# Angry River
Soon, it begins to rain heavily. Sita goes outside and realizes that there is a flood that looks like a raging river. She sees a few things floating around her in the water. She hurriedly packs some spices, fish, some of her grandmother\'s things and she forgets about her dear doll, Mumta. Then she climbs the peepal tree and finds a crow as her companion. Then, the tree is suddenly uprooted in the stormy rain and takes Sita afloat on the river. On the way, Sita sees the tantrum caused by the tumultuous rain and realises the misery of her fellow beings. The tree suddenly turns to the midstream of the river which frightens Sita. A boy rescues her by taking her along with him on his boat. He rows the boat hard to get away from the midstream. Once the two are out of danger, the boy introduces himself as Krishan. They ate mangoes that were on the boat. Never before did Sita eat mangoes that were as sweet as those Krishan had offered. Sita later learns that her grandmother had died and she returns to the island with her grandfather to build a new house and continue life without her doll Mumta and her grandmother. Afterwards, Krishan visits Sita and teaches her how to play the flute he had earlier gifted Sita.
Meena Khorana in her study of Ruskin Bond\'s life and works cites *Angry River* as an example of his works\' rootedness in the culture and traditions of India.


# La Petite Fadette
***La Petite Fadette***, also published in English under the titles ***Little Fadette. A Domestic Story*** (1849), ***Fadette. A Domestic Story*** (1851) and ***Little Fadette*** (1967), is an 1849 novel written by French novelist George Sand, born Amantine Dupin. Sand wrote the rural story together with *La Mare au Diable* and *François le Champi* in the 1840s as she returned from Paris to the countryside of Châteauroux. The novel is one of Sand\'s best known today.
The novel takes place in the 19th-century French countryside. The parents of Landry and Sylvinet, identical twin brothers, who are respectable and relatively rich farmers, do not follow the advice that is given at the twins\' birth to keep separating and distinguishing them from each other while they are still young. Consequently, the twins grow up together. Although they are opposites, with Landry the less emotional, more conventionally strong twin, and Sylvinet, the less physically strong and more emotional one, the twins both love each other more than anything else. When they are 14 years old, the plot takes a turn. Due to the family\'s dire financial straits, one twin has to leave to work in a neighbouring farm, and Landry is chosen. Landry tries to hide his distress out of pride, unlike Sylvinet, who cries and is very demonstrative. Sylvinet does not understand how Landry can pretend to want to leave home. He is therefore hurt, and he responds angrily and emotionally to the separation, disappearing into the woods.
When looking for his brother in the woods, Landry encounters Fadette. Fadette lives with her younger brother and a grandmother who makes the two children work constantly. The children are despised and looked down upon by the other villagers for being different. The children are known as \"witches\" and indeed often appear unkempt, covered in dirt, and at one with the elements. When Fadette helps Landry to find his brother, she makes him promise to return the favor. She helps Landry cross a small river, on the other end of which he finds his brother.


# La Petite Fadette
At the next village fête, Fadette asks Landry to dance with her and only her. Landry is angered, though he knows he has promised to fulfill the favor. He is ashamed to be associated with Fadette due to her reputation as a witch and is disappointed, as Madelon, the most beautiful and coquettish girl in town, wants to dance with him instead. However, he reluctantly keeps his promise and even defends Fadette when the village boys attack her. Moved but embarrassed by the gesture, Fadette tells Landry to dance with whomever he wants and leaves the party. However, Landry goes after her and hears her crying. They talk at length in the dark village, and Landry realises that she is a very sweet, sensible, and intelligent person, and begins to fall in love with the little Fadette. He even wants to kiss her but she refuses, telling him that he will regret it the next day.
Fadette is right; the next day, Landry remembers her dirty face, and does not understand how he could have felt such an attraction for her. But soon after, he overhears a conversation between Fadette and Madelon that emphasizes that Fadette is kind and humble and the other girl is vain and proud. His feelings are then revived. He asks Fadette to marry him; a secret engagement.
Sylvinet is aware that something is different about his brother and that the relationship between them has changed. He suffers deeply and behaves badly in the eyes of everyone around him. Sylvinet then discovers their secret but keeps it to himself. It is when Madelon finds out that the news is spread through the village. Everyone, including Landry\'s parents, are shocked and urge him to end the relationship immediately. Landry refuses but Fadette decides to leave town to put an end to the scandal and talk. Some time after, Landry decides to leave since, due to Sylvinet\'s increasing anger and depression toward him, the twins\' relationship has begun to fracture.


# La Petite Fadette
When Fadette returns to town, she has become a prosperous, attractive, and reputable young woman. After her grandmother\'s death, she inherits a surprisingly large amount of money and is able to look after herself and her brother properly. Now everyone in the village is forced to finally acknowledge her merits and even Landry\'s parents approve of their engagement. But jealousy is making Sylvinet more and more disgruntled and even physically ill. Although he initially refuses to see Fadette, she actually manages to cure Sylvinet and he finally accepts her. After Landry and Fadette are married, Sylvinet enlists in the army and leaves the provinces. Landry is not aware of Sylvinet\'s feeling, but in a twist of irony, it turns out that his mother and probably Fadette have suspected all along that Sylvinet is in love with Fadette. Thus his final enlistment is an act of sacrifice, as he does not want to stand in the way of his brother\'s happiness.
The novel was translated into English and published in 1900 by Henry Holt and Company, and an updated critical translation by Gretchen van Slyke was published by Penn State University Press in 2017.
A 1915 silent film, Fanchon the Cricket, starring Mary Pickford, was based on the novel.
A 2004 French television movie was directed by Michaëla Watteaux.


# Trumpet (novel)
***Trumpet*** is the debut novel from Scottish writer and poet Jackie Kay, published in 1998. It chronicles the life and death of fictional jazz artist Joss Moody through the recollections of his family, friends and those who came in contact with him at his death. Kay stated in an interview that her novel was inspired by the life of Billy Tipton, an American jazz musician who lived with the secret of being transgender.
The novel begins just after the main character, Joss Moody, a famous jazz trumpeter, passes away. After his death, it is revealed that his biological sex was female, causing a news rush and attracting paparazzi, leading his widow, Millie, to flee to a vacation home. The truth was unknown to anyone except Millie; the Moodys lived their life as a normal married couple with a normal house and a normal family, and not even Colman, their adopted son, knew the truth. When Joss dies and the truth is revealed, Colman\'s shock spills into bitterness and he seeks revenge. He vents his rage about his father\'s lie by uncovering Joss\'s life to Sophie, an eager tabloid journalist craving to write the next bestseller. After time, and a visit to Joss\'s mother Edith Moore, Colman eventually finds love for his father muddled together with his rage. With his new-found acceptance of both his father and himself, Colman decides not to follow through with the book deal. All the while, Millie deals with her grief and the scandal in private turmoil at the Moodys\' vacation home, and a variety of characters whose paths have crossed with Joss\'s give accounts of their memories and experiences. Each character aside from Sophie appears to either accept Joss\'s identity or regard it as irrelevant.
*Trumpet* is mostly set in London in 1997. Memories of Joss\'s life give the book\'s setting a 70-year span beginning in 1927. Most of these memories are set in Glasgow in the 1960s, referring to locations such as The Barrowlands music venue at the start of Joss and Millie\'s relationship and their early marriage. Although much of the story takes place in London where the Moodys lived, it jumps back and forth between the city and the Scottish seaside home where Millie goes to escape the scandal and grieve in peace. The novel\'s end is set entirely in Scotland, where Colman and Sophie go to investigate Joss\'s birthplace.


# Trumpet (novel)
*Trumpet* is written with an intricate narration, incorporating many characters\' points of view. The narration varies by chapter. Most of the story is told from the first-person perspective of Joss\'s wife Millie, his son Colman, and the journalist Sophie Stones. The narration often takes the form of the inner thoughts of these three characters, including visitations of their memories. Some chapters are Colman responding to Sophie Stones\' interview. In addition, chapters told from a third-person omniscient narrator contribute to the story, each focusing on a different minor character, such as the funeral director or Joss\'s drummer.
Jackie Kay\'s choice to narrate Joss Moody\'s life through the voice of the people who he encountered/loved/played music with in life and death captures the function and consequences of trans necropolitics.


# Trumpet (novel)
- The central character is **Joss Moody**, a famous Black jazz musician. The novel begins in the wake of his death. Assigned female at birth and named Josephine Moore, Joss is transgender. He becomes a famous trumpet player and devotes his life to his passion of music. Joss is portrayed as a passionate lover, strict father, energetic friend, and dedicated artist.
- **Millie Moody**, a white woman, is married to Joss. As a young adult, she falls in love with Joss, and her passion is strong enough to overcome the truth about his original gender. After his death, Millie is devastated. Although she outwardly handles herself with grace and composure, Millie\'s heart is broken. Millie is a loving, sympathetic character living out the cycles of grief under an unwanted spotlight.
- **Colman Moody** is the adopted son of Millie and Joss. He is of mixed race. As a child, Colman was often difficult and misbehaved. Upon his father\'s death, Colman, aged 30, discovers that his father was assigned female at birth, and experiences a range of emotions including confusion, anger, embarrassment, and grief, which drives him to cooperate with a journalist, Sophie Stones, in her attempt to write Joss Moody\'s story.
- **Edith Moore** is Joss Moody\'s mother. She enters the novel only at the end. She is seen as she grows old in a retirement home, without knowing that Joss had been living as a male.
- **Sophie Stones** is a journalist who seeks to write a novel about the revelation of Joss Moody\'s identity, seeing it as a lucrative opportunity for her career. She expresses more overtly prejudiced and transphobic views regarding Joss\'s identity than others in the novel do.


# Trumpet (novel)
### Identity
This element may be divided in three main subcategories: gender identity, cultural identity and racial identity. They are all developed under the main \"umbrella-term\" of identity, but also develop in their own specificity during the narration. It explores dualities such as male/female, Black/white, and famous/non-famous. Joss\'s experiences are shaped by his transgender identity and his identity as a Black Scottish man. Colman, for his part, not only grapples with his Black and Scottish identities, but also with his complex self-identity due to being adopted. The theme of identity is particularly explored through the novel\'s focus on names, and the changing of names, as an integral part of one\'s identity.


