After the assassination of Domitian in 96AD, and amid the predictable turmoil of the regime change, Tacitus used his new-found freedom to publish this, his first historical work. During the reign of Domitian, Agricola, a faithful imperial general, had been the most important general involved in the conquest of a great part of Britain. The proud tone of the Agricola recalls the style of the laudationes funebres (funeral speeches). A quick résumé of the career of Agricola prior to his mission in Britain is followed by a narration of the conquest of the island. There is a geographical and ethnological digression, taken not only from notes and memories of Agricola but also from the De Bello Gallico of Julius Caesar. The content is so varied as to go beyond the limits of a simple biography, but the narration, whatever its form, serves to exalt the subject of the biography. Tacitus exalts the character of his father-in-law, by showing how &mdash; as governor of Roman Britain and commander of the army &mdash; he attends to matters of state with fidelity, honesty, and competence, even under the government of the hated Emperor Domitian. Critiques of Domitian and of his regime of spying and repression come to the fore at the work''s conclusion. Agricola remained uncorrupted; in disgrace under Domitian, he died without seeking the glory of an ostentatious martyrdom. Tacitus condemns the suicide of the Stoics as of no benefit to the state. Tacitus makes no clear statement as to whether the death of Agricola was from natural causes or ordered by Domitian, although he does say that rumors were voiced in Rome that Agricola was poisoned on the Emperor''s orders.

Agricola

Fritti Tailchaser, a young ginger tom cat, sets out to stray from his home and clan, the Meeting Wall Clan, in search of his catfriend Hushpad after strange disappearances of the Folk have been reported. The kitten, Pouncequick follows him, and eventually catches up. Together, they set out on a long journey to visit the feline royal Court of Harar, with the intention of finding out the mystery of the disappearances. They meet a rather crazy cat named Eatbugs, who travels with them for parts of the journey to the court. Soon they run into some Firstwalkers, cats who live in the wild, who are of a direct bloodline from Goldeneye and Skydancer. Their Thane (leader), Quiverclaw, fights with Tailchaser, but it is more a ceremonial fight and there are no disagreements. Soon, they must part ways. They make their way to Firsthome and the Court, but are treated there with relative indifference. They pick up a new friend, Roofshadow, and go northwest. They are captured by a group of evil cats called the Clawguard, and taken to Vastnir, an enormous mound far to the north, where the evil Grizraz Hearteater enslaves cats to take over the world. Tailchaser needs to alert Prince Fencewalker and Thane Quiverclaw about his evil doings. Soon, Roofshadow creates a hole from above ground, and Tailchaser manages to escape, and races to Ratwood, where he asks the Rikchikchik (squirrels) to alert them for him. He feels guilty with Pouncequick, Eatbugs, and Roofshadow trapped in Vastnir because of him. He returns to the dreadful mound, where, thankfully, the Thane and Fencewalker come to the rescue. Lord Hearteater (they call him the Fat One) unleashes the Fikos, a dog-like monster of terrible power. Tailchaser takes advantage of the chaos to rescue Pouncequick, Eatbugs, and Roofshadow. They go through the havoc of Vastnir, and lose Eatbugs, the mad cat, on the way. Roofshadow and Pouncequick escape while Tailchaser goes back to find Eatbugs. He goes into a crevice and sees Eatbugs an a near-death-like state, and feels dazed and confused. Upon uttering a prayer to Lord Tangaloor Firefoot, one of the firstborn cats, Eatbugs awakens, revealing himself to actually be Firefoot incognito. Tailchaser runs out of Vastnir at Firefoot''s urging, and meets his friends, while Firefoot goes to deal with Hearteater. After healing, Pouncequick decides to return to Firsthome, and stay there. Roofshadow wants to accompany him, and thus, Tailchaser is left on his quest. He goes east to Bigwater (Qu''cef) and sneaks into a large nut husk (boat) A man approaches and rows across, taking him to Villa-on-Mar. There he meets Huff-so-Gruff, a Growler (dog), and sneaks in an open window. There, in the room, he finds none other than Hushpad, herself. Hushpad wishes to stay, though, so Tailchaser, too, stays for a time. Gradually, Tailchaser realizes that he is still a feral cat, unable to live with man. He begins to see that being domestic has made Hushpad fat and lazy. Realizing that he does not belong, Tailchaser sets out to return home, to see his Meeting Wall friends, to hunt, to see Pouncequick and Roofshadow once more. The ending may be seen only as the beginning of a longer saga, but, to-date, Tad Williams has yet to revisit his feline homage to Tolkien with additional writings.

