Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in a hyper-masculine world. They are caught between two of Glasgow’s housing estates where young working-class men divide themselves along sectarian lines, and fight territorial battles for the sake of reputation. They should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all, and yet they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the doocot that James has built for his prize racing pigeons. As they begin to fall in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his elder brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold.
But the threat of discovery is constant and the punishment unspeakable. When Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland, with two strange men behind whose drunken banter lie murky pasts, he needs to summon all his inner strength and courage to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.
Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism, Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the meaning of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
This moving fable sees a young Greek writer set out to Crete to claim a small inheritance. But when he arrives, he meets Alexis Zorba, a middle-aged Greek man with a zest for life. Zorba has had a family and many lovers, has fought in the Balkan wars, has lived and loved - he is a simple but deep man who lives every moment fully and without shame.
As their friendship develops, he is gradually won over, transformed and inspired along with the reader. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis' most popular and enduring novel, has its origins in the author's own experiences in the Peleponnesus in the 1920s. His swashbuckling hero has legions of fans across the world and his adventures are as exhilarating now as they were on first publication in the 1950s.
'There can never be any doubt that Kazantzakis was the possessor of genius.' Sunday Telegraph
Το βιβλίο περιγράφει την ιστορία ενός ημιτελούς δωρικού κιονόκρανου του πρώτου μαρμάρινου Παρθενώνα και αποτελείται από δύο μέρη.
Το πρώτο παρουσιάζει σε 22 ολοσέλιδες σχεδιαστικές αναπαραστάσεις την ιστορία ενός δωρικού κιονόκρανου, βάρους περίπου 12 τόννων, από την εξόρυξη και τη λάξευσή του ως τη μεταφορά του στην Ακρόπολη.
Γίνεται μια γλαφυρή αναδρομή στις διάφορες φάσεις, από την εποχή των Περσικών πολέμων μέχρι την περάτωση του δεύτερου μαρμάρινου Παρθενώνα. Ιδιαίτερα περιγράφονται οι μέθοδοι με τις οποίες οι αρχαίοι μετακινούσαν, ανύψωναν τεράστιους λίθους και έκτιζαν τους ναούς.
Το δεύτερο μέρος αναπαριστά τα αρχαία λατομεία στην Πεντέλη, τις μεθόδους οργάνωσης, παραγωγής και διακίνησης του μαρμάρου, τα εργαλεία και τα μεταφορικά μέσα καθώς και το φυσικό τοπίο κατά μήκος της οδού από την Πεντέλη στην Αθήνα.