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How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken: Essays
by Daniel MendelsohnThe New York Times–bestselling critic uses his training as a classicist to tackle contemporary films, theater, literature, and more in 30 elegant essays.Whether he’s on Broadway or at the movies, considering a new bestseller or revisiting a literary classic, Daniel Mendelsohn’s judgments over the past fifteen years have provoked and dazzled with their deep erudition, disarming emotionality, and tart wit. Now How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken reveals all at once the enormous stature of Mendelsohn’s achievement and demonstrates why he is considered one of our greatest critics. Writing with a lively intelligence and arresting originality, he brings his distinctive combination of scholarly rigor and conversational ease to bear across eras, cultures, and genres, from Roman games to video games.His interpretations of our most talked-about films—from the work of Pedro Almodóvar to Brokeback Mountain, from United 93 and World Trade Center to 300, Marie Antoinette, and The Hours—have sparked debate and changed the way we watch movies. Just as stunning and influential are his dispatches on theater and literature, from The Producers to Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, from The Lovely Bones to the works of Harold Pinter. Together these thirty brilliant and engaging essays passionately articulate the themes that have made Daniel Mendelsohn a crucial voice in today’s cultural conversation: the aesthetic and indeed political dangers of imposing contemporary attitudes on the great classics; the ruinous effect of sentimentality on the national consciousness in the post-9/11 world; the vital importance of the great literature of the past for a meaningful life in the present.How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken makes it clear that no other contemporary thinker is as engaged with as many aspects of our culture and its influences as Mendelsohn is, and no one practices the vanishing art of popular criticism with more acuity, humor, and feeling.Praise for How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken “These essays richly repay the time readers spend in their company.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Like fine banquet fare: Some items to be wolfed down, some savored slowly, some best stored in the fridge for a later day.” —Kirkus Reviews
Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater
by William T. Vollmann“Intrepid journalist and novelist William T. Vollman’s colossal body of work stands unsurpassed for its range, moral imperative, and artistry.”—BooklistWilliam T. Vollmann, the National Book Award–winning author of Europe Central, offers a charming, evocative, and piercing examination of the ancient Japanese tradition of Noh theatre and the keys it holds to our modern understanding of beauty. Kissing the Mask is the first major book on Nohby an American writer since the 1916 publication the classic study Pisan Cantos and the Noh by Ezra Pound. But Kissing the Mask is pure Vollman—illustrated with photos by the author with provocative related side-discussions on femininity, transgender, kabuki, pornography, geishas, and more.
The Burlesque Handbook
by Jo WeldonThe Burlesque Handbook is the essential manual to understanding and performing both classic and neo-burlesque. Written by Jo Weldon, award-winning founder of the New York School of Burlesque, this book features easy-to-follow suggestions and exercises for developing stage-worthy confidence, presence, and sexiness. You'll learn about the fabulous makeup, costumes—including pasties!—moves, grooves, and attitudes of burlesque. The Burlesque Handbook is the must-have guide for everyone interested in this vibrant and wildly popular performance art, providing inspiration and practical information that readers can take straight from the page to the stage!
Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir
by Joe Layden Dave MustaineNew York Times BestsellerFounding member, singer, and lead guitarist of Metallica and Megadeath shares the ultimate, unvarnished story behind his involvement in the rise of two of the world’s most influential heavy metal bands in history. Dave Mustaine is the first to admit that he’s bottomed out a few times in his dark and twisted speed metal version of a Dickensian life. From his soul-crushing professional and artistic setbacks to his battle with addiction, Mustaine has hit rock bottom on multiple occasions. April 1983 was his lowest point, when he was unceremoniously fired from Metallica for his hard-partying ways. But, what seemed to be the end of it all was just the beginning for the guitarist. After parting ways with Metallica, Mustaine went on to become the front man, singer, songwriter, guitarist (and de facto CEO) for Megadeath—one of the most successful metal bands in the world. A pioneer of the thrash metal movement, Megadeath rose to international fame in the 1980s, and has gone on to earn seven consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance. In this outrageously candid memoir, one of heavy metal’s most iconic figures gives an insider’s look into the loud and sordid world of thrash metal—sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll included.
