The book is divided into five chapters. Each chapter is divided into five parts, each describing events from the perspective of one of the five main characters: Karen, Rick, Luke, Rachel, and Player One. The first chapter "Hour One: Cue the Flaming Zeppelin" has Karen arriving at the Toronto airport on a flight from Winnipeg to meet a man she met online. She sits on a stool at the airport hotel bar in which Rick is the bartender, Rachel is at a computer terminal, and Luke is sitting at a table drinking scotch. Rachel is there with the expectation to meet a man who can father her child and approaches Luke. Karen''s date goes badly as she finds the man too assertive physically and too distant intellectually. A self-help guru, Leslie Freemont, enters with his assistant Tara to welcome Rick into his empowerment program; Leslie gives a speech to the group, takes Rick''s money, and leaves. Meanwhile, oil prices rapidly increase and explosions start to occur outside. With the power unreliable, Karen, Rick, Luke, and Rachel run to Rick''s vehicle to listen to the radio. Karen''s date, Warren, is killed by a sniper as he runs to the group who quickly return to the bar lounge where they barricade themselves in. In "Hour Three: God''s little Dumpsters" Karen''s daughter tells them, over the phone, of rioting and general chaos that is occurring. Rick and Luke crawl through the ventilation shafts to the roof to overpower the sniper but fail and retreat to the lounge. As chemical fall-out starts to land on the airport the sniper seeks shelter in the lounge and is taken prisoner by the other characters. In "Hour Four: Hello, My Name Is: Monster" Rick and Rachel have sex, the sniper explains his motivations, and a teenager suffering from chemical burns seeks their help. In the final chapter "Hour Five: The View From Inside Daffy Duck''s Hole" Karen and Luke tend to the teenager’s wounds. Rachel discovers that the sniper is actually Leslie Freemont''s son, and upon stating this, the sniper panics, manages to get his gun back and shoots Rachel. The final part of the final chapter is told from the combined point-of-view of Rachel and Player One, who exist in what is labeled as Eternity, and provide an epilogue revealing the fates of the characters. ; Karen : A divorced mother of one daughter, and a receptionist at a psychiatrist office, who travels from Winnipeg to Toronto to meet Warren whom she met in an online forum. ; Rick : A divorced father of one son, and a recovering alcoholic, who works as a bartender at the Toronto Airport Camelot Hotel. He has been saving money to enroll in an empowerment program operated by Leslie Freemont. ; Luke : A pastor of a church in Nipissing, Ontario who lost his faith in religion, stole $20,000 from the church and fled to Toronto. ; Rachel : A young woman who operates a business that breeds lab mice and lives with psychological conditions on the Autism spectrum. Among her psychological conditions is prosopagnosia, as well as an inability to understand humour, metaphors, irony, or social cues. She wants to become pregnant to prove to her parents that she can lead what they consider a normal life. ; Player One : A disembodied voice who watches the events and comments on the character''s past, present, and future actions and circumstances. ; Warren : The man who Karen is scheduled to meet at the hotel bar. ; Leslie Freemont : A self-help guru who operates the Power Dynamics Seminar System. He arrives with his assistant Tara to accept Rick into the program. ; Bertis : A religious fanatic, the son of Leslie Freemont, and the sniper on the bar''s roof. ; Max : A teenager who tries to covertly take photos of Karen during their flight. He stumbles upon the group as he flees the chemical fall-out.

