Скачать книгу - The Emerald City of Oz

The second collection of stories from Yiyun Li, author of the Guardian First Book Award-winning A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Vagrants.The stories in this collection, like the stories in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, are mostly set in China. The country portrayed here is the China of the 21st century, where economic development has led to new situations unknown to previous decades: residents in a shabby apartment building witnessing in awe the real estate boom; a local entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist sheltering women in trouble in her mansion; a group of retired women discovering fame late in their lives as private investigators specializing in extramarital affairs; a young woman setting up a blog to publicize an alleged affair of her father.Underneath the veneer of prosperity and opportunity, however, lie the struggles of characters trying to reorient themselves in the unfamiliar landscapes of modern China: a widower, reminiscing about his wife, confronts a young unmarried woman purchasing condoms in a pharmacy; a new wife makes a plea to have a baby with her husband who was to be executed only to discover that she has become an instant celebrity; a middle-aged couple in America, who, upon losing their only daughter, return to their hometown in China to hire a young woman as a surrogate mother. These characters' fates are affected as much by the historical moments in which they reside as by the choices they make.Yiyun Li's collection of stories is a report from the frontline of a changing world, and confirms Li to be an unmissable writer.

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook.James has found himself at the fashionable resort Kimpton-on-Sea, all due to the persuasion of the young Grace who during the last few months of their courtship has become distinctly uppish. Amongst the upper echelons of society, including the Rajah of Maraputna, James feels distinctly disgruntled and out of place. Eager to both irritate and win over his sometime girlfriend, James bypasses the queue to the beach changing rooms and ducks into the private huts before impressively being the first in the sea. But, in his hurry to not be apprehended he jumps back to the huts, changes at lightning speed only to realise he is suddenly in the possession of a rather sought after object. Dabbling in a little detective work James throws himself into the breach.

On the Irish Isle of Valentia wisps of cloud hang low in the air, and a rugged figure appears through the hazy mist–the man that Keelin O'Donnell has been searching for without ever realizing it. Garrett Kincaid can help beautiful stranger Keelin unlock the secrets of her past. But he can't give her his heart–he knows Keelin's life lies elsewhere.Except the essence of the Emerald Isle is capturing Keelin, drawing her in and giving her the courage to claim a future. A future that belongs to this man.