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NPR Best Books of 2022The Christian Science Monitor 10 Best Books of JuneMost Anticipated Books of 2022: The Millions, Electric Literature, Brittle Paper, Open Country Magazine, Ms. MagazineWinner of the 2020 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, Ethiopian American author Meron Hadero¿s gorgeously wrought stories in A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times offer poignant, compelling narratives of those whose lives have been marked by border crossings and the risk of displacement.Set across the U.S. and abroad, Meron Hadero¿s stories feature immigrants, refugees, and those on the brink of dispossession, all struggling to begin again, all fighting to belong. Moving through diverse geographies and styles, this captivating collection follows characters on the journey toward home, which they dream of, create and redefine, lose and find and make their own. Beyond migration, these stories examine themes of race, gender, class, friendship and betrayal, the despair of loss and the enduring resilience of hope.Winner of the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, ¿The Street Sweep¿ is about an enterprising young man on the verge of losing his home in Addis Ababa who pursues an improbable opportunity to turn his life around. Appearing in Best American Short Stories, ¿The Suitcase¿ follows a woman visiting her country of origin for the first time and finds that an ordinary object opens up an unexpected, complex bridge between worlds. Shortlisted for the 2019 Caine Prize, ¿The Wall¿ portrays the intergenerational friendship between two refugees living in Iowa who have connections to Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. A Best American Short Stories notable, ¿Mekonnen aka Mack aka Huey Freakin¿ Newton¿ is a coming-of-age tale about an Ethiopian immigrant in Brooklyn encountering nuances of race in his new country.Kaleidoscopic, powerful, and illuminative, the stories in A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times expand our understanding of the essential and universal need for connection and the vital refuge of home¿and announce a major new talent in Meron Hadero."Exquisite ¿.Sentences infused with attitude throw gut punches that land with enough power to bring on tears."¿Daphne Kalotay, The Washington Post¿Witty and wistful, complex and heartbreaking, these stories capture lives caught between cultures and continents, past and present, truth and lies. As its displaced characters seek belonging, this collection explores the challenges of connection with empathy and nuance. A thrilling debut.¿¿Brit Bennett, bestselling author of The Vanishing Half and The Mothers¿Debut books don¿t get much stronger than this. Meron Hadero¿s remarkable stories explore a diverse cast of people doing their best to find acceptance or at least stability¿Hadero is deeply perceptive; her dialogue always rings true, and the regard she has for her characters is apparent. This isn¿t just an excellent first book, it¿s an excellent book, period.¿¿Michael Schaub, NPR Best Books 2022: Books We Love¿This book heralds the arrival of a gifted, stunning writer. A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times held me spellbound¿These stories unfold with an intensifying power, each of them a testament to what¿s possible when we move through this world insisting on the potential of hope, and love.¿¿Maaza Mengiste, author of Booker Prize finalist The Shadow King¿This richly detailed, subtly impressionistic short-story collection¿by the first Ethiopian-born writer to win the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing¿pulls at threads of geography, language, generation, race, and gender¿Hadero¿s page shines¿expanding instead of narrowing the range and representation of immigrant experiences.¿¿Daniel King, Mother Jones"Meron Hadero's collection, A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times brims with lives on the margins¿This style, which time and time again comes off the page as truly effortless, is what makes Hadero a new master of the form, and this collection a masterful one." ¿Chigozie Obioma, author of Booker Prize finalists An Orchestra of Minorities and The Fishermen¿Intricate and precise, A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times casts a glimmering light into the most elusive corners of estrangement which all migrants¿torn between past and present, home and journey¿come to know¿A powerful, unforgettable collection.¿¿Ingrid Rojas Contreras, bestselling author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree¿In her debut story collection, Addis Ababäborn Hadero addresses Ethiopian Americans' struggles for acceptance, the painful ties between present and past, and the elusive meaning of home¿. A full range of stylistic approaches is on display in these stories¿. Entertaining and affecting stories with a deft lightness of touch.¿ ¿Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review¿In this impressive debut collection, award-winning Ethiopian American writer Hadero showcases the lives of displaced people trying to create a space for themselves to call home in America and EthiopiäHadero¿s powerful stories usher characters along their searches for belonging, often with nothing but hope and a sense of community pushing them forward.¿¿Emily Park, Booklist, Starred Review¿Meron Hadero¿s dazzling short stories span the diaspora, poignantly portraying characters in search of opportunity and belonging. Rich with insight, compassion, and wit, A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times is an unforgettable debut.¿¿Vanessa Hua, bestselling author of A River of Stars and Forbidden City¿With enormous power and wonderful subtlety, Meron Hadero grants us access to the inner worlds of people at moments when everything is at risk. In the stories that make up A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times, the emotional stakes are high¿.these sharp, humane, beautiful portraits are a gift.¿¿Dinaw Mengestu, Achy Obejas, and Ilan Stavans, from the judges¿ citation¿Although she¿s concerned with specific geographies, Hadero creates a remarkable universal resonance, exquisitely illuminating quotidian moments that could, and do, happen anywhere in the world where people long to belong.... [A] stupendous collection¿. From narrative to narrative, Hadero is a wondrously agile writer.¿¿Terry Hong, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Best Books of June¿Hadero¿s characters face challenges including racism, crushing misunderstandings, and visits home that remind them of how much they no longer belong, if they ever did¿. Their experiences may be unique, but their desires to live in peace and happiness are universal. A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times is a heartfelt collection about the highs, lows, and ordinary of Ethiopian life.¿¿Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews, Starred Review¿Meron Hadero¿s A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times is an astonishing debut¿.If the danger faced by those who live on the anxious edge of societies, whether in Ethiopia or Germany or the United States, is not always¿or even often¿recognized, Hadero suggests, the signs are present long before they¿re understood. In A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times, she has crafted a profound collection that identifies this sensibility while also, in its overflow of stories, signaling the hope of a teller that a good listener will be ready to receive them.¿¿Anita Felicelli, Alta Journal¿It is the dignity that makes this collection a stunner.¿¿Lauren Francis-Sharma, San Francisco Chronicle¿The dispossessed peoples of the world are explored in Ethiopian-born Hadero¿s dazzling new story collection¿Each story has a lyrical power. As the author says: 'To be receptive to what the story needs, I try to step back and almost hear what the story sounds like from a reader¿s point of view.¿ She is definitely a writer to watch.¿¿Melanie Fleishman, The Center for Fiction