Player One

The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous (and married) Madame de Tourvel, who is living with Valmont''s aunt while Monsieur de Tourvel, a magistrate, is away on a court case. At the same time, the Marquise de Merteuil is determined to corrupt the young Cécile de Volanges, whose mother has only recently brought her out of a convent to be married – to Merteuil''s recent lover, who has become bored with her and discarded her. Cécile falls in love with the Chevalier Danceny (her music tutor) and Merteuil and Valmont pretend to want to help the secret lovers in order to gain their trust, so that they can use them later in their own schemes. Merteuil suggests that the Vicomte seduce Cécile in order to exact her revenge on Cécile''s future husband. Valmont refuses, finding the task too easy, and preferring to devote himself to seducing Madame de Tourvel. Merteuil promises Valmont that if he seduces Madame de Tourvel and provides her with written proof, she will spend the night with him. He expects rapid success, but does not find it as easy as his many other conquests. During the course of his pursuit, he discovers that Cécile''s mother has written to Madame de Tourvel about his bad reputation. He avenges himself in seducing Cécile as Merteuil had suggested. In the meantime, Merteuil takes Danceny as a lover. By the time Valmont has succeeded in seducing Madame de Tourvel, it is suggested that he might have fallen in love with her. Jealous, Merteuil tricks him into deserting Madame de Tourvel – and reneges on her promise of spending the night with him. In response Valmont reveals that he prompted Danceny to reunite with Cécile, leaving Merteuil abandoned yet again. Merteuil declares war on Valmont, and in revenge she reveals to Danceny that Valmont has seduced Cécile. Danceny and Valmont duel, and Valmont is fatally wounded. Before he dies he is reconciled with Danceny, giving him the letters proving Merteuil''s own involvement. These letters are sufficient to ruin her reputation and she flees to the countryside, where she contracts smallpox. Her face is left permanently scarred and she is rendered blind in one eye, so she loses her greatest asset: her beauty. But the innocent also suffer from the protagonist''s schemes: hearing of Valmont''s death, Madame de Tourvel succumbs to a fever and dies, while Cécile returns to the convent.

Les Liaisons dangereuses

George is an 8 year-old boy who lives in a farm with his mother, father and grandmother. He is fed up with his Grandma''s selfishness, grumpiness and her attitude towards him, especially after he becomes frightened by her dark secrets. George seeks to cure it by brewing a very special medicine for her. He makes the product by collecting many harmful products throughout the house along with some animal pills, then he puts them in a giant saucepan, boils them and gives a spoonful to Grandma, only to end up making her taller than a house. George tries out the medicine on a brown hen in the yard, and it causes her to grow several times bigger. Moments later, George''s mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Kranky, return home, and they are both astounded by these events. Mr. Kranky is excited by the sight of the giant hen, and exclaims that he had been wanting to make giant animals for giant food. Together, George and his father enjoy sampling the medicine to most of the farm animals (pigs, cows, sheep, George''s pony Jack Frost and Alma the nanny-goat), which makes them giant animals. However, Mrs. Kranky starts worrying about Grandma, and eventually, the Crane Company hoists her down. Once back on the ground, Grandma excitedly hops around the farm, but is forced to sleep in the barn that night since she is too tall to go back inside the house. However, she enjoys it a lot. The next day, Mr. Kranky announces that they will continue making the medicine so it can be sold to other farms in the hopes of ending world hunger. Unfortunately, George cannot remember the exact ingredients he had used the day before. After several failed attempts (resulting in a potion that extends a chicken''s legs, a potion that extends a chicken''s neck, and a potion that makes the chicken shrink), Grandma strolls over to the family and demands for her cup of tea. Then she notices the cup of medicine in George''s hand, and, mistaking it for tea, snatches it from him. She drinks it down, and the resulting overdose causes her to shrink into nothing. Mrs. Kranky is devastated at first, but soon agrees with her husband about her absence removing a nuisance from their lives. George then discovers that for two long days he had touched with his fingertips the edge of a magical world.

