Swans In Half Mourning

This is what happens when a powerful princess falls in love with a woman and God sits in the grass to count stars. Princes, birds, and glass bottle labyrinths wrap around a spiral of Roman numerals.

Lively and experimental, Swans in Half-Mourning is a modern retelling of the Grimm fairytale, "The Six Swans." Written in language that is lush, erotic and playful, this novella brings the classic fairytale to fresh, startling life.

Praise for Vi Khi Nao: "Here I was allowed to forget for a while that that is what books aspire to tell, so taken was I by more enthralling and mysterious pleasures." —Carole Maso How do you bear the death of a child? With fishtanks and jellyfish burials, Persephone's pomegranate seeds, and affairs with the neighbors. Fish in Exile spins unimaginable loss through classical and magical tumblers, distorting our view so that we can see the contours of a parent's grief all the more clearly. Vi Khi Nao was born in Long Khanh, Vietnam. Vi's work includes poetry, fiction, film and cross-genre collaboration. Her poetry collection, The Old Philosopher, was the winner of 2014 Nightboat Poetry Prize. Her novel, Fish In Exile, will make its first appearance in Fall 2016 from Coffee House Press. She holds an MFA in fiction from Brown University.

"The Sin of Abbé Mouret tells the compelling story of the young priest Serge Mouret. Striving after spiritual purity and sanctity, he lives a life of constant prayer, but his neglect of all physical needs leads to serious illness, followed by amnesia. No longer knowing he is a priest, he falls in love with his nurse Albine. Together, like a latter-day Adam and Eve, they roam through an Eden-like garden called the 'Paradou', seeking a forbidden tree in whose shade they will make love. Zola memorably shows their gradual awakening to sexuality, and his poetic descriptions of the luxuriant and beautiful Paradou create a lyrical celebration of Nature. When Serge regains his memory and recalls his priestly vows, anguish inevitably follows. The whole story, with its numerous biblical parallels, becomes a poetic reworking of the Fall of Man and a questioning of the very meaning of innocence and sin. Zola explores the conflict between Church and Nature, the sterility of the Church and the fertility of Nature. The edition includes a wide-ranging and helpful introduction and explanatory notes."--Page [4] of cover.

This is the first ever monograph on the Whooper Swan. This species is found in the northern Palearctic and is the world's most widely distributed swan. It is a familiar bird in northern Europe and across Asia to the far East, and is particularly noticeable when migrating between breeding and wintering grounds in large, noisy flocks. This migratory behaviour makes it a powerful symbol of seasonal change, and this, together with the bird's beautiful appearance, make it a popular subject of folklore and legend. For much of its range the Whooper Swan is the archetypal 'wild swan', and its voice and appearance is deeply evocative of time and place. This book looks at all aspects of the life and times of this enchanting bird. The book includes chapters on taxonomy, population, range and distribution, diet, breeding biology, behaviour, migratory behaviour and longevity, as well as taking a look at the swan's associations with our own species in history and legend and throughout its geographic range. This book is a brilliantly readable and exhaustively researched monograph. It is illustrated throughout with numerous photographs and line drawings, illustrating various aspects of the species' behaviour and morphology. It will appeal greatly to all those with an interest in birdwatching, especially those who already know something of this wonderful and inspirational bird.

The Sin of Father Mouret (1875) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. The fifth of twenty volumes of Zola’s monumental Les Rougon-Macquart series is an epic story of family, politics, class, and history that traces the disparate paths of several French citizens raised by the same mother. Spanning the entirety of the French Second Empire, Zola provides a sweeping portrait of change that refuses to shy away from controversy and truth as it gets to the heart of heredity and human nature. Serge Mouret is a pious, if not overzealous young man. For his first assignment after taking his religious orders, he is appointed parish priest of the impoverished village of Artauds. Unable to attract villagers to his sermons, he pontificates to an empty, dilapidated church, determined to explore and expose the innermost spaces of his soul. Unconcerned with worldly affairs, he grows increasingly neurotic, eventually suffering a debilitating breakdown. Unable to care for himself, Father Mouret is taken into the care of Doctor Pascal Rougon, a distant relative. At his suggestion, Mouret is sent to Le Paradou, a rundown estate, where he is to live out his life in peace and near-solitude. There, he befriends Albine, a young girl who seems to have grown up alone at Le Paradou, and who dotes on her ailing housemate. As time goes by, he begins to fall in love with her, and their friendship develops into an innocent, blissful romance. The Sin of Father Mouret is a story of family and fate, a thrilling and detailed novel that continues a series rich enough for its author to explore in twenty total volumes. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Émile Zola’s The Sin of Father Mouret is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern readers.