Tailchaser''s Song

Mixing fact and fiction, the Duc de Saint-Simon recounts three episodes in which he and his wife involve themselves in the notorious schemings of King Louis XIV''s Versailles. Throughout, the famous courtier''s attitudes toward the King and court shift. In the first story, the young Duc, appalled at the King''s calculating matches of his illegitimate offspring with prominent aristocrats, works to subvert the wedding of one of Louis'' nephews, but is thwarted when his adversaries threaten an exposé of the homosexuality of both the King''s brother and the narrator''s patron, the Prince de Conti. In the second, Saint-Simon is maneuvered into acting as messenger between Conti (who is briefly King of Poland in 1697) and Conti''s mistress, Madame la Duchesse. In this the Duc is subverted by his own wife''s schemings. Finally, in later years, rumors of incest are deployed by both sides in a struggle to determine which of two ill-pedigreed "princesses" will be matched with one of the King''s legitimate grandsons. The high-minded Saint-Simon emerges from these intrigues disillusioned ("We had all...been made part of the Versailles system"), but resolves (after the King''s death) to record the monarch''s "great style" and quest for glory.

The Cat and the King

The novel opens with Arnold''s explanation of the fact that he was born with an excess of cerebrospinal fluid in his skull (an event that he describes as being "born with water on the brain"). The brain damage that resulted from this and the surgery that he underwent to remove the excess fluid, left Arnold with many physical problems. Some of these problems are that he has forty-two teeth (which are pulled out to make him have the right amount), is skinny, and has an over-sized head, hands, and feet. He also suffers from poor eyesight, experiences frequent seizures, stutters, and has a lisp. Mistreated by others on the reservation because of these problems, Arnold is regularly beaten up and given such nicknames as "retard" (for the brain damage that he has sustained) and "globe" (for his large head). His family, like the majority of the other reservation families, is incredibly poor: This point is emphasized when Arnold''s adopted dog Oscar begins to suffer from intense heat exhaustion and Arnold''s father is forced to shoot him to avoid having to pay the expensive veterinary treatment necessary to save him. Arnold''s life on the reservation is brightened by his friend Rowdy, described by Arnold as being "the toughest kid on the rez". Rowdy''s father abuses him and his mother, thus they are constantly and noticeably covered in bruises. Despite the hardships that he experiences and his cold, tough attitude, Rowdy stays true to his friend Arnold and tries to protect him from some of the physical abuse he is dealt. On Arnold''s first day of high school, his geometry teacher, Mr. P, hands out textbooks to the students and Arnold realizes that his book has his mother''s maiden name written in it. She was thirty years old when she gave birth to Arnold, thus making the textbook at least forty years older than Arnold himself. Arnold is angered and saddened by the fact that the Spokane reservation is so poor that it is unable to afford new textbooks for its high school. Because of this, Arnold violently throws the book, which ends up colliding with Mr. P''s face and breaking his nose. The school subsequently suspends Arnold. During Arnold''s suspension, Mr. P meets with Arnold to reveal to him his sister''s dream to be a romance writer, he is not angry with him, and that "You [Arnold] have to leave this reservation". A week into the school year, Arnold transfers to Reardan High School, a school full of rich white kids in the countryside. Arnold is the only Indian at Reardan besides the team mascot. Although Arnold''s mother is an ex-drunk, his father a drunk, and they are poor, they still allow him to transfer to Reardan. Despite his initial troubles adjusting to the new school, Arnold begins to enjoy Reardan, developing a crush on a white girl, Penelope, and making friends with a student named Gordy. Arnold tries to talk to Rowdy about his crush on Penelope, but their relationship is strained by Arnold''s decision to go to Reardan. In contrast, Arnold and Penelope develop a closer relationship and even go to a dance together. Arnold makes the Reardan varsity basketball team and plays two games against his former school, Wellpinit, and specifically Rowdy. Before their first game begins, someone in the crowd hits Arnold with a quarter splitting open his forehead. Arnold gets Eugene to give him stitches in the lockerroom and returns to the game. Wellpinit wins after Rowdy elbows Arnold in the head and knocks him unconscious. In their second meeting, Reardan wins with Arnold guarding Rowdy and holding him to only four points. Arnold believed he wanted to win, but after seeing the Wellpinit players'' faces after their defeat, he cried and felt ashamed of himself. Throughout the novel, Arnold is struck by many tragedies—his grandmother is run over by a drunk driver, Gerald, while walking home from a powwow, his father''s best friend Eugene is shot in the face by his friend Bobby after fighting over the last drink of alcohol, and his newlywed sister and her husband die when their mobile home is accidentally set on fire after a night of heavy drinking. In the end, Arnold and Rowdy reconcile at turtle lake and resolve to correspond no matter where the future takes them, concluding the story.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Roland Crane, a wealthy map collector and dilettante archaeologist, is visited by Polly Gould, a cousin of an army friend who has disappeared. She is obsessed with locating a map of Ireland, torn down the middle, that her cousin discovered just before he vanished. This same map had formerly been in the possession of Roland and his family, and transported them into a strange alternate dimension. Polly believes the map holds the key to recovering her cousin, and that Roland can help her find it. Roland reluctantly agrees to help. The two travel to Ireland and begin their search, soon learning that someone else, a mysterious and sinister man, also seeks the map. The mystery deepens when they witness the apparent abduction of another man by a strange "eye" in the sky. Finally they are offered the map at an enormous price by an old man who speaks of having used it to travel to another place, full of both treasure and terror. He fears to go back himself, as his son-in-law was trapped there. Accepting the challenge, Roland and Polly buy and follow the map, and when they reach the place place corresponding to the tear in the map, they are transported into the alternate dimension hinted at. Though this novel bears some thematic similarities to Bulmer''s later Keys to the Dimensions series, it is otherwise unrelated.

