The Animal Gazer

Author : Edgardo Franzosini
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 121 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2018-01-16
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781939931542

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The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini Pdf

A poignant biographical novel about a WWI-era sculptor: “It’s difficult not to love the eccentric, fragile Rembrandt Bugatti and suffer alongside him” (The New York Times Book Review). The Animal Gazer is a hypnotic novel inspired by the strange and fascinating life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, brother of the fabled automaker. With World War I closing in and the Belle Époque teetering to a end, Bugatti leaves his native Milan for Paris, where he encounters Rodin and casts his bronzes at the same foundry used by the French master. In Paris and then Antwerp, he obsessively observes and sculpts the baboons, giraffes, and panthers in the municipal zoos, finding empathy with their plight and identifying with their life in captivity. But as the Germans drop bombs over the Belgian city, the zoo authorities are forced to make a heart-wrenching decision about the fate of the caged animals, and Bugatti is stricken with grief from which he’ll never recover. Rembrandt Bugatti’s work is displayed in major museums around the world, and in this prize-winning novel, “an irresistible, elegantly conceived example of biographical fiction,” Edgardo Franzosini recreates the young artist’s life with lyricism, passion, and sensitivity (Library Journal). “The Animal Gazer takes you on a glorious journey into the heart of cosmopolitan Paris as you have never known it before. Through the life of Rembrandt Bugatti, a sculptor with the panache of his name, this lively, fast-paced narrative evokes an exceptional epoch in all its color and eccentric charm.” ―Nicholas Fox Weber, author of Le Corbusier: A Life

Author : Maya Arad
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2024-03-19
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781954404243

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The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad Pdf

"Intensely readable and beautifully observed . . . full of wisdom, generosity, humor, and sharp insights." —Elif Batuman, author of Either/Or Three Israeli women, their lives altered by immigration to the United States, seek to overcome crises. Ilana is a veteran Hebrew instructor at a Midwestern college who has built her life around her career. When a young Hebrew literature professor joins the faculty, she finds his post-Zionist politics pose a threat to her life’s work. Miriam, whose son left Israel to make his fortune in Silicon Valley, pays an unwanted visit to meet her new grandson and discovers cracks in the family’s perfect façade. Efrat, another Israeli in California, is determined to help her daughter navigate the challenges of middle school, and crosses forbidden lines when she follows her into the minefield of social media. In these three stirring novellas—comedies of manners with an ambitious blend of irony and sensitivity—celebrated Israeli author Maya Arad probes the demise of idealism and the generation gap that her heroines must confront.

Author : Jean-Philippe Blondel
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 165 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2019-06-04
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781939931689

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Exposed by Jean-Philippe Blondel Pdf

“Art, love and longing, the French way . . . an emotionally taut portrayal of late-in-life, post-marriage drift” from the author of The 6:41 to Paris (The New York Times Book Review). A French teacher on the verge of retirement is invited to a glittering opening that showcases the artwork of his former student, who has since become a celebrated painter. This unexpected encounter leads to the older man posing for his portrait. Possibly in the nude. Such personal exposure at close range entails a strange and troubling pact between artist and sitter that prompts both to reevaluate their lives. Blondel, author of the hugely popular novel The 6:41 to Paris, evokes an intimacy of dangerous intensity in a tale marked by profound nostalgia and a reckoning with the past that allows its two characters to move ahead into the future. “A striking variation on the theme of the muse, this novel probes overlapping varieties of attraction . . . It veers toward the erotic, quickening the painter’s search for the model’s soul—‘a term that disintegrates the moment you try to define it.’”―The New Yorker “Captivating . . . The novel flies by with gentle humor, but it also poses complex questions about the meaning of art and sexuality, and offers an elegiac look at late middle age . . . Irresistible, and the story’s fundamental kindness sets it apart.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A novel of tender, shy wisdom whose characters remind each other that memory lives in the body, loosened like knots by the right touch.” —Patrick Nathan, author of Image Control

Author : Sergei Lebedev
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 377 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2019-03-19
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781939931733