The Collected Plays of Paul Rudnick
by Paul RudnickThe definitive collection of theatrical hilarity by one of America’s preeminent playwrights and humoristsThe New York Times has proclaimed that “line by line, Mr. Rudnick may be the funniest writer for the stage in the United States today.” Now, this collection of his plays will remind readers far and wide of the great influence that Paul Rudnick’s comic genius has had on the world of American theater.Here are I Hate Hamlet, the play that marked Rudnick’s Broadway debut; Jeffrey, the long-running off-Broadway smash about gay life during the AIDS crisis of the early ’90s; as well as five other onstage gems enlivened by Rudnick’s signature rapier wit.The Collected Plays of Paul Rudnick is a must-have item for any fan of this theatrical master—and a necessary addition to all courses in dramatic literature.
The Last Anniversary: A Novel
by Liane MoriartyFrom Liane Moriarty, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Big Little Lies and Truly Madly Guilty, comes an unforgettable novel defined by her signature sharp wit, page-turning storyline, and lovable and eccentric characters.Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one who got away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was going to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie's house on Scribbly Gum Island—home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery.Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family, where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions.As Sophie's life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around—and come up with your own fairy-tale ending.
By Myself and Then Some
by Lauren BacallThe epitome of grace, independence, and wit, Lauren Bacall continues to project an audacious spirit and pursue on-screen excellence. The product of an extraordinary mother and a loving extended family, she produced, with Humphrey Bogart, some of the most electric and memorable scenes in movie history. After tragically losing Bogart, she returned to New York and a brilliant career in the theatre. A two-time Tony winner, she married and later divorced her second love, Jason Robards, and never lost sight of the strength that made her a star.Now, thirty years after the publication of her original National Book Award–winning memoir, Bacall has added new material to her inspiring history. In her own frank and beautiful words, one of our most enduring actresses reveals the remarkable true story of a lifetime so rich with incident and achievement that Hollywood itself would be unable to adequately reproduce it.
Elia Kazan: A Biography
by Richard Schickel“No mere page-turner, this is a page-devourer, generating the kind of suspense that is usually the province of the playwright or novelist.” —The New York Times Book ReviewFew figures in film and theater history tower like Elia Kazan. Born in 1909 to Greek parents in Istanbul, Turkey, he arrived in America with incomparable vision and drive, and by the 1950s he was the most important and influential director in the nation, simultaneously dominating both theater and film. His productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman reshaped the values of the stage. His films—most notably On the Waterfront—brought a new realism and a new intensity of performance to the movies. Kazan’s career spanned times of enormous change in his adopted country, and his work affiliated him with many of America’s great artistic moments and figures, from New York City’s Group Theatre of the 1930s to the rebellious forefront of 1950s Hollywood; from Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy to Marlon Brando and James Dean.Ebullient and secretive, bold and self-doubting, beloved yet reviled for “naming names” before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Kazan was an individual as complex and fascinating as any he directed. Noted film historian and critic Richard Schickel illuminates much more than a single astonishing life and life’s work: He pays discerning tribute to the power of theater and film, and casts a new light on six crucial decades of American history.Includes photographsA New York Times Notable Book“Magnificent.” —The Washington Post“Unsparingly thorough.” —Publishers Weekly“Remarkably insightful.” —Martin Scorsese“Vividly conveys the director’s potent personality: his exuberance, relentless work ethic, and frank assessments of the fleeting nature of fame.” —Booklist (starred review)
The Heiress of Water: A Novel
by Sandra Rodriguez BarronWhen young Monica Winters Borrero loses her luminous mother in an accident at sea, she is exiled from the tropical paradise that was her home. Grieving and cut off from a life among El Salvador's elite, Monica and her American father move to Connecticut, vowing never to look back.Years later, an intriguing stranger, who has endured a terrible loss of his own, enters Monica's life, bearing an unusual request. Monica is propelled back to her lost world, retracing the shadowy last days of her mother, a marine scientist who had been on the brink of understanding the therapeutic applications of a rare, venomous sea creature. Now, her research is being corrupted by a secret clinic that claims the power to restore consciousness to the comatose.What Monica discovers will shatter the family's delicate truce with the past, and compel everyone involved to challenge their deepest notions of what it means to be alive. Atmospheric, thought-provoking, and timely. The Heiress of Water is a stunning parable of paradise lost and found.
