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At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
by George Tenet Bill Harlow#1 New York Times Bestseller: The former CIA director’s “remarkable” personal account of the mistakes and failures that led to 9/11 and the Iraq War (Bob Woodward, The Washington Post).In this candid memoir, George Tenet recounts his time at the Central Intelligence Agency in the dramatic years between 1997 and 2004. With unparalleled access to the highest echelons of government and raw intelligence from the field, he illuminates the CIA’s painstaking attempts to prepare the country against new and deadly threats, disentangles the interlocking events that led to 9/11, and reveals information on the deliberations and strategies that culminated in the invasion of Iraq.Tenet unfolds momentous events as he experienced them: his declaration of war on al-Qa’ida; the CIA’s covert operations inside Afghanistan; the worldwide operational plan to fight terrorists; his warnings of imminent attacks against American interests to White House officials in the summer of 2001; and the plan for a coordinated and devastating counterattack against al-Qa’ida laid down just six days after the attacks.Tenet’s compelling narrative then turns to the run-up to the Iraq War, including a firsthand account of the fallout from the inclusion of “sixteen words” in the president’s 2003 State of the Union address; the true context of Tenet’s own famous “slam dunk” comment regarding Saddam’s WMD program; and the CIA’s critical role in an administration predisposed to take the country to war. In doing so, he sets the record straight about CIA operations and shows that the truth is more complex than many believe.Throughout, Tenet paints an unflinching self-portrait of a man caught between the warring forces of the administration’s decision-making process, the reams of frightening intelligence pouring in from around the world, and his own conscience—in a moving, revelatory profile of both an individual and a nation in crisis, and a revealing look at the inner workings of the world’s most important intelligence organization at an extraordinarily challenging time.“Tenet does not shy away from acknowledging his own responsibility in controversies involving terrorism and the Iraq War, but he also takes several key political leaders to task for scapegoating the intelligence community in the wake of unpopular policy.” —Publishers Weekly
At the Chinese Table: A Memoir With Recipes
by Carolyn PhillipsPart memoir of life in Taiwan, part love story—a beautifully told account of China’s brilliant cuisines…with recipes. At the Chinese Table describes in vivid detail how, during the 1970s and ’80s, celebrated cookbook writer and illustrator Carolyn Phillips crosses China’s endless cultural and linguistic chasms and falls in love. During her second year in Taipei, she meets scholar and epicurean J. H. Huang, who nourishes her intellectually over luscious meals from every part of China. And then, before she knows it, Carolyn finds herself the unwelcome candidate for eldest daughter-in-law in a traditional Chinese family. This warm, refreshingly candid memoir is a coming-of-age story set against a background of the Chinese diaspora and a family whose ancestry is intricately intertwined with that of their native land. Carolyn’s reticent father-in-law—a World War II fighter pilot and hero—eventually embraces her presence by showing her how to re-create centuries-old Hakka dishes from family recipes. In the meantime, she brushes up on the classic cuisines of the North in an attempt to win over J. H.’s imperious mother, whose father had been a warlord’s lieutenant. Fortunately for J. H. and Carolyn, the tense early days of their relationship blossom into another kind of cultural and historical education as Carolyn masters both the language and many of China’s extraordinary cuisines. With illustrations and twenty-two recipes, At the Chinese Table is a culinary adventure like no other that captures the diversity of China’s cuisines, from the pen of a world-class scholar and gourmet.
At the Coalface: My life as a miner's wife
by Catherine Paton BlackGrowing up in a mining family, Cath's husband Doug promised his father he wouldn't follow in his dangerous footsteps. But after struggling with terrible poverty in 1970s Scotland, Doug decided a pit job would provide his wife and young family much needed security, despite extraordinary risks to life and limb. Every day, Cath kissed her husband goodbye, not knowing if she'd see him again as he went to work at the coalface. And while her husband toiled deep below, the mother-of-five put her cooking and cleaning skills to use in the colliery canteen. In good times and bad, the miner's wives pulled together as much as their men underground. Then Thatcher swept to power and suddenly loyalties were tested and a fight for survival of a different kind ensued. One for their very existence.
