- Table View
- List View
Torquemada: A Novel
by Howard FastAn &“eerily successful&” novel of the fifteenth-century Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition from the New York Times–bestselling author of Spartacus (Kirkus Reviews). Bestselling author Howard Fast&’s 1966 novelization of the Spanish Inquisition, Torquemada, is a terrifying drama about one of history&’s most notorious individuals. Prior Thomas de Torquemada and Don Alvaro de Rafel, a Spanish knight, have been friends for many years. But when Torquemada is named Spain&’s Grand Inquisitor by King Ferdinand and begins to hear whispers that Alvaro may have a secret Jewish past, he transforms from Alvaro&’s old friend into a menacing new enemy.Inspired by Fast&’s experiences being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and his subsequent jailing and blacklisting, Torquemada is a thrilling historical tale from a master of the genre. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Crossing: A Novel
by Howard FastA novel about George Washington&’s trip across the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Spartacus. Immortalized on canvas by Emanuel Leutze, Washington&’s journey across the Delaware River is one of the most celebrated moments in American history. But the true story of the crossing, and of what came after, is often lost in the legend. In The Crossing, Howard Fast, author of The Immigrants and April Morning, writes with striking historical detail and relentless narrative drive about Washington&’s surprise attack, leading the Continental Army to its Revolutionary War victory against the one thousand Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey—a momentous occasion in American history. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Immigrant's Daughter: A Novel (The Lavette Legacy #2)
by Howard FastThe fifth installment of Fast&’s bestselling Immigrants series, continuing the story of one of his most beloved characters, Barbara Lavette. Howard Fast&’s immensely popular Immigrants saga spanned six novels and more than a century of the Lavette family history. The series was considered one of the crowning achievements of his long career. This New York Times bestseller is the fifth entry in the series and focuses on one of his most beloved characters, Barbara Lavette, whom Fast based on his first wife. At sixty, Barbara is living a quiet life in San Francisco, grieving after the death of a longtime male friend. However, her spirits revive when she mounts an unexpectedly competitive congressional campaign. After narrowly losing the election, Barbara begins to reconnect with her past as a journalist and human rights activist, two passions that reignite the spark of adventure in her life. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Wabash Factor
by Howard FastA rash of political deaths alerts a New York cop to an international assassination plotAt a crime scene, Harry Golding has no fear. But put him in front of a few dozen undergraduates, and he begins to sweat. He agrees to give the lecture on criminology for his brother, a New York University professor, and muddles through it, successful until it comes time for questions. A skinny young conspiracy theorist demands to know what the police are doing about the recent death of a presidential candidate. The answer is, they&’re doing nothing. The man died of a heart attack. Case closed. But when another politician drops dead, seemingly of natural causes, Golding remembers the young student&’s paranoia. As more politicians die, Harry Golding finds himself in the middle of a terrifying conspiracy that threatens his city, his family, and his life. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Winston Affair: A Novel
by Howard FastDuring the Second World War, a military lawyer is embroiled in the toughest case of his career when he must defend a fellow murderous officerIn the midst of World War II, Captain Barney Adams&’s superiors call on him with a very unusual request. A troubled US army lieutenant has confessed to murdering a British officer, and Captain Adams has been assigned as his defense attorney. Military court officials want the cleanest possible trial for the lieutenant, and they believe that Captain Adams, a war hero and distinguished lawyer, is the best man for the job. But when Adams begins to investigate the murder, he finds that this seemingly open-and-shut case is actually much more complicated. Before long he is absorbed in a dramatic struggle for a fair trial against the most overwhelming odds. Thrilling and thought-provoking, The Winston Affair is a powerful portrait of a man torn between the wishes of his superiors and the call for justice. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
Phyllis
by Howard FastTwo scientists—one American and one Russian—form a pact for nuclear disarmament that threatens to bring civilization to its kneesThe physicists met during a nuclear conference in London. Wanting to hurry America and the Soviet Union into nuclear non-proliferation, they each construct a crude atomic bomb, hiding one in New York and one in Moscow, and then they disappear. The United States and the USSR have forty days to renounce nuclear weapons, or two world capitals will burn. The American government chooses police detective Thomas Clancy to save his city. As a cop with a background in physics, he enters the faculty of Knickerbocker University to investigate the American professor. Clancy&’s hope is that Phyllis Goldmark, the vanished physicist&’s former lover, may know some clue to his location. The clock is ticking as the fate of millions rests on the shoulders of Phyllis and Clancy. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran
by Kahlil GibranPassionate and spiritual writings uncovering the philosophical foundations of one of the twentieth century&’s greatest thinkersKahlil Gibran&’s works are known throughout the world for their lyrical grandeur, wisdom, and insights drawn from the everyday sufferings of man. This nine-book collection captures one of modern history&’s titanic literary figures at his best. Texts such as &“The Secret of the Heart,&” &“Laughter and Tears,&” and &“Song of the Flower&” reveal the vivid splendor of life through Gibran&’s gifted similes and symbolism. Passionate and unforgettable, these verses of lyric prose impart to the reader a grand symphony of sparking joys epitomizing the qualities that have made Gibran one of the world&’s most eminent philosophical virtuosos.
