Published posthumously in 1995, Mrs. Ted Bliss tells the story of an eighty-two-year-old widow starting life anew after the death of her husband. As Dorothy Bliss learns to cope with the mundane rituals of life in a Florida retirement community, she inadvertently becomes involved with a drug kingpin trying to use her as a front for his operations. Combining a comic plot with a deep concern for character, Elkin ends his career with a vivid portrait of a woman overcoming loss, a woman who is both recognizable and as unique as Elkin's other famous characters.

Ágil y sutil pero profunda, brillante y divertida, Muerte entre poetas es un auténtico logro narrativo que encandilará a los lectores. Una historia deliciosa que hace un guiño a las viejas novelas de Agatha Christie y a las guerras literarias de Pío Baroja.Lo que debía ser un encuentro ritual entre prestigiosos miembros de las letras nacionales se convierte en algo turbador al aparecer asesinado de una puñalada en el corazón uno de los poetas participantes. Nacho Arán, poeta y meteorólogo, llega al congreso poco después de que se haya producido el crimen, por lo que está libre de sospecha y podrá dedicarse a husmear entre el resto de los asistentes. Pronto descubrirá que casi todos ellos tienen algo contra el muerto, y se dará cuenta de que el refinamiento intelectual y la supuesta sofisticación de la cultura no sirven como vacuna contra el mal y las pasiones violentas, contra el odio y el deseo de venganza…

Premio Eugenio Nadal 1962

Este gigantesco maratn sexual es un proceso de aprendizaje, de conocimiento, en el que Bukowski no escatima sarcsticas observaciones de s mismo, y en el que el machismo de textos anteriores queda seriamente erosionado; todo ello unido a incontables borracheras.Bukowski parace sugerir que las alternativas – una carrera ms respetable, literaria o la que fuese – son an ms deshumanizadas.

Gabriela y Juana, madre e hija, viven los años de la guerra civil en una ciudad castellana cuyo ambiente les resulta incómodo y asfixiante. Gabriela se ha quedado viuda, su marido ha sido fusilado por sus ideas republicanas y subsiste dando clases en la escuela privada, ya que no tiene acceso a la pública debido a sus ideas políticas, hasta que decide aceptar la proposición de matrimonio que le hace Octavio, un misterioso millonario mexicano que se llevará a madre e hija a su hacienda de Puebla. Allí, lejos del núcleo de exiliados españoles, va transcurriendo la vida de ambas mujeres. Sobre un fondo de sucesos históricos, evocados a la luz nostálgica de la memoria y del desgarro del exilio, asistimos a la intensa relación de Gabriela y Juana, al amor de la hija por su madre, oscilante entre la dependencia y la rebeldía. Juana evoluciona hacia un mundo de deseos y proyectos que choca con la hermética personalidad de la madre, austera y enlutada, marcada por la mística del deber y un puritanismo laico de raíces castellanas. Juana, que rechaza por instinto el pesimismo vital de las mujeres de negro que han habitado su vida, después de varios años de exilio decide regresar al Madrid de la posguerra y se integra a una universidad que ensaya sus primeros conatos de rebeldía

Las mujeres de Rosas ha sido el pretexto para reconstruir algunas biografías femeninas del siglo XIX sobre la base del material relativamente abundante que existe en lo que se refiere a la época de Rosas. Como era habitual en ese tiempo, estas señoras escribieron muchas cartas -parte de las cuales permanece inédita- y como eran personas estrechamente vinculadas con el dictador, sus historias interesaron a mucha gente. Por otra parte, en los archivos de sucesiones, se guardan algunos de sus secretos. Todo esto permite recuperar a través de la historia de un hombre prominente y de su círculo el peso de las mujeres en la historia social del poder.Sería presuntuoso pretender que Agustina, Encarnación, Manuela, Eugenia y Josefa, las protagonistas de los cinco capítulos de este libro, puedan servir de prototipos femeninos. Fueron solamente seres particulares y únicos, pero además condicionadas por el medio en que nacieron y se educaron. Ricas o pobres, luchadoras, ganadoras o sometidas, sus vidas merecen ser reconstruidas con el respeto que se debe a quienes amaron, sufrieron y murieron antes que nosotros, pero con algo del humor y de la ironía que forma parte inseparable de la narración histórica.La biografía tiene un encanto indudable, especialmente cuando se ocupa de esa parte olvidada de la gran historia, las mujeres, en este caso las más próximas a Juan Manuel de Rosas. Ellas han sido mi compañía intelectual en el curso de un año en el que las realidades políticas y económicas azotaron de manera implacable al país que en otro tiempo fue el suyo, esta tierra nuestra en la que entonces y ahora se viven desventuras y esperanzas.Debo agradecer a los muchos amigos que colaboraron con estas páginas, especialmente a los que dieron generosamente documentos o pistas historiográficas logradas con años de trabajo y de búsqueda: Juan Isidro Quesada, Juan M. Méndez Avellaneda y Enrique Mayochi. A José M. Massini Ezcurra, descendiente de esas familias patricias. A María Esther de Miguel y a Juan Ruibal, que leyeron los originales. A Marta Pérez Extrach, que aportó su valiosa biblioteca. Al director del Archivo de Tribunales. Y a los infatigables empleados del Archivo General de la Nación que, escaleras mediante, superaron con buena voluntad las deficiencias técnicas.

