The story opens with a poor soldier returning home from war. He meets a witch, who asks him to climb into a hollow tree to retrieve a magic tinderbox. The witch gives the man permission to take anything he finds inside the chambers, but he must return the tinderbox. In the tree, he finds three chambers filled with precious coins guarded by three monstrous dogs, "one with eyes the size of teacups", who guards a vault filled with pennies, one with "eyes the size of supper-plates", who guards a vault filled with silver, and one with eyes "the size of windmills", who guards a vault filled with gold. He fills his pockets with money, finds the tinderbox, and returns to the witch. When she demands the tinderbox without giving a reason, the soldier lops off her head with his sword. In the following scene, the soldier enters a large city and buys himself splendid clothing. He makes many friends, and lives in a magnificent apartment. He learns of a princess kept in a tower after a prophecy foretold her marriage to a common soldier; his interest is piqued and he wants to see her but realizes his whim cannot be satisfied. Eventually, the soldier''s money is depleted and he is forced to live in a dark attic. He strikes the tinderbox to light the room, and one of the dogs appears before him. The soldier then discovers he can summon all three dogs and order them to bring him money from their subterranean dwelling. Again, he lives splendidly. One night, he recalls the story of the princess in the locked tower, and desires to see her. He strikes the tinderbox and sends the dog with eyes the size of teacups to bring her to his apartment. The soldier is overwhelmed with her beauty, kisses her and orders the dog to return her to the tower. The following morning, the princess tells her parents she has had a strange dream and relates the night''s adventure. The royal couple then watch her closely. When the princess is carried away again, they unsuccessfully use a trail of flour and chalk marks on neighborhood doors to find where she spends her nights. Eventually, her whereabouts are discovered and the soldier is clapped in prison and sentenced to death. On the day of execution, the soldier sends a boy for his tinderbox, and, at the scaffold, asks to have a last smoke. He then strikes the tinderbox and the three monstrous dogs appear. They toss the judge and the councilors, the King and Queen into the air. All are dashed to pieces when they fall to earth. The soldier and the princess are united, and the dogs join the wedding feast.

The Tinder Box

The Good Soldier is narrated by the character John Dowell, half of one of the couples whose dissolving relationships form the subject of the novel. Dowell tells the stories of those dissolutions as well as the deaths of three characters and the madness of a fourth, in a rambling, non-chronological fashion that leaves gaps for the reader to fill. The novel opens with the famous line, “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.” Dowell explains that for nine years he, his wife Florence and their friends Captain Edward Ashburnham (the “good soldier” of the book’s title) and his wife Leonora had an ostensibly normal friendship while Edward and Florence sought treatment for their heart ailments at a spa in Nauheim, Germany. As it turns out, nothing in the relationships or in the characters is as it first seems. Florence’s heart ailment is a fiction she perpetrated on John to force them to stay in Europe so that she could continue her affair with an American thug named Jimmy. Edward and Leonora have a loveless, imbalanced marriage broken by his constant infidelities (both of body and heart) and Leonora’s attempts to control Edward’s affairs (both financial and romantic). Dowell is a fool and is coming to realize how much of a fool he is, as Florence and Edward had an affair under his nose for nine years without John knowing until Florence was dead. Florence’s affair with Edward leads her to commit suicide when she realizes that Edward is falling in love with his and Leonora’s young ward, Nancy Rufford, the daughter of Leonora''s closest friend. Florence sees the two in an intimate conversation and rushes back into the resort, where she sees John talking to a man she knows (and who knows of her affair with Jimmy) but whom John doesn’t know. Assuming that her relationship with Edward and her marriage to John are over, Florence takes prussic acid – which she has carried for years in a vial that John thought held her heart medicine – and dies. With that story told, Dowell moves on to tell the story of Edward and Leonora’s relationship, which appears normal but which is a power struggle that Leonora wins. Dowell runs through several of Edward’s affairs and peccadilloes, including his possibly innocent attempt to comfort a crying servant on a train; his affair with the married Maisie Maidan, the one character in the book whose heart problem was unquestionably real, and his bizarre tryst in Monte Carlo and Antibes with a kept woman known as La Dolciquita. Edward’s philandering ends up costing them a fortune in bribes, blackmail and gifts for his lovers, leading Leonora to take control of Edward’s financial affairs. She gradually gets him out of debt. Edward’s last affair is his most scandalous, as he becomes infatuated with their young ward, Nancy. Nancy came to live with them after leaving a convent where her parents had sent her; her mother was a violent alcoholic, and her father (it is later suggested that this man may not be Nancy’s biological father) may have abused her. Edward, tearing himself apart because he does not want to spoil Nancy''s innocence, arranges to have her sent to India to live with her father, even though this frightens her terribly. Once Leonora knows that Edward intends to keep his passion for Nancy chaste, but only wants Nancy to continue to love him from afar, Leonora torments him by making this wish impossible—she pretends to offer to divorce him so he can marry Nancy, but informs Nancy of his sordid sexual history, destroying Nancy’s innocent love for him. After Nancy''s departure, Edward commits suicide, and when she reaches Aden and sees the obituary in the paper, she becomes catatonic. The novel’s last section has Dowell writing from Edward’s old estate in England, where he takes care of Nancy, whom he cannot marry because of her mental illness. Nancy is only capable of repeating two things – a Latin phrase meaning “I believe in an omnipotent God” and the word “shuttlecocks.” Dowell states that the story is sad because no one got what he wanted: Leonora wanted Edward but lost him and marries the normal (but dull) Rodney Bayham; Edward wanted Nancy but lost her; Dowell wanted a wife but has twice ended up a nurse to a sick woman, one a fake. As if in an afterthought, Dowell closes the novel by telling the story of Edward’s suicide. Edward receives a telegram from Nancy that reads, “Safe Brindisi. Having a rattling good time. Nancy.” He asks Dowell to take the telegram to his wife, pulls out his pen knife, says that it’s time he had some rest and slits his own throat. Dowell ends up generally unsure about where to lay the blame but expressing sympathy for Edward, because Dowell thinks himself to be similar to Edward in nature.

The Good Soldier

A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel is her first memoir about her childhood growing up in the small Indiana town of Mooreland, IN near New Castle, Indiana. From her perspective as child, Kimmel describes her beginnings as a seriously ill, speechless, and bald baby who did not speak or grow hair until she was 2 years old. She earned her nickname from her father because she would "zip" around the house like a famous chimp on TV who could roller skate. In this memoir, Kimmel introduces the characters of her own family: Her mother who spends all her time on the couch reading; her father who is an obsessive camping packer, proclaimed non-church goer, and gambler; her older sister, Melinda who tolerates Zippy and convinces Zippy that she is adopted from gypsies; and her handsome, quiet, intense, and much older brother, Daniel, whom Zippy idolizes. She tells of her run ins with neighbors such as Doc who owns the grocery store and is married to Zippy''s teacher; Edythe, the elderly woman who seems to have it in for Zippy; and the next door neighbor who wants to poison the family dogs. Zippy''s friends from school include Julia, who lets Zippy do the talking for her; Dana who likes to fight with Zippy until Dana suddenly disappears never to be seen again; Polly who fascinates Zippy because her brother is a murderer; and Sissy who wants to save her soul. Her various animal adventures include rescuing her cat, PeeDink, from the bully Peter next door, saving a baby pig from the runt pile, and raising her pet chicken, Speckles (later a meal). Kimmel describes her exploits and humor from her own life as a young girl with an active imagination living in the slow-paced and familiarity of a small town in the Midwest.