condor.net (Condor)
by James GradyA post-9/11 re-imagining of Six Days of the Condor, the basis for the classic film starring Robert Redford Four decades after Six Days of the Condor revolutionized the thriller, James Grady reimagines his classic tale for the post-9/11 world. In this chilling short story, a CIA researcher named Condor is caught in the grip of a conspiracy that he can barely understand. When he finds something strange linked to a covert operation in Afghanistan, he makes the mistake of contacting his superiors. A gunman descends during an office coffee break, killing all but Condor. Alone and out of his depth, Condor chases the conspiracy as he's on the run, learning quickly that, though the Cold War may be over, espionage remains a dangerous game.
Born Under Punches (The Stephen Larkin Mysteries #4)
by Martyn WaitesA mining strike wreaks havoc in a small British coal townToday Coldwell is desolate, a crumbling town whose streets are lined with empty shops and populated by ghosts. Two decades ago, the city thrived on the back of a coal industry so powerful that in 1984, the union staged a strike intended to bring Britain to its knees. Instead the government broke the strike—breaking Coldwell along with it. The effect is seen in five citizens of the town: a heroic footballer, a Dean Martin–obsessed thug, an increasingly desperate striking miner, a crusading journalist, and the reporter&’s troubled sister. As the story shifts between 1984 and 2001, it becomes clear that what was a political action in the mid-1980s caused permanent changes in the foundation of British life. The bodies buried in 1984 will not stay underground forever.
The Outsider: A Novel
by Howard FastThe New York Times–bestselling author of Spartacus evokes the postwar Jewish-American experience through the story of a compassionate but conflicted rabbi. After witnessing the inhumanity and devastating suffering of Dachau, chaplain David Hartman returns to post–World War II America seeking meaning and purpose. As a young rabbi, he accepts a post in the sleepy, WASPy Connecticut suburb of Leighton Ridge, where a handful of Jewish families want to build a religious community. Accompanied by his lively wife, Lucy, a self-proclaimed &“Jewish atheist,&” and aided by a kindred spirit in the local Congregational minister, David meets skepticism with sincerity, and poverty with humility and humor—and faces anti-Semitism with quiet courage. Over the next quarter century, David and his family and congregation weather the social upheavals of McCarthyism, the establishment of Israel&’s statehood, the trial and execution of the &“atom spies,&” civil rights marches, and Vietnam War protests. David finds both his faith and his marriage tested as he continues to struggle with feeling marginalized as a rabbi and a Jew in American society, haunted by the Holocaust and challenged to respond to the prejudice, inequality, and warmongering he sees locally and nationally. Capturing a tumultuous time when humanity was rapidly figuring out how to destroy itself and eager to declare God if not dead, then irrelevant, Howard Fast&’s sweeping historical novel offers an intimately personal portrayal of a rabbi&’s life—and fearlessly probes questions of personal morality, spiritual identity, and social responsibility that continue to resonate in the twenty-first century. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Dinner Party: A Novel
by Howard FastHoward Fast's 1987 New York Times bestseller, a tight political drama that remains just as relevant today as when it was first writtenFast's 1987 novel The Dinner Party confronts issues including American intervention in Latin America and the AIDS epidemic. Often compared to a play, The Dinner Party takes place during a single day, culminating in a party hosted by Richard Cromwell, a US Senator whose wealthy entrepreneur father-in-law is building a controversial highway across Central America, though powerful government interests want the highway stopped stopped. International politics become deeply personal in this novel, and unfailingly serve as a commentary on contemporary politics. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author's estate.
