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Showing 1-9 of 325 booksA Kind of Madness
Uche Okonkwo
A searing, unflinching collection of stories set in Nigeria that explores themes of community expectations, familial strife, and the struggle for survival. A teenage girl from a poor family is dazzled by her rich, vivacious friend, but as the friend's behavior grows unstable and dangerous, she must decide whether to cover for her or risk telling the truth to get her the help she needs. A young woman and her mother bask in the envy of their neighbors when the woman receives an offer of marriage from the family of a doctor living in Belgium—though when the offer fails to materialize, that envy threatens to turn vicious, pitting them both against their community. And a lonely daughter finds herself wandering a village in eastern Nigeria in an ill-fated quest, struggling to come to terms with her mother's mental illness. In ten vivid, evocative stories set in contemporary Nigeria, Uche Okonkwo's A Kind of Madness unravels the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings, and more, marking the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction and inviting us all to consider the question: why is it that the people and places we hold closest are so often the ones that drive us to madness?
A Season of Light
Julie Iromuanya
For fans of Behold the Dreamers, comes a compelling novel about a tightly bound Nigerian family living in Florida and the wounds that get passed down from generation to generation, from the author of the acclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Doctor. When 276 schoolgirls are abducted from their school in Nigeria, Fidelis Ewerike, a Florida-based barrister, poet, and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War, begins to go mad, consumed by memories of his younger sister Ugochi, who went missing during that conflict. Consumed by survivor’s guilt and fearful that the same fate awaits Amara, his sixteen-year-old daughter who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ugochi, Fidelis locks her in her bedroom, offering no words of explanation, only lovingly—if poorly—made meals and sweets. Amid that singular action, the Ewerike family spirals into chaos: After unsuccessful attempts to free her daughter from her room, his wife Adaobi seeks the counsel of a preacher, praying for spiritual liberation from the curse she is certain has plagued her family since leaving Nigeria. Fourteen-year-old Chuk, beset by his own war with the neighborhood boys, receives a painful education on force, masculinity, and his tenuous position within his family. And rebellious, resentful Amara is hungry for her life to be hers, so the moment she is able to escape her imprisonment, she falls in love—not with the Aba-born engineer-in-training her mother envisages, but with Maksym Kostyk, the son of the town drunk. Before long, the two have concocted a plan to run away from the trappings of their familial traumas. Perfect for readers of Sing, Unburied, Sing, Julie Iromuanya's A Season of Light is an all-consuming masterpiece. To peer into the window of the Ewerike family’s lives is a gift.
Blob
Maggie Su
“There is so much at play in this wondrous novel. Vi, struggling to place herself in any context that makes sense within the world, earnestly leads us into a wild experiment, to turn a blob into the man of her dreams, and I was transfixed by her voice. This is a book that looks at identity and desire in profoundly interesting ways.”—Kevin Wilson, bestselling author of Now Is Not the Time to Panic A humorous and deeply moving debut novel in the vein of Bunny and Convenience Store Woman about a young woman who tries to shape a sentient blob into her perfect boyfriend. The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town. Aimless after getting dumped by her boyfriend and dropping out of college, Vi works at the front desk of a hotel where she greets guests, refills cucumber water samovars, and tries to evade her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel. Little does Vi know her life is about to be permanently transformed when she agrees to a night out with Rachel. In the alley outside the bar, Vi discovers a strange blob—a small living creature with beady black eyes. In a moment of concern and drunken desperation, she takes it home. But the blob is no ordinary pet. Becoming increasingly sentient, it begins to grow, shift shape, and obey Vi’s commands. As the entity continues to change, Vi is struck with a daring idea: she’ll mold the creature into her ideal partner. Feeding it a stream of sweet breakfast cereals and American pop culture, the creature grows into a movie-star handsome white man. But when Vi’s desire to be loved unconditionally threatens to spiral out of control, she is forced to confront her lonely childhood, her aloof ex-boyfriend, and the racial marginalization that has defined her relationships—a journey of self-discovery that teaches her it’s impossible to control those you love. Blending the familiar with the surreal, Blob is a witty, heartfelt story about the search for love and self and what it means to be human.
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
James Baldwin
A major work of American literature from a major American writer that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.
