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Mixing satire, farce, and dystopia, the stories in John Kessel's The Presidential Papers deconstruct the character and politics of five imagined presidents, some of whom bear striking resemblance to individuals who have occupied the Oval Office over the last thirty years. Who are these men and what makes them so funny, when they are not terrifying? How damaged does a person need to be to seek such power, why do we vote for them, and what do they think about the 1959 Washington Senators? In'The Franchise,'aging career minor leaguer George H.W. Bush faces ace New York Giants pitcher Fidel Castro in the 1959 World Series.'The Last American'outlines the career of the final president of the United States and his thirty-three years in office. Can the megalomaniac President of the Solar System evade the consequences of his moronic rule in the original play'A Brief History of the War with Venus'? In our Outspoken Interview we learn about crossing Mary Shelley with Jane Austen, about having classic SF writer James Gunn as a mentor, about being a spy in the English department, and about industrial capitalism, immigrants, and Buffalo, New York.

Taut, panoramic and powerful; Paper Names is an unforgettable debut about the long shadows of our parents, the ripple effects of our decisions and the ways in which our love transcends difference. Outside a New York apartment building, an attempted mugging alters the lives of three people. Tony, a Chinese-born engineer turned Manhattan doorman, who immigrated to the United States to give his family a better life. His daughter, Tammy, who grapples with the expectations surrounding a first-generation American as she grows into an ambitious young woman. And Oliver, a charming white lawyer with a dark family secret, who is continuously propelled towards Tammy and Tony, whether by fate or his choices. Set in New York and China over three decades, Paper Names explores what it means to be American from three different perspectives. As Tony, Tammy and Oliver each strive for their own American dream, and make sacrifices to attain it, every joyous and heart-breaking twist in their stories begs the question: was it all worth it?'Spectacular... Explosive and riveting, the story whipstitches in and out of time like a golden needle'— Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone ‘Unblinking, nimble, and written with the kind of clarity one expects from a seasoned author. The word stunning is not hyperbole here'— Brian Castleberry, award-winning author of Nine Shiny Objects ‘With a keen eye for detail, a strong sense of pacing, and a deep understanding of human nature, Susie Luo crafts a moving portrait of two families whose fates intertwine'— Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train

WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE MONTH'A truly original, brilliant novel'Daily Mail'Very special indeed... your world will be a better place for reading this story'Joanna CannonWhat if going back means you could begin again?Rocked by a terrible accident, homeless Kelly needs to escape the streets of Glasgow. Maybe she doesn't believe in serendipity, but a rare moment of kindness and a lost ring conspire to call her home, returning to the small town she fled so many years ago.

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 22nd May 1859. His childhood was blighted by his father's heavy drinking which for some years broke up the family. Fortunately, wealthy uncles were willing to support them by paying for education and clothing. He was accepted at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and also began to write short stories the first, ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe', was published in Blackwood's Magazine. Despite several other stories and some articles in the British Medical Journal his medical studies took priority.When these finished he was appointed as Doctor on the Greenland whaler ‘Hope of Peterhead'in 1880 and then, after graduation, as ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba on its voyage to West Africa.1882 saw a move to Plymouth and his own independent practice. With few patients he resumed writing and completed his first novel, ‘The Mystery of Cloomber', although most of his output was short stories based on his experiences at sea. He married Louisa Hawkins in 1885. However, two years later he met and fell in love with Jean Elizabeth Leckie, though they remained platonic out of respect for, and loyalty to, his wife.His literary career suddenly burst into life in November 1886 with ‘A Study In Scarlet', the first of the fabulously successful Sherlock Holmes stories. With two children to support he now revisited his haphazard commercial arrangements and curtailed everything save for commissions from the Strand Magazine. As a sportsman he was remarkably proficient. He was goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club and played ten first-class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club as well as captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in East Sussex. In 1891 tired of writing Holmes stories, he began a series of historical novels and even went so far as to apparently kill off Holmes in a lethal brawl with his arch-nemesis Moriarty.Despite heavy and sustained criticism he continued to write in support of the Boer War, a fact he thought contributed to his knighthood in 1902. The following year to great relief and acclaim he brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead in his first outing for a decade.Sadly, his wife Louisa died from TB in 1906 and, a year later, he at last married Jean. During the War and for several years after family deaths had left him depressed. In a search for solace and answers he alighted upon spiritualism and, such was his interest, that he wrote several books on the subject.On 7th July 1930 Conan Doyle was discovered in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in East Sussex, clutching his chest dying of a heart attack. He was 71.

The New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer returns with “a romantic gem” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) about a young woman who decides to finally live for herself rather than rely on the universe for answers.Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she'd spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there's only a name: Jake. But as Jake and Daphne's story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper's prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn't, information that—if he found out—would break his heart. “Daphne's sometimes heart-wrenching, often heartwarming search for meaningful relationships, both romantic and platonic, is sure to inspire” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) new and longtime fans of Rebecca Serle.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND FICTION BOOK AWARD ‘a compelling, intricate and multifaceted tale'–The Saturday Paper ‘Politica can't make war make sense (what can?), but it does offer a small balm. In her book Kassab looks horror in the eye, dignifies private desires and grieves their loss, and in doing so reminds us what being human looks like.'–Meanjin ‘Like an impressionist painter, Kassab uses words like brushstrokes to build a vivid picture of intertwined lives set against the continuing drumbeat of war. The narrative moves between past, present and future and uses time as an effective device to illustrate how the effects of war linger long after its cessation.'– Books and PublishingA captivating literary journey that delves into the intertwined lives of a town, its people, and a region shaped by revolution and war. The war broke out and she decided to call her dad. Weeks and weeks they do not speak, and the weeks become months and then they are so many years. She imagines herself starting this story. She imagines how she will tell this story later to someone else.We hadn't spoken for years but then the war broke out... As conflict plays out across an unnamed region, its inhabitants deal with the fallout. Families are torn apart and brought together. A divide grows between those on either side of the war, compromises are struck as the toll of violence impacts near and far. We learn about those who are left behind and those who choose to leave in a great scattering. As the stories of those affected play out, they weave together to show the whole of a society in the most extreme of circumstances. Even after the last shot is fired, their world will never recover. From the acclaimed author of The House of Youssef, Australiana and The Lovers comes a powerful new novel that asks again if it's possible to ever measure the personal cost of war.PRAISE FOR POLITICA: ‘In a 2022 interview, Kassab said a responsibility of the novelist is to “write with an eye towards humanity”. And she never falters in this, with Politica always drawing us back to war's immeasurable personal cost.'– The Guardian‘a rewarding tale of real people navigating war, love, loss, poverty and many other challenges, all linked by time and location. The novel asks if it is possible to ever measure the personal cost of war. Through all the stories she creates here, Kassab makes it clear that it can never be.'– The Saturday Paper ‘an evocative literary tale'– Australian Women's Weekly

The phenomenon of human potential is never beyond our sight. An opportunity is always offered to people. Sometimes in a mysterious way. Whoever ignores or rejects it will never truly experience life's journey. Staying on the same path is to constantly relive the same day. That's why exploration embodies mankind's natural need to deal with the secrets below the surface. Although the facts about us as human beings speak in an understandable language, this doesn't mean we're not an enigma to ourselves. Understanding oneself is a very demanding process, similar to an autopsy. Not a physical autopsy, but a spiritual one. Discovering the anatomy of one's soul cannot be done abruptly. Moments of inspiration will make the realization of whether we are controlled by our consciousness or our subconsciousness easier. Hiding behind a heavy veil until the very end is not truly living. Sometimes a mere piece of paper under a windshield wiper with just three words and a phone number can change your life instantly. The hero of this novel who only refers to himself as “The Recorder” dared to call a number left on a piece of paper beneath his windscreen wiper. He sensed an opportunity. A few weeks later, a telegram arrived: IT'S TIME. IT'S YOUR TURN NOW. MOVE NOW! A trip to an unknown estate marks the beginning of an adventure, and he begins writing the history of his life.