“Multiple Choice is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered before. Reading this book is a wonderfully disconcerting and unforgettable experience.” —Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name“There is no writer like Alejandro Zambra, no one as bold, as subtle, as funny. Multiple Choice is his most accomplished work yet. This book is not to be missed.” —Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk In CirclesA masterful, pioneering new work of fiction by “Latin America’s new literary star” (The New Yorker)The works of Alejandro Zambra, “the most talked-about writer to come out of Chile since Bolaño” (New York Times Book Review), are distinguished by their striking originality, their brevity, their strangeness, and their flouting of narrative convention. Now, at the height of his powers, Zambra returns with a book that is the natural extension of these qualities: Multiple Choice.Written in the form of a standardized test, Multiple Choice invites the reader to complete virtuoso language exercises and engage with short narrative passages via multiple-choice questions that are thought-provoking, usually unanswerable, and often absurd. It offers a new kind of reading experience, one where the reader participates directly in the creation of meaning. Full of humor, melancholy, and anger, Multiple Choice is about love and family; privacy and the limits of closeness; how a society is affected by the legacies of the past; and the conviction that, rather than learning to think, we are trained to obey and repeat. Serious in its literary ambition but playful in its execution, Multiple Choice confirms Alejandro Zambra as one of the most important writers working in any language.

The Classic Freewheeling Look at Race Relations Through the Ages.Mumbo Jumbo is Ishmael Reed's brilliantly satiric deconstruction of Western civilization, a racy and uproarious commentary on our society. In it, Reed, one of our preeminent African-American authors, mixes portraits of historical figures and fictional characters with sound bites on subjects ranging from ragtime to Greek philosophy. Cited by literary critic Harold Bloom as one of the five hundred most significant books in the Western canon, Mumbo Jumbo is a trenchant and often biting look at black-white relations throughout history, from a keen observer of our culture.

The Classic Freewheeling Look at Race Relations Through the Ages.Mumbo Jumbo is Ishmael Reed's brilliantly satiric deconstruction of Western civilization, a racy and uproarious commentary on our society. In it, Reed, one of our preeminent African-American authors, mixes portraits of historical figures and fictional characters with sound bites on subjects ranging from ragtime to Greek philosophy. Cited by literary critic Harold Bloom as one of the five hundred most significant books in the Western canon, Mumbo Jumbo is a trenchant and often biting look at black-white relations throughout history, from a keen observer of our culture.

An American living in London receives a phone call from a German policewoman telling him the nearly inconceivable news that his sister, Miriam, has been found dead in her Berlin apartment — from starvation. Three weeks later the man, his father, and an American consular official named Trish find themselves in the bizarre surroundings of a fogbound Munich Airport, where Miriam's coffin is set to be loaded onto a commercial jet and returned to America.Greg Baxter's bold, mesmeric novel tells the story of these three people over the course of three weeks, as they wait for Miriam's body to be released, grieve over her incomprehensible death, and try to possess a share of her suffering — and her yearning and grace.MUNICH AIRPORT is a novel for our time, a work of richness, gravity, and dark humor. Following his acclaimed American debut, MUNICH AIRPORT marks the establishment of Greg Baxter as an important new voice in literature — one who has already drawn comparisons to masters such as Kafka, Camus, Bernhard, and Murakami.

