Sandra Newman

A STORY OF LOVE COMPLICATED BY TIME TRAVEL 'What a wonderful, strange, terrifying, brilliant novel this is' Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire New York, 2000. Kate and Ben meet at a party and immediately fall in love. It is the first year of the new millennium, the first year without a war anywhere in the world. The United Nations has just planted its flag on Mars, and a Green Party senator is about to become the first female president of the United States. Kate falls asleep, knowing that she is loved. London, 1593. Kate wakes as Emilia - the mistress of a nobleman - and finds the plague at her door. Afflicted by premonitions of a burnt and lifeless city, she sets out to save the world. Each decision she makes will change her life with Ben forever. A story of love and alternate universes, madness and time travel, The Heavens is a dream bound up in a strange awakening; it is a bewitching novel of what we have lost, and what we might yet be able to save.

The Heavens

In the aftermath of a devastating plague, a fearless young heroine embarks on a dangerous and surprising journey to save her world in this brilliantly inventive thriller In the ruins of a future America, fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star and her nomadic tribe live off the detritus of a crumbled civilization. Theirs is a world of children; before reaching the age of twenty, they all die of a strange disease they call Posies—a plague that has killed for generations. There is no medicine, no treatment; only the mysterious rumor of a cure. When her brother begins showing signs of the disease, Ice Cream Star sets off on a bold journey to find this cure. Led by a stranger, a captured prisoner named Pasha who becomes her devoted protector and friend, Ice Cream Star plunges into the unknown, risking her freedom and ultimately her life. Traveling hundreds of miles across treacherous, unfamiliar territory, she will experience love, heartbreak, cruelty, terror, and betrayal, fighting to protect the only world she has ever known. A postapocalyptic literary epic as imaginative as The Passage and as linguistically ambitious as Cloud Atlas, The Country of Ice Cream Star is a breathtaking work from a writer of rare and unconventional talent.

The Country of Ice Cream Star

An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell's 1984, from the point of view of Winston Smith's lover, Julia, by critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman. Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It's 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell's 1984. Julia has known no other world than that of Oceania and, until she meets Winston Smith, never imagined one. She's an ideal citizen of Oceania. Cheerfully cynical, believing in nothing and caring not at all about politics, she routinely breaks the rules but also collaborates with the regime whenever necessary. Everyone likes Julia. But when one day, finding herself walking toward Winston in a corridor, she impulsively hands him a note--a potentially suicidal gesture--she comes to realize that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world. The passing of that note sets into motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story. Julia takes us on a surprising journey as seen through the eyes of an indestructible young woman trying to survive in Orwell's now-iconic dystopian world, while laying bare our own world in bold and proactive ways, just as the original did almost seventy-five years ago.

Julia

Howard Mittelmark

"What do you think of my fiction book writing?" the aspiring novelist extorted. "Darn," the editor hectored, in turn. "I can not publish your novel! It is full of what we in the business call 'really awful writing.'" "But how shall I absolve this dilemma? I have already read every tome available on how to write well and get published!" The writer tossed his head about, wildly. "It might help," opined the blonde editor, helpfully, "to ponder how NOT to write a novel, so you might avoid the very thing!" Many writing books offer sound advice on how to write well. This is not one of those books. On the contrary, this is a collection of terrible, awkward, and laughably unreadable excerpts that will teach you what to avoid—at all costs—if you ever want your novel published. In How Not to Write a Novel, authors Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman distill their 30 years combined experience in teaching, editing, writing, and reviewing fiction to bring you real advice from the other side of the query letter. Rather than telling you how or what to write, they identify the 200 most common mistakes unconsciously made by writers and teach you to recognize, avoid, and amend them. With hilarious "mis-examples" to demonstrate each manuscript-mangling error, they'll help you troubleshoot your beginnings and endings, bad guys, love interests, style, jokes, perspective, voice, and more. As funny as it is useful, this essential how-NOT-to guide will help you get your manuscript out of the slush pile and into the bookstore.

200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them--A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide

How Not to Write a Novel

From the author of The Heavens, a dazzling, mindbending novel in which all people with a Y chromosome mysteriously disappear from the face of the earth Deep in the California woods on an evening in late August, Jane Pearson is camping with her husband Leo and their five-year-old son Benjamin. As dusk sets in, she drifts softly to sleep in a hammock strung outside the tent where Leo and Benjamin are preparing for bed. At that moment, every single person with a Y chromosome vanishes around the world, disappearing from operating theaters mid-surgery, from behind the wheels of cars, from arguments and acts of love. Children, adults, even fetuses are gone in an instant. Leo and Benjamin are gone. No one knows why, how, or where. After the Disappearance, Jane forces herself to enter a world she barely recognizes, one where women must create new ways of living while coping with devastating grief. As people come together to rebuild depopulated industries and distribute scarce resources, Jane focuses on reuniting with an old college girlfriend, Evangelyne Moreau, leader of the Commensalist Party of America, a rising political force in this new world. Meanwhile, strange video footage called "The Men" is being broadcast online showing images of the vanished men marching through barren, otherworldly landscapes. Is this just a hoax, or could it hold the key to the Disappearance? From the author of The Heavens, The Men is a gripping, beautiful, and disquieting novel of feminist utopias and impossible sacrifices that interrogates the dream of a perfect society and the conflict between individual desire and the good of the community.

