In the Orchard, the Swallows

In the Orchard, the Swallows
Author: Peter Hobbs
Publisher: House of Anansi
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2012-04-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1770892117

A Guardian Book of the Year and Chapters/Indigo Best Book In the foothills of a mountain range in northern Pakistan is a beautiful orchard. Swallows wheel and dive silently over the branches, and the scent of jasmine threads through the air. Pomegranates hang heavy, their skins darkening to a deep crimson. Neglected now, the trees are beginning to grow wild, their fruit left to spoil on the branches. Many miles away, a frail young man is flung out of prison gates. Looking up, scanning the horizon for swallows in flight, he stumbles and collapses in the roadside dust. His ravaged body tells the story of fifteen years of brutality. Just one image has held and sustained him through the dark times -- the thought of the young girl who had left him dumbstruck with wonder all those years ago, whose eyes were lit up with life. A tale of tenderness in the face of great and corrupt power, In The Orchard, The Swallows is a heartbreaking novel written in prose of exquisite stillness and beauty.

Lord of the Swallows

Lord of the Swallows
Author: Gérard de Villiers
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2016-02-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0345808223

A high-tension, sexy, political thriller in which freelance CIA agent Malko Linge brings a project to his bosses that could blow open a ring of Russian spies operating in the United States. First English-language publication. At a benefit dinner, Austrian playboy and CIA freelancer Malko Linge meets an intriguing woman, Zhanna Khrenkov, who has an unusual proposal. She will disclose everything she knows about her husband Alexei's business if Malko will get rid of Alexei's younger, British mistress. Appalled, Malko refuses--until Zhanna reveals her husband's real job: head of a ring of Russian spies operating undercover inside the U.S. For Malko's CIA contacts, this is a highly necessary job; for Malko, it is a highly sensitive one. He will move cautiously from Vienna to London to Moscow, trying to find the right balance of winning Zhanna's trust without compromising his moral integrity.

Boy Swallows Universe

Boy Swallows Universe
Author: Trent Dalton
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2018-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1460708415

'The best Australian novel I have read in more than a decade' Sydney Morning Herald 'Astonishing, captivating ... a wild, beautiful, heart-exploding ride' Elizabeth Gilbert The bestselling novel that has taken Australia, and the world, by storm. Winner of Book of the Year at the 2019 Indie Book Awards, winner of a record four Australian Book Industry Awards in 2019, including the prestigious Book of the Year Award, and winner of the 2019 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, NSW Premier's Literary Awards Brisbane, 1985: A lost father, a mute brother, a junkie mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli Bell's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart and understand what it means to be a good man, but fate keeps throwing obstacles in his way - not the least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer. But now Eli's life is going to get a whole lot more serious: he's about to meet the father he doesn't remember, break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day to rescue his mum, come face to face with the criminals who tore his world apart, and fall in love with the girl of his dreams. A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year. Awards: 2019 ABIA Book of the Year Award, Winner 2019 Indie Book Award, Winner 2019 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Winner 2019 People's Choice Award, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Winner MUD Literary Prize 2019, Winner 2019 ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, Winner 2019 ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, Winner 2019 ABIA Audiobook of the Year, Winner 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Longlisted 2019 Colin Roderick Award, shortlist Reviews: 'Boy Swallows Universe is a wonderful surprise: sharp as a drawer full of knives in terms of subject matter; unrepentantly joyous in its child's-eye view of the world; the best literary debut in a month of Sundays.' The Australian 'Boy Swallows Universe hypnotizes you with wonder, and then hammers you with heartbreak.' Washington Post 'This thrilling novel' New York Times Book Review 'Marvelously plot-rich ... filled with beautifully lyric prose ...At one point Eli wonders if he is good. The answer is "yes," every bit as good as this exceptional novel.' Booklist 'Dalton's splashy, stellar debut makes the typical coming-of-age novel look bland by comparison ... This is an outstanding debut.' Publisher's Weekly (starred review) 'Extraordinary and beautiful storytelling' Guardian

They Came Like Swallows

They Came Like Swallows
Author: William Maxwell
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2011-02-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 144643477X

Discover William Maxwell’s classic, heart-breaking portrait of an ordinary American family struck by the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic 'A story of such engaging warmth that it would thaw the heart of any critic... Will melt many a reader to tears’ TIME Elizabeth Morison is an ordinary woman. Yet, to eight-year-old Bunny, his mother is the centre of his universe. To Robert, her elder son, she is someone he must protect against the dangers of the outside world. And to her husband, James, she is the foundation on which his family rests and life without her is unimaginable. As the dark winter of 1918 dawns and the shadow of Spanish flu starts to disturb day-to-day life, a moving portrait of Elizabeth takes shape, set against the lives and fate of the Morison family. ‘As you read They Came Like Swallows, you catch yourself from time to time being astonished at how tightly you're gripping the pages... There isn't a word that has dated. It could have been written yesterday, or tomorrow’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

