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ZenosBook Blog - Books worth a look! |
Neruda: An Intimate Biography by Volodia Teitelboim. Austin. 1991. University Of Texas Press. Translated From The Spanish By Beverly J.Delong-Tonelli. keywords: Literature Translated Chile Latin America Biography Poetry. 506 pages. 0292755481.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Like a rain-swollen river sweeping everything into its current, Pablo Neruda channeled all his life experiences into impassioned poetry that ultimately brought him the 1971 Nobel Prize for literature. His close friend and fellow writer/activist Volodia Teitelboim shared that exciting process for forty years, uniquely qualifying him to offer this intimate portrait of the poet. Originally published in Spain in 1984. Neruda is a biography that reads like a novel, a human work that rescues Neruda from the pedestal of myth and allows him to walk again the streets of... The Long Night Of Francisco Sanctis by Humberto Costantini. New York. 1985. Harper & Row. Translated From The Spanish By Norman Thomas Di Giovanni. keywords: Literature Translated Argentina Latin America. 184 pages. Jacket illustration (c) Dagmar Frinta. Jacket design (c) Win Knowlton. August 1985. 0060153911.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Argentine Everyman, 41-year-old Francisco Sanctis, is on his way home from work one afternoon in Buenos Aires when he is detoured by a strange scheme. It is November 1977, and Argentina is in the midst of the ‘dirty war,’ with its repression, censorship, paramilitary groups, kidnappings, and submerged terror An old girl friend mysteriously reappears and enlists Francisco Sanctis in a mission to contact and warn two innocent youths who are in imminent peril of being... Fraulein Else by Arthur Schnitzler. New York. 1926. Simon & Schuster. Translated From The German By Robert A. Simon. keywords: Literature Austria Vienna Translated. 145 pages. June 1926.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Fraulein Else is the story of a young woman who, while staying with her aunt at a fashionable spa, receives a telegram from her mother begging her to save her father from debtor's jail by approaching an elderly acquaintance in order to borrow money from him. Forced into a reality entirely at odds with her romantic imagination, Else realises that her world is one in which everything has a price.
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The Stranger At The Palazzo D'Oro & Other Stories by Paul Theroux. Boston. 2004. Houghton Mifflin. keywords: Literature America. 296 pages. Jacket art by Mark Yankus. January 2004. 0618265155.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
From the best-selling author of Dark Star Safari and Hotel Honolulu, Paul Theroux's latest offers provocative tales of memory and desire. The sensual story of an unusual love affair leads the collection. The thrill and risk of pursuit and conquest mark the accompanying stories, which tell of the sexual awakening and rites of passage of a Boston boyhood, the ruin of a writer in Africa, and the bewitchment of a retiree in Hawaii. Filled with Theroux's typically exquisite yet devastating descriptions of people and places, The Stranger at the Palazzo D'Oro evokes...
The Stranger At The Palazzo D'Oro & Other Stories by Paul Theroux. Boston. 2004. Houghton Mifflin. keywords: Literature America. 296 pages. Jacket art by Mark Yankus. January 2004. 0618265155.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
From the best-selling author of Dark Star Safari and Hotel Honolulu, Paul Theroux's latest offers provocative tales of memory and desire. The sensual story of an unusual love affair leads the collection. The thrill and risk of pursuit and conquest mark the accompanying stories, which tell of the sexual awakening and rites of passage of a Boston boyhood, the ruin of a writer in Africa, and the bewitchment of a retiree in Hawaii. Filled with Theroux's typically exquisite yet devastating descriptions of people and places, The Stranger at the Palazzo D'Oro evokes... The Fables Of Avianus by Avianus. Baltimore. 1993. Johns Hopkins University Press. Translated From The Latin By David R. Slavitt. Illustrations by Neil Welliver. Foreword By Jack Zipes. keywords: Literature Roman Translated Latin Fables Mythology. 55 pages. Jacket illustration, The Monkey and One Twin, by Neil Welliver. Jacket design by Martha Farlow. 0801846846.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
‘When the word fable is mentioned,’ writes Jack Zipes in his foreword to this volume, ‘one automatically thinks of the name Aesop, never Avianus.' Nevertheless, the lively and instructive fables of this early fifth-century Roman writer enjoyed significant popularity in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Now the complete work of Avianus - forty-two elegiac fables in all - has been rendered into contemporary English verse by acclaimed translator... Bagombo Snuff Box:Uncollected Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. New York. 1999. Putnam. keywords: Literature America. 298 pages. Jacket design & Illustration by Paul Bacon. August 1999. 0399145052.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
In the 1950s and early 1960s, before television reigned preeminent, Kurt Vonnegut's short stories appeared frequently in popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and Argosy. Filled with unforgettable characters, humor and satire, these stories offer a rare glimpse into a developing master of fiction. Vonnegut himself selected the best of his early stories for this audio release, including 'Thanasphere,' 'Souvenir,' 'Bagombo Snuff Box,' 'The Boy Who Hated Girls,' 'Lovers Anonymous,' and more.