George''s Marvelous Medicine

Pompeii, A.D. 79. Athenian nobleman Glaucus arrives in the bustling and gaudy Roman town and quickly falls in love with the beautiful Greek Ione. Ione''s former guardian, the malevolent Egyptian sorcerer Arabaces, has designs on Ione and sets out to destroy their budding happiness. Arabaces has already ruined Ione''s sensitive brother Apaecides by luring him to join the vice-ridden priesthood of Isis. The blind slave Nydia is rescued from her abusive owners by Glaucus, for whom she secretly pines. Arabaces horrifies Ione by declaring his love for her, and flying into a rage when she refuses him. Glaucus and Apaecides rescue her from his grip, but Arabaces is struck down by an earthquake, a sign of Vesuvius''s coming eruption. Glaucus and Ione exult in their love, much to Nydia''s torment, while Apaecides finds a new religion in Christianity. Nydia unwittingly helps Julia, a rich young woman who has eyes for Glaucus, obtain a love potion from Arabaces to win Glaucus''s love. But the love potion is really a poison that will turn Glaucus mad. Nydia steals the potion and administers it; Glaucus drinks only a small amount and begins raving wildly. Apaecides and Olinthus, an early Christian, determine to publicly reveal the deception of the cult of Isis. Arabaces, recovered from his wounds, overhears and stabs Apaecides to death; he then pins the crime on Glaucus, who has stumbled onto the scene. Arabaces has himself declared the legal guardian of Ione, who is convinced that Arabaces is her brother''s murderer, and imprisons her at his mansion. He also imprisons Nydia, who discovers that there is an eyewitness to the murder who can prove Glaucus''s innocence --- the priest Calenus, who is yet a third prisoner of Arabaces. She smuggles a letter to Glaucus''s friend Sallust, begging him to rescue them. Glaucus is convicted of murder, Olinthus of heresy, and their sentence is to be fed to wild cats in the amphitheater. All Pompeii gathers in the amphitheater for the bloody gladiatorial games. Just as Glaucus is led into the arena with the lion --- who, by a miracle, spares his life and returns to his cage --- Sallust bursts into the arena and reveals Arabaces'' plot. The crowd demands that Arabaces be thrown to the lion, but it is too late: Vesuvius begins to erupt. Ash and stone rain down, causing mass panic. Arabaces grabs Ione in the chaos but is killed by a strike of lightning. Nydia leads Glaucus, Sallust, and Ione to safety on a ship in the Bay of Naples. The next morning she commits suicide by quietly slipping into the sea; death is preferable to the agony of her unrequited love for Glaucus. Ten years pass, and Glaucus writes to Sallust, now living in Rome, of his and Ione''s happiness in Athens. They have built Nydia a tomb and adopted Christianity.

The Last Days of Pompeii

The Auditors of Reality are beings who watch the Discworld to ensure everything obeys The Rules. As Death starts developing a personality the Auditors feel that he does not perform his Duty in the right way. They send him to live like everyone else. Assuming the name "Bill Door", he works as a farm hand for the elderly Miss Flitworth. While every other species creates a new Death for themselves, humans need more time for their Death to be completed. As a result, the life force of dead humans starts to build up; this results in poltergeist activity, ghosts, and other paranormal phenomena. Most notable is the return of the recently deceased wizard Windle Poons, who was really looking forward to reincarnation. After several misadventures, including being accosted by his oldest friends, he finds himself attending the Fresh Start club, an undead-rights group led by Reg Shoe. The Fresh Start club and the wizards of Unseen University discover that the city of Ankh-Morpork is being invaded by a parasitic lifeform that feeds on cities and hatches from eggs that resemble snow globes. Tracking its middle form, shopping carts, the Fresh Start club and the wizards invade and destroy the third form, a shopping mall. When humankind finally thinks of a New Death, one with a crown and without any humanity or human face, it goes to take Bill Door. Death/Door, having planned for this moment for some time, outwits and destroys it. Having defeated the New Death, Death absorbs the other Deaths back into him, with the exception of the Death of Rats (and ultimately, the Death of Fleas). Death confronts Azrael, the Death of the Universe, and states that the Deaths have to care or they do not exist and there is nothing but Oblivion, which must also end some time. Death asks for and receives some time. He meets up with Miss Flitworth again and offers her unlimited dreams. She asks to go to the local Harvest Dance. They prepare and join the townspeople for a full night of dancing. As the sun is coming up, Miss Flitworth realizes she had died hours before the dance even started. Death escorts her through history to her old fiancé. Returning to the city of Ankh Morpork he meets up with Windle Poons, finally taking him to his just reward, whatever it is. At the end there is also a discussion between Death and the Death of Rats over what the Death of Rats should "ride", Death suggests a dog while the Death of Rats suggests a cat.

