The novel takes place in Three Rivers, Connecticut. Dominick Birdsey''s identical twin, Thomas, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. With medication, he can function properly and work at a coffee stand, but occasionally he has severe episodes of his illness. Thinking he is making a sacrificial protest that will stop the war in the Middle East, Thomas cuts off his own hand in a public library. Dominick sees him through the ensuing decision not to attempt to reattach the hand, and makes efforts on his behalf to free him from what he knows to be an inadequate and depressing hospital for the dangerous mentally ill. In the process, Dominick reviews his own difficult life as Thomas''s normal brother, his marriage to his gorgeous ex-wife, which ended after their only child died of SIDS, and his ongoing hostility toward his stepfather. Dominick also displays classic symptoms of PTSD, as a result of stressors in his adult life. First in Thomas''s interests, and then for his own sake, he sees a therapist, Dr. Rubina Patel, an Indian psychologist, employed by the hospital. She helps Dominick come to understand Thomas''s illness better and the family''s accommodations or reactions to it. In the course of Thomas''s treatment, Dominick is covertly informed of sexual abuse taking place in the hospital, and helps to expose the perpetrators. He succeeds in getting Thomas released, but Thomas soon dies, apparently by suicide. After Thomas''s death, Dominick discovers the identity of their birth father, who was part African American and part Native American--a secret their mother had shared with Thomas, but not with him. In the midst of this, Dominick is also reading the autobiography of his grandfather, Italian/Sicilian-born Domenico Tempesta, which discloses details about the legacy of twins in their family. Dominick learns about himself and his mother through learning about his grandfather. He also learns that his live-in girlfriend, Joy, has been seeing a man on the side, who is her bisexual half-uncle, as well as letting him watch her and Dominick during sex. She is also HIV-positive, having contracted it from her secret lover. She asks Dominick to raise her baby if she dies. At first he resists, but later, after having found his way back into a relationship with his ex-wife, Dessa, they decide to remarry each other and adopt Joy''s daughter. The book ends with Dominick able to cope with the considerable loss, failure, and sadness in his personal and family history.

I Know This Much Is True

The novel, set in 1861, described adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. Hatteras is convinced that the sea around the pole is not frozen and his obsession is to reach the place no matter what. Mutiny by the crew results in destruction of their ship but Hatteras, with a few men, continues on the expedition. On the shore of the island of "New America" he discovers the remains of a ship used by the previous expedition from the United States. Doctor Clawbonny recalls in mind the plan of the real Ice palace, constructed completely from ice in Russia in 1740 to build a snow-house, where they should spend a winter. The travellers winter on the island and survive mainly due to the ingenuity of Doctor Clawbonny (who is able to make fire with an ice lens, make bullets from frozen mercury and repel attacks by polar bears with remotely controlled explosions of black powder). When the winter ends the sea becomes ice-free. The travellers build a boat from the shipwreck and head towards the pole. Here they discover an island, an active volcano, and name it after Hatteras. With difficulty a fjord is found and the group get ashore. After three hours climbing they reach the mouth of the volcano. The exact location of the pole is in the crater and Hatteras jumps into it. As the sequence was originally written, Hatteras perishes in the crater; Verne''s editor, Jules Hetzel, suggested or rather required that Verne do a rewrite so that Hatteras survives but is driven insane by the intensity of the experience, and after return to England he is put into an asylum for the insane. Losing his "soul" in the cavern of the North Pole, Hatteras never speaks another word. He spends the remainder of his days walking the streets surrounding the asylum with his faithful dog Duke. While mute and deaf to the world Hatteras'' walks are not without a direction. As indicated by the last line "Captain Hatteras forever marches northward".

Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras

Elderly Dr. Luke Croxley narrates a story with a very old theme set against the English village of Lynmouth. Rita Wainwright is 38, "a mature beauty with a weakness for younger men". Her gentle husband, Alec, more than 20 years older, seems more interested in radio broadcasts of World War II news than in his wife''s notorious affair with a handsome young American actor, Barry Sullivan. Rita and Barry decide to run away together but a radio performance of Romeo and Juliet apparently turns their minds to a romantic double suicide. After the broadcast, their twin lines of footprints lead up to the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, and none return. When their bodies are found, though, it is found that both of them had been shot through the heart at very close range, "body range, with some small-calibre weapon". Sir Henry Merrivale is in the neighbourhood posing for a portrait by a local artist (in the garb of a Roman Senator), and agrees to investigate this baffling mystery, which he solves just in time to take his place in the House of Lords.

She Died a Lady

The novel begins when old Mason Tarwater dies. Prior to his death, he had asked his great-nephew, the teen-aged protagonist, Francis Tarwater, to give him a proper Christian burial, with a cross marking the grave so that his body would be resurrected on Judgment Day. Young Tarwater starts to dig the grave but suddenly hears a "Voice" in his head telling to him to forget about the old man. Tarwater obeys and gets drunk instead. When he returns from drinking, he sets the house that he and his uncle had lived in on fire, with his great-uncle''s body still inside. He leaves for the city and gets a ride from a salesman, who drops him off at his uncle Rayber''s door. Rayber is amazed to see young Tarwater, who he had given up on a long time ago after the young boy had had essentially been "kidnapped" by the boy''s great uncle to live in the country and be brought up a Christian. Tarwater is also greeted at the door by Rayber''s young son Bishop, who (it is implied) has Down''s syndrome. Old Mason Tarwater (the great uncle) had commissioned the young Tarwater to baptize Bishop at some point, in order to save the little boy''s soul. Tarwater is immediately put on edge when confronted with Bishop, but decides to stay with Uncle Rayber anyway. He doesn''t think of Bishop as a human being and is revolted by him. The three begin to live together as a family for a while, and Rayber is excited to have his nephew back in order to raise him like a normal, educated boy. But Tarwater resists his uncle''s attempts at secular reform very much the same way he resisted his great uncle''s attempts at religious reform. Rayber understands what Tarwater is going through. When he (Rayber) was only seven years old, old Mason Tarwater kidnapped him in order to baptize him, but Rayber''s father rescued him before the old man could fully corrupt him. After many attempts by Rayber to "civilize" Tarwater, and many attempts by Tarwater to figure out his true destiny (be it as a prophet, which was his great uncle''s wish, or as an enlightened, educated modern man, which is his Uncle Rayber''s wish), Rayber devises a plan to take Tarwater back to the country where the damage had been done in hopes that confronting his past will allow him to leave it. Under the guise of taking the two boys out to the country to a lodge to go fishing, Rayber finally confronts Tarwater and tells him that he must change and must leave the crazy, superstitious Christian upbringing that his great uncle corrupted him with. Tarwater, however, is not so easily convinced. While at the lodge, he meets up again with the "Voice" (the devil) who tells Tarwater to forsake his great uncle''s command to baptize little Bishop and instead, drown the boy. One evening, Tarwater takes Bishop out on a boat to the middle of the lake, with Rayber''s reluctant blessing. Rayber cannot see them on the lake but can still hear the voices faintly. Tarwater ends up drowning Bishop while at the same time baptizing the boy, thereby fulfilling both destinies simultaneously. Rayber realizes what has happened and faints, not out of fear for his son''s life, but because he feels nothing at his son''s death. Tarwater runs away into the woods in order to go back to his great uncle''s house to confront his demons once and for all. He eventually hitches a ride with another man, who entices Tarwater to get drunk. Tarwater takes the man''s offer and passes out, eventually waking up naked against a tree, his clothes neatly folded beside him. Tarwater finally makes his way back to the old farm of his great uncle''s, where the house has been burned to the ground. Tarwater had assumed that his great uncle had been burned up with it, but Buford, a black man who lived in the area, had actually rescued old Mason Tarwater''s body from the house at the beginning of the novel when Tarwater had gone off to get drunk and given the old man a proper Christian burial, just as the old man had requested that Tarwater do. Tarwater realizes that his great uncle''s two main requests (that he be given a proper burial and that the little boy Bishop be baptized) have been realized, which convinces Tarwater that he can no longer run away from his calling to be a prophet. The story ends with Tarwater heading toward the city to "Go warn the children of God of the terrible speed of mercy."

