Showing results by narrator "Edoardo Ballerini" in All Categories

Gabriel Allon has been awarded a commission to restore one of the most important paintings in Venice. But when he discovers the body of a mysterious woman floating in the waters of the Venetian Lagoon, he finds himself in a desperate race to recover a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting, a portrait of a beautiful young girl, has been gathering dust in a storeroom at the Vatican Museums for more than a century, misattributed and hidden beneath a worthless picture by an unknown artist.

From the rugged mudflats of the Northwestern frontier to a rusting strip mall, West of Here is a conversation between two epochs. In his eagerly awaited second novel, Jonathan Evison tells the stories of the people who first inhabited the mythical town of Port Bonita in Washington State from 1887-1891. Moving ahead more than a century to 2005-06, he introduces those who live there now and must deal with the damage done by their predecessors.

Bridge and Nicole are given a job by Eric Happ. And like most jobs that are assigned by the government, there is more than meets the eye with this one. Their assignment seems simple enough at first. They just have to take out a man in Venezuela, who’s trying to start his own criminal empire down there. But the simple assignment will quickly become more complicated as unfriendly faces recognize Bridge, which could throw the whole job into chaos.

When your new employer tasks you with investigating the first successful mass shooting in twelve years, it’s understandable to be nervous. Fortunately, detective-in-training Cowan Soto has a Personal Brain Assistant—a cybernetic implant—that allows him to firewall pesky emotions like worry and guilt and redact memories of bullet-riddled corpses. Unfortunately, Cowan soon learns it was his suspect’s PBA which allowed a ruthless hacker to puppet her into a shooting rampage.

Jack London’s semi-autobiographical novel, Martin Eden, follows a working-class sailor working feverishly to become a successful writer, while struggling with his love for a society girl.

An extraordinary work of fiction, inspired by historical events - an exquisitely crafted double portrait of a Nazi war criminal and a family savaged by World War II, conjoined by an actual house of horrors they both called home....

Twelve thousand years ago, when the glaciers melted, the level of human sentience mysteriously surged. After millions of years of slow and steady growth, it's as if a light switch had suddenly been thrown. Was it extraterrestrials, gods, or supernatural beings that lit that spark? What if that ancient knowledge and those helping hands that lifted us out of the darkness of our caves and into the light of our easy chairs were closer to home?

Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire prankster, is rich enough to do whatever he likes. And what he likes is to carefully execute projects where he can cauterize by ridicule what the rest of the world ignores: Complacency, greed, corruption, and idiocy. Determined to "make it hot for people," Grand spends his billions staging a series of hilarious, sometimes bewildering stunts, lampooning along the way the American holy cows of money, status, power, beauty, media, and stardom.

A Line in the Sand captures the essence of the Middle East with a richly detailed historical fiction of two lifelong friends - Magnus and Finn - thrown into a sleuthing adventure where mysteries of the Middle East and its people are gradually revealed. Following the trail of clues left by one TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - the Gentlemen ramble from Europe to the Levant to Arabia as their quest gains momentum, the situation on the ground unwinds, and history repeats itself.

After losing everything but his life, a young man forges a new identity for himself in the jungles of Vietnam and on the gritty streets of New York in this epic and riveting tale of crime, punishment, and redemption.

Bridge and Nicole are hired by a woman who's lost her gold coins. They follow the man that took them down to South America, where he intends to sell them to the highest bidder. Things don't quite go according to plan, though, as they run into the con man before he's able to rid himself of the coins. It becomes a cat-and-mouse game between Bridge and the con man, who acts more like a friend than a foe. Can Bridge and Nicole take the coins before the man can get rid of them? Or will they have to alter their plans if they're unable to stop him?

A reckless wager between a tennis pro with a fading career and a drunken party guest - the stakes are an antique motorcycle and an heiress' diamond necklace - launches a narrative odyssey that braids together three centuries of aspiration and adversity. In The Maze at Windermere Gregory Blake Smith weaves these intersecting worlds into a brilliant tapestry, charting a voyage across the ages into the maze of the human heart.

The legendary Academy award-winning writer and director takes the listener on a unique joyride of personal memoir, cultural criticism and Hollywood history. For the first time, in his own words, explore the mind, the myth, and the movie magic of the one and only Quentin Tarantino.

The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money’s good, he doesn’t think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly’s first legal gig - a supply run for the Seattle Underground - will be paid for by sap money. New Orleans is not Cly’s first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early - but that was a decade ago, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Karl Ove Knausgaard writes about his childhood and teenage years, his infatuation with rock music, his relationship with his loving yet almost invisible mother and his distant and unpredictable father and his bewilderment and grief on his father’s death. When Karl Ove becomes a father himself, he must balance the demands of caring for a young family with his determination to write great literature. Knausgaard has created a universal story of the struggles, great and small, that we all face in our lives.

A masterpiece of American individualism, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience is considered by many to be one of the most important pieces of political and philosophical writings ever produced by an American. Thoreau wrote the essay because of his opposition to slavery and the Mexican-American War. When the government engages in actions that are unjust, he believed that citizens should completely withdraw their support of the government and stop paying taxes, even if it results in imprisonment or violence.

Four friends, recent college graduates, caught in a terrible job market, joke about turning to kidnapping to survive. And then, suddenly, it's no joke. For two years, the strategy they devise - quick, efficient, low risk - works like a charm. Until they kidnap the wrong man. Now two groups they've very much wanted to avoid are after them - the law, in the form of veteran state investigator Kirk Stevens and hotshot young FBI agent Carla Windermere, and an organized-crime outfit looking for payback.

Theo Byrne is a promising young astrobiologist who has found a way to search for life on other planets dozens of light years away. He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old. His son, Robin, is funny, loving and filled with plans. He thinks and feels deeply, adores animals and can spend hours painting elaborate pictures. He is also on the verge of being expelled from third grade, for smashing his friend's face with a metal thermos.

Italo Calvino was only 23 when he first published this bold and imaginative novel. It tells the story of Pin, a cobbler's apprentice in a town on the Ligurian coast during World War II. He lives with his sister, a prostitute, and spends as much time as he can at a seedy bar where he amuses the adult patrons. After a mishap with a Nazi soldier, Pin becomes involved with a band of partisans. Calvino's portrayal of these characters, seen through the eyes of a child, is not only a revealing commentary on the Italian resistance but an insightful coming-of-age story.

Dr. Dylan Reinhart wrote the book on criminal behavior. Literally—he's a renowned, bestselling Ivy League expert on the subject. When a copy of his book turns up at a gruesome murder scene—along with a threatening message from the killer—it looks like someone has been taking notes. Elizabeth Needham is the brilliant NYPD Detective in charge of the case who recruits Dylan to help investigate another souvenir left at the scene—a playing card. Another murder, another card—Dylan suspects that the cards aren't a signature, but a deadly hint, pointing toward the next victim.