On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall--infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe--seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime--nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush & Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, & dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist`s eye for character & detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, & Leipzig & up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, & Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member Gunter Schabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC`s Tom Brokaw; & Stasi officer Harald Jager, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin`s Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom--and the dictators are plotting to restore control. Drawing on new archival sources & dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall. ...

On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall--infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe--seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime--nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush & Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, & dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist`s eye for character & detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, & Leipzig & up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, & Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member Gunter Schabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC`s Tom Brokaw; & Stasi officer Harald Jager, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin`s Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom--and the dictators are plotting to restore control. Drawing on new archival sources & dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall. ...

The first-ever collection of essays from across Elizabeth Hardwick`s illustrious writing career, including works not seen in print for decades. Elizabeth Hardwick wrote during the golden age of the American literary essay. For Hardwick, the essay was an imaginative endeavor, a serious form, criticism worthy of the literature in question. In the essays collected here she covers civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s, describes places where she lived & locations she visited, & writes about the foundations of American literature--Melville, James, Wharton--and the changes in American fiction, though her reading is wide & international. She contemplates writers` lives--women writers, rebels, Americans abroad--and the literary afterlife of biographies, letters, & diaries. Selected & with an introduction by Darryl Pinckney, the Collected Essays gathers more than fifty essays for a fifty-year retrospective of Hardwick`s work from 1953 to 2003. ” For Hardwick, ” writes Pinckney, ”the poetry & novels of America hold the nation`s history.” Here is an exhilarating chronicle of that history. ...

A casual introduction, a challenge to a simple game of chess, a lovers` reunion, a meaningless infidelity: from such small seeds Zweig brings forth five startlingly tense tales-meditations on the fragility of love, the limits of obsession, the combustibility of secrets & betrayal. To read anything by Zweig is to risk addiction; in this collection the power of his writing-which, with its unabashed intensity & narrative drive, made him one of the bestselling & most acclaimed authors in the world-is clear & irresistible. Each of these stories is a bolt of experience, unforgettable & unique. ...

New to Penguin Classics, the remarkable, devastating collected stories by the author of Wide Sargasso Sea. Some of Jean Rhys`s most powerful writing is to be found in this rich, dark collection of her collected stories. Her fictional world is haunted by her own, painful memories: of cheap hotels & drab Parisian cafes; of devastating love affairs; of her childhood in Dominica; of drifting through European cities, always on the periphery & always perilously close to the abyss. Rendered in extraordinarily vivid, honest prose, these stories show Rhys at the height of her literary powers & offer a fascinating counterpoint to her most famous novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. This volume

Includes:: all the stories from her three collections, The Left Bank (1927), Tigers Are Better-Looking (1968) & Sleep It Off, Lady (1976).

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The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis is the complete collection of short fiction from the world-renowned Lydia Davis. It is the winner of the Man Booker international prize 2013. Big rejoicing: Lydia Davis has won the Man Booker International prize. Never did a book award deliver such a true match-winning punch. Best of all, a new audience will read her now & find her wit, her vigour & rigour, her funniness, her thoughtfulness, & the precision of form, which mark Davis out as unique. Daring, excitingly intelligent & often wildly comic [she] reminds you, in a world that likes to bandy its words about, what words such as economy, precision & originality really mean. This is a writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert & as epoch-making, in her own way, as Proust. A two-liner from Davis, or a seemingly throwaway paragraph, will haunt. What looks like a game will open to deep seriousness; what looks like philosophy will reveal playfulness, tragicomedy, ordinariness; what looks like ordinariness will ask you to look again at Davis' writing. In its acuteness, it always asks attentiveness, & it repays this by opening up to its reader like possibility, or like a bush covered in flowerheads. She's a joy. There's no writer quite like her. (Ali Smith). What stories. Precise & piercing, extremely funny. Nearly all are unlike anything you've ever read. (Metro). I loved these stories. They are so well-written, with such clarity of thought & precision of language. Excellent. (William Leith, Evening Standard). Remarkable. Some of the most moving fiction
- on death, marriage, children
- of recent years. To read Collected Stories is to be reminded of the gr&, echoing mind-chambers created by Sebald or recent Coetzee. A writer of vast intelligence & originality. (Independent on Sunday). A body of work probably unique in American writing, in its combination of lucidity, aphoristic brevity, formal originality, sly comedy, metaphysical bleakness, philosophical pressure & human wisdom. (New Yorker). Davis is a high priestess of the startling, telling detail. She can make the most ordinary things, such as couples talking, or someone watching television, bizarre, almost mythical.I felt I had encountered a most original & daring mind. (Colm Toibin, Daily Telegraph). Lydia Davis is the author of one novel & seven story collections, the most recent of which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the recipient of a Mac Arthur Fellowship & was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts & Letters by the French government for her fiction & her translations of modern writers including Maurice Blanchot, Michel Leiris & Marcel Proust.

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Find out why fellow authors like Ali Smith, Dave Eggers & Jonathan Franzen love Lydia Davis`s writing so much in this landmark collection of all of her stories to date from across three decades. & why James Wood described this book in the New Yorker as `a body of work probably unique in American writing` & `one of the great, strange American literary contributions`.` What stories. Precise & piercing, extremely funny. Nearly all are unlike anything you`ve ever read.` Metro `I loved these stories. They are so well-written, with such clarity of thought & precision of language. Excellent.` William Leith, Evening Standard ` Remarkable. Some of the most moving fiction
- on death, marriage, children
- of recent years. To read Collected Stories is to be reminded of the gr&, echoing mind-chambers created by Sebald or recent Coetzee. A writer of vast intelligence & originality.` Independent on Sunday `A body of work probably unique in American writing, in its combination of lucidity, aphoristic brevity, formal originality, sly comedy, metaphysical bleakness, philosophical pressure & human wisdom.` New Yorker ` One of the most respected writers in America.` Financial Times ` Davis is a high priestess of the startling, telling detail. She can make the most ordinary things, such as couples talking, or someone watching television, bizarre, almost mythical. I felt I had encountered a most original & daring mind.` Colm Toibin, Daily Telegraph

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In this magnificent collection of Stefan Zweig`s short stories the very best & worst of human nature are captured with sharp observation, understanding & vivid empathy. Ranging from love & death to faith restored & hope regained, these stories present a master at work, at the top of his form. Translated by the award-winning Anthea Bell ...

Withdrawn, uneducated & unloved, Frederick collects butterflies & takes photographs. He is obsessed with a beautiful stranger, the art student Miranda. When he wins the pools he buys a remote Sussex house & calmly abducts Miranda, believing she will grow to love him in time. Alone & desperate, Miranda must struggle to overcome her own prejudices & contempt if she is understand her captor, & so gain her freedom. ...

The Collector of Worlds is a rare combination of literary achievement & popular accessibility. A bestseller in Germany, the novel tells the story of Sir Richard Burton, one of the most flamboyant figures of the Victorian age. Burton was the first westerner to make the hajj to Mecca, & discovered the source of the Nile with Speke. His translation of the ” Arabian Nights” is one of the great moments in the encounter between Islam & the West, a version of the Arab classic that scandalised his contemporaries with its salty eroticism. Troyanov`s novel does full justice to this great, controversial mediator between cultures. The book imagines his encounter with India as a young officer, & other episodes in his life are seen through the eyes of his Indian servant; the Sharif of Mecca, who is conducting an enquiry into Burton`s audacious journey & its consequences for the Ottoman Empire; & a former slave who guided Burton to the Nile. ...