The Violent Bear It Away

Julian Savage, the twin brother of Aidan (Dark Gold), is sent to warn a young singer, Desari, that she and her band have come under suspicion by a fanatical vampire hunting society. Believing this to be his last task to his Prince, Mikhail, Julian was prepared to greet the dawn and his own destruction. However, upon hearing the singer''s hauntingly beautiful voice, he was mesmerized. The colours he hadn''t seen in over eight hundred years were now vivid and bright. Julian instantly knew he had found his lifemate because of his ability to see in colour, accompanied by the return of emotions. While he revels in his discovery, gunfire rings out on stage. Julian rushes in to find three of the band members, including Desari, lying amongst blood-spattered instruments. To save her life, Julian heals her wounds and provides her with a large volume of his blood, while performing the ritual to bind Desari to him. Weak from blood loss, he is surprised by a huge panther. To counter the attack, he in turn shape-shifts into a large, golden leopard. The two cats seemed evenly matched until the arrival of two more leopards. With these unfavourable odds, Julian makes good on his escape, deciding to hunt down the assassins. To his puzzlement, he finds all six of the humans slaughtered in a Carpathian fashion. Julian gathers the bodies, reduces them to ashes and scatters them into the ocean in an effort to throw off the vampire hunting society. As Julian courts Desari, he and Desari''s older brother, Darius, test each other''s strengths. Meanwhile, Julian''s lifelong enemy hunts his lifemate. In light of a common goal, the two Carpathian men strike an uneasy truce to destroy the vampire.

Dark Challenge

Jerry and Joanna Burton, a brother and sister from London society, take a country house in idyllic Lymstock so that Jerry can rest from injuries received in a wartime plane crash. They are just getting to know the town''s strange cast of characters when an anonymous letter arrives, rudely accusing the two of being lovers, not siblings. They quickly discover that such poison pen letters have been recently circulating around town indiscriminately and completely inaccurate. Things flare up when Mrs Symmington, the wife of the local solicitor, commits suicide upon receiving a letter stating that her second child was born out of wedlock. Her body is discovered with the letter, a glass containing potassium cyanide and a torn suicide note which reads "I can''t go on". An inquest is held and the verdict of suicide is brought in. The police begin to search for the anonymous letter writer. The Burtons'' maid, Partridge, receives a call from Agnes, the Symmington''s maidservant, who seems distraught over something. Partridge asks Agnes over to tea the next afternoon, but Agnes never arrives; her body is discovered in the under-stairs cupboard the next day by Mr Symmington''s step-daughter Megan. Scotland Yard sends an investigator, who comes to the conclusion that the letter-writer/murderer is a middle-aged woman who must be one of the prominent citizens of Lymstock. Progress is slow until the vicar''s wife calls up an expert of her own, Miss Marple. Jerry Burton gives Miss Marple some vital clues by telling her of the contents of his dreams and his disconnected thoughts. There is a break in the case when the Symmingtons'' beautiful young governess, Elsie Holland, receives an anonymous letter typed on the same typewriter, proven to have been used to create envelopes for all the previous letters. The village doctor''s sister, Aimée Griffith, is arrested, since she was seen typing the letter and delivering it. On the way to London for a visit to his doctor, Jerry takes Megan along with him to London where he buys her some new clothes to make her look presentable. He begins to realize he has fallen in love with her. When they return to Lymstock, Jerry asks Megan to marry him, and she refuses. As a result, Jerry goes to Mr Symmington to ask for his permission and to inform him of her refusal. Symmington, who is eager to have Megan off his hands, tells Jerry he will speak with her. Later that evening, Megan goes to her step-father''s office and tries to blackmail him by implying she has proof of his guilt in the murders. He coolly pays her off, but later, when she is asleep, he tries to murder her by putting her head in the gas oven. He is immediately stopped by Jerry and the police, who were lying in wait. It is revealed that Miss Marple wished to prove Mr Symmington''s guilt and that Megan was brave enough to assist her. Symmington had written all the letters as a cover-up for killing his wife. He had used phrases from a similar incident, done by a school-girl, which fooled the police into thinking that a woman had been the letter-writer. Miss Marple notes that it could not have been a woman who wrote the letters because none of the accusations was true and a typical middle-aged woman in a village Lymstock would have known of real scandals, whereas a man, especially a professional man like Symmington, would be uninterested in gossip. He murdered his wife by the use of cyanide and then planted the letter and a fake suicide note to disguise the crime. He committed the murders because he wished to marry Elsie Holland. Aimée Griffith, who was in love herself with Symmington, had written only the letter to Miss Holland, out of jealousy and to try to protect the man she loved from marrying the wrong woman. Megan, in light of recent events, finally realizes that she does indeed love Jerry. His sister Joanna marries the local doctor, and both couples settle down in Lymstock instead of returning to London. The book''s title, The Moving Finger, is emphasized twice. The first is how the accusatory letters point blame from one town member to another, the second is from the addresses on the letters, which the Scotland Yard agent uses to determine the envelopes were all "typed by someone using one finger" in order to avoid a recognizable ''touch''.

