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Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War (Vintage International)
by Sebastian FaulksPublished to international critical and popular acclaim, this intensely romantic yet stunningly realistic novel spans three generations and the unimaginable gulf between the First World War and the present. As the young Englishman Stephen Wraysford passes through a tempestuous love affair with Isabelle Azaire in France and enters the dark, surreal world beneath the trenches of No Man's Land, Sebastian Faulks creates a world of fiction that is as tragic as A Farewell to Arms and as sensuous as The English Patient. Crafted from the ruins of war and the indestructibility of love, Birdsong is a novel that will be read and marveled at for years to come.
Birdsong, Speech and Poetry: The Art of Composition in the Long Nineteenth Century (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture)
by Francesca MackenneyIn the long nineteenth century, scientists discovered striking similarities between how birds learn to sing and how children learn to speak. Tracing the 'science of birdsong' as it developed from the 'ingenious' experiments of Daines Barrington to the evolutionary arguments of Charles Darwin, Francesca Mackenney reveals a legacy of thought which informs, and consequently affords fresh insights into, a canonical group of poems about birdsong in the Romantic and Victorian periods. With a particular focus on the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Wordsworth siblings, John Clare and Thomas Hardy, her book explores how poets responded to an analogy which challenged definitions of language and therefore of what it means to be human. Drawing together responses to birdsong in science, music and poetry, her distinctive interdisciplinary approach challenges many of the long-standing cultural assumptions which have shaped (and continue to shape) how we respond to other creatures in the Anthropocene.
Birdspell
by Valerie SherrardShortlisted for the 2022 Mrs. Dunster's Award for Fiction Corbin Hayes has felt alone for as long as he can remember. His mom’s illness means lost jobs, constant moves, new schools and friendships that never get to grow. There’s a gap in his life that’s been waiting to be filled. So, when a classmate offers Corbin the talking bird she can no longer keep, he’s stoked. But when things begin to spiral out of control, Corbin can no longer get his mom – or himself – through the dark period. At his lowest moment, he’s forced to do the one thing he fears the most.
The Birdwatcher
by William McinnesA novel about love, about twitchers, and about learning to trust from bestselling, award-winning author, William McInnes - includes bonus material from HOLIDAYS, his new book.This is a story about a bloke who's losing his hearing; a bird that can't fly but likes being read to; and a teenage daughter who doesn't know who to be angry at.It's about a woman living with the echo of illness finding out how much fun it can be to trust someone; a man called Murph who has a secret; and Perry Como.It's part love story, part Hot Diggity moments of discovery, whether they happen in a rainforest or while sitting on a verandah, or in somebody's heart.It's about cold outdoor showers and people not quite being complete. But, most of all, it's about giving yourself the gift to be still while you wait for the lights to change or the rain to stop, so you have time to think.For all of us, there are memories and secrets that can change our lives. If we let them.PRAISE for William McInnes' previous books:'skilfully constructed...insightful, understated and very funny' Sydney Morning Herald on THE LAUGHING CLOWNS'The Making of Modern Australia is a ripper' The Canberra Times'William McInnes compels with the sheer delightfulness of his memoir, and with his fine ability to spin a damn funny yarn' Sunday Telegraph on A MAN?S GOT TO HAVE A HOBBY'funny and clever' Daily Telegraph on THAT?D BE RIGHT'A big-hearted novel with character' Sunday Telegraph on CRICKET KINGS
The Birdwatcher
by William ShawPolice Sergeant William South has a good reason to shy away from murder investigations: he is a murderer himself.**Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the YearA methodical, diligent, and exceptionally bright detective, South is an avid birdwatcher and trusted figure in his small town on the rugged Kentish coast. He also lives with the deeply buried secret that, as a child in Northern Ireland, he may have killed a man. When a fellow birdwatcher is found murdered in his remote home, South's world flips.The culprit seems to be a drifter from South's childhood; the victim was the only person connecting South to his early crime; and a troubled, vivacious new female sergeant has been relocated from London and assigned to work with South. As our hero investigates, he must work ever-harder to keep his own connections to the victim, and his past, a secret.The Birdwatcher is British crime fiction at its finest; a stirring portrait of flawed, vulnerable investigators; a meticulously constructed mystery; and a primal story of fear, loyalty and vengeance.