# Trumpet (novel)
### Identity
- Gender identity: the unravelling of these categories is among the novel\'s most highlighted themes, meaning that it is the first necessary step to develop and build an identity for many of the characters. As well as Joss, this also applies to other characters such as Millie, who never regards herself as a lesbian since she always sees Joss as a trans man, whereas society and other characters do not. After what appears to be a fight for the right to not conform to gender-assigned roles, after Joss\'s death, he is forced back into a categorised role delegated by a binary and heteronormative society.
- Cultural identity: the novel\'s principal setting is in Scotland in the mid-20th century, with the storyline spanning from 1927 till 1997, a period of significant change. Scotland is presented as a fundamentally traditional, orthodox, conservative country where the question of identity is not even asked. Many references to the patriarchal culture are seen throughout the narration, as well as in the actions of the characters (i.e., improper use of the \"she/her\" pronouns by the journalist when referring to Joss; Colman\'s sexual desire in order to maintain, or define, his own masculinity, virility and manhood).
- Race identity: Race is also an important component in the identity of the characters. Joss is a Black man, a son of the Scottish nation, but lives in a country which hardly recognizes his social status as minority. There is a parallel here with author Jackie Kay, who also grew up in Scotland and was Scottish through her mother and Nigerian through her father. Her life and that of one of the main characters (Joss) both are a mixture of backgrounds, and similarities can emerge between the two personalities. Living in Scotland she belonged to a true minority group of British Blacks, since, according to National Statistics publication for Scotland, only 1% of the Scottish population belongs to African, Caribbean or Black ethnic groups.


# Trumpet (novel)
### The \"manhood\" question in Colman
Colman is angry at Joss because his father had a female body. In Colman\'s view, Joss is not following the gender role imposed by the patriarchal society, that he (Colman) conforms to, as seen in the scene where Colman wants to have anal sex with the journalist to impose control on her, as an expression of the culture of possession, a crucial element in a patriarchal system. Colman marginalizes his father despite knowing himself how it feels to be marginalized, especially in a European context where there are significant challenges associated with being Black. Colman feels that his male identity is being questioned after his father\'s death because he loses a sense of attachment to the safety and assurance from the patriarchal culture and system. In this sense Colman categorizes people in the same way that he is marginalized by others.

### Sex
The novel appears to depict sex in two different ways: the first between Millie and Joss, described in the book\'s very first pages where it is evident that Joss was assigned a female gender at birth. Millie and Joss enjoy a genuine, lovely, naive relationship. The second depiction is the form of sex used by Colman as a tool of revenge. Colman\'s relationship with sex appears affected by the trauma of discovering that his father had female genitalia, but may also be linked to the possessive nature of the patriarchal system.


# Trumpet (novel)
### Music, role of jazz and the trumpet
Jazz music, and music\'s role in general in Black culture, is a form of expression through which Joss demonstrates his identity through an undeniable ability to play music. Music comes to be a liberating practice. Every individual character seems to be an instrument and a part of a musical narration where the union of the characters becomes an orchestra. Jazz\'s role in this novel shows a sharp contrast to other dominant themes. Amidst a strong duality of themes (notably male and female, Black and white) jazz on the other hand offers freedom and detachment from social norms and constrictions. Appreciating Joss\'s ability to find comfort in his music, and of course the symbolism in the trumpet he played (which has a phallic shape) music in this novel plays a vital role in liberating the characters from societal norms. It is a consistent, unchanging theme throughout the novel. Even when Joss\'s gender is revealed, the love of jazz remains, so much so that his friend and partner Big Red defends him even after his death. Joss builds his public identity through music and with an instrument which, casually or not, may remind him of the organ he does not have. Joss found his masculinity in jazz music, whereas Colman identifies his masculinity in his physique.

### Transphobia
Millie\'s reaction is private when, in their first intimate encounter, she discovers that Joss has the body of a woman. She gets angry but later does not mind. This is not mentioned again in the book. The only transphobic remarks that appear come from people who were not privately linked to Joss, except for their son. The narrative reveals people\'s reactions to the discovery after Joss\' death, shown through their disorientation, disgust or just general transphobic comments. Miss Stones shows this clearly in her refusal to use the \"him/his\" pronouns from the first time she talks about Joss, denying him legitimate recognition of his identity. Transphobia is shown against Joss and to all those he knew as well, starting with the disregard held for his family and friends\' opinions of him, making it all the more difficult for him to be defended when he is not there to do it himself.


# Trumpet (novel)
### Passing
The novel examines a general perception that death is a moment that makes someone more vulnerable and exposed to the critiques from which one cannot defend oneself. Private life becomes public. Joss\' identity is discussed and questioned, his body is accurately analyzed, and he cannot defend himself. The only attempt to defend Joss is made by his wife Millie, but at the end the defense appears weak, blurred and almost inconsistent. After his death he is treated as \"a Black queer monstrosity that can be met only with derision and turned into spectacle\", and the only thing Millie continues to do is refer to him using male pronouns.

### Family relationships
Another theme in the novel is familial relationships, especially that between Joss and Colman. After his father\'s death, Colman reflects on his childhood and how his relationship with his father has changed over time. There was tension in Joss and Colman\'s relationship due to the fact that Colman was not as successful as his father. Their relationship is noticeably difficult starting from Colman\'s adolescence, the time when typical secondary physical characteristics emerge and, in males, the body becomes physically \"masculine\". This tension increased upon Joss\'s death and Colman\'s discovery that his father was a trans man. At a certain point in the book, coinciding with Colman\'s narration of a conspicuous part of his adolescence, Joss was said to develop a sort of envy for Colman\'s body, potentially seeing attributes in him that he does not himself possess. However, the narrative is this part is from Colman\'s point of view. The novel ends with Colman reading a letter Joss left for him, which talks about his own father.


# Trumpet (novel)
### Race and gender
The novel also explores issues around race and gender. Both Joss and Colman provide insights into the experiences of Black people in Britain and Scotland and the prejudices they experience. For instance, Millie\'s mother initially objects to their marriage on account of Joss\'s race. Joss not only had to learn how to navigate the world as a biracial Black person, but also as a transgender man. He had to learn how to pass as a man, and went to great lengths to ensure that no one found out he was trans besides Millie. The novel also explores the fluidity of gender perception, as characters frequently describe Joss\'s face transforming, becoming more feminine upon learning his identity as transgender, despite their previously perceiving him wholly as male.

### Public vs. Private
The novel explores issues of fame and the invasion of privacy through the media, resulting in private life turning \"horribly public\". This clash is illustrated through the paparazzi and media who exploit Millie\'s grief, forcing her to flee from her home. Colman\'s interviews with Sophie turn private memories public, and the novel\'s chapters are titled in the style of media headings and newspaper sections, mirroring the invasion of Joss\'s privacy and identity for public gaze.
In an interview, Kay spoke about her desire to make her story read like music, specifically echoing the structure of jazz music. Critics have acclaimed her for accomplishing this in a powerful and intricate narrative without melodrama. In an article for the *Boston Phoenix*, David Valdes Greenwood wrote that \"in the hands of a less graceful writer, Jackie Kay\'s *Trumpet* would have been a polemic about gender with a dollop of race thrown in for good measure. But Kay has taken the most tabloid topic possible and produced something at once more surprising and more subtle: a rumination on the nature of love and the endurance of a family\". *Time* magazine called it a \"hypnotic story \... about the walls between what is known and what is secret. Spare, haunting, dreamlike\", and the *San Francisco Chronicle* commented that \"Kay\'s imaginative leaps in story and language will remind some readers of a masterful jazz solo\".


# Trumpet (novel)
### Public vs. Private
Matt Richardson, in examining the novel\'s transgender subjectivity and use of a Jazz aesthetic, noted that \"as a form that encourages the transformation of standard melodies into multiple improvised creations, jazz is useful in expanding our conceptualization of the potential for Black people to recreate ourselves and our gender identities in a diasporic practice\".
In his analysis, Richardson also notes the influences of African American culture on other Black populations, notably Black British people. He writes, \"Kay is not the first British lesbian of African descent to adopt African American history and cultural aesthetics in her strategic representation of British queerness." Richardson writes specifically about the Black British filmmaker Inge Blackman\'s documentary \"B.D. Women\", which references a Harlem speakeasy during the 1920s and 1930s. The Blues are also a prominent feature in Blackman\'s documentary. Richardson\'s analysis notes that both Kay\'s and Blackman\'s works were produced in the context of the African diaspora where race, gender, and sexuality inform their works.
*Trumpet* was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998 and the Authors\' Club First Novel Award in 2000, and won in the Transgender category at the 2000 Lambda Literary Awards. It was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, also in 2000.
Kay served as advisor to Grace Barnes, director of Skeklers Theatre Company, in her stage adaptation of *Trumpet*. The stage version was performed in the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in 2005.
Copyright 1998 by Jackie Kay, *Trumpet* was originally published by Picador (Great Britain) in 1998, and Pantheon Books (New York). It was published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc. (New York), in 2000.
-


# The Eight of Swords
***The Eight of Swords***, first published in February 1934, is a detective story by American writer John Dickson Carr, featuring his series detective Gideon Fell. It is a mystery novel of the type known as a whodunnit.
Mr. Septimus Depping is found dead in his Gloucestershire country house, shot with his own gun and holding a card from the Tarot deck, the eight of Swords, which stands for \"condemning justice\". Among those present is an Anglican bishop who is an expert in criminology, and sees wanted criminals in every parlourmaid, and Henry Morgan, who writes exciting mystery novels under two different names. Mr. Depping turns out to have been an American criminal, and Gideon Fell must penetrate the secrets of his American associates as well as his British life in retirement in order to bring home the crime to the unlikely criminal.


# To Live (novel)
***To Live*** () is a novel written by Chinese novelist Yu Hua in 1993. It describes the struggles endured by the son of a wealthy land-owner, Fugui, while historical events caused and extended by the Chinese Revolution are fundamentally altering the nature of Chinese society. The contrast between his pre-revolutionary status as a selfish rich idler who (literally) travels on the shoulders of the downtrodden and his post-revolutionary status as a persecuted peasant is stark.
*To Live* is one of the most representative works by Yu Hua , which is also considered as the signal of his creative transformation in literature, from *Avant-garde*fiction to *Literary Realism*. The story begins with the narrator traveling through the countryside to collect folk songs and local legends and hears an old peasant\'s life story, which encompasses many significant historical events in China. Over the course of the story, the main character, Xu Fugui, witnesses the death of his family members and loved ones. The literature techniques Yu Hua applies in the story reveal both the struggles and hope of the ordinaries aroused sympathy and recognition from the public when it was published.
The book was originally published in the Shanghai literary journal *Harvest*. A film rendition, directed by Zhang Yimou, was released in 1994. The novel has also been adapted into a television series and stage play.
The novel has been translated into traditional Chinese, French, Dutch, Italian, Korean, German, Japanese, English, Swedish, Polish, Romanian, Mongolian, Hungarian, and Malayalam. The novel is translated to English by Michael Berry, who was a senior at Rutgers University, and who had sent a fax to the author expressing his fondness of the book and requesting permission to contribute to the English version of the novel.
Yu Hua was inspired and deeply moved by the American folk song 'Old Black Joe'. Despite experiencing hardships in life and the passing of his family, the enslaved Black person still looked upon the world with eyes of kindness, offering not the slightest complaint.


