zenosbooks.com
specializes in
modern first editions,
out-of-print, and
hard-to find books
in a variety of categories.
See our listings on
You can also...
Check out the reviews from
zenosbooks on librarything.com
Zeno’s (established 1983) is an online used and out-of-print bookstore specializing in the categories of: literature in translation, modern first editions, and hard-to-find books. We started as a mail order business. In 1992 we moved into a storefront, and then to a bigger location a couple of years later. Eventually we closed the physical store to go online as zenosbooks.com. We have been selling our own hand-picked eclectic selection of used, hard-to-find, and even rare books via the internet ever since.
zenosbooks.com
P.O. Box 16319
San Francisco, CA 94116
(415) 564-1248 phone
(888) 491-1248 toll-free fax
email address -This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Our Web Page is frequently updated with new listings
Here's a listing of Signet Classics if you like that kind of thing...
We have also recently created a few online bibliographies for your edification and enjoyment. They are still works-in-progress.
Check them out:
Featured author:
Andrea Calogero Camilleri (6 September 1925 – 17 July 2019) was an Italian writer. Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri began university studies in the Faculty of Literature at the University of Palermo, but did not complete his degree. meanwhile publishing poems and short stories. From 1948 to 1950 he studied stage and film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts (Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica) and began to take on work as a director and screenwriter, directing especially plays by Pirandello and Beckett. His parents knew, and were, reportedly, distant friends of, Pirandello, as he tells in his essay on Pirandello, Biography of the Changed Son. His most famous works, the Montalbano series, show many Pirandellian elements: for example, the wild olive tree that helps Montalbano think is on stage in his late work The Giants of the Mountain. With RAI, Camilleri worked on several TV productions, such as Le inchieste del commissario Maigret with Gino Cervi. In 1977 he returned to the Academy of Dramatic Arts, holding the chair of Film Direction and occupying it for 20 years. In 1978 Camilleri wrote his first novel Il Corso Delle Cose (The Way Things Go). This was followed by Un Filo di Fumo (A Thread of Smoke) in 1980. Neither of these works enjoyed any significant amount of popularity. In 1992, after a long pause of 12 years, Camilleri once more took up novel writing. A new book, La Stagione della Caccia (The Hunting Season) turned out to be a best-seller. In 1994 Camilleri published the first in a long series of novels: La forma dell'Acqua (The Shape of Water) featured the character of Inspector Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town. The series is written in Italian but with a substantial sprinkling of Sicilian phrases and grammar. The name Montalbano is a homage to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalban's Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are noteworthy. Both writers make use of their protagonists' gastronomic preferences. This feature provides an interesting quirk which has become something of a fad among his readership even in mainland Italy. The TV adaptation of Montalbano's adventures, starring Luca Zingaretti, further increased Camilleri's popularity to such a point that in 2003 Camilleri's home town, Porto Empedocle – on which Vigàta is modelled – took the extraordinary step of changing its official name to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta, no doubt with an eye to capitalising on the tourism possibilities thrown up by the author's work. On his website, Camilleri refers to the engaging and multi-faceted character of Montalbano as a serial killer of characters, meaning that he has developed a life of his own and demands great attention from his author, to the demise of other potential books and different personages. Camilleri added that he writes a Montalbano novel every so often just so that the character will be appeased and allow him to work on other stories. In 2012, Camilleri's The Potter's Field (translated by Stephen Sartarelli) was announced as the winner of the 2012 Crime Writers' Association International Dagger. The announcement was made on 5 July 2012 at the awards ceremony held at One Birdcage Walk in London. In his last years Camilleri lived in Rome where he worked as a TV and theatre director. About 10 million copies of his novels have been sold to date and are becoming increasingly popular in the UK (where BBC Four broadcast the Montalbano TV series from mid-2011), Australia and North America. In addition to the degree of popularity brought him by the novels, Andrea Camilleri became even more of a media icon thanks to the parodies aired on an RAI radio show, where popular comedian, TV host and impressionist Fiorello presents him as a raspy voiced, caustic character, madly in love with cigarettes and smoking, since in Italy, Camilleri was well known for being a heavy smoker of cigarettes. He considered himself a non-militant atheist. On 17 June 2019, Camilleri suffered a heart attack. He was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. He died on 17 July 2019. He has been buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome.
The inspector Montalbano novels:
The Shape Of Water: The First Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2002. May 2002. Viking Press. 0670030929. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 225 pages. hardcover. Cover: Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER - Andrea Camilleri's novels starring Inspector Montalbano have become an
international sensation and have been translated from Italian into eight languages, ranging from Dutch to Japanese. THE SHAPE OF WATER is the first book in this sly, witty, and engaging series with its sardonic take on Sicilian life. Early one morning, Silvio Lupanello, a big shot in the village of Vigàta, is found dead in his car with his pants around his knees. The car happens to be parked in a rough part of town frequented by prostitutes and drug dealers, and as the news of his death spreads, the rumors begin. Enter Inspector Salvo Montalbano, Vigàta's most respected detective. With his characteristic mix of humor, cynicism, compassion, and love of good food, Montalbano goes into battle against the powerful and the corrupt who are determined to block his path to the real killer. This funny and fast-paced Sicilian page-turner will be a delicious discovery for mystery aficionados and fiction lovers alike.
The Terra-Cotta Dog: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2002. November 2002. Viking Press. 0670031380. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 340 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge. (original title: Il cane di terracotta, 1996 - Sellerio editore via Siracusa 50 Palermo).
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano has garnered millions of fans worldwide with his sardonic take on Sicilian life. Montalbano's latest case begins with a mysterious têtê à têtê with a Mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and dying words that lead him to an illegal arms cache in a mountain cave. There, the inspector finds two young lovers, dead for fifty years and still embracing, watched over by a life-sized terra-cotta dog. Montalbano's passion to solve this old crime takes him on a journey through Sicily's past and into one family's darkest secrets. With sly wit and a keen understanding of human nature, Montalbano is a detective whose earthiness, compassion, and imagination make him totally irresistable.
The Snack Thief: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2003. May 2003. Viking Press. 0670032239. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 298 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge. (original title: Il ladro di merendine, 1996 - Sellerio editore via Siracusa 50 Palermo).
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
In the third book in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series, the urbane and perceptive Sicilian detective exposes a viper's nest of government corruption and international intrigue in a compelling new case. When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast, only Montalbano suspects the link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished housecleaner and sometime prostitute, whose young son steals other schoolchildren's midmorning snacks. But Karima disappears, and the young snack thief's life-as well as Montalbano's-is on the line.
