Books like 'How It Is'
Readers who enjoyed How It Is by Samuel Beckett also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century classics literary-fiction existentialism postmodernism humor philosophical
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The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsParallel German text and English translation.The influence and popularity of Rilke’s poetry in America have never been greater than they are today, more than fifty years after his death. Rilke is unquestionably the most significant and compelling poet of romantic transformation, of spiritual quest, that the twentieth century has known...Categorized as:
classics existentialism literary-fiction philosophical 20th-century anthologies fiction historical -
![Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, Mark Doty]()
Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, Mark Doty
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRilke is one of the most widely read poets of the 20th century. In his poetry, Rilke addresses the problems of death, God, and "destructive time," and attempts to overcome and transform these problems into an indestructive inner world...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies fiction historical literary -
![Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is old Bertie Wooster's habit to land in the soup from time to time. To get into a spot of bother. Circumstances, aided and abetted by Aunt Agatha, Aunt Dahlia, Bingo Little, Tuppy, Sippy and others, seem to conspire against him, and a frightful muddle ensues.Enter Jeeves, the source of all solace. Jeeves of the infinite sagacity... -
![Πούσι by Nikos Kavvadias, Νίκος Καββαδίας]()
Πούσι by Nikos Kavvadias, Νίκος Καββαδίας
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsΤο Πούσι είναι η δεύτερη ποιητική συλλογή του Νίκου Καββαδία και εκδόθηκε για πρώτη φορά το 1947 από τον Α. Καραβία. Έκτοτε εκδόθηκε 4 φορές στις εκδ. Γαλαξίας (1961-1971), 16 φορές στις εκδ. Κέδρος (1975-1989) και, από τον Οκτώβριο 1989 μέχρι τον Δεκέμβριο 2000, 13 φορές στις εκδ. Άγρα... -
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![A Part of Speech by Joseph Brodsky, Иосиф Бродский]()
A Part of Speech by Joseph Brodsky, Иосиф Бродский
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Part of Speech contains poems from the years 1965-1978, translated by various hands... -
![Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust]()
Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIncluding THE GUERMANTES WAY and CITIES OF THE PLAIN... -
![Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich]()
Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDaniil Kharms has long been heralded as one of the most iconoclastic writers of the Soviet era, but the full breadth of his achievement is only in recent years, following the opening of Kharms' archives, being recognized internationally... -
![Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu]()
Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFortress Besieged is a classic of world literature, a masterpiece of parodic fiction that plays with Western literary traditions, philosophy and middle class Chinese society in the Republican era. The title is taken from an old French proverb, "Marriage is like a fortress besieged: those who are outside want to get in, and those who are inside want to get out"... -
![Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline]()
Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPublished in rapid succession in the middle 1930s, Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan shocked European literature and world consciousness. Nominally fiction but more rightly called "creative confessions," they told of the author's childhood in excoriating Paris slums, of service in the mud wastes of World War I and African jungles...Categorized as:
classics existentialism humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult bildungsroman book -
![The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 by Anton Chekhov]()
The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 by Anton Chekhov
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the final years of his prominent life, Chekhov had reached the height of his powers as a dramatist, and also produced some of the stories that rank among his masterpieces. The poignant 'The Lady with the Little Dog' and 'About Love' examine the nature of love outside of marriage - its romantic idealism and the fear of disillusionment... -
![Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good"... -
![Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard]()
Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis controversial portrayal of Viennese artistic circles begins as the writer-narrator arrives at an 'artistic dinner' given by a composer and his society wife—a couple that the writer once admired but has now come to loathe. The guest of honor, an actor from the Burgtheater, is late...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction philosophical postmodernism 20th-century adult audiobook -
![Complete Stories by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Dave Eggers]()
Complete Stories by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Dave Eggers
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFeaturing five never-before-published Vonnegut stories!Here for the first time is the complete short fiction of one of the twentieth century’s foremost imaginative geniuses. More than half of Vonnegut’s output was short fiction, and never before has the world had occasion to wrestle with it all together... -
![Μικρό βιβλίο για μεγάλα όνειρα by Tasos Livaditis, Τάσος Λειβαδίτης]()
Μικρό βιβλίο για μεγάλα όνειρα by Tasos Livaditis, Τάσος Λειβαδίτης
