Set in an anonymous German city, Feuchtgebiete is told by 18 year-old Helen Memel, a schoolgirl who spends some days in the proctological ward of a hospital to be treated for anal fissure caused by the careless shaving of her anal hair. Deep at heart Helen is lonely and bored, and has been so since the breakup of her parents'' marriage. Her secret plan is to reunite her father and mother by having them visit her at the same time. However, her parents seem to have little interest in their daughter''s well-being and show up only occasionally, only for short periods of time, and at different hours. When she learns that her surgery, which included the removal of haemorrhoids, has been successful and she is going to be released soon, she desperately looks for means to prolong her hospital stay. She secretly rams the pedal of her hospital bed into her anus and immediate emergency surgery has to be carried out to prevent extreme blood loss. Thus having successfully extended her stay, she waits in vain for her miracle to happen: her parents have stopped visiting altogether, and when she tries to contact them by phone all she gets is their respective answering machines. During this time she falls in love with her favourite male nurse called Robin and tries to draw the young man into her world. At the end of the novel the doctor tells Helen she can go home and she asks Robin if she can go to live with him. It becomes apparent that Helen is mentally ill, following a childhood experience when her mother tried to commit suicide. As the novel ends Robin is escorting her through a door in the hospital.

Feuchtgebiete

Starting out in the Wyndham Mansion, Werewolf Derik is ordered by his alpha, Michael Windham, to go to California and find the reincarnation of a powerful sorceress - Morgan LeFay, half sister of King Arthur - and stop her from what ever she is doing by "taking care" of her. Because if he doesn''t, the world will end in six days. This prediction from psychic werewolf Antonia is a lucky diversion for Derik, who has recently become an alpha wolf, and would otherwise likely have gotten into a fight with Michael over alpha status in the Pack, a fight only one of them could have possibly survived. Upon his arrival in Monterey, California, Derik discovers that the reincarnation of Morgan LeFay is a gorgeous but benign medical doctor named Sara Gunn, who has had a string of the most unlikely luck since the day she was born, but has no intention whatsoever to destroy the world. Derik, posing as car mechanic, tries to kill her but fails miserably several times, as do others, namely an odd group calling themselves Arthur''s Chosen, whose goal is the resurrection of King Arthur. After realizing he can''t possibly kill Sara, and convincing her that her string of luck is not pure coincidence, they team up and visit Doctor Cummings, Sara''s mentor, who, as it turns out has known of Sara''s predicament since before she was born and who points them towards the lair of the Arthur''s Chosen in Salem, Massachusetts. During the trip across the country, Michael tries and succeeds to cajole Sara - who is initially rather not very fond of Derik because he has tried to kill her, but adores his gorgeous body - into sleeping with him by means of several lies and half-truth. Over the next days during the trip, Sara falls under Derik''s spell, and when he finally tells her that he has cheated her into sleeping with him, she rejects him at first, but shortly after, they confess their love to each other. Upon arrival in Boston, Mass., they both put off seeking out the Arthur''s Chosen, not wanting to end the trip and the romance that has developed between them. Sara however is captured by the Arthur''s Chosen shortly after, brought to a warehouse and forced to give them some of her blood, which they need to resurrect King Arthur through Black Magic. Derek barges into the warehouse, after having been warned by Antonia that he will die if he enters the warehouse. The Arthur''s Chosen release Sara after draining some of her blood and start working on the resurrection, which they can''t finish however, because Derik and Sara interfere. The interrupted spell sets free a demon who immediately starts to kill everyone, and would - as Sara sees in a vision - have extinguished all life on earth. After the demon has killed all of the Arthur''s Chosen, he severely wounds Derik, breaking his neck, but is attacked by Sara, who, in another nearly-impossible lucky event kills it by simply kicking it with her foot, thus saving the world. Sara then tends to Derik, who is clinically dead, and tries to reanimate him with CPR. Within minutes, Derik is alive again, and almost completely healed due to his werewolf healing abilities and Sara''s magic. Having successfully saved the world, the couple returns to the Wyndham Mansion and is greeted by all Werewolves. After Dinner with Michael and his wife Jeannie, Derik proposes to Sara by simply answering Michael''s question of what will happen next with "We will marry, and you will give us an RV so we can travel the country". Sara, initially reluctant because Derik did not ask her in private first, eventually accepts the proposal. This ends Derik''s struggle to prove his alpha status, because he is now married to the most powerful sorceress in the world, more or less cementing his status for everyone to see. It is then also revealed by Antonia that by "taking care" of Sara, she didn''t mean "kill", but literally "keep safe", and that Derik was fated to Save the world not by killing Sara but by loving her, and that she couldn''t tell him before or he would have screwed it up.

