Hard to find books

[Idril]

I am looking for the book The Bonfire by Konstantin Fedin and I can't find it anywhere. I've looked in the usual places, amazon, amazon.uk, e-bay, Barnes and Noble, etc... and did endless numbers of searches and I simply can not find this book in english. I did find a few Russian versions but that doesn't help me because unfortunately, I don't speak Russian. Does anyone know anything about this book? Is it possible an English version wasn't published? That's not possible, is it? Especially considering the first two in the trilogy were. I had a little trouble finding the second...well, I found it easily enough but they were insanely expensive, for part 1 and 2 of No Ordinary Summer, I paid 60$ for paperbacks and that was the cheapest I could find so obviously these books are not flooding the market but it does seem that if I could find the others, I should be able to find the last. Does anyone know of any sites that specializes in hard to find books or have any advice where I could look next? I'm getting desperate.

[crisaor]

Doing a quick search, I didn't find it. However, there are mentions to a work called "The conflagration". Forgive my ignorance Idril, but could it be the same book with a different translated title? If it is the same, it would explain why you can't find it anywhere. There is a used copy of The Conflagration for sale in Amazon here. I believe it's available on german edition also.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Idril]

Doing a quick search, I didn't find it. However, there are mentions to a work called "The conflagration". Forgive my ignorance Idril, but could it be the same book with a different translated title?

I have thought perhaps there was a differently translated title for it, I've only seen it referred to as The Bonfire but Dostoevsky's Demons was published under about 3 different titles so that's entirely possible. I checked out the link, Crisaor and there's no description of the book so I can't really tell. I also looked through a couple of biographies on Fedin and The Conflagration isn't listed anywhere so it could be. The Russian name is Koster... any Russian speakers out there, could that translate as Conflagration?

[crisaor]

Idril, I believe this might be useful. It confirms the title and lists the publisher and year.

[Idril]

That's it then! You have just made my day, Crisaor! I really can't thank you enough, I was starting to get seriously worried I wouldn't be able to finish this trilogy and I would've been so disappointed. And it's not terribly expensive either, that's another bonus. Thank you again, Crisaor, I'm off to order the book...

[crisaor]

Glad to be of help.

[Laindessiel]

The book The God Delusions is not hard to find but it is ALWAYS out-of-stock in our country. It's expensive enough here without having it ordered online. This book is so controversial we want to find out how it became so. And besides, people from LitNet ARE talking about it so it must be a good one.

[DamianMasq]

Hi, I didn't know if I should use this thread or post a new one, but I've been looking for a book for ages and can not find it. It's a long shot that anyone here will know just the one I'm looking for, for one thing I cant remember the author's name, and for another I think I have the title wrong as well just from it having been many years since reading it.

The title I'm remembering is "Cassandra: Queen of Snakes", but of course I cant find it with that title so I must have misremembered it.

The book follows Cassandra (of mythology) through her normal human life; her time in Troy, ending up as a virgin priestess of Apollo, ending up having an affair with some noble dude and getting pregnant, (I seem to recall that a break in the temple wall was used for sneaking in and out for their affair?), having a daughter, and so on. The book focuses on Cassandra's life rather than the fall of Troy and the saga tied to that, there's no magic or monsters in the book and focuses on her as a normal woman with normal plights and problems, for the tone of the book's setting, with figures like Paris, Achilles, and so on being background characters that you hear of but don't really interact with, and the mythological aspects of Cassandra made or rationalized into events that are more realistic than fantastic.

I cant remember any specific passages from the book because it's been so long but I can recall at least one or two parts that may help someone identify the book if they've also read it; After the fall of Troy, with Cassandra enslaved, Agamemnon returns home from the siege and his wife is pissed about him shagging a bunch of slave girls. During the long voyage, Cassandra had Agamemnon's illegitimate child, and when Ag returns home, his wife kills him as per the legend, and asks Cassandra coldly if that is Agamemnon's child, and Cassandra answers no, this is my child, and is allowed to live. I know this is such a vague bit from the book, I wish I could remember more, but the best I can manage is something about her first child at Troy being physically assaulted alongside Cas during the sacking and killed by a soldier, or a bit where Helen, who is not a main character in the book, is on the walls of Troy and bares her breasts to the fighting armies below, apparently possessed by Aphrodite or some such. She's seen at a distance by Cassandra and some other temple maiden, who comment sarcastically to each other that Helen must really think well of her bosom if she thinks she can pull off channeling that goddess. (something like that)

Understandable if no one knows what book this is, but man I'd really love to find it again, I remember it being an amazing read for such a huge, thick book. Thanks for the effort in advance!