masterpiece
The Qur'an
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Haleem, M. A. S. Abdel, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, One of the most influential books in the history of literature, recognized as the greatest literary masterpiece in Arabic, the Qur'an is the supreme authority and living source of all Islamic teaching, the sacred text that sets out the creed, rituals, ethics, and laws of Islam. Yet despite the growing interest in Islamic teachings and culture, there has never been a truly satisfactory English translation of the Qur'an, until now. This superb new translation of the Qur'an is written in contemporary language that remains faithful to the meaning and spirit of the original, making the text crystal clear while retaining all of this great work's eloquence. The translation is accurate and completely free from the archaisms, incoherence, and alien structures that mar existing translations. Thus, for the first time, English-speaking readers will have a text of the Qur'an which is easy to use and comprehensible. Furthermore, Haleem includes notes that explain geographical, historical, and personal allusions as well as an index in which Qur'anic material is arranged into topics for easy reference. His introduction traces the history of the Qur'an, examines its structure and stylistic features, and considers issues related to militancy, intolerance, and the subjection of women. Clearly written and filled with helpful information and guidance, this brilliant translation of the Qur'an is the best available introduction to the faith of Moslems around the world. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Fall
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: McAdam, Colin, PUBLISHER: Riverhead Books, A masterpiece of adolescent perspective, emotion, impulse, and relationships: the riveting story of two male roommates at a co-ed boarding school and what happens when the girlfriend of one of them goes missing during their final year. From an internationally acclaimed, prizewinning author, whom critics have compared to Dave Eggers and Michael Ondaatje, comes a tour de force: a mesmerizing novel that is at once a spellbinding psychological thriller and a brilliant portrait of adolescence that goes deep into the heads of two very different boys. Awkward Noel thinks he's been allowed into the inner circle of his elite boarding school when he discovers his senior-year roommate is to be handsome, athletic Julius. Julius, in turn, cares only for the fleeting joys of teenage life: sneaking out to parties, playing pranks with friends, and most of all, spending the night with his girfriend, Fall. As Noel narrates this fateful semester from a perspective of many years, interwoven is Julius's own in-the-moment experiences of first love and male camaraderie. Always an outsider, Noel develops an unhealthy fascination with Julius, and his crush on Fall begins to border on a dangerous obsession. As Julius experiences all the pleasures of an eighteen-year-old in love, we watch as Noel self-consciously analyzes his interactions with Julius and Fall, convincing himself of a deep connection that might not exist. When Fall disappears close to winter break, Julius and Noel are forced to face their own inner desires, a confrontation that ushers the two boys out of the innocence of adolescence and into adulthood. A tremendous literary page-turner that perfectly captures the agonies and delights of adolescence, "Fall" is the exhilaration and angst of teenage love and friendship- and the ultimate transience of those feelings.
Transformers mp-3g starscream ghost ver. takara
Vendo strascream masterpiece originale takara, mai esposto, nuovo in scatola come da foto. spedizione con corriere al costo di 9 euro, oppure consegna a mano, cosa che preferisco in quanto si evitano spedizioni o incomprensioni. per la consegna a mano oppure per tenere bloccato un'oggetto ho bisogno di una caparra (anche di solo 5-10 euro), una volta ricevuta la caparra trattengo l'oggetto bloccato per 15 giorni, trascorsi i quali se l'acquirente non si fa vivo rimetterò in vendita l'oggetto e la caparra non sarà restituita. se scegliete la consegna a mano e si conclude entro un paio di giorni non c'è bisogno della caparra. accetto pagamenti con ricarica, bonifico bancario, o paypal, purchè paghiate voi le commissioni che si trattengono! se un oggetto è sigillato non chiedetemi di aprirlo, perchè non lo apro. non proponetemi scambi in quanto sto vendendo tutta la mia collezione per motivi economici, inoltre il prezzo non è trattabile, quindi per evitare di perdere tempo e farne perdere a me se riceverò richieste di scambi o di trattare il prezzo le cestinerò subito. controllate anche gli altri miei annunci, che se poi prendete altre cose posso anche farvi un piccolo sconto. perditempo, indecisi, e cacciatori di affari sono pregati di astenersi. non rispondo assolutamente a SMS, o squilli per essere richiamati. inoltre per la consegna a mano, siete voi a dover venire da me, non io a venire da voi non c'e'possibilita'di reso/garanzia/refund/rimborso. oggetto con formula as is, come visto e piaciuto. la legislazione vigente nell'unione europea prevede che anche i privati siano tenuti a dare garanzia sugli oggetti venduti a meno che tale garanzia non sia esplicitamente esclusa al momento della vendita. qui e'per l'appunto esclusa.
