The Swan Gondola

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The Swan Gondola

Author : Timothy Schaffert
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 419 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2014-02-06
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780698152724

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The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert Pdf

A lush and thrilling romantic fable about two lovers set against the scandalous burlesques, midnight séances, and aerial ballets of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair. On the eve of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair, Ferret Skerritt, ventriloquist by trade, con man by birth, isn’t quite sure how it will change him or his city. Omaha still has the marks of a filthy Wild West town, even as it attempts to achieve the grandeur and respectability of nearby Chicago. But when he crosses paths with the beautiful and enigmatic Cecily, his whole purpose shifts and the fair becomes the backdrop to their love affair. One of a traveling troupe of actors that has descended on the city, Cecily works in the Midway’s Chamber of Horrors, where she loses her head hourly on a guillotine playing Marie Antoinette. And after closing, she rushes off, clinging protectively to a mysterious carpetbag, never giving Ferret a second glance. But a moonlit ride on the swan gondola, a boat on the lagoon of the New White City, changes everything, and the fair’s magic begins to take its effect. From the critically acclaimed author of The Coffins of Little Hope, The Swan Gondola is a transporting read, reminiscent of Water for Elephants or The Night Circus.

The Swan Gondola

Author : Timothy Schaffert
Publisher : Oneworld
Page : 458 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2015-04-02
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1780745605

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The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert Pdf

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The Perfume Thief

Author : Timothy Schaffert
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2022-07-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781984899231

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The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert Pdf

A stylish, sexy page-turner set in Paris on the eve of World War II, where Clementine, a queer American ex-pat and notorious thief, is drawn out of retirement and into one last scam when the Nazis invade. "A hint of Moulin Rouge, a whiff of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, a little spritz of Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief...The Perfume Thief is a pulse-pounding thriller and a sensuous experience you’ll want to savor."—Oprah Daily Clementine is a seventy-two-year-old reformed con artist with a penchant for impeccably tailored suits. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down in 1930 and opens a shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets. Now it's 1941 and Clem's favorite haunt, Madame Boulette's, is crawling with Nazis, while Clem's people—the outsiders, the artists, and the hustlers who used to call it home—are disappearing. Clem's first instinct is to go to ground—it's a frigid Paris winter and she's too old to put up a fight. But when the cabaret's prize songbird, Zoe St. Angel, recruits Clem to steal the recipe book of a now-missing famous Parisian perfumer, she can't say no. Her mark is Oskar Voss, a Francophile Nazi bureaucrat, who wants the book and Clem's expertise to himself. Hoping to buy the time and trust she needs to pull off her scheme, Clem settles on a novel strategy: Telling Voss the truth about the life and loves she came to Paris to escape. Complete with romance, espionage, champagne towers, and haute couture, this full-tilt sensory experience is a dazzling portrait of the underground resistance of twentieth-century Paris and a passionate love letter to the power of beauty and community in the face of insidious hate.

The Coffins of Little Hope

Author : Timothy Schaffert
Publisher : Unbridled Books
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2011-05-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781609530419

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The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert Pdf

Timothy Schaffert has created his most memorable character yet in Essie, an octogenarian obituary writer for her family’s small town newspaper. When a young country girl is reported to be missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer, Essie stumbles onto the story of her life. Or, it all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief invented from the desperate imagination of a lonely, lovelorn woman. Either way, the story of the girl reaches far and wide, igniting controversy, attracting curiosity-seekers and cult worshippers from all over the country to this dying rural town. And then it is revealed that the long awaited final book of an infamous series of YA gothic novels is being secretly printed on the newspaper’s presses. The Coffins of Little Hope tells a feisty, energetic story of characters caught in the intricately woven webs of myth, legend and deception even as Schaffert explores with his typical exquisite care and sharp eye the fragility of childhood, the strength of family, the powerful rumor mills of rural America, and the sometimes dramatic effects of pop culture on the way we shape our world.

The Gondola Maker

Author : Laura Morelli
Publisher : Laura Morelli
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2014-03-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780989367103

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The Gondola Maker by Laura Morelli Pdf