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is still shocked by the tragic loss of Benton Wesley. She is trying to carry on, but she gets a letter from Benton, written before his death and left to Senator Lord, who had agreed to deliver it a year after his death. Dr Scarpetta and Marino start working on a new case after a body is found in a container arriving from Belgium. There is writing in the container that says "Bon voyage, le loup-garou" (Have a nice trip, the werewolf). The body has a strange tattoo and wears rich clothes and there are some baby-like hairs inside the garments. Kay and Marino get in touch with European Interpol and with Jay Talley, who calls them and makes them fly to Paris to meet the Chief Medical Examiner. They get to know that the body found in the container is a member of one of the richest and oldest families of Paris, the Chandonnes, who live in an ancient mansion on the Île St Louis. It is also rumored that this family has got a son with a rare disease that makes hair grow on his entire body (hypertrichosis). This person has always been hidden, and he is believed to have committed several murders. Kay and Jay have a short liaison, and it seems the man is really involved, while Dr Scarpetta tries to keep him at distance. Kay finds out that Lucy is in part involved in this case, since she is investigating a Miami group of weapons and drugs smugglers related to the Chandonnes, the "One Sixty-Fivers". Back to Richmond, Virginia, Kay and Marino deal with the case of a woman brutalized and killed in a little shop and with attempts from a member of Dr. Scarpetta''s team to sabotage her. Thanks to Marino, they learn that the new police chief, Diane Bray, is behind the sabotage because she wants to get control on how investigations and exams are held. Bray is also behind a drugs-smuggling operation, but she is killed with the same modus operandi as the young woman in the shop. It is clear that the killer is at large and trying to kill the people investigating the death of the man in the container. Dr Scarpetta is in her house when the alarm rings. The police come quickly, but they find nothing. After a while, someone knocks at her door claiming to be a police officer and that someone had reported seeing a prowler. Kay does not realize that le loup garou is fluent in English, and she opens the door. She then realizes that she is under attack. During the struggle, Kay throws a bottle of formalin onto the loup garou''s face, which temporarily blinds him. She then runs out of the house, but falls and breaks her elbow, making her unable to fire her gun. At this time, Lucy and Jo return, and Lucy runs over and points a gun at the assailant''s head, with the intention of killing him, but Marino and Kay convince her not to do it.

Black Notice

The story takes place in New York City over the course of the hot summer of 1945. Grady McNeil, a 17-year-old upper class Protestant débutante, steadfastly refuses to accompany her parents on their usual summer ritual of travel, in this case to France. Left in the city for the summer by herself, she persues a covert romance with Clyde Manzer, a Jewish parking lot attendant, whom she had noticed several months earlier. Grady spends time with Clyde and meets some of his friends, and in turn the couple visits the Central Park Zoo together. There, Clyde invites Grady to his younger brother''s bar mitzvah. As the summer heats up, so does Grady''s and Clyde''s romance. The couple is soon wed in Red Bank, New Jersey. Once married, Grady meets Clyde''s middle class family in Brooklyn, and only then is the couple truly faced with the stark reality of the cultural divide between her family and his. Grady then realizes at her sister Apple''s home that she is six weeks pregnant. Grady has passed over a couple of opportunities to spend time with the handsome young Peter Bell, a man of her social stature who is romantically interested in her. Eventually Grady''s sister, Apple, confronts her about her relationship with Clyde. In an abrubt ending, Grady aims her speeding Buick with passengers Peter, Clyde and Gump so it will crash off the Queensboro Bridge, killing everyone.

