Vintage Books strana 17 z 48

Rant is the oral history of one Buster ‘Rant’ Casey, in which an assortment of friends, enemies, detractors, lovers and relations have their say on the man who may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time. Rant is a darkly glittering anti-hero whose recreational drug of choice is rabies, and whose own personal Viagra is the venom of a black widow spider. He soon leaves his half-feral hometown for the big city, where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. On designated nights, the Party Crashers chase each other in cars in the hope of a collision, and all the while Rant, the 'superspreader', transmits his lethal disease...

Sweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead. The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to

“Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo”. Con estas palabras empieza una novela ya legendaria en los anales de la literatura universal, una de las aventuras literarias más fascinantes del siglo xx. Millones de ejemplares de Cien años de soledad leídos en todas las lenguas y el Premio Nobel de Literatura coronando una obra que se había abierto paso a “boca a boca” —como gusta decir el escritor— son la más palpable demostración de que la aventura fabulosa de la familia Buendía-Iguarán, con sus milagros, fantasías, obsesiones, tragedias, incestos, adulterios, rebeldías, descubrimientos y condenas, representaba al mismo tiempo el mito y la historia, la tragedia y el amor del mundo entero.

In the late 1960s Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, set out to turn an ordinary book into a piece of pop art. He said that he wanted to create a 'bad' novel 'because doing something the wrong way always opens doors'. The result was this astonishing account of the famously influential group of artists, superstars, addicts and freaks who made up the world of Warhol's Factory. "A: A novel" was created from audiotapes recorded in and around the Factory between August 1965 and May 1967 and transcribed verbatim, complete with typos and missing words. It begins with the fabulous Warhol superstar Ondine popping pills and follows its characters as they converse with inspired, speed-driven wit and cut swathes through the clubs, coffee shops, hospitals and whorehouses of 1960s Manhattan. This is a unique conceptual project - part novel, part artwork - and is the perfect literary manifestation of Andy Warhol's pop art sensibility.

At fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Then Katie, his tempestuous daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to Ray. Her family is not pleased - as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has 'strangler's hands'. Katie can't decide if she loves Ray, or loves the way he cares for her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by the way the wedding planning gets in the way of her affair with one of her husband's former colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind.

The leader of a religious cult in Guyana instigates a mass suicide. He succeeds in killing himself and his whole flock of worshippers, save one. In a wood outside Ystad, the police make an horrific discovery: a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim's side, handwritten corrections and amendments on every page. A string of incidents, including attacks on domestic animals, has been taking place and Inspector Wallander fears that these events could be the prelude to attacks on humans on a much greater scale. Meanwhile Linda Wallander, preparing to join the Ystad police force, arrives at the station. Showing all the hallmarks of her father - the maverick approach, the flaring temper - she becomes involved in the case and in the process is forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

The inspirational tale of a writer who finds himself caught up in the extraordinary stories of three young immigrant girls in Sweden. Tea-Bag, a young Nigerian girl, has fled a refugee camp in Spain for the promise of a new life in Sweden. Tania has made a long and dangerous journey to escape the horrors of human trafficking. Leila has come with her family from Iran. All of them are facing different challenges in their new home. Meanwhile, celebrated poet Jesper Humlin is looking for inspiration. Harried by his mother and girlfriend, misunderstood by his publisher and tormented by his stock broker, Jesper needs a new perspective on life. A chance encounter with Tea-Bag leads him into the shadow world of the immigrant experience in Sweden. Initially he sees the girls purely as material for his work, but they have very different ideas. In The Shadow Girls, Henning Mankell tells the extraordinary stories of three young women who are determined to overcome the hardships they face to take control of their own lives. This inspiring novel encompasses both humour and tragedy and illuminates the experiences of those left on the margins of our society.

From the author of Suite Francaise this is a compelling story of infatuation, passion and self-destructive love. Yves Harteloup is a disappointed young man, scarred by the war. He returns for the summer to the rich, comfortable Atlantic resort of Hendaye, where he spent blissful childhood holidays. There he becomes infatuated by a beautiful, bored young woman, Denise, whose rich husband is often away on business. Intoxicated by summer nights and Yves' intensity, Denise falls passionately in love, before the idyll has to end and Yves must return to his mundane office job. In the mournful Paris autumn their love founders on mutual misunderstanding and Denise is driven mad with desire and jealous suspicion until, acting on her sophisticated mother's advice, she takes action...which she may regret forever.

Peter and Tilte are trying to track down two notorious criminals: their parents. They are the pastor and the organist, respectively, of the only church on the tiny island of Fino. Known for fabricating cheap miracles to strengthen their congregation's faith, they have been in trouble before. But this time their children suspect they are up to mischief on a far greater scale. When Peter and Tilte learn that scientific and religious leaders from around the world are assembling in Copenhagen for a conference, they know their parents are up to something. Peter and Tilte's quest to find them exposes conspiracies, terrorist plots, an angry bishop, a deranged headmaster, two love-struck police officers, a deluded aristocrat and much more along the way.