•• Includes the 2024 shortlisted Caine Prize story,'Animals'••••An Oprah Daily and Brittle Paper Most Anticipated Book of 2024•• A searing, unflinching collection of stories set in Nigeria that explores community expectations, familial strife and the struggle for survival. A one-eyed chicken, a chimpanzee forgotten in a cage, a tormented daughter searching for a link to past lives. Everday madness and monsters are explored against the backdrop of an indifferent Lagos in Uche Okonkwo's dynamic debut collection. Across ten evocative stories, A Kind of Madness dips in and out of the lives of Nigerians, weaving through their lunacy and longing, unravelling the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings and more. Brimming with vitality, these bites of mundane madness mark the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction and will leave you hungering for more. Perfect for fans of Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri and Nearly All the Men in Lagos are Mad by Damilare Kuku.'Crackling with energy and alive to our whole kaleidoscope of feeling, these stories will rip you open and light up your insides'- Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes'Steady-handed and gut-punching. I'm in awe of this mad collection, this necessary writer'- NoViolet Bulawayo, author of Glory'Uche Okonkwo's voice is absorbing. I was immersed in the familiar world of these tender, playfully haunting, darkly funny stories. Okonkwo is a writer to watch'- Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under the Udala Trees'To read A Kind of Madness is to have an experience: of complex characters grappling with life's many troubles, of a robust culture, of history, of the battle between the domestic and the public, and all the big themes of life woven together. Like Jhumpa Lahiri, Okonkwo's mastery of the form is as rich as some of the short story's best practitioners and deserves every recognition it is sure to get'- Chigozie Obioma, author of An Orchestra of Minorities'Touched my heart. Uche Okonkwo's stories are among the very best'- Sidik Fofana, author of Stories from the Tenants Downstairs'Hilarious and heartbreaking... A delightful debut'- Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, author of A Girl is a Body of Water'Okonkwo has a Chekhovian eye for the tangle of internal motivations and assumptions that steer her characters... Readers will be eager for more of Okonkwo's artful writing'- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)'This collection explores how relationships, traditions and hardships can drive us to different kinds of madness. Be it mental illness, broken promises or unmet expectations, life's complexities are the main characters in these striking and insightful stories'- Ms Magazine'Intense and masterfully evocative... In delicately chiselled prose, Okonkwo successfully reveals the intricate contours of humanity and the Nigerian life. Using this collection to nail her name to the wall of blazingly promising literary talents, Okonkwo has given us stories that settle in the pits of our stomachs like they belong there. How gorgeously absorbing'- Republic'Surprising, illuminating, and deeply human'- Booklist'Vivid... Striking a perfect balance between humor and heartbreak, A Kind of Madness shows incredible wiseness on the complexity and at times maddening nature of loving our family, our friends, and our home'- Chicago Review of Books

The never-before-published novel by Charmian Clift.‘ In those days the end of the morning was always marked by the quarry whistle blowing the noon knock-off.Since everybody was out of bed very early, morning then was a long time, or even, if you came to think about it, a round time — symmetrical anyway, and contained under a thin, radiant, dome shaped cover...'During the years of the Great Depression, Cressida Morley and her eccentric family live in a weatherboard cottage on the edge of a wild beach. Outsiders in their small working-class community, they rant and argue and read books and play music and never feel themselves to be poor. Yet as Cressida moves beyond childhood, she starts to outgrow the place that once seemed the centre of the world. As she plans her escape, the only question is: who will she become?The End of the Morning is the final and unfinished autobiographical novel by Charmian Clift. Published here for the first time, it is the book that Clift herself regarded as her most significant work. Although the author did not live to complete it, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised and stands alone as a novella. It is published here alongside a new selection of Clift's essays and an afterword from her biographer Nadia Wheatley.‘ The End of the Morning is full of feeling, animated by that formless, aching questioning of childhood, and a fascinating glimpse of the forces that shaped Clift as a person and a writer.'— Fiona Wright‘ Reading her, even a glimpsed paragraph of her, is like quaffing the finest champagne on earth.'— Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald‘ Forthright, funny and with an indefinable flair, Charmian Clift's writing plays second fiddle to nobody.'— Richard Cotter, Sydney Arts Guide

Why do we hold on to things we don't need? “A beautifully assured debut that is part love story, part psychological slow-burner” (Emma Jane Unsworth, international bestselling author of Animals). Miriam is twenty-nine; temping, living with a flatmate who is no longer a friend, and still trying to find her place in life. To move forward, she decides to dispose of the many possessions that anchor her in the past. When Erik, an artist and photographer in his mid-forties, hires Miriam to help clear out his book-filled, paper-packed home, she begins to feel drawn to him, despite his obsessive hoarding and the fact that he's still haunted by his previous marriage. But can there be a happy ending for the troubled pair? This powerful, moving novel explores the unlikely relationship between two very different people—and explores deep questions about fear, freedom, and attachment. “Weaves its way through the cracks of our everyday perceptions to skilfully explore complex issues around illness, grief and longing.... Combining exquisite descriptions with scalpel-sharp human insights, this is a book to languish in, and emerge from deeply moved. It marks the arrival of an elegant and thrilling new voice in literary fiction.” —Emma Jane Unsworth “A simply riveting and unfailingly entertaining read.” —Midwest Book Review “A strong debut novel.” —The Manchester Review

“A diverse and glorious selection... a gift of imagination, wit, and wonder. The collection is filled with miniature masterpieces.... This must-have anthology is a treasure trove not to be missed.” —Library Journal (starred review)The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by Kate DiCamillo, Jess Walter, Dave Eggers, Allegra Goodman, Jai Chakrabarti, Francisco Gonzalez, and more.Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Amor Towles has brought his own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Towles, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.THE WINNING STORIES“Roy,” Emma Binder“The Soccer Balls of Mr. Kurz,” Michele Mari (translated from the Italian by Brian Robert Moore)“Orphans,” Brad Felver“The Home Visit,” Morris Collins“The Import,” Jai Chakrabarti“Didi,” Amber Caron“Serranos,” Francisco González“Hiding Spot,” Caroline Kim“Junior,” Katherine D. Stutzman“My Good Friend,” Juliana Leite (translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry)'The Castle of Rose Tellin,” Kate DiCamillo'Rain,” Colin Barrett“Marital Problems,” Robin Romm“The Last Grownup,” Allegra Goodman“The Honor of Your Presence,” Dave Eggers“The Paper Artist,” E. K. Ota“The Room-Service Waiter,” Tom Crewe“Seeing Through Maps,” Madeline ffitch“The Dark,” Jess Walter“Mobilization,” Allegra Hyde

A witty, layered and compelling novel about a woman with Down Syndrome, exploring textile art, sibling relationships, good intentions gone awry, and friendships.What is intellectual disability? Ask Bruno, who is at his wits'end trying to predict what his sister, Mina, will do next. Ask Iris, who is entranced by the wildly inventive embroidery Mina creates. Ask Gabriela, who loves Mina and disagrees when Bruno uses Mina's constant demands as an excuse not to have a child. Meet Mina in her overstuffed Montreal apartment, surrounded by her treasures. She knows she is the best paper sorter at the recycling plant where she works. She is proud to be diabetic but equally happy to cheat on her diet. The colours she stitches hum with life. Colours in Her Hands is a nuanced and thought-provoking novel about family, about art, about questioning the way the world treats those who are different. With an unforgettable voice, Mina navigates the labyrinth that society sets for her with dignity, inventiveness, and aplomb.

••THE PHENOMENAL TOP TEN BESTSELLER••'An absorbing story of musical rivalry and ambition'SUNDAY TIMES, Best historical fiction'Enthralling, passionate, vivid. The Instrumentalist is a marvel'KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE'Historical fiction as it should be written'MAIL ON SUNDAY'A captivating narrative as tightly tuned as a thriller'DAILY TELEGRAPH'A compassionate coming-of-age tale … Constable understands the power music has to sustain us'OBSERVER_________________________________________Anna Maria may have no name, no fortune, no family. But she has her ambition, and her talent.Her best hope lies in her teacher, Antonio Vivaldi. Soon she is his star pupil.But as Anna Maria's star rises, not everyone is happy. Because Anna Maria's shining light is threatening to eclipse that of her mentor…She will leave her mark, whatever it takes. And her story will be heard._________________________________________'Had me spellbound from start to finish'EMMA STONEX'A story of musical rivalry which will completely capture your imagination'ELODIE HARPER'Remarkable … A vivid and nuanced portrait of a groundbreaking woman'NEW YORK TIMES'I was swept away by this searing portrait of ambition and betrayal'ELIZABETH MACNEAL'A fascinating story of music, ambition, and womanhood in eighteenth-century Venice'CHARMAINE WILKERSON'Viscerally transports you to eighteenth-century Venice and revives the lost story of a phenomenal woman'MARIE CLAIRE'Fans of Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist will adore it'I PAPER••An Observer Debut Novelist of 2024••

Liz, born in China and raised in Montreal, is about to land in Germany for a summer physics internship at the end of her freshman year. Eager for a new beginning, she hopes to break free of her unrealized childhood dream of becoming a pianist, a dead-end romantic relationship, and the tug of war between her Chinese and Canadian identities. In Germany, she meets fellow intern Haider, an Indian Muslim from Toronto, and they fall in love against expectations. But summer doesn't last forever. Once they return to Canada, culture clashes and family disapproval threaten to pull them apart. As her sense of self is pushed dangerously close to a tipping point, Liz must summon the courage to survive the chaos that her life has become. Lili Zeng holds a PhD in biophysics from McGill University. She has several peer-reviewed papers under her name and has given a dozen scientific and public outreach talks. Also a classically trained pianist, she has won numerous music competitions and soloed with prestigious chamber and symphony orchestras. She was born in Guangzhou, China, and moved to Montreal, Canada, with her parents as a child. Dear Haider is Lili's first novel. Praise and reviews “Lili Zeng's slow-burn account of Liz's summer student internship lays the foundation for a rollercoaster ride filled with often unexpected life adventures as Liz steps into a new chapter of her life. Zeng's awe-inspiring debut novel is a fearless and courageous narrative of first love, loss, despair, and ultimately of hope and healing. Truly, a testament to the resilience and enduring faith of the human spirit!” — Mary Anne Levasseur, caregiver and youth mental health advocate “A very sincere and touching story about a young girl exploring herself and love. It candidly shows the protagonist Liz, a Montreal-based Chinese immigrant's step-by-step adventures and inner doubts, conflicts and struggles in her love with a white youth and an Indian youth. Some of the real presentation and reflections on racial differences and chasm are a valuable and even most fascinating part of this story.” — Xiaodan He, filmmaker, A Touch of Spring “When Liz sets off to continue her studies in Europe, her path seems clear––until unexpected love is both a distraction and a portal. But to what? A coming of age story of the struggle with one's own sense of self as it expands and contracts against the expectations of the larger world.” — Leila Marshy, author of Philistine