Summer Crossing

Up-and-coming playwright Robert Warner has chosen an Oxford repertory theatre rather than the West End as the venue for the première of his new play, Metromania. He has brought with him Rachel West, his mistress of five years, who is going to be the star of the show. Two other members of the cast are the Haskell sisters&mdash;Yseut, who is in her mid-twenties, and her younger half-sibling Helen. While Helen is a quiet beauty, Yseut''s sexually promiscuous lifestyle and her condescending way of treating men have gained her many enemies among discarded lovers and jealous female rivals alike, and she has difficulty acknowledging the fact that, about a year ago, it was Robert Warner rather than she herself who ended their brief affair. Among the motley group arriving at Oxford at the beginning of October are also Nigel Blake, a former student of Fen''s who now works as a journalist in London; Nicholas Barclay, a university dropout of independent means in search of the good life; Donald Fellowes, organist and choirmaster and desperately in love with Yseut Haskell; and Jean Whitelegge, a "plain but not unattractive" young student who fancies Fellowes and works as the secretary of the theatre club. This in crowd, and some more, are all present at a party thrown by a military officer stationed in Oxford in the course of which Yseut, completely drunk, starts threatening Warner with the host''s military revolver. On the following evening she is shot with exactly that weapon while secretly searching Donald Fellowes''s rooms at the college. At the alleged time of the murder, Fellowes and Nicholas Barclay are in a colleague''s room on the same corridor listening to an opera on the radio, and Gervase Fen and some of his inner circle are discussing playwriting with Robert Warner in Fen''s rooms one floor above. When they hear a shot they rush downstairs and discover the body. On the one hand there is no one who mourns Yseut''s death or at least pretends to do so; on the other, very few of those who expressed their dislike of her while she was still alive have an alibi. While the police, for want of clues, assume suicide, the theatre people are prone to believe that one of Yseut''s numerous affairs has triggered her violent death. Although the opening of the new play is fast approaching and rehearsals become more intense, Robert Warner appears quite glad to be rid of Yseut as he has had an understudy for her waiting in the wings right from the start of rehearsals. Fen is the only one to realize that it was not a sexual motive which prompted Yseut Haskell''s killer to commit the deed. However, his reluctance to reveal what he knows, and the subsequent inability of the police to arrest the perpetrator, lead to a second murder just a few hours before the first curtain. When the show is over, and all suspects are assembled inside the theatre, the identity of the murderer is disclosed, and they meet with a violent death before they get a chance to escape.