Voice Of The Violin: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2003. November 2003. Viking Press. 0670031437. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 249 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Inspector Salvo Montalbano, with his compelling mix of humor, cynicism, and compassion, has been compared to Georges Simenon's, Dashiel Hammett's, and Raymond Chandler's legendary detectives. In this latest novel, Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a lovely, naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder.
Excursion To Tindari: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2005. Penguin Books. 014303460x. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 295 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning, and an elderly couple is reported missing after an excursion to the ancient site of Tindari - two seemingly unrelated cases for Inspector Montalbano to solve amid the daily complications of life at Vigata police headquarters. But when Montalbano discovers that the couple and the murdered young man lived in the same building, his investigation stumbles onto Sicily’s brutal ‘New Mafia’, which leads him down a path more evil and far-reaching than any he has been on before.
The Smell Of The Night: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2005. Penguin Books. 0143036203. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 229 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The number of Inspector Montalbano fans will continue to grow with this ingenious new novel featuring the earthy and urbane Sicilian detective. Half the retirees in Vigata have invested their savings with a financial wizard who has disappeared, along with their money. As Montalbano investigates this labyrinthine financial scam, he finds himself at a serious disadvantage: a hostile superior has shut him out of the case, he’s on the outs with his lover Livia, and his cherished Sicily is turning so ruthless and vulgar that Montalbano wonders if any part of it is worth saving. Drenched with atmosphere, crackling with wit, THE SMELL OF THE NIGHT is Camilleri at his most addictive.
Rounding The Mark: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2006. Penguin Books. 014303748x. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 304 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The earthy and urbane Sicilian detective Inspector Montalbano casts his spell on more and more fans with each new mystery from Andrea Camilleri. Two seemingly unrelated deaths form the central mystery of ROUNDING THE MARK. They will take Montalbano deep into a secret world of illicit trafficking in human lives, and the investigation will test the limits of his physical, psychological, and moral endurance. Disillusioned and no longer believing in the institution he serves, will he withdraw or delve deeper into his work?
The Patience Of The Spider: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2007. Penguin Books. 9780143112037. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 244 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
‘Can a man, approaching the end of his career, rebel a conditions that have kept him where he is?’ Still recovering from his gunshot wound, Inspector Montalbano is feeling the weight of his years, and of his solitude. He’s getting softer, more introspective, and critical of his life choices. But if withdrawing from society has become natural of late, he’ll soon be forced to interact with others, compelled to intervene as a web of hatred and secrets threatens to squeeze its victims to death. This is Montalbano’s most unusual and challenging case yet and the one that will either change him or break him.
The Paper Moon: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2008. Penguin Books. 0143113003. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 264 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
With their dark sophistication and dry humor, Andrea Camilleri's classic crime novels continue to win more and more fans in America. The latest installment of the popular mystery series finds the moody Inspector Montalbano further beset by the existential questions that have been plaguing him of late. But he doesn't have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man-shot at point-blank range in the face with his pants down-commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, some dirty cocaine, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated at the police headquarters in Vigàta.
The Wings Of The Sphinx: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2009. Penguin Books. 0143116608. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 231 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Things are not going well for Inspector Salvo Montalbano. His relationship with Livia is once again on the rocks and-acutely aware of his age-he is beginning to grow weary of the endless violence he encounters. Then a young woman is found dead, her face half shot off and only a tattoo of a sphinx moth giving any hint of her identity. The tattoo links her to three similarly marked girls-all victims of the underworld sex trade-who have been rescued from the Mafia night-club circuit by a prominent Catholic charity. The problem is, Montalbano's inquiries elicit an outcry from the Church and the three other girls are all missing.
August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2009. Penguin Books. 0143114055. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 278 pages. paperback. Jacket illustration by Andy Bridge, Jacket design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigàta and endure the August heat. Montalbano's long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend-husband and young son in tow-to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family's beach rental, Montalbano, in pursuit of the child, uncovers something terribly sinister. As the inspector spends the summer trying to solve this perplexing case, Livia refuses to answer his calls-and Montalbano is left to take a plunge that will affect the rest of his life. Fans of the Sicilian inspector as well as readers new to this increasingly popular series will enjoy following the melancholy but unflinchingly moral Montalbano as he undertakes one of the most shocking investigations of his career.
The Track Of Sand: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2010. October 2010. Penguin Books. 9780143117933. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 264 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia's connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be charmed by Montalbano's blend of unorthodox methods, melancholy self-reflection, and love of good food.
The Potter’s Field: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2011. Penguin Books. 9780143120131. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 277 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Witty and entertaining, the Montalbano novels by Andrea Camilleri-a master of the Italian detective story-have become favorites of mystery fans everywhere. In this latest installment, an unidentified corpse is found near Vigàta, a town known for its soil rich with potter's clay. Meanwhile, a woman reports the disappearance of her husband, a Colombian man with Sicilian origins who turns out to be related to a local mobster. Then Inspector Montalbano remembers the story from the Bible-Judas's betrayal, the act of remorse, and the money for the potter's field, where those of unknown or foreign origin are to be buried-and slowly, through myriad betrayals, finds his way to the solution to the crime.
The Age Of Doubt: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2012. Penguin Books. 9780143120926. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 274 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The day after a storm, Inspector Montalbano encounters a strange woman who expresses interest in a certain yacht scheduled to dock that afternoon. Not long after she's gone, the yacht's crew reports finding a disfigured corpse. Also at anchor is a luxury vessel with a somewhat shady crew. Both boats will have to stay in Vigàta until the investigation is over and, based on information from the woman, Montalbano begins to think the occupants of the yacht might know more about the man's death than they're letting on.
The Dance of the Seagull: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2013. Penguin Books. 9780143122616. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 277 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Inspector Montalbano musts search for his missing right-hand man. But is he already too late? Before leaving for vacation with Livia, Montalbano witnesses a seagull doing an odd dance on the beach outside his home, when the bird suddenly drops dead. Stopping in at his office for a quick check before heading off, he notices that Fazio is nowhere to be found and soon learns that he was last seen on the docks, secretly working on a case. Montalbano sets out to find him and discovers that the seagull's dance of death may provide the key to understanding a macabre world of sadism, extortion, and murder.
