{"title":"Books","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"everything-happens-as-it-does","title":"Everything Happens as It Does","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eNovember 19, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 110 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-84-9\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eWINNER OF THE 2013 CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN WRITERS CONTEST\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlbena Stambolova’s idiosyncratic debut novel, \u003cem\u003eEverything Happens as It Does\u003c\/em\u003e, builds from the idea that, as the title suggests, everything happens exactly the way it must. In this case, the seven characters of the novel—from Boris, a young boy who is only at peace when he’s around bees, to Philip and Maria and their twins—each play a specific role in the lives of the others, binding them all together into a strange, yet logical, knot. As characters are picked up, explored, and then swept aside, the novel’s beguiling structure becomes apparent, forcing the reader to pay attention to the patterns created by this accumulation of events and relationships. This is not a novel of reaching moral high ground; this is not a book about resolving relationships; this is a story whose mysteries are mysteries for a reason.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten with a precise, succinct tone that calls to mind Camus’s \u003cem\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEverything Happens as It Does\u003c\/em\u003e is a captivating and detail-driven novel that explores how depth will never be as immediately accessible as superficiality, and how everything will run its course in the precise manner it was always meant to. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/everything-happens-as-it-does-excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Bulgarian by Olga Nikolova\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e Albena Stambolova is the author of three novels: \u003cem\u003eEverything Happens as It Does\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHop-Hop the Stars\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eAn Adventure, to Pass the Time\u003c\/em\u003e. She has also published a collection of short stories, \u003cem\u003eThree Dots\u003c\/em\u003e, and a psychoanalytical study on Marguerite Duras, \u003cem\u003eSickness in Death\u003c\/em\u003e. She currently lives in Bulgaria, where she works as a psychological and organizational consultant, and is working on a book about fairy tales.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003eOlga Nikolova completed her PhD at Harvard University, with a dissertation on modern poetry, graphic design, and academic writing. Disaffected by academic conventions, she redirected her attention to translation. She's been translating the works of Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein into Bulgarian, and \u003cem\u003eEverything Happens as It Does\u003c\/em\u003e is her first translation into English.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Stambolova’s novel is based on the notion that human existence cannot but move toward an inexorable and irrational order: Everything happens the way it has to happen, because this is the way it happens. The characters in \u003cem\u003eEverything Happens as It Does\u003c\/em\u003e are created on this exact principle.”\u003cbr\u003e—Milena Kirova\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Albena Stambolova","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":384000508,"sku":"","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":659294473,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Everything_Happens_as_It_Does.jpg?v=1382558666"},{"product_id":"a-short-tale-of-shame","title":"A Short Tale of Shame","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eMay 21, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 145 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-76-4\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCO-WINNER OF THE 2012 CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN WRITERS CONTEST\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter deciding to take a semester off their studies to think about future plans, long-time friends Maya, Sirma, and Spartacus decide to hitchhike to the sea. Boril Krustev, former rock star and middle-aged widower who is driving aimlessly to outrun his grief, picks them up and accompanies them on their journey. It doesn’t take them long to figure out they’re connected to each other by more than their need to travel—specifically through Boril’s daughter, whose actions damaged each of the characters in this novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCo-winner of the Contemporary Bulgarian Writers Contest, \u003cem\u003eA Short Tale of Shame\u003c\/em\u003e marks the arrival of a new talent in Bulgarian literature with a novel about the need to come to terms with the shame and guilt we all harbor. \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/a-short-tale-of-shame-excerpt\" title=\"A Short Tale of Shame - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e Angel Igov is a Bulgarian writer, literary critic, and translator. He has published two collections of short stories, the first of which won the Southern Spring award for debut fiction. Igov has also translated books by Paul Auster, Martin Amis, Angela Carter, and Ian McEwan into Bulgarian. He is currently getting his PhD in European Literature.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eAngela Rodel earned an MA in linguistics from UCLA and received a Fulbright Fellowship to study and learn Bulgarian. In 2010, she won a PEN Translation Fund Grant for Georgi Tenev's short story collection. She is one of the most prolific translators of Bulgarian literature working today, and received an NEA Fellowship for her translation of Gospodinov's \u003cem\u003eThe Physics of Sorrow.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Exquisite!”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eBoston Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“A Short Tale of Shame is a novel about the road, on the road, a Balkan road novel. . . . A stylish, marvelously-imagined book, winding around the footprints of John Banville’s The Sea.”\u003cbr\u003e—Dimiter Kenarov, \u003cem\u003eKultura\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Angel Igov","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":384676686,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":384698174,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Short_Tale-front.jpg?v=1382628930"},{"product_id":"europe-in-sepia","title":"Europe in Sepia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eFebruary 18, 2014\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eessays | pb | 180 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-89-4\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Ugresic is sharp, funny and unafraid. . . . Orwell would approve.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHurtling between Weltschmerz and wit, drollness and diatribe, entropy and enchantment, it’s the juxtaposition at the heart of Dubravka Ugresic’s writings that saw Ruth Franklin dub her “the fantasy cultural studies professor you never had.” In \u003cem\u003eEurope in Sepia\u003c\/em\u003e, Ugresic, ever the flâneur, wanders from the Midwest to Zuccotti Park, the Irish Aran Islands to Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim, from the tristesse of Dutch housing estates to the riots of south London, charting everything from the listlessness of Central Europe to the ennui of the Low Countries. One finger on the pulse of an exhausted Europe, another in the wounds of postindustrial America, Ugresic trawls the fallout of political failure and the detritus of popular culture, mining each for revelation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInfused with compassion and melancholic doubt, \u003cem\u003eEurope in Sepia\u003c\/em\u003e centers on the disappearance of the future, the anxiety that no new utopian visions have emerged from the ruins of communism; that ours is a time of irreducible nostalgia, our surrender to pastism complete. Punctuated by the levity of Ugresic’s raucous instinct for the absurd, despair has seldom been so beguiling. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/europe-in-sepia-excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Croatian by David Williams\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eDubravka Ugresic is the author of several works of fiction, including \u003cem\u003eThe Museum of Unconditional Surrender\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Ministry of Pain\u003c\/em\u003e, and several essay collections, \u003cem\u003eNobody's Home\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eKaraoke Culture\u003c\/em\u003e. In 1991, when war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugresic took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and was proclaimed a \"traitor,\" a \"public enemy,\" and a \"witch,\" and was exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. As a result, she left Croatia in 1993 and currently lives in Amsterdam. In 2016, she was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature for her body of work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003eDavid Williams studied Comparative Literature at the University of Auckland, specifically the post-Yugoslav writings of Dubravka Ugresic and the idea of a \"literature in the Easter European ruins.\" He is the translator of \u003cem\u003eKaraoke Culture\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e and Miljenko Jergović's \u003cem\u003eMama Leone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Ugresic never commits a sloppy thought or a turgid sentence. Under her gaze, the tiredest topics of the \"tired\" continent (migration, multiculturalism, \"new Europe\") spring to life.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e (UK)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Dubravka Ugresic is the philosopher of evil and exile, and the story­teller of many shattered lives the wars in the former Yugoslavia produced.” \u003cbr\u003e—Charles Simic\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dubravka Ugresic","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":384688486,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":13560089444396,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Europe_in_Sepia.jpg?v=1382630790"},{"product_id":"karaoke-culture","title":"Karaoke Culture","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eOctober 25, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eessays | pb | 324 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-57-3\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Ugresic never commits a sloppy thought or a turgid sentence. Under her gaze, the tiredest topics of the \"tired\" continent (migration, multiculturalism, \"new Europe\") spring to life.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e (UK)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the past three decades, Dubravka Ugresic has established herself as one of Europe’s greatest—and most entertaining—thinkers and creators, and it’s in her essays that Ugresic is at her sharpest. With laser focus, she pierces our pop culture, dissecting the absurdity of daily life with a wit and style that’s all her own.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhether it’s commentary on jaded youth, the ways technology has made us soft in the head, or how wrestling a hotel minibar into a bathtub is the best way to stick it to The Man, Ugresic writes with unmatched honesty and panache. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eKaraoke Culture\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is full of candid, personal, and opinionated accounts of topics ranging from the baffling worldwide-pop-culture phenomena to the detriments of conformist nationalism. Sarcastic, biting, and, at times, even heartbreaking, this new collection of essays fully captures the outspoken brilliance of Ugresic’s insights into our modern world’s culture and conformism, the many ways in which it is ridiculous, and how (deep, deep down) we are all true suckers for it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Croatian by David Williams\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eDubravka Ugresic is the author of several works of fiction, including \u003cem\u003eThe Museum of Unconditional Surrender\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Ministry of Pain\u003c\/em\u003e, and several essay collections, \u003cem\u003eNobody's Home\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eKaraoke Culture\u003c\/em\u003e. In 1991, when war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugresic took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and was proclaimed a \"traitor,\" a \"public enemy,\" and a \"witch,\" and was exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. As a result, she left Croatia in 1993 and currently lives in Amsterdam.  \u003cspan\u003eIn 2016, she \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewas awarded the Neustadt International\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Prize for Literature for her body of work\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003eDavid Williams studied Comparative Literature at the University of Auckland, specifically the post-Yugoslav writings of Dubravka Ugresic and the idea of a \"literature in the Easter European ruins.\" He is the translator of Ugresic's \u003cem\u003eEurope in Sepia\u003c\/em\u003e and Miljenko Jergović's \u003cem\u003eMama Leone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Ugresic is sharp, funny and unafraid. . . . Orwell would approve.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Dubravka Ugresic is the philosopher of evil and exile, and the story­teller of many shattered lives the wars in the former Yugoslavia produced.” \u003cbr\u003e—Charles Simic\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dubravka Ugresic","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386450204,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":386450206,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/karaoke_highres.jpg?v=1382813652"},{"product_id":"maidenhair","title":"Maidenhair","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eOctober 23, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 506 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-36-8\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"One of the most prominent names in modern Russian literature.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDay after day the Russian asylum-seekers sit across from the interpreter and Peter—the Swiss officers who guard the gates to paradise—and tell of the atrocities they’ve suffered, or that they’ve invented, or heard from someone else. These stories of escape, war, and violence intermingle with the interpreter’s own reading: a his­tory of an ancient Persian war; letters sent to his son “Nebuchadnezzasaurus,” ruler of a distant, imaginary childhood empire; and the diaries of a Russian singer who lived through Russia’s wars and revolutions in the early part of the twentieth century, and eventually saw the Soviet Union’s dissolution. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMikhail Shishkin’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMaidenhair\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is an instant classic of Russian literature. It bravely takes on the eternal questions—of truth and fiction, of time and timeless­ness, of love and war, of Death and the Word—and is a movingly luminescent expression of the pain of life and its uncountable joys.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMikhail Shishkin has worked as a school teacher and a journalist. In 1995, he moved to Switzerland, where he worked as a Russian and German translator for asylum seekers. His novels have been translated into twenty-five languages. In addition to winning Le prix du meilleur livre étranger (2005), he has won the Russian Booker Prize (2000); following its publication in Russia in 2005,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMaidenhair\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e was awarded both the National Bestseller Prize and the Big Book prize, and in 2011 it was awarded the Preis des Hauses der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. His latest novel, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLetter-Book\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, won the Russian Big Book prize in 2011. Shishkin splits his time between Moscow and Zurich.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Marian Schwartz is a prize-winning translator of Russian. The winner of a Translation Fellowship from the NEA (1998 and 2006) and the Heldt Translation Prize (2002 and 2011), Schwartz has translated classic literary works by Nina Berberova, Yuri Olesha, Mikhail Bulgakov, Andrei Gelasimov, among others, including Leo Tolstoy's \u003cem\u003eAnna Karenina\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Most of the critics agree that 2005 will go down in the history of Russian literature as the year when \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMaidenhair\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the new novel by Mikhail Shishkin, was published.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003eL\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eiteraturnaya Rossia\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMaidenhair\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a kind of book they give the Nobel prize for. The novel is majestic.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNezavisimaya Gazeta\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mikhail Shishkin","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386455180,"sku":"","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Maidenhair_front_BTBA.jpg?v=1382814432"},{"product_id":"the-dark","title":"The Dark","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eOctober 15, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 143 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-43-6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Early in Sergio Chejfec’s \u003cem\u003eThe Dark\u003c\/em\u003e, the nameless narrator describes his disorientation when looking over a landscape as 'the vertigo of simple things.' This phrase describes the experience of reading Chejfec’s novel. . . . These moments, when Chejfec combines exquisite prose with the human yearning for truth and beauty, keep us reading, weighing the novel’s contradictions, sifting through the narrator’s abstract reflections in search of his life’s meaning.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOpening with the presently shut-in narrator reminiscing about a past relationship with Delia, a young factory worker,\u003cem\u003eThe Dark\u003c\/em\u003e employs Chejfec’s signature style with an emphasis on the geography and motion of the mind, to recount the time the narrator spent with this multifaceted, yet somewhat absent, woman. On their daily walks he becomes privy to the ways in which the working class functions; he studies and analyzes its structure and mindset, finding it incredibly organized, self-explanatory, and even beautiful. He repeatedly attempts to apply his “book” knowledge to explain what he sees and wants to understand of Delia’s existence, and though the difference between their social classes is initially a source of great intrigue—if not obsession—he must eventually learn that there comes a point where the boundary between observer and participant can dissolve with disarming speed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a voice that favors erudite distance, yet simultaneously demands intimate attention, \u003cem\u003eThe Dark\u003c\/em\u003e is the most captivating example of Sergio Chejfec’s unique narrative approach, and a resonant novel that calls into question the necessity, risks, and fallout behind the desire and attempt to know another person. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/the-dark-excerpt\" title=\"The Dark - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSergio Chejfec, originally from Argentina, has published numerous works of fiction, poetry, and essays. Among his grants and prizes, he has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in 2007 and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2000. His books have been translated into French, German, and Portuguese. He teaches in the Creative Writing in Spanish Program at NYU, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Two Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is his first novel to be translated into English.