The Case of the Gilded Fly

After seeing a newspaper advertisement addressed to children with special abilities, the eleven-year-old orphan Reynie Muldoon goes to a building where he and many other children take a written test with many strange questions relating to logic and bravery. Before that, in front of the building, he helps a queer girl named Rhonda Kazembe, who then offers to give him the test answers. He refuses twice. Only four gifted children pass the tests: George "Sticky" Washington, a boy with a photographic memory who ran away from his family because he believed they only wanted him so he could keep winning awards for fame and wealth; Kate Wetherall, a strong and agile girl with strong physical abilities and an abandoning father; Constance Contraire, a very stubborn small girl; and Reynie. On the third test, they meet and discover that Rhonda was a grown up and not a child. After much introducing, all of them are surprised that all of them had met Rhonda Kazembe and find out that her offer to help them to cheat was part of the test. They are introduced to Mr. Benedict, a genius and the man behind the tests. Mr. Benedict answers their questions and explains to them why he had advertised the tests. The children discover that Mr. Benedict needs a team of children to act as ''spies'' for him in a well-known school named Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened (L.I.V.E.). Inside the Institute the children see a multitude of people besides students: the Helpers, who refuse to answer questions about themselves and always seem depressed; the Messengers, talented students with ''special privileges'', which Mr. Benedict believes includes sending telepathic messages to brainwash the world''s people;the Recruiters, who kidnap and recruit seemingly gifted children for the Institute; the Executives, who are especially talented Messengers who were promoted as assistants of Mr. Curtain; and the Institute''s founder, Ledroptha Curtain, who turns out to be Mr. Benedict''s twin brother, and a victim of narcolepsy. At the Institute, the lessons are repetitive, seeming to echo the messages that Mr. Benedict and his assistants pick up through a special receiver (the above mentioned telepathic messages). Communicating with Mr. Benedict via Morse Code with a flashlight or sometimes a light switch, the children slowly uncover Curtain''s plan: to control the world and imprison his enemies with The Whisperer, the brain-sweeping machine invented by Curtain, was supposed to be turned on full blast by Curtain in order to start his plan. However, it was not fully ready at that point. The children manage to stall Mr. Curtain''s plan and use his narcolepsy to knock him out, allowing Mr. Benedict to shut down the Whisperer. Though Mr. Curtain escapes, the children share a party together with Constance, who, it is revealed, is turning three years old. Reynie is adopted by his former tutor; Sticky goes back to his parents, who were searching for him; Kate finds out that her long-lost father was Milligan, Mr. Benedict''s bodyguard, and an early victim of the Whisperer; and Constance is adopted by Mr. Benedict and his assistants, Rhonda Kazembe and Number Two.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The novel begins with Jackie Duluoz, based on Kerouac himself, relating a dream in which he finds himself in Lowell, Massachusetts, his childhood home town. Prompted by this dream, he recollects the story of his childhood of warm browns and sepia tones, along with his shrouded childhood fantasies, which have become inextricable from the memories. The fantasies pertain to a castle in Lowell atop a muted green hill that Jackie calls Snake Hill. Underneath the misty grey castle, the Great World Snake sleeps. Various vampires, monsters, gnomes, werewolves, and dark magicians from all over the world gather to the mansion with the intention of awakening the Snake so that it will devour the entire world (although a small minority of them, derisively called "Dovists," believe that the Snake is merely "a husk of doves," and when it awakens it will burst open, releasing thousands of lace white doves. This myth is also present in a story told by Kerouac''s character, Sal Paradise, in On the Road). The eponymous Doctor Sax, also part of Jackie''s fantasy world, is a dark but ultimately friendly figure with a shrouded black cape, an inky black slouch hat, a haunting laugh, and a "disease of the night" called Visagus Nightsoil that causes his skin to turn mossy green at night. Sax, who also came to Lowell because of the Great World Snake, lives in the forest in the neighboring town of Dracut, where he conducts various alchemical experiments, attempting to concoct a potion to destroy the Snake when it awakens. When the Snake is finally awakened, Doctor Sax uses his potion on the Snake, but the potion fails to do any damage. Sax, defeated, discards his shadowy black costume and watches the events unfold as an ordinary man. As the Snake prepares to destroy the world, all seems lost until an enormous night colored bird, an ancient counterpart of the Snake, suddenly appears. Seizing the Snake in its beak, the bird flies upward into the heartbreakingly blue sky until it vanishes from view, leading the amazed Sax to muse, "I''ll be damned, the universe disposes of its own evil!"

Doctor Sax

When a French expedition in Antarctica reveals the ruins of a 900,000 year old civilization, scientists from all over the world flock to the site to help explore and understand. The entire planet watches via global satellite television, mesmerized, as the explorers uncover a chamber in which a man and a woman have been in suspended animation since, as the French title suggests, ''the night of time''. The woman, Eléa, is awakened, and through a translating machine she tells the story of her world, herself and her husband Paikan, and how war destroyed her civilization. She also hints at an incredibly advanced knowledge that her still-dormant companion possesses (who is not her love Paikan, but the scientist Coban, whom she hates), knowledge that could give energy and food to all humans at no cost. But the superpowers of the world are not ready to let Eléa''s secrets spread, and show that, 900,000 years and an apocalypse later, mankind has not grown up and is ready to make the same mistakes again. "Ils sont là ! Ils sont nous ! Ils ont repeuplé le monde, et ils sont aussi cons qu''avant, et prêts à faire de nouveau sauter la baraque. C''est pas beau, ça ? C''est l''homme !" " They''re here! They''re us! They repopulated the world, and they''re just as dumb as before, and ready to blow up the house again. Isn''t it great? It''s Man."