Derik''s Bane

The Children of Zion, published in January 1998, is considered as a documentary that was based on a collection of fragments of records compiled in Palestine in 1943 by the Eastern Center for Information, a Polish government group. The book was a source of the testimonies of Jewish children who were evacuated from the Soviet Union to Palestine. Grynberg arranged the “collection of interviews” to serve as a reminder about the Holocaust experience. The Polish children’s experiences during World War II also provided a recollection of their lives before the war. Memories of when the war broke out were also discussed, apart from the “arrival of the Germans and the Russians”, the children’s journeys and life while in exile, and their condition after the so-called Sikorsky Agreement allowed them to leave the work camps. Many of the children had to cope as orphaned émigrés. The original document that had become the basis for Grynberg’s Children of Zion is at the Hoover Institution of Leland Stanford Junior University.

Children of Zion

The book is the story of a young man, William Crimsworth, and is a first-person narrative from his perspective. It describes his maturation, his loves and his eventual career as a professor at an all-girls school. The story starts off with a letter William has sent to his friend Charles, detailing his refusal to his uncle''s proposals to become a clergyman, as well as his first meeting with his rich brother Edward. Seeking work as a tradesman, William is offered the position of a clerk by Edward. However, Edward is jealous of William''s education and intelligence and treats him terribly. By the actions of the sympathetic Mr. Hunsden, William is relieved of his position and gains a new job at an all-boys boarding school in Belgium. The school is run by the friendly M. Pelet, who treats William kindly and politely. Soon, William''s merits as a professor reach the ears of the headmistress of the neighboring girls school. Mlle. Reuter offers him a position at her school, which he accepts. Initially captivated by Mlle. Reuter, William begins to entertain ideas of falling in love with her, only to have them crushed when he overhears her and M. Pelet talk about their upcoming marriage. Slightly heartbroken, he now treats Mlle. Reuter with a cold civility and begins to see the underlying nature of her character. Mlle. Reuter, however, continues to try to draw William back in, pretending to be benevolent and concerned. She goes so far as to plead him to teach one of her young teachers, Frances, who hopes to improve her skill in languages. William sees in this pupil promising intelligence and slowly begins to fall in love with her as he tutors her English. Jealous of the attention Francis is receiving from William, Mlle. Reuter takes it upon herself to casually dismiss Frances from her school and hide her address from William. It is revealed that as she was trying to make herself amiable in William''s eyes, Mlle. Reuter accidentally fell in love with him herself. Not wanting to cause a conflict with M. Pelet, Crimsworth leaves his establishment and moves out, in hopes of finding Frances. Eventually bumping into his beloved pupil in a graveyard, the two reconcile . William gets a new position as a professor at a college, with an exceedingly high wage. The two eventually open a school together and have a child. After obtaining financial security, the family travels all around England and settle in the countryside next to Mr. Hunsden.

The Professor

The story of Bernadette Soubirous and Our Lady of Lourdes is told by Werfel with many embellishments, such as the chapter in which Bernadette is invited to board at the home of a rich woman who thinks Bernadette''s visionary "lady" might be her deceased daughter. In side-stories and back story, the history of the town of Lourdes, the contemporary political situation in France, and the responses of believers and detractors are delineated. Werfel describes Bernadette as a religious peasant girl who would have preferred to continue on with an ordinary life, but takes the veil as a nun after she is told that because "Heaven chose her", she must choose Heaven. Bernadette''s service as a sacristan, artist-embroiderer, and nurse in the convent are depicted, along with her spiritual growth. After her death, her body as well as her life are scrutinized for indications that she is a saint, and at last she is canonized. The novel is laid out in five sections of ten chapters each, in a deliberate nod to the Catholic Rosary. Unusual for a novel, the entire first part, which describes the events on the day that Bernadette first saw the Virgin Mary, is told in the present tense, as if it were happening at the moment. The rest of the novel is in the past tense.