The Pledge: A Novel
by Howard FastA foreign correspondent is targeted by the US government after aligning with the Communist Party for a controversial story In what many consider his most autobiographical novel, bestselling author Howard Fast revisits the McCarthy-era anticommunist witch hunts he endured during his years as a member of the Communist Party. In The Pledge, Bruce Bacon, a war correspondent stationed in Bengal near the end of World War II, investigates a terrible famine that has left millions in India starving to death, despite ample food supplies stored—and allegedly withheld—by the British. Seeking to tell his story back in New York, Bacon meets members of a communist organization, including a Daily Worker reporter named Molly Maguire. But the America he returns to is not the same one he left behind, and soon Bacon discovers that associating with communists has put him squarely in the crosshairs of the House Un-American Activities Committee. This suspenseful and powerful novel revisits the guilt-by-association fear and suspicion that gripped America during the second Red Scare, which had harrowing consequences for those unfortunate enough to be accused. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
The Confession of Joe Cullen: A Novel
by Howard FastA New York detective&’s investigation of a Catholic priest&’s murder leads him to a shocking drug plot that reaches the highest seats of American power Detective Mel Freedman&’s life changes forever the day Joe Cullen walks into his New York City office to confess to murder. Cullen, a pilot and Vietnam veteran, has come to admit his guilt in the murder of an American priest, thrown from a helicopter to his death in the jungles of El Salvador 800 feet below. But when a prostitute to whom Cullen also confessed turns up dead, Freedman quickly realizes that there is much more to Cullen&’s story than meets the eye. As he digs deeper into the mystery, Freedman unravels a tangled web of conspiracy stretching from the cocaine fields of Central America all the way to CIA headquarters. Tense and thought-provoking, The Confession of Joe Cullen is a powerful thriller about government corruption and the individuals who try to combat it, by one of the most masterful American writers of the twentieth century. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
Deep Cover
by Brian GarfieldA Soviet spymaster launches an audacious plan against the American militaryThe KGB calls it Amergrad. Buried deep in Siberia, just a few hundred miles from the Chinese border, it&’s the most tightly guarded secret in the Soviet Union. Away from the frigid tundra, behind wall after wall of barbed-wire fence, is a perfectly ordinary small American city. It has gas stations, diners, movie theaters, and more cars than all of Leningrad. The residents speak English at all times, observing every custom of American life until it becomes second nature. When they graduate, they move to Tucson. Two decades later, Tucson is the center of the American military-industrial complex, and graduates of Amergrad are in positions of power at every level. These perfect Soviet spies hold the keys to the American nuclear array, and their mission is about to begin.
The Romanov Succession
by Brian GarfieldDuring World War II, a Russian refugee spies for the United StatesSince the great upheaval of November 1917, Alex Denilov has known nothing but war. In the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, he fought for the old imperial order. When the Reds won out, he fled west, finding work in every war that followed. Now, in 1941, he trains paratroopers in the American Southwest, helping the US Army prepare for the coming war. But Uncle Sam has bigger plans for him. The army transfers Alex to special services, where he is reunited with old colleagues from the civil war. The group shares combat skills, knowledge of the Russian language, and an intense hatred of Communists. Their mission is to assassinate Stalin. But inside this group of killers, a traitor lurks, ready to kill Alex before he attempts to save Russia from itself.
Line of Succession
by Brian GarfieldFive bombs upend the foundation of the American governmentSturka is an artist with explosives. A sturdy man approaching middle age, he learned his trade on the darkest battlefields of the twentieth century: Indochina, Palestine, Guyana, Biafra, and the fetid jungles of South America, where he fought alongside Che Guevera but was quick enough not to die with him. He doesn&’t know where his new employers hail from; he only knows how well they pay. Today he packs plastic explosive into the false bottoms of three handbags and two suitcases, to be left at strategic locations around Washington, D.C. But this is no ordinary café bombing. Today Sturka targets the men at the top of the American government. The attack causes a crisis of succession, the likes of which America has never seen. If the right man doesn&’t take charge quickly, the country will tear itself apart.
To the Barricades: The Anarchist Life of Emma Goldman
by Alix Kates Shulman&“A respectful and relevant biography of the fiery crusader&” from the feminist activist and author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen (The New York Times Book Review). Writer, anarchist, revolutionary, feminist—Emma Goldman was all these things and more. She was a fiery advocate, taking bold stands on a wide range of issues including women&’s rights, homosexuality, capitalism, and the military draft. Her tumultuous childhood in Tsarist Russia fostered her rebelliousness and emboldened her opposition to violent authority. Upon arriving in New York in 1885, Goldman found a home in the anarchist movement in the United States. She traveled the country to deliver lectures on anarchism, and was jailed for urging unemployed workers to demand the food they needed. Goldman also aggressively supported Margaret Sanger&’s effort to educate women about birth control. Goldman was deported to Russia as fears of an anarchist revolution in the US grew. But back in her homeland, she didn&’t find the socialist paradise of worker equality and empowerment she had hoped would take root after the Bolshevik Revolution. Disillusioned, she left the Soviet Union and traveled the world to write and agitate on behalf of her causes. Goldman&’s radical legacy endures, revived during the Women&’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s. Her story provides inspiration for any woman who ever wanted to make a difference in the world.
