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Книги издательства «Random House, Inc.»
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The monumental novel considered one of the greatest ever written is an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. |
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«The law touches almost every aspect of life, and the language of law is accordingly as broad and complex as human experience itself. Defining, refining, debating, interpreting, and applying the words of constitutions, statutes, contracts, wills, judicial opinions, and other legal writings is a major preoccupation of the law. It is, in fact, a fundamental preoccupation, for to question the meaning of a term in a legal context is often to question the scope of the law itself. To define the word «murder,» for example, is to articulate just what distinguishes one of the most heinous of crimes from a lesser offense such as manslaughter, or for that matter from a heroic act of justifiable homicide. Even a seemingly insignificant word can make a crucial difference in the interpretation of a legal writing. One standard legal reference work-a ninety-volume compendium entitled Words and Phrases-cites almost fifty judicial opinions discussing the meaning of just the first word listed: «a.»...» |
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«Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character — a «difficult» woman. By no means is she conventionally «nice», but she will never be forgotten. Ruth's story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her — on Long Island, in the summer of 1958 — Ruth is only four. The second window into Ruth's life opens in the fall of 1990, when Ruth is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgment in men, for good reason. A Widow for One Year closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth Cole is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother. She's about to fall in love for the first time. Richly comic, as well as deeply disturbing A Widow for One Year is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force. Both ribald and erotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and the relentlessness of grief.» |
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Here they are — some of the funniest tales and ruminations ever put into print, by one of the great comic minds of our time. From THE WHORE OF MENSA, to GOD (A Play), to NO KADDISH FOR WEINSTEIN, old and new Woody Allen fans will laugh themselves hysterical over these sparkling gems. |
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«The economy was booming. People had more money than they knew what to do with. And then the earthquake struck. For the characters in After the Quake, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago. Satsuki has spent thirty years hating one man: a lover who destroyed her chances of having children. Did her desire for revenge cause the earthquake? Junpei's estranged parents live in Kobe. Should he contact them? Miyake left his family in Kobe to make midnight bonfires on a beach hundreds of miles away. Fourteen-year-old Sala has nightmares that the Earthquake Man is trying to stuff her inside a little box. Katagiri returns home to find a giant frog in his apartment on a mission to save Tokyo from a massive burrowing worm. «When he gets angry, he causes earthquakes», says Frog. «And right now he is very, very angry». This new collection of stories, from one of the world's greatest living writers, dissects the violence beneath the surface of modern Japan.» |
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Mandy has been picked on at school for as long as she can remember. That's why she is delighted when cheeky, daring, full-of-fun Tanya picks her as a friend. Mum isn't happy — she thinks Tanya's a bad girl and a bad influence. Mandy's sure Tanya can only get her out of trouble, not into it...or could she? |
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In this enviable gathering, Haruki Murakami has chosen for his party some of the very best short story writers of recent years, each with their own birthday experiences, each story a snapshot of life on a single day. Including stories by Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Claire Keegan, Andrea Lee, Daniel Lyons, Lynda Sexson, Paul Theroux, William Trevor and Haruki Murakami, this anthology captures a range of emotions evoked by advancing age and the passing of time, from events fondly recalled to the impact of appalling tragedy. Previously published in a Japanese translation by Haruki Murakami, this English edition contains a specially written introduction. |
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«The «Blair Years» is the most compelling and revealing account of contemporary politics you will ever read. Taken from Alastair Campbell's daily diaries, it charts the rise of New Labour and the tumultuous years of Tony Blair's leadership, providing the first important record of a remarkable decade in our national life. Here are the defining events of our time, from Labour's new dawn to the war on terror, from the death of Diana to negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland, from Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, through to the Hutton Inquiry of 2003, the year Campbell resigned his position at No 10. But above all here is Tony Blair up close and personal, taking the decisions that affected the lives of millions, under relentless and often hostile pressure. Often described as the second most powerful figure in Britain, Alastair Campbell is no stranger to controversy. Feared and admired in equal measure, hated by some, he was pivotal to the founding of New Labour and the sensational election victory of 1997. As Blair's press secretary, strategist and trusted confidant, Campbell spent more waking hours alongside the Prime Minister than anyone. His diaires — at times brutally frank, often funny, always compelling — take the reader right to the heart of government. «The Blair Years» is a story of politics in the raw, of progress and setback, of reputations made and destroyed, under the relentless scrutiny of a 24-hour media. Unflinchingly told, it covers the crises and scandals, the rows and resignations, the ups and downs of Britain's hothouse politics. But amid the big events are insights and observations that make this a remarkably human portrayal of some of the most powerful people in the world. There has never been so riveting a book about life at the very top, nor a more human book about politics, told by a man who saw it all.» |
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A man. A woman. The heat of an Iowa summer. And the brief encounter whose passion will last a lifetime |
