A brilliant, engaging, and highly literate espionage-cum-existential novel, John Banville's The Untouchable concerns the suddenly-exposed double agent Victor Maskell, a character based on the real Cambridge intellectual elites who famously spied on the United Kingdom in the middle of the 20th century. But Maskell--scholar, adventurer, soldier, art curator, and more--respected and still living in England well past his retirement from espionage, looked like he was going to get away with it when suddenly, in his 70s and sick with cancer, he is unmasked.
A Dance to the Music of Time 08 - The Soldier's Art
The Soldier's Art is the eighth novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-volume masterpiece A Dance to the Music of Time, and the second in the war trilogy. It was published in 1966, and touches on themes of separation and unanticipated loss. The language, always exact, sometimes sardonic, also takes on the quality of blank verse in dealing with episodes that echo classical mythology. Memorable new characters like Finn are introduced with spare precision, but kept separate from the original participants in the Dance for several of whom this proves to be the last turn upon the floor.
It’s the fall of 1942, and the U.S. hospital ship Benevolence is cruising the waters of the South Pacific when it is torpedoed by the Japanese. Only nine people survive, and they eventually wash up on an island: the captain Joshua, and his wife, Isabelle, a nurse; Isabelle’s sister Annie and a woman named Scarlet, both nurses; Ratu, a teenage Fijian stowaway; Jake, a black engineer; Nathan and Roger, two officers; and Akira, a wounded Japanese soldier. The group knows it’s only a matter of time before the Japanese war machine reaches their shores, so they valiantly prepare for battle. As they do so, each man and woman struggles with his or her own personal demons.
Intended as a military biography, this book studies the scope of Henry Plantagenet's warfare during his tenure as count of Anjou, duke of Normandy, and king of England. Relying heavily upon medieval documents, it analyzes his generalship and reexamines his place amongst the important military commanders in English history.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11524.33 | Fiction literature | 10 November 2010
2
Violent Enemy
The classic bestseller from the master of the game Britain's most wanted political offender. A seductively beautiful woman, and the dream of a perfect escape! Many lives had been sacrificed for the Irish cause, but legendary freedom fighter Colum O'More, ageing and critically ill, was ready to gamble once more for a last devastating strike. Which is why Sean Rogan, soldier of the Irish Republican Army gets all the help he needs to break out of a mainland security prison. An escape into a nightmare beyond anyone's control!
