Caribbean Fiction

En la literatura de Velázquez todo es retorcido. Si hay gore, éste es rosa. Si hay humor, éste es descabellado. Si hay amor, éste es un pretexto para el abismo. Pero la existencia de sus personajes no es una excentricidad inextricable, son seres comunes y corrientes que son arrastrados hacia la infamia por la tan irresistible atracción fatal, como le puede ocurrir a cualquiera de nosotros.

Despachador de pollo frito, quinto libro de relatos de Carlos Velázquez, nos lleva por una serie de protagonistas y entornos en donde la mentira y las triquiñuelas; el travestismo y la dipsomanía; el delirio y la enfermedad; la ruina y los desastres emocionales, configuran a través de su inconfundible prosa cáustica, sonora y veloz, un universo mordaz que termina siendo un espejo despiadado en el cual incluso el lector más escéptico se verá seducido y hechizado.

Un detective privado mexicano recibe la inaudita encomienda de desenmascarar a un falso Paul McCartney, un cinéfilo y sensible godín recibe un revés kármico a su prolongada carrera como rompecorazones, un director de orquestas xenofóbico con su propio pueblo llevará al borde de la locura a la comunidad de Tatahuila por sus conflictos con la autoridad, un travesti verá su vida arruinada a partir de una úlcera rectal que lo conducirá al camino de la redención pseudo-evangélica y un despachador de pollo frito arrastra una disputa con su jefe a un péndulo de venganzas y revanchas en donde el propio cuerpo será usado como el campo de batalla principal.

En estos cinco cuentos, Velázquez maneja a su entero placer el devenir de estos seres cuasi fantásticos de tan desposeídos, con un magistral manejo de la estructura y la forma que reverencia a los grandes maestros del género. Sin dejar nunca el sentido del humor como punta de lanza, conduce las tramas a partir de una premisa encantadora y envolvente, en donde todo mundo soltará una carcajada rotunda.

Chris y Paulo pasan cuarenta días en el misterioso y desconocido desierto del Mojave, en una búsqueda que los llevará a enfrentarse con su realidad más recóndita, con sus miedos más íntimos, sus debilidades e inseguridades. Las Valquírias trata de la voluntad y de la capacidad de elección que tenemos, y de cómo nuestras decisiones determinan nuestro destino. Paulo Coelho nos abre las puertas de su lucha más personal y nos habla de la responsabilidad hacia sí mismo y hacia sus seres más queridos.

A principios de los años setenta, cuando la rebeldía atrapaba a los jóvenes y las drogas, el rock y el sexo libre se volvían las banderas de una nueva generación, dos amigos diferentes entre sí se convierten en el vehículo de José Agustín para contar su visión de aquellos años. Ésta es la historia de dos búsquedas diferentes que, sin embargo, son conducidas por la misma necesidad: el amor y el erotismo, la experimentación con las drogas y el conocimiento de la naturaleza humana.

Es 24 de diciembre y el año está por terminar. No sólo eso, también Pedro y Ana dejarán de ser pareja y cada uno emprenderá su camino. Ellos ya lo acordaron, pero ni sus familiares ni sus amigos lo saben. Hasta hoy. Esta Nochebuena será para Pedro un largo recuento de los momentos compartidos, de sus errores y de sus aciertos, además de su cumpleaños cuarenta.

Zahvatyvayushchaya istoriya o Maugli, mal'chike, vospitannom volkami i prochimi obitatelyami dzhungley, ego blizost' k miru zhivotnyh, a takzhe dramaticheskie otnosheniya s lyud'mi, k kotorym on vse-taki vynuzhden vernut'sya; udivit'sya hrabrosti malen'kogo otvazhnogo mangusta Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, vstupivshego v edinoborstvo s kobrami; ocenit' muzhestvo i uporstvo belogo kotika, reshivshego obespechit' svoim sobrat'yam bezopasnuyu zhizn'.

Murder, sunken treasure, and pirates both ancient and modern send Doc Ford on a nightmare quest in this New York Times bestseller in Randy Wayne White's thrilling series. Marine biologist Doc Ford has been known to help his friends out of jams occasionally, but he's never faced a situation like...

What if you were forced to sail with pirates? Captured and tried for piracy. Then, sentenced to hang. Would you trade your body to the crew of the Flying Dutchman to save your soul? Ricky did. Some dead men do tell tales. And there is stolen treasure in this pirate story. Last winter, Ricky Bradshaw was another gangly freshman hoping to fit in - or at least not get picked on - and maybe catch the attention of Becky Nance, a girl in his biology class.

Professor Hakim Adi draws on a variety of published works in Black Voices on Britain, all of which describe powerful experiences: James Gronniosaw and his family endure poverty, illness and unemployment; Mary Prince is driven out by her cruel owners and turns to London charities for help; Frederick Douglass, on a lecture tour around Britain, reveals how the Christian clergy built churches with slave-owners’ money and William Wells Brown gives his impressions of England as he travels around a country which welcomes him more readily than America.