Sex and Rage
Eve Babitz
The popular rediscovery of Eve Babitz continues with this very special reissue of her novel, originally published in 1979, about a dreamy young girl moving between the planets of Los Angeles and New York City. We first meet Jacaranda in Los Angeles. She's a beach bum, a part-time painter of surfboards, sun-kissed and beautiful. Jacaranda has an on-again, off-again relationship with a married man and glitters among the city's pretty creatures, blithely drinking pink ladies with any number of tycoons, unattached and unworried in the pleasurable mania of California. She rises from the mists to the discovery that she's 28, jobless, with no sense of purpose, that her wild friendships with Gilbert and Max and Etienne might not be as real as they seem. So she pries herself away from this immensely seductive place and moves to New York, to seriousness and work, to meet the agents of her new world. Sex and Rage delights in its sensuous, dreamlike narrative and its spontaneous embrace of fate, work, and certain meetings and chances. Jacaranda moves beyond the tango of sex and rage into the open challenge of a defined and more fulfilling expressive life. Sex and Rage further solidifies Eve Babitz's place as a singularly important voice in Los Angeles literature - haunting, alluring, and alive.
One in a Millennial
Kate Kennedy
This program is read by the author. From pop culture podcaster and a voice of a generation, Kate Kennedy, a celebration of the millennial zeitgeist One in a Millennial is an exploration of pop culture, nostalgia, the millennial zeitgeist, and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) from coming of age as a member of a much-maligned generation. Kate is a pop culture commentator and host of the popular millennial-focused podcast Be There in Five. Part-funny, part-serious, Kate navigates the complicated nature of celebrating and criticizing the culture that shaped her as a woman, while arguing that great depths can come from surface-level interests. With her trademark style and vulnerability, One in a Millennial is sharp, hilarious, and heartwarming all at once. She tackles AOL Instant Messenger, purity culture, American Girl Dolls, going out tops, Spice Girl feminism, her feelings about millennial motherhood, and more. Kate’s laugh-out-loud asides and keen observations will have you nodding your head and maybe even tearing up. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
In the Orbit of You
Ashley Schumacher
It's been years since Nova last saw Sam. She was too young then to understand why he had to move away-and what it had to do with the cuts and bruises he got from home and never wanted to talk about. All she knew is that they promised to find each other when they were older, something she thought was impossible. Until she bumps into Sam in her new school and realizes he has forgotten their childhood promise. Sam has a plan for his life: accept his college football scholarship, date his girlfriend Abigail, and hide how much he wants to do something, anything other than The Plan his parents and coaches have set before him. It doesn't matter if he finds himself thinking about the new girl he met in the cafeteria, a girl who reminds him of a past that hurts to remember. When a school-wide personality test reveals Nova and Sam to be each others' top matches, they begin to remember why they were such close friends. As well as the myriad of reasons this new-yet-familiar thing between them will never, ever work out. In the Orbit of You is a story about the enduring and changing nature of friendship, the strange struggle between who you are and who you want to be, and finding your voice.
The Turnglass
Gareth Rubin
This beautifully written, immersive, and unique crime story is a tête-bêche novel—two intertwined stories printed back-to-back. 1880s, Essex, England: Idealistic young doctor Simeon Lee is called from London to treat his ailing relative Parson Oliver Hawes, who lives in Turnglass House on a bleak island off the coast. Hawes believes he's being poisoned by his sister-in-law, Florence, who was declared mad years ago after killing the parson’s brother in a jealous rage. Hawes keeps her locked in a glass-walled apartment in the Turnglass library; the secret to how she came to be there is found in his tête-bêche journal, where one side tells a very different story from the other. 1930s, Hollywood: Celebrated author Oliver Tooke, the governor’s son, is found dead by apparent suicide. His aspiring actor friend Ken Kourian isn’t so sure Oliver took his own life. He finds a link between Oliver’s death and the mysterious kidnapping of Oliver’s brother when they were children. He also discovers the secret incarceration of Oliver’s mother, Florence, in an asylum. To get to the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver’s final book, a tête-bêche novel called The Turnglass—which is about a young doctor named Simeon Lee . . .?
The Lesser Blessed
Richard Van Camp
A fresh, funny look at growing up Native in the North, by award-winning author Richard Van Camp. Larry is a Dogrib Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, his hallucinations and his fantasies are hotter than the sun. At 16, he loves Iron Maiden, the North, and Juliet Hope, the high school "tramp". When Johnny Beck, a Metis from Hay River, moves to town, Larry is ready for almost anything. In this powerful and often very funny first novel, Richard Van Camp gives us one of the most original teenage characters in fiction. Skinny as spaghetti, nervy, and self-deprecating, Larry is an appealing mixture of bravado and vulnerability. His past holds many terrors: an abusive father, blackouts from sniffing gasoline, an accident that killed several of his cousins. But through his friendship with Johnny, he’s ready now to face his memories - and his future. Marking the debut of an exciting new writer, The Lesser Blessed is an eye-opening depiction of what it is to be a young Native man in the age of AIDS, disillusionment with Catholicism, and a growing world consciousness. A coming-of-age story that any fan of The Catcher in the Rye will enjoy.