La Nuit des temps

Theo is an avid reader who lives in the slums of Vancouver with her young mother Mary-Rae, who is irresponsible and frequently mistreats Theo. She often fantasizes about an alternate life, her dreams fueled by the huge quantity of books she reads about perfect families. Rae starts dating a man named Cal, and eventually moves in with him, sending Theo to live with her aunt, Rae''s sister Sharon, in Victoria. While she and her mother are on the ferry to Victoria, Theo meets a "perfect" family,by the name of the Kaldors. She and the Kaldor children instantly make friends and play together on the ferry. Theo and the children see a new moon while on the ferry and each make a wish. Theo desperately wishes she belonged to the Kaldor family and then faints. Theo wakes up mysteriously and inexplicably living with the Kaldors. Theo originally believes there must be a mistake, but is delighted to find that the Kaldors simply accept her as a member of the family. Theo quickly begins to believe that as long as she remains with the Kaldors, nothing will ever go wrong again. Several months pass and then suddenly, Theo''s life begins to fade away - literally. Quickly after this, Theo blacks out again. Theo wakes up and finds herself back on the ferry with her mother, at the exact moment she left, much to her unhappiness. She begins to live with her aunt Sharon, but she cannot enjoy it as she keeps wondering if the Kaldors were real or just a dream. Theo eventually discovers that the Kaldors do exist, but is instantly disappointed when they do not remember her. She befriends them, but is frustrated that they aren''t "perfect" - they too have normal family issues. Theo is also frustrated that they simply view her as a friend, not as a member of the family. Meanwhile, Theo discovers a shadowy presence in the Kaldor''s house - the restless spirit of a dead author, Cecily Stone. Cecily lived in the house her entire life and remains there while she tries to settle the past. She feels she cannot die until she has created an idea for her ''great novel'' which she never wrote. Theo is stunned to find that Cecily''s idea consists of Theo coming to live with the Kaldors. Cecily explains that she first saw Theo on the ferry to Victoria, imagined a better life for Theo, but her idea faded when she could not come up with a conclusive ending. It appears that Theo''s longing for a family and Cecily''s idea for a book came together and made Theo''s dream, but when Cecily''s idea faded, so did the dream. Rae''s relationship with Cal fails, so she comes to live with Sharon and Theo in Victoria. Theo begins to enjoy her real life, not just her imaginary one. This is thrown into chaos when Rae decides to go back to Vancouver, much to Sharon''s refusal. Theo is so upset that she goes to Cecily for advice. Cecily sympathizes but knows there is nothing she can do, and instead gives Theo advice on how to continue with her life. Cecily now feels that she is able to move on and face the next stage of her journey. Theo returns home and stands up for herself, refusing to leave Victoria. She insists that Rae pull her act together and take care of her properly. Rae is stunned, but agrees. The novel skips forward several weeks to Theo''s tenth birthday. She and Rae now live together in a clean and comfortable apartment. Rae has a decent job and is taking care of Theo. It appears that Theo''s life is beginning to work out. She enjoys a birthday party with her friends, the Kaldors, and her family. She accepts that she doesn''t know if this life will last, but she will enjoy it while she can.

Awake and Dreaming

This novel is from Yates'' series of ''Berry Books'', featuring Berry Pleydell, his relatives and close friends. It is the seventh in the series, all of which are period comedy-thrillers. The House That Berry Built charts the Pleydell family''s decision to sell White Ladies, their ancestral home in Hampshire, England, and move to Pau, in the South of France. Unable to afford their aristocratic lifestyle in England, and unhappy at social upheavals following the end of World War I, they take refuge in the South of France where they believe traditional values have not yet disappeared. Nostalgic for a vanished world of social events and elegant idleness, Berry and his friends spend their time driving their Rolls and picnicking on the slopes of the Valley of Ossau. Wearied by the daily return journey from their residence at Pau, they decide to acquire some land on the green mountainside, halfway between the thermal spa of Lally and the village of Besse. Much of the novel is a thinly-veiled account of the building of ''Cockade'', the writer''s own residence between Eaux-Bonnes and Aas in 1934. In the novel, the house is called ''Gracedieu'', and like its real-life equivalent it is constructed on a monumental built terrace anchored in the rock and is called "Le Château" by the people of the country. Although it also contains a relatively minor sub-plot regarding the family''s investigation of the murder of Sir Steuart Rowley, the novel''s principal focus is upon an exceptionally precise description of the building of ''Gracedieu''. The cost of the work, the risks of the construction techniques employed, the whims of the mountain weather, the relations with the local contractor are all carefully detailed. The House That Berry Built comes to an end with the completion of the house and the first signs of the Second World War. It becomes clear, soon after the family move into the house, that the impending war means they cannot remain there. Dornford Yates himself left France for southern Africa for the duration of the war.