The Moving Finger

The book begins with Poliphilo, who has spent a restless night because his beloved, Polia (literally "Many Things"), shunned him. Poliphilo is transported into a wild forest, where he gets lost, encounters dragons, wolves and maidens and a large variety of architecture, escapes, and falls asleep once more. He then awakens in a second dream, dreamed within the first. In the dream, he is taken by some nymphs to meet their queen, and there he is asked to declare his love for Polia, which he does. He is then directed by two nymphs to three gates. He chooses the third, and there he discovers his beloved. They are taken by some more nymphs to a temple to be engaged. Along the way they come across five triumphal processions celebrating the union of the lovers. Then they are taken to the island of Cythera by barge, with Cupid as the boatswain; there they see another triumphal procession celebrating their union. The narrative is interrupted, and a second voice takes over, as Polia describes his erotomachia from her own point of view. Poliphilo resumes his narrative after one-fifth of the book. Polia rejects Poliphilo, but Cupid appears to her in a vision and compels her to return and kiss Poliphilo, who has fallen into a deathlike swoon at her feet, back to life. Venus blesses their love, and the lovers are united at last. As Poliphilo is about to take Polia into his arms, Polia vanishes into thin air and Poliphilo wakes up. * Poliphilus * Polia

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

The main character is a one-hundred-year-old woman, Roseanne McNulty, who now resides in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. Having been a patient for some fifty years or more, Roseanne decides to write an autobiography. She calls it "Roseanne''s testimony of herself" and charts her life and that of her parents, living in Sligo at the turn of the 20th Century. She keeps her story hidden under the loose floorboard in her room, unsure as yet if she wants it to be found. The second narrative is the "commonplace book" of the current chief Psychiatrist of the hospital, Dr Grene. The hospital now faces imminent demolition. He must decide who of his patients are to be transferred, and who must be released into the community. He is particularly concerned about Roseanne, and begins tentatively to attempt to discover her history. It soon becomes apparent that both Roseanne and Dr Grene have differing stories as to her incarceration and her early life, but what is consistent in both narratives is that Roseanne fell victim to the religious and political upheavals in Ireland in the 1920s – 1930s.

