Vintage books Death and the Penguin Курков Андрей Юрьевич

A glittering, magical fable, the follow-up to the bestselling Haroun and the Sea of Stories • On a beautiful starry night in the city of Kahani in the land of Alifbay a terrible thing happened: twelve-year-old Luka's storyteller father, Rashid, fell suddenly and inexplicably into a sleep so deep that nothing and no one could rouse him. To save him from slipping away entirely, Luka must embark on a journey through the Magic World, encountering a slew of phantasmagorical obstacles along the way, to steal the Fire of Life, a seemingly impossible and exceedingly dangerous task • With Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie proved that he is one of the best contemporary writers of fables, and it proved to be one of his most popular books with readers of all ages

Mann’s short stories explore his abiding interest in the split nature of humanity and the discordance of the world it inhabits. In ‘A Man and his Dog’, domestic tempests are symbols of the muddle of humanity. In ‘The Black Swan’, the demands of intellect clash with physical desires. And in ‘Mario and the Magician’ a young family on holiday in Italy encounters a creepy entertainer: Cipolla, a hypnotist with a fascist-like will to control his audience • Written between 1918 and 1953, this collection shows the literary development of one of Germany’s most important writers

What would happen if society was run by women? Charlotte Perkins Gilman imagines the result • When three American men discover a community of women, living in perfect isolation in the Amazon, they decide there simply must be men somewhere. How could these women survive without man's knowledge, experience and strength, not to mention reproductive power? In fact, what they have found is a civilisation free from disease, poverty and the weight of tradition. All alone, the women have created a society of calm and prosperity, a feminist utopia that dares to threaten the very concept of male superiority

Semyon is disturbed. He has woken up in the living room with blood on his shirt, an angry wife and no idea where he was the night before. When this happens several mornings in a row, he realises he needs to investigate • After his friend Volodka follows him one night, they discover he's meeting a tall, blonde woman and accompanying her to her apartment. In the daytime he doesn't know this woman or where her apartment is and, odder yet, someone is watching Volodka watching Semyon • Meanwhile, there are some strange goings-on in Kyiv - an unemployed sniffer-dog handler makes a dangerous discovery, a single mother is providing breast milk for an unusual recipient and a vengeful cat is on the loose

Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers • Hillmaston School has chosen The Mikado for their next school performance and, in recognition of her generous offer to finance the production, their meek and self-effacing arithmetic mistress is offered a key role. But when she disappears mid-way through the opening night performance and is later found dead, unconventional psychoanalyst and sleuth Mrs Bradley is called in to investigate. To her surprise she soon discovers that the hapless teacher had quite a number of enemies - all with a motive for murder • Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley

It is 1883 and against the fearsome, unforgiving beauty of the Fermanagh landscape, the fate of Beth Winters unfolds • Beth is determined to decide her own destiny but charmed by the roguish Liam Ward she seems doomed to repeat the tragic mistakes of her family's past. Through the events of her twenty-fifth birthday, decades of pain and betrayal build to a devastating, deadly climax

'Password Emil!' • Emil is excited to be taking the train on his own for the first time. He doesn't like the look of his fellow passenger, the man in the bowler hat. Emil will just have to keep his wits about him and his money in his pocket. But Emil falls asleep and when he wakes up the man in the bowler hat is gone - and so is the money! Emil is determined to get it back. He teams up with a gang of young detectives and so begins a hair-raising chase across Berlin to catch the dirty rotten thief

Here is one of those rare novels, so captivatingly original, so absurdly funny, surprising and moving, that it crosses all boundaries • 1971: Mao's cultural Revolution is at its peak. Two sons of doctors, sent to 're-education' camps, forced to carry buckets of excrement up and down mountain paths, have only their sense of humour to keep them going. Although the attractive daughter of the local tailor also helps to distract them from the task at hand • The boys' true re-education starts, however, when they discover a hidden suitcase packed with the great Western novels of the nineteenth century. Their lives are transformed. And not only their lives: after listening to the stories of Balzac, the little seamstress will never be the same again

How does the novel represent human consciousness on the page? • In eleven sparkling essays on some of the great novelists of the last 200 years – from Charles Dickens to Martin Amis, Henry James to Philip Roth – David Lodge pursues this question with characteristic verve and wit. One of the best novelists and critics of his generation, Lodge is the perfect guide to look afresh at the mysterious workings of the creative mind

Anthony Patch and Gloria Gibson are the golden children of the Jazz Age. They marry and embark on a life of glittering parties, lavish expenditure and scandalous revelry. When the money dries up their marriage founders. In this wistful novel Fitzgerald portrays the decline of youthful promise with devastating clarity

Gigi’s days are filled with cigars, lobster, lace and superstitions: the education of a future courtesan. Bored and unconvinced by what she’s taught, Gigi surprises all with her approach to love. In this classic turn-of-the-century novella, Colette unveils Gigi’s journey into womanhood in rich and supple prose • This edition includes The Cat translated by Antonia White

Игривый сборник философских критических замечаний от всемирно известного автора бестселлеров "Имя розы" и "Пражское кладбище" • Насколько наше восприятие вещей зависит от наших когнитивных способностей и насколько от наших лингвистических ресурсов? Где и как пересекаются эти два вопроса? Умберто Эко предпринимает серию своеобразных и, как правило, блестящих исследований, отталкиваясь от воспринимаемых данных здравого смысла, из которых вытекает множество "историй" или басен, часто с животными в качестве главных героев, чтобы изложить четкую критику Канта, Хайдеггера и Пирса. И как зверь, созданный специально для того, чтобы метать гаечные ключи в работах по когнитивной теории, утконос с утиным клювом, естественно, занимает центральное место • Книга на английском языке