Exploring the heart-wrenching theme of lost love, this story delves into the emotional turmoil faced by a protagonist whose partner has moved on after losing all memories of their relationship. As they grapple with feelings of betrayal and longing, the narrative unfolds through poignant moments and reflections on love, identity, and the power of memory. The journey highlights the struggle to reclaim a past that seems irretrievably lost while navigating the complexities of moving forward.
Despite being adopted, Emma Victor didn't feel all that different as a child; at least not for the first nine years of her life. Then her adoptive parents had a baby - Stella - of their own. Ten years later they were killed in a car crash - and Emma, aged 19, was left to bring Stella up alone, at an age when she should have been partying, not parenting. Ten years on, Stella has grown up. Now 19 herself, she is beautiful, confident and happy. Emma, however, is in a rut. Her career and love-life are going nowhere fast. Nearly 30, she feels she's not just on the shelf, but in danger of falling off it. But an extraordinary confrontation with a tramp on a tube shakes her from her lethargy, and she starts on a search for her birth mother; a search which, fearful both of what she might find and how it might affect Stella, she has been putting off for years. Are You My Mother? was a book that Emma used to read to Stella, when Stella was a toddler. Now the story of the little lost baby bird and the emotion and pathos of its quest for its mother haunts her as, with the help of her friend Mack, she tracks down five women with the same name; one of whom must be her mother. Emma soon finds however that her search is not so much for her mother but for her own identity. She has spent so long fulfilling roles for other people - daughter, girlfriend, sister, surrogate mother - that she has little idea of who or what she really is. Tentative at first but soon gaining in momentum, her search begins to change her life in more ways than she could possibly have imagined.
The narrative explores the journey of self-discovery and renewal, emphasizing that true transformation often follows a period of hardship. Characters confront their pasts and the challenges that led them to a crossroads, ultimately finding hope and new beginnings. The story highlights the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of embracing change after hitting rock bottom.
Helena Nicholls - ex world-famous pop star and prime-time DJ - wakes up in hospital to find her looks, her career and her personal life in tatters. She has been let down by her boyfriend, and the one person she loved most in the world - her best friend since the age of five - is dead. She feels that she belongs nowhere, and her sense of identity, fragile at the best of times, is in pieces. So Helena turns to the one thing that has always got her through, the one thing that has real resonance: music. And she begins to concoct The Plan. Using the request format that made her radio show so popular, where listeners rang in with detailed stories about why certain songs were so meaningful for them, she sets out the story of her own life, chapter by chapter, track by track. Thinking about the songs that represent important chapters in her own life, Helena begins to come to terms with her past. But the present is more of a problem as, while in hospital, she has remet an old friend to whom she is still hugely attracted. Her strict adherence to The Plan, however, means that time is not on her side. If she is to have a future at all, she must work out what it really means To Be Someone. With
Doesn't love always feel this way? Alex Parkinson is in love with his writing tutor, Siobhan. He has never loved anyone like this, but how can he convince Siobhan that they are meant to be together? So Alex stalks her on Facebook and finds out where she lives, buys her presents using her own credit card and sends her messages telling her exactly what he wants to do to her. He breaks into her house, reads her diary and secretly listens to her while she takes a bath. Isn't that what all lovers do? But when a love rival appears on the scene, Alex has to take drastic action, and soon a young woman lies dead after tumbling from the roof of her house. Now there is no-one standing in the way of Alex and his true love. But someone is watching Alex too and he is about to discover that there is a thin line between love -- and hate...
In the early twentieth century China?s most famous commercial artists promoted new cultural and civic values through sketches of idealized modern women in journals, newspapers, and compendia called One Hundred Illustrated Beauties. This genre drew upon a centuries-old tradition of books featuring illustrations of women who embodied virtue, desirability, and Chinese cultural values, and changes in it reveal the foundational value shifts that would bring forth a democratic citizenry in the post-imperial era. The illustrations presented ordinary readers with tantalizing visions of the modern lifestyles that were imagined to accompany Republican China?s new civic consciousness. Citizens of Beauty is the first book to explore the One Hundred Illustrated Beauties in order to compare social ideals during China?s shift from imperial to Republican times. The book contextualizes the social and political significance of the aestheticized female body in a rapidly changing genre, showing how progressive commercial artists used images of women to promote a vision of Chinese modernity that was democratic, mobile, autonomous, and free from the crippling hierarchies and cultural norms of old China.
Lynn se vzdala nejen milované práce, aby se mohla provdat za Eda, a stálo to za každý rok z jejich společného šťastného života. Po deseti letech ale Edovi diagnostikovali první stadium demence a začaly se dít divné věci – mnohem temnější a zrádnější než jen obvykle zapomenuté klíče a slova. Některé vzpomínky mizí, jiné dlouho pohřbené naopak vyplouvají na povrch… a Lynnin šťastný svět se začíná drolit
Vous ne me connaissez pas - ou plutôt vous ne nous connaissez pas. Je m'appelle Adam Ferris et mon fils se nomme Max. Il a quatre ans - bientôt cinq - et c'est à son propos que je vous écris. Il y a deux ans, Max était très malade: il souffrait d'une leucémie aiguë. Vous lui avez sauvé la vie grâce à votre généreux don de moelle ... Vous avez rendu la vie à mon petit garçon. Vous me l'avez rendu, à moi, alors que je croyais le perdre - oh zut, maintenant évidemment je pleure en écrivant ...!
Das erste kleine Mädchen wurde aus ihrem Elternhaus entführt. Das zweite Kleinkind aus dem Auto seiner Mutter. Das dritte aus ihrem Kinderzimmer … Als Helen und Sean Philips am Abend ausgehen und ihre Teenager-Tochter als Babysitter mit ihrer kleinen Frankie zurücklassen, ahnen sie noch nicht, dass sie in nur wenigen Stunden mit dem schlimmsten Alptraum aller Eltern konfrontiert werden würden. Detective Inspector Patrick Lennon ist hoffnungsvoll, die drei Kinder, die in seinem Revier in Südwest-London entführt worden sind, gesund und munter zurückzubringen. Als aber in einem nahen Park eine Kinderleiche gefunden wird, ist Lennon klar, dass ihm ein Wettlauf mit der Zeit bevorsteht … und dass in diesem Fall nichts so ist, wie es scheint.
