John Gardner

In 1943, The United Kingdom is alive with men and women making ready for the greatest invasion in history: preparing to assault Hitler's Fortress Europe. The skies are full of training aircraft, their engines merging with the throb of the RAF and USAAF bombers heading on round-the-clock missions against Germany. With fresh bloodshed on the horizon, the coming Christmas preparations seem even more poignant. But with just ten days to go, the seasonal...

England, June 1944. Exactly one week after the D-Day landings came the vengeance weapons. It was the beginning of a period which, to the war-weary inhabitants of southern England, was psychologically much worse than the days of the Blitz. With Allied forces gaining a foothold after the Normandy landings, Hitler unleashes his most vicious weapon of war yet--the V-1 flying bomb. One of these new weapons lands on a Camberwell convent, killing three...

John Gardner's acclaimed search for the lost morality in art and literature   Novelist John Gardner's thesis in On Moral Fiction is simple: "True art is by its nature moral." It is also an audacious statement, as Gardner asserts an inherent value in life and in art. Since the book's first publication, the passion behind Gardner's assertion has both provoked and inspired readers. In examining the work of his peers, Gardner analyzes what has gone...

James Bond is called in after two brutal murders of double agents. He must smoke out the traitor among the others, who are earmarked for ritual killings.

John Gardner's New York Times bestselling, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning metafictional novel centering on the tumultuous relationship of two elderly siblings. James is a cantankerous and conservative seventy-two-year-old who has spent his life caring for the animals on his farm. His widowed older sister, Sally, has strong liberal ideals and a propensity for debate. When Sally's bankruptcy forces her to move in with her brother, their...

A special three-in-one edition of celebrated author John Gardner's explorations of modern fiction: On Becoming a Novelist, On Writers & Writing, and On Moral Fiction In On Becoming a Novelist, John Gardner advises the aspiring fiction author on such topics as the value of creative writing workshops, the developmental stages of literary growth, and the inevitable experience of writer's block. Drawn from his two decades of experience in creative...

John Gardner's fairy-tale collection depicts a world where anything can happen - and often does. A humble thistle girl, a wise old philosopher, a hapless woodchopper, and an unscrupulous king - these are the vivid protagonists of Gardner's masterful book for children. Richly and humorously drawn, they face challenges at every turn. And in a realm where any one of these unconventional heroes might triumph, the reader will delight in expecting the unexpected!...

Four tales of fantasy by a twentieth-century literary master - selected as the 1975 New York Times Outstanding Book for Children. John Gardner's first children's book takes the traditional fairy tale and turns it on its head. In the title story, a meddlesome dragon meets his match. "The Tailor and the Giant" tells the story of a cowardly man who finally faces his fears. A villainous beast of burden attempts to rid himself of his master in "The Miller's...

An intricately woven fable filled with magical creatures - and astonishing surprises. In this wonderful fantasy, John Gardner weaves tales within tales to bring a magical world to vivid life. When three travelers on their way to the Suicide Mountains meet an enigmatic man, the Abbot of the Ancient Monastery, they begin a series of wild adventures in which they must confront mystical creatures - and come to terms with the roles fate has determined...

Gardner's final novel: a delicate tapestry of literary genres that create a wonderfully mysterious and ambitious narrative. As Peter Mickelsson's brilliant career as a professor at Brown University winds down, he suffers from alcoholism and is on the brink of divorce. Seeking a new start, Mickelsson moves to an old farmhouse in the Pennsylvania countryside to take a position at Bingham University. But when mysterious supernatural events begin to occur,...