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsΝενικήκαμενΌραμα μεγάλο πάνω απ’ τους δρόμους, σα φύλλα τουφθινοπώρου σκόρπιζαν οι ζητωκραυγές.Η πόλη είχε χαθεί κάτω απ’ τα φώτα, τις σημαίες, τηβουή. Γιορτάζαμε τη νίκη.Όμως την ίδια ώρα κάποιος σηκώνεται μες στο σιωπηλόσπίτι, δεν ανάβει φως, ντύνεται και κάθεται στοσκοτάδι.Κανείς δεν μπορεί να τον βοηθήσει... -
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![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Selected Stories of O. Henry," by O. Henry, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies comedy drama -
![The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989 by Samuel Beckett]()
The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989 by Samuel Beckett
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNobel prize winner Samuel Beckett is one of the most profoundly original writers of our century. He gives expression to the anguish and isolation of the individual consciousness with a purity and minimalism that have altered the shape of world literature...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction philosophical postmodernism 20th-century adult anthologies fiction -
![The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber, Michael J. Rosen]()
The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber, Michael J. Rosen
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"An authentic American genius. . . . Mr. Thurber belongs in the great lines of American humorists that includes Mark Twain and Ring Lardner." --Philadelphia InquirerJames Thurber’s unique ability to convey the vagaries of life in a funny, witty, and often satirical way earned him accolades as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century... -
![The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel]()
The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFollowing the historic publication of Norton's The Complete Works of Isaac Babel in the fall of 2001, The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel appears as the most authoritative and complete edition of his fiction ever published in paperback... -
![The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories by O. Henry]()
The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHere are sixteen of the best stories by one of America's most popular storytellers. For nearly a century, the work of O. Henry has delighted readers with its humor, irony and colorful, real-life settings. The writer's own life had more than a touch of color and irony... -
![Darkness Moves: An Henri Michaux Anthology, 1927-1984 by Henri Michaux]()
Darkness Moves: An Henri Michaux Anthology, 1927-1984 by Henri Michaux
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHenri Michaux defies common critical definition. Critics have compared his work to such diverse artists as Kafka, Goya, Swift, Klee, and Beckett. Allen Ginsberg called Michaux “genius,” and Jorge Luis Borges wrote that Michaux’s work “is without equal in the literature of our time... -
![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsO. Henry originated the humorous, energetic tale that ends with an ironic, even shocking twist. In "After Twenty Years," for example, two boys agree to meet at a particular spot exactly twenty years later. Both are faithful, but in the intervening years one boy has turned into a criminal, the other into a policeman...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies comedy drama -
![Collected Stories and Other Writings by John Cheever]()
Collected Stories and Other Writings by John Cheever
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJohn Cheever’s stories rank among the finest achievements of twentieth-century short fiction. Ensnared by the trappings of affluence, adrift in the emptiness of American prosperity, his characters find themselves in the midst of dramas that, however comic, pose profound questions about conformity and class, pleasure and propriety, and the conduct and meaning of an individual life... -
![Collected Poems, 1937-1971 by John Berryman]()
Collected Poems, 1937-1971 by John Berryman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis volume brings together all of Berryman’s poetry, except for his epic The Dream Songs, ranging from his earliest unpublished poem (1934) to those written in the last months of his life (1972). A definitive edition of one of America’s most distinguished poets...Categorized as:
literary-fiction postmodernism philosophical fiction 20th-century anthologies historical adult -
![The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot, Caroldean K. Cummings]()
The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot, Caroldean K. Cummings
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 35 ratings"The Waste Land, Prufrock, and Other Poems" is a collection of T. S. Eliot's early poetry. This collection brings together "The Waste Land," arguably T. S. Eliot's most famous poem, with the poetry originally published in "Prufrock and Other Observations" and "Poems (1920)...Categorized as:
classics existentialism literary-fiction philosophical 20th-century adult book fiction -
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![Nervous People and Other Satires by Mikhail Zoshchenko]()
Nervous People and Other Satires by Mikhail Zoshchenko
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTypical targets of Zoshchenko's satire are the Soviet bureaucracy, crowded conditions in communal apartments, marital infidelities and the rapid turnover in marriage partners, and "the petty-bourgeois mode of life, with its adulterous episodes, lying, and similar nonsense... -
![Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme]()
Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWith these audacious and murderous witty stories, Donald Barthelme threw the preoccupation of our time into the literary equivalent of a Cuisinart and served up a gorgeous salad of American culture, high and low... -
