Recommendations based on "Kallocain"

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR • A DUA LIPA BOOK CLUB PICK“Imagine Call Me By Your Name set in Communist Poland and you'll get a sense of Jedrowski's moving debut about a consuming love affair amidst a country being torn apart.” — O, The Oprah Magazine“Captivating both for its shimmering surfaces and its terrifying depths. Tomasz Jedrowski is a remarkable writer.” — Justin Torres, bestselling author of We the AnimalsSet in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of Communism, a tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide—a stunningly poetic and heartrending literary debut for fans of André Aciman, Garth Greenwell, and Alan Hollinghurst.When university student Ludwik meets Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, he is fascinated yet wary of this handsome, carefree stranger. But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful, natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive Communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly coveted government position. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, postwar politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski’s indelible and thought-provoking literary debut explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.

Nothing can prepare you for Anthony Loyd's portrait of war. It is the story of the unspeakable terror and the visceral, ecstatic thrill of combat, and the lives and dreams laid to waste by the bloodiest conflict that Europe has witnessed since the Second World War.Born into a distinguished military family, Loyd was raised on the stories of his ancestors' exploits and grew up fascinated with war. Unsatisfied by a brief career in the British Army, he set out for the killing fields in Bosnia. It was there--in the midst of the roar of battle and the life-and-death struggle among the Serbs, Croatians, and Bosnian Muslims--that he would discover humanity at its worst and best. Profoundly shocking, poetic, and ultimately redemptive, this is an uncompromising look at the brutality of war and its terrifyingly seductive power.

A posthumous and definitive collection of new and selected stories by "virtuoso of the short story" (Esquire) and National Book Award finalist Thom Jones. This scorching collection from award-winning author Thom Jones features his best new short fiction alongside a selection of outstanding stories from three previous books. Jones's stories are full of high-octane, prose-drunk entertainment. His characters are grifters and drifters, rogues and ne'er-do-wells, would-be do-gooders whose human frailties usually get the better of them. Some are lovable, others are not, but each has an indelible and irresistible voice. They include Vietnam soldiers, amateur boxers, devoted doctors, strung-out advertising writers, pill poppers and veterans of the psych ward, and an unforgettable adolescent DJ radio host, among others. The stories here are excursions into a unique world that veers between abject desperation and fleeting transcendence. Perhaps no other writer in recent memory could encapsulate in such short spaces the profound and the devastating, the poignant and the hallucinatory, with such an exquisite balance of darkness and light. Jones's fiction reveals again and again the resilience and grace of characters who refuse to succumb. In stories that can at once delight us with their wicked humor and sting us with their affecting pathos, Night Train perfectly captures the essence of this iconic American master, showcasing in a single collection the breadth of power of his inimitable fiction.

Set in 18th century France. Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human's. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in Paris. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is an exquisite, magical scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. And kill.

'AN EXCEPTIONAL STORYTELLER' Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner 'Ingenious' New York Times Book Review 'Compelling' Daily Telegraph 'Fast-moving' Spectator 'Cinematic' Marie Claire 'Gripping' New York Magazine From the co-creator and writer of the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime. Four months into the siege of Leningrad, the city is starving. Seventeen-year-old Lev fears for his life when he is arrested for looting the body of a dead German paratrooper, while his charismatic cellmate, Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested for desertion, seems bizarrely unafraid. Dawn brings, instead of an execution squad, an impossible challenge. Lev and Kolya can find a dozen eggs for an NKVD colonel to use for his daughter's wedding cake, and live. Or fail, and die. In the depths of the coldest winter in history, through a city cut off from all supplies and suffering appalling deprivation, man and boy embark on an absurd hunt. Their search will take them through desolate, lawless Leningrad and the devastated countryside surrounding it, in the captivating journey of two men trying to survive against desperate odds. PRAISE FOR DAVID BENIOFF 'Master of the zippy, punchy, knee-to-the-groin story' Independent on Sunday 'An ace storyteller' Entertainment Weekly 'A skilled creator' Daily Telegraph

"Wild Animal ticks with the precision of a well-crafted wristwatch."—Wall Street Journal From the devious mind of New York Times bestselling author Joël Dicker —master of the plot twist—comes this gripping domestic thriller that transforms into an ambitious heist mystery involving a famed Geneva jewelry boutique. On July 2, 2022, two criminals set out to rob a jewelry shop in Geneva. But even with a foolproof plan, their “perfect” heist will prove far from uneventful. . . . Twenty days earlier, on a luxurious estate along the shores of Lake Geneva, Sophie Braun prepares to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Her life seems perfect: she has a fairytale marriage, two perfect children, and lives in a stylish modern mansion surrounded by lush forest. But her idyllic world is about to crumble. Her husband is becoming embroiled in petty schemes. Her neighbor, a policeman with a spotless reputation, is obsessed with her and spies on the most intimate moments of her life. Then, on her birthday, she receives a gift from a mysterious prowler that endangers her life. It will take many journeys into the past, far from Geneva, to unravel the origins of this diabolical plot from which no one will emerge unscathed, including readers. Told at a breathtaking pace, filled with nerve-jangling suspense, Wild Animal demonstrates once again why Joël Dicker—since the publication of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Case—reigns supreme as one of the most beloved contemporary mystery writers in the world today. Translated from the French by Robert Bononno

OVER 33 MILLION BOOKS SOLD WORLDWIDE SONNY'S ON THE RUN Sonny is a model prisoner. He listens to the confessions of other inmates, and absolves them of their sins. HE'S BEEN LIED TO HIS WHOLE LIFE But then one prisoner's confession changes everything. He knows something about Sonny's disgraced father. SONNY WANTS REVENGE He needs to break out of prison and make those responsible pay for their crimes. WHATEVER THE COST

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It became a bestseller, garnered sterling critical reviews, and inspired a film: this harrowing story of a captured British agent in World War Two, his refusal to crack under horrific torture, and his imprisonment in a concentration camp, testifies to the strength of the human spirit. Wing Commander F.F.E. Yeo-Thomas, aka “The White Rabbit,” parachuted into France to aid the Resistance; two years later the Gestapo seized him and unleashed all their power to make him give up information… Chilling and unforgettable.

ESPIONAGE & SPY THRILLER FICTION. March 1938. The Germans take Vienna without a shot being fired. Covering Austria for the English press is a young journalist named Rod Troy. Back home his younger brother joins the CID as a detective constable. November 1938. Kristallnacht. The Jews leave Vienna - Sigmund Freud with an American escort on a sleeper train, Josef Hummel tied to the underside of a boxcar. June 1940. Sergeant Troy is seconded to Special Branch to help in the round-up of 'enemy' aliens, among whom are Hummel and his brother Rod. Rod and Hummel are interned on the Isle of Man ... meanwhile a lunatic is killing rabbis in the East End of London. Troy asks for time off from Special Branch to return to his true calling ... Murder. London is now under siege, from German bombers, from its own prejudices and paranoias. Is London any better than Vienna?