Buy a new copy of this book from zenosbooks.com The Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar (editor). New York. 1999. Norton. keywords: Mythology Folklore. 394 pages. COVER PAINTING: The Enchanted Prince, by Maxfield Parrish. Reproduced by permission of Maxfield Parrish Family Trust/Licensed by ASAP and VAGA, NYC/Courtesy American Illustrated Gallery, NYC. 0393972771.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
The cultural resilience of fairy tales is incontestable. Surviving over the centuries and thriving in a variety of media, fairy tales continue to enrich our imaginations and shape our lives. This Norton Critical Edition of THE CLASSIC FAIRY TALES examines the genre, its cultural implications, and its critical history. The editor has gathered fairy tales from around the world to reveal the range and play of these stories over time. THE CLASSIC FAIRY TALES focuses on six different... Franz Kafka: The Office Writings by Stanley Corngold, Jack Greenberg, & Benno Wagner (editors). Princeton. 2009. Princeton University Press. keywords: Literature Czech Germany Franz Kafka Translated. 424 pages. May 2009. 9780691126807.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Franz Kafka: The Office Writings brings together, for the first time in English, Kafka's most interesting professional writings, composed during his years as a high-ranking lawyer with the largest Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute in the Czech Lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is commonly recognized as the greatest German prose writer of the twentieth century. It is less well known that he had an established legal career. Kafka's briefs reveal him to be a canny bureaucrat, sharp litigator, and innovative thinker on the social, political, and legal issues... A Soviet Heretic: Essays by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Chicago. 1970. University of Chicago Press. Translated From The Russian & Edited by Mirra Ginsburg. keywords: Literature Russia Translated. 322 pages. 0226978656.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Yevgeny Zamyatin, leading Russian short story writer, novelist, playwright, and essayist, was one of the very few writers in post-revolutionary Russia to stand up openly to the regime and its suppression of creative freedom. Proclaimed an ‘enemy’, his books banned in Russian to this day, he nevertheless exerted a profound influence on emerging Soviet literature as craftsman, teacher, and critic. This volume is the most comprehensive collection of his essays to appear in any language. ‘In art the surest way to destroy is to canonize one given form and one philosophy,’ Zamyatin... Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. New York. 1963. Penguin Books. Translated From The Chinese By D. C. Lau. keywords: Literature China Translated Philosophy. 131 pages. The cover illustration shows a detail from a Chinese silk painting in the British Museum. 014044131x.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
The LAO TZU, as it is usually called, is the principal classic in the thought of Taoism. Traditionally ascribed to one Lao Tzu, an older contemporary of Confucius, the work is more probably an anthology of wise sayings compiled in about the fourth century BC. As a treatise both on personal conduct and on government it is moral rather than mystical in tone, and advances a philosophy of meekness as the surest path to survival. In the clear English... The Vinland Sagas by Keneva Kunz (translator). New York. 2008. Penguin Books. Translated by Keneva Kunz. Edited with notes and an introduction by Gisli Sigurdsson. keywords: Literature iceland Translated History Sagas. 94 pages. Cover: The Vinland Map, considered to be the first European representation of the New World, probably 15th century. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, MS350A. 9780140447767.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
The Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red's Saga contain the first ever descriptions of North America, a bountiful land of grapes and vines, discovered by Vikings five centuries before Christopher Columbus. Written down in the early thirteenth century, the sagas recount the Icelandic settlement of Greenland by Eirik the Red, the chance discovery by seafaring... Satura: Poems by Eugenio Montale. New York. 1998. Norton. Translated From The Italian By William Arrowsmith. keywords: Literature Poetry Italy Translated. 220 pages. Jacket design by Rodrigo Corral. 6/1/1998. 0393046478.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
