Système Valdôtain des Bibliothèques

Résumé: A subtle, captivating, and insightful exploration of the mysterious connections between love, submission, and creation. Helen and Franck, both born into high-ranking diplomatic families, meet in Rome as high-school students and immediately detect in each other, the wounded child hidden beneath their gilded social status. Their relationship becomes a dangerous, explosive mix of love and friendship. Immediately after Helen's graduation, they leave their past and family behind to move in together in her apartment in Amsterdam. While Helen immerses herself in her studies and embarks on a promising academic career, Frank, after a few difficult years, makes a spectacular debut on the Dutch Art scene with his first paintings. Helen remains faithfully by his side during his rise to fame, overseeing the domestic details of his life in apparent total self-abnegation. Are introverted Helen and flamboyant Franck who they really appear to be? Are they victims or monsters? Kerninon’s English language debut, full of masterfully orchestrated twists and turns, leaves these simple distinctions behind, and progresses into far more fascinating terrain.

Résumé: Nell'ottobre del 1928 Virginia Woolf fu invitata a tenere due conferenze sul tema Le donne e il romanzo. È l'occasione per elaborare in maniera sistematica le sue molte riflessioni su universo femminile e creatività letteraria. Risultato è questo straordinario saggio, vero e proprio manifesto sulla condizione femminile dalle origini ai giorni nostri, che ripercorre il rapporto donna-scrittura dal punto di vista di una secolare esclusione attraverso la doppia lente del rigore storico e della passione per la letteratura.

Résumé: International secret police operations, drug trafficking, prostitution, and identity theft set the stage for the eternal struggle between Good and Evil. Acclaimed as one of today’s best contemporary noir writers, Massimo Carlotto reaches new heights in the most complex “Alligator” novel to date. Rich with biting humor, humanity, and psychological insight, this is an exemplary noir novel from a crime writer at the top of his game. Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator, and his partners Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini have fallen into a trap laid by their worst enemy, Giorgio Pellegrini, a wanted man who has no intention of living as a fugitive for the rest of his life and turns state evidence, but something goes wrong. Blackmailed by a high government official, the Alligator and his partners are forced to investigate. But they’ve been framed: even if they discover who’s behind the crime, they’ll rot in prison. To survive, some rules will have to be bent, and others broken

Résumé: Lewis Carroll pubblicò "La caccia allo Snark" nel 1876. Sin dal nome, composto da "shark" (squalo) e da "snake " (serpente), così da connettere in un unico termine due significati, lo Snark introduce un concetto di doppiezza, di ambiguità, di inafferrabilità. Come ogni "monstrum", lo Snark è il non-visibile, il non-rappresentabile, che tuttavia, con stupore e terrore, percorre l'esistenza. In questo poemetto eroicomico destinato a diventare uno dei punti di riferimento del surrealismo, e che, come scrive Sanesi, "nulla vieta di associare alla tipica quest della letteratura medioevale ", il lettore è messo di fronte allo sviluppo autonomo di due situazioni o dimensioni simultanee.

Résumé: Older Brother is the poignant story of a Franco-Syrian family whose father and two sons try to integrate themselves into a society that doesn’t offer them many opportunities. The father, an atheist communist who moved from Syria to France for his studies and stayed for love, has worked for decades driving a taxi to support his family. The eldest son is a driver for an app-based car service, which comically puts him at odds with his father, whose very livelihood is threatened by this new generation of disruptors. The younger son, shy and serious, works as a nurse in a French hospital. Jaded by the regular rejections he encounters in French society, he decides to join a Muslim humanitarian organization to help wounded civilians in the war in Syria. But when he stops sending news home, the silence begins to eat away at his father and brother who wonder what his real motivations were. When younger brother returns home, he has changed. Guven alternates between an ironic take on contemporary society and the gravity of terrorist threats. He explores with equal poignancy the lives of “Uberized” workers and actors in the global jihad.