The Swallows

The Swallows
Author: Lisa Lutz
Publisher: Titan Books
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1785656287

A blistering, timely tale of revenge from the bestselling author of The Passenger GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS What do you love? What do you hate? What do you want? It starts with this simple writing prompt from Alex Witt to her students at Stonebridge Academy. When their answers raise disturbing questions of their own, Ms. Witt knows there's more going on at the school than anyone will admit. She finds the few girls who've started to question the school's 'boys will be boys' attitude and incites a resistance that quickly becomes a movement. As the school's secrets begin to trickle out, the skirmish turns into an all-out war, with deeply personal – and potentially fatal – consequences for everyone involved.

The Easter Swallows

The Easter Swallows
Author: Vicki Howie
Publisher:
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2007-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9780819823601

Two swallows build a nest near Jerusalem and witness the events of Holy Week, including Jesus' entry into the city and his crucifixion and resurrection.

The Swallows of Kabul

The Swallows of Kabul
Author: Yasmina Khadra
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307429423

Set in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, this extraordinary novel "puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban" (San Francisco Chronicle), taking readers into the seemingly divergent lives of two couples—and depicting with compassion and exquisite details the mentality of Islamic fundamentalists and the complexities of the Muslim world. Mohsen comes from a family of wealthy shopkeepers whom the Taliban has destroyed; Zunaira, his wife, exceedingly beautiful, was once a brilliant teacher and is now no longer allowed to leave her home without an escort or covering her face. Intersecting their world is Atiq, a prison keeper, a man who has sincerely adopted the Taliban ideology and struggles to keep his faith, and his wife, Musarrat, who once rescued Atiq and is now dying of sickness and despair. Desperate, exhausted Mohsen wanders through Kabul when he is surrounded by a crowd about to stone an adulterous woman. Numbed by the hysterical atmosphere and drawn into their rage, he too throws stones at the face of the condemned woman buried up to her waist. With this gesture the lives of all four protagonists move toward their destinies. Yasmina Khadra brings readers into the hot, dusty streets of Kabul and offers them an unflinching but compassionate insight into a society that violence and hypocrisy have brought to the edge of despair.

Lord of the Swallows

Lord of the Swallows
Author: Gerard De Villiers
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN: 9780804190541

"A high-tension, sexy, political thriller in which freelance CIA agent Malko Linge brings a project to his bosses that could blow open a ring of Russian spies operating in the United States. At a benefit dinner, Austrian playboy and CIA freelancer Malko Linge meets an intriguing woman, Zhanna Khrenkov, who has an unusual proposal. She will disclose everything she knows about her husband Alexei's business if Malko will get rid of Alexei's younger, British mistress. Appalled, Malko refuses--until Zhanna reveals her husband's real job: head of a ring of Russian spies operating undercover inside the U.S. For Malko's CIA contacts, this is a highly necessary job; for Malko, it is a highly sensitive one. He will move cautiously from Vienna to London to Moscow, trying to find the right balance of winning Zhanna's trust without compromising his moral integrity"--

A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail

A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Author: Darl Larsen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 633
Release: 2015-03-06
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1442245549

Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired from 1969 until 1974, but the conclusion of the series did not mark the end of the troupe’s creative output. Even before the final original episodes were recorded and broadcast, the six members began work on their first feature-length enterprise of new material. Rather than string together a series of silly skits, they conceived a full-length story line with references to the real and imagined worlds of the mythical King Arthur, the lives of medieval peasants, and the gloomy climate of 1970s Britain. Released in 1975, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a modest success but has since been hailed as a modern classic. In A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail:All the References from African Swallows to Zoot, Darl Larsen identifies and examines the cultural, historical, and topical allusions in the movie. In this entertaining resource, virtually every reference that appears in a scene—whether stated by a character, depicted in the mise-en-scène, or mentioned in the print companion—is identified and explained. Beyond the Arthurian legend, entries cover literary metaphors, symbols, names, peoples, and places—as well as the myriad social, cultural, and historical elements that populate the film. This book employs the film as a window to both reveal and examine “Arthurian” life and literature, the historical Middle Ages, and a Great Britain of labor unrest, power shortages, and the common man. Introducing the reader to dozens of medievalist histories and authors and connecting the film concretely to the “modern” British Empire, A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail will appeal to fans of the troupe as well as medieval scholars and academics who can laugh at themselves and their work.