The Best Intentions in the World
Immediate embarkation for the United Arab Emirates Gabriel is a young and ambitious designer. After reaping the benefits of successful business deals in Saudi Arabia, he moves to Dubai to kick start a career in photography. There he befriends the patriarch of the Al Firas family, the owner of most shoppings malls in town and whose saga mirrors the exponential growth of the Arabian metropolis. One day, Khalid Al Firas decides to organise a lottery which rewards the winners with a luxury holiday cruise on the Strait of Hormuz. Six people, from France, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the US, Lebanon and Iran, get the golden ticket. Aboard the “Safineth”, the passengers are informed that a tsunami coming from the Iranian coast is fast heading their way. While the ship weathers the storm, the lucky winners can only witness the destruction of Dubai from the deck. The artificial ‘The World’ island and the Atlantis hotel are soon submerged by the huge wave. The whole world watch flabbergasted and wonder how this natural disaster could ever have occurred. Convinced that such a catastrophe is not a coincidence, Al Firas asks Gabriel to enquire about the passengers’ lives. So, Christophe, Samana, Toni, Sharon, Saeed and Gamzeh are going to reveal their family stories and the reasons which have driven them to Dubai. The account of their existence draws an impressive mosaic of the Middle East plunging the reader in the traditions of this part of the world. Their moving testimonies feature Dubai as a city where feelings and human relations are put to the test and where love inevitably crashes onto its immaculate shores. The novel is a hyperbole that depicts the grandness and decadence of a city built on sand that tries ever so hard to portray a different image of the Arabian world at the expense of losing its soul, identity and integrity. A brilliant psychological novel, between censorship and realism EXTRACT “This is up to me.” “If you say so,” answered cousin Remy, as he dropped me off in front of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, Terminal C. I was not entirely sure what I was signing up for. A terrorist group had rampaged through the Saudi capital a short while ago. Westerners no longer felt safe. The consulates were frantic and garlands of barbed wires had bloomed around every compound. What better time for me to move to Jeddah, a city near the Red Sea, a crucial milestone for traveling pilgrims on their way to Mecca. There, they said, laid Eve, Hawwa. My family had tried to talk me out of it, but it was too late. All the contracts were signed, my suitcases packed and ready to go. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gabriel Malika has been living in the Middle East for more than a decade. From Beirut through Jeddah to Karachi, he has absorbed the beauty and complexity of this tumultuous region. After the success of With the Best Intentions in the World, published in 2011 by editions Intervalles, his second novel, Qatarina was published in 2014.
Wieland
I feel little reluctance in complying with your request. You know not fully the cause of my sorrows. You are a stranger to the depth of my distresses. Hence your efforts at consolation must necessarily fail. Yet the tale that I am going to tell is not intended as a claim upon your sympathy. In the midst of my despair, I do not disdain to contribute what little I can to the benefit of mankind. I acknowledge your right to be informed of the events that have lately happened in my family. Make what use of the tale you shall think proper. If it be communicated to the world, it will inculcate the duty of avoiding deceit. It will exemplify the force of early impressions, and show the immeasurable evils that flow from an erroneous or imperfect discipline. My state is not destitute of tranquillity. The sentiment that dictates my feelings is not hope. Futurity has no power over my thoughts. To all that is to come I am perfectly indifferent. With regard to myself, I have nothing more to fear. Fate has done its worst. Henceforth, I am callous to misfortune. I address no supplication to the Deity. The power that governs the course of human affairs has chosen his path. The decree that ascertained the condition of my life, admits of no recal. No doubt it squares with the maxims of eternal equity. That is neither to be questioned nor denied by me. It suffices that the past is exempt from mutation. The storm that tore up our happiness, and changed into dreariness and desert the blooming scene of our existence, is lulled into grim repose; but not until the victim was transfixed and mangled; till every obstacle was dissipated by its rage; till every remnant of good was wrested from our grasp and exterminated.
Unbullied
Sixteen-year-old Charlie West has nowhere left to turn. A cyberstalker named Conscience has made her life a nightmare, bullying her by remote control. But in Charlie’s darkest hour, she discovers Nil, a radical underground movement using guerilla tactics to crush the worst bullies around. Charlie joins Nil and works high-risk missions, taking down bullies while playing a deadly cat-and-mouse game with her stalker. But when a trusted ally betrays Nil from within, Charlie must stand alone against Conscience...and her high-stakes war against the ultimate bully might just force her to make the ultimate sacrifice. Don't miss this story by award-winning young adult writer Robert Jeschonek, a master of unique and unexpected books that really pack a punch.
Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know of)
The world is Cassie Fremont’s playground. Her face is on the cover of every newspaper. She has no homework, no curfew, and no credit limit, and she spends her days traveling the country with her friends, including a boy who would do the chicken dance with death to make her smile. Life is just about perfect—except that those newspaper headlines are about her bludgeoning her crush to death with a paintball gun, she has to fight ravenous walking corpses every time she steps outside, and one of her friends is still missing, trapped somewhere in the distant, practically impassable wreckage of Manhattan. Still, Cassie’s an optimist, more prone to hysterical laughter than hysterical tears, and she’d rather fight a corpse than be one. She’ll never leave a friend stranded when she can simply take her road trip to impossible new places, even if getting there means admitting to that boy that she might love him as more than her personal jester. Skillfully blending effective horror with unexpected humor, this diary-style novel is a fast-paced and heartwarming read. “Heartbreak, humor, a very large number of crushed skulls and even romance ensue . . . . Readers who don’t mind a little brain spatter on the windshield will be happy they took this particular trip.” --Kirkus Reviews. “You know when you read a book about teens and you think the author just didn’t get it? Well, F.J.R. Titchenell gets video gaming, paintballing, Vespa riding, teenage tomboy angst, true love, the uses of theater paint—oh, and killing zombies.” --Lehua Parker, author of the Nene Award-nominated Niuhi Shark Saga. “The story is fast, filled with dark humor, and lots of blood and guts.” --All Things Urban Fantasy.
Shadow
Christopher Odum spends his life in search of redemption. He had made a vow to the dead, a promise of revenge which leads him to Ibadan where he decided to stop and live a little until the killer appears on his TV screen. He is thrown into a web of violence, politics, corruption, deception, and love at the oddest of hours. No one man can survive these alone except he wasn't a man, except he was something more, a Shadow, a being hidden behind a mask. His journey into becoming a vigilante, a beacon of hope unearths evils that had laid dormant. This is his cross to bear. The Shadow.
The Lost Devil
The story of an assassin who lost his memory and had to start from scratch. Now he has a new family, friends and lovers looking after him. Will he go back to his old ways if he ever recovered his memories?
Bittersweet
Sathya an honest, independent woman who believes that being kind and working hard are the main principles of her life. She is a cook in a famous Indian-Italian restaurant and her dream was to open a restaurant of her own. In her passive life, she never thought about getting married but she eventually weds Raghu under a compulsion. Raghuram a former Commonwealth gold medalist and a retired athlete was now working as a production engineering in a car manufacturing company. He is more like an orphan, he lost his parents in an accident and raised up in a hostel by his Uncle. He was a lone ranger for all his life and finally married Sathya in an unusual circumstance. Their relationship started with an untold truth, grief, and doubts but will they able to continue it carrying them in their hearts?
Widow Next Door
People always thought that I was lucky enough to have a beautiful and considerate wife, but they didn't know that secrets were always lurking behind a facade of family togetherness. Fiona Ardana was a sexy and curvy widow who had just divorced her husband and moved into my next door with her son. I never expect that I would have any connection with her, but one day, she knocked on my door...
Less Money, More Love
Rachel is a wealthy young woman who wants to escape her domineering father and an arranged marriage that can only lead her to a life without happiness. Deciding to escape to a small English town, she has to learn how to make a living on her own, while having to deal with a man who challenges her to learn about life… and love. *** “She could not escape how Arthur was making her feel. It was new, but sensual. Although they were at the bar, they were both focused on each other; the entire world seemed to disappear from view. Arthur’s glance was locked in at her lips. It was a different way for him to relate to Rachel, but she seemed open to his physical closeness and sexual advances. Was it possible to have intimacy in a bar full of people? It felt like a magnet was drawing them together, closer and closer, until both found themselves leaning in for a kiss.” Less Money, More Love is created by April McQueen, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.
Papal Plunder
A fiercely ambitious Saudi prince. An international bounty hunter. Only one can get what he wants.Someone’s stealing art that’s not supposed to exist. Items presumed lost to history when the Nazis fell. When Alex Pope gets contracted by an ancient insurance company to bring in this thief, he never expects to get involved with one of the big power players in Saudi Arabian politics. A man with the loyalty of the National Guard at his fingertips. A man with no qualms to wield this power to get what he wants. A man who has never known failure in his life. Anonymity in a Saudi prison, being framed for an international incident, certain death—all of these threaten Alex hours after he lands in Riyadh. The stakes have seldom been this high.How do you escape a man with an entire police force at his disposal? ***Papal Plunder is the second book in Gene Tooms' Action Series starring Fugitive Recovery Artist, Alex Pope.If you’re into so-real-you-can-taste-the-blood-and-smell-the-sweat action, if you’re okay to stay up all night reading, and if you crave a lead that’s not just “another Jack Reacher”, then Papal Plunder is exactly what you want to read next. Click Buy Now and Immediately start (or continue) your Alex Pope Journey.