The Comfort of Strangers

The Comfort of Strangers

Author: Ian McEwan

Publisher: RosettaBooks

Published: 2011-02-08

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 0795303696

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A twisted relationship between two couples reaches a terrible climax in this novel by the New York Times-bestselling author of Machines Like Me. Colin and Mary are lovers on holiday in Italy, their relationship becoming increasingly problematic as they become increasingly alienated from one and other. They move from place to place in this foreign land but seemingly without aim or purpose, seemingly bored and without attachment. Then they meet a man named Robert and his disabled wife, Caroline. Colin and Mary seem happy for the diversion—happy to meet another couple that takes their focus off of each other for a while. But things become strange when they attempt to leave: Robert and Caroline insist that they stay with them for a while longer. While Mary and Colin do rediscover an erotic attraction to each other during this time, they also find that their relationship with Robert and Caroline is taking a dreadful and horrific turn, in this “fine novel” by the Booker Prize-winning author of Saturday and On Chesil Beach (New Statesman). “McEwan perfectly captures the thrill of travel when one is divorced from familiar surroundings and the chance of something unusual and out-of-character seems possible. Of course, this being a McEwan fiction, the possibility is a brutal truth about how people find love in extreme ways.”—The Daily Beast


Strangers in Venice

Strangers in Venice

Author: A. W. Hartoin

Publisher:

Published: 2019-07-26

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9781952875014

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November, 1938 It began in Vienna, after a night of fire and fear. Stella Bled Lawrence made a promise and she kept it. But the job isn't done. Abel Hershmann's cousins, unaware of the danger, are heading to Venice in search of him and the family secret he carried. Stella and her husband, Nicky, follow, intent on warning them. But things don't go to plan. Venice is flooded, Stella aggravates her injuries, and the cousins are no where to be found. Suspicions abound and friends are hard to find. Italy has fallen under Hitler's spell and nothing is as it was. The Nazis and, in particular, SS Oberführer Peiper still want their prize and believe Stella and Nicky have it. Stella will have to decide how far her loyalty goes and where she belongs: far away safe from the gathering storm or on the front lines with a chance to change the course of the coming war. Her choices will affect her family's future for generations to come.


Venice Noir

Venice Noir

Author: Maxim Jakubowski

Publisher: Akashic Books

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1617750735

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"Drifter" by Emily Mandel was selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories 2013, edited by Otto Penzler and Lisa Scottoline Original stories by: Peter James, Emily St. John Mandel, Barbara Baraldi, Mike Hodges, Mary Hoffman, Maria Tronca, Matteo Righetto, Tony Cartano, Francesco Ferracin, Isabella Santacroce, Michelle Lovric, Francesca Mazzucato, Maxim Jakubowski, and Michael Gregorio. "Forget the magnificence of Venice's art, architecture, and music, and delve into this tour of the City of Water's murky depths...visions of a Venice not seen in tourist brochures." --Publishers Weekly "Editor Jakubowski does an excellent job of selecting a variety of stories that represent all strata of Venetian life, from tourists visiting for Carnevale to criminals running illegal operations in the bay...A must-read for lovers of Venice...the presence of a new and intriguing voices, many of them Italian, will pique the interest of international-mystery readers." --Booklist "Sex, food and real estate inspire 14 hot-blooded new takes on crime in the magical city of Venice...Rather than crimes of passion, this collection focuses on the passion of crime, painting its noir in robust tones rather than gritty gray." --Kirkus Reviews "Venice Noir, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, aims to shred through our preconceptions of this remarkable city. The 14 writers featured in this anthology of short stories take our travel brochure images of Venice and scatter them like confetti." --NY Journal of Books Maxim Jakubowski is a British editor and writer. Following a long career in book publishing, during which he was responsible for several major crime imprints, he opened London's mystery bookshop Murder One. He reviews crime fiction for the Guardian, runs London's Crime Scene Festival, and is an advisor to Italy's annual Courmayeur Noir in Festival. His latest crime novel is Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer, and he edits the annual Best British Mysteries series.