‘Satura comprises a series of poignant and disturbing elegies for the self. Perhaps through T. S. Eliot's mediation, Montale in some of these poems seems to become an American modernist poet, and not just in William Arrowsmith's faithful and eloquent versions. One can read Satura as an elegy for Western Literary Modernism itself, for the passing of a great era.’ - Harold Bloom First published in Italy in 1971, Satura is the fourth collection of poems by the Nobel Prize winner Eugenio Montale (1896-1981). In Saruta, the poet experimented with dialogue,... Letters From Iceland by W. H. Auden & Louis MacNeice. New York. 1937. Random House. keywords: Literature Iceland Letters Autobiography. 268 pages.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Letters from Iceland is a travel book in prose and verse by W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice, published in 1937. The book is made up of a series of letters and travel notes by Auden and MacNeice written during their trip to Iceland in 1936. Auden's contributions include the poem ‘Journey to Iceland’; a prose section ‘For Tourists’; a five-part verse ‘Letter to Lord Byron’; a selection of writings on Iceland by other authors, ‘Sheaves from Sagaland’; a prose letter to ‘E. M. Auden’ (E.M. was Erika Mann), which included his poems ‘Detective Story’ and ‘O who can ever... I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch. New York. 1958. Abelard-Schuman. Translated From The German By Michael Bullock. keywords: Literature Translated Switzerland. 363 pages. Jacket design by Elizabeth Friedlander.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
‘Every word is false and true, that is the nature of words’ So how can we ever know for certain the identity of the man in the cell? He claims to be an American citizen named White but the police are unshakeable in their belief that he is Anatol Ludwig Stiller, the Swiss sculptor who vanished nearly a decade before. Despite the insistence of Stiller’s wife, brother and mistress, and in the face of every incentive to admit that he is Stiller, the man perseveres in his denial. Yet he betrays uncanny perceptions of... Upside Down:A Primer For The Looking-Glass World by Eduardo Galeano. New York. 2000. Metropolitan/Holt. Engravings By Jose Guadalupe Posada.Translated From The Spanish By Mark Fried. keywords: Latin American Uruguay History Politics Translated Literature. 358 pages. Jacket illustration by Jose Guadalupe Posada. Jacket design by Raquel Jaramillo. October 2000. 0805063757.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
From the author of the incomparable MEMORY OF FIRE trilogy, winner of the 1989 American Book Award, a bitingly funny, kaleidoscope vision of the First World through the eyes of the Third Recipient of the first Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom, Eduardo Gateano combines a novelist’s intensity, a poet’s lyricism, a journalist’s fearlessness, and the strong judgments of an engaged historian. His classic Memory of Fire trilogy caught as never before the... Electric Light by Seamus Heaney. New York. 2001. Farrar Straus Giroux. keywords: Poetry Ireland Literature.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Seamus Heaney's new collection travels widely in time and space, visiting the sites of the classical world and revisiting the poet's childhood: rural electrification and the light of ancient evenings are reconciled within the orbit of a single lifetime. This is a book about origins (not least, the origins of words) and oracles: the places where things start from, the ground of understanding -- whether in Arcadia or Anahorish, the sanctuary at Epidaurus or the Bann valley in County Derry. Electric Light ranges from short takes to conversation poems. The pre-Socratic wisdom that everything flows is held in tension with the elegizing of friends and fellow poets.... The History Of Danish Dreams by Peter Hoeg. New York. 1995. Farrar Straus Giroux. Translated From The Danish By Barbara Haveland. keywords: Literature Translated Denmark Scandinavia. 356 pages. Jacket art 'One of the Small Towers on Frederiksborg Castle', by Christen Kobke. 0374171386.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
In a Danish feudal castle, 1520, a count believes he has pinpointed the center of the universe--a patch of land on his estate. But when his discovery is met with disbelief, he walls off his mansion and has all of the clocks stopped. Four centuries pass instantaneously, and the count's young secretary, Carl, emerges from isolation to find a world bursting with war, innovation, love, sexuality, danger, and all the values of the sixteenth century turned upside down as... The Rider On The White Horse & Selected Stories by Theodor Storm. New York. 1964. Signet/New American Library. Signet Classic Printing. Newly Translated From The German & With A Foreword By James Wright. keywords: Signet Classic Paperback Germany Translated Literature 19th Century. CT262. 262 pages. Cover art by Lambert. August 1964.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
This unique collection offers for the first time in English a broad survey of the Novellen of Theodor Storm-a master of that literary genre. ‘The Novelle of today,’ Storm wrote in 1881, ‘like the drama. deals with the profoundest problems of human life.’ Throughout his life, he used this form in several different ways. His youthful Novellen. are suffused with an elegiac resignation on the vanished happiness of childhood. His...