![Complete Short Stories by Graham Greene]()
Complete Short Stories by Graham Greene
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAffairs, obsessions, ardors, fantasy, myth, legends, dreams, fear, pity, and violence—this magnificent collection of stories illuminates all corners of the human experience. Including four previously uncollected stories, this new complete edition reveals Graham Greene in a range of contrasting moods, sometimes cynical and witty, sometimes searching and philosophical...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies fiction historical literary -
![My Name Is Aram by William Saroyan]()
My Name Is Aram by William Saroyan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWilliam Saroyan's most celebrated work of short fiction- a boy's view of the American Dream. Aram Garoghlanian was a Californian, born in Fresno on the other side of the Southern Pacific tracks. But he was also part of a large, sprawling family of immigrant Armenians--a whole tribe of eccentric uncles, brawling cousins, and gentle women...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies children children-books coming-of-age -
![A Pelican at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse, Nigel Lambert]()
A Pelican at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse, Nigel Lambert
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsClarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, sank back in his chair, looking like the good old man in a Victorian melodrama whose mortgage the villain had just foreclosed. He felt the absence of that gentle glow which customarily accompanied the departure of one of his sisters. Lord Emsworth needed Galahad... -
![Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer... -
![Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng, Peter Zinoman]()
Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng, Peter Zinoman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBanned in Vietnam until 1986, Dumb Luck--by the controversial and influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung--is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late colonial era. First published in Hanoi during 1936, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuan... -
![The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth]()
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsConsidered by critics to be Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the wildly chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction postmodernism 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The White Shroud by Antanas Škėma, Loreta Mačianskaitė]()
The White Shroud by Antanas Škėma, Loreta Mačianskaitė
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe White Shroud (Balta drobulė, 1958) is considered by many as the most important work of modernist fiction in Lithuanian. Drawing heavily on the author’s own refugee and immigrant experience, this psychological, stream-of-consciousness work tells the story of an émigré poet working as an elevator operator in a large New York hotel during the mid-1950s...Categorized as:
classics existentialism literary-fiction philosophical 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis]()
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe classic novel, international sensation, and inspiration for the film starring Anthony Quinn explores the struggle between the aesthetic and the rational, the inner life and the life of the mind.The classic novel Zorba the Greek is the story of two men, their incredible friendship, and the importance of living life to the fullest...Categorized as:
classics existentialism humor literary-fiction philosophical 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![Poems of André Breton: A Bilingual Anthology by André Breton]()
Poems of André Breton: A Bilingual Anthology by André Breton
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAndre Breton (1896-1966) was the founder of Surrealism and a major leader of the avante-garde movement in France following World War I. This exceptional volume brings together the most comprehensive selection of poems by Breton available in the English language. Here, in a bilingual French-English format are 73 poems representing all styles and stages of the writer's career...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century fiction anthologies historical literary adult -
![The Best Early Stories Of F. Scott Fitzgerald by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bryant Mangum]()
The Best Early Stories Of F. Scott Fitzgerald by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bryant Mangum
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEdited and with an Introduction by Bryant MangumForeword by Roxana RobinsonBenediction • Head and Shoulders • Bernice Bobs Her Hair • The Ice Palace • The Offshore Pirate • May Day • The Jelly Bean • The Diamond as Big as the Ritz • Winter Dreams • AbsolutionIn the euphoric months before and after the publication of This Side of Paradise, F...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies fiction historical literary -
![Babbitt & Main Street: Two Classic American Books by Sinclair Lewis]()
Babbitt & Main Street: Two Classic American Books by Sinclair Lewis
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings• Two of American author Sinclair Lewis' novels are in this Kindle eBook: Babbitt & Main Street Babbitt (1922) Babbitt is at its heart a satire of American society. It was an immediate hit and helped Babbitt win the Nobel Prize in literature. Main Street Another satire, this time involving small town life in America...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies christian fiction historical -
![The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor]()