# To Live (novel)
This American slave song with the simplest lyrics formed the story of Fugui\'s life - a life imbued with upheavals and suffering, but also tranquillity and happiness. It was after listening to this song that Yu Hua decided to write his next novel *To Live*.The novel describes a series of tragedies based on the context, including Chinese civil war, the Land Reform, Great Leap Forward, Great Chinese Famine, Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns, and the Cultural Revolution. It allows the readers to see the cruelty of war, witnesses the deified Chinese political figures, thoughts, and movements. Covered by Mao\'s government propaganda, the deployed innovative farming techniques encountered failure and led to mass starvation and death, along with various political campaigns and struggles , ordinary people like Fugui, was the greatest casualties.
**The Narrator \"I\"**
A popular folk song collector who comes to the countryside where Fugui lives. He listens to Fugui's story and records the story.
**The Xu Family:**
- **Xu Fugui (徐福贵)**
The protagonist of the book. As the son of a landlord, Fugui spends his youth in a luxurious lifestyle and only devotes to gambling and interacting with prostitutes. After Fugui gambles away everything and goes through all the hardships, he becomes an honest and caring peasant. The story also talks about how events such as the Great Leap and Cultural Revolution have affected Fugui\'s and the Xu\'s life. At the end of the story, Fugui is alone with the only ox in the field.
Yu Hua commented Fugui as \"After going through much pain and hardship, Fugui is inextricably tied to the experience of suffering. So there is really no place for ideas like \"resistance\" in Fugui\'s mind---he lives simply to live. In this world I have never met anyone who has as much respect for life as Fugui. Although he has more reason to die than most people, he keeps on living.\"
- **Jiazhen (家珍)**


# To Live (novel)
Fugui\'s wife, Fengxia, and Youqing\'s mother. Jiazhen is the daughter of the rice merchant Chen Ji. After Fugui loses all family fortunes, Jiazhen leaves at the beginning. But after knowing Fugui quits gambling, she comes back to support Fugui, bears all hardships and hard work with Fugui, no matter what kind of challenge is in front of them. She is a kind-hearted and tenacious woman who has never made a complaint despite all the struggles and hardships, but she dies of soft bone disease under the loss of both her son and daughter.
- **Xu Fengxia (徐凤霞)**
Fugui and Jiazhen\'s daughter, Youqing's elder sister. Fengxia becomes deaf and mute because of a fever, but she is just as beautiful and kind-hearted as her mother. This diligent and caring girl later gets happily married to Erxi. However, only after a short period of happiness, she dies while giving birth to their son Kugen.
- **Xu Youqing (徐有庆)**
Fugui and Jiazhen\'s son. Because of the poor family situation, Youqing learns to take responsibility and help out the family as a child. The long distance between school and home makes him a great runner and makes his gym teacher loves him a lot. This kind boy later dies of donating too much blood to the magistrate's (Chunsheng) wife.
- **Wan Erxi (万二喜)**
Fengxia's husband. Erxi is a construction worker who has a crooked head. This quiet and honest man is deeply in love with his wife Fengxia, and after her death, he decides to only live for their son. Erxi later dies in a construction accident.
- **Kugen (苦根)**
Fengxia and Erxi's son. After both of his parents\' deaths, Kugen starts to live with his grandfather Fugui and still can not escape from poverty. He dies choking on beans Fugui prepared for him.
**Other Characters:**
- **Long Er (龙二)**


# To Live (novel)
A gambler who comes after the Japanese surrender. He takes Mr. Shen's place as the top gambler in the town. After Fugui loses all his property to him, he also takes away the Xu family's house. Long Er is finally executed during the Chinese Land Reform Movement as a landlord.
- **Chunsheng (春生)**
A young boy Fugui meets on the battlefield. Fugui and Chunsheng has good friendship with each other. He later becomes the county Magistrate. In order to save his wife, who is the principal of Youqing, students are forced to donate their blood. Youqing dies because of being taken too much blood. He tries so hard to achieve Fugui and Fengxia\'s forgiveness. In the later story, Chunsheng is labeled as anti-government. He then commits suicide during the Cultural Revolution.
- **Old Quan （老全）**
A veteran soldier Fugui meets in the cannon battalion. He used to be a deserter who ran away seven times. Though once he gets away from one unit, he can be captured by other units sooner than later. Old Quan, Fugui, and Chunsheng support each other when the unit is surrounded by the Liberation Army. He is killed by a straying bullet on the battlefield.
- **Team Leader**
The one who is in charge of the production and management of the village. He is implicated in the Cultural Revolution. He also is the matchmaker of Fengxia and Erxi's marriage.
- **\"FuGui\" The Ox**
This old ox Xu Fugui buys after begging for the butcher\'s mercy. Thus \"Fugui\" the ox, as a survivor of the butcher\'s knife, is actually a stand-in for Xu Fugui himself as a survivor of brutal reality and oppressions.
*To Live* includes 11 chapters in total and one preface from Yu Hua.
**Chapter 1**


# To Live (novel)
While collecting popular folk songs in the countryside, the narrator \"I\" meets an old man named Xu Fugui, who talks to a plowing ox. He yells the names of six or seven owsen with only one ox present, which makes me very curious. So \"I\" talk to him and start our conversation about his past story. As the son of the landlord, Fu Gui says he is a prodigal son of the Xu family. He spends most of his life in gambling dens and brothels. He also treats his pregnant wife Jia Zhen, badly. She kneels and begs Fu Gui to come home, and he chooses to have Jia Zhen thrown out.
**Chapter 2**
Eventually, Fugui loses his entire family fortune to Long Er. In order to pay off the debt, Fugui\'s father has to exchange their lands and house for copper cash and lets Fugui pick his way to pay off the gambling debt. Long Er became the owner of the lands and the house. Soon after moving out of their family house, Fugui\'s father, unfortunately, passes away. Jiazhen, with her unborn son, is then picked up by a carriage sent by her father, Fugui\'s father-in-law. Fengxia, Fugui\'s elder daughter, is left behind with the Xu\'s.
**Chapter 3**
To support his family, Fugui rents five mu of land from Long Er, the new landlord, and becomes a hardworking farmer. Fugui also meets the faithful old servant Changgen, who has become a beggar since the Xu\'s decline. But he still refuses to stay with Fugui\'s family. He gives Fengxia a gift once, and Fugui never sees him again after that. Finally, after a few months, Jiazhen comes back with her newborn son, Youqin. However, Fugui\'s mother then becomes ill, and on Fugui\'s way to seek medication for her, he is forcibly conscripted into the Nationalist Army.
**Chapter 4**


# To Live (novel)
In the military, Fugui suffers from hunger, cold, and death threat. He also witnesses the cruelty of Chinese Civil War with Chunsheng and Old Quan. After almost two years of conscription, Fugui was finally sent home by the Liberation Army. Upon returning home years later, Fugui learns that his mother has died months after Fugui entered the army. A high fever has left his daughter Fengxia deaf and mute. The land reform, the five mu of land Fugui rents before the war, is now owned by him. Long Er is executed as a landlord during the reform.
**Chapter 5**
To send Youqing to school, Fugui and Jiachen decide to give Fengxia away to the family interest in getting a daughter-in-law. Months later, Fengxia comes back on her own because she misses her family. And Fugui doesn\'t want her to go back anymore as he finds out how much he loves his daughter. In 1958, people\'s communes were established. Most of the family supplies and properties (land, livestock) are confiscated by the village. The Great Leap Forward also starts, villagers\' ironwares, including pots, are crackdowns to smelt iron.
**Chapter 6**
Jiazhen, unfortunately, gets \"soft bone\" disease, and her condition is gets worse day by day. She can hardly stand up and work. Meanwhile, Fugui\'s family accidentally manufactures steel and receives praise from the team leader.
**Chapter 7**
People\'s commune shuts down the dining hall, leading to starvation in the village and town. Many people can\'t even eat a grain of rice for months---Jiazhen\'s father supports the Xu\'s with a small bag of rice, along with grassroots and barks, the Xu\'s manages to survive.
**Chapter 8**
Things finally get better after the grain harvest. Though, to save the wife of the county magistrate from losing too much blood while giving birth, Youqin dies from the over-blood donation. When Fugui discovers that the magistrate is his old-time friend Chunsheng, he can\'t drive himself to get revenge anymore. Grieved Jiazhen also rejects Chunsheng\'s compensation for Youqing. Years later, Cultural Revolution starts.
**Chapter 9**


# To Live (novel)
Fengxia gets married to Erxi, who has a crooked head. However, he is a trustworthy and considerate man. Every one of the Xu\'s is happy with their marriage.
**Chapter 10**
As the cultural revolution grows more intense, the red guards punish the team leader and Chunsheng, the magistrate, as \"capitalist roaders\" accuse them of oppressing and belittling the people and peasants. Chunsheng sneaks to meet the Xu\'s once, and Jiazhen chooses to forgive him and ask him to hang on. \"You still owe us a life, hold on to your life to repay us.\" Though after a month of torturing, Chunsheng commits to suicide. After that, Fengxia and Erxi came back to serve old Fugui and Jiazhen. Fengxia then gives birth to her first son, Kugen.
**Chapter 11**
Fengxia dies in the delivery room because of hemorrhaging. Soon after that, Jiazhen passes away. Fugui moves into town and lives with Kugen and Erxi. When Kugen is four years old, Erxi is killed by two slabs of cement. Fugui then has to live with his only remaining family\-- grandson Kugen in the village till Kugen is seven. He chokes to death when eating beans. All by himself, Fugui saves up some money and buys an old ox from the butcher to accompany him, naming it \"Fugui\".
**The philosophy of life**
What people in *To Live* do throughout their lives is not to fight against tragic fate and suffering or die to prove the greatness and value of their lives; on the contrary, they obey and endure in silence and challenge death by staying alive with determination and glimmer of hope. At the end of the story, Fugui ends up with an old ox but still enjoys the rest of his life in peace and calm. Surviving from a catalog of misfortunes, Fugui\'s persistence, and self-relief after tragedies are valuable attitudes Yu Hua sees among ordinary lives.
*From Avant-garde* fiction to *Literary Realism.*


# To Live (novel)
Since the disintegration of the avant-garde novel, Yu Hua\'s novel writing has undergone significant changes. This change is marked by his three full-length novels, *Cries in the Drizzles*, *To Live*, and *Chronicle of a Blood Merchant.*
In the 1990s, Yu Hua\'s personal life underwent important changes. One of the most significant changes was the birth of his son. The sense of responsibility of becoming a father not only strengthened and enriched Yu Hua\'s understanding of \"lives\" but also became an opportunity for Yu Hua\'s creative transformation in the 1990s. *To Live* is a symbol of Yu Hua\'s transformation. By applying Realism to his work, Yu Hua was able to describe real-life in an observant and revealing form. Realism also enables him to describe realistic tragedies among lower classes during the special historical period in a more detailed and unembellished style.
From short stories to long ones, Yu Hua\'s stories have become more comprehensive. While dark humor is still a highlighting feature of his work, his focus has switched from blood and death to the reflection on the reality of society and the life of the general public. So his works of this period were well recognized by readers and received high praise.
Yu Hua uses a narrative style similar to zero-intervention to present the tragic beauty of \"To Live\". The author can exclude the subject from making explicit value judgments and emotional penetration of the suffering life, as if standing in a \"non-earthly position\" and objectively and calmly narrating the human suffering. The use of an objective and neutral narrative position with a warm and deep emotional tone in the text makes To Live a symbol of Yu Hua\'s stylistic transformation.