A tender and fierce novel that asks what we do when faced with things we don't understand. Is our impulse to destroy or connect?Water will come and you think it will be soft. You think it will be smooth and find its way around your things: your houses and cars and furniture, your gardens and windows and hope. But water can be the foot of an elephant, the horns of a moose, a herd of buffalo running from a lion, water can be the kauri falling in the forest, a two-tonne truck, a whole stadium filled with 50,000 people, screaming … Water is life, and water can be death. Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. In the near future, they become neighbours in a coastal town in Aotearoa New Zealand. Single parent Keri has her hands full with four-year-old tearaway Walty and teen Wairere, a strange and gifted child, who always picks up on things that aren't hers to worry about. They live next door to Janet, a white woman with an opinion about everything, and new arrival Sera, whose family are refugees from ecological devastation in Europe. When Janet's son Conor arrives home without warning, sporting a fresh buzzcut and a new tattoo, the quiet tension between the neighbours grows, but no one suspects just how extreme Conor has become. No one except Wairere, who can feel the danger in their midst, and the swamp beneath their street, watching and waiting.PRAISE FOR THE MIRES ‘a novel of real complexity and power, in which care and connection are centred, and the interwoven nature of belonging, place and ecology is brought alive in affecting and productive new ways'– The Saturday Paper ‘The Mires is about the monsters we've created and the power we have to stop them. A truly magnificent novel.'– Shankari Chandran, author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens ‘a courageous book that shines a light on the darkest human behaviour and shows how the best of humanity can emerge from devastation, and triumph over hatred and violence'– Artshub ‘An immersive, unnerving novel about the hatred that can rise up out of the locked, curtained rooms in our neighbourhoods, and the comfort that can be found in another's home. A story about people and the land they share. The memories stored in the water and peat. I read this book with equal measures of worry and hope.'– Becky Manawatu, author of Auē ‘The Mires is an enchanting novel: poignant, earnest and lyrical, this story will settle in your bones.'– Maxine Beneba Clarke, author of The Hate Race

The never-before-published novel by Charmian Clift. ‘In those days the end of the morning was always marked by the quarry whistle blowing the noon knock-off. Since everybody was out of bed very early, morning then was a long time, or even, if you came to think about it, a round time — symmetrical anyway, and contained under a thin, radiant, dome shaped cover…'During the years of the Great Depression, Cressida Morley and her eccentric family live in a weatherboard cottage on the edge of a wild beach. Outsiders in their small working-class community, they rant and argue and read books and play music and never feel themselves to be poor. Yet as Cressida moves beyond childhood, she starts to outgrow the place that once seemed the centre of the world. As she plans her escape, the only question is: who will she become? The End of the Morning is the final and unfinished autobiographical novel by Charmian Clift. Published here for the first time, it is the book that Clift herself regarded as her most significant work. Although the author did not live to complete it, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised and stands alone as a novella. It is published here alongside a new selection of Clift's essays and an afterword from her biographer Nadia Wheatley. ‘The End of the Morning is full of feeling, animated by that formless, aching questioning of childhood, and a fascinating glimpse of the forces that shaped Clift as a person and a writer.'— Fiona Wright ‘Reading her, even a glimpsed paragraph of her, is like quaffing the finest champagne on earth.'— Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald ‘Forthright, funny and with an indefinable flair, Charmian Clift's writing plays second fiddle to nobody.'— Richard Cotter, Sydney Arts Guide

The first major book from a longtime legend in underground literature; known by citation and word of mouth, but only now emerging with a work that will earn a broad audience.“Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts is why I want to read. There are few books at all that expand the exploration of family, outsider sex, animal love, therapy and surreal vision and even fewer writers who do it as well as Claire Donato. My mind and heart are thankfully changed forever.” —JAMIE STEWART of Xiu Xiu and author of Anything That Moves “Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts moves and feels like a novel of ideas, yes, but also a lookbook of Rorshachs; a concept cookbook for famished phantoms; a fragmentary tour de force a la Duras. On every page, it lines the mind with vibrant space, as extraordinary in its candor about desire, artifice, and intimacy as it is with wordplay, wit, and social theory. “Death is a mirror of time, and life is not as heavy as it seems,” Donato writes, beckoning us forward through the void of realism as might an imaginary friend we thought we'd lost—or should I say ‘guardian angel'?” —BLAKE BUTLER, author'In Claire Donato's fiction, I am both looking in and being looked at. The depths of desire are on display, laying bare the complexity and the ugliness that often comes with it.'—MOLLY SODA, artist'Claire Donato's prose is at once playful and masterful, charming and haunting—I loved these short stories with huge imaginations.'—CHELSEA HODSON, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else'Love is a source of radical questioning whose only enemy is indifference. Claire Donato's fever dream of a novel goes toe to toe with today's anomie, stretching our only resource left, language, so we can navigate a 21st century landscape of violently changing relationships, with one another, with the natural world, and with our bodies.'—JAMIESON WEBSTER, psychoanalyst and author In the disquieting stories of Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts, a fractaled Claire Donato contemplates grief and disgust in heterosexuality, deconstructing the romance myth and the illicit fantasies which reflect our haunted selves. These fictions are populated with Lynchian characters, draped in memory and the subconscious mind, who imagine their way out of the painful limits of their world: a turtle retreats into its shell and becomes a real girl. A porn addict turns into a baby boy in the arms of his barren cyber-girlfriend. And a digitally-marred depressive joins forces with the ghost of Simone Weil to kill a chicken. Donato's fictions are precise and cutting, seamlessly integrating a vast knowledge of art through sharp criticism and a history of cult traditions: Donnie Darko, Wings of Desire, Daisies, and Twin Peaks and artists including Clarice Lispector, M.F.K. Fisher, Sibylle Baier, and The Velvet Underground. Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts concludes with'Gravity and Grace, the Chicken and the Egg, or: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian', a novella-in-vignettes that frames cooking as an entrypoint to light, awareness, and connection. With associative lyricism and a preternatural ability to gaze into the void with tenderness, Donato relays an indescribably strange perception of our world, in which maniacal grief turns to a gleeful protest before becoming, against all odds, a love letter to what remains. Cover photo: Jimmy DeSana Contact Paper, 1980 Vintage C-print © the Jimmy DeSana Trust Courtesy of the Jimmy DeSana Trust and P·P·O·W, New York

A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition of Virginia Woolf's fantastical novel about an Elizabethan nobleman who lives for three centuries and transitions into a woman. With a new introduction by Jeanette Winterson.Woolf's most lighthearted novel is a playful and exuberant romp through history. As a teenage nobleman, Orlando spends his days in revelry at the colorful Tudor court of Queen Elizabeth and his nights in writing earnest poetry. A favorite of the elderly queen, he falls in love with and is jilted by a wayward Russian princess. Two kings later, having reached his thirties, Orlando is sent to serve as ambassador to Constantinople, where he awakens one day to find himself in the body of a woman. The Lady Orlando takes this circumstance in stride and returns to England, where she engages in love affairs with both men and women, consorts with the famous poets of each age, finds happiness with an unconventional husband, and at last achieves publication of her own epic poem in the year 1928, the same year that Woolf published her novel. With its blend of fantastical adventure and satirical wit, Orlando was an immediate popular and critical success, one whose status as a classic has only grown with time. Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born on the 1st April 1875 in Greenwich, London. Leaving school at 12 because of truancy, by the age of fifteen he had experience; selling newspapers, as a worker in a rubber factory, as a shoe shop assistant, as a milk delivery boy and as a ship's cook. By 1894 he was engaged but broke it off to join the Infantry being posted to South Africa. He also changed his name to Edgar Wallace which he took from Lew Wallace, the author of Ben-Hur. In Cape Town in 1898 he met Rudyard Kipling and was inspired to begin writing. His first collection of ballads, The Mission that Failed! was enough of a success that in 1899 he paid his way out of the armed forces in order to turn to writing full time. By 1904 he had completed his first thriller, The Four Just Men. Since nobody would publish it he resorted to setting up his own publishing company which he called Tallis Press. In 1911 his Congolese stories were published in a collection called Sanders of the River, which became a bestseller. He also started his own racing papers, Bibury's and R. E. Walton's Weekly, eventually buying his own racehorses and losing thousands gambling. A life of exceptionally high income was also mirrored with exceptionally large spending and debts. Wallace now began to take his career as a fiction writer more seriously, signing with Hodder and Stoughton in 1921. He was marketed as the ‘King of Thrillers'and they gave him the trademark image of a trilby, a cigarette holder and a yellow Rolls Royce. He was truly prolific, capable not only of producing a 70,000 word novel in three days but of doing three novels in a row in such a manner. It was in, estimating that by 1928 one in four books being read was written by Wallace, for alongside his famous thrillers he wrote variously in other genres, including science fiction, non-fiction accounts of WWI which amounted to ten volumes and screen plays. Eventually he would reach the remarkable total of 170 novels, 18 stage plays and 957 short stories.Wallace became chairman of the Press Club which to this day holds an annual Edgar Wallace Award, rewarding ‘excellence in writing'. Diagnosed with diabetes his health deteriorated and he soon entered a coma and died of his condition and double pneumonia on the 7th of February 1932 in North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills. He was buried near his home in England at Chalklands, Bourne End, in Buckinghamshire.