From award-winning Nordic author and illustrator Linda Bondestam comes a new kind of climate change story, narrated by an adorable axolotl who is-possibly-the last of its kind.In a forest of seaweed there was ME, a rare and beautiful little axolotl, going for my first-ever swim.So graceful, and yet so lonesome-out of 987 eggs, mine was the only one that hatched.Who knows, maybe I was the last axolotl in these waters?At the bottom of a lake in Mexico City, our axolotl narrator goes to underwater school, collects treasures tossed away by the big lugs on land, and has dance parties with tiger salamander friends. Life is good!But as the world gets hotter and hotter, the water gets murkier. Friends become harder to find, and the lonesome axolotl grows even lonelier. Until one day when, out of the blue, a colossal wave carries the axolotl into a surprising new future....Bittersweet, droll, existential, and hopeful, My Life at the Bottom is a tale from the climate crisis unlike any other. Combining her irresistible visual wit with exquisite aquatic art and rare empathy, Linda Bondestam brings us a story of catastrophe that bursts with life.

Award-winning journalist Javier Sinay investigates a series of murders from the nineteenth century, unearthing the complex history and legacy of Moisés Ville, the ¿Jerusalem of South America,¿ and his personal connection to a defining period of Jewish history in Argentina.When Argentine journalist Javier Sinay discovers an article from 1947 by his great-grandfather detailing twenty-two murders that had occurred in Moisés Ville at the end of the nineteenth century, he launches into his own investigation that soon turns into something deeper: an exploration of the history of Moisés Ville, one of the first Jewish agricultural communities in Argentina, and Sinay¿s own connection to this historically thriving Jewish epicenter. Seeking refuge from the pogroms of Czarist Russia, a group of Jewish immigrants founded Moisés Ville in the late 1880s. Like their town¿s prophetic namesake, these immigrants fled one form of persecution only to encounter a different set of hardships: exploitative land prices, starvation, illness, language barriers, and a series of murders perpetrated by roving gauchos who preyed upon their vulnerability. Sinay, though a descendant of these immigrants, is unfamiliar with this turbulent history, and his research into the spate of violence plunges him into his family¿s past and their link to Moisés Ville. He combs through libraries and archives in search of documents about the murders and hires a book detective to track down issues of Der Viderkol, the first Yiddish newspaper in Argentina started by his great-grandfather. He even enrolls in Yiddish classes so he can read the newspaper and other contemporaneous records for himself. Through interviews with his family members, current residents of Moisés Ville, historians, and archivists, Sinay compiles moving portraits of the victims of these heinous murders and reveals the fascinating and complex history of the town once known as the ¿Jerusalem of South America.¿¿Sinay acknowledges the impossibility of fully separating legends from facts. . . but his diligence has produced as definitive an account as possible of what actually happened during this bloody period. This nuanced search for truth should have broad appeal.¿¿Publishers Weekly, starred review"I greatly admire Javier Sinay's enlightening and humane account of his sleuthing¿the disinterment of a violent episode of buried history¿now no longer forgotten. Its implications resonate far beyond the borders of Argentina."¿Paul Theroux, author of The Mosquito Coast and Under the Wave at Waimea"Part detective story, part family history, The Murders of Moisés Ville: The Rise and Fall of the Jerusalem of South America ¿ by Buenos Aires journalist Javier Sinay¿ offers a compelling path to learn more."¿Howard Freedman, Jewish News of Northern California¿In the pursuit to understand his own past, while unraveling the mysteries surrounding Moisés Ville, Javier Sinay has created an unflinching portrait of the first Jewish community in Argentina, who, despite enormous challenges, life-threatening privations, and demeaning persecution, endured to pave the way for others seeking a new life in ArgentinäSinay has demonstrated once again, that history must be preserved no matter the cost ¿ for ourselves, as well as for future generations.¿¿Stephen Newton, Litro Magazine¿ What begins as an exercise in historical sleuthing evolves into a more ambitious exploration of Argentine Jewish history and identity¿Sinay doesn¿t need to create a direct connection to this tragic present. It is more than enough that he refuses to flatten the Moisés Ville murders to fit a totalizing narrative of antisemitic violence in Argentina. In so doing, he not only rejects facile conceptions of Jewish victimhood, but also defies the Zionist idea that, by virtue of having suffered in one country, Jews are automatically entitled to land in another.¿¿Lily Meyer, Jewish Currents