Treasure Hunt: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2013. September 2013. Penguin Books. 9780143122623. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli.. 278 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
In TREASURE HUNT, Montalbano is hailed as a hero after news cameras film him scaling a building—gun in hand—to capture a pair of unlikely snipers. Shortly after, the inspector begins to receive cryptic messages in verse from someone challenging him to go on a ‘treasure hunt.’ Intrigued, he accepts, treating the messages as amusing riddles—until they take a dangerous turn.
Angelica's Smile: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2014. Penguin Books. 9780143123767. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli.. 293 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The seventeenth installment of the beloved New York Times bestselling series that boasts more than 600,000 books in print The last four books in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series have leapfrogged their way up the New York Times bestseller list, perfectly positioning Angelica's Smile to ascend to even greater heights. A rash of burglaries has got Inspector Salvo Montalbano stumped. The criminals are so brazen that their leader, the anonymous Mr. Z, starts sending the Sicilian inspector menacing letters. Among those burgled is the young and beautiful Angelica Cosulich, who reminds the inspector of the love-interest in Ludovico Ariosto's chivalric romance, Orlando Furioso. Besotted by Angelica's charms, Montalbano imagines himself back in the medieval world of jousts and battles. But when one of the burglars turns up dead, Montalbano must snap out of his fantasy and unmask his challenger.
A Voice in the Night: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2016. Penguin Books. 9780143126447. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli.. 274 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Two strange deaths lead Inspector Montalbano into investigations of corruption and power in the twentieth novel in the New York Times bestselling series. Montalbano investigates a robbery at a supermarket, a standard case that takes a spin when manager Guido Borsellino is later found hanging in his office. Was it a suicide? The inspector and the coroner have their doubts, and further investigation leads to the director of a powerful local company. Meanwhile, a girl is found brutally murdered in Giovanni Strangio’s apartment—Giovanni has a flawless alibi, and it’s no coincidence that Michele Strangio, president of the province, is his father. Weaving together these two crimes, Montalbano realizes that he’s in a difficult spot where political power is enmeshed with the mafia underworld.
A Nest of Vipers: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2017. Penguin Books. 9780143126652. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 261 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A Nest of Vipers is the twenty-first novel in Andrea Camilleri's irresistible Inspector Montalbano series. Quite a family, you had to admit! A nest of vipers might be a better description . . . On what should be a quiet Sunday morning, Inspector Montalbano is called to a murder scene on the Sicilian coast. A man has discovered his father dead in his Vigàtan beach house: his body slumped on the dining room floor, his morning coffee spilt across the table, and a single gunshot wound at the base of his skull. First appearances point to the son having the most to gain from his father’s untimely death, a notion his sister can’t help but reinforce. But when Montalbano delves deeper into the case, and learns of the dishonourable life the victim led, it soon becomes clear half of Vigàta has a motive for his murder and this won’t be as simple as the Inspector had once hoped...
The Pyramid of Mud: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2018. Penguin Books. 9780143128083. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 256 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The latest in the New York Times bestselling series has Italy’s favorite detective uncovering corruption and mafia ties in the world of construction and contracts. On a gloomy morning in Vigàta, a call from Fazio rouses Inspector Montalbano from a nightmare. A man called Giugiù Nicotra has been found dead in the skeletal workings of a construction site, a place now entombed by a sea of mud from recent days of rain and floods. Shot in the back, he had fled into a water supply system tunnel. The investigation gets off to a slow start, but all the evidence points to the world of construction and public contracts, a world just as slimy and impenetrable as mud. As he wades through a world in which construction firms and public officials thrive, Montalbano is obsessed by one thought: that by going to die in the tunnel, Nicotra had been trying to communicate something. The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily. —Donna Leon.
The Overnight Kidnapper: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2019. Penguin Books. 9780143131137. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 257 pages. paperback. Art by Andy Bridge. Design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The day gets off to a bad start for Montalbano: while trying to break up a fight on Marinella beach, he hits the wrong man and is stopped by the Carabinieri. When he finally gets to the office, the inspector learns about a strange abduction: a woman was abducted, drugged, and then released unharmed only hours later. Within a few days, the same thing happens again. Both women are thirty years old and work in a bank. Montalbano also has to deal with an arson case. A shop has burned down, and its owner, Marcello Di Carlo, seems to have vanished into thin air. At first this seems like a trivial case, but a third abduction—yet again of a girl who works in a bank—and the discovery of a body bring up new questions.
The Other End of the Line: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
New York. 2019. Penguin Books. 9780143133773. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 290 pages. paperback. Art by Andy Bridge. Design by Paul Buckley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A wave of refugees has arrived on the Sicilian coast, and Inspector Montalbano and his team have been stationed at port, alongside countless volunteers, to receive and assist the newcomers. Meanwhile, Livia has promised their presence at a friend’s wedding, and the inspector, agreeing to get a new suit tailored, meets the charming master seamstress Elena Biasini. But while on duty at the dock one late night, tragedy strikes, and Elena is found gruesomely murdered. Between managing the growing crowds at the landing, Montalbano delves into the world of garments, in the company of an orphaned cat, where he works to weave together the loose threads of the unsolved crimes and close the case. Wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction… altogether transporting.–A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author.
Early Montalbano:
Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories
New York. 2016. Penguin Books. 9780143121626. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 538 pages. paperback. Cover design by Paul Buckley. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
From the author of the New York Times–bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series, twenty-one short stories spanning the beloved detective’s career. Inspector Montalbano has charmed readers in nineteen popular novels, and now in Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories, Andrea Camilleri has selected twenty-one short stories, written with his trademark wit and humor, that follow Italy’s famous detective through highlight cases of his career. From the title story, featuring a young deputy Montalbano newly assigned to Vigàta, to Montalbano Says No, in which the inspector makes a late-night call to Camilleri himself to refuse an outlandish case, this collection is an essential addition to any Inspector Montalbano fan’s bookshelf and a wonderful way to introduce readers to the internationally bestselling series.
Death at Sea: Montalbano’s Early Cases
New York. 2018. Penguin Books. 9780143108818. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 276 pages. paperback. Cover design and illustration by Andy Bridge.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven’t read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen... transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano.
—A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window. Set on the Sicilian coast, a collection of eight short stories featuring the young Inspector Montalbano. In 1980s Vigàta, a restless Inspector Montalbano brings his bold investigative style to eight enthralling cases. From jilted lovers and deadly family affairs to assassination attempts and murders in unexpected places, Death at Sea is the perfect collection to escape into Andrea Camilleri's unforgettable slice of Sicily.