Caribou Island: A Novel
by David Vann“Dazzling…. Vann knows the darkness but he writes from the compassionate light of art. This is an essential book.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain“Exceptional….An unflinching portrait of bad faith and bad dreams.” —Ron Rash, author of Burning BrightSet against the backdrop of Alaska’s unforgiving wilderness, Caribou Island is David Vann’s dark and captivating tale of a marriage pulled apart by rage and regret. With this eagerly anticipated debut novel, a masterful follow-up to his internationally bestselling short fiction anthology, Legend of a Suicide, Vann takes up the mantle of Louise Erdrich, Marilyn Robinson, and Rick Moody, delivering a powerfully wrought, enthrallingly emotional narrative of struggle and isolation.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: An Oral/Visual History
by The ChiliThe Red Hot Chili Peppers is the iconic band's audacious look back at their thirty-year odyssey—in their own words and accompanied by more than 300 spectacular photos and ephemera. Intimate, breathtaking, and outrageous, this is the essence of the Red Hot Chili Peppers."I am struck with the moments of these photos, the feelings of the times they were taken, and where we were at on our beautiful and happy-sad journey. It's pretty fucking heavy, actually, like thinking how much we have changed over the years, and all the different dynamics of our lives that shaped us, and also realizing so clearly that nothing has changed at all—we're all still just trying to get it on, make something great."It is all here, nothing can hide: all the honesty, the pretense, the courage and one-of-a-kind-ness, the unbridled joy, the melancholy, and the shields we put up to shelter our scared, vulnerable little selves."—Flea
Hollywood vs. America: The Explosive Bestseller that Shows How—and Why—the Entertainment Industry has Broken Faith with Its Audience
by Michael MedvedWhy does our popular culture seem so consistently hostile to the values that most Americans hold dear? Why does the entertainment industry attack religion, glorify brutality, undermine the family, and deride patriotism? In this explosive book, one of the nation's best known film critics examines how Hollywood has broken faith with its public, creating movies, television, and popular music that exacerbate every serious social problem we face, from teenage pregnancies to violence in the streets. Michael Medved powerfully argues that the entertainment business follows its own dark obsessions, rather than giving the public what it wants: In fact, the audience for feature films and network television has demonstrated its profound disillusionment in recent years, with disastrous consequences for many entertainment companies. Meanwhile, overwhelming numbers of our fellow citizens complain about the wretched quality of our popular culture--describing the offerings of the mass media as the worst ever. Medved asserts that Hollywood ignores--and assaults--the values of ordinary American families, pursuing a self-destructive and alienated ideological agenda that is harmful to the nation at large and to the industry's own interests. In hard-hitting chapters on "The Attack on Religion," "The Addiction to Violence," "Promoting Promiscuity," "The Infatuation with Foul Language," "Kids Know Best," "Motivations for Madness," and other subjects, Medved outlines the underlying themes that turn up again and again in our popular culture. He also offers conclusive evidence of the frightening real-world impact of these messages on our society and our children. Finally, Medved shows where and how Hollywood took a disastrous wrong turn toward its current crisis, and he outlines promising efforts both in and outside the industry to restore a measure of sanity and restraint to our media of mass entertainment.Sure to elicit strong response, whether it takes the form of cheers of support or howls of enraged dissent, Hollywood vs. America confronts head-on one of the most significant issues of our times.