Reaper Man

As Wang Lung lies near death, his family prepares for his funeral, including the first two of his three sons. They send for their brother and are surprised to see him leading a band of soldiers into the town. After he left home near the end of The Good Earth, he joined the army of a warlord and quickly rose in the ranks. Once Wang Lung is dead and buried and his land divided among the sons, they find themselves drawn together in unusual ways even as they drift apart. Wang the Third (“The Tiger”) demands that his brothers (Eldest, Nung En, “The Landlord,” and Second, Nung Wen, “The Merchant”) sell his share and give him his inheritance in silver, and also asks to borrow as much money as they can lend him. He needs the funds in order to break away from the warlord and set himself up with an army of his own. Since he has no sons, he asks his brothers to send him some of theirs, receiving one from each of them. The Merchant’s smallpox-scarred oldest son quickly proves himself a useful aide, but the Landlord’s dainty second son hates life as a soldier and hangs himself during a visit to the family home. As time passes, the Landlord is forced to sell much of his share of the land in order to support his family’s lavish lifestyle, with the Merchant buying the best tracts for himself. The Tiger leads his men north, into the territory of a cruel warlord known as the Leopard, and kills him with the help of a trap prepared by the county magistrate. His men take over the Leopard’s large army, which begins to collect taxes from the local population. The Tiger also captures a hostile young woman who had been the Leopard’s consort and imprisons her for a time, then releases her after putting an end to the corruption in the magistrate’s courts. He is surprised when she – now greatly calmed – decides to remain with him and become his wife. At the same time, power struggles have begun to grow between the Chinese ruler and local warlords, some of whom want to depose him. The Tiger calls on the Merchant to smuggle guns into the country for his growing army, but his wife tries to divert them to a band of robbers, for which he kills her. He later takes two new wives and leads his forces southeast to lay siege to the capital of a coastal territory and unseat its warlord. Upon returning to his first stronghold, he discovers that his wives have given birth to his first two children, a son and a daughter. The death of old Lotus, the concubine Wang Lung took decades ago, coupled with the Tiger’s disgust at his brothers and their sons, prompts him to try to do better by his own son. The Tiger begins to introduce him to military life with the goal of eventually putting him in command of the army, but the boy shows more interest in farming as Wang Lung did. Upon learning that one of his top aides is plotting to rebel against him, the Tiger storms the coastal capital to kill him, but the man commits suicide first. A severe famine strikes much of the countryside, and the Tiger is forced to deal harshly with his hungry men and turn to his brothers for help. At this time, Wang Lung’s mentally retarded daughter (the “Poor Fool”) dies, further fueling the Tiger’s son’s interest in the land on which she had lived. The rift between the two grows when the boy turns fifteen and his father sends him to a military school; four years later, the Tiger is shocked to see him wearing the uniform of an army that is fighting a revolution against the government and the warlords. However, the young man does not intend to battle his father as an enemy, but rather to hide among the rural farmers until the upheaval has ended. The Tiger is left to reconcile himself to the fact that both his life and his son’s have turned out far differently than he had planned. ja:息子たち

Sons

Triptych opens in June 2004 in The Bahamas. Jonathan and Ally, both surgeons, celebrate their tenth anniversary at a party filled with friends and family. One of those family members is Jonathan’s second cousin Tim, a recent widower who lives in New Jersey. Tim and Ally had dated when he was seventeen, and she, fifteen. Jonathan collapses at the anniversary party. Tim and Ally rush him to the hospital. Doctors diagnose an inoperable brain tumor. Flash ahead to the summer of 2005. Jonathan is between cancer treatments. Tim has taken a teaching position in The Bahamas. He still feels as connected to Ally as when they first dated. Ally has taken a sabbatical from her medical career in order to care for Jonathan and their children. As Jonathan’s treatments have rendered him impotent, acute sexual frustration dogs her. Time passes; Ally’s feelings for Tim evolve into sexual attraction. Despite valiant efforts not to, Tim and Ally succumb. Jonathan senses the attraction between Tim and Ally. He makes an unorthodox proposition to his cousin, suggesting that Tim take care of Ally’s sexual needs. Tim’s instincts tell him to protect his heart. However, he cannot refuse his dying cousin. Tim and Ally begin a guilt-ridden affair. The rapid progression of Jonathan’s symptoms makes him realize that he is dying. He writes a series of letters to his loved ones, in which he expresses his feelings while he is still able. His doctors confirm his suspicions. Jonathan, wishing to die in peace, takes the family away to a second home in a place called Harbour Island. Ally watches helplessly as Jonathan suffers a fatal seizure. Almost a year passes. Ally feels comfortable enough to go on a first date with Tim. They make love with vigor and renewed affection. Afterwards, Tim suggests a vacation for two. Ally balks. Tim is frustrated and angry at what he views as rejection. After the disastrous date, Ally retreats to the Harbour Island home where Jonathan died. She removes her engagement, wedding, and remembrance rings. She revisits the hammock where he died, folds it up, and stores it away. Slowly, she makes her peace. Jonathan’s grown daughter Terri, visibly upset, appears at Tim’s office. The family has gone to Harbour Island without her. She feels guilt at how she treated her father in his last days. She begs Tim to come with her to the island. The thought of seeing Ally fills him with trepidation. Still, Tim agrees to go. Tim and Terri arrive in Harbour Island. Tim learns that Ally has gone to a party at a friend’s home, her so-called “coming out” after Jonathan’s death. Determined, Tim crashes the party in search of her. Ally is surprised and overjoyed to see him. They confess their love for each other.