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Heather Cleary is a translator of fiction, criticism, and poetry, whose work has appeared in numerous journals and edited volumes, including \u003cem\u003eTwo Lines\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Coffin Factory\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eRevealing Mexico\u003c\/em\u003e. She was awarded a Translation Fund Grant from the PEN America Center for her work on Oliverio Girondo's \u003cem\u003ePersuasión de los días\u003c\/em\u003e. She is also the translator of Chejfec's \u003cem\u003eThe Planets\u003c\/em\u003e, and one of the founders of \u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003ethe \u003cem\u003eBuenos Aires Review\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"It is hard to think of another contemporary writer who, marrying true intellect with simple description of a space, simultaneously covers so little and so much ground.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"If genius can be defined by the measure of depth of an artist’s perception into human experience, then Chejfec is a genius.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCoffin Factory\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Sergio Chejfec","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386461428,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":659306145,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Dark_front.jpg?v=1382816256"},{"product_id":"the-golden-calf","title":"The Golden Calf","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eDecember 15, 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 315 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-07-8\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"A remarkably funny book written by a remarkable pair of collaborators.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOstap Bender, the \"grand strategist,\" is a con man on the make in the Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy (NEP) period. He’s obsessed with getting one last big score—a few hundred thousand will do—and heading for Rio de Janeiro, where there are \"a million and a half people, all of them wearing white pants, without exception.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Bender hears the story of Alexandr Koreiko, an \"undercover millionaire\"—no Soviet citizen was allowed to openly hoard so much capital—the chase is on. Koreiko has made his millions by taking advantage of the wide-spread corruption and utter chaos of the NEP, all while serving quietly as an accountant at a government office and living on 46 rubles a month. He's just waiting for the Soviet regime to collapse so he can make use of his stash, which he keeps hidden away in a suitcase\u003c\/span\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Russian by Helen Anderson \u0026amp; K\u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eonstantin Gurevich\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Authors: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIlya Ilf (1897–1937) and Evgeny Petrov (1903–1942) were the pseudonyms of Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny Petrovich Katayev, a pair of Soviet writers who met in Moscow in the 1920s while working on the staff of a newspaper that was distributed to railway workers. The foremost comic novelists of the early Soviet Union (invariably referred to as Ilf \u0026amp; Petrov), the pair collaborated together for a dozen years, writing two of the most revered and loved Russian novels, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Twelve Chairs \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Golden Calf\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, as well as various humorous pieces for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ePravda\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and other magazines. Their collaboration came to an end following the death of Ilya Ilf in 1937—he had contracted tuberculosis while the pair was traveling the United States researching the book that eventually became \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLittle Golden America\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translators: \u003c\/strong\u003eHelen Anderson studied Russian language and literature at McGill University in Montréal. Konstantin Gurevich is a graduate of Moscow State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Married to each other, they are both former librarians at the University of Rochester. \u003cem\u003eThe Golden Calf \u003c\/em\u003ewas their first major translation together.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Ilf and Petrov, two wonderfully gifted writers, decided that if they had a rascal adventurer as protagonist, whatever they wrote about his adventures could not be criticized from a political point of view. . . . Thus Ilf and Petrov . . . managed to publish some absolutely first-rate fiction under that standard of complete independence.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003eVladimir Nabokov\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ilf \u0026 Petrov","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386475204,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":386475206,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/golden_highres.jpg?v=1382817791"},{"product_id":"a-thousand-morons","title":"A Thousand Morons","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eDecember 11, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003estories | pb | 111 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-41-2\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Today’s best known writer in Catalan. He is also, no exaggeration, one of the world’s great short-story writers.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Thousand Morons\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, Quim Monzó’s latest collection of short stories, is rife with very unfortunate characters. There’s the young boy in “A Cut” who is upbraided by his teacher when he rudely shows up for class with a huge gash in his neck. And the prince in “One Night” who tries everything to awaken a sleeping princess—yet fails completely.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSeeing that this is a Quim Monzó collection, absurdity offsets the “moronic” sadness. Such as “Love Is Eternal,” which features a man who decides to finally overcome his commitment issues and marry his dying girlfriend, only to have everything backfire; or “The Fullness of Summer,” in which a family meticulously records every moment of their gathering.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAn excellent combination of longer, elegiac stories of “morons,” aging, and the passage of time—with short, flashier pieces that display Monzó’s wit and playfulness—make this one of the strongest collections in the oeuvre of Catalan’s short fiction master.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Catalan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003e by Peter Bush\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eQuim Monzó was born in Barcelona in 1952. He has been awarded the National Award, the City of Barcelona Award, the Prudenci Bertrana Award, the El Temps Award, the Lletra d'Or Prize for the best book of the year, and the Catalan Writers' Award; he has been awarded \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSerra d'Or\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003emagazine's prestigious Critics' Award four times. He has also translated numerous authors into Catalan, including Truman Capote, J.D. Salinger, and Ernest Hemingway.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003ePeter Bush is an award-winning translator who lives in Barcelona. His translations include Juan Goytisolo's \u003cem\u003eNíjar Country\u003c\/em\u003e, Teresa Solana's \u003cem\u003eA Shortcut to Paradise\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eAlain Badiou's \u003cem\u003eIn Praise of Love\u003c\/em\u003e. More recently, he translated Josep Pla's \u003cem\u003eThe Gray Notebook\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“A gifted writer, he draws well on the rich tradition of Spanish surrealism . . . to sustain the lyrical, visionary quality of his imagination.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Monzó delivers drollery on nearly every page, in observations that are incisive and hilarious and horrifying, often all at once.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Quim Monzó","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386483176,"sku":"","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Thousand_Morons-front.jpg?v=1382818371"},{"product_id":"tirza","title":"Tirza","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eFebruary 19, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 452 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-69-6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Grunberg chronicles the mistakes of a morose Dutch bourgeois and constructs a delectable psychological thriller.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eLe Figaro\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJörgen Hofmeester once had it all: a beautiful wife, a nice house with a garden in an upperclass neighborhood in Amsterdam, a respectable job as an editor, two lovely daughters named Ibi and Tirza, and a large amount of money in a Swiss bank account. But during the preparations for Tirza’s graduation party, we come to know what he has lost. His wife has left him; Ibi is starting a bed and breakfast in France, an idea which he opposed; the director of the publishing house has fired him; and his savings have vanished in the wake of 9\/11.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut Hofmeester still has Tirza, until she introduces him to her new boyfriend, Choukri—who bears a disturbing resemblance to Mohammed Atta—and they announce their plan to spend several months in Africa. A heartrending and masterful story of a man seeking redemption, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTirza\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e marks a high point in Grunberg’s still-developing oeuvre. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e[The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.]\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eArnon Grunberg was born in Amsterdam in 1971. Starting his own publishing company at nineteen, he wrote his first novel, Blue Mondays—a European bestseller—at age twenty-three. Two of his novels, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhantom Pain\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Asylum Seeker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, won the AKO Literature Prize, the Dutch equivalent of the Booker Prize. Living in New York, he writes columns, book reviews, and essays for newspapers and magazines.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003eSam Garrett has worked as a literary translator as well as a freelance journalist. His recent translated works include \u003cem\u003eThe Cave\u003c\/em\u003e by Tim Krabbé and \u003cem\u003eSilent Extras \u003c\/em\u003eby Arnon Grunberg. In 2009, he won the Vondel Translation Prize for his translation of Frank Westerman's \u003cem\u003eArarat\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“With this novel, Grunberg advances slowly but surely toward the class of major authors who write lucidly about the incomprehensibility of human actions.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—H\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eaarlems Dagblad\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arnon Grunberg","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386488018,"sku":"","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Tirza.jpg?v=1382818845"},{"product_id":"death-in-spring","title":"Death in Spring","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 15, 2015 (pb)\u003cbr\u003eMay 15, 2009 (hc, out of print)\u003cbr\u003enovel | pb | 150 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-940953-28-1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"The greatest contemporary Catalan novelist and possibly the best Mediterranean woman author since Sappho.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—David H. Rosenthal\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e• \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsidered by many to be the grand achievement of her later period, \u003cem\u003eDeath in Spring \u003c\/em\u003eis one of Mercè Rodoreda's most complex and beautifully constructed works. The novel tells the story of the bizarre and destructive customs of a nameless town—burying the dead in trees after filling their mouths with cement to prevent their soul from escaping, or sending a man to swim in the river that courses underneath the town to discover if they will be washed away by a flood—through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy who must come to terms with the rhyme and reason of this ritual violence, and with his wild, child-like, and teenaged stepmother, who becomes his playmate. It is through these rituals, and the developing relationships between the boy and the townspeople, that Rodoreda portrays a fully-articulated, though quite disturbing, society. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe horrific rituals, however, stand in stark contrast to the novel’s stunningly poetic language and lush descriptions. Written over a period of twenty years—after Rodoreda was forced into exile following the Spanish Civi War—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDeath in Spring\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is musical and rhythmic, and truly the work of a writer at the height of her powers.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Catalan by Martha Tennent\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMercè Rodoreda (1908–1983) is widely regarded as the most important Catalan writer of the twentieth century. Exiled in France and Switzerland following the Spanish Civil War, Rodoreda began writing the novels and short stories—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwenty-two Short Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Time of the Doves\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCamellia Street\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eGarden by the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—that would eventually make her internationally famous, while at the same time earning a living as a seamstress. In the mid-1960s she returned to Catalonia, where she continued to write. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDeath in Spring\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, her final novel, is also available from Open Letter.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003eMartha Tennent is an English-language translator who works primarily from Catalan and Spanish. She was born in the United States, but has lived most of her life in Barcelona. She received a fellowship from the NEA for her translation of \u003cem\u003eThe Selected Storie\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003es of Mercè Rodoreda\u003c\/em\u003e. Her work has appeared in \u003cem\u003eEpiphany\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTwo Lines\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWords Without Borders\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Public Space\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePEN America\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eReview of Contemporary Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Rodoreda had bedazzled me by the sensuality with which she reveals things within the atmosphere of her novels. . . . A writer who still knows how to name things has already won half the battle, and Rodoreda knew how to do that as well as anyone who wrote in her mother tongue.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Gabriel Garcia Márquez\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Mercè Rodoreda is the writer I cannot stop talking about.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Alberto Ríos\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mercè Rodoreda","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386493338,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":388278800,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Death_in_Spring-front.jpg?v=1436296733"},{"product_id":"when-we-leave-each-other","title":"When We Leave Each Other","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eApril 23, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003epoems | pb | 165 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-42-9\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Henrik Nordbrandt’s poems pour out as cold, clear, and mineral-tanged as spring water. . . . Nordbrandt is a master, masterfully reborn in English. This is a book of signal beauty and mystery.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Rosanna Warren\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough most of his life has been spent abroad in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, Henrik Nordbrandt has simultaneously and undeniably emerged, next to Inger Christensen, as one of Denmark’s very best contemporary poets. If it was Paul Celan who first claimed that poetry was “a message in a bottle, sent out in the—not always greatly hopeful—belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps,” it is nevertheless Nordbrandt’s unusually intimate poems that enact this unforgettably, as well as his persistent subjects: the joys and strangeness of travel, the tragicomic absurdity of our attempts to make sense of the world, and above all, the sweetness and ache of human love. Highlighting his entire career, the poems in \u003cem\u003eWhen We Leave Each Other\u003c\/em\u003einclude a generous selection of recent and never-before-translated work into English that is certain to establish Nordbrandt as an essential contemporary lyric poet for American readers. \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/when-we-leave-each-other-excerpt\" title=\"When We Leave Each Other - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Danish and with an Introduction by Patrick Phillips\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"color: #666666;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHenrik Nordbrandt, one of Denmark’s foremost poets, has published over 30 books, including poetry, essays, translations, a novel, and a cookbook. In 2000, he was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Living alternately in Turkey, Italy, and Greece, his writing has gained a unique perspective. English translations of his poems have appeared in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAmerican Poetry Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew Letters\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and elsewhere.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Patrick Phillips is a poet, professor, and translator, and has published three volumes of his own poetry. For translation, he received the Sjöberg Prize and the Translation Prize of the American-Scandinavian Foundation. He teaches writing at Drew University.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Denmark’s most respected and honored contemporary poet, has found in Patrick Phillips his ideal translator. . . . A translation that so naturalizes the original that it seems as if these poems have always been a part of our linguistic inheritance.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—Tom Sleigh\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Henrik Nordbrandt","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386498034,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/When_We_Leave-front.jpg?v=1382819787"},{"product_id":"this-is-the-garden","title":"This is the Garden","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJanuary 21, 2014\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003estories | pb | 121 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-75-7\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“I read Giulio Mozzi’s first book with real enthusiasm. What struck me most was his everyday language. Even when his subjects rely on metaphor, his words are plain, and so turn mysterious.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Federico Fellini\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGiulio Mozzi’s first book, \u003cem\u003eThis Is the Garden\u003c\/em\u003e (winner of the 1993 Premio Mondello), astonished the Italian literary world for its commanding vision and the beauty of its prose. In the eight stories of this collection, we see a steady reworking of the idea of the world as a fallen Eden. Here, in Mozzi’s garden, quasi-allegorical characters seek knowledge of something beyond their shaken realities: they have all lost something and react by escaping, retreating from reality into a world, as Mozzi says, that is “fantastic, mystical, absurd.” A purse-snatcher mails his victim’s letters back to her, including a letter of his own. An apprentice longs to be a real person, a worker, in an anonymous business where Kafkaesque machines cut nondescript pieces from an unnamed raw material. A man finds, in his endless activity of picking up broken glass in his garden, a metaphor for gathering the pieces of his soul. Intensely imagistic, mystical, mysterious, \u003cem\u003eThis Is the Garden\u003c\/em\u003e is a complicated, unsentimental—yet also heartfelt—exploration of spirituality, love, and the act of creation by a master of the short-story form. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/this-is-the-garden-excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGiulio Mozzi has published twenty-six books—as fiction writer, poet, and editor. He is primarily known for his story collections, especially \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis Is the Garden\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, which won the Premio Mondello. “The Apprentice” (included in this collection) appears in an anthology of the top Italian stories of the twentieth century. He has even created an imaginary artist, Carlo Dalcielo, whose work has appeared in public exhibitions and books, like Dalkey Archive Press’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eBest European Fiction 2010\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Elizabeth Harris's translations have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. She is also the translator of Mario Rigoni Stern's \u003cem\u003eGiacomo's Seasons \u003c\/em\u003e(Autumn Hill) and Antonio Tabucchi's \u003cem\u003eTristano Is Dying\u003c\/em\u003e (Archipelago). She teaches creative writing at the University of North Dakota.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Gorgeously rooted in the best modernist tradition of writers like Italo Calvino and Antonio Tabucchi, Giulio Mozzi is among the most fiercely literary authors emerging from Italian literature today. These stories, which in so many different ways are about writing itself, are like rivers cutting through the northern Italian countryside—lush, limpid, exotic. Elizabeth Harris's translation beautifully renders the noble grit of Mozzi's distinctive voice.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Minna Proctor\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Giulio Mozzi","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":386504342,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/This_Is_the_Garden.jpg?v=1382820417"},{"product_id":"the-ambassador","title":"The Ambassador","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eOctober 12, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 298 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-13-9\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Dark, strange, elusive, compelling, and oddly charming.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e (on Ólafsson's \u003cem\u003eThe Pets\u003c\/em\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSturla Jón Jónsson, the fifty-something building superintendent and sometimes poet, has been invited to a poetry festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, appointed, as he sees it, as the official representative of the people of Iceland to the field of poetry. His latest poetry collection, published on the eve of his trip to Vilnius, is about to cause some controversy in his home country—Sturla is publicly accused of having stolen the poems from his long-dead cousin, Jónas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThen there’s Sturla’s new overcoat, the first expensive item of clothing he has ever purchased, which causes him no end of trouble. And the article he wrote for a literary journal, which points out the stupidity of literary festivals and declares the end of his career as a poet. Sturla has a lot to deal with, and that’s not counting his estranged wife and their five children, nor the increasingly bizarre experiences and characters he’s forced to confront at the festival in Vilnius . . .\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBragi Ólafsson’s \u003cem\u003eThe Ambassador\u003c\/em\u003e is a quirky novel that’s filled with insightful and wry observations about aging, family, love, and the mysteries of the hazelnut. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/the-ambassador-excerpt\" title=\"The Ambassador - Excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBragi Ólafsson was born in Reykjavik and is the author of several books of poetry, short stories, and four novels, including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eParty Games\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, for which he re­­ceived the DV Cultural Prize in 2004. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Ambassador\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e was a finalist for the 2008 Nordic Literature Prize and received the Icelandic Bookseller's Award as best novel of the year. He is also a founder of the publishing company Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), and has translated Paul Auster's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCity of Glass\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e into Icelandic.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eTranslator: \u003c\/strong\u003eLytton Smith is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe All-Purpose Magical Tent\u003c\/em\u003e, and has translated works from Bragi Ólafsson, Jón Gnarr, and Kristín Ómarsdóttir, among others.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The best short novel I’ve read this year. . . . Small, dark, and hard to put down, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Pets\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e may be a classic in the literature of small enclosed spaces.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—Paul LaFarge \u003cspan\u003e(on \u003cspan\u003eÓlafsson's \u003cem\u003eThe Pets\u003c\/em\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Bragi Ólafsson","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388155510,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":388155512,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/ambassador_highres.jpg?v=1383068632"},{"product_id":"the-pets","title":"The Pets","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eNovember 10, 2015 (pb)\u003cbr\u003eOctober 15, 2008 (hc, out of print)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 157 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-940953-29-8\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Dark, scary, and unbelievably funny.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"The best short novel I’ve read this year. . . .Small, dark, and hard to put down, The Pets may be a classic in the literature of small enclosed spaces.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eBarnes \u0026amp; Noble Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e• \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBack in Reykjavik after a vacation in London, Emil Halldorsson is waiting for a call from a beautiful girl, Greta, that he met on the plane ride home, and he’s just put on a pot of coffee when an unexpected visitor knocks on the door. Peeking through a window, Emil spies an erstwhile friend—Havard Knutsson, his one-time roommate and current resident of a Swedish mental institution—on his doorstep, and he panics, taking refuge under his bed and hoping the frightful nuisance will simply go away. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHavard won’t be so easily put off, however, and he breaks into Emil’s apartment and decides to wait for his return—Emil couldn’t have gone far; the pot of coffee is still warming on the stove. While Emil hides under his bed, increasingly unable to show himself with each passing moment, Havard discovers the booze, and he ends up hosting a bizarre party for Emil's friends, and Greta. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAn alternately dark and hilarious story of cowardice, comeuppance, and assumed identity, the breezy and straightforward style of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Pets\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e belies its narrative depth, and disguises a complexity that grows with every page.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Icelandic by Janice Balfour\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBragi Ólafsson is the author of several books of poetry and short stories, and four novels, including \u003cem\u003eTime Off\u003c\/em\u003e, which was nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize in 1999 (as was \u003cem\u003eThe Pets\u003c\/em\u003e), and \u003cem\u003eParty Games\u003c\/em\u003e, for which Bragi received the DV Cultural Prize in 2004. \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/products\/the-ambassador\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Ambassador\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, available from Open Letter, was a finalist for the 2008 Nordic Literature Prize and received the Icelandic Bookseller’s Award as best novel of the year. Bragi is one of the founders of the publishing company Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), and has translated Paul Auster’s \u003cem\u003eCity of Glass\u003c\/em\u003e into Icelandic. He is also a former bass player with The Sugarcubes, the internationally successful pop group that featured Björk as the lead vocalist\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Dark, strange, elusive, compelling, and oddly charming.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Bragi Ólafsson","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388269866,"sku":"","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":388269868,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Pets-front.jpg?v=1436298689"},{"product_id":"the-book-of-happenstance","title":"The Book of Happenstance","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJune 14, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 254 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-33-7\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"This is an extraordinary story from an extraordinary writer. . . . If you haven’t experienced the mind of Ingrid Winterbach yet, she is a writer who clings to your soul.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePretoria News\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA middle-aged lexicographer, Helena Verbloem, travels alone to Durban to assist in the creation of a dictionary of Afrikaans words that have fallen out of use. Shortly after her arrival, her apartment is burglarized, and her collection of precious shells, shells that she had been collecting for a lifetime, is stolen. Meeting with indifference from the local police, she decides to investigate the crime on her own, with the help of her new friend from the Museum of Natural History, Sof. While investigating the crime, Helena reflects on the life she’s lived—her ex-husband, her daughter, her lovers, her childhood—and begins to fall in love with her married boss, Theo Verway.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn alternately sublime and satirical meditation on love, loss, and obsession, Ingrid Winterbach's \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Happenstance\u003c\/i\u003e is an emotionally affecting masterpiece from one of South Africa’s most exciting authors. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/the-book-of-happenstance-excerpt\" title=\"The Book of Happenstance - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Afrikaans by \u003cspan class=\"translator_name\"\u003eDirk \u0026amp;\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"translator_name\"\u003eIngrid Winterbach\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIngrid Winterbach is an artist and novelist whose work has won South Africa’s M-Net Prize, Old Mutual Literary Prize, the University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing, and the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTo Hell with Cronjé\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e won the 2004 Hertzog Prize, an honor she shares with the novelists Breyten Breytenbach and Etienne Leroux.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"This text is, in all meanings of the word, sublime.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eDie Burger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"In her latest novel Ingrid Winterbach is at her best: complex, smart, mischievous and without equal.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eBeeld\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ingrid Winterbach","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388300030,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/book_happenstance_highres.jpg?v=1383079696"},{"product_id":"to-hell-with-cronje","title":"To Hell with Cronjé","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 15, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 238 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-30-6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“This unforgettable novel establishes Ingrid Winterbach as one of the most important novelists writing in Afrikaans.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Thys Human\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTwo scientists, Reitz Steyn and Ben Maritz, find themselves in a “transit camp for those temporarily and permanently unfit for battle” during the Boer War. Captured on suspicion of desertion and treason—during a trek across an unchanging desert of bushes, rocks, and ant hills to help transport a fellow-soldier, who has suffered debilitating shell-shock, to his mother—they are forced to await the judgment of a General Bergh, unsure whether they are to be conscripted into Bergh’s commando, allowed to continue their mission, or executed for treason. As the weeks pass, and the men’s despair at ever returning to their families reaches its peak, they are sent on a bizarre mission...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA South African \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHeart of Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, Ingrid Winterbach’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTo Hell with Cronjé\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a poetic exploration of friendship and camaraderie, an eerie reflection of the futility of war, and a thought-provoking re-examination of the founding moments of the South African nation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Afrikaans by Elsa Silke\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIngrid Winterbach is an artist and novelist whose work has won South Africa’s M-Net Prize, Old Mutual Literary Prize, the University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing, and the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTo Hell with Cronjé\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e won the 2004 Hertzog Prize, an honor she shares with the novelists Breyten Breytenbach and Etienne Leroux.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"An exquisite book, an essential voice.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Antjie Krog\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"With this excellent novel Ingrid Winterbach proves again that she is one of our most original novelists.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Louis Viljoen\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ingrid Winterbach","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388307770,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/hell_highres.jpg?v=1383080204"},{"product_id":"the-canvas","title":"The Canvas","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 26, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 330 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-65-8\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“A novel as suspenseful as it is complex.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Deutsche Welle TV\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLoosely based on the true story of Binjamin Wilkomirski, whose fabricated 1995 Holocaust memoir transfixed the reading public, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Canvas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e has a singular construction—its two inter-related narratives begin at either end of the book and meet in the middle. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmnon Zichroni, a psychoanalyst in Zurich, encourages Minsky to write a book about his traumatic childhood experience in a Nazi death camp, a memoir which the journalist Jan Wechsler claims is a fiction. Ten years later, a suitcase arrives on Wechsler’s doorstep. Allegedly, he lost the suitcase an a trip to Israel, but Wechsler has no memory of the suitcase, nor the trip, and he travels to Israel to investigate the mystery. But it turns out he has been to Israel before, and his host on the trip, Amnon Zichroni, has been missing ever since... \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA mind-bending investigation of memory, identity, truth, and delusion, \u003cem\u003eThe Canvas\u003c\/em\u003e is the publishing event of the year, a novel whose meaning depends on the order in which it is read. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/the-canvas-excerpt\" title=\"The Canvas - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the German by Brian Zumhagen\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBenjamin Stein was born in East Berlin in 1970. He has worked as an editor and correspondent for various computer magazines and has been a corporate It advisor since 1998. He owns the author-run publishing house Edition Neue Moderne and writes the literary weblog “Turmsegler.” Benjamin Stein is married with two children and lives in Munich.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Benjamin Stein’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Canvas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a riveting work of literature. Its many layered complexity and linguistic elegance defy categorization. This book can be read as a literary detective story as well as a subtle psychological novel.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Jüdische Zeitung\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Benjamin Stein","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388311256,"sku":"","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/canvas_highres.jpg?v=1383080597"},{"product_id":"children-in-reindeer-woods","title":"Children in Reindeer Woods","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eApril 17, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 198 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-35-1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"[A] daringly droll, wholly perturbing book.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEleven-year-old Billie lives at a ‘temporary home for children’ called Children in Reindeer Woods, which she discovers one afternoon, to her surprise, is in the middle of a war zone. When a small group of paratroopers kill everyone who lives there with her, and then turn on each other, Billie is forced to learn to live with the violent, innocent, and troubled Rafael, who decides to abandon the soldier’s life and become a farmer, no matter what it takes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lyrical and continually surprising take on the absurdity of war and the mysteries of childhood,\u003cem\u003eChildren in Reindeer Woods\u003c\/em\u003e is a moving modern fable. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/children-in-reindeer-woods-excerpt\" title=\"Children in Reindeer Woods - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Icelandic\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cb\u003e by Lytton Smith\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKristín Ómarsdóttir has published books of poetry, short stories, and novels, and written plays for the theatre in her native Iceland. She received Gríman, the Icelandic playwright award, in 2005 for her play\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTell Me Everything\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eChildren in Reindeer Woods\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is her first novel to be translated into English.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eTranslator: \u003c\/strong\u003eLytton Smith is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe All-Purpose Magical Tent\u003c\/em\u003e, and has translated works from Bragi Ólafsson, Jón Gnarr, and Kristín Ómarsdóttir, among others.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Without a doubt, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eChildren in Reindeer Woods\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s best novel to date, and that’s saying a lot. . . . Her gifts come fully into their own in a story, also a polemic against war, handled with mastery.