# To Live (novel)
The novel\'s use of symbolism is to use death to symbolize living. Few people may encounter the pain of sending away the gray-haired to the black-haired, and the gray-haired sending away the black-haired one by one may only be seen in fiction.The truth of art will make people believe that not only has there been a living Fugui in the world, but there will be many more in the future and invisibly anguishing in the dark side of society. In *To Live,* Yu Hua incorporates many of his concerns about the society and people, revealing those small but great people who struggle in the midst of it. At this time, Yu Hua\'s linguistic narrative has departed from objective and indifferent narration.
As Zhang Xuexin comments it, \"Yu Hua turned to a serious exploration of survival at that stage, and the novels of this period can be called \'survival novels\': they are \'grounded in the breadth and depth of the writer\'s thinking and imagination about the state of human existence \', showing both \'a picture of the human state \' and expressing \'the inner voice of the human soul in front of suffering and fate.\'\"In short, Yu Hua\'s creative turn at this stage is characterized by a shift from \"formal avant-grading\" to \"ordinaries\' survival\".
- Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2004)
- Grinzane Cavour Prize (1998)
**Film**
A film adaption (*To Live*) of this book starring well-known actors such as Gong Li and Ge You was released in 1994, premiering at the New York Film Festival, after numerous discussions between film director Zhang Yimou and the novelist author Yu Hua upon the proper film adaptation, keeping the plot within the frame of Yu Hua\'s artistic vision. Yu Hua has previously stated that he prefers his own novel to the film. The film changes the setting from rural southern China to a small city in northern China and added the element of shadow puppetry. The second narrator and the ox are not present in the film.To Live (1994 film)#cite note-Berry242-1\|1


# To Live (novel)
Michael Berry, the translator of the English edition of the novel *To Live*, has said that the novel has a \"darker and more existential\" message and a \"much more brutal\" reality and social critique, while the film renders the failure of Communist ideals and capitalist China as a more optimistic future.To Live (1994 film)#cite note-Berry242-1\|1 Berry says that the film \"allows more room for the hand of fate to hold sway.\"To Live (1994 film)#cite note-Berry242-1\|1 The movie was first banned in China and was not theatrically released because it was viewed by the government to be an anti-Communist campaign.
**Television Series**
On December 16, 2005, the 33-episode television series adaptation, *Fugui* *富贵* was broadcast on Chinese television. Directed by Zhu Zheng, the TV series features lesser-known actors and actresses such as Chen Chuang (陈创) as Fugui and Liu Mintao (刘敏涛) as Jiazhen.
**Stage Play**
Two decades after the novel\'s release, it was adapted into a stage play titled *To Live* 活着 directed by influential contemporary drama director, Meng Jinghui (孟京辉) and starring actors Huang Bo (黄渤) as Fugui and Yuan Quan (袁泉) as Jiazhen. The play premiered at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing between September 4, 2012 to September 9, 2012, and later made its way to cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei.


# Tros of Samothrace
***Tros of Samothrace*** is a fantasy historical novel by American writer Talbot Mundy. The story was composed of several novellas which were published originally in the American magazine *Adventure* during 1925 and 1926. It was published first together as a book during 1934 by Appleton-Century company.
Mundy dedicated *Tros of Samothrace* to his friend Rose Wilder Lane, who had funded its book publication.
The novel concerns the courageous adventures of the title character (a Greek from Samothrace) as he helps pre-Roman Britons fight the invading forces of Julius Caesar. Over the course of the novel, Tros travels from Britain to Spain, and finally the city of Rome itself.
The novel contains minor fantasy elements. One of the characters, Fflur, has the power of \"second sight\". The novel also imagines a benevolent secret society of mystics which includes the British Druids and the followers of the Greek
Samothracian Mysteries.
The original sequence of novellas was published as follows:
1.  \"Tros of Samothrace\", 10 February 1925 (later became chapters 1..14 of the novel)
2.  \"The Enemy of Rome\", 10 April 1925 (chapters 15..26)
3.  \"Prisoners of War\", 10 June 1925 (chapters 27..37)
4.  \"Hostages to Luck\", 20 August 1925 (chapters 38..51)
5.  \"Admiral of Caesar\'s Fleet\", 10 October 1925 (chapters 52..66)
6.  \"The Dancing Girl of Gades\", 10 December 1925 (chapters 67..81)
7.  \"Messenger of Destiny\", part 1, 10 February 1926 (chapters 82..87)
8.  \"Messenger of Destiny\", part 2, 20 February 1926 (chapters 88..92)
9.  \"Messenger of Destiny\", part 3, 28 February 1926 (chapters 93..96)
When *Tros of Samothrace* was published as four paperback volumes during 1967 and 1971, the divisions between volumes coincided with Mundy\'s own divisions:


# Tros of Samothrace
- *Tros* contains \"Tros of Samothrace\" and \"The Enemy of Rome\".
- *Helma* contains \"Prisoners of War\" and \"Hostages to Luck\".
- *Liafail* contains \"Admiral of Caesar\'s Fleet\" and \"The Dancing Girl of Gades\".
- *Helene* contains all three parts of \"Messenger of Destiny\".
When *Tros of Samothrace* was reissued as three paperback volumes during 1976, the divisions between volumes was partway through \"Prisoners of War\" and \"Admiral of Caesar\'s Fleet\".
Although the stories were popular with *Adventure\'s* readers, they also aroused debate due to the fact that Mundy described Julius Caesar and Roman civilization as imperialistic and tyrannical; *Adventure* editor Arthur Sullivant Hoffman later stated that the Tros stories were the most controversial the magazine had ever published. Mundy\'s negative depiction of Caesar resulted in controversy in *Adventure\'s* letters section, \"the Camp-Fire\". The debate on *Tros of Samothrace*\'s depiction of Caesar in the magazine featured contributions by writers such as Elmer Davis, Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, Hugh Pendexter and Arthur D. Howden Smith.
Fritz Leiber praised *Tros of Samothrace*, saying: \"The Tros stories made a great impression on me as a young man. I read and re-read them\...it was wonderful, imaginative writing\". Floyd C. Gale wrote during 1959 when reviewing a new edition of the book that it was \"Out of print far too long, here is one classic that still reads as if written yesterday \... An absolute *Must Buy* at this price\".
Picture of dust-cover by Lionel Dillon from the Gnome Press reprint.


# Little Brother (Doctorow novel)
***Little Brother*** is a novel by Cory Doctorow, published by Tor Books. It was released on April 29, 2008. The novel is about four teenagers in San Francisco who, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the San Francisco--Oakland Bay Bridge and BART system, defend themselves against the Department of Homeland Security\'s attacks on the Bill of Rights. The novel is available for free on the author\'s website under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA), keeping it accessible and remixable to all.
The book debuted at No. 9 on *The New York Times* Best Seller list, children\'s chapter book section, in May 2008. As of July 2, it had spent a total of six weeks on the list, rising to the No. 8 spot. *Little Brother* won the 2009 White Pine Award, the 2009 Prometheus Award. and the 2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. It also was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. *Little Brother* received the Sunburst Award in the young adult category.
*The New York Times* says, Little Brother\' isn\'t shy about its intent to disseminate subversive ideas to a young audience.\" The novel comes with two afterword essays by cryptographer and computer security specialist Bruce Schneier, and hacker Andrew \"bunnie\" Huang, and has a bibliography of techno-countercultural writings, from Jack Kerouac\'s \"On the Road\" to Schneier\'s \"Applied Cryptography\".
Hacker Peiter \'Mudge\' Zatko stated that the book is now used as training material for new NSA recruits in order to give them a different point of view.
- **Marcus Yallow** -- Main protagonist, a 17-year-old high school student who enjoys understanding technology and building his own custom devices. He is the leader of his foursome of friends.
- **Darryl Glover** -- Marcus\' best friend who attends the same high school as Marcus and is Marcus\' second-in-command and the \"details man\" of the group. He has had a crush on Van for years.
Marcus on limited edition cover


# Little Brother (Doctorow novel)
- **Vanessa Pak (Van)** -- 17-year-old Korean American girl who attends a nearby all-girls Catholic school, she is the \"ideas\" person of the group. She has been attracted to Marcus for a long time, but doesn\'t admit it until the end of the book. Her parents managed to escape from North Korea.
- **Jose Luis Torrez (Jolu)** -- A brilliant high school student at a nearby Catholic school, he is the technical member of the group. Even though everyone in the group is technically competent, he is the most technology-oriented, doing his own programming, and working for a local ISP. He is somewhat vain and seems to work at being cool.
- **Drew Yallow** -- Marcus\' father who has a stormy relationship with Marcus through most of the book. Scared by the thought of Marcus having died during the bombing because Marcus has been missing for three days, he supports the tactics that the DHS employs. This leads to many arguments with Marcus despite his former mindset that was similar to Marcus\'.
- **Lillian Yallow** -- Marcus\' mother, British expatriate, who helps newly immigrated Britons integrate into American life. She and Marcus have a strong bond and seem to think alike. She is a strong woman and helps mediate Marcus\' fights with his father.
- **Charles Walker** -- Also a student at the same high school as Marcus and Darryl, he is the antithesis of Marcus. He is a bully, a brown noser and a snitch. He and Marcus have a long-standing feud and detest each other.
- **Carrie Johnstone (Severe Haircut Lady)** -- Main antagonist and in charge of the DHS that is monitoring San Francisco. She is a cold sadistic woman to whom the ends always justify the means and enjoys abusing her power.
- **Angela Carvelli (Ange)** -- She attends the same high school as Van and develops into Marcus\' love interest, when she first meets him at a party. She is an active member of the Xnet and is very strong-willed, and independent. She\'s known to use pepper spray as a condiment.
- **Ms. Galvez** -- A social studies teacher at Cesar Chavez High School, she is seen as a dedicated teacher and an independent thinker. She seems to be the only teacher that Marcus respects at his school. She tends to agree with Marcus on topics of security and Marcus helps her with contacting her brother, who\'s an overseas soldier, via internet.
- **Barbara Stratford** -- Investigative reporter for the *Bay Guardian*, who helps Marcus expose what the DHS has been doing.
- **Masha** -- A DHS operative who attempts to help Marcus escape the city. Marcus meets her briefly in the beginning of the novel when she threatens to expose him for skipping school while ARGing. He also meets up with Masha in the end in the midst of their escape, he finds a photo of his friend Darryl and his position on running away is changed. Therefore, he escapes from Masha after beating her up and smashing her fingers in a truck door.
- **Zeb** -- A former detainee of DHS\'s \"Gitmo-by-the-Bay\", he manages to escape and attempts to disappear after contacting Marcus about Darryl and the current status of the prison.


