Showing results for "nicholson" in Literary Fiction

A new novel by bestselling author Nicholson Baker reintroduces feckless but hopeful hero Paul Chowder, whose struggle to get his life together is reflected in his steadfast desire to write a pop song, or a protest song, or both at once.

He has nowhere to go. So he goes there. The narrator of The Society of Others is an alienated young man who sees no meaning in life. He doesn't even see the point of getting out of bed in the morning. To get his family off his back, he embarks on an aimless hitchhiking adventure around Europe. But his journey soon turns into an orgy of violence...

William Nicholson's Tony-nominated stage adaptation of his award-winning BBC teleplay relates the story of shy Oxford don and children's author C.S. Lewis and American poet Joy Gresham. Shadowlands shows how love, and the risk of loss, transformed this great man's relationships, even with God.

The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens' tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the archvillain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes, and the prostitute Nancy.

In this unflaggingly suspenseful story of aspirations and moral redemption, humble, orphaned Pip, a ward of his short-tempered older sister and her husband, Joe, is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge, but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman. And, indeed, it seems as though that dream is destined to come to pass - because one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations."

Eyes of Horus is the story, told in the first person, of Ra-ab, heir to the Nomarch of the Oryx, one of 18 provinces in Egypt. He comes to learn that the Oryx is different from the rest of Egypt, in that it is still in touch with the light. The rest of Egypt is plagued by fear and ruled by corruption. The pharaoh is an ineffectual ruler. The priests have replaced the worship of Ptah with the worship of Set. Only the Oryx has cast off these shackles - and it is from the Oryx that a silent brotherhood arises of the eyes of Horus - the Watchers of the Horizon.

The seventh of Joan Grant's Far Memory novels, So Moses Was Born, is set in Egypt, in the time just before the birth of Moses. The story is a familiar one: Found in the bulrushes, Moses's upbringing in the court of Egypt gave him the influence and power to set the Israelites free. Joan Grant enlarges the picture by depicting the events that led up to the discovery of the baby Moses, convincingly portraying the man she believed was his father, Ramoses II, through the words of his reclusive half-brother Nebunefer.

The fourth of Joan Grant's Far Memory novels, Lord of the Horizon, the sequel to Eyes of Horus, is set in Egypt at the close of the dark XIth dynasty and is a profound commentary on the power of fear and the unlimited ability of light to shatter it. Lord of the Horizon is the story of Ra-ab Hotep, heir to the Nomarch of the Oryx. Ra-ab is 21 as the story begins. The dawn for which Ra-ab and the Watchers of the Horizon fought in Eyes of Horus has come, but to "Send Fear into Exile", as the Watchers' password promised, proves difficult.

Lucina of Greece was orphaned at a young age and brought up by foster parents. Now aged 13, she is sent to be educated by her philosopher guardian in the place he calls Elysium. There, she finds herself the only female in a masculine world: While she proves herself an intellectual equal, she cannot accept the rigidity of the scientific skepticism that disallows her intuition, psychic talents, and capacity for love.