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| Sunday, 23 March 2003 |
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A journey into your imagination
Compiled by Farah Macan Markar Here is a groovy selection of the factual, fictional to the mythological. From the fabled Duncton Wood to Ancient Rome, the determination of one woman to find out the truth, the desire of another to make her own destiny, the blood curdling reality behind Vampirism to the daily lives and rituals of Sri Lanka's Veddas, you are in for a read which will take you to the ends of the earth and time. These groovy books are available at Premasiri Book Shop, D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10. Journey into your Imagination. Read on. ***** "Duncton Tales"-by William Horwood Volume One of The Book of Silence When Privet, a lonely female scribe from the North, makes a pilgrimage to fabled Duncton Wood, only old Stour, Master of the great library, realizes the importance of her quest. For Privet seeks an answer to Moledom's final mystery: where and what is the Book of Silence? Decades of harmony have passed since the magnificent days described in William Horwood's "Duncton Chronicals". But Duncton Wood has grown sleepy and is slow to see danger in the spread of a sinister sect of zealots who believe that any other way to the Stone's Silence is blasphemy and deserves death... As the Newborns gain power, shy Privet, aided by Stour and inspired by the strange mole Rooster, finds herself playing a crucial role in an epic struggle against tyranny. Like their forebears, Duncton moles will need great courage and faith to vanquish evil before they can discover the truth of the Book of Silence... ***** "A Very Long Engagement"-by Sebastien Japrisot Once upon a time, there were five French soldiers who had gone off to war because that's the way of the world... This story of one woman's quest, after the First World War, to discover what happened to her fiance amid the carnage of battle, turns into an unusual and enthralling thriller as Mathilde discovers increasing numbers of people concerned to put her off the scent. "The Course of Honour"-by Lindsey Davis The love story of the Emperor Vespasian, who brought peace to Rome after years of strife, and his mistress, the freed slave woman Antonia Caenis, this book recreates Ancient Rome's most turbulent period-the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, and Vespasian's rise to power. As their forbidden romance blossoms, she is embroiled in political intrigue, while he embarks on a glorious career. Years pass, then Vespasian risks all in the climatic struggle for power-bringing hope for Rome, but a threat to the relationship that has endured so long. ***** "The portrait of a lady"-by Henry James An American heiress newly arrived in Europe, Isabel does not look to a man to furnish her with her destiny; instead she desires, the grace and courage, to find it herself. Two eligible suitors approach her and are refused. She then becomes utterly captivated by the languid charms of Gilbert Osmand. to him, she represents a superior prize worth at least seventy thousand pounds; through him, she faces a tragic choice. ***** "Daughter of Darkness"-by Steven Spruill When Dr. Jenn Hrluska comes home tonight, a life she has been building for ten years will begin to fall apart. From the moment Jenn finds the body of a young woman sprawled across the threshold of her apartment-and thirsts for the still fresh blood-she knows she is entering a fight for her own survival. For Jenn Hrluska is not a normal human being: the white coat she wears each day covers a heart of darkness, a genetic imperative to feed on the blood of others or die. Jenn is a hemophage, the lethal reality behind the vampire myth. Up till now she has defied her inborn urges. But her father is determined to stop Jenn perverting her destiny. Determined to persuade her to kill... ***** "Vanished Trails"-by R.L. Spittel This work has been written as one continuous story depicting the lives of three generations of Veddas in their transition from the troglodyte, food-gathering stage to the crude beginnings of the hut-dweller and food-producer. It is the true story(allowing something for the demands of the novel) of the last remnant of Ceylon's most primitive aborigines-their swan-song''. "Jungle dawn! One by one the human occupants of the Pihilegoda cave awoke to face another hungry day. Food, the sole concern of their lives, had to be snatched front burrow and brake. Food, wary and fleet-footed, slinking in daytime lairs; buried food with only a slender vine to betray its presence; food cached in the crevices by industrious little creatures that suck the nectar if wild flowers..."-an excerpt from the beginning of chapter one.
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