Pianoforti
Vendesi per chiusura attività vari Pianoforti: 1) Schulze Pollmann M.197 (Nuovo); 2) C-Bechstein Mod "A" - 180 (usato); 3) Casio GP-400 Ibrido (Nuovo). Caratteristiche STRUMENTI: 1) Stupendo Pianoforte a coda Schulze e Pollmann mod. M-197 NUOVO!!!; misure cm.200 x150. Trattasi del TOP di questa casa produttrice, ultima produzione, della Masterpiece Serie Professionale da Concerto e non quella della serie "S" da studio. Costruzione ed assemblaggio della struttura e della tavola armonica fatta con i migliori legni, e meccanica tutta con componenti Renner. NUOVO ancora imballato Ultima produzione, il cui costo di listino e' Euro, VERO AFFARE!!!!!! Vendesi al migliore offerente!!!! FATE LA VOSTRA OFFERTA, SARA' VALUTATA E PRESA IN SERIA CONSIDERAZIONE !!!! A Chiunque si avvicini al prezzo di Euro VERRA' VENDUTO.(ca.50% del suo valore:SE VERAMENTE INTERESSATI TROVEREMO UN PUNTO D'INCONTRO). Inoltre a chi acquista verrà regalata una Martelliera completa "ORIGINALE RENNER" di scorta come ricambio, per garantire una durata del pianoforte a vita!! Per contatti: Tel mail: 2) Vendesi pianoforte "C-Bechstein" mezza coda cm.180, mod. "A",vero gioiello di marca tedesca, con legni pregiati e stagionati; tastiera perfettamente integra in avorio, tasti neri in ebano. Suono caldo, pieno corposo e rotondo, niente a che vedere con i soliti suoni inscatolati, plastificati, e stridenti orientali. Prezzo da realizzare Euro, MA FATE LA VOSTRA OFFERTA, SARA' PRESA IN SERIA CONSIDERAZIONE E A CHI SI AVVICINA DI PIU' A QUELL'IMPORTO SARA' VENDUTO. Per contatti: Dino CARUSO tel. mail: 3) Stupendo pianoforte Ibrido ultima generazione Casio GP-400. Vera tastiera in legno dei piani Acustici, suoni Reali di pianoforti acustici (3 pianoforti in uno!) Bechstein - Bosendorf - Steinway - Tutto in uno!!!Se avete problemi di spazio e soprattutto di soldi ecco l'ideale! Euro a fronte di di costo!!!! VERO AFFARE:
Vendo/scambio Surly Pugsley XL
Vendo/scambio Fat bike Surly Pugsley telaio in acciaio, colore grassy green, taglia XL (22) per rendere l’idea io sono alto 1.86. Indistruttibile e affidabile, capace di portarvi ovunque, è adatta a lunghi viaggi su qualsiasi terreno poiché in grado di offrire la massima versatilità di trazione e di carico. Inoltre è estremamente leggera, meno di 13 kg, perché assemblata con componenti di prima scelta e con ruote tubeless. La bici è in ottime condizioni, gli unici graffi sono quelli in foto e sono dovuti al portabici, solo se seriamente interessati ho a disposizione altre foto. È stata assemblata ad ottobre con i seguenti componenti: Telaio e forcella: Pugsley, per le specifiche e le geometrie vedere il sito del produttore Manubrio: Riser Pro Taper 780 DH - ANSWER Stem: Straitline AMP 90mm zero rise Serie sterzo: Ritchey Comp con spessori in carbonio Tappo serie sterzo: Niner YAWYD (per i vostri tappi della birra!) Freni a disco: Avid BBmm anteriore, 160mm posteriore Guarnitura: SRAM X1 30T con pedivelle 175mm Cassetta: SRAM X1 11 velocità Cambio: SRAM X1 Deragliatore posteriore: SRAM X1 Pedali: Hope F20 Reggisella: Thomson Masterpiece Copertoni: Kenda Juggernaut Sport 26x4 tubeless Cerchi: Surly Rolling Darryl QR: American Classic Manopole: Specialized Sella: Fizik Gobi XM (è un po’ rovinata) Purtroppo non è scattata la scintilla e dopo averla usata per circa 300 km (le foto parlano da se sulla condizione della bici) la metto in vendita o la scambio con: - bici della stessa taglia (62): Surly Straggler o Disk Trucker; bici da corsa tipologia endurance - scooter max 130kg (devo poterlo caricare sul camper) Il valore della bici così allestita è di euro , la metto in vendita a euro . Non spedisco, solo consegna a mano in Torino e provincia. Se la trovate con questo allestimento ad un prezzo minore compratela!