How to Eat a Cupcake: A Novel
by Meg Donohue“An irresistible blend of sweet and tart, this book is truly a treat to be savored.”—Beth Kendrick, author of The Bake Off and Second Time Around“A sparkling, witty story about an unlikely, yet redemptive, friendship….Grab one of these for your best friend and read it together—preferably with a plate of Meyer Lemon cupcakes nearby.”—Katie Crouch, bestselling author of Girls in Trucks and Men and DogsAuthor Meg Donohue has cooked up an absolutely scrumptious debut novel, How to Eat a Cupcake, that explores what happens when two childhood friends, Annie and Julia, reconnect as adults and decide to open a cupcakery. But success in their new baking business venture will depend upon their overcoming old betrayals, first loves, and an unexpected and quite dangerous threat. Donohue’s How to Eat a Cupcake is contemporary women’s fiction at its smartest, sweetest, and most satisfying, joining the ranks of The Recipe Club, The School for Essential Ingredients, and Joanne Harris’s classic Chocolat by proving once again that fiction and food make an unbeatable combination.
The Shakespeare Guide to Italy
by Richard Paul RoeRichard Paul Roe spent more than twenty years traveling the length and breadth of Italy on a literary quest of unparalleled significance. Using the text from Shakespeare's ten "Italian Plays" as his only compass, Roe determined the exact locations of nearly every scene in Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, The Tempest, and the remaining dramas set in Italy. His chronicle of travel, analysis, and discovery paints with unprecedented clarity a picture of what the Bard must have experienced before penning his plays. Equal parts literary detective story and vivid travelogue-containing copious annotations and more than 150 maps, photographs, and paintings-The Shakespeare Guide to Italy is a unique, compelling, and deeply provocative journey that will forever change our understanding of how to read the Bard . . . and irrevocably alter our vision of who William Shakespeare really was.
A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare's Plays Teach Us About Justice
by Kenji Yoshino“Fascinating....Loaded with perceptive and provocative comments on Shakespeare’s plots, characters, and contemporary analogs.”—Justice John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court of the United States“Kenji Yoshino is the face and the voice of the new civil rights.”—Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickled and DimedA Thousand Times More Fair is a highly inventive and provocative exploration of ethics and the law that uses the plays of William Shakespeare as a prism through which to view the nature of justice in our contemporary lives. Celebrated law professor and author Kenji Yoshino delves into ten of the most important works of the Immortal Bard of Avon, offering prescient and thought-provoking discussions of lawyers, property rights, vengeance (legal and otherwise), and restitution that have tremendous significance to the defining events of our times—from the O.J. Simpson trial to Abu Ghraib. Anyone fascinated by important legal and social issues—as well as fans of Shakespeare-centered bestsellers like Will in the World—will find A Thousand Times More Fair an exceptionally rewarding reading experience.
Splat the Cat: On with the Show (Splat the Cat)
by Rob ScottonSplat the Cat can't wait to be in his school play about castles and kings and queens—maybe he'll even get to play a knight! Will Splat find a way to steal the show? Join him and his classmates for another hilarious Splat the Cat adventure!
The Complete Plays of Sophocles: A New Translation
by Robert Bagg James ScullyThe most celebrated plays of ancient Athens in vivid, dynamic new translations by award-winning poets Robert Bagg & James Scully.The dominant Athenian playwright in fifth-century BCE Athens, Sophocles left us seven powerful dramas that still shock as they render the violence that erupts within divinity and humankind. Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Kolonos, and Antigone trace three generations of a family manipulated by the inscrutably vindictive god Apollo to commit patricide, incest, and kin murder. Elektra and Women of Trakhis begin as studies of women obsessed with hatred and desire but become dissenting critiques of the Greeks’ enthusiasm for revenge and ego-crazed heroics. Two hard-hitting dramas set in war zones, Aias and Philoktetes, use conflicts among Greek warriors at Troy to thrash out political and ethical crises confronting Athenian society itself.These translations, modern in idiom while faithful to the Greek and already proven stageworthy, preserve depth and subtlety of Sophocles’ characters and refresh and clarify his narratives. Their focus on communities under extreme stress still resonates deeply for us here and now. This is Sophocles for a new generation entering the turbulent arena of ancient Greek drama.Praise for The Complete Plays of Sophocles“Bagg’s Oedipus plays and Scully’s remarkable Aias are as finely wrought as one could desire, but they have a spare impact which gets across the moment-by-moment emotion of the plays, and makes plain the moral or political themes.” —Richard Wilbur, former U.S. Poet Laureate, winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize“Bagg and Scully’s renderings strike me as the most performable versions of Sophocles I’ve ever encountered . . . if you’re looking for the translation that best reflects the emotional force and expressive range of the original plays, you would be hard pressed to do better.