Traditional or cultural fiction and true stories, tales and retellings

Book SynopsisThis beautifully designed treasury gathers Hans Christian Andersen''s most beloved fairy tales in a gilt-stamped, hardcover volume, abundantly illustrated by full-color and black-and-white images by Golden Age master Harry Clarke. Offering such classics as "The Snow Queen," "The Nightingale," and "The Wild Swan," this masterful collection showcases Clarke''s peerless artistry as he highlights the mythic and uncanny qualities of Andersen''s timeless stories. This stunning book will be a welcome addition to any discerning library, private or public.

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Book SynopsisPart fable, part folklore, The Fastest Hound Dog in the State of Maine is Yankee story telling at its very best. A man needs a dog to catch long-legged rabbits, so he buys a hound with longer legs than the rabbits. It's the fastest dog he's ever seen--the fastest dog anyone has ever seen. The dog is so fast, in fact, the man takes on the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad in some friendly competition. Hilarity ensues.Based on Maine folklore, and told as only John Gould can tell it, this story rightfully belongs to the times before television, before radio, when folks sat and talked and told stories. Yet it is a story for all times with its humor--warm as a Maine hearth--and distinct Yankee voice.

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Book SynopsisMurdered contortionists aren’t exactly what Vivienne signed up for when she ran away to join the circus. But like most things under the big top, nothing is what it seems. With a past she can’t quite remember, Vivienne finds that running away forever might not be as appealing as it once sounded — because forever means something quite different at the Cirque des Immortels. Aided by her friends Kingston — a feisty stage magician whose magic is quickly stealing her heart — and his sarcastic assistant Melody, Vivienne finds herself racing against the clock to discover the culprit behind a series of deaths that should be impossible. However, the answer she seeks might reveal more about her own bloody past — and future — than she bargains for. The show’s just beginning. Step right up...

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Book SynopsisVoices Out of Africa in Twentieth-Century Spanish Caribbean Literature is a compelling exploration of how authors of the Spanish Caribbean (Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico) have incorporated the cultural legacy of Africa into their narrative fictions. This richly articulated study decodes and explores hidden layers of African-derived myths and symbolisms found in many of the major Spanish Caribbean works of prose fiction. Julia Hewitt ranges from the Afro-Cuban short stories of Lydia Cabrera and the historical novels of Alejo Carpentier, to the representation of the figure of the runaway slave—a foundational archetype of the Spanish Caribbean since the sixteenth century—to the contemporary salsa music-inspired narratives of the Puerto Ricans Edgardo Rodríguize Juliá, Luis Rafael Sánchez, and Ana Lydia Vega, and the provocative narratives of the contemporary Cuban writer, Zoé Valdés. Voices Out of Africa is an erudite, yet accessible and exhilarating, account of the multiple layers of the region's cultural expressions. In its scope, it does justice to the wealth and complexity of Caribbean culture; at the same time, it is a work of scholarship and theory that offers a near-encyclopedic perspective on Spanish Caribbean culture. Voices Out of Africa is the sort of book to which scholars and interested laypersons can return again and again to rummage through its pages in search of insights into Afro-Caribbean symbolism, myths, and cultural practices.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines how modern French fiction writers have appropriated the ogre figure in order to evoke violence in all its voracity, as well as destructive time, which eats away the moments of our lives as the prototypical ogre of Western literature, Cronus, who devoured his own children. The ogre is a ubiquitous figure that appears not only in mythology and literature but also in real life. For French authors haunted by the horrors of World War II, it symbolizes the abominations of the Nazis and their French collaborators, whose memory has been rekindled in recent years, initiating a national malaise that historians have come to call the Vichy Syndrome. For other writers, the ogre is the sexual deviate who preys upon the innocent. This ogre too has roots in recent history: it began to appear in the 1970s, coinciding with the rise of French feminism, when violence towards women and children finally began to be openly confronted.