The intriguing story of three famous pirates in history - Scarlet Jack, Red Martin, and Blackbeard - as they terrorized a ship, and took the captain and a young family prisoner. How their lives intertwined throughout this story of swashbuckling buccaneers with romance, savagery, and the heroics of a slave makes this story originally told in the 1800s one of the best historical fiction accounts ever written.

It’s been three years since food anthropologist and cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith had her last brush with death. Her Spanglish culinary show, Abuela Approved, is topping the charts. Her parents are back in Miami and living with her in Coral Shores. And her kids are great. But when bones start popping up in unexpected places, Miriam’s idyllic life is threatened.

A surprise trip to Miriam's parents in Punta Cana, which should be filled with arroz con pollo and breezy days under the tamarind tree, quickly becomes a hunt for a possible property saboteur. But before Miriam can begin to uncover the person damaging the vacation rentals her parents manage, she’s called away to Puerto Rico to film a Three Kings Day special. She's welcomed to the blue ballast-stone streets of Old San Juan by crime-scene tape, and things only get worse from there.

Fifteen-year-old Esperance Darbois, the only daughter of philosophy professor François Darbois, is determined to become a woman of the stage. But becoming an actress will sully the respectability of the Darbois family, damage her marriage prospects, and harm her father’s distinguished reputation.

Idealistic parson's son Jim goes to sea thirsting for adventure as the mate of the pilgrim ship Patna. However, when disaster looms, Jim is persuaded by his crewmates to abandon the ship, leaving the vessel and hundreds of passengers to their fate. But with his life in ruins, Jim alone has the courage to face up to the public censure which follows, piquing the interest of Captain Marlow, who befriends Jim and relates the tale of the young man's attempts to come to terms with his guilt and make an honorable future for himself.

In May 1987, Jackie Benton received a heartbreaking phone call from her boyfriend, Sean Hardy, bringing an end to their five-year relationship. He’d fallen for a fellow student at Exeter University. Sean and Jackie would never see each other again. Thirty-three years later, Sean returns to his home town. There, he inadvertently discovers what became of Jackie Benton.

Увлекательная история о приключениях человека, чудом выжившего после кораблекрушения и волею судьбы оказавшегося на острове, который он посчитал необитаемым, появилась на свет в 1719 году. Эта книга стала первым романом шестидесятилетнего публициста и коммерсанта Даниэля Дефо.

Rainbow Valley was written in 1919 by L. M. Montgomery for the series that began with Anne of Green Gables. Anne and Gilbert's children are growing up! Their new friends, the Merediths, live in the Manse nearby. When the Merediths aren't playing in the graveyard or riding pigs through town, they meet up with the Blythes to play, fish, and study insects in Rainbow Valley!

Emma Woodhouse, "belle, intelligente et riche" a vingt-et-un ans. Elle habite la belle demeure de Hartfield, près du gros bourg de Highbury, avec son père âgé, hypocondriaque et veuf, entourée d'amis fidèles, tel Mr. Knightley, son beau-frère, propriétaire du riche domaine voisin de Donwell Abbey. Son ancienne gouvernante, Miss Taylor, vient d'épouser un veuf fortuné, Mr. Weston, dont le fils a été adopté tout jeune par son oncle et sa tante, les Churchill, avec qui il vit à Enscombe, dans le Yorkshire.

Following in the tradition of Richard Wright's Black Boy, Joseph Zobel's semi-autobiographical 1950 novel Black Shack Alley chronicles the coming-of-age of José, a young boy grappling with issues of power and identity in colonial Martinique. As José transitions from childhood to young adulthood and from rural plantations to urban Fort-de-France on a quest for upward mobility, he bears witness to and struggles against the various manifestations of white supremacy, both subtle and overt, that will alter the course of his life.

Andy Bellows is in a right state. Plagued with insomnia, anxiety and neckache, he’s convinced there’s something seriously wrong with him. And the worst thing is that his doctor agrees. The diagnosis: Andy is in the grip of a self-destructive addiction to technology - he just cannot put that bloody mobile phone down. Texting, tweeting, gaming and online dating - technology rules Andy’s life. His phone even monitors his bowel movements. So how will he cope when he’s forced to follow doctor’s orders and step away from all of his beloved screens?

La liberté est une chose précieuse... Un roman campé à Londres, en pleine époque victorienne, où il est question d'amour, d'art, d'obsession et de possession. Londres, 1850. L'Exposition universelle va bientôt ouvrir ses portes dans le tout nouveau Crystal Palace, et les badauds se pressent déjà dans Hyde Park pour venir admirer cette merveille. Parmi eux, Iris, une modeste employée dans un magasin de poupées, à la beauté mâtinée de difformité, qui rêve de devenir artiste peintre.