Poor William never thought that the start of his senior year would turn into something like this!First of all, the girl that he's always admired but never quite had the stones to ask out finally reveals that she's always had a crush on him! Sounds great, right? So what could be so bad about that? How could this year of high school turn into an ungodly march through the trenches of hell itself?Well, it's quite simple. She was kidnapped. The school's football team have been working with a bizarre government agency in order to test out some equally bizarre chemical that can turn an a stable young man into that of a bloodthirsty beast! All this in the name of gridiron glory! Or should we say, gory?How did we ever go from high school to hell? From the locker rooms to right in the center of a bloody abyss? What kind of nutjob writes a book like this?You'll experience all this and more in this first installment of The Will's Downfall Saga. You've been warned...(Includes Parts One and Two)
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
Originally written in 1938 but never published due to its controversial nature, an insightful guide reveals the seven principles of good that will allow anyone to triumph over the obstacles that must be faced in reaching personal goals.
William Barker has finally grown up. A once curious boy has now become a rather stubborn and irritable man. It's a good thing that he's still got his wife Cleo to hold him by the reins, or he'd surely be behind four well plated steel walls! But don't even think for one second that the world has become a happy and welcoming place. One would be a fool to believe that everything is alright and peachy; that this "happy couple" is not wrought with relationship battles, an alien invasion, a little trip into the world beyond and much more. The second chapter in this epic saga has finally come, and with it are revelations that will melt away all expectations. The world of Will's Downfall is getting even stranger, as the downfall itself edges ever closer... This is merely the calm before the storm.
A British Army veteran turned CIA agent races around the world to catch someone killing in his name in this action-packed thriller. Ryan Drake and his team are in hiding, having become sworn enemies of states and agencies around the world. But when a CIA operative and former adversary is killed in a car bomb attack, Drake is shocked to hear someone claiming responsibility using his name. Forced out of hiding by this mysterious new threat, Drake embarks alone on a dangerous and deadly search for answers; a journey that will take him from the slums of Rio to the deserts of Tunisia and the mountains of Afghanistan. But as the stranger’s insidious influence grows stronger, he begins to realize the key to unravelling the present lies in his own shadowy past. Following his trail of destruction, the team must fight to save Drake not only from a list of ruthless enemies, but even more urgently, from himself. Perfect for fans of Lee Child, David Baldacci, and Vince Flynn.
New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seveneves, Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon returns with a wildly inventive and entertaining science fiction thriller—Paradise Lost by way of Philip K. Dick—that unfolds in the near future, in parallel worlds. In his youth, Richard “Dodge” Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire. Now in his middle years, Dodge appreciates his comfortable, unencumbered life, managing his myriad business interests, and spending time with his beloved niece Zula and her young daughter, Sophia. One beautiful autumn day, while he undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. Dodge is pronounced brain dead and put on life support, leaving his stunned family and close friends with difficult decisions. Long ago, when a much younger Dodge drew up his will, he directed that his body be given to a cryonics company now owned by enigmatic tech entrepreneur Elmo Shepherd. Legally bound to follow the directive despite their misgivings, Dodge’s family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it can eventually be revived. In the coming years, technology allows Dodge’s brain to be turned back on. It is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem . . . Fall, or Dodge in Hell is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age.
When an angel falls from Heaven to be trapped by the weight of evil, the Earth shakes in fear of the night as humankind struggles to turn to the light and the lost have no way to be found. Salvation is at the very brink of collapse as the remaining beacon of hope is doused in the flames of Hell leading the worlds to the edge of war. And yet in Hell the passage to power is smeared in deceit with creatures deserting their master as mysterious new arrivals present themselves and what had been sure appears blurred in the unravelling lies. The delight in the pain of the innocent blinds the Devil to the depths of betrayal which quietly eats into the heart of Hell where feigned stability is crumbling to chaos as control of the Earth is becoming a higher prize to take at a heavier cost. The third in a five part story which forces you to confront the darkest monsters that will drag you into the shadow
Unique Amish Historical from a Bestselling, Award-Winning Author Amish pacifism is sorely tested in the Paradise Valley settlement in the 1920s. When an army of bandits descends on them, the Amish are saved by the last-minute arrival of government troops. But they soon learn that soldiers can be as cruel as the bandits themselves. Then a bishop travels to Mexico, and Caleb's daughters are finally able to marry, though the ban still looms for Miriam even as her beloved Domingo decides he must go off to fight in the coming war. As Caleb's frail hope of peace and freedom in Mexico slips away, he is left to ponder the question: In times of trouble, on whom should we rely?
