検索キーワード： "Brian Hall" 文学・フィクション

Longing to escape the rundown commune outside of Ithaca, New York, where she lives with her organic-farmer mother, assorted half-siblings, and a cow named Marilyn, the precociously well-read Saskia White, 12, imagines herself as the noble contemporary of Odysseus, Marco Polo, and Horatio Hornblower. But Saskia's elaborate fantasies are soon upstaged by her real-life, long-lost father, who leads Saskia and her best friend, Jane, on a camping trip that turns into an epic adventure of love, sex, and lies.

Mette, a 20-year old programmer of visual effects for video games, lives with her mother, Saskia, an aspiring playwright, in Brooklyn. Mette is a private and socially awkward young woman who finds something consoling in repetitive mathematical calculations. Her disappearance forces Saskia to reunite with Mette's father, Mark, an emotionally distant astronomy professor in Ithaca, to embark on a journey together to find her.

Brian Hall’s novel vividly re-creates Lewis and Clark’s extraordinary journey into the unknown western frontier. Focusing on the emblematic moments of the participants’ lives, the story unfolds through the perspectives of four competing voices—from the troubled and mercurial figure of Meriwether Lewis, the expedition leader who found that it was impossible to enter paradise without having it crumble around him, to Sacagawea, the Shoshone girl-captive and interpreter for the expedition, whose short life mirrored the disruptive times in which she lived.

When modern-day occultist Aaron Pace discovers the secrets of inter-dimensional travel via a mystical pathway called The Labyrinth, he wastes no time in exploring a multitude of strange new worlds and alternate realities. But then, Aaron finds himself trapped in the most bizarre dimension of all - a place where dinosaurs coexist with giant robots, where cowboys fight reptilian lizard people, and where even the grass can kill you. This is a world populated by the missing and the disappeared, a world where myth is reality and where the extinct is reborn.

Exposing the tense relations between white colonists and African natives, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad explores the history of European colonialism in Africa, which has been known for many reasons as the Dark Continent. The book is framed as a story that is being recounted, focusing on a sailor named Marlow who is employed by an ivory trading company, known simply as the Company.

Set in the 16th century, this classic is the enchanting story of two London boys of opposite social standings. Edward, the Prince of Wales is tired of his life as a royal, so when he encounters a street urchin by the name of Tom who happens to look just like him, the two exchange clothes and roles for a short time. This stunt forever changes the lives of both boys.  

Nowadays, it would not seem an insurmountable task to make it around the world in 80 days. Yet, when Jules Verne published this novel in 1873, this was a phenomenon that many doubted was remotely possible. We are at first introduced to Phileas Fogg, who lives in London and has just fired his valet for silly reasons. Fogg then hires Jean Passepartout who, at the time of hire, has no idea of the adventure that his new boss will take him on. Fogg learns that it is now possible to travel around the world - starting and ending up in London - in only 80 days.

One of Jude Fawley's ambitions in life is a university education, but his dreams come crashing down around him when he is forced into marriage with Arabella. The marriage doesn't last long before his new bride abandons him for a different life. Left with nothing more than his broken dreams, Jude moves to the city of Christminster, where he finds work as a stonemason.

Some of the most beloved characters from Little Women return in Louisa May Alcott’s continuing story of Jo March and her houseful of orphan boys. Jo already has two boys of her own, so when she adds another dozen orphans to her school at the Plumfield Estate, her world quickly becomes a lot more chaotic.