A true-crime obsessed young artist is drawn into the lives of an deliriously wealthy family in this fantastically entertaining thriller from Calla Henkel, author of Other People's Clothes Laced with pitch-black humor and conspiratorial unease, Scrap is a razor-sharp examination of wealth and power, art and truth, of the line between justice and revenge—and who gets to cross it. Recently dumped and stuck with a mortgage, artist Esther Ray wants to burn the world, but instead, she reluctantly accepts a scrapbooking job from the deliriously wealthy Naomi Duncan. The scrapbooks, a secret birthday gift for Naomi's husband, Bryce, trace the Duncan's 25-year marriage. The conditions: Esther must include every piece of paper she's been sent, must sign an NDA, and must only contact Naomi using the burner phone provided. Otherwise she'll spoil the surprise. As Esther binges true-crime podcasts and works through the near-200 boxes of Duncan detritus, she finds herself infatuated with the gilded family—until, mid-project, Naomi dies suspiciously. When Esther becomes convinced the husband killed her, she uses the scrapbooks'trove of information to insert herself into the Duncans'lives to prove it. But the more Esther investigates, the further she is dragged back to the scorched earth of her past and the famous artist who paid her to disappear.

Jacques Heath Futrelle was born on the 9th April 1875 in Pike County, Georgia.His early career was as a journalist. Initially he worked for the Atlanta Journal where he began their sports section. This was followed by work for the New York Herald, the Boston Post and the Boston American. At the latter, in 1905, he published the serialized version of his short story ‘The Problem of Cell 13'who's main character was Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, commonly known as ‘The Thinking Machine', a detective, who used logic to solve crimes.In 1895 he married Lily May Peel with whom he had two children.In 1906 buoyed by the success of his short stories he left the paper to write novels. Such was his success that he had a house, ‘Stepping Stones', designed and built with a harbor view at Scituate, Massachusetts, where the family would spend most of their time together.On April 15th, 1912 he was returning from Europe as a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic when it stuck an iceberg. He refused to board a lifeboat but insisted that Lily did. She acquiesced and remembered the last she saw of him he was smoking a cigarette on deck with John Jacob Astor IV. His body was never recovered.

Jacques Heath Futrelle was born on the 9th April 1875 in Pike County, Georgia.His early career was as a journalist. Initially he worked for the Atlanta Journal where he began their sports section. This was followed by work for the New York Herald, the Boston Post and the Boston American. At the latter, in 1905, he published the serialized version of his short story ‘The Problem of Cell 13'who's main character was Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, commonly known as ‘The Thinking Machine', a detective, who used logic to solve crimes.In 1895 he married Lily May Peel with whom he had two children.In 1906 buoyed by the success of his short stories he left the paper to write novels. Such was his success that he had a house, ‘Stepping Stones', designed and built with a harbor view at Scituate, Massachusetts, where the family would spend most of their time together.On April 15th, 1912 he was returning from Europe as a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic when it stuck an iceberg. He refused to board a lifeboat but insisted that Lily did. She acquiesced and remembered the last she saw of him he was smoking a cigarette on deck with John Jacob Astor IV. His body was never recovered.

Jacques Heath Futrelle was born on the 9th April 1875 in Pike County, Georgia.His early career was as a journalist. Initially he worked for the Atlanta Journal where he began their sports section. This was followed by work for the New York Herald, the Boston Post and the Boston American. At the latter, in 1905, he published the serialized version of his short story ‘The Problem of Cell 13'who's main character was Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, commonly known as ‘The Thinking Machine', a detective, who used logic to solve crimes.In 1895 he married Lily May Peel with whom he had two children.In 1906 buoyed by the success of his short stories he left the paper to write novels. Such was his success that he had a house, ‘Stepping Stones', designed and built with a harbor view at Scituate, Massachusetts, where the family would spend most of their time together.On April 15th, 1912 he was returning from Europe as a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic when it stuck an iceberg. He refused to board a lifeboat but insisted that Lily did. She acquiesced and remembered the last she saw of him he was smoking a cigarette on deck with John Jacob Astor IV. His body was never recovered.

When a catastrophic wildfire suddenly rips through a woman's hometown, she thinks she is lucky to have survived... until she finds a dead woman in her driveway, clutching a piece of paper with her name on it....The blaze came out of nowhere one summer afternoon, a wall of fire fed by blustering wind. Yet, somehow, Alison is alive. She rode out the fire on the damp tiles of her bathroom, her entire body swaddled in a wet woolen blanket. As flames crackled around her, the bitter char of eucalyptus settled in the back of her throat, each breath more desperate than the last. The wildfire that devastated the Victoria countryside Alison calls home sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to obliterate her carefully constructed life. When Alison emerges from her sheltering place, she spots a soot-covered cherry red car in her driveway, and in it, a dead woman. Alison has never met Simone Arnold in her life... or so she thinks. So what is Simone doing here? As Alison searches for answers across Australia's scorched bushlands, she soon learns that the fire isn't the only threat she's facing....

Alexis, après des années à la tête de la mafia, commence à voir les barrières qu'il a érigées autour de lui s'effondrer. Sa rencontre avec Alessio éveille en lui des tourments intérieurs qu'il n'avait jamais envisagés. Comment peut-il concilier son rôle de chef impitoyable avec l'homme qu'il aspire à être?Alexis vit dans l'ombre, personne ne connaît sa véritable identité. Il ne veut pas être simplement un chef de mafia sanguinaire, mais il refuse également de n'être qu'un homme parmi tant d'autres. Complexe et en pleine lutte intérieure, Alexis voit en Alessio la clé pour découvrir sa véritable voie. Mais pour cela, il devra affronter ses démons et réconcilier ses deux facettes opposées.Ce roman intense plonge dans les profondeurs d'une âme tourmentée, tiraillée entre pouvoir, identité et rédemption. À propos de l'autrice :Babethe Atineaulle, passionnée d'écriture et de création, est une femme de 42 ans originaire de Normandie. Maman de six enfants, elle mène sa vie avec intensité et liberté, explorant à fond chaque moment. C'est cette passion qui l'a poussée à écrire, transformant des idées fugaces en histoires captivantes. Quand elle n'écrit pas, Babethe se consacre à des activités créatives comme le scrapbooking et le Paper Craft. Chaque soir, elle respecte son rituel de lecture, qu'elle considère comme essentiel pour une bonne nuit de sommeil. Aimante et dévouée à son entourage, Babethe combine amour de l'écriture et joie de partager ses histoires avec le monde.

From acclaimed Japanese author Sanaka Hiigari comes a heartwarming, life-affirming novel about a magical photo studio, where people go after they die to view key moments from their life—and relive one precious memory before they pass into the afterlife.The hands and pendulum of the old wooden clock on the wall were motionless. Hirasaka cocked his head to listen, but the silence inside the photo studio was almost deafening. His leather shoes sank softly into the aging red carpet as he strode over to the arrangement of flowers on the counter and carefully adjusted the angle of the petals... This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaka, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio; photos can also be taken in the courtyard. Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death where those who have departed have a chance—one last time—to see their entire life flash before their eyes via Mr. Hirasaka's'spinning lantern of memories.'We meet Hatsue, a ninety-two year old woman who worked as a nursery teacher, the rowdy Waniguchi, a yakuza overseer in his life who is also capable of great compassion, and finally Mitsuru, a young girl who has died tragically young at the hands of abusive parents. Sorting through the many photos of their lives, Mr. Hirasaka also offers guests a second gift: a chance to travel back in time to take a photo of one particular moment in their lives that they wish to cherish in a special way. Full of charm and whimsy, The Lantern of Lost Memories will sweep you away to a world of nostalgia, laughter, and love.