Résumé: An exciting, evocative first-in-series noir novel set in 1973 Glasgow, a city on the cusp of a heroin epidemic, featuring detective Harry McCoy. When an 18-year-old boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, McCoy knows it can’t be a random act of violence. With a newbie partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to build a picture of a secret society run by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops. Drugs, sex, incest; every nefarious predilection is catered to, at the expense of the lower echelon of society, an underclass that includes McCoy’s best friend from reformatory school – drug-Tsar Stevie Cooper – and his on-off girlfriend, a prostitute, Janey. But with McCoy’s boss calling off the hounds, and his boss’ boss unleashing their own, the Dunlops are apparently untouchable. McCoy has other ideas.

Résumé: Prima raccolta di poesie di Tiffany McDaniel, Queste voci mi battono viva è strettamente collegato per temi, personaggi e intensità al romanzo Il caos da cui veniamo ed è un libro potente e profondamente conturbante, opera di una scrittrice davvero unica nel panorama internazionale. Il testo si mostra di un’originalità unica, presenta a fronte le parole dell’autrice e i suoi disegni.

Résumé: Set in the Pacific Northwest in the jittery, jacked-up early 1990s, Shelter in Place, by one of America’s most thrillingly defiant contemporary authors, is a stylish literary novel about the hereditary nature of mental illness, the fleeting intensity of youth, the obligations of family, and the dramatic consequences of love. Joseph March, a twenty-one year-old working class kid from Seattle, is on top of the world. He has just graduated college and his future beckons, unencumbered, limitless, magnificent. Joe’s life implodes when he starts to suffer the symptoms of bipolar disorder, and, not long after, his mother kills a man she’s never met with a hammer. Joe moves to White Pine, Washington, where his mother is serving time and his father has set up house. He is followed by Tess Wolff, a fiercely independent woman with whom he has fallen in love. The lives of Joe, Tess, and Joe’s father fall into the slow rhythm of daily prison visits followed by beer and pizza at a local bar. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie March, Joe’s mother, is gradually becoming a local heroine—many see her crime as a furious, exasperated act of righteous rebellion. Tess, too, has fallen under her spell. Spurred on by Anne-Marie’s example, Tess enlists Joe in a secret, violent plan that will forever change their lives. Maksik sings of modern America’s battered soul and of the lacerating emotions that make us human. Magnetic and masterfully told, Shelter in Place is about the things in life we are willing to die for, and those we’re willing to kill for.

Résumé: After signing up for the US army in the 1850s, barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Having both fled terrible hardships, their days are now vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. But when a young Indian girl crosses their path, Thomas and John must decide on the best way of life for them all in the face of dangerous odds.

Résumé: Con le semplici lezioni di inglese Assimil, grazie ai dialoghi e agli esercizi apprenderai la grammatica e la pronuncia corretta per un livello finale B2.

Résumé: Lola è stanca di essere invisibile. Vorrebbe soltanto che la star del rugby della sua scuola, Matt, la invitasse al ballo, ma lui non sa nemmeno che esiste! Ma Lola ha un piano per diventare la ragazza più popolare della scuola: ma è davvero questo che rende una ragazza “la più fortunata del mondo”?

Résumé: The mighty warrior Beowulf offers to help the King of the Danes in a quest to kill the vicious monster Grendel and free his people from terror. After killing Grendel, Beowulf must also kill the monster’s mother before he can return to his homeland, where he eventually becomes king. But he is called for a new adventure, as a great dragon comes to destroy his kingdom. Will Beowulf’s efforts cost him his life this time?

Résumé: Pip è destinato a diventare il fabbro di un piccolo villaggio, ma il destino ha in serbo per lui una vita diversa. L’incontro con un galeotto e l’amicizia con una eccentrica vecchia signora e una bellissima ragazza cambieranno il corso degli eventi. Pip un giorno scopre un terribile segreto…