At the Coalface: My life as a miner's wife
by Catherine Paton BlackGrowing up in a mining family, Cath's husband Doug promised his father he wouldn't follow in his dangerous footsteps. But after struggling with terrible poverty in 1970s Scotland, Doug decided a pit job would provide his wife and young family much needed security, despite extraordinary risks to life and limb. Every day, Cath kissed her husband goodbye, not knowing if she'd see him again as he went to work at the coalface. And while her husband toiled deep below, the mother-of-five put her cooking and cleaning skills to use in the colliery canteen. In good times and bad, the miner's wives pulled together as much as their men underground. Then Thatcher swept to power and suddenly loyalties were tested and a fight for survival of a different kind ensued. One for their very existence.
At the Corner of Past and Future: A Collection of Life Stories
by Pamela Carter JoernWith keen observation and deep reflection, Pamela Carter Joern probes her life. No topic is too small or too sacred, from gutting chickens to Gaudí&’s cathedral. Through a range of experiences—growing up in rural Nebraska, raising children, surviving cancer, becoming a writer—she explores the tenuous link between memory and truth. Joern displays a gift for mining wisdom through surprising connections, juxtaposing her father&’s life to the discoveries of Isaac Newton or the writer&’s task to the ancient art of alchemy. She weds philosophical insight and spiritual imagination and laces this amalgam with candor and wit, resulting in a work that is engaging, intimate, and illuminating.
At the Decisive Point in the Sinai: Generalship in the Yom Kippur War (Foreign Military Studies)
by General Jacob Even Colonel Simcha B. MaozA commander and an officer with the IDF recount their experiences in the Yom Kippur War, offering insight into Israel&’s military leadership.At the Decisive Point in the Sinai is a firsthand account of Operation Stouthearted Men—arguably the 1973 Yom Kippur War&’s most intense engagement. General Jacob Even and Colonel Simcha B. Maoz were key leaders in Major General Ariel Sharon&’s division. Together, Even and Maoz recount the initial stages of the Suez crossing, examine the Israel Defense Forces&’ (IDF) response to Egypt&’s surprise attack, and explain Sharon&’s role in the transition from defense to offense. They detail Sharon&’s struggle to convince his superiors of his plan and argue that an effective division commander is not only revealed by his leadership of subordinates but also by his ability to influence his senior officers. Even and Maoz challenge students of military leadership by offering a case study on effective leadership. &“At the Decisive Point is the single best volume I have ever read on the Yom Kippur War. It bridges the gap between the two standard forms of writing on the 1973 conflict?the memoir and the historical monograph?and does so in a very effective manner.&” —Robert M. Citino, author of The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943 &“The authors&’ work, in sum, presents an interesting and informative account of the Yom Kippur War on the Sinai front.&” —Israel Affairs
At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China
by Edward Wong&“This book&’s power comes from Wong&’s broad sense of the patterns of Chinese history, reflected in the lives of a father and son, and from his ability to toggle effortlessly between the epic and the intimate.&” —Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic&“Edward Wong&’s exquisite family chronicle achieves a level of humane illumination that only one of America&’s finest reporters on China could deliver. In tracing his father&’s journey—from Hong Kong to Xinjiang to America—Wong gives us a profound story of modern China itself. Anyone who once was absorbed by the power of Wild Swans will savor this meditation on memory, history, and belonging.&” —Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition, winner of the National Book AwardOne of Foreign Policy&’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024An epic story of modern China that weaves a riveting family memoir with vital reporting by the New York Times diplomatic correspondentThe son of Chinese immigrants in Washington, DC, Edward Wong grew up among family secrets. His father toiled in Chinese restaurants and rarely spoke of his native land or his years in the People&’s Liberation Army under Mao. Yook Kearn Wong came of age during the Japanese occupation in World War II and the Communist revolution, when he fell under the spell of Mao&’s promise of a powerful China. His astonishing journey as a soldier took him from Manchuria during the Korean War to Xinjiang on the Central Asian frontier. In 1962, disillusioned with the Communist Party, he made plans for a desperate escape to Hong Kong.When Edward Wong became the Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, he investigated his father&’s mysterious past while assessing for himself the dream of a resurgent China. He met the citizens driving the nation&’s astounding economic boom and global expansion—and grappling with the vortex of nationalistic rule under Xi Jinping, the most powerful leader since Mao. Following in his father&’s footsteps, he witnessed ethnic struggles in Xinjiang and Tibet and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. And he had an insider&’s view of the world&’s two superpowers meeting at a perilous crossroads.Wong tells a moving chronicle of a family and a nation that spans decades of momentous change and gives profound insight into a new authoritarian age transforming the world. A groundbreaking book, At the Edge of Empire is the essential work for understanding China today.
