Too Great a Sky

Too Great a Sky

Author: Liliana Corobca

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2024-10-29

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1644214180

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The story of the deportation of Romanians from Bucovina to the steppes of Siberia, an exercise in historical memory and a powerful story of maintaining humanity in impossible conditions. A new novel from Liliana Corobca and her translator Monica Cure, winner of the Oxford-Weidenfeld translation prize. Ana is eleven when the Soviet soldiers send her from Bucovina, Romania, to Kazakhstan. She is just one of many forced to leave behind her home and make the three week long journey via train. The trip is a harsh, humiliating one, but in spite of the cold and the closeness of death, life persists in the boxcar in the form of storytelling, riddles, and ritual. Years later, Ana recalls her childhood for her great granddaughter, who is considering moving her to a nursing home. Her story, told with unflinching candor, is a chronicle of a life lived during a time of great political and national change, a story of an existence defined and curtailed by lines drawn on a map. The narration is interspersed with songs that transform into poems, and prayers spoken in the past that become prayers in the present. What links the narration is not so much a plot as it is the reader’s astonishment. How could Ana survive such a series of experiences, and do so with her mind and heart intact? A history of cruelty and trauma lies behind the banal markers of contemporary life. These realizations combine in the central theme of the book, one which the narrator describes as, “stories bring you youth.”


The Censor's Notebook

The Censor's Notebook

Author: Liliana Corobca

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2022-11-08

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1644211513

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A fascinating narrative of life in communist Romania, and a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of literature and censorship. Winner of the 2023 Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize A Censor’s Notebook is a window into the intimate workings of censorship under communism, steeped in mystery and secrets and lies, confirming the power of literature to capture personal and political truths. The novel begins with a seemingly non-fiction frame story—an exchange of letters between the author and Emilia Codrescu, the female chief of the Secret Documents Office in Romania’s feared State Directorate of Media and Printing, the government branch responsible for censorship. Codrescu had been responsible for the burning and shredding of the censors’ notebooks and the state secrets in them, but prior to fleeing the country in 1974 she had stolen one of these notebooks. Now, forty years later, she makes the notebook available to Liliana, the character of the author, for the newly instituted Museum of Communism. The work of a censor—a job about which it is forbidden to talk—is revealed in this notebook, which discloses the structures of this mysterious institution and describes how these professional readers and ideological error hunters are burdened with hundreds of manuscripts, strict deadlines, and threatening penalties. The censors lose their identity, and are often frazzled by neuroses and other illnesses.


Bright of the Sky

Bright of the Sky

Author: Kay Kenyon

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2010-08-05

Total Pages: 485

ISBN-13: 1591028256

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Kay Kenyon, noted for her science fiction world-building, has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a land-locked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre and seductive mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire, called the bright. A land of wonders, the Entire is sustained by monumental storm walls and an exotic, never-ending river. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme. Into this rich milieu is thrust Titus Quinn, former star pilot, bereft of his beloved wife and daughter who are assumed dead by everyone on earth except Quinn. Believing them trapped in a parallel universe—one where he himself may have been imprisoned—he returns to the Entire without resources, language, or his memories of that former life. He is assisted by Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, a Chinese culture copied from our own universe and transformed by the kingdom of the bright. Learning of his daughter’s dreadful slavery, Quinn swears to free her. To do so, he must cross the unimaginable distances of the Entire in disguise, for the Tarig are lying in wait for him. As Quinn’s memories return, he discovers why. Quinn’s goal is to penetrate the exotic culture of the Entire—to the heart of Tarig power, the fabulous city of the Ascendancy, to steal the key to his family’s redemption. But will his daughter and wife welcome rescue? Ten years of brutality have forced compromises on everyone. What Quinn will learn to his dismay is what his own choices were, long ago, in the Universe Entire. He will also discover why a fearful multiverse destiny is converging on him and what he must sacrifice to oppose the coming storm. This is high-concept SF written on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld, Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles, and Dan Simmons’s Hyperion.


Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky

Author: Jane Smiley

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0375869689

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Abby Lovitt is put in charge of training the expensive and haughty horse Pie in the Sky after his owner refuses. While trying to get a hold on him, she must deal with the new challenges, both good and bad, that come with being a freshman in high school in 1970's Northern California.


