Fiction - Modern Literature Books at Dial a Book Sydney

Hazard Zones: A Novel
Maillard, Keith
Book Number: 43819
ISBN: 0002243970
Publisher: Harpercollins Canada 1995
8vo softcover 217pp. very good+. From Booklist: When his mother's fatal illness brings a middle-aged man back to his hometown, he's forced to face his past as his final link to it is broken. At age 50, Larry Cameron is finally happy--with his work as a geographer at a Boston publishing house and with second wife Cynthia and children Patrick (hers) and Allison (theirs). At the news of his mother's attack, Larry and Cynthia are on the first plane out, arriving in Raysburg, West Virginia, to find that Larry's mother, whom he knew would be around to bug him forever, died an hour earlier. Dealing with this death and the memories it evokes, particularly those of his stepbrother Johnny's death decades ago, is an emotionally wrenching yet ultimately healing process. In a story that spans less than a week, interspersed with flashbacks, Maillard tackles universal experiences in the recording and integration of one man's life. With its finely crafted prose, seamless narrative, wonderfully developed characters, and indelible vignettes, this is an exceptional novel, deserving to be read and reread.
Price: $8.00

Mundis Veridis and the End of the World
Lennon, Mim
Book Number: 59400
ISBN: 9781921589492
Publisher: Ink Books, Australia, 2013.
8vo. softcover. 354pp. Fine. Novel of present day Israel.
Price: $12.00

Minor Characters
Johnson, Joyce
Book Number: 58093
ISBN: 0330281496
Publisher: Picdor 1983
8vo. Softcover. good. 237pp. In January 1957, Allen Ginsberg arranged a blind date between Joyce Johnson and Jack Kerouac.
Price: $8.00

The Lights of Alborada
Riotta, Gianni
Book Number: 41767
ISBN: 0007233426
Publisher: Fourth Estate 5 Jun 2006
8vo softcover 304pp very good. This is a rousing historical adventure from the bestselling author of "Prince of the Clouds". As a boy growing up, Nino Manes used to dash through the morning streets of his island fishing village to reach the church square before the first explosion of the Alborada, the fireworks that rang out over the bay to announce the dawning of a feast day. Now, years later as an Italian prisoner of war in a Texan camp at the end of World War II, Nino receives a letter from his love Zita, and finds himself facing a race against time of a different kind. For Zita tells him she is going to marry professor Barbaroux, their maths teacher - and Nino has only forty days to get back to the island and put a stop to the wedding. Taking his life in his hands, he escapes from the camp, vowing to get home before the marriage can take place. Idealistic and ambitious, Nino sets off on a breathless chase across the United States, and is soon joined on his odyssey by an enigmatic Lieutenant in the US Army, and a young prostitute. Together they face a series of extraordinary dangers, from wild forest animals to unexploded mines, and as their journey progresses, Nino finds himself assailed by doubts, questioning his own motives and those of the people around him. At once a romantic adventure and a thrilling wartime escape story, with a colourful cast of characters, "The Lights of Alborada" is also the story of a spiritual quest and a heartrending exercise in nostalgia.
Price: $8.00

The Expedition to the Baobab Tree
Stockenstrom, Wilma - Translated from Afrikaans by J. M. Coetzee
Book Number: 58091
ISBN: 0571131123
Publisher: Faber and Faber 1983
thin 8vo. Softcover. 111pp. Good. A slave woman is the only survivor of a failed expedition into the depths of Southern Africa. She shelters in the hollow trunk of a baobab tree where she relives her earlier existence in a state of increasing isolation. We are the sole witnesses to her moving history: her capture as a young child, her life in a harbor city on the eastern coast as servant to different masters, her journey with her last owner and protector, and her life in the baobab tree.
Price: $6.00

On the Balcony: Selected Short Stories
Mandy, Ivan
Book Number: 38629
ISBN: 9631327930
Publisher: Corvina Press, 1988
8vo. softcover. 128pp. very good.
Price: $6.00

