The story involves a young man (Hans Castorp), who visits a cousin in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps before World War I. After manifesting symptoms of tuberculosis, he remains there for seven years. The characters he meets during this time forms a microcosm of pre-war Europe and represents a classic example of the German Bildungsroman. The work was instrumental in winning Mann the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1929.

"The story of the mysterious indictment, trial, and reckoning forced upon Joseph K. in Franz Kafka's The Trial is one of the twentieth century's master parables, reflecting the central spirital crises of modern life. Kafka's method--one that has influenced, in some way, almost every writer of substance who followed him--was to render the absurd and the terrifying convincing by a scrupulous, hyperreal matter-of-factness of tone and treatment. He thereby...

"This monumental novel about an anguished East German writer interrogates with bitter wit the detritus of late twentieth-century life: alcoholism, car culture, consumerism, God, love, statelessness, and above all else, the writer's place in a "century oflies.""--

Sexual obsession goes awry in this charged story of a sexual relationship between a teacher and an underage student. Thrown together to organize a fundraiser for their failing private school, Judy sees in Zach the elements of a young man she loved as a child. What Zack does not realize is that their relationship is-- for Judy-- only the latest in a lifetime of disturbing secrets.

A high-ranking scientist has been kidnapped, and a secret British intelligence agency has just recruited Deighton's iconic unnamed protagonist-later christened Harry Palmer-to find out why. His search begins in a grimy Soho club and brings him to the other side of the world. When he ends up amongst the Soviets in Beirut, what seemed a straightforward mission turns into something far more sinister. With its sardonic, cool, working-class hero, Len...

A taut psychological thriller about a visitor from war-torn Georgia who brings paranoia to a peaceful family.

After meeting Susanne Lasko, a desperate, unemployed divorcee, by chance, Nadia Trenkler, a stylish Berlin investment counselor, hires Susanne, whom she closely resembles, to spend the weekend with her husband, with whom she barely interacts, so she can conduct an out-of-town affair. Of course, a lot more is going on than Susanne realizes. For one thing, Marcus Zurkeulen, a shady investor Nadia has been tricking, wants the money she stole from him....