The narrator, K., arrives in a village governed by a mysterious bureaucracy that resides in a nearby castle. When seeking shelter at the town inn, he falsely gives himself out to be a land surveyor summoned by the castle authorities. He is quickly notified that his castle contact is an official named Klamm, who, in the introductory note, informs K. he will report to the Council Chairman. The Council Chairman informs K. that, through a mix up in communication between the castle and the village, he was erroneously requested but, trying to accommodate K., the Council Chairman offers him a position in the service of the school teacher as a caretaker. Meanwhile, K., unfamiliar with the customs, bureaucracy and processes of the village, continues to attempt to reach the official Klamm, which is considered a strong taboo to the villagers. The villagers hold the officials and the castle in the highest regard, justifying, quite elaborately at times, even though they do attempt to appear to know what the officials do, the actions of the officials are never explained; they simply defend it as being absurd any other way. The number of assumptions and justifications about the functions of the officials and their dealings are enumerated through lengthy monologues of the villagers. Everyone appears to have an explanation for the officials'' actions that appear to be founded on assumptions and gossip. The descriptions given by the townspeople often contradict themselves by having very different features and routines within a single person''s description, but they do not try to hide the ambiguity; instead, they praise it as any other action or feature of an official should be praised. One of the more obvious contradictions between the "official word" and the village conception is the dissertation by the secretary Erlanger on Frieda''s required return to service as a barmaid. K. is the only villager that knows that the request is being forced by the castle (even though Frieda may be the genesis), with no consideration of the inhabitants of the village. The castle is the ultimate bureaucracy with copious paperwork that the bureaucracy maintains is "flawless". This flawlessness is, of course, a lie; it is a flaw in the paperwork that has brought K. to the village. There are other failures of the system which are occasionally referred to. K. witnesses a flagrant misprocessing after his nighttime interrogation by Erlanger as a servant destroys paperwork when he cannot determine who the recipient should be. The castle''s occupants appear to be all adult men and there is little reference to the castle other than to its bureaucratic functions. The two notable instances are the reference to a fire brigade and that Otto Brunswick''s wife declares herself to be from the castle. The latter declaration builds the importance of Hans (Otto''s son) in K.''s eyes, as a way to gain access to the castle officials. The functions of the officials are never mentioned. The officials that are discussed have one or more secretaries that do their work in their village. Although the officials come to the village, they do not interact with the villagers unless they need female companionship, implied to be sexual in nature.

The Castle

As punishment for plagiarizing the classical Syrian satirist Lucian, Father Reynardine Bombo is commanded by an apparition of the "famous prophet Mahomet" to "take a long and tedious Journey to Mecca" on foot. To atone, Bombo must also convert to "Mahometanism," become a zealous devotee, and don a "Turkish habit and particularly that of a Pilgrim." His forced religious conversion does not prevent Bombo from frequently indulging in alcohol and pork during his pilgrimage. Headed for the harbor of New York, Bombo sets off from his New Jersey "castle" (the fictional stand-in for the college''s Nassau Hall) clothed in a turban and a "Turkish vest". Seeking quarter in inns, houses of ill fame, and at his father''s castle on Long Island, Bombo initiates a series of angry disputes when the characters he encounters fail to show the respect and deference that is his due as a pilgrim. These episodes often devolve into gross-out humor and violent slapstick pratfalls, of which Bombo is the usual victim despite his great size and pugnaciousness. While sailing across the Atlantic, Bombo is tied to the ship''s yard-arm for propositioning the captain''s wife and instigating a mutiny, abducted by French then Irish privateers, and finally set adrift in a barrel. Washing ashore on the Irish coast, Bombo tries his hand at teaching and panhandling. Bombo''s trek across the Middle East and arrival in Mecca are hastily detailed in the book''s final chapter. In Mecca, Bombo visits the mosque that purportedly contains the tomb of Mahomet, wherein he deposits dictionaries "in one of the most sacred closets of the place" in order to complete his penance and "pacify the Ghost of Lucian." Bombo returns safely to his castle in New Jersey, a refined and more responsible scholar, and eventually retires to a country estate in the vicinity to live out his days.