Paul Theroux, one of the world’s most popular authors, both for his travel books and his fiction, has produced an off-beat story of 1960s weirdos unlike anything he has ever written.During the time of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, Herbie Gneiss is forced to leave college to get a job. His income from the Kant-Brake toy factory, which manufactures military toys for children, keeps his chocolate-loving mother from starvation. Mr. Gibbon, a patriotic veteran of three wars, also works at Kant-Brake. When Herbie is drafted, Mr. Gibbon falls in love with Herbie’s mother and they move in together at Miss Ball’s rooming house. Since Herbie is fighting for his country, Mr. Gibbon feels that he, too, should do something for his country and convinces Miss Ball and Mrs. Gneiss to join him in the venture. They decide to rob the Mount Holly Trust Company because it is managed by a small dark man who is probably a communist. There are some complications. Combine Donald E. Westlake with Abby Hoffman, add a bit of Gore Vidal at his most vitriolic, and you will have Murder in Mount Holly.

The hottest young voices in urban literature and New York Times bestselling authors of 'The Cartel' series, Ashley JaQuavis now bring you ''Murderville'' – the first book in a highly anticipated new trilogy.Two children from Sierra Leone, Liberty and A'shai, are brought together by chance, only to be forced apart by the most inevitable and tragic fate. Ashley JaQuavis bring us this classic love story set against modern life's most horrifying realities.Liberty is dying of a fatal heart condition, though she desperately wants to survive until her twenty-fifth birthday, when her sister has promised to visit her. A'shai blames himself for not protecting Liberty, but all Liberty asks is for A'shai to tell her a story, to help her remember what brought them to this point. He knows that this is the last story he will ever tell-and the last she will ever hear.As Liberty lies dying, A'shai walks her through their past, reliving their ill-fated journeys through the streets. Their story will take them from an arranged marriage, through Mexico's drug cartel, child brothels, and hustling in Detroit, to escaping the high-powered heads of LA ' underworld. But ultimately, this is a story of love and redemption that will leave you breathless from the unpredictable and mind-blowing ending.

“[Murmur] is as bracingly intelligent as it is brave…. [Eaves] knows that Turing’s theories of consciousness have implications for fiction, and that fiction can operate at the frontiers of what we know about the workings of our minds.”

—Guardian

“Murmur is a fully achieved literary experiment, digging deep into all the dimensions of human consciousness.”

—Goldsmiths Prize judge’s citation

“[Murmur] is masterful—compassionate, principled, and moving. It is deeply wise, with the aching loneliness of both human indignity and dignity, despair and courage.”

—Anne Michaels, author of Fugitive Pieces and All We Saw

“A really extraordinary book, unlike any other.”

—Max Porter, author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers

In Murmur, a hallucinatory masterwork, Will Eaves invites us into the brilliant mind of Alec Pryor, a character inspired by Alan Turing. Turing, father of artificial intelligence and pioneer of radical new techniques to break the Nazi Enigma cipher during World War II, was later persecuted by the British state for “gross indecency with another male” and forced to undergo chemical castration. Set during the devastating period before Turing’s suicide, Murmur evokes an extraordinary life, the beauty and sorrows of love, and the nature of consciousness.

Literary Awards:

Wellcome Book Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2019)

Goldsmiths Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2018)

Republic of Consciousness Prize (2019)

Szóste wydanie debiutu książkowego Andrzeja Stasiuka. Proza więzienna. Jeden z krytyków nazwał te opowiadania epifaniami spod celi.

From the publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux: a first novel, at once hilarious and tender, about the decades-long rivalry between two publishing lions, and the iconic, alluring writer who has obsessed them both.Paul Dukach is heir apparent at Purcell & Stern, one of the last independent publishing houses in New York, whose shabby offices on Union Square belie the treasures on its list. Working with his boss, the flamboyant Homer Stern, Paul learns the ins and outs of the book trade — how to work an agent over lunch; how to swim with the literary sharks at the Frankfurt Book Fair; and, most important, how to nurse the fragile egos of the dazzling, volatile authors he adores.But Paul's deepest admiration has always been reserved for one writer: poet Ida Perkins, whose audacious verse and notorious private life have shaped America's contemporary literary landscape, and whose longtime publisher — also her cousin and erstwhile lover — happens to be Homer’s biggest rival. And when Paul at last has the chance to meet Ida at her Venetian palazzo, she entrusts him with her greatest secret — one that will change all of their lives forever.Studded with juicy details only a quintessential insider could know, written with both satiric verve and openhearted nostalgia, Muse is a brilliant, haunting book about the beguiling interplay between life and art, and the eternal romance of literature.

