Grove Atlantic – förlag

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Legends of the Fall: a beautifully crafted story of one woman''s journey to find her son. From her home on the California coast, Dalva hears the broad silence of the Nebraska prairie where she was born and longs for the son she gave up for adoption years before. Beautiful, fearless, tormented, at forty-five she has lived a life of lovers and adventures. Now, Dalva begins a journey that will take her back to the bosom of her family, to the half-Sioux lover of her youth, and to a pioneering great-grandfather whose journals recount the bloody annihilation of the Plains Indians. On the way, she discovers a story that stretches from East to West, from the Civil War to Wounded Knee and Vietnam—and finds the balm to heal her wild and wounded soul. One of Harrison''s most ambitious novels, Dalva explores an extraordinary family through the strong, engaging voice of an unforgettable woman, confirming Harrison as one of America''s most memorable writers. "There is no putting aside Dalva until the time bombs go off, the identities are revealed, and the skeletons almost literally tumble from the closets . . . Dalva is suspended in its own beauty." —Louise Erdrich, Chicago Tribune

From the author of Night Train to Lisbon: a father''s story about his daughter unravels "[a] tale of grief, fraud, guilt and madness . . . Revelatory" (The New York Times Book Review). Pascal Mercier''s international bestseller Night Train to Lisbon mesmerized readers around the world, and was adapted into a film starring Jeremy Irons. Now, in Lea, Mercier returns with a mysterious tale of a father''s love and a daughter''s ambition in the wake of devastating tragedy. It starts with the death of Martijn van Vliet''s wife. Grief-stricken, his young daughter Lea retreats into the darkness of mourning. Then she hears the unfamiliar sound of a violin being played in the hall of a train station, and she is brought back to life—vowing to learn the instrument. Martijn, witnessing this delicate spark, promises to do everything in his power to keep her happy. But as Lea blossoms into a musical prodigy, her relationship with her father starts to disintegrate. Desperate to hold on to her, Martijn is pushed to commit an act that threatens to destroy them both. A revelatory portrait of artistic genius and madness, Lea delves into the damaging power of jealousy as well as the poignant ways we strive to understand our families and ourselves. A New York Times Book Review Paperback Row Selection

"[The] book makes you care what happens to its main protagonist, the U.S. Postal Service itself. And, as such, it leaves you at the end in suspense." —USA Today Founded by Benjamin Franklin, the United States Postal Service was the information network that bound far-flung Americans together, and yet, it is slowly vanishing. Critics say it is slow and archaic. Mail volume is down. The workforce is shrinking. Post offices are closing. In Neither Snow Nor Rain, journalist Devin Leonard tackles the fascinating, centuries-long history of the USPS, from the first letter carriers through Franklin''s days, when postmasters worked out of their homes and post roads cut new paths through the wilderness. Under Andrew Jackson, the post office was molded into a vast patronage machine, and by the 1870s, over seventy percent of federal employees were postal workers. As the country boomed, USPS aggressively developed new technology, from mobile post offices on railroads and airmail service to mechanical sorting machines and optical character readers. Neither Snow Nor Rain is a rich, multifaceted history, full of remarkable characters, from the stamp-collecting FDR, to the revolutionaries who challenged USPS''s monopoly on mail, to the renegade union members who brought the system—and the country—to a halt in the 1970s. "Delectably readable . . . Leonard''s account offers surprises on almost every other page . . . [and] delivers both the triumphs and travails with clarity, wit and heart." —Chicago Tribune

A road trip novel of three desperate souls fueled by drugs, alcohol, and delusions—from the New York Times–bestselling author of Legends of the Fall. The author of thirty-nine books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, Jim Harrison was one of our most beloved and acclaimed writers, adored by both readers and critics. His novel, A Good Day to Die, centers on an unlikely trio: a poet with a tendency to lapse into beatific reveries of superb fishing in cold, fast streams; a Vietnam vet consumed by uppers, downers, and violence; and a girl who loved only one of them—at first. With plans conceived during the madness of one long drunken night, the three of them leave Florida, driving west to buy a case of dynamite, determined to save the Grand Canyon from a dam they believe is about to be built. A Good Day to Die is an unrelenting tour de force, and a dark exploration of what it means to live beyond the pale in contemporary America. "Mr. Harrison''s perceptions are jagged and cutting . . . A remarkably well-plotted story." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

