The act of walking inspires a dizzying variety of stories, from M. R. James's tale of a ghost cursed to wander forever, to the thrilling true account of a woman who escaped from an Auschwitz death march, to a dreamy tale by Anais Nin about wandering in the labyrinth of memory.Here are comic stories and love stories, moments of adventure and of observation, of sleepwalking and of mental travelling, of strolling and of hiking, all set into glorious motion by a diverse array of ...
Each story captures a slice of life, and together they create a picture of Indian reality in all its fascinating variety. A number of themes predominate: the poverty aggravated by the dominance of landlords and the caste system; the position of women within the family and their desire for shape their own destiny; the lure of the city in a country that was and remains predominantly rural and agricultural. The inspiration and subject matter are Indian, but in their artistry and...
A grandson of Mark Antony, young Claudius is mistaken for a weakling and an idiot because of his stutter and his physical infirmities and grows up learning to use his reputation for harmlessness as a shield. Dismissed as insignificant by his powerful relatives as they compete with each other for power, he spends his time writing a secret history of the first three emperors of Rome as observed from his remarkable ringside vantage point—a dramatic tale that makes up the pages o...
