Popular books

Nikola

Daniel Silva - Ispovjednik

Barack Obama

Inaugura parolado de Barack Obama 20-a de januaro, 2009

Nikola

Daniel Silva - Moskovska pravila

Michael Ondaatje

Anil's Ghost

<p>Halfway into Michael Ondaatje's new novel, Anil's Ghost, there is a scene so quietly devastating that it alone makes the novel worth reading. It is the mid-1980s, and a civil war is raging on the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka. Each day, fresh corpses inundate emergency medical clinics-many of them so mutilated that they are unidentifiable and can only be classified as "disappearances." Anil Tissera, a 33-year-old forensic anthropologist born in Sri Lanka and educated abroad, returns to the island as part of a United Nations human rights campaign to prove that mass murders are taking place. In the hope of identifying the corpses, she takes the unusual step of hiring a local "face painter" named Ananda, who, with mud, soot, paint, and sheer instinct, reconstructs the ghostly visage of one suspiciously disinterred body. Anil then shows the image around the local villages, hoping that it will be recognized. This grisly mask becomes Anil's Ghost, and she raises it high to reveal to the world, and the government of Sri Lanka, that she knows what has been going on.</p><p>In addition to being his best story yet, Ondaatje's tale is a similarly brave and grisly act of reanimation: It conjures a dark period in Sri Lankan history and reveals how the atrocities directly affect the three main characters. The novel begins with Anil's arrival on the island and builds outward from there. Forty-nine-year-old archaeologist Sarath Diaysena is assigned by the Sri Lankan government to be Anil's official guide, but in spite of his expertise, he never really warms to the role. Sarath wants nothing to do with stirring up trouble. Since his wife's suicide, he has withdrawn into his work, attempting to buffer himself against the horrors being perpetrated all around him. His brother Gamini, a doctor who works in the field clinics, cannot afford the luxury of denial; the grim casualties of war are wheeled into his clinic by the hour. Unlike Sarath, he knows that one day soon he will recognize one of the victims.</p><p>When Sarath and Anil leave the city for the remote villages where Ministry of Health officials rarely, if ever, go, it becomes all but impossible for Sarath to remain uninvolved. Severed heads are staked out along the roads as a warning to anyone thinking of joining the resistance. Even the reticent Sarath admits that small guerrilla groups can hardly be the cause of such widespread brutality. Gamini, meanwhile, is so overwhelmed with triage and autopsies that he turns to his own supply of pharmaceuticals in order to stay awake. Despite the obvious signs of mass murder, Sarath begs Anil not to continue her investigation. He knows how the government will respond to an outsider who tries to exhume its dirty secrets. But Anil knows that it is this very fear that must be overcome if the murders are to be stopped. When she and Sarath find a person who can help them confirm the age of a body interred in a government-controlled cave, there is no turning back.</p><p>The remainder of the novel chronicles Anil and Sarath's quest to learn the origins of this body and its identity. Even in the last 20 pages, the novel's crucial questions remain artfully suspended: How much safety is Sarath willing to sacrifice in order to bring these atrocities to light? Will the body be recognized? Will Sarath ever open up to Anil? Will either of them back down when their snooping comes to light? Anil's Ghost is the closest Ondaatje is likely to come to writing a page-turner; many readers will likely devour it in one sitting.</p><p>But what makes this more than just a thrilling tale, and invites rereadings, is the way Ondaatje textures his characters' interior lives. And this is where we get vintage Ondaatje. Using flashbacks and brilliant set pieces, Ondaatje spreads out their histories before us like a cartographer, and through this careful mapping we feel his characters' pain and disillusionment. There is Anil's growing guilt over having left Sri Lanka before the disappearances began, and her attempt to expiate that guilt by working to bring these events to light. There is Gamini's struggle to keep hope alive after so many bodies have died in his arms. And finally, there is Sarath's judicious approach to each new atrocity, an attitude that mirrors his technique of keeping a close lid on his heart.</p><p>In Ondaatje's literary universe, it is through loving that we define ourselves, and his characters reveal their essential natures by how they do and do not love. Anil has recently run out on her boyfriend after stabbing him in the arm with a small knife. The face painter Ananda's own wife is numbered among the disappearances. When reconstructing the faces of the missing, he gives each of them a serene portrayal, in the hope that his wife, too, will find peace. Sarath's wife, who killed herself at the height of the disappearances, is a more indirect casualty. At the nexus of these three characters is Gamini. Like Anil, he is living on the edge-giving his life to the cause of helping others-but unlike Sarath, he is willing to risk his heart by trying to find true love.</p><p>In Ondaatje's previous books, his characters transcended their war-ravaged condition through sexual connection. Here, however, sex is the ground upon which the political battles raging around the characters turn personal, where people learn their fates. Ultimately, what brings home the crushing truth of the atrocities is the extent to which each character gives up on romantic love. Yet in the midst of such emotional decimation, Anil never abandons her struggle to bring the murders to light. Matters of the heart are defined by what we sacrifice. And by risking everything for truth, Anil delivers her most profound expression of love to her reclaimed country.</p><p>– John Freeman</p><