The Secret Scripture

13-year-old Margaret Anne Brady is an orphan whose parents died when she was only 8 years old. Subsequently sent to live in an orphanage, she lives a life of penury and dreams that her older brother, William, who lives in America, will someday earn enough money to send for her. One day, however, her fortunes take an unexpected turn for the better when a wealthy, privileged woman named Mrs. Carstairs expresses the desire for a companion for her upcoming trip to the States. The job, which involves simple tasks such as dressing her and walking her dog, is easy, and Margaret Anne accepts readily. Within merely a few days, Margaret Anne and Mrs. Carstairs board the Titanic, the newly-built and highly glamourous liner deemed to be "unsinkable," as first-class passengers. There, Margaret Anne, who has lived most of her life in destitute conditions, is enthralled by her luxurious premises. She quickly befriends a handsome, young steward, Robert, and their relationship gradually turns romantic. All is going well when one night, April 15th, 1912 (2:20), and Margaret Ann are awoken by a frantic Robert who informs that the ship has just struck an iceberg and advises them to put on their lifejackets. The two women obey and hurridly make their way up to the deck where they discover with horror that the ship is sinking rapidly. Though her life is hanging in precariously on the line, Margaret Ann is adverse to leaving Robert, who is part of the crew and must remain on the cruiser, and runs back to him. Finding him sitting dejectedly alone in an vacuous hallway, she attempts to persude him to follow her. Robert, though, replies her that he can''t, and the two share a long, passionate kiss before parting. Back on deck, Margaret Anne is rapidly put in a lifeboat and whisked away. Floating for several hours, the small group is finally rescued when a passing ship picks them up. There, everyone, including Margaret Ann, is treated for pneumonia and put to rest. Though she expresses hope for Robert''s survival, it is later revealed in the book that he, in fact, did go down with the ship.

Voyage on the Great Titanic

A Babylonian king orders his subjects to build him a labyrinth "so confused and so subtle that the most prudent men would not venture to enter it, and those who did would lose their way." When an Arab king visited his court, the king of Babylonia told him to enter the labyrinth in order to mock him. The Arab king finally managed to get out and told the Babylonian that in his land he had another labyrinth, and Allah willing, he would see that someday the king of Babylonia made its acquaintance." The Arab king returned to his land, and launched an extremely successful attack on the Babylonians, finally capturing the Babylonian King. The Arab tied him on a camel and led him into the desert. After three days of riding, the Arab reminds the Babylonian that he tried to make him lose his way in his labyrinth, and says that he will now show him his, "which has no stairways to climb, nor door to force, nor wearying galleries to wander through, nor walls to impede thy passage." He then untied the Babylonian king, "and abandoned him in the middle of the desert, where he died of hunger and thirst..." Throughout time, Arabian kings have been known to build tremendous labyrinths.