# Little Brother (Doctorow novel)
Marcus Yallow is a 17-year-old hacker/techno whiz from San Francisco. One day Marcus and his best friend Darryl play truant from school to play an Alternate Reality Game. A terrorist attack is perpetrated against the city, and the four are captured and detained under suspicion of terrorism.
After a series of interrogations that take place over a period of six days, Marcus, Jolu, and Vanessa are finally released; Darryl\'s whereabouts are unknown. The DHS tells Marcus that they will be monitoring his actions and moves because he is still a suspect. Marcus is \"infuriated at how his civil rights are ignored.\"
In response to the increasing surveillance of the city and its citizens, Marcus creates Xnet, a private mesh network intended to allow people to communicate freely while fighting \"the surveillance state.\" Through XNet, using his pseudonym \'Mik3y\', Marcus encourages his peers to rebel against the DHS surveillance.
While introducing a group to Cryptography during a key signing party, Marcus meets Ange, and shortly thereafter they begin to date.
When a former prisoner who was held by the DHS tells Marcus that Darryl is still alive, Marcus tells a reporter and his family about his actions taken against the DHS. The journalist\'s story is then published and the DHS takes Marcus into custody again. On order from the governor, California highway patrol troopers raid the DHS compound during a waterboarding interrogation and arrest the DHS agents. Darryl is subsequently freed and Marcus, after his parents have to pay his bail to make sure he doesn\'t go to prison, finally returns to his life the way it was before the terrorist attacks.
*Little Brother* has major themes that, according to some, are too serious for a young adult novel. In an interview, the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy asked Doctorow about his \"potentially heavy themes, including paranoia, loyalty, sex, torture, and fear\" and when his editing staff asked to censor the themes, he replied, \"Oh, no.\"
*The Hollywood Reporter* remarked, \"The book tackles many themes, including civil liberties and social activism\".


# Little Brother (Doctorow novel)
According to journalist April Spisak\'s article on \"What Makes a Good Young Adult Dystopian Novel?\" Spisak claims, \"Cory Doctorow's Little Brother probably represents the purest example on the list---modern technology meets classic dystopic elements---even while the book itself is part instructional guide, part love story, and part rant at the increasingly dictatorial powers-that-be that consider safety at any cost a reasonable exchange. Small personal victories for the protagonist and his friends are present, but the power of Big Brother is hardly tempered by their work, and the folks who tangled with the government are all permanently scarred by the encounter.\"
The book has also been characterized as \"expressing astonishment, fear, uncertainty, shame, and guilt\" and addressing \"issues of political authority, social order, individual freedom and electronic security.\"
*Little Brother* takes place in the \"near future rather than decades or centuries away.\" *Little Brother* also makes use of \"obvious parallels to Orwellian warnings and post 9/11 policies.\"


# Little Brother (Doctorow novel)
### Novel
Cindy Dobrez in her review for *Booklist* said that \"Doctorow's novel blurs the lines between current and potential technologies, and readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution. Obvious parallels to Orwellian warnings and post-9/11 policies, such as the Patriot Act, will provide opportunity for classroom discussion and raise questions about our enthusiasm for technology, who monitors our school library collections, and how we contribute to our own lack of privacy.\"
*Kirkus Reviews* described it as an \"unapologetically didactic tribute to *1984*\", and called it a \"Terrifying glimpse of the future---or the present.\"
*Publishers Weekly* said that it was \"filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract gait-recognition cameras, RFID\'s (radio frequency ID tags), wireless Internet tracers and other surveillance devices, this work makes its admittedly didactic point within a tautly crafted fictional framework.\"
*Institute of Public Affairs* says that \"Doctorow, like many freedom-fighting writers before him likes his women smart and strong. Male or female, freedom-loving writers tend to like writing strong female characters, often protagonists.\"

### News coverage
In 2014, a high school principal in Pensacola, Florida, Michael Roberts, pulled *Little Brother* from his school\'s summer reading list because the book is \"about questioning authority\" and portrays questioning authority \"as a positive thing.\"; however it was kept on the list for advanced placement and grade 11 honors students. Roberts also described Cory Doctorow, a Canadian author living in England, as \"an outsider to the George W. Bush administration.\" In response, his publisher sent 200 copies of the book directly to the school.

### Play
In early 2012, it was announced that the novel *Little Brother* written by Cory Doctorow will be made into a play directed by Josh Costello called *Little Brother*. The play was augmented with animated video projections, an original score by Chris Houston and original choreography by Daunielle Rasmussen.
*Marin Independent* said that *Little Brother* is \"required watching!\'


# Little Brother (Doctorow novel)
### Play
Charlie Jane Anders of *io9* praised the *Little Brother* play: \"I was lucky enough to catch a preview performance of the Custom Made Theatre Co.\'s new stage adaptation of Cory Doctorow\'s award-winning novel *Little Brother* the other day---and it was a total marvel. Somehow, writer/director Josh Costello managed to condense the novel down to a two-hour play, without losing any of the impact. If anything, the staged version hits a bit harder than the book, because of the intense, but not overstated, performances.\"
According to *TheatreStorm*, \"Costello has wisely tightened Doctorow's book to three main characters. On a nearly empty stage, Costello utilizes video and sound effects superbly, creating multiple San Francisco locations, mass demonstrations, press conferences, online experiences and coaching his actors to create multiple characterizations as necessary. This is the best kind of political theatre. Thought provoking, suspenseful, emotionally real, uncomfortably close to the hard truth.\"

### Film
The novel has also been the subject of a possible movie. The production company AngryFilms has optioned *Little Brother* \"with the aim of translating it to the big screen.\"
In September 2015, Doctorow announced on his blog that *Little Brother* had been optioned by Paramount with Don Murphy as the producer.


# Little Brother (Doctorow novel)
### Film
Each chapter of the e-book edition of *Little Brother* is dedicated to a different bookstore: Bakka-Phoenix (a Toronto sci-fi/fantasy bookstore where Doctorow used to be employed), Amazon.com, Borderlands Books, Barnes & Noble, Secret Headquarters, Powell\'s City of Books, Books of Wonder, Borders, Compass Books/Books Inc., Anderson\'s Bookshops, University Book Store at the University of Washington, Forbidden Planet, Books-A-Million, Mysterious Galaxy, Chapters/Indigo Books, Booksmith, Waterstone\'s, Sophia Books, MIT Press Bookshop, The Tattered Cover, Pages Books, and Hudson Booksellers.
In reference to *Little Brother*, Cory Doctorow has stated that \"the enemy is obscurity, not piracy.\" His book *Little Brother* is available on his website for free, which is provided in a variety of formats.
On June 20, 2012, Doctorow posted the cover art of the sequel to *Little Brother*, titled *Homeland*. An excerpt of the book\'s opening, set at the Burning Man festival, was posted the next month on the Tor Books website. *Homeland* was released in hardback, and for download under a Creative Commons license on Doctorow\'s website, in February 2013.
On September 8, 2020, Doctorow announced that the third book in the *Little Brother* series, *Attack Surface*, would be released \"in five weeks\".


# Ivan the Terrible (novel)
***Ivan the Terrible*** is a children\'s novel by Anne Fine, published in 2007. It won the Nestlé Children\'s Book Prize Silver Award.
It is Ivan\'s first day of school. He can only speak Russian and it\'s Boris\'s job to look after him and translate for him. St Edmund\'s is a civilized school, but Ivan isn\'t civilized. Boris knows that he is going to have trouble teaching Ivan.
Chris Stephenson, of *Carousel*, reviewed the book saying \"To work successfully, the book required a delicate balancing-act and Anne Fine, a consummate high-wire performer, doesn\'t put a foot wrong.\" Vanessa Curtis, of *The Herald*, reviewed the book saying \"\"Fine\'s writing is comic, her characters are well-drawn and there is a neat twist at the end\...\" Nicolette Jones, of *Sunday Times*, reviewed the book saying \"\...delightfully spiky\... \...irreverent comedy\...\"


# Mauprat (novel)
***Mauprat*** is a novel about love and education by the French novelist George Sand. It was published in serial form in the French literary magazine from April to June 1837. Like many of Sand\'s novels, *Mauprat* borrows from various fictional genres: the Gothic novel, chivalric romance, the *Bildungsroman*, detective fiction, and the historical novel.
The novel\'s plot has been called a plot of female socialization, in which the hero is taught by the heroine how to live peacefully in society. *Mauprat* resembles the fairy tale *Beauty and the Beast*. As this would suggest, the novel is a romance. However, Sand resists the immediate happy ending of marriage between the two main characters in favor of a more gradual story of education, including a reappraisal of the passive female role in courtship and marriage. Sand also calls into question Rousseau\'s ideal version of the female education as described in his novel *Emile*, namely, training women for domesticity and the home.
The novel, set before the French Revolution, depicts the coming of age of a nobleman named Bernard Mauprat. The story is narrated by the old Bernard in his country home many years later, as told to a nameless young male visitor. Bernard recounts how, raised by a violent gang of his feudal kinsmen after the death of his mother, he becomes a brutalized \"\". When his cousin Edmée is held captive by Bernard\'s \"family\", he helps her escape, but elicits a promise of marriage from her by threatening rape. Thus begins the long courtship of Bernard and Edmée. The novel ends with a dramatic trial scene, similar to that in Stendhal\'s *The Red and the Black*.