Up In The Old Hotel and Other Stories
Mitchell, Joseph
Book Number: 60665
ISBN: 0679746315
Publisher: Vintage 1993
8vo. Softcover. 716pp. Very good. po inscription. Written between 1943 and 1965, Up in the Old Hotel is the complete collection of Joseph Mitchell 's New Yorker journalism and includes McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr Flood, The Bottom of the Harbour and Joe Gould's Secret.
Price: $12.00

Mangoes & quince: A novel
Field, Carol
Book Number: 44326
ISBN: 0143000128
Publisher: Penguin 2001
8vo softcover 278pp very good, number written on rear endpaper.
Price: $6.00

Stones of the Wall
Dai, Houying
Book Number: 34124
ISBN: 0340412410
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton General Division 1987
8vo softcover 336pp. good. From Publishers WeeklynOne comes to care very much for the characters in this novel of modern China by a former Red Guard who now teaches literature at the University of Shanghai. As students and intellectuals during the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957 and the ensuing Cultural Revolution, Sun Yue, her husband, their friends and teachers fell into different political factions that attacked each other in ideological forums. These public accusations often led to personal and political humiliations and sometimes resulted in years of exile to the countryside for "reform through labor." After the fall of the Gang of Four in the early 1970s, Sun Yue and others who had required "rehabilitation" return to university jobs and begin the struggle to reconcile their political histories with their personal lives. Zhao Zhenhuan, Sun Yue's former husband, wants her to forgive him for abandoning her, their daughter and his own beliefs. He Jingfu, a philosopher trying to publish a controversial book on Marxist humanism, has never lost his love for Sun Yue, whom all look to as one who held true to her youthful ideals in ways they did not. Chapters narrated by these characters and others build an eloquent portrayal of their efforts to achieve personal happiness without betraying ideological convictions. Unfamiliar names and events demand close but fully rewarding reading. This is a very human, deeply moving love story. nCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.nnFrom Library JournalnSet in Shangai in the years after the Cultural Revolution, this moving novel intimately and painfully reveals how the excesses of ideology betrayed a generation of China's intellectual citizenry. It is the story of Sun Yue and He Jingfu, two "rehabilitated rightists," as they struggle to renew their personal lives amid the daunting influences of the past, and under the purview of their former accusers. The tensions of this struggle and its effects on character and spirit are convincingly and dramatically detailed. Each character is like a stone in the Great Wall, living out an "old, impressive and tortuous history." This is a highly reflective work combining psychological depth and human understanding with an intense but controlled style of expression. Highly recommended for most libraries. Carol J. Lichtenberg, Washington State Univ. Lib., PullmannCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Price: $6.00

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
Sherrill, Steven
Book Number: 45475
ISBN: 1841953997
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd 2003
8vo softcover 320pp very good.
Price: $8.00

Bucking the Sun
Doig, Ivan
Book Number: 57905
ISBN: 068483149x
Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction 1997
8vo. Softcover. 412pp. Very good. Family drama.
Price: $8.00

In Desolate Heaven
Edric, Robert
Book Number: 56674
ISBN: 1862300127
Publisher: Anchor Books, London, 1998.
8vo. softcover. 394pp. Very good, page edges browned.
Price: $8.00

The Stranger: The Labyrinths of Echo: Book One
Frei, Max
Book Number: 55991
ISBN: 0575089768
Publisher: United Kingdom, Gollancz 2009
8vo softcover 544pp. very good+. Reviewn"Exuberant inventiveness." (Stephen Jewell SFX ) "A delightfully imaginative, playful novel shot through with wry philosophy and wonders both pleasant and horrific, The Stranger is a compelling and accomplished introduction to the Labyrinths of Echo series." (Jamie Boardman DREAMWATCH TOTAL SCI FI ) About the Author: Max Frei is the author of the internationally bestselling Labyrinths of Echo series starring a character called Max Frei, as well as books on literature and art. He lives in Moscow.
Price: $10.00