Big Sky Daddy

Big Sky Daddy

Author: Linda Ford

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2014-12-01

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1460344375

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For His Son's Sake Caleb Craig will do anything for his son, even ask his boss's enemy for help. Not only does Lilly Bell tend to his son's injured puppy, but she offers to rehabilitate little Teddy's leg. Caleb knows that getting Teddy to walk again is all that really matters, yet he wonders if maybe Lilly can heal his brooding heart, as well. Precocious little Teddy—and his devoted father—steal Lilly's heart and make her long for a child and husband of her own. But Lilly learned long ago that trusting a man means risking heartbreak. Happiness lies within reach—if she seizes the chance of love and motherhood she never expected… Montana Marraiges: Three sisters discover a legacy of love beneath the Western sky


Hattie Big Sky

Hattie Big Sky

Author: Kirby Larson

Publisher: Yearling

Published: 2007-12-26

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0375846417

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEWBERY HONOR AWARD WINNER A classic YA novel about a teenage girl searching for a sense of home and family that celebrates the true spirit of independence on the American frontier. For most of her life, sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks has been shuttled from one distant relative to another. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she summons the courage to leave Iowa and move all by herself to Vida, Montana, to prove up on her late uncle’s homestead claim. Under the big sky, Hattie braves hard weather, hard times, a cantankerous cow, and her own hopeless hand at the cookstove. Her quest to make a home is championed by new neighbors Perilee Mueller, her German husband, and their children. For the first time in her life, Hattie feels part of a family, finding the strength to stand up against Traft Martin’s schemes to buy her out and against increasing pressure to be a “loyal” American at a time when anything—or anyone—German is suspect. Despite daily trials, Hattie continues to work her uncle’s claim until an unforeseen tragedy causes her to search her soul for the real meaning of home. This young pioneer's story is lovingly stitched together from Kirby Larson’s own family history and the sights, sounds, and scents of homesteading life.


So Wide the Sky (The Women's West Series, Book 1)

So Wide the Sky (The Women's West Series, Book 1)

Author: Elizabeth Grayson

Publisher: ePublishing Works!

Published: 2015-02-21

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 161417718X

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Having survived nine years as a Kiowa captive, Cassandra Morgan is traded back to the whites. Tattooed and emotionally scarred, Cassandra faces a life she hardly remembers. Two men attempt to understand her pain: the half-Indian scout Lone Hunter Jalbert, and her childhood sweetheart cavalry Captain Drew Reynolds who was left for dead in the attack that killed both their families and who has sworn retribution. Torn between two worlds and two men, Cassie must learn anew the true meaning of love, courage and forgiveness. AWARDS: Winner, Romance Communication Reviewers Award First Place, Wisconsin Romance Writers "Right Touch" Readers' Award. REVIEWS: "Ms. Grayson creates an emotional powerhouse... Superb!" ~Rendezvous. "...a compelling novel chock-full of western detail." ~Margot Mifflin, author of the non-fiction book The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman, on whom the main character of So Wide the Sky is based. THE WOMEN'S WEST SERIES, in series order So Wide the Sky Color of the Wind A Place Called Home Painted by the Sun Moon in the Water Bride of the Wilderness


The Ring of Sky (Young Samurai, Book 8)

The Ring of Sky (Young Samurai, Book 8)

Author: Chris Bradford

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2012-08-02

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 0141971029

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Packed with historical action-adventure, the eighth and final book in Chris Bradford's blockbuster Young Samurai series reaches a thrilling conclusion. JACK FLETCHER IS RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE The port of Nagasaki is within reach, but the Shogun's samurai are closing in fast for the kill. So too is Jack's old school rival, Kazuki. Every road is blocked and every mountain pass guarded as Jack makes his final dash for safety. But with all of Japan hunting him, he's going need a miracle to survive. And even if he reaches the end of the road, will there be a ship bound for home? Or will he be burned at the stake first? Only the Ring of Sky knows his fate... www.youngsamurai.com 'A fantastic adventure that floors the reader on page one and keeps them there until the end' - Eoin Colfer


Big Sky Mountain

Big Sky Mountain

Author: Alex Milway

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre Ltd.

Published: 2021-06-10

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1848129777

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An exhilarating new series set in the great outdoors, from HOTEL FLAMINGO author Alex Milway Welcome to Big Sky Mountain: a home for everyone! Rosa has come from the city to live with Grandma Nan in the wilds of Big Sky Mountain. And what surprises are in store for her! Grandma Nan is not exactly an ordinary grandma, and Big Sky Mountain is like nowhere Rosa has dreamed about before. Grandma Nan lives in an old wooden cabin with Albert the moose and Little Pig the pygmy owl, and spends every day out on adventures. From canoeing down rapids to making friends with the local animals, life never stays still for long on Big Sky Mountain! Rosa has a lot to learn, and when unexpected visitors to the mountain cause a bit of a ruckus, can she rise to the challenge, and be the mountain girl Grandma Nan needs her to be?