Haroun: What's the use of stories that aren't even true? I asked that question and the Unthinkable Thing happened: my father can't tell stories anymore. That means no more laughter in the city of Alifbay and now the place stinks of sadness. So it's up to me to put things right. If the water genie Iff can take me on the Hoopoe bird Butt all the way to Gup City then maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to persuade the Grand Comptroller to give my father his Story Water supply back. Trouble is, that is strictly forbidden, one hundred percent banned, no way Jose territory... Luka: What do sea monsters eat? The Old Man of the River of Time: Fish and Ships. Why was six afraid of seven? Luka: Because seven eight nine. Luckily, my father is the Riddle King and taught me everything I know. But the stakes are high in this riddle battle, couldn't be higher in fact! To save my father from Un-Life, I've got to beat the Old Man and steal the Fire of Life that burns at the top of the Mountain of Knowledge. Only problem is that nobody in the entire recorded history of the World of Magic has ever successfully stolen the Fire of Life... Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can read an interview with the author and solve some fiendish riddles! Vintage Children's Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

From the author of The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children, which was awarded the Best of the Booker Prize in 1993, comes an unflinchingly honest and fiercely funny account of a life turned upside-down. On Valentine's Day, 1989, Salman Rushdie received a telephone call from a BBC journalist that would change his life forever: Ayatollah Khomeini, a leading Muslim scholar, had issued him with a death sentence. This is his own account of how he was forced to live in hiding for over a decade; at once intimate and explosive, this is the personal tale behind the international story. How does a man live with the constant threat of murder? How does he continue to work when deprived of his freedom? How does he sustain friendships, or fall in and out of love? How does he fight back? For over a decade, Salman Rushdie dwelt in a world of secrecy and disguise, a world of security guards and armoured cars, of aliases and code names. In Joseph Anton, Rushdie tells the remarkable story of one of the crucial battles, in our time, for freedom of speech. It is shortlisted for the James Tait Black Biography Prize.

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire. Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull. Soldiers and lovers, parents and children, scientists and musicians risk their bodies and hearts in search of connection - some key to understanding what makes us the people we become. Provocative and profound, Sebastian Faulks's dazzling novel journeys across continents and time to explore the chaos created by love, separation and missed opportunities. From the pain and drama of these highly particular lives emerges a mysterious consolation: the chance to feel your heart beat in someone else's life.

How do you catch a killer who doesn't seem to exist? One snowy night in the cathedral city of Lafferton, an old woman is dragged from her bed and strangled with a length of flex. DCS Simon Serrailler and his team search desperately for clues to her murderer. All they know is that the killer will strike again, and will once more leave the same tell-tale signature. Then they track down a name: Alan Keyes. But Alan Keyes has no birth certificate, no address, no job, no family, no passport, no dental records. Nothing. Their killer does not exist.

This is published to coincide with Leonard Cohen's exclusive show at London's The O2 on Friday 21 June 2013. This book contains exclusive material and interviews making it the biography to buy on Leonard Cohen - singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. The genius behind such classic songs as Suzanne, Bird on the Wire and Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a man of spirituality, emotion, and intelligence whose work has explored the definitive issues of human life - sex, religion, power, meaning, love. I'm Your Man explores the facets of Cohen's life. Sylvie Simmons draws on Cohen's private archives and a wealth of interviews with many of his closest associates, colleagues, and other artists whose work he has inspired.

As a police launch speeds across Miami's Biscayne Bay - with officer Nestor Camacho on board - Tom Wolfe is off and running. Into the feverous landscape of the city, he introduces the Cuban mayor, the black police chief, an ambitious young journalist and his Yale-marinated editor; a psychiatrist who specialises in sex addiction and his Latina nurse by day, mistress by night - until lately, the love of Nestor's life; a refined, and oh-so-light-skinned young woman from Haiti and her Creole-spouting, black-gang-banger-stylin' little brother; a billionaire porn addict, crack dealers in the 'hoods, 'de-skilled' conceptual artists at the Miami Art Basel Fair, 'spectators' at the annual Biscayne Bay regatta looking only for that night's orgy, and a nest of shady Russians. Based on the same sort of detailed, on-scene, high-energy reporting that powered Tom Wolfe's previous best-selling novels, The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full, Back to Blood is another brilliant, spot-on, scrupulous, and often hilarious reckoning with our times.

A collection of timely essays by the internationally acclaimed and bestselling essayist, philosopher, literary critic and author of The Name of the Rose and The Prague Cemetery. Inventing the Enemy covers a wide range of topics on which Umberto Eco has written and lectured over the last ten years, from the discussion of ideas that have inspired his earlier novels - exploring lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world in the process - to a disquisition on the theme that runs through his most recent novel, The Prague Cemetery, that every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn't have one, must invent it. Eco's lively new collection examines topics as diverse as St Thomas Aquinas's notions about the soul of an unborn child, indignant reviews of James Joyce's Ulysses by fascist journalists of the 1920s and 1930s, censorship, violence and Wikileaks. These are essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsessions by one of the world's most esteemed scholars and critically acclaimed, bestselling novelists.