Fields of Glory
Rouaud, Jean
Book Number: 31912
ISBN: 000271194x
Publisher: HARPERCOLLINS 1993
8vo softcover 160pp. very good.
Price: $5.00

Short Story Embassy
Wilding, M
Book Number: 31016
ISBN: 0909331065
Publisher: Sydney Wild and Woolley 1975
8vo softcover 124pp. good. inscribed by author.
Price: $6.00

Carroll, Jim
Carroll, Jim
Book Number: 30687
ISBN:
Publisher: The Book of Nods
8vo. softcover. very good.
Price: $15.00

DORIAN: AN IMITATION
SELF, WILL
Book Number: 51652
ISBN: 0141013192
Publisher: PENGUIN 2003
8vo softcover 288pp very good. Henry Wotton, gay, drug addicted, and husband of Batface, the irrefutably aristocratic daughter of the Duke of This or That, is at the center of a clique dedicated to dissolution. His friend Baz Hallward, an artist, has discovered a young man who is the very epitome of male beauty - Dorian Gray. His installation Cathode Narcissus captures all of Dorian's allure, and, perhaps, something else. Certainly, after a night of debauchery that climaxes in a veritable conga line of buggery, Wotton and Hallward are caught in the hideous web of a retrovirus that becomes synonymous with the decade. Sixteen years later the Royal Broodmare, as Wotton has dubbed her, lies dying in a Parisian underpass. But what of Wotton and Hallward? How have they fared as stocks soar and T-cell counts plummet? And what of Dorian? How is it that he remains so youthful while all around him shrivel and die? Set against the AIDS epidemic of the eighties and nineties, Will Self's Dorian is a shameless reworking of our most significant myth of shamelessness, brilliantly evoking the decade in which it was fine to stare into the abyss, so long as you were wearing two pairs of Ray-Bans.
Price: $5.00

The Way of the Women
Van Niekerk, Marlene
Book Number: 55970
ISBN: 9780316854399
Publisher: Little, Brown, London, 2007.
8vo. softcover. 623pp. Very good+
Price: $8.00

The Memory of Tides
Loukakis, Angelo
Book Number: 55912
ISBN: 0732280648
Publisher: Harper 2006
8vo. Softcover. 393pp. + 10pp P.S. extra's. A novel of fate and love, Crete and Australia.
Price: $8.00

The Forgotten Waltz
Enright, Anne
Book Number: 54369
ISBN: 9780224089036
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, London 2011. First edition.
8vo. hardcover. 230pp. Near Fine. / Near Fine d/w.
Price: $8.00

Matari
Rhinehart, Luke
Book Number: 25228
ISBN: 0246108118
Publisher: Hart-Davis January 1975
8vo hardcover 186pp very good / very good d/w.
Price: $12.00

A Patchwork Planet
Tyler, Anne
Book Number: 24520
ISBN: 037543256x
Publisher: May 1998 New York Knopf first edition.
8vo. hardcover. 288pp. very good, owner's embossed stamp on fep. / good+ d/w.
Price: $10.00

Imaginary Girlfriend a Memoir
Irving, John
Book Number: 24467
ISBN:
Publisher: London Bloomsbury 1996 First
8vo. hardcover. 148pp. near fine, / near fine d/w.
Price: $8.00

Incubus.
Berto, Giuseppe.
Book Number: 23597
ISBN:
Publisher: London, Hodder & Stoughton 1966. First edition.
8vo. hardcover. 388pp. very good, outer page edges browned. / very good d/w.'
Price: $10.00

S.
Updike, John.
Book Number: 23243
ISBN: 0394568354
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf New York 1988 1st edition
8vo. hardcover. 279pp. very good+. / very good+ d/w.
Price: $10.00

In a Father's Place
Tilgham, Christopher
Book Number: 25840
ISBN: 1856190153
Publisher: London, Sinclair Stevenson, 1990
8vo hardcover 214pp very good / very good d/w. The stories in this collection bring to life the trials and bonds of American families, set against the encroached-upon, yet still-expansive landscapes of the continent. The characters are closely related to the land and to the cultural and family constraints of their places and times.
Price: $8.00

