Berger presents a collection of moments, each supremely vivid, that together make up a frieze of human history at the end of the millennium as well as a subtle and affecting self-portrait of their author. Using careful, intensely visual prose snapping frozen vignettes of life, these twenty-nine "photocopies" teach us about lying and self-invention, dignity and tenderness, charity and courage. Overflowing with the sights, sounds, and smells of life, Photocopies is a masterpiece from one of the most important chroniclers of our time. From the Trade Paperback edition.

When her cousin Blaise, a witch of the black arts, sets her sights on star athlete Eric Ross, white witch Thea casts a spell on the young man to protect him and falls in love despite the rules that forbid a relationship.

Frank Inigo Savage simply wants to be alone and the top flat of Kensington Heights seems just the place. Until the other bizarre and eccentric inhabitants of the building start arriving on his doorstep.And the Savage gets a visit from a homeless waif he meets in the local launderette called Korky.Korky's intrusion on Savage's private world alters his whole existence. High above the London rooftops this strange and contradictory relationship blooms like an improbable flower and Savage begins to realise that the world can creep under even the most firmly closed doors.'As ever in a Thomas novel, we constantly shift from tears to laughter and back again' Daily Express' A moving and jolly book ... with hardly a dull moment and difficult not to be cheered by' Times

Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and highly radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as Precious learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it her own for the first time.

"A non-stop adventure, full of spellbinding, sorcerers and selkies. Cat Gray's storytelling proves that magic really does exist." Helena Duggan, author of A Place Called Perfect "Spellstoppers is a charming page-turner and I lapped up every moment of this magical tale." Clare Povey, author of The Unexpected Tale of Bastien Bon Livre Welcome to Yowling - a secretive seaside village where magic is just one step away... Max has spent years thinking he is cursed, because whenever he touches anything electrical it explodes. But then he is sent to Yowling and discovers he is a Spellstopper, someone with the rare ability to drain dangerous build-ups of magic and fix misbehaving enchanted items. When Max's Grandad is kidnapped by the cruel Keeper of the malfunctioning magical castle that floats in the bay, only Max's gift can save him. Together with his new friend Kit, Max throws himself into an adventure filled with villainous owls, psychic...

A girl raised by dolphins must choose between two worlds in this critically acclaimed novel about what it means to be a human being.

Winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel: In a dark future, a priest who has lost his faith battles for hope, love, and redemption in the teeming streets and souls of a vividly reimagined North AfricaFather John Alston has lost his faith but his heart remains strong. Having left behind a computerized, climate-controlled, and disease-free Europe, he administers aid to the destitute of a Borderer town in the Endless City. In the squalor of what was once North Africa, he provides spiritual comfort and basic health care, while preaching a message that he no longer believes. But the recent explosion of a deadly virus has John profoundly troubled and desperately searching for answers.Suspecting a native plant commonly used as an intoxicant, John decides to investigate further with the help of a brilliant but mysterious Borderer woman. His pursuit of the mystery will set him on a collision course with powerful political realities designed to maintain the status quo of the Third World. On a harrowing journey through a radioactive valley of death—and through his own painful history—he will confront devastating truths that will either revive his damaged soul or destroy it completely.From Library JournalSet in a future in which humankind is served by a multitude of sophisticated machines, MacLeod's accomplished first novel describes a world much different from ours yet instantly recognizable in all important ways. Father John, sent to what was once Northern Africa, labors gamely to heal the sick and bring the word of Christ into the lives of the pagan Borderers, natives forced to live outside the boundaries of European civilization. Noting that a large number of the natives are dying of the same disease, myeloid leukemia, he starts to investigate a native plant that the people use as an intoxicant. Although banning the koyil leaf would seem to be a logical solution to reducing the large number of deaths, Father John encounters realpolitik, which dictates that moral decisions are secondary to maintaining the status quo. Father John's life is complicated by nagging doubts about the validity of his faith and his attraction to a Borderer woman. MacLeod's somewhat bleak vision of the future is energized by his evocative writing and his ability to create realistic characters who struggle mightily with questions of belief, love, life, and death.-?Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, SeattleCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsBy about 2170, the Endless City occupies the entire coast of North Africa; its Borderers live in poverty and squalor under a perpetual cloud generated by global warming and climate control. Though Father John Alston (``Fatoo''), of the Pandera presbytery, has lost much of his faith, he continues to offer the Borderers spiritual comfort and such medical aid as much as he is able (his own implants keep him safe from Borderer ailments, but the reverse isn't true). The Borderers chew a leaf, koiyl, similar to coca, that John suspects may cause cancer. Helped by Laurie Kalmar, a European-educated Borderer computer-net expert, he finds that the leaf from one particular source is dangerously radioactive. After he and Laurie become lovers, John visits home--where his once- genius brother, Hal, having monkeyed with his implants, has lain in a deathly coma for 20 years--and decides to leave the priesthood. Upon his return to the Endless City, his relationship with Laurie collapses; he tracks down the distribution of the deadly koiyl, which he begins to use himself, falls ill, returns home, recovers, allows Hal to die and, recognizing that his life is a spiritual journey, recovers his faith. Despite the highly unlikely extrapolation from now to then, especially the improbably secular North Africans: a thoughtful, sometimes wrenching, noteworthy debut. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Helping to build an adobe house on lesbian land sounds like a fine change of pace to Denver cop Alison Kaine. She knows that she has some differences of philosophy with the land dykes, but they can work it out for one weekend, right? WRONG! Especially when her dominatrix lover, Stacy, shows up unexpectedly.ReviewWhile slicing and dicing enough dyke sacred cows to fill a refrigerator truck, Kate Allen sends poor Alison through eighteen kinds of mayhem, but still finds time to investigate the real allegiances we owe to our friends and to our communities. By turns harrowing and hilarious, this intricate puzzler is Allens best yet. --Linnea Due Express Weekly About the AuthorKate Allen writes about the complexities and contradictions of lesbian life with a unique and wonderful style. The perfect writer for readers who are hungry for something new for something humorous and erotic.

Illness.Captivity.A fight for survival...Seventeen-year-old Zel doesn't know what to do. Her mum is seriously ill, and the doctors have no answers. When Zel's best friend, Finn, finds an old Wiccan text with a miraculous solution, it seems too good to be true... but Zel's willing to try anything, even breaking into the garden of the formidable Judge Gothel.But the unthinkable happens, and everything goes wrong.Betrayed by those she loved most, Zel must fight for her own survival. Imprisoned in the Towerwood Facility for Troubled Youth, she is kept in isolation under the watchful eye of her guard, Prince. He seems to be her only way to freedom-and she is determined to escape the clutches of Gothel and free herself from her desperate fate.This is not the Rapunzel you grew up with...Readers, please note that Towerwood is a novella of...

In his first collection of short stories, Barnes explores the narrow body of water containing the vast sea of prejudice and misapprehension which lies between England and France with acuity humor, and compassion. For whether Barnes's English characters come to France as conquerors or hostages, laborers, athletes, or aesthetes, what they discover, alongside rich food and barbarous sexual and religious practices, is their own ineradicable Englishness. The ten stories that make up Cross Channel introduce us to a plethora of intriguing, original, and sometimes ill-fated characters. Elegantly conceived and seductively written, Cross Channel is further evidence of Barnes's wizardry. From the Trade Paperback edition.

This epic novel is set against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese war, from the time Japan annexed Manchuria in the early 1930s until the end of the Second World War. During these years, a militaristic Japan pursued an aggressive dream to colonize not only China but also the whole of Southeast Asia and beyond. The brutal sacking of Chiang Kai-shek's new capital, Nanking, which refused to surrender to the Imperial Army, was a graphic example of Japanese retribution in a war of punishment. The story of these tumultuous years is told through the lives of a disparate group of fictional characters: a young Russian woman émigré caught between her complex love affair with a British journalist and a liberal-minded Japanese diplomat, an Indian nationalist working for Japanese intelligence, a Chinese professor with communist sympathies, an American missionary doctor and a Japanese soldier, who are all brought together by the monstrous dislocation of war. Enmeshed in a savage world beyond...