The death of a foreign cameraman outside Karlovac, the threat of Serbian snipers in Zagreb, a massacre of village peasants by guerrilla fighters, a young Croat who joins forces with a Serbian scrap merchant and is caught up in a confrontation with Gypsies competing for scrap metal left over by the war... The stories in Miguel-Anxo Murado's "Soundcheck: Tales from the Balkan Conflict" focus on the hostilities between Croats and Serbs during the 1991 war in Croatia. Told with chilling brevity and disarming intensity, the stories bring to life a conflict the author himself covered as a foreign correspondent and are based on real-life events or conversations that took place during the war. Miguel-Anxo Murado, a regular contributor to The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers, is known for his fiction based on his experiences as a journalist in war-torn regions of the world, from the ex-Yugoslavia to the Middle East. Inspired by fleeting conversations or poignant scenes, he draws universal lessons about the nature and ultimate destiny of humankind. Other titles in the series Small Stations Fiction include: "One Million Cows" by Manuel Rivas, "Polaroid" by Suso de Toro and "Vicious" by Xurxo Borrazás.

In this collection of sixteen short stories by the Galician writer Miguel-Anxo Murado, the reader is taken on a journey through the various rites of passage that make up an individual's life, from the months-old baby who lives in the eternal moment of Nothingness and quickly forgets an argument with his elder brother to the university professor who visits a colleague in Kyoto to see the cherry blossom and before the symbols of impermanence is forced to confront his own terminal illness. Children and adults alike endure extreme situations, from a child who is bullied at school to the Chinese women workers who stay up all night to prepare a handmade suit for the morning. Sailors are rescued at sea; others are cast adrift when their ship sinks, at the mercy of the current. A young man is brought face to face with his late father when surrounded by a mountain blaze; a young girl endeavors to learn the secrets to her sister's radiant beauty. Two boys fall for the same girl; one tries to curry favor with the members of his gang in a story reminiscent of Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry, while another searches for the strength inside. All are caught in unexpected situations, elegantly and expertly described, and handed the task of how to react in a book that celebrates the human spirit across barriers of time and language.

At the centre of this novel stands Harriet Haslam, the epitome of the maternal power figure,whose genuine but overpowering love dominates the novel and whose self-knowledge drives her into insanity. Even after her death Harriet continues to dominate.Surrounding this central figure are a host of marvelously realised characters - Sir Geoffrey Haslam, Harriet's husband, an innocent self-deluder; Dominic Spong, a hypocrite whose platitudes do not quite conceal his powerful self-interest; Agatha Calkin whose benevolent maternalism nearly hides the greediest of drives towards power; Lady Hardistry, the most outrageously witty of all sophisticates; Camilla Christy, a loose woman, dazzling, charming, and corrupt. Unlike Harriet Haslam, who will not spare herself the truth, the others are happier with their lies and can never achieve Harriet's grandeur.

Edwin Muir wrote of Ivy Compton-Burnett in the Observer: 'Her literary abilities have been abundantly acknowledged by the majority of her literary contemporaries. Her intense individuality has removed her from the possibility of rivalry. .. . She takes as her theme the tyrannies and internecine battles of English family life in leisured well-conducted country houses. To Miss Compton-Burnett the family conflict is intimate, unrelenting, very often indecisive and fought out mainly in conversation. . . . The passions which bring distress to her country houses have recently devastated continents.'To present an image of this totally unique writer, we have to imagine a Jane Austen writing, in the present day, Greek prose tragedies (in which the wicked generally triumph) on late Victorian themes. First published in 1939, A Family of a Fortune conveys, largely through dialogue (which may be subtle, humorous, envenomed, or tragic), the effects of death and inheritance on the house of Gaveston - in particular on the relations between Edgar and his selfless younger brother, Dudley. This, apart from the embittered character of Matilda Seaton, is her kindliest novel.

Oscar Wilde was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and a bonafide cultural icon. 'The Canterville Ghost' was his first published story, and is now one of his most popular, having been adapted many times. Many of the earliest ghost stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Closely associated with the Romantic movement, John William Polidori is considered by many to be the creator of vampire fiction. His 1819 short story, 'The Vampyre', is widely accepted as the first vampire story ever written. Many of the earliest and most interesting vampire stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The Donne family's move to the country is inspired by a wish to be close to their cousins, who are to be their nearest neighbours. It proves too close for comfort, however. For a secret switching of wills causes the most genteel pursuit of self-interest to threaten good relations and even good manners...Ivy Compton-Burnett employs her sharp ear for comedy and celebrated powers of dialogue to spectacular effect. She reveals a devastating microcosm of human society, in which the elders are by no means always the betters, in which no character is totally scrupulous, but none without their appeal.

