Contemporary fiction genre books (507)


371.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger EN

Rating: 3 (2 votes)
Description:
The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient chi... continue

372.

The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
“Wildly imaginative.”—The New York Times “Adamsberg is a terrific creation and his team of misfits a joy to watch in action.”—Peter Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Banks series When blue chalk circles begin to appear on the pavement in neighborhoods around Paris, Commissaire Adamsberg is alone in thinking that they are far from amusing. As he studies each new circle and the increasingly bizarre objects they contain - empty beer cans, four trombones, a pigeon's foot, a doll's head - he senses the cruelty that lies within whoever is responsible. And when a circle is ... continue

373.

The Coffeehouse by Naguib Mahfouz EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
Mahfouz's last novel, an evocative depiction of life in Egypt in the twentieth century as told through the lives of a group of friends, is now available in paperback for the first time On a school playground in the stylish Cairo suburb of Abbasiya, five young boys become friends for life, making a nearby café, Qushtumur, their favorite gathering spot forever. One is the narrator, who, looking back in his old age on their seven decades together, makes the other four the heroes of his tale, a Proustian, and classically Mahfouzian, quest in search of lost time and the memory of a much-changed pla... continue

374.

The Collected Regrets of Clover : A Novel by Mikki Brammer EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
A big-hearted and life-affirming debut about a death doula who, in caring for others at the end of their life, has forgotten how to live her own, for readers of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Midnight Library.


376.

The Cook by Harry Kressing EN

0 Ratings
Description:
The Cook opens with Conrad, nearly seven feet tall, gaunt, and dressed all in black, arriving on his bicycle in the town of Cobb. He quickly secures a job as cook for the wealthy Hill family, winning their hearts and stomachs with his delectable dishes, and before long he has everyone around him eating out of his hand. But Conrad has a sinister, inscrutable plan in view, and after becoming master of their palates, next may be their souls . . . A mouth-watering blend of delicious black humor and Kafkaesque horror story, The Cook (1965) is a dark fable "beginning in a vein of innocent fairy tale... continue

377.

The Crazed : A Novel by Ha Jin EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / China flag China
Description:
Professor Yang, a respected teacher of literature, has had a stroke and it falls to Jian Wan - who is also engaged to Yang's daughter - to care for him. It initially seems a simple duty until the professor begins to rave, pleading with invisible tormentors and denouncing his family... Are these just manifestations of illness, or is Yang spewing up the truth? In a China convulsed by the Tiananmen uprising, those who listen to the truth are as much at risk as those who speak it. Lyrical and heart-breaking, The Crazed is an incisive portrait of modern Chinese society.

378.

The Cry of Winnie Mandela : A Novel by Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele EN

0 Ratings
Description:
A group of women at a specific period in the history of Southern Africa find their family life under the pressures of capitalist modernity and apartheid. These ordinary, intimate stories are anchored to the more powerful public stories of the Penelope of ancient Greek mythology (who waited 18 years while her husband Odyseeus was away), and Winnie Mandela (who waited for 27 years). The life of Winnie Mandela remains one of the great unfolding dramas of our times; a tale of triumphs and tragedies that is only just beginning to be examined.

379.

The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection : A Novel by Martin Page EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
Another mordantly hysterical tale from the author of the cult favorite How I Became Stupid A funny yet poignant tour of one young man's existential crisis, The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection is another short novel from France's Martin Page. Virgil comes home from work one day to a message on his answering machine-his girlfriend is breaking up with him. This news should be devastating, but instead it's deeply troubling, because Virgil doesn't know the woman and doesn't have any memory of being in a relationship with her. The event sends Virgile into a tailspin of unrelenting self-analysis, cau... continue

380.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. "'Do you think it's possible to ever see the past as it actually was?' I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer." At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate e... continue