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Book SynopsisBeginning with a critical reappraisal of the notion of “fairy tale” and extending it to include categories and genres which are in common usage in folklore and in literary studies, this book throws light on the general processes involved in storytelling. It illuminates the fundamental ways in which a culture is formed, while highlighting important features of the Irish narrative tradition, in all its wealth and variety and in its connections with the mythical and historical events of Ireland. The Irish Fairy Tale argues that the fairy tale is a kind of “neutral zone,” a place of transition as well as a meeting place for popular beliefs and individual creativity, oral tradition and literary works, historical sources and imaginary reconstructions, and for contrasting and converging views of the world, which altogether allow for a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of reality. The book focuses on stories by Yeats and Stephens, whose approach to the subject marks the culmination of a long tradition of attempts at linking past and present and of bridging the gap between what appear to be contradictory facets of a single culture. This leads to a comparative study of Joyce’s Dubliners, which illustrates the universal and exemplary nature of the notion of fairy tale put forward in the work.Trade ReviewCarrassi (University of Bari, Italy) contributes to the ever-burgeoning field of fairy tale studies with a densely packed volume that reveals various influences, including narratology, structuralism, archetypal criticism, and Catholicism. His focus is the fairy tale in Ireland from the Celtic period through the Irish Revival to James Joyce. But Carrassi's goal is to go beyond the regional and interrogate and then redefine the fairy tale genre itself. His aim, he writes, ‘is to analyze the relationships that, in a determined space-time context, have been created between two opposed ambits of the narrative tradition ... the oral and popular components and the written and cultured.’ Relying heavily on the foundational works of the field (by, for example, Max Lüthi, Vladimir Propp, Stith Thompson, and Tzvetan Todorov), Carrassi shuns more recent approaches, such as feminist and Marxist analyses. Focusing on what he terms the ‘narrative patrimony’ of Ireland and the ‘congenital narrativity’ of the Irish people, he hypothesizes about the process of composition, the meta-narrativity, and the meanings of the traditional tales. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsCONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Narrativity, between Orality and Writing 2.The Fairy tale: Reformulation of a Concept Notes Chapter 1. A Celtic Legacy and Christian Syncretism 1. A Methodological Introduction 2. The Celtic Heredity 3. The Christian Appropriation of Celtic Tradition Notes Chapter 2. The Precursors of Yeats in the Recuperation of the Narrative Tradition 1. The Royal Hibernian Tales 2. Thomas Crofton Croker and His Followers 3. Patrick Kennedy 4. Letitia McClintock, Lady Wilde, Douglas Hyde 5. The Literary Reception of the Written Gaelic Tradition Notes Chapter 3. A Rebirth in the Light of the Tradition 1. The National Question and Literary Rebirth 2. Yeats, the Inspiration of the Irish Revival 3. The Distinguishing Characteristics of Yeats’ Collections 4. The Fairy Tale according to Stephens Notes, Chapter 4. The Fairy Tale between fabula and historia 1. The Space-Time Coordinates of the Fairy Tale 2. The Dynamic Established by the Fairy Tale Notes Chapter 5. The Process of Composition of the Fairy Tale 1. The Triangle Composed of Etain, Midir and Eochaid and the Origin of the Fairy Tale 2. An Analysis of the Priomscel and the Structure of the Fairy Tale 3. Classification of the Functions and Characterization of the Fairy Tale Notes Chapter 6. Plurality and Metanarrative in the Fairy Tale 1. Substructure and Metastructure 2. Deep Structure and Surface Structure 3. The Narrativity Produced by the Fairy Tale Notes Chapter 7. The Significance of the Fairy Tale in the Historical and Cultural Context 1. An Indicative Metaphor 2. The Epiphanic and Pragmatic Components of the Fairy Tale 3. The Dialectic between Signifier and Signified Notes Chapter 8. Between the Fairy Tale and Tale 1. The Five Phases of the Fairy Tale 2. The Fairy Tale and the Pseudo-Fairy Tale 3. The Joycian Tale in the Light of the Fairy Tale Notes Chapter 9. Narrative Construction and Re-Construction of the World 1. Paradigm and Syntagma, Fabula and Plot 2. An Essential Dialectic Notes Chapter 10. Beyond Ireland: a General Perspective 1. Narrativity as a Quest for Meaning 2. A Model of Universal Significance Notes Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIT BEGINS WITH THE SOUND OF A VOICE . . .Derek Nilsson is an elite programmer toiling away at BitJockey.com while he spends all of his available time in pursuit of an enigmatic and possibly world-altering trove of data that has disappeared off the grid. When a message comes through his computer claiming to have all of the answers Derek seeks, he has no choice but to go where the voice leads him.Where it leads him is far beyond the comforts of his console. To a world of ancient goddesses and ageless mysteries he was never aware of. To an encounter with a past that Derek believed was long gone. To a woman who engages his mind and spirit in unprecedented ways. And to a spirit that motivates him, seduces him, and puts everything that matters to him at risk. This spirit that might literally lead him to move mountains if it doesn''t kill him first.. . . IT ENDS WITH THE SOUND OF THE WORLD CHANGING.Soundrise is a heady blend of awesome technology, dazzling fantasy, gripping adventure, and poignant human interaction. At once epic and deeply personal, it is a sound like no other.