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
Lot Six: A Memoir
by David Adjmi“David Adjmi has written one of the great American memoirs, a heartbreaking, hilarious story of what it means to make things up, including yourself. A wild tale of lack and lies, galling humiliations and majestic reinventions, this touching, coruscating joy of a book is an answer to that perennial question: how should a person be?” — Olivia Laing, author of Crudo and The Lonely CityIn a world where everyone is inventing a self, curating a feed and performing a fantasy of life, what does it mean to be a person? In his grandly entertaining debut memoir, playwright David Adjmi explores how human beings create themselves, and how artists make their lives into art. Brooklyn, 1970s. Born into the ruins of a Syrian Jewish family that once had it all, David is painfully displaced. Trapped in an insular religious community that excludes him and a family coming apart at the seams, he is plunged into suicidal depression. Through adolescence, David tries to suppress his homosexual feelings and fit in, but when pushed to the breaking point, he makes the bold decision to cut off his family, erase his past, and leave everything he knows behind. There's only one problem: who should he be? Bouncing between identities he steals from the pages of fashion magazines, tomes of philosophy, sitcoms and foreign films, and practically everyone he meets—from Rastafarians to French preppies—David begins to piece together an entirely new adult self. But is this the foundation for a life, or just a kind of quicksand? Moving from the glamour and dysfunction of 1970s Brooklyn, to the sybaritic materialism of Reagan’s 1980s to post-9/11 New York, Lot Six offers a quintessentially American tale of an outsider striving to reshape himself in the funhouse mirror of American culture. Adjmi’s memoir is a genre bending Künstlerroman in the spirit of Charles Dickens and Alison Bechdel, a portrait of the artist in the throes of a life and death crisis of identity. Raw and lyrical, and written in gleaming prose that veers effortlessly between hilarity and heartbreak, Lot Six charts Adjmi’s search for belonging, identity, and what it takes to be an artist in America.
Thornton Wilder: A Life
by Penelope NivenThe definitive biography of the great American playwright: a “fine-grained, sympathetic portrait” with a foreword by Edward Albee (The New York Times).Thornton Wilder—three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, creator of such enduring stage works as Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and beloved novels like Bridge of San Luis Ray and Theophilus North—was much more than a pivotal figure in twentieth century American theater and literature. He was also a traveler, a teacher, a scholar, a soldier, an outspoken citizen, and a complex, intensely private man. In Thornton Wilder: A Life, biographer Penelope Niven pulls back the curtain to present a fascinating portrait one of America's greatest literary icons. With unprecedented access to Wilder's papers, including his family's private journals and records, Niven shows the many sides of this multifaceted man, including his relationship to his two brilliant parents, four gifted siblings, and the specter of his twin brother lost at birth.“Comprehensive and wisely fashioned. . . . A splendid and long needed work.” —Edward Albee, playwright
A Simple Thing: A Novel
by Kathleen McClearyA Simple Thing is a lovely, truly heartwarming novel about the drastic measures two mothers take to keep their families safe. Kathleen McCleary, the critically acclaimed author of House and Home, tells the intertwining stories of Susannah Delaney and Betty Pavalak. Susannah moves her family to remote Sounder Island—a primitive retreat with no electricity—to escape television, the internet, and the dangerous, corrupting influences of the modern technological world. Decades earlier, Betty also came to the island to escape her demons. A Simple Thing is a poignant and unforgettable novel in the vein of Jacqueline Sheehan’s Lost and Found and The Art of Saying Goodbye by Ellyn Bache. It is a tale of family and friendship that Kristin Hannah fans will take into their hearts.
Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva
by Deborah VoigtInternationally beloved opera star Deborah Voigt recounts her harrowing and ultimately successful private battles to overcome the addictions and self-destructive tendencies that nearly destroyed her life.Call Me Debbie is one of the most electrifying performances of Deborah Voigt’s life. The brilliantly gifted opera soprano takes us behind the velvet curtains to tell her compelling story—a tale of success, addiction, music, and faith as dramatic as any role she has performed. For the first time, she talks about the events that led to her dangerous gastric bypass surgery in 2004 and its shocking aftermath: her substantial weight loss coupled with the “cross addiction” that led to severe alcoholism, frightening all-night blackouts, and suicide attempts. Ultimately, Voigt emerged from the darkness to achieve complete sobriety, thanks to a twelve-step program and a recommitment to her Christian faith.Colored by hilarious anecdotes and juicy gossip that illuminate what really goes on backstage, Voigt paints diverting portraits of the artists with whom she’s worked, her most memorable moments onstage, and her secrets to great singing. She also offers fascinating insight into the roles she’s played and the characters she loves, including Strauss’s Ariadne and Salome, Puccini’s Minnie, and Wagner’s Sieglinde, Isolde, and Brünnhilde, sharing her intense preparation for playing them.Filled with eight pages of color photos, Call Me Debbie is an inspirational story that offers a unique look into the life of a modern artist and a remarkable woman.
with their eyes: September 11th
by Annie ThomsA deeply moving play remembering September 11, 2001, written by high school students who witnessed the tragedy unfold.A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age“Profound.” —Booklist“Moving.” —Publishers Weekly“Rings with authenticity and resonates with power.” —School Library JournalTuesday, September 11, started off like any other day at Stuyvesant High School, located only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center.The semester was just beginning, and the students, faculty, and staff were ready to start a new year. But within a few hours on that Tuesday morning, they would share an experience that would transform their lives—and the lives of all Americans.This powerful play by the students of Stuyvesant High School remember those who were lost and those who were forced to witness this tragedy. Here, in their own words, are the firsthand stories of a day we will never forget. This collection helped shape the HBO documentary In the Shadow of the Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11.For dramatic rights, please visit http://permissions.harpercollins.com/.
You & Me
by Padgett PowellPadgett Powell, author of the acclaimed The Interrogative Mood and “one of the few truly important American writers of our time” (Sam Lipsyte), returns with a hilarious Southern send-up of Samuel Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot. Truly a master of envelope-pushing, post-postmodern American fiction, in a class with Nicholas Baker and Lydia Davis, Powell brilliantly blends the sublime, the trivial, and the oddball in You & Me, as two loquacious gents on a porch discuss all manner of subjects, from the mundane to the spiritual to the downright ridiculous. At once outrageously funny and profound, You & Me is yet another brilliant, boundary-bursting masterwork, proving once again that, “there are few writers who understand both the beauty and the absurdity of language as well as Padgett Powell” (Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang) and that, “Padgett Powell is one of the best writers in America, and one of the funniest, t
Lean on Pete: A Novel
by Willy VlautinWilly Vlautin's award-winning novel follows the story of a newly orphaned fifteen-year old-boy struggling to make his way to a long lost aunt, who just might give him a home—now a major motion picture starring Chloë Sevigny (American Horror Story), Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire) and Travis Fimmel (Warcraft) and directed by Andrew Haigh (45 Years, Looking).Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, Charley's been pretty much on his own. When tragic events leave him homeless weeks after their move to Portland, Oregon, Charley seeks refuge in the tack room of a run-down horse track. Charley's only comforts are his friendship with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete and a photograph of his only known relative. In an increasingly desperate circumstance, Charley will head east, hoping to find his aunt who had once lived a thousand miles away in Wyoming—but the journey to find her will be a perilous one.In Lean on Pete, Willy Vlautin reveals the lives and choices of American youth like Charley Thompson who were failed by those meant to protect them and who were never allowed the chance to just be a kid.“The writing is spare and straightforward. . . . There is intensity in Vlautin’s narration, and also beauty and power . . . Vlautin’s major accomplishment lies in posing a damning question: How could we, as a society, have allowed this to happen?”— Seattle Times
Women of Trakhis
by SophoclesAmong the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Women of Trakhis is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet Robert Bagg. A powerful drama centered on a desperate wife’s attempts to hold onto her wandering husband, the great Herakles, Women of Trakhis is the tragic tale of how age-old jealousy takes down one of the ancient world’s most feared and storied heroes. This is Sophocles, vibrant and alive, for a new generation.