Visar resultat för..."We Need to Talk About Kevin"

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2005ONE MILLION COPIES SOLDEva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of a boy named Kevin who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who had tried to befriend him. Now, two years after her son's horrific rampage, Eva comes to terms with her role as Kevin's mother in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband Franklyn about their son's upbringing. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about motherhood. How much is her fault? In Lionel Shriver's hands this sensational, chilling and memorable story of a woman who raised a monster becomes a metaphor for the larger tragedy - the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2010ONE MILLION COPIES SOLDEva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of a boy named Kevin who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who had tried to befriend him. Now, two years after her son's horrific rampage, Eva comes to terms with her role as Kevin's mother in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband Franklyn about their son's upbringing. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about motherhood. How much is her fault? In Lionel Shriver's hands this sensational, chilling and memorable story of a woman who raised a monster becomes a metaphor for the larger tragedy - the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who tried to befriend him. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

The comic autobiography of 2014A comedian's autobiography? I wonder if he's ever used humour to deflect from his insecurities?To avoid being bullied? Is there heartache behind the humour?I wonder if he's a manic-depressive? Tears of a clown? Yes, all of that. Discover the hilarious life-story of one of Britain's best-loved comedians in Kevin Bridges' brilliant memoir.'First of all, I have never written a book before, you probably haven't either, so there we have it; a connection is established between reader and writer . . .'Aged just 17, Kevin Bridges walked on stage for the first time in a Glasgow comedy club and brought the house down. He only had a five-minute set but in that short time he discovered that he really could earn a living from making people laugh.Kevin began life as a shy, nerve-ridden school-boy, whose weekly highlights included a cake-bombing attack by the local youths. Reaching his teens, he followed his true calling as the class clown, and was soon after arrested for kidnapping Hugh Grant from his local cinema on a quiet Saturday night. This was a guy going somewhere - off the rails seeming most likely. Kevin's trademark social commentary, sharp one-liners and laugh-out-loud humour blend with his reflections on his Glaswegian childhood and the journey he's taken to become one of the most-loved comedians of our time.'. . . Hopefully now you'll take this over to the till and I can accompany you for the next wee while. That's the benefit of book shops, reading the little bit and then deciding if the author deserves to be part of your carefully selected 3 for 2 deal, or part of your plane journey, train journey, your next bath, your next shite.'Praise for Kevin Bridges:'The Best Scottish Stand up of his Generation.' The Scotsman'A wonderfully dry and deadpan Glaswegian comic . . . one the most exciting talents to have emerged from Scotland since Billy Connolly' Guardian'Kevin Bridges might just become the best stand-up in the land . . . he will go and deliver a one-liner that you want to jot down and frame' The Times'Wonderfully sharp, assured stand-up from the preternaturally gifted young comic' Independent

Poet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically, out of love, 'to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets'. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? Or is he all of these? Humbert Humbert's seduction is one of many dimensions in Nabokov's dizzying masterpiece, which is suffused with a savage humour and rich, elaborate verbal textures.

In these three works of erotic prose Georges Bataille fuses sex and spirituality in a highly personal and philosophical vision of the self. My Mother is a frank and intense depiction of a young man's sexual initiation and corruption by his mother, where the profane becomes sacred, and intense experience is shown as the only way to transcend the boundaries of society and morality. Madame Edwarda is the story of a prostitute who calls herself God, and The Dead Man, published in 1964 after Bataille's death, is a startling short tale of cruelty and desire. This volume also contains Bataille's own introductions to his texts as well as essays by Yukio Mishima and Ken Hollings.

Sunday Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver's gripping, startling and urgent international bestseller about motherhood gone awry, winner of The Women's Prize for Fiction ‘Stunningly powerful’DAILY MAIL‘Startling’ GUARDIAN‘Urgent’ SUNDAY TIMES THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AND WOMEN'S PRIZE WINNER ‘Few novels are considered classics. This, though, is one of them’ Kate Mosse Eva never really wanted to be a mother—certainly not the mother of the boy who murdered seven of his classmates, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher, two days before his sixteenth birthday.Now, two years later, Eva must come to terms with the trauma of Kevin’s violent actions, in a series of painfully honest letters to her estranged husband, Franklin.Above all, she must confront her fear that she raised a monster. And everything he has done is entirely her fault. ‘A powerful, gripping and original meditation on evil” NEW STATESMAN