Frankie
Graham Norton
The brand-new novel from million-copy bestseller and national treasure Graham Norton - a dazzling, decades-sweeping story about love, bravery and what it means to live a significant life. 'Warm and wise, Frankie is a woman worth getting to know'BONNIE GARMUS'I couldn't stop reading it, but feel bereft now that I've finished'NIGELLA LAWSON'I was enthralled by Frankie from page one. It's a beauty. A warm, deeply moving, life-enhancing novel'SARAH WINMAN'Frankie is a perfect song of a book and everyone who likes human beings should read it'ANDREW O'HAGANAlways on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take centre stage - after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before.Then Damian, a young Irish carer, arrives at her London flat, there to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years. Travelling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York - a city full of art, larger than life characters and turmoil - Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can't last but will perhaps live on in other ways and in other people. But as Frankie's past slowly emerges, her spirit and endurance are revealed as undeniable . . . and unforgettable.'Immersive, stunningly written, and very emotional - this is a triumph'JENNIE GODFREY'Fascinating, funny, sad... Every page is intriguing. Once again, Graham shows his class as a writer'JO BRAND'Packed with surprises, it's moving, riveting and enriching'MATT CAIN'A great sweep of a novel, full of unexpected twists'LISSA EVANS* Graham Norton's most recent novel Forever Home was a Sunday Times top 10 bestseller in April 2023
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
John Wiswell
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body using a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth. However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she's found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warmhearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent coparent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen's eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don't think about love that way. Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she's about to confess, Homily reveals why she's in the area: she's hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Shesheshen didn't curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily's twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.
Princess of Dune
Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
"[Series narrator Scott] Brick turns in a rewarding performance" —AudioFile on Dune: The Duke of Caladan "Scott Brick delivers an impressive one-man show."—AudioFile on The Winds of Dune Set two years before Dune, Princess of Dune is the never-before-told story of two key women in the life of Paul Muad’Dib—Princess Irulan, his wife in name only, and Paul’s true love, the Fremen Chani. Both women become central to Paul’s galaxy-spanning Imperial reign. Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. As Princess Royal, she also learned important lessons from her father—the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Now of marriageable age, Princess Irulan sees the machinations of the many factions vying for power—the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, the Imperial throne, and a ruthless rebellion in the Imperial military. The young woman has a wise and independent streak and is determined to become much more than a pawn to be moved about on anyone’s gameboard. Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Chani—the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist who serves under the harsh rule of House Harkonnen—is trained in the Fremen mystical ways by an ancient Reverend Mother. Brought up to believe in her father’s ecological dream of a green Arrakis, she follows Liet around to Imperial testing stations, surviving the many hazards of desert life. Chani soon learns the harsh cost of Fremen dreams and obligations under the oppressive boot heel of the long Harkonnen occupation. A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.
Tesla's Attic
Neal Shusterman
After their home burns down, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they've inherited. When Nick opens the door to his attic room, he's hit in the head by a toaster. That's just the beginning of his weird experiences with the old junk stored up there. After getting rid of the odd antiques in a garage sale, Nick befriends some local kids - Mitch, Caitlin, and Vincent - and they discover that all of the objects have extraordinary properties. What's more, Nick figures out that the attic is a strange magnetic vortex, which attracts all sorts of trouble. It's as if the attic itself has an intelligence…and a purpose. Ultimately Nick learns that the genius Nikola Tesla placed the items-his last inventions-in the attic as part of a larger plan that he mathematically predicted. Nick and his new friends must retrieve everything that was sold at the garage sale and keep it safe. But the task is fraught with peril-in addition to the dangers inherent in Tesla's mysterious and powerful creations, a secret society of physicists, the Accelerati, is determined to stop Nick and alter destiny to achieve its own devious ends. It's a lot for a guy to handle, especially when he'd much rather fly under the radar as the new kid in town. Fans of intrigue, action, humor, and nonstop surprises are guaranteed a read unlike any other in Tesla's Attic, Book One of the Accelerati Trilogy.
