Mosquito And Other Stories

Ghana-Da'S Bizarre Narratives Draw Upon Science, History And Geography To Conjure Up Exotic Locales, Other Worlds And Peoples, Their Habits, Lifestyles And Languages. Mosquito And Other Stories Brings Together Twelve Of Premendra Mitra&Rsquo;S Most Popular Ghana-Da Tales. These Stories Within Stories, Told In First Person By One Of The Denizens Of The Mess Hall, Straddle The Thin Line Between Make-Believe And Truth. Ghana-Da&Rsquo;S Bizarre Narratives Draw Upon Science, History And Geography To Conjure Up Exotic Locales, Other Worlds And Peoples, Their Habits, Lifestyles And Languages. In &Lsquo;Mosquito&Rsquo; Ghana-Da Saves Mankind From A New And Deadly Breed Of The Insect; In &Lsquo;Pebble&Rsquo; We Find Him Trading In Sandalwood In The New Hebrides; &Lsquo;Glass&Rsquo; And &Lsquo;Duck&Rsquo; Explore Nuclear Science; In &Lsquo;Hole&Rsquo; He Tells His Spellbound Audience About The Fourth Dimension; And In &Lsquo;Hat&Rsquo; He Is Dragged Over Mount Everest By A Runaway Yeti. And That&Rsquo;S Just The Beginning&Hellip; These Accounts Of Travel And Heroism, Born Of Wild Imagination And Sound Knowledge, Make The Teller And His Tales Simply Irresistible.

Ghana-da's bizarre narratives draw upon science, history and geography to conjure up exotic locales, other worlds and peoples, their habits, lifestyles and languages. Mosquito and Other Stories brings together twelve of Premendra Mitra's most popular Ghana-da tales. These stories within stories, told in first person by one of the denizens of the mess hall, straddle the thin line between make-believe and truth. Ghana-da's bizarre narratives draw upon science, history and geography to conjure up exotic locales, other worlds and peoples, their habits, lifestyles and languages. In 'Mosquito' Ghana-da saves mankind from a new and deadly breed of the insect; in 'Pebble' we find him trading in sandalwood in the New Hebrides; 'Glass' and 'Duck' explore nuclear science; in 'Hole' he tells his spellbound audience about the Fourth Dimension; and in 'Hat' he is dragged over Mount Everest by a runaway yeti. And that's just the beginning. These accounts of travel and heroism, born of wild imagination and sound knowledge, make the teller and his tales simply irresistible.

This book includes a glossary of supernatural creatures that commonly appear in the stories and dances of Northwest Coast Indigenous People.

A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village. Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable. Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

Considered an eccentric in the traditional Korean literary world, Jung Young-moon's short stories have nonetheless won numerous readers both in Korea and abroad, most often drawing comparisons to Kafka. Adopting strange, warped, unstable characters and drawing heavily on the literature of the absurd, Jung's stories nonetheless do not wallow in darkness, despair, or negativity. Instead, we find a world in which the bizarre and terrifying are often put to comic use, even in direst of situations, and point toward a sort of redemption to be found precisely in the "weirdest" and most unsettling parts of life . . .

China's hottest literary genre brings together the traditional, the experimental, and the avant-garde.

This award-winning short story collection by the acclaimed author of Winter’s Tale “ascends to the peak of literary achievement” (The Boston Globe). Winner of the Prix de Rome and the National Jewish Book Award, these eleven stories demonstrate Mark Helprin’s mastery of fiction across a diverse spectrum of styles. The stories in this collection range from children caught in a Vermont blizzard to an English sea captain who encounters an ape adrift in the Indian Ocean. The title novella tells the tale of a Jewish immigrant who arrives in New York City with little more than an ivory pen—and an unflagging determination to survive the indignities of Ellis Island’s many protocols. In the worlds of The Philadelphia Inquirer, this collection presents “stories beyond compare…[Helprin’s] imagination should be protected by some intellectual equivalent of the National Park Service.” "Such an ambitious reach is almost unheard of in our short fiction."—New York Times Book Review