Triptych

The plot focuses on a group of rebels attempting to overthrow both tyrants and win back their homeland. Many of the rebels are natives of the province of Tigana, which was the province that most ably resisted Brandin: In a crucial battle, Brandin''s son was killed. In retaliation for this, Brandin attacked Tigana and crushed it more savagely than any other part of the Palm; then, following this victory, he used his magic to remove the name and history of Tigana from the minds of the population. Brandin named it Lower Corte, making Corte, their traditional enemies to their north, seem superior to a land that was all but forgotten. Only those born in Tigana before the invasion can hear or speak its name, or remember it as it was; as far as everyone else is concerned, that area of the country has always been an insignificant part of a neighbouring province, hence the rebels are battling for the very soul of their country. The book puts great emphasis on the different moral shades of people. Though seen by most of the characters as a ruthless, grief-maddened tyrant, Brandin is actually a very sympathetic character, especially in his love for Dianora, one of the women of his harem, called a saishan in the book—a character who is in fact from Tigana herself and engineered her own selection into Brandin''s seraglio so that she could assassinate him, only to fall in love with him before she could. Despite being likeable and sympathetic, many of the rebels are equally ruthless in their attempts to overthrow the Tyrants, setting off wars, assassinating soldiers and officials and even committing suicide to depose Brandin. All the main characters are very complex. The book is full of themes of identity, love, patriotism, revenge and magic.

Tigana

In pre-agricultural Europe,the hunter-gatherers of the Forest live in clans, each represented by a particular animal or life form. Torak and his father, of Wolf Clan, live together in the forest. During Torak''s twelfth year, his father ("Fa") is killed by a bear which has been possessed by a demon. Before Torak''s father dies, he tells Torak to swear an oath to head north and find the Mountain of the World Spirit, and ask the World Spirit to help destroy the bear before it kills all life in the forest. His guide will find him and help him on his quest. Torak reluctantly leaves his father as the bear comes back to kill him. Torak heads north and soon encounters an orphaned wolf cub. Torak initially tries to kill the cub in order to eat it, but he doesn''t have the heart. He discovers that he can communicate with the cub. The Cub smells Torak is of the Wolf Clan, who was fed by a wolf as a baby, and accepts Torak as his pack-brother. He realizes the cub is the guide, and Torak names the cub "Wolf". Over time they become good friends. A few days later Torak and Wolf are captured by the Raven Clan, who accuse Torak of stealing one of their roe deer. They are taken to the Raven camp so Torak''s fate can be decided by Fin-Kedinn, the Raven Clan leader. Torak''s captors are a teenage boy named Hord, a girl named Renn, and a man named Oslak. In the Raven camp, Torak is taken to Fin-Kedinn. Unlike the other Ravens, Fin-Kedinn treats him with kindness and respect, until Fin-Kedinn realizes who Torak''s father was. To regain his freedom, Torak fights Hord, who is much bigger and stronger, to prove his innocence. He wins by temporarily blinding Hord with steam from some broth which is cooking nearby. This, together with the dog whistle which Torak has made to summon Wolf, makes Fin-Kedinn and Saeunn, the Raven mage (shaman), see Torak as the possible fulfillment of a prophecy about a "Listener". The prophecy states that the Listener, who "talks with silence and fights with air", will offer his heart''s blood to the World Spirit and thereby kill the demon-bear. One interpretation of this prophecy is that Torak must be sacrificed, and his blood taken to the Mountain of the World Spirit. Fin-Keddin reveals to Torak that his Fa was the Wolf Clan''s mage, and the Demon Bear was created for the sole purpose of killing his Fa. They then lock Torak away while they debate his fate. Torak escapes, helped by Renn, who believes that Torak must go to the Mountain of the World Spirit himself. Renn tells Torak the rest of the prophecy, which says he must find three parts of the "Nanuak", the brightest soul, to please the World Spirit and ensure its aid. On their journey together, guided by Wolf, Torak finds the first part of the Nanuak when he falls into a river, the second part in a cave, and the third part while crossing the treacherous glacial flow close to the High Mountains. Nearly at their destination, Renn and Torak are recaptured by the Ravens and taken to the Raven Clan''s new temporary camp. Fin-Kedinn releases Torak, believing him to be the one who should go to the Mountain. Fin-Kedinn also reveals that Torak''s Fa was killed because he dedicated himself to thwarting a group of rogue mages, the Soul Eaters, who have turned to evil in their determination to rule the Forest. Torak and Wolf climb the mountain, followed by the bear. Torak is unexpectedly attacked by Hord, who believes himself to be the one who must take the Nanuak to the mountain. Torak realizes that the prophecy''s "heart''s blood" means Wolf, and as Wolf carries off the Nanuak, Hord and the bear are engulfed by an ensuing avalanche, and fall down the mountain. Torak escapes from under his hiding place and looks for Wolf, but he only hears his howl in the distance, along with the howls of other wolves. Torak howls to Wolf, promising that he will one day return for him, before turning to head back into the forest.

