Vintage Books – Knjiga.hr

Three Famous Short Novels: Spotted Horses, Old Man, The Bear

Mon, 25 May 2026 18:17:40 +0000

This volume gathers three of William Faulkner’s most celebrated novellas, all set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi. In “Spotted Horses,” a wry, energetic tale, the arrival of untamed ponies exposes the pride, greed, and comic stubbornness of small-town life. “Old Man” follows a convict swept up in the great Mississippi flood, transforming an ordeal of survival into a meditation on endurance and unexpected responsibility. “The Bear,” often considered one of Faulkner’s finest achievements, traces a young boy’s coming of age during annual hunting trips, confronting the vanishing wilderness and the burden of Southern history. Faulkner, a Nobel Prize–winning author, is renowned for his layered prose and profound exploration of memory, race, and moral struggle in the American South. These novellas showcase his range—from humor to high drama—and offer an accessible entry into his richly imagined world for both longtime admirers and new readers.

Cutting for Stone

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:45:54 +0000

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of The Covenant of Water: A beautifully written, page-turning family saga of Ethiopia and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. • “Filled with mystical scenes and deeply felt characters…. Verghese is something of a magician as a novelist.” —USA Today Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined. This sweeping, emotionally riveting novel that shows how history and landscape and accidents of birth conspire to create the story of a single life (Los Angeles Times).

A Pale View of Hills

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:44:28 +0000

A quiet, haunting debut novel set between postwar Nagasaki and England, this book follows Etsuko, a Japanese woman living in the English countryside, as she reflects on her past after a family tragedy. Her memories center on a friendship with a troubled young mother and her child in the devastated landscape of 1950s Japan. As Etsuko recounts these recollections, questions emerge about memory, guilt, and the stories we tell ourselves to live with loss. Spare and atmospheric, the novel explores displacement, cultural change, and the lingering shadows of war. Kazuo Ishiguro, later awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, is known for his subtle, unreliable narrators and emotional restraint; here, those qualities are already fully formed. This is a compelling choice for readers who appreciate nuanced psychological fiction and quietly unsettling narratives that reveal their depths gradually.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 18:57:18 +0000

A bestselling novel that blends mystery, humor, and emotional depth, this story follows fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone, a mathematically gifted teenager who sets out to investigate the suspicious death of a neighbor’s dog. Narrated in Christopher’s distinctive, logical voice, the book offers a vivid portrait of how he experiences the world, capturing both his challenges and his remarkable strengths. As his investigation unfolds, it leads him far beyond the original mystery and forces him to confront unsettling truths about his own family. Written by British author Mark Haddon, the novel is celebrated for its inventive structure and compassionate insight. Exploring themes of trust, communication, independence, and the nature of truth, it appeals to readers who enjoy character-driven fiction and unconventional narrators. Both poignant and unexpectedly funny, it remains a memorable and thought-provoking read.

The Redneck Way of Knowledge

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:34:50 +0000

Roman koji se bavi američkim Jugom, njegovim društvenim slojevima, obiteljskim vezama i osebujnim humorom, donoseći istodobno oštru i suosjećajnu sliku svijeta koji se često stereotipno promatra izvana. Kroz glas pripovjedačice oblikuje se priča o odrastanju, identitetu i pokušaju razumijevanja vlastitih korijena, u okruženju obilježenom klasnim razlikama, rodnim očekivanjima i napetostima unutar zajednice. Autorica je poznata po svojim djelima smještenima na američki Jug, gdje istražuje teme rase, roda i društvene nejednakosti, često kombinirajući ironiju, satiru i emocionalnu dubinu. Njezin stil karakterizira živ, duhovit i pronicljiv jezik te sposobnost da kompleksne društvene teme prikaže kroz intimne, osobne priče. Ova knjiga mogla bi privući čitatelje koji vole suvremenu američku književnost s izraženim regionalnim koloritom, kao i one koje zanimaju priče o obitelji, društvenim konvencijama i traženju vlastitog mjesta u svijetu. Istodobno duhovita i ozbiljna, nudi slojevito čitateljsko iskustvo koje ostaje u mislima i nakon posljednje stranice.

Backpacking one step at a time

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:13:33 +0000

Near Fine Hardcover Stated First Printing of June, 1972. Text/BRAND NEW. Green linen boards/Fine. DJ/Fine. Trace soiling to fEP & lower text edge. Reference/resource and manual/guide to the art of backpacking illustrated with photos and lively cartoons. A book, rich with information, dedicated to footpower and to swelling the ranks of hikers who tred lightly with respect for nature and leaving as slight an imprint as possible. 18 chapters in three parts: I, Off & Away Onto the Trail; II, Equipment: Everything You Always Wanted to Know & Then Some; and, III, Elaborating the Art. The last chapter is The New Ethic … the green way of bakpacking.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:09:05 +0000

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers is a memoir that chronicles the author’s early twenties turmoil after both parents die of cancer within five weeks—his father from lung cancer, his mother soon after from stomach cancer—leaving 22-year-old Eggers to raise his eight-year-old brother Toph alongside siblings Beth and Bill. They relocate from Illinois to California, where Eggers grapples with grief, makeshift parenting, and chaotic young adulthood, co-founding the satirical magazine Might amid financial woes, depression, and absurd escapades like kidney stones and friends’ near-death scares. Blending raw vulnerability, self-deprecating humor, and meta-narrative flair—complete with a prefatory Usage guide and digressions—the book captures resilience, sibling bonds, and the absurdity of tragedy.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:46:08 +0000

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is a historical fiction novel presented as the autobiography of Sayuri Nitta, a renowned geisha in Kyoto’s Gion district. Set in pre-World War II Japan, it chronicles the life of Chiyo Sakamoto, a poor girl from a remote fishing village who is sold into servitude at age nine and endures harsh training under the cruel geisha Hatsumomo. With mentorship from the elegant Mameha, Chiyo reinvents herself as Sayuri, mastering arts like dance and tea ceremony while navigating rivalries, auctions of her virginity, and a secret love for the enigmatic Chairman, all amid the encroaching war that disrupts geisha life.

Birthday Stories

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 19:16:28 +0000

Birthday Stories is a 2002 anthology edited by Haruki Murakami, compiling 12 short stories by authors like Denis Johnson, David Foster Wallace, and William Trevor, all centered on birthdays that evoke melancholy, loss, introspection, and the passage of time rather than celebration. Despite the festive theme, tales explore family tensions, ghostly regrets, unexpected visitors, and quiet reflections on aging, blending nostalgia, anger, and surreal elements in a Kafkaesque style. The collection concludes with Murakami’s own Birthday Girl, a modern fairy tale about a waitress on her 20th birthday who receives a mysterious wish from a restaurant owner, inspired by real events and leaving readers with open-ended questions on acceptance and gratitude.

Dark Continent: Europe s Twentieth Century

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 18:46:43 +0000

Dark Continent provides an alternative history of the twentieth century, one in which the triumph of democracy was anything but a forgone conclusion and fascism and communism provided rival political solutions that battled and sometimes triumphed in an effort to determine the course the continent would take. Mark Mazower strips away myths that have comforted us since World War II, revealing Europe as an entity constantly engaged in a bloody project of self-invention. Here is a history not of inevitable victories and forward marches, but of narrow squeaks and unexpected twists, where townships boast a bronze of Mussolini on horseback one moment, only to melt it down and recast it as a pair of noble partisans the next.