“Astonishingly beautiful... It's a revelation.”—Jenny Offill, New York Times bestselling author of WeatherOne of Electric Literature's “75 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2024”From the National Book Award-winning translator, an atmospheric and wise debut novel of a young Brazilian woman's first year in America, a continent away from her lonely mother, and the relationship they build over Skype calls across bordersIn a small dorm room at a liberal arts college in Vermont, a young woman settles into the warm blue light of her desk lamp before calling the mother she left behind in northeastern Brazil. Four thousand miles apart and bound by the angular confines of a Skype window, they ask each other a simple question: what's the news? Offscreen, little about their lives seems newsworthy. The daughter writes her papers in the library at midnight, eats in the dining hall with the other international students, and raises her hand in class to speak in a language the mother cannot understand. The mother meanwhile preoccupies herself with natural disasters, her increasingly poor health, and the heartbreaking possibility that her daughter might not return to the apartment where they have always lived together. Yet in the blue glow of their computers, the two women develop new rituals of intimacy and caretaking, from drinking whiskey together in the middle of the night to keeping watch as one slides into sleep. As the warm colors of New England autumn fade into an endless winter snow, each realizes that the promise of spring might mean difficult endings rather than hopeful beginnings. Expanded from a story originally published in The New Yorker, and in elegant prose that recalls the work of Sigrid Nunez, Katie Kitamura, and Rachel Khong, Bruna Dantas Lobato paints a powerful portrait of a mother and a daughter coming of age together and apart and explores the profound sacrifices and freedoms that come with leaving a home to make a new one somewhere else.

'Mesmerising... the work of a writer possessed of a rare power and vision'Daily Telegraph One evening, Gillis - a young Scottish minister who technically doesn't believe in god - falls into a hole left by a recently dug up elm tree and discovers an ancient disembodied hand in the soil. He's about to rebury it when the hand... beckons to him. He spirits it back to his manse and gives it pen and paper, whereupon it begins to doodle scratchy and anarchic visions. Somewhere, in the hand's deep history, there lies a story of the Scottish reformation, of art and violence, and of its owner long since dead. But for Gillis, there lies only opportunity: to reinvent himself as a prophet, proclaim the hand a miracle and use it for reasons both sacred and profane... to impress his ex-girlfriend, and to lead himself and his country out of inertia and into a dynamic, glorious future.

Evelyn May Clowes was born on 7th May 1872 in Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire. Growing up in genteel circumstances, her early childhood was spent at Charlton Down House near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and her teenage years near Heythrop in the Cotswolds. She was educated at home by governesses, excelling at German, Latin, Greek, shorthand, landscape painting, and fabric and wallpaper design.In 1897 she went to Mauritius as companion to her cousin Caroline and in 1898 married Maurice Wilhemn Wiehe, the owner of a sugar plantation. She gave birth to two stillborn children. After a few years of marriage, she found life difficult and returned to England. Shortly afterwards she went by herself to Australia, arriving in June 1902 and gave birth to a son a few months later. She lived in Melbourne for about eight years. To earn a living she took on a wide and varied range of jobs; she edited a woman's fashion paper, wrote short stories and articles, made blouses, designed embroideries, tilled gardens, acted as a housekeeper, and did other artistic work. Her health was not strong, but she undertook any kind of work which would provide a living for herself and her infant son. This gained her an experience of life which was readily put to use in her literary works.Her first book, ‘The Garden of Contentment', was published in 1902 under her pen-name Elinor Mordaunt. It was the first of many works that covered fiction, short stories, travel and autobiography.She changed her name by deed poll to Evelyn May Mordaunt on 1st July 1915 and gained a further reputation as a writer of short stories for magazines which display both her humour and sense of tragedy. Travel was always high on her priority and the experiences used not only for pleasure but in her writings and, as travel books, ideas in themselves. On 27th January 1933 at Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, she married a retired barrister from Gloucestershire. In her own words, the marriage ‘ended in tragedy.'Elinor Mordaunt died on 25th June 1942 at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. She was 70.

'An ode to grief and sibling love from a great new voice'Kit de Waal, author of My Name Is Leon'A beautifully layered story… Poignant, astute and hopeful'Sharon Duggal, author of Should We Fall Behind'Highly compelling… a fascinating exploration of political hope, friendship, difficulty, infatuation, and unrequited desire'Naomi Booth, author of Exit Management'This captivating novel is a reminder that love, coupled with courage, just might conquer all.'Heidi James, author of The Sound Mirror'Deeply, profoundly human… leaves the reader heartsore in exactly the right ways'Will Burns, author of The Paper Lantern'An ambitious state-of-the-nation debut'Helen Cullen, author of The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually'A beautifully observed portrayal of the spirit of Brighton'Allie Rogers, author of Little Gold'Unforgettable and stirring… An important debut'Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block'Really compelling... It's at once psychologically thrilling and fast-paced with a meditative heart'Anna Vaught, author of Saving Lucia'It will resonate with a large, bruised section of the population still fighting for a better future'Glen James Brown, author of Ironopolis A fiercely hopeful novel about family, sexuality, grief and how we as individuals can rediscover our political agency in the face of continued uncertainty. Brighton, 2016. Laurie wears the scar given to her by a policeman's baton as a mark of pride among her circle of bright young activists. Her conscionable but sensitive brother George should be a part of that circle, until the appearance of enigmatic Spanish migrant Antonio threatens to divert him from his sister's world of marches and moral accountability. As the clouds gather over Brighton and the EU referendum accelerates both Laurie's political zeal and Antonio's ambiguous desires, George is faced with the fact that their city of parties and protests is suddenly a place where the possibility of saving the world – as well as the people around him – is in jeopardy of being lost forever. At once a letter of support to everyone disillusioned by British politics, and a deeply perceptive snapshot of modern relationships, A Bad Decade for Good People is a captivating state-of-the-nation tale that begs the question: when it feels like the world is falling apart, how do you keep those you love from doing the same?

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2023'Unforgettable'Observer'Masterful'Irish Times'Explosive'The Telegraph We used to be such a force, back then when she was still with us. What happened to her? In the seaside town of Kinlough three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They - Helen, Joe and Mush - were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group's white-hot centre. Soon after that summer's peak, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now it's fifteen years later. Human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. As past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala's disappearance... ___'A gritty heartbreaker of a thriller... a spectacular read for Donna Tartt and Tana French fans'Kirkus'The thriller of the moment'The i Paper, Best Summer Reads'Tana French fans will relish Kala'Guardian, Best Summer Reads'A compulsive joy'Daily Mail'Kala heralds an exciting new voice'Observer

Muyu, a seventeen-year-old from a small village, came to Beijing for his piece of the dream: money, love, a good life. But in the city, daily life for him and his friends—purveyors of fake IDs and counterfeit papers—is a precarious balance of struggle and guile. Surveying the neighborhood from the rooftop of the apartment they all share, the young men play cards, drink beer, and discuss their aspirations, hoping for the best but expecting little more than the comfort of each other's company. In these connected stories translated from Chinese by Eric Abrahamsen and Jeremy Tiang, Xu's characters observe as others like them—workers, students, drifters, and the just plain unlucky—get by the best ways they know how: by jogging excessively, herding pigeons, building cars from scraps, and holding their friends close through the miasma of so-called progress.

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS'CHOICE The longest river in Europe, the Volga, divides the continent in two. On one side, mighty mountains, large Russian cities with white stone churches, translucent blue lakes of icy water, a cold wind blowing from the North Sea, and, in the early years of the twentieth century, the winds of momentous change blowing even harder, bringing with them revolution and ideologies that will shape the next two centuries of human history. On the other side, a world that belongs to the past, that is shored up by the vast Western Steppe, where small villages dot vast farmlands and life is perfumed by a hot, fragrant breeze that has its source in the Turkmen desert and the salty Caspian Sea. Two worlds that could not be further apart. Two worlds that will be brought together when Jakob Bach is hired by Udo Grimm to give lessons to Grimm's daughter, Klara. The love that grows between Jakob and Klara has unimaginable consequences. Expelled from Gnadenthal when their affair is discovered, they settle in a secluded hamlet hidden deep in the woods to live their lives in peace. But following a tragic episode, Jacob, psychically scarred, is forced to raise his daughter Anche alone. The fairy tales he invents and puts to paper in an effort to forge a bond with his daughter become widely known and slowly life in the German colonies along Volga begins to resemble the stories created by Bach. In the 18th century, the Russian empress Catherine the Great invited Europeans to immigrate and become Russian citizens and farm Russian lands while maintaining their language and culture. The settlers came mainly from Germany, and following the Russian Revolution, the Volga German Soviet Republic was founded, lasting until 1941, when it was abolished after the Germans invaded the region. In September 1941 all Volga Germans were deported. Over half a million were sent into exile in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Jacob Bach's life reflects and foreshadows that of his native colony, Gnadenthal, in this sweeping epic set in the dying years of the 19th century through to the mid-twentieth century of personal tragedy and resilience. In telling a stirring family story, Yakhina also recounts the story of a people, a republic, a nation, a tale that begins in quietude, flows and grows mighty, crosses space and time, like the Volga River itself.