Wolf Brother

Foer describes his book as participatory journalism in the world of competitive memorization and attempts to delineate the capacity of the human mind. He sets out to investigate the underpinnings of those with enhanced memory, soon finding himself at the 2005 U.S. Memory Championship. He covers the scientific basis of memory creation and historical attitudes towards memory, including its negative reputation in the Western educational system, a perception which Foer is largely opposed to. He explores common mnemonic tools for improving memory: the techniques of Roman rhetoricians and the tannaim ("reciters") of Sri Lanka, the Major System and the PAO System for memorizing numbers and cards, and Mind Mapping, a note-taking technique developed by Tony Buzan. These methods are all a form of the method of loci, in which data is stored in a sequence of memorable images that are decomposable into their original form. He espouses deliberate practice as the path to expertise, and declares psychological barriers as the largest obstacles to improved human performance. The book describes the prodigious memory and 87-point IQ of Kim Peek, the inspiration for the 1988 movie Rain Man. Foer discusses how Daniel Tammet''s index finger slides around on a table as he performs mental calculations in a documentary; mental multiplication experts and mnemonists that Foer speaks with imply that Tammet''s claims, involving synesthetic morphing shapes and colors standing in for complex numerical feats, are questionable. World memory champion Ben Pridmore tells Foer that "[t]here are a lot of people in the world that can do those things." Foer notes that Tammet, competing under his previous legal name "Daniel Corney", won the gold medal at the World Memory Championships'' "Names and Faces" event. Tammet had tested poorly in facial recognition under Simon Baron-Cohen''s assessment of synesthetic abilities; Foer states that poor facial recognition ability is a suitable indicator of inborn "savant" status, as opposed to "savant-like tricks [developed] through methodical training". He also discovers self-promotional forum posts advertising "mind power and advanced memory skills" courses as well as psychic phone readings (the latter under the pseudonym "Daniel Andersson"). In a cached version of "danieltammet.com", Foer finds Tammet relating details omitted from his autobiography Born on a Blue Day: Foer interviews Tammet on several occasions over the course of several weeks, during which he confronts him with the forum posts. Foer also tests Tammet: After practicing traditional memory techniques for a year, Foer wins the 2006 US Memory Championship. He represents the US at the World Memory Championships in London, where he places 13th and fails to attain "grandmaster" status. He wins bronze in the "Names and Faces" event.

