In Joe and Kate Keller's family garden, an apple tree - a memorial to their son Larry, lost in the Second World War - has been torn down by a storm. But his loss is not the only part of the family's past they can't put behind them.

In this enviable gathering, Haruki Murakami has chosen for his party some of the very best short story writers of recent years, each with their own birthday experiences, each story a snapshot of life on a single day. Including stories by Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Claire Keegan, Andrea Lee, Daniel Lyons, Lewis Robinson, Lynda Sexson, Paul Theroux, William Trevor and Haruki Murakami, this anthology captures a range of emotions evoked by advancing age and the passing of time, from events fondly recalled to the impact of appalling tragedy.

"A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis. Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships-at least, that's what she tells herself. Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It's how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes. So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water..."--

Meaning addresses the fundamental question of human language interaction: what it is to mean, and how we communicate our meanings to others. Experienced textbook writer and eminent researcher Betty J. Birner gives balanced coverage to semantics and pragmatics, emphasizing interactions between the two, and discusses other fields of language study such as syntax, neurology, philosophy of language, and artificial intelligence in terms of their interfaces with linguistic meaning.

Fully revamped and expanded, this second edition offers a complete introduction to the art and craft of writing poetry. Mapping out 38 foundational elements of poetry including image, line, point of view, metaphor, movement, and music, authors Amorak Huey and W. Todd Kaneko use these elements as starting points for discussion questions and writing prompts. The book guides readers through a range of poetic modes and styles such as: Elegies and Odes -- Found poems -- Aubades and Nocturnes -- Documentary and Protest poems -- Ars Poetica -- Lyric and Narrative poems -- Personas and Portraits With a focus on contemporary poems, the anthology features a truly diverse and global line-up of poets and poems to illustrate the elements and craft discussed in the book. Featuring all-new chapters on traditional poetic forms, prosody, writing poems that engage the current moment, and the value and ethics of imitation, this is the ultimate companion to studying and practicing the craft of poetry.

A poignant memoir or journey focusing on transgender experiences—identity, resilience, and society’s challenges. The subtitle "A Transgender Odyssey" emphasises a deeply personal and transformative voyage.

Cultivating motivation is crucial to a language learner's success - and therefore crucial for the language teacher and researcher to understand. The third edition of Teaching and Researching Motivation reflects the dramatic changes in the field of motivation research. With an increased emphasis on dynamic perspectives on motivation and its relations with other individual, social and contextual factors, this book offers ways in which advances in the field can be put to practical use in the classroom and in research. Key new features and material: Exploration of the motivation to learn languages other than English (LOTEs) Principles for designing L2 motivational studies Discussion of emerging areas of research, including unconscious motivation and language learning mindsets. Providing a clear and comprehensive theory-driven account of motivation, Teaching and Researching Motivation examines how theoretical insights can be used in everyday teaching practice. The final section provides a range of useful resources, including relevant websites, key reference works and an online repository of tools and instruments for researching language learning motivation. Fully revised by pre-eminent researchers in this field, Zolta´n Do¨rnyei and Ema Ushioda, this is an invaluable resource for teachers and researchers alike.

"She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London's fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby's life is about to change. But what she can't possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well--and she is on a collision course to meet them. Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone. In The Family Upstairs, the master of "bone-chilling suspense" (People) brings us the can't-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets"--

An elegant and intimate insight into the personal and practical processes of writing, Andrew Cowan's The Art of Writing Fiction draws on his experience as a prize-winning novelist and his work with emerging writers at the University of East Anglia. As illuminating for the recreational writer as for students of Creative Writing, the twelve chapters of the book correspond to the twelve weeks of a typical university syllabus, and provide guidance on mastering key aspects of fiction such as structure, character, voice, point of view and setting, as well as describing techniques for stimulating creativity and getting the most out of feedback. The new edition offers extended consideration to structure, point of view, and the organisation of time in the novel, as well as the conduct of the Creative Writing workshop in the light of the decolonising the curriculum movement. It features additional writing exercises, as well as an afterword with invaluable advice on approaching agents and publishers. The range of writers surveyed is greatly expanded, finding inspiration and practical guidance in the work of Margaret Atwood, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Richard Beard, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Richard Ford, Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Anjali Joseph, James Joyce, James Kelman, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, Sam Selvon, Vikram Seth and Ali Smith, among many others. With over 80 writing exercises and examples taken from dozens of novels and short stories, the new edition of The Art of Writing Fiction is enriched by the author's own experience as a novelist and lecturer, making it an essential guide for readers interested in the theory, teaching and practice of Creative Writing.