The Past That Would Not Die
by Walter LordLord&’s history of the 1962 Ole Miss riots, sparked by one man&’s heroic stance against segregation in the American South On September 30, 1962, James H. Meredith matriculated at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. An air force veteran with sixty hours of transfer credits, Meredith would have been welcomed were it not for the color of his skin. As the first African-American student to register at a previously segregated school, however, he risked his life. The Supreme Court had determined that Oxford&’s university must desegregate, and several hundred federal marshals came to support Meredith. It would not be enough. As President Kennedy called for peace, a riot exploded in Oxford. By eleven o&’clock that night, the marshals were out of tear gas. By midnight, the highway patrol had pulled out, gunfire was spreading, and Kennedy was forced to send in the army. In this definitive history, Walter Lord argues that the riot was not an isolated incident, but a manifestation of racial hatred that was wrapped up in the state&’s identity, stretching all the way back to the Civil War.
Greenwich: A Novel
by Howard FastBestselling author Howard Fast's final novel--a page-turning tale of intrigue, power, and betrayal set in one of America's wealthiest suburbsGreenwich follows a diverse cast of characters in one of the country's most affluent towns: Greenwich, Connecticut. When evidence emerges that Richard Castle, a wealthy ex-government official, approved the 1980 killings of Jesuit priests and nuns in El Salvador, Castle must find a way to save himself from his ruthless former colleagues, who are bent on keeping the past buried any way they can. Told with Fast's typical brisk pacing, Greenwich explores the links between wealth and power, and the violence waged to maintain them. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author's estate.
Born Under Punches (The Stephen Larkin Mysteries #4)
by Martyn WaitesA mining strike wreaks havoc in a small British coal townToday Coldwell is desolate, a crumbling town whose streets are lined with empty shops and populated by ghosts. Two decades ago, the city thrived on the back of a coal industry so powerful that in 1984, the union staged a strike intended to bring Britain to its knees. Instead the government broke the strike—breaking Coldwell along with it. The effect is seen in five citizens of the town: a heroic footballer, a Dean Martin–obsessed thug, an increasingly desperate striking miner, a crusading journalist, and the reporter&’s troubled sister. As the story shifts between 1984 and 2001, it becomes clear that what was a political action in the mid-1980s caused permanent changes in the foundation of British life. The bodies buried in 1984 will not stay underground forever.
I Am Spartacus!: Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist
by Kirk DouglasA &“lively&” memoir by the Hollywood legend about the making of Spartacus, with a foreword by George Clooney (Los Angeles Times). One of the world&’s most iconic movie stars, Kirk Douglas has distinguished himself as a producer, philanthropist, and author of ten works of fiction and memoir. Now, more than fifty years after the release of his enduring epic Spartacus, Douglas reveals the riveting drama behind the making of the legendary gladiator film. Douglas began producing the movie in the midst of the politically charged era when Hollywood&’s moguls refused to hire anyone accused of Communist sympathies. In a risky move, Douglas chose Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted screenwriter, to write Spartacus. Trumbo was one of the &“Unfriendly Ten,&” men who had gone to prison rather than testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about their political affiliations. Douglas&’s source material was already a hot property, as the novel Spartacus was written by Howard Fast while he was in jail for defying HUAC. With the financial future of his young family at stake, Douglas plunged into a tumultuous production both on- and off-screen. As both producer and star of the film, he faced explosive moments with young director Stanley Kubrick, struggles with a leading lady, and negotiations with giant personalities, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Lew Wasserman. Writing from his heart and from his own meticulously researched archives, Kirk Douglas, at ninety-five, looks back at his audacious decisions. He made the most expensive film of its era—but more importantly, his moral courage in giving public credit to Trumbo effectively ended the notorious Hollywood blacklist. A master storyteller, Douglas paints a vivid and often humorous portrait in I Am Spartacus! The book is enhanced by newly discovered period photography of the stars and filmmakers both on and off the set.
Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
by Anthony SummersA New York Times–bestselling author&’s revealing, &“important&” biography of the longtime FBI director (The Philadelphia Inquirer). No one exemplified paranoia and secrecy at the heart of American power better than J. Edgar Hoover, the original director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For this consummate biography, renowned investigative journalist Anthony Summers interviewed more than eight hundred witnesses and pored through thousands of documents to get at the truth about the man who headed the FBI for fifty years, persecuted political enemies, blackmailed politicians, and lived his own surprising secret life. Ultimately, Summers paints a portrait of a fatally flawed individual who should never have held such power, and for so long.