The Annals Of Chile:Poems by Paul Muldoon. New York. 1994. Farrar Straus Giroux. keywords: Poetry Ireland. 189 pages. 0374105189.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
The Annals of Chile, Paul Muldoon’s first book of new poetry since the acclaimed Madoc: A Mystery (1991), confirms the widely held view that he is the most talented poet of his generation. The heart of the book is the long poem ‘Yarrow,’ in which all Muldoon’s powers of insight and wordplay and surprising association are on exuberant display. Evoking the 1960s, the poet conjures up a boundless historical present peopled at once by Davy Crockett and Tristan Tzara and Wild Bill Hickok, by Maud Gonne and Michael Jackson, all brought swiftly and vividly to life by his fantastical imagination. The book... The Gods,The Little Guys And The Police by Humberto Costantini. New York. 1984. Harper & Row. Translated From The Spanish By Tony Talbot. keywords: Literature Translated Argentina Latin America. 230 pages. Jacket design (c) Gloria Adelson / Lulu Graphics. Jacket illustration (c) Dagmar Frinta. April 1984. 0060152524.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
A small gem of a novel that holds its own with the remarkable writing coming out of Latin America today, THE GODS, THE LITTLE GUYS AND THE POLICE won the Premio Casa de las Americas, the most prestigious literary prize offered for Latin American fiction, when it was originally published in Mexico. In this funny yet mordant satire of political terrorism in Argentina in the mid-1970s, a paramilitary death squad places the members of... Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel. New York. 1929. Knopf. Translated From The Russian By Nadia Helstein. keywords: Literature Russia Translated Jewish. 213 pages.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
From the early Soviet period, the impassioned short fiction of the great Russian-Jewish writer. One of the most powerful short-story writers of the twentieth century, Isaac Babel expressed his sense of inner conflict through disturbing tales that explored the contradictions of Russian society. Whether reflecting on anti-Semitism in stories such as 'Story of My Dovecote' and 'First Love,' or depicting Jewish gangsters in his native Odessa, Babel's eye for the comical laid bare the ironies of history. His masterpiece, 'Red Cavalry,' set in the Soviet-Polish war, is one of the classics of modern fiction. By turns flamboyant and restrained,... Soccer In Sun & Shadow by Eduardo Galeano. New York. 1998. Verso. Translated From The Spanish by Mark Fried. keywords: Literature Uruguay Latin America Soccer History Translated. 228 pages. Cover graphics by Eduardo Galeano. Cover design by Uncle Bob. 1859848486.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
In a sequence of elegiac and deliciously droll observations, the distinguished Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano here reflects on mortality and immortality in the world’s greatest game. Tragedy spins a continuous thread through these pages: We learn of Abdon Porte of the Uruguayan club Nacional who, after a disastrous run of bad form, was found dead in the center circle of the club stadium, revolver in hand; of Andres Escobar, the Colombian defender, whose own goal lost his country a game... |
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Zora's Blog |
Hiya! This is a poem I wrote for poetry class - more info on the paragraph below… I have been invited to read one of my poems at the Watershed Poetry... Read more...
Hi, My name is Zora. I am a kid, but I still have lots of opinions about things.
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zenosbooks.com
the last name in books...  
 Zeno's specializes in Modern First Editions, Out-of-Print, and Hard-to Find books in a variety of categories. P.O. Box 16319 San Francisco, CA 94116
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 How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard. Translated from the French by Jeffrey Mehlman. New York. 2007 Bloomsbury. 187 pages. Jacket design by Patti Ratchford. 9781596914698
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
If civilized people are expected to have read all important works of literature, and thousands more books are published every year, what are we supposed to do in those awkward social situations in which we’re forced to talk about books we haven’t read? In this delightfully witty, provocative book, a huge hit in France that has drawn attention from critics around the world, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that it’s actually more important to know a book’s role in our collective library than its details. Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, and even the movie Groundhog Day, he describes the many varieties of ‘non-reading’ and the horribly sticky social situations that might confront us, and then offers his advice on what to do. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, HOW TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS YOU HAVEN’T READ is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them. Pierre Bayard is a professor of French literature at the University of Paris VIII and a psychoanalyst. He is the author of WHO KILLED ROGER ACKROYD? and of many other books. Jeffrey Mehlman is a professor of French at Boston University and the author of a number of books, including EMIGRÉ NEW YORK. He has translated works by Derrida, Lacan, Blanchot, and other authors.
 The Arabian Nights: Tales Of 1001 Nights, Volume 1 translated by Malcolm C. Lyons with Ursula Lyons. New York. 2010. Penguin Books. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 982 pages. Penguin Classic Paperback Edition. Cover: Flying over Istanbul and the Galata Tower on the Magic Carpet, 19th-century miniature from The Tale, of The Thousand and One Nights, in the University Library, Istanbul (photogaph The Art Archive,' Gianni Doak Orti). keywords:. Literature Arabic Mythology Folklore Translated. 9780104449389.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
When the beautiful Shahrazad gives herself to the bloody-handed King Shahriyar, she is not expected to survive beyond dawn. But using all her wit and guile, she begins a sequence of stories that will last 1001 nights: stories of 'ifrits and money-changers, princes and slave girls, fishermen and queens, and magical gardens of paradise. This volume also includes the well-known tale of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'. Along with this landmark new translation, Robert Irwin's introduction discusses the many cultures The Arabian Nights has drawn on and the elaborate structure of the story-within-a-story that defines the collection, as well as the importance to the Nights of locked doors, sex and the recurring themes of money, merchants and debts. This edition also contains suggestions for further reading, a glossary, maps and a chronology.
