Berlin 1920. A young woman throws herself from a bridge into the Landwehr Canal, intent on suicide. But she is saved. She refuses to give any clue to her identity. She is literally a nobody. After two years of silence, she claims to be Anastasia, the fourth daughter of the Tsar of Russia. For over sixty years she lives with the firm conviction that she is, indeed, a grand duchess. It is only after her death in 1984 that DNA tests establish that the woman could not have been a Romanov. Who, then, was this mysterious woman, who lived a lie and convinced so many others of her fictional identity? And what of her own identity that she drowned that winter's night in Berlin? In The Pretender, Mary Morrissy writes the prequel to the Anastasia myth. She creates a fictional history for Franziska Schanzkowska, the Polish factory worker who so successfully donned the mantle of the doomed princess. From the few facts that are known, Morrissy fashions the biography of a nobody - an impoverished Polish childhood, an adolescence set against the First World war and the ruinous humiliation of Germany in defeat, a young adulthood blighted by violence, trauma and loss. The Pretender is a nesting doll of a book. Morrissy unspools the multiple intricacies of female identity and explores the strategies that women employ to survive in a calamitous world. Was Franziska Schanzkowska a fraud? Was she de

Door het contact met een schizofrene patiënt begint een psychiater ook zelf de greep op de werkelijkheid te verliezen.

Een oudere man wordt gekweld door de herinnering aan een meisje dat hij veertig jaar eerder onheus heeft behandeld.

Navertelling van de klassieke mythe met autobiografische elementen.

In het hedendaagse gewelddadige Colombia moet een weesjongen zien te overleven.

Kom, we zijn laat, zei ze. We namen Caracas, sloegen de Calle Veintiséis in en zochten de ingang van het congrescentrum. Roberta stopte de brommer, keek op haar horloge, pakte de foto die ze had gekregen en ging staan wachten. Zodra die vent naar buiten komt, wijs ik hem aan en
schiet jij je wapen leeg, beval ze. Oké, zei ik, en ik omklemde de revolver die ik onder mijn jas verborgen hield. Daar heb je hem, dat is hem, zei Roberta, en ik zag Memo op ons af komen. Hij was flink aangekomen en had dezelfde corrupte kop als alle vakbondsmensen die het lang maken in Colombia, maar het was hem. Laat hem wat dichterbij komen, zei Roberta, en ze startte de brommer. Ik hief mijn revolver op. Schieten! Schieten! schreeuwde Roberta. Ik keek naar Memo en dacht terug aan de keren dat hij me had geholpen, ik dacht aan Cristinita, ik dacht aan El
Pollo en aan Zulma en Memo's kinderen, en ik was niet in staat de trekker over te halen. Roberta trok haar revolver en richtte, maar Memo's bodyguards waren al op hun hoede en begonnen op ons te schieten. Ik liet mijn revolver vallen en zette het op een lopen. Ik hoorde alleen maar knallen en nog eens knallen, ik rende en zag een hoop mensen maar niet hun gezichten, ik zag alleen maar auto's die in de weg stonden en ik hoorde nog meer schoten en motoren en ik rende, ik rende, zo hard als ik kon

A Fabulously Engaging Novel, A Sunday Times Number 1 Bestseller, With Over 1.2 Million Copies Sold. Harry Silver Has It All. A Successful Job In Tv, A Gorgeous Wife, A Lovely Child. And In One Moment Of Madness, He Chucks It All Away. Man And Boy Is The Story Of How He Comes To Terms With His Life And Achieves A Degree Of Self-Respect, Bringing Up His Son Alone And, Gradually, Learning What Words Like Love And Family Really Mean. Very Well-Written, Pacy, Funny And Heart-Breakingly Moving. 'Parsons Has Written A Sharp, Witty And Wise Book Straight From His Heart. His Characters Are All Nitty-Gritty, Bounce-Off-The-Page, Real People; His Dialogue Is Brilliant.' Daily Mail

De confrontatie met een -reeds overleden - grootmoeder leidt een vrouw tot zelfkennis.

My Favourite Wife is a book about the men and women of our time -- their struggles, their joys and their secret longings. Above all it is a book about where sex, romance and obsession ends, and where true love begins. My Favourite Wife is a book about the men and women of our time -- their struggles, their joys and their secret longings. Above all it is a book about where sex, romance and obsession ends, and where true love begins. Hot shot young lawyer Bill Holden and his wife Becca move with their four year old daughter to the booming, gold-rush city of Shanghai, a place of enormous wealth and crushing poverty, where fortunes are made and foreign marriages come apart in spectacular fashion. Bill's law firm houses the Holden family in Paradise Mansions -- a luxury apartment block where newly rich Chinese men install their second wives: fabulous young beauties like JinJin Li, ex-school teacher, crossword addict and the Holdens' neighbour. After Becca witnesses a tragedy that awakens her to the reality of life beyond the glitzy surface of the city, she returns temporarily to London with Holly -- and Bill and JinJin are thrown together. Bill wants to be a better man than the millionaire who keeps JinJin Li as a second wife on the side. A better man than anyone who cheats. Becca is his best friend.And, in the end, adrift without his young family, can he give JinJin anything better than she had before? My Favourite Wife is a book about where sex, romance and obsession ends, and where true love begins.