franzen's novels are celebrated for their unforgettably vivid characters and their keen-eyed take on the complexities of contemporary America. Now, for the first time, in Crossroads, Franzen explores the history of a generation. With characteristic humour and complexity, and with even greater warmth, he conjures a world that feels no less immediate. A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a historical moment of moral crisis. Jonathan Franzen's gift for melding the small picture and the big picture has never been more dazzlingly evident.
By Karl Ove Knausgaard
A beautiful, funny, vital novel of teenage years and teenage mistakes from the international phenomenon, Karl Ove Knausgaard.* Karl Ove Knausgaard's dazzling new novel, The Morning Star, is available to pre-order now *Fresh out of high school, Karl Ove moves to a remote fishing village to work as a teacher. He has no interest in the job itself - or in any other job for that matter, his sole aim is to save money and start writing. All goes well to begin with but as the nights grow longer, his life takes a darker turn. Drinking causes him blackouts, his repeated attempts at losing his virginity end in humiliation, and to his own great distress he develops romantic feelings towards one of his 13-year-old students. And all the while the shadow of his father looms large.'Beautifully human... Being drawn into Knausgaard's world is an ineluctable pleasure'The Times