Moonwalking with Einstein

Caprona is a city-state in the Italy of Chrestomanci''s world (World Twelve A), which was never united as a nation-state. The city is said to be losing its "virtue," a process which Chrestomanci blames on the malevolent influence of a mysterious enemy enchanter, making it vulnerable. Florence, Siena, and Pisa aim to capitalize on this weakness by uniting against Caprona in an attempt to conquer it. Chrestomanci has advised each spell-house that Caprona could regain its virtue if the true words to the Angel of Caprona, both a hymn and a powerful spell, could be found. The search is not helped by the deadly (and rather Shakespearean) rivalry between the two spell-houses, each quick to blame the other for the city''s misfortunes. The story is told through the eyes of the young Tonino Montana and his brother Paolo. They are both members of Casa Montana, one of two spell-houses in Caprona, the other being Casa Petrocchi. The two spell-houses are deadly rivals; the two families are both convinced that the decline of Caprona is all the fault of the other spell-house, and refuse to work together under any circumstances. Tonino is, unknown to himself or the rest of Casa Montana, a talented enchanter; however, he is unaware of his ability, and prefers to spend his time reading. Paolo is more outgoing and friendly, and does better at school. When representatives of both houses are called to the Duke of Caprona''s palace, they both go. Whilst there, they meet members of the Petrocchi family for the first time, and they also encounter the Duchess, a powerful woman who appears to be the true ruler of Caprona.

The Magicians of Caprona

Professor Wilson arrives at the Alexanders'' house in Boston, after Mr Alexander has talked him into attending a Congress of Psychologists there. He is greeted by Mrs Alexander; later her husband comes home and they have a talk; his wife plays the piano for them. The next day, she tells him how she met her husband through her aunt. In London, Bartley Alexander meets with Maurice Mainhall to see a play starring Hilda Burgoyne, an erstwhile lover of his. Back in his hotel room, he thinks back to how he broke up with her in a letter after he met Winifred in Canada. Later, he walks to her house to see where she lives and reminisces about his youth. At a party at Lady Warford''s, he talks to her after many years apart and she says she has been reading in the newspapers about his success with bridges in Japan and Canada. Later, he goes to another party also held by Lady Warford. The following Thursday, he takes Hilda to dinner and they reminisce about Madame Anger and Angel, and a beggar they had seen in the street once. He asks her to sing for him and she asks if he will let her love him. On Christmas Eve, the Alexanders are getting ready for the Christmas dinner, and Bartley tells Wilson he is in trouble with the bridge in Canada. Later, he gives his wife pearl earrings. On New Year''s Day, Alexander is getting ready to leave for London again. Later, on the ship, he battles with sharp gales and goes into a bar, where he gambles at bridge. Once in London, Bartley visits Hilda and tells her he cannot go on having two relationships; she must forget about him and leave him alone. She is distressed. The day before he is due to return to America however, he takes her out to dinner. Later, Hugh MacConnell walks Hilda back to her house on a foggy day, and she says she isn''t attracted to him because they are just close friends. Back in her house, she receives a letter from Bartley, saying he is going mad away from her. This prompts her to visit him in America to tell him she will marry another man and thence be bound to someone else; he doesn''t like the idea. They spend one last evening together. Soon after, Bartley is called to Canada by Philip Horton to inspect the bridge. Bartley discovers that one of the lower chords of the bridge was failing, compromising the structural integrity of the entire bridge. Horton was afraid to halt construction, but had first attempted to contact Bartley even earlier - the very day Bartley was with Hilda. As Bartley is on the bridge stopping the work crews, the bridge collapses, killing many of the workers. Bartley''s body is recovered the next day and taken to Horton''s house. Winifred comes back to look after the dead body. Finally, Wilson visits Hilda. The latter expresses her jealousy over Winifred, but Wilson reminds her that she will not live again, she will be haunted by her husband''s death. Hilda concludes that she will be too.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Player One

By Douglas Coupland

Les Liaisons dangereuses

By Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

George's Marvelous Medicine

By Roald Dahl

The Last Days of Pompeii

No Author Listed

Reaper Man

By Terry Pratchett

Sons

By Pearl S. Buck

Triptych

By Wendy Coakley-Thompson

Tigana

By Guy Gavriel Kay

Wolf Brother

By Michelle Paver

Moonwalking with Einstein

By Joshua Foer

The Magicians of Caprona

By Diana Wynne Jones

Alexander's Bridge

By Willa Cather