Quercus Publishing strana 5 z 6

Soon to be a major motion picture starring actress/comedian Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians; The Farewell) as Constance Verity: the girl who's been saving the world since she was seven. It all began at Constance Verity's seventh birthday party, when she defeated a giant snake - but really, it was the fault of the magic wish granted to her at her birth. She's now a master of exotic martial arts and a keen detective, and she possesses a collection of strange artefacts, mostly kept in unlabelled boxes in her apartment. But Constance has spent the past twenty-seven years saving the world, and frankly, she's sick of it. She wants an office job and a normal boyfriend - one who isn't going to get killed by who knows what - and she's figured out the way to get them. She's going to kill her fairy godmother. After all, it was Grandmother Willow who granted the wish and reset her life. The problem is, saving the world is Constance's destiny. She's really good at it, and there are forces at work to make sure she stays in the job. Then again, it's also her destiny to have a glorious death.

"Powerful, profound and deeply moving, new fiction by Afghan women writers will expand your mind and elevate your heart" ELIF SHAFAK "[An] arresting collection . . . Written in simple, direct prose and offers vivid snapshots of a country beset by war and violence . . . It seems more important than ever to read the work of these courageous writers" Financial Times "My pen is the wing of a bird; it will tell you those thoughts we are not allowed to think, those dreams we are not allowed to dream" A woman's fortitude saves her village from disaster. A teenager explores their identity in a moment of quiet. A petition writer reflects on his life as a dog lies nursing her puppies. A tormented girl tries to find love through a horrific act. A headmaster makes his way to work, treading the fine line between life and death. "A precious collection of work, the first and maybe the last of its kind. My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is a huge accomplishment" MONIQUE ROFFEY, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is a landmark collection: the first anthology of short fiction by Afghan women. Eighteen writers tell stories that are both unique and universal - stories of family, work, childhood, friendship, war, gender identity and cultural traditions. "This book reminds us that everyone has a story. Stories matter; so too the storytellers. Afghan women writers, informed and inspired by their own personal experiences, are best placed to bring us these powerful insights into the lives of Afghans and, most of all, the lives of women. Women's lives, in their own words - they matter." Lyse Doucet in her Introduction This collection introduces extraordinary voices from the country's two main linguistic groups (Pashto and Dari) with original, vital and unexpected stories to tell, developed over two years through UNTOLD's Write Afghanistan project. My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird comes at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan's history, when these voices must be heard.

The first of Peter May's China critically acclaimed thrillers featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell. LI YAN A grotesquely burned corpse found in a city park is a troubling mystery for Beijing detective Li Yan. Yan, devoted to his career as a means of restoring the respect his family lost during the Cultural Revolution, needs outside help if he is to break the case. MARGARET CAMPBELL The unidentified cadaver in turn provides a welcome distraction for forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell. Campbell, married to her work and having left America and her broken past behind, throws herself into the investigation, and before long uncovers a bizarre anomaly. THE FIREMAKER An unlikely partnership develops between Li and Campbell as they follow the resulting lead. A fiery and volatile chemistry ignites: exposing not only their individual demons, but an even greater evil - a conspiracy that threatens their lives, as well as those of millions of others.

'Peter May is one of the most accomplished novelists writing today.' Undiscovered Scotland 'No one can create a more eloquently written suspense novel than Peter May.' New York Journal of Books In the second novel in the China series, Li Yan and Margaret Campbell are reluctantly reunited, on the trail of a killer reenacting a series of gruesome rituals THE SECOND OPINION The Chinese police have once more been forced to enlist the services of American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell: this time to investigate a series of four horrific ritual executions that have taken place in Beijing. THE THIRD DEGREE Detective Li Yan is determined to discover just how one of the victims in particular, an American diplomat, became caught up in the slaying. And he is arguably even more determined to have nothing to do with Campbell. THE FOURTH SACRIFICE The polarity that once attracted Yan and Campbell eventually pulls them back into partnership. Yet the closer they are drawn to the truth, the nearer they come to a killer prepared to use extreme force to conceal it.

'How truth thickens and deepens when it migrates from didactic fable to the raw experience of a visceral awakening is one of the thrills of Tolstoy's stories' Sharon Cameron in her preface to Hadji Murad and Other Stories This, the third volume of Tolstoy's shorter fiction concentrates on his later stories, including one of his greatest, 'Hadji Murad'. In the stark form of homily that shapes these later works, life considered as one's own has no rational meaning. From the chain of events that follows in the wake of two schoolboys' deception in 'The Forged Coupon' to the disillusionment of the narrator in 'After the Ball' we see, in Virginia Woolf's observation, that Tolstoy puts at the centre of his writing one 'who gathers into himself all experience, turns the world round between his fingers, and never ceases to ask, even as he enjoys it, what is the meaning of it'. The riverrun edition reissues the translation of Louise and Aylmer Maude, whose influential versions of Tolstoy first brought his work to a wide readership in English.

Enter the world of One Folgate Street and discover perfection . . . but can you pay the price? Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules. After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there - and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma's past and Jane's present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.