Showing results for "The Letters" in Coming of Age

Arto has a problem. For one, he's a robot. He’s awoken with no memory of who he is, with nothing but a mysterious letter, in a world bereft of those fleshy, talky things that made him. So why is he alone, and where have all the people gone? He stumbles upon a lost, cheeky kitten and selects it as his best friend for the adventure of a lifetime, trying to make sense of all this existence stuff. Just as Arto begins to fear he's the only sentient thing left on the whole planet, a cantankerous robot falls from the sky. She says she's his sister.

How to be a reader - how to be a writer. All you need to know. Alice is an 18-year-old student and aspiring novelist with green spiky hair, a child of the modern age who recoils at the idea of reading Jane Austen. In a sequence of letters reminiscent of Jane Austen's to her own niece, 'aunt' Fay examines the rewards of such study. Not only is her correspondence a revealing tribute to a great writer - it is also an original and rewarding exploration of the craft of fiction itself.

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop.

It doesn’t take long for ambitious freshman and aspiring engineer Jessie Ahuja to learn about two university legends. One is the haunted history of Davidson Tower, where more than fifty years ago, two ill-fated lovers disappeared in a devastating fire. The other is Ravi Kumar, a privileged billionaire nepo baby who’s aggravatingly charming and occupying more brain space than Jessie has room for. Things change when a campus prank locks them both in the old tower’s ghostly library.

Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling request: Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post-World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets. Until they arrive at Aisling—the majestic estate on the southern coast of Ireland where her grandmother was raised—and Rainey discovers a collection of seventy-year-old letters in a trunk.

Asta Fung is sixteen and sulky. Her parents have moved the whole family to take over the Yau Sum takeaway in another town so Grandpa Charlie can be closer to the big hospital. She's had to give up her dog, her friends, her familiar teenage life. All too soon, she has to give up Grandpa Charlie too. What was the point? When the builder's son, Josh, hands her a bundle of love letters he found under the floorboards, Asta realises they were hidden there by Grandpa Charlie as a young man.

Becky Nelson fled her childhood home and risked irreparable damage to her relationship with her only sister for an independent life in Kansas. The bookish bachelorette had no sooner settled in the Sunflower State when her path crossed with Henry, a ruggedly handsome farmer. The draft selects the seemingly untouchable Henry, and the couple rushes to make their union permanent before the war carries him to far-off lands. As the days turn to months, their letters give Becky and Henry the strength to go on as he serves his country, and she shares their home with an unlikely guest.

Fifteen years ago, Berta fled from Madrid to London to escape the controlling mother who made her childhood a living nightmare. Now, following her mother’s death, she is forced to return and face the ghosts of her unhappy past. But it is not long before she discovers that her own bleak memories are nothing compared to the dark deception lurking in her family. How did her sister’s loveless marriage really end? And is the loyal housekeeper really hiding the truth about the strange disappearance of Berta’s father?

Set in New York in the '80s and '90s, Upstate tells the story of two young lovers, Antonio and Natasha, torn apart by tragedy and struggling to survive against all odds. When a horrific tragedy sends Antonio to jail, their worlds turn upside down.

This tale of star-crossed lovers weaves through poignant turns, travelling from a South Africa entrenched in Apartheid, through the jagged edges of class barriers in Bombay, India, to Montreal, Canada. More than a love story, Ava’s journey is one of determination to live life on her own terms, surviving cultural obstacles with her own ‘toolbox of coping strategies.’

As a twelve-year-old escaping a disordered and unhappy home and parents who loved hard but couldn’t make it work, Travis left the Midwest to spend a summer with his grandparents in the Deep South. There he met Delia, the love of his life, who, tragically, was beyond his reach for two reasons—she was his aunt and she was sixteen years old. That summer made Travis guilty of crimes discovered and undiscovered. For his public wrongs, he did time, six years in a Nebraska reform school. For his undiscovered wrongs, he suffers mightily and wants desperately to be shriven.

On the eve of her 30th birthday, Wilhelmina Mann is already dealing with more than enough problems, so a birthday misadventure landing her in the lock-up is hardly even a surprise. But that mistake leads to Wil receiving a packet of old letters—letters to Wil from her mother that were written just before she died, back when Wil was a small child. Suddenly, Wil's life is thrown into a new kind of turmoil as she discovers the mother she lost. And while the letters begin as tales of growing up, they soon become a great love story, almost as great as the bond between mother and daughter.

Despite being a straight-A student and voracious reader, eight-year old Sandrine Miller is treated as little more than a servant by her mother, who forces Sandrine to clean house, do chores and take care of her younger half-sister, Yolanda. On top of the despair of her life at home, Sandrine must confront growing up against the harshness of life in 1970s-era New Orleans, where men in cars follow her home from school and she is ostracized because she is a light-skinned black girl.

Still reeling from the suicide of his best friend Tess, seventeen-year old Brendan struggles to overcome addiction and identity issues. Walking the ledge outside his Manhattan apartment has become its own sort of drug, as he stands night after night with his arms outstretched, ready to fly away. Sarah can see him from her window, and begins journaling about a boy on a ledge. Paige and Nate, a young couple in another building, can see both teens from their fire escape.

Bridget Jones penned a diary; Roxy writes letters. Specifically: She writes letters to her hapless, rent-avoidant ex-boyfriend - and current roommate - Everett. This charming and funny 20-something is under-employed (and under-romanced), and she’s decidedly fed up with the indignities she endures as a deli maid at Whole Foods (the original), and the dismaying speed at which her beloved Austin is becoming corporatized. When a new Lululemon pops up at the intersection of Sixth and Lamar where the old Waterloo Video used to be, Roxy can stay silent no longer.

The story of Lacie Henrickson is one that deals with heartache and loss. When Paul is in an accident Lacie is left to hold it together. The easiest way to do that is to tell Paul how she feels. She just didn't know it would be so easy or so hard.

The novel ‘Shesh Potro’ is a true-life portrayal of teenage love. Although apparently love is the source of many joys and sorrows, it is reflected here that it is a driving force in adolescent growth and interpersonal relationships. Adolescent love in a rural socio-cultural environment is quite emotional. It may live on in the shadow of memory, though largely unspoken and incomplete. Then in adulthood, when opportunities for unquestionable expression and mutual recognition open, love triumphs.

The war took him away. Is their love strong enough to bring him home? From family tragedy, the war, to undying love, this compelling story spans three generations.

Danielle Stuart is spending a year abroad studying in Venice, but while she loves the romance of the language and the beauty of country, she finds herself more and more confused by her growing feelings for a gondolier named Nico and her now ex-husband, Mason, who has shown up on her doorstep looking to reconcile. Desperate Dani writes to the Baumgartners in hopes her former lovers might help her clarify her muddled emotions. Finding herself torn between the two men, she reveals her dizzying dilemma, only to discover, thanks to the Baumgartner's insight, that she may not have to choose after all.