Some non-Montalbano novels:
Hunting Season: A Novel
New York. 2014. Penguin Books. 9780143126539. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 152 pages. paperback. Cover design by Kristen Haff and John Hendrix. Cover illustration by John Hendrix.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
From internationally bestselling author Andrea Camilleri, a brilliant, bawdy comedy that will surprise even the most die-hard Montalbano fans. In 1880s Vigàta, a stranger comes to town to open a pharmacy. Fofò turns out to be the son of a man legendary for having a magic garden stocked with plants, fruits, and vegetables that could cure any ailment-a man who was found murdered years ago. Fofò escaped, but now has reappeared looking to make his fortune and soon finds himself mixed up in the dealings of a philandering local marchese set on producing an heir. An absurd, quirky murder mystery that recalls the most hilarious and farcical scenes of Shakespeare and The Canterbury Tales, Hunting Season will introduce American readers to a refreshing new aspect of one of our best-loved writers.
The Revolution of the Moon
New York. 2017. Europa Editions. 9781609453916. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. 235 pages. paperback. Graphic design by Emanuele Ragnisco.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
From the author of the Inspector Montalbano series comes the remarkable account of an exceptional woman who rises to power in 17th century Sicily and brings about sweeping changes that threaten the iron-fisted patriarchy, before being cast out in a coup after only 27 days. Sicily, April 16 1677. From his deathbed, Charles III's viceroy, Anielo de Guzmán y Carafa, marquis of Castle Rodrigo, names his wife, Doña Eleonora, as his successor. Eleonora de Moura is a highly intelligent and capable woman who immediately applies her political acumen to heal the scarred soul of Palermo, a city afflicted by poverty, misery, and the frequent uprisings they entail. The Marquise implements measures that include lowering the price of bread, reducing taxes for large families, re-opening women's care facilities, and establishing stipends for young couples wishing to marry—all measures that were considered seditious by the conservative city fathers and by the Church. The machinations of powerful men soon result in Doña Eleonora, whom the Church sees as a dangerous revolutionary, being recalled to Spain. Her rule lasted 27 days—one cycle of the moon. Based on a true story, Camilleri's gripping and richly imagined novel tells the story of a woman whose courage and political vision is tested at every step by misogyny and reactionary conservatism.
What I have been reading lately...
These 3 by Cedric Robinson are well worth the time:
Robinson, Cedric J.. On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance
Pluto Press. 2019. London. 9780745340036. Edited by H. L. T. Quan. Foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore. 382 pages. paperback. Photo: Elizabeth Robinson. Cover: Melanie Patrick.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Cedric J. Robinson is considered one of the doyens of Black Studies and a pioneer in study of the Black Radical Tradition. His works have been essential texts, deconstructing racial capitalism and inspiring insurgent movements from Ferguson to the West Bank. For the first time, Robinson's essays come together, spanning over four decades and reflective of his diverse interests in the interconnections between culture and politics, radical social theory and classic and modern political philosophy. Themes explored include Africa and Black internationalism, World politics, race and US Foreign Policy, representations of Blackness in popular culture, and reflections on popular resistance to racial capitalism, white supremacy and more. Accompanied by an introduction by H. L. T. Quan and a foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, this collection, which includes previously unpublished materials, extends the many contributions by a giant in Black radical thought.
Robinson, Cedric J.. Black Movements In America
New York. 1997. Routledge. 0415912237. 192 pages. hardcover.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
In Black Movements in America, Cedric Robinson traces the emergence of Black political cultures in the United States from slave resistances in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the civil rights movements of the present. Drawing on historical records, Robinson argues that Blacks have constructed both a culture of resistance and a culture of accommodation based on the radically different experiences of slaves and free Blacks. Robinson concludes that contemporary Black movements are inspired by either a social vision - held by the relatively privileged strata - which holds the American nation to its ideals and public representation, and another - that of the masses - which interprets the Black experience in America as proof of the country's venality and hypocrisy.
Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson.
Chapel Hill. 2000. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN:9780807848296. Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley. With a new preface by the author. 436 pages. paperback.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
In this ambitious work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand black people's history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European models of history and experience that downplay the significance of black people and black communities as agents of change and resistance. Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of blacks on western continents, Robinson argues, and any analyses of African American history need to acknowledge this. To illustrate his argument, Robinson traces the emergence of Marxist ideology in Europe, the resistance by blacks in historically oppressive environments, and the influence of both of these traditions on such important twentieth-century black radical thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, and Richard Wright.
Cedric Robinson (November 5, 1940 – June 5, 2016) was a professor in the Department of Black Studies and the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He headed the Department of Black Studies and the Department of Political Science and served as the Director of the Center for Black Studies Research. Robinson's areas of interest included classical and modern political philosophy, radical social theory in the African diaspora, comparative politics, and the relationships between and among media and politics.
Morrison, Toni. What Moves At The Margin: Selected Nonfiction
Jackson. 2008. University Press Of Mississippi. 9781604730173. Edited & With An Introduction by Carolyn C. Denard. 215 pages. hardcover. Cover photo of Toni Morrison by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Thirty years of the Nobel Laureate’s reflections on life, writing, and other writers - What Moves at the Margin collects three decades of Toni Morrison’s writings about her work, her life, literature, and American society. The works included in this volume range from 1971, when Morrison (b. 1931) was a new editor at Random House and a beginning novelist, to 2002 when she was a professor at Princeton University and Nobel Laureate. Even in the early days of her career, in between editing other writers, writing her own novels, and raising two children, she found time to speak out on subjects that mattered to her. From the reviews and essays written for major publications to her moving tributes to other writers to the commanding acceptance speeches for major literary awards, Morrison has consistently engaged as a writer outside the margins of her fiction. These works provide a unique glimpse into Morrison’s viewpoint as an observer of the world, the arts, and the changing landscape of American culture. The first section of the book, ‘Family and History,’ includes Morrison’s writings about her family, Black women, Black history, and her own works. The second section, ‘Writers and Writing,’ offers her assessments of writers she admires and books she reviewed, edited at Random House, or gave a special affirmation to with a foreword or an introduction. The final section, ‘Politics and Society,’ includes essays and speeches where Morrison addresses issues in American society and the role of language and literature in the national culture. Among other pieces, this collection includes a reflection on 9/11, reviews of such seminal books by Black writers as Albert Murray’s South to a Very Old Place and Gayl Jones’s Corregidora, an essay on teaching moral values in the university, a eulogy for James Baldwin, and Morrison’s Nobel lecture. Taken together, What Moves at the Margin documents the response to our time by one of American literature’s most thoughtful and eloquent writers.