Land Beyond the Map

In the isolated, desolate and decrepit village of Dunwich, Wilbur Whateley is the hideous son of Lavinia Whateley, a deformed and unstable albino mother, and an unknown father (alluded to in passing by mad Old Whateley, as "Yog-Sothoth"), and strange events surround his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade, locals shun him and his family and animals fear and despise him. All the while, his sorcerer grandfather indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft. Wilbur wants to acquire an unabridged Latin version of the Necronomicon so that he may open the way for the return of the mysterious "Old Ones", whose forerunner is the Outer God Yog-Sothoth. Thus, Wilbur and his grandfather have sequestered an unseen presence at their farmhouse; this being is connected somehow to Yog-Sothoth. Year by year, this unseen entity grows to monstrous proportions, requiring the two men to make frequent modifications to their residence. People begin to notice a trend of cattle mysteriously disappearing. Eventually, Wilbur''s mother also disappears. By the time Wilbur''s grandfather dies, the colossal entity occupies the whole interior of the farmhouse. Wilbur ventures to Miskatonic University in Arkham to procure a copy of the Necronomicon – Miskatonic''s library is one of only a handful in the world to stock an original. The Necronomicon has spells that Wilbur can use to summon the Old Ones. When the librarian, Dr. Henry Armitage, refuses to release the university''s copy to him, Wilbur breaks into the library at night to steal it. A guard dog attacks Wilbur with unusual ferocity, killing him. When Dr. Armitage and two other professors arrive on the scene they see Wilbur Whateley''s partly non-human corpse, before it melts completely to leave no evidence. The story culminates with the actual Dunwich horror: With Wilbur Whateley now dead, no one attends to the mysterious presence growing in the Whateley farmhouse. Early one morning, the Whateley farmhouse explodes as the thing, an invisible monster, rampages across Dunwich, cutting a path through fields, trees, and ravines, leaving huge "prints" the size of tree trunks. The monster eventually makes forays into inhabited areas. The frightened town is terrorized by the invisible creature for several days, until Dr. Armitage, Professor Warren Rice, and Dr. Francis Morgan, all of Miskatonic University, arrive with the knowledge and weapons needed to kill it. In the end, its nature is revealed: it is Wilbur''s twin brother, though it "looked more like the father than Wilbur did." "The Dunwich Horror" is one of the few tales Lovecraft wrote wherein the heroes successfully defeat the antagonistic entity or monster of the story, although the Horror itself is only the remainder of a far more fiendish plan thwarted by Wilbur''s premature death.

