'The Veiled Man' is a mystery novel written by Ambrose Pratt. The story follows a neatly dressed dapper little man, who late one afternoon in the summer of 1893, was strolling through the Sydney Domain in the direction of Woolloomooloo when a piercing voice cried out his name.

Noveller. Transgressive desires and sexual encounters are recounted in these four pieces

With the invasion of Dara complete, and the Wall of Storms breached, the world has opened to new possibilities for the gods and peoples of both empires as the sweeping saga of the award-winning Dandelion Dynasty continues in this third book of the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR). Princess Théra, once known as Empress Üna of Dara, entrusted the throne to her younger brother in order to journey to Ukyu-Gondé to war with the Lyucu. She has crossed the fabled Wall of Storms with a fleet of advanced warships and ten thousand people. Beset by adversity, Théra and her most trusted companions attempt to overcome every challenge by doing the most interesting thing. But is not letting the past dictate the present always possible or even desirable? In Dara, the Lyucu leadership as well as the surviving Dandelion Court bristle with rivalries as currents of power surge and ebb and perspectives spin and shift. Here, parents and children, teachers and students, Empress and Pékyu, all nurture the seeds of plans that will take years to bloom. Will tradition yield to new justifications for power? Everywhere, the spirit of innovation dances like dandelion seeds on the wind, and the commoners, the forgotten, the ignored begin to engineer new solutions for a new age. Ken Liu returns to the series that draws from a tradition of the great epics of our history from the Aeneid to the Romance on the Three Kingdoms and builds a new tale unsurpassed in its scope and ambition.

Drawing on extensive research in the archives of Russia and Uzbekistan, Douglas Northrop here reconstructs the turbulent history of a Soviet campaign that sought to end the seclusion of Muslim women. In Uzbekistan it focused above all on a massive effort to eliminate the heavy horsehair-and-cotton veils worn by many women and girls. This campaign against the veil was, in Northrop's view, emblematic of the larger Soviet attempt to bring the proletarian revolution to Muslim Central Asia, a region Bolsheviks saw as primitive and backward. The Soviets focused on women and the family in an effort to forge a new, "liberated" social order.This unveiling campaign, however, took place in the context of a half-century of Russian colonization and the long-standing suspicion of rural Muslim peasants toward an urban, colonial state. Widespread resistance to the idea of unveiling quickly appeared and developed into a broader anti-Soviet animosity among Uzbeks of both sexes. Over the next quarter-century a bitter and often violent confrontation ensued, with battles being waged over indigenous practices of veiling and seclusion.New local and national identities coalesced around these very practices that had been placed under attack. Veils became powerful anticolonial symbols for the Uzbek nation as well as important markers of Muslim propriety. Bolshevik leaders, who had seen this campaign as an excellent way to enlist allies while proving their own European credentials as enlightened reformers, thus inadvertently strengthened the seclusion of Uzbek women—precisely the reverse of what they set out to do. Northrop's fascinating and evocative book shows both the fluidity of Central Asian cultural practices and the real limits that existed on Stalinist authority, even during the ostensibly totalitarian 1930s.

"Scapellato's blend of existential noir, absurdist humor, literary fiction, and surreal exploration of performance art merges into something special. . . . The Made-Up Man is a rare novel that is simultaneously smart and entertaining." —Gabino Iglesias, NPR Stanley had known it was a mistake to accept his uncle Lech’s offer to apartment-sit in Prague—he’d known it was one of Lech’s proposals, a thinly veiled setup for some invasive, potentially dangerous performance art project. But whatever Lech had planned for Stanley, it would get him to Prague and maybe offer a chance to make things right with T after his failed attempt to propose. Stanley can take it. He can ignore their hijinks, resist being drafted into their evolving, darkening script. As the operation unfolds it becomes clear there’s more to this performance than he expected; they know more about Stanley’s state of mind than he knows himself. He may be able to step over chalk outlines in the hallway, may be able to turn away from the women acting as his mother or the men performing as his father, but when a man made up to look like Stanley begins to play out his most devastating memory, he won’t be able to stand outside this imitation of his life any longer. Immediately and wholly immersive, Joseph Scapellato’s debut novel, The Made-Up Man, is a hilarious examination of art’s role in self-knowledge, a sinister send-up of self-deception, and a big-hearted investigation into the cast of characters necessary to help us finally meet ourselves.

★When the Light and the Dark Collide...Who will Maintain the Balance within the Veil★ For hundreds of years, magic users have grown up with the misconception that their magic has no true origin; that they were simply gifted more than mere-mortals. This control of the narrative has suited the Fae, for their existence has been hidden; their kingdoms beyond the Veil secure. There has been a tenuous balance within the realms and for thousands of years the Fae have been secure in their traditions...their rule. That is, until the uprising of a dark queen; because as with all things bound by nature, with unbalance comes destruction. Until the prophecy of change was whispered throughout the realms there was an ever present sense of desolation. Now? There is hope. -------------------- Hudson Jacobs has no idea of the changes that are about to take her life by storm. No idea of the plans put into motion by those who know of her existence and wish to not only protect her, but solidify the prophecy by any means necessary. The only question is, will her destiny ultimately protect her or destroy her and those she holds dear to her heart. When the stakes are darkness or light, life or death, will Hudson embrace her new life or will the tenuous Veil between the mortal and Fae Realm, destroy her before she gets that chance? ---------------------- ★Would you be willing to bleed for a Realm you never knew existed?★ For a place, full of a otherworldly creatures, you are now the Queen of?How far are you willing to go to fulfill a prophecy, a future, thrust upon you at just 21 years old?In the midst of brutal attacks, Hudson is about to find out just how far she willing to go to protect the ones she loves. Her enemies? Will soon learn just how much power she truly has... Welcome to the Realm of Smoke and Shadows; this is only the beginning. This is a Reverse Harem, Epic Fantasy Romance Novel.