A Trial in Venice

A Trial in Venice

Author: Roberta Rich

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

Published: 2017-03-14

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 0385676700

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The thrilling conclusion to the #1 national bestselling historical trilogy by Roberta Rich. In The Midwife of Venice, set in 1575, Hannah Levi was forced to flee Venice with the baby of a Venetian aristocratic family whom she rescued. Roberta Rich followed that action-packed adventure with The Harem Midwife, which exiled Hannah and her beloved husband Isaac to Constantinople--only for Hannah to become enmeshed in the shady politics of a sultan's harem. And now, with A Trial in Venice, set five years later, Hannah is forced back to Venice--both to opulent yet crumbling villas and the Jewish ghetto known as Veneto. Her beloved adopted son Matteo has been kidnapped and is in danger once more. And this time, so is Hannah. A rollicking and evocative read, peopled with beguiling, unforgettable characters (including the epic return of the troublesome and winsome Foscari and Cesca), this novel is a breathtaking follow up to The Midwife of Venice and The Harem Midwife, certain to shock and delight fans of the series and solidify Rich's reputation as one of Canada's most loved historical fiction authors.


Falcon in the Glass

Falcon in the Glass

Author: Susan Fletcher

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-07-29

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1442429917

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"Eleven-year-old Renzo must teach himself to blow glass with the help of a girl who has a mysterious connection to her falcon"--


Vendela in Venice

Vendela in Venice

Author: Christina Björk

Publisher: R & S Books

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13:

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On a visit to Venice with her father, Vendela experiences the richness and beauty of the city and its palaces, gondolas and statues. Color illustrations throughout.


Autumn in Venice

Autumn in Venice

Author: Andrea Di Robilant

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1101970383

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The illuminating story of writer and muse—which also examines the cost to a young woman of her association with a larger-than-life literary celebrity—Autumn in Venice is an intimate look at Hemingway’s final years. In the fall of 1948, Ernest Hemingway and his fourth wife traveled for the first time to Venice, which Hemingway called “absolutely god-damned wonderful.” A year shy of his fiftieth birthday, Hemingway hadn’t published a novel in nearly a decade when he met and fell in love with Adriana Ivancich, a striking Venetian girl just out of finishing school. Here Andrea di Robilant re-creates with sparkling clarity this surprising, years-long relationship, during which Adriana inspired a man thirty years her senior to complete his great final work. Hemingway used Adriana as the model for Renata in Across the River and into the Trees, and continued to visit Venice to see her; when the Ivanciches traveled to Cuba, Adriana was there as he wrote The Old Man and the Sea.


A Thousand Days in Venice

A Thousand Days in Venice

Author: Marlena De Blasi

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2013-01-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1616202815

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De Blasi, a chef and food writer from St. Louis, begins a whirlwind romance with a man in Venice.


Shakespeare's Strangers and English Law

Shakespeare's Strangers and English Law

Author: Paul Raffield

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-01-26

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 150992986X

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Through analysis of 5 plays by Shakespeare, Paul Raffield examines what it meant to be a 'stranger' to English law in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean period. The numbers of strangers increased dramatically in the late sixteenth century, as refugees fled religious persecution in continental Europe and sought sanctuary in Protestant England. In the context of this book, strangers are not only persons ethnically or racially different from their English counterparts, be they immigrants, refugees, or visitors. The term also includes those who transgress or are simply excluded by their status from established legal norms by virtue of their faith, sexuality, or mode of employment. Each chapter investigates a particular category of 'stranger'. Topics include the treatment of actors in late Elizabethan England and the punishment of 'counterfeits' (Measure for Measure); the standing of refugees under English law and the reception of these people by the indigenous population (The Comedy of Errors); the establishment of 'Troynovant' as an international trading centre on the banks of the Thames (Troilus and Cressida); the role of law and the state in determining the rights of citizens and aliens (The Merchant of Venice); and the disenfranchised, estranged position of the citizen in a dysfunctional society and an acephalous realm (King Lear). This is the third sole-authored book by Paul Raffield on the subject of Shakespeare and the Law. The others are Shakespeare's Imaginary Constitution: Late Elizabethan Politics and the Theatre of Law (2010) and The Art of Law in Shakespeare (2017), both published by Hart/Bloomsbury.


Shakespeare and Venice

Shakespeare and Venice

Author: Graham Holderness

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1317056310

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Shakespeare and Venice is the first book length study to describe and chronicle the mythology of Venice that was formulated in the Middle Ages and has persisted in fiction and film to the present day. Graham Holderness focuses specifically on how that mythology was employed by Shakespeare to explore themes of conversion, change, and metamorphosis. Identifying and outlining the materials having to do with Venice which might have been available to Shakespeare, Holderness provides a full historical account of past and present Venetian myths and of the city's relationship with both Judaism and Islam. Holderness also provides detailed readings of both The Merchant of Venice and of Othello against these mythical and historical dimensions, and concludes with discussion of Venice's relevance to both the modern world and to the past.