Knopf Fiction Excerpts

New Lives by John E. Woods

2008-10-21T00:30:00-05:00

New Lives
Written by Ingo Schulze
Translated by John E. Woods

Hardcover, 592 pages | Knopf | Fiction | $28.95 | 978-0-307-26559-3 (0-307-26559-5)

[Saturday, Jan. 6. ’90]

[To Vera]

. . . like that?” Instead of trotting along behind us as usual so that he could demand a reward for every step he took, Robert bounded ahead like a puppy. We had to cross a hollow, the snow had a bluish sparkle and came up to... Read More

The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike

2008-10-21T00:30:00-05:00

The Widows of Eastwick
Written by John Updike

Hardcover, 320 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Literary | $24.95 | 978-0-307-26960-7 (0-307-26960-4)

i. The Coven Reconstituted

Those of us acquainted with their sordid and scandalous story were not surprised to hear, by way of rumors from the various localities where the sorceresses had settled after fleeing our venerable town of Eastwick, Rhode Island, that the husbands whom the three Godforsaken women had by their... Read More

A Partisan's Daughter by Louis de Berni�res

2008-10-07T00:30:00-05:00

A Partisan's Daughter
Written by Louis de Berni�res

Hardcover, 208 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Literary | $23.95 | 978-0-307-26887-7 (0-307-26887-X)

The Girl on the Street Corner

I am not the sort of man who goes to prostitutes.

Well, I suppose that every man would say that. People would disbelieve it just because you felt you had to say it. It’s a self-defeating statement. If I had any sense I’d delete it and start... Read More

A Country Called Home by Kim Barnes

2008-09-30T00:30:00-05:00

A Country Called Home
Written by Kim Barnes

Hardcover, 288 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Literary | $23.95 | 978-0-307-26895-2 (0-307-26895-0)

Chapter One

1960

The druggist waited, whistling, looking out the window, nodding to each person who passed along the Main Street of Fife. It was early, the bank not yet open. The warming September wind wafted through the door seams. On the north hill, he could see the sun just hitting the flat... Read More

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Reg Keeland

2008-09-16T00:30:00-05:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Written by Stieg Larsson
Translated by Reg Keeland

Hardcover, 480 pages | Knopf | Fiction | $24.95 | 978-0-307-26975-1 (0-307-26975-2)

A Friday in November

It happened every year, was almost a ritual. And this was his eighty-second birthday. When, as usual, the flower was delivered, he took off the wrapping paper and then picked up the telephone to call Detective Superintendent Morell who, when he retired, had moved to Lake Siljan in... Read More

The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam

2008-09-09T00:30:00-05:00

The Wasted Vigil
Written by Nadeem Aslam

Hardcover, 336 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Literary | $25.00 | 978-0-307-26842-6 (0-307-26842-X)

The Great Buddha

Her mind is a haunted house.

The woman named Lara looks up at an imagined noise. Folding away the letter she has been rereading, she moves towards the window with its high view of the garden. Out there the dawn sky is filling up with light though a few of... Read More

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

2008-09-02T00:30:00-05:00

The Gone-Away World
Written by Nick Harkaway

Hardcover, 512 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Literary | $25.95 | 978-0-307-26886-0 (0-307-26886-1)

The Gone-Away World

The lights went out in the Nameless Bar just after nine. I was bent over the pool table with one hand in the bald patch behind the D, which Flynn the Barman claimed was beer, but which was the same size and shape as Mrs. Flynn the Barman's arse... Read More

Send (Revised Edition) by Will Schwalbe

2008-09-02T00:30:00-05:00

Send (Revised Edition) Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better
Written by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe

Hardcover, 288 pages | Knopf | Business & Economics - Business Writing | $19.95 | 978-0-307-27060-3 (0-307-27060-2)

INTRODUCTION
Why Do We Email So Badly?

Bad things can happen on email. Consider Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who committed the following thoughts to email during the very worst days of Hurricane Katrina.

From: Michael Brown
To: FEMA Staff
August 29, 2005

Are you proud... Read More

The Fifth Floor by Michael Harvey

2008-08-26T00:30:00-05:00

The Fifth Floor
Written by Michael Harvey

Hardcover, 288 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Mystery & Detective | $23.95 | 978-0-307-26687-3 (0-307-26687-7)

CHAPTER 1

I pushed the slim volume of poetry across my desk and into her lap. The woman with auburn hair, perfect posture, and a broken life picked it up.

"I can't read this," she said, and lifted her head.

"That's because it's in Latin," I said. "Why don't you take off the sunglasses?"

"Why... Read More

A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker

2008-08-19T00:30:00-05:00

A Stopover in Venice
Written by Kathryn Walker

Hardcover, 320 pages | Knopf | Fiction | $24.95 | 978-0-307-26706-1 (0-307-26706-7)

Watching the train roll out of the station, picking up speed, it occurred to me that I had been impetuous. Disappearing down the track, within that train, were the only human beings of my acquaintance in northern Italy—in all of Italy, for that matter, if you didn’t count Guido, the ingratiating... Read More

A Blessed Child by Sarah Death

2008-08-12T00:30:00-05:00

A Blessed Child
Written by Linn Ullmann
Translated by Sarah Death

Hardcover, 320 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Literary | $24.95 | 978-0-307-26547-0 (0-307-26547-1)

I

The Road

In the winter of 2005, Erika went to see her father, Isak Lövenstad. The journey was taking longer than expected, and she felt a strong urge to turn around and drive back to Oslo, but she pressed on, keeping her mobile phone on the seat beside her so she could... Read More

Leather Maiden by Joe R. Lansdale

2008-08-05T00:30:00-05:00

Leather Maiden
Written by Joe R. Lansdale

Hardcover, 304 pages | Knopf | Fiction | $23.95 | 978-0-375-41452-7 (0-375-41452-5)

When you grow up in a place, especially if your childhood is a good one, you fail to notice a lot of the nasty things that creep beneath the surface and wriggle about like hungry worms in rotten flesh. But they’re there. Sometimes you have to dig to discover them, or... Read More

Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu

2008-08-05T00:30:00-05:00

Train to Trieste
Written by Domnica Radulescu

Hardcover, 320 pages | Knopf | Fiction; Fiction - Literary; Fiction - Political | $23.95 | 978-0-307-26823-5 (0-307-26823-3)

Orange Moons I have left the Black Sea, my skin golden and salty, and my tangled hair brighter from the sun, to take the train that crosses the land by the violet-blue waters and the sunflower fields near Bucharest, then cuts through mountains into resin-pungent forest.

I am seventeen. Every summer... Read More

Knopf Fiction Excerpts

New Lives by John E. Woods

New Lives Written by Ingo Schulze Translated by John E. Woods

The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike

The Widows of Eastwick Written by John Updike

A Partisan's Daughter by Louis de Berni�res

A Partisan's Daughter Written by Louis de Berni�res

A Country Called Home by Kim Barnes

A Country Called Home Written by Kim Barnes