The Birdwatcher: A dark, intelligent novel from a modern crime master
by William ShawWHAT DRIVES GOOD MEN TO MURDER?'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' Val McDermid'The most gripping book I've read in years. William Shaw is, quite simply, an outstanding storyteller' Peter May'Grips the reader by the throat and never lets go' Independent Sergeant William South has always avoided investigating murder. A passionate birdwatcher and quiet man, he has few relationships and prefers it that way.But when his only friend is found brutally beaten, South's detachment is tested. Not only is he bereft - it seems that there's a connection between the suspect and himself.For South has a secret. He knows the kind of rage that killed his friend. He knows the kind of man who could do it. He knows, because Sergeant William South himself is a murderer. Moving from the storm-lashed, bird-wheeling skies of the Kent Coast to the wordless war of the Troubles, The Birdwatcher is a crime novel of suspense, intelligence and powerful humanity about fathers and sons, grief and guilt and facing the darkness within.
The Birdwatcher: a dark, intelligent thriller from a modern crime master
by William ShawWHAT DRIVES GOOD MEN TO MURDER?'The most gripping book I've read in years. William Shaw is, quite simply, an outstanding storyteller' Peter May'Grips the reader by the throat and never lets go' IndependentSergeant William South has always avoided investigating murder. A passionate birdwatcher and quiet man, he has few relationships and prefers it that way.But when his only friend is found brutally beaten, South's detachment is tested. Not only is he bereft - it seems that there's a connection between the suspect and himself.For South has a secret. He knows the kind of rage that killed his friend. He knows the kind of man who could do it. He knows, because Sergeant William South himself is a murderer. Moving from the storm-lashed, bird-wheeling skies of the Kent Coast to the wordless war of the Troubles, The Birdwatcher is a crime novel of suspense, intelligence and powerful humanity about fathers and sons, grief and guilt and facing the darkness within.(P)2016 W.F. Howes Ltd
Birdwing
by Rafe MartinA boy marked by physical difference--one arm is an enchanted wing--finds his strength and purpose in this stirring fantasy. A Washington Post Best Kids Book of 2005 and Book Sense Winter Pick. Once upon a time, a girl rescued her seven brothers from a spell that had turned them into swans. But one boy, Ardwin, was left with the scar of the spell's last gasp: one arm remained a wing. And while Ardwin yearned to find a place in his father's kingdom, the wing whispered to him of open sky and rushing wind. Marked by difference, Ardwin sets out to discover who he is: bird or boy, crippled or sound, cursed or blessed. But followed by the cold eye of a sorceress and with war rumbling at his kingdom's borders, Ardwin's path may lead him not to enlightenment, but into unimaginable danger.
Birdy
by Jess VallanceFrances Bird has been a loner for so long that she's given up on ever finding real friendship. But then she's asked to show a new girl around school, and she begins to think her luck could finally be changing. Eccentric, talkative and just a little bit posh, Alberta is not at all how Frances imagined a best friend could be. But the two girls click immediately, and it's not long before they are inseparable. Frances could not be happier. As the weeks go on, Frances finds out more about her new best friend--her past, her secrets, her plans for the future--and she starts to examine their friendship more closely. Is it, perhaps, just too good to be true?
Birdy and the Ghosties (Gripping Tales #1)
by Jill Paton WalshSometimes, Birdy watches her father row people across the dangerous sea, but when the wrinkled old woman asks to be ferried across, Birdy jumps in too. The woman tells Birdy that she has second sight, but Birdy isn't sure she wants this special gift. However, soon she finds that looking twice at things can bring the most unexpected results . . .With an engaging story told in short chapters, and illustrations in black and white and colour on every double-page spread, this short novel is ideal for newly confident readers.