At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise That Saved the Union
by Robert V. ReminiIn 1850, America hovered on the brink of disunion. Tensions between slave-holders and abolitionists mounted, as the debate over slavery grew rancorous. An influx of new territory prompted Northern politicians to demand that new states remain free; in response, Southerners baldly threatened to secede from the Union. Only Henry Clay could keep the nation together.At the Edge of the Precipice is historian Robert V. Remini's fascinating recounting of the Compromise of 1850, a titanic act of political will that only a skillful statesman like Clay could broker. Although the Compromise would collapse ten years later, plunging the nation into civil war, Clay's victory in 1850 ultimately saved the Union by giving the North an extra decade to industrialize and prepare. A masterful narrative by an eminent historian, At the Edge of the Precipice also offers a timely reminder of the importance of bipartisanship in a bellicose age.
At the Edge: Riding for My Life
by Danny MacAskill'I've already had my nine lives on the bike...'Danny MacAskill lives on the edge. The cyclist is legendary for his YouTube viral videos like 'The Ridge': nerve-jangling blurs of stunts and speed over towering buildings and mountain peaks. His life is one of thrills, bloody spills and millions of online hits.It hasn't been an easy ride. Fear, stress and the 'what if?' factor circle every trailblazing trick, which require imagination, daredevil techniques and movie-making smarts. He has spent his life pushing the extremes; somehow, he's still around to tell the tale.In this unflinching memoir of mayhem, Danny shares his anarchic childhood on the Isle of Skye and early days as a street trials rider, takes us behind the scenes of his training and videos, and reveals what it takes to go beyond the next level - both mentally and physically.Join Danny for a nerve-shredding ride. Just be sure to bring a crash helmet.
At the End of Ridge Road
by Joseph BruchacAt the End of the Ridge Road traces Joseph Bruchac's path from "nature nut" to jock to writer, to his home at the end of Ridge Road near where he was raised by his grandparents. This colorful memoir from one of our best-known Native American writers explores the links between Bruchac's native Abenaki culture and his long-held views on human dignity and social justice." "Asking readers to remove their watches so they might "live time" rather than be ruled by it, Bruchac tells his own story - one that sits at the crossroads of his Abenaki and European heritage. From the foot of Glass Factory Mountain to the halls of Cornell, from a classroom in West Africa to a start-up literary magazine in a room of his grandfather's home, Bruchac superimposes Native American ways of seeing upon the structure of today's world. Bruchac believes the essential wisdom of native cultures, the balance of nature, and the power of a well-told story each holds ways to avoid humanity's most destructive impulses.
At the End of the Road: Jack Kerouac in Mexico
by Jorge García-Robles&“We had finally found the magic land at the end of the road and we never dreamed the extent of the magic.&” Mexico, an escape route, inspiration, and ecstatic terminus of the celebrated novel On the Road, was crucial to Jack Kerouac&’s creative development. In this dramatic and highly compelling account, Jorge García-Robles, leading authority on the Beats in Mexico, re-creates both the actual events and the literary imaginings of Kerouac in what became the writer&’s revelatory terrain. Providing Kerouac an immediate spiritual freshness that contrasted with the staid society of the United States, Mexico was perhaps the single most important country in his life. Sourcing material from the Beat author&’s vast output and revealing correspondence, García-Robles vividly describes the milieu and people that influenced him while sojourning there and the circumstances between his myriad arrivals and departures. From the writer&’s initial euphoria upon encountering Mexico and its fascinating tableau of humanity to his tortured relationship with a Mexican prostitute who inspired his novella Tristessa, this volume chronicles Kerouac&’s often illusory view of the country while realistically detailing the incidents and individuals that found their way into his poetry and prose. In juxtaposing Kerouac&’s idyllic image of Mexico with his actual experiences of being extorted, assaulted, and harassed, García-Robles offers the essential Mexican perspective. Finding there the spiritual nourishment he was starved for in the United States, Kerouac held fast to his idealized notion of the country, even as the stories he recounts were as much literary as real.
