When Israel Potter leaves his plough to fight in the American Revolution, he's immediately thrown into the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he receives multiple wounds. However, this does not deter him, and after hearing a rousing speech by General George Washington, he volunteers for further duty, this time at sea, where more ill fortune awaits him. Israel is captured by the British Navy and taken to England. Yet, he makes his escape, and this triggers a series of extraordinary events and meetings with remarkable people. Along the way, Israel encounters King George III, who takes a liking to the Yankee rebel and shelters him in Kew Gardens; Benjamin Franklin, who presses Israel into service as a spy; John Paul Jones, who invites Israel to join his crew aboard The Ranger; and Ethan Allen, whom Israel attempts to free from a British prison. (from wikipedia.com)

Nikki Eaton, single, thirty-one, sexually liberated, and economically self-supporting, has never particularly thought of herself as a daughter. Yet, following the unexpected loss of her mother, she undergoes a remarkable transformation during a tumultuous year that brings stunning horror, sorrow, illumination, wisdom, and even—from an unexpected source—a nurturing love.

"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand," Mark Twain once wrote. In this sixth volume in The Library of America\'s authoritative collection of his writings-the final volume of his fiction-America\'s greatest humorist emerges in a surprising range of roles: as the savvy satirist of The Gilded Age, the brilliant plotter of its inventive sequel, The American Claimant, and, in two Tom Sawyer novels, as the acknowledged master revisiting his best-loved characters. Also in this volume is the authoritative version of Twain\'s haunting last novel, No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger, left unpublished when he died.The Gilded Age (1873), a collaboration with Hartford neighbor Charles Dudley Warner, sends up an age when vast fortunes piled up amid thriving corruption and a city Twain knew well, Washington, D.C., full of would-be power brokers and humbug. The novel also gives us one of Twain\'s most enduring characters, Colonel Sellers, who returns in The American Claimant (1892), an encore performance that moves beyond the worldly satire of its predecessor into realms of sheer inventive mayhem.Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896) extend the adventures of Huck and Tom. No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger (1908), an astonishing psychic adventure set in the gothic gloom of a medieval Austrian village, offers a powerful and uncanny exploration of the powers of the human mind.

Passion and betrayal, violent desperation, ambivalent love that hinges on hatred, and the quest for acceptance by those who stand on the edge of society-these are the hard-hitting themes of a stunningly crafted first collection of stories by the bestselling author of House of Sand and Fog*. *A vigilant young man working in a halfway house finds himself unable to defend against the rage of one of the inmates in the title story. In "White Trees, Hammer Moon," a man soon to leave home for prison finds himself as unprepared for a family camping trip in the mountains of New Hampshire as he has been for most things in his life. And in the award-winning "Forky," an ex-con is haunted by the punishment he receives just as he is being released into the world. With an incisive ability to inhabit the lives of his characters, Dubus travels deep into the heart of the elusive American dream.

The essential philosophical writings of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers are now gathered into a single volume with an introduction and afterword by the celebrated writer and publisher Roberto Calasso. Illness set him free to write a series of philosophical fragments: some narratives, some single images, some parables. These “aphorisms” appeared, sometimes with a few words changed, in other writings–some of them as posthumous fragments published only after Kafka’s death in 1924. While working on K., his major book on Kafka, in the Bodleian Library, Roberto Calasso realized that the Zürau aphorisms, each written on a separate slip of very thin paper, numbered but unbound, represented something unique in Kafka’s opus–a work whose form he had created simultaneously with its content. The notebooks, freshly translated and laid out as Kafka had intended, are a distillation of Kafka at his most powerful and enigmatic. This lost jewel provides the reader with a fresh perspective on the collective work of a genius.

In December 2015, I started a free monthly competition challenging my blog visitors to provide me with prompts for me to choose my favourite and write their story in around 500 words. The three pieces published here are the winning prompts from the Jan / Feb 2016 competition, as well as those that came second and third. The prompts submitted can be found at the end of each story.In December 2015, I started a free monthly competition challenging my blog visitors to provide me with prompts for me to choose my favourite and write their story in around 500 words. The three pieces published here are the winning prompts from the Jan / Feb 2016 competition, as well as those that came second and third. The prompts submitted can be found at the end of each story.In the first - the title - story, 'The Maestro', we meet Amontillado-swigging Joe 'The Bricklayer' Marsh who has been seeking revenge for the past ten years.The second, 'Jungfrau', is another revenge story and features Zurich-born Birgitta who, unlike Joe, has nothing to lose.Finally, 'Is it me?', introduces us to job-seeking Dubliner, Arthur, who turns his back on sales for a more interesting career.

Set in an affluent upper-class suburb in the late 1980s, this chilling tale by master storyteller Joyce Carol Oates reveals the dark side of the American Dream. A close-knit group of friends draws closer, and then apart, when scandal and tragedy erupt among them.

