Literature

In her spare, stark style, Annie Ernaux documents the desires and indignities of a human heart ensnared in an all-consuming passion.

Blurring the line between fact and fiction, an unnamed narrator attempts to plot the emotional and physical course of her 2 year relationship with a married foreigner where every word, event, and person either provides a connection with her beloved or is subject to her cold indifference.

With courage and exactitude, she seeks the truth behind an existence lived entirely for someone else, and, in the pieces of its aftermath, she is able to find it.

When Miss Milner announces her passion for her guardian, a Catholic priest, she breaks through the double barrier of religious vocation and society's standards of `proper' womanly behaviour. Her love is legitimized when Dorriforth is released from his vows, but she finds her own unorthodox nature cannot conform to a marriage where her husband continues to be a stern moral guide. With a surenees of touch that prefigures Jane Austen, Elizabeth Inchbald shows that thereis no simple answer to their predicament, and that their conflict can only be resolved in the next generation. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Beautiful, bored and bourgeoise, Sabina leads a double life inspired by her relentless desire for brief encounters with near-strangers. Fired into faithlessness by a desperate longing for sexual fulfilment, she weaves a sensual web of deceit across New York. But when the secrecy of her affairs becomes too much to bear, Sabina makes a late night phone-call to a stranger from a bar, and begins a confession that captivates the unknown man and soon inspires him to seek her out...

Classe de 1ère - tronc commun Fading southern belle Blanche Dubois depends on the kindness of strangers and is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness.

'Mandy Baggot is the queen of summer romance.' - NetGalley Reviewer'Absolutely delightful, my favourite book this year!' NetGalley ReviewerThis summer, on the Greek island of Corfu, sparks will fly as dreams come true... Lydia Broom is living her second-best life. With her dreams of being a chef left in the dust she instead finds solace writing about the dishes she wished she created. When Lydia's sent to Corfu on an assignment, she's excited to see what culinary delights the island has to offer, but nothing seems to tickle her fancy - until she tastes the creations of local cook, Thanos Nicolaidis. After one sizzling afternoon in the kitchen together, Lydia and Thanos both allow themselves to dream of the futures they desperately want. And as they grow closer, sharing secret ingredients and family recipes, Thanos begins to realise he has to show Lydia the parts of him he's done so well to hide... Get ready for the hottest Greek meze on the menu as Lydia and Thanos discover that amid the sirtaki dancing and the smashing plates, they might just be cooking up their very own love story. Praise for A Taste of Greek Summer:'What a bountiful banquet this book is!' NetGalley Reviewer'Beautifully written, this lovely story made me smile, laugh, and left me with a lovely, warm glow.' NetGalley Reviewer'A delightful read from start to end; one that left me smiling long after I finished the last chapter.' NetGalley Reviewer'This book is heart-warming and hilarious. I would give it six stars if I could!' NetGalley Reviewer'Tempting, tantalising and tasty. This book was a one-sitting read for me.' - NetGalley Reviewer

'Probably more people have shed tears over the last page of A Town Like Alice than about any other novel in the English language... remarkable' Guardian Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle - an experience that leads to the deaths of many. Due to her courageous spirit and ability to speak Malay, Jean takes on the role of leader of the sorry gaggle of prisoners and many end up owing their lives to her indomitable spirit. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result. After the war, Jean tracks Joe down in Australia and together they begin to dream of surmounting the past and transforming his one-horse outback town into a thriving community like Alice Springs... With an introduction by Eric Lomax, author of The Railway Man

Twain's account of travelling in Europe, A TRAMP ABROAD (1880), sparkles with the author's shrewd observations and highly opinionated comments on Old World culture, and showcases his unparalleled ability to integrate humorous sketches, autobiographical tidbits, and historical anecdotes in a consistently entertaining narrative. Cast in the form of a walking tour through Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, A TRAMP ABROAD includes among its adventures a voyage by raft down the Neckar and an ascent of Mount Blanc by telescope, as well as the author's attempts to study art - a wholly imagined activity Twain 'authenticated' with his own wonderfully primitive pictures included in this volume.

Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge is a tragic masterpiece of the inexorable unravelling of a man, set in a close-knit Italian-American community in 1950s New York. Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of decency and of honour. For Eddie, it's a privilege to take in his wife's cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, straight off the boat from Italy.

But, as his niece Catherine begins to fall for one of them, it's clear that it's not just, as Eddie claims, that he's too strange, too sissy, too careless for her, but that something bigger, deeper is wrong - and wrong inside Eddie, in a way he can't face. Something which threatens the happiness of their whole family.This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by the author and a new foreword by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

"Ο δρόμος για το καλοκαίρι " του Άγγελου Κούρου είναι μια περιπλανώμενη ποιητική
αφήγηση του καλοκαιριού στα ελληνικά νησιά του Αιγαίου, σαν ένα απαλό μελτεμάκι… 
Αθήνα, λιμάνι του Πειραιά και μετά ξεκινά κανονικά το ταξίδι, Σαντορίνη,
Αμοργός, Ρόδος, Μήλος... και το ποιητικό ταξίδι στα νησιά συνεχίζεται! Προορισμοί που
διατηρούνται ανέπαφα στις αναμνήσεις μας για μια μελλοντική επιστροφή ...
Αλλά τι συμβαίνει εκεί; Ο λυρισμός του δεν είναι άκρατος, υπερβολικός, είναι ελεγχόμενος,  είναι γλυκός, δεν έχει χαρακτήρα καρτ ποστάλ και επίσης έχει και χιούμορ. Αυτό είναι πολύ σημαντικό, καθώς είναι σπάνιο στην ποίησή μας να βρούμε χιούμορ, να βλέπουμε τον αναγνώστη να χαμογελά με ένα διακριτικό αλλά και ανακουφιστικό τρόπο.
Και πάνω από αυτό το χαμόγελο, πάνω από το ελληνικό καλοκαίρι, ο Κούρος χτίζει τον δικό του κόσμο
όπου ζει η αυθεντική ποίηση. Είναι ένας κόσμος που έχει το ιδανικό μέγεθος των ονείρων μας.
Ποιήματα που διαβάζεις και χαίρεσαι γιατί νιώθεις το θεϊκό φως του καλοκαιριού να σε λυτρώνει.
Ο Κούρος περιγράφει το καλοκαίρι ως έναν ερωτικό τροφοδότη λογαριασμό που μας κάνει πλουσιότερους και πλουσιότερους ...

 «Διασκεδαστικός (τολμώ να πω) ο Κούρος, όχι υπό μία έννοια φθηνής ψυχαγωγίας, αλλά σε μια σφριγηλή και δροσάτη εκτύλιξη ενός καλοκαιριού κάτω από το άγρυπνο βλέμμα ενός ουσιώδους συμβολισμού, μιας ειρωνείας λεπτής κι ενός διάχυτου συναισθηματισμού. Η αφήγηση είναι σε όλο το μήκος της απολαυστική». Περιοδικό Ποιείν.

Can an island in the sun provide the second chance Sara needs? A warm and uplifting novel about love, friendship and new beginnings on the beautiful Greek island of Santaniki. Sara Loveday flees home and crisis to the beautiful island of Santaniki. Here, amid olive groves and whitewashed stone villas, where dark cypress trees step down to a cobalt blue sea, Sara vows to change her life. Spotting a gap in the local tourist market, she sets up a wedding plan business, specialising in 'second time around' couples. For her first big wedding, she borrows the olive garden of a local artists' retreat, but almost at once things begin to go wrong. To make matters worse, a stranger from Sara's past arrives on the island, spreading vicious lies. Can her business survive? And what will happen with the gorgeous new man who she's begun to love? This is a gorgeous, warm-hearted and uplifting novel conjuring the local colour, traditions and close bonds of island life.