Rediscover the sensational 1967 literary thriller that captures the bitter struggles of postwar Black intellectuals and artistsWith a foreword by Ishmael Reed and a new introduction by Merve Emre about how this explosive novel laid bare America's racial fault linesMax Reddick, a novelist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter, has spent his career struggling against the riptide of race in America. Now terminally ill, he has nothing left to lose. An expat for many years, Max returns to Europe one last time to settle an old debt with his estranged Dutch wife, Margrit, and to attend the Paris funeral of his friend, rival, and mentor Harry Ames, a character loosely modelled on Richard Wright.In Amsterdam, among Harry's papers, Max uncovers explosive secret government documents outlining “King Alfred,” a plan to be implemented in the event of widespread racial unrest and aiming “to terminate, once and for all, the Minority threat to the whole of the American society.” Realizing that Harry has been assassinated, Max must risk everything to get the documents to the one man who can help.Greeted as a masterpiece when it was published in 1967, The Man Who Cried I Am stakes out a range of experience rarely seen in American fiction: from the life of a Black GI to the ferment of postcolonial Africa to an insider's view of Washington politics in the era of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement, including fictionalized portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. John A. Williams and his lost classic are overdue for rediscovery.Few novels have so deliberately blurred the boundaries between fiction and reality as The Man Who Cried I Am (1967), and many of its early readers assumed the King Alfred plan was real. In her introduction, Merve Emre examines the gonzo marketing plan behind the novel that fueled this confusion and prompted an FBI investigation. This deluxe paperback also includes a new foreword by novelist Ishmael Reed.“It is a blockbuster, a hydrogen bomb.... This is a book white people are not ready to read yet, neither are most black people who read. But [it] is the milestone produced since Native Son. Besides which, and where I should begin, it is a damn beautifully written book.” —Chester Himes“Magnificent... obviously in the Baldwin and Ellison class.” —John Fowles“If The Man Who Cried I Am were a painting it would be done by Brueghel or Bosch. The madness and the dance is never-ending display of humanity trying to creep past inevitable Fate.” —Walter Mosely

Named a Best Book of 2023 by Book Riot For fans of The Age of Light and Z comes a “beguiling novel of artistic ambition, perseverance, and friendship” (Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author) based on the true story of the 20th-century painters and tarot devotees Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington.In this “unforgettable adventure, and one you don't want to miss” (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author), painter Remedios Varo and her lover, poet Benjamin Peret escape the Nazis by fleeing Paris and arriving at a safe house for artists on the Rivieria. Along with Max Ernst, Peggy Guggenheim, and others, the two anxiously wait for exit papers. As the months pass, Remedios begins to sense that the others don't see her as a fellow artist; they have cast her in the stifling role of a surrealist ideal: the beautiful innocent. She finds refuge in a mysterious bookshop, where she stumbles into a world of occult learning and intensifies an esoteric practice in the tarot that helps her light the bright fire of her creative genius. When travel documents come through, Remedios and Benjamin flee to Mexico where she is reunited with friend and fellow painter Leonora Carrington. Together, the women tap into their creativity, stake their independence, and each find their true loves. But it is the tarot that enables them to access the transcendent that lies on the other side of consciousness and to become the truest Surrealists of all.

A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition of the groundbreaking classic novel of the Black experience in America that is still remarkably relevant more than a century later.First published anonymously in 1912, this resolutely unsentimental novel gave many white readers their first glimpse of the double standards—and double consciousness—experienced by Black people in modern America. Republished in 1927, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man became a pioneering document of African-American culture and an eloquent model for later novelists ranging from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. Narrated by a man whose light skin enables him to'pass'for white, the novel describes a journey through the strata of Black society at the turn of the century—from a cigar factory in Jacksonville to an elite gambling club in New York, from genteel aristocrats to the musicians who hammered out the rhythms of ragtime. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a complex and moving examination of the question of race and an unsparing look at what it meant to forge an identity as a man in a culture that recognized nothing but color. Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

A New York Times Editors'Choice Named a Best New Book of the Year by Harper's Bazaar Named a Best Book of the Summer by Shondaland, SheReads, The Boston Globe, Harper's Bazaar, and Reader's Digest From an acclaimed senior editor at Vanity Fair comes a “laudable” (The New York Times) debut novel about a young journalist who discovers a short story that's inexplicably about her life—leading to an entanglement with the author's widow, daughter, and former best friend.Sal Cannon's life is in shambles. Her relationship is crumbling, and her career in journalism hits a low point after it's revealed that her profile of a playwright is full of inaccuracies. She's close to rock-bottom when she reads a short story by Martin Keller: a much older author she met at a literary event years ago. Much to her shock, the story is about her and the moment they met. When Sal learns the story is excerpted from his unpublished novel, she reaches out to the story's editor—only to learn that Martin is deceased. Desperate to leave her crumbling life behind and to read the manuscript from which the story was excerpted, Sal decides to find Martin's widow, Moira. Moira has made it clear that she doesn't want to be contacted. But soon Sal is on a bus to upstate New York, where she slowly but surely inserts herself into Moira's life. Or is it the other way around? As Sal sifts through Martin's papers and learns more about Moira, the question of muse and artist arises—again and again. Even more so when Martin's daughter's story emerges. Who owns a story? And who is the one left to tell it? The Mythmakers is a nesting doll of a book that grapples with perspective and memory, as well as the batteries between creative ambition and love. It's a “page-turner” (theSkimm) about the trials and tribulations of finding out who you are, at any stage in your life, and how inspiration might find you in the strangest of places.

Ethel Lina White was born on the 2nd April 1876 in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, in Wales.Her family were wealthy due to her father's invention of a waterproofing material used, initially, for the London Underground.Ethel started writing when she was only a child and published essays and poems in children's papers. She was also a talented artist.As an adult she began to write short stories and, some years later, she started writing novels. At the time she was working for the Ministry of Pensions in London but resigned in order to accept an advance of ten pounds and begin a career as a novelist. It was this determination that helped her become one of the best-known crime writers in the English-speaking world during the 1930's and 40's.Perhaps her best-known books are the ‘The Lady Vanishes'and ‘The Spiral Staircase'both of which were originally entitled differently but were republished with new names after being filmed. Whilst today she lacks attention, in her day she was as popular and as highly regarded as Agatha Christie.Ethel Lina White died in London on the 13th of August 1944 of ovarian cancer. She was 68.In her will she made a bizarre condition in order for her sister to receive her estate of £5737. It read:'I give and bequeath unto Annis Dora White all that I possess on condition she pays a qualified surgeon to plunge a knife into my heart after death.'In life she had a fear of being buried alive.

Dorothy Edwards, an only child, was born on the 18th August 1902 at Ogmore Vale in Glamorgan.Her father was a headmaster and an early activist in the Independent Labour Party. At age 9 Dorothy, dressed in red, welcomed Keir Hardy on to the stage at Tonypandy during the national coal strike of 1912. She was taught that revolution was at hand, that class barriers would be a thing of the past. Dorothy won a scholarship and boarded at Howell's School for Girls in Llandaff before moving to University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire where she read Greek and philosophy.Her early hopes to be an opera singer were set to one side after graduating and the death of her father. Instead she took on part-time work to supplement her mother's pension with whom she now lived.Dorothy managed to write a number of short stories which appeared in the literary journals of the day. She spent several months with her mother in Vienna, all the time revising or writing before embarking on ‘Winter Sonata', a short novel published in 1928.Introductions to several members of the Bloomsbury Group meant a move to London and a division of her time between child-care for the family of Bloomsbury author David Garnett and the promise of an advance payment for her work on a new volume of stories.However, Dorothy's life was starting to spiral out of control; she was attracted to the Welsh nationalist movement but felt that her Welsh provincialism made her, in London at least, feel socially inferior. Leaving her mother dependent on a hired companion consumed her with guilt as did the end of an affair with a married musician.On the 5th January 1934, having spent the morning burning her papers, Dorothy Edwards threw herself in front of a train near Caerphilly railway station. Her suicide note read:'I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life. I have accepted kindness and friendship and even love without gratitude, and given nothing in return.'Index of ContentsA Country House, A Garland of Earth, Mutiny, Rhapsody, The Problem of Life

A tender and poignant debut of the redemptive power of unexpected friendship.In an old-fashioned fishing community on Morecambe Bay, change is imperceptibly slow. Treacherous tides sweep the quicksands, claiming everything in their path.As a boy, Arthur had followed in his father's and grandfather's footprints, learning to read the currents and shifting sands. Now retired and widowed, though, he feels invisible, redundant. His daughter wants him in a retirement home. No one listens to his rants about the newcomers striking out nightly onto the bay for cockles, seemingly oblivious to the danger.When Arthur's path crosses Suling's, both are running out of options. Barely yet an adult, Suling's hopes for a better life have given way to fear: she's without papers or money, speaks no English, and chased by ruthless debt collectors. Her only next step is to trust the old man.Combining warmth and suspense and recalling a true incident, The Bay tells a tender story about loneliness, confronting prejudice, and the comfort of friendship, however unlikely—as well as exposing one of the most pressing social ills of our age. The Bay is an engrossing novel recalling the Morecambe Bay cockling disaster of 2004.

