In their various locales-from Montreal (where a prosthetic leg casts a furious spell on its beholders) to New Mexico (where a Soviet-era exchange student redefines home for his hosts)-the characters in Babylon are coming to terms with life's epiphanies, for good or ill.They range from the very young who, confronted with their parents' limitations, discover their own resolve, to those facing middle age and its particular indignities, no less determined to assert themselves and shape their destinies. Babylon and Other Stories showcases the wit, humor, and insight that have made Alix Ohlin one of the most admired young writers working today.

« Tout le monde riait. Les Manoscrivi riaient. C’est l’image d’eux qui est restée. Jean-Lino, en chemise parme, avec ses nouvelles lunettes jaunes semi-rondes, debout derrière le canapé, empourpré par le champagne ou par l’excitation d’être en société, toutes dents exposées. Lydie, assise en dessous, jupe déployée de part et d’autre, visage penché vers la gauche et riant aux éclats. Riant sans doute du dernier rire de sa vie. Un rire que je scrute à l’infini. Un rire sans malice, sans coquetterie, que j’entends encore résonner avec son fond bêta, un rire que rien ne menace, qui ne devine rien, ne sait rien. Nous ne sommes pas prévenus de l’irrémédiable. »Romancière et dramaturge de renommée mondiale, Yasmina Reza a publié chez Flammarion L’Aube, le soir ou la nuit, Comment vous racontez la partie, Heureux les heureux (prix littéraire Le Monde 2013) et Bella Figura.

Julia Franck's German-Book-Prize-winning novel, The Blindness of the Heart, was an international phenomenon, selling 850,000 copies in Germany alone and being published in thirty-five countries. Her newest work, Back to Back echoes the themes of The Blindness of the Heart, telling a moving personal story set against the tragedies of twentieth-century Germany.Back to Back begins in 1954, and centers around a single family living in Berlin in the socialist East. The mother, Käthe, is a sculptor of Jewish heritage, who has been leveraging her party connections in order to get more important and significant commissions. Devoted entirely to becoming a success in the socialist state, she is a cruel and completely unaffectionate mother, putting the party above her children, who she treats as if they were adults — there is no bourgeois mollycoddling in her household. Thomas and Ella's father emigrated to West Germany after World War II, and they deeply long to see him again and dream of a life where they could be allowed to have the kind of childhood that other children enjoy. But Käthe's hard-nosed brutality — a reflection of the materialistic, unsentimental state in which she lives — means Thomas and Ella are unable to live the lives they want to — instead of his dream of becoming a writer, Thomas is forced to study geology, and do hard labor at a quarry as the practical part of his education. And Ella, meanwhile, is becoming increasingly introverted and strange — not least because the Stasi lodger the government has billetted in their home is beginning to abuse her…Heartbreaking and shocking, Back to Back is a dark fairytale of East Germany, the story of a single family tragedy that reflects the greater tragedies of totalitarianism.

Tuesday night: vodka and dancing at the Hungry Duck. Wednesday morning: posing as an expert on Pushkin at the university. Thursday night: more vodka and girl-chasing at Propaganda. Friday morning: a hungover tour of Gorky's house.Martin came to Moscow at the turn of the millennium hoping to discover the country of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and his beloved Chekhov. Instead he found a city turned on its head, where the grimmest vestiges of Soviet life exist side by side with the nonstop hedonism of the newly rich. Along with his hard-living expat friends, Martin spends less and less time on his studies, choosing to learn about the Mysterious Russian Soul from the city's unhinged nightlife scene. But as Martin's research becomes a quest for existential meaning, love affairs and literature lead to the same hard-won lessons. Russians know: There is more to life than happiness.Back to Moscow is an enthralling story of debauchery, discovery, and the Russian classics. In prose recalling the neurotic openheartedness of Ben Lerner and the whiskey-sour satire of Bret Easton Ellis, Guillermo Erades has crafted an unforgettable coming-of-age story and a complex portrait of a radically changing city.

Quel rapport entre la mort en 1967 des musiciens du groupe de rock Pearl Harbor et un SDF renversé par une voiture à Bruxelles en 2010 ? Lorsque l’homme se réveille sur un lit d’hôpital, il est victime du Locked-in Syndrome, incapable de bouger et de communiquer. Pour comprendre ce qui lui est arrivé, il tente de reconstituer le puzzle de sa vie. Des caves enfumées de Paris, Londres et Berlin, où se croisent les Beatles, les Stones, Clapton et les Who, à l’enfer du Vietnam, il se souvient de l’effervescence et de la folie des années 1960, quand tout a commencé…Biographie de l'auteurPaul Colize est né en 1953 et vit près de Bruxelles. Quand il n'écrit pas, il est consultant, amateur de badminton et joue du piano.

"Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person." So Anne Tyler opens this irresistible new novel.The woman is Rebecca Davitch, a fifty-three-year-old grandmother. Is she an impostor in her own life? she asks herself. Is it indeed her own life? Or is it someone else's?On the surface, Beck, as she is known to the Davitch clan, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties is, after all, her vocation-something she slipped into even before finishing college, when Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family's crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was the family business. What caught his fancy was that she seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Soon this large-spirited older man, divorced with three little girls, swept her into his orbit, and before she knew it she was embracing his extended family plus a child of their own, and hosting endless parties in the ornate, high-ceilinged rooms of The Open Arms.Now, some thirty years later, after presiding over a disastrous family picnic, Rebecca is caught un-awares by the question of who she really is. How she answers it-how she tries to recover her girlhood self, that dignified grownup she had once been-is the story told in this beguiling, funny, and deeply moving novel.As always with Anne Tyler's novels, once we enter her world it is hard to leave. But in Back When We Were Grownups she so sharpens our perceptions and awakens so many untapped feelings that we come away not only refreshed and delighted, but also infinitely wiser.

A trade paperback reissue of National Book Award finalist Mary Gaitskill’s debut collection, Bad Behavior — powerful stories about dislocation, longing, and desire which depict a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe generation that is searching for human connection.Now a classic: Bad Behavior made critical waves when it first published, heralding Gaitskill’s arrival on the literary scene and her establishment as one of the sharpest, erotically charged, and audaciously funny writing talents of contemporary literature. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times called it “Pinteresque,” saying, “Ms. Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail, that she is able to make even the most extreme situations seem real… her reportorial candor, uncompromised by sentimentality or voyeuristic charm…underscores the strength of her debut.”

With results both liberating and disastrous, the characters of Bad Faith flee the trappings of contemporary domestic life. A father visits a college friend in El Salvador rather than face difficulties with the birth of his third child; a boy comes to terms with his fractured family and the disabled father responsible for his care after his mom is stationed overseas; a biracial man journeys across Nebraska for the funeral of his white mother and strikes up an improbable if dishonest relationship with a centenarian Irish woman; and in the title story, the running narrative of a pathetic yet compelling ladies man culminates in an unexpected and deadly confrontation. In Theodore Wheeler's collection of prize-winning stories, the herd can't always outpace the predator.

Cleo Tyler is a fraud. A fake. A phony. At least that's what police officer Daniel Sinclair thinks. And Cleo agrees. But she's out of money and needs a job, so when the call for a psychic comes from the chief of police in Egypt, Missouri, Cleo, and her dog Premonition board a train in Seattle for the cross-country journey to the Midwestern town that is so small a vegetarian would-be psychic can't find a decent meal. There, beneath the picture of pulchritudinous perfection, Cleo finds a whole cast of eccentrics, including former San Diego hostage negotiator Daniel Sinclair who has returned home to care for his developmentally challenged brother Beau, a police chief who consults tarot cards, and a dentist mayor with the phoniest smile money can buy. Haunted by nightmares of the accident that killed her fiancé and their unborn child, Cleo believes her "gift" for seeing things relates solely to the horrible night she'll never forget. Imagine her surprise when she finds her dreams filled with torrid visions of her dubious escort, Daniel-and details of Egypt's only murder, which is as yet unsolved. Award-winning author Theresa Weir blesses audiences here with her talent for vivid prose ("He looked at her with spoon-bending concentration…"), quirky characters, and unexpected humor.

"A heir to Javier Marías. . An outstanding stylistic narrative. A joyful discovery." — J. M. Pozuelo Yvancos, ABC CulturalAfter both their marriages collapse, two old friends take to sharing their life again as they used to. They go out for drinks, have long conversations and, all in all, try to hide way from the world. One day, one of them is stabbed to death in his apartment. His friend will then seek out the truth.Carlos Castán is considered one of the best short-story writers in Spain. Bad Light is his first novel. He lives in Zaragoza, Spain.

A boiled-down gem of a Marías story about how Elvis (in Acapulco to film a movie) and his hard-drinking entourage abandon their interpreter in a seedy cantina full of enraged criminals after insults start to fly. When the local kingpin demands to be told what the Americans are saying, Elvis himself delivers an even more stinging parting shot — and who has to translate that?

Prostitution, homosexualité, meurtres, vols… deux jeunes filles, Nadine et Manu, refusant de se résigner face à la vie, s'aventurent dans un monde immoral et sans loi. Prédatrices insatiables, elles nient défaites et frustrations, persuadées que ce qui ne les tuera pas les rendra plus fortes…" Voici du pain blanc pour cinquante ans de critique " écrivait Céline en rendant le manuscrit de Voyage au bout de la nuit. Ce n'est pas le cas du premier roman de Virginie Despentes, qu'on lui a pourtant longtemps comparé. Cette réédition en poche du livre par lequel le scandale est arrivé nous permet de constater à quel point on a fait beaucoup de bruit pour rien. Les aléas de la vie de Nadine et Manu, deux paumées en mal de sensations fortes, ont à peu près autant d'épaisseur qu'un Manix 00. Un sujet que nos deux héroïnes – le sexe – connaissent bien. Car aucun cliché ne nous est épargné: la prostitution, le meurtre de sang froid, l'argent, le vol, l'homosexualité… Sorte de Thelma et Louise à la française, Baise-moi passe au miroir grossissant tous les vices que deux marginales peuvent potentiellement développer. D'une écriture frigide, Virginie Despentes nous plonge dans l'univers chaotique de deux petites frappes en cavale. A grands coups de JB, de masturbation et de tirs de revolver, elles tentent de trouver les limites. Mais cet opus, qui se veut provocateur, finit sur un ton bien comme il faut. Pour ne pas casser le suspense – si tant est qu'il y en ait -, nous dirons qu'elles finissent frappées par un juste coup du sort. Aussi excitant qu'une partie de pêche à la mouche sur un lac suisse.-Chloé S.-

