And the Swan Died


Book Description

Billionaire businessman Raymond Barksley is privy to a startling secretthat the earths core is heating at a rate that will result in the destruction of the planet. A deeply religious man, Barksley fears the destructive societal forces that will be unleashed when news of the catastrophe is broadcast around the globe, and he formulates a plan to allow mankind to end its days with faith and dignity. His vision widens into a global effort, drawing in political and religious leaders, community activists, and common citizens as they frantically scramble to provide food and security to people of faith and hope. And The Swan Died asks the question What would you do if you knew you had four months to live? and answers it in hundreds of ways. As mankind struggles with its final days on earth, powerful forces move toward reconciliation, seeking to end ancient enmities before it is too late. Raymond Barksley sets those forces in motion in his effort to ensure that people of faith have the food and security they need to face their final judgment and to live out their lives with dignity. It is a daunting task to enlist the religious and secular leadership needed for such a vision.




Ride a White Swan


Book Description

*** By the Sunday Times bestselling author of BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY *** From mod folk artist to flower power pixie elfin to the king of glam rockers, Marc Bolan was the ultimate chameleon. His far-reaching musical and stylistic influence is more relevant today than ever with hits such as 'Ride A White Swan', 'Children Of The Revolution', 'Get It On' and 'Hot Love' as fresh and exhilarating as when first released. At the peak of his popularity during his lifetime Bolan was outselling Jimi Hendrix and The Who, and yet relatively little is really known about the hypnotic, enigmatic 20th century boy turned 21st century icon. At last, in the 35th anniversary year of his tragic death, Marc Bolan represents the definite biography. Here rock biographer, Lesley-Ann Jones, paints a meticulous portrait of the T-Rex front man. From his childhood growing up in Hackney to his untimely death at the age of 29, Bolan's life was one of relentless experimentation and metamorphoses. Hallucinogenic drugs, wizardry and levitation, alcoholism, tax evasion and a spectacular fall from grace were to punctuate his short life, as he continued to strive to reinvent himself and his music over and over again. Lesley-Ann has been granted access to those who knew Bolan best, including his partner and the mother of his only son, Gloria Jones and his brother, Harry Feld.




The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar


Book Description

Seven superb short stories from the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is coming soon to Netflix! Meet the boy who can talk to animals and the man who can see with his eyes closed. And find out about the treasure buried deep underground. A clever mix of fact and fiction, this collection also includes how master storyteller Roald Dahl became a writer. With Roald Dahl, you can never be sure where reality ends and fantasy begins. "All the tales are entrancing inventions." —Publishers Weekly




Swan


Book Description

The world is big. Anna is small. The snow is everywhere and all around. But one night . . . One night, her mother takes her to the ballet, and everything is changed. Anna finds a beauty inside herself that she cannot contain. So begins the journey of a girl who will one day grow up to be the most famous prima ballerina of all time, inspiring legions of dancers after her: the brave, the generous, the transcendently gifted Anna Pavlova. Beautiful, inspirational, and triumphant, Anna Pavlova's life is masterfully captured in this exquisite picture book.




Swan Song


Book Description

In a nightmarish, post-holocaust world, an ancient evil roams a devastated America, gathering the forces of human greed and madness, searching for a child named Swan who possesses the gift of life.




The Death Spancel and Others


Book Description

Katharine Tynan is not a name immediately associated with the supernatural. However, like many other writers of the early twentieth century, she made numerous forays into literature of the ghostly and macabre, and throughout her career produced verse and prose that conveys a remarkable variety of eerie themes, moods, and narrative forms. From her early, elegiac stories, inspired by legends from the West of Ireland, to pulpier efforts featuring grave-robbers and ravenous rats, Tynan displays an eye for weird detail, compelling atmosphere, and a talent for rendering a broad palette of uncanny effects. The Death Spancel and Others is the first collection to showcase Tynan's tales of supernatural events, prophecies, curses, apparitions, and a pervasive sense of the ghastly.




The Swan Book


Book Description

Originally published: Australia: Giramondo, 2013.




The Mine


Book Description

An investigative reporter sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company in Northern Finland, whose activities have caused an environmental disaster. Timely, atmospheric and chilling Nordic Noir from one of Finland's finest writers... 'Tuomainen writes beautifully' Publishers Weekly 'Clever, atmospheric and wonderfully imaginative' Sunday Mirror 'A simple story told with passion and elegant sadness' The Times ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– A hitman. A journalist. A shattered family. A mine spewing toxic secrets that threaten to poison them all... In the dead of winter, investigative reporter Janne Vuori sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company, whose illegal activities have created an environmental disaster in a small town in Northern Finland. When the company's executives begin to die in a string of mysterious accidents, and Janne's personal life starts to unravel, past meets present in a catastrophic series of events that could cost him his life. A traumatic story of family, a study in corruption, and a shocking reminder that secrets from the past can return to haunt us, with deadly results, The Mine is a gripping, beautifully written, terrifying and explosive thriller by the King of Helsinki Noir. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 'Dark, captivating and troubling' Crime Fiction Lover 'Beautifully executed ... mesmerising' Australian Crime 'Antti Tuomainen again creates a powerful book, set firmly within the boundaries of strong themes and unforgettable characters, with the huge dose of beautiful sensitive style, masterfully translated from Finnish by David Hackston' Crime Review 'Antti Tuomainen is a wonderful writer, whose characters, plots and atmosphere are masterfully drawn' Yrsa SigurethardÓttir 'One of the most compelling, emotionally satisfying and beautifully realised crime thrillers that I have encountered this year. The clarity and deceptively simple style of Tuomainen's prose is utterly compelling' Raven Crime Reads




Answered Prayers


Book Description

Although Truman Capote's last novel was unfinished at the time of his death, its surviving portions offer a devastating group portrait of the high and low society of his time. • Includes the story La Cote Basque featured in the major FX series Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans. "Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly." —The New York Times Book Review Tracing the career of a writer of uncertain parentage and omnivorous erotic tastes, Answered Prayers careens from a louche bar in Tangiers to a banquette at La Côte Basque, from literary salons to high-priced whorehouses. It takes in calculating beauties and sadistic husbands along with such real-life supporting characters as Colette, the Duchess of Windsor, Montgomery Clift, and Tallulah Bankhead. Above all, this malevolently finny book displays Capote at his most relentlessly observant and murderously witty.




Wild Swans


Book Description

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author. An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.