# Mauprat (novel)
During the period Sand wrote the novel, she was gradually becoming more interested in the problem of political equality in society. She had read widely about the views of socialist thinkers such as Pierre Leroux, with whom she went on to form a journal, the . In keeping with Sand\'s interest in equality, *Mauprat* depicts a new type of literary figure, the peasant visionary Patience. In addition, part of the novel takes place during the American Revolutionary War.
*Mauprat* was serialized in four parts in the French literary magazine from April to June 1837. It was published as a two-volume collected edition by Félix Bonnaire in August of the same year. The novel has been translated into English several times, including translations by Matilda M. Hays in 1847, Virginia Vaughan in 1870, Henrietta E. Miller in 1891, Stanley Young in 1902, and Sylvia Raphael in 1997.
American author Henry James called *Mauprat* a \"solid, masterly, manly book\".
Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinsky praised the novel for its \"profound and poetic idea, that of a strong, intelligent, beautiful woman raising a man above his bestial passions\". According to Columbia University\'s Lesley Singer Herrmann, Belinsky\'s opinion of *Mauprat* \"set the tone for Sand\'s reception in Russia in the 1840s and 50s, where she was proclaimed the \'advocate of women as Schiller had been the advocate of humanity.\'\"
The French women\'s magazine *Elle* similarly hailed *Mauprat* as Sand\'s \"feminist manifesto\" in 2021 for its frank depiction of sexual harassment and violence towards women, centuries before the Me Too movement.


# Mauprat (novel)
Literary scholar Patricia Thomson argued that *Mauprat* influenced Emily Brontë\'s 1847 novel *Wuthering Heights*. She noted that both stories take place in the 1770s; contain \"uninhibited \... references to the devil, hell, and damnation\"; use \"two houses to represent opposing ways of life\"; and recount \"the obsessive devotion of one man for one woman, which lasted not only for life but beyond the grave\". Thomson stated that \"the parallels and connections are there in profusion and I myself have little doubt that *Mauprat* formed part of the literary -- and therefore, living -- experience on which Emily Brontë drew.\"
*Mauprat* was adapted into a silent film with the same title by French director Jean Epstein in 1926. Luis Buñuel was assistant director on this film; it was his first film credit. The novel was also adapted into a film for television by French director in 1972.


# The Nemesis of Faith
***The Nemesis of Faith*** is an epistolary philosophical novel by James Anthony Froude published in 1849. Partly autobiographical, the novel depicts the causes and consequences of a young priest\'s crisis of faith. Like many of his contemporaries, Froude came to question his Christian faith in light of early nineteenth century developments in history, theology, and science. Froude was particularly influenced by the Catholic teachings of the Oxford Movement and by the new approach to religious scholarship developed by the German Higher Critics.
The novel consists primarily of protagonist Markham Sutherland\'s account of the development of his religious ideas and doubts, followed by a brief narrative in which Sutherland\'s lack of faith leads him and his lover to tragic ends. The novel was condemned by English religious figures and publicly burned by William Sewell; this led to Froude\'s resignation of his fellowship at Oxford University.
The novel\'s reception amongst literary reviewers was mixed; while writers such as George Eliot professed profound admiration, others such as Thomas Carlyle were harshly critical. Although no longer widely read as a literary work, it remains significant in intellectual history for its accounts of Victorian scepticism and the Oxford Movement.
The story of Markham Sutherland is presented through various letters, journals, and the third-person account of the novel\'s supposed editor, Arthur. Sutherland, under pressure from his father to become a clergyman, confesses to Arthur his reservations about accepting the Thirty-Nine Articles and contemporary English Christianity in general. In particular, Sutherland is concerned about the depiction of God in the Old Testament, God\'s patronage of the Israelites on non-moral grounds, the doctrine of Eternal Punishment, and the supposed inerrancy of the Bible. Sutherland was profoundly influenced by John Henry Newman in his early years, but was ultimately unable to accept Newman\'s doctrines. Sutherland also seeks guidance in the writings of Victorian historian and sage Thomas Carlyle (who was Froude\'s chief intellectual influence in later years), but finds no solutions. Tormented by his doubts and subsequent alienation from his family, Sutherland becomes morbidly depressed.


# The Nemesis of Faith
On Arthur\'s advice, Sutherland takes orders, hoping that his doubts will eventually pass when he enters a more active life. Because of the selectivity of his sermons, however, his parishioners begin to suspect him of Socinianism. When Sutherland is tricked into making a harsh criticism of the British and Foreign Bible Society, claiming that the text of the Bible without clerical guidance is more likely to lead to wickedness than to Christian faith and virtue, his doubts are revealed, and he is forced to resign his position.


# The Nemesis of Faith
Sutherland travels to Como to rest and recover from illness, indulging in free religious speculation while there. He befriends Helen Leonard, who sympathises with his troubles and listens to his doubts. Helen\'s dull, unloving husband prefers to spend time away from his wife, and leaves her in Sutherland\'s company for the season. Helen and Sutherland fall in love, causing both great anxiety, although the relationship never becomes physical. The two consider eloping, but Helen decides she cannot leave her daughter, Annie. During this conversation, however, the unsupervised Annie dips her arm into the lake, causing her to fall ill and die soon after. Sutherland again becomes depressed, believing that his religious speculations have brought himself and Helen into sin. He plans suicide, but is stopped at the last moment by an old friend, representative of John Henry Newman. Sutherland retires to a monastery, although his repentance is short lived, and he dies still in doubt. Helen, meanwhile, separates from her husband and retires to a convent, although she is unreconciled with the Church because she maintains that her love for Sutherland is holier than her marriage.
The novel\'s primary interest comes from its depiction of Sutherland\'s religious doubts, which arise from the weakness of a faith based on empirically false historical claims, \"old-wives\' tales\" taken for truth. Instead, Sutherland aims to follow \"not *the Christian religion*, but *the religion of Christ*,\" spirituality without dogma. However, Froude was not fully satisfied with this formulation, and the Sutherland-Helen plot illustrates the idea that religious speculation and infidelity inevitably lead to immorality.
*The Nemesis of Faith* raised a scandal at its first release, being referred to as \"a manual of infidelity\" in the *Morning Herald.* It was publicly burned by William Sewell in his class at Exeter College. Soon after, Froude resigned his fellowship at Oxford.


# The Nemesis of Faith
*The Nemesis of Faith* also drew criticism on literary grounds as being melodramatic and sentimental. Froude himself wrote to his friend Charles Kingsley that \"I cut a hole in my heart and wrote with the blood\". Thomas Carlyle complained of the novel \"Froude ought to consume his own smoke and not trouble other people\'s nostrils.\" Although recent critics tend to be more positive about the novel\'s depiction of Sutherland\'s speculative crisis, they have maintained the weakness of the ending, attributing it to Froude\'s inability to come to terms with his own doubts.
By contrast, the novel was positively reviewed by such literary figures as George Eliot and Mrs. Humphrey Ward, whose 1888 novel *Robert Elsmere* was significantly influenced by the novel and by Froude\'s life. In a review in the *Coventry Herald* Eliot wrote that in reading *The Nemesis of Faith* \"we seem to be in companionship with a spirit who is transfusing himself into our souls, and so vitalising them by his superior energy, that life, both outward and inward, presents itself to us in higher relief, in colours brightened and deepened.\"
In an effort to reconcile with Oxford, Froude refused to allow republication of *The Nemesis of Faith* following its second edition, and in 1858 he formally repudiated the novel.
The 1840s were a turbulent decade in the Church of England. Following the earlier German Higher Critics, who argued for a historical approach to religious texts, David Strauss published *Leben Jesu* or *The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined* which argued that the events of the New Testament were not historical but rather mythical. In 1846 George Eliot published an English translation of *Leben Jesu* which became a source of religious doubts for Froude and many of his contemporaries. Critics have also identified Thomas Carlyle\'s 1836 novel *Sartor Resartus* and Spinoza as sources of Sutherland\'s doubts, and those of many of his contemporaries.


# The Nemesis of Faith
Meanwhile, the Oxford Movement, headed by John Henry Newman as well as Froude\'s brother Richard Hurrell Froude, was attacking the Church\'s move towards liberalism and secularism, advocating instead a greater emphasis on Catholic doctrine. The Movement provided a serious challenge to Protestant beliefs, with Newman later converting to Roman Catholicism. Although Froude was devoted to Newman for several years, and maintained a sentimental affection for the man (which he expressed in his essays on Newman and the Oxford Movement), he ultimately repudiated his beliefs.
The novel was influenced by Goethe\'s 1809 novel *Elective Affinities*, which Froude later translated and published anonymously. Froude borrowed much of his novel\'s ending from Goethe, and also used the scientific metaphor underlying Goethe\'s novel to illustrate the relation of an individual to the church.
- Apostasy


# The Bell (novel)
***The Bell*** is a novel by Iris Murdoch. Published in 1958, it was her fourth novel. It is set in a lay religious community situated next to an enclosed community of Benedictine nuns in Gloucestershire.
The setting is Imber Court, a country house in Gloucestershire that is the home of a small Anglican lay religious community. It is situated next to Imber Abbey, a convent belonging to an enclosed community of Benedictine nuns. The owner of Imber Court and the community\'s de facto leader is Michael Meade, a former schoolmaster in his late 30s. The community supports itself by a market garden.
The novel begins with the journey of Dora Greenfield from London to Imber by train. Dora is a young former art student who is married to the difficult and demanding Paul Greenfield, an art historian who is staying at Imber Court as a guest while studying 14th-century manuscripts belonging to the Abbey. Dora left her husband six months earlier, but he has persuaded her to return to him. On the same train are Toby Gashe, an 18-year-old boy who has just finished school and is going to spend a few weeks as a guest at Imber Court before starting university, and James Tayper Pace, a community member who formerly ran a settlement house and led youth groups in the East End of London.
Among the community members is Catherine Fawley, a young woman who is preparing to enter the convent as a nun. Her twin brother, Nick, is living at Imber Court\'s lodge. Nick is a troubled and troublesome character, often drunk, who has been invited to Imber Court at the request of his sister in the hope that the spiritual surroundings will be of benefit to him. Fourteen years earlier Michael, then a schoolmaster with aspirations to the priesthood, had been in love with his teenaged pupil Nick. The relationship was unconsummated and apparently mutual, but Nick informed the school\'s headmaster. As a result, Michael lost his job and did not see Nick again until he came to stay at Imber Court, where the two do not acknowledge having known each other in the past.