The first major collection of critical essays to appear since Morrison's death in mid-2019, this book contains previously unpublished essays which both acknowledge the universal significance of her writing even as they map new directions. Essayists include pre-eminent Morrison scholars, as well as scholars who work in cultural criticism, African American letters, American modernism, and women's writing. The book includes work on Morrison as a public intellectual; work which places Morrison's writing within today's currents of contemporary fiction; work which draws together Morrison's "trilogy" of Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise alongside Dos Passos' USA trilogy; work which links Morrison to such Black Atlantic artists as Lubaina Himid and others as well as work which offers a reading of "influence" that goes both directions between Morrison and Faulkner. Another cluster of essays treats seldom-discussed works by Morrison, including an essay on Morrison as writer of children's books and as speaker for children's education. In addition, a "Teaching Morrison" section is designed to help teachers and critics who teach Morrison in undergraduate classes. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Toni Morrison will be wide-ranging, provocative, and satisfying; a fitting tribute to one of the greatest American novelists.

"The first volume of The Book of Fate is an attempt to suggest another way of looking at Shakespeare's works. The following volume will critically analyze the development of Shakespearean studies in the United States and Canada. The amount of creative and research work, theatrical activity, and the spirit of experimentation offered by North America to Shakespearean studies shall remain unsurpassable for decades to come. The second volume of the The Book of Fate to See the Revolution of Time will be dedicated to the North American understanding of Shakespearean art. In volume three I plan to return to India and study the significance of Shakespeare's presence in the Middle East as well. The final volume will deal with African and Slavonic-speaking Shakespeare. By the close of the argument, I repeat what I say often, Shakespeare is make-believe. It adjusts in every culture of mankind as if he is genuinely made for it and he starts giving meaning to our own selves no matter where we are and whoever we are. Shakespeare is all of us; let's understand his texts better and let's create a world which does not resemble the world we live in today."-- Introduction.

Rin has returned to her roots, to the southern provinces and the village that is her home. Her new allies are sly, but Rin knows that true power lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess. Backed by the masses and her Southern Army, Rin will use every weapon to defeat the Dragon Republic and the colonizing Hesperians. But, as her power and influence grows, will she be able to resist the voice of the Phoenix urging her to burn the world and everything in it?" -- back cover

18M copies of Elena Ferrante's books sold worldwideThe story of one woman’s headlong descent into what she calls an “absence of sense” after being abandoned by her husband.

The war is over. The war has just begun. Three times throughout its history, Nikan has fought for its survival in the bloody Poppy Wars. Though the third battle has just ended, shaman and warrior Rin cannot forget the atrocity she committed to save her people. Now she is on the run from her guilt, the opium addiction that holds her like a vice, and the murderous commands of the fiery Phoenix--the vengeful god who has blessed Rin with her fearsome power. Though she does not want to live, she refuses to die until she avenges the traitorous Empress who betrayed Rin's homeland to its enemies. Her only hope is to join forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who plots to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new republic. But neither the Empress nor the Dragon Warlord are what they seem. The more Rin witnesses, the more she fears her love for Nikan will force her to use the Phoenix's deadly power once more. Because there is nothing Rin won't sacrifice to save her country . . . and exact her vengeance.

The Missing Prayer is the debut poetry collection by Pakistani poet and filmmaker Ammar Aziz. The book was simultaneously released in India and Pakistan, with Indian readers able to purchase it through Red River and Pakistani readers through Aks Publications.

A war orphan rises from her humble beginnings to become a powerful military commander, and perhaps her country's only hope for survival.

Yeongju is burned out. With her high-­flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. After quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop. For the first few months all Yeongju does is cry, but the long hours in the shop also give her time to mull over what makes a good bookseller and store. As she starts to read hungrily, host author events, and develop her own bookselling philosophy, she eases into her new setting. Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that connect them all, she finds her new story as the Hyunam-dong Bookshop transforms into an inviting space for lost souls to rest, heal, and remember it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

White Nights is a poignant and deeply introspective novella which tells us the story of a lonely dreamer who is in the habit of wandering the streets of St. Petersburg. One night, he encoun- ters a young woman weeping on a bridge. The dreamer is immediately drawn to her vulnerability. The young woman is drawn to him too. They meet at four consecutive nights, each night bringing them closer to a heart-wrenching climax which leaves the readers searching for meaning in a world marked by transience and uncertainty.