Anton Chekhov was one of the world's most accomplished short-story writers and this collection displays the breadth and variety of his genius. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. In the Ravine & Other Stories are translated by Constance Garnett and selected and introduced by novelist Paul Bailey. Chekhov had an incomparable ability to write about the seemingly every day with insight, humour and compassion. His characters are brilliantly drawn, from the church warden who's convinced his wife's a witch because strangers arrive on the doorstep whenever there's a storm, to the wronged wife who confronts her husband's chorus-girl lover, to the melancholy school teacher who imagines how her life might have been.

In the Ravine & Other Stories

The haunting novel from Paul Bailey, whose work has been short-listed twice for the Booker Prize.

 At the age of seventy, Andrew Peters looks back across the years to remember life with his doting Uncle Rudolf, who rescued him from fascist Romania as a child. Vivid, often hilarious, stories of Rudolf's brilliant but blighted singing career are intertwined with the slow unfolding of secrets that have shadowed Andrew's otherwise happy life. Told in matchless prose, this deeply moving novel captures a vanished epoch with exquisite tact and restraint.

Uncle Rudolf

C'est l'une des ironies de l'art biographique que certains détails sont plus pertinents que d'autres, et de nombreux détails n'ont aucune pertinence.

Blanche est écrite avec une terrible autorité, l'autorité qui vient de la nécessité artistique lorsque l'écrivain est obligé d'écrire par son démon, plutôt que par son agent ou son promoteur.

La honte est une histoire subtile et multicouche, autant concernée par la politique que par les démangeaisons de la chair masculine. La prose de Coetzee est chaste et lyrique sans être auto-conscient: c'est un soulagement de rencontrer une écriture aussi élégante que celle-ci. Je n'étais pas totalement convaincu par les capacités musicales de Lurie, en ce qui concerne son opéra proposé, mais c'est ma seule plainte.

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