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Sedaris, David, PUBLISHER: Back Bay Books, "David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," ("The Christian Science Monitor") is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this remarkable new book. Trying to make coffee when the water is shut off, David considers using the water in a vase of flowers and his chain of associations takes him from the French countryside to a hilariously uncomfortable memory of buying drugs in a mobile home in rural North Carolina. In essay after essay, Sedaris proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life-having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a fellow passenger on a plane or armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds-to the most deeply resonant human truths. Culminating in a brilliant account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection is a new masterpiece of comic writing from "a writer worth treasuring" ("Seattle Times"). Praise for When You Are Engulfed in Flames: "Older, wiser, smarter and meaner, Sedaris...defies the odds once again by delivering an intelligent take on the banalities of an absurd life." --"Kirkus Reviews" This latest collection proves that not only does Sedaris still have it, but he's also getting better....Sedaris's best stuff will still--after all this time--move, surprise, and entertain." --"Booklist" Table of Contents: It's Catching Keeping Up The Understudy This Old House Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie? Road Trips What I Learned That's Amore The Monster Mash In the Waiting Room Solutions to Saturday's Puzzle Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool Memento Mori All the Beauty You Will Ever Need Town and Country Aerial The Man in the Hut Of Mice and Men April in Paris Crybaby Old Faithful The Smoking Section
28 Lp 33 giri e 12"
vendo in blocco una serie di dischi in vinile alcuni 33 giri altri 12". Le condizioni sono più che buone da VG+ a NM. Alcuni possono avere etichette sulla parte frontale (pochi) ma potete trovare all'interno del lotto dei vinili molto ricercati, dei mitici anni . Nel totale del blocco ce ne sono 11 che sono senza cover ma le condizioni sono quelle prima indicate. vinili con cover 1- Love unlimited orchestra white gold LP 2- Mantronix got to have your love 12" 3- Johnny hates jazz i don't want to be a hero 12" 3- Tony Scott gangster boogie 12" 4- Cock robin cock robin LP 5- Murray head on night in bangkok 12" 6- Megamix cristal waters 12" 7- Hi power cult of snap 12" 8- Alphaville big in japan 12" 9- Alphaville forever young - Deodato deodato2 LP 11- Crystal waters surprise LP 12-Jomanda don't you want my love - Regina up on the floor - Ricchi e poveri hit parade international LP 15- Luca barbarossa non tutti gli uomini LP 16- Toto cutugno innamorata.... LP 17- John Williams - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial LP pictur disc vinili senza cover 1- Jody water i want you 12" 2-Twenty 4 seven i can't stand it 12" 3- Eagles the long run LP 4- Cherelle i didn't mean to turn you on 12" 5- Ellis beggs &howard rock me 12" 6- Enigma sadeness 12" 7- Gazebo masterpiece 12" 8- Secchi feat orlando johnson i say yeah 12" 9- Club house take your time - ABC be near me - Gloria gaynor oh what a life 12" Essendo una vendita tra privati NON SI ACCETTANO RESI DOPO L'ACQUISTATO. PER INFORMAZIONI CHIEDETE O CHIAMATE DIRETTAMENTE IL NUMERO MASSIMO. Pagamenti, bonifico bancario servizi postali NO CONTRASSEGNO. spedizione 15 euro
Robert Frank "Gli americani" (The americans) Ed. Il
Rarissima edizione italiana del capolavoro del fotografo svizzero. Considerato il capostipite della street photography grazie a questo celebre fotolibro, che riuscì inizialmente a pubblicare solo in Europa, raccontò la società americana attraverso un viaggio di due anni in quaranta stati USA con sole 83 immagini, così potenti e innovative che il volume gli venne dapprima rifiutato e considerato quasi sovversivo. Solo dopo il successo delle edizioni francese e italiana (identiche e uscite in contemporanea) il volume fu pubblicato negli Stati Uniti diventando uno dei più importanti e seminali photobook del novecento. Questo esemplare è in condizioni eccellenti e completo, presenta pagine freschissime e senza pieghe, e solo dei leggerissimi segni d'uso alla copertina. Anche la rilegatura è solidissima. Gli Americani. Photographs by Robert Frank. Texts in italian by Simone de Beauvoir, Bernard Iddings Bell, Alain Bosquet, John Brown, Omar N. Bradley, Erskine Caldwell, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Andre Maurois, Henry Miller, Claude Roy, John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman, Richard Wright. Edited by Alain Bosquet. Ed il Saggiatore . First edition. Original edition. 