Birdy and the Ghosties: Gripping Tales
by Jill Paton Walsh Alan MarksSometimes, Birdy watches her father row people across the dangerous sea, but when the wrinkled old woman asks to be ferried across, Birdy jumps in too. The woman tells Birdy that she has second sight, but Birdy isn't sure she wants this special gift. However, soon she finds that looking twice at things can bring the most unexpected results . . .With an engaging story told in short chapters, and illustrations in black and white and colour on every double-page spread, this short novel is ideal for newly confident readers.
Birdy Flynn
by Helen DonohoeThere is the secret of Birdy&’s grandmother&’s cat. How the boys tortured it and Birdy had to drown it in the river. There&’s the secret of Mrs. Cope, the popular teacher who took advantage of Birdy. And the secret of the gypsy girl at school who Birdy likes, but can&’t talk about. Because Birdy&’s other secret is that while she fights as good as the boys, she is a girl. In this funny and sad portrayal of a young person growing up in an imperfect family, every reader will recognise in Birdy their own struggle to find their place in the world.
The Birdy Snatchers (Kung Pow Chicken #3)
by Cyndi MarkoEveryone’s favorite avian superhero takes on an evil villain creating mindless zombies in this action-packed, illustrated chapter book.Gordon Blue is not just a second grader. He is also a superhero named Kung Pow Chicken! When the smartest chickens in town start acting like zombies, this superhero gets cracking. He knows only a bad guy would steal brains! But does Kung Pow Chicken have the smarts to stop the evil birdbrain?Praise for Let’s Get Cracking!“A perfectly puntastic page-turner. Hybrids of comics and traditional pictures, the goofy all-color illustrations propel the fast-moving, high-interest story. “Ham and eggs!” —you don’t want to miss this!” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Just the thing for beginning readers.” —Publishers Weekly“Step aside, Captain Underpants! There is a new hero in town—this time, with feathers. . . . Fresh, funny, and packed with full-color illustrations, this new transitional series will be an instant hit with readers looking for silly fun and a touch of mystery.” —Booklist
Birju Aur Udane Wala Ghoda
by Deepa Agarwalदीपा अग्रवाल दवारा रचित यह पुस्तक ‘बिरजू और उड़ने वाला घोड़ा’ एक लगड़े लड़के ‘बिरजू’ की कहानी पर आधारित है। जिसके दवारा बच्चों को यह सन्देश मिलता है कि अच्छे काम का फल सदा अच्छा होता है।The book ‘Birju Aur Udane wala Ghoda’ written by Deepa Agarwal is based on the story of a lame boy ‘Birju’. The childrens get message through this story, that the good work is always good.
Birmingham 1963
by Carole Boston WeatherfordThis book is an emotional tribute to the four girls killed due to the explosion at the baptist church of Birmingham and all those who worked for the Civil Rights Movement, fighting against cruelty, inequality and horror.
Birmingham, 35 Miles
by James BrazielIn this haunting and poignant debut novel, James Braziel tells an unforgettable story of love, family, and survival across a world that has already begun to die. … When the ozone layer opened and the sun relentlessly scorched the land, there was nothing left but to hope. Mathew Harrison had always heard of a better life as close as Birmingham, only thirty-five miles away—zones of blue sky, wet grass, and clean breathable air. But to him it’s a myth, a place guarded by soldiers, off limits to all but t...