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she gained worldwide recognition when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 and went to graduate school at Cornell University. She later taught English at Howard University and also married and had two children before divorcing in 1964. In the late 1960s, she became the first black female editor in fiction at Random House in New York City. In the 1970s and 1980s, she developed her own reputation as an author, and her perhaps most celebrated work, Beloved, was made into a 1998 film. In 1996, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Also that year, she was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 29, 2012, President Barack Obama presented Morrison with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, she received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction.
Davis, Mike and Wiener, Jon. Set the Night on fire: L.A. in the Sixties
London/New York. 2020. Verso. 9781784780227. 788 pages. hardcover. Cover design by Matt Dorfman.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A magisterial, riveting movement history of Los Angeles in the Sixties. Los Angeles in the sixties was a hotbed of political and social upheaval. The city was a launchpad for Black Power—where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation. The city was home to the Chicano Blowouts and Chicano Moratorium, as well as being the birthplace of “Asian American” as a political identity. It was a locus of the antiwar movement, gay liberation movement, and women’s movement, and, of course, the capital of California counterculture. Mike Davis and Jon Wiener provide the first comprehensive movement history of L.A. in the sixties, drawing on extensive archival research and dozens of interviews with principal figures, as well as the authors’ storied personal histories as activists. Following on from Davis’s award-winning L.A. history, City of Quartz, Set the Night on Fire is a historical tour de force, delivered in scintillating and fiercely beautiful prose. “Authoritative and impressive.” –Los Angeles Times. “Monumental.” –Guardian.
Mike Davis is the author of City of Quartz, Late Victorian Holocausts, Buda’s Wagon, and Planet of Slums. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in San Diego. Jon Wiener is a longtime Contributing Editor at the Nation and host and producer of Start Making Sense, the magazine’s weekly podcast. He is an Emeritus Professor of U.S. history at UC Irvine, and his books include Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files and How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America. He lives in Los Angeles.
Kavan, Anna. Asylum Piece
Garden City. 1946. Doubleday. 312 pages. hardcover.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The first six of her novels gave little indication of the experimental and disturbing nature of her later work. ASYLUM PIECE, a collection of short stories which explored the inner mindscape of the psychological explorer, heralded the new style and content of Kavan's writing. They were published after she was institutionalized for a heroin-related breakdown and suicide attempt. After her release, Kavan changed her name legally and set about a new career as an avant-garde writer in the mode of Franz Kafka. Her development of ‘nocturnal language’ involved the lexicon of dreams and addiction, mental instability and alienation. She has been compared to Djuna Barnes, Virginia Woolf and Anaïs Nin, as well as Kafka. (Nin was an admirer and unsuccessfully pursued a correspondence with Kavan.) On one occasion Kavan collaborated with her analyst and close friend, Karl Theodor Bluth, in writing ‘The Horse's Tale’ (1949).
Kavan, Anna. The House Of Sleep
Garden City. 1947. Doubleday. 223 pages. hardcover.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
This is writing which probes far into the mysterious world of dreams and night shadows. It is the story of a girl who has rejected normal relationships for what seemed to her the greater realities - a borderline world she inhabits at night. Exploring this new world of symbols she relives parts of her past life: Her childhood and the mother who died when she was young: Herr relations with her father who was always too busy to answer the questions she was afraid to ask; Her days at school when she found herself unable to accept authority; The stupidity of the family doctor who was not equipped to understand or prescribe a cure for her problems; Her days at the university where people were kinder to her, but where she was unable to accept friends because she had grown to mistrust all kindness. Anna Kavan is acknowledged in England as one of the most significant writers of her generation. As a lay worker in the field of mental illness, she speaks from something very akin to personal experience.
Kavan, Anna. Ice
Garden City. 1970. Doubleday. Introduction by Brian W. Aldiss. 176 pages. hardcover. Jacket by Alan Peckolick.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Earth was doomed. Slowly and inexorably the world was entering a new and cataclysmic ice age. Like a plodding giant, walls of ice were covering the earth leaving in its wake total annihilation of life. And this great natural horror had been caused by the world's most brilliant scientists—one too many nuclear bombs had been released and the balance of nature had been irreparably altered. And where ice and snow hadn't knifed their way into the land, ravaging and brutal wars were taking their toll. Through this surrealistic nightmare of ice and ultimate death, two men search for a strangely elusive girl. One, referred to only as the Warden, becomes a military power in his own right when the wars begin. A cruel, sadistic, merciless man he seems the total personification of Man's negative qualities. The narrator is the other man, and while he searches and nearly dies in pursuit of his quarry, he is never quite sure what it is that drives him to her. For those few times when he does locate her, she escapes his grasp explaining that she would rather die than be with either him or the Warden. A deceptively simple plot becomes a chilling tour de force in the capable hands of Miss Kavan as she comments on the human condition both today and tomorrow. And her thoughts are all the more harrowing because of the basic truths they reveal.
Anna Kavan (10 April 1901-5 December 1968; born Helen Emily Woods) was a British novelist, short story writer and painter. Kavan was addicted to heroin for most of her adult life, a dependency which was generally undetected by her associates, and for which she made no apologies. She is popularly supposed to have died of a heroin overdose. In fact she died of heart failure, though she had attempted suicide several times during her life. An inveterate traveler, Kavan spent twenty-two months of World War II in New Zealand, and it was that country's proximity to the inhospitable frozen landscape of Antarctica that inspired the writing of ICE. This post-apocalyptic novel brought critical acclaim, earning Kavan the Brian Aldiss Science Fiction Book of the Year award in 1967, the year before Kavan's death. She died at her home in Kensington on 5 December 1968.
Take a look at our facilities, such as they are...
Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra. New York. 2017. Farrar Straus Giroux. 9780374274788. 406 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Jason Heuer.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
One of our most important public intellectuals reveals the hidden history of our current global crisis. How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world―from American shooters and ISIS to Donald Trump, from a rise in vengeful[…]
James Joyce by Italo Svevo. San Francisco. 1950. City Lights Books. Reprinted Paperback Edition after A limited Edition of 1600 numbered copies were privately issued by James Laughlin for the friends and supporters of New Directions.Very Good In Wrappers. unpaginated. paperback. The cover photograph of Joyce is by Man Ray, from The Museum of Modern Art (new York) Collection. That of Svevo (back cover) is from the collection of his widow and shows Svevo in 1892 at the age of[…]
Tituba of Salem Village by Ann Petry. New York. 1964. Thomas Y. Crowell. hardcover. 256 pages. Jacket by John Wilson.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
In Salem village in 1692, superstition and hysteria mounted to the climax that we know today as the Salem Witch Trials. A major figure in the trials—indeed, one of the first three ‘witches’ condemned - was Tituba, a slave from Barbados. In this book Ann Petry has brought Tituba alive for us.[…]
Satan is a Woman by Gil Brewer. New York. 1951. Facwett Gold Medal. paperback. 158 pages. September 1951. #169.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
She carried hell in her heart. SATAN IS A WOMAN. There is a legend of olden time that the Devil is not a fallen archangle at all, but a woman with flaxen hair and green eyes - a beautiful creature with an angel face, who can bend innocent young men to her will,[…]
Half-Truths & One-And-A-Half Truths by Karl Kraus. Montreal. 1976. Engendra Press. hardcover. 128 pages. Design by Anthony Crouch. Edited and translated from the German by Harry Zohn. 0919830005.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
‘This, and only this, is the substance of our civilization: the speed with which stupidity sucks us into its vortex.’ An intrepid guardian of the truth in an age drowning in lies, Karl Kraus (1874-1936), the great Viennese editor, moralist, polemicist and pacifist -[…]
Eurocentrism by Samir Amin. New York. 1989. Monthly Review Press. hardcover. 152 pages. Translated from the French by Russell More. 0853457867.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Since its first publication twenty years ago, Eurocentrism has become a classic of radical thought. Written by one of the world's foremost political economists, this original and provocative essay takes on one of the great 'ideological deformations' of our time: Eurocentrism. Rejecting the dominant Eurocentric view of world history, which narrowly[…]
The Shooting Gallery & Other Stories by Yuko Tsushima. New York. 1988. Pantheon Books. paperback. 138 pages. Translated from the Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt. 0394757432.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Eight stories by one of Japan's most important women authors concern the struggles of women in a repressive society. An unwed mother introduces her children to their father. A woman confronts the 'other woman'. A young single mother resents her children. These stories touch on universal themes[…]
The Bureaucrats by Honore de Balzac. Evanston. 1993. Northwestern University Press. 247 pages. paperback. Cover: Honore Daumier, ‘Le ventre Legiuslatif, from Association Mensuelle.’ Translated from the French by Charles Foulkes. Edited and with an introduction by Marco Diani. 0810109875. Originally published as Les Employés (1837 - Scènes de la vie Parisienne).
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
THE BUREAUCRATS (Les Employés) stands out in Balzac’s immense oeuvre by offering a compelling analysis of an important nineteenth-century French[…]
The Traces Of Thomas Hariot by Muriel Rukeyser. New York. 1971. Random House. 366 pages. hardcover. 0394449231.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A study of the life of little-known Elizabethan Thomas Hariot - friend of Ralegh, Drake and Marlowe, and one of the first English explorers of the New World. Hariot was linked to poets, mathematicians and pioneer scientists, involved in the scientific, political, philosophical and sexual heresies of his time, and an expert in ships[…]
Sally Hemings by Barbara Chase-Riboud. New York. 1979. Viking Press. hardcover. 348 pages. June 1979. Jacket painting by Cornelia Gray. 0670616052.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
One of the greatest love stories in American history is also one of the least known, and most controversial. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, had a mistress for thirty-eight years, whom he loved and lived with until he died, the beautiful[…]
The Italics Are Mine by Nina Berberova. New York. 1969. Harcourt Brace & World. 606 pages. hardcover. Jacket photograph & design by Robert A. Propper. Translated from the Russian by Philippe Radley.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
This is the autobiography of Nina Berberova, who was born in St Petersburg in 1901, the only child of an Armenian father and a North Russian mother. After the Revolution, and the persecution of intellectuals which followed, she was forced[…]
The Republic Of Dreams by Nelida Pinon. New York. 1989. Knopf. 663 pages. July 1989. hardcover. 0394555252. Jacket illustration by Steven Rydberg. Jacket design by Carol Devine Carson. Translated from the Portuguese by Helen Lane. (original title: Republica dos sonhos, 1984 - Livraria Francisco Alves Editora S/A, Rio de Janeiro).
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
This huge, mesmeric novel marks the debut in English of one of the most brilliant and admired of today’s Latin American writers.[…]
Tales of the German Imagination: From the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann by Peter Wortsman (editor). New York. 2012. Penguin Books. paperback. 361 pages. Cover: 'Melancholy of the Mountains', 1929, Coloured woodcut by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Translated from the German, selected and editied with an introduction by Peter Wortsman. 9780141198804.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Bringing together tales of melancholy and madness, nightmare and fantasy, this is a new collection of the most haunting German stories from[…]
The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabokov. Norfolk. 1941. 206 pages. November 1941. hardcover.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN KNIGHT is a perversely magical literary detective story-subtle, intricate, leading to a tantalizing climax-about the mysterious life of a famous writer. Many people knew things about Sebastian Knight as a distinguished novelist, but probably fewer than a dozen knew of the two love affairs that so profoundly influenced his career, the second[…]
Conversation In The Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa. New York. 1984. Harper & Row. 601 pages. hardcover. 0060145021. (original title: Conversacion en La Catedral).