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Hrund Ólafsdóttir\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003cspan\u003e“The novel is often hilarious—but the undercurrent is heavy. . . . A complicated and fragile world where playing with Barbie dolls and guns go side by side.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—E\u003cspan\u003erna Erlingsdóttir, \u003cem\u003eTMM\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Kristín Ómarsdóttir","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388321328,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/children_highres.jpg?v=1383081587"},{"product_id":"the-discoverer","title":"The Discoverer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 15, 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | hc | 504 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-12-2\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Jan Kjaerstad is a Viking of literature.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eIndependent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe final novel in a trilogy of books about the Norwegian television celebrity Jonas Wergeland, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Discoverer \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003efinds Jonas released from prison, having completed his sentence for the death of his wife. He has taken a job as a secretary aboard the Voyager, a ship which is exploring the far reaches of the Sognefjord—the longest fjord in the world. On the ship, Jonas works for a team of young people—including his daughter, Kristin—who are engaged in a multimedia project that is seeking to chart every aspect of the fjord in a new medium that merges text, image, film, and design. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhile the crew seeks to document the fjord, Jonas is busy exploring his past. For the first time in the trilogy he is allowed to tell his own story, and on board the ship he begins to recreate a manuscript that he wrote in prison, a book which he has already destroyed once, a book which seeks to explore the central mystery at the heart of Jonas's existence: the life and death of his wife Margrete. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Discoverer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e stands alone as a masterful novel in its own right—multivocal, throwing story after story aloft and examining each from numerous angles, and all at once. Incredibly, it also serves as the perfect complement to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Seducer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Conqueror\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, both deepening the mysteries contained in those two novels and revealing the bottomlessness of so many others. Jan Kjaerstad once again draws us into the Wergeland universe, and he takes us on a journey that promises to finally discover the truth about Jonas's life, and his wife’s death.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the N\u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eorwegian by Barbara Haveland\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJan Kjaerstad made his debut as a writer in 1980 with a short story collection, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Earth Turns Quietly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. The three books making up the Wergeland trilogy—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Seducer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Conqueror\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Discoverer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (forthcoming from Open Letter in 2009)—have achieved huge international success, and led to Kjaerstad receiving the Nordic Prize for Literature in 2001. He has also received Germany’s Henrik Steffen Prize for Scandinavians who have significantly enriched Europe’s artistic and intellectual life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Veering from the broadly comic to the beautifully sad, with detours for deadpan mediations on the 'Norwegian national character,' this book is not just big, but big-hearted.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"One of the most influential writers of his generation. Say his name, and I think of Milan Kundera, Martin Amis, and Frank Zappa.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—Linn Ullmann\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Jan Kjaerstad","offers":[{"title":"hc","offer_id":388331974,"sku":"","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/discoverer_highres.jpg?v=1383083029"},{"product_id":"the-conqueror","title":"The Conqueror","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eFebruary 15, 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | hc | 481 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-03-0\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"An enormously accomplished and compelling novel by one of Scandinavia's outstanding contemporary writers.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Paul Auster\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJonas Wergeland is in prison for the murder of his wife. The most beloved and celebrated television personality in Norway, Wergeland’s programs on the history of Norway held the country in his thrall. The spectacle of his downfall has done the same.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA professor is hired to write the definitive biography of Wergeland, but finds himself unable to process the astonishing volume of contradictory information he unearths—until a mysterious woman appears on his doorstep. Possessing innumerable intimate stories about Jonas, the woman details the dark side of his rise to prominence, and through her stories tries to explain what made him a murderer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTold in a series of short, interconnected, self-referential, and constantly evolving passages—each shooting off from the last like light from a prism and moving indifferently from the past to the present—Jan Kjaerstad has constructed a wonder of a novel whose form and subject explore what, in the apparent absence of simple cause and effect, makes life coherent. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/the-conqueror-excerpt\" title=\"The Conqueror - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the N\u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eorwegian by Barbara Haveland\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJan Kjaerstad made his debut as a writer in 1980 with a short story collection, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Earth Turns Quietly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. The three books making up the Wergeland trilogy—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Seducer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Conqueror\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Discoverer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (forthcoming from Open Letter in 2009)—have achieved huge international success, and led to Kjaerstad receiving the Nordic Prize for Literature in 2001. He has also received Germany’s Henrik Steffen Prize for Scandinavians who have significantly enriched Europe’s artistic and intellectual life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Whimsically Sterneian, with a dark hint of Paul Auster and a dash of Marquez, breezily narrated by Tom Robbins... grandly entertaining.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Kjaerstad's novels are redolent with the fantastic profusion of the stories they tell, of all that flows forth from them, presented in ever-new guises.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003eDie Welt\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Jan Kjaerstad","offers":[{"title":"hc","offer_id":388352508,"sku":"","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/conqueror_highres.jpg?v=1383083545"},{"product_id":"the-cyclist-conspiracy","title":"The Cyclist Conspiracy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eMarch 20, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 280 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-58-0\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Some books grow old with years, some are rejuvenated, some remain the same. But extremely rare are those that manage to force reality to change and adapt to what is written in them. Some twenty years ago \u003cem\u003eThe Cyclist Conspiracy\u003c\/em\u003e seemed like postmodern brick-a-brack. Today, it is a historical record that becomes more and more true with every new day.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—David Albahari\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Cyclist Conspiracy\u003c\/em\u003e tells the tale of a secret Brotherhood who meet in dreams, gain esoteric knowledge from contemplation of the bicycle, and seek to move in and out of history, manipulating events; the Brothers are part of a conspiracy so vast and so secret that, in many cases, the conspirators themselves are unaware of their participation in it. Told through a series of “historical documents”—memoirs, illustrations, letters, philosophical treatises, blue prints, and maps—the novel details the story of these interventions and the historical moments where the Brotherhood has made their influence felt, from the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand to a lost story of Sherlock Holmes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMasterfully intertwining the threads of waking and dreams into the fabric of the present, the past, and the future, Svetislav Basara’s Pynchon-esque \u003cem\u003eThe Cyclist Conspiracy\u003c\/em\u003e is a bold, funny, and imaginative romp. \u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/the-cyclist-conspiracy-excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Serbian by Randall A. Major\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cspan\u003eSvetislav Basara is a major figure of contemporary Serbian literature and the author of five collections of short stories, thirteen novels, a dozen books of essays, plays, and novellas. In 2006 Basara received the NIN Award for his novel \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Rise and Fall of Parkinson’s Disease\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. His 1985 novel,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eChinese Letter\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, is also available in English translation. Basara served as the Serbian Ambassador to Cyprus from 2001 to 2005.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Svetislav Basara","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388372958,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":388372960,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/cyclist_highres.jpg?v=1383085212"},{"product_id":"dark-times-filled-with-light","title":"Dark Times Filled with Light","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eNovember 20, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003epoems | pb | 100 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-68-9\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Perhaps the most admirable element of Gelman’s poetry is the unthinkable tenderness he shows . . . calling upon so many shadows for one voice to lull and comfort, a permanent caress of words on unknown tombs.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Julio Cortázar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAs Juan Gelman’s name begins appearing with regularity on lists predicting Noble-Laureate-deserving poets, his work has also begun to appear in English. But only now are the most stunning translations of Gelman’s poetry being published, and in one substantial volume. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDark Times Filled with Light\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e traces the evolution of a gifted lyrical poet’s encounter with the political, when the poet’s son and daughter-in-law become “disappeared” by the Argentinian government, and the poet must write from both a literal and metaphysical exile.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this posthumously realized labor of love by the legendary translator Hardie St. Martin, Gelman’s staggering biography, and the poetics he developed to articulate and survive it, are unforgettably translated into beautiful and accessible poems that, taken together, weave a fragile but healing transformation. “There are losses,” says Gelman in a moving understatement. “The important thing is how returning to them transforms them into something new.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Hardie St. Martin\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eIntroduction by Paul Pines\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"color: #666666;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJuan Gelman (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1930) is one of the most read and influential poets in the Spanish language, as well as a noted political activist and critical journalist. Among his most recent awards are the Juan Rulfo Prize in Latin American and Caribbean Literature (Mexico, 2000), the Pablo Neruda Prize (Chile, 2005), and the Cervantes Prize (Spain, 2007).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardie St. Martin was a master translator. In his long and distinguished career as an editor and translator, he translated work by Pablo Neruda, Vincente Aleixandre, Enrique Lihn, and Luisa Valenzuela, among others. His anthology of Spanish poetry, \u003cem\u003eRoots and Wings\u003c\/em\u003e (1975), is still considered a literary landmark. St. Martin died in Barcelona in 2007.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Gelman’s poetry is epic in its scope—no corner of life goes unnoticed in this work. . . . Rendered in a breathless style, this is the diary of a human heart in a rough world where artistry is the first salvation.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—O\u003c\/span\u003escar Hijuelos\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Juan Gelman","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":388382458,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Dark_Times_cvr.jpg?v=1383086077"},{"product_id":"ergo","title":"Ergo","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJanuary 15, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 150 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-17-7\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Lind is a writer—one of the best—who has chosen to speak in a different tongue. It is amazing that he is witty; it is not at all surprising that he is profound.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWacholder lives and works at Custom House No. 8 with his adopted son Aslan and a lodger named Leo. Aslan spends his days copying out the novels of Kleist, Schiller, Goethe, and Mann; Leo, never leaving his bed, mentally composes his philosophical masterwork, Placental Theory of Existence; and Wacholder's only apparent responsibility is keeping watch over a towering mountain of paper. Wacholder's consuming passion, however, is his only true friend and nemesis, Würz.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWürz hasn't left his home in over seventeen years. He lives there, in a cocoon of cleanliness and order, with his wife Rita and Rita's two grown sons, Arnold and Arnulf. Würz has dedicated his life to perfecting his home and eliminating every last atom of dirt. His happiness is disturbed only by the letters, 74 in all, Wacholder has sent him over the years. These letters—dictated by Wacholder, written by Aslan, and full of every kind of insanity and invective—are intended to smoke Würz out of his hole, both for his own good and to stop him from plotting against Wacholder. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the 74th letter seemingly has no effect, Wacholder turns to other increasingly outlandish schemes to defeat his rival, even staging a rally to declare Würz's non-existence. A feverishly comic carnival, \u003cem\u003eErgo\u003c\/em\u003e is Jakov Lind's most experimental work and the final novel he wrote in German.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the German by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eRalph Manheim\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJakov Lind (1926–2007) was born Heinz Jakov Landwirth in Vienna in 1927 to an assimilated Jewish family. Arriving in the Netherlands as a part of the Kindertransport in 1939, Lind survived the Second World War by fleeing into Germany, where he disguised himself as a Dutch deckhand on a barge on the Rhine. Following the war, he spent several years in Israel and Vienna before finally settling in London in 1954. It was in London that he wrote, first in German and later in English, the novels, short stories, and autobiographies that made his reputation, including his masterpieces: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLandscape in Concrete\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eErgo\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (forthcoming from Open Letter), and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSoul of Wood\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Regarded in his lifetime as a successor to Beckett and Kafka, Lind was posthumously awarded the Theodor Kramer Prize in 2007.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Jakov Lind has a splendid theatrical talent, sardonic and Pinteresque, gruff and Brechtian, with some old master, some Gogol, as his Ariadne. . . . Intricate, black, bestial.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Jakov Lind","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404440957,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/ergo_highres.jpg?v=1384454828"},{"product_id":"the-future-is-not-ours","title":"The Future Is Not Ours","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJuly 17, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eanthology | pb | 265 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-64-1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Future Is Not Ours: New Latin American Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e brings together twenty-three Latin American writers who were born between 1970 and 1980. The anthology offers an exciting overview of contemporary Spanish-language literature and introduces a generation of writers who came of age in the time of military dictatorships, witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, the birth of the Internet, the murders of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and the September 11th attacks in New York City.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThe anthology features: Oliverio Coelho, Federico Falco, and Samanta Schweblin (Argentina); Giovanna Rivero (Bolivia); Santiago Nazarian (Brazil); Juan Gabriel Vásquez and Antonio Ungar (Colombia); Ena Lucía Portela (Cuba); Lina Meruane, Andrea Jeftanovic, and Alejandro Zambra (Chile); Ronald Flores (Guatemala); Tryno Maldonado and Antonio Ortuño (México); María del Carmen Pérez Cuadra (Nicaragua); Carlos Wynter Melo (Panama); Daniel Alarcón and Santiago Roncagliolo (Peru); Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (Puerto Rico); Ariadna Vásquez (Dominican Republic); Ignacio Alcuri and Inés Bortagaray (Uruguay); and Slavko Zupcic (Venezuela).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eJanet Hendrickson\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Editor: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDiego Trelles Paz was born in Lima, Peru in 1977. He is the author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHudson el redentor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e [Hudson the redeemer] and the novel \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eEl círculo de los escritores asesinos\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e [The Circle of Assassin Writers].\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Diego Trelles Paz","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404454981,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/future_highres.jpg?v=1384455417"},{"product_id":"gasoline","title":"Gasoline","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eMay 14, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 138 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-18-4\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Monzó delivers drollery on nearly every page, in observations that are incisive and hilarious and horrifying, often all at once.