The Triumph of Saint Katherine
Danie Ware
An Adepta Sororitas novel. Follow the ritual funerary procession of the most honoured of all Sisters of Battle, as the young Sister Avra faces a war both without and within. Listen because: discover how the Triumph of Saint Katherine inspires faithful warriors across the galaxy, in a tale of courage and shame from the perspective of a young Sister of Battle. The story: carried by six Sisters of Battle, each the embodiment of a revered saint, the funerary procession known as the Triumph of Saint Katherine marches from world to world, battlefront to battlefront. Where darkness and heresy are rampant, it brings faith, hope and courage to the warriors of the Imperium. Sister Avra of the Order of Our Martyred Lady is honoured beyond measure to battle alongside the sacred procession in defence of the beleaguered world of Kiros. However, this bold young warrior holds a secret shame in her heart, one she believes can only be redeemed in death. As the darkness closes in on Kiros, Avra is overcome by a vision—and soon realises that the Emperor has far greater plans for her. Written by Danie Ware. Audio running time six hours and 40 minutes. Read by Emma Gregory.
Gifted
Izumi Suzuki
A subtle and intimate accounting of a daughter's final days with her mother, set amid the rush of Tokyo's red-light district. Drawing on her own experiences as a hostess and adult film actor, Gifted—Suzumi Suzuki's first novel to be translated into English—offers a nuanced, frank, and intimate portrayal of the lives of a mother and daughter getting by (or not) in an industry rarely depicted authentically in literary fiction. In the last days of her mother's life, a young woman living in Tokyo's red-light district is thrust into a split existence. By day, she negotiates her new role as caregiver of an abusive parent. By night, she drifts home from the hospital, goes out with other sex-workers, thinks about quitting smoking, and numbly remembers Eri, a friend who died the summer before. Her sensitivity to the details of her surroundings grounds an otherwise unstable world, one where each interaction requires a subtle negotiation of economic and sexual power, and proximity rarely means intimacy or connection. Contains mature themes.
Roadside Picnic
Arkady Strugatsky
Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a "full empty", something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.
Dead Animals
Phoebe Stuckes
There is something creeping at the edge of your vision, lingering somewhere just out of focus. All it would take is to let your mind wander, to let it come into view.A young woman wakes after a house party with scratches and bruises - and a gap in her memory. As the violent truth comes back to her - a series of events she struggles to name - her anger grows.Solace comes in the form of enigmatic, captivating Helene, who knows what the man at the party did, has suffered at his hands too. An act of violence demands one in return and Helene is planning revenge. But who can afford to ask for justice, when the cost is murderously high?
Fragile Creatures
Khin Myint
Khin's sister Theda has a strange illness and a euthanasia drug locked in a box under her bed. Her doctor thinks her problem is purely physical, and so does she, but Khin is not so sure. He knows what they both went through growing up in Perth – it wasn't welcoming back then for a Burmese-Australian family. With Theda's condition getting worse, Khin heads off to the United States. He needs to sort things out with his ex-partner. Once there, events take a very odd turn, and he finds himself in court. This is a family story told with humour, wonderment and complete honesty. It's about care, truth and the hardest choices – and what happens when realities clash. How do we balance responsibility for others with what we owe ourselves? Fragile Creatures will sweep you up and leave you stunned at its power.
Sacrificial Animals
Kailee Pedersen
Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, this rich and atmospheric supernatural horror debut explores an ancient Chinese mythology. The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to return home. When he left rural Nebraska behind, he believed he was leaving everything there, including his abusive father, Carlyle, and the farm that loomed so large in memory, forever. But neither Nick nor his brother Joshua, disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent, can ignore such summons from their father, who hopes for a deathbed reconciliation. Predictably, Joshua and Carlyle quickly warm to each other while Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices. Nick puts the time to good use and his flirtation with Emilia quickly blooms into romance. Though not long after the affair turns intimate, Nick begins to suspect that Emilia’s interest in him may have sinister, and possibly even ancient, motivations. Punctuated by scenes from Nick’s adolescent years, when memories of a queer awakening and a shadowy presence stalking the farm altered the trajectory of his life forever, Sacrificial Animals explores the violent legacy of inherited trauma and the total collapse of a family in its wake. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
Wu
Kathleen Li
Empress Wu Zetian (624-705 AD) was the only woman to be the sovereign ruler of imperial China. A teenage concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong, she seduced his son while the emperor lay dying. Recalled from a nunnery as part of an intricate court power-game, she caused the deaths of two lady rivals, before securing her enthronement as the Emperor Gaozong's consort. She ruled in the name of her husband and two eldest sons, presiding over the pinnacle of the Silk Road, before proclaiming herself the founder of a new dynasty. Worshipped as the Sage Mother of Mankind and reviled as the Treacherous Fox, she was deposed aged 79, after angry courtiers murdered her two young lovers. The subject of countless books, plays, and films, Empress Wu remains a feminist icon and a bugbear of Chinese conservatism. Jonathan Clements weighs the evidence of her life and legacy: so charismatic that she could rise from nothing to the height of medieval power, so hated that her own children left her tombstone blank.