 Hitch 22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens. New York. 2010. Twelve. 435 pages. keywords:. Memoir Politics England Essays. 9780446540339.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
#1 New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Christopher Hitchens - one of the most admired and controversial public intellectuals of our time - shares his personal life story. Most who have observed Christopher Hitchens over the years would agree that he possesses a ferocious intellect and is unafraid to tackle the most contentious subjects. Now 60, English-born and American by adoption; all atheist and partly Jewish; bohemian (even listing ‘drinking’ along with ‘disputation’ as ‘hobbies’ in Who’s Who) he has held to a consistent thread of principle whether opposing war in Vietnam or supporting intervention in Iraq. As a foreign correspondent in some of the world’s nastiest places, a lecturer and teacher and an esteemed literary critic, Hitchens manifests a style that is at once ironic, witty, and tough-minded. A legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for literature, he has sometimes ridiculed those who claim that the personal is political, though he has often seemed to illustrate that very idea. Readers will find that his own many opposites attract, as do his many sketches of friendship and ex-friendship, from Martin Amis to Noam Chomsky. Condemned to be able to see both sides of any argument, Christopher Hitchens has contradictions that contain their own multitudes.
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 The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson. New York. 2009. Viking Press. keywords: History Vikings. 451 pages. Jacket design by Gregg Kulick. December 2009. 9780670020799.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
A fascinating history of the Viking age and its complex culture and influence. The emergence of the Viking age at the end of the eighth century ushered in a new era in the history of Europe, one in which the paganism of the conquering tribes of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark was swept aside by the Christian values of those they defeated. With the technological genius of their longships and their vigorous spirit, the Vikings ranged widely through Europe, introducing their distinct culture along with their much-vaunted maritime prowess. In this definitive history, Robert Ferguson presents the extraordinary story of the Nordic warriors and explorers who have long held our imagination. He sets the Viking age (c. 790-1100) within the context of European history and illuminates how this era of plunder and trade ultimately enhanced the development of political and cultural ideas in both Scandinavia and post-Roman Western Europe. Drawing on the latest research, The Vikings at once acknowledges the terrible violence of conquest while expanding our view of the humane depth of Nordic accomplishments in the arts, commerce, government, and far-flung exploration from Constantinople to the New World. Robert Ferguson is the author of several books, including literary biographies of Knut Hamsun and Henrik Ibsen.
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 The Happy Warriors by Halldor Laxness. London. 1958. Methuen. Translated From The Icelandic By Katherine John. 287 pages. Jacket design by David Watson. keywords: Literature Iceland Translated Sagas.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
THE HAPPY WARRIORS is a long rich novel which fits into none of the traditional categories of English fiction. A story of murder, revenge and adventure in Iceland, Greenland and Norway, it is at the same time a well sustained satire on the classical Nordic saga. The period is the end of the Viking era and the beginning of Christianity in Western Europe. There are two central characters, the oath-brothers Thorgeir and Thormod, the one a fighting man, the other a skald. Their feats are described with apparent admiration, so that the reader has the impression of discovering almost against the author's intention how hollow and meaningless are Thorgeir's murderous pursuits and Thormod's abandonment of a happy life to avenge his friend's death. The point is never laboured, the tongue in the cheek is unobtrusive, but the inescapable conclusion is that the legendary heroes were not larger than life after all; they were what would nowadays be called misfits, and a nuisance to everyone. In spite of this, the book is a huge popular epic. If the author does not think much of Viking prowess, he has a great admiration for the people of Iceland, and their cunning and commonsense, hardiness and caginess, their silence and poetry. Every one of the many characters is rounded and real. The women, for all their ferocity, are wonderful. The dialogue is terse, natural and vigorous. The whole book is written with a breath-taking vigour and inventiveness.
 Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness. New York. 2002. Vintage International. Translated From The Icelandic by Magnus Magnusson. keywords: Literature Iceland Translated. 425 pages. Cover painting: Louisa Matthiasdottir. 1400034256.