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
by Sarah BakewellGreat philosophy meets powerful biography in this entertaining and immensely readable portrait of mid-20th century Paris and the fascinating characters of Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, and their circle, who loved and hated, drank and debated with each other--and forever changed the way we think about thinking.<P><P> At the Existentialist Café is a thrilling look at the famous group of post-war thinkers who became known as the Existentialists: Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger, and their circle. Starting with Paris after the devastation of the Second World War, Sarah Bakewell (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for her previous book) takes us inside the passionate debates and equally passionate lives of these brilliant, if flawed, characters. Here is a wonderful, vibrant look at the social, artistic and political currents that shaped the existentialist movement--a mode of thinking and being that, as Bakewell vividly shows, deeply affects us today. <P> Never has the story of this influential group, and especially that of the legendary relationship between Sartre and de Beauvoir, been told with such verve and sweep, weaving personal life with social upheaval and the universal quest for understanding.
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
by Sarah BakewellFrom the best-selling author of How to Live, a spirited account of one of the twentieth century’s major intellectual movements and the revolutionary thinkers who came to shape it<P><P> Paris, 1933: three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. “You see,” he says, “if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!”<P> It was this simple phrase that would ignite a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, thereby creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being, and political activism. This movement would sweep through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.<P> Featuring not only philosophers, but also playwrights, anthropologists, convicts, and revolutionaries, At the Existentialist Café follows the existentialists’ story, from the first rebellious spark through the Second World War, to its role in postwar liberation movements such as anticolonialism, feminism, and gay rights. Interweaving biography and philosophy, it is the epic account of passionate encounters—fights, love affairs, mentorships, rebellions, and long partnerships—and a vital investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today, at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility, and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.
At the Helm: My Journey with Family, Faith, and Friends to Calm the Storms of Life
by John H. DaltonFrom modest beginnings to Secretary of the Navy, John Dalton&’s life is an inspirational story filled with successes and failures in both the public and private sectors and how he navigated through them. INSIDE LOOK FROM SOMEONE WHO WAS THERE: Secretary of Navy during major crises including Tailhook, the Naval Academy cheating scandal, &“Don&’t Ask, Don&’t Tell,&” and women serving in the military. WELL-CONNECTED AND RESPECTED PUBLIC SERVANT: Author recounts interactions with such public figures as President Carter, President Clinton, Billy Graham, Roger Staubach, Bill Proxmire, Rahm Emanuel, George Steinbrenner, Lloyd Bentsen, Dianne Feinstein, and Hillary Clinton. Blurbs from some of these notable names included in marketing materials and the interior of the book. PLANNED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS: Author to speak at the Sonoma Valley Authors Festival, Army and Navy Club, Metropolitan Club, and Cosmos Club (all in Washington, DC) and at book parties around the country.
At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War
by Michael Beschloss Strobe TalbottThe landmark story of Bush-Gorbachev diplomacy: &“No one has ever given as complete and compelling an account of the higher reaches of foreign policy&” (Time). December 1989. The Berlin Wall had fallen. Millions across the Eastern Bloc were enjoying new freedoms. And the USSR was falling apart. But the peaceful end of the Cold War was far from assured, requiring the leaders of rival superpowers to look beyond the animosities of the past and embrace an uncertain future. At the Highest Levels is the fascinating story of that unlikely partnership, a real-time exposé of the negotiations between US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Granted extraordinary access to private conversations and closed-door meetings at the Kremlin, White House, Pentagon, CIA, and KGB, Michael Beschloss and Strobe Talbott reveal the high-stakes international diplomacy that ended the nuclear arms race and decades of proxy wars. The result is &“an accurate first draft of the Cold War&’s last days,&” wrote David Remnick in the New Yorker, &“filled with gaudy historical riches.&” Each an acclaimed author in his own right, Beschloss and Talbott together deliver journalism at its best: an &“intimate and utterly absorbing&” record of this critical meeting of minds (The New York Times).