The comic autobiography of 2014A comedian's autobiography? I wonder if he's ever used humour to deflect from his insecurities?To avoid being bullied? Is there heartache behind the humour?I wonder if he's a manic-depressive? Tears of a clown? Yes, all of that. Discover the hilarious life-story of one of Britain's best-loved comedians in Kevin Bridges' brilliant memoir.'First of all, I have never written a book before, you probably haven't either, so there we have it; a connection is established between reader and writer . . .'Aged just 17, Kevin Bridges walked on stage for the first time in a Glasgow comedy club and brought the house down. He only had a five-minute set but in that short time he discovered that he really could earn a living from making people laugh.Kevin began life as a shy, nerve-ridden school-boy, whose weekly highlights included a cake-bombing attack by the local youths. Reaching his teens, he followed his true calling as the class clown, and was soon after arrested for kidnapping Hugh Grant from his local cinema on a quiet Saturday night. This was a guy going somewhere - off the rails seeming most likely. Kevin's trademark social commentary, sharp one-liners and laugh-out-loud humour blend with his reflections on his Glaswegian childhood and the journey he's taken to become one of the most-loved comedians of our time.'. . . Hopefully now you'll take this over to the till and I can accompany you for the next wee while. That's the benefit of book shops, reading the little bit and then deciding if the author deserves to be part of your carefully selected 3 for 2 deal, or part of your plane journey, train journey, your next bath, your next shite.'Praise for Kevin Bridges:'The Best Scottish Stand up of his Generation.' The Scotsman'A wonderfully dry and deadpan Glaswegian comic . . . one the most exciting talents to have emerged from Scotland since Billy Connolly' Guardian'Kevin Bridges might just become the best stand-up in the land . . . he will go and deliver a one-liner that you want to jot down and frame' The Times'Wonderfully sharp, assured stand-up from the preternaturally gifted young comic' Independent

That neither nature nor nurture bears exclusive responsibility for a child''s character is self-evident. But generalizations about genes are likely to provide cold comfort if it''s your own child who just opened fire on his feellow algebra students and whose class photograph—with its unseemly grin—is shown on the evening news coast-to-coast. If the question of who''s to blame for teenage atrocity intrigues news-watching voyeurs, it tortures our narrator, Eva Khatchadourian. Two years before the opening of the novel, her son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and the much-beloved teacher who had tried to befriend him. Because his sixteenth birthday arrived two days after the killings, he received a lenient sentence and is currently in a prison for young offenders in upstate New York. In relating the story of Kevin''s upbringing, Eva addresses her estranged husband, Frank, through a series of startingly direct letters. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son became, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about both motherhood in general—and Kevin in particular. How much is her fault? We Need To Talk About Kevin offers no at explanations for why so many white, well-to-do adolescents—whether in Pearl, Paducah, Springfield, or Littleton—have gone nihilistically off the rails while growing up in the most prosperous country in history. Instead, Lionel Shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story with an explosive, haunting ending. She considers motherhood, marriage, family, career—while framing these horrifying tableaus of teenage carnage as metaphors for the larger tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.

WINNER OF THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2010ONE MILLION COPIES SOLDEva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of a boy named Kevin who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who had tried to befriend him. Now, two years after her son''s horrific rampage, Eva comes to terms with her role as Kevin''s mother in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband Franklyn about their son''s upbringing. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about motherhood. How much is her fault? In Lionel Shriver''s hands this sensational, chilling and memorable story of a woman who raised a monster becomes a metaphor for the larger tragedy - the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.

Rusty Sabich is a prosecuting lawyer in Chicago who enters a nightmare world when Carolyn, a beautiful attorney with whom he has been having an affair, is found raped and strangled. He stands accused of the crime.This 'insider' book by a Chicago lawyer was one of the great novels of the 1980s, selling more than nine million copies, and was made into a famous film starring Harrison Ford. It's a supremely suspenseful and compelling courtroom drama about ambition, weakness, hypocrisy and American justice.

In Iceland, the age of the Vikings is also known as the Saga Age. A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world’s great literary treasures – as epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare. Set around the turn of the last millennium, these stories depict with an astonishingly modern realism the lives and deeds of the Norse men and women who first settled in Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured farther west to Greenland and, ultimately, North America. Sailing as far from the archetypal heroic adventure as the long ships did from home, the Sagas are written with psychological intensity, peopled by characters with depth, and explore perennial human issues like love, hate, fate and freedom.

