Eça de Queiroz (1845-1900) is considered to be Portugal�s greatest novelist and one of its finest prose writers. In The Mandarin he turns his satirical eye on the sin of avarice and asks the following question: ‘In the depths of China there lives a mandarin who is richer than any king spoken of in fable or in history. You know nothing about him, not his name, his face or the silks that he wears. In order for you to inherit his limitless wealth, all you have to do is to ring the bell placed on a book by your side. In that remote corner of Mongolia, he will utter a single sigh. He will then be a corpse, and at your feet you will see gold beyond the dreams of avarice. Mortal reader, will you ring the bell?� When Teodoro, our timid, lowly narrator, says ‘Yes�, he finds that fabulous wealth brings with it unexpected problems. The three very different stories that complete the collection � ‘The Idiosyncrasies of a Young Blonde Woman�, ‘The Hanged Man� and ‘José Matías� � are all tales of obsessive love, each told with Eça�s irrepressible wit and originality. �A brilliant mischievous essay in fantasy chinoiserie, irreverently subverting the trope, created half a century earlier by Balzac in La Peau de chagrin, of the Oriental curse masquerading as a blessing. In the same Dedalus collection of Eca's short fiction lies a late gem,'Jose Matias', a love story told at a funeral by a Hegelian philosopher, in which the issue of the narrator's own relationship with reality adds a comically ambiguous layer to the tale." Jonathan Keates in The Times Literary Supplement

"Pilar Orsini Oquendo has just lost the love of her life. Her fiancé, Gonzalo, has been wrenched from her grasp by his untimely passing. Left alone to grieve, she finds herself at their favorite place, on a secluded beach in Spain. It is here where Gonzalo's childhood friend finds Pilar and, in a fit of lust, rapes her. Distraught and betrayed, Pilar soon finds the rape has produced a pregnancy. Despite the difficulty, Pilar decides to keep the baby. She struggles to wade through her emotional turmoil and continue her ambitious career as a translator of American literature. While speaking at Columbia University, Pilar meets Gus Brubaker. Gus is a Spanish literature translator, and he is immediately taken in by Pilar's intellect and stunning beauty. Pilar is conflicted and still dealing with the aftermath of her rape as her attacker continues his harassment. She is also pregnant. How will she explain this to Gus, who, she believes, will surely leave her when she reveals her pregnancy? The Translators tells a story of troubled romance set in the world of linguistics and literature. As Pilar and Gus travel the world together, they also must travel beyond pains of the past. In the conquering of violence, there is a possibility of healing and perhaps, a possibility of endless love."

The Mousetales are a group of whimsical, playful episodes that tell of children who are aided in nighttime distress by dedicated mouses of the Children?s Mouse Brigade. Henry and Ginger and their fellow Brigade members are involved in adventure after adventure as they ensure that children not suffer sleepless nights or fear of the dark. The Brigade accomplishes its missions through inventive approaches, prompted by unique mousevision and mousememory that calm the children, thereby making them feel safe. They are ably assisted in their efforts by a mousenet piggybacked to the humans? net; by their comprehension of English and, for some members, of French (although they cannot speak either language, only their native mousespeak); and, for travel, by the US Postal Service, on whose trucks the mouses hitch rides. Mousetale 1 relates the history of the Brigade and introduces Henry, the principal male mouse, and his training and first mission. Mousetale 2 recounts Henry?s introduction to Ginger, the principal female mouse, a connection that unfortunately gets off on the wrong paw for them but ends well for several children. Mousetale 3 tells of Henry and Ginger?s engagement and marriage and the children saved owing to Ginger?s intervention. Mousetale 4 introduces us to a little girl who is in distress on account of her father (and 4 is significant because we make the acquaintance of four identical baby mouses, all girls). Mousetale 5 and Mousetale 6 take us to the next generation as Henry and Ginger?s daughters also become members in good standing of the Children?s Mouse Brigade.

March 3, 1945, turns into a fateful night of horror for a young American Marine caught in the onslaught of Japanese fire on Iwo Jima. But worse than the machine-gun wounds that he sustains is a reality that he will bury, a mental and psychological scar so terrible that he won't allow it to surface with doctors at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco. It is only with a nurse who has an actual scar of her own from an abusive stepfather that he finds some respite. Given a medical discharge after V-E Day, the wounded Marine returns to his home in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, which lies on the fringes of the dying coke and coal country. There he begins the agonizing journey of recognition to confront a naked, shattering truth. How he deals with his strong-willed father, friends, one antagonist, and the nurse who makes her way to Mount Pleasant, will determine the outcome of his nightmare on Iwo Jima. The Oldest Son is a story of the triumph of hope that springs from the love between a woman and a man.

Almost twenty-five years after the death of E_a de Queir_s, his son, Jos_ Maria D'E_a de Queirzs, discovered in 1924 an untitled and undated manuscript that contained neither revisions nor corrections. He painstakingly deciphered his father's nearly illegible script, titled the work, and published it as Alves & Co. This work shows Eaa de Queirus going beyond his early novels, The Sin of Fr. Amaro and Cousin Bazilio. The harsh focus of a narrow realism is now tempered by compassion for human folly. Although Eaa deals with the theme of adultery in several of his novels, only Alves & Co. examines the subject from the wronged husband's point of view. The description of Godofredo da ConceiAa? o Alves' efforts to salvage his honor while enduring the suffering that results from ridicule demonstrates E_a's mastery of satire, humor, and psychological insight.

* Eca de Queiroz is considered by many to be Portugal's greatest novelist. This volume introduces a dazzling variety of worlds and characters, from a lovelorn Greek poet-turned-waiter working in a Charing Cross hotel to a sainly young woman soured by love."

Gods Child is the story of Nancy Biggs and Tim McNally, both of whom attended Catholic grade schools. When they seek ways to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ, the two soon learn that service to the church is circumscribed by a male-dominated hierarchy that dictates roles for men and a role for women. Tims perspectiveinfluenced by his mentor, a priest of the old guardaligns with the churchs prescribed roles. Nancy, on the other hand, must submit to the power of the men in Rome or fight against the churchs institutionalized sexism. In her struggle for equal treatment, Nancy gains the support of four priests. Meanwhile, the pope makes a pilgrimage to Fatima to commemorate the 105th anniversary of the Blessed Virgins appearance to three Portuguese children. In his remarks, he announces a change in the life of the Catholic Church that shakes the institution to its foundations and liberates Nancy to follow her true calling, and Tim to question his professed vocation. Gods Child explores the personal lives of two people of faith, and the epochal saga of a historic change in the life of the Church.