At the Loch of the Green Corrie
by Andrew GreigA homage to a remarkable poet and his world.'At The Loch of Green Corrie is more than merely elegant, more than a collection of albeit fascinating insights, laugh-out-loud observations and impressively broad erudition' - Sunday Herald'You could easily make a case that Andrew Greig has the greatest range of any living Scottish writer' - ScotsmanFor many years Andrew Greig saw the poet Norman MacCaig as a father figure. Months before his death, MacCaig's enigmatic final request to Greig was that he fish for him at the Loch of the Green Corrie; the location, even the real name of his destination was more mysterious still. His search took in days of outdoor living, meetings, and fishing with friends in the remote hill lochs of far North-West Scotland. It led, finally, to the waters of the Green Corrie, which would come to reflect Greig's own life, his thoughts on poetry, geology and land ownership in the Highlands and the ambiguous roles of whisky, love and male friendship. At the Loch of the Green Corrie is a richly atmospheric narrative, a celebration of losing and recovering oneself in a unique landscape, the consideration of a particular culture, and a homage to a remarkable poet and his world.
At the Loch of the Green Corrie
by Andrew GreigA homage to a remarkable poet and his world.'At The Loch of Green Corrie is more than merely elegant, more than a collection of albeit fascinating insights, laugh-out-loud observations and impressively broad erudition' - Sunday Herald'You could easily make a case that Andrew Greig has the greatest range of any living Scottish writer' - ScotsmanFor many years Andrew Greig saw the poet Norman MacCaig as a father figure. Months before his death, MacCaig's enigmatic final request to Greig was that he fish for him at the Loch of the Green Corrie; the location, even the real name of his destination was more mysterious still. His search took in days of outdoor living, meetings, and fishing with friends in the remote hill lochs of far North-West Scotland. It led, finally, to the waters of the Green Corrie, which would come to reflect Greig's own life, his thoughts on poetry, geology and land ownership in the Highlands and the ambiguous roles of whisky, love and male friendship. At the Loch of the Green Corrie is a richly atmospheric narrative, a celebration of losing and recovering oneself in a unique landscape, the consideration of a particular culture, and a homage to a remarkable poet and his world.
At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and Its Realities
by Jean Amery Sidney Rosenfeld Stella P. Rosenfeld"These are pages that one reads with almost physical pain. . . all the way to its stoic conclusion. " --Primo Levi "The testimony of a profoundly serious man. . . . In its every turn and crease, it bears the marks of the true. " --Irving Howe, New Republic "This remarkable memoir. . . is the autobiography of an extraordinarily acute conscience. With the ear of a poet and the eye of a novelist, Amery vividly communicates the wonder of a philosopher--a wonder here aroused by the 'dark riddle' of the Nazi regime and its systematic sadism. " --Jim Miller, Newsweek "Whoever has succumbed to torture can no longer feel at home in the world. The shame of destruction cannot be erased. Trust in the world, which already collapsed in part at the first blow, but in the end, under torture, fully, will not be regained. That one's fellow man was experienced as the antiman remains in the tortured person as accumulated horror. It blocks the view into a world in which the principle of hope rules. One who was martyred is a defenseless prisoner of fear. It is fear that henceforth reigns over him. " --Jean Amery At the Mind's Limits is the story of one man's incredible struggle to understand the reality of horror. In five autobiographical essays, Amery describes his survival--mental, moral, and physical--through the enormity of the Holocaust. Above all, this masterful record of introspection tells of a young Viennese intellectual's fervent vision of human nature and the betrayal of that vision.