'A terrific collection'Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane and Love Marriage A Most Anticipated Title for Oprah Daily, Essence, BuzzFeed, The Millions and Brittle Paper Full of heart and humour, Gothataone Moeng's first collection, set between the rural village of Serowe and the thrumming capital city of Gaborone, captures a chorus of voices from a country in flux. Meet a young woman who has worn the same mourning clothes for almost a year, and a teenage girl who shies away from the room where her once vibrant aunt lies dying. Elsewhere, watch as a younger sister hides her romantic exploits from her family while her older brother openly flaunts his infidelities, and a traveller returns home laden with confusion and shame. Moeng, part of a new generation of writers coming out of Africa whose work is exploding onto the literary scene, offers us an insight into communities, experiences and landscapes through these cinematic stories peopled with unforgettable female protagonists.'A good short story is a bit of alchemy, showing us so much in so few pages. Gothataone Moeng's debut collection does this over and over.'Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

A professor's life is turned upside down when he takes in his charming, wildly dangerous nephew, whose wealthy parents have just died under mysterious circumstances, in this propulsive, edge-of-your-seat debut psychological thriller.“An absolute page-turner... I read it in a single sitting.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, bestselling author of The Paper Palace The cleverest psychopaths hide in plain sight.Gil is living a quiet life as a creative writing professor in a bucolic Vermont town, when he receives some shocking news: His sister and her husband have been killed in a car accident, and their only son is coming to live with him and his family. Gil and his wife are apprehensive about taking in seventeen-year-old Matthew. Yes, he has just lost both his parents, but they haven't seen him in seven years—and the last time the families were together, Matthew lured their young daughter into a terrifying, life-threatening situation. Since that incident, Gil has been estranged from his sister and her flashy, wealthy banker husband. Now Matthew is their charge, living under their roof. The boy seems charming, smart, and urbane, if strangely unaffected by his parents'deaths. Gil hopes they can put the past behind them, though he's surprised when Matthew signs up for his creative writing class. Then Matthew begins turning in chilling stories about the imagined deaths of Gil's family and his own parents. Bewildered and panicked, Gil ultimately decides he must take matters into his own hands—before life imitates art. Told in limber, mesmerizing prose, A Flaw in the Design is a twisting novel of suspense that brilliantly explores the tensions surrounding class, family, and the drive to control one's own story.

Plena de l'esperit i l'energia amb què Maggie O'Farrell va il·luminar la història shakespeariana de Hamnet, El retrat de matrimoni ens transporta a la Itàlia del segle XVI. La Lucrezia, tercera filla del poderós duc de Mèdici, és una noia discreta i independent que creix feliç a l'ombra dels seus germans, lliure per observar els tresors de palau, explorar els passadissos secrets i espiar feines i converses clandestines. Li agrada aprendre coses, pintar i mirar les musaranyes, i no acaba d'encaixar gaire en el paper de duquessa, ni tampoc en les expectatives de la família. Però quan la seva germana gran, que està promesa amb del duc de Ferrara, emmalalteix i es mor, la plàcida existència de la Lucrezia quedarà sacsejada per sempre: amb només quinze anys es veurà arrossegada a una nova vida a Ferrara amb el seu marit, Alfonso, que és un misteri per a ella. El retrat de matrimoni, una novel·la potent i evocadora, explora la fina membrana que separa la vida de la mort, un dels temes centrals de l'obra d'O'Farrell, i ofereix el retrat inoblidable d'una dona molt jove, castigada per ser diferent, que lluita per la seva supervivència. «O'Farrell estira petits fils de detalls històrics per teixir aquesta història d'una nena precoç i sensible a les contradiccions de la seva posició social. Potser us penseu que coneixeu la seva història, que sabeu què passarà, però no n'estigueu tan segurs: O'Farrell i Lucrezia, amb la seva ràbia clara i honesta, sempre van un pas per davant», The Washington Post

The tender, sensual and moving new novel from the award-winning and bestselling author of The Slap and Damascus. A compelling contemporary love story between two middle-aged men, told with grace, heart and wisdom.•Selected as one of the Best Australian Fiction titles for 2023 by Readings Books•No life is simple, and no life is without sorrow. No life is perfect.Two middle-aged men meet on an internet date. Each has been scarred by a previous relationship; each has his own compelling reasons for giving up on the idea of finding love. But still they both turn up for the dinner, feel the spark and the possibility of something more. Feel the fear of failing again, of being hurt and humiliated and further annihilated by love. How can they take the risk of falling in love again. How can they not? A tender, affecting novel of love, of hope, of forgiveness by one of our most fearless and truthful interpreters of the human heart, the acclaimed bestselling author of The Slap and Damascus.Praise for The In-Between:'A thoroughly grown-up portrayal of grown-up love - tender, candid and seriously moving'— Patrick Gale'Warm and rewarding... for all its socially conscious and contemporary twists and turns, this unashamedly emotional novel is working on a very deep level, striving to embody in its storytelling the assertion that, regardless of culture or sexuality, in the end - and in the beginning, and in between - only love matters. In this endeavour, it triumphantly succeeds.'— UK Guardian'A love story par excellence... written with wisdom, humour, and a lot of raw sexuality that is never titillating but always powerful... He's simply one of the great writers of our time and The In-Between is a formidable addition to his list of works'— John Boyne, Irish Times'He has given us his most heartfelt novel to date.'— Financial TimesPraise for Christos Tsiolkas:'I've admired the risk and power of all his novels, but this might be the riskiest of all—so personal, so delicate and true—and I love it.'— Charlotte Wood on 7 1/2'A scorching, mythic work with a heart of the sweetest intimacy.'— Helen Garner on 7 1/2'The audacity of Tsiolkas is still a thrill. And, dare one say it, necessary.'— Nigel Featherstone on 7 1/2'Tsiolkas has proved himself a heroic writer, ready to enter the fray and wrestle with intractable moral and political questions. A powerful parable of our times.'— The Saturday Paper on Damascus'Every time I was 10 pages in a new book, I thought,'It's not Damascus', and put it aside for another day...'— Stephen Romei, Weekend Australian on Damascus'I finished Barracuda on a high: moved, elated, immersed... This is the work of a superb writer who has completely mastered his craft but lost nothing of his fiery spirit in so doing. It is a big achievement.'— TheGuardian'Once in a while a novel comes along that reminds me why I love to read: The Slap is such a book... Tsiolkas throws open the window on society, picks apart its flaws, embraces its contradictions and recognises its beauty, all the time asking the reader, Whose side are you on? Honestly, one of the three or four truly great novels of the new millennium.'— John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'The Slap is nothing short of a tour de force, and it confirms Christos Tsiolkas's reputation as one of the most significant contemporary storytellers at work today... Here is a novel of immense power and scope.'— Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn

Dear Edie, I wanted you to know so many things. I wanted to tell you them in person, as you grew up by my side. But it wasn't to be…When Jess gives birth to Edie, it's the happiest day of her life. She knows, from the moment her little girl's hand grasps her finger, that her daughter owns her heart, completely and utterly. And even though Edie's father has left them, and single motherhood isn't easy, her beautiful, innocent child brings her untold joy.But then Jess receives a diagnosis that changes everything. Edie's life – that is just beginning – is interrupted by worried looks, heavy conversations. And Jess must face the possibility of leaving her daughter to grow up without her.Propelled by a ticking clock, Jess knows what she has to do. She begins to put pen to paper, to tell her daughter everything she might need to know.How to love, how to lose, how to forgive, and, most importantly, how to live when you never know how long you have…Readers love Laura Pearson:‘Gorgeous… Tender and beautiful… As hopeful as it is heart-breaking… I loved it.'Amy Beashel, author‘Wow. Seriously. Just beautiful. So many wonderful elements… Such a unique angle… So many memorable characters… Beautiful and utterly affecting.'Louise Beech, author‘Be still my beating heart. I've smiled and I've cried and everything in between. Most importantly I've learned… I'd give it 10 stars if I could.'Nicki's Book Blog‘This beautifully written story of friendship, love, loss and second chances captured my heart… Leaves you feeling warm, hopeful, and satisfied.'Lisa Timoney, author‘Such a treat!… Just beautiful… If you're looking for a charming, warm and moving read, this is the book you need. A beautifully written story about love and longing, and a poignant reminder that it's never too late to follow your heart.'Holly Miller, author‘I adored it. Laura has written a heartbreakingly beautiful story about love in all its different forms. (And she made me cry again, of course). Bravo.'Nikki Smith, author‘Well, I finished this in the same 24 hours as I started it. Oh… what a beautiful story and an amazing cast of characters. Poignant and inspiring!'Jennie Godfrey, author‘Such a poignant story. Brought a lump to my throat in many places.'Karen Angelico, author‘What a beautiful book about truth, love, relationships and how it's never too late to follow your heart… Moving, funny and emotionally clever. Highly recommend!'Alison Stockham, author

