The Essex Serpent

Author : Sarah Perry
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2017-06-06
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780062666390

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The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry Pdf

NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIES A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction * Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year *A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of The Year * Waterstones Book of the Year * Costa Book Award Finalist “A novel of almost insolent ambition—lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home.” —New York Times London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. Once there, they hear rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year’s Eve, the community’s dread transforms to terror. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons: a man of faith, he is convinced the alarming reports are caused by moral panic, a flight from the correct and righteous path. As Cora and William attempt to discover the truth about the Essex Serpent’s existence, these seeming opposites find themselves inexorably drawn together in an intense relationship that will change both of them in ways entirely unexpected. And as they search for answers, Cora’s London past follows her to the coast, with striking consequences. Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, The Essex Serpent masterfully explores questions of science and religion, skepticism and faith, but it is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different—and surprising—guises it can take.

Author : Charles Robert Maturin
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
Page : 74 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 1885
Category : Horror tales, English
ISBN : 9781427071958

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Melmoth by Charles Robert Maturin Pdf

Author : Sarah Perry
Publisher : Serpent's Tail
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2014-06-26
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781846689468

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After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry Pdf

The debut novel by the bestselling author of THE ESSEX SERPENT One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. He shuts up the bookshop no one ever comes to and drives out of London. When his car breaks down and he becomes lost on an isolated road, he goes looking for help, and stumbles into the grounds of a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents welcome him with open arms - but there's more to this strange community than meets the eye. They all know him by name, they've prepared a room for him, and claim to have been waiting for him all along. Who are these people? And what do they intend for John? Elegant, gently sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the author of The Essex Serpent.

Author : Sarah Perry
Publisher : Serpent's Tail
Page : 56 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2020-10-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781782838210

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Essex Girls by Sarah Perry Pdf

'Not all Essex girls are party girls. They can be sages, martyrs, leaders. In her neat and provocative little book, Sarah Perry celebrates their courage and vivacity.' Hilary Mantel A defence and celebration of the Essex Girl by the best-selling author of The Essex Serpent Essex Girls are disreputable, disrespectful and disobedient. They speak out of turn, too loudly and too often, in an accent irritating to the ruling classes. Their bodies are hyper-sexualised and irredeemably vulgar. They are given to intricate and voluble squabbling. They do not apologise for any of this. And why should they? In this exhilarating feminist defence of the Essex girl, Sarah Perry re-examines her relationship with her much maligned home county. She summons its most unquiet spirits, from Protestant martyr Rose Allin to the indomitable Abolitionist Anne Knight, sitting them alongside Audre Lorde, Kim Kardashian and Harriet Martineau, and showing us that the Essex girl is not bound by geography. She is a type, representing a very particular kind of female agency, and a very particular kind of disdain: she contains a multitude of women, and it is time to celebrate them.

Author : Jim Lynch
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2006-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781582346298

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The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch Pdf

While the sea continues to offer him discoveries from its mysterious depths, such as a giant squid, a teenaged boy struggles to deal with the difficulties that come with the equally mysterious process of growing up.

Author : Syd Moore
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2017-05-04
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781786070999

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Strange Magic by Syd Moore Pdf

Rosie Strange doesn't believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It’s no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run. Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There’s the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there’s curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can’t decide if he’s tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while. Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelope them all.

Author : Sarah Perry
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 471 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2017-09-26
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9780544302211

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After the Eclipse by Sarah Perry Pdf

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. “A heartfelt memoir and a suspenseful story” of a murdered mother (Gabourey Sidibe, Book of the Month Club). When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse; she took it as a good omen for her and her mother, Crystal. But that moment of darkness foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine. It took twelve years to find the killer. In that time, Sarah rebuilt her life amid abandonment, police interrogations, and the exacting toll of trauma. She dreamed of a trial, but when the day came, it brought no closure. It was not her mother’s death she wanted to understand, but her life. She began her own investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, deep into the darkness of a small American town. “Pull[ing] the reader swiftly along on parallel tracks of mystery and elegy” in After the Eclipse, “Perry succeeds in restoring her mother’s humanity and her own” (The New York Times Book Review). “Raw and perfect . . . After the Eclipse [has] an eerie, heartbreaking power that it shares with the very best of true crime.” —Laura Miller, Slate “A gut punch . . . A heartbreaking yet hopeful testament to human resilience.” —Samantha Irby, Marie Claire “With clear, powerful prose, Perry paints a portrait of unconventional motherhood while questioning society’s handling of violence against women. Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts, After the Eclipse tells the very human story at the center of a needless crime.”—W Magazine

