Carol Cosman

In this influential novella, regarded as one of Balzac's greatest works, a dissolute aristocrat competes with a shadowy rival for the love of an enigmatic golden-eyed woman-a crazed and annihilating conflict that plays out in the most darkly decadent corners of Parisian high society. Beautiful and amoral, Henri de Marsay believes in neither man nor woman, neither God nor the devil. He believes in Paris, a city of decadence and sin, a city where every passion is resolved into gold or pleasure. From the first moment Henri de Marsay catches sight of the girl with the golden eyes he is completely and utterly infatuated. Desperate for another glimpse of her dark and enigmatic beauty, every day he returns to where he last saw her. Over time, he learns of her name, Paquita Valdes, and of her address, a forbidding and heavily guarded mansion on the Rue Saint-Lazare. Vowing to make her his, Henri de Marsay plots his elaborate seduction of the mysterious girl with the golden eyes, but with his triumph comes the bitter revelation that he has a powerful rival for her love--the Marquise de San-Real, his own half-sister. A cry of vengeance and the call for blood bring Balzac's taut exploration of the dark side of Parisian society to its unexpected if inevitable conclusion.

Young Soviet pianist Natalia Aronovich is poised for international stardom when, in one shocking act, a Red Guard officer interrupts her performance and removes her from the stage. She later learns the KGB has arrested her father, Pravda journalist Mikhail Aronovich, for his undercover involvement with Soviet dissidents, refuseniks, and Israeli Intelligence. Soviet officials force Natalia to leave Russia, but she is determined to return and free her father from certain death in the Gulag. She seeks help from Yonatan Yerushalmi, a Mossad agent, but he finds Natalia's request impulsive and refuses to assist her. Undaunted, Natalia recruits Soviet-Israeli doctor Tanya Shlain and, equipped with aliases, fake passports, and firearms, they embark on a perilous mission to smuggle Mikhail out of Russia.Against the backdrop of an oppressive Soviet regime and escalating Mid-East tensions in the months leading to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Dissonance takes the reader on an emotional and unforgettable journey-from the soul of a pianist who must reinvent herself, to the conflicts that usher in an unforgiving war.