FROM THE PUBLISHER –
Sometimes grim, sometimes uproarious, and always captivating, Iceland’s Bell by Nobel Laureate Halldir Laxness is at once an updating of the traditional Icelandic saga and a caustic social satire. At the close of the 17th century, Iceland is an oppressed Danish colony, suffering under extreme poverty, famine, and plague. A farmer and accused cord-thief named Jon Hreggvidsson makes a bawdy joke about the Danish king and soon after finds himself a fugitive charged with the murder of the king’s hangman. In the years that follow, the hapless but resilient rogue Hreggvidsson becomes a pawn entangled in political and personal conflicts playing out on a far grander scale. Chief among these is the star-crossed love affair between Snaefridur, known as ' Iceland’s Sun, ' a beautiful, headstrong young noblewoman, and Arnas Arnaeus, the king’s antiquarian, an aristocrat whose worldly manner conceals a fierce devotion to his downtrodden countrymen. As their personal struggle plays itself out on an international stage, Iceland’s Bell ' creates a Dickensian canvas of heroism and venality, violence and tragedy, charged with narrative enchantment on every page. Hallador Laxness was born near Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1902. His first novel was published when he was seventeen. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction, and one of the outstanding novelists of the century, he has written more than sixty books, including novels, short stories, essays, poems, plays, and memoirs. In 1955 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1998.
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Zeno’s is an online used and out-of-print bookstore that specializes in literature in translation, modern first editions, and hard-to-find books. In addition to selling books to customers all over the world for over 25 years (since 1983), we have worked with other local businesses and schools to promote literacy by providing books and other resource materials to the public schools. Zeno’s started as a mail-order used and out-of-print business. We moved into a storefront in 1992, moved to a bigger location a couple of years later, and eventually closed the physical store to go online. Thus, zenosbooks.com was born. We have been selling our own hard-picked eclectic selection of used, hard-to-find, and even rare books via the internet ever since. Recently we have added new books to our mix. Any book person can see that the number of independent bookstores, both new and used, is dwindling, and that the current “book world,” is increasingly dominated by the big-box chain store or by the massive internet retailers. We however would like to think that there is room for a alternative that is a little more interesting . . . And we support our local schools.
As a small business we are wedded to our community. We don’t live in some sort of multi-national hyperspace whose connection to community is whatever their PR Department has come up with for the current promotion. We live in the real world. We support our own local economy. According to The Andersonville Study by the Civic Economics Group (which can be read online at –
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We not only recycle money into our local economy (first and foremost because we live here), we will offer to the local school of your choice a monthly 10% rebate on any of your purchases through zenosbooks.com if the school is willing to work with us. Every time you purchase a book through us you have the opportunity to support your local schools.
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Democracy Now!
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A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 800 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S. |
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Obama Defends Sweeping Education Reforms in Face of Criticism from Minority and Teachers' Groups
President Obama took on critics of his administration's sweeping education reform plan on Thursday in a nearly hour-long speech at the National Urban League's 100th anniversary convention. His address came on the heels of news that New York public school students are not performing nearly as well as prior state...
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Google Teams Up with CIA to Fund "Recorded Future" Startup Monitoring Websites, Blogs & Twitter Accounts
Investors at the CIA and Google are backing a company called "Recorded Future" that monitors tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts in real time in order to find patterns, events and relationships that may predict the future. The news comes amidst Google's so-called "Wi-Spy" scandal, that...
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Dozens of Immigrant Rights Activists Arrested in Arizona
At least fifty people were arrested in Arizona yesterday in protests against the state's new anti-immigrant law. The law went into effect on Thursday, but not before a federal judge blocked four key parts of the legislation. One of the biggest protests occurred in Phoenix outside of the Fourth Avenue...
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Dave Zirin on "Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love"
The world of professional sports is certainly not immune to the heated debates over Arizona's anti-immigration legislation and the growing calls for a nationwide boycott of Arizona. In New York, a rally is planned tonight outside Citi Field in Queens, where baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks will play the New York Mets....
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Headlines for July 30, 2010
Dozens of Immigrant Rights Activists Arrested in Arizona Protests, July Becomes Deadliest Month for US in Afghanistan, Obama Signs War Funding Bill, US Moves to Increase Arms Exports, Bradley Manning Moved to Marine Brig in Virginia, Justice Dept Explores Espionage Charges Against WikiLeaks, Army Issues Report on Soldier Suicides, Rep....
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Patrick Cockburn on Missing Billions in Iraq and Soaring Cancer & Infant Mortality Rates in Fallujah
In Iraq, an official audit by the US Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction found that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $9 billion taken from Iraqi oil revenues between 2004 and 2007 for use in reconstruction. Meanwhile, a new medical study has found dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and...
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On Eve of Major Protests, Federal Judge Blocks Key Provisions of Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law
A federal judge in Phoenix blocked key provisions of Arizona's notorious anti-immigrant law on Wednesday, hours before it was scheduled to take effect. US District Judge Susan Bolton ruled a partial injunction would apply to the portion of the law that requires police officers to stop and interrogate anyone they...