The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsO'Connor's 1956 account of big-city politics, inspired by the career of longtime Boston Mayor James M. Curley, portrays its Irish-American political boss as a demagogue and a rogue who nonetheless deeply understands his constituents. The book was later made into a John Ford film staring Spencer Tracy... -
![The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Škvorecký]()
The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Škvorecký
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Engineer of Human Souls is a labyrinthine comic novel that investigates the journey and plight of novelist Danny Smiricky, a Czech immigrant to Canada. As the novel begins, he is a professor of American literature at a college in Toronto... -
![Old Herbaceous: A Novel of the Garden by Reginald Arkell]()
Old Herbaceous: A Novel of the Garden by Reginald Arkell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBack in print after fifty yearsOld Herbaceous is a classic British novel of the garden, with a title character as outsized and unforgettable as P. G. Wodehouse’s immortal butler, Jeeves... -
![Personæ: The Shorter Poems by Ezra Pound]()
Personæ: The Shorter Poems by Ezra Pound
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIf James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound are often credited with creating literary modernism, it was Pound alone who offered (in Hugh Kenner's words) "the synergetic presence") to turn individual experiment into a global movement... -
![The Luck of the Bodkins by P.G. Wodehouse]()
The Luck of the Bodkins by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMonty Bodkin's wooing of Gertrude Butterwick on the R.M.S. Atlantic is not progressing as it should. And the cause of all the trouble is Miss Lotus Blossum, the brightest star in Hollywood's firmament. The easy camaraderie of Miss Blossom, coupled with the idea that Monty is the only person who can send the errant Ambrose back to her welcoming arms, is causing Mr Bodkin moments of acute distress... -
![Call If You Need Me by Raymond Carver]()
Call If You Need Me by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen he died in August 1988, Raymond Carver had just published what were thought to be his last stories in the collection entitled Elephant and his own collection of stories, Where I'm Calling from... -
![Krapp's Last Tape & Embers by Samuel Beckett]()
Krapp's Last Tape & Embers by Samuel Beckett
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the first of these two plays, an old man records his comments as he listens to a tape recording of his own observations on how life felt when he was 39. In the second, a man walking along the seashore recalls his dead father while other familiar voices speak to him from the past...Categorized as:
classics existentialism literary-fiction philosophical 20th-century adult book british-isles -
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![Selected Poems by Alexander Blok]()
Selected Poems by Alexander Blok
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAleksandr Blok (1880-1921) lived thought his country's savage wars and radical traumas, trying to welcome the new order. But there was no space in it for his kind of imagination. His poem The Twelve has claims to being the first great poem of the Russian Revolution. It remains enigmatic, the language elevated, the tone celebratory, even mystical...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction fiction 20th-century anthologies historical literary adult -
![Vladimir Nabokov: Novels 1955–1962 by Vladimir Nabokov]()
Vladimir Nabokov: Novels 1955–1962 by Vladimir Nabokov
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis Library of America volume is the second of three volumes that contain the most authoritative versions of the English works of the brilliant Russian émigré, Vladimir Nabokov.Lolita (1955), Nabokov’s single most famous work, is one of the most controversial and widely read books of its time...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction humor fiction 20th-century psychological politics historical -
![Pygmalion and Three Other Plays by George Bernard Shaw]()
Pygmalion and Three Other Plays by George Bernard Shaw
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPygmalion and Three Other Plays, by George Bernard Shaw, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras... -
![Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler]()
Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSince the age of 11 Moses Berger has been obsessed withthe Gursky clan, and insanely wealthy, profoundly seductive family of Jewish-Canadian descent. Now a 52-year-old alcoholic biographer, Berger is desperately trying to chronicle the stories of their lives, especially that of the mysterious Solomon Gursky, who may or may not have died in a plane crash... -
![Omensetter's Luck by William H. Gass]()
Omensetter's Luck by William H. Gass
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsGreeted as a masterpiece when it was first published in 1966, Omensetter's Luck is the quirky, impressionistic, and breathtakingly original story of an ordinary community galvanized by the presence of an extraordinary man...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction philosophical postmodernism 20th-century adult book fiction -
![The Petty Demon by Fyodor Sologub]()
The Petty Demon by Fyodor Sologub
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Petty Demon is one of the funniest Russian novels. It is also the most decadent of the great Russian classics, replete with naked boys, sinuous girls, and a strange mixture of beauty and perversity. The main hero, Peredonov, is as comical as he is disgusting, he is at once a victim, a monster, a silly hypocrite, and a sadistic dullard...
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