"A sensitive, powerful love story about a man on the cutting edge of life." —Richard Brautigan In Farmer, Jim Harrison tells the story of Joseph, a forty-three-year-old farmer-schoolteacher who suddenly finds himself at a crossroads. Forced to choose between two lovers one a tantalizing young student, the other his beautiful childhood friend he must also decide whether or not to stay on the farm or finally seek the wider, more worldly horizons he has avoided all his life. Farmer is a wondrous blend of insight, storytelling, and the author''s uncanny ability to evoke the mysteries and beauties of the natural world. "A beautiful novel", Farmer serves as the perfect introduction to Harrison''s remarkable insight, storytelling, and evocation of the natural world (The Boston Globe). "A quiet triumph . . . Yes, it is the old story again. Taking it and making it new, as Harrison has done, is a miracle on the order of the loaves and fishes. But then so are all good novels." —The Washington Post

A "feisty, passionate novel" (Newsday) from a writer whose "storytelling instincts are nearly flawless" (The New York Times). The New York Times–bestselling author of thirty-nine books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry including Legends of the Fall, Dalva, and Returning to Earth, Jim Harrison was one of our most beloved and acclaimed writers, adored by both readers and critics. Sundog is a powerful novel about the life and loves of a foreman named Robert Corvus Strang, who worked on giant dam projects around the world until he was crippled in a fall down a three-hundred-foot dam. Now as he tries to regain use of his legs, he has a chance to reassess his life, and a blasé journalist who has heard of Strang''s reputation in the field arrives to draw him out about his various incarnations. Strang, who has the violently heightened sensibilities of a man who has gone to the limits and back, recounts his monumental life moving from Michigan to Africa and the Amazon, including his several marriages and children, and dozens of lovers, Sundog is a story as true and gripping as real life, and ultimately as victorious.

Twenty-five years of essays from one of America''s most prolific and acclaimed writers, the New York Times–bestselling author of Legends of the Fall. The bestselling author of thirty-nine books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—including Dalva and Returning to Earth—Jim Harrison was one of our most beloved and acclaimed writers, adored by both readers and critics. In Just Before Dark, Harrison''s essays and articles have been selected from twenty-five years of work, from venues as diverse as Playboy, The Nation, Outside, and the American Poetry Review. They explore the passions and concerns of a classic American writer—from ice fishing to bar pool, nouvelle cuisine and night walks—with keen insight and great humanity. It is an exceptional reminder of why Harrison was one of our most cherished and important writers. "One of the most interesting and entertaining bodies of work by any writer of his generation." —Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune

The international bestseller and winner of the Campiello Prize for Literature—"Moving and lyrical writing . . . Belongs in the canon of great war fiction" (Paste Magazine). Andrea Molesini''s exquisite debut novel portrays the depths of heroism and horror within a Northern Italian village toward the end of World War I. While a family''s villa is requisitioned by enemy troops, they are forced to intimately confront war''s injustice as their involvement with its sinister underpinnings grows more and more complex. In the autumn of 1917, Refrontolo—a small community north of Venice—is invaded by Austrian soldiers as the Italian army is pushed to the Piave River. The Spada family owns the largest estate in the area, where orphaned seventeen-year-old Paolo lives with his eccentric grandparents, headstrong aunt, and a loyal staff. With the battlefront nearby, the Spada home becomes a bastion of resistance, both clashing and cooperating with the military members imposing on their household. When Paolo is recruited to help with a covert operation, his life is put in irrevocable jeopardy. As he bears witness to violence and hostility between enemies, he grows to understand the value of courage, dignity, family bonds, and patriotism during wartime. "Wonderfully alive—often terribly so—as a wartime adventure and story of youth arriving at manhood." —The New York Times Book Review "War and Peace meets The Leopard in a novel set among Italian aristocrats during the Great War . . . Rich and moving." —The Wall Street Journal

