The Story of Mr Sommer


Book Description

A boy's village childhood with all the traditional attributes - father, mother, brother, sister, a house on a lake, tree-climbing, going to the races, music lessons, a bicycle, a crush on a girl in the class - is bedevilled by the mystifying appearances of the eccentric Mr. Sommer. Moving through the landscape in silent haste, like a man possessed, with his empty rucksack and his long, odd-looking walking stick, Mr Sommer runs like a black thread through the boys days.




On Love and Death


Book Description

In this inspiring meditation, Patrick S|skind considers the two great forces of human existence. He draws on scenes as varied as a young couple having oral sex while stuck in traffic, and an elderly Thomas Mann tumbling back into forbidden love. S|skind then dazzles as he writes about Orpheus and Jesus, comparing their very different stories of death conquered through love.




Tepper Isn't Going Out


Book Description

Murray Tepper would say that he is an ordinary New Yorker who is simply trying to read the newspaper in peace. But he reads while sitting behind the wheel of his parked car, and his car always seems to be in a particularly desirable parking spot. Not surprisingly, he is regularly interrupted by drivers who want to know if he is going out. Tepper isn’t going out. Why not? His explanations tend to be rather literal: the indisputable fact, for instance, that he has twenty minutes left on the meter. Tepper’s behavior sometimes irritates the people who want his spot. (“Is that where you live? Is that car rent-controlled?”) It also irritates the mayor—Frank Ducavelli, known in tabloid headlines as Il Duce—who sees Murray Tepper as a harbinger of what His Honor always calls “the forces of disorder.” But once New Yorkers become aware of Tepper, some of them begin to suspect that he knows something they don’t know. And an ever-increasing number of them are willing to line up for the opportunity to sit in his car with him and find out. Tepper Isn’t Going Out is a wise and witty story of an ordinary man who, perhaps innocently, changes the world around him. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin.







Journey to the Golden Door


Book Description

Memoirs of a Jew, born in 1925 in Kustanovice, a village in Carpathian Ruthenia. In 1933 Sommer's family moved to Mukachevo; after his mother died in 1941, Sommer moved to Budapest. Attests that antisemitism was strong and widespread in Hungary in 1942-44. In March 1944 Sommer was drafted into a Jewish labor unit in the Hungarian army; in August 1944 he escaped from the Csepel plant in Budapest where he worked as a forced laborer and hid on a farm near the city. In December 1944 the vicinity was liberated by the Soviets; Sommer, who knew many languages, joined the Soviet secret service, which attempted to track down fascists and Nazi collaborators. While in the Soviet army, Sommer was also confronted with many cases of antisemitism. After the war he settled in the USA.




Summer


Book Description

One of the first novels to deal honestly with a woman's sexual awakening, "Summer" created a sensation upon its 1917 publication. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Ethan Frome" shattered the standards of conventional love stories with candor and realism. Nearly a century later, this tale remains fresh and relevant.




Beating about the Bushes


Book Description

The '60's were the beginning and end of the age of innocence in many facets of life. Professional baseball players still played for the love of the game and not money. Today's average major league player makes more in one game than the average yearly wage in 1960. No one had an agent since there was no free agency and no bargaining power. BEATING ABOUT THE BUSHES contains amusing, informative and controversial elements providing the reader with an understanding for what every player faced. The Club was the plantation owner, you were the slave, and there was no hope for escape.




Handbuch Zur Deutschen Grammatik


Book Description

[The book] is a reference and review grammar for second- and third- year German students who are familiar with the basics of German vocabulary and grammar. It can be used either as a primary text or as a reference manual in conjunction with other materials, such as literature readers. Its goal is two-fold: (1) to present clear and complete explanations of all major grammar topics, and (2) to provide meaningful, communicative practice of those topics. There is abundant oral group and pair work, as well as generous attention to writing strategies, the material can be used in course sequences lasting anywhere from one to four semesters (one to six quarters). -Introd. [The book] is more than just a grammar review. It is also a reference book, a practice manual, and a practical communication guide. -Back cover.




The Pigeon


Book Description

The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind is dark and haunting tale from the author of the bestselling Perfume - now available in ebook for the first time Set in Paris and attracting comparisons with Franz Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe, The Pigeon tells the story of a day in the meticulously ordered life of bank security guard Jonathan Noel. Noel who has been hiding from life since his wife left him for her Tunisian lover - when he opens his front door on a day he believes will be just like any other, he encounters not the desired empty hallway but an unwelcome, diabolical intruder . . . This tense, disturbing follow-up to the bestselling Perfume is a modern classic novella from the much-acclaimed Patrick Süskind




Mr. Summer's Story


Book Description

A deceptively simple tale of the destruction of a child's innocence. By the author of P̀erfume' 10 + 17 LP I/S.