Winner of FC2’s American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize.A monogrammed cube appears in your town. Your landlord cheats you out of first place in the annual Christmas decorating contest. You need to learn how to love and care for your mate — a paring knife. These situations and more reveal the wondrous play and surreal humor that make up the stories in Amelia Gray’s stunning collection of stories: Museum of the Weird.Acerbic wit and luminous prose mark these shorts, while sickness and death lurk amidst the humor. Characters find their footing in these bizarre scenarios and manage to fall into redemption and rebirth. Museum of the Weird invites you into its hallways, then beguiles, bewitches, and reveals a writer who has discovered a manner of storytelling all her own.

Paul and Elaine have two boys and a beautiful home, yet they find themselves thoroughly, inexplicably stuck. Obsessed with 'making things good again', they spin the quiet terrors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens well and truly out of control. As A. M. Homes's incendiary novel unfolds, the Kodacolor hues of the American good life become nearly hallucinogenic: from a strange and hilarious encounter on the floor of the pantry with a Stepford-wife neighbour, to a house-cleaning team in space suits, to a hostage situation at the school. Homes lays bare the foundations of marriage and family life, and creates characters outrageously flawed, deeply human and entirely believable.

Named one of the must-read books of the summer by The Chicago Tribune, O Magazine, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and The L MagazineRebecca Makkai’s first two novels, The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, have established her as one of the freshest and most imaginative voices in fiction. Now, the award-winning writer, whose stories have appeared in four consecutive editions of The Best American Short Stories, returns with a highly anticipated collection bearing her signature mix of intelligence, wit, and heart.A reality show producer manipulates two contestants into falling in love, even as her own relationship falls apart. Just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young boy has a revelation about his father’s past when a renowned Romanian violinist plays a concert in their home. When the prized elephant of a traveling circus keels over dead, the small-town minister tasked with burying its remains comes to question his own faith. In an unnamed country, a composer records the folk songs of two women from a village on the brink of destruction.These transporting, deeply moving stories — some inspired by her own family history — amply demonstrate Makkai’s extraordinary range as a storyteller, and confirm her as a master of the short story form.

A superb new novel by the author of Dreams of My Russian Summersand Requiem for a Lost Empire,set in the period just before, and two decades after, World War II.“Makine is without doubt one of the greatest living writers. Music of a Life proves it.” -Le Figaro( France)A brief but extraordinarily powerful novel by the author of Dreams of My Russian Summersand Requiem for a Lost Empire, Music of a Lifeis set in the period just before, and two decades after, World War II.Alexeï Berg’s father is a well-known dramatist, his mother a famous opera singer. But during Stalin’s reign of terror in the 1930s they, like millions of other Russians, come under attack for their presumed lack of political purity. Harassed and proscribed, they have nonetheless, on the eve of Hitler’s war, not yet been arrested. And young Alexeï himself, a budding classical pianist, has been allowed to continue his musical studies. His first solo concert is scheduled for May 24, 1941.Two days before the concert, on his way home from his final rehearsal, he espies his parents being arrested, taken from their Moscow apartment. Knowing his own arrest will not be far behind, Alexeï flees to the country house of his fiancée, where again betrayal awaits him. He flees, one step ahead of the dreaded secret police until, taking on the identity of a dead soldier, he enlists in the Soviet army. Thus begins his seemingly endless journey, through war and peace, until he lands, two decades later, in a snowbound train station in the Urals, where he relates his harrowing saga to the novel’s narrator.Music of a Lifehas been Andreï Makine’s biggest bestselling novel internationally since Dreams of My Russian Summers.It is, in the words of France’s most distinguished daily newspaper Le Monde,“extremely powerful… a gem.”