Zen Fiction

Two friends in 1950s San Francisco Bohemia explore Buddhism Zen - hipster style. On the road to finding Dharma, or truth, the story's narrator, Raymond Smith comes to a spiritual roadblock. Smith, based on Kerouac himself, discovers a role model in his friend Japhy Ryder, modeled after the real poet-Buddhist Gary Snyder. This autobiographical novel is one of Kerouac's most popular, and has served as an inspiration to the beat culture, hippies, and dharma seekers since the 1950s.

Inspector Zen has a problem: an impossible murder, recorded on the closed-circuit video of Oscar Burolo's top-security Sardinian fortress. As Zen gets to work, he is once again plunged into a menacing and violent world where his own life is soon at risk.

The Kingdom of Shivas Irons is the enchanting story of Murphy's return to Scotland to investigate reports of further visitations by Shivas Irons and to answer questions about him and MacDuff that have haunted Murphy since his original trip to Burningbush some 31 years before. Murphy and his companion, Buck Hannigan, a skeptical physicist fascinated by Shivas's connections to metanormal events, embark on a magical quest for Irons and MacDuff - and their wisdom about golf and human potential.

Tanya has won victory after victory on the battlefield, and still the Empire hurtles toward its destruction. Zettour stands at the helm, a warped sense of patriotism guiding his actions as he prepares the stage. His only goal now is to secure the best possible defeat the Empire can afford, even if it means going down in history as the greatest villain of all time. And to make that happen, he’ll do whatever it takes to shock and awe the world, starting with Ildoa. The time for diplomacy or reason has passed. There is only war.

When, one dark night in November, Prince Ludovico Ruspanti fell 150 feet to his death in the chapel at St. Peter's, Rome, there were a number of questions to be answered. Inspector Aurelio Zen finds that getting the answers isn't easy, as witness after witness is mysteriously silenced - by violent death. To crack the secret of the Vatican, Zen must penetrate the most secret place of all: the Cabal.

Aurelio Zen returns to his native Venice to investigate the disappearance of a rich American resident but he soon learns that, amid the hazy light and shifting waters of the lagoon, nothing is what it seems. As Zen is drawn deeper into the complex and ambiguous mysteries surrounding the discovery of a skeletal corpse on an ossuary island in the north lagoon, he is also forced to confront a series of disturbing revelations about his own life.

After being reborn and becoming a magic wielding soldier in the Imperial Army, Tanya Degurechaff bemoans her fate of being placed at the very edge of the front lines instead of a comfy place in the rear. Swearing revenge on Being X, she plunges head-first into battle, dragging her subordinate along with her!

内容紹介

日本の文学史上最古にして最高傑作ともいわれる『源氏物語』。

紫式部によって書かれた全五十四帖にわたる長編小説を、わかりやすく情感豊かに読み上げました。

A collection of Zen stories to amuse and illuminate. Includes all the stories from classic Zen literature: 101 Zen Stories, The Gateless Gate, The Ten Bulls and Centering. Includes the soundtrack The Mysterious Sound of Wind In the Bamboo - a 43 minute collection of Zen inspired Japanese music by The Matsu Take Ensemble.

Neopolitan businessmen, politicians, and eminent mafiosi are assassinated as someone takes literally the job of cleaning up the city's tarnished image. In this mystery, Aurelio Zen discovers that in '90s 'New Italy', things are still the same.

The Federation has been steadily preparing itself for the decisive battle. As the moment of truth rapidly approaches, the Empire which has long been on the offensive remains unaware of the threat. In these dire circumstances, only one person has noticed where everything is heading: Tanya. Zettour also refuses to simply watch and begins his grand plan to deceive the world. In the end, the one who will pull the trigger on this operation is a monster in the guise of a young girl...

El Londres de la Regencia, políticos y taumaturgos tratan de ocultar un secreto a voces: la magia inglesa está desapareciendo. El recién nombrado hechicero real, Zacharias Wythe, intentará recuperarla por todos los medios a pesar del desprecio de sus colegas por su condición de esclavo liberado. Tan solo Prunella intentará ayudarlo. Sus objetivos son más acuciantes: asegurarse una posición sin fortuna ni familia, y con un exceso de magia inaceptable en una mujer. Juntos deberán evitar un conflicto, el fin de la magia en Inglaterra y que sus propios secretos salgan a la luz.

Lieutenant Colonel Tanya von Degurechaff has become keenly aware of this after deploying to the freezing eastern front. The bone-chilling weather makes every move a struggle, grinding even the Empire's proud army to a halt. And yet, winter is the time for the flowers of intrigue to blossom. When a supposed ally begins acting suspiciously and enemies begin to collude, a profusion of conflicting interests and various secret deals will summon a maelstrom of confusion no one can control.

The eastern front is a place where soldiers never sleep and artillery guns howl without rest. This quagmire is where the Salamander Kampfgruppe has been hurled once again, just another cog in the grand war machine of their fatherland. Still, there's only so much one unit can do. As the fighting ramps up with renewed enemy attacks and a brand-new weapon that pitches the Federation's quantity against the Empire's quality, Tanya faces one of her toughest battles yet, making a certain visitor's arrival a sight for sore eyes.

Time is not on the Empire’s side. It has become painfully clear that simply winning battles will not be enough to turn the tide of this war. Having no interest in sharing the fate of her country, Tanya immediately decides to do the only thing that makes sense—look for a new job! Of course, she’ll have to proceed with extreme caution, because her current employer isn’t some random company but the Imperial Army. As it happens, she isn’t the only one ready to do something drastic when push comes to shove.

Life in modern Tokyo is a blast for Rei Shimura, a young Japanese-American woman who enjoys busy days as an antiques dealer and steamy nights with a devoted new boyfriend. But things come to a standstill when Rei overpays for a rare old chest of drawers for a wealthy client, the owner of a famous Zen temple in Kamakura. The exquisite tansu turns out to be a fake: the worst deal Rei has ever made. When the temple family turns on Rei - and the con man who sold the tansu is murdered - she realizes she's opened a Pandora's box of deception and death.

When Zettour tries his best to caution against the reckless plan to strike at the Federation’s vital resource fields, he soon finds himself “promoted” to a field deployment on the eastern front. Meanwhile, as the ill-advised Operation Andromeda presses on, commanding officer Tanya must fight another bitter battle despite dwindling supplies, poor communication, and exposed flanks. With retreat expressly forbidden and time running out, the only way to survive is to win.

But the Empire's military leaders are fiercely divided on what to do. Should they conduct aggressive offensives in hopes of a break through, or should they weather the winter and use that as a chance to reorganize, restructuring the lines of battle? In the end, they decided that while they gather supplies for a theoretical offensive, they would conduct an investigation to collect intelligence. Naturally, Tanya's Salamander Unit was the first candidate for the mission. Should they push ahead, or should they hold their ground? There's no time to hesitate.

After his adventures in Cosi Fan Tutti, Aurelio Zen finds himself back in Rome, sneezing in a damp wine cellar and being given another unorthodox assignment - to release the jailed scion of an important wine-growing family.

Anyone can tell that continuing the war is ludicrous. The question now is not whether to, but how to end the war. Colonel Lergen has been working on brokering a truce in Ildoa for some time now, yet peace seems farther than ever. Bringing the war to a close in a way that everyone can stomach may be harder than surviving on the eastern front. In the meantime, people like General Rudersdorf and General Zettour are beginning to move in the shadows. If a resolution isn’t reached soon, things are only going to get even more dangerous...