The First Circle.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander.
Book Number: 22647
ISBN:
Publisher: London: Collins & Harvill Press, 1968. First U.K. Edition.
8vo. hardcover. 579pp. very good. / very good d/w.
Price: $10.00

Z
Vassilikos, Vassilis; translated by Marilyn Calmann
Book Number: 20626
ISBN:
Publisher: Macdonald, London, 1969 First British Edition
8vo. hardcover. 406pp. very good+. / very good, lightly chipped d/w. '
Price: $12.00

Rabbit Redux
Updike, John
Book Number: 20532
ISBN:
Publisher: London; Andre Deutsch; 1972 First UK edition.
8vo. hardcover. 406pp. very good, mior foxing outer page edges & endpapers. / good+ d/w with tiny stain bottom front flap, crease rear flap, lightly chipped edges.
Price: $10.00

Bech; A Book
Updike, John
Book Number: 20530
ISBN: 0233962700
Publisher: London; Andre Deutsch; 1970 First UK edition.
8vo. hardcover. 206pp. very good+. / very good+ d/w.
Price: $10.00

Ordinary Time, A Novel
Mojtabai, A.G.
Book Number: 20393
ISBN: 038526416x
Publisher: New York, Double Day 1989. First edition.
8vo. hardcover. 223pp. near fine/ very good+ d/w.
Price: $15.00

Calumet "K"
Merwin-Webster
Book Number: 46796
ISBN:
Publisher: Palo Alto Book Service 1983
8vo. aqua cloth hardcover. 345pp. very good.
Price: $12.00

Before Scarlett; Girlhood Writings of Margaret Mitchell
Eskridge, Jane (editor)
Book Number: 54275
ISBN: 1892514621
Publisher: Hill Street Press, U.S.A., 2000.
8vo. hardcover. 216pp. b/w illus. Fine. /Fine d/w.
Price: $15.00

The Literary Companion to Sex: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry
Pitt-Kethley, Fiona
Book Number: 30003
ISBN: 0679423230
Publisher: New York Random Hous 1994
8vo hardcover 419pp index. very good / very good d/w. With selections ranging from Aristophanes, Sappho and Catullus to Jonathan Swift, William Wycherley, Samuel Butler, Anais Nin and Joe Orton, this juicy, eclectic anthology of erotica celebrates the mysteries, pleasures, shortcomings and humor of sex. Benjamin Franklin's advice on taking a mistress, Alexandre Kuprin's expose of prostitution in pre-revolutionary Russia, Lisa Alther's hilarious tale of love gone awry under an automobile and Molly Parkin's oedipally charged poem about a mother raising a teenage son with raging hormones are among the serendipitous finds that share space in this collection with more familiar works from Philip Roth, Henry Miller, Andrew Marvell and Frank Harris. Pitt-Kethley, who writes a column for the British Guardian on sex in the arts, has chosen appetizing tidbits from the likes of Petronius's Satyr i con , Casanova's Memoirs and Erica Jong's Fear of Flying , but she also includes curious lore and sexy passages from Milton, Shakespeare, Defoe and other authors less immediately associated with erotic facets of human endeavor. nCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. nnIngramnA collection of pieces about sex that reflect the sexual atmosphere of the era in which they were written features the writing of Rabelais, Defoe, Joe Orton, Updike, Nin, and others.
Price: $15.00

Hooking Up
Wolfe, Tom
Book Number: 30160
ISBN: 0224061194
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2000
8vo hardcover 293pp. very good+ / very good+ d/w. A collection of essays and short fiction that includes Wolfe's legendary essays on neuroscience, the controversial essay "My Three Stooges", and the novella "Ambush at Fort Bragg".
Price: $10.00