The Birmingham Group: Reading the Second City in the 1930s
by Robin HarriottThe focus of this study is the collective of writers known variously as the Birmingham Group, the Birmingham School or the Birmingham Proletarian Writers who were active in the City of Birmingham in the decade prior to the Second World War. Their narratives chronicle the lived-experience of their fellow citizens in the urban manufacturing centre which had by this time become Britain’s second city. Presumed ‘guilty by association’ with a working-class literature considered overtly propagandistic, formally conservative, or merely the naive emulation of bourgeois realism, their narratives have in consequence suffered undue critical neglect. This book repudiates such assertions by arguing that their works not only contrast markedly with other examples of working-class writing produced in the 1930s but also prove themselves responsive to recent critical assessments seeking a more holistic and intersectional approach to issues of working-class identity.
Birnam Wood: A Novel
by Eleanor CattonINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER“Birnam Wood is terrific. As a multilayered, character-driven thriller, it’s as good as it gets. Ruth Rendell would have loved it. A beautifully textured work—what a treat.” —Stephen King“A generational cri de coeur . . . A sophisticated page-turner . . . Birnam Wood nearly made me laugh with pleasure. The whole thing crackles . . . Greta Gerwig could film this novel, but so could Quentin Tarantino.” —Dwight Garner, The New York TimesThe Booker Prize–winning author of The Luminaries brings us Birnam Wood, a gripping thriller of high drama and kaleidoscopic insight into what drives us to survive.Birnam Wood is on the move . . . A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam’s founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He’s intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood; although they’re poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize–winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. A brilliantly constructed study of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is a mesmerizing, unflinching consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.
Birnam Wood: A Novel
by Eleanor CattonINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERShortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, the Kirkus Prize, Orwell Prize, and the Ockham Book Award for FictionLonglisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary AwardCBC Books' #1 Canadian Novel of 2023Named a Best Book of 2023 by the New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Time, Kirkus Reviews, The Guardian, the Globe and Mail, and many moreOne of Barack Obama's 2023 Summer Reading List titles From the Booker Prize–winning author of The Luminaries comes an electrifying thriller about ambition, greed, environmental collapse, and how even our best intentions can lead to deadly consequences.Birnam Wood is on the move . . . A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand&’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster has created an opportunity for Birnam Wood, a guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice.For Mira, Birnam Wood&’s founder, occupying the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. The enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira and Birnam Wood, he makes them an offer that would set them up for the long term. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. It is an unflinching look at the surprising consequences of even our most well-intended actions, and an enthralling consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.
The Birobidzhan Affair
by Marek HalterA thrilling saga set in the Jewish republic of Birobidzhan At the height of the Red Scare in the 1950s, the House Un-American Activities Committee questions a Russian woman named Marina. She stands accused of being a spy and is suspected of murdering OSS agent Michael Apron. But even more scandalous than the accusations against her is the truth that her interrogation will reveal. In Russia, Marina was a successful actress--and one night, she found herself seduced by Stalin. To avoid a dangerous scandal, she pretended to be Jewish and fled to Birobidzhan, a lost city in the far southeastern corner of the Soviet Union bordering China, originally populated by those escaping the Nazis. This forgotten city was home to a wealth of Jewish culture and also happened to be in an ideal geographical position for the Allied forces to observe Japan's movements in Manchuria. It was there that Marina met and fell in love with Michael Apron. Following a fascinating heroine from Stalinist Russia to the United States during the McCarthy era, this thrilling story of love and espionage shows readers two worlds rocked by political turmoil.This book was translated from the original French by Anna Declerck.
Birth…: Journey To the Wild Depths of Motherhood
by Veronica Mouletogether we climb the mountain because I climb this mountain for you together we wade through the river together we shelter in the trees gathered with my support crew or standing solo exuding the theatrics of the stage or in the quiet Zen of retreat I unravel myself open myself surrender myself to this bold and broad and astonishing experience that will release you my child into the world and will forge my will my heart my being into the wild depths of motherhood Held in the story of Persephone, we start where all women now begin their birth journey—with Zeus, in the structure of patriarchy. Then we move beyond, through the supportive hold of mother Demeter, then further into ourselves until we find the unique wonder of woman, through courage, strength, and surrender, to the breath and calm and ecstasy she can hold. Written from the embodied experience of home birth mother and GP obstetrician, offering pregnant women and birth attendants insights into the hospital system, and the beauty that can be found in natural birthing.