'Fascinating, brilliant, horribly addictive' Guardian From the day that Sheba Hart joins the staff at St George's, history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced that she has found a kindred spirit. When Sheba is discovered having an illicit affair with one of her pupils, Barbara appoints herself Sheba's chief defender. Yet all is not as it first appears in this dark story and as Sheba will eventually discover, a friend can be as treacherous as any lover. 'Superbly gripping' Daily Telegraph

**NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES**We Need to Talk About Kevin meets The Secret History. The air is hazy and grey with gunpowder smoke. Everyone has been shot but me. I haven't got so much as a bruise....Is Maja a normal eighteen-year-old, the poster girl-next-door, popular and excelling at her schoolwork, caught in the middle of a terrible tragedy? Or is she guilty of the tragedy itself?Either way, everyone knows her name. She has spent nine excruciating months in jail, awaiting trial for a mass murder that killed her boyfriend and her best friend, and now the time has come for her to enter the courtroom... WHAT WILL YOU BELIEVE? This is the 'compelling and brutally candid' (Daily Mail) story of a girl whose guilt was decided long before her trial - as searing as it is timely and moving. ***What people are saying about QUICKSAND***Sensitive, moving and absorbing’  Marcel Berlins, The Times ‘This is the evolution of Scandinavian crime, in more ways than one’ Fredrik Backman'Compelling and brutally candid, especially about modern adolescence, this is not a comfortable book, but the story is so superbly told that it lingers in the mind long after the jury’s verdict' Daily Mail   'A suspenseful and addictive experience… [Giolito] expertly delves into the fickle psyche of the media and how they can change a story’s narrative with one headline and she shames the press’s tendency to report wild conjecture over facts… Though Giolito’s perspective is Swedish, it absolutely translates to a greater global crisis' Real Crime'Giolito gives us the unsettling monologue of a teenage girl as she works her way through her role in murder. It is a splendid work of fiction' Kirkus Reviews'Gioloto’s novel is haunting and immersive' Publishers Weekly'Mystery and intrigue in its purest form. Great book, recommended to all' Marg J., bookseller'A fascinating, often uncomfortable, but thoroughly engrossing read'  Sarah B.‘Sweden's latest blockbuster thriller lives up to the hype' Washington Post'Maja [is] a heroine you will not forget, victim of a toxic love story with a background so familiar to us nowadays... a super thriller – a real page-turner’Mariagrazia M.'I have never read a book by a Swedish author so when Quicksand became available I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to try. I certainly wasn't disappointed' Diane Hogg, NetGalley Reviewer 5*

'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of my tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.'Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, frustrated college professor. In love with his landlady's twelve-year-old daughter Lolita, he'll do anything to possess her. Unable and unwilling to stop himself, he is prepared to commit any crime to get what he wants.Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? Or is he all of these?

For readers who revelled in the toxic obsession of Butter and the addictive horror of Bat EaterDear Jiwon,I’m writing to you regarding the murder of your son...Revenge is perhaps best served by letter. But letters get answered. And when a young tutor takes up the pen to write to her former employer revealing the true motive behind tutoring her son, she will trigger a chain of events that will leave you questioning everything - and everyone.Dear Jiwon,What’s the first thing we learn as babies? Don’t trust another person for no good reason. Even your own flesh and blood to whom you gave birth is no exception. After all, one’s offspring are other people too.But how many times can I tell you to trust no one? Not even me. ----Content warning: this book contains instances of animal abuse and death

The classic account of a lost boy's emotional breakthrough, from a renowed child psychotherapist'I welcome this book with all my heart' D. W. WinnicottWhen renowned psychotherapist Virginia Axline first encountered Dibs at his New York School, he was a little boy lost to the world. He would not talk. He would not play. He sat alone, defying every attempt at interaction. Axline was the last resort. This is her seminal account of how, through weekly play therapy sessions over the course of one year, Dibs's extraordinary character, and the reason for his silent withdrawal, were gradually revealed. Dibs in Search of Self is a classic of child therapy, and a moving story of transformation.'A very empowering and kind book' Tanya Byron'It should be the law that you have to read this book' Adjoa Andoh, BBC Radio 4

In 1914 Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya with her husband to run a coffee farm. Instantly drawn to the land, she spent her happiest years there until the plantation failed. Karen Blixen was forced to return to Denmark in 1931 and it was there that she wrote this classic account of her experiences. A poignant farewell to her beloved farm, Out of Africa describes her strong friendships with the people of her area, her affection for the landscape and animals, and great love for the adventurer Denys Finch-Hatton.Written with astonishing clarity and an unsentimental intelligence, Out of Africa portrays a way of life that has disappeared for ever.

