Heleen ten Holt Pořadí knih (chronologicky)

Historický román z lékařského prostředí vypráví o tom, že nedostatek soucitu s druhým usnadňuje člověku profesionální kariéru, ale ničí jeho lidství.

From the author of "The Enchantment of Lily Dahl" comes a powerful and heartbreaking novel that chronicles the epic story of two families, two sons, and two marriages.

Astrid je jediným dítětem svobodné matky Ingrid, vynikající, avšak velmi zvláštní básnířky, která využívá své krásy k tomu, aby manipulovala s muži. Astrid matku uctívá stejně jako jejich společný život plný tajemství a rituálů. Není jí ovšem dopřáno se z něho dlouho těšit poté, co se její matka šílená žalem a vztekem, že ji jeden z milenců opustil, odhodlá k vraždě a je odsouzena na doživotí. Od této nešťastné události se odvíjí nezapomenutelný příběh o Astridině putování po pěstounských domovech a o hledání vlastní identity v složitých podmínkách. Každá nová rodina tvoří samostatný svět se svými přísně stanovenými zákony, z nichž Astrid čerpá ponaučení do budoucnosti. Samotě i občasné bídě čelí s odhodláním a humorem a postupně se učí zvládat svou roli opuštěného dítěte v okolním lhostejném světě. Tvrdošíjnost a nezkrotnost na jedné straně, na druhé však vřelost a smysl pro humor tvoří z Astrid jednu z nezapomenutelných hrdinek současné literatury. Bílý oleandr je vynikajícím románem o vztazích mezi matkou a dcerou, o rodící se sexualitě, spásné moci umění a utváření silné osobnosti. Autorka se tímto svým podmanivým debutem zařadila po bok nejnadějnějších spisovatelů dneška.

Autorka známá českým čtenářům zatím spíše jako pronikavá esejistka a kritička rozehrává na širokém plátně své historické romance osudové drama Williama Hamiltona, jeho ženy Emmy a admirála Nelsona na barvitě zachyceném pozadí Neapole závěru 18. století. Příběh citově chladného aristokrata a diplomata, vášnivého sběratele umění a amatérského přírodovědce, jeho mladé druhé ženy a jejího ambiciózního a krutosti se nestranícího milence nezapře autorčino bohaté myšlenkové zázemí, zcela jistě však zaujme svou nápaditostí, plastičností, smyslem pro humor a ironii i nezapomenutelným panoptikem barvitě vykreslených postav.

Edward gives his ingenuous friend, Mark, a drugged sandwich, a prank which ends tragically. Edward's subsequent guilt, self-hatred, and crisis of conscience are the focal point of the story.

The Longman Fiction series consists of simplified works of fiction and covers a wide range of language levels from lower intermediate to advanced. Each book contains an introduction with background information on both the story and original author. This text is lower intermediate level.

How else can you defend yourself against losing your hi-fi equipment, your tv set and computer, your watch and rings a house gun, like a house cat; that is a fact of ordinary life in many cities of the world as we come to the end of the twentieth century, especially in south africa at this time the successful, respected executive director of an insurance company, harold, and his doctor wife, claudia, for whom violence could never be a means of solving personal conflict, are faced with something that could never happen to their son has committed murder what kind of loyalty do a mother and a father owe a son who has committed this unimaginable horror what have they done, in influencing his character; more ominously, where is it they have failed him the house gun is a passionate narrative of love being particularly complex between parents and their children it moves with the restless pace of living itself, from the intimate to the general condition; if it is a parable of present violence, it is also an affirmation of the will to human reconciliation that starts where it must, between individuals

Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives – until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts. With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

Vier Chinese vrouwen in San Francisco vertellen elkaar over hun jeugd in China.

Toby Hood, a young Englishman, shuns the politics and the causes his liberal parents passionately support. Living in Johannesburg as a representative of his family's publishing company, Toby moves easily, carelessly, between the complacent wealthy white suburbs and the seething, vibrantly alive black townships. His friends include a wide variety of people, from mining directors to black journalists and musicians, and Toby's colonial-style weekends are often interspersed with clandestine evenings spent in black shanty towns. Toby's friendship with Steven Sithole, a dashing, embittered young African, touches him in ways he never thought possible, and when Steven's own sense of independence from the rules of society leads to tragedy, Toby's life is changed forever.

In an extraordinary period immediately before the first non-racial election and the beginning of majority rule in South Africa, Vera Stark, the protagonist of Nadine Gordimer's passionate novel, weaves a ruthless interpretation of her own past into her participation into the present as a lawyer representing blacks in the struggle to reclaim the land. None to Accompany Me is arresting and reverbant - perhaps the most powerful novel to date by one of the world's most commanding writers.

Een tienjarige weesjongen uit Edinburgh achterhaalt tijdens zijn verblijf bij zijn excentrieke oom in de Schotse Hooglanden de volledige waarheid omtrent zijn afkomst.

Román Poslední láska patří do okruhu velmi oblíbených konfrontací britského a amerického způsobu života - vzpomeňme například na Hostující profesory od Davida Lodge. Také tento román se odehrává v akademickém prostředí a jejími protagonisty jsou universitní učitelé. V milostném příběhu stárnoucí neprovdané americké profesorky, která se na studijním pobytu v Londýně zamiluje do amerického „prosťáčka”, a v paralelně se odvíjející milostné historii jejího mladšího kolegy, jenž propadne kouzlu náladové anglické herečky, provádí Alison Lurie důkladné srovnání dvou anglosaských kultur a zároveň ještě důkladnější exkurszi do „hlubin” lidských duší, jež - nazírány z mnoha úhlů a rozmanitých pohledů - postupně odkrývají svou složitost a křehkost....

At an imaginary English spa, Professor Rozanov settles down to write his great book and his former student, George McCaffrey, decides their teacher-pupil relationship is a life-long one

There were six of them. Professional men and their waiter. They gather at the Milano Restaurant once a month for good food and good conversation. But lately the Black Widowers have added a new entertainment to their meetings. They have begun to solve mysteries, murders, and conspiracies of seemingly impossible dimensions -- book cover

The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events -- the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague and the Fire of London -- Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. As well as recording public and historical events, Pepys paints a vivid picture of his personal life, from his socializing and amorous entanglements, to his theatre-going and his work at the Navy Board. Unequaled for its frankness, high spirits and sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece and a marvelous portrait of seventeenth-century life.Previously published as The Shorter Pepys, this edition is edited and abridged by Robert Latham, Fellow and Pepys Librarian at Magdalene College, Cambridge.