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The Goose Fritz by Sergei Lebedev Pdf

A man obsessively investigates the mysteries of his family’s past in this “brave and unflinching” novel by the acclaimed Russian author of Oblivion (The Financial Times). Sergei Lebedev’s first two novels, The Year of the Comet and Oblivion, established him as one of Russia’s most important contemporary novelists. Now he reaffirms that status with this third work of fiction. The Goose Fritz tells the story of a young Russian named Kirill, the sole survivor of a once numerous clan of German origin, who delves relentlessly into the unresolved past. When Krill’s ancestor, Balthasar Schwerdt, migrated to the Russian Empire in the early 1800s, he brought with him the practice of alternative medicine. He was then taken captive by an erratic nobleman who supplied entertainment to Catherine the Great in the form of dwarves, hunchbacks, and magicians. S earches archives and cemeteries across Europe, Kirill’s investigation takes us through centuries of turmoil during which none of Schwert’s descendants can escape their adoptive country’s cruel fate. Illuminating both personal and political history, “Lebedev muses in Tolstoyan fashion about [how] the actions of distant ancestors can fix the destinies of people hundreds of years later" (The Wall Street Journal).

Author : Stênio Gardel
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2023-01-17
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781954404137

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The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel Pdf

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER "Disarmingly tender and feverishly sad, Gardel's love story is a delirium of a novel that reminds its readers of an uncomfortable truth: that even a life of regret can be a beautiful one."—Patrick Nathan, author of Some Hell A letter has beckoned to Raimundo since he received it over fifty years ago from his youthful passion, handsome Cicero. But having grown up in an impoverished area of Brazil where the demands of manual labor thwarted his becoming literate, Raimundo has long been unable to read. As young men, he and Cicero fell in love, only to have Raimundo’s father brutally beat his son when he discovered their affair. Even after Raimundo succeeds in making a life for himself in the big city, he continues to be haunted by this secret missive full of longing from the distant past. Now at age seventy-one, he at last acquires a true education and the ability to access the letter. Exploring Brazil’s little-known hinterland as well its urban haunts, this is a sweeping novel of repression, violence, and shame, along with their flip side: survival, endurance, and the ultimate triumph of an unforgettable figure on society’s margins. The Words That Remain explores the universal power of the written word and language, and how they affect all our relationships.

Author : Anna Goldenberg
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2020-06-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781939931856

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I Belong to Vienna by Anna Goldenberg Pdf

A memoir of family history, personal identity, and WWII Vienna—a “well-researched, intimate, evocative look at some of the 20th century’s foulest days” (Kirkus). In autumn 1942, Anna Goldenberg’s great-grandparents and one of their sons are deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Hans, their elder son, survives by hiding in an apartment in the middle of Nazi-controlled Vienna. But this is no Anne Frank-like existence; teenage Hans passes time in the municipal library and buys standing room tickets to the Vienna State Opera. He never sees his family again. Goldenberg reconstructs this unique story in magnificent reportage. She also portrays Vienna’s undying allure. Although they tried living in the United States after World War Two, both grandparents eventually returned to the Austrian capital. The author, too, has returned to her native Vienna after living in New York herself, and her fierce attachment to her birthplace enlivens her engrossing biographical history. I Belong to Vienna is a probing tale of heroism and resilience marked by a surprising freshness as a new generation comes to terms with history’s darkest era.

Author : Yair Assulin
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2020-04-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781939931832

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The Drive by Yair Assulin Pdf

This acclaimed debut novel takes readers inside the mind of a young and deeply conflicted Israeli soldier: “Israel’s own The Catcher in the Rye”(The Los Angeles Review of Books). The Drive follows the emotional and psychological journey of a young Israeli soldier who is unable to carry out his military service yet terrified of the consequences of leaving the army. As the unnamed soldier and his father drive along the Coastal Highway to meet with a military psychiatrist, Yair Assulin offers a penetrating view of Israeli society, a young man in crisis, and the universal urge to resist regimentation and violence. Weary of being forced to join a larger collective, the soldier yearns for an existence free of politics, the news cycle, and perpetual battle-readiness. But to seek such a life would mean risking the respect of those he loves most. The Drive is a compelling story of an urgent personal quest to reconcile duty, expectations and individual instinct.

