Vintage books Nuns and Soldiers Мердок Айрис

Брэдли Пирсон, стареющий писатель, переживает творческий кризис. Окруженный требующими постоянного внимания и заботы родственниками, терзаемый бывшей женой, он пытается найти утешение в любви к молоденькой девушке, дочери друга. Эта любовь, обреченная с самого начала, неминуемо ведет к катастрофе • Роман "Черный принц" вошел в золотой фонд мировой литературы и создал Айрис Мердок славу самой "английской" писательницы XX века • Книга на английском языке • The Black Prince is both a remarkable thriller and a story about being in love • Bradley Pearson, narrator and hero, is an elderly writer with a 'block'. Finding himself surrounded by predatory friends and relations - his ex-wife, her delinquent brother, a younger, deplorably successful writer, Arnold Baffin, Baffin's restless wife and engaging daughter - Bradley attempts to escape

"Дитя слова" Айрис Мердок - история умного, но не обделённого изъянами обитателя пасмурного Лондона, который надеется на искупление • Хилари Берд мог стать уличной шпаной, но образование спасло его. Он намеревался продолжить свой путь в Оксфорде, но закончившаяся трагедией история любви лишила его места в Оксфорде. Теперь он зарабатывает себе на хлеб скучной работой чиновника, пока угрызения совести пожирают его душу • Когда пострадавший по его вине и преданный им мужчина становится начальником его отдела, перед Хилари маячит шанс на прощение, возможность загладить свою вину и начать новую жизнь. Но он рискует быть раздавленным ошибками прошлого • Книга на английском языке • Iris Murdoch conjures a murky London setting for a story of a brilliant and flawed man hoping for redemption • Saved from a delinquent childhood by education, cheated out of Oxford by a tragic love tangle, Hilary Burde cherishes his obsessive guilt and ekes out a living in a dull civil service job

«Под сетью» — дебютный роман британской писательницы Айрис Мёрдок, написанный в 1954 году. Одно из самых известных и значительных произведений писательницы • Джейк, умный и ленивый, зарабатывает на жизнь тем, что пишет переводы и обирает своих друзей. Когда его выгоняют из его последнего жилья, он отправляется в серию фантастических и веселых приключений по Лондону с участием кинозвезд, величественных философов, букмекеров, певцов и знаменитой гончей по кличке Чудесный мистер Марс • Книга на английском языке • Jake, clever and lazy, makes a living out of writing translations and sponging off his friends. When he is kicked out of his latest lodgings he embarks on a series of fantastic and hilarious adventures around London involving movie stars, majestic philosophers, bookies, singers and a celebrity hound called the Marvellous Mister Mars

A complicated and comic story of dangerous love affairs • Martin believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional re-education. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion. How will he survive it?

'Of the novelists who have made their bow since the war she seems to me to be the most remarkable' Raymond Mortimer • This is the story of the comic, relentless struggle for survival of Austin Gibson Grey, the accidental man. Austin is one of those people who thrives through the destruction of others. The others, in Austin's case, include his successful elder brother, Matthew, and the women who, one after the other, are convinced that they can 'save' him. In this role we meet Dorina, Austin's estranged wife, Mitzi, his alcoholic landlady, and a selection of other women who involve themselves in Austin's fate, with hilarious and appalling results

"Неофициальная роза" Айрис Мердок - сложная шекспировская комедия о переплетенных отношениях, в которой девять тесно связанных персонажей ищут любовь • После смерти жены Хью подумывает о возвращении к своей бывшей любовнице. Его сын Рэндалл мечтает отказаться от своего бесформенного брака ради идеального партнера. Младшую дочь Рэндалла, Миранду, обожает ее австралийский кузен Пенн, но у нее есть привязанности в других местах. У ее матери Энн есть своя личная мечта, в то же время она берет на себя все тяготы и боль всех остальных. Движимые привязанностью, похотью и иллюзиями, эти персонажи ищут любовь в туго сплетенной паутине • Книга на английском языке • A complex Shakespearean comedy of intertwined relationships, as nine closely linked characters search for love • After his wife's death, Hugh contemplates returning to his former mistress

A witty, elegant comedy of errors to rival any of Shakespeare's • Edmund has escaped from his family into a lonely life. Returning for his mother's funeral he finds himself involved in the old, awful problems, together with some new ones. One by one his relatives reveal their secrets to a reluctant Edmund: illicit affairs, hidden passions, shameful scandals. And the heart of all, there is, as always, the family's loyal servant, the Italian girl

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

'Two Surface-dwellers. Two! He’s a Fattypuff and you’re a Thinifer. There’s no doubt about it!’ • This is the tale of two brothers. Edmund is a little on the plump side and Terry is a bit of a rake. When they discover the countries under the Earth they are divided and sent to the warring kingdoms of the Fattypuffs and the Thinifers. The Fattypuffs eat hourly with light snacks in between. The Thinifers like nothing more than discipline and work six days a week. Whether you are a jolly Fattypuff or a driven Thinifer you’ll be rooting for the brothers to bring peace to the countries under the Earth • Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can take the quiz to find out if you’re a Fattypuff or a Thinifer! • Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives

Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in The Times, Sunday Times and The Economist, and one of the 10 Best Books of 2016 in the New York Times • Shortly before his death, Stefan Hertmans' grandfather Urbain Martien gave his grandson a set of notebooks containing the detailed memories of his life. He grew up in poverty around 1900, the son of a struggling church painter who died young, and went to work in an iron foundry at only 13. Afternoons spent with his father at work on a church fresco were Urbain’s heaven; the iron foundry an inferno • During the First World War, Urbain was on the front line confronting the invading Germans, and ever after he is haunted by events he can never forget. The war ends and he marries his great love, Maria Emelia, but she dies tragically in the 1919 flu epidemic

'Delightful... Her characters are, as always, wonderfully imperfect' New York Review of Books • Alan has changed because he's injured his back. Pain has altered his appearance and made him glum, demanding and resentful. His wife Jane has to do everything for him - fetching, carrying, shopping, cooking, even dressing and undressing him. Sometimes she longs for escape • Delia is a writer and researcher specialising in fairy tales - she is, in her own estimation, a 'Great Artist'. Her husband, Henry, manages her every need making certain Delia gets everything she desires including spectacular doses of adulation • Can Delia coax Alan out of his grumpiness? Can Henry stop Jane feeling guilty? Can the two couples break out of their fixed roles?

A powerful story set in war-torn Danzig about a teenager's rise from clown to hero by Nobel Prize-winner Gunter Grass • To compensate for his unusually large Adam's apple - source of both discomfort and distress - fourteen year old Joachim Mahlke turns himself into athlete and ace diver. Soon he is known to his peers and his nation as 'The Great Mahlke'. But to his enemies, he remains a target. He is different and doomed in a country scarred by the war • Cat and Mouse was first published in 1961, two years after Gunter Grass' controversial and applauded masterpiece, The Tin Drum. Once again Grass turns his attention on Danzig. With a subtle blend of humour and power, Cat and Mouse ostensibly relates the rise of Mahlke from clown to hero. But Mahlke's outlandish antics hide the darkness at the heart of a nation torn by Nazi violence, the war and its aftermath