Restless Classics presents Bram Stoker's gothic masterpiece of horror, Dracula, newly introduced by celebrated author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel Alexander Chee and gorgeously illustrated by Kaitlin Chan.

In a lush, sun-dappled forest, animal friends discover the advantages of living slowly, in this soothing picture book from beloved South Korean author and illustrator Yeorim Yoon and Jian Kim.Little Bird is all afluttertoo many things to do. Elephant cries with frustration when a shoelace breaks. Rabbit tries so hard and loses the race anyway. But what about Slow Lizard?Just like my name, I live a slow, relaxed life.And because I live a slow life,I see many things,I hear many things,and I have lots of time to help my friends.Meandering through a sunny forest, Slow Lizards friends learn how wonderful it is to slow down together. Filled with blooming trees and fluffy flower beds, Its OK, Slow Lizard glows with the beauty of a hidden magic world, where we take the time to help each other enjoy lifeeven when the rain comes.

With new illustrations and a brilliant original introduction by New Yorker writer and author of My Life in Middlemarch Rebecca Mead, the Restless Classics edition of Middlemarch presents George Eliot's masterpiece of Victorian fiction in an appealing new light.Long regarded as one of the greatest of the great English-language novels, Middlemarch by George Eliot has endured as the archetypal Victorian novel and an eternally resonant exploration of society and the individual. Centuries removed from the world of the landed gentry in 1830s England, the characters of Middlemarch remain as exquisitely drawn and deeply alive as any in literature: the pedantic, obsessive Reverend Casaubon, the idealistic Dr. Lydgate, and the spirited, striving Dorothea Brooke.A novel of marriage, Eliot's "e;study of Provincial Life"e; is also a strikingly fresh commentary on scientific and technological change, cultural and class divides, and the upheavals of a rural community experiencing global transformation. In her insightful introduction, Rebecca Mead, New Yorker writer and author of My Year in Middlemarch, explores Eliot's "e;meliorism"e;-her belief that individuals can improve society in small, everyday ways. Dorothea's successes and failures not only in love but as an ardent social reformer will resonate with all of us who look at the world today and ask, as Dorothea did in her time, "e;What could she do, what ought she to do?"e; With bold illustrations by artist Keren Katz, the Restless Classics edition of Middlemarch is a thoroughly modern edition of one of the most important novels ever written. Praise for Middlemarch"e;Middlemarch is so careful to correct any habit to side with one person rather than another that the narrator even corrects herself."e; -John Mullan, author of What Matters in Jane Austen?"e;A novel without weaknesses, it renews itself for every generation."e; -Martin Amis, author of Inside Story"e;Middlemarch, the magnificent book which with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."e; -Virginia Woolf"e;Middlemarch shows us the contours and indeed the very language of the characters' inner lives."e;-Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece

Restless Classics presents a trenchant new edition of Machiavelli's most powerful works of political philosophy, including The Prince and selections from Discourses on Livy, introduced by New Yorker writer and biographer of Che Guevara, Jon Lee Anderson.

