The Matchmaker of Perigord

$24.95 AUD

Category: General

The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino

$36.95 AUD

Category: Literature

Elaine Sciolino, the former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times, invites us on a tour of her favourite Parisian street. "I can never be sad on the rue des Martyrs", Sciolino explains as she celebrates the area's rich history and vibrant lives. While many cities suffer from the levelling effects of globalisation, the rue des Martyrs maintains its distinct allure. Sciolino reveals the charms and idiosyncrasies of this street and its residents-the Tunisian greengrocer, the husband-and-wife cheesemongers, the showman who's been running a transvestite cabaret for more than half a century, the owner of a 100-year-old bookstore, the woman who repairs eighteenth-century mercury barometers-making Paris come alive in all its majesty. The Only Street in Paris will make readers hungry for Paris and for the kind of street life that is all too quickly disappearing. ...Show more

Submission by Michel Houellebecq

$32.99 AUD

Category: General | Reading Level: very good

In a near-future France, Francois, a middle-aged academic, is watching his life slowly dwindle to nothing. His sex drive is diminished, his parents are dead, and his lifelong obsession - the ideas and works of the nineteenth-century novelist and pessimist Joris-Karl Huysmans - has led him nowhere. In a late-capitalist society where consumerism has become the new religion, Francois is spiritually barren, but seeking to fill the vacuum of his existence with something. And he is not alone. As the 2022 Presidential election approaches, two candidates emerge as favourites: Marine Le Pen of the Front National, and Muhammed Ben Abbes of the nascent Muslim Fraternity. Forming a controversial alliance with the mainstream parties, Ben Abbes sweeps to power, and overnight the country is transformed. Islamic law comes into force: women are veiled, polygamy is encouraged and, for Francois, life is set on a new course. Submission is both a devastating satire and a profound and painfully sharp meditation on isolation, faith and love. It is a startling new work by one of the most provocative and prescient novelists of today. ...Show more