Showing results for title "The Cuckoo" in Genre Fiction

Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Turning conventional notions of sanity and insanity on their heads, the novel tells the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her.

Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.

On the eve of the global lockdown, Don Barlow opens the door of his old beachside cottage to find a pretty girl with pink-tipped hair, claiming to have nowhere to go. He allows her entry, and so begins a mystery set in unprecedented times: with the virus raging outside their home, the girl cannot be asked to leave, but what does he risk by having her stay?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the most electrifying, most admired novels of our time. Set in the bleak confines of a state mental hospital and narrated by a half-Indian patient named Chief Bromden, it's the story of a titanic battle of wills between two unforgettable characters.

A fantastical novel, a wildly inventive tale—by turns poignant and funny, lusty and wrenching—about love and heartbreak. Edinburgh, 1874: Born with a frozen heart, Jack is nearly dead when his mother abandons him to the care of Dr. Madeleine—witch doctor, midwife, protector of orphans—who saves Jack by placing a cuckoo clock in his chest. It is in her orphanage that Jack grows up, amid tear-filled flasks, eggs containing memories, a man with a musical spine.

Bound together by a single ancient text, the unforgettable characters of Cloud Cuckoo Land are dreamers and outsiders figuring out the world around them: 13-year-old Anna and Omeir, an orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour and octogenarian Zeno in an attack on a public library in present-day Idaho; and Konstance, decades from now, who turns to the oldest stories to guide her community in peril.

They were reunited at his funeral, school friends with a shared past. A past that is anything but straightforward. A past that harbours secrets and untruths. Karen has a seemingly perfect life. She also has a secret. Sandra's once perfect life is rapidly unravelling. She knows the secret. As the past meets the present, truths are revealed - and both women understand the true cost of betrayal.

Have you ever been in love? Truly, madly, deeply? Only to lose it? Your tether suddenly snapped. How broken can you become? And how can you ever hope to piece yourself back together? This is a love story.

This literary romp guide leads us through the madhouse we call modern society. A no-holds-barred satirical thrill ride exploring the ironies and inanities of everything from therapy culture to social media to identity politics. No corner of our shared psychosis is left unexamined through a kaleidoscope of incisive wit and dark humor.

It's the heatwave summer of 1976 and 14-year-old would be poet Jackie Chadwick is newly fostered by the Walls. She desperately needs stability, but their insecure, jealous teenage daughter isn't happy about the cuckoo in the nest and sets about ousting her. When her attempts to do so lead to near-tragedy—and the Walls' veneer of middle-class respectability begins to crumble—everyone in the household is forced to reassess what really matters.

Patience Bellamy is a middle- aged spinster who lives an unremarkable life trying to make ends meet until, one day, she comes home to a basket and several packages on her doorstep. Improbably, there is an infant in the basket, wrapped in a blue blanket. A note pinned to the blanket explains that the parents can no longer care for the child. They implore Patience to provide a home for him, and they further warn her against taking the child to the doctor's office. The note adds, she'll understand once she attempts to feed the baby. This novella has also been collected in the anthology "...

This is the dark but humorous tale of Sarah Pemberton, who is not a happy woman. A down-to-earth, inventive soul who despises her stuck-up, pompous husband Neil, who believes he is much more intelligent and important than she is. When he refuses her a divorce and emotionally blackmails her into staying with him by threatening to take custody of their daughter, she decides to make life a little more entertaining for herself—by subtly torturing him at every available opportunity. Creative and adaptable, with a wicked sense of humor, she comes up with more and more ways to ridicule him.

When Elsie and Bert Jones move with their children, Ann and Arthur, to Candle Lane, a modest street in Battersea, they miss their comfortable house in Wimbledon. But the move is the right thing to do, as it will enable Bert to finance his new removal business. They are a warmhearted family, and Elsie soon makes friends with her less fortunate neighbour, Ruth, and her daughter, Sally. But before long Elsie realises that all is not well in the house next door....

Nancy’s world is punched inside out at the discovery of a mysterious new sibling. But she can’t help but feel curious about Oliver, this stranger who shares her DNA. Her sister Rita, on the other hand, is furious and wants nothing to do with their ‘cuckoo’ brother. The father – Nancy’s not-quite-boyfriend from her not-quite-relationship – doesn’t want to commit any time soon. He isn’t even in the same continent as her right now. And with her mother and sister in shock about Oliver, Nancy’s struggling to find someone to turn to for support.

When Dot McCann, playing with her pals, decides to hide in Butcher Rathbone's almost empty dustbin, she overhears a conversation which could send one man to prison and the other to the gallows - and suddenly finds herself in possession of stolen goods. Dot lives with her aunt and uncle, abandoned after her parents died. She feels very alone until she meets up with Corky, who has run away from a London orphanage. They join forces with Emma, whose jeweller's shop has been burgled, and Nick, a young reporter who is investigating the crime.

Rose has it all - the gorgeous children, the husband, the beautiful home. But then her best friend, Polly, comes to stay. Very soon Rose's cosy world starts to fall apart at the seams - her baby falls dangerously ill, her husband is distracted.... Is Polly behind it all? It appears that once you invite Polly into your home, it's very difficult to get her out again.

When her stepmother dies unexpectedly, Caro returns to her childhood home in Derbyshire. She hadn’t seen Elizabeth in years, but the remote farmhouse offers refuge from a bad relationship and a chance to start again. But going through Elizabeth’s belongings unearths memories Caro would rather stay buried. In particular, the story her stepmother would tell her, about two little girls and the terrible thing they do.

William Lodger thinks his ambitions in life are perfectly normal. He experiences tragedy early in life, with the death of his younger sister and grandfather, he determines that he will never suffer again. William's ambitions if realized will have life-changing consequences. Will DI Ivor Gunn be able to stop the top level scientist before it is too late?