Bernard Cohen Knihy

Když v srpnu 1939 Hitlerova vojska přepadla bez varování Polsko, život mladého, talentovaného a úspěšného pianisty židovského původu Władysława Szpilmana se změnil k nepoznání: ztratil práci, rodinu i přátele, přežil strádání ve varšavském ghettu i mnohaměsíční ukrývání v bytech svých varšavských přátel a nakonec i varšavské povstání a totální destrukci města. Hned po ukončení války vylíčil Szpilman své zážitky v knize, nazvané původně Smrt města (1946), která však byla vinou polských stalinistů brzy stažena z oběhu a teprve po více než 50 letech vyšla znovu pod názvem Pianista. Pro mnoho lidí, zejména v Německu, se kniha stala senzací tím, co k ní bylo přidáno: poprvé publikovaný deník důstojníka wehrmachtu Wilma Hosenfelda, bez něhož by byl Władysław Szpilman nepřežil poslední týdny a dny války. Podle Szpilmanovy knihy natočil stejnojmenný film slavný americký režisér polského původu Roman Polański: jeho Pianista získal v roce 2002 Zlatou palmu na filmovém festivalu v Cannes a byl odměněn dvěma Oskary.... celý text

Vtipný a hubatý, půvabně upřímný pseudomemoár židovského spisovatele Barneyho Panofského, který za svého života vypil moře whisky, miloval nesprávnou ženu, znal se s kdekým a zapletl se do kriminálního případu, jehož vinou se málem dostal na doživotí za mříže. V roce 2010 vznikl na motivy románu film s Paulem Giamattim v hlavní roli a s Dustinem Hoffmanem v roli vedlejší.

Manhattan, Thanksgiving Eve, 1945. The war was over, and Eric Smythe's party was in full swing. All his clever Greenwich Village friends were there. So too was his sister Sara -- an independent, canny young woman, starting to make her way in the big city. And then in walked a gatecrasher, Jack Malone -- a U. S. Army journalist just back from a defeated Germany, and a man whose world-view did not tally with that of Eric and his friends. Set amidst the dynamic optimism of postwar New York and the subsequent nightmare of the McCarthy witch-hunts,The Pursuit of Happinessis a great tragic love story; a tale of divided loyalties, decisive moral choices, and the random workings of destiny.

Travel writer Thomas Nesbitt, age 50, retreats into his house in Maine to wallow in memories of living in Germany 25 years earlier after the success of his first book. In West Berlin as a worker for Radio Liberty, Thomas meets his soul mate, Petra Dussmann, a translator with an iron curtain around her heart. Petra's mysterious melancholy proves irresistible, and as Thomas is drawn into a passionate affair, he also becomes entangled in spy games played by the Stasi and the CIA.

On the night of her thirteenth birthday, Jane Howard made a vow to her warring parents she would never get married and she would never have children. But life, as Jane comes to discover, is a profoundly random business. Many years and many lives later

'Ring Magic Is Different From The Magic Of The Theatre, Because The Curtain Never Comes Down - Because The Blood In The Ring Is Real Blood, And The Broken Noses And The Broken Hearts Are Real, And Sometimes They Are Broken Forever. Boxing Is The Magic Of Men In Combat, The Magic Of Will, And Skill, And Pain, And The Risking Of Everything So You Can Respect Yourself For The Rest Of Your Life.'The Hermetic World Of Boxing Is Notoriously Difficult For Outsiders To Understand, Though It Has Provided A Source Of Fascination To Numerous Writers, Including Norman Mailer, A. J. Liebling, Joyce Carol Oates And Ernest Hemingway. F. X. Toole Is A Dazzling New Writer With A Fresh And Original Voice, Who Has Been A Boxing Professional For Over Twenty-Five Years. Rope Burns, A Collection Of Short Stories And A Novella, Is Written From This Unique Perspective.

Osmiletý chlapec Hanibal musí společně s ostatními členy movité rodiny opustit pohodlné sídlo v Litvě a prchnout před postupujícím Hitlerovým vojskem do lesů. Dlouhé měsíce se pak skrývají v lovecké chatě. Při pádu sestřeleného bombardéru zahynou všichni až na Hannibala a jeho sestřičku Míšu. Je nesmírná zima a k dovršení neštěstí přitáhne do jejich chaty tlupa banditů zběhlých z německé armády. Hrůzy, které následují, obrátí Hannibalův život naruby.

L'actualité politique récente des États-Unis ne cesse de rappeler le poids considérable que joue la religion - en particulier, les fondamentalistes chrétiens - dans la vie publique de ce pays. Douglas Kennedy avait pressenti cette évolution. Poussé par le désir de comprendre, il est alors parti à la découverte des Etats du sud du pays - connus sous le nom de « Ceinture de la Bible » -, et de leurs habitants, ces hommes et ces femmes animés d'une foi inébranlable. Un ancien mafieux, de jeunes rockers, un prêtre faiseur de miracles, une femme d'affaires impitoyable sont quelques-uns des personnages insolites qu'il a rencontrés et qui composent sous sa plume incisive une galerie de portraits aussi fascinante qu'inquiétante.

Is it ever too late to find the life you always wanted? A modern day Brief Encounter or The Bridges of Madison County, this is a novel which poses the ultimate romantic dilemma, from the bestselling author of The Pursuit of Happiness, A Special Relationship, and The Moment. Is it ever too late to have the life you wanted? Or do we owe it to ourselves to pursue the promise of happiness? For twenty years, Laura has been a good wife and mother. She's supported her husband through redundancy, she's worried about her son, she's encouraged her daughter. She has been constant, caring and selfless. She's stopped thinking about her own dreams, the places she'd like to go and the books she'd like to talk about. But a chance meeting with a man in a hotel lobby - and the five days that follow - remind Laura of the young woman she used to be, and the woman she could have become. How long does it take to fall in love and leave your life behind?

When Harry Ricks arrives in Paris on a bleak January morning he is a broken man. He is running away from a failed marriage and a dark scandal that ruined his career as a film lecturer in a small American university. With no money and nowhere to live, Harry swiftly falls in with the city’s underclass, barely scraping a living while trying to finish the book he’d always dreamed of writing. A chance meeting with a mysterious woman, Margit Kadar, with whom Harry falls in love, is his only hope of a brighter future. However, Margit isn’t all she seems to be and Harry increasingly feels that a dark force is at work in his life — as punishment begins to be meted out to anyone who has recently done him wrong. Before he knows it, he finds himself of increasing interest to the police, and waking up in a nightmare from which there is no easy escape.