The bread of angels

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Lawrence Durrell

With the publication of Justine Lawrence Durrell became, almost overnight, one of the most talked about, widely acclaimed novelists of the decade. Now, in Bitter Lemons, his focus has shifted from the world of his imagination to life itself. Writing in the exquisite poetic prose that critics have hailed as unequalled in contemporary literature, he tells the perceptive, often humorous story of his experiences on the island of Cyprus -- first as a visitor, then as a householder and teacher and finally as Press Advisor to a government on the verge of revolution. Partly because of his ability to speak fluent Greek, but mainly because of his rare understanding of the people of Cyprus, Durrell found a ready welcome in the little village where he chose to settle. His portrayal of the warm, friendly people among whom he made his home is but one of this book's many delights. There are vivid pictures of the villages on their ways of life, the ancient edifices, the flowers, mountains and sea, the sunlight that gave the island its unique, peaceful quality. There are, too, hilarious descriptions of the problems of buying a house and teaching English in the local high school, where all the girls fell in love with Durrell and showered him with presents of roses, poems and even a special kind of meatball. Gradually, however, life on the sunny island was darkened by political turmoil which exploded into a revolution when Cypriots, crying for union with Greece, rose up against the British. Durrell movingly recounts the slow deterioration of the political situation and the part he tried to play in helping both sides to understand each other. Finally forced to admit defeat, he resigned from the post he had held for two years as Press Officer and left the island.

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Andrew Beattie

"Since its foundation in the ninth century Prague has punched way above its weight to become a fulcrum of European culture. The city's most illustrious figures in the fields of music, literature and film are well known: Mozart staged the premiere of his opera Don Giovanni here; in the early twentieth century Franz Kafka was at the forefront of the city's intellectual life, while later writers such as Milan Kundera and film directors such as Milos Forman chronicled Prague's fortunes under communism. Yet the city has a cultural heritage that runs far deeper than Kafka museums and Mozart-by-candlelight concerts. It encompasses the avant-garde punk group Plastic People of the Universe, the "new wave" film directors of the 1960s who made their striking movies in the city's famed Barrandov studios, and artists such as Alfons Mucha and Frantisek Kupka whose revolutionary canvases fomented Art Nouveau and abstract art at the dawn of the twentieth century. Beyond art galleries, concert halls and cinemas the history of Prague has been one of invasion and sometimes brutal oppression. The great German chancellor Otto von Bismarck once commented that "whoever controls Prague, controls mid-Europe" and a succession of imperialist powers have taken this advice to heart, most recently Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Opposition has taken many forms, from the religious reformer Jan Hus in the fifteenth century to playwright and dissident Václav Havel, whose elevation to the Czechoslovak presidency in 1990 made him a symbol of the rebirth of democracy in Eastern Europe. In this book Andrew Beattie also reflects on the modern city, where bold new buildings such as Frank Gehry's "Dancing House" rub shoulders with monuments from the Gothic and Baroque eras such as the Charles Bridge and St. Vitus' Cathedral. He considers the suburbs too, home to world-renowned soccer and ice hockey teams, gleaming shopping centers and grim communist-era apartment blocks that are often home to Vietnamese, Romany and Muslim minority groups who live in a city with a growing international outlook. The Prague he reveals is an increasingly confident and diverse city of the new Europe."--Publisher's description.

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Katherine Russell Rich

Rich accepts a freelance assignment to go to India for a year, where she gradually sheds her foreigness, to discover a new country and a new way of communicating.

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Charles Kuralt

In a glowing tribute to America, the roving CBS correspondent relates the stories--lyrical, funny, historical, or sentimental--he has heard as he traveled down the backroads and the byways of the country.