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A powerful novel of political and personal greed, corruption, and terror set in modem Peru, by the author of The Green House and THE TIME OF THE HERO. Under the rule of the unseen military dictator General Odria. suspicion, paranoia, and blackmail become the realities of public and[…]
The Orwell Reader by George Orwell. New York. 1956. Harcourt Brace & Company. 456 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Janet Halverson.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Here is Orwell’s work in all its remarkable range and variety. The selections in this anthology show how Orwell developed as writer and as thinker; inevitably, too, they reflect and illuminate the history of the time of troubles in which he lived and worked. ‘A magnificent tribute to the probity, consistency[…]
Mule Bone: A Comedy Of Negro Life by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. New York. 1991. Harper Collins. 282 pages. hardcover. 0060553014. Jacket design by Suzanne Noli. Jacket illustration by David Diaz.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Set in Eatonville, Florida, Zora Neale Hurston’s hometown and the inspiration for much of her fiction, this energetic and often farcical play centers on Jim and Dave, a two-man song-and-dance team, and Daisy, the woman who comes between their[…]
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. New York. 1996. Penguin Books. 432 pages. paperback. 0140434143. The cover shows ‘Miss Cazenove mounted on a Grey Hunter’ by Jacques-Laurent Agasse. Edited and with an introduction by Kathryn Sutherland.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
MANSFIELD PARK is Jane Austen’s most profound and perplexing novel. Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park.[…]
Eva's Man by Gayl Jones. New York. 1976. Random House. 179 pages. March 1976. hardcover. 0394499344. Jacket design and illustration by Wendell Minor.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Sitting in a prison cell—talking to a cellmate, a psychiatrist, herself, us - Eva Medina Canada is trying to remember it all, to keep memory separate from fantasy. But it is not easy. For a woman with no man and no money has to live in the streets, and[…]
Corregidora by Gayl Jones. New York. 1975. Random House. 186 pages. March 1975. hardcover. 0394493230. Jacket design by Wendell Minor.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Ursa Corregidora is lucky. She can sing her terror and her longing in a Kentucky café. She is less helpless then, and less bedeviled. But there is no song to numb her - to help her forget that the fruits of her marriage were violence and sterility; that she cannot live up[…]
The Price Of The Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948-1985 by James Baldwin. New York. 1985. St Martin's Press. 690 pages. hardcover. 0312643063. Jacket design by Andy Carpenter.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
James Baldwin is one of the major American voices of this century. Nowhere is this more evident than in THE PRICE OF THE TICKET, which includes virtually every important piece of nonfiction, short and long, that Mr. Baldwin has ever written. With total truth and profound[…]
Oriental Tales by Marguerite Yourcenar. New York. 1985. Farrar Straus Giroux. 147 pages. hardcover. 0374227284. Jacket painting by Tao-chi (1641-ca. 1710), from ‘Returning Home.’ Jacket design by Cynthia Krupat.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Legends caught in flight, fables, allegories - these ten ORIENTAL TALES form a singular edifice in the work of Marguerite Yourcenar, as precious as a chapel in a vast palace. From China to Greece, from the Balkans to Japan, these TALES take us[…]
Harmless Poisons, Blameless Sins by Mohammed Mrabet. Santa Barbara. 1976. Black Sparrow Press. Taped and Translated from the Moghrebi by Paul Bowles. 105 pages. 0876852746.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
During his childhood Mrabet listened to traditional story tellers in Tangier´s cafés - a world that fascinated him. Later on he would invent his own stories, and Paul Bowles taped and transcribed his stories. Mrabet´s first novel Love with a Few Hairs was published 1967 in London[…]
Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna. New York. 2006. Atlantic Monthly Press. 323 pages. Jacket art by Bruno Barbier/Robert Harding. 0871139448. September 2006.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
‘Abie has followed the arc of a letter from London back to Africa, to the coffee groves of Kholifa Estates, the plantation formerly owned by her grandfather. It is a place she remembers from childhood and which now belongs to her - if she wants it. Standing among the ruined[…]
Dr. Futurity by Philip K. Dick. New York. 1960. Ace Books. Paperback Original. Bound As An Ace Double With SLAVERS OF SPACE by John Brunner. D-421. 138 pages.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
DR. FUTURITY is a 1960 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. It is an expansion of his earlier short story ‘Time Pawn‘, which first saw publication in the summer 1954 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. DR. FUTURITY was first published as a[…]
The Collected Works Of Jane Bowles by Jane Bowles. New York. 1966. Farrar Straus Giroux. Introduction by Truman Capote. 431 pages. Jacket design by Ronald Clyne.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Jane Bowles has for many years had an underground reputation as one of the truly original writers of the twentieth century. This collection of expertly crafted short fiction will fully acquaint all students and scholars with the author Tennessee Williams called the most important writer of[…]
How To Solve It by G. Polya. Garden City. 1957. Anchor/Doubleday. A93. 253 pages. Cover by George Giusti.Typography By Edward Gorey.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Heuristic - the study of the methods and rules of discovery and invention - has until our time been a largely neglected, almost forgotten, branch of learning. The disputed province of logic or philosophy or psychology, it tries to understand the process of solving problems and its typical mental operations.[…]
Country Place by Ann Petry. Boston. 1947. Houghton Mifflin. 266 pages. Cover: Paul Sample.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
With all the compassionate insight into human beings for which she is noted, Ann Petry exposes the hypocrisies of a tranquil New England town in this dramatic story of a war veteran who searches to find out whether his wife has been unfaithful. ‘Gossip, malice, infidelity, murder. . . are some of the dominant matters treated in Country Place.’[…]
The Unconscious Civilization by John Ralston Saul. New York. 1997. Free Press. 199 pages. Jacket design by Tom Stvan. Jacket photograph by Philip Wallick/PPD International. Author photograph by Beverley Rockett. 0684832577. January 1997.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Civilizations, like individuals, are often blinded to their true character by sentiment and ideology - and ours is perhaps the most glaring example. In a powerful meditation already hailed as ‘the best work of popular philosophizing produced in this[…]
The Narrows by Ann Petry. Boston. 1953. Houghton Mifflin. 428 pages.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Originally published in 1953, The Narrows spins the unforgettable tale of a forbidden love affair between Link Williams, a college-educated twenty-six-year-old black man, and Camilo Sheffield, a wealthy married white woman. Set in the sleepy New England town of Monmouth, Connecticut, and 'filled with dramatic force, earthy humor, and tragic intensity', this classic novel deftly evokes a divisive era in America's[…]
Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 by W. E. B. Du Bois. New York. 1938. Harcourt Brace & Company. 746 pages. March 1938.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A distinguished scholar introduces the pioneering work in the study of the role of black Americans during the Reconstruction by the most gifted and influential black intellectual of his time. BLACK RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA is a book by W. E. B. Du Bois, first published in 1935. It is revisionist approach[…]
Incantations & Other Stories by Anjana Appachana. New Brunswick. 1992. Rutgers University Press. 150 pages. Cover photograph by Kasha Dalal. Cover design by the Senate. 0813518288.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
This first collection of fiction by Anjana Appachana provides stories that are beautifully written, the characters in them carefully and respectfully drawn. All the stories are set in India, but the people in them seem somehow displaced within their own society—a society in transition but a[…]
The Street by Ann Petry. Boston. 1946. Houghton Mifflin. A Literary Fellowship Prize 1st Novel. 436 pages.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
THE STREET tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, The Street was Ann Petry's first novel, a beloved[…]
Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett. New York. 1995. Penguin Books. Edited & With An Introduction and Notes By David Blewett. 480 pages. The cover shows a detail of Lord George Graham in His Cabin by William Hogarth in the National Maritime Museum, London. 9780140433326.