The good apprentice
Murdoch, Iris.
Book Number: 30238
ISBN: 0701130008
Publisher: London Chatto & Windus ; Hogarth Press 1985
8vo hardcover 522pp index, b/w illus. very good, page edges browned / very good d/w. A novel centred upon guilt-ridden despair, and the difficult problem of trying to be good, and the various magical devices that console those who are sensible enough not to try.
Price: $12.00

Dunster
Mortimer, John Clifford
Book Number: 30311
ISBN: 0670840599
Publisher: London Viking 1992
8vo hardcover 296pp index, b/w illus. very good / very good d/w. Follows the story of two men locked in an adversarial friendship at school, through Oxford, and on to the competitive world of commercialism, success and marriage. Set in London, the novel culminates in a trial scene.
Price: $10.00

The Garden to the Sea.
Toynbee, Philip
Book Number: 30934
ISBN:
Publisher: London, MacGibbon & Kee 1953. First edition.
8vo. hardcover. 213pp. good, foxed. good, foxed d/w.
Price: $8.00

Before My Time
Tucci, Niccolo
Book Number: 32623
ISBN:
Publisher: London: Jonathan Cape, 1963.
8vo. hardcover. 638pp. very good. / very good d/w.
Price: $10.00

The Pilgrim Cottage
Roberts, Cecil
Book Number: 32628
ISBN:
Publisher: London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951 Henley edition
8vo. hardcover. 319pp. very good. / very good d/w.
Price: $8.00

An Unofficial Rose
Murdoch, Iris
Book Number: 32631
ISBN:
Publisher: London: Chatto & Windus 1962. First edition
8vo. hardcover. 348pp. very good, light foxing to endpapers & top edge. / good+ d/w with foxing to spine& small chips on spine ends
Price: $25.00

Cyrus Cyrus
Zameenzad, Adam
Book Number: 33654
ISBN: 0670832235
Publisher: Viking Adult 1991
8vo hardcover 578pp. very good, remainder mark on bottom edge. / very good+ d/w. Cyrus's opus begins with his birth (in India, to the most untouchable of the untouchables). It continues with the series of cataclysms that chase him from country to country, continent to continent and, finally, to hell, where he successfully matches wits with the officials. All is related with a lustrous black humor that counterpoints the unforgiving indictment of justice, religion and society: for the disinherited, reality is as grotesque as a vision of hell.
Price: $12.00

Tales of Wisdom
SCHWARTZ, HOWARD
Book Number: 34181
ISBN: 0517142562
Publisher: Gramercy 1996
8vo hardcover 338pp. very good / very good d/w.
Price: $8.00

MOTHER OF PEARL
Morrissy, Mary
Book Number: 35183
ISBN: 0684196670
Publisher: New York Scribner 1995 first edition
8vo hardcover 282pp, b/w illus. very good / very good d/w with small tear rear top corner.
Price: $10.00

The Iron Wolf and Other Stories
Adams, Richard
Book Number: 35750
ISBN: 071391341X
Publisher: London Lane 1980
large 8vo. hardcover 141pp, b/w illus. very good, large owner's inscription on fep. / very good d/w. Tales & legends.
Price: $10.00

An accidental man
Murdoch, Iris
Book Number: 29030
ISBN: 0670102083
Publisher: New York Viking Press January 1972
8vo hardcover 442pp. very good / good d/w. The the story of the comic and yet relentless struggle for survival of Austin Gibson Grey, the accidental man. He is one of those people who needs to survive through the destruction of others.
Price: $12.00

Novel on Yellow Paper; or, Work it Out for Yourself
Smith, Stevie
Book Number: 42132
ISBN:
Publisher: Morrow, NY, 1937. First edition
8vo. hardcover. 255pp. good, some insect damage to covers, wear to corners & spine ends.
Price: $15.00

A misalliance
Brookner, Anita.
Book Number: 27498
ISBN: 0224024035
Publisher: London J. Cape 1986
8vo hardcover 191pp. very good / very good d/w. Recently divorced Blanche Vernon, in her loneliness, turns to other lives, go works and uplifting pastimes, while her friends hold the general opinion tha she has recently become insupportably eccentric.
Price: $8.00

