In a novel where ancient traditions conflict with reality and the pressures of modern life, a young European princess proves that simplicity, courage, and dignity win the day and forever alter her world. In blue jeans and a pullover, Princess Christianna is a young woman of her times: born in Europe, educated in America, worried about the future of the world she lives in, responsible beyond her years. Christianna is the only daughter of the Reigning Prince of a European nation that takes its royalty seriously–and her father has ironclad plans for Christianna’s life, a burden that is almost unbearable.
The Grass Harp is a novel by Truman Capote published on October 1, 1951. It tells the story of an orphaned boy and two elderly ladies who observe life from a tree. They eventually leave their temporary retreat to make amends with each other and other members of society.
The book is a somewhat sordid tale of the mixing of high and low social classes, drawn from his experiences as best friend and confidant to the most prominent female socialites of the era and their husbands. The first chapter of Answered Prayers, Unspoiled Monsters, which was published in Esquire, is largely based on Capote's friend, the real-life male prostitute Denham Fouts. Capote first envisioned it as an American analog to Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past that would come to be regarded as his masterwork in the late 1950s.
BBC reporter Delaney's fictionalized history of his native country, an Irish bestseller, is a sprawling, riveting read, a book of stories melding into a novel wrapped up in an Irish history text. In 1951, when Ronan O'Mara is nine, he meets the aging itinerant Storyteller, who emerges out a "silver veil" of Irish mist, hoping to trade a yarn for a hot meal. Welcomed inside, the Storyteller lights his pipe and begins, telling of the architect of Newgrange, who built "a marvelous, immortal structure... before Stonehenge in England, before the pyramids of Egypt," and the dentally challenged King Conor of Ulster, who tried, and failed, to outsmart his wife.
Carole Barber has come to Paris to work on her novel and to find herself. A legend of film and stage, Carole has set a standard of grace, devoting herself to her family and causes around the world. But one fiery instant of terror shatters hundreds of lives—and leaves Carole alone, unconscious and unidentified. A tale of survival and dignity, of small miracles and big surprises, Honor Thyself creates an unforgettable portrait of a public figure whose hopes, fears, and heartbreaks are as real as our own. Her courageous journey inspires us all.