Award-winning historical fiction set in 16th-century Venice -Benjamin Franklin Digital Award -IPPY Award for Best Adult Fiction E-book -National Indie Excellence Award Finalist -Eric Hoffer Award Finalist -Shortlisted for the da Vinci Eye Prize From the author of Made in Italy comes a tale of artisanal tradition and family bonds set in one of the world's most magnificent settings: Renaissance Venice. Venetian gondola-maker Luca Vianello considers his whole life arranged. His father charted a course for his eldest son from the day he was born, and Luca is positioned to inherit one of the city’s most esteemed boatyards. Soon he will marry the daughter of an artisan prow-maker, securing a key business alliance for the family. But when Luca experiences an unexpected tragedy in the boatyard, he believes that his destiny lies elsewhere. Soon he finds himself drawn to restore an antique gondola with the dream of taking a girl for a ride. The Gondola Maker brings the centuries-old art of gondola-making to life in the tale of a young man's complicated relationship with his master-craftsman father. Lovers of historical fiction will appreciate the authentic details of gondola craftsmanship, along with an intimate first-person narrative set against the richly textured backdrop of 16th-century Venice. "I'm a big fan of Venice, so I appreciate Laura Morelli's special knowledge of the city, the period, and the process of gondola-making. An especially compelling story." --Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun "Laura Morelli has done her research, or perhaps she was an Italian carpenter in another life. One can literally smell and feel the grain of finely turned wood in her hands." --Pamela Sheldon Johns, author of Italian Food Artisans "Romance, intrigue, family loyalty, pride, and redemption set against the backdrop of Renaissance Italy." --Library of Clean Reads "Beautiful, powerful evocation of the characters, the place, and the time. An elegant and thoroughly engaging narrative voice." --Mark Spencer, author of Fiction Club: A Concise Guide to Writing Good Fiction

Marriage of a Thousand Lies

Author : SJ Sindu
Publisher : Soho Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2017-06-13
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781616957919

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Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu Pdf

“What a gorgeous, heartbreaking novel.”—Roxane Gay ​​ A necessary and exciting addition to both the Sri Lankan-American and LGBTQ canons, SJ Sindu's debut novel offers a moving and sharply rendered​ exploration of friendship, family, love, and loss. Lucky and her husband, Krishna, are gay. They present an illusion of marital bliss to their conservative Sri Lankan–American families, while each dates on the side. It’s not ideal, but for Lucky, it seems to be working. She goes out dancing, she drinks a bit, she makes ends meet by doing digital art on commission. But when Lucky’s grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her childhood home and unexpectedly reconnects with her former best friend and first lover, Nisha, who is preparing for her own arranged wedding with a man she’s never met. As the connection between the two women is rekindled, Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie. But does Nisha really want to be saved? And after a decade’s worth of lying, can Lucky break free of her own circumstances and build a new life? Is she willing to walk away from all that she values about her parents and community to live in a new truth? As Lucky—an outsider no matter what choices she makes—is pushed to the breaking point, Marriage of a Thousand Lies offers a vivid exploration of a life lived at a complex intersection of race, sexuality, and nationality. The result is a profoundly American debut novel shot through with humor and loss, a story of love, family, and the truths that define us all.

Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone

Author : Sequoia Nagamatsu
Publisher : eBookIt.com
Page : 150 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2016-05-31
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781625571168

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Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu Pdf

"A combination of the mystical, magical, and marvelous, Sequoia Nagamatsu weaves a collection of bold, hysterical, and moving tales into an unforgettable debut. From shape-shifters, to star-makers, to babies made of snow, the characters in WHERE WE GO WHEN ALL WE WERE IS GONE form a community of longing, of the surreal, of wonder. What a joy it is to read each and every story." --Michael Czyzniejewski

The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters

Author : Timothy Schaffert
Publisher : Unbridled Books
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2009-03-25
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781936071289

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The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters by Timothy Schaffert Pdf

Renowned author Timothy Schaffert’s celebrated debut novel, reissued here in an entirely new paperback edition, chronicles two sisters on the cusp of womanhood as they struggle to understand their father’s suicide as well their mother’s abandonment of them many years earlier. On graduating from high school, the sisters are once again set adrift, this time by their grandmother who leaves them for Florida. In order to survive, and perhaps even thrive, on their path to adulthood, they must learn to reconcile their pasts and discover how to depend upon themselves as well as on each other. In a story that rises out of the spare Nebraska landscape, Schaffert delivers a redemptive tale about two young women searching for wholeness and love.

The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God

Author : Timothy Schaffert
Publisher : Unbridled Books
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2009-03-31
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781936071302

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The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God by Timothy Schaffert Pdf

A blithe and redemptive seriocomic love story filled with country music, the ghosts of Halloween, and an ironic brand of down-home religion. Newly divorced and feeling the pain of separation from his family, Hud Smith channels his regret into writing country-western songs, contemplating life on the lam with his 8-year-old daughter, and searching cryptic postcards for news of his teenage son who has run off with The Daughters of God, an alternative Gospel-punk band of growing fame. Then he finds himself inching toward reconciliation with his ex, tossing his whole talent for misery into question as they head off in a borrowed school bus, hoping so very tentatively to bring the entire family together again. In this endearing misadventure that threatens to turn out right in spite of it all, Schaffert writes a thin line between tragedy and hilarity, turning wry humor and a keen sense of the paradoxical onto characters who deserve all the tender care he gives them.