# The Bell (novel)
The Abbey, which is separated from the Court by a lake, has a bell tower but lacks a bell. Shortly after her arrival Paul tells Dora of a centuries-old legend that the original 12th-century bell flew out of the bell tower and plunged into the lake after a nun broke her vows by receiving a lover in the Abbey. A new bell is being manufactured and will be arriving soon. It will be taken first to Imber Court for a christening ceremony to be performed by the Bishop, and then taken over a causeway across the lake to be installed in the Abbey.
After a few days Michael takes Toby with him to a nearby town to pick up a mechanical cultivator which the community has purchased for use in the market garden. They have dinner in a pub, where Michael drinks too much cider, and on the drive back Michael realizes that he is attracted to Toby, whom he impulsively kisses when they arrive home. Toby is shocked, and Michael is remorseful and later apologizes to Toby, who agrees to say nothing about the incident.
Toby, a keen swimmer and diver, discovers a large object submerged in the lake and concludes that it is a bell, although he has not heard the legend. When he tells Dora what he has found she decides that they should recover the bell and surreptitiously substitute it for the new one. She persuades Toby to go along with the plan, and he uses a tractor to pull the bell from the lake and hide it in an outbuilding in preparation for making the switch the night before the ceremony. However the plan fails, as Toby is prevented from meeting Dora by an encounter with Nick. Nick tells Toby that he saw Michael kiss him, and accuses him of flirting with both Michael and Dora. After winning a physical struggle between the two, Nick sends Toby to confess to James Tayper Pace.


# The Bell (novel)
As the new bell is being carried across the causeway for its ceremonial entrance into the Abbey, it falls into the lake. It is later discovered that the causeway has been sabotaged, and Nick is suspected. Catherine runs away and tries to drown herself in the lake. Dora tries to save her, but she cannot swim, and both women are rescued by a nun who has observed the incident from the Abbey side of the lake. When Michael arrives on the scene it becomes evident that Catherine is in love with him and is having a mental breakdown. The following day Catherine is taken to a clinic in London, James confronts Michael with the news of Toby\'s confession, and Nick commits suicide. In the aftermath of these events, the community is dissolved. Toby goes up to Oxford University and Dora once again leaves Paul and resumes her art studies.
A major theme is the yearning for a spiritual life in a materialistic age, which the Imber Court community tries to achieve by partially separating itself from the secular world. Imber Court is intended as a refuge for \"half-contemplative\" people who \"cannot find a work which satisfies them in the ordinary world\".
The community members\' spiritual pride is the source of much of the novel\'s humour, as when an officious community member lets Dora know that she has inadvertently broken a rule against bringing fresh flowers into the house. On the other hand, the unreligious outsider Dora, who is looked down upon by the community members, is the only character whose real and nonjudgemental interest in other people allows her to glimpse Catherine Fawley\'s inner turmoil. In a similar vein, Michael realizes too late that he has been too concerned with his own spiritual well-being to run the risk of trying to help Nick.
The nature of virtue, another major theme, is the subject of two Sunday talks given to the community by James and Michael. James insists that people should strive for perfection by unquestioning observance of a strict moral code, a view which has the attraction of simplicity. Michael, on the other hand, leaves more room for human frailty and suggests moral improvement, rather than perfection, as a reasonable goal.


# The Bell (novel)
Michael Meade\'s secret homosexuality is an important aspect of the novel, which was published only one year after the Wolfenden report recommended the decriminalization of private homosexual acts involving consenting adults. His homosexuality is presented without \"fanfare or politics\" as one variety of love. Murdoch was notable for her sympathetic portrayal of homosexuals, and after *The Bell* at least one gay character appeared in each of her novels .
The novel\'s structure is characterized by numerous sets of doubles and \"contrastive pairs\", including the twins Nick and Catherine Fawley, the new and old bells, the two communities at Imber Court and Imber Abbey, and the two confessions by Nick and Toby, both of whom are loved by Michael but betray him. These pairs, which contribute a \"pleasing symmetry\" to the plot, have also been analysed in terms of Murdoch\'s Platonic view of reality.
Music of various kinds appears frequently and sound is an important image throughout. The sounds include the songs of birds in the forest, which are heard in several scenes, and the bird imitations by one of the community members. The nuns are heard singing in their chapel and some of the Imber Court community sing madrigals and listen to Bach recordings, which Dora dislikes, although she later comes to enjoy Mozart.
*The Bell*, Iris Murdoch\'s fourth novel, was published in 1958 by Chatto & Windus in Great Britain and Viking Press in the United States. It was an immediate popular and commercial success, with 30,000 copies of the British edition printed within ten weeks of its publication.


# The Bell (novel)
The novel was widely and positively reviewed. *The Times*, while remarking that Murdoch tended to \"explain exhaustively rather than to indicate imaginatively\", described *The Bell* as \"a story which is running over with purpose and intelligence\" and \"a joy to read\". Writing in *The Spectator*, Frank Kermode called it \"a very notable achievement\". He noted changes in her style over the course of her four published books, and an increased interest in placing her stories \"in some large pattern of related meanings\". Elizabeth Bowen described the book as \"a masterpiece of direct narrative\", both \"more remarkable\" and \"more orthodox\" than her previous books, but retaining Murdoch\'s characteristic \"dynamic strangeness\". In *The New York Times*, Gilbert Millstein described *The Bell* as \"an addition of consistent excellence\" to her body of work. His review noted thematic parallels with Mary McCarthy\'s 1949 novel *The Oasis*. Writing in *Partisan Review*, Irving Howe found the novel as a whole unrealistic and overly symbolic, but praised Murdoch\'s ability to write \"convincingly, without rant or affectation\" about love, including homosexual love, which he described as a \"rare novelistic gift\".
Scholars have analysed *The Bell* in terms of its relationship to Murdoch\'s philosophical thought. In the 1950s she published several essays opposing the currently dominant schools of analytic philosophy and existentialism. *The Bell* can be seen as symbolically demonstrating the shortcomings of both views, with the rule-bound Imber Court community representing analysis with its insistence on publicly observable behaviour as the essence of morality, while the unruly and self-absorbed Nick represents Existential Man. Peter Conradi notes that *The Bell* is \"her first novel to be fuelled by Platonism, in which Good substitutes for God, and any authentic spiritual tradition, including appreciation of the visual arts \... provides a means of ascent\".


# The Bell (novel)
Both Conradi and A. S. Byatt contrast and compare *The Bell* with Murdoch\'s 1963 novel *The Unicorn*. Conradi sees them both as \"toy(ing) with the sublime\", which \"has at its heart the disharmony between mind and world\", while for Byatt the novels are related to each other by their treatment of religious themes.

### Television
*The Bell* was adapted as a four-part television miniseries by Reg Gadney. Directed by Barry Davis with music by Marc Wilkinson, it appeared on BBC Two beginning on 13 January 1982. The cast included Ian Holm as Michael Meade, Tessa Peake-Jones as Dora Greenfield, and Michael Maloney as Toby Gashe.

### Radio
A three-part adaptation of *The Bell* by Michael Bakewell was broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 series *Classic Serial* in November 1999. Among the cast were Cathryn Bradshaw as Dora and Jamie Bamber as Toby.


# Chain of Attack
***Chain of Attack*** is a 1987 *Star Trek: The Original Series* novel written by Gene DeWeese.
While mapping gravitational anomalies, the USS *Enterprise* is hurled millions of light-years off course. They find themselves in a galaxy devastated by war and soon they are under attack by both warring fleets. Captain Kirk risks his ship and crew in order to stop the war and get home.
*Chain of Attack* reached 12 on the New York Times bestseller list on February 22, 1987.
The novel has been adapted into a fan-made film, Star Trek: Infinite Chain, which can be viewed on YouTube.


# The Final Nexus
***The Final Nexus*** is a 1988 *Star Trek: The Original Series* novel written by Gene DeWeese.
In this sequel to *Chain of Attack*, the *Enterprise* must deal with an ancient series of warp-gates, now malfunctioning, that threatens to tear apart the galaxy.
*The Final Nexus* reached 12 on the New York Times bestseller list on December 11, 1988.


# Madame Doubtfire
***Madame Doubtfire**\'\', known as***Alias Madame Doubtfire**\'\' in the United States, is a 1987 novel written by English author Anne Fine for teenage and young adult audiences. The novel is based on a family with divorced parents. Well received upon its publication in the UK, it was shortlisted for awards, including the Guardian Children\'s Fiction Prize and Whitbread Children\'s Book Award.
In November 1993, six years after its publication, the novel was adapted into *Mrs. Doubtfire*, a film starring Robin Williams and Sally Field.
Daniel and Miranda Hillard are separated and Miranda, a successful businesswoman, severely limits the amount of time Daniel, an impractical, out-of-work actor, is allowed to spend with their three children Lydia, Christopher and Natalie.
When Miranda decides to hire a nanny, however, Daniel disguises himself as a woman and gets the job. Lydia and Christopher immediately know who \"Madame Doubtfire\" is, but Natalie and Miranda are fooled. Daniel uses his disguise to spend time with his children. Miranda comments that the house has never been run better.
After Miranda discovers Daniel\'s secret---and after one more terrible fight---both parents admit to mistakes and make arrangements for Daniel to see his children more often.
- 1987: Guardian Children\'s Fiction Prize (shortlist)
- 1987: Observer Teenage Fiction Prize (shortlist)
- 1987: Whitbread Children\'s Book Award (shortlist)
The feature film adaptation was produced by 20th Century Fox (with a budget of \$25 million) and was released on 24 November 1993. The adaptation was directed by Chris Columbus, and written by Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon. Robin Williams played the eponymous character, and Sally Field played his wife Miranda.
In the film, his disguise includes a prosthetic mask, which is so convincing that no one in his family recognizes him at first. Greg Cannom, Ve Neill, and Yolanda Toussieng received the Academy Award for Best Makeup for creating *Mrs. Doubtfire*. Grossing \$441.3 million worldwide, it became the second-highest-grossing film of 1993, behind only *Jurassic Park.*
- *Avvai Shanmughi*
- *Chachi 420*


# Saturn's Children (novel)
***Saturn\'s Children*** is a 2008 science fiction novel by British author Charles Stross. Stross called it \"a space opera and late-period Robert A. Heinlein\|Robert A. Heinlein tribute\", specifically to Heinlein\'s 1982 novel *Friday*.
The novel was nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 2009 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was a finalist for the 2009 Prometheus Award. An audiobook version narrated by Bianca Amato was released in 2009.
The novel chronicles the travels and perils of Freya Nakamichi-47, a gynoid in a distant future in which humanity is extinct and a near-feudal android society has spread throughout the galaxy. Wealthy and self-indulgent \"aristos\" own and have enslaved most of the populace; the remaining \"free\" androids struggle to keep themselves independent and can rarely afford the exorbitant costs of interplanetary travel. Freya, a robotic courtesan originally designed to please humans but activated a century after their mysterious extinction, is considered obsolete and works menial jobs to survive. When she offends an aristo and needs to escape off-world, she accepts a job as a courier for the mysterious Jeeves Corporation and becomes embroiled in a complex and dangerous war among factions conspiring against each other for control of society.
*Saturn\'s Children* is an homage to the works of Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, in particular Heinlein\'s 1982 novel *Friday*. The novel opens with an explanation of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, and then establishes that humans are extinct. Jesse Willis of SFFaudio.com commented:
*Bookmarks* magazine called the novel \"a commentary on identity and free will in a post-human galaxy\", adding:


# Saturn's Children (novel)
*Booklist* praised *Saturn\'s Children* as "one of the most stylishly imaginative robot tales ever penned\", and *The Times* described it as \"a smart and playful romp." The *San Diego Union-Tribune* called the novel "Good fun \... Heinlein himself would've liked this." Calling it an \"erotic futuristic thriller\", *Publishers Weekly* pointed out that the novel contains \"a deep message of how android slavery recapitulates humanity\'s past mistakes\", but also suggests that Stross \"struggles to make it heard over the moans and gunshots\". Adrienne Martini of the *Baltimore City Paper* wrote that \"Stross seems to be saying something about identity and class, but those larger ideas get buried in a labyrinthine plot that isn't overly satisfying on its own,\" adding that \"for a Heinlein fan, *Saturn's Children* is an interesting game of spot the reference.\" Jesse Willis of SFFaudio.com wrote:
*Saturn\'s Children* was nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 2009 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was a finalist for the 2009 Prometheus Award.

