Language and Litterature

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level. “I love this book.”—Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score “In a time when so many of us are being trained in cynicism, this book stands in necessary defiance.”—Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Liturgies and This

At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his aunt Joan Didion and uncle John Gregory Dunne’s legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. At sixteen, he got kicked out of boarding school, ending his institutional education for good. In his early twenties, he shared an apartment in M

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking: In this "arresting amalgam of memoir and historical timeline” (The Baltimore Sun), Didion—a native Californian—reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history, and ours. Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to California's ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic´

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME´S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH´S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of Amer

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A gripping, triumphant adventure” (Los Angeles Times) from the bestselling author of The Circle—the incredible true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana´a by civil war. Mokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he di

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From one of America´s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion that explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage—and a life, in good times and bad—that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. Several days before Christmas 200

The national epic of Poland and touchstone of modern European literature, now in a fresh translation by award-winning translator Bill Johnston. A towering achievement in European literature, Pan Tadeusz is the central work of the Polish literary canon, heralded for its lovingly detailed recreation of a bygone world. The traditions of the Polish gentry and the social and natural landscape of the L

A renowned writer and committed pacifist throughout the 1930s - a conviction that resulted in his imprisonment before and after the Occupation - Jean Giono spent the war in the village of Contadour in Provence, where he wrote, corresponded with other writers, and cared for his consumptive daughter. This journal records his musings on art and literature, his observations of life, his interactions w

Dripping with a panache that can turn in a comic instant to the most conciliatory humility, Josep Pla's foray into the land and sea most familiar to him will plunge readers head-first into its mysterious depths. Here are adventures and shipwrecks, raspy storytellers and the fishy meals that sustain them. A lifetime of reporting on current events gave Pla the necessary skills to describe the world

Geoffrey Brock, whose translations have won him Poetry magazine's John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, finally does justice to these slim, concentrated verses in his English translation, alongside Giuseppe Ungaretti's Italian originals. Famed for his brevity, Ungaretti's early poems swing nimbly from the coarse matter of tram wires, alleyways, quails in bushes, and hotel

With an introduction by award-winning author Alberto Manguel, Milongas is Edgardo Cozarinsky's love letter to tango, and the diverse array of people who give it life. From tango´s origins in the gritty bars of Buenos Aires, to milongas tucked away in the crypt of a London Church, a café in Kraków, or the quays of the Seine, Cozarinsky guides us through a shape-shifting dance´s phant

A New York Times Notable Book  A biography of venture capitalist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the enigmatic, controversial, and hugely influential power broker who sits at the dynamic intersection of tech, business, and politics   “Max Chafkin´s The Contrarian is much more than a consistently shocking biography of Peter Thiel, the most important investor in tech and a key supporter o

From the ancient Nile to the sacred Ganges and from the venerable Thames to the mighty Mississippi—the rivers of the world wind through this collection of stories from the world's great writers. River gods and nymphs frolic in Ovid's mythic telling. The trickster Coyote reroutes a river in a Native American tale. A set of stone steps at the shore of the Ganges bears witness to heartbreak in

Oskar Dirlewanger is one of the most reviled war criminals in history. A tall, gaunt, ghoulish-looking man, he commanded a penal unit of the Waffen-SS. The Sonderkommando "Dirlewanger" grew from a company of men previously jailed for poaching into a formation of thousands, the majority of whom were former concentration camp inmates. Ranks comprised a diverse array of convicted persons, ranging fro

“Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.” —Measure for Measure, act 3, scene 1   Shakespeare´s plays and poems remain as beloved in the twenty-first century as they were in the sixteenth. For all the years between us, the world he inhabited was much like our own—afflicted by political turmoil, divisiveness, war, extreme weather, recurrent plagues, the fouling of natural re

This inspirational and transformational guide invites readers on a sacred pilgrimage to connect with their inner creativity. Each chapter focuses on the lessons of a different creative “temple.” Readers will learn to embrace and heal their relationship with creativity through reflections and exercises throughout.   Do you hear the call to creativity? Some of us yearn to paint, draw, sculp

What makes a character interesting? How do you build a convincing character arc? Does every story have a hero? How many shades of villain are there? How does a writer bring their characters alive?   In this timeless little book, lecturer Amy Jones describes the secret techniques that writers use to create their characters, along with their archetypes, backstories, motivations, modes of di

What is the difference between a downbeat, an offbeat, and a backbeat? What is the cross-rhythm in a polyrhythm? Are odd meters really odd? Why is the mysterious 3-3-2 rhythm so popular all over the world? In this one-of-a-kind pocket book, top rhythm dude Dr. Julian Gerstin reveals the fundamental creative structures of musical rhythm, showing how they power styles from rock, rap, and reggae to h

Why does an author set their story where and when they do? How do you describe places and make them real for your reader? Why might you build contrast between multiple settings in your story? In this useful little book, educator Amy Jones describes the various options available to writers for setting their stories in space and time, and outlines the tried and tested literary tricks which authors u

“In poetic prose, I revisit the scars of childhood abuse, molding me into a hollow shell of womanhood. Navigating immigrant pressures, cultures clash, tugging me in divergent paths. Unraveling buried trauma, self-destruction consumed, shattering false identities. Intuition emerges as my guide, leading through mystical realms to rebirth. From unworthiness to purpose-seeking, I rise, embracing happi