The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths

World War III begins early in the 21st century. It is fought between the two superpowers, Wes-Dem and Pac-Peop. The fighting is extensive and severe, most of it performed by "leadies", robots built to withstand the most extreme circumstance. The Earth becomes a battlefield. Unable to exist in the atmosphere created by robot war, vast "ant tanks" are constructed underground to save the diminishing human population. The government and war engine remains on the surface, the elite "Yance-men". Their president, Talbot Yancy, delivers inspirational speeches to the tankers, motivating them to increase their production of leadies and win the war. The war does eventually end. However, the Yance-men design a conspiracy to maintain the wealth of the Earth for themselves. Yancy continues to describe devastation in televised speeches. The tankers continue to produce leadies. Talbot Yancy is actually a computer generated simulacrum. The Yance-men program him from the "Agency" in New York. They live in immense villas on private parks, called "demesnes". The leadies are actually used by the Yance-men as personal servants and to maintain their estates. The Agency is run by the most vicious and greedy Yance-man, Stanton Brose, who is kept alive by pre-war artificial organs which he hoards. The story begins in one of the tanks, named Tom Mix (named after the actor Tom Mix). The tank president, Nicholas St. James, is forced to go to the surface to look for an artificial pancreas for the tank''s lead mechanic. He emerges on David Lantano''s property (a Yance-man). When some of Lantano''s leadies try to kill St. James, they are destroyed by a mysterious man who looks like Talbot Yancy. St. James wanders around, through the ruins of a 10 year old war, and eventually ends up at Lantano''s mansion. There he learns where he can find an artificial organ. Simultaneously, Adams (another Yance-man) is put on a special mission by Brose. He must plant evidence of alien artifacts on land belonging to a housing developer (Louis Runcible) so the land can be legitimately seized. The artifacts are buried using a time travel device. One by one, the people attached to this project are killed. Adams fearfully retreats to Lantano''s mansion. Another person to appear in the mansion is Webster Foote, the owner and operator of a private detective corporation. Foote accepts on a per-case basis work from everybody (including Brose, Lantano and Runcible) but wishes to save Runcible from the plot against him. Lantano then reveals to Foote, Adams and St. James, that he is a Cherokee from the distant past, somehow being given extended life by the time travel device that placed the artifacts back in time. He has lived through history, taking many positions of note under different names, and now he has killed the members of this special project. Lantano, Foote, and Adams together now plot to kill Brose and free the people underground. However, Adams figures out Lantano was behind the deaths as part of his plot to bring down Brose. In desperation and fear, he joins up with St. James, who discovered a cache of artificial organs, and flees into the Tom Mix tank with him. They discover that Lantano was ultimately successful but contemplate that the biggest lie is yet to come.

The Penultimate Truth

There are only two characters in the play, a pair of brothers named Morris and Zachariah. Both were raised by the same black mother, but had different fathers, and Morris is much more fair-skinned than Zachariah. Morris can pass for white, and has done so in the past, but now he has returned to live with Zachariah in a small, miserable shack in the "colored" section of Port Elizabeth. Morris keeps the house, while Zachariah works to support them both. They''re saving money in hopes of buying a farm of their own some day. Both Morris and Zachariah have rich imaginations, and have taken part in role-playing games together since they were small boys. The lonely Zachariah has struck up a pen-pal relationship with a white girl, and entertains fantasies that she might fall in love with him. The more level-headed Morris tries to disabuse Zachariah of such notions, and warns him that in segregated South Africa, such a relationship can only mean trouble, especially since the girl has indicated in letters that she has a brother who''s a policeman. Morris'' fears are soon realized, as Zachariah''s pen-pal writes to say that she''s coming to visit Port Elizabeth, and wants to meet Zachariah. Zachariah must face the tragic truth that he can never have a future with her, that she can never love him, and that she would be horrified to see who he really is. To avoid having her meet Zachariah, the brothers agree to have the white-looking Morris meet her, and pass himself off as Zachariah. To prepare for the date, Morris buys some fine "white" clothes with the money that he and his brother had been saving. When he puts on the clothes, he begins to adopt the white mannerisms and speech patterns that he''d learned years earlier, when trying to "pass" in white society. As he does so, he begins to treat his brother like an inferior, as any middle-class white South African would treat a black servant. When a letter arrives, indicating that the girl will not be coming for a visit after all, Zachariah and his relieved brother Morris begin a new role-playing game. This time, the game take bizarre twists. It becomes evident that Morris secretly holds his brother in disdain, and Zachariah secretly harbors thoughts of killing Morris. The play ends with no real resolution. Morris and Zachariah will, apparently, remain together for many unhappy years to come, needing each other, but unable to bridge the gap brought about by their respective skin tones.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

I Know This Much Is True

By Wally Lamb

Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras

By Jules Verne

She Died a Lady

By John Dickson Carr

The Violent Bear It Away

By Flannery O''Connor

Dark Challenge

By Christine Feehan

The Moving Finger

By Agatha Christie

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

By Francesco Colonna

The Secret Scripture

By Sebastian Barry

Voyage on the Great Titanic

By Ellen Emerson White

The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths

By Jorge Luis Borges

The Penultimate Truth

By Philip K. Dick

Blood Knot

By Athol Fugard