Father Bombo''s Pilgrimage to Mecca

The city has surrendered to a heat wave in July 1956. When detective Mike Reardon is on the way to work on the nightshift, he is shot to death from behind with a .45 caliber handgun. As Steve Carella and his colleagues from the 87th Precinct are looking for their friend''s killer, they have no idea that this is just the beginning of a series of police murders. David Foster is the next victim, at the entrance of his apartment, where the killer has left behind a footprint at the crime scene. Steve Carella and Hank Bush question the family and wives of the deceased, as well as some suspects, but to no avail. A few nights later the unknown killer ambushes and murders Det. Hank Bush. Bush fought back however and shot and wounded the murderer. Steve Carella fears he will be the next target if he fails to stop him. When Carella is leaving the precinct, he finds a reporter, Savage, waiting for him. He asks Carella his thoughts on who the killer might be, stating that everything is off the record. Carella reveals that - due to the evidence collected from Bush''s murder - the police now knows certain attributes of the killer, i.e. weight, profession, and build. Carella leaves telling Savage that he is going on a date with his girlfriend, Teddy. The next day we find out that Savage has published the conversation between him and Carella, including Teddy''s name and address. When Carella finds this out he rushes to Teddy''s apartment, hoping the killer is not already there. When Carella arrives at Teddy''s apartment he hears shouting and cursing coming from inside. With his .38 in hand, Carella enters Teddy''s room and is immediately faced with a man aiming a .45 right at him. Carella drops to the floor the instant he enters the room and shoots the man holding the .45 twice in the thigh. After making sure Teddy is okay, Carella interrogates the man, finding out that his name is Paul Mercer and that he was the murderer of all three cops. After further interrogation it is discovered that Alice Bush was behind the whole plot; she had convinced a previously unknown man named Paul Mercer to commit the murders. Apparently she had promised him her affections once he had killed off her husband. In the end, both are sentenced to death for their crimes and Det. Carella marries his girlfriend, Teddy Franklin.

Cop Hater

The novel, which is intensely autobiographical as Rihani himself immigrated as a child, tells the story of two boys, named Khalid and Shakib, from Baalbek in Lebanon (at the time, the Syrian province of the Ottoman Empire) who migrate together to the United States, coming by ship through Ellis Island and enduring the classic "Via Dolorosa" of an immigrant. They move into a wet cellar in the Little Syria community of Lower Manhattan near Battery Park and begin to peddle counterfeit Holy Land trinkets and religious items throughout the city, a typical Arab endeavor in America. While Shakid, although himself a poet, is focused and accumulates savings through peddling, Khalid becomes distracted and turns away from commercial activity toward frantically consuming Western literature and participating in the New York City intellectual and bohemian scene. At one point, he burns his peddling box, decrying the dishonesty of their sales. After exhaustion from reckless "bohemian" pursuits, Khalid shifts towards party politics when he is offered the position of a functionary and ward for the Arab community in the machine politics of the city. However, Khalid insists on moral purity in his political work, causing conflict with his "Boss." As a result, he is jailed for a brief time of ten days (Shakid helps secure his release) under the charge of misapplying public funds. The two decide to return to Lebanon before long, and Khalid then shifts back to intense peddling for a time, paying off his accumulated debts and earning funds for return passage. Describing the result of their return, Christoph Schumann has stated that "the subsequent course of events mirrors the progress of his American experience: spiritual retreat, political activism, and persecution." Khalid soon engages in a series of actions that anger Maronite clerics in his home city. He refuses to attend church services and spreads pamphlets and ideas seen as heretical. Moreover, he presses his wish to marry Najma, a young cousin, but Church leaders refuse to grant consent. As result of the growing conflict, Khalid is excommunicated, Najma is forced to marry another, and Khalid moves to the mountain forests and starts to live as a hermit. During this period of exile, he contemplates nature and integrates lessons learned in America with his views on the cultural and political dilemmas of the Arab world. He evolves into a self-identified "voice" for the Arabs, and chooses to return to spread his views on liberation from the Ottoman empire and on the importance of religious unity and scientific progress. Khalid travels to different cities engaging in political and spiritual speech, periodically writing letters to Shakib. During his travels, Khalid meets an American Baha''i woman named Mrs. Gotfry with whom he discursively engages on questions of love and religion. He travels to Damascus where he speaks in the Great Mosque about his views of the West and of religious tradition, producing a riot and prompting the Ottoman authorities to pursue his arrest. He flees with Mrs. Gotfry to Baalbek, where he meets Shakib and learns that Najma, along with her young son, is abandoned and now ill. All together (Khalid, Mrs. Gotfry, Najma, her son, and Shakib), they flee to the Egyptian desert to escape the Ottoman authorities. After an idyllic period in the desert of several months, Mrs. Gotfry and Shakib leave. Najma''s son, Najid, dies suddenly of an unexpected illness, and Najma relapses and follows him in death in her grief. Khalid disappears and does not contact Shakib; his whereabouts are unknown.