A "contagiously exuberant" celebration of Italian food, culture, and history that "will be the companion of visitors for years to come" (The Washington Post Book World). In an absorbing journey down the Italian peninsula, essayist, journalist, and fiction writer Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, offers a fascinating mixture of history, politics, folklore, food, architecture, arts, and literature, studded with local anecdotes and personal reflections. From fashionable Milan to historic Rome and primitive, brooding Calabria, Harrison reveals her country of origin in all its beauty, peculiarity, and glory. Italian Days is the story of a return home; of friends, family, and faith; and of the search for the good life that propels all of us on our journeys wherever we are. "Harrison''s wonderful journal will make you update your passport and dream of subletting your job, home, etc. . . . With Harrison, you never know with whom you''ll be lunching, or climbing down a ruin. You just know you want to be there." —Glamour

“In this carefully wrought coming-of-age memoir, a young American writer searches for home in an unlikely place: East Berlin immediately after the fall of the wall.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review   Rob Spillman—the award-winning, charismatic cofounding editor of the legendary Tin House magazine—has devoted his life to the rebellious pursuit of artistic authenticity. Born in Germany to two driven musicians, his childhood was spent among the West Berlin cognoscenti, in a city two hundred miles behind the Iron Curtain. There, the Berlin Wall stood as a stark reminder of the split between East and West, between suppressed dreams and freedom of expression.   After an unsettled youth moving between divorced parents in disparate cities, Spillman would eventually find his way into the literary world of New York City, only to abandon it to return to Berlin just months after the Wall came down. Twenty-five and newly married, Spillman and his wife, the writer Elissa Schappell, moved to the anarchic streets of East Berlin in search of the bohemian lifestyle of their idols. But Spillman soon discovered he was chasing the one thing that had always eluded him: a place, or person, to call home. In his intimate, entertaining, and heartfelt memoir, Spillman narrates a colorful, music-filled coming-of-age portrait of an artist’s life that is also a cultural exploration of a shifting Berlin.   “With wry humor and wonder, Spillman beautifully captures the deadpan hedonism of the East Berliners and the city’s sense of infinite possibility.” —The New York Times Book Review   “A thrilling portrait of the artist as intrepid young adventure seeker.” —Vanity Fair   “Convivial, page-turning . . . Spillman’s life is a good one to read.” —The Washington Post

In this “witty, perceptive novel”, a young woman moves to Tokyo and encounters the world of university enrollment and impending adulthood (Elle).   Banana Yoshimoto’s novels of young life in Japan have made her an international sensation. Goodbye Tsugumi is an offbeat story of a deep and complicated friendship between two female cousins that ranks among her best work. Maria is the only daughter of an unmarried woman. She has grown up at the seaside alongside her cousin Tsugumi, a lifelong invalid, charismatic, spoiled, and occasionally cruel. Now Maria’s father is finally able to bring Maria and her mother to Tokyo, ushering Maria into a world of university, impending adulthood, and a “normal” family. When Tsugumi invites Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth as Tsugumi finds love and Maria learns the true meaning of home and family. She also has to confront both Tsugumi’s inner strength and the real possibility of losing her. Goodbye Tsugumi is a beguiling, resonant novel from one of the world’s finest young writers.