At the Narrow Waist of the World: A Memoir
by Marlena Maduro Baraf“With sensitivity and candor, Baraf examines mental illness, immigration, forgiveness, and community—all framed within the precocity of her life’s circumstances.” —Ms. Magazine “At the Narrow Waist of the World is a compelling account of what it is like to live through turbulence and come out on the other side.” —Foreword Clarion Review “Deftly written, impressively candid, insightfully presented, At the Narrow Waist of the World is an extraordinary and memorable read.” —Midwest Book Review “By the end of At the Narrow Waist of the World, we have come to know, admire and even cherish its author in a way few memoirists manage to achieve . . . . ” —Jewish Journal Raised by a lively family of Spanish Jews in tropical and Catholic Panama of the 1950s and 1960s, Marlena depends on her many tíos and tías for refuge from the difficulties of life, including the frequent absences of her troubled mother. As a teenager, she pulls away from this centered world—crossing borders—and begins a life in the United States very different from the one she has known. This lyrical coming-of-age memoir explores the intense and profound relationship between mothers and daughters and highlights the importance of community and the beauty of a large Latin American family. It also explores the vital issues of mental illness and healing, forgiveness and acceptance. At the Narrow Waist of the World examines the author's gradual integration into a new culture, even as she understands that her home is still—and always will be—rooted in another place.
At the Piano with Fauré
by Marguerite LongThe virtuoso pianist and teacher, Marguerite Long, was a great friend of Fauré and the foremost interpreter of his music.
At the Plate With... Ken Griffey Jr.
by Matt ChristopherThis biography of Ken Griffey Jr. includes his stats, and a list of career highlights of the charismatic outfielder. Matt Christopher explores the paths Griffey has traveled, the hardships he has overcome, and the highs and lows of his career.
At the Plate with... Sammy Sosa
by Matthew F ChristopherThroughout the 1998 baseball season, two names made the headlines more than any others: Mark McGwire, the eventual home run king, and Sammy Sosa, the runner-up in a race that won the hearts of baseball fans worldwide. Yet at the end of the day, it was Sosa who walked away with the National League's MVP award, not McGwire. Why? Because Sosa had dug the dismal 1997 Chicago Cubs out of the cellar not just with his home runs, but also with his spectacular all-around play. Yet Sosa's contributions off the field, both in the States and in his native land, the Dominican Republic, are even more impressive. In this powerful biography of one of the most admired sluggers in baseball, Matt Christopher, the number one sports series for kids, traces Sosa's life from his poverty-stricken childhood-when shining shoes put food on the table-to his professional career.
At the Plate with...Ichiro (Matt Christopher)
by Matthew F ChristopherAfter playing the sport he loved in his home country of Japan for 17 years, Ichiro left in 2000 and joined the Seattle Mariners. Would Ichiro succeed in the world's most challenging baseball league? Includes black-and-white photos and players' statistics.
At the Plate with...Marc McGwire (At the Plate with…)
by Matthew F ChristopherAt the start of the 1998 major league baseball season, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire hit a home run. In the games that followed, he did it again. And again. And again. And again. By the end of the season, in late September, he had done the hardest thing in baseball an earth-shattering seventy times. He didn't just break the decades-old single-season home-run record set by Roger Maris in 1961-he shattered it. And by doing so, he not only set a new benchmark for players to strive for, but also reminded people that baseball is fun, a game to be enjoyed, with heroes who play for the love of the sport, not for the love of money. In this powerful biography of the most talked-about man in baseball, Matt Christopher, the number one sports series for kids, explores the slugger's childhood days on the diamond as well as the ups and downs of his college and professional career.
At the Strangers' Gate
by Adam Gopnik'A dazzling talent' Malcolm GladwellWhen Adam Gopnik and his soon-to-be-wife, Martha, left the comforts of home in Montreal for New York, the city then, much like today, was a pilgrimage site for the young, the arty, and the ambitious. But it was also becoming a city of greed, where both life's consolations and its necessities were increasingly going to the highest bidder. At the Strangers' Gate builds a portrait of this particular moment in New York through the story of this couple's journey--from their excited arrival as aspiring artists to their eventual growth into a New York family. Gopnik transports us to his tiny basement room on the Upper East Side, and later to SoHo, where he captures a unicorn: an affordable New York loft. He takes us through his professional meanderings, from graduate student-cum-library-clerk to the corridors of Conde Nast and the galleries of MoMA. Between tender and humorous reminiscences, including affectionate portraits of Richard Avedon, Robert Hughes, and Jeff Koons, among many others, Gopnik discusses the ethics of ambition, the economy of creative capital, and the peculiar anthropology of art and aspiration in New York, then and now.