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In Historic Vote, UN DeclaresWater a Fundamental Human Right
The United Nations General Assembly has declared for the first time that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right. In a historic vote Wednesday, 122 countries supported the resolution, and over forty countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Canada and several European and other...
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Deutsche Welle - Top Stories |
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Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE
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Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE |
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Berlin calls for more international support against cluster bombs
Cluster bombs have been banned by an international convention that came into force on August 1. Germany is among 108 countries who have signed up, but there are still some major military powers missing from the list.
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Germany gains new World Heritage Site
UNESCO has awarded coveted World Heritage status to a unique medieval system of water management in Upper Harz, a region in Lower Saxony. The UN cultural committee announced the news at a conference in Brazil on Sunday.
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Passion for discovery connects women documentary filmmakers
A group of women documentary filmmakers in Cologne offer each other support in a challenging industry. They're connected by a common enthusiasm for finding and presenting the right story.
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Twenty years on, shockwaves of Kuwait invasion are still felt in Middle East
On August 2, 1990, Iraq launched an invasion of Kuwait, setting in motion a long chain of events which have reshaped the Middle East and have changed the dynamic of relations between the western and Arab worlds.
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Croatia bank deal builds bridges with Slovenia and EU
Slovenia and Croatia have resolved a niggling bank dispute that has proved a sticking point in relations between the two countries. The settlement helps pave the way for Croatia to join the EU.
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German midfielder Khedira joins the Real revolution
Germany midfielder Sami Khedira is leaving Stuttgart for Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid. After an impressive World Cup, the player is part of Jose Mourinho's plan to restore the club's somewhat faded glory.
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Germany clinches silver and three bronze in Barcelona
Germany has won one silver and two bronze medals at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona. Achievements in javelin, heptathlon, hurdles and shot-putt bring the tally to 11.
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Russian police arrest protestors for exercising right to assembly
Police violently dispersed demonstrations in Russian cities on Saturday, arresting opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and dozens of others. Rights activists have condemned the police for brutalizing protestors.
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Berlusconi's tempestuousness backfires as Fini maintains allies
Italy may be facing early elections following a dramatic falling out between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a powerful political ally. Berlusconi has rejected speculation that his government is at risk of collapse.
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Latin American News |
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Latin America - INTER PRESS SERVICE
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IPS, civil society's leading news agency, is an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath. |
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CUBA: Village with English Past, Ecological Present
Only hurricanes disrupt the tranquility of Cocodrilo, a Cuban coastal village
founded by immigrants from the Cayman Islands in the early 20th century.
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BRAZIL: Young Indigenous Hero Teaches History in Video Game
Computer game technology can have an impact on the way we view the world. In a new video game developed in Brazil, a young indigenous boy named Jeró helps break down the stereotypes of the worldwide video game industry while teaching about the history of colonialism.
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HUMAN RIGHTS-CHILE: Unfinished Business
The controversial proposal to pardon some convicts in Chile for humanitarian reasons, which was put forward by the Catholic Church and partially taken up by President Sebastián Piñera, has revived the debate on the country's human rights situation, both past and present.
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PERU: Families of Victims of Biggest Shining Path Massacre Seek Justice
For 26 years, Gregoria Aguilar has been mourning the loss of her son, son-in-law and nephew, who were killed in the biggest massacre committed by the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas in Peru's highlands.
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COLOMBIA: Report Suggests "Correlation" between U.S. Aid and Army Killings
"There are alarming links between increased reports of extrajudicial executions of civilians by the Colombian army and units that receive U.S. military financing," John Lindsay-Poland, lead author of a two-year study on the question, told IPS.
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HONDURAS: Rights Situation Deteriorates
Six months after the inauguration of President Porfirio Lobo,
the human rights situation in Honduras continues to
deteriorate, according to two major New York-based groups.
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PERU: President Admits Corruption Has Tarnished Government
In his Independence Day speech in the Peruvian Congress, which was broadcast nationwide, President Alan García admitted that corruption has tarnished his administration, although he lectured the judicial branch for delays in punishing those responsible.
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MIGRATION-ECUADOR: Cubans Turn to Marriages of Convenience for Citizenship - Part 2
Cuban nationals can be found every day at the busy corner of Amazonas and
Naciones Unidas avenues in the Ecuadorean capital, where the National Civil
Registry Office is located.
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allAfrica.com News |
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AllAfrica News: Africa
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All Africa, All the Time. |
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Africa: GM Bananas Could Cut Blindness, Anaemia in East Africa
Bio-fortified bananas that could reduce blindness, diarrhoea and anaemia are a step closer, according to the preliminary results of a joint research project between Ugandan and Australian scientists.