Becoming Leidah

Author : Michelle Grierson
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2021-04-13
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781982141219

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Becoming Leidah by Michelle Grierson Pdf

An utterly gripping love story set in nineteenth-century Norway, about a woman rescued from the sea, the fisherman who marries her, their tiny and unusually gifted daughter, and the shapeshifter who follows their every move, perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Yangsze Choo, Eowyn Ivey, and Neil Gaiman. The sky opens up... I hear them laugh. They don’t feel the sadness in the air. They don’t feel the danger coming, riding in on the wind. In the hinterlands of old Norway, Leidah Pietersdatter is born blue-skinned, with webbed hands and feet. Upon every turn of season, her mother, Maeva, worries as her daughter’s peculiarities blossom—inside the root of the tiny child, a strange power is taking hold. Maeva tries to hide the girl from the suspicious townsfolk of the austere village of Ørken, just as she conceals her own magical ancestry from her daughter. And Maeva’s adoring husband, Pieter, wants nothing more than for his new family to be accepted by all. But unlike Pieter, who is blinded by love, Maeva is aware that the villagers, who profess a rigid faith to the new God and claim to have abandoned the old ways, are watching for any sign of transgression—and are eager to pounce and punish. Following both mother and daughter from the shadows and through time, an inquisitive shapeshifter waits for the Fates to spin their web, and for Maeva to finally reclaim who she once was. And as Maeva’s elusive past begins to beckon, she realizes that she must help her daughter navigate and control her own singular birthright if the child is to survive the human world. But the protective love Pieter has for his family is threatening the secure life they have slowly built and increasingly becoming a tragic obstacle. Witnessing this, Maeva comes to a drastic conclusion: she must make Leidah promise to keep a secret from Pieter—a perilous one that may eventually free them all.

The Only Wonderful Things

Author : Melissa J. Homestead
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 409 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780190652876

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The Only Wonderful Things by Melissa J. Homestead Pdf

Drawing on newly uncovered archives, The Only Wonderful Things offers a groundbreaking look at American novelist Willa Cather's creative process by arguing that the writer's life partner, magazine editor Edith Lewis, had a crucial impact on Cather's literary work.

Big Book of Beginner's Piano Classics

Author : Bergerac,David Dutkanicz
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780486466156

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Big Book of Beginner's Piano Classics by Bergerac,David Dutkanicz Pdf

Eighty-three popular piano classics arranged for the beginning student are accompanied by a short history of each piece and advice on playing each arrangement.5NjBwBT

People of the Swan

Author : Hubert J. C. Schuurman
Publisher : Trafford Publishing
Page : 654 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2007-03-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781412079624

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People of the Swan by Hubert J. C. Schuurman Pdf

The swan ballets on the river Sanctus drew Elves, Fairies, and many other visitors to town. Life flowed joyously. None heeded the Dwarves' warnings. They always talked gloom and doom!

The Guncle

Author : Steven Rowley
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2022-06-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781761107566

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The Guncle by Steven Rowley Pdf

From the author of Lily and the Octopus comes a moving and deeply funny novel about a once-famous sitcom star who is left to care for his niece and nephew after an unexpected family tragedy. Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them … in small doses, with their parents there to handle the tears and tricky questions. So when tragedy strikes and Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian, he is, honestly, overwhelmed. Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a stalled acting career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to young children. But when he realises that parenting isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility and the realisation that, sometimes, being vulnerable is the only way to heal from grief. Tender, charming and laugh-out-loud funny, The Guncle is a testament to finding happiness and peace in the most trying of times. ‘Steven Rowley’s The Guncle is a gift. At once funny, charming and heartbreaking, it’s that rare novel that will have you laughing out loud, even through tears. I have yet to meet a person who did not love this book.’ Sally Hepworth, bestselling author of The Good Sister and The Younger Wife ‘A joyous Auntie Mame spritz! A reading pleasure; pour yourself a tall glass and enjoy, preferably poolside. You deserve it!’ Andrew Sean Greer, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Less

Devils in the Sugar Shop

Author : Timothy Schaffert
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Fiction
ISBN : UVA:X030273749

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Devils in the Sugar Shop by Timothy Schaffert Pdf

"... a comical whirlwind of deception, adultery, desperation, drag queens, stiff cocktails, nervous breakdowns, an anonymous stalker, and suburban swingers. The lives of a failed erotic novelist, a hostess of prim marital-aid parties, an artist and a bookshop owner--all members of the artsy crowd in Omaha, Nebraska--collide one snowy winter evening the week before Valentine's Day"--P.[4] of cover.