Walcot. Brian Aldiss. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Brian Aldiss
Издательство: HarperCollins
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Жанр произведения: Научная фантастика
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9780007482276
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       Chapter 5: Endless Carnage

      

       Chapter 6: Kiss Whom You Like

      

       Chapter 7: Leaving Home

      

       Chapter 8: Old Children

      

       Chapter 9: Ex-Army Furniture

      

       Chapter 10: A Man About Town

      

       Chapter 11: A Break in Torremolinos

      

       Chapter 12: The Disastrous Party

      

       Chapter 13: On the Grand Canal

      

       Chapter 14: Elizabeth Sips Her Wine

      

       Chapter 15: ‘I Must Love Abby’

      

       Chapter 16: A Modernizing Government

      

       Chapter 17: In the Alley

      

       Chapter 18: Blood on the Ice

      

       PART THREE

      

       Chapter 1: A New Line of Thought

      

       Chapter 2: Guernica

      

       Chapter 3: One of the Poor

      

       Chapter 4: ‘We Don’t Want no Trouble’

      

       Chapter 5: Some Family Conversation

      

       Chapter 6: Over Jurassic Sand

      

       Chapter 7: Another Invitation

      

       Chapter 8: Supper at Sandy Bassett

      

       Chapter 9: Tolstoy Unread

      

       Chapter 10: Violet in Her Bath

      

       Chapter 11: Flight to Austin, Texas

      

       Chapter 12: The Future of the World

      

       Chapter 13: An Arrival From Venice

      

       Chapter 14: The Known Unknowns

      

       Chapter 15: The Sacrifice

      

       Chapter 16: A Fuller Understanding

      

       Notes

      

       About the Author

      

       Also by Brian Aldiss

      

       About the Publisher

       Introduction

      ‘You are free men, whatever that means.’ So says Steve Fielding to some German soldiers, whose lives he spares during the closing events of a world war, in the freezing cold Ardennes. But Steve, as we learn in this complex unfolding of a life, is himself not a free man.

      We find him first of all as a child, playing alone on a Norfolk beach – the beach that gives this complex tale its title.

      Already, like a tide, doubt enters his life. Is he in danger? High on the dunes, a woman, almost a stranger, looks to see if Steve is safe.

      So the question arises, to be solved if possible: do Steve’s parents wish to get rid of him? In love, in war or peace – or in an uncertain interlude between the two – the uncertainty continues to tease.

      As this delightful and complex story unfolds, the reader meets new astonishments and some strange old events.

      Questions remain, but now there’s beloved Verity – and a cheetah – and of course the sort of unexpected we all expect to meet.

      A long and intriguing story unfolds before us.

      Brian W. Aldiss

      Oxford, 2015

PART ONE

       1

       Barefoot

      At high tide, the sea lapped close to the dunes, leaving little sand to be seen.