NOTEBOOK READ BY THE AUTHOR
ALFRED & EMILY
In this extraordinary book, Lessing offers a moving meditation on parents and children, war and memory, as she explores the lives of her parents, two individuals irrevocably damaged by the Great War. In the fictional first half of Alfred & Emily , Lessing imagines the happier lives her parents might have led had there been no war. This is followed by a piercing examination of their relationship as it actually was in the shadow of the war, the familyâs move to Africa, and the impact of their strained union on their daughter, a young woman growing up in a strange land.
TIME BITES: VIEWS AND REVIEWS
In this collection of the very best of Doris Lessingâs essays, we are treated to the wisdom and keen insight of a writer who has learned, over the course of a brilliant career spanning more than half a century, to read the world differently. From imagining the secret sex life of Tolstoy to the secrets of Sufism, from reviews of classic books to commentaries on world politics, these essays cover an impressive range of subjects, cultures, periods, and themes, yet they are remarkably consistent in one key regard: Lessingâs clear-eyed vision and clearly expressed prose.
THE CLEFT
In the last years of his life, a contemplative Roman senator embarks on one last epic endeavor: to retell the history of human creation and reveal the little-known story of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic coastal wilderness. The Clefts have neither need nor knowledge of men; childbirth is controlled through the cycles of the moon, and they bear only female children. But with the unheralded birth of a strange new childâa boyâthe harmony of their community is suddenly thrown into jeopardy.
In this fascinating and beguiling novel, Lessing confronts the themes that inspired much of her early writing: how men and women manage to live side by side in the world and how the troublesome particulars of gender affect every aspect of our existence.
MARA AND DANN
Thousands of years in the future, all the northernhemisphere is buried under the ice and snow of a new Ice Age. At the southern end of a large landmass called Ifrik, two children of the Mahondi people, seven-year-old Mara and her younger brother, Dann, are abducted from their home in the middle of the night. Raised as outsiders in a poor rural village, Mara and Dann learn to survive the hardships and dangers of a life threatened as much by an unforgiving climate and menacing animals as by a hostile community of Rock People. Eventually they join the great human migration North, away from the drought that is turning the southern land to dust and in search of a place with enough water and food to support human life. Traveling across the continent, the siblings enter cities rife with crime, power struggles, and corruption, learning as much about human nature as about how societies function. With a clear-eyed vision of the human condition, Mara and Dann is imaginative fiction at its best.
THE STORY OF GENERAL DANN AND MARAâS DAUGHTER, GRIOT AND THE SNOW DOG
Dann is grown up now, hunting for knowledge and despondent over the inadequacies of his civilization. With his trusted companionsâMaraâs daughter, his hope for the future; the abandoned child-soldier Griot, who discovers the meaning of love and the ability to sing stories; and the snow dog, a faithful friend who brings him back from the depths of despairâDann embarks on a strange and captivating adventure in a suddenly colder, more watery climate in the north.
THE GRANDMOTHERS: FOUR SHORT NOVELS
In the title novel, two friends fall in love with each otherâs teenage sons, and these passions last for years, until the women end them, vowing to have a respectable old age. In Victoria and the Staveneys , a young woman gives birth to a child of mixed race and struggles with feelings of estrangement as her daughter gets drawn into a
ALFRED & EMILY
In this extraordinary book, Lessing offers a moving meditation on parents and children, war and memory, as she explores the lives of her parents, two individuals irrevocably damaged by the Great War. In the fictional first half of Alfred & Emily , Lessing imagines the happier lives her parents might have led had there been no war. This is followed by a piercing examination of their relationship as it actually was in the shadow of the war, the familyâs move to Africa, and the impact of their strained union on their daughter, a young woman growing up in a strange land.
TIME BITES: VIEWS AND REVIEWS
In this collection of the very best of Doris Lessingâs essays, we are treated to the wisdom and keen insight of a writer who has learned, over the course of a brilliant career spanning more than half a century, to read the world differently. From imagining the secret sex life of Tolstoy to the secrets of Sufism, from reviews of classic books to commentaries on world politics, these essays cover an impressive range of subjects, cultures, periods, and themes, yet they are remarkably consistent in one key regard: Lessingâs clear-eyed vision and clearly expressed prose.
THE CLEFT
In the last years of his life, a contemplative Roman senator embarks on one last epic endeavor: to retell the history of human creation and reveal the little-known story of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic coastal wilderness. The Clefts have neither need nor knowledge of men; childbirth is controlled through the cycles of the moon, and they bear only female children. But with the unheralded birth of a strange new childâa boyâthe harmony of their community is suddenly thrown into jeopardy.
In this fascinating and beguiling novel, Lessing confronts the themes that inspired much of her early writing: how men and women manage to live side by side in the world and how the troublesome particulars of gender affect every aspect of our existence.
MARA AND DANN
Thousands of years in the future, all the northernhemisphere is buried under the ice and snow of a new Ice Age. At the southern end of a large landmass called Ifrik, two children of the Mahondi people, seven-year-old Mara and her younger brother, Dann, are abducted from their home in the middle of the night. Raised as outsiders in a poor rural village, Mara and Dann learn to survive the hardships and dangers of a life threatened as much by an unforgiving climate and menacing animals as by a hostile community of Rock People. Eventually they join the great human migration North, away from the drought that is turning the southern land to dust and in search of a place with enough water and food to support human life. Traveling across the continent, the siblings enter cities rife with crime, power struggles, and corruption, learning as much about human nature as about how societies function. With a clear-eyed vision of the human condition, Mara and Dann is imaginative fiction at its best.
THE STORY OF GENERAL DANN AND MARAâS DAUGHTER, GRIOT AND THE SNOW DOG
Dann is grown up now, hunting for knowledge and despondent over the inadequacies of his civilization. With his trusted companionsâMaraâs daughter, his hope for the future; the abandoned child-soldier Griot, who discovers the meaning of love and the ability to sing stories; and the snow dog, a faithful friend who brings him back from the depths of despairâDann embarks on a strange and captivating adventure in a suddenly colder, more watery climate in the north.
THE GRANDMOTHERS: FOUR SHORT NOVELS
In the title novel, two friends fall in love with each otherâs teenage sons, and these passions last for years, until the women end them, vowing to have a respectable old age. In Victoria and the Staveneys , a young woman gives birth to a child of mixed race and struggles with feelings of estrangement as her daughter gets drawn into a
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