New Releases by Anthea Bell

Even as a young man, Hamid Farsi is acclaimed as a master of the art of calligraphy. But as time goes by, he sees that weaknesses in the Arabic language and its script limit its uses in the modern world. In a secret society, he works out schemes for radical reform, never guessing what risks he is running. His beautiful wife, Noura, is ignorant of the great plans on her husband’s mind. She knows only his cold, avaricious side and so it is no wonder she feels flattered by the attentions of his amusing, lively young apprentice. And so begins a passionate love story of a Muslim woman and a Christian man.

A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer and he was murdered. But when Detective Barudi sets out to interrogate the man’s mysterious widow, the Secret Service takes the case away from him. Barudi continues to investigate clandestinely and discovers the murderer’s motive: it is a blood feud between the Mushtak and Shahin clans, reaching back to the beginnings of the 20th century. And, linked to it, a love story that can have no happy ending, for reconciliation has no place within the old tribal structures. Rafik Schami dazzling novel spans a century of Syrian history in which politics and religions continue to torment an entire people. Simultaneously, his poetic stories from three generations tell of the courage of lovers who risk death sooner than deny their passions. He has also written a heartfelt tribute to his hometown Damascus and a great and moving hymn to the power of love.

''K. kept feeling that he had lost himself, or was further away in a strange land than anyone had ever been before'' A remote village covered almost permanently in snow and dominated by a castle and its staff of dictatorial, sexually predatory bureaucrats - this is the setting for Kafka''s story about a man seeking both acceptance in the village and access to the castle. Kafka breaks new ground in evoking a dense village community fraught with tensions, and recounting an often poignant, occasionally farcical love-affair. He also explores the relation between the individual and power, and asks why the villagers so readily submit to an authority which may exist only in their collective imagination. Published only after Kafka''s death, The Castle appeared in the same decade as modernist masterpieces by Eliot, Joyce, Woolf, Mann and Proust, and is among the central works of modern literature. This translation follows the text established by critical scholarship, and manuscript variants are mentioned in the notes. The introduction provides guidance to the text without reducing the reader''s own freedom to make sense of this fascinatingly enigmatic novel. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

When he isn''t allowed to go fishing with the big penguins, Pete decides to go on his own fishing trip and meets a whale, a little boy, and a group of sea lions

With the help of her fairy godmother, a beautiful young woman mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters attends the palace ball where she meets the prince whom she marries.

Albert the pig imagines himself the finest pig in the pigsty and expects to become a movie star, admired by pretty lady pigs in bikinis and envied by gentleman pigs.

Portrait of English town and country life in the 1830''s.

Simpleton''s generosity helps him gain a princess for his bride.

When the rightful owner repossesses the Black, 18 year old Alec travels across the deserts of Arabia to find the great stallion and helps to solve a tribal feud.

After hearing how her toy nutcracker got his ugly face, a little girl helps break the spell and changes him into a handsome price.

Recounts a visit to a nineteenth-century traveling zoo in rhyme.

A thirteen-year-old boy and his father, the best hunter in their Siberian village, have particular reason to share the anxiety of the hunters when word arrives that a government commissioner is coming to limit the hunting of already scarce game.