The renowned French author's modern masterpiece: "one of the great novels of the century . . . on the level of Joyce, Proust, Mann, Kafka, and Nabokov" ( Boston Globe).Structured around a single moment in time—8:00 p.m. on June 23, 1975—Georges Perec's "elaborate jigsaw puzzle of a novel" begins in an apartment block in Paris where, chapter by chapter, room by room, a rich cast of characters is revealed in a series of tales that are bizarre, unlikely, movin...

The posthumously published first novel from the acclaimed French author of Life: A User's Manual offers "glimpses of Perec's future greatness" ( The New Yorker).Puckish and playful, Georges Perec infused avant-garde and experimental fiction with a wit and wonder that belied the serious concerns and concepts that underpinned it. A prominent member of the OuLiPo, and an abiding influence on fiction writers today, Perec used formal constraints to dazz...

Perec's poignant essays on European cultural production, translated in English for the first time.In these writings, Georges Perec constructs a bold new critical discourse—one that remains faithful to leftist imperatives such as history, class consciousness, and revolution—while maintaining his independence from the dominant voices of the Left, whose vision had long dominated the Left’s understanding of literature and politics in postwar France.Perec's essa...

A moving hybrid work about Ellis Island and immigration by the marvelous Georges PerecGeorges Perec, employing lyrical prose meditations, lists, and inventories, conjures up the sixteen million people who, between 1890 to 1954, arrived as foreigners and stayed on to become Americans. Perec (who by the age of nine was an orphan: his father was killed by a German bullet, and his mother perished in Auschwitz) is wide-awake to the elements of chance in immigration and ...

“One of the most singular literary personalities in the world, a writer who resembled absolutely no one else.”—Italo Calvino“A satire for the author’s day and oh yes our own on the subtly crushing effects of corporate life … [a] delectable and philosophical office farce.”—Steven Poole, GuardianThe Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise—neurotic and pessimistic, yet endearing, comic, and never less than entertain...

The brutal murder of a young, wealthy socialite aboard a moving train leaves investigators grasping at straws amidst missing jewels and confusing timelines. A frantic father hires a renowned private detective to track down the monster responsible for stuffing his daughter's body under a carriage seat. Every passenger and acquaintance is scrutinized as false identities and complex alibis mask a ruthlessly calculated plot. It takes a remarkable leap of deductive reasoning to shatter the illu...

The case revolves around the death of a wealthy man, Simon Clode, who was obsessed with his late granddaughter and desperate to contact her through spiritual mediums. Before his death, Simon had a large fortune, and tensions within his household began to rise over his will. Shortly after changing his will in favor of a spiritualist who claimed to communicate with his granddaughter, Clode mysteriously dies, and suspicion falls on several people, each with both motive and opportunity.

A dead heiress on a train, a murdered recluse, a wealthy playboy slain at a costume ball are but a few of the unfortunate victims of confounding crimes committed in the pages of Agatha Christie’s The Under Dog and Other Stories, a superior collection of short mystery fiction all featuring Hercule Poirot as the investigator.A beautiful heiress has been found dead on a train. A playboy has been stabbed through the heart during a costume ball. An elderly woma...

Previously published in the print anthology Poirot Investigates.When Violet Marsh's late uncle's first will seems to be a prank, she is desperate to find the second one.

Written by one of the country's leading experts on the short story, Write Short Stories - And Get Them Published is ideal if you want to write creatively in a genre that is increasingly attracting attention from publishers, and which offers plenty of competition and festival opportunities for you to showcase your work.It will help unlock your imagination and creativity, and to discover stories you didn't know you had. It will help you to observe the world around you more sharply, a...

"Acclaimed British novelist Hensher . . . provides a droll and eclectic tour of handwriting history" — Booklist ."Rediscover the joys of writing. . . . Like a charming dinner guest, [Hensher] brims with fun facts, good humor and amusing reminiscences . . . [He] enlivens his musings about penmanship's demise with sharp insights and wry wit." ― The New York Times Book Review...

Ever feel hungry to write but can’t find an idea that whets your appetite? Whether you write fiction, poetry or memoir, there’s plenty here to get your teeth into. In this book, creative writing tutor and author Carol McKay shares not only some of her favourite prompts but also some of her tried and tested recipes to bring out the full range of flavours in your writing. The exercises, one-liners, photoprompts and definitions are suitable for those working on their writing alone or in a gr...