Thomas Prest was a prolific and popular writer of Victorian 'penny dreadfuls'. The 'demon barber', Sweeney Todd, was his most famous and successful creation. Many of the penny dreadful stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This early work by E. T. A. Hoffmann was originally published in 1816. Born in K nigsberg, East Prussia in 1776, Hoffmann's family were all jurists, and during his youth he was initially encouraged to pursue a career in law. However, in his late teens Hoffman became increasingly interested in literature and philosophy, and spent much of his time reading German classicists and attending lectures by, amongst others, Immanuel Kant. Hoffman went on to produce a great range of both literary and musical works. Probably Hoffman's most well-known story, produced in 1816, is 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King', due to the fact that - some seventy-six years later - it inspired Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker. In the same vein, his story 'The Sandman' provided both the inspiration for L o Delibes's ballet Copp lia, and the basis for a highly influential essay by Sigmund Freud, called 'The Uncanny'. (Indeed, Freud referred to Hoffman as the "unrivalled master of the uncanny in literature.") Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions.

First published in 1959, A Heritage and its History tells the story of 69 year old Sir Edwin Challoner, and his extended family.Unmarried, and with no direct issue, Challoner's closest relation, and business associate, is his younger brother Hamish.When Hamish dies of a heart condition, his son Simon prepares to take over as head of the house, as everyone assumes that Sir Edwin will also die in a matter of months.However, Sir Edwin surprises everyone by announcing his marriage to Rhoda, his neighbour, also more than 40 years his junior.Following the return from their honeymoon, Rhoda succumbs to a moment of unbridled passion with Simon, her new husband's nephew.When Rhoda falls pregnant, there is no question who has fathered the child.A Heritage and its History gets right to the heart of this family as it splits into factions, growing increasingly bitter and resentful.The reader watches on in amazement as two families become more and more entangled, and the path to the inheritance of this once great house and title becomes ever more twisted.Sooner or later, the secret must come out...

Joseph Sheridan le Fanu was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century, and he is now seen as central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. His work is credited with turning the Gothic's focus from the external sources of horror to the inward effects of terror, thus helping to create the psychological basis for supernaturalist literature that continues to this day. First published in 1872, le Fanu's novella 'Carmilla' tells the story of a young woman falling for the chamrs of a female vampire, and predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 25 years. Many of the earliest and most interesting vampire stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Elisa Mallo es una huérfana que habita en una casita del obispado y que vive de los conocimientos de curandera que su abuela le legó antes de morir. Esto le reporta unos ingresos estables para pagar la renta, ademas de ahorrar para alcanzar su mayor sueño: comprar la tierra y la casa en la que nacio. Todo va bien encauzado hasta que el alcalde contrata a un reputado medico, que hace a Elisa temer por su futuro.Andres de la Vera lleva años tratando de evitar el destino que su aristocratica familia tiene para el: casarse con una joven de alto linaje con la que establecer una alianza familiar. Por eso no se lo piensa a la hora de aceptar aquella plaza de medico tan lejos de Madrid. No obstante, alli va a comprender que de poco sirven sus titulos universitarios, pues todo el pueblo confia en las magicas artes sanadoras de una bruja. Pero el no cree en la magia, y mucho menos en las brujas.Tras unos primeros encuentros con Elisa un tanto accidentados, Andres descubre a una joven fuera de lo comun y hechizante en muchos sentidos. Ambos tendran que enfrentarse entonces a una perversa maquinacion que termina llevando a Elisa a la carcel. Andres se empleara a fondo para librarla de una condena a muerte segura, pero durante ese tiempo descubrira que, aunque logre salvarle la vida, ella jamas podra cumplir el ansiado sueño de comprar su casa.Sin embargo, tras todo lo vivido en compañia del doctor, ¿seguira siendo la tierra el mayor sueño de Elisa?

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a lengthy narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. It was published between 1812 and 1818 and is dedicated to "Ianthe". The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands. In a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood. Canto IV describes Harold's travels in Italy.

