Modern Retellings

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Ayesha at last

Ayesha at last

Jalaluddin, Uzma, author
2019


Boy, snow, bird

Boy, snow, bird

Oyeyemi, Helen, author
2014


Dunbar

Dunbar

St. Aubyn, Edward, 1960- author
2017


Eligible : a novel

Eligible : a novel

Sittenfeld, Curtis, author
2016


Going bovine

Going bovine

Bray, Libba
2009


The golden house

The golden house

Rushdie, Salman, author
2017


Home fire

Home fire

Shamsie, Kamila, 1973- author
2017


Jane Steele : a confession

Jane Steele : a confession

Faye, Lyndsay, author
2016


Killing Commendatore

Killing Commendatore

Murakami, Haruki, 1949- author
2018

"An unnamed thirty-something portrait painter, abandoned by his wife, becomes caretaker of the home of an aging famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When the younger man discovers an unknown painting in the attic, entitled "Killing Commendatore"--a painting that takes its cues from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni--he also discovers clues about Amada, his family and their involvement in a violent and failed plot to kill a Nazi leader in Vienna. As the painter slowly learns the truth, he is equally consumed by the story of a wealthy and mysterious neighbor, Menshiki, in what is, according to the author, a clear homage to The Great Gatsby. The painter becomes obsessed with Menshiki's doomed love affair, the young girl who might be his child and a stone-lined underground space in the nearby woods where Buddhist priests were once buried alive. This pit becomes a portal into another world, a surreal place where the figures from "Killing Commendatore" take form to guide our narrator on an epic journey. Ambitious and haunting, tactile and surreal, preoccupied with questions about trauma, art and the creative process, Killing Commendatore moves between the known world and a complex underworld."-- Provided by publisher.

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The lifestyle

The lifestyle

Hahn, Taylor, author
2022

Georgina Wagman has it all. She's living the life she always wanted, and everything is perfect. Until, that is, she walks in on her husband Nathan in a compromising position with a junior associate. Georgina has a moment of crisis. But divorce is not a part of the five-year plan, so she comes up with an idea to save her marriage and recapture the spark. She and Nathan are going to become swingers.

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New boy

New boy

Chevalier, Tracy, author
2017


On beauty

On beauty

Smith, Zadie.
2005


Sex and vanity

Sex and vanity

Kwan, Kevin, author
2020

The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with a glittering tale of love and longing as a young woman finds herself torn between two worlds--the WASP establishment of her father's family and George Zao, a man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with. On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have the view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Curzio Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin, Charlotte. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.

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The silence of the girls

The silence of the girls

Barker, Pat, 1943- author
2018

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, who continue to wage bloody war over a stolen woman. Briseis was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life. Keenly observant and cooly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation.

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The Winters : a novel

The Winters : a novel

Gabriele, Lisa, author
2018