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor the first time in his life, Heribert Juliá is unable to paint. On the eve of an important gallery exhibition, for which he’s created nothing, he’s bored with life: he falls asleep while making love with his mistress, wanders from bar to bar, drinking whatever comes to his attention first, and meets the evidence of his wife Helena’s infidelity with complete indifference. Humbert Herrera, an up-and-coming artist who can’t stop creating, picks up the threads of Heribert’s life, taking his wife, replacing him at the gallery, and pursuing his former mistress. Heribert is finally undone by a massive sculpture, while Humbert is planning the sculpture to end sculpture, the poem to end poetry, and the film to end film, all while mounting three simultaneous shows. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eA fun-house mirror through which he examines the creative process, the life and loves of artists, and the New York art scene, \u003cem\u003eGasoline\u003c\/em\u003e confirms Quim Monzó as the foremost Catalan writer of his generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Catalan by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eMary Ann Newman\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eQuim Monzó was born in Barcelona in 1952. He has been awarded the National Award, the City of Barcelona Award, the Prudenci Bertrana Award, the El Temps Award, the Lletra d'Or Prize for the best book of the year, and the Catalan Writers' Award; he has been awarded \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSerra d'Or\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e magazine's prestigious Critics' Award four times. He has also translated numerous authors into Catalan, including Truman Capote, J.D. Salinger, and Ernest Hemingway.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Quim Monzó is today's best known writer in Catalan. He is also, no exaggeration, one the world’s great short-story writers. This novel shows all his idiosyncrasy and originality. We have at last gained the opportunity to read (in English) one of the most original writers of our time.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Quim Monzó","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404474113,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":404474117,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/gasoline_highres.jpg?v=1384456393"},{"product_id":"the-planets","title":"The Planets","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJune 12, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 227 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-39-9\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eA 2013 Best Translated Book Award Finalist\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen he reads about a mysterious explosion in the distant countryside, the narrator’s thoughts turn to his disappeared childhood friend, M, who was abducted from his home years ago, during a spasm of political violence in Buenos Aires in the early 1970s. He convinces himself that M must have died in this explosion, and he begins to tell the story of their friendship through a series interconnected vignettes, hoping in this way to reanimate his friend and relive the time they spent together wandering the streets of Buenos Aires.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eSergio Chejfec’s \u003cem\u003eThe Planets \u003c\/em\u003eis an affecting and innovative exploration of mourning, remembrance, and friendship by one of Argentina’s modern masters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSergio Chejfec, originally from Argentina, has published numerous works of fiction, poetry, and essays. Among his grants and prizes, he has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in 2007 and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2000. His books have been translated into French, German, and Portuguese. He teaches in the Creative Writing in Spanish Program at NYU, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Two Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is his first novel to be translated into English.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Heather Cleary is a translator of fiction, criticism, and poetry, whose work has appeared in numerous journals and edited volumes, including \u003cem\u003eTwo Lines\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Coffin Factory\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eRevealing Mexico\u003c\/em\u003e. She was awarded a Translation Fund Grant from the PEN America Center for her work on Oliverio Girondo's \u003cem\u003ePersuasión de los días\u003c\/em\u003e. She is also the translator of Chejfec's \u003cem\u003eThe Dark\u003c\/em\u003e, and one of the founders of \u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003ethe \u003cem\u003eBuenos Aires Review\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“A novel that is both unique and opportune.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003eRodolfo Enrique Fogwill\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Sergio Chejfec","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404500929,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook","offer_id":404500933,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Planets_front_BTBA.jpg?v=1384459374"},{"product_id":"my-two-worlds","title":"My Two Worlds","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eAugust 16, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 120 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-28-3\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Chejfec's latest work should be treated as a significant event.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eApproaching his fiftieth birthday, the narrator in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Two Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is wandering in an unfamiliar Brazilian city, in search of a park. A walker by inclination and habit, he has decided to explore the city after attending a literary conference—he was invited following the publication of his most recent novel, although, as he has been informed via anonymous e-mail, the novel is not receiving good reviews. Initially thwarted by his inability to transpose the two-dimensional information of the map onto the impassable roads and dead-ends of the three-dimensional city, once he finds the park the narrator begins to see his own thoughts, reflections, and memories mirrored in the landscape of the park and its inhabitants.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eChejfec's \u003ci\u003eMy Two Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e, an extraordinary meditation on experience, writing, and space, is at once descriptively inventive and preternaturally familiar, a novel that challenges the limitations of the genre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eMargaret B. Carson\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eIntroduction by Enrique Vila-Matas\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSergio Chejfec, originally from Argentina, has published numerous works of fiction, poetry, and essays. Among his grants and prizes, he has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in 2007 and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2000. His books have been translated into French, German, and Portuguese. He teaches in the Creative Writing in Spanish Program at NYU, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Two Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is his first novel to be translated into English.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Without a doubt, Chejfec deserves greater recognition. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMy Two Worlds\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003epaves the way for the novel of the future.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003eEnrique Vila-Matas\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Sergio Chejfec","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404560805,"sku":"","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":404560809,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/mytwoworlds_highres.jpg?v=1384460332"},{"product_id":"the-selected-stories-of-merce-rodoreda","title":"The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eFebruary 15, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003estories | pb | 250 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-31-3\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"The humor in the stories, as well as their thrill of realism, comes from a Nabokovian precision of observation and transformation of plain experience into enchanting prose.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCollected here are thirty of Mercè Rodoreda’s most moving and challenging stories, presented in chronological order of their publication from three of Rodoreda’s most beloved short story collections:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwenty-Two Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eIt Seemed Like Silk and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMy Christina and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. These stories capture Rodoreda’s full range of expression, from quiet literary realism to fragmentary impressionism to dark symbolism. Few writers have captured so clearly, or explored so deeply, the lives of women who are stuck somewhere between senseless modernity and suffocating tradition—Rodoreda’s “women are notable for their almost pathological lack of volition, but also for their acute sensitivity, a nearly painful awareness of beauty” (Natasha Wimmer).\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Catalan by Martha Tennent\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMercè Rodoreda (1908–1983) is widely regarded as the most important Catalan writer of the twentieth century. Exiled in France and Switzerland following the Spanish Civil War, Rodoreda began writing the novels and short stories—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwenty-two Short Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Times of the Doves\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCamellia Street\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eGarden by the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—that would eventually make her internationally famous, while at the same time earning a living as a seamstress. In the mid-1960s she returned to Catalonia, where she continued to write. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDeath in Spring\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, her final novel, is also available from Open Letter.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eMartha Tennent is an English-language translator who works primarily from Catalan and Spanish. She was born in the United States, but has lived most of her life in Barcelona. She received a fellowship from the NEA for her translation of \u003cem\u003eThe Selected Storie\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003es of Mercè Rodoreda\u003c\/em\u003e. Her work has appeared in \u003cem\u003eEpiphany\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTwo Lines\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWords Without Borders\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eA Public Space\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePEN America\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eReview of Contemporary Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Rodoreda plumbs a sadness that reaches beyond historic circumstances . . . an almost voluptuous vulnerability.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mercè Rodoreda","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404575485,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":404575489,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/stories_highres.jpg?v=1384460804"},{"product_id":"landscape-in-concrete","title":"Landscape in Concrete","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eMarch 15, 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 190 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-14-6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"It is this book that confirms Lind's status as an author of international importance.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSergeant Gauthier Bachmann is the perfect Nazi soldier. But after a horrifying defeat at Voroshenko, where most of his Eighth Hessian Infantry Regiment was slaughtered in a single instant, Bachmann was declared mentally unfit to serve. Incapable of accepting this judgment, and of returning to his girlfriend and a quiet life as a gold- and silversmith, Bachmann wanders the war-ravaged countryside, trying to find a way to rejoin his regiment, or any regiment, and return to the front. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eWhile trying to find his regiment and come to terms with the horrors he has seen and committed, the increasingly unstable Bachmann is manipulated by a series of figures from the underbelly of war’s underbelly—deserters and collaborators, corrupt officers and sexual predators—who induce him to carry out their venal missions, which they’ve justified against the background of institutionalized murder going on all around them. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContaining dark echoes of Jaroslav Hašek's \u003cem\u003eThe Good Soldier Švejk\u003c\/em\u003e, Jakov Lind's \u003cem\u003eLandscape in Concrete\u003c\/em\u003e is an \"astonishing and highly original imagining of (the) dimensions of evil including sadistic cruelty, of the condition of being a victim and the madness abroad which constitutes the virtual victory of Hitler if we fail to translate survival into freedom\" (Anthony Rudolf).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the German by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eRalph Manheim\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eIntroduction by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eJoshua Cohen\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJakov Lind (1926–2007) was born Heinz Jakov Landwirth in Vienna in 1927 to an assimilated Jewish family. Arriving in the Netherlands as a part of the Kindertransport in 1939, Lind survived the Second World War by fleeing into Germany, where he disguised himself as a Dutch deckhand on a barge on the Rhine. Following the war, he spent several years in Israel and Vienna before finally settling in London in 1954. It was in London that he wrote, first in German and later in English, the novels, short stories, and autobiographies that made his reputation, including his masterpieces: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLandscape in Concrete\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eErgo\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (forthcoming from Open Letter), and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSoul of Wood\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Regarded in his lifetime as a successor to Beckett and Kafka, Lind was posthumously awarded the Theodor Kramer Prize in 2007.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Jakov was a bad boy. . . . He was a coyote, a trickster. He enjoyed hash and LSD. A wicked smile played around his mouth, while witty aphorisms and deep insights tripped off his lips. He emanated inner strength—and an electric intelligence that we all wanted to emulate.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Anthony Rudolf\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Jakov Lind","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404598013,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/landscape_highres.jpg?v=1384461902"},{"product_id":"nobodys-home","title":"Nobody's Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 15, 2008\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eessays | hc | 297 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-00-9\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Ugresic is sharp, funny and unafraid. . . . Orwell would approve.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSupplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Every day and age has its rules. Currently, good behavior dictates that we be politically correct, evade conflicts, espouse tolerance, and make no hasty judgments. To be judgmental is viewed as one of the most reprehensible human traits. People are likely to think today that an optimist is a good person, while a pessimist is the lowest of the low. Picking your nose in public is more forgivable then being pessimistic. [. . .] We live in a time that urges us to behave as if we are in paradise. Yet the world we live in is no paradise. This book breaks the rules of good behavior, because it bickers.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThis series of thought-provoking and incisive essays from Dubravka Ugresic explores the full spectrum of human existence. From life in exile to life in prison, from bottled-water drinking tourists with massive backpacks to the Eurovision song contest, Ugresic's unfailingly sharp critical eye never fails to reveal what has been hidden in plain sight by routine, or uncover the tragic, and the comic, in the everyday.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Croatian by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eEllen Elias-Bursac\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eDubravka Ugresic is the author of several works of fiction, including \u003cem\u003eThe Museum of Unconditional Surrender\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Ministry of Pain\u003c\/em\u003e, and several essay collections, including \u003cem\u003eE\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003europe in Sepia\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eKaraoke Culture\u003c\/em\u003e. In 1991, when war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugresic took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and was proclaimed a \"traitor,\" a \"public enemy,\" and a \"witch,\" and was exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. As a result, she left Croatia in 1993 and currently lives in Amsterdam. \u003cspan\u003eIn 2016, she \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewas awarded\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e the Neustadt International Prize for Literature for her body of work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"This book is part memoir, part shrewd observation, part travel writing at its best. Each section opens with a loving quotation from the Russian satirists Ilf and Petrov, and Ugresic writes with something of their impish genius.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dubravka Ugresic","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404618077,"sku":"","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/nobody_highres.jpg?v=1384463073"},{"product_id":"guadalajara","title":"Guadalajara","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJuly 12, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003estories | pb | 135 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-19-1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“A gifted writer, he draws well on the rich tradition of Spanish surrealism . . . to sustain the lyrical, visionary quality of his imagination.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003eAll the heroes of this story collection—the boy who refuses to follow the family tradition of having his ring finger cut off; the man who cannot escape his house, no matter what he tries; Robin Hood stealing so much from the rich that he ruins the rich and makes the poor wealthy; Gregor the cockroach, who wakes one day to discover he has become a human teenager; the prophet who can’t remember any of the prophecies that have been revealed to him; Ulysses and his minions trapped in the Trojan horse—are faced with a world that is always changing, where time and space move in circles, where language has become meaningless. Their stories are mazes from which they can't escape.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThe simultaneously dark, grotesque, and funny \u003ci\u003eGuadalajara\u003c\/i\u003e reveals Quim Monzó at his acerbic and witty best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Catalan by Peter Bush\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eQuim Monzó was born in Barcelona in 1952. He has been awarded the National Award, the City of Barcelona Award, the Prudenci Bertrana Award, the El Temps Award, the Lletra d'Or Prize for the best book of the year, and the Catalan Writers' Award; he has been awarded \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSerra d'Or\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003emagazine's prestigious Critics' Award four times. He has also translated numerous authors into Catalan, including Truman Capote, J.D. Salinger, and Ernest Hemingway.