The Dunwich Horror

Sophie Amundsen (Sofie Amundsen in the Norwegian version) is a 14-year-old girl who lives in Norway in the year 1990. She lives with her mother and her cat, Sherekan, as well as with her goldfish, a tortoise, and two budgerigars. Her father is a captain of an oil tanker, and is away for most of the year. The book begins with Sophie receiving two anonymous messages in her mailbox (the first asking, "Who are you?", the second asking, "Where does the world come from?") and a postcard addressed to ''Hilde Møller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen''. Shortly afterwards, she receives a packet of papers, part of a correspondence course in philosophy. With these mysterious communications, Sophie becomes the student of a fifty-year-old philosopher, Alberto Knox. Initially, he is completely anonymous to Sophie, but he later reveals more and more about himself. The papers and the packet both turn out to be from him, but the post card is not; it is addressed from someone called Albert Knag, who is a major in a United Nations peacekeeping unit stationed in Lebanon. Alberto teaches her about the history of philosophy. She gets a substantive and understandable review from the Pre-Socratics to Jean-Paul Sartre. Along with the philosophy lessons, Sophie and Alberto try to outwit the mysterious Albert Knag, who appears to have God-like powers, which Alberto finds quite troubling. Sophie learns about medieval philosophy while being lectured by Alberto, dressed as a monk, in an ancient church, and she learns about Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in a French café. Various philosophical questions and methods of reasoning are put before Sophie, as she attempts to work them out on her own. Many of Knox''s philosophic packets to her are preluded by more short questions, such as "Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?" Alberto takes Sophie from the Hellenistic civilization to the rise of Christianity and its interaction with Ancient Greek thought on to the Middle Ages. Over the course of the book, he covers the Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, with the philosophies that stemmed from them. Mixed in with the philosophy lessons is a plot rather more akin to normal teenage novels, in which Sophie interacts with her mother and her friend Joanna. This is not the focus of the story but simply serves to move the plot along. After the introduction to George Berkeley, the perspective of the novel shifts to the mysterious Hilde. Sophie and Alberto''s entire world is revealed to be a literary construction by Albert Knag as a present for his daughter, Hilde, on her 15th birthday. The novel continues with Hilde''s story as a framing device for Sophie''s story, but the stories intertwine as Hilde''s understanding of philosophy grows alongside Sophie''s understanding. As Albert Knag continues to meddle with Sophie''s life, Alberto helps her fight back by teaching her everything he knows about philosophy. That, he explains, is the only way to understand her world. Meanwhile, Alberto''s lessons allow Hilde to develop her own understanding of Sophie''s world and use her knowledge against her father for exercising too much power over Sophie''s world. This is laced with events that appear to be scientifically impossible, such as Sophie seeing her reflection in a mirror wink at her with both eyes or actually seeing Socrates and Plato. Hilde''s book (by her father) ends with Sophie and Alberto disappearing. Gaarder reveals that they have managed to escape Albert Knag''s mind into Hilde''s world as spirits.

Sophie''s World

In Dirk Digger''s Gold Mine, Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper meet an old friend, the prospector Dirk Digger in extasty over a recent gold ore discovery, en route to register his gold mine claim in Nugget City. Celebrating loudly at a saloon, Digger is identified as a target of robbery by two hardened criminals, and after assaulting him alone in his room, they get away with his gold and a map leading to the gold find. The following day, Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper take up pursuit following their trail. In The Look-Alike of Lucky Luke, Luke discovers he causes fear in the inhabitants of a town, because he is remarkably similar to a notorious fellain named Mad Jim, currently in prison and scheduled for hanging. Spotted by two thugs who are Mad Jim''s associates, Luke is ambushed and knocked out in a scheme to replace him with the doppelgänger in a drunken sherrif''s jail cell, in order to get a share of Mad Jim''s loot. Taken without doubt for the dangerous villain, Lucky Luke barely escapes the mob lynching before he is able to pursue the criminals and bring them to justice.

La Mine d''or de Dick Digger

Written in the form of journal entries, it follows 30-year-old Antoine Roquentin who, returned from years of travel, settles in the fictional French seaport town of Bouville to finish his research on the life of an 18th-century political figure. But during the winter of 1932 a "sweetish sickness," as he calls nausea, increasingly impinges on almost everything he does or enjoys: his research project, the company of an autodidact who is reading all the books in the local library alphabetically, a physical relationship with a café owner named Françoise, his memories of Anny, an English girl he once loved, even his own hands and the beauty of nature. Over time, his disgust towards existence forces him into self-hatred and near-insanity. He embodies Sartre''s theories of existential angst, and he searches anxiously for meaning in all the things that had filled and fulfilled his life up to that point. But finally Antoine comes to a revelation into the nature of his being when he faces the troublesomely provisional and limited nature of existence itself. In his resolution at the end of the book he accepts the indifference of the physical world to man''s aspirations. He is able to see that realization not only as a regret but also as an opportunity. People are free to make their own meaning: a freedom that is also a responsibility, because without that commitment there will be no meaning.

