MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING – serie

Kurt Cobain burst into American consciousness with a vengeance with the release of Nevermind, an instant classic that defined a sound and a generation. As the lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana, he changed American music as few musicians ever have. His instantly identifiable raspy croon, his slash-and-burn guitar playing, and his corrosive and poetic lyrics made him a hero to a generation of lost souls. Three years later, he was dead of suicide, leaving a meteoric career and a cultural influence that would never wane. In interviews Cobain was funny, thoughtful, sarcastic, impassioned, and even ... kind. This collection of interviews provides a look at a man who was too often misunderstood.

The Italy Letters is a slim, powerful shot of literary fantasia from one of America's best-kept secrets. Long a cult favourite, visionary writer Vi Khi Nao weaves an unforgettable and highly distinctive story of a love affair suffused with longing, erotic passion, and heartbreak - all while painting a picture of the scabby underside of Las Vegas. This beautiful and mesmerizing novel by a queer Vietnamese American writer is a brilliant and unclassifiable work of fiction that takes the form of a series of letters written by the unnamed narrator to her lover in Italy... part of a stream-of-consciousness narrative that is by turns poignant, bawdy, funny, and disturbing - and often beautifully poetic. The story touches, obliquely but powerfully, on the immigrant experience, LGBTQIA identity, social class in the academy, writing, betrayal, sex, and homesickness. The narrator is in the process of caring for her declining mother, who is both deteriorating in health but remains imperious - not perhaps an uncommon dynamic, and one that is sketched with great compassion, humour, and yes, exasperation. The result is an authentically distinctive piece of writing from an underrated writer on the cusp.