The Men

Ever been betrayed by a pretty cover and a pair of alluring blurbs? Rest assured: Read This Next will never hurt you. The 500 book recommendations contained within these pages have all been carefully vetted and approved by two literary professionals with discerning taste and witty wit. Arranged into delightful thematic lists, these suggestions cover the best of literature high and low, from page-turning classics to mind-expanding fluff; from murder mysteries and post-apocalyptic visions to historical fiction and bathroom books. Each book is paired with deeply insightful, deeply hilarious discussion questions, perfect for book groups or for readers who just enjoy talking to themselves. In a world where so many books disappoint— robbing you of your time and money, promising more than they can deliver—Read This Next is the wickedly smart, faithful, and attractive partner you’ve always dreamed would bring you true and lasting reading happiness.

500 of the Best Books You'll Ever Read

Read This Next

A side-splitting tour that makes it a blast to read the Western literary canon, from the ancient Greeks to the Modernists. To many, the Great Books evoke angst: the complicated Renaissance dramas we bluffed our way through in college, the dusty Everyman's Library editions that look classy on the shelf but make us feel guilty because they've never been opened. On a mission to restore the West's great works to their rightful place (they were intended to be entertaining!), Sandra Newman has produced a reading guide like no other. Beginning with Greek and Roman literature, she takes readers through hilarious detours and captivating historical tidbits on the road to Modernism. Along the way, we find parallels between Rabelais and South Park, Jane Austen and Sex and the City, Jonathan Swift and Jon Stewart, uncovering the original humor and riskiness that propelled great authors to celebrity. Packed with pop culture gems, stories of literary hoaxes, ironic day jobs for authors, bad reviews of books that would later become classics, and more.

An Irreverent Guide to the Classics, from Homer to Faulkner

The Western Lit Survival Kit

I cieli

A Novel

The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done

Come non scrivere un romanzo

In the aftermath of a devastating plague, a fearless young heroine embarks on a dangerous and surprising journey to save her world in this dystopian thriller, told in bold and fierce language. In the ruins of a future America, fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star and her nomadic tribe live off of the detritus of a crumbled civilization. Theirs is a world of children; before reaching the age of twenty, they all die of a mysterious disease they call Posies-- a plague that has killed for generations. There is no medicine, no treatment; only the mysterious rumor of a cure. When her brother begins showing signs of the disease, Ice Cream Star sets off on a bold journey to find this cure. Led by a stranger, a captured prisoner named Pasha who becomes her devoted protector and friend, Ice Cream Star plunges into the unknown, risking her freedom and ultimately her life. Traveling hundreds of miles across treacherous, unfamiliar territory, she will experience love, heartbreak, cruelty, terror, and betrayal, fighting with her whole heart and soul to protect the only world she has ever known.

The country of Ice Cream Star

A post-apocalyptic literary epic in the tradition of The Handmaid's Tale, Divergent and Cloud Atlas, and a breakout book in North America for a writer of rare and unconventional talent. From Guardian First Book Award finalist Sandra Newman comes an ambitious and extraordinary novel of a future in which bands of children and teens survive on the detritus--physical and cultural--of a collapsed America. When her brother is struck down by Posies--a contagion that has killed everyone by their late teens for generations--fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star pursues the rumour of a cure and sets out on a quest to save him, her tribe and what's left of their future. Along the way she faces broken hearts and family tragedy, mortal danger and all-out war--and much growing up for the girl who may have led herself and everyone she loves to their doom.

En Cómo no escribir una novela, Howard Mittelmark y Sandra Newman aplican sus años de experiencia como editores y escritores para identifi car los 200 errores más comunes que cometen los escritores y enseñarnos cómo evitarlos. Muchos libros ofrecen consejos sobre cómo escribir bien. Éste no es uno de ellos. A través de hilarantes ejemplos muestra cómo conseguir que tu manuscrito jamás llegue a ser publicado: cómo los personajes son a veces versiones aburridas del propio autor, cómo un argumento puede resultar de lo más tedioso, cómo el estilo puede plagarse de tópicos... Delirantemente divertido y extremadamente útil, Como no escribir una novela te ayudará a conseguir, entre carcajadas, que tu manuscrito pase de la pila de las editoriales a las librerías.

