Vintage books Labels and Other Stories Берньер Луи де

It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals but over time he proves himself to be civilised, humorous – and a consummate musician • When Pelagia, the local doctor's daughter, finds her letters to her fiance go unanswered, Antonio and Pelagia draw close and the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?

Everyday life crackles with the electricity sparking between men and women, between parents and children, between friends. A son confesses to his mother that he is cheating on his girlfriend; a student falls in love with her lecturer and embarks on an affair with a man in the pub who looks just like him. Young mothers pent-up in childcare dream treacherously of other possibilities; a boy becomes aware of the woman, a guest at his parents' holiday home, who is pressing up too close against him on the beach • Hidden away inside the present, the past is explosive; the future can open unexpectedly out of any chance encounter; ordinary moments are illuminated with lightning flashes of dread or pleasure. These stories about family life are somehow undomesticated and dangerous

Ngugi wa Thiong'o is renowned for his political novels and plays, yet he honed his craft as a short story writer. First published in 1975, Secret Lives and Other Stories brings together a range of Ngugi's political short stories • From tales of the meeting between magic and superstition, to stories about the modernising forces of colonialism, and the pervasive threat of nature, this collection celebrates the storytelling might of one of Africa's best-loved writers

A carriage transporting ten passengers fleeing from Rouen is stopped at a village inn by Prussian soldiers, who decide to detain them until one of their party, the prostitute Boule de Suif, consents to sleep with their officer. When Boule de Suif refuses to do so on account of her principles and patriotic sentiments, the solidarity initially manifested by her fellow travellers becomes increasingly tested as the deadlock continues, and the strained relationship between her and her “respectable” counterparts gradually worsens • A scathing satire of bourgeois prejudice and hypocrisy and a compelling snapshot of France during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, ‘Boule de Suif’ – here presented with five other major stories by the author of Bel-Ami – was declared a masterpiece by Flaubert and is widely considered to be Maupassant’s finest short story

Previously titled Pistols for Two, this collection includes three of Heyer’s earliest short stories, published together in book form for the very first time. A treat for all fans of Georgette Heyer, and for those who love stories full of romance and intrigue • Affairs of honour between bucks and blades, rakes and rascals; affairs of the heart between heirs and orphans, beauties and bachelors; romance, intrigue, escapades and duels at dawn. All the gallantry, villainy and elegance of the age that Georgette Heyer has so triumphantly made her own are exquisitely revived in these wonderfully romantic stories of the Regency period

«Тобермори» – заглавный рассказ сборника – считается одним из лучших произведений Саки. Один из гостей званого ужина решает представить остальным говорящего кота по кличке Тобермори. Кот начинает раскрывать все грязные тайны представителей высшего общества, заставляя их показать свое истинное лицо • В этот сборник вошли самые известные рассказы Саки, от первых литературных успехов вроде «Габриэля-Эрнеста», «Ягдташа» и «Хроник Кловиса», истории о молодом человеке с необычным чувством юмора, до более поздних шедевров – одновременно смешного и странного «Борова» и опубликованных посмертно «Игрушек мира». Творчество Саки охватывает самые разные темы, от реинкарнации до психологической войны, а характерное для его произведений остроумие успело очаровать несколько поколений читателей

Если вдруг рядом с вами появится смешливый золотоволосый мальчуган, который не будет отвечать ни на какие вопросы, вы сразу поймёте, кто это такой • Маленький принц – таинтсвенный, невинный и симпатичный мальчонка, который является пилоту, застрявшему в пустыне, и обращается к нему с необычной просьбой. Он прибыл на нашу планету из другой галактики, встречаясь по пути с причудливыми взрослыми всех мастей, а также с лисом, который научил его ценить истинно-важные вещи. Но дома, на его родной звезде, осталась Роза – его сокровище и ноша, к которой он спешит вернуться • «Маленький принц» – история для каждого. Для детей и для взрослых детей. Для королей, географов и фонарщиков. Даже для очень серьёзных и очень мудрых • Виртуозный рассказчик Майкл Морпурго, автор романа «Боевой конь», создал новый перевод полюбившейся читателю сказки Антуана де Сент-Экзюпери, чтобы как можно больше англоязычных читателей могли ощутить радость от знакомства с этим чарующим произведением

From the international bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale, Dancing Girls and Other Stories showcases Margaret Atwood's masterly skill for storytelling • Students, journalists, farmers, birdwatchers, ex-wives, adolescent lovers - and dancing girls. All ordinary people • Or are they? • In brilliant flashes of fantasy, humour and unexpected violence, Margaret Atwood reveals the complexities of human relationships and maps the motivations we scarcely know we have within us. Populated with characters who evoke laughter, compassion, terror and recognition, Atwood’s stories show why she remains one of our greatest, most original storytellers

Добро пожаловать в деревню Несмотря ни на что, где леди одевается в широкие брюки и стреляет в белок, генерал в отставке вообще отказывается носить одежду, спиритуалистка живет в коттедже с призраком своего мужа, а люди считают вполне естественным довериться пауку, который живет в сарае для горшков. Основанный на воспоминаниях Луи де Берньера о деревне, в которой он вырос, роман "Несмотря ни на что. Истории английской деревни" - забавное и трогательное изображение очаровательной исчезнувшей Англии • Книга на английском языке • Welcome to the village of Notwithstanding, where a lady dresses in plus fours and shoots squirrels, a retired general gives up wearing clothes altogether, a spiritualist lives in a cottage with the ghost of her husband, and people think it quite natural to confide in a spider that lives in a potting shed

Two sisters quarrel over an inheritance and a new baby. A housekeeper caring for a helpless old man uncovers secrets from his past. A young girl accepts a lift in a car with a group of strangers. An old friend brings bad news to a dinner party • In these gripping and unsettling stories, the ordinary is made extraordinary and the real things that happen to people turn out to be every bit as mysterious as their dreams

A beautiful new hardback edition of Katherine Mansfield's most vivid and distinctive stories • Katherine Mansfield was the only writer Virginia Woolf envied. Mansfield transformed the short story genre with her work, creating stories miraculous in their intensity yet seemingly so simple. The shift of a heart, the beat of a moment, the changing of the light: in these stories emotional universes are contained within glimpses • Mansfield only lived to the age of 34 but in that time wrote stories true to her indomitable spirit. A hundred years on from her death, Mansfield's biographer, Claire Harman, has created this new selection to show us the master of the short story form in full flight

In the brief golden years before the outbreak of World War I, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent, with their neighbours the Pitt boys on one side and the Pendennis boys on the other. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of the conflict that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood • When the boys end up scattered along the Western Front, Rosie is left confused by her love for two young men - one an infantry soldier and one a flying ace. Can she, and her sisters, build new lives out of the opportunities and devastations that follow the Great War?