Most people would consider Lebanon the last place on earth they want to be; then there are those who yearn to be there and nowhere else in the world. Layla, Margo and Kamal are three such souls, fiercely drawn to the city of Beirut with all its dreams and shadows.
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Hannah has never known any kind of affection from her mother, Susan. So when Sina joins the Kramer family as a domestic worker, the child instantly latches on to her for love and attention. She also dotes on her grandmother, her Bobba, spending lots of time in the company of the older woman, Leah, combing her hair and listening to stories of her life in the shtetl in Lithuania.
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Exile can be defined as the enforced or self-imposed departure from your native country for a period of time, maybe forever; think of Romeo's banishment from Verona, or Napoleon's exile to Elba. Edna O'Brien has been in self-imposed exile in London since the 1950s …
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In the beginning was nothing, and this nothing had neither form nor substance—it was nothing other than what it was. So begins this autobiographical novel of the author's first three years of life, which was originally published as "Métaphysique des Tubes" ("The Metaphysics of Tubes") in 2000, and released in English translation with a far less apt title two years later.
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The story "A Riot of Goldfish," traces Mataichi, the son of a goldfish breeder, through his lifelong struggles with his unrequited love for the daughter of the family's patron. He loves Masako, but she loves goldfish.
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