1000 Years of Annoying the French
by Stephen ClarkeThe author of A Year in the Merde and Talk to the Snail offers a highly biased and hilarious view of French history in this international bestseller. Things have been just a little awkward between Britain and France ever since the Norman invasion in 1066. Fortunately—after years of humorously chronicling the vast cultural gap between the two countries—author Stephen Clarke is perfectly positioned to investigate the historical origins of their occasionally hostile and perpetually entertaining pas de deux. Clarke sets the record straight, documenting how French braggarts and cheats have stolen credit rightfully due their neighbors across the Channel while blaming their own numerous gaffes and failures on those same innocent Brits for the past thousand years. Deeply researched and written with the same sly wit that made A Year in the Merde a comic hit, this lighthearted trip through the past millennium debunks the notion that the Battle of Hastings was a French victory (William the Conqueror was really a Norman who hated the French) and pooh-poohs French outrage over Britain&’s murder of Joan of Arc (it was the French who executed her for wearing trousers). He also takes the air out of overblown Gallic claims, challenging the provenance of everything from champagne to the guillotine to prove that the French would be nowhere without British ingenuity. Brits and Anglophiles of every national origin will devour Clarke&’s decidedly biased accounts of British triumph and French ignominy. But 1000 Years of Annoying the French will also draw chuckles from good-humored Francophiles as well as &“anyone who&’s ever encountered a snooty Parisian waiter or found themselves driving on the Boulevard Périphérique during August&” (The Daily Mail). A bestseller in Britain, this is an entertaining look at history that fans of Sarah Vowell are sure to enjoy, from the author the San Francisco Chronicle has called &“the anti-Mayle . . . acerbic, insulting, un-PC, and mostly hilarious.&”
1000 Years of Annoying the French
by Stephen ClarkeThe author of A Year in the Merde and Talk to the Snail offers a highly biased and hilarious view of French history in this international bestseller. Things have been just a little awkward between Britain and France ever since the Norman invasion in 1066. Fortunately—after years of humorously chronicling the vast cultural gap between the two countries—author Stephen Clarke is perfectly positioned to investigate the historical origins of their occasionally hostile and perpetually entertaining pas de deux. Clarke sets the record straight, documenting how French braggarts and cheats have stolen credit rightfully due their neighbors across the Channel while blaming their own numerous gaffes and failures on those same innocent Brits for the past thousand years. Deeply researched and written with the same sly wit that made A Year in the Merde a comic hit, this lighthearted trip through the past millennium debunks the notion that the Battle of Hastings was a French victory (William the Conqueror was really a Norman who hated the French) and pooh-poohs French outrage over Britain&’s murder of Joan of Arc (it was the French who executed her for wearing trousers). He also takes the air out of overblown Gallic claims, challenging the provenance of everything from champagne to the guillotine to prove that the French would be nowhere without British ingenuity. Brits and Anglophiles of every national origin will devour Clarke&’s decidedly biased accounts of British triumph and French ignominy. But 1000 Years of Annoying the French will also draw chuckles from good-humored Francophiles as well as &“anyone who&’s ever encountered a snooty Parisian waiter or found themselves driving on the Boulevard Périphérique during August&” (The Daily Mail). A bestseller in Britain, this is an entertaining look at history that fans of Sarah Vowell are sure to enjoy, from the author the San Francisco Chronicle has called &“the anti-Mayle . . . acerbic, insulting, un-PC, and mostly hilarious.&”
The Big Kiss-Off of 1944: A Jack Levine Mystery (The Jack LeVine Mysteries #1)
by Andrew BergmanSearching for a chorus girl&’s stag film, Jack LeVine stumbles on a sinister political plotLike all chorus girls, Kerry Lane yearns to get her name on the marquee. After years of high-kicking, she lands a bit part in a Broadway smash hit which should lead to better things. The only thing holding her back is her past: specifically a series of stag films from her days as a struggling wannabe film starlet. When a blackmailer demands a payoff to keep them out of the public eye, Kerry comes to Jack LeVine. Stocky, sweaty, and bald, LeVine is a Jewish private detective who makes a living by being polite. But underneath his smile lies a bulldog. Lured by long legs and a roll of crisp twenties, LeVine takes Kerry&’s case. But before he can speak to the blackmailer, the crook turns up dead. As LeVine hunts for Kerry&’s pictures, he finds that the heart of this case is even uglier than greed, lust, or murder. It&’s politics.