Jon Hudson, lead investigator for the Department of Homeland Security's Fusion Center-P, thinks his job is a joke. While other Fusion Centers focus on thwarting terrorist activity, Hudson's division is tasked with handling paranormal threats to national security, of which there have been zero during his years at the DHS. When yet another Sasquatch sighting leads to a research facility disguised as an abandoned Nike missile site in the back woods of Maine, Hudson's job becomes deadly serious.Hudson and the local Sherriff, Ashley Collins, suddenly find themselves on the run from a ruthless ex-Special Forces security team, but the human threat is short-lived as something very much not-human destroys the facility and heads for civilization, leaving only a single clue behind--a name scrawled in blood: Nemesis. Working with his team at Fusion Center-P, Sherriff Collins and a surly helicopter pilot named Woodstock, Hudson pursues the creature known as Nemesis, attempts to uncover the corporate secrets behind its creation and accidental release and tries to comprehend why several clues lead to a murdered little girl named Maigo.But as the body-count explodes, along with the monster's size, it quickly becomes clear that nothing short of a full military response can slow Nemesis's progress. Coordinating with every branch of the U.S. military, Hudson simultaneously searches for clues about Nemesis's origins and motivations, and leads the counterattack that will hopefully stop the monster before it reaches Boston and its one million residents.

This is the first annotated anthology of Canadian poetry and prose, from the eighteenth century to the present.Volume I contains the work of 40 writers. Some 200 pages are devoted to poetry and 350 pages to prose, which includes not only short fiction but five autobiographical pieces, eight essays of literary criticism, and a play. There are many cross-connections - in related subject matter, in the criticism and memoirs that reflect on other selections - so that the anthology offers a firm context for the study not only of individual writers but of the literary culture of Canada.With introductions to the writers and their works, and annotations.

This is the first annotated anthology of Canadian poetry and prose, from the eighteenth century to the present.Volume II contains extensive selections of works by some fifty writers, ranging from Sheila Watson (b. 1909) to bp Nichol (b. 1944). Besides a generous complement of poetry and short fiction, there are eight essays of literary criticism and one full-length play. As in Volume I. there are many cross-connections - in related subject matter, in the criticism that reflects on other selections - so that the anthology offers a firm context for the study not only of individual writers, but of the vital literary culture of contemporary English Canada.With introductions to the writers and their works, annotations, and a supplementary section: Poets for Further Reading.

I am drowning here, you are just describing the water. Like a mirror, a door to the world in a subjective way. With the belief that objectivity does not exist. Looking through the matrix, hooked to the machines. From outside he controls them, he enters the game but is not part of it. You enter to save the world from the virus, but sometimes you realize that you are the benign virus "in a polluted world".

Discover with Eve the whole truth. Im Not Eve, My Name Is Lilith, is a novel that deals with women and their oppression. A novel, inspired by the Jewish tradition and the Hebrew and Sumerian mythologies, that tries, through fiction to tear down the internal myths that we all carry inside, Eve, a nineteen-year-old girl, travels with her friends to the Dead Sea. Upon her return, she will never be the same. After being possessed by Lilith, our protagonist begins to see the world with different eyes. She will travel from the hand of the succubus of fire through her own life, from the life of Eve. An Eve that has nothing to do with what we have been told. During the plot, not only does Eve begin to change, Lilith also undergoes a transformation. Samael returns to prevent revenge against the offspring of Adam from taking place. A novel that will make you think, compare and decide.

In this selection of short stories, the Swiss author Dill McLain tries to convey to us, how sometimes in most critical moments, we should never stop struggling, but cling to a ope. Trough her simple, direct and humorous lyrics; when a great love tells us goodbye, when crises and problems of everyday life overwhelm us, when things seem absolutely lost, suddenly life can take a turn, showing us that, maybe around the next corner, a better future or real love might be waiting for us. Tey are fctional stories, inspired by observations and experiences of long journeys in Spain and Portugal. ?At midnight in Adra?, the short story that gives the title to the book, tells us the story of Amely, a young Frenchwoman traveling with her fance ? to whom she has been engaged for six years ? along the Andalusian coast. On the way to Malaga, they are stopped by the police and arrested, after discovering a considerable amount of drugs hidden away in the car. She had no idea of the secret life of her fance as drug trafcker, and is released by the police, to find herself lost and desperate in an unknown town on the Andalusian coast. That night she sleeps on the beach. On the following day, she is woken up by a small doggie who in some way is responsible for the coming big change in her life. Te author offers us entertaining stories, which invite us to never give up, not to lose faith, and to always trust that tomorrow can undoubtedly be better.