The first essay collection from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time. ‘This trenchant, unrepentant collection reminds you that she’s a brilliant writer… Order a copy in case she’s cancelled by Christmas’ THE TIMES (Book of the Year) ‘You may disagree with Lionel Shriver’s bracing journalism, but her right to spark disquiet goes to the heart of the freedom of expression issue’ Rachel Cooke, OBSERVER ‘Mutinous essays about modern politics and culture… An independent mind and a sense of humour are dangerous things to possess. The spiky, politically incorrect novelist Lionel Shriver has them in abundance’ THE TIMES ‘Testament to the fierce intelligence of a writer who wants us to think more, probe more, challenge more — and who also makes it fun’ THE SUNDAY TIMES Novelist, cultural observer and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age. A writer who embraces ‘under-expressed, unpopular or downright dangerous’ points of view, she regularly deplores the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken society.Bringing together thirty-five works curated from her many columns, features, essays and op-eds for the likes of the Spectator and Guardian, speeches and reviews, and some unpublished pieces, Abominations reveals Shriver at her most iconoclastic and personal. Relentlessly sceptical, cutting and contrarian but also frequently moving and vulnerable, this collection showcases her piquant opinions on a wide range of topics, including religion, politics, illness, mortality, family and friends, tennis, gender, immigration, consumerism, health care and taxes.Though some of the more divisive essays in Abominations have ‘brought hell and damnation down on my head,’ as she cheerfully explains, she also offers insights on her novels and explores the perks and pitfalls of becoming a successful artist. Readers will find plenty to challenge them here, but they may also find many nuanced and considered insights with which they agree.Abominations was a Times Book of the Year in the Literature category on 26.11.2022

'THRILLING' Paula Hawkins'COMPULSIVE' The Times'SEARING' Brit Bennett'DEVASTATING' Observer'UNFORGETTABLE' Ashley Audrain'BRILLIANT' Chris WhitakerAnsel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. But this is not his story.Ansel doesn't want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. Yet now he awaits the same fate he forced on those girls, years ago.This is the story of the women who survive. As the clock ticks down, three women - a mother, a sister, a detective - reckon with the choices that culminate in tragedy, the impact on those in its wake, and the possibility of redemption.WINNER OF THE MWA EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL 2023

Emile Durkheim's On Suicide (1897) was a groundbreaking book in the field of sociology. Traditionally, suicide was thought to be a matter of purely individual despair but Durkheim recognized that the phenomenon had a social dimension. He believed that if anything can explain how individuals relate to society, then it is suicide: Why does it happen? What goes wrong? Why do certain social, religious or racial groups have higher incidences of suicide than others? As Durkheim explored these questions he became convinced that abnormally high or low levels of social integration lead to an increased likelihood of suicide. On Suicide was the result of his extensive research. Divided into three parts - individual reasons for suicide, social forms of suicide and the relation of suicide to society as a whole - Durkheim's revelations have fascinated, challenged and informed readers for over a century.

It is four years since the virus came, killing every adult in its path. Not long after that the electricity failed. Food and water started running out. Fires raged across the country. Now Anna cares for her brother alone in a house hidden in the woods, keeping him safe from 'the Outside'. But, when the time comes, Anna knows they must leave their world and find another. By turns luminous and tender, gripping and horrifying, Anna is a haunting parable of love and loneliness; of the stories we tell to sustain us, and the lengths we will go to in order to stay alive.

***THE BREAKOUT TIKTOK SENSATION***SAVING NOAH IS THE UNFORGETTABLE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER YOU’LL BE THINKING ABOUT LONG AFTER YOU’VE FINISHED THE LAST PAGE…AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW!‘This book ruined me. 5 out of 5. One of the best I have ever read – wow, just wow’ 5***** reader review‘Oh my god, definitely a 5-star read. I have never read anything quite like this, made me question everything I believe in’ 5***** reader review‘It’s SO GOOD. I finished it in two days and ugly cried. 10/10’ 5***** reader review‘It was expertly written but will rip your heart out’ 5***** reader review---Meet Noah – a top student, award-winning swimmer, and small-town star destined for greatness.His loving mother, Adrianne, couldn’t be prouder of the man her son is becoming.Until the day that changed everything.When Noah is accused of a horrific crime, he’s sentenced to eighteen months in a juvenile rehabilitation centre. The event sends shockwaves not just through Noah's family, but through the entire town, as everyone is forced to question the boy they thought they knew. But as more shocking revelations come to light, Adrianne is forced to make the hardest decision of her life. Just how far will she go to protect her son?--- ‘I was not prepared for this book! I needed tissues because I definitely cried…an emotional read that really makes you question life. So thought provoking’ 5***** reader review ‘The writing was incredible and I have not stopped thinking about it’ 5***** reader review

The Elephant (1957) is Slawomir Mrozek's award-winning collection of hilarious and unnerving short stories, satirising life in Poland under a totalitarian regime. The family of a wealthy lawyer keep a 'tamed progressive' as a pet; a zoo saves money for the workers by fashioning their elephant from rubber; a swan is dismissed from the municipal park for public drunkenness; and under the Writers' Association, literary critics are banished to the salt mines. In these tales of bureaucrats, officials and artists, Mrozek conjures perfectly a life of imagined crimes and absurd authority.