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003ePeter Bush is an award-winning translator who lives in Barcelona. His translations include Juan Goytisolo's \u003cem\u003eNíjar Country\u003c\/em\u003e, Teresa Solana's \u003cem\u003eA Shortcut to Paradise\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eAlain Badiou's \u003cem\u003eIn Praise of Love\u003c\/em\u003e. More recently, he translated Josep Pla's \u003cem\u003eThe Gray Notebook\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Today’s best known writer in Catalan. He is also, no exaggeration, one of the world’s great short-story writers.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Quim Monzó","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404642253,"sku":"","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":404646197,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/guadalajara_highres.jpg?v=1384463608"},{"product_id":"the-guinea-pigs","title":"The Guinea Pigs","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eMay 17, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 167 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-34-4\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"One of the major works of literature produced in postwar Europe. This brilliant book must be read.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA clerk at the State Bank begins to notice that something strange is going on— bank employees are stuffing their pockets with money every day, only to have it taken every evening by the security guards who search the employees and confiscate the cash. But, there’s a discrepancy between what is being confiscated and what is being returned to the bank, and our hero is beginning to fear that a secret circulation is developing, one that could undermine the whole economy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eMeanwhile, the clerk and his family begin to keep guinea pigs, and at night, when everyone is asleep, our hero begins to conduct experiments with the pets, teaching them tricks, testing their intelligence and endurance, and using some rather questionable methods to encourage the animals to befriend him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLudvík Vaculík’s \u003ci\u003eThe Guinea Pigs\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most important literary works of the twentieth century. Vaculík owes much to Kafka, his fellow countryman, but he had direct experience of the oppressive absurdity that lived in Kafka’s imagination, which here is expressed with an ironic and knowingly innocent Czech smile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Czech by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eKača Poláčková\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLudvík Vaculík was born in 1926 in Brumov, Czechoslovakia. His novels \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Axe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guinea Pigs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and the essays collected in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Cup of Coffee with My Interrogator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e established his international reputation. One of the leading literary figures during the Prague Spring of 1968, his manifesto The Two Thousand Words led to his banishment from the Communist Party, the censorship of his writing, and decades of persecution; it also contributed to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. From 1973–1989, he ran a samizdat publishing house, Padlock Editions, which printed and distributed over 400 banned titles.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The extraordinary adventures of a petty bank clerk, of his guinea pigs, his family, and his weird superiors are all shrouded in an eerie conviviality which chills the reader.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Antonin J. Liehm\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ludvík Vaculík","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404655989,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/guinea_highres.jpg?v=1384464460"},{"product_id":"high-tide","title":"High Tide","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 28, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 334 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-80-1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eWinner of the 2015 AATSEEL Book Award for Best Translation into English\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“A sharp realist.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Aleksandar Hemon\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTold more or less in reverse chronological order, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHigh Tide \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis the story of Ieva, her dead lover, her imprisoned husband, and the way their youthful decisions dramatically impacted the rest of their lives. Taking place over three decades, High Tide functions as a sort of psychological mystery, with the full scope of Ieva’s personal situation—and the relationship between the three main characters—only becoming clear at the end of the novel. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eOne of Latvia’s most notable young writers, Ābele is a fresh voice in European fiction—her prose is direct, evocative, and exceptionally beautiful. The combination of strikingly lush descriptive writing with the precision with which she depicts the minds of her characters elevates this novel from a simple story of a love triangle into a fascinating, philosophical, haunting book. \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/high-tide-excerpt\" title=\"High Tide - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Latvian by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eKaija Straumanis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInga Ābele (born 1972) is a Latvian novelist, poet, and playwright. Her novel High Tide received the 2008 Latvian Literature Award, and the 2009 Baltic Assembly Award in Literature. Her works have been translated into Swedish, English, French, and Russian, among others, and have appeared in such anthologies as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew European Poets\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eBest European Fiction 2010\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eShort Stories without Borders: Young Writers for a New Europe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Her most recent book, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAnts and Bumblebees\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, is a collection of short stories.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Kaija Straumanis is a graduate of the MA program in Literary Translation Studies at the University of Rochester, and is the editorial director of Open Letter Books. She has translated works by Inga Ābele, Inga Žolude, Jānis Joņevs, and Zigmunds Skujiņš, among others. She received the 2015 AATSEEL Book Award for Best Translation into English (Creative Literature) for her work on \u003cem\u003eHigh Tide\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Ābele has the rare ability to find that existential abyss that lies beneath the superficial surface of daily existence.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGuntis Berelis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Inga Ābele","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404671865,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":404671869,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/High_Tide.jpg?v=1384465124"},{"product_id":"klausen","title":"Klausen","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eAugust 15, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 142 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-16-0\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“An exceptionally gifted talent.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eSächsische Zeitung\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNobody knows exactly what happened in the small town of Klausen, or rather, everyone knows: a bomb went off on the autobahn, or at a shack near the autobahn, or someone was shooting at the town from a bridge; it all stems from a fight over measuring noise pollution on the town square, or it was the work of eco-terrorists, or\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eItalians\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. And while nobody knows who or what to blame—although they’re certainly uneasy about the Moroccan and Albanian immigrants who are squatting in an abandoned castle—they all suspect that Josef Gasser, who spent several years away from Klausen, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ein Berlin\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, is behind it all. Only one thing is clear: Klausen was now a crime scene. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eKlausen\u003c\/em\u003e, Andreas Maier has taken Thomas Bernhard’s method—the nested indirect speech, the repetition, the endless paragraph—and pointed it at an entire town. A town where one confusion leads to the next, where everyone is living in a fog of rumor, but where everyone claims to know exactly what’s going on, even if they’ve changed their story several times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the German by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eKenneth J. Northcott\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAndreas Maier was born in Bad Nauheim outside Frankfurt in 1967. In addition to winning the Ernst Willner Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann Literary Competition in Klagenfurt, Austria, in 2000, he received the Jürgen Ponto Foundation's Literary Support Prize and the Aspekte Literary Prize for his first novel \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWäldchestag\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“What should we believe? What can we know? These are the significant theoretical questions that Maier’s books raise with great humor, sarcasm as well as skepticism. . . . A magnificently constructed book.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“After one’s first success it is certainly difficult to write a second book, and more than a few have failed miserably. Andreas Maier has overcome this hurdle with verve and skill.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eDie Zeit\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Andreas Maier","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":404687257,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/klausen_highres.jpg?v=1384466211"},{"product_id":"lamour","title":"L'Amour","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJuly 16, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 112 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-79-5\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Duras’s language and writing shine like crystals.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA man—the traveler—arrives in the seaside town of S. Thala with the intent to abandon his present, and instead finds himself abruptly reintroduced to his past. Through his subsequent interactions with “her,” the woman to whom he was briefly engaged as a young man over twenty years ago, and “him,” the man who walks and keeps watch over “her,” the traveler is soon drawn back in and acclimated to the strange timelessness and company that is S. Thala. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten in a stark and cinematic narrative style, this sequel to Duras’s 1964 novel\u003cem\u003eThe Ravishing of Lol Stein\u003c\/em\u003e is a curious, yet haunting representation of the human memory: what we choose to recall, what we choose to forget, and how reliable we ultimately decide ourselves to be. \u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/l-amour-excerpt\" title=\"L'Amour - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the French by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eKazim Ali \u0026amp; Libby Murphy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#666666\" style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eIntroduction by \u003cspan color=\"#666666\"\u003eKazim Ali\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMarguerite Duras was born in Giadinh, Vietnam (then Indochina) to French parents. During her lifetime she wrote dozens of plays, film scripts, and novels, including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Ravishing of Lol Stein\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sea Wall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eHiroshima, Mon Amour\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and was associated with the nouveau roman (or new novel) French literary movement. Duras is probably most well known for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lover\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, an autobiographical work that received the Goncourt prize in 1984 and was made into a film in 1992. She died in Paris in 1996 at the age of 81.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translators:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eKazim Ali is a poet, essayist, and novelist, and has published a translation of \u003cem\u003eWater's Footfall\u003c\/em\u003e by Sohrab Sepehri in addition to co-translating Duras's \u003cem\u003eL'Amour\u003c\/em\u003e. He teaches at Oberlin College and the University of Southern Maine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLibby Murphy teaches at Oberlin College. She has published articles on print culture and the First World War, and on the reception of Charlie Chaplin's films in wartime and postwar France.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“A spectacular success. . . . Duras is at the height of her powers.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Edmund White\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Duras manages to combine the seemingly irreconcilable perspectives of confession and objectivity, of lyrical poetry and nouveau roman. The sentences lodge themselves slowly in the reader’s mind until they detonate with all the force of fused feeling and thought.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Marguerite Duras","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405605149,"sku":"","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Lamour-front.jpg?v=1384533819"},{"product_id":"the-sailor-from-gibraltar","title":"The Sailor from Gibraltar","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eDecember 15, 2008\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 318 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-04-7\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"A haunting tale of strange and random passion.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDisaffected, bored with his career at the French Colonial Ministry (where he has copied out birth and death certificates for eight years), and disgusted by a mistress whose vapid optimism arouses his most violent misogyny, the narrator of The Sailor from Gibraltar finds himself at the point of complete breakdown while vacationing in Florence. After leaving his mistress and the Ministry behind forever, he joins the crew of The Gibraltar, a yacht captained by Anna, a beautiful American in perpetual search of her sometime lover, a young man known only as the \"Sailor from Gibraltar.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eFirst published in 1952, this early novel of Duras's—which was made into a film in 1967—shows those preoccupations which have so deeply concerned her in her later novels and film scripts: loneliness, boredom, the inevitability and intangibility of love. The lambent poetry of the book, and the limning of a woman's mind, her love and sense of the inevitability of that love are singularly Marguerite Duras.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the French by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#444444\" style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBarbara Bray\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06; line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#666666\" style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMarguerite Duras was born in Giadinh, Vietnam (then Indochina) to French parents. During her lifetime she wrote dozens of plays, film scripts, and novels, including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Ravishing of Lol Stein\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sea Wall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eHiroshima, Mon Amour\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and was associated with the nouveau roman (or new novel) French literary movement. Duras is probably most well known for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lover\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, an autobiographical work that received the Goncourt prize in 1984 and was made into a film in 1992. She died in Paris in 1996 at the age of 81.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Charming. . . . All sun and sea and beautiful people making love. . . . A very attractive book.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Saturday Review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"[Duras's] sentences lodge themselves slowly in the reader's mind until they detonate with all the force of fused feeling and thought.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Marguerite Duras","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405794969,"sku":"","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/sailor_highres.jpg?v=1384542901"},{"product_id":"lodgings","title":"Lodgings","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eMarch 15, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003epoems | pb | 150 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-32-0\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Like absolute music . . . Even a cursory reading reveals Sosnowski the linguist, the religious Sosnowski, Sosnowski the jokester, the dead-serious Sosnowski-as-economist.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#444444\" style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Adam Wiedemann\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLodgings\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is the first representative selection of Sosnowski's work available in English. Spanning his entire career, from the publication of Life in Korea in 1992 to his newest poems, this is a book whose approach to language, literature, and the representation of experience is simultaneously resonant and strange—a cocktail party where lowlifes and sophisticates hobnob with French theorists and British glam rockers, unsettling us with the hard accuracy of their pronouncements.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eOne of the foremost Polish poets of his generation, Andrzej Sosnowski’s work demonstrates a dazzling range of influences and echoes, from Ronald Firbank and Raymond Roussel to John Ashbery and Elizabeth Bishop. Also an influential editor and critic, he has received most of the literary honors available to poets in Poland, including the prestigious Silesius Prize. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Polish by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#444444\" style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBenjamin Paloff\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"color: #666666;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAndrzej Sosnowski was born in Warsaw in 1959. A poet, translator, and essayist, he studied and later taught in at the University of Warsaw. His collections include \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLife on the Korea\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eNouvelles impressions d’Amérique\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Season on Hel\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eConvoy: An Opera\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eZoom\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. He has translated many American and English Poets, including Ezra Pound, Ronald Firbank, and Edmund White, and he has received many literary prizes, including the Kosćielski Foundation Prize and the Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna Prize.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Reading Andrzej Sosnowski is basically a never-ending process: each act of reading calls for another.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003eGrzegorz Jankowicz\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Andrzej Sosnowski","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405811501,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/lodgings_highres.jpg?v=1384543985"},{"product_id":"the-mighty-angel","title":"The Mighty Angel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eApril 15, 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | hc | 200 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-08-5\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Pilch’s prose is masterful, and the bulk of The Mighty Angel evokes the same numb, floating sensation as a bottle of Zloldkowa Gorzka.