The Book of Khalid

The Gun Seller tells the story of retired Army officer Thomas Lang, who lives a somewhat hand-to-mouth existence in London, his attention focused mainly on drinking whisky and driving his motorcycle. His income stems from a variety of bodyguard, strong-arm and mercenary jobs he undertakes, utilizing the skills he learned and contacts he made during his time in the Army. After being approached in Amsterdam by a man asking him to assassinate American businessman Alexander Woolf, Lang attempts to warn the intended victim at his Belgravia flat, finding Woolf gone and instead clashing with (and incapacitating) a mercenary, then encountering Woolf''s daughter Sarah. Afterward Lang finds himself under intense scrutiny from both the Ministry of Defence and the Central Intelligence Agency, who claim Woolf is an international drug smuggler currently under investigation. Intrigued by the sudden interest of two government agencies, Lang attempts to track down the man who approached him in Amsterdam, unexpectedly finding him in London, and even more unexpectedly discovering that the man is Alexander Woolf himself. Eventually Woolf and his daughter agree to meet Lang at dinner and answer his questions. The elder Woolf explains that he tried to hire Lang as a hitman to see if he was a "good man", and admits he is under investigation, but not for selling drugs. Rather, Woolf is of interest because of what he knows about a next-generation light attack helicopter. More disturbingly, Woolf and Sarah claim that a conspiracy is under way to stage a terrorist attack and subsequently promote the light helicopter by sending one in to eliminate the terrorists. Lang is skeptical, but begins to believe the story after he is kidnapped and interrogated about Woolf. He frees himself, finding a heavily tortured Alexander Woolf in a nearby room. Woolf is killed shortly thereafter as Lang makes his escape, killing his captors in the process. With Sarah missing and now certain the conspiracy is real, Lang attempts to determine the main conspirators, aided by a friend of Sarah''s named Ronnie. After some investigating he centers on a CIA Deputy Director named Barnes, who (forcibly) takes him to meet the head conspirator: billionaire Naimh Murdah. Murdah, owner of the company that manufactures the helicopter, openly admits to the plot and plainly states that Lang will be helping to carry out the terrorist attack, backing up his declaration with an open and explicit threat on Sarah''s life. To illustrate his point, Murdah casually kills a CIA agent who accompanied Lang and Barnes to his home. Lang is placed within a small terrorist group called the Sword of Justice as a Minnesotan named Ricky, officially in order to gather intelligence and minimize casualties. A Dutch politician is seemingly shot dead by Lang in Switzerland as a warm up activity by the Sword of Justice, although it was a set-up and the politician was briefed and was wearing body armour. During a brief return to London Lang encounters Sarah and confronts her regarding pictures, provided to him by his friend and handler Solomon, showing Sarah and Barnes together. Sarah admits to being a part of the conspiracy, but swears her father''s death was never part of the arrangement. Lang and Sword of Justice arrive in Casablanca and successfully take control of the American embassy there, holding a number of hostages. Barnes, Murdah, Sarah, and a number of other conspirators arrive in Casablanca to direct Lang and ensure the success of the plot. Lang covertly leaves the Embassy as directed, but as Murdah is talking to him Lang pulls a gun, slipped to him by Sarah as part of a plan they made in London. Lang forces Murdah into the Embassy at gunpoint and handcuffs him to a fire escape on the roof, then orders him to call off the helicopter attack. Murdah refuses, certain the attack will not come since he is in the line of fire, but Lang contends the greed of the remaining conspirators will ensure the attack goes as planned. Just as Lang predicted, the helicopter attacks, killing one of the terrorists, but before it can make another pass Lang shoots it down with a Javelin missile he smuggled into the embassy earlier. Footage of the helicopter''s attack and destruction is shown worldwide via news networks covering the siege, ruining any chance of any military investing in the helicopter. Lang releases a statement (via the terrorists) to CNN outlining the conspiracy, ensuring that the plot is thwarted. The Ministry of Defence flies a tired Lang and Solomon back to England. After landing Lang is greeted by Ronnie, who managed to force the Ministry to allow her to ride with him from the airport, and makes it quite clear she is happy to see him.

