The Blood Red Harp

From their beginnings in the dawn of time to their hour of greatest need, this is the saga of Faerun's elves. When Evermeet, the elven homeland, comes under devastating attack, Queen Amlaruil's sacrifice holds the last hope of safety. Reprint.

A story of two sisters and their cousin.

"Luis Pales Matos, a white man who began the poesia negra movement in Latin America in 1925, is the subject of The Numinous Site, Julio Marzan's latest book. Unlike its English-language counterpart, poesia negra refers to its subject and not the poet's race, so white poets are credited with writing poesia negra." "Pales's poesia afroantillana popularized the "dark" forces (African roots and unprestigious language) that were the white society's antimatter, an antipoetic consciousness that, complemented and refined by other poesia negra, opened the Latin American poem." "Perhaps influenced by Heidegger, throughout his work Pales reiterated his obsession with the frontier where the mundane touches the spiritual or metaphysical. His poems take the reader on a passage to an encounter with the imagistic representation of that force informing the soul of the individual, the collectivity, and the physical world. All his poems take us on that passage, including his socially conscious Afro-Antillean poems, because they originate from Pales's sense that language, including "Boricua," is synonymous with time and our sense of being. For Luis Pales Matos, poesia was an altar, and style a liturgy that, whether performed in drumbeats or words, invoked the poetic essence that he called the "numen.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

During the years 1797-1820 the Qasimi Arabs or Qawasim, inhabitants of the present day United Arab Emirates, acquired an enduring reputation as ruthless pirates. Some of their victims flew the British flag, and thus their actions were to provide the initial stimulus and justification for 150 years of British involvement in the Gulf. Recently, however, it has been doubted whether the Qawasim were in fact pirates. In a scholarly but accessible account founded on contemporary sources, illustrated with testimonies of eye-witnesses and participants, this book sets out to decide this controversial question. By making use of valuable and hitherto untapped archival material, Charles Davies strongly evokes a flavour of life in the Gulf in this turbulent and formative period in the Gulf's history. This book represents the first in-depth investigation into this controversial subject. It is based on original research and and helps to explain why the Gulf is as it is today.

From the national bestselling author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's comes the story of three endearing misfits—an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies—who take up residence in a tree house. Set on the outskirts of a small Southern town, The Grass Harp tells the tale of three misfits who move into a tree house. As they pass sweet yet hazardous hours in a china tree, The Grass Harp manages to convey all the pleasures and responsibilities of freedom. But most of all it teaches us about the sacredness of love, “that love is a chain of love, as nature is a chain of life.” This volume also includes Capote’s A Tree of Night and Other Stories, which the Washington Post called “unobtrusively beautiful . . . a superlative book.”

For Davita Chandal, growing up in New York in the 1930s and '40s is an experience of indescribable joy—and unfathomable sadness. Her loving parents, both fervent radicals, fill her with the fiercely bright hope for a new, better world. But the deprivations of war and the Depression take their ruthless toll. And Davita, unexpectedly, finds in the Jewish faith that her mother had long ago abandoned both a solace to her questioning inner pain and a test of her budding spirit of independence. To her, life's elusive possibilities for happiness, for fulfillment, for decency, become as real and resonant as the music of the small harp that hangs on her door, welcoming all guests with its sweet, gentle tones. Praise for Davita's Harp “Rich . . . enchanting . . . [Chaim] Potok's bravest book.”—The New York Times Book Review “It is an enormous pleasure to sink into such a rich . . . solidly written novel. The reader knows from the first few pages that he is in the hands of a sure professional who won't let him down.”—People “Engrossing . . . Filled with a host of richly drawn characters. Potok is a master storyteller.”—Chicago Tribune “Gripping and intriguing . . . A well-told tale that needed telling.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

A work of fantasy, I Who Have Never Known Men is the haunting and unforgettable account of a near future on a barren earth where women are kept in underground cages guarded by uniformed groups of men. It is narrated by the youngest of the women, the only one with no memory of what the world was like before the cages, who must teach herself, without books or sexual contact, the essential human emotions of longing, loving, learning, companionship, and dying. Part thriller, part mystery, I Who Have Never Known Men shows us the power of one person without memories to reinvent herself piece by piece, emotion by emotion, in the process teaching us much about what it means to be human.

Death asks a half-troll and his friends to save the world in this epic fantasy series debut by the author of the Clockwork Empire series. Although Danr is the son of a human mother, his father was one of the hated Stanes, trolls from the mountains. Now the barrel-chested teenager is condemned to hard labor on a farm where he endures taunts of “Troll boy” from the others. Yet no matter how bad things get, he always remembers the advice of his recently departed mother: be gentle and do not unleash the monster inside. One of Danr’s few friends in the village, Aisa, was sold into slavery by her father and is now controlled by an abusive man. She keeps herself covered from head to toe and dreams of a better future. She and Danr hope to escape and make their way to freedom, but a series of dark events soon stirs up chaos. Strange creatures come down from the mountains, slaughtering villagers. Spirits of the dead haunt the land, terrifying those that are still alive. As rumors spread about the Stanes’ involvement, Danr decides to find out the truth, taking Aisa and an amnesiac new friend with him. Soon they are called up by Death herself to set things right. At Death’s request, the group sets out to recover the Iron Axe. Crafted by the dwarves, it is capable of restoring balance in the world—and destroying it, too. Along the way, Danr must call upon the monster within to face fierce and fantastic creatures while discovering truths that will change their lives forever. “[Turns] common tropes on their heads. . . . [Harper’s] reinterpretations of trolls, giants, and fae folk give this series opener a fresh feeling, while his nods to Norse mythology and folklore root it strongly in fantasy tradition.Readers will be eager to see what’s in store for Aisa and Danr.” —Publishers Weekly “Brought back fond memories of a classic fantasy book while still offering a wonderfully unique take on the genre. . . . Steven Harper created a world that I never got tired of exploring.” —The Qwillery “The story holds all of the adventure, magic, and mystery I have come to expect from the genre. . . .[It] follows a hero’s journey . . . with energy and artfulness.” —Wicked Little Pixie

A high fantasy following a young woman's defiance of her culture as she undertakes a dangerous quest to restore her world's lost magic in Ilana C. Myer's Last Song Before Night. Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel brother, daughter of a hateful family. But that name she has forsworn, and now she is simply Lin, a musician and lyricist of uncommon ability in a land where women are forbidden to answer such callings-a fugitive who must conceal her identity or risk imprisonment and even death. On the eve of a great festival, Lin learns that an ancient scourge has returned to the land of Eivar, a pandemic both deadly and unnatural. Its resurgence brings with it the memory of an apocalypse that transformed half a continent. Long ago, magic was everywhere, rising from artistic expression-from song, from verse, from stories. But in Eivar, where poets once wove enchantments from their words and harps, the power was lost. Forbidden experiments in blood divination unleashed the plague that is remembered as the Red Death, killing thousands before it was stopped, and Eivar's connection to the Otherworld from which all enchantment flowed, broken. The Red Death's return can mean only one thing: someone is spilling innocent blood in order to master dark magic. Now poets who thought only to gain fame for their songs face a challenge much greater: galvanized by Valanir Ocune, greatest Seer of the age, Lin and several others set out to reclaim their legacy and reopen the way to the Otherworld-a quest that will test their deepest desires, imperil their lives, and decide the future. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.