The acclaimed debut of Japan''s "master storyteller" (Chicago Tribune). With the publication of Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, the literary world realized that Banana Yoshimoto was a young writer of enduring talent whose work has quickly earned a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. Kitchen is an enchantingly original book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father) Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart. In a whimsical style that recalls the early Marguerite Duras, Kitchen and its companion story, Moonlight Shadow, are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a very special writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul. "Lucid, earnest and disarming . . . [It] seizes hold of the reader''s sympathy and refuses to let go." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“The definitive solutions-based book for all those questioning why hunger still exists when there is such an abundance of food.” —The Huffington Post, “Food Tank’s 2015 Recommended Fall Reading List”   From bestselling authors Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins comes the twenty-first century’s authoritative book on world hunger. Lappé and Collins refute the myths that prevent us from addressing the root causes of hunger across the globe. World Hunger: 10 Myths draws on extensive new research to offer fresh, often startling, insights about tough questions—from climate change and population growth to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the role of US foreign aid, and more.   Brimming with little-known but life-changing examples of solutions to hunger worldwide, this myth-busting book argues that sustainable agriculture can feed the world, that we can end nutritional deprivation affecting one-quarter of the world’s people, and that most in the Global North have more in common with hungry people than they thought. For novices and scholars alike, World Hunger: 10 Myths will inspire a whole new generation of hunger-fighters.   “World Hunger . . . should become not only a book for study, but a guide to action.” —Noam Chomsky

A pair of thematically linked novellas from the acclaimed author of Lizard, Amrita, and Goodbye Tsugumi. In cherished novels such as Kitchen and Goodbye Tsugumi, Banana Yoshimoto''s warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and bestseller status. Her insightful, spare vision returns in two novellas possessed by the ghosts of love found and lost. In Hardboiled, the unnamed narrator is hiking in the mountains on an anniversary she has forgotten about, the anniversary of her ex-lover''s death. As she nears her hotel—stopping on the way at a hillside shrine and a strange soba shop—a sense of haunting falls over her. Perhaps these eerie events will help her make peace with her loss. Hard Luck is about another young woman, whose sister is dying and lies in a coma. Kuni''s fiancé left her after the accident, but his brother Sakai continues to visit, and the two of them gradually grow closer as they make peace with the impending loss of their loved one. Yoshimoto''s voice is clear, assured, and deeply moving, displaying again why she is one of Japan''s, and the world''s, most beloved writers. "A sparkling book." —The Washington Post

"Twenty-nine oral histories and additional excerpts, selected from 2000 interviews with former slaves conducted in the 1930s for a WPA Federal Writers Project, document the conditions of slavery that . . . lie at the root of today''s racism." —Publishers Weekly In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration commissioned an oral history of the remaining former slaves. Bullwhip Days is a remarkable compendium of selections from these extraordinary interviews, providing an unflinching portrait of the world of government-sanctioned slavery of Africans in America. Here are twenty-nine full narrations, as well as nine sections of excerpts related to particular aspects of slave life, from religion to plantation life to the Reconstruction era. Skillfully edited, these chronicles bear eloquent witness to the trials of slaves in America, reveal the wide range of conditions of human bondage, and provide sobering insight into the roots of racism in today''s society. "Remarkably articulate . . . vivid, moving, and beautifully cadenced." —The New Yorker

"The compelling story of the squadron of adventurous young American pilots who were among the first to engage in air combat." —Tampa Bay Times In First to Fly, lauded historian Charles Bracelen Flood draws on rarely seen primary sources to tell the story of the daredevil Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille, who flew in French planes, wore French uniforms, and showed the world an American brand of heroism before the United States entered the Great War. As citizens of a neutral nation from 1914 to early 1917, Americans were prohibited from serving in a foreign army, but many brave young souls soon made their way into European battle zones. It was partly from the ranks of the French Foreign Legion, and with the sponsorship of an expat American surgeon and a Vanderbilt, that the Lafayette Escadrille was formed in 1916 as the first and only all-American squadron in the French Air Service. Flying rudimentary planes, against one-in-three odds of being killed, these fearless young men gathered reconnaissance and shot down enemy aircraft, participated in the Battle of Verdun and faced off with the Red Baron, dueling across the war-torn skies like modern knights on horseback. "First to Fly shows us that there was something noble and honorable about the Escadrille, men who did not turn against their own country but put their lives up to fight for a cause, not because they had to but because it was the right thing to do." —The Wall Street Journal