The West Passage
Jared Pechaček
Long-listed, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2024 A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before. “The West Passage is a dangerous book of secrets.”—Travis Baldree, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Legends & Lattes “A weird and wonderful tale, rich with imagination and utterly unique.”—Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters “One of the finest fantasies of this decade, a sweeping swarm of fiercely human creativity.”—Indrapramit Das, author of The Devourers When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded. Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil. The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for sure: the world is about to change. A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.
The Eye of the World
Robert Jordan
When their village is attacked by trollocs, monsters thought to be only legends, three young men, Rand, Matt, and Perrin, flee in the company of the Lady Moiraine, a sinister visitor of unsuspected powers. Thus begins an epic adventure set in a world of wonders and horror, where what was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
The Organs of Sense
Adam Ehrlich Sachs
In 1666, an astronomer makes a prediction shared by no one else in the world: at the stroke of noon on June 30 of that year, a solar eclipse will cast all of Europe into total darkness for four seconds. This astronomer is rumored to be using the largest telescope ever built, but he is also known to be blind - both of his eyes were plucked out under mysterious circumstances. Is he mad? Or does he, despite this impairment, have an insight denied the other scholars of his day? These questions intrigue the young Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - not yet the world-renowned polymath who would go on to discover calculus but a 19-year-old whose faith in reason is shaky at best. Leibniz sets off to investigate the astronomer’s claim, and in the three hours before the eclipse occurs - or fails to occur - the astronomer tells the scholar the story behind his strange prediction: a tale that ends up encompassing kings and princes, family squabbles, insanity, art, loss, and the horrors of war.
youthjuice
E.K. Sathue
Outrageous, hilarious, and indulgently nasty, youthjuice is American Psycho for It-girls, a horror Devil Wears Prada for the goop generation. Beauty is possible—but at what cost? From Sophia Bannion’s first day on the Storytelling team at HEBE, a luxury skincare/wellness company based in New York City’s glitziest neighborhood, it’s clear something is deeply amiss. But Sophia, pushing thirty with plenty of skeletons in her closet next to the designer knock-offs, doesn’t care. Though she leads an outwardly charmed life, she aches for a deeper meaning to her flat existence—and a cure for her brutal nail-biting habit. She finds it all and more at HEBE, and with Tree Whitestone, HEBE’s charismatic, sinister founder and CEO. Soon, Sophia is addicted to her HEBE lifestyle, especially youthjuice, the fatty, soothing moisturizer Tree has selected Sophia to test in top secret. But the unsustainability of HEBE’s system is rapidly growing apparent, and Sophia is going to have to decide how far she’s willing to go to stay beautiful forever.... Glittering with ominous flashes of Sophia’s coming-of-rage story, former beauty editor E.K. Sathue’s horror debut is as hilarious as it is stomach-churning in its portrayal of literally all-consuming female friendship and capitalism’s short attention span. youthjuice does to skincare influencers what Bret Easton Ellis did to yuppies in the ’80s. You’ll never moisturize the same way again.
Last Comes the Raven
Italo Calvino
The first complete English-language edition of one of Calvino’s important early short-story collections. Blending reality and illusion with elegance and precision, the stories in this collection - one of Calvino’s earliest - take place in a World War II era and postwar Italy tinged with the visionary and fablelike qualities that would come to define this master storyteller’s later style. A trio of gluttonous burglars invades a pastry shop; two children trespass upon a forbidden garden; a wealthy family invites a rustic goatherd to lunch, only to mock him. In the title story, a compact masterpiece of shifting perspectives, a panicked soldier tries to keep his wits - and his life - when he faces off against a young partisan with a loaded rifle and miraculous aim. Throughout, Calvino delights in discovering hidden truths beneath the surface of everyday life. Stories from Last Comes the Raven have been published in translation, but the collection as a whole has never appeared in English. This volume, including several stories newly translated by Ann Goldstein, is an important addition to Calvino’s legacy.