Take a dilapidated castle in the Scottish Highlands; add a peacock gone rogue, a group of bankers on a teambuilding trip, an overwhelmed psychologist, a housekeeper with a broken arm, and an ingenious cook; get Lord and Lady McIntosh to try and keep it all together; and top it off with all sorts of animals – soon no one will know exactly what's going on. Selling 500,000 copies, Isabel Bogdan's book is a big hitter in Germany – and now it's coming home to roost.
The Parable of the Peacock takes a satirical look at the state of American politics as we approach the critical 2020 presidential election. Written in the style of a children's picture book, the work's rhyming couplets are best enjoyed read aloud. The book serves up ridicule to deserving parties, but it saves a heaping plateful for the Mocker-in-Chief.
An early work from the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars and the forthcoming Someone Else's Shoes, Jojo Moyes, the story of a young woman who opens an eclectic shop and comes to terms with the secrets of her past. In the sixties, Athene Forster was the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she was also beautiful, spoiled, and out of control. When she agreed to marry the gorgeous young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme, her parents breathed a sigh of relief. But within two years, rumors had begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman. Thirty-five years later, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her notorious mother's legacy. The only place Suzanna finds comfort is in The Peacock Emporium, the beautiful coffee bar and shop she opens that soon enchants her little town. There she makes perhaps the first real friends of her life, including Alejandro, a male midwife, escaping his own ghosts in Argentina. The specter of her mother still haunts Suzanna. But only by confronting both her family and her innermost self will she finally reckon with the past--and discover that the key to her history, and her happiness, may have been in front of her all along.
From “one of the most perceptive, compassionate writers of fiction in America...immensely talented and brave” (Michael Schaub, NPR), a historical saga about love, class, and the past we never escape. The Peacock Feast opens on a June day in 1916 when Louis C. Tiffany, the eccentric glass genius, dynamites the breakwater at Laurelton Hall—his fantastical Oyster Bay mansion, with columns capped by brilliant ceramic blossoms and a smokestack hidden in a blue-banded minaret—so as to foil the town from reclaiming the beach for public use. The explosion shakes both the apple crate where Prudence, the daughter of Tiffany’s prized gardener, is sleeping and the rocks where Randall, her seven-year-old brother, is playing. Nearly a century later, Prudence receives an unexpected visit at her New York apartment from Grace, a hospice nurse and the granddaughter of Randall, who Prudence never saw again after he left at age fourteen for California. The mementos Grace carries from her grandfather’s house stir Prudence’s long-repressed memories and bring her to a new understanding of the choices she made in work and love, and what she faces now in her final days. Spanning the twentieth century and three continents, The Peacock Feast ricochets from Manhattan to San Francisco, from the decadent mansions of the Tiffany family to the death row of a Texas prison, and from the London consultation room of Anna Freud to a Mendocino commune. With psychological acuity and aching eloquence, Lisa Gornick has written a sweeping family drama, an exploration of the meaning of art and the art of dying, and an illuminating portrait of how our decisions reverberate across time and space.
A hilarious read-aloud favorite about some foolish farm animals who decide to trade roles—and discover just how hard it is to do someone else's job, from award-winning author Lester L. Laminack and celebrated illustrator Henry Cole. The Tuckers' farm is a peaceful place where everyone has a job and no one complains. That is, until a hapless peacock falls off the back of a passing truck and stirs things up. Soon, customers are flocking to the farm to see what all the fuss is about. But the hens don't like the newcomer getting attention while they do all the hard work. When a wise old hound sees the problem, he helps orchestrate a job swap. What follows is the riotous tale of three hens who get in way over their feathered heads, and one very distressed peacock who just can't figure out how to lay an egg. Lester L. Laminack has created a comical look at envy, finding your strength, and what happens when we underestimate the value of others' work. Henry Cole's delightful illustrations heighten the story's humor and will have readers of all ages laughing out loud.
Eleven-year-old Shahumin, who has just begun learning the wisdom of the elders, befriends an odd-looking youth whom she meets in the woods, not realizing he is an Other, one of the people not created by YAWH, and an enemy of her people.
I was hanging out with Elizabeth when I saw the boy again. Not just a boy, but that boy, the one you sort-of notice, but only to think, hey, wasn't he here yesterday? He glided by Elizabeth's hedge on his bike once too often, giving that sliding sideways glance he hoped (I expect) looked casual, disinterested and, oh, there's that chick again, hanging out with her big sister...or is it her auntie? Too old to be a friend. Elizabeth is my great-great-great-great-great granny, for your information, Bike Boy, I thought-spoke to him on the fourth bypass of the week. He toed his pedal down and skimmed away before getting into some serious calf-work as he headed up the hill towards Caroline Court. Cat Mahal has an ordinary life in the suburbs. She is also an ethical witch
Book description: In fifteen stories unified by a piquant sense of place and vivid dialogue,readers are immediately taken away from Indias teeming cities to a single mud-walled village, "Saratpur", and its rich panoply of memorable characters. The author introduces you to his Hindu and Muslim neighbors,their customs, family life, conflicts and their hopes for the future. These are timeless stories of family feuds, the force of the supernatural,marriage rituals, struggles of life in both drought and monsoon, the role of caste and the perils of revenge. Read along with us as we meet cooks, Indian civil servants, blacksmiths, lawyers, village sweepers, cycle-repairmen, camel drivers, local politicians and others whose lifestyles are seldom highlighted in much current literature about India. The first-person perspective I adopt offers frank intimacy and a freshness that comes from being a young American living for two years in a small village on the cusp of dramatic social and cultural change.
Unlucky in love, Dr Alexander French, a gruff but likeable surgeon travels to Suffolk to start a new life. There, in a small country village, he meets the rich and impulsive Jardine Savage newly arrived from Jamaica and the new owner of Ramillies, the elegant but now dilapidated ancestral home of the Raynor family. Nearby lives Lizzie Raynor a feisty and brilliant artist who at one stroke lost her father, home and lover and is now forced to be one of Jardine’s tenants. Neither she nor the neighbourhood takes kindly to Ramillies new and exotic occupants. ‘This has been an unlucky house since my father died,’ she said quietly to herself, ‘or before that, since … since he killed the peacock. They all said it would bring bad luck. I used to tell myself it was all the fault of the peacock; it was a kind of comfort. But now this: perhaps the house is cursed after all.’ ‘A delightful book’ The Times ‘A delightful novel, full of humour and poignancy and rich in period detail’ Douglas Reeman, Novelist Winner Boots Romantic Novel of the Year Award