The Song of Bernadette

The story is set in 2010, mostly in the United States. A number of plots and many vignettes are played out in this future world, based on Brunner''s extrapolation of social, economic, and technological trends. The key main trends are based on the enormous population and its impact: social stresses, eugenic legislation, widening social divisions, future shock, and extremism. Certain of Brunner''s guesses are fairly close, others not, and some ideas clearly show their 1960s mind-set. Many futuristic concepts, products and services, and slang are presented. A supercomputer named Shalmaneser is an important plot element. The Hipcrime Vocab and other works by the fictional sociologist Chad C. Mulligan are frequent sources of quotations. Some examples of slang include "codder" (man), "shiggy" (woman), "whereinole" (where in hell?), "prowlie" (an armored police car), "offyourass" (possessing an attitude), "bivving" (bisexuality, from "ambivalent") and "mucker" (a person running amok). A new technology introduced is "eptification" (education for particular tasks), a form of mental programming. Another is a kind of interactive television that shows the viewer as part of the program ("Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere"). Genetically modified microorganisms are used as terrorist weapons. The book centres on two New York men, Donald Hogan and Norman Niblock House, who share an apartment. House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of the all-powerful corporations. Using his "Afram" (African American) heritage to advance his position, he has risen to vice-president at age twenty-six. Hogan is introduced with a single paragraph rising out of nowhere: "Donald Hogan is a spy". Donald shares an apartment with House and is undercover as a student. Hogan''s real work is as a "synthesist", although he is a commissioned officer and can be called up for duty. The two main plots concern the fictional African state of Beninia (a name reminiscent of the real-life Benin, though that nation in the Bight of Benin was known as the Republic of Dahomey when the book was written) making a deal with General Technics to take over the management of their country, in a bid to speed up development from third world to first world status. A second major plot is a break-through in genetic engineering in the fictional Australasian nation of Yatakang (which seems to be a disguised Indonesia), to which Hogan is soon sent by the U.S. government ("State") to investigate. The two plots eventually cross, bringing potential implications for the entire world.

Stand on Zanzibar

Sally Blount''s father, Matthew Blount, has been arrested for the murder of Paul Jerin, a chess master. Blount had arranged for Jerin to play twelve simultaneous games of blindfold chess at his club. Well into the contest, Jerin complains of physical discomfort and cannot continue. Shortly thereafter, Jerin dies of what tests show to be arsenic poisoning. During the contest, Jerin had been sitting by himself in a small library off the chess club''s main game room. He had nothing to eat or drink except a pot of hot chocolate, brought to him by Blount. After Jerin fell ill, he was diagnosed by a doctor who was playing in the contest; the doctor called for an ambulance but Jerin died at a hospital. Not only had Blount brought the hot chocolate to Jerin, he had washed out the pot and the cup after Jerin complained that he didn''t feel well. Blount is charged with murder. The only people to enter the library where Jerin sat, other than Blount, were four messengers, who relayed the moves between the main game room and the library. The messengers apparently had no good opportunity to put arsenic in Jerin''s chocolate. Dan Kalmus is Blount''s corporate lawyer, and represents Blount after he has been jailed without bail. Blount''s daughter Sally is convinced, however, that Kalmus is in love with Blount''s wife Anna, and that he won''t be inclined to give Blount his best legal efforts. Furthermore, Blount''s specialty is business law, not criminal law, and he might not have the needed background. But Sally is certain that her father is innocent, so she hires a reluctant Wolfe to investigate on her father''s behalf. Neither Wolfe nor Archie seems to have his heart in the case because the circumstances point so clearly at Blount. And Wolfe learns from the police that their own inquiries discovered no connection between the messengers and Jerin, whereas Blount was unhappy that Jerin had been seeing Sally. Because none of the messengers could have a motive to kill Jerin, and because he has assumed that Sally is correct that her father didn''t, Wolfe conjectures that Jerin was poisoned not because the murderer had it in for Jerin, but to get at Blount, whose apparent motive would surely get him arrested. Wolfe''s hypothesis, then, is that Jerin was a pawn, sacrificed in a gambit to get rid of Blount. Wolfe speaks with each of the messengers as the best alternative suspects, to try to determine which of them might have wanted Blount, not Jerin, out of the way. Each of the four has a possible motive: Sally thinks Kalmus is in love with her mother, Farrow would like to take over Blount''s firm, Yerkes wants Blount''s vote in a board election but won''t get it, and Hausman resents Blount for going easy on him in chess games but winning anyway. Wolfe learns that there is, in Blount''s words, "a certain fact" known only to Blount and to Kalmus that will demonstrate his innocence. The fact turns out to be that Blount really did put something in Jerin''s chocolate, but it was sedative in effect, not poisonous. This puts a very different face on things, and as a result Wolfe and Archie, independently, are able to infer both the murderer''s identity and how the arsenic got into Jerin.

