I Know This Much Is True

I Know This Much Is True
Author: Wally Lamb
Publsiher: Harper
Total Pages: 914
Release: 1998-06-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0060391626

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With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

This Much is True

This Much is True
Author: Miriam Margolyes
Publsiher: John Murray
Total Pages: 495
Release: 2021-09-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781529379914

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'There is no one on earth quite so wonderful' STEPHEN FRY 'As outrageously entertaining as you'd expect' Daily Express BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkey to the Cadbury's Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, MIRIAM MARGOLYES, OBE, is the nation's favourite (and naughtiest) treasure. Now, at the age of 80, she has finally decided to tell her extraordinary life story - and it's well worth the wait. Find out how being conceived in an air-raid gave her curly hair; what pranks led to her being known as the naughtiest girl Oxford High School ever had; how she ended up posing nude for Augustus John as a teenager; why Bob Monkhouse was the best (male) kiss she's ever had; and what happened next after Warren Beatty asked 'Do you fuck?' From declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave to being told to be quiet by the Queen, this book is packed with brilliant, hilarious stories. With a cast list stretching from Scorsese to Streisand, a cross-dressing Leonardo di Caprio to Isaiah Berlin, This Much Is True is as warm and honest, as full of life and surprises, as its inimitable author.

Unraveling Oliver

Unraveling Oliver
Author: Liz Nugent
Publsiher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781501191282

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A chilling, elegantly crafted, and psychologically astute exploration of human behavior and the nature of evil. “I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.” Oliver Ryan, a handsome, charismatic, and successful man, is happily married to his wife, Alice, who illustrates the award-winning children’s books he writes and devotedly cares for him in their comfortable suburban home. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease—until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers blows to Alice that render her comatose. As Alice hovers between life and death in her hospital bed, the couple’s circle of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such an astonishing act of savagery. Oliver tells his story, peeling away the layers to reveal a life of shame, envy, breath-taking deception, and masterful manipulation. As details about his past catch up with him, even he is in for a shock. Unraveling Oliver is a complex, disturbing, and brilliantly written page-turner about how and why a human being transforms into a sociopath.

She s Come Undone

She s Come Undone
Author: Wally Lamb
Publsiher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2012-12-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781471105340

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Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the chocolate, crisps and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up. In his extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch an incredible ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably loveable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections.

The This Much is True 15 Directors on Documentary Filmmaking

The This Much is True   15 Directors on Documentary Filmmaking
Author: James Quinn
Publsiher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2013-01-03
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781408132531

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Interest in documentary filmmaking has never been greater. There are more documentaries now playing in mainstream cinemas than ever before. The Documentary Masterclass offers an engaging insight into the techniques of ten leading documentary directors.

The Senator s Son

The Senator s Son
Author: Anna Albo
Publsiher: Anna Albo
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2019-12-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781999102500

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College is just like her old life . . . bleak. Surviving it won't be easy, especially when the girlfriend of the guy she's loved her entire life would rather see her dead. So much for that clean slate. Instead she's constantly looking over her shoulder, watching, waiting and worrying. Lucky for Emma she met The Senator's Son. Zach Walker is the typical rich kid . . . or is he? She isn't supposed to fall for him. She doesn't even know if she can trust him. He is completely tempting and totally out of her league. In The Senator's Son, the good guy rules.

I Know This Much From Soho to Spandau

I Know This Much  From Soho to Spandau
Author: Gary Kemp
Publsiher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2009-09-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780007323333

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I Know This Much – by Gary Kemp, Spandau Ballet's prime mover – is simply the freshest, most exciting and best-written memoir to arrive for years.

This Much Is True

This Much Is True
Author: Katherine Clare Owen
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2013-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0983570760

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Fate brings them together Fame & Lies keep them apart One truth remains... She's become the Paly High girl with the most tragic story... At 17, Tally Landon just wants to graduate and leave for New York to pursue ballet. Her best friend Marla convinces her to attend one last party-a college party-where she can be among strangers and evade the whisperings about her heartbreaking loss of her twin that follows her everywhere she goes. She meets Lincoln Presley, Stanford's famous baseball wonder and has a little fun at his expense-when she lies about her age and who she really is-intent on being someone else for the night and escaping her tragic story. His only focus is baseball, but he can't forget the girl he saved on Valentine's Day... At 22, Lincoln Presley's star is on the rise-about to finish at Stanford and expected to be taken early in Major League Baseball's upcoming draft-his cousin's party serves as a welcome distraction. But then, he sees the girl from Valentine's Day that he saved from that horrific car accident and can't quite hide his disappointment when she appears to look right through him and not remember him at all. He vows to learn her name at least before he leaves. What's the harm in getting to know this girl? What's the worst that can happen? And yet, despite the lies being told to protect the other, and the trappings of fame that continually separate them, and in lieu of the deception by those they've come to trust the most; one truth remains. This much is true.