174 pages. Oblong octavo. Glazed paper over boards. Cover design by Saul Steinberg. No dust jacket as issued. Numerous gravure reproductions. Many memorable photobooks have been derived from this mass of material. None has been more memorable, more influential, nor more fully realized than Frank's masterpiece."-Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Vol. 1 Unlike the Grove Press edition with its politically charged texts printed on pages facing the photos-Frank's acerbic documentary of post-war American life comes across more as a biting exposé of the ennui and provincialism lurking beneath the surface than as a "sad poem sucked out of America," in Kerouac's famous words. A very nice copy of this fragile book. The original italian edition. A classic.
Lista cd rap/hip hop americano parte 1
Salve vendo cd rap/hip hop americano contattatemi per i prezzi,offro ottime proposte a seconda dei titoli su richiesta invio foto dettagliate tramite whatsapp dei titoli richiesti molti titoli sono sigillati il resto per lo piu' pari al nuovo *lista cd rap/ hip hop stranieri* -cypress hill cd omonimo -cypress hill black sunday -cypress hill live at fillmore -cypress hill strictly hip hop the best of -snoop dogg ego trippin -snoop dogg presents...welcome to tha house vol.1 -snoop dogg tha blue carpet treatment -snoop dogg rhythm & gangsta the masterpiece -dr.dre cd sigillato -wu tang clan enter the wu tang (36 chambers) -gza(wu tang clan) legend of the liquid sword -2pac live -2pac better dayz doppio cd -2pac loyal to the game -2pac pacs life -tupac resurrection -tupac the rose that grew from concrete vol.1 -lyricist lounge vol.one doppio cd -game the r.e.d.album -the game doctors avocate -rodney kendrick presents no dress code -grandmaster flesh and furious five the message -grandmaster flesh mixing bullets and firing joints -mos def black on both sides -mos def the new danger -til death do us part down south georgia boyz -del thefunkyhomosapien no need for alarm -mannie fresh the mind of mannie fresh -field mob light poles and pine trees -young gunz brothers for another -pharoahe monch desire -the high & mighty home field advantage -swizz beatz presents ghetto stories -das efx sraight up sewaside -n.o.r.e. gods favorite -obie trice second rounds on me -slim thug already platinum doppio cd -busta rhymes when disaster strikes... -busta rhymes the coming -busta rhymes extinction level event -busta rhymes back on my b.s. -ice t the classic collection -the notorious b.i.g.born again -methodman tical -redman dare iz a darkside -public enemy it takes a nation of millions to hold us back -run d.m.c. omonimo cd
Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Kafka, Franz / Baker, Jason / Freed, Donna, PUBLISHER: Barnes & Noble Classics, "The Metamorphosis and Other Stories," by Franz Kafka, is part of the ""Barnes & Noble Classics" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of "Barnes & Noble Classics": New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. "Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a constellation of influences-biographical, historical, and literary-to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, Franz Kafka is now one of the world's most widely read and discussed authors. His nightmarish novels and short stories have come to symbolize modern man's anxiety and alienation in a bizarre, hostile, and dehumanized world. This vision is most fully realized in Kafka's masterpiece, ""The Metamorphosis,"" a story that is both harrowing and amusing, and a landmark of modern literature. Bringing together some of Kafka's finest work, this collection demonstrates the richness and variety of the author'sartistry. ""The Judgment,"" which Kafka considered to be his decisive breakthrough, and ""The Stoker,"" which became the first chapter of his novel "Amerika," are here included. These two, along with ""The Metamorphosis,"" form a suite of stories Kafka referred to as "The Sons," and they collectively present a devastating portrait of the modern family. Also included are ""In the Penal Colony,"" a story of a torture machine and its operators and victims, and ""A Hunger Artist,"" about the absurdity of an artist trying to communicate with a misunderstanding public. Kafka's lucid, succinct writing chronicles the labyrinthine complexities, the futility-laden horror, and the stifling oppressiveness that permeate his vision of modern life. Jason Baker is a writer of short stories living in Brooklyn, New York.