Gambit

Orion continues on his adventures and finds himself a thetes on board a Greek ship headed to the city of Troy and makes friends with a talkative old man called Poletes. The Golden One then appears to him revealing himself as Apollo the Greek god and that his plans are for the Trojans to be victorious in that era so as to create a Euro-Asian Empire. Little by little he remembers he was meant to be on a mission to the stars when his ship exploded. He ends up blaming the Golden One for the destruction of the ship. He then decides to thwart whatever plans Apollo might have for the era and ends up saving the Greek camp from being overrun by the Trojans on a counter attack. His courageous acts earn the attention of Odysseus who then adopts him as a member of his household. As a favor Orion requests that Poletes becomes his servant thereby elevating the man''s station. Odysseus'' first duty for Orion is to accompany him with Ajax and Nestor to Achilles'' tent to persuade him to return into the fray. Achilles had earlier withdrawn from the battle because Agamemnon had taken from Bris whom he captured. Achilles however insists on only re-entering battle when High King Agamemnon apologizes to him. Seeing this is an impossibility, Odysseus and his team withdraw and he then asks Orion to go as a herald to the Trojans with an offer of peace. Orion, sensing this will enable the Trojans to win changes the demand to the previous insulting demands brought by earlier heralds. This offer is of course rejected and while there he notices a weak point in the walls of Troy via the Western section built by men. The Trojans then send Orion back to the Greek camp with their refusal and a warning that the Hatti are coming to their defense. This news upsets the Greeks who had earlier been assured by the Hattis of their intention not to interfere in the Trojan War. Orion is then sent to the Hattis with a copy of the agreement with the Hattis only to discover that the mighty empire of the Hattis had disintegrated and the soldiers were nothing more than bandits. He then encounters a band of Hatti soldiers led by Lukka who agree to follow him back to his camp. Upon return he discovers Achilles'' partner Patrocles is dead and this has prompted Achilles to enter the battle again. He faces off with Hector and defeats him cutting off his head. However, Achilles is wounded by a stray arrow piercing his heel. He later commits suicide. Lukka and his group then help in building a ramp over then Western section of the wall and by this the Greeks enter into Troy and raze the city to the ground, thus defeating Apollo''s plans. While the spoils are being shared the High King takes half of all the goods which leads to dissatisfaction. Poletes uses this to make fun of him but Agamemnon decides to blind him. This upsets Orion and he decides to leave, taking Helen with him who decided against going back to Sparta because of the barbaric way of life there. She suggests going to Egypt where she believes she would be treated civilly. On their way he meets Apollo who instructs him to assist the Israelites in their toppling of Jericho''s wall before arriving in Egypt. On arrival, he is involved in palace intrigues again as Pharaoh''s Chief priest has been poisoning him and usurping his power. Also, Menelaus has arrived in Egypt having been told by Nekoptah that his wife is in Egypt. Nekoptah tries to set up Orion to be killed in addition to killing his twin brother, Hetepamon. He is however, able to turn the tables against Nekoptah with the help of the crown prince and Hetepamon. He also assists the other Creators to capture Apollo who has actually gone mad and was trying to kill the others so as to be the only one and be worshiped as god. Nekoptah still tries one last time to set Orion up with Menelaus but he loses and is killed when he kidnapped Helen. However, Orion is stabbed through the heart with a spear by Nekoptah, who then dies. Orion wakes up later in the Neolithic and sees Anya, who then wakes up after he kisses her. The novel then ends with an epilogue which is the beginning of the succeeding book.

