Historical Magical Realism

Set in the early 1950s, this latest novel from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Gayl Jones follows the witty but perplexing army veteran Buddy Ray Guy as he embodies the fate of Black soldiers who return, not in glory, but into their Jim Crow communities. A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he’s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he is a true self-educated intellectual and a classic seeker: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.

Renowned healer Lisbeth Vos concocts a cunning revenge against her childhood friend Hannah Brouwer for a wrong committed decades ago. The audacious scheme requires a marriage between Lisbeth's granddaughter and Hannah's widowed son. Desperate for her grandmother's attention and approval, Mila agrees to wed a man she doesn't know.

Inspired by the life of legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, Mauricio Segura’s Oscar evokes periods across time, from the Depression-era Montreal neighbourhood of Little Burgundy to the swinging cabarets of the 1950s, while offering a reflection on the bonds between an artist and the Caribbean diaspora from which he comes. But above all, Oscar is a poignant homage to a musical giant, a man who changed the face of jazz forever.

The late Nobelist's masterpiece takes a candid look into the lives of Holocaust survivors during the late 40s. Set in New York City, Shadow on the Hudson, Volume 4, the fourth in a four volume audiobook series, draws us into the intertwined lives of circle prosperous Jewish refugees. At the center is Boris Makaver, a pious and wealthy businessman. His greatest trial is his daughter, Anna.

The late Nobelist's masterpiece takes a candid look into the lives of Holocaust survivors during the late 40s. Set in New York City, Shadows on the Hudson, Volume 1, the first in a four volume audiobook series, draws us into the intertwined lives of a circles of prosperous Jewish refugees.

At the dawn of the 20th century, a young Lebanese adventurer leaves the Levant to explore the wilds of Africa, encountering an eccentric English colonel in Sudan and enlisting in his service. In this lush chronicle of far-flung adventure, the military recruit crosses paths with a compatriot who has dismantled a sumptuous palace in Tripoli and is transporting it across the continent on a camel caravan.

The late Nobelist's masterpiece takes a candid look into the lives of Holocaust survivors during the late 40s. Set in New York City, Shadows on the Hudson, Volume 2, the second in a four volume audiobook series, draws us into the intertwined lives of a circle of prosperous Jewish refugees.

Through the long years of the Great Depression, Harper Flute watches with a child's clear eyes her family's struggle to survive in a hot and impoverished landscape. As life on the surface grows harsher, her brother Tin escapes ever deeper into a subterranean world of darkness and troubling secrets, until his memory becomes a myth barely whispered around the countryside.

In 1954, the small Florida Panhandle town of Torreya had more Klansmen per acre than fire ants. Sparrow, a bag lady; Pollyanna, an auditor; and Jack, the owner of Slade’s Diner, step on fire ants and Klansmen whenever they can while an unknown archer fires fate-changing arrows at the Klan’s leadership. They are not who they appear to be, and while they take risks, they must be discrete lest they end up in the Klan’s gunsights.

It is the late 1800s, and a shameful time in American history. The US Government has mandated native tribes send their young people to Indian schools where they are stripped of their native heritage by people they think of as The Others. Otter and Sun Song are betrothed to be married when they turn 18. But when they are sent east to school, Otter, renamed Gideon, tries to adapt, while Sun Song does not, resulting in brutal attacks from the school headmaster. Gideon turns for comfort to Wendy Thatcher, the daughter of a wealthy school patron.

James-Cyrus Hoffmann has just inherited his grandfather's farm, and with it a mysterious cabin deep in the woods on Hoffmann mountain, a cabin he has dreamed about since childhood. When James-Cyrus enters the cabin, he is vaulted back through time to the Civil War era, where he meets Elizabeth, the brave young woman who lives there, and Malachi, a runaway slave.

Esta novela muestra la desilusion de un joven idealista cuando todo lo que creia acaba siendo destruido. La ironia es que cuando entra a un convento de cartujo, en busca de paz, ni siquiera alli la logra. Es una obra de gran belleza, con una vision lírica del mundo.

Elizabeth Killington, recently widowed at age 27, flies to England to claim her late husband, Lord Horace Killington’s estate. She finds she not only owns a grand manor house in the country, but also the “crowds of people” who made Lord Killington avoid home for many years. As she meets and recognizes characters from her favorites books, and some she never heard of, she learns a wonderful secret from her lady’s maid, Bridget. Is it possible that all stories can have a happy-ever-after ending?

In late 19th-century British India, the Swordsman is called to duty. His mission: battle a deadly and cunning enemy. At stake are India’s cultural heritage and the fight for its independence. Against the backdrop of the third-highest mountain in the world, Kanchenjunga, The Early Years chronicles the transformative journey of a sheltered boy of unknown origin becoming the formidable Swordsman who wields his sword against General Dier, a mass murderer. Follow the epic journey as the Swordsman and a nation are put to the ultimate test and pushed to their breaking point.

As a child, have you ever been told to behave or else you'd be sold to the gypsies? Elophia was adopted by a Romani caravan for the price of five pieces of gold and a bushel of apple, raised to perform in exchange for food and lodging. The reason for her adoption is a dark one: If she could gaze into another person's reflection, even for an instant, she is granted a vision of their death. Unable to control this power, she tries to hide it the best she can, always in fear of the next accident.

Figures in Blue is the story of Esteban Espiritu, a young Spanish artist who is commissioned to paint the portrait of Kristena von Lichtenberg, an elderly Baroness living in a deteriorating mansion that overlooks a provincial German village. However, Esteban uncovers a local mystery regarding the disappearance of her brutish husband, the Baron. The novelette is set in the beginning of the twentieth century and references classical mythology.

Jean is the young wife of an American businessman searching for oil near the Persian Gulf in 1952. In the bustle of the market and the dark eyes of her husband’s colleague, Jean is searching for something else: a life far from the one she knows. Then, after one wrong step in a desert gully, Jean finds herself trapped in a cave-in - and she’s not alone. When a legend comes to life and offers a path forward into the unknown, for Jean there is no going back.

Dali-like melting clocks and plans to build a statue and gain a damehood are intermingled in a plot which explores difference, persistence, and diversity. It has a humorous tone whilst touching on serious subjects. It is enhanced with vivid sound effects.

The Swaggie on the Hill tells the story of a young girl who is puzzled by the adult life around her. This comes to a head when she and her classmates at a small primary school are shut in the school house by their teachers while a threatening man looms in the school grounds, causing simultaneous nose bleeds in two of the boys. And there is the matter of the witch-like woman who lives nearby. She frightens the children as they rush past her place in their billycarts. The story is set in mid 1960s Melbourne and is enhanced with sound effects.