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eL Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Mighty Angel\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e concerns the alcoholic misadventures of a writer named Jerzy. Eighteen times he's woken up in rehab. Eighteen times he's been released—a sober and, more or less, healthy man—after treatment at the hands of the stern therapist Moses Alias I Alcohol. And eighteen times he's stopped off at the liquor store on the way home, to pick up the supplies that are necessary to help him face his return to a ruined apartment. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eWhile he's in rehab, Jerzy collects the stories of his fellow alcoholics—Don Juan the Rib, The Most Wanted Terrorist in the World, the Sugar King, the Queen of Kent, the Hero of Socialist Labor—in an effort to tell the universal, and particular, story of the alcoholic, and to discover the motivations and drives that underlie the alcoholic's behavior. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eA simultaneously tragic, comic, and touching novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Mighty Angel\u003c\/em\u003e displays Pilch’s caustic humor, ferocious intelligence, and unparalleled mastery of storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Polish by Bill Johnston\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJerzy Pilch is one of Poland's most important contemporary writers and journalists. In addition to his long-running satirical newspaper column, Pilch has published several novels, and has been nominated for Poland's prestigious NIKE Literary Award four times; he finally won the Award in 2001 for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Mighty Angel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. His novels have been translated into numerous languages.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"A highly original voice.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003eWashington Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"In this book, Pilch prattles on and on remorselessly in his masterly way, bends the reader’s ear, fills the mind, grips the attention—and before you know where you are, you’ve reached the end of the book.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eLech Mergler\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jerzy Pilch","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405827365,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":405827369,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/mighty_highres.jpg?v=1384545918"},{"product_id":"a-thousand-peaceful-cities","title":"A Thousand Peaceful Cities","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJuly 4, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 148 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-27-6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“If laughter actually is the best medicine, fortunate readers of this wonderful novel will surely enjoy perfect health for the rest of their days.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA comic gem, Jerzy Pilch’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Thousand Peaceful Cities\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003etakes place in 1963, in the latter days of the Polish post-Stalinist “thaw.” The narrator, Jerzyk (“little Jerzy”), is a teenager who is keenly interested in his father, a retired postal administrator, and his father’s closest friend, Mr. Traba, a failed Lutheran clergyman, alcoholic, and would-be Polish insurrectionist. One drunken afternoon, Mr. Traba and the narrator’s father decide to take charge of their lives and do one final good turn for humanity: travel to distant Warsaw and assassinate the de facto Polish head of state, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party, Wladyslaw Gomulka—assassinating Mao Tse-tung, after all, would be impractical. And they decide to involve Jerzyk in their scheme...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Polish by David Frick\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJerzy Pilch is one of Poland's most important contemporary writers and journalists. In addition to his long-running satirical newspaper column, Pilch has published several novels, and has been nominated for Poland's prestigious NIKE Literary Award four times; he finally won the Award in 2001 for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Mighty Angel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. His novels have been translated into numerous languages.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"With his latest, Pilch masterfully negotiates sentiment with a clear-eyed vision of his autobiographical narrator’s shortcomings and disappointments, suggesting a Dubliners set in Krakow.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/em\u003e(starred)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Pilch’s antic sensibility confirms that he is the compatriot of Witold Gombrowicz, the Polish maestro of absurdist pranks. But readers with a taste for the fermented Irish blarney of Flann O’Brien, Samuel Beckett, and John Kennedy Toole might also savor Pilch.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eB\u0026amp;N Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jerzy Pilch","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405851249,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":405851253,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/thousand_highres.jpg?v=1384546990"},{"product_id":"my-first-suicide","title":"My First Suicide","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eMay 15, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 276 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-40-5\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Pilch’s antic sensibility confirms that he is the compatriot of Witold Gombrowicz, the Polish maestro of absurdist pranks. But readers with a taste for the fermented Irish blarney of Flann O’Brien, Samuel Beckett, and John Kennedy Toole might also savor Pilch.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eB\u0026amp;N Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNeither strictly a collection of stories nor a novel, the ten pieces that comprise \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMy First Suicide\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e straddle the line between intimate revelation and drunken confession. These stories reveal a nostalgic and poetic Pilch, one who can pen a character’s lyrical ode to the fate of his father’s perfect chess table in one story, examine a teacher’s desperate and dangerous infatuation with a student in the next, and then, always true to his obsessions, tell a remarkably touching story that begins by describing his narrator’s excitement at the possibility of a three-way with the seductive soccer-fan, Anka Chow Chow.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThe stories of \u003cem\u003eMy First Suicide\u003c\/em\u003e combine irony and humor, anecdote and gossip, love and desire with an irresistibly readable style that is vintage Pilch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Polish by David Frick\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJerzy Pilch is one of Poland's most important contemporary writers and journalists. In addition to his long-running satirical newspaper column, Pilch has published several novels, and has been nominated for Poland's prestigious NIKE Literary Award four times; he finally won the Award in 2001 for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Mighty Angel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. His novels have been translated into numerous languages.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"\u003cspan\u003ePilch’s prose is masterful\u003c\/span\u003e.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cem\u003eL Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"\u003cspan\u003eA highly original voice\u003c\/span\u003e.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWashington Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jerzy Pilch","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405858117,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook","offer_id":405858121,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/myfirstsuicide_highres.jpg?v=1384547620"},{"product_id":"the-museum-of-eternas-novel","title":"The Museum of Eterna's Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eFebruary 16, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 240 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-06-1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"I imitated him, to the point of transcription, to the point of devoted and impassioned plagiarism. I felt: Macedonio is metaphysics, is literature. Whoever preceded him might shine in history, but they were all rough drafts of Macedonio, imperfect previous versions. To not imitate this canon would have represented incredible negligence.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Jorge Luis Borges\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis the very definition of a novel written ahead of its time. Macedonio (known to everyone by his unusual first name) worked on this novel in the 1930s and early '40s, during the heyday of Argentine literary culture, and around the same time that \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAt Swim-Two-Birds\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e was published, a novel that has quite a bit in common with Macedonio's masterpiece. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eIn many ways, \u003cem\u003eMuseum\u003c\/em\u003e is an \"anti-novel.\" It opens with more than fifty prologues—including ones addressed \"To My Authorial Persona,\" \"To the Critics,\" and \"To Readers Who Will Perish If They Don’t Know What the Novel Is About\"—that are by turns philosophical, outrageous, ponderous, and cryptic. These pieces cover a range of topics from how the upcoming novel will be received to how to thwart \"skip-around readers\" (by writing a book that’s defies linearity!). \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe second half of the book is the novel itself, a novel about a group of characters (some borrowed from other texts) who live on an estancia called \"la novella\" . . . \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA hilarious and often quite moving book, \u003cem\u003eThe Museum of Eterna's Novel \u003c\/em\u003eredefined the limits of the genre, and has had a lasting impact on Latin American literature. Authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Ricardo Piglia have all fallen under its charm and high-concepts, and, at long last, English-speaking readers can experience the book that helped build the reputation of Borges's mentor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Margaret Schwartz\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntroduction by Adam Thirlwell\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMacedonio Fernández is considered one of the greatest Argentine writers of the twentieth century. He was a close friend of Jorge Luis Borges, and Macedonio's metaphysical and aesthetic ideas greatly influenced Borges's generation. The mythical life of Macedonio is almost as interesting and fun as his books. Some of the stories about his life include: his campaign for president, which consisted of leaving notecards with the word \"Macedonio\" on them throughout Buenos Aires' cafés; his attempt to found a utopian society, only to be thwarted by pesky mosquitoes; and his belief that he shouldn't publish, instead allowing his work time to \"age.\" He passed away in 1952, and the first edition of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMuseo de la Novela de la Eterna\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewas released in 1967.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Macedonio Fernández","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405898437,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/museum_highres.jpg?v=1384550074"},{"product_id":"rupert-a-confession","title":"Rupert: A Confession","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJune 15, 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | hc | 130 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-09-2\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Frenzied in its imagination, unusually spirited, beautifully lyrical and furthermore, unexpectedly intense when the hero’s sexual perversions hit the page. A pleasure to read.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNRC Handelsblad\u003c\/em\u003e (Amsterdam)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRupert has been accused of a terrible crime, and his imagined defense begins the night he met the love of his life, Mira. By turns shockingly honest, incredibly funny, and clearly unhinged, Rupert's defense includes rants about the properly formed insult and men who wear comfortable sweaters. It also visits the memory-sites of Rupert and Mira's short-lived affair: her apartment, their favorite cafés and restaurants, and the city's public squares.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003eWith each story Rupert attaches to these places his defense becomes a little more outlandish, while he becomes increasingly convinced that his innocence is beyond doubt. When he reaches the end of his defense, delivering the decisive blow against his accusers and describing the scene of the crime, the full depth of Rupert's depravity is finally revealed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eRupert: A Confession\u003c\/em\u003e is a brilliantly composed monologue that fully exposes—despite the misdirection and bizarre revelations of its teller—the innermost workings of a confused mind. Recalling Neil LaBute's \u003cem\u003eIn the Company of Men\u003c\/em\u003e,\u003cem\u003eRupert: A Confession\u003c\/em\u003e is simultaneously offensive, funny, and compelling, and it serves as a perfect introduction to one of the most talented and controversial writers at work in the Netherlands today. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIlja Leonard Pfeijffer is a poet, novelist, literary critic, and former Ancient Greek scholar at Leiden University. The winner of numerous prizes—he's the only Dutch author to have won both of the most coveted debut poetry and prose prizes in the Netherlands—Pfeijffer is the editor of the literary journal \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDe Revisor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and founder and editor of the poetry journal \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAwater\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eRupert: A Confession\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is his first novel to be translated into English.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Rupert is an astonishing work of art. Astonishing in its imaginative force, its adventurous concept and its just as daring denouement. . . . Phew, what language, what a book. Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer is a writer to cherish.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eElsevier\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"This novel belongs to the tradition of classical literature which is in principle self-referential. . . . \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eRupert\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a playful, exceptionally witty, ironic variant of this.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eTelegraaf\u003c\/em\u003e (Amsterdam)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer","offers":[{"title":"hc","offer_id":405942901,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/rupert_highres.jpg?v=1384551853"},{"product_id":"scars","title":"Scars","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eDecember 13, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 265 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-22-1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“The most important argentinian writer since Borges.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJuan José Saer’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eScars\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eexplores a crime committed by Luis Fiore, a thirty-nine year old laborer who shot his wife twice in the face with a shotgun; or, rather, it explores the circumstances of four characters who have some connection to the crime: a young reporter, Ángel, who lives with his mother and works the courthouse beat; a dissolute attorney who clings to life only for his nightly baccarat game; a misanthropic and dwindling judge who’s creating a superfluous translation of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Picture Dorian Gray\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e; and, finally, Luis Fiore himself, who, on May Day, went duck hunting with his wife, daughter, and a bottle of gin.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eEach of the stories in \u003cem\u003eScars\u003c\/em\u003e explores a fragment in time—be it a day or several months—when the lives of these characters are altered, more or less, by a singular event. Originally published in 1969, \u003cem\u003eScars\u003c\/em\u003e marked a watershed moment in Argentinian literature and has since become a modern classic of Latin American literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJuan José Saer (1937–2005), born in Santa Fé, Argentina, was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. In 1968, he moved to Paris and taught literature at the University of Rennes. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections (including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCicatrices\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Grande\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, forthcoming from Open Letter), Saer was awarded Spain’s prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Event\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Juan José Saer must be added to the list of the best South American writers.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLe Monde\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"To say that Juan José Saer is the best Argentinian writer of today is to undervalue his work. It would be better to say that Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Ricardo Piglia\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Juan José Saer","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405959145,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":13561254150188,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/scars_highres.jpg?v=1384552572"},{"product_id":"the-sixty-five-years-of-washington","title":"The Sixty-Five Years of Washington","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eNovember 16, 2010\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 220 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-20-7\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“With meticulous prose, rendered by Dolph’s translation into propulsive English, Saer’s \u003cem\u003eThe Sixty-Five Years of Washington\u003c\/em\u003e captures the wilderness of human experience in all its variety.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt’s October 1960, say, or 1961, in a seaside Argentinian city named Santa Fe, and The Mathematician—wealthy, elegant, educated, dressed from head to toe in white—is just back from a grand tour of Europe. He’s on his way to drop off a press release about the trip to the papers when he runs into Ángel Leto, a relative newcomer to Santa Fe who does some accounting, but who this morning has decided to wander the town rather than go to work. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eOne day soon, The Mathematician will disappear into exile after his wife’s assassination, and Leto will vanish into the guerrilla underground, clutching his suicide pill like a talisman. But for now, they settle into a long conversation about the events of Washington Noriega’s sixty-fifth birthday—a party neither of them attended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSaer’s \u003cem\u003eThe Sixty-Five Years of Washington\u003c\/em\u003e is simultaneously a brilliant comedy about memory, narrative, time, and death and a moving narrative about the lost generations of an Argentina that was perpetually on the verge of collapse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJuan José Saer (1937–2005), born in Santa Fé, Argentina, was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. In 1968, he moved to Paris and taught literature at the University of Rennes. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections (including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eCicatrices\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Grande\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, forthcoming from Open Letter), Saer was awarded Spain’s prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Event\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“The most important argentinian writer since Borges.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"To say that Juan José Saer is the best Argentinian writer of today is to undervalue his work. It would be better to say that Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Ricardo Piglia\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Juan José Saer","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":405968997,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":13561274073132,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/sixtyfive_highres.jpg?v=1384553322"},{"product_id":"season-of-ash","title":"Season of Ash","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eOctober 20, 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 464 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-10-8\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Jorge Volpi will be one of the stars of Spanish literature of this century.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Carlos Fuentes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Soviet biologist Irina Granina has experienced the worst of Communism, struggling to free her husband from the gulag for years. Following the rise of Gorbachev, her husband finally emerges a changed man, but then Irina is forced to witness the worst of capitalism, as her daughter Oksana disappears into the newly rapacious consumer society and she loses her husband again, this time to greed and a lust for power. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eIn the West, Jennifer Moore, the scion of blue-blooded American wealth, takes a high-ranking job at the International Monetary Fund, where she hopes to bring the tough love of the free market economy to the unenlightened masses the world over. But she also has to deal with a philandering husband, Jack Wells, whose pharmaceutical company is a market wonder built on a house of cards, and her sister Allison, a free-spirited anti-globalization activist. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJorge Volpi's \u003cem\u003eSeason of Ash\u003c\/em\u003e puts a human face on earth-shaking events of the late twentieth century: the Chernobyl disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Soviet communism and the rise of the Russian oligarchs, the cascading collapsing of developing economies, and the near-miraculous scientific advances of the Human Genome Project. A scientific investigation, a journalistic exposé, a detective novel, and a dark love story, \u003cem\u003eSeason of Ash\u003c\/em\u003e is a thrilling exploration of greed and disillusionment, and a clear-eyed examination of the passions that rule our lives and make history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by Alfred Macadam\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJorge Volpi is a doctor in law and a teacher of Mexican literature at the UNAM (Autonomous University of Mexico), as well as a PhD in Hispanic Philology by the University of Salamanca. The author of nine novels, including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn Search of Klingsor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, for which he won the Spanish Premio Biblioteca Breve prize and the French Deux-Océans-Grizane-Cavour Prize, Volpi is one of the founders of the \u003c\/span\u003e\"Crack\" group\u003cspan\u003e—a Mexican literary movement that seeks to move beyond magical realism and mimics the ideals of the 1968 Latin American literary Boom. He has received grants from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation and is presently a member of National System of Creators in Mexico.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Every generation or so a writer comes along who liberates his peers from oppressive expectations of what Latin American fiction is supposed to be. Jorge Volpi's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn Search of Klingsor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewoke everybody up!\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Francisco Goldman\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Jorge Volpi","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":406263861,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/season_highres.jpg?v=1384574858"},{"product_id":"the-smoke-of-distant-fires","title":"The Smoke of Distant Fires","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJanuary 17, 2012\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003epoems | pb | 122 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-38-2\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Complex and multidimensional, \u003cem\u003eThe Smoke of Distant Fires\u003c\/em\u003e encompasses a wholeness for vision, one that’s expansive, even symphonic.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—\u003cspan color=\"#444444\"\u003eFrom the Introduction by Daniel Shapiro\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Smoke of Distant Fires\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003econtains thirteen new poems from the contemporary Peruvian poet, essayist, critic, translator, and children’s book author, Eduardo Chirinos. Precisely organized and formally inventive, each poem in the collection is itself a collection of ten numbered stanzas, and each of the stanzas themselves are fully formed poems, a series of rhythmic, elliptical fables from a fully recognizable, yet wholly original, world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThe third collection of Chirinos’s poetry to appear in English, \u003cem\u003eThe Smoke of Distant Fires\u003c\/em\u003e signals an exciting new direction in Chirinos’s poetics—its multivocal stanzas, evocative intertextuality, and enigmatic transparency join forces to perform a poignant interrogation of what it means to write poetry in the early twenty-first century. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Spanish by G. J. Racz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eWith an Introduction by Daniel Shapiro\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"color: #666666;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEduardo Chirinos, an internationally acclaimed voice of Latin American letters, is professor of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at the University of Montana. A member of Peru’s 80’s Generation, which came of age after a decade of military dictatorship, Chirinos won the Premio Casa de América in 2001 for his volume \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eBreve historia de la música\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e [A Brief History of Music] and the Premio Generación del 27 in 2009 for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMientras el lobo está\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e [While the Wolf Is Around].\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Eduardo Chirinos","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":406280449,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/smoke_highres.jpg?v=1384575837"},{"product_id":"the-taker-and-other-stories","title":"The Taker and Other Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eApril 20, 2022\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003estories | pb | 166 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e978-1-948830-70-6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\"Each of Fonseca's books is not only a worthwhile journey; it is also, in some way, a necessary one.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Thomas Pynchon\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMost widely admired for his short fiction, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Taker and Other Stories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is Fonseca’s first collection to appear in English translation, and it ranges across his oeuvre, exploring the sights and sounds of the modern landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Rubem Fonseca’s Rio is a city at war, a city whose vast disparities—in wealth, social standing, and prestige—are untenable. In the stories of\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Taker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, rich and poor live in an uneasy equilibrium, where only overwhelming force can maintain order, and violence and deception are essential tools of survival.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003eWhether recounting the story of a businessman who runs over pedestrians to let off steam, a serial killer being pushed to ever greater crimes by his bourgeois lover, the desperate poor rushing to butcher a cow that has been killed in a traffic accident, or a man seeking out confirmation for a past which his friends deny, Fonseca repeatedly reaffirms his status as one of the purest storytellers on the contemporary Brazilian literary scene. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eTranslated from the Portuguese by \u003cspan color=\"#444444\"\u003eClifford E. Landers\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRubem Fonseca is considered one of Brazil’s most influential writers, and was awarded the Prémio Camões—considered the Nobel Prize of Portuguese language literature—for his body of work in 2003. That same year he was awarded the Juan Rulfo Prize. He is the author of eight novels, including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eHigh Art\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eVast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBufo \u0026amp; Spallanzani\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, all of which have been published in English translation. One of his famous characters is Mandrake, a cynical and amoral lawyer and the basis for an HBO series.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Rubem Fonseca writes like the maniacal dreamchild of Cortazar and Bukowski. Crazed, ribald, and relentless, the stories in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Taker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003eroam the streets of Rio like their disturbed characters, overwhelmed by the strangeness of life.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003eStewart O'Nan\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Fonseca's work confirms, in the final analysis, that as a writer he has gone where none have dared in Brazilian literature.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"[Fonseca's narratives] take advantage of and reinvent existing popular literary forms, such as the crime novel, but also the political, social, existential and erotic novel.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e2003 Juan Rulfo Prize Jury\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Rubem Fonseca","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":406301205,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/taker_highres.jpg?v=1384578112"},{"product_id":"thrown-into-nature","title":"Thrown into Nature","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eNovember 22, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 296 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-56-6\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWINNER OF THE CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN WRITERS CONTEST\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA humorous picaresque set in sixteenth-century Spain, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThrown into Nature\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e tells the story of Dr. Nicolás Monardes, whose medical treatise “Of the Tabaco and His Great Vertues” was partially responsible for introducing tobacco to Europe. His Portuguese assistant, Da Silva, narrates the absurd adventures of the wealthy and influential Dr. Monardes, who steadfastly believed that tobacco—whether the leaves were made into a poultice, the smoke was piped into the anus, or through some other bizarre application—was an infallible cure for every physical, and mental, ailment known to man. He even uses clouds of “cigarella” smoke to chase a poltergeist from a church.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eA blackly hilarious novel that hides its pessimistic reflections on the power of money, the evils of charlatanism, and the gullibility of humanity behind the comic observations and adventures of the always striving and forever bumbling Da Silva, Milen Ruskov’s \u003cem\u003eThrown into Nature\u003c\/em\u003e is a comic tour de force.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003eMilen Ruskov is a Bulgarian writer and translator. He has written two novels: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ePocket Encyclopaedia of Mysteries\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (2004), which was awarded the Bulgarian Prize for Debut Fiction, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThrown into Nature\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(2008), which was awarded the prize for VIK Novel of the Year. He has translated more than twenty books from English, including work by Thomas De Quincey, Martin Amis, and Mary Shelley.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAngela Rodel \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eearned an MA in linguistics from UCLA and received a Fulbright Fellowship to study and learn Bulgarian. In 2010, she won a PEN Translation Fund Grant for Georgi Tenev's short story collection. She is one of the most prolific translators of Bulgarian literature working today, and received an NEA Fellowship for her translation of Gospodinov's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Physics of Sorrow.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“I was bewitched by this strangely beguiling novel, beautifully written and conceived with an astonishing imaginative range. Ruskov writes like an angel.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Alex Miller, author of \u003cem\u003eJourney to the Stone Country\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Milen Ruskov","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":406344737,"sku":"","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":406344745,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/thrown_highres.jpg?v=1384579270"},{"product_id":"two-or-three-years-later","title":"Two or Three Years Later","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eJune 18, 2013\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003estories | pb | 142 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-70-2\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“Ror Wolf’s miniature stories about everyday catastrophes undermine traditional storytelling. . . . Extremely fresh and incredibly funny.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Martin Halter, \u003cem\u003eTagesanzeiger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWorking in the traditions of Robert Walser, Robert Pinget, and Laurence Sterne, Ror Wolf creates strangely entertaining and condensed stories that call into question the very nature of what makes a story a story. Almost an anti-book, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwo or Three Years Later: Forty-Nine Digressions\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e takes as its basis the small, diurnal details of life, transforming these oft-overlooked ordinary experiences of nondescript people in small German villages into artistic meditations on ambiguity, repetition, and narrative. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eIncredibly funny and playful,\u003cem\u003eTwo or Three Years Later\u003c\/em\u003e is unlike anything you’ve ever read—from German or any other language. These stories of men observing other men, of men who may or may not have been wearing a hat on a particular Monday (or was it Tuesday?), are delightful word-puzzles that are both intriguing and enjoyable. \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e(\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/pages\/two-or-three-years-later-excerpt\" title=\"Two or Three Years Later - excerpt\"\u003eRead an Excerpt\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the German by Jennifer Marquart\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRor Wolf is an artist, an author of prose and poetry, and a writer of radio plays and “radio collages.” Born in the East German city of Saalfeld, Wolf left the GDR for West Germany at the age of 31. His writing has earned him many awards, including Radio Play of the Year (2007), the Kassel Literature Prize for Grotesque Humor (2004) and the Literature Award of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in 2003. Wolf’s work has been translated into over 12 languages.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e Jennifer Marquart studied German and translation at the University of Rochester. She has lived, continued her studies, and taught in Cologne and Berlin. \u003cem\u003eTwo or Three Years Later\u003c\/em\u003e is her first book-length translation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“One of the most important contemporary German writers.”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Brigitte Kronauer, Büchner Award Recipient\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Wolf takes familiar scraps from crime, romance, and adventure stories, rearranges them and glues them together with a melodious language. . . . The result is purely absurd and at the same time magical.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003ePeter Zemla, \u003cem\u003eBuchjournal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ror Wolf","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":407746393,"sku":"","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/Two_or_Three_Years-front.jpg?v=1384712239"},{"product_id":"vertical-motion","title":"Vertical Motion","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 13, 2011\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003estories | pb | 142 pgs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-934824-37-5\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e“There's a new world master among us, and her name is Can Xue.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e—Robert Coover\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTwo young girls sneak onto the grounds of a hospital, where they find a disturbing moment of silence in a rose garden. A couple grows a plant that blooms underground, invisibly, to their long-time neighbor’s consternation. A cat worries about its sleepwalking owner, who receives a mysterious visitor while he’s asleep. After a ten-year absence, a young man visits his uncle, on the twenty-fourth floor of a high-rise that is floating in the air, while his ugly cousin hesitates on the stairs . . .\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eCan Xue is a master of the dreamscape, crafting stories that inhabit the space where fantasy and reality, time and timelessness, the quotidian and the extraordinary, meet. The stories in this striking and lyrical new collection—populated by old married couples, children, cats, and nosy neighbors, the entire menagerie of the everyday—reaffirm Can Xue's reputation as one of the most innovative Chinese writers in a generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Chinese by \u003cspan color=\"#444444\"\u003eKaren Gernant \u0026amp; Chen Zeping\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCan Xue, meaning \"dirty snow, leftover snow,\" is the pseudonym of Deng Xiaohua. Born in 1953, in Changsha City, Hunan province, her parents were sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, and she only graduated from elementary school. Can learned English on her own and wrote books on Borges, Shakespeare, and Dante. Her publications in English include\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eDialogues in Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eOld Floating Cloud\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Embroidered Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlue Light in the Sky and Other Stories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and most recently, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eFive Spice Street\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"If China has one possibility of a Nobel laureate, it is Can Xue.\"\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Susan Sontag\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Can Xue","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":407758101,"sku":"","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook (epub)","offer_id":407762689,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/products\/vertical_highres.jpg?v=1384713062"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/collections\/books\/dutch.oembed","provider":"Open Letter","version":"1.0","type":"link"}