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Africa: Upcoming Conference 'to Make the Connection' between U.S. and Continent - Hope Masters
The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation Africa Policy Forum: a Vision for the 21st Century to be held in Atlanta in September, aims to help build a U.S.-Africa dialogue based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. It will encompass cultural discourse as well as talks on business and national security issues. Hope Masters, CEO of the Sullivan Foundation, spoke with Saratu Abiola and Carine Umuhumuza of allAfrica.com about what informed her approach to the conference, and what she would like to see in the future regarding U.S.-Africa relations.How does the conference tie in to what the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation is trying to achieve?Our overarching purpose is to build a bridge, to make the connection between African Americans, in particular, but really people of the African Diaspora in general, to connect us all back to the continent. Traditionally we have chartered planes and taken people to the continent. We believe now that the bridge goes both ways. We've been trying to get the bridge across to the continent but now with brilliant young people, there's so many people coming back and forth.
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Africa: Obama Team 'Actively Engaged' to Promote Progress, Carson Says
President Barack Obama will host some 120 African youth leaders from 40 African nations in Washington next week, part of a commemoration of 50 years of independence for 17 countries. The President's Forum is intended "to deepen and broaden our understanding of the trajectories of African societies, and to reflect on how the next generation are building their communities' and their nations' futures ? just as their predecessors did in the era of independence from colonial rule," the White House said in a statement.
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Africa: UN Official Warns Terrorism and Organized Crime Increasingly Linked
Terrorism in Africa is increasingly linked to organized crime, and the continent's governments must take stronger steps to try to break those connections, a senior United Nations official said as he called for countries worldwide to broaden their anti-terrorist strategies beyond involving only the military and law enforcement agencies.
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Africa: Addressing the Role of Religion in HIV Response
At a church compound in Nairobi's Mathare slum, women and their children line up for food rations. Among them is Zipporah Mueni, an HIV-positive mother of five.
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Africa: Assistant Secretary-General Calls on Partners to Adopt Civil Paths to Peace
Acclaimed academics and experts attending a United Nations round table on peace in Asia last week heard how the Commonwealth is striving to help policymakers resolve "deep seated conflicts" around the world.
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Africa: Continent Seeks Greater Role in International Affairs
At the ongoing African Union (AU) summit in Kampala, Uganda, African leaders are being urged to push for Africa's interests on the international scene.
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Africa: Drug Resistance Threatens Sleeping Sickness Cure
Hopes for an effective new combination treatment for sleeping sickness have been challenged by the discovery of resistance to two of the drugs.
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Africa: South African Theatre Group Performs On Climate Change
South African rural communities have turned to theatre in a creative effort to respond to the challenges of climate change. Resource Africa, a Not-for-Profit organization working on natural resource management, is leading the way.
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Africa: Highest Number of Bloggers in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria
Kenya has the third highest number of blogs in Africa after Nigeria and South Africa, a firm indication of the nation's increasing IT literacy.
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BBC News |
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BBC News - World
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The latest stories from the World section of the
BBC News web site.
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Dutch troops leave Afghanistan
The Netherlands ends its Afghan military involvement after a domestic split, amid concerns over the US-led alliance's long-term strategy and exit.
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Clinton pride at Chelsea wedding
The only child of former US President Bill Clinton, Chelsea, is married to her banker boyfriend at a ceremony cloaked in secrecy.
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Pakistan floods motorway reopens
The main motorway south from flood-hit north-west Pakistan has partially reopened, raising the prospect of relief for thousands of people still waiting for help.
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UAE 'to deny Blackberry services'
The UAE is to suspend some Blackberry mobile phone services, having said the devices pose a "national security risk", its state news agency reports.
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Cluster bomb ban comes into force
A new global treaty banning cluster munitions enters into force, hailed by campaigners as the most important treaty in 10 years.
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Pakistan leader heading to Europe
Pakistan's president is due in Europe for a trip that will take in the UK, amid tensions over comments about terrorism by PM David Cameron.
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Sudan to monitor UN peacekeepers
Sudan says UN peacekeepers in Darfur must inform the government of all travel plans, insisting they have failed to stop violence at refugee camps.
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Afghan roadside bomb kills six
Six civilians die after their minibus strikes a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar.
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Opposition figures held in Moscow
Russian police detain two opposition leaders and dozens of others trying to hold demonstrations in Moscow and St Petersburg.
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Kidnapped Mexico cameramen free
Police in Mexico say they have freed two of the four journalists kidnapped in Durango last Monday.
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