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDSLONGLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2024‘A stand out amongst contemporary Australian literary fiction for its stylistic and structural ambition, God Forgets About the Poor is the novel Polites has been climbing to. It is moving, poetic, powerful - at once a folktale and a modern day lament. Christos Tsiolkas meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez.'- Maxine Beneba Clarke, bestselling and award winning author of Foreign Soil and The Hate Race ‘In God Forgets About the Poor, Polites has produced a masterpiece.'- ArtsHub ‘a triumphant reclamation, written in prose clean as polished stones'- The Saturday Paper ‘God Forgets About the Poor feels like a culmination; it's the author's most striking work yet.'- The Guardian ‘an important literary achievement'- The Conversation ‘God Forgets About the Poor is a reminder that everyone has a story worth telling and hearing, but not everyone gets the chance to share it. This is one told well.'- Books + PublishingI will tell you why you should draft my story. Because migrant stories are broken. Some parts in a village where we washed our clothing with soot. Some parts in big cities working in factories. How we starved for food in Greece and starved for Greece in Australia.You don't know the first thing about me. A son can never see his mother as a woman. You will only see me in relation to you. I have had a thousand lives before you were even a thought. Hospitalised as a child for an entire year. Living as an adult without family in Athens when the colonels took control.Start when I was born. Describe the village and how beautiful it was. On the side of a mountain but in the middle of a forest. If we walked to a certain point on the edge, we could look over the valley and see rain clouds coming. Sometimes we would see a cat on a roof, we read that as a warning of a storm. When we looked down, we saw the dirt, which was just as rich as the sky. My island, your island, our island.Sometimes I think God forgot about us because we were poor.A stunning new novel from the author of Down the Hume and The Pillars, God Forgets About the Poor is a love story to a migrant mother, whose story is as important as any ever told. PRAISE FOR GOD FORGETS ABOUT THE POOR: ‘Polites brings to light his mother's story, a migrant woman who has lived a number of lives, surely a common story in the Greek community, and while the title suggests god may forget about the poor, Polites wants to make sure the world does not.'- Neos Kosmos ‘It is an exquisite mode for the diaspora story, a genre that is increasingly losing its meaningfulness in a time of its commodification. In God Forgets About the Poor, the old country is dead, yet it continues to live vividly in migrants'memories even as they evolve amongst future generations.'- ABC Arts - The Bookshelf ‘Peter Polites is also sensitive to the ways in which migrant stories can be reduced, stereotyped and consumed in mainstream publishing, and is at pains to give voice to the complexity and richness of his subject's experience.'- The Sydney Morning Herald ‘a nuanced portrait in which a mother—in her full and challenging complexity—is truly honoured.'- Meanjin

Con la conmovedora historia de Mainou, Mathias Malzieu ha conquistado de nuevo a los lectores franceses, firmando una novela aclamada unánimemente por la crítica de su país. «Con pudor y emoción, Malzieu se pone en la piel de su propio padre, su soldado de porcelana, en esta novela divertida y tierna, sensible y melancólica, que suena siempre a verdad». Livres Hebdo Francia, verano de 1944. Con nueve años, Mainou acaba de perder a su madre mientras daba a luz a su hermana pequeña. El compungido padre se ve obligado entonces a enviar a Mainou a Lorena, con su abuela, al otro lado de la línea de demarcación, escondido en un carro de heno. Allí, en la granja familiar, tratará de retener los últimos suspiros de su infancia mientras la realidad lo empuja a evadirse: el miedo, la pena, la guerra. Junto a esa familia que aún no conocía, y a los misteriosos sucesos que los rodean, el niño se confía a la imaginación para atravesar el duelo y sobrevivir a los últimos meses de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Con El soldado de porcelana, Mathias Malzieu le ha escrito una carta de amor a su padre que es a la vez un homenaje universal, una novela que narra los acontecimientos de su vida con la honestidad exacta para situarnos a la altura de los años cruciales, cuando todo está por definir. La crítica ha dicho: «Una carta de amor hacia su padre y una historia universal: [...] un libro especial». Concha García, La Razón «Usa potentes metáforas, que nos acercan a la magia, gracias a las que consigue que el lector pase página con un nudo en la garganta. Prosa sencilla pero cargada de rabia por momentos, recurre a fantasmas para tener presente la amenaza de la muerte». Laura Galdeano, Libertad Digital «Un hermoso libro de madurez escrito sorprendentemente». José Manuel Rodríguez y Begoña Alonso, Elle «Una prosa poética de una crudeza y una ternura conmovedoras». Beatriz de Juan López, White Paper By «Como suele ocurrir con Mathias Malzieu, los fantasmas no llevan sábanas blancas: son solamente recuerdos que aguardan para perseguirnos [...]. Una historia íntima y conmovedora». Le Figaro «Malzieu no escribe bien, escribe en estado de gracia; es como si fuera un niño crecido que ha hecho un pacto ateo con las estrellas. Sabe ver el polvo de los sueños que se esparce por el mundo y que revela, de manera casi fotográfica, la poesía de cada momento». Le Journal du Dimange «Una novela cariñosa e irresistible sobre la infancia de su padre. [...] Mathias Malzieu tiene el don de transformar las cosas serias en burbujas de poesía». Elle «Sabe proporcionarnos una alegría en cada página con sus expresiones revoltosas que parecen hilvanadas en el aire. ¡Y qué retrato lúdico de la infancia!» Le Parisien «El mundo de la infancia se evoca en estas páginas con una modestia abrumadora.[...] Páginas límpidas, inteligentes y sutiles». Le Provence «Mathias Malzieu [es] un mago de la narración. [...] Su arte consiste en contar una historia tierna poniéndose en la piel de un niño. Entre la delicadeza y la poesía, nos convertimos en ese niño con un gran corazón. Encontramos aquí la esencia de Mecánica del corazón que tanto nos enamoró en su momento». Le Soir «Sensible y precisa [...]. Mathias Malzieu, el travieso, ha encontrado el tono adecuado mezclando un humor desenfadado con imágenes oníricas». La Libre Belgique (Bélgica) «Una verdadera oda a la perseverancia y al amor». La Côte (Suiza)

A Notable African Book of 2023 (Brittle Paper) Tightly plotted and taboo-breaking, this explosive story takes readers to the roots of religious strife where the smallest of sparks can start a bonfire Nader, an idealistic public prosecutor at the outset of his career, leaves Cairo to start a new posting in rural upper Egypt. On his first night, a mysterious woman named Hoda shows up at his lodgings. She is on the run from an abusive husband and, harboring a dark secret, seeks a new start in this small village and hopes to escape her harrowing past.Nothing is to be easy for Hoda or Nader, and the dramatic circumstances of their first meeting signal the disquiet to come. It is not long before tensions between Copts and Muslims, already on a knife-edge, spiral into a spate of unexplained killings and arson attacks. The locals blame the trouble on the supernatural, and Nader is thrown into a quagmire of sectarian conflict and superstition that no amount of formal training could have prepared him for. His investigations are thwarted at every turn, by uncooperative witnesses and an obstructive police force. As Nader and Hoda each pursue happiness and justice, their parallel journeys struggle against the forces of ignorance, poverty, hatred, and greed. With its echoes of Tawfiq al-Hakim's Diary of a Country Prosecutor, this is a powerful and personal tale of conflict, crime, and upheaval in rural Egypt.

In this hybrid novel—part essay, part prose poem, part travel narrative—Blair Austin brings us nose to the glass with our own vanishing world, what we preserve and at what cost.In a city far in the future, in a society that has come through a great upheaval, retired lecturer Wiggins moves from window to window in a museum, intricately describing each scene. Whales gliding above a shipwreck and a lost cup and saucer. An animatronic forest twenty stories tall. urban wolves in the light of an apartment building. A line of mosquitoes in uniforms and regalia, honored as heroes of the last great war. Bit by bit, Wiggins unspools the secrets of his world—the conflict that brought it to the brink, and the great thinker, Michaux, who led the diorama revolution, himself now preserved under glass. After a phone call in the middle of the night, Wiggins sets out to visit the Diorama of the Town: an entire, dioramic world, hundreds of miles across, where people are objects of curiosity, taxidermied and posed. All his life, Wiggins has longed to see it. But in the Town, he comes face to face with the diorama's contradictions. Its legacy of political violence. Its manipulation by those with power and money. And its paper-thin promise of immortality.

In the far north, as water defenders and pro-mining forces clash, the publisher of a struggling newspaper unearths a corrupt conspiracy.Near Iron, Minnesota, waters split along a three-way divide, carrying minerals and contaminants to Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. Susan B. Ellingson (SB to those who know her) runs a small paper with the help of her best friend and a part-time staff. When a mining company seeks a permit to dig for copper and nickel and store potentially harmful mining waste nearby, SB commits to covering the story.It isn't easy. She wrestles with financial stress and personal pain. Her dead wife lingers in spirit. Their children have grown and left home, and SB's Labrador provides sweet but insufficient company. Her mother-in-law leads a group of Ojibwe and Métis grandmothers fighting to protect the water, and after an intriguing new woman comes to town, SB isn't sure how to feel or act. After a fiery environmentalist informs her that a local water scientist has gone missing, she follows a trail of evidence from a tiny, off-grid community into a global tangle of lies, corruption, whistleblowing, and danger.