The stoneworkers remain oblivious to the winds of change in the outside world--until a storyteller returns with a strange, angry woman whose death foretells the coming of metal and the end of stone.
Jim Crace Books
March 1, 1946
James Crace crafts luminous prose that explores the tension between the individual and the forces of change, often focusing on societal shifts and the impact of civilization. His distinctive style employs vivid imagery and sharp psychological insight to dissect human experience and motivation. Crace's work challenges readers to contemplate the nature of progress and its consequences, solidifying his reputation as a significant voice in contemporary literature. His narratives resonate with a profound understanding of the human condition, making his contributions essential reading.
Set in the early-19th century, this novel tells of the effects on a small kelping village, when two ships caught in storms are forced to discharge their very different cargoes onto their beaches. This novel won the 1995 Royal Society of Literature's Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize.
Harvest
- 280 pages
- 10 hours of reading
As late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders - two men and a dangerously magnetic woman - arrives on the woodland borders triggering a series of events that will see Walter Thirsk's village unmade in just seven days: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, cruel punishment meted out to the innocent, and allegations of witchcraft. But something even darker is at the heart of Walter's story, and he will be the only man left to tell it ...
Quarantine
- 256 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Man Booker Prize Nominee (1997) Two thousand years ago four travellers enter the Judean desert to fast and pray for their lost souls. In the blistering heat and barren rocks they encounter the evil merchant Musa — madman, sadist, rapist, even a Satan — who holds them in his tyrannical power. Yet there is also another, a faint figure in the distance, fasting for forty days, a Galilean who they say has the power to work miracles... Here, trapped in the wilderness, their terrifying battle for survival begins...
The author ponders the redemptive power of secular love in this novel. Their bodies had expired, but anyone looking at them could see that Joseph and Celice were still devoted, the couple seemed to have achieved a peace the world denies, a period of grace, defying even murder. They were still man and wife, quietly resting, dead but not yet departed
A novel in seven stories, Continent is an exploration of the cultures, communities and natural life of an entirely imaginary realm
The Death of Vishnu
- 329 pages
- 12 hours of reading
“Enchanting. . . . Suri’s novel achieves an eerie and memorable transcendence.”—TimeIn Manil Suri’s debut novel, Vishnu, the odd-job man, lies dying on the staircase of an apartment building while around him unfold the lives of its inhabitants: warring housewives, lovesick teenagers, a grieving widower. In a fevered state, Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmini and wonders if he might actually be the god Vishnu, guardian of the entire universe.
From the twice Booker-shortlisted author of &i;>Harvest &/i>and &i;>Quarantine&/i>, a spellbinding fable about love, fear and where authority lies.
Six
- 224 pages
- 8 hours of reading
