"A short story collection by renowned writer Massimo Bontempelli. From a young boy's memorable encounter with a pair of ghostly lovers, to an elderly woman's unsettling final bequest, these powerful stories illuminate Bontempelli's belief that the wonders of the world can be found all around us, dwelling within the realm of the everyday." from publisher
I want a quiet life from now on. And I don't want to fall in love…. I think I shall do better to stay away from affairs of the heart. One can be so hurt. I don't want to go through that again. Ninian Whitmead, almost forty years old, has already loved deeply, then lost once in his life. He has resigned himself to life alone on his seaside Cornish estate, Polmawgan House, without wife or family. But he is not prepared for the shipwreck of a Courteen pirate ship off the coast of Cornwall that leaves Parvati, a young Indian girl, stranded in a foreign land as its only survivor. At first out of charity, then out of growing affection, Ninian takes the lost girl into his home, and when his attachment deepens to love, he marries her and they have a son. Though Parvati adopts a Christian name and is baptized into the Anglican church, their solemn Puritan community finds her foreign blood and unfamiliar customs unacceptable. As the stirrings of Civil War in England increase, tragedy seems imminent. Anand's fourth radiant installment in The Bridge Over Time series follows the Whitmead family through the political and religious tumult of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. The Faithful Lovers “Valerie Anand has been building a remarkable body of work, a series of historical novels that have recreated England’s history both accurately and vividly.”—The Anniston Star
Before we examine the nature, the meaning, and the beauty of Christian marriage (which St. Paul calls "a great mystery in Christ and the Holy Church"), we shall examine the essence and meaning of marriage in the realm of nature, and its specific character in reference to all other fellowships and communities. Only in this way can we understand what was so gloriously exalted by Jesus Christ and thus dispel the misinterpretations of the nature of marriage so frequently encountered. Why does Holy Scripture choose this particular relationship as an image? It is chosen because marriage is the closest and most intimate of all earthly unions in which, more than in any other, one person gives himself to another without reserve, where the other in his complete personality is the object of love, and where mutual love is in a specific way the theme (that is to say, the core) of the relationship.
"I found myself considering those rare things only books can do, feats outside the purview of film or fine art . . . Gorgeous." —Samantha Hunt, The New York Times Book Review It is New Year’s Eve 1990, in a small town in southeast Australia. Ru’s father, Jack, one of thousands of Australians once conscripted to serve in the Vietnam War, has disappeared. This time Ru thinks he might be gone for good. As rumors spread of a huge black cat stalking the landscape beyond their door, the rest of the family is barely holding on. Ru’s sister, Lani, is throwing herself into sex, drugs, and dangerous company. Their mother, Evelyn, is escaping into memories of a more vibrant youth. And meanwhile there is Les, Jack’s inscrutable brother, who seems to move through their lives like a ghost, earning both trust and suspicion. A Loving, Faithful Animal is an incandescent portrait of one family searching for what may yet be redeemable from the ruins of war. Tender, brutal, and heart–stopping in its beauty, this novel marks the arrival in the United States of Josephine Rowe, the winner of the 2016 Elizabeth Jolley Prize and one of Australia’s most extraordinary young writers.
The fourth in the Faithful and the Fallen series from John Gwynne, an epic fantasy perfect for fans of George R. R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson and David Gemmell. Events are coming to a climax in the Banished Lands, as the war reaches new heights. King Nathair has taken control of the fortress at Drassil and three of the Seven Treasures are in his possession. And together with Calidus and his ally Queen Rhin, Nathair will do anything to obtain the remaining Treasures. With all seven under his command, he can open a portal to the Otherworld. Then Asroth and his demon-horde will finally break into the Banished Lands and become flesh. Meanwhile Corban has been taken prisoner by the Jotun, warrior giants who ride their enormous bears into battle. His warband scattered, Corban must make new allies if he hopes to survive. But can he bond with competing factions of warlike giants? Somehow he must, if he's to counter the threat Nathair represents. His life hangs in the balance -- and with it, the fate of the Banished Lands.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love, family, and fate. Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt. What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithful is the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night. Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap. Alice Hoffman’s “trademark alchemy” (USA TODAY) and her ability to write about the “delicate balance between the everyday world and the extraordinary” (WBUR) make this an unforgettable story. With beautifully crafted prose, Alice Hoffman spins hope from heartbreak in this profoundly moving novel.
Like many young women in fifteenth- century England, Susannah Whitmead is sent away from home to be educated. Born of yeomen, Susannah's mother wants her only daughter to be raised a lady. But Susannah, who finds life at Hurleigh House to be horribly regulated, longs for home. One of her few comforts is a keepsake, a small badge with a curious design consisting of curved lines arching over wavy ones like a stylized bridge across a river. She is not sure of the badge's origins, but keeps it close to her as a link to her family. Susannah is married off to Sir James Weston of Ashdon manor. Although she doesn't love him, he is kind, and she falls in love instead with his house—a house she will fight to keep through the war, death, and treachery that surround her. Valerie Anand continues the intricate weave of history, politics, and passion in Women of Ashdon, the third novel in the acclaimed Bridges Over Time series. “Valerie Anand has been building a remarkable body of work, a series of historical novels that have recreated England’s history both accurately and vividly.” —The Anniston Star