The Innocents
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Segal, Francesca, PUBLISHER: Hyperion Books, "It is impossible to resist this novel's wit, grace, and charm." --Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia A smart and slyly funny tale of love, temptation, confusion, and commitment; a triumphant and beautifully executed recasting of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Newly engaged and unthinkingly self-satisfied, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Newman is the prize catch of Temple Fortune, a small, tight-knit Jewish suburb of London. He has been dating Rachel Gilbert since they were both sixteen and now, to the relief and happiness of the entire Gilbert family, they are finally to marry. To Adam, Rachel embodies the highest values of Temple Fortune; she is innocent, conventional, and entirely secure in her community--a place in which everyone still knows the whereabouts of their nursery school classmates. Marrying Rachel will cement Adam's role in a warm, inclusive family he loves. But as the vast machinery of the wedding gathers momentum, Adam feels the first faint touches of claustrophobia, and when Rachel's younger cousin Ellie Schneider moves home from New York, she unsettles Adam more than he'd care to admit. Ellie--beautiful, vulnerable, and fiercely independent--offers a liberation that he hadn't known existed: a freedom from the loving interference and frustrating parochialism of North West London. Adam finds himself questioning everything, suddenly torn between security and exhilaration, tradition and independence. What might he be missing by staying close to home? Francesca Segal was born in London and studied at Oxford and Harvard University before becoming a journalist and critic. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, and The Observer, among other publications. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction column in The Observer and was, until recently, a features writer at Tatler. She lives in London. "Inspired by The Age of Innocence, Segal's book is warmer, funnier, and paints a more dynamic and human portrait of a functional community that is a wonderful juxtaposition to Wharton's cold social strata." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "Francesca Segal's lustrous debut may have begun as a seed shaken from Edith Wharton's masterpiece The Age of Innocence, but only a few pages will show how completely Segal has made The Innocents her own. The setting--a vibrant if enclosed London Jewish community--is beautifully counterbalanced by Segal's wry and compassionate voice." --Lauren Groff, bestselling author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia "The Innocents is written with wisdom and deliciously subtle wit, in the tradition of Jane Austen and Nancy Mitford.... This is a wonderfully readable novel: elegant, accomplished, and romantic." --Andre Aciman, author of the award-winning Out of Egypt, Call Me by Your Name, and Alibis "A moving, funny, richly drawn story.... Full of real pleasures and unexpected wisdom, this book sweeps you along.
Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe: An Encyclopedia
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Wilson, K. / Wilson, Katharina M. / Schlueter, June, PUBLISHER: Routledge, A valuable survey and reference resource It is hard to imagine a more needed and more useful literary reference work than this one, which gives students and readers quick access to the lives and work of a wide range of notable female writers from England and the Continent, from Aphra Behn to Emily Bronte, from Simone de Beauvoir to Isak Dinesen, from Bridget of Sweden to Hannah Arendt. Writers in more than 30 languages are included: French, Czech, Greek, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Serbian, Catalan, Arabic, Hebrew, Dutch, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovak, and more. Covers years and all major genres Going back 15 centuries, the "Encyclopedia" covers the authors of novels, short stories, poetry, plays, criticism, social commentary, feminist manifestos, romances, mysteries, memoirs, children's literature, biography, and other genres. In signed entries, some of which are mini-essays, experts in the field examine writers' lives and achievements, comment on individual works, place artistic efforts in historical context, provide insights and analyses, and present more information than can be easily found elsewhere without undertaking more exhaustive research. Each entry is followed by a bibliography of primary works. Indexed by language, nationality, genre, and century. Spotlights the interesting lives of notable writers In these pages students and readers will meet hundreds of interesting women writers who made lasting contributions to the intellectual and popular culture of their countries while often leading fascinating lives, among them: * AGATHA CHRISTIE, who wrote her first book in response to her sister's demand for a detective story that was harder to solve than the popular fiction of her day, and whose work has been translated in more languages than Shakespeare's. * HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, the 12th-century German mystic, who wrote profusely as a prophet, a poet, a dramatist, a physician, and a political moralist, often communicated with popes and princes, and exerted a tremendous influence on the Western Europe of her time * MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY, whose masterpiece "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus " became a literary sensation around the world * ILSE BLUMENTHAL-WEISS, one of the few concentration camp survivors to memorialize the victims of the Holocaust in German verse * LINA WERTMULLER, who in addition to her work in films, has written plays for the stage and a novel, and who once was a member of a short-lived puppet theater that staged the works of Kafka. Special features: Ideal for quick reference and student research * Multicultural-covers over 30 languages and 15 centuries * Includes many contemporary writers * Provides essential biographic data on each writer * Each entry is followed by a chronological listing of the writer's published book-length works * Offers critical evaluations of major works * Indexes help find writers by country...research by ti
The Stranger's Child
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Hollinghurst, Alan, PUBLISHER: Vintage Canada, INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The Stranger's Child is Alan Hollinghurst's masterpiece, the book that cements his position as one of the finest novelists of our time. In its scope, intelligence and elegance, The Stranger's Child can be placed in the great tradition of the novel alongside epics by Marcel Proust and Anthony Powell. And yet, in its subtly political exploration of homosexuality in English society, it deals with an utterly contemporary subject in an utterly contemporary way. The Stranger's Child""begins with sixteen-year-old Daphne Sawle sitting in a hammock in the garden of Two Acres, the family home in suburban London. She is making a show of reading Tennyson before her brother George arrives to visit with his Cambridge friend Cecil Valance, a handsome, assured and sometimes outrageous young man with a burgeoning reputation as a poet. After a tantalizing and dramatic weekend Cecil writes a long poem in Daphne's autograph album as a parting gift. It is titled "Two Acres," and both Daphne and George (whose feelings for Cecil also go well beyond mere friendship) immediately see how important the poem is - but none of them can foresee the complex and lasting effects it will have on all their lives. When the next section of the novel begins, everything has changed: Daphne is married to Cecil's brother Dudley Valance; George to a historian named Madeleine; and Cecil is dead, killed by a sniper in World War One. A Cabinet officer and man of letters named Sebastian Stokes has come to Corley Court, the Valance family's country home, to put together an edition of Cecil's poemsand speak to each family member in turn about him. He is especially curious about Cecil's personal (and passionate) letters and unpublished poems, papers that seem to have gone missing, and whose absence will loom paradoxically through the rest of the novel. The book leaps forward and we are at another party, this one to celebrate Daphne's seventieth birthday. George is now the acclaimed historian G.F. Sawle; Daphne's son Wilfrid, a charming boy in the previous section, has grown into a nervous and somehow fractured adult. We meet Peter Rowe, a music teacher at the boarding school that now occupies Corley Court, and his boyfriend, Paul Bryant, a bank employee with a feeling for Cecil's poetry. Soon Paul is taking up an idea that Peter abandoned: to write a biography of Cecil Valance. It means making some startling discoveries about a past that the Valance family would prefer to keep in sepia and shadows. The Stranger's Child""is by turns a gripping literary mystery, an absorbing social study of some pivotal moments in history, and a sensuous and beautiful exploration of the secret passions that determine our lives. From Edwardian suburbs to the offices of the "Times Literary Supplement" in the s, from High Table wit to the realities of life working behind the counter at a provincial bank, it seems there is no corner