Money for Maria and Borrowed time : two village tales. (Contemporary Russian writing).
Rasputin, Valentin
Book Number: 27915
ISBN:
Publisher: St. Lucia, University of Queensland Press,1981.
8vo. hardcover. 374pp. very good. / very good d/w.' '
Price: $10.00

Pioneer Go Home!
Powell, Richard
Book Number: 45517
ISBN:
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton 1959
8vo. hardcover. 222pp. Very good, foxing to endpapers. / Very good d/w with sunned spine.
Price: $35.00

Fernhurst, Q.E.D., and Other Early Writings
Stein, Gertrude
Book Number: 27266
ISBN: 0720603927
Publisher: London Peter Owen 1972.
8vo. hardcover. 214pp. very good, owner''s details top of fep. / very good, lightly foxed white d/w.
Price: $25.00

Somewhere, Home
Jarrar, Nada A.
Book Number: 46647
ISBN: 0434010332
Publisher: London, Heinemann, 2003 First edition
Small 8vo. hardcover. 228pp. Near Fine. / Near Fine.
Price: $8.00

The End of the World News: An Entertainment
Burgess, Anthony
Book Number: 29796
ISBN: 0070089655
Publisher: Mcgraw Hill, 1983
8vo hardcover 388pp index, b/w illus. very good / very good d/w.
Price: $10.00

A Dream in the Luxembourg
Aldington, Richard
Book Number: 50329
ISBN:
Publisher: Chatto & Windus, London 1930
8vo. blue cloth hardcover. 53pp. Good+, some foxing, a few spots on cover.
Price: $8.00

Title Deeds: The Hidden Stories Behind 50 Books. Gary Dexter
Dexter, Gary
Book Number: 53041
ISBN: 1906964246
Publisher: Old Street Publishing September 2010
8vo hardcover 304pp very good / very good d/w. In this entertaining collection, acclaimed literary detective and columnist Garyt Dexter reveals the intriguing stories behind some of history's most celebrated books. Here we learn the real reasons for such unusual pieces of nomenclature as Generation X by Douglas Coupland, Goldfinger by Ian Fleming, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Full to the brim with myth-busting tidbits, and throuwing light into many unexplored corners of literary history.
Price: $8.00

Pomona Queen
Nunn, Kem - Signed with inscription
Book Number: 55625
ISBN: 0671735284
Publisher: Pocket Books 1992 First Edition
8vo. Hardcover in d/w. 224pp. Very good. Lost in a southern California barrio, Earl Dean has a hard time believing there is one living soul in this foul-smelling night who wants to be found by a salesman hawking vacuum cleaners. What awaits Earl in the faint glow of a distant porch light is the world of Dan Brown.... Dan Brown's brother has been killed. Dan has plans to handle the revenge, and Earl has strayed into the cross fire. Dan is the last of the road warriors, a murderous, drug-crazed biker who only thinks of laws as things to break. But more than Buddy Brown lies dead in the moonlight. From a time when the valley was the hub of the nation's citrus industry to the defoliated sorry mess of today, it has come down to one fact. Earl Dean, broken-hearted vacuum cleaner salesman, owns the last single acre of orange groves in Pomona. And like is greatgrandfather before him, he must come forward to claim is inheritance.
Price: $18.00

Search for the Dice Man
Rhinehart, Luke
Book Number: 25294
ISBN: 000223937X
Publisher: London. HarperCollins. 1993 first edition
8vo hardcover 336pp very good / very good d/w.
Price: $15.00

The memory of elephants
Desai, Boman.
Book Number: 29393
ISBN: 0233983139
Publisher: London A. Deutsch 1988
8vo hardcover 328pp. very good / very good d/w. Homi Seervai is a Parsi scientist, who invents a machine which activates the memory store of the brain. When a love affair finishes, Homi uses the machine to relive good times, but the machine goes wrong, and he experiences ancestral and racial memories. This is the author's first novel.
Price: $10.00