In this follow-up to her acclaimed memoir Lakota Woman, the bestselling author shares "a grim yet gripping account" of Native American life (The Boston Globe). In this stirring sequel to the now-classic Lakota Woman, Mary Brave Bird continues the chronicle of her life with the same grit, passion, and piercing insight. It is a tale of ancient glory and present anguish, of courage and despair, of magic and mystery, and, above all, of the survival of both body and mind. Having returned home from Wounded Knee in 1973 and gotten married to American Indian movement leader Leonard Crow Dog, Mary became a mother who had hope of a better life. But, as she says, "Trouble always finds me." With brutal frankness she bares her innermost thoughts, recounting the dark as well as the bright moments in her tumultuous life. She talks about the stark truths of being a Native American living in a white-dominated society as well as her experience of being a mother, a woman, and, rarest of all, a Sioux feminist. Filled with contrasts, courage, and endurance, Ohitika Woman is a powerful testament to Mary''s will and spirit.

"Adrenaline-pumping . . . [A] polished action mystery . . . [with] dazzling Arctic sights." —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review Winner of the Macavity Award and the Anthony Award Murder on the Iditarod Trail is a gripping mystery set during Alaska''s world-famous Iditarod: a grueling eleven-hundred-mile dogsled race across hazardous Arctic terrain. It is an arduous sport, but not a deadly one. But suddenly the top Iditarod contestants are dying in bizarre ways: first a veteran musher smashes into a tree, then competitors begin turning up dead, with each murder more brutal than the last. State trooper Alex Jensen begins a homicide investigation, determined to track down the killer before more blood stains the pristine Alaskan snow. Meanwhile, Jessie Arnold, Alaska''s premier female musher, has a shot at winning for the first time. But as her position in the race improves, so do her chances of being the killer''s next target. As the mushers thread their way through the treacherous trails, Jessie and Jensen are drawn deep into the frozen heart of the perilous wild: where nature can kill as easily as a bullet and only the Arctic night can hear your final screams. "Engrossing . . . The howling winds, the snow, the ice, the dancing away from wolves, the crazing fatigue, the welcome heat and food, are almost palpable." —Los Angeles Times Book Review "Excellent . . . well-paced, well-conceived, engrossing . . . moves along like a healthy, well-trained dog team." —The Anchorage Times "A book that will give you a feel for how the Iditarod is . . . Sue Henry has a genius for characterization, plot, and setting." —Mystery News

A "splendidly written, impeccably researched, and perfectly fascinating" look at clandestine operations from colonial times to the Cuban Missile Crisis (The Washington Post Book World). We''ve always depended on intelligence gathering to drive foreign policy in peacetime and command decision in war—but that work has often taken place in the shadows. Honorable Treachery fills in these details in our national history, dramatically recounting every important intelligence operation from our nation''s birth into the early 1960s. Among numerous other stories, the book recounts how in 1795, President Washington mounted a covert operation to ransom American hostages in the Middle East; how in 1897, Kaiser Wilhelm II''s plans for an invasion of the United States were stopped by the director of the US Office of Naval Intelligence; and how President Woodrow Wilson created a secret agency called the Inquiry to compile intelligence for the peace negotiations at the end of World War I. From a Pulitzer Prize finalist who himself worked for the CIA, Honorable Treachery puts America''s use of covert intelligence into a broader historical context, providing a unique insight into the secret workings of our country. "O''Toole offers fascinating information generally unrecorded in traditional diplomatic and military histories." —Library Journal

"A cross between The Player, The Day of the Locust, and Sunset Boulevard . . . A gritty, bizarre, yet all-too-believable Tinseltown epic." —Detour Ray Burk is a disillusioned network censor struggling to break into the business as a screenwriter. But it''s the drama of his personal life that occupies him most—as his unbalanced wife Sandra and neglected son grow more and more detached from the real world. Trying to make sense of it all, Burk spends days on marathon drives through Los Angeles, cruising from one idea to the next in hopes of making it rich. Then Ray crosses paths with a young victim of a Hollywood dream turned nightmare. Her story is one of vengeance and dark secrets, and Ray can''t resist its infernal pull. But in a world of make-believe, his descent into the twilight underworld of the City of Angels may be too real to escape. Taking us beyond the shimmering marquees of Hollywood into back streets strewn with the fallout of fame and fortune, "Stars Screaming is an astonishing debut. I couldn''t put it down" (Anne Lamott, New York Times–bestselling author of Hallelujah Anyway).

