Giorgio Bassani’s acclaimed novel of unrequited love and the plight of the Italian Jews on the brink of World War II has become a classic of modern Italian literature. The narrator, a young middle-class Jew in the Italian city of Ferrara, has long been fascinated from afar by the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy and aristocratic Jewish family, and especially by their enchanting daughter Micol.

But it is not until 1938 that he is invited behind the walls of their lavish estate. As local Jews begin to gather there to avoid the racial laws of the Fascists, the garden of the Finzi-Continis becomes an idyllic sanctuary in an increasingly brutal world.

Years after the war, the narrator returns in memory to his doomed relationship with the lovely Micol and to the predicament that faced all the Ferrarese Jews, in this unforgettable portrait of a community about to be destroyed by the world outside the garden walls.

"Tous maudits, jusqu'à la septième génération !" : telle est la funeste malédiction que le chef des templiers, depuis les flammes du bûcher, lance au visage de Philippe le Bel, roi de France.

Nous sommes en 1314 et la prophétie va se réaliser : pendant plus d'un demi-siècle, les rois se succèdent sur le trône de France, mais n'y restent jamais bien longtemps. D'intrigues de palais en morts subites, de révolutions dynastiques en guerres meurtrières, c'est la valse des rois maudits...

L'avenir de la France se joue pendant ces quelques années noires, période trouble de l'Histoire. Une époque extraordinaire, jamais ennuyeuse, comme romanesque...

L'auteur l'a bien compris, lui qui conte les histoires secrètes du royaume et des hommes, de leurs passions comme de leurs faiblesses qui bien souvent bouleversèrent le sort de la France.

Mrityunjaya is an outstanding literary masterpiece by contemporary Marathi novelist Shivaji Sawant. It explores the eternal quest for the meaning of Being through the personae of the Mahabharata protagonists.

Mrityunjaya is the autobiography of Karna, and yet it is not just that. Sawant employs an exceptional stylistic innovation by combining six dramatic soliloquies to form the nine books of this novel of epic dimensions.

Four books are spoken by Karna. These are interspersed with a book each from the lips of his unwed mother Kunti, Duryodhana (who considers Karna his mainstay), Shon (Shatruntapa, his foster-brother, who hero-worships him), his wife Vrishali to whom he is like a god, and, last of all, Krishna.

Sawant depicts an uncanny similarity between Krishna and Karna and hints at a mystic link between them, investing his protagonist with a more-than-human aura to offset the un-heroic and even unmanly acts which mar this tremendously complex and utterly fascinating creation of Vyasa.

A Man for All Seasons is a classic play that vividly portrays the dramatic events surrounding the life of Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor who stood firm in his beliefs and faced execution under the reign of Henry VIII.

This compelling narrative captures the intense conflict between church and state, as well as the personal and political turmoil faced by More. His unwavering eloquence and endurance, coupled with his pure and saintly nature, earn him a place as one of modern drama's greatest tragic heroes.

The play, first staged in 1960 at the Globe Theatre in London, has been celebrated for its sparse yet powerful writing, confirming Robert Bolt as a significant force in modern theatre.

David Champlin is a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who achieves great success and then sacrifices everything to lead his people in the difficult, day-by-day struggle of the civil rights movement.

Sara Kent is the beloved and vital white girl who loved David from the moment she first saw him, but they struggle over David's belief that a marriage for them would not be right in the violent world he had to confront.

First published in 1966, this epic has become one of the most loved American bestsellers.

The Thin Red Line is James Jones's fictional account of the battle between American and Japanese troops on the island of Guadalcanal. This gripping narrative shifts effortlessly among multiple viewpoints within C-for-Charlie Company, including commanding officer Capt. James Stein, his psychotic first sergeant Eddie Welsh, and the young privates they send into battle.

The descriptions of combat conditions—and the mental states it induces—are unflinchingly realistic, painting a vivid picture of the chaos and brutality of war. This novel delves deep into the psychological impacts of combat and the nature of male identity in the face of such adversity.

More than just a classic of combat fiction, The Thin Red Line stands as one of the most significant explorations of identity and survival in American literature.

De donkere kamer van Damokles vertelt het verhaal van Henri Osewoudt, sigarenhandelaar te Voorschoten. Tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog ontmoet hij de verzetsman Dorbeck, die sprekend op hem lijkt op één ding na, dat hij zwart haar heeft terwijl Osewoudt blond is, en die hem opdrachten geeft die hij gewillig uitvoert.

Na de bezetting lijkt alles zich tegen hem te keren en wordt hij gekwalificeerd als fantast en landverrader. Hij tracht wanhopig het tegendeel te bewijzen.

I have noticed that sometimes I frighten people; what they really fear is themselves. They think it is I who scare them, but it is the dwarf within them, the ape-faced manlike being who sticks up his head from the depths of their souls.

Pär Lagerkvist's richly philosophical novel The Dwarf is an exploration of individual and social identity. The novel, set in a time when Italian towns feuded over the outcome of the last feud, centers on a social outcast, the court dwarf Piccoline. From his special vantage point, Piccoline comments on the court's prurience and on political intrigue as the town is gripped by a siege.

Gradually, Piccoline is drawn deeper and deeper into the conflict, and he inspires fear and hate around him as he grows to represent the fascination of the masses with violence.

Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis is a novel on the heroic or epic scale about the rebellion of the Greek Christians against the Turks on the island of Crete, where Kazantzakis was from.

The story follows the exploits of a Greek: Captain Michalis and his blood brother, Nurey Bey, a Turk, through war, love, friendship, hatred, and a backdrop of the island of Crete with all its beauty, drama, joy, and sadness.

This book is a work of a master with characters that come to life and are destined to live forever.

زمن الخيول البيضاء هي رواية ملحمية استثنائية كتبها الشاعر والروائي إبراهيم نصرالله. تتزامن هذه الرواية مع الذكرى الستين لاحتلال فلسطين، وهي جزء من المشروع الروائي الكبير الذي يُعرف بـالملهاة الفلسطينية، والذي بدأ العمل عليه منذ عام 1985.

يتضمن المشروع ست روايات، لكل منها أجواؤها الخاصة وشخوصها وبناؤها الفني، وتستقل عن الروايات الأخرى. يستعرض نصرالله في هذا العمل 125 عامًا من تاريخ الشعب الفلسطيني بنظرة نقدية عميقة ومستويات فنية راقية.

ينطلق الكاتب من تلك الحقيقة الراسخة التي تؤكد أن إيماننا بالقضايا الكبيرة يتطلب منا إيجاد مستويات فنية عالية للتعبير عنها.