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Book SynopsisThe winter holiday means a hundred things in a hundred different lands. But no matter where you travel, winter is a time for storytelling. Raven Wakes the World presents a very different winter holiday tale sure to touch the heart, bringing together an ancient Inuit legend and a haunting romance. Katie Mason is an artist wounded in the soul, a creator who''s forgotten how to create and how to love. She has come all the way to Alaska to make art and to heal from a broken relationship. But she hasn''t been able to do either. At least not until a dark-eyed stranger enters her life. His stories fuel her imagination and her passions. But his secrets may do something far more transformative.Christmas is a season of gifts and miracles, of love and healing and the joy of homecoming. This mythic holiday gift will awaken the wonder of the season in you and make you think of winter in entirely new ways.

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Book SynopsisAfter a car accident claims his older brother''s life, Mark Murphy''s world is turned upside down. The silence of their shared bedroom, the memories of Mitch''s guidance, and his mother''s drunken spiral are constant reminders of the cost of his absence. But Mark isn''t ready to grieve. He isn''t ready to accept that his brother is truly gone. Despite the insistence of the adults in his life that he accept Mitch''s death, Mark is undeterred. They don''t know what he knows. They don''t know the story of the Witch on Spook Hill.Aided by his loyal band of misfit friends, Mark''s plan to carry Mitch''s ashes to the witch is complicated by the pursuit of the town sheriff and the cousin responsible for his brother''s death. With no time to regroup, Mark and his friends must navigate the dangerous path to Spook Hill before the sun sets, so that Mitch can be resurrected in exchange for the life of the one who took it.

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Book SynopsisIT BEGINS WITH THE SOUND OF A VOICE . . .Derek Nilsson is an elite programmer toiling away at BitJockey.com while he spends all of his available time in pursuit of an enigmatic and possibly world-altering trove of data that has disappeared off the grid. When a message comes through his computer claiming to have all of the answers Derek seeks, he has no choice but to go where the voice leads him.Where it leads him is far beyond the comforts of his console. To a world of ancient goddesses and ageless mysteries he was never aware of. To an encounter with a past that Derek believed was long gone. To a woman who engages his mind and spirit in unprecedented ways. And to a spirit that motivates him, seduces him, and puts everything that matters to him at risk. This spirit that might literally lead him to move mountains if it doesn''t kill him first.. . . IT ENDS WITH THE SOUND OF THE WORLD CHANGING.Soundrise is a heady blend of awesome technology, dazzling fantasy, gripping adventure, and poignant human interaction. At once epic and deeply personal, it is a sound like no other.

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Book SynopsisThe winter holiday season is a time for gifts and music, for snow and miracles, and for family and going home. For Jessie Malone, it''s a time for sorrow.Jessie is a graduate student living in London, where she hopes to be one of the first folklorists ever to trace an urban legend back to its original source. She''s also a grieving young widow unable to heal from the agony of her life-shattering loss. In the bleak midwinter, Jessie learns of an urban legend about a lonely, wandering ghost, a British sailor named Sam who promised his bride that he''d be home for Christmas. The legends say he''s been trying to make it back to her since World War II.As she investigates, Jessie learns that Sam''s story defies the patterns of how urban legends are supposed to work. It''s a puzzle she can''t let go. To solve the mystery, she must confront the impossible and, just perhaps, discover a miracle of Christmas love that survives beyond the grave.A story that will engage all your emotions, Christmas Past bursts with wonder, enigma, romance, and the unquenchable spirit that comes from promises that must be kept.

