gift

In the vast Kazakh steppes of the crumbling Soviet Empire, Alyosha has finished his army service and is promised a gift from his deaf commander: an everlasting steel tooth. As he waits for it in the infirmary, he agrees to help out a medical officer, and they set out on a journey that takes them all the way to the kingdom of the dead. Oleg Pavlov's kaleidoscope of a tale is peopled with soldiers and...

"'Harry, this is Leonard. I just wanted you to know I watched your film on me and it struck me I never thanked you enough at the time for the magnificent gift you gave with that film. Call me.' Then he left his personal number.' – Harry Rasky, April 2000. No other book about Leonard Cohen gets so close to the man, his city, his poems and songs, his friends, his background, and the many original influences...

Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens’s story of a powerful man whose callous neglect of his family triggers his professional and personal downfall, showcases the author’s gift for vivid characterization and unfailingly realistic description. Mr. Dombey, a wealthy London merchant, puts all his hopes in his sickly son Paul to succeed him in running the firm, and ignores his good daughter Florence. The firm...