Mario Biondi Books

These richly hypnotic tales enfold the reader into Isaac Bashevis Singer's special world of imps, demons, lovers, and other mischievous creatures. His world is a world of feelings, driven by lust, lechery, greed, madness, and love. All of his creatures are seen with a clear but loving eye; all seem and are in fact possessed by good and evil, caught in fascinating dilemmas, now terrible, now wryly comic. Here is a dazzling new collection of stories from the fertile genius of Isaac Bashevis Singer, one of today's most entertaining and original writers. (from back cover)

È un giorno di ottobre del 1882 e Josef Breuer, psichiatra geniale e medico personale di artisti e filosofi a Vienna, si trova al Caffè Sorrento con Lou Salomé, una giovane donna di straordinaria bellezza. Lou lo ha convocato per una questione urgente che coinvolge il futuro della filosofia tedesca. Preoccupata per la vita del suo amico Friedrich Nietzsche, lo descrive come un pensatore in profonda prostrazione, afflitto da sintomi gravi: emicrania, cecità parziale, nausea, insonnia, febbri e anoressia, che lo portano a usare morfina in dosi pericolose. Breuer, stimato medico e futuro padre della psicanalisi, è oppresso dai legami della vita borghese e turbato dalla sua paziente Bertha. Attraverso Lou, apprende della disperazione di Nietzsche, che diventerà il suo illustre paziente. Breuer sottoporrà il filosofo alle sue cure, convinto che la guarigione del corpo passi attraverso quella dell’anima. Durante le sedute, si instaurerà un dialogo profondo e coinvolgente, in cui Breuer cercherà di scoprire le radici del male oscuro di Nietzsche e indurlo ad aprirsi.

1954, Stati Uniti: San Pedro è un'isola di rara bellezza, ma così sperduta che nessuno dei suoi abitanti può permettersi di avere nemici. Quando però un pescatore muore in circostanze sospette e un membro della locale comunità giapponese viene accusato di omicidio, il precario equilibrio del microcosmo si dissolve sotto la bufera dei pregiudizi, delle differenze culturali ed etniche, dei rancori sedimentati nel corso degli anni.

"Sean Courtney was raised in cattle country, and accidently maimed his twin brother Garry as a boy. In inflicting weakness, Sean came to despise weakness in all. This, plus his own strength, was to dictate Sean's iron resolve to win, no matter how much the gamble cost. After a stint fighting the Zulu tribes, Sean trys his luck in the gold fields. Venturing an impossible claim which miraculously proves out, Sean gains wealth beyond counting and power. Power that was unmanageable without cunning. But cunning was an art he was to learn the hard way."

Italian

In 1860 Robyn Ballantyne and her brother return to Africa to search for their missing father and face the terrors of near certain death and the uncertainties of love in the heart of the Dark Continent

In 1954 a fisherman is found dead in the nets of his boat, and a local Japanese-American man is charged with his murder. In the course of his trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than one man's guilt. For on San Piedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries - memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and a Japanese girl; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbours watched.

High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerilla band operating behind the lines of Franco's army prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent from the Republic to handle the dynamiting. In the mountains he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war - and he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco's rebels...

Lloyd from Leith has a transfiguring passion for the unhappily married Heather. Together they explore the true nature of house music and chemical romance. Will their ardour fizzle and die or will it ignite and blaze like a thousand suns? Ecstasy follows them and others through the backstreets of Edinburgh, stifling suburban sitting rooms and the bright lights of London. Exhilarating and dazzling, this is Welsh at his very best.