by William Styron (1951)
The story is set out in the south. The Loftis family members are waiting for the coffin of their daughter Peyton. The novel goes back in time through flashbacks and recollections uncovering truths and events leading to Peyton's suicide. Lie Down In Darkness is a post-modernist novel, a post-war account of the human state, an age of alienation, decay and meaninglessness. Neither society nor family nor religion nor emancipation nor ethics are able to save Peyton from an inevitable death.
Herman Wouk
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize this atmospheric novel tells the story in flashback of a mutiny aboard a United States minesweeper during WW2. The murky events of the mutiny emerge during a court-martial and it soon becomes clear that few people will emerge from the trial with any credit.
Stanley Elkin
Look who's on the "Dick Gibson Radio Show": Arnold the Memory Expert ("I've memorized the entire West Coast shoreline - except for cloud cover and fog banks"). Bernie Perk, the burning pharmacist. Henry Harper, the nine-year old orphan millionaire, terrified of being adopted. The woman whose life revolves around pierced lobes. An evil hypnotist. Swindlers. Con-men. And Dick Gibson himself. Anticipating talk radio and its crazed hosts, Stanley Elkin creates a brilliant comic world held together by American manias and maniacs in all their forms, and a character who perfectly understands what Americans want and gives it to them.
Flannery O'Connor
Francis, an orphan who lives with his great-uncle in Powderhead, Tennessee, is called by God to be a prophet. This is against his will and causes much inner conflict.
Iris Murdoch
3 Arrows & Servnt & Snow is a celebrated work by Iris Murdoch (Booker Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.