The Birth and Death of Literary Theory: Regimes of Relevance in Russia and Beyond
by Galin TihanovUntil the 1940s, when awareness of Russian Formalism began to spread, literary theory remained almost exclusively a Russian and Eastern European invention. The Birth and Death of Literary Theory tells the story of literary theory by focusing on its formative interwar decades in Russia. Nowhere else did literary theory emerge and peak so early, even as it shared space with other modes of reflection on literature. A comprehensive account of every important Russian trend between the world wars, the book traces their wider impact in the West during the 20th and 21st centuries. Ranging from Formalism and Bakhtin to the legacy of classic literary theory in our post-deconstruction, world literature era, Galin Tihanov provides answers to two fundamental questions: What does it mean to think about literature theoretically, and what happens to literary theory when this option is no longer available? Asserting radical historicity, he offers a time-limited way of reflecting upon literature—not in order to write theory's obituary but to examine its continuous presence across successive regimes of relevance. Engaging and insightful, this is a book for anyone interested in theory's origins and in what has happened since its demise.
The Birth and Death of the Author: A Multi-Authored History of Authorship in Print (Routledge Auto/Biography Studies)
by Andrew J. PowerThe Birth and Death of the Author is a work about the changing nature of authorship as a concept. In eight specialist interventions by a diverse group of the finest international scholars it tells a history of print authorship in a set of author case studies from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. The introduction surveys the prehistory of print authorship and sets the historical and theoretical framework that opens the discussion for the seven succeeding chapters. Engaging particularly with the history of the materials and technology of authorship it places this in conversation with the critical history of the author up to and beyond the crisis of Barthes' 'Death of the Author'. As a multi-authored history of authorship itself, each subsequent chapter takes a single author or work from every century since the advent of print and focuses in on the relationship between the author and the reader. Thus they explore the complexities of the concept of authorship in the works of Thomas Hoccleve and John Lydgate (Andrew Galloway, Cornell University), William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe (Rory Loughnane, University of Kent), John Taylor, "the Water Poet" (Edel Semple, University College Cork), Samuel Richardson (Natasha Simonova, University of Oxford), Herman Mellville (and his reluctant scrivener ‘Bartleby’) (William E. Engel, Sewanee, The University of the South), James Joyce (Brad Tuggle, University of Alabama), and Grant Morrison (Darragh Greene, University College Dublin).
The Birth and Growth of Chinese Drama: The History of Chinese Drama, Volume 1
by Ronghua WangThis is a book of the history of China’s contemporary drama. It provides a panorama of the ups and downs of Chinese drama. It tells how this western art has been adapted to the Chinese context and what it has offered to the world of theatre. It illustrates who the outstanding playwrights are and what great drama they have produced. The book shows how Chinese traditional culture has been blended with this western art form. The book also demonstrates how deeply drama is involve in Chinese politics and daily life.
Birth Chart (Excelsior Editions)
by Rachel FederIn Birth Chart, a collection of heartfelt, ruthless poetry, Rachel Feder rethinks the relationship between astrology and motherhood. She asks, if astrology constellates the universe around the moment of one's birth, then how might it serve as shorthand for a vast number of personal experiences and cultural phenomena? How might it speak to and of friendship, motherhood, authorship, the mysteries of literary history, and the wonders of watching a child come into language? Across four sections, including a serial poem in sustained conversation with the modernist poet H.D., Feder's references range from group texts to the Talmud to ʼ90s song lyrics. In her hands—and her inimitable yet familiar, often straight-up funny voice—astrology is less a means of explaining the world than of communicating, of capturing a feeling, of sealing a bond. The result is an equally sentimental and sardonic collection in which "the language of explanation is a heart emoji. It means you know what I mean." And we do.