"Wolfe does an exemplary job of detailing the ceremonies performed at Mecca and the reasons behind them . . . Highly recommended." —Library Journal, starred review This updated and expanded edition of One Thousand Roads to Mecca collects significant works by observant travel writers from the East and West over the last ten centuries—including two new contemporary narratives—creating a comprehensive, multifaceted literary portrait of the enduring tradition. Since its inception in the seventh century, the pilgrimage to Mecca has been the central theme in a large body of Islamic travel literature. Beginning with the European Renaissance, it has also been the subject for a handful of adventurous writers from the West who, through conversion or connivance, managed to slip inside the walls of a city forbidden to non-Muslims. These very different literary traditions form distinct impressions of a spirited conversation in which Mecca is the common destination and Islam the common subject of inquiry. Along with an introduction by Reza Aslan, featured writers include Ibn Battuta, J. L. Burckhardt, Sir Richard Burton, the Begum of Bhopal, John F. Keane, Winifred Stegar, Muhammad Asad, Lady Evelyn Cobbald, Jalal Al-e Ahmad, and Malcolm X. One Thousand Roads to Mecca is a historically, geographically, and ethnically diverse collection of travel writing that adds substantially to the literature of Islam and the West. "Serves as an excellent introduction to a religion, people, culture, and philosophy." —Santa Cruz Sentinel

"Lynn Pruett provides, by turns, a sensual, humorous, heart-breaking and uplifting look at life in a small Alabama town." —New Haven Advocate Hailed as "a triumph" by the Lexington Herald-Leader, Ruby River drops us into a small town during a blistering Alabama summer. Hattie Bohannon has just opened a truck stop—a magnet for transients of questionable background and inclination, some say, and an uneasy presence in tradition-bound, gossipy Maridoches. Hattie is quietly mourning her recently dead husband and trying to determine the contours of herself alone, but too often her strong-willed daughters—whose burgeoning sexuality is attracting attention from the truck-stop patrons—keep her at loose ends. Then Hattie''s oldest daughter, Jessamine, is falsely accused of prostitution, and the reverend conveniently declares war against the immorality of the Bohannons and their establishment. Lynn Pruett deftly weaves the struggles of Hattie, her daughters, and members of the community into a tapestry of individuals desperately trying to deny the conflicting urges of flesh and spirit, progress and tradition. In the manner of beloved contemporary writers such as Fannie Flagg and Rebecca Wells, Lynn Pruett''s glorious tale—rich with the feel and flavor of the South—captures the struggle for the very soul of a community suddenly forced to look at itself in a new light. "A first novel in the grand tradition of southern women writers." —Planet Weekly

"This is the first book to show the sweeping change among American women in this century, and to do so in an irresistible, intimate, and popular way." —Gloria Steinem The women in this landmark work of oral history are from diverse ethnic, geographic, and social backgrounds, and they tell stories about all aspects of their lives, from their professional and romantic experiences to sex discrimination and their own realized or unrealized aspirations. As in the best oral history, the stories these women candidly tell are vivid and often poignantly detailed. We hear accounts of rural, chore-filled childhoods at the beginning of the century, of contemporary teens without curfews, of dates that began with a chat with father in the parlor, of the sexual liberation of the 1960s, of women who worked in factories during World War II, of those who were pioneers in their professions, and of women who today struggle heroically to balance the demands of marriage or single mothering, work, and children. Sweeping in scope, and yet rooted in the details, emotions, and dilemmas of everyday life, the journey women have traveled over the century here becomes all the more dramatic, the transformation they have undergone all the more remarkable. Generations is a celebration of this transformation in all its complexity, an embracing and vibrant family scrapbook that belongs to all American women. "Generations tells us both how far we have come and how far we have yet to go." —Ruth Sidel, author of Unsung Heroines: Single Mothers and the American Dream