Esta es una historia tierna e inocente, fiera y salvaje, entrañable y cálida, cruel y despiadada.Es una historia tejida con recuerdos, ilusiones y esperanzas, pero teñida también de fracasos, decepciones y derrotas…Es la crónica de una España que la guerra partió en dos… para obligarnos de nuevo a juntarla. Es una historia que nos pertenece un poco a todos… porque entre todos hacemos la Historia.

Desde el desierto del Génesis hasta el asfalto de Nueva York, la figura de Caín navega en el corazón de todos los mortales. Manuel Vicent nos recuerda cómo el perfil del fratricida se funde con nuestra memoria, transgrede el tiempo y vive errante por la tierra reencarnándose en sucesivas figuraciones.

Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Science Fiction Books of Summer 2014 and listed on Buzzfeed's 15 Highly Anticipated Books of 2014, Bald New World asks the question:What if everyone in the world lost their hair?Nick Guan and his friend Larry Chao are a pair of eccentric filmmakers who choose to explore the existential angst of their balding world through cinema. Larry is heir to one of the most lucrative wig companies in the world. Nick is a man who’s trying to make sense of the tatters of his American dream. Taking place throughout China and America, the pair set off on a series of misadventures involving North Korean spies, veterans of an African War, and digital cricket fighters. Their journey leads them to discover some of the darkest secrets behind wig-making and hair in a hairless world."After my heart gives out and I'm on the operating table for emergency surgery, I will have told my physicians and surgeons to replace my heart with Peter Tieryas Liu's Bald New World, or any of his books really, because that's what I think of when I think of Liu's writing-heart. Similar to the work of Philip K. Dick, this parodic dystopia is steeped in futuristic technology that further bridges the gap between man and machine. Still, whether watching the latest episode of the immensely popular reality show Jesus the General or sparring against an opponent in the blood-sport known as cricket fighting, the humanity of our narrator shines through. Although we humans are capable of doing and creating sad, funny, glorious, devious things, we also persevere and adapt, survive. I wonder what Huxley would think of this, but he's dead. You're not, so read this book, feel alive."— Jason Jordan, author of Pestilence, editor of decomP"The boldly imaginative Bald New World follows Nicholas Guan, a military type tasked to digitally touch up scenes of carnage, in his misadventures from Korea to a futuristic California and in his frenzied dash from Gamble Town to China. The novel tells of beautifully flawed characters, the blurring distinction between reality and virtual environments, the comical yet chilling wave of religious fanaticism, and a world battling a strange malady called the Great Baldification, an ingenious symbol of human vanity. Peter Tieryas Liu’s Bald New World is vivid, exhilarating, and wildly entertaining." — Kristine Ong Muslim, author of We Bury the Landscape and Grim Series"Bald New World is a hypnotic, surreal, and insightful novel, blending Blade Runner and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to create a dark, funny, and captivating story. One of the best books I've read this year." — Richard Thomas, Staring Into the Abyss

Ball is the thrilling and emotionally provocative debut collection of short fiction by the acclaimed author of the novels Rockaway and A Child Out of Alcatraz and the essay collection Reeling through Life.Ball explores the darker edges of love and sex and death, how they are intimately and often violently connected, with bright, vivid stories set mostly in contemporary Los Angeles. In “Cactus,” a young girl comes to fear the outside world following the freakish, accidental death of her adventure-seeking, naturalist boyfriend in the California desert; in “Wig,” a woman must help her best friend face life-threatening cancer while covering up an unseemly affair with her friend’s husband; in “Fish,” the narrator sits watch over a dying uncle, trying to pay for past sins while administering to his final needs, but distracted by the ravenous fish in the Koi pond near the hospital; and in the collection’s stunning title story, the bonds of friendship and pet ownership collide in the most startling and unexpected ways.With a keen insight into the edges of human behavior and an assured literary hand, Ball is the new book by one of the West’s most provocative stylists.

From the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, a “brilliant...enchanting novel” (New York Times Book Review) of romance, deceit, religion, and magic set in eighteenth-century Portugal at the height of the Inquisition. National bestseller.

Set in early 18th-century Portugal, this novel tells the story of the love between Baltasar, a soldier who lost a hand in the wars, and Blimunda, whose mother died at the hands of the Inquisition.