Emilio Renzi, literary alter ego of legendary Argentine author Ricardo Piglia, returns in The Way Out, an academic thriller that relentlessly questions the lengths we go to hide our own truths and to uncover the secrets of others.

Sixty years in the making and the capstone of a monumental literary career, The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: A Day in the Life is the final volume of the autobiographical trilogy from the author who is considered Borges¿ heir and the vanguard of the Post-Boom generation of Latin American literature.

The 2021 Science Fiction and Fantasy Rosetta Awards Shortlist From beloved Cuban science fiction author Yoss comes a bitingly funny space-opera homage to Raymond Chandler, about a positronic robot detective on the hunt for some extra-dangerous extraterrestrial criminals.

A touching and profound tale of friendship, differences, and acceptance from renowned Estonian children¿s author and illustrator Piret Raud. World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translation of 2020

A hilarious, darkly comic graphic retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet in radically condensed prose by legendary Swedish children's author Lindgren and illustrator Hsglund. Bold and brilliant, irreverent and humane, this is the perfect irreverent gift for Shakespeare readers of all ages.ages.

The 100th Anniversary Edition of Virginia Woolf's timely, overlooked second novel-a remarkable story of two women navigating the possibilities opened up by the struggle for women's suffrage-introduced for Restless Classics by bestselling author of Fates and Furies Lauren Groff and illustrated by graphic artist Kristen Radtke.

Diabolically funny and subversively philosophical, Italian novelist Giacomo Sartori's I am God is the diary of the Almighty's existential crisis that ensues when he falls in love with a human.I am God. Have been forever, will be forever. Forever, mind you, with the razor-sharp glint of a diamond, and without any counterpart in the languages of men. So begins God's diary of the existential crisis that ensues when, inexplicably, he falls in love with a human. And not just any human, but a geneticist and fanatical atheist who's certain she can improve upon the magnificent creation she doesn't even give him the credit for. It's frustrating, for a god. God has infinitely bigger things to occupy his celestial attentions. Yet he can't tear his eyes (so to speak) from the geneticist who's unsettlingly avid when it comes to science, sex, and Sicilian cannoli. Whatever happens, he must safeguard his transcendental dignity. So he watches-disinterestedly, of course-as the handsome climatologist who has his sights set on her keeps having strange accidents. And as the lanky geneticist becomes hell-bent on infiltrating the Vatican's secret files, for reasons of her own.... A sly critique of the hypocrisy and hubris that underlie faith in religion, science, and macho careerism, I Am God takes us on a hilarious and provocative romp through the Big Questions with the universe's supreme storyteller.

Restless Classics presents the ninetieth anniversary edition of an undersung gem of the Harlem Renaissance: Nella Larsen's Passing, a captivating and prescient exploration of identity, sexuality, self-invention, class, and race set amidst the pealing boisterousness of the Jazz Age.When childhood friends Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry cross paths at a whites-only restaurant, it's been decades since they last met. Married to a bigoted white man who has no idea that she is African American, Clare has fully embraced her ability to "pass" as a white woman. Irene, also light-skinned and living in Harlem, is shocked by Clare's rejection of her heritage, though she too passes when it suits her needs. This encounter sparks an intense relationship between the two women who, as acclaimed critic and novelist Darryl Pinckney writes in his insightful introduction, reflect Larsen's own experience of being "between black and white, and culturally at home nowhere."In a culture intent on setting boundaries, Clare and Irene refuse to adhere to expectations of gender, race, or class, culminating in a tragic clash of identities, as their relationship swings between emotional hostility and intense attraction.

From the award-winning Serbian author David Albahari comes a devastating and Kafkaesque war fable about an army unit sent to guard a military checkpoint with no idea where they are or who the enemy might be.Atop a hill, deep in the forest, an army unit is assigned to a checkpoint. The commander doesn't know where they are, what border they're protecting, or why. Their map is useless and the radio crackles with a language no one can recognize. A soldier is found dead in a latrine and the unit vows vengeance-but the enemy is unknown. Refugees arrive seeking safe passage to the other side of the checkpoint, however the biggest threat might be the soldiers themselves. As the commander struggles to maintain order and keep his soldiers alive, he isn't sure whether he's fighting a war or caught in a bizarre military experiment. Equal parts Waiting for Godot and Catch-22, Checkpoint is a haunting and hysterical confrontation with the absurdity of war.

From Alejandro Jodorowsky—the legendary director of The Holy Mountain, spiritual guru behind Psychomagic and The Way of Tarot, and author of Where the Bird Sings Best—comes another autobiographical tour-de-force: a mythopoetic portrait of