"Pages of dreamlike prose explore Estonia''s terrible Nazi-Soviet past, the trauma of dictatorship, and how memory processes that trauma." —The Financial Times A Times Literary Supplement Best Book of the Year Just like it was taken for granted that houses could be abandoned and slowly decay, so it was taken for granted that people died in prisons, and that it was possible that no-one would really ever know the cause of death. This is the nature of totalitarianism . . . In the early 1990s, after  the collapse of the USSR, Sigrid Rausing completed her anthropological fieldwork on the peninsula of Noarootsi, a former Soviet border protection zone in Estonia. Abandoned watch towers dotted the coast line, and the huge fields of the Lenin collective farm were lying fallow, waiting for claims from former owners who had fled war and Soviet and Nazi occupation. Rausing''s conversations with the local people touched on many subjects: the economic privations of post-Soviet existence, the bewildering influx of western products, and the Swedish background of many of them. In Everything Is Wonderful Rausing reflects on history, political repression, and the story of the minority Swedes in the area. Here she tells her story of what she observed as she lived and worked among the villagers—witnessing their transition from repression to freedom, and from Soviet neglect to post-Soviet austerity. "A delicate, precise, and richly informative memoir of a forgotten Europe and a vanished world." —Timothy Garton Ash

This collection of novellas featuring the titular Indian underscores Jim Harrison''s place as one of America''s most irrepressible writers. A New York Times–bestselling author Jim Harrison is one of America''s most beloved writers, and of all his creations, Brown Dog, a bawdy, reckless, down-on-his-luck Michigan Indian, has earned cult status with readers in the decades since his first appearance. Brown Dog gathers all the Brown Dog novellas, including one never-published one, into one volume—the ideal introduction (or reintroduction) to Harrison''s irresistible Everyman. In these novellas, BD rescues the preserved body of an Indian from Lake Superior''s cold waters; overindulges in food, drink, and women while just scraping by in Michigan''s Upper Peninsula; wanders Los Angeles in search of an ersatz Native activist who stole his bearskin; adopts two Native children; and flees the authorities, then returns across the Canadian border aboard an Indian rock band''s tour bus. The collection culminates with He Dog, never before published, which finds BD marginally employed and still looking for love (or sometimes just a few beers and a roll in the hay), as he goes on a road trip from Michigan to Montana and back, arriving home to the prospect of family stability and, perhaps, a chance at redemption.

"As the . . . first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra did groundbreaking work to bring our government into the 21st century." —President Barack Obama Over the last twenty years, our economy and our society, from how we shop and pay our bills to how we communicate, have been completely revolutionized by technology. As Aneesh Chopra shows in Innovative State, once it became clear how much this would change America, a movement arose around the idea that these same technologies could reshape and improve government. But the idea languished, and while the private sector innovated, our government stalled, trapped in a model designed for the America of the 1930s and 1960s. The election of Barack Obama offered a new opportunity. In 2009, Aneesh Chopra was named the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States federal government. Previously the Secretary of Technology for Virginia and managing director for a health care think tank, Chopra was tasked with leading the administration''s initiatives for a more open, tech-savvy government. In Innovative State, Chopra offers an absorbing look at how open government can establish a new paradigm for the Internet era and allow us to tackle our most challenging problems, from economic development to affordable health care. "With inspiring stories and clear insights, [Chopra] provides a playbook for open innovations that work both in the public and the private sector." —Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Steve Jobs