The Gun Seller

The book is presented in three parts, with a prelude, interludes, and an epilogue. All three larger sections and some of the smaller ones involve a silver statue of a tiassa, and the character of Khaavren, of the House of the Tiassa, but each tells a distinct story. The first section, "Tag", tells the story, in the typical Vlad Taltos as first person narrator style, of certain events early in his career as a high-ranking Jhereg. Vlad is contacted by the Viscount of Adrilhanka, who is a rogue and highwayman, to defeat a scheme by the Empire to track stolen money. The second section, "Whitecrest", is set much later, after Vlad is on the run from the Jhereg, and follows multiple characters, mainly the Countess of Whitecrest (Khaavren''s wife and the Viscount''s mother) and Cawti, Vlad''s ex-wife. An impending Jenoine invasion is detected, but it may be a ruse to draw Vlad out. The third section, "Special Tasks" is the most recent chronologically, and is written in the voice of Paarfi, the fictional author of the Khaavren Romances. It mainly follows Khaavren himself as he investigates an attempt on Vlad''s life.

Tiassa

The novel begins as Sukartono (Tono), a Dutch-trained doctor, and his wife Sumartini (Tini), residents of Batavia (modern day Jakarta), are suffering a marital breakdown. Tono is busy treating his patients, leaving no time for him to be with Tini. In response, Tini has become active in numerous social organisations and women''s groups, leaving her little time to deal with household work. This further distances Tono from her, as he expects her to behave like a traditional wife and be waiting for him at home, with dinner ready, when he returns from work. One day, Tono receives a call from a Miss Eni, who asks him to treat her at a hotel. After Tono arrives at the hotel where Eni is staying, he discovers that she is actually his childhood friend Rohayah (Yah). Yah, who has had romantic feelings for Tono since childhood, begins seducing him, and after a while he accepts her advances. The two begin furtively meeting, often taking long walks at the port Tanjung Priok. When Tini goes to Surakarta to attend a women''s congress, Tono decides to stay at Yah''s house for a week. While at Yah''s, Tono and Yah discuss their pasts. Tono reveals that after he graduated from elementary school in Bandung, where he studied with Yah, he attended medical school in Surabaya and married Tini for her beauty. Meanwhile, Yah was forced to marry an older man and move to Palembang. After deciding that life as a wife was not for her, she moved to Batavia and became a prostitute, before serving as a Dutchman''s mistress for three years. Tono falls further in love with Yah, as he feels that she is more likely to be a proper wife for him; Yah, however, does not consider herself ready for marriage. Tono, a fan of traditional kroncong music, is asked to judge a singing competition at Gambir Market. While there, he discovers that Yah is also his favourite singer, who sings under the pseudonym Siti Hayati. At Gambir, he also meets with his old friend Hartono, a political activist with the political party Partindo, who enquires about Tini. On a later date, Hartono visits Tono''s home and meets Tini. It is revealed that Tini was romantically involved with Hartono while the two of them were in university, where Tini surrendered her virginity to him; this action, unacceptable in traditional culture, made her disgusted with herself and unable to love. Hartono had made the situation worse by breaking off their relationship through a letter. When Hartono asks her to take him back, Tini refuses. Tini discovers that Tono has been having an affair, and is furious. She then goes to meet Yah. However, after a long talk she decides that Yah is better for Tono and tells the former prostitute to marry him; Tini then moves back to Surabaya, leaving Tono in Batavia. However, Yah feels that she would only ruin Tono''s respected status as a doctor because of her history. She decides to move to New Caledonia, leaving a note for Tono as well as a record with a song recorded especially for him as a way of saying goodbye. On the way to New Caledonia, Yah pines for Tono and hears his voice calling from afar, giving a speech on the radio. Tono, now alone, dedicates himself to his work in an attempt to fill the void left in his heart.