Cómo no escribir una novela

Auf der Suche nach einem Gegenmittel für eine Grippeepidemie, die sie durch die Reste einer vergangenen Zivilisation führt, erlebt eine unerschrockene Heldin Fanatismus, Gier und sinnlose Gewalt genauso wie Loyalität, Güte und Hoffnung. Eine sprachmächtige Irrfahrt durch die höchsten Höhen und finstersten Abgründe des Menschseins. In einer nicht allzu fernen Zukunft sorgt eine Pandemie dafür, dass in Amerika die Weißen vollständig aussterben, während die Schwarzen höchstens 18 Jahre alt werden. Die Welt von Ice Cream Star ist eine Welt der Kinder, die mit Findigkeit und Witz die Ruinen der heutigen Welt umdeuten und für ihre Zwecke nutzen. Mit 15 Jahren gehört Ice Cream schon zur älteren Generation, als sie zur Anführerin berufen wird, um über das Schicksal ihrer Leute zu entscheiden. Fest entschlossen, ein Heilmittel zu finden, führt ihr Weg sie von den Wäldern Massachusetts' bis nach New York, wo katholische Extremisten ein korruptes Regime errichtet haben, an dessen Spitze sie sich bald befindet. Doch der Preis für diesen unverhofften Aufstieg ist hoch: Ihr treuer Begleiter Pascha – ein Weißer, der behauptet, 30 Jahre alt zu sein – soll am Kreuz sterben, wie alle anderen weißen Männer auf den Darstellungen der Passion Christi. Es folgt eine Odyssee, an der nicht nur ihre Freundschaft, sondern auch Ice Creams sonst unerschütterlicher Optimismus zu zerbrechen drohen. "Wirkmächtig, anregend und kathartisch." - The Guardian "Ice Cream Star, die Heldin dieses Romans, ist der Frodo Beutlin, den unsere Zeit verdient. Ice Cream Star konfrontiert uns mit der unwiderlegbaren Tatsache, dass die Bürger der Zukunft die Geschichte wiederholen müssen, die wir heute für sie machen." - The New York Times

Ice Cream Star

Diante dos grandes clássicos da literatura, você sempre se pergunta: Quais são os livros mais importantes? Que autores vale mesmo a pena tentar ler? Posso ler só o resumo de alguns livros? Agora você poderá apreciar sem medo as obras clássicas da literatura. Este livro muito bem fundamentado vai guiá-lo sem sobressaltos e com muitas risadas através de toda a literatura ocidental, século por século: desde os clássicos gregos até o romance moderno, passando por Homero, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, Dostoievski, Tolstoi, James Joyce, Proust e Virginia Woolf. História da Literatura Ocidental sem as Partes Chatas traz divertidos resumos de enredos, definições bem-humoradas de movimentos literários e fatos reveladores sobre a vida dos escritores. Como a maioria das obras ganharam notas de 1 a 10 nos quesitos Importância, Acessibilidade e Diversão. Você descobrirá o que realmente vale a pena ler e o que pode ser descartado sem culpa.

História da Literatura Ocidental Sem as Partes Chatas

A PEOPLE Magazine Must-Read Book for Fall 2023 An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2023 A Guardian Biggest New Book of 2023 A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2023 An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell's 1984, from the point of view of Winston Smith's lover, Julia, by critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman. Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It's 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell's 1984. All her life, Julia has known only Oceania, and, until she meets Winston Smith, she has never imagined anything else. She is an ideal citizen: cheerfully cynical, always ready with a bribe, piously repeating every political slogan while believing in nothing. She routinely breaks the rules, but also collaborates with the regime when necessary. Everyone likes Julia. Then one day she finds herself walking toward Winston Smith in a corridor and impulsively slips him a note, setting in motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story. Julia takes us on a surprising journey through Orwell's now-iconic dystopia, with twists that reveal unexpected sides not only to Julia, but to other familiar figures in the 1984 universe. This unique perspective lays bare our own world in haunting and provocative ways, just as the original did almost seventy-five years ago.

A Retelling of George Orwell's 1984

In nur einem Augenblick verschwinden auf der ganzen Welt alle Menschen mit einem Y-Chromosom - urplötzlich, ohne jede Spur. Auch Jane hat ihren Mann und ihren kleinen Sohn verloren. Voller Panik sucht sie die einzige Person auf, von der sie sich Hoffnung verspricht: Evangelyne, die charismatische Anführerin einer politischen Untergrundbewegung, mit der sie eine alte Freundschaft verbindet. Gemeinsam erschaffen sie und all die übrigen Frauen eine völlig neue Gesellschaft - eine friedliche, sichere Welt. Doch dann tauchen höchst verstörende Videos der verschwundenen Männer und Jungen auf, und als Jane einen Weg erkennt, sie zurückzuholen, muss sie sich fragen: Wäre sie bereit, diese neue Welt dafür zu opfern?

Sandra Newman

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