Showing titles in Satire

After Vladimir Lenin’s death, Stalin orders two Jewish scientists to preserve Lenin’s body for all time. If they succeed, the rewards will be considerable. If not, it’s the gulag - or worse. Based on real events, Vern Theissen’s nimble dark comedy exposes the absurdities of Soviet life under Stalin.

But her life has changed. She now has her doctorate in history. Her workaday hours are spent at St. Elizabeth’s College, mostly squandered in history department shriek-fests. She is also a widow. Her husband Bob died one half-day after triumphantly finishing the New York City Marathon in four hours and twelve minutes. And although 20 years have passed without seeing him, she still cannot get her former lover, Nelson Sharpe of the Nassau County Police Department, out of her system.

Gogol's great comic masterpiece paints an hilariously satirical picture of provincial life in 19th century Russia. Its publication in 1847 not only provided inspiration for succeeding generations of Russian writers, but fanned the already flickering flames of social discontent which were eventually to flare up and consume Russia in the revolution of 1917.

Dive into Jonathan Swift’s sharp satire in A Modest Proposal, one of literature’s most famous works of dark humor and social criticism. Written in 1729, Swift offers a shocking "solution" to the poverty and famine affecting Ireland, proposing the unthinkable with a calm, calculated rationale that highlights the cruelty and indifference of the ruling classes. Through biting irony, Swift forces readers to confront the realities of exploitation and dehumanization in society.

Dear God a zombie bit Myffaine! All merry hell breaks loose and life as we know it is in danger of being snuffed out from the planet on what is otherwise not too bad of a Tuesday. Barry and Myffanie have to negotiate a Zombie apocalypse in an effort to save the market value of the house they bought in Ptthwit five years ago. An accident in a nearby cosmetics laboratory has unleashed a zombie horde onto the village, one that may take over the entire planet if they don't stop it, or worse completely wipe out the extra value Barry's Garage extension put onto their property.

In these uncertain times we all need a coping mechanism. And Laura Lexx has found the obvious one - imagining life married to the sensible, no-nonsense man of our dreams, Jürgen Klopp. She thinks maybe he has something to do with football? More importantly, he definitely knows how to efficiently stack a dishwasher and would tell you honestly if you were being unreasonable about a colleague.

Northanger Abbey, a satire of Gothic melodrama, is one of Jane Austen's most popular works. When Catherine Morland is launched into the politics and pitfalls of the Bath social season, she behaves with the cheerful open-mindedness of one of Jane Austen's most eligible classic heroines.

"O Alienista" é um conto clássico escrito por Machado de Assis e publicado em 1882. A história satiriza a sociedade e a ciência da época, explorando o conceito de sanidade mental e os limites da razão humana. Com humor e ironia, Machado de Assis apresenta um enredo cativante e reflexivo.

Elsie Bovary is a cow, and a pretty happy one at that—her long, lazy days are spent eating, napping, and chatting with her best friend, Mallory. One night, Elsie and Mallory sneak out of their pasture; but while Mallory is interested in flirting with the neighboring bulls, Elsie finds herself drawn to the farmhouse. Through the window, she sees the farmer's family gathered around a bright Box God—and what the Box God reveals about something called an "industrial meat farm" shakes Elsie's understanding of her world to its core.

Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.) Unmentionable is your hilarious, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood.

Nobody blows smoke like Nick Naylor. He’s a spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies - in other words, a flack for cigarette companies, paid to promote their product on talk and news shows. The problem? He’s so good at his job, so effortlessly unethical, that he’s become a target for both anti-tobacco terrorists and for the FBI. In a country where half the people want to outlaw pleasure and the other want to sell you a disease, what will become of Nick Naylor?

A soldier in the First World War who never actually sees any combat, Josef Švejk is the awkward protagonist - and none of the other characters can quite decide whether his bumbling efforts to get to the front are genuine or not. Often portrayed as one of the first anti-war novels, Hašek's classic satire is a tour-de-force of modernist writing, influencing later writers such as Hemingway, Faulkner and Joseph Heller.

When the residents of a Highland care home discover that the new owners are about to put up the fees substantially they know that dramatic action is called for. But what can a group of senior citizens do against a big organisation? For Dorothy, the situation is serious, if she can't raise the money she'll have to leave her friends, like dear Miss Ross. In protest, the residents barricade themselves into the lounge. However, their rebellion fails! So worldly wise Joan suggests a most unusual way to cover the rise....

An unknown terrorist has released a biological weapon onto the American public. Anyone with an IQ over 84 is in danger - people's heads are exploding - the country is on lockdown. Everything is about to change forever. Luckily, some people are still alive. Like the president of the United States. And Congress. And millions of idiots determined to figure out why their heads aren't blowing up. Which brings us to David Dingle.

When her nest is destroyed and her forever mate slaughtered, Zephyr Ignitus, the last of an ancient breed of fire-breathing dragon, gathers together a team of saber-toothed panthers, woolly mammoths, and a crew of howler monkeys brandishing swords and weapons stolen from the ships of men, all to hunt down and scorch the evil beast-killing wizard that did her wrong.

Years after the events of The House of God, the Fat Man has been given leadership over a new Future of Medicine Clinic at what is now only Man's 4th Best Hospital, and has persuaded Dr. Roy Basch and some of his intern cohorts to join him to teach a new generation of interns and residents. In a medical landscape dominated by computer screens and corrupted by money, they have one goal: to make medicine humane again.

Written in a voice that’s alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, fourteen-year-old Citoyen “City” Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in the small coastal community of Melahatchie. Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson—but Long Division is set in 1985.

Jane Dorner has two modes: PR Jane is twenty-five, breezy, clever in a non-threatening way and eager to sell you a feminist vibrator. Actual Jane is twenty-nine, drifting through mediocre workdays and lackluster dates while paralysed by her crushing mountain of overdue bills. Enter the impossibly gorgeous Cass, whom Jane discovers scrolling through Instagram - the guru of a 'wellness retreat' based out of a ramshackle country house that may or may not be giving off cult vibes. Suddenly Jane realises she might have found the one ladder she can climb.

This classic book of English literature is an insightful satire on human nature, probing the corruption of man. It's also a parody on traveller's tales, as Jonathan Swift chronicles the voyages to Lilliput, Brobingnag, and other fantastical destinations in this powerful 18th-century masterpiece. Simon Cadell reads with a sure touch and great understanding of his subject.

Dominic Cummings has a lively mind. He is constantly thinking; planning; coming up with big ideas. During a time of momentous events in Britain (Brexit, a general election, The COVID-19 pandemic) the government's chief adviser has been writing down his thoughts - in diaries, blog posts, on post-it notes and any scrap of paper he can find.