Poignant, keenly observed, and irresistibly funny: a memoir about literary New York in the late nineties, a pre-digital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds herself entangled with one of the last great figures of the century.
At twenty-three, after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff moves to New York City and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. She spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office, where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and old-time agents doze at their desks after martini lunches. At night she goes home to the tiny, threadbare Williamsburg apartment she shares with her socialist boyfriend. Precariously balanced between glamour and poverty, surrounded by titanic personalities, and struggling to trust her own artistic instinct, Rakoff is tasked with answering Salinger’s voluminous fan mail. But as she reads the candid, heart-wrenching letters from his readers around the world, she finds herself unable to type out the agency’s decades-old form response. Instead, drawn inexorably into the emotional world of Salinger’s devotees, she abandons the template and begins writing back. Over the course of the year, she finds her own voice by acting as Salinger’s, on her own dangerous and liberating terms.
Rakoff paints a vibrant portrait of a bright, hungry young woman navigating a heady and longed-for world, trying to square romantic aspirations with burgeoning self-awareness, the idea of a life with life itself. Charming and deeply moving, filled with electrifying glimpses of an American literary icon, My Salinger Year is the coming-of-age story of a talented writer. Above all, it is a testament to the universal power of books to shape our lives and awaken our true selves.
The servants take center stage in this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice. While Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters fuss over balls and husbands, Sarah, their orphaned housemaid, is beginning to chafe against the boundaries of her class. When a new footman arrives at Longbourn under mysterious circumstances, the carefully choreographed world she has known all her life threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. Mentioned only fleetingly in Jane Austen’s classic, here Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Regency England and, in doing so, uncovers the real world of the novel that has captivated readers’ hearts around the world for generations.
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Maar nie in die Kaap van Storms nie. Op 17 Desember spoel die lyk van Ernst Richter oop in die duine anderkant Parklands — dié Ernst Richter, berugte Internet-entrepreneur, baas van die omstrede webwerf Alibi.co.za wat 'n maand gelede so onverklaarbaar en sensasioneel verdwyn het.
Niemand wil die saak hê nie. Nie die SAPS in Tableview of Stellenbosch nie, want hulle ken moeilikheid as hulle dit sien, baie dankie. Media-moeilikheid. Mannekrag-moeilikheid.
Druk van bo, binnegevegte, politiek en onoplosbare moord moeilikheid. Daarom gee hulle dit so graag aan vir die Valke.
Selfs onder normale omstandighede sou Bennie Griessel en Vaughn Cupido gesukkel het. Want by Alibi.co.za lieg almal soos tannetrekkers. En die lys van mense wat vir Ernst Richter baie graag met hul kaal hande sou wou verwurg, raak net langer.
Maar omstandighede is nie normaal nie. Want Griessel het weer aan die suip gegaan. En Cupido is verlief. Op een van die hoofverdagtes.
En op 24 Desember begin 'n jong wynboer bieg voor 'n advokaat in Kaapstad, wat die hele saak op sy kop keer.