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«The City of London is still confined to a square-mile enclave, as it was when its residents crossed the river to see Shakespeare's newest plays in Southwark. At that time, up the river there was another city — Westminster, seat of the Royal Court, the Law Courts and Parliament — but within 200 years the two settlements had fused, making London the largest city on earth, the first to reach a population of one million. In the nineteenth century, London's population grew to six million and the building boom began. Poorer people and dirty industries congregated in the east; the better-off lived and worked in the west. The Victorians built breathtaking edifices, the crown jewel of which was the new Houses of Parliament. After the destruction of the Second World War, the post-war era saw the arrival of the modern movement and the wholesale use of poured concrete, glass and steel. Now, in the twenty-first century, London's architecture is as vibrant as ever — the last ten years have seen the building of many of London's greatest landmarks, including the Swiss Re headquarters and the London Eye. «Building London» is a visual record of that remarkable story, detailing how the city was built and introducing the great architects and engineers. It contains rare images from the earliest days of photography, as well as evocative photographs from the last 100 years, ensuring all of London's iconic buildings are featured.» |
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Many legends have grown up about the sexual rapacity of Catherine the Great. While it is true that she shocked the Russian court with the number and age of her lovers, there is no truth in the rumour of her death by stallion. Unhappily married to the Grand Duke Peter, a man who preferred to play with his toy soldiers in the bedroom, they failed to produce an heir, and Catherine turned her attentions to a certain Sergey Saltykov who fathered the future Tsar Paul I. Six months into the reign of Peter III, Catherine, supported by the Imperial Guard, staged a successful coup against her husband and became Empress. It was her ambition to transform a vast but semi-barbaric country with the cultural and political reforms of Enlightenment Europe. In this timely and fascinating biography, Virginia Rounding reveals an extraordinary woman in all her complexity. |
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«Vintage Crime» is a limited edition gift pack which consists of beautifully designed separate volumes of «Crime and Punishment» by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Patricia Highsmith's thrilling novel «Ripley's Game». «Vintage Crime» is just one of ten «Vintage Classic Twins» to collect. Each twin consists of two books: a specially designed limited edition of one modern classic title and one established classic work. The books in each pair have been carefully selected to provide a thought-provoking combination. «Crime and Punishment»: A troubled young man commits the perfect crime. Raskolnikov is desperate for money, but convinces himself that his motive for murder is to benefit mankind. So begins one of the greatest novels ever written, a journey into the criminal mind, a police thriller, and a meditation on morality and redemption. «Ripley's Game»: Tom Ripley detested murder. Unless it was absolutely necessary. If possible, he preferred someone else to do the dirty work. In this case someone with no criminal record, who would commit 'two simple murders' for a very generous fee.» |
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Edward Rutherfurd's great Irish epic reveals the story of the people of Ireland through the focal point of the island's capital city. The epic begins in pre-Christian Ireland during the reign of the fierce and powerful High Kings at Tara, with the tale of two lovers, the princely Conall and the ravishing Deirdre, whose travails echo the ancient Celtic legend of Cuchulainn. From this stirring beginning, Rutherfurd takes the reader on a graphically realised journey through the centuries. Through the interlocking stories of a powerfully-imagined cast of characters — druids and chieftains, monks and smugglers, merchants and mercenaries, noblewomen, rebels and cowards — we see Ireland through the lens of its greatest city. |
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The Essential Hemingway is the perfect introduction to the astonishing, wide-ranging body of work by the Nobel Prize-winning author. This impressive collection includes: the full text of Fiesta, Hemingway's first major novel; long extracts from three of his greatest works of fiction, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls; twenty-five complete short stories; and the breathtaking Epilogue to Death in the Afternoon. |
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In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the 'war to end all wars'. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway's description of war is unforgettable. He recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy with total conviction. But A Farewell to Arms is not only a novel of war. In it Hemingway has also created a love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion. |
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«Set in New Orleans before the American Civil War, this is the story of the «Free People of Color», descended from slaves, and their French and Spanish owners. Among their number is Marcel, an artist in the making, also his gentle sister Marie and Anna Bella, a beautiful young courtesan.» |
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Paris in the twenties: Pernod, parties and expatriate Americans, loose-living on money from home. Jake is wildly in love with Brett Ashley, aristocratic and irresistibly beautiful, but with an abandoned, sensuous nature that she cannot change. When the couple drifts to Spain to the dazzle of the fiesta and the heady atmosphere of the bullfight, their affair is strained by new passions, new jealousies, and Jake must finally learn that he will never possess the woman he loves. |
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Every weekend, in basements and parking lots across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight Club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter and dark, anarchic genius. And it's only the beginning of his plans for revenge on a world where cancer support groups have the corner on human warmth. |
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With the festive season almost upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is winding down at work and gearing up socially — kicking off Christmas with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam. Irvine Welsh has here created one of the most corrupt characters in contemporary fiction. |
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