Author : Frederick WATSON (Naturalist)
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1754
Category : Electronic
ISBN : BL:A0019621802

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The Animal World Displayed, Or the Nature and Qualities of Living Creatures Described by Frederick WATSON (Naturalist) Pdf

Author : Ronit Matalon
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 123 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2019-10-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781939931788

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And the Bride Closed the Door by Ronit Matalon Pdf

A young bride shuts herself up in a bedroom on her wedding day, refusing to get married. In this moving and humorous look at contemporary Israel and the chaotic ups and downs of love everywhere, her family gathers outside the locked door, not knowing what to do. The bride's mother has lost a younger daughter in unclear circumstances. Her grandmother is hard of hearing, yet seems to understand her better than anyone. A male cousin who likes to wear women’s clothes and jewelry clings to his grandmother like a little boy. The family tries an array of unusual tactics to ensure the wedding goes ahead, including calling in a psychologist specializing in brides who change their mind and a ladder truck from the Palestinian Authority electrical company. The only communication they receive from behind the door are scribbled notes, one of them a cryptic poem about a prodigal daughter returning home. The harder they try to reach the defiant woman, the more the despairing groom is convinced that her refusal should be respected. But what, exactly, ought to be respected? Is this merely a case of cold feet? A feminist statement? Or a mourning ritual for a lost sister? This provocative and highly entertaining novel lingers long after its final page.

Author : Sergei Lebedev
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2023-04-11
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781954404199

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A Present Past by Sergei Lebedev Pdf

"A tour de force—exquisite and gripping."—Philippe Sands, author of East West Street The Soviet and post-Soviet world, with its untold multitude of crimes, is a natural breeding ground for ghost stories. No one writes them more movingly than Russian author Sergei Lebedev, who in this stunning volume probes a collective guilty conscience marked by otherworldliness and the denial of misdeeds. These eleven tales share a mystical topography in which the legacy of totalitarian regimes is ever-present—from Katyn to Chechnya, from Lithuanian KGB documents to the streetscape of unified Berlin, from the fragments of family history to the echoes of foot soldiers in Russia’s wars of aggression. In these stories, as in Lebedev’s acclaimed novels, the voices of things, places, animals, and people seek justice for a restless past, where steel claws scrape just beneath the surface and where the heredity of evil is uninterrupted, unacknowledged, unnamed.

Author : Anna Maria Ortese
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 243 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2018-03-13
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9781939931566

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Neapolitan Chronicles by Anna Maria Ortese Pdf

This prizewinning collection of stories and essays set in post-WWII Naples is “required reading for [Elena] Ferrante fans” (Kirkus Reviews). A classic of European literature, this superb collection of fiction and reportage is set in Italy’s most vibrant and turbulent metropolis—Naples—in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Depicting the widespread suffering and brutal desperation that plagued the city, it comprises a mix of masterful storytelling and piercing journalism. This book, with its unforgettable portrait of Naples high and low, is also a stunning literary companion to the great neorealist films of the era by directors such as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. From an author who has won most of Italy’s major literary prizes and served as “a major inspiration for Elana Ferrante,” Neapolitan Chronicles is exquisitely rendered in English by acclaimed translators Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee (The New York Times). Included in the collection is “A Pair of Eyeglasses,” one of the most widely praised Italian short stories of the last century. “Elena Ferrante has cited Ortese as one of her greatest influences . . . This collection of short stories and essays [infuses] a grimy, chaotic Naples with unsentimental menace.” —The New Yorker “A writer of exceptional prowess and force. The stories collected in this volume, which reverberate with Chekhovian energy and melancholy, are revered in Italy by writers and readers alike.” —Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Interpreter of Maladies

Author : Martin Suter
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2019-03-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781939931726