Nikola

Daniel Silva - Smrt u Becu

Patrick Obrian

Post captain

Np

Vilijam KejN i Ejba RosNovski, prvi siN BostoNskog milioNera, drugi siromašNog poljskog emigraNta – rodili su se istog daNa Na različitim straNama sveta, a njihove će se sudbiNe ukrstiti u NemilosrdNoj borbi za sticanjem bogatstva

Patrick Obrian

H.M.S. Surprise

Kim Newman

El Año de Drácula

Libros Sueltos Fantasía Oscura o Sobrenatural

En 1885, el conde Drácula, tras pasar cuatrocientos años en su castillo de Transilvania, llegó a Londres decidido a propagar la peste del vampirismo en el corazón de la Inglaterra victoriana. El monstruo fue derrotado y destruido por el doctor Van Helsing y sus valerosos compañeros y el mundo quedó a salvo de mayores horrores. Pero ¿y si Van Helsing hubiese fracasado y el plan de conquista de Drácula hubiese sido un éxito?En esta novela de terror e historia alternativa, Kim Newman reinventa con brillantez el mundo victoriano (totalmente vampirizado), mezclando personajes famosos, tanto reales como imaginarios, mientras se adentra en la niebla londinense para descubrir junto al lector al asesino de vampiros Cuchillo de Plata.<

Patrick Obrian

The Mauritius Command

Larry Niven

(La Paja 02) El Tercer Brazo

La paja en el Ojo de Dios

Patrick Obrian

Desolation island

Nepoznato

Elinor Vuds PROTERANA U LJUBAVI

Patrick Obrian

The fortune of war

Douglas Niles

(RO - Maztica 02) Erixitl De Palul

<p>Erix, la exmuchacha esclava, y Halloran, el legionario, huyen de la catastrofe que barre Maztica. El Dios de la guerra se ceba en el caos, y reclama el sacrificio de mas corazones para favorecer la suerte de los guerreros nativos en su lucha contra el invasor proveniente de los Reinos Olvidados, mientras la pareja de amantes, desesperados, intenta eludir el acoso de sus muchos enemigos.</p><p>Los miembros del culto de la Mano Viperina, los sacerdotes de Zaltec, y los Muy Ancianos necesitan acabar con la vida de Erix, porque unicamente ella, la escogida de Qotal, puede poner en peligro sus planes para la conquista del Mundo Verdadero. Pero lo que nadie sabe es que todos los seres que habitan Maztica son meras piezas de juego en una lucha que mantienen los mismos Dioses. Zaltec, Qotal, Helm y hasta la terrible diosa araña, Lloth, miden sus fuerzas sin preocuparse por las consecuencias para sus fieles en la tierra.</p><

Patrick Obrian

The surgeon's mate

Nikola

Frederick Forsyth - Osvetnik

Patrick Obrian

The Ionian mission

The Nonesuch

Georgette Heyer - The Nonesuch

Patrick Obrian

Treason's Harbour

Stand Nicholls

(Orcos. Primera Sangre 03) Guerreros de la tempestad

Orcos. Primera sangre

<p>Tras los caóticos eventos del libro anterior (La Legión del Trueno), la banda de guerra de los Hurones se encamina en busca de la última estrella con nuevos y sorprendentes aliados.</p><p>En esta ocasión se verán enfrentados en un asedio y una batalla en toda regla en la guerra religiosa entre Unis y Multis. ¿Conseguirán la última estrella? ¿Qué pasará si las juntan todas? ¿Quién es el enigmático humano Seraphim?</p><

