Oblivion

This acclaimed twenty-first–century Russian novel is “a Dantean descent” into the abandoned Soviet gulags, written “with a clear poetic sensibility” (The Wall Street Journal). In Sergei Lebedev’s debut novel, an unnamed young man travels to the vast wastelands of the Far North to uncover the truth about a mysterious neighbor who once saved his life, and whom he knows only as Grandfather II. What he finds among the forgotten mines and decrepit barracks of former gulags is a world relegated to oblivion, where it is easier to ignore both the victims and the executioners than to come to terms with a terrible past. This disturbing tale evokes the great and ruined beauty of a land where man and machine work in tandem with nature to destroy millions of lives during the Soviet century. Emerging from today’s Russia, where the ills of the past are being forcefully erased from public memory, this masterful novel is an epic literary act of bearing witness, attempting to rescue history from the brink of oblivion. A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Novel of the Year “Not since Alexander Solzhenitsyn has Russia had a writer as obsessed as Sergei Lebedev with that country’s history or the traces it has left on the collective consciousness . . . The best of Russia’s younger generation of writers.” ―The New York Review of Books

In the stories that make up Oblivion, David Foster Wallace joins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite involutions of self-consciousness -- a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his. These are worlds undreamt of by any other mind. Only David Foster Wallace could convey a father's desperate loneliness by way of his son's daydreaming through a teacher's homicidal breakdown (The Soul Is Not a Smithy). Or could explore the deepest and most hilarious aspects of creativity by delineating the office politics surrounding a magazine profile of an artist who produces miniature sculptures in an anatomically inconceivable way (The Suffering Channel). Or capture the ache of love's breakdown in the painfully polite apologies of a man who believes his wife is hallucinating the sound of his snoring (Oblivion). Each of these stories is a complete world, as fully imagined as most entire novels, at once preposterously surreal and painfully immediate.

The final, thrilling conclusion to #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Anthony Horowitz's masterful series! Matt. Pedro. Scott. Jamie. Scar. Five Gatekeepers have finally found one another. And only the five of them can fight the evil force that is on the rise, threatening the destruction of the world. In the penultimate volume of The Gatekeepers series, a massive storm arose that signalled the beginning of the end. Now the five Gatekeepers must battle the evil power the storm has unleashed -- and strive to stop the world from ending.

Oblivion is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written memorial to the author's father, Héctor Abad Gómez, whose criticism of the Colombian regime led to his murder by paramilitaries in 1987. Twenty years in the writing, it paints an unforgettable picture of a man who followed his conscience and paid for it with his life during one of the darkest periods in Latin America's recent history.

She's a romantic at heart, living in the most unromantic of worlds . . . Nicknamed Sweet Abelli for her docile nature, Elena smiles on cue and has a charming response for everything. She's the favored daughter, the perfect mafia principessa . . . or was. Now, all she can see in the mirror's reflection is blood staining her hands like crimson paint. They say first impressions are everything . . . In the murky waters of New York's underworld, Elena's sister is arranged to marry Nicolas Russo. A Made Man, a boss, a cheat-even measured against mafia standards. His reputation stretches far and wide and is darker than his black suits and ties. After his and Elena's first encounter ends with an accidental glare on her part, she realizes he's just as rude as he is handsome. She doesn't like the man or anything he stands for, though that doesn't stop her heart from pattering like rain against glass when he's near, nor the shiver that ghosts down her spine at the sound of his voice. And he's always near. Telling her what to do. Making her feel hotter than any future brother-in-law should. Elena may be the Sweet Abelli on the outside, but she's beginning to learn she has a taste for the darkness, for rough hands, cigarettes, and whiskey-colored eyes. Having already escaped one scandal, however, she can hardly afford to be swept up in another. Besides, even if he were hers, everyone knows you don't fall in love with a Made Man . . . right? This is a standalone forbidden romance.

In this strikingly illustrated book of original poetry, System of a Down fans gain an intimate glimpse into the soul of the band's frontman, Serj Tankian. For fans stirred by the cerebral lyrics of SOAD albums Hypnotize, Mesmerize, Steal This Album!, Toxicity, and their first, self-titled breakthrough—and for everyone enthusiastic about Serj’s solo album, Imperfect Harmonies—this essential, one-of-a-kind collection of Tankian’s innermost thoughts and feelings is a must-read. Unique illustrations punctuate nearly 70 poems—almost none of which have ever been published before. Glaring through Oblivion is an indispensable find for any true fan.

You might be erudite at your end nevertheless you're always oblivion of the things around. You make plans, set goals and embellish to-do lists. While you might be successful in attaining certain elements but you'll always find yourself whirling around an aroma of uncertainty and unpredictability. This book is a series of poems and prose in which 60 writers have participated. Each co-author has expressed idiosyncratic content which can make the reader still to absorb what is being portrayed. As the co-authors belong to different countries, the reader can find this book in different languages. Furthermore, the reader can find the content in different themes while more or less whirling through the word "Oblivion" which makes this piece intact and perfect. "I do believe in uncertain nd unforeseen things. Planning the things, the way we want has been trivial nd bare minimum. We plan on our own; pre-frame about a person, place or a thing in our mind and keep on fabricating thoughts about them, designing a way to expectations which in turn make a constant home in our heart. And when planning goes the other way, we fall apart and our inborn expectations make our life hard. Leaving the things in their place and accepting them as they want to be is what we're left with." -Asiya Rahim

In the outside world, every single day that passes, my life becomes more in danger. The only way to survive might be to enter the Oblivion and relive my forgotten memories. But my mind may be even more dangerous than reality.