La Casa del Propósito Especial revela un imperio al final de su reinado. Georgy Jachmenev, de ochenta años, está atormentado por su pasado de muerte y escándalo. Junto a su amada esposa Zoya en Inglaterra, se prepara para un último viaje a la Rusia que una vez conoció y amó.
Estimado lector, estimada lectora:Aunque el uso habitual de un texto como éste es describir las características de la obra, por una vez nos tomaremos la libertad de hacer una excepción a la norma establecida. No sólo porque el libro que tienes en tus manos es muy difícil de definir, sino porque estamos convencidos de que ex plicar su contenido estropearía la experiencia de la lectura. Creemos que es importante empezar esta novela sin saber de qué trata.No obstante, si decides embarcarte en la aventura, debes saber que acompañarás a Bruno, un niño de nueve años, cuando se muda con su familia a una casa junto a una cerca. Cercas como ésa existen en muchos sitios del mundo, sólo deseamos que no te encuentres nunca con una. Por último, cabe aclarar que este libro no es sólo para adultos; también lo pueden leer, y sería recomendable que lo hicieran, niños a partir de los trece años de edad
Instalado en los últimos compases de su vida, el capitán Turnstile rememora los extraordinarios acontecimientos que dieron inicio a su larga y fructífera carrera de marino. A sus catorce años, de padres desconocidos, John Jacob Turnstile es un chico alegre y vivaz que se gana el sustento de forma no muy honrosa por las calles y mercados de Portsmouth. Justo cuando está a punto de dar con sus huesos en la cárcel, surge una última tabla de salvación: embarcar como ayuda de cámara del capitán en un navío destinado a una importantísima y exótica misión. El capitán es William Bligh, la nave es la fragata HMS Bounty y el destino, Tahití. Tras el fabuloso éxito de su novela anterior, El niño con el pijama de rayas, John Boyne vuelve a mostrar su particular don narrativo con otra novela diferente, en la que el motín más famoso de la historia es el vehículo idóneo para sumergir al lector en un complejo microcosmos donde el juego de la ambición, el poder, las jerarquías, la lealtad y el valor reflejan con inusitada precisión toda la miseria y la grandeza de la condición humana.
Named Book of the Month Club's Book of the Year, 2017 Selected one of New York Times Readers’ Favorite Books of 2017 Winner of the 2018 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland Cyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from - and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more. In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.
Gretel Fernsby is a quiet woman leading a quiet life. She doesn't talk about her escape from Germany seventy years ago or the dark post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn't talk about her father, the commandant of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps. But when a young family moves into the apartment below her, Gretel can't help but befriend their little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back painful memories. One night, she witnesses a violent argument between his parents, which threatens to disturb her hard-won peace. For the second time in her life, Gretel is given the chance to save a young boy. To do so would allay her guilt, grief and remorse, but it will also force her to reveal her true identity. Will she make a different choice this time, whatever the cost to herself?
The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past. But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes? Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.
The story revolves around an honorable Irish priest grappling with the decline of the church during a critical period. As he navigates personal and institutional crises, themes of loneliness and moral conflict emerge, revealing the complexities of faith and the impact of scandal on both the individual and the community. This compelling narrative explores the intersection of personal conviction and the broader societal changes affecting the church.
Odran Yates enters Clonliffe Seminary in 1972 after his mother informs him that he has a vocation to the priesthood. He goes in full of ambition and hope, dedicated to his studies and keen to make friends. Forty years later, Odranâe(tm)s devotion has been challenged by the revelations that have shattered the Irish peopleâe(tm)s faith in the church. He has seen friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the lives of young parishioners destroyed and has become nervous of venturing out in public for fear of disapproving stares and insulting remarks. But when a family tragedy opens wounds from his past, he is forced to confront the demons that have raged within a once respected institution and recognise his own complicity in their propagation. It has taken John Boyne fifteen years and twelve novels to write about his home country of Ireland but he has done so now in his most powerful novel to date, a novel about blind dogma and moral courage, and about the dark places where the two can meet. At once courageous and intensely personal, A History of Loneliness confirms Boyne as one of the most searching chroniclers of his generation.
Fourteen-year-old pickpocket John Jacob Turnstile has just been caught red-handed and is on his way to prison when an offer is put to him---a ship has been refitted over the last few months and is about to set sail with an important mission. The boy who was expected to serve as the captain's personal valet has been injured and a replacement must be found immediately. Given the choice of prison or a life at sea, John soon finds himself on board, meeting the captain, just as the ship sets sail. The ship is the Bounty, the captain is William Bligh, and their destination is Tahiti. Their journey, however, will become one of the most infamous in naval history. Mutiny is the first novel to explore all the events relating to the Bounty's voyage, from the long passage across the ocean to their adventures on the island of Tahiti and the subsequent forty-eight-day expedition toward Timor. This vivid retelling of the notorious mutiny is packed with humor, violence, and historical detail, while presenting an intriguingly different portrait of Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian than has ever been presented before. Internationally bestselling author John Boyne has been praised as "one of the best and original of the new generation of Irish writers" by the Irish Examiner. Now, with Mutiny, he has created an eye-opening story of life---and death---at sea.
Odran Yates enters Clonliffe Seminary in 1972 after his mother informs him that he has a vocation to the priesthood. He goes in full of ambition and hope, dedicated to his studies and keen to make friends. Forty years later, Odran's devotion has been challenged by the revelations that have shattered the Irish people's faith in the church. He has seen friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the lives of young parishioners destroyed and has become nervous of venturing out in public for fear of disapproving stares and insulting remarks. But when a family tragedy opens wounds from his past, he is forced to confront the demons that have raged within a once respected institution and recognise his own complicity in their propagation. It has taken John Boyne fifteen years and twelve novels to write about his home country of Ireland but he has done so now in his most powerful novel to date, a novel about blind dogma and moral courage, and about the dark places where the two can meet. At once courageous and intensely personal, A History of Loneliness confirms Boyne as one of the most searching chroniclers of his generation.
