Language and Literature / English: World Literature - Single Copies

Okonkwo is the greatest warrior alive. His fame has spread like a bushfire in West Africa and he is one of the most poweful men of his clan. But he also has a fiery temper. Determined not to be like his father, he refuses to show any weakness to anyone -- even if the only way he can master his feelings is with his fists. When outsiders threaten the traditions of his
clan, Okonkwo takes violent action. Will the great man's dangerous pride eventually destroy him?

In the valley of the Beaujolais, the little town of Clochemerle has remained isolated. The mayor of the town devised a plan to provide a public urinal to the town never dreaming that it would lead to the infamous "scandals of Clochemerle".

It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found dead near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their death as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, Maria Teresa, and the survivor, Dede--speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule

A National Book Award winner.
Summary: Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past - a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world and will nurture the birth of his soul.

Translated from the French by Joseph Laredo
Summary: Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."

Charles Perrault's versions gave classic status to the humble fairy tale, and it is in his telling that the stories of Little Red Riding-Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and the rest have been passed down from the seventeenth century to the present day. Perrault's tales were enjoyed in the salons of Louis XIV as much as they were loved in the nursery, and it is their wit, humour, and lively detail that capture the imagination of adult and child alike. They transmute into vividfantasies the hidden fears and conflicts by which children are affected: fears of abandonment, or worse, conflicts wit.

Even with the knowledge that there are some sins too big for even God to forgive, every night my sky is still full of stars; a wonderful song for night. Trained as a human mine detector, a boy soldier in West Africa witnesses and takes part in unspeakable brutality. At 12 his vocal cords are cut to prevent him from screaming and giving away his platoon's presence, should he be blown up. Awaking after an explosion to find that he's lost his platoon, he traces his steps back through abandoned villages and rotting corpses – and through his own memories – in search of his comrades. The horror.

This is the story of a woman who refuses to mourn her husband's death. The village knew she was an unhappy wife, but she is still expected to weep and speak the praises of her husband. Her story reveals the value of friendship between women, based on liking rather than traditional beliefs.

Richard Wilbur praises Palma's translation as "accurate as to sense, fully rhymed, and easy, as a rule, in its movement through the tercets. Readers will find it admirably clear and readable." The text is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations. Also included in this edition are an illuminating introduction by Giuseppe Mazzotta, a Translator's Note, The Plan of Dante's Hell, and six maps and illustrations. "Criticism" provides twelve interpretations by, among others, John Freccero, Robert M. Durling, Alison Cornish, Teodolinda Barolini, Giuseppe Mazzotta, and Robert Hollander. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
Source: Book Depository

Jorge Luis Borges's Labyrinths is a collection of short stories and essays showcasing one of Latin America's most influential and imaginative writers.

A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus'
novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal
town is a classic of twentieth-century literature.
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Chinua Achebe's first novel portrays the collision of African and European cultures in people's lives. Okonkwo, a great man in Igbo traditional society, cannot adapt to the profound changes brought about by British colonial rule. Yet, as in classic tragedy, Okonkwo's downfall results from his own character as well as from external forces.

Mireille, daughter of a French Diplomat, Ousmane, son of a poor Muslim family in Senegal: Two childhood sweethearts forced to share their love in secret. Their marriage shocks and dismays both sets of parents, but it soon becomes clear that their youthful optimism and love is a poor defense against the pressures of society. As Ousmane is lured back to his roots, Mireille is left humiliated, isolated and alone.The tyranny of tradition and chauvinism is exposed in this novel from Senegal as two childhood sweethearts are forced to share their love in secret.

Prequel to The Shadow of the Wind
Welcome back to the gothic and mysterious Barcelona of the Cemetery of
Forgotten Books, where this time things take a devilish turn and the shadows
get deeper and darker.

Chilean woman searches for her lover in the goldfields of 1840s California. Arriving as a stowaway, Eliza finances her search with various jobs, including playing the piano in a brothel.