Patrick Obrian

The far side of the world

No Name

Herbert Frenk

Patrick Obrian

THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL

Aubrey and Maturin

The eleventh installment in Patrick O'Brian's excellent series of naval adventures finds Aubrey and Maturin back in Britain as their journey to the Pacific, begun in the previous book, comes to a conclusion. Aubrey, always a minnow among land sharks when he has money in his pocket, finds himself innocently ensnared in a complicated stock exchange scam that may have been set up by Maturin's enemies in the intelligence game. The complex case and courtroom scene, O'Brian assures us in a note, are based on a real case. The pillory scene is powerful, as Bonden gruffly clears the square of all but sailors, and officers and seamen of all stripes come to show Jack their love and respect. After several books at sea, "The Reverse of the Medal" brings readers back to the Admiralty in London with its complicated and layered intrigues, back to Ashgrove and Sophie, and back to Maturin's espionage machinations. As always, O'Brian's wonderfully intelligent prose and satisfying grasp of historical nuance captures the reader in little pockets of 18th-century Britain.<

Carla Neggers

Heron's Cove

Patrick Obrian

The Letter of Marque

Nikola

Džejms Paterson - Sudija i porota

Patrick Obrian

The Thirteen Gun Salute

Nikola

James Rollins - Crni red

Patrick Obrian

The Nutmeg of Consolation

William Nicholson

(Guerreros M¡sticos 02) Jango

Guerreros Místicos

<p>Los guerreros místicos no luchan por el poder. No van armados ni visten armaduras. Y sin embargo, son invencibles. Buscador de la Verdad, Estrella Matutina y Salvaje, los tres jóvenes protagonistas de esta trepidante serie, deben demostrar que son merecedores de tal honor. A la dureza de los entrenamientos del monasterio de Nom, se suman nuevas pruebas trascendentales para la pervivencia de la orden, y es que nuestros tres amigos se verán obligados a poner en práctica todos sus conocimientos y habilidades, ya que el poderoso jefe de la nación de Orlan ha reunido todas sus fuerzas para destruir Anacrea y a todo aquel que se cruce en su camino. ¿Sucumbirán los tres jóvenes Guerreros Místicos a sus planes maléficos? ¿Serán suficientemente fuertes para soportar sobre sus hombros la gran responsabilidad que se avecina? Y el mayor de los enigmas... ¿cuál de ellos es el Elegido que anuncia la profecía? </p><

Patrick Obrian

The Truelove

Nepoznato

John Dickson Carr-Tajna zelene kapsule

Patrick Obrian

The Wine-Dark Sea

Naca

Ubojstvo u Middle Templeu

Patrick Obrian

The Commodore

Naca

Kate Morton ZABORAVLJENI VRT

Patrick Obrian

The Yellow Admiral

Stand Nicholls

(Orcos. Primera Sangre 01) La banda de los hurones

Orcos. Primera sangre

<p>Mírame. Mira al orco. En tus ojos hay miedo y odio. Para ti soy un monstruo que acecha entre las sombras, un demonio con el que asustar a tus hijos. Una criatura a la que acosar y matar. Ya es hora de prestarle atención al monstruo, y ver al monstruo que guardas en tu interior. Es verdad que me tienes miedo, pero me he ganado tu respeto. Maras-Dantia era nuestro hogar. Y era el hogar de los enanos, los elfos y todas la razas antiguas mucho antes de que los de tu especie se inmiscuyeran en nuestras vidas. Mucho antes de que devorarais nuestra magia y violarais el alma de nuestro mundo...</p><p>Stan Nicholls nos ofrece un nuevo mundo fantástico al borde del desastre. La banda de los hurones es el principio de una epopeya que cambiará para siempre la opinión que tenemos sobre los orcos.</p><

Patrick Obrian

The Hundred Days

Our ads partner

Choose a genre