There is only one person in the whole world who remembers the famous prophet Astrid Glyn: the berserker Soren Bearstar. Ever since Astrid agreed to give up her life, her name, and even her prophetic dreams to become Idun the Young, the almost-goddess who protects the apples of immortality in a secret mountain orchard, she’s been forgotten by everyone. Everyone except Soren. For the last two years he’s faithfully visited her every three months. Then one day he doesn’t come. Though forbidden to leave the orchard, Astrid defies the gods by escaping with a bastard son of Thor to find Soren. But ancient creatures are moving in the mountains beneath the country. They are desperate to leave the shadows and Astrid’s quest might be the key they need. Not-quite-a-goddess, but no longer only a girl, Astrid must choose a path that will save herself and the people she loves without unraveling the ancient magic that holds the entire nine worlds together. Welcome to the final chapter of the United States of Asgard.

From the moment Kinsey lays eyes on Emmett, she knows he’s going to be trouble. He’s sex with a Southern accent and a guitar, and he makes her heart go from zero to sixty just by darting his intense moss green eyes in her direction. But he’s also the grandson of the woman who took Kinsey in when she had no one else—and that means he’s off-limits. Too bad that word isn't in his vocabulary.From the moment Kinsey Brock walks in on Emmett Hudson in the shower, she knows he’s going to be trouble. He’s sex with a Southern accent and a guitar, and he makes her heart go from zero to sixty just by darting his intense moss green eyes in her direction. But he’s also the grandson of the woman who took Kinsey in when she had no one else—and that means he’s off-limits.Too bad for Kinsey that word isn’t in Emmett’s vocabulary.But want, need, and more sure as hell are.**NOTE: Set eight years before the standalone novel SECOND VERSE (Coming July 2015), this prequel novella tells the story of Kinsey and Emmett’s first moments together. Both stories are intended for mature audiences.

Chez Joyce Carol Oates, les aspects les plus triviaux de la vie quotidienne peuvent tourner au cauchemar. Ces onze nouvelles dérangeantes et inventives en offrent encore une fois la preuve, disséquant les sentiments et les actes de personnages aux prises avec un univers lisse en surface, mais toujours susceptible de basculer. L'horreur n'est jamais loin : variation autour du meurtre du célèbre Dahlia noir, colocataire de la future Marilyn Monroe; tourments d'une prof vieillissante dont le désir d'enseigner vire à la catastrophe ; angoisse d'une adolescente arrachée par la police à son cours de maths ; mésaventures d'une femme au foyer insatisfaite qui croit voir un intrus chez elle... Comme à son habitude, Oates démontre son sens aigu de l'observation et son humour noir décapant quand elle croque les réactions désordonnées d'une mère apprenant que sa fille est victime de violences ; les tribulations d'un couple d'Américains en pleine crise de la quarantaine à Rome ; la rage rentrée d'un enfant non reconnu ; ou les efforts pitoyables d'un homme en quête de rédemption... Une chose est sûre : les nouvelles de ce recueil procureront au lecteur rires nerveux et délicieux frissons.

Michael Stone was once a famous author. That was before he went to prison. Now, just released, he needs to get his bearings. It was a gray day in early April when Michael stumbled wearily into the tiny English village. Even though his heart was torn by remorse and shame, he was home at last. In the village of Belmaray he finds much to muse on...a former sweetheart who has married the kindly vicar, a young schoolmistress, shopkeepers and children, animals and nature. With Michaels' arrival at Belmaray, changes began to occur in lives that had not changed for so long: the proud, self-centered beauty he had once loved was surprised into forgiveness; the quixotic bumbling vicar discovered unsuspected strength lurking behind his shyness; a sick and lonely spinster was turned away from despair, and a lovely, high-spirited young woman found her heart's desire.

Eight days to planetfall, and I'm being transferred to Gunner. My tentacles slime in disgust. Or is it fear? If this is the last planet we ever conquer, I'll be glad. Be nice to settle down somewhere, get off this ship, own a square of land, learn to love all that open sky. Eight more days before planetfall. Eight days before we reach planet Earth.

Lieutenant Nixon is a bitter, frustrated naval officer serving his time as a staff weenie in the International Zone. Bored with the monotony of war, he ventures to a secret bunker below one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces with a quirky German named Hans. The Bunker below Believers’ Palace is a 3,400-word (~15-page) short story about the mystery behind Saddam’s toppled dictatorship.Lieutenant Nixon is a bitter, frustrated naval officer serving his time as a staff weenie in the International Zone. Bored with the monotony of war, he ventures to a secret bunker below one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces with a quirky German named Hans. Crawling down to the depths of the destroyed structure, he finds more than he bargained for.The Bunker below Believers’ Palace is a 3,400-word (~15-page) short story about the mystery behind Saddam’s toppled dictatorship.

A fascinating study in self-satire that brings to life the Hollywood years of F. Scott Fitzgerald The setting: Hollywood: the character: Pat Hobby, a down-and-out screenwriter trying to break back into show business, but having better luck getting into bars. Written between 1939 and 1940, when F. Scott Fitzgerald was working for Universal Studios, the seventeen Pat Hobby stories were first published in Esquire magazine and present a bitterly humorous portrait of a once-successful writer who becomes a forgotten hack on a Hollywood lot. "This was not art" Pat Hobby often said, "this was an industry" where whom "you sat with at lunch was more important than what you dictated in your office." The Pat Hobby sequence, as Arnold Gingrich writes in his introduction, is Fitzgerald's "last word from his last home, for much of what he felt about Hollywood and about himself permeated these stories."