Résumé: In the heart of Paris, in the posh building made famous in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, the greatest food critic in the world is dying. Revered by some and reviled by many, Monsieur Pierre Arthens has been lording it over the world’s most esteemed chefs for years, passing judgment on their creations, deciding their fates with a stroke of his pen, destroying and building reputations on a whim. But now, during these his final hours, his mind has turned to simpler things. He is desperately searching for that singular flavor, that sublime something once sampled, never forgotten, the Flavor par excellence. Indeed, this flamboyant and self-absorbed man desires only one thing before he dies: one last taste. Thus begins a charming voyage that traces the career of Monsieur Arthens from childhood to maturity across a celebration of all manner of culinary delights. Alternating with the voice of the supercilious Arthens is a chorus belonging to his acquaintances and familiars—relatives, lovers, a would-be protégé, even a cat. Each will have his or her say about Monsieur Arthens, a man who has inspired only extreme emotions in people. Here, as in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery’s story celebrates life’s simple pleasures and sublime moments while condemning the arrogance and vulgarity of power.

Résumé: Little Daisy is new at the dance school, and very nervous! But she soon discovers that there is a place for everyone who tries hard, no matter how little they are!

Résumé: Alla sua pubblicazione nel 1877, Black Beauty fu un successo immediato. È una storia commovente raccontata dalla prospettiva di un cavallo di nome Black Beauty il cui coraggio e perseveranza lo sostengono mentre viaggia da un proprietario all'altro, spesso subendo crudeltà e maltrattamenti.

Résumé: Tristan and Isolde, una delle grandi storie d’amore del Medio Evo, ha ispirato per secoli scrittori, poeti, artisti e musicisti. Dopo che il principe Tristan sconfigge ed uccide un drago, la bella Isolde andrà in sposa allo zio del giovane, re Mark. Tuttavia, durante il viaggio di ritorno verso la corte del re, i due giovani bevono una pozione d’amore che era destinata al sovrano e alla sua sposa: in un attimo s’innamorano, ma il loro amore non ha futuro…

Résumé: Parigi, 1880: innumerevoli dicerie nascono intorno al Fantasma dell’Opera, una figura sinistra il cui volto rimane celato dietro una maschera grottesca. Una storia toccante e indimenticabile di amore, odio, bellezza, mostruosità, ambizione e vendetta, ambientata nell’atmosfera brillante della Parigi di fine ’800 che ha ispirato film e lavori teatrali di grande successo.

Résumé: Nel cuore della notte, lungo una solitaria strada nei pressi di Londra, un giovane insegnante si imbatte in una donna vestita di bianco. Così si apre The Woman in White, eccellente esempio di romanzo vittoriano, denso di suspense e di atmosfere cariche di tensione. Chi è la misteriosa donna in bianco? Perché si aggira da sola, in piena notte, sulla via per Londra?

Résumé: Scriveva Eugenio Montale che "il caso di Hardy è piuttosto raro", perché "non si ha notizia di un prosatore-pensatore che, su altro registro, sia stato tanto poeta-poeta". E in effetti il grande narratore inglese (1840-1928), giustamente famoso per i suoi romanzi (fra i quali "Tess dei d'Urberville" e "Giuda l'oscuro") e i suoi racconti, è stato anche grande poeta e la sua poesia ha avuto un ruolo di primo piano nella formazione di altri grandi poeti di lingua inglese, come Robert Graves, Phiip Larkin, Dylan Thomas e gli stessi Pound e Auden, che ebbe a dire di non poter "scrivere liberamente su Hardy perché una volta ero innamorato di lui", definendolo "mio padre poetico"; e non c'è bisogno di ricordare che questo debito poetico lo confessava apertamente lo stesso Eugenio Montale per i suoi "Xenia" pubblicati nella raccolta "Satura", e che di lui scrisse ancora che sull'importanza della "sua poesia d'amore tutti sembrano concordi. Le liriche in memoria della sua prima moglie sono una delle vette della poesia moderna, e non di quella poesia vittoriana alla quale si sarebbe tentati di ascrivere un poeta già operante nel 1870". Un'ampia selezione di questa sua poesia d'amore viene qui proposta da un suo autorevole specialista, poeta e traduttore, G. Singh, che già ha curato per la Passigli Editori una scelta dal suo vasto poema drammatico "I dinasti".