Author : Laura Carlin
Publisher : Hodder & Stoughton
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2018-02-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781473661417

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The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin Pdf

font size="+1"The nail-biting historical mystery with a heady romance at its heart/font size 'Beguiling' Stylist ********* Hester White once had a comfortable home and a loving family, but after the untimely death of her parents, her life was turned upside down, leading her to live with her aunt and uncle in the slums of London. As the years turn, people begin to disappear from these murky streets in mysterious circumstances . . . with nobody to investigate their absences. When a life-threatening accident crosses Hester's path with Calder Brock's, it appears Hester's fortune has changed. Handsome, charming and wealthy, Calder is quick to invite her into his home, introducing Hester to his mysterious sister Rebecca, who takes Hester under her wing. In the opulence of her new home, Hester believes she has now escaped the darkness of the slums for good. But, Hester is about to find out, appearances can hide the ugliest of truths. When she is lured back onto the streets to investigate the mystery, the clues seem to lead her back far closer to her new friends than she could ever have imagined. . . ********* 'Carlin can tell a good story' Observer 'Contains lovely, lyrical writing . . . and a heady romance at its heart' Sunday Express

Author : Jessie Burton
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2016-07-26
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781443444996

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The Muse by Jessie Burton Pdf

From the bestselling author of The Miniaturist comes a captivating and brilliantly realized story of two young women—a Caribbean immigrant in 1960s London and a bohemian woman in 1930s Spain—and the powerful mystery that links them together July 1967, Mayfair, London—a painting left propped on the doorstep of the Skelton Gallery is discovered by Odelle Bastien, a Caribbean immigrant newly employed and in thrall with her enigmatic colleague, Marjorie Quick. The painting is rumoured to be the work of Isaac Robles, whose mysterious death at the burgeoning of his artistic powers has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is only matched by the tension caused by the conflicting stories of its discovery. Odelle is unsure whom or what to believe as she finds herself drawn into a complex web of secrets and deceptions. Thirty years earlier, as Spain is on the brink of civil war, Olive Schloss, the daughter of a Viennese Jewish art dealer, follows her parents to Arazuelo, a village in the south rife with unrest. It is here Olive meets Maria Teresita, the young housekeeper, and Maria’s half-brother Isaac Robles, newly returned from the Paris salons, his head full of revolution and dreams of being a painter as famous as Picasso. Both siblings are the illegitimate offspring of the local landowner and have nothing to lose when it comes to exploiting these new guests in their poverty-stricken town. They insinuate themselves into the family, helping to hide Olive’s own artistic talents while Isaac plays at both painting and revolution. The consequences are devastating and echo into the decades to come. In vividly rendered detail, acclaimed and bestselling author Jessie Burton spins a tale of desire, ambition and the ways in which the tides of history inevitably shape and define our lives.

Author : Noel O’Reilly
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2018-07-12
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780008274535

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Wrecker by Noel O’Reilly Pdf

‘Compelling’ Sunday Times A powerful debut exploring the dark side of Cornwall – the wrecking and the drowned sailors – where poverty drove villagers to dark deeds...

Author : Imogen Hermes Gowar
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 496 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2018-09-11
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781443456708

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The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar Pdf

"Imogen Hermes Gowar is a soon-to-be literary star."—Sunday Times (UK) "Historical fiction at its finest, combining myth and legend with the brutal realities of the past. . . . Comparisons will be drawn to the works of contemporary authors Sarah Waters and Michael Faber . . . but The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock has more in common with the novels of Dickens and Austen."—Irish Times In 1780s London, a prosperous merchant finds his quiet life upended when he unexpectedly receives a most unusual creature—and meets a most extraordinary woman—in this much-lauded, atmospheric debut that examines our capacity for wonder, obsession, and desire with all the magnetism, originality, and literary magic of The Essex Serpent. One September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of London. The captain of one of Jonah’s trading vessels is waiting eagerly on the front step, bearing shocking news. On a voyage to the Far East, he sold the Jonah’s ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid. Jonah is stunned—the object the captain presents him is brown and wizened, as small as an infant, with vicious teeth and claws, and a torso that ends in the tail of a fish. It is also dead. As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlors and brothels, all of London is curious to see this marvel in Jonah Hancock’s possession. Thrust from his ordinary existence, somber Jonah finds himself moving from the city’s seedy underbelly to the finest drawing rooms of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of the coquettish Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on—and a shrewd courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting sparks a perilous liaison that steers both their lives onto a dangerous new course as they come to realize that priceless things often come at the greatest cost. Imogen Hermes Gowar, Britain’s most-heralded new literary talent, makes her debut with this spellbinding novel of a merchant, a mermaid, and a madam—an unforgettable confection that explores obsession, wonder, and the deepest desires of the heart with bawdy wit, intrigue, and a touch of magic.

