First published in 1975, this story tells of how a chance meeting in a café, a piece of grit delicately removed by a gentleman from a lady's eye give birth to an affair... a brief yet unrelenting emotional tug-of-war between two people whose spontaneous desire clashes head-on with the 'facts' of their existence.There is Anna, married to Graham and happily content with her home life and two children. There is Alec, trapped in a loveless marriage to cool, uninvolved Melanie, looking to his work as a doctor for fulfillment. Between them a flame is kindled that splendidly ignites a passion way beyond the well-constructed limits of their imaginations. Then comes the test. Can they transform their dream into a lasting love or must it founder on the hard rocks of reality?Brief Encounter is also a major film starring Sophia Loren and Richard Burton

Walking on the sand before breakfast, Carolus Deene's cousin Fay, who was staying on the Suffolk coast, had come upon the head of Lilliane Bomberger, the celebrated and universally detested novelist. The body was buried in the sand with only the head protruding; at least one tide had washed over it. Before this frustrating case ends, three murders are committed. This is vintage Bruce, mixing thrills and chills with unique humor.

Killing Time is a psychological novel about crime. The hero, Joseph Detweiler, is the world's most courteous, sensitive, sincere, and likable killer. He is even innocent of the fact that a crime has been committed.This tough and bizarre story breaks all the rules. It is not a whodunit, because the killer is already known. It is not a detective story or a sociological treatise on crime, because it is told from the point of view of the criminal.

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg™ License (available with this file or online at http://gutenberg.net/license ).

This volume of Handke's plays includes two full-length and four shorter plays by the young Austrian playwright.  The first of the full-length plays, The Ride Across Lake Constance, is one of Handke's best-known works.  It deals directly with one of Handke's favorite themes: the realities of theater itself, independent of the offstage world, and the way language (dialogue) and objects (props) operate in the skewed world of the stage.Therein it anticipates They Are Dying Out, Handke's most recent full-length play, which is also in this volume.  In some ways more conventional than many of Handke's plays, They Are Dying Out presents one of his most fascinating protagonists, Quitt, a businessman who first induces a group of colleagues to set up a monopoly and then torpedoes the scheme.The four short plays that round out the book--Prophecy, Calling for Help, Quodlibet, and My Foot My Tutor--were written between 1966 and 1969, before The Ride Across Lake Constance (1971), and show Handke moving from the experimental mode of his early work toward the richness and complexity that have marked him as the most important dramatist since Becket; they bear witness to the truth of Richard Gilman's observation that "in Handke's theater, language, exposed, assaulted, wrestled with, driven to limits, and pursued still further, begins to take on, like the color returning to the cheeks of a nearly hanged man, the signs of a strange and unexpected resurrection."Language NotesText: English, German (translation)

A story of passion and heroism from a violent land ? Mexico in the 1920s? ?a place and a time when life was cheap and survival was for those who fought dirtiest. A year after the Revolution, violent unrest still simmers across rural Mexico. In the northern foothills of the Sierra Madre, the country's most renowned assassin turned psychotic bandit has dispensed with any need for rules. Plenty of men had tried to take Tomas de la Plata. But never another trained killer, who is fighting to escape the death sentence. Emmet Keogh fled a bitter war in Ireland, only to find himself halfway across the world and on the wrong side of the law. Now he has a choice. To kill the most dangerous man in Mexico ? or face death by firing squad.

After one of their own people repeatedly fails to live up to a pact with the Devil, a petty and morally backrupt village community is plagued by a swarm of deadly black spiders. Using a complex narrative structure, Gotthelf's cautionary novella shrewdly dissects teh iniquitous social dynamics of rural life.First published in 1842, The Black Spider displays its author's talent for dark satire and realism, as well as the visionay powers of his imagination.Translated by H. M. Waidson

Amazon.com ReviewThe citizens of the planet Lithia are some of the most ethical sentient beings Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez has ever encountered. True, they have no literature, no fine arts, and don't understand the concept of recreation, but neither do they understand the concepts of greed, envy, lust, or any of the sins and vices that plague humankind. Their world seems darned near perfect. And that is just what disturbs the good Father.First published in 1959, James Blish's Hugo Award-winning A Case of Conscience is science fiction at its very best: a fast-paced, intelligent story that offers plenty of action while at the same time explores complex questions of values and ethics. In this case, Blish has taken on the age-old battle of good vs. evil. Lithia poses a theological question that lies at the heart of this book: is God necessary for a moral society? The Lithians are nothing if not moral. Not only do they lack the seven deadly sins, they also lack original sin. And without any sort of religious framework, they have created the Christian ideal world, one that humans would be eager to study and emulate. But is it too perfect? Is it in fact, as Father Ruiz-Sanchez suspects, the work of The Adversary? And what role does Egtverchi, the young Lithian raised on Earth, play? Is he an innocent victim of circumstance, or will he bring about the Dies Irae, the day of the wrath of God, upon the earth? The fate of two worlds hinges on the answers to these questions, and will lead to an ancient earth heresy that shakes the Jesuit priest's beliefs to their very core.A Case of Conscience is a brilliant piece of storytelling, and it packs a lot into a scant 242 pages. Most readers will probably finish the book in one sitting, unable to stop until the spectacular denouement. But the questions posed by this little-known gem will stay with you for days afterward. --P.M. AtterberryFrom the Inside FlapFather Ruiz-Sanchez is a dedicated man--a priest who is also a scientist, and a scientist who is also a human being. He has found no insoluble conflicts in his beliefs or his ethics . . . until he is sent to Lithia. There he comes upon a race of aliens who are admirable in every way except for their total reliance on cold reason; they are incapable of faith or belief.Confronted with a profound scientific riddle and ethical quandary, Father Ruiz-Sanchez soon finds himself torn between the teachings of his faith, the teachings of his science, and the inner promptings of his humanity. There is only one solution: He must accept an ancient and unforgivable heresy--and risk the futures of both worlds . . .

THE SCI-FI SERIES THAT’S EXPLODING IN POPULARITY Take two astronauts time-warped 1000 years into the future to find human civilization destroyed and the Apes in control—and you have a terrifying vision of what the world may someday be like: The Orangutans rule.The clever Chimpanzees are the administrators and bureaucrats.The powerful and brutal Gorillas staff the military and police.And Humans are enslaved. Only the astronauts Burke and Virdon, and their companion Galen are free in this savage world. But theirs is the freedom of perpetual fugitives . . . “The Tyrant,” based on the teleplay by Walter Black“The Gladiators,” based on the teleplay by Art Wallace

The inhabitants of a planet Iszm, a species known as the Iszic, have evolved the native giant trees into living homes, with all needs and various luxuries supplied by the trees’ own natural growth. The Iszic maintain a jealously guarded monopoly, exporting only enough trees to keep prices high and make a great profit. Ailie Farr, a human botanist, goes to Iszm (like many others before him, of many species) to steal a female tree, which might allow the propagation of the species off world and break the monopoly.

Spock's BrainThe Enemy WithinCatspawWhere No Man Has Gone BeforeWolf in the FoldFor the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky