In the middle of winter 1944, a huge wooden crate is dropped behind US lines in Eastern Belgium. Munitions? Red Cross parcels? No. A piano. A “Victory Vertical.”
Much to the delight of the 106th Division, Private John Coleman’s fingers are soon flying and Sergeant Kenneth Brown finds his silky tenor voice, as young Andrew Parks faithfully turns the pages of the music. But when Nazi tanks threaten to attack and the camp has to be abandoned, along with all “non-essential equipment,” the three GIs must make a choice: forsake the piano and the hope it has inspired or stay behind and risk being accused of desertion. This story of three men and a piano plays out to the accompaniment of the classic tracks of jazz, swing, and blues that are an intrinsic part of America’s musical history.
In the kingdom of Tyriadoc, in the event of premature death, everyone is entitled to a second life known as “The Ëdra.” Sometimes, death is so violent that rebirth becomes disastrous. This spawns Accursed Ones, monsters created in the very image of their own demise. Yet, there is one exception to the Ëdra: newborn babies. Too weak and too pure, none of them ever come back to life. None but Adalise, the King’s daughter. She inspires fear and hatred in her people, who have nicknamed her “The Corpse Princess.” But Adalise desires only one thing: to ¬find her missing mother and solve the mystery that enshrouds her stillbirth.
Gaia has long been abandoned by the leaders of the Empire—ever since its surface was smothered by a mysterious rain of spores—and Ouranos, the lunar capital, is now the seat of imperial power. But teenagers Ambre and Leto were born on Gaia, in a village where the Sun and the Moon are worshipped and a strange rite takes place each year. Tradition has it that, when they reach the age of 15, every girl born on the winter solstice must join the priestesses of the Goddess Luna and every boy born on the summer solstice, the guards of the God Apollo. Naturally timid and sensitive, Leto is terrified by the prospect of becoming one of Apollo’s guards, while Ambre, impetuous and daring, is dreading the peaceful, contemplative life that awaits her as one of Luna’s priestesses. So Ambre suggests that she and Leto pretend to be each other and secretly change places on their way to Ouranos, so that she becomes a guard and Leto a priestess. But they will need all their wits and the strength of their unique bond to carry off their pretense in a society where traditional gender roles are of paramount importance.
“What if I told you that you could change your life? What would you most want? To get a better job? To find the love of your life? To recover from an incurable disease? Anything is possible! All you have to do is visit one of Paris’s commodity stores and discover the magical object that will grant you a happy future. What are you waiting for?”
Leo has just returned to the city after many years’ absence. He has inherited one of these commodity stores (a barge on the River Seine) from his uncle, who, according to the police, committed suicide.
Suicide? Really? That isn’t what Leo is told by the little cat girl who found his uncle in his cabin. Nor what he learns from the person who is sent to value the barge. Leo must make his own investigation. And for that, he must confront his past. The question is: Should he also use one of his own magical objects to find out what he needs to know?
He was 15 when I met him, and always surrounded by younger children. He would hang out with them on the soccer pitches of Sant Pere, a small town on the outskirts of Barcelona, where I spent my youth in chasing the ball.
We all made fun of him: of his physique, which was all out of proportion; of his clumsiness; of his inability to grow up. Being too impatient ourselves to leave our childhood behind and enter the adult world, we never really tried to understand him.
I was 12 and had just lost my big brother when I first approached him, out of curiosity. In fact, I wanted to get to know his cousin Sorrow, a striking girl who had worked in a beach bar the last two summers.
That was the start of an unusual friendship, which ended in 1996, the year Miguel Induráin failed to win his sixth Tour de France. It was a strange and fleeting relationship, which is now gone forever but which I will never forget.
In the kingdom of Tyriadoc, in the event of premature death, everyone is entitled to a second life known as “The Ëdra.” Sometimes, death is so violent that rebirth becomes disastrous. This spawns Accursed Ones, monsters created in the very image of their own demise. Yet, there is one exception to the Ëdra: newborn babies. Too weak and too pure, none of them ever come back to life. None but Adalise, the King’s daughter. She inspires fear and hatred in her people, who have nicknamed her “The Corpse Princess.” But Adalise desires only one thing: to ¬find her missing mother and solve the mystery that enshrouds her stillbirth.
In the mid-19th century, while revolution rears its head again in France, a young woman is rallying the people of southern Italy against the Redshirts, who have recently unified Italy, under the leadership of the Piedmontese. Her name is Michelina de Cesare.
Born into a family of “ciociari,” a group of peasants regarded as outlaws, Michelina was forced into marrying a local landowner called Rocco Tanga, who abused her. When he died, she vowed never again to be ruled by a man. As opposition grows to the iniquitous taxes imposed on the people of the south by the Piedmontese army, Michelina, supported by her lover Francesco Guerra, decides to rally local families to resist their oppression. Already well aware of the power of imagery, she has herself photographed in traditional costume, leaning on a rifle—a photo, often hidden inside a bible, that will serve to identify her supporters. But her guerilla war will cause General Pallavicini to “cry havoc” in his determination to track Michelina down and punish her.
“What if I told you that you could change your life? What would you most want? To get a better job? To find the love of your life? To recover from an incurable disease? Anything is possible! All you have to do is visit one of Paris’s commodity stores and discover the magical object that will grant you a happy future. What are you waiting for?”
Leo has just returned to the city after many years’ absence. He has inherited one of these commodity stores (a barge on the River Seine) from his uncle, who, according to the police, committed suicide.
Suicide? Really? That isn’t what Leo is told by the little cat girl who found his uncle in his cabin. Nor what he learns from the person who is sent to value the barge. Leo must make his own investigation. And for that, he must confront his past. The question is: Should he also use one of his own magical objects to find out what he needs to know?
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has unfortunately been part of the international news landscape for many generations… So much so that we often forget its origins, in favour of its most recent upheavals. But Ariane and Nino can travel back in time… And so they can explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to everyone in a completely independent and humane way, in a salutary exercise in historical popularisation that is necessary for all audiences.
The Shoggoths have just activated the fourth stele of the great ancients. And if they manage to reach the fifth and final one, it’s the end of humanity. A future that Naïa is prepared to do anything to avoid. To prevent others from suffering like her brother Noah. To save what’s left. But not everyone agrees: isn’t being human a sin in itself? Beth, for her part, is prepared to pay a high price for redemption… Even her old friends.
