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In a small town in Canada, Clara Callan reluctantly takes leave of her sister, Nora, who is bound for New York. It's a time when the growing threat of fascism in Europe is a constant worry, and people escape from reality through radio and the movies. Meanwhile, the two sisters -- vastly different in personality, yet inextricably linked by a shared past -- try to find their places within the complex web of social expectations for young women in the 1930s. While Nora embarks on a glamorous career as a radio-soap opera star, Clara, a strong and independent-minded woman, struggles to observe the traditional boundaries of a small and tight-knit community without relinquishing her dreams of love, freedom, and adventure. However, things aren't as simple as they appear -- Nora's letters eventually reveal life in the big city is less exotic than it seems, and the tranquil solitude of Clara's life is shattered by a series of unforeseeable events. These twists of fate require all of Clara's courage and strength, and finally put the seemingly unbreakable bond between the sisters to the test.
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From the author of the bestselling Adultery ... A haunting coming-of-age story set in World War II Quebec and a contemporary portrait of a man still searching for answers ... In England to see his daughter, Susan, who is gravely ill, James Hillyer, a retired professor of Victorian literature, encounters by chance a man he once knew as a boy. Gabriel Fontaine, a rich and attractive American he met one summer holiday during the war, is a mercurial figure, badly crippled by polio. As an adolescent, James was both attracted to and repelled by Gabriel's cocksure attitude and charm. He also fell hopelessly in love with Odette, a French-Canadian girl from the village, only to find himself in compet...
From the acclaimed writer of the beloved Clara Callan comes a memorable new novel about first loves, love-after-love, and the end of things, set during summer in Quebec City. James Hillyer, a retired university professor whose life was evocatively described in Wright's novel October, is now barely existing after the death of his beloved daughter in her forties. On a whim, he tries to locate the woman he fell in love with so many years ago on a summer trip to Quebec and through the magic of the Internet he is able to find her. But Odette’s present existence seems to be haunted by ghosts from her own past, in particular, the tough ex-con Raoul, with his long-standing grievances and the begin...
Shakespeare's legacy lives on in a novel of secrets, illicit love and yearning, brought to us by master storyteller Richard B. Wright. Shakespeare's legacy lives on in a novel of secrets, illicit love and yearning, brought to us by master storyteller Richard B. Wright.In failing health, Aerlene Ward, an elderly housekeeper in an Oxfordshire manor, feels compelled to confess the incredible secret that has shaped her life: she is the illegitimate daughter of William Shakespeare, England's most famous playwright. But will anyone believe her? Even Charlotte, the young mistress of the house, who is writing down Aerlene's words, seems doubtful. Enchanted by the power and rhythm of words that she c...
From the acclaimed writer of the beloved Clara Callan comes a beautifully crafted, charming portrait of the writing life. Combining his characteristic wit and self-deprecation with his extraordinary imagination and insight, Richard B. Wright has created a deeply affecting memoir that reads like a novel. As a small, watchful boy growing up in a working class family in Midland, Ontario, during the Second World War, Wright gradually discovered that he saw the world through different eyes. His intellectual and sexual awakenings, his exploits as a young salesman in Canadian publishing, his painful struggles to become a writer—all of this is balanced against the extraordinary reception that in t...
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A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson. When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that “if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy.” Yet from 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for “obscenity” and “instigating hatred between the races.” Wright’s once controversia...
Shows Wright's art was intrinsic to his politics, grounding his exploration of the intersections between race, gender, and class.
***AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4's OPEN BOOK*** The 'propulsive, haunting' and 'gripping' (Oprah) rediscovered classic that exposes the dark heart of America for an inncocent Black man on the run from the police Fred Daniels, a black man, is randomly picked up by the police after a brutal murder in a Chicago suburb. Taken to the local precinct, he is tortured -- until he confesses to a crime he didn't commit. But when he sees his chance, Fred Daniels, makes a run for it. With the world now against him, there is only one place left to hide: Underground. Taking residence in the sewers below the streets of Chicago, Fred's new vantage point takes him on a journey through America's unjust, and inhumane underbelly. PRAISE FOR THE MAN WHO LIVED UNDERGROUND 'Propulsive, haunting...gripping' Oprah Daily 'A tale for today' New York Times 'Absolutely not to be missed' BookRiot 'A masterpiece' Time 'Wright's most brilliantly crafted, and ominously foretelling, book.' Kiese Laymon The Man Who Lived Underground was a New York Times Bestseller on 24/04/2022