The House That Berry Built

Make Room! Make Room! is set in an overpopulated New York City of 1999 (thirty-three years later than the time of writing). Police detective Andy Rusch lives in half a room, sharing it with Sol, a retired engineer who has adapted a bicycle generator to power an old television set and a refrigerator. When Andy queues for their continually reducing water ration he witnesses a public speech by the "Eldsters", people 65 years and older forcibly retired from work. Pandemonium starts when a nearby food shop has a sale on "soylent" (soya and lentil) steaks. Andy finds that the shop is under attack and being looted. One of the looters, Billy Chung, a desperately poor boy, grabs a box of soylent steaks which he sells to fund himself as a messenger-boy. His first delivery takes him into a semi-fortified apartment block, complete with the rare luxuries of air conditioning and running water for showers. He delivers his message to a rich racketeer named "Big Mike" and sees Shirl, Mike''s concubine. Billy leaves the apartment but hides in the basement, and then later breaks back in for theft. He kills Mike when surprised by him and flees. While Andy investigates the murder, he becomes enamored of Shirl, and ensures that she is permitted to stay in the apartment until the end of the month. During this month they both live there in luxury and afterwards Shirl moves in with Andy and Sol. Shirl becomes disappointed with their impoverished lifestyle. Andy attempts to investigate Mike''s death despite contending with riots, paperwork, and the chief''s trying to spread his meager force to its limit, which makes him irritable. This, in combination with his shame of the life he is now giving Shirl, distances him from her. He therefore becomes obsessed by the idea of capturing Billy Chung. To evade capture, Billy leaves the part of the city to which he is accustomed, eventually breaking into the abandoned Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he comes to live with Peter, a fatalist hermit eagerly awaiting the new millennium as the end of the world. Soon they are attacked by a small group of homeless people and forced to leave their location, later to find a new home in a discarded car whose previous owner had frozen to death. Here, Peter''s stoic acceptance of events frustrates Billy until he decides to return to his family, believing the police will have lost interest in him. Meanwhile, Sol decides he can no longer remain passive in the face of what he sees as human life''s growing crisis, and joins a protest march against the overturning of a legislative bill supporting family planning, in favor of population control as humanity''s hope of survival. Sol is injured in a riot at the demonstration, becomes bedridden, catches pneumonia, and eventually dies. A few days after Sol''s funeral, a family takes Sol''s living quarters as their own, making Shirl and Andy''s life more miserable than before. Andy stumbles upon Billy Chung and accidentally shoots and kills the boy in the latter''s attempt to escape. The police chief therefore demotes Andy. On return to his own quarters, Andy finds Shirl gone. The story ends with Andy on patrol in Times Square on New Year''s Eve, where he glimpses Shirl among rich party-goers. As the clock strikes midnight, Andy encounters Peter, who is distraught that the world has not ended and asks how life can continue as it is; but gives him no answer. The story concludes with the Times Square screen announcing that "Census says United States had biggest year ever, end-of-the-century, 344 million citizens...".

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Tinder Box

By Hans Christian Andersen

The Good Soldier

By Ford Madox Ford

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana

By Haven Kimmel

Black Notice

By Patricia Cornwell

Summer Crossing

By Truman Capote

The Case of the Gilded Fly

By Edmund Crispin

The Mysterious Benedict Society

By Trenton Lee Stewart

Doctor Sax

By Jack Kerouac

La Nuit des temps

No Author Listed

Awake and Dreaming

By Kit Pearson

The House That Berry Built

By Dornford Yates

Make Room! Make Room!

By Harry Harrison