Nausea

The protagonist of The Gruffalo is a mouse. The story of the mouse''s walk through the woods unfolds in two phases; in both, the mouse uses cunning to evade danger. On his way the mouse encounters several dangerous animals (a fox, an owl, and a snake). Each of these animals, clearly intending to eat the mouse, invites him back to their home for a meal. The cunning mouse declines each offer. To dissuade further advances, he tells each animal that he has plans to dine with his friend, a gruffalo, a monster-like hybrid that''s half grizzly bear and half buffalo, whose favourite food happens to be the relevant animal, and describes the features of the gruffalo''s monstrous anatomy. Frightened that the gruffalo might eat it, each animal flees. Knowing the gruffalo to be fictional, the mouse gloats thus: : Silly old fox/owl/snake, doesn''t he know? : there''s no such thing as a gruffalo! After being quit of the last animal, the mouse is shocked to encounter a real gruffalo – with all the frightening features the mouse thought that he was inventing. The gruffalo threatens to eat the mouse, but again the mouse is cunning: he tells the gruffalo that he, the mouse, is the scariest animal in the forest. Laughing, the gruffalo agrees to follow the mouse as he demonstrates how feared he is. The two walk through the forest, encountering in turn the animals that had earlier menaced the mouse. Each is terrified by the sight of the pair and runs off – and each time the gruffalo becomes more impressed with the mouse''s apparent toughness. Exploiting this, the mouse threatens to eat the gruffalo, which flees. The story is based on a traditional Chinese folk tale of a fox that borrows the terror of a tiger. Donaldson was unable to think of rhymes for "tiger" so invented one for "know" instead.

The Gruffalo

Tristan is depicted as a prince of Lothian, whose king Rivalin married the sister of Mark of Cornwall, making Tristan the nephew King Mark. Tristan''s mother is shown as dying in his childbirth, and his name as being from the latin root word trista http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trista, reflecting the sadness of Rivalin at the loss of his wife. He journeys to the Kingdom of Cornwall in effort to prove himself, and enters the service of King Mark without revealing his identity. After defeating the Irish champion Morholt, Tristan''s identity is revealed, and his position as Champion of Cornwall solidified. Having been wounded by the poisoned blade of Morholt, Tristan wastes away, eventually being set adrift in a boat by his own choice. He lands on the shores of Ireland, and his healed by the skills of Iseult of Ireland, although without actually meeting her. Upon returning to Cornwall, he is involved in a move to have King Mark marry. Tristan is sent on a quest to find a bride for the king, and winds up once again in Ireland. Tristan defeats a dragon, is once again healed by Iseult, and though given her hand in marriage as reward, promises to bring her back to Cornwall as bride for his Uncle. These events are shown in light of bringing peace to an ongoing war between the two kingdoms. Tristan and Iseult are stranded on a distant shore for a few days, delaying their return to Cornwall, and cementing their own love for each other, despite the commitments of circumstances. Sutcliff herself states that she intentionally left out the love potion as something ''artificial'' . Upon returning to Cornwall, Iseult is wedded to King Mark, and they both seek to behave honorably by maintaining a distance between themselves. They eventually end up having a clandestine relationship, and are caught by King Mark. After various conflicts, Tristan is banished from Cornwall, and travels to Brittany, entering the service of King Hoel of Brittany. Tristan befriends Hoel''s son Kahedin, and is married to Hoel''s daughter, Iseult of the White Hands. The relationship is never consummated, with Tristan pining away for Iseult of Ireland. Kahedin is killed by the husband of his own original love, after a successful visit aided by Tristan. Tristan is once again sorely wounded, and sends for Iseult of Ireland to come and heal him. The returning ship is to furl white sails if it returns with her, and black sails if not, much like the story of Theseus returning to his father. Iseult of the White Hands lies to Tristan out of jealousy, saying that the sails are black, and he dies. Iseult of Ireland finds him dead, and dies by his side. They are buried together back in Cornwall, with a hazel tree growing from his heart and a honeysuckle from hers, intertwining above their graves. Similar to many of her novels, Sutcliff depicts these ancient and legendary stories in a realistic fashion. She also focuses on the themes of individuals bound by obligation, also using the visual balance between the dark haired Tristan and the blonde haired Iseult.

