In the village of the ghost bells, the church chimes ring—even though the church has no bells. One of the neighbors wants to buy dreams—or is she a dream that someone else is dreaming? Where and why do dreams become nightmares? These are only some of the fascinating questions raised in Village of the Ghost Bells, Edla Van Steen’s second novel. First published in 1983 as Coraçôes mordidos, the novel tells the story of the would-be utopian community built on an old plantation of the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil. Its atmosphere is dreamlike, often verging on the supernatural, and strange events signal the transformation of the utopian dream into a nightmare. Ultimately destroyed by greed, corruption, and exploitation, the community becomes a microcosm of the Brazilian socioeconomic system, in which it takes all of a person’s warmth, idealism, passion, and humor to survive the bleak environment.

Perfect for pupils with a low reading age of 8 to 9, but a high interest age of 12 to 15, our Teen Reads will have readers on the edge of their seats. Just the right level of challenging vocabulary and plot-lines make these books highly accessible, drawing readers into exciting worlds whilst simultaneously developing their reading skills. The sleepy English village of Dewbank is the perfect place to spend a summer holiday - at least, that's what Tamsin, Paul and Chase think when they arrive. When Mr Brandy, the local bookshop owner, tells them of the village's violent history, the friends decide to investigate. Does the ancient village bell tower, which has no bell, hold a secret? Is Mr Brandy all that he seems? What unknown horrors await them?

Flash and Crash Days: Brazilian Theater in the Post-Dictatorship Period deals with the theater produced in Brazil during the 1980s and 1990s, especially postmodernist directors, women playwrights, and theater companies. It attempts to answer the following questions: Did the thriving stage of the 1950s and 60s wither during the reign of terror in the early 1970s, unleashed in the wake of the 1968 state of siege declared by the generals? Did the return to civilian government fail to create conditions for a new theater? A cursory glance at what little U.S. commentary on Brazilian theater has appeared in recent years could well lead one to answer all of the above questions in the affirmative. Scholars beyond Brazil's borders appear to have bonded with those individuals and companies which contested and then fell victim to repression in the 1960s and 1970s. So pervasive is this scholarly trend that a vacuum, an empty stage has been created. There seems to be an unstated assumption that theater in Brazil thrives only under repression and dictatorship. It is an illusory vacuum. Flash and Crash Days examines how the absence of censorship, on the one hand, and the exigencies of protest and ideological purity on the other, have given rise to a variety of theatrical modes which Brazil has never experienced in the past, allowing all voices the opportunity to be heard in the marketplace of artistic ideas: women's perspectives, particularly those expressed by playwrights; sexual identity, including gender construction and gay perspectives; psychological issues; the individual in society; religion; formal experimentation

Based on the popular Lost In Michigan website that was featured in the Detroit Free Press, It contains locations throughout Michigan, and tells their interesting story. There are over 50 stories and locations that you will find fascinating.

The first English translation of a presciently modern portrayal of emerging feminist sensibilities in a nineteenth-century family, by one of Germany's leading pre-First World War writers.

Dazzling, enchanting and epic, The Bells is the confession of a thief, kidnapper and unlikely lover — a boy with the voice of an angel whose exquisite sense of hearing becomes both his life's tragic curse and its greatest blessing. Moses Froben was born in a belfry high in the Swiss Alps, the bastard son of a deaf-mute woman banished to the church tower to ring each day the Loudest and Most Beautiful Bells in the land. His life is simple but he is content, until the day his father recognizes Moses's singular sense of hearing and its power to expose his sins. Cast into the world with only his ears to protect and guide him, Moses finds refuge in the choir of the great Abbey of St. Gall and becomes its star singer, only to endure the horrifying act of castration meant to preserve his angelic voice and turn him into a musico. In a letter to his son, Moses recounts his humble birth in eighteenth-century Switzerland and his life as a novice monk, and tells of the two noble friends — and a forbidden lover — whom he cherished during his chaotic years in Mozart's Vienna as apprentice to the great Gaetano Guadagni, and even as he ascended Europe's most celebrated stages as Lo Svizzero. But in this letter he will also reveal the astonishing secrets of his past and answer the question that has shadowed his fame: how did Moses Froben, world-renowned musico, come to raise a son who by all rights he could never have sired?