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Book SynopsisChristmas is a season of secrets and miracles. It''s also a season of mystery.Throughout their married lives, baseball star Gaspar Bethlen''s wife gave him a lovingly crafted mystery every year for Christmas. Solving the clues led him to his present, but the mysteries themselves were the true gift. Now, Beth has died, leaving Gasper a wreck of a man. But Beth left behind a clue, the beginning of one final Christmas mystery, and it''s much more than either of them expected. The heartbroken man follows a coded message that leads him to an antiquarian bookstore, where he receives an old bookthe next clue. Soon, Gaspar is caught up in a globetrotting adventure. Facing one danger and desperate escape after another, he races to unravel a puzzle involving a priceless jewel, ancient star maps, a noble bloodline, and an astonishing secret that dates all the way back to the very first Christmas.The Star in the East is a winter tale of ancient mystery, of secrets and puzzles, and of breathtaking action and adventure. It''s also a heart-shattering story of faith, love, and healing the true Christmas miracle.

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Book Synopsis"This masterful translation of one of the most popular books of world literature makes available to an English readership the animal tales known collectively as Kalila and Dimna. Named after the two jackals of Pancatantra fame, this collection of stories is based on a 12th-century Persian translation of an 8th-century original Arabic rendition by Ibn al-Muqaffa‘. Set within a frame narrative of counsels given to the Raja of India by his Brahmin minister, the engaging tales about cats and mice, storks and crabs, tortoises and geese, owls and crows, and princes and ascetics, function as cautionary illustrations of human predicaments and all-too-human vices and virtues. Far from being a collection of children’s fables, Kalila and Dimna is a Machiavellian mirror for princes containing advice on how to preserve oneself from one’s enemies and get ahead at court and in life. The dialogues that constitute the bulk of the narrative harbor a dramatic immediacy, exerting a powerful effect even on a modern-day reader." —Maria Subtelny, University of TorontoTrade Review"Kalila and Dimna is an important work of world literature that pertains to several areas of intellectual inquiry: the history of literary translation, cultural exchange, animals and allegory, and mirrors for princes. Thackston’s translation of this classical Persian text is elegant and idiomatic, and the multiple prefaces are useful in tracking the movement of this work across cultures. This is a book that can be enjoyed by students, scholars, and general readers alike." —Sunil Sharma, Boston University

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Book SynopsisThe magical land of Xanth is in peril in this follow-up to Board Stiff by New York Times–bestselling author Piers Anthony. “It occurs to me that you folk are no ordinary group,” the troll said. “We're on a special mission to eliminate the last of the anti-pun virus. We are a bit unusual.” Astrid Basilisk-Cockatrice is the daughter of anonymous parents who whiled away a dull minute by generating her on a warm compost pile, then went their own deadly ways, never to see her or each other again. She found herself a soul, but her gaze is fatal and her touch is toxic. That’s not so strange in the Land of Xanth, where everyone has a unique magical talent, and charms, curses, and enchanted puzzles lie around every corner. Now, Astrid and her companions are finishing the cleanup of a virus that ravaged the puns of Xanth, and new Quests are already popping up. For instance, Astrid is attempting to fulfill her mission in life, if only she can figure out what that is. And then there’s the missing Question from the Good Magician’s Book of Answers. Not to mention the small matter of a Demon Wager regarding the impending destruction of Xanth. But it’s nothing Astrid and her motley crew of lovely maidens and strapping men can’t handle . . . they hope. Piers Anthony delivers another tale set in the bestselling world of Xanth, filled with magic, surprises, adventure, and a few puns. Here’s what the author has to say about his new book: “Five Portraits is a kind of sequel to Board Stiff in that it picks up where the other leaves off, with the same characters. Apart from that, it’s one of my favorites within the series. There’s something about Astrid Basilisk that appeals to me: a very pretty girl whose very glance is deadly, yet she’s a nice person whose selfless effort to save five difficult children from future Xanth is thoroughly worthy. I also like the theme of the power of unlikely friendship. Not just Xanth, but Mundania, too, would be better if there were more such friendships.”Trade Review“Piers Anthony is one of those authors who can perform magic with the ordinary. . . . [He] is a craftsman.” —A Reader’s Guide to Science Fiction

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