Author : Erika Robuck
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2022-03-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780593102169

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Sisters of Night and Fog by Erika Robuck Pdf

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Buzzfeed · Bookbub · BookTrib · and more! Two women, two countries. Nothing in common but a call to fight. A heart-stopping new novel based on the extraordinary true stories of an American socialite and a British secret agent whose stunning acts of courage collide in the darkest hours of World War II. 1940. In a world newly burning with war, and in spite of her American family’s wishes, Virginia d’Albert-Lake decides to stay in occupied France with her French husband. She’s sure that if they keep their heads down, they’ll survive. But is surviving enough? Nineteen-year-old Violette Szabo has seen the Nazis’ evil up close and is desperate to fight them. But when she meets the man who’ll change her life only for tragedy to strike, Violette’s adrift. Until she enters the radar of Britain’s secret war organization—the Special Operations Executive—and a new fire is lit in her as she decides just how much she’s willing to risk to enlist. As Virginia and Violette navigate resistance, their clandestine deeds come to a staggering halt when they are brought together at Ravensbrück concentration camp. The decisions they make will change their lives, and the world, forever.

Author : Elizabeth Lee
Publisher : Random House
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2021-04-22
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781473581371

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Cunning Women by Elizabeth Lee Pdf

ONE OF GRAZIA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2021 'I loved it. Atmospheric and so good' MARIAN KEYES 'A dark, bewitching and captivating read that had my heart in my mouth by the ending' JENNIFER SAINT, author of ARIADNE Lancashire, 1620. Young Sarah Haworth and her family live as outcasts. They are 'cunning folk', feared by the local villagers by day, but called upon under cover of darkness for healing balms and spells. Against the odds, love blossoms when Sarah meets Daniel, the local farmer's son. But when a new magistrate arrives to investigate a spate of strange deaths, his gaze inevitably turns to Sarah and her family. In a world where cunning women are forced into darkness by powerful men, can Sarah reckon with her fate to protect all she holds dear? 'Fans of intensely atmospheric historical fiction will love this' STYLIST 'Elizabeth Lee's debut novel is timely in its depiction of hysteria and persecution, and beautifully evokes a historical period poised between dark ignorance and long-overdue enlightenment' OBSERVER 'Wonderfully original . . . devastating . . . and fabulously atmospheric' ELODIE HARPER, author of THE WOLF DEN

Author : Jack Hartnell
Publisher : Profile Books
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2018-03-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781782832706

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Medieval Bodies by Jack Hartnell Pdf

A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A triumph' Guardian 'Glorious ... makes the past at once familiar, exotic and thrilling.' Dominic Sandbrook 'A brilliant book' Mail on Sunday Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love and had children. And yet their lives were full of miraculous and richly metaphorical experiences radically different to our own, unfolding in a world where deadly wounds might be healed overnight by divine intervention, or the heart of a king, plucked from his corpse, could be held aloft as a powerful symbol of political rule. In this richly-illustrated and unusual history, Jack Hartnell uncovers the fascinating ways in which people thought about, explored and experienced their physical selves in the Middle Ages, from Constantinople to Cairo and Canterbury. Unfolding like a medieval pageant, and filled with saints, soldiers, caliphs, queens, monks and monstrous beasts, it throws light on the medieval body from head to toe - revealing the surprisingly sophisticated medical knowledge of the time in the process. Bringing together medicine, art, music, politics, philosophy and social history, there is no better guide to what life was really like for the men and women who lived and died in the Middle Ages. Medieval Bodies is published in association with Wellcome Collection.

Author : Maggie O'Farrell
Publisher : Vintage Canada
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2023-08-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781039010550

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After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell Pdf

After You’d Gone is the groundbreaking debut novel from National Book Critics Circle Award winner Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait. A stunning, bestselling novel of wrenching love and grief. Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice's family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended. A riveting story that skips through time and interweaves multiple points of view, After You'd Gone is a novel of stunning psychological depth, marking the debut of a major literary talent.