A "wonderfully evocative" caper novel for fans of Donald E. Westlake and Elmore Leonard—"a signal pleasure for crime-fiction aficionados" (Booklist). New Jersey, 1967. Angelo DiNoto is a powerful crime lord who bolsters his empire by importing pure heroin from an old Turkish farmer. But when a five-million-dollar shipment goes missing during the Newark riots, DiNoto isn''t the only one to turn over every rock—and bust some heads, arms, and legs—to find it. A shady developer sees the heroin as the key to rejuvenating his fading business. His daughter Gloria, literally in bed with a band of wannabe revolutionaries, thinks the stash could be her chance to escape her father''s influence and impress the woman she truly loves. "The Mailman" is a longtime postal clerk who''s survived the worst that life has to offer—until throat cancer robs him of his voice and the will to live. To him, the drugs are a ticket to a better place. Topping off the wild cast of characters running through Newark and Manhattan is Walkaway Kelly, a private eye and Hell''s Kitchen barfly who teeters continually on the brink of redemption. A twisty, thrilling crime story whose disparate threads converge in an unforgettable showdown, The Old Turk''s Load is "a marvel of Chandleresque plotting, with a deeply felt and utterly real ''60s setting and a heart as big as all outdoors" (Luc Sante, author of Low Life and Kill All Your Darlings).

"A rollicking history of the telephone system and the hackers who exploited its flaws." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Before smartphones, back even before the Internet and personal computers, a misfit group of technophiles, blind teenagers, hippies, and outlaws figured out how to hack the world''s largest machine: the telephone system. Starting with Alexander Graham Bell''s revolutionary "harmonic telegraph," by the middle of the twentieth century the phone system had grown into something extraordinary, a web of cutting-edge switching machines and human operators that linked together millions of people like never before. But the network had a billion-dollar flaw, and once people discovered it, things would never be the same. Exploding the Phone tells this story in full for the first time. It traces the birth of long-distance communication and the telephone, the rise of AT&T''s monopoly, the creation of the sophisticated machines that made it all work, and the discovery of Ma Bell''s Achilles'' heel. Phil Lapsley expertly weaves together the clandestine underground of "phone phreaks" who turned the network into their electronic playground, the mobsters who exploited its flaws to avoid the feds, the explosion of telephone hacking in the counterculture, and the war between the phreaks, the phone company, and the FBI. The product of extensive original research, Exploding the Phone is a groundbreaking, captivating book that "does for the phone phreaks what Steven Levy''s Hackers did for computer pioneers" (Boing Boing). "An authoritative, jaunty and enjoyable account of their sometimes comical, sometimes impressive and sometimes disquieting misdeeds." —The Wall Street Journal "Brilliantly researched." —The Atlantic "A fantastically fun romp through the world of early phone hackers, who sought free long distance, and in the end helped launch the computer era." —The Seattle Times

"A lyrical story of courageous human beings transcending the cruelty and degradation of their slave-holding society." —The Dallas Morning News Winner of the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel PrizeOne of Time Magazine''s "21 Female Authors You Should Be Reading"Named a Best Book of 2013 by The Wall Street JournalA New York Times Editors'' ChoiceAn O, the Oprah Magazine Top Ten Pick In early 1800s Tennessee, two men find themselves locked in an intimate power struggle. Richardson, a troubled Revolutionary War veteran, has spent his life fighting not only for his country but also for wealth and status. When the pressures of westward expansion and debt threaten to destroy everything he''s built, he sets Washington, a young man he owns, to work as his breeding sire. Wash, the first member of his family to be born into slavery, struggles to hold onto his only solace: the spirituality inherited from his shamanic mother. As he navigates the treacherous currents of his position, despair and disease lead him to a potent healer named Pallas. Their tender love unfolds against this turbulent backdrop while she inspires him to forge a new understanding of his heritage and his place in it. Once Richardson and Wash find themselves at a crossroads, all three lives are pushed to the brink. "A masterly literary work . . . Haunting, tender and superbly measured, Wash is both redemptive and affirming." —Major Jackson, The New York Times Book Review