RODERICK RANDOM was published in 1748 to immediate acclaim, and established Smollett among the most popular of eighteenth-century novelists. In this picaresque tale, Roderick Random suffers misfortune after misfortune as he drifts from one pummeling to another[…]
Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship Of Reason In The West by John Ralston Saul. New York. 1992. Free Press. 640 pages. Cover design by Michael Langenstein. 0029277256.
The pitfalls of rationalism and and the rise of bureaucracy.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
In a wide-ranging, provocative anatomy of modern society and its origins, novelist and historian John Ralston Saul explores the reason for our deepening sense of crisis and confusion. Throughout the Western world we talk endlessly[…]
During the summer of my seventh year, my mother enrolled my older sister and me in a class at the Singer sewing school in downtown Brooklyn, New York. The class met daily from late morning until late afternoon above a[…]
Against the silver light of an impenetrably clouded sky was a small orange glow. The waning flame throbbed like a pulse as it descended, before finally disappearing behind the blue and white patch of stars on an American flag. The[…]
I’m a late bloomer. So I can’t help but admire the blue flame of prodigy. It took me eleven years to publish my first novel. A debut at age thirty-eight. A decade later, I published my second. I’m fifty-two years[…]
“Are you actually a woman?” the magazine editor Chloe Schama asked Rumaan Alam a few years ago during an interview for Vogue. Her joke reflected her incredulity at his first two novels, which concern themselves exclusively with the circumstances of[…]
1. Conventional wisdom holds that the most enticing way to introduce architecture to a lay audience is through the human element that animates this most social of all art forms. Nowhere is that inducement clearer than in books that deal[…]
On September 24, 2010, Michelle Pfleger, a champion equestrian, former varsity cheerleader, and freshman at Elon University in North Carolina collapsed on her way to class, then died. She was eighteen years old. The autopsy listed the cause of death[…]
What is often called “the first use of weapons of mass destruction” took place on April 22, 1915, near the town of Ypres, in western Belgium. Six months earlier, Germany’s hopes for a quick victory in World War I had[…]
In the late 1860s Émile Zola decided he wanted to write something on a scale equal to his colossal ambition. He had already published a few novels, including one, Thérèse Raquin, that gained him some useful notoriety. He had developed[…]
Charles Rosen’s first review in these pages appeared just over fifty years ago, in the February 26, 1970, issue, and it was an absolute stinker. The object of his philippic was the second edition of the Harvard Dictionary of Music,[…]
Maybe the trees won’t impress someonelooking for June or a new lover.There are people ahead carrying flowers,unaware of our many mistakes.Let me imagine you now in your housesurrounded by worst-case scenariosand rehearsed practicality.What other animal plans their own funeral?What animal[…]
Read more...
There are no true stories; there are only facts, and the stories we tell ourselves about those facts. —We Keep the Dead Close Mystery, like unrequited love, is best experienced in anticipation. Before myriad possibilities are collapsed to a single[…]
Whenever I pick up a new book by a woman I check the author biography on the back flap to see whether she has children. I’m not entirely sure why I do this and what, exactly, I am trying to[…]
Everybody makes mistakes; only some of them become canonical. John Keats’s “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” is one of the most celebrated poems in the English language, and it concludes with what appears to be a serious gaffe. Describing[…]
Tokyo in the 1960s—shadowy, dazzling, and flooded with life—was photographed without rest. A profusion of Japanese optical companies, many still famous today, were outdoing their Western competitors, and even the city’s grayer, humbler districts had tiny shops whose delicate glass[…]
After what even Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell called, with surprising accuracy, a “failed insurrection” at the United States Capitol, the far-right fringe of the Republican Party is feeling both emboldened and disillusioned. In numerous videos from the day, members[…]
1. On October 16, 2020, Samuel Paty, a forty-seven-year-old history and civics teacher at a public middle school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a northwestern suburb of Paris, was attacked and beheaded. His assailant, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was eighteen and lived sixty miles away[…]
After President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, pressure is growing from Indigenous leaders and environmental groups for the new administration to do the same with the Dakota Access[…]
Read more...We look at the fight to save tribal elders and Native language speakers as the pandemic rips through Indian Country, with Indigenous communities facing woefully inadequate healthcare, lack of governmental support, and the living legacy of centuries of colonialism. Native[…]
Read more...On his first full day in office, President Joe Biden unveiled a 198-page national plan to tackle the coronavirus pandemic as the U.S. death toll tops 410,000. He signed 10 executive orders to create a new national COVID-19 testing board,[…]
Read more...Joe Biden Unveils National Strategy to End COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci Describes "Liberating Feeling" of No Longer Working for Trump, As U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Supplies Dwindle, Tens of Thousands Face Canceled Appointments, China Builds Quarantine Facility to Isolate New[…]
Read more...One of the most remarkable moments from Wednesday's inauguration ceremony came from poet Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet in U.S. history to speak at a presidential inauguration. The 22 year-old read "The Hill We Climb," a poem she finished right[…]
Read more...We host a wide-ranging discussion of the historic inauguration of President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris — the first-ever woman, South Asian and Black vice president — how we got here, and what comes next, with award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa[…]
Read more...Joe Biden was sworn in as 46th president of the United States Wednesday, ending the Trump era with a call for national unity and urging Americans to come together during a period of turbulence. President Biden signed 17 executive orders[…]
Read more...Joe Biden Sworn In as 46th President of the United States, Ending Trump Era, Kamala Harris Sworn In as Vice President, Setting Several Historic Firsts, Biden Signs Executive Orders on Environment, Immigration, Civil Rights, Economy & Pandemic, Biden Unveils Pandemic[…]
Read more...We look at the path forward for the Biden-Harris administration and the role of social movements with political strategist Waleed Shahid and author and analyst Michael Eric Dyson. Shahid, spokesperson for the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats, says Biden[…]
Read more...As Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are inaugurated and the Trump presidency comes to an end, we look back at his regime with author and analyst Michael Eric Dyson. "The Trump presidency has been an unmitigated disaster," Dyson says. His[…]
Read more...We have 16 guests and no members online