## Sequels
Though Stross wrote *Saturn\'s Children* as a standalone novel, he published a short story sequel called \"Bit Rot\" in the 2010 anthology *Engineering Infinity* and later made it available online. In the story, a descendant android of Freya\'s named Lilith Nakamichi-47 is on a long interstellar voyage as a catastrophic event wreaks havoc on the spaceship and its occupants. Robert E. Waters of *Tangent* classified \"Bit Rot\" as \"one of the hardest SF stories\" in the anthology, and called it \"one of the most clever zombie stories in recent memory.\" Lois Tilton of *Locus* agreed, calling it \"an exceedingly neat idea for a space horror story, twisting the classic, and Stross, of course, works it out thoroughly well.\" Nigel Seel wrote for ScienceFiction.com:


# Saturn's Children (novel)
## Sequels
In 2013 Stross released *Neptune\'s Brood*, a novel set later in the same universe as *Saturn\'s Children*, and called \"Bit Rot\" the \"missing link\" between the two novels.


# Amaze Your Friends
***Amaze Your Friends*** is a 1998 Ned Kelly Award-winning novel by Australian author Peter Doyle.
- Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 1999: winner
- \"Australian Crime Fiction database\"


# The Last Days (Masterson novel)
***The Last Days: the Apocryphon of Joe Panther*** is a 1998 Ned Kelly Award-winning novel by the Australian author Andrew Masterson.
- Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best First Novel Award, 1999: winner
- \"Australian Crime Fiction database\"
- \"Tabula Rasa\"


# Maramar Deuta
***Maramar Deuta*** is a children\'s novel written in Assamese by renowned Assamese author and film director Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia. It is about the bond between a child and his father. It was first published serially in several episodes in children\'s magazine *Xophura*, also then edited by Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia. Although the author said that the novel was especially meant for teenagers, it is popular among all age groups.
The novel was translated into English by Ashok Bhagawati and published by National Book Trust of New Delhi in 1998. The name of the English version is ***Dear Father***.


# One for Sorrow (novel)
***One for Sorrow*** is a coming-of-age novel by the American writer Christopher Barzak. In 2014 it was adapted into the feature film *Jamie Marks is Dead* and debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Carter Smith, the film\'s actors include Liv Tyler, Judy Greer, Cameron Monaghan, Morgan Saylor, Noah Silver, and Madisen Beaty.
The novel tells the story of Adam McCormick and Gracie Highsmith, and their relationship to Jamie Marks, a boy found in the woods, supposedly murdered. It does not follow the traditional suspense or mystery novel\'s convention of tracking down the murderer. Instead, the book explores the nature of relationships between young adults and their families, communities (a somewhat hard-scrabble rural working class small town outside of Youngstown, Ohio), and the search for hope or redemption. Adam and Jamie\'s relationship has several homoerotic elements that could argue that Adam is bisexual.
The novel makes use of fantastical elements (in this case, ghosts) situated in a mostly realistic, recognizable setting.
*One for Sorrow* won the Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy in 2008. It was also nominated for the Great Lakes Book Award, The Logo Channel\'s New Now Next Award, and The Locus Award for Best First Novel. The novel was praised as \"lovely, melancholy, offbeat\" in a Village Voice review of 2007.
*The Washington Post* called *One for Sorrow* a \"remarkable first novel.\"


# An Iron Rose
***An Iron Rose*** (1998) is a novel by Australian author Peter Temple.
\"For Josephine Margaret Temple and Alexander Royden Harold Wakefield Temple : first and best influences.\"
- \"Echoes from a Distant Mountain\"
- \"The Daily Telegraph\"
- \"Reviewing the Evidence\"


# The Room (novel)
***The Room*** is the second novel by Hubert Selby Jr., first published in 1971. It is often regarded as one of the most violent and disturbing books ever written.
The novel centers on a nameless petty criminal locked in a remand cell awaiting trial for a
crime only vaguely defined, as the novel progresses the man surrenders himself to self-pity and hatred,
Constructing elaborate fantasies of revenge and the atrocious torture he wishes to inflict on both of the officers who- he believes-falsely arrested him. He creates scenarios in his mind where he cross-examines them in court, successfully proving them guilty of Multiple crimes they have committed, in others, they are human dogs condemned to be his slaves and he constantly tortures them in many grotesque ways.
Selby described the critical reception of the book as \"the greatest reviews I\'ve ever read in my life\", although in reality it was not well received. The novel was regarded by Selby as the most disturbing book ever written, and Selby stated that he himself was unable to read it again for 20 years. At least one reviewer has expressed similar feelings, with claims that reading the novel made him physically sick. It has been described as \"a terrifying journey into the darkest corners of the psyche.\"
A section of *The Room* is used in Richard Linklater\'s *Waking Life*, where a red-faced man in a jail cell describes in vivid detail the abuse he intends to inflict once he is released.
The 2008 death metal track \"Beg, You Dogs\" by the band Benediction is based on the book.


# Chronicle of a Blood Merchant
***Chronicle of a Blood Merchant*** () is a 1995 novel composed by Chinese writer Yu Hua. It is his third published novel after *Cries in the Drizzle* and *To Live*. It is the story of a silk factory worker, Xu Sanguan, who sells his blood over the years, in most cases in an attempt to improve the lives of himself and his family members, and overcome family difficulties. The story is set in the late 1940s until the 1980s, from the early years of the People\'s Republic of China until after the Cultural Revolution.
The story begins with Xu Sanguan's visit to his grandpa, when he first knew about selling blood. His first time to sell blood is to prove his body is in good health. After discovering that selling blood can quickly get him a lot of cash, he begins to sell blood constantly when he and his family struggle with life difficulties. By the end of the story, Xu Sanguan's family no longer lacks cash, and he thus no longer needs to sell blood to support his family.
The space of "folk" in the novel is neatly built by the extensive use of repetitions and dialogues, which highlights the nature of Chinese peasants and the social scenario of the era. The novel holds elements of black humor---a characteristic that Yu Hua typically applies in his other novels such as *To Live.* Yu Hua\'s style of using humor to highlight contemporary socio-political issues in China has been compared to the modern visual art movement of \'Cynical Realism\'.


# Chronicle of a Blood Merchant
The book received rave reviews from critics and an English translation by Andrew F. Jones was released in 2003. The title has also been translated as *The Chronicle of Xu Sanguan's Blood Selling*, *Xu Sanguan's Records of Selling Blood* and *The Tale of Xu Sanguan Selling Blood*. The translator stated that this novel is \"a work of literary imagination and social critique.\"
Xu Sanguan works in a silk factory, distributing silk-worm cocoons to the spinners. To make extra income, Xu Sanguan decides to sell blood at a hospital. He befriends Genlong and Ah Fang, who are blood-sellers themselves and with whom Xu travels to the hospital. The two tell Xu that every time after they sold their blood, they have a plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine at the Victory Restaurant, believing that the pork livers replenish blood while the rice wine maintains the blood quality.
Xu Sanguan marries Xu Yulan and gives birth to three boys soon after: Yile, Erle and Sanle. After nine years, questions about Yile's legitimacy arises, and it is revealed that Xu Yulan had slept with her ex-lover, He Xiaoyong. Xu Sanguan's relationship with Yile becomes tumultuous as a result. One day, the sons get into a fight and Yile critically injures Blacksmith Fang's son. At first, both Xu and He deny responsibility for Yile's actions and refuse to pay for Blacksmith Fang's son's hospital bill. But Xu sells his blood and pays his debt to Fang. Ashamed of being a cuckold, Xu sleeps with a former love interest of his, Lin Fenfang.


# Chronicle of a Blood Merchant
1958 rolls around, and the family is caught in the socio-political upheaval brought about by the Great Leap Forward. Famine sweeps across the country. With communal canteens set up by the Chinese Communist Party all closing, Xu's family is forced to look out for themselves. The silk factory where Xu Sanguan works also closes. After selling his blood once again, Xu Sanguan takes the whole family except Yile to eat noodles at the Victory Restaurant. Distraught, Yile approaches He Xiaoyong, his supposed biological father, hoping to find acceptance, but is also rejected. After wandering the streets, Yile returns to a worried Xu Sanguan who takes him to the Victory Restaurant for noodles. Xu Sanguan's relationship with Yile is mended as a result.
One day, He Xiaoyong gets hit by a truck and is critically injured. After consulting a fortune-teller, He Xiaoyong's wife is told that to recover her husband's soul from heaven, a son must call atop the chimney and beg for his soul to return. However, as He Xiaoyong only has two daughters, He's wife approaches Yile, He Xiaoyong's supposed biological son, for help. After some convincing, Yile agrees, and proceeds to call atop the chimney for He Xiaoyong's soul to return. Xu Sanguan retrieves Yile from the chimney and swears an oath claiming Yile as his son. It is later revealed that He Xiaoyong did not survive his injuries.
The Cultural Revolution arrives. Xu Yulan is accused of being a prostitute and is forced to suffer through struggle sessions. Day after day, Xu Yulan stands in the street on a stool with a placard labelled 'Xu Yulan, Prostitute'. Yile is sent to the countryside as part of the Communist Party's policy of re-education. Erle is also sent away after graduating school, leaving only Sanle with Xu Sanguan and Xu Yulan. Sanle begins working in a machine tools factory after completing school.