Vengeance of Orion

Returning to Wild Cat Island for their second summer holiday by the Lake, the Swallows find the Amazons and Captain Flint suffering from "native trouble". Great Aunt Maria has come to stay, and she is a stickler for "proper" behaviour; demanding that the Amazon pirates act like "young ladies", and restricting their time. Despite this, Nancy and Peggy escape the Great Aunt and arrange a rendezvous, but on the way the Swallow hits Pike Rock and sinks. All are saved and the boat salvaged, but she needs repairing, so camping on the island is impossible."Captain" John of the Swallows learns some valuable life lessons about following his instincts while commanding a ship, and has time to reflect on the accident while he fashions a new mast for Swallow. Fortunately an alternative appears to replace camping on Wildcat, as Roger and Titty find a beautiful hidden valley, Swallowdale, up on the moors above the lake. The Swallows discover a secret cave in Swallowdale, a trout tarn, the "knickerbockerbreaker", and enjoy new adventures of lakeland life. They meet local woodcutters and farmers, see a hound trail, and trek across the moors. The Amazons are only able to escape at intervals, and are punished for getting home late by being made to memorize and recite poetry. Eventually the Great Aunt leaves and the Swallows and Amazons mount an expedition to sleep under the stars on the "summit" of nearby commanding hill "Kanchenjunga". Next morning, Roger and Titty return to Swallowdale following trails through the bracken across the moor, while the elders ferry the Amazons'' camping gear by boat. Both parties get lost in a thick and sudden fog. After it lifts the elders arrive only to find an empty camp. Titty arrives late after hitching a ride with some woodsmen, and explains that Roger sprained his ankle, and will be spending the night with Old Billy, the charcoal burner. The next day the injured Roger is carried back to the camp on a stretcher. The Swallow is finally repaired, and the book ends with a race and a feast, followed by a return to Wild Cat Island.

Swallowdale

In The Second Angel, passages of narrative by an omniscient narrator alternate with lengthy, discursive commentaries on the characters, and complex observations on human nature and blood by a first-person, intrusive narrator, who claims to be the omniscient narrator telling the story, but deliberately refrains from disclosing his or her identity until the last chapter. It is the late 21st century, when 80% of mankind have been infected with a virus called HPV2 (human parvovirus 2), or P2, whose spread was accelerated with the discovery and use of synthetic blood. P2 disrupts the blood''s ability to carry hemoglobin around the body, greatly shortening the host''s life. The only known cure for P2 is a complete blood transfusion with healthy blood, coupled with a dose of the drug ProTryptol 14. With only 20 percent of the world''s population free of P2, the price of a litre of healthy blood has reached almost two million dollars. In the novel, blood has replaced gold and diamonds as a valuable commodity (gold was extracted in great quantity from the sea and is now valued at about $200 a kilogram). Uninfected people reside in "Clean Bill of Health" (CBH) zones within cities to avoid contact with the sick, for vamping (murder for the purpose of blood theft) is a major risk for healthy individuals. Standard procedure for those who are uninfected is to perform autologous donations to enable them to completely replace it in the event of becoming infected. The healthy blood reserves are kept in state-of-the-art blood banks around the world, the largest being the First National Blood Bank on the Moon. Due to the high incidence of theft in these banks, they are guarded by the most sophisticated security systems. The greatest designer of blood banks is Dana Dallas, who works for one of the largest security firms in the world, and has designed several state-of-the-art blood banks, including the First National Blood Bank. His ingenious security systems have never before been bypassed or robbed. His boss, Simon King, grows concerned when he hears that Dallas''s daughter Caro has been diagnosed with thalassemia, an illness that can only be cured by a lifetime of regular healthy blood transfusions, as despite his high position in the company Dallas would never be able to afford to pay for this treatment. Rather than risk Dallas leaking industrial secrets to the highest bidder, he orders Rimmer, the company''s security officer, to kill Dallas, his wife and his daughter. His wife and daughter are indeed killed, but by chance Dallas survives and realises that the company had meant to kill him too. Dallas escapes to relative safety outside the city''s Clean Bill of Health zone, hiding in a hyperbaric hotel. Dallas is now set on revenge and recruits a team funded by himself and a mafia boss to rob the First National Blood Bank on the moon. The robbery goes according to plan with only a few complications. On the way back to Earth, Dallas is told by his personal computer that a quantum computer has actually evolved in the bloodbank; the intrusive, omniscient narrator turns out to be this computer (a super-computer that opportunistically used the millions of litres of blood stocked in one place to re-create itself, using the unique storage and duplicating capacity of DNA); it has gained access to the memories of the characters by "merging" with them when they had a blood transfusion. The blood contains extremely advanced nanomachines which activate an ability to live longer, and be far more resistant to human limitations such as the need for food, water and oxygen; it enables them to survive in a state of suspended animation for years at a time. The supercomputer wanted to combine humans and computers with nanomachines in order to explore the galaxy. While Dallas and his crew are asleep on their way back to Earth, the supercomputer (unbeknownst to the humans) activates their new hibernation state and sets their course to deep space.