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Allmen and the Pink Diamond by Martin Suter Pdf

When a $30 million diamond disappears, the gentleman P.I. embarks on an adventure across Europe in this “delightfully quirky and original” mystery (Peter James, author of Dead Simple). A rare pink diamond recently sold at auction has gone missing, and gentleman thief turned private detective Johann Freidrich von Allmen cannot resist the case—even if his butler and business partner Carlos de Leon has his reservations. With suspicion falling on a man named Artyom Sokolov, Allmen and de Leon embark from London to Zurich in search of the mysterious Russian. Soon the two discover that they are up against a conspiracy far more complex and dangerous than they suspected. And as amorous adventures and diverting mishaps litter their path through Europe’s high society, Allmen and de Leon get closer to uncovering a high-tech plot to manipulate global financial markets.

Author : Chris Platt
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2014-08-19
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781497637221

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Star Gazer by Chris Platt Pdf

Will a city girl’s horse dreams ever come true? For Jordan McKenzie, moving from Los Angeles to rural Michigan was a big change. In LA, she was used to giant shopping malls and classmates who came to school in makeup and heels. In North Adams, Michigan, the nearest Walmart is thirty miles away. Since Jordan is a jeans-and-sneakers kind of girl, she hoped she’d fit in better here—plus, there are horses in Michigan! She has wanted one forever, but in LA they were too expensive. Draft horses—gentle giants—are her favorites, with their dependable demeanors, huge size, and muscle power. Even though all the North Adams kids have horses, Jordan’s busy mother barely agrees to let her coop a couple of chickens on their newly rented farm. Jordan’s wish may never come true. Then she meets Star Gazer, a Percheron mare, at a farm auction and makes a desperate bid to save the aging horse from the slaughterhouse. Jordan is thrilled to bring her home, but Star Gazer is lame and skittish. Can Jordan’s loving care nurse her back to health? And can she make Star Gazer a part of the family before her mother decides to find her a new home?

Author : Walter Kappacher
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2022-05-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781954404038

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Palace of Flies by Walter Kappacher Pdf

"One of those rare biographical novels that bring a whole world to life in a way that lingers in memory." —Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me This absorbing, sensitive novel portrays a famed author in a moment of crisis: an aging Hugo von Hofmannsthal returns to a summer resort outside of Salzburg that he visited as a child. But in the spa town where he once thrilled to the joys of youth, he now feels unproductive and uninspired, adrift in the modern world born after World War One. Over ten days in 1924 in a ramshackle inn that has been renamed the Grand Hotel, Hofmannsthal fruitlessly attempts to complete a play he’s long been wrestling with. The writer is plagued by feelings of loneliness and failure that echo in a buzz of inner monologues, imaginary conversations and nostalgic memories of relationships with glittering cultural figures. Palace of Flies conjures up an individual state of distress and disruption at a time of fundamental societal transformation that speaks eloquently to our own age.

Author : Piero Chiara
Publisher : New Vessel Press
Page : 189 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2019-11-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781939931771

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The Bishop's Bedroom by Piero Chiara Pdf

"Piero Chiara’s novel is at once a murder mystery and a lyrical study of desire, greed, and deception. The ending is simply stunning." —André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name Summer 1946. World War Two has just come to an end and there’s a yearning for renewal. A man in his thirties is sailing on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, hoping to put off the inevitable return to work. Dropping anchor in a small, fashionable port, he meets the enigmatic owner of a nearby villa who invites him home for dinner with his older wife and beautiful widowed sister-in-law. The sailor is intrigued by the elegant waterside mansion, staffed with servants and imbued with mystery, and stays in a guest room previously occupied by a now deceased bishop related to his host. The two men form an uneasy bond, recognizing in each other a shared taste for idling and erotic adventure. They soon set sail together, encountering old flames and making new conquests. But tragedy puts an abrupt halt to their revels and shatters the tranquility of the villa. What really happened on the dock? And who was the figure glimpsed cycling around the shore in the dark? A sultry, stylish psychological thriller executed with supreme literary finesse.