Tristan and Iseult

Doralice, Countess of Köhne-Jasky, has walked out on her much older husband and run off with Hans Grill, a young artist who had been commissioned by the Count to paint his wife''s picture. Now, a year later, Hans and Doralice have come to the Baltic coast to spend a solitary summer''s holiday in a fisherman''s hut. They are said to have got married in London so their relationship is outwardly considered "correct" although their marriage is generally seen as a misalliance, especially by the society Doralice has left behind. While she herself is rather unsure about her future, Hans Grill is an optimistic free spirit, though not quite a libertine, who is full of plans in which Doralice figures prominently. He dreams of setting himself up as a successful painter in Munich &mdash; thus being eventually able to stop living off his wife''s money &mdash; and of living with her in a small suburban house. Rather than shunning the unlikely couple, the other tourists at the small fishing village feel morally obliged to associate with them, at least perfunctorily. They are the extended Buttlär family: Baron von Buttlär; his wife Bella; their three children Lolo, Nini, und Wedig; and Baron von Buttlär''s mother-in-law, the Generalin von Palikow. They are soon to be joined by Hilmar Baron von dem Hamm, Lolo''s dashing fiancé, who is an officer in the German army. Also present is the Geheimrat von Knospelius, a high-ranking civil servant. Burdened with a physical handicap, and never having married, Knospelius is used to leading a vicarious life through the people he surrounds himself with, and as soon as they have arrived he introduces himself to both the Buttlärs and the Grills. The presence of a scandalous couple does not go unnoticed by the Buttlär children. Rather, it is one of their games to sneak out of the house at night together with Ernestine, one of the young servants, to catch a glimpse of Doralice through the open window of the Grimms'' rented hut. One day, while swimming in the sea, Lolo meets Doralice on a sandbank and is deeply impressed by her cheerful manner, her wit, and her beauty, so much so that she decides to send her a huge bunch of red roses, while instinctively choosing her as her role model. Others who are also impressed by Doralice''s beauty include Baron von Buttlär, a known womaniser, who is now jealously guarded by his wife, and Hilmar von dem Hamm, who openly starts courting Doralice despite her husband''s and his own fiancée''s presence. His endeavours to win Doralice''s heart culminate in a boating trip that he undertakes with her while the others stay behind. Doralice feels flattered by the attentions of a member of the very social class that has ostracised her. At the same time, she realizes her indebtedness to, and possibly love for, Hans and stops all further advances on Hilmar''s part. Lolo on the other hand, aware of her fiancé''s infatuation, but due to an over-protective upbringing unprepared for life''s harsh realities, decides to sacrifice herself by committing suicide. At night she secretly leaves the house wearing only her bathing costume under her coat, walks down to the beach and starts swimming out into the ocean, far beyond the sandbank where she met Doralice. She is rescued by local fishermen who drag her half-conscious body into their boat and return her to her family. Although Lolo makes a quick and full recovery, etiquette demands of the Buttlärs that they depart immediately. Those who stay behind into the autumn are Hans and Doralice Grimm and Geheimrat Knospelius &mdash; the latter because, unbeknown to everyone, he has handed in his resignation and now has all the time in the world, and the Grimms because they actually have no other place to go. In the course of the summer, Hans has become more and more monosyllabic, and Doralice longs for some serious talk concerning their future together: She realizes that she desperately needs Hans''s reassurance of his love for her. Hans, however, keeps postponing that talk to the following day and indulges in his growing fascination with the sea. Not only does he paint it; he now accompanies the fishermen on their nightly routine on a more or less regular basis and then sleeps during most of the day. One night he goes out fishing with Steege, a notorious drunkard whose vice has prevented him from buying a new fishing boat. The old dilapidated one cannot defy the thunderstorm of which they have been warned, and the sea claims two more lives: After long days of waiting, Doralice and Mrs Steege finally accept the fact that their husbands are not coming back. At this point Knospelius makes Doralice the unexpected offer to be his companion for the foreseeable future and to spend the winter with him touring the Greek islands.

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Agricola

No Author Listed

Tailchaser's Song

By Tad Williams

The Cat and the King

By Louis Auchincloss

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By Sherman Alexie

Land Beyond the Map

By Kenneth Bulmer

The Dunwich Horror

By H. P. Lovecraft

Sophie's World

By Jostein Gaarder

La Mine d'or de Dick Digger

No Author Listed

Nausea

By Jean-Paul Sartre

The Gruffalo

By Julia Donaldson

Tristan and Iseult

By Rosemary Sutcliff

Wellen

No Author Listed