The Second Angel

The novel follows the relationship between Irishwoman Adelia "Dee" Cunnane and American Travis Grant. As the story begins, the young and penniless Dee emigrates to the United States to live with her uncle, Paddy, who works on a large horse farm. Dee''s love for animals is evident, and she is given a job working alongside her uncle. Dee has a fiery temper and often argues with Travis, the wealthy farm owner; many of their arguments lead to passionate embraces. Travis later rescues Dee from an attempted rape. When Paddy suffers a heart attack, he becomes very concerned about his mortality and Dee''s future. He becomes overwrought and insists that Travis take care of Dee. After privately agreeing to a temporary marriage of convenience, Travis and Dee exchange vows in Paddy''s hospital room. As the story progresses, the protagonists become increasingly unhappy, with neither willing to admit their love for the other. Although still unwilling to vocalize their feelings, Dee and Travis appear more confident in their relationship after they finally consummate their marriage. Soon, however, Dee''s insecurities are exploited by Travis''s sophisticated former girlfriend, Margot, who has returned to the area to win him back. Dee runs away. Travis follows, and the two confess their love and resolve to make their marriage work.

Irish Thoroughbred

The evil sorcerer Beelzebub Preposteror has contracted with His Excellency the Minister of Pitch Darkness to perform a certain number of evil deeds each year. This year, however, he did not meet the requirement, because the High Council of the Animals has sent the cat Maurizio as a spy, which forces Beelzebub to be more cautious. On New Year''s Eve he joins forces with the evil witch Tyrannia Vampirella, who has the same problem due to the raven Jakob who is spying on her. Together they try to brew the eponymous Notion Potion that will grant them all wishes, in order to fulfill their part of the contract before midnight. If they succeeded to brew the potion they wouldn''t even have to keep it secret from the animals, because due to the nature of the potion every wish they make will have the exact opposite effect - i.e. if they wish someone good health, he''ll become sick instead. The plot starts on New Year''s Eve at 5 pm and the chapters each represent one hour until midnight to illustrate the increasing time pressure that the characters are under. On the one hand, the sorcerers have to complete a five-meter-long recipe to brew the potion, while constantly getting in each other''s way. On the other, the cat and the raven must find a way to stop their evil plan while tackling their own problems, namely the obesity of the cat and the chronic diseases of the raven. Nevertheless, they devise a plan to exploit a weakness of the potion: when the potion has not been fully drunk up before the first ring of the bell at midnight, the potion won''t reverse the meaning of the wishes - as expected by the two sorcerers - but instead grants them as wished.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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Feuchtgebiete

By Charlotte Roche

Derik's Bane

By MaryJanice Davidson

Children of Zion

No Author Listed

The Professor

By Charlotte Brontë

The Song of Bernadette

No Author Listed

Stand on Zanzibar

By John Brunner

Gambit

By Rex Stout

Vengeance of Orion

By Ben Bova

Swallowdale

By Arthur Ransome

The Second Angel

By Philip Kerr

Irish Thoroughbred

By Nora Roberts

The Night of Wishes

By Michael Ende