Belenggu

Anne finds the manuscript and schemes against Boyd in order to teach him a lesson for his carelessness. She asks Ben Wright, the youngest son and amateur poet who was also present when Anne found the books again, to hide the novel until she would tell him to "surprisingly find" it. Jonah stops writing and changes his careless behaviour towards Anne. Since Anne very appreciates her kind of "new" husband and does not want him to get into his former rut again, she decides to leave the book in Ben''s care instead of returning it to her husband. Jonah, who used to drink, again finds consolation in alcohol, which ultimately leads to his death through a car accident. Years later, when almost nobody who knows about Boyd’s novel is still alive, Ben finishes the book and publishes it under his name. Critics review Ben''s ending as the best part of the novel. This way, Ben develops his own writing style and becomes a successful novelist. When Denny finally discovers this "theft", she decides to confront Ben. Surprisingly he sees this situation as a possibility to confide with someone rather than a threat. At last they marry and after Ben''s death Denny even inherits the Wrights’ house, which plays a central part in the family''s and Denny''s lives and in which all the fatal events took their start.

The Body of Jonah Boyd

As the battlefield on which so many adolescent wars are waged, high school can be hell. No one knows this better than Robby Meyers, who is forced to move to south Florida in the middle of his freshman year after his father’s dies in a motorcycle accident. His older brothers Pete and Gus have no trouble making new friends and carving out spots for themselves on various athletic teams. Robby, on the other hand, is small for his age and better known for picking fights than for finishing them. Not surprisingly, he quickly gets himself into trouble at his new school with teachers, bullies, and of course girls. But then Robby meets Danny Ramerez, and things begin to look up. Danny’s tough but fair, cool but loyal, and their friendship definitely improves Robby’s social status. He even garners the attention of several girls, including a bright, thoughtful young student named Lacy. But as time passes and the two boys become closer friends, Robby suspects that all is not as it seems with Danny. His parents, Danny tells him, are “not in the picture,” leaving him in the custody of his sinister uncle. When Danny hatches a plan to get out from under his uncle’s thumb, Robby must choose whether to risk his own neck to help him or to remain uninvolved. Robby Fights the World is a gripping coming-of-age novel about a boy who learns first-hand just how hard it can be to distinguish between right and wrong. As Robby struggles with friendship, honor, loss, and love, he is called on to make the hardest choice of his young life, the consequences of which will no doubt change him forever. Joel Christie’s young-adult novel offers a realistic (and surprisingly humorous) glimpse into the complex, gritty world of modern teens.

Robby Fights the World

During a usual trading flight Pyotr found a Counter on his craft who called himself Karel and, most importantly, made it through the jump unhurt (ironically, the alien accomplished this by going into a self-induced coma caused by division by zero). Standing orders require Pyotr to destroy the ship and all evidence of the alien''s survival, as this would eliminate the Conclave''s need in Humanity. The alien requested an informal meeting with Andrey Khrumov — Pyotr''s grandfather and a known political scientist, also a great patriot of Humanity, biased against the Strong races. A fleet of Alary has captured a small but deadly scout of an unknown civilization. Its pilot was killed, but without a doubt it was a human being. Studying the memory of the scout showed that another civilization had transferred its planetary system to a region of space close by, perhaps escaping a cataclysm. Strangely enough, they shaped their continents to resemble a perfect circle and square — so Andrey Khrumov called them Geometers. The new civilization seems to be strong enough to take on the entire Conclave, as the single scout ship managed to wipe out two-thirds of one of the strongest Alary fleets before being tractored into the Alary flagship. This is a chance for Weak races to improve their positions... but also a threat for Earth, since on receiving the information the Strong races would destroy it to prevent its possible alliance with a biologically-identical race. A conspiracy of four races decide to carry out a reconnaissance mission. Pyotr Khrumov agrees to enter a symbiosis with a Kualkua, who morphes him to look like the dead pilot, gives him the language of Geometers, and temporarily erases his memory...

The Stars Are Cold Toys

Beth is a successful pop music singer and a devout Protestant Christian from Texas, USA. She and her boyfriend Steve both belong to a group known as the "Cowboys for Christ", who travel to "heathen areas" of the world to preach Christianity. They travel to Glasgow, Scotland, hoping to save some souls once there. However, they are shocked when they receive a very negative reception, Beth even being set upon by a large dog. After performing a concert at a local cathedral, the duo are approached by Lord Lachlan and his wife Delia, aristocrats from the small village of Tressock in the Scottish lowlands. They invite Beth and Steve to come back with them to Tressock in order to preach. Meanwhile, detective Orlando is sent to Tressock, posing as the local police officer, in order to secretly investigate reports of a pagan cult. Beth and Steve decide that they shall begin their preaching at the May Day celebrations in the village. Meanwhile Orlando discovers that the people of the village worship the ancient Celt goddess Sulis. In an attempt to impress the locals, Steve and Beth agree to becoming the local Queen of the May and the Laddie for the festival. In this role, they must split up for the day, and it is during this that the Laddie is devoured by the locals on an island in the middle of the river Sulis. Beth discovers this, and tries to escape, but is captured and embalmed.

Cowboys for Christ

Lieutenant Bret Taylor married his wife after knowing her only over a single overnight drinking binge while on shore leave during the war. His ship is bombed out of the water and he returns home to find his wife freshly murdered in the home he bought but had never seen. The shock of the two events sends him into a mental lapse, and he''s in an asylum. The woman who loves him, a successful screenwriter, calls in a specialist who jogs his memory—and his sense of duty. Taylor hits the streets of Los Angeles, digging through his wife''s lies and lovers in an attempt to avenge her murder. The book is a psychological thriller, with the main action being the unraveling of the story within Taylor''s mind. The reader is denied information that other major characters obviously have throughout the whole novel, and is meanwhile treated to long passages of theories from the main character. The limited number of characters keeps the possible solutions to a minimum and the book is perhaps more straightforward than what makes a good mystery. Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., who functioned as an editing publisher, asked for revisions in what he considered a slow-paced novel. Macdonald cut ''10,000 good words'' and concentrated the action into four days. The 1985 movie Deadly Companion (or Double Negative) was based on this novel.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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The Castle

By Franz Kafka

Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca

No Author Listed

Cop Hater

By Evan Hunter

The Book of Khalid

By Amin al-Rihani

The Gun Seller

By Hugh Laurie

Tiassa

By Steven Brust

Belenggu

By Armijn Pane

The Body of Jonah Boyd

By David Leavitt

Robby Fights the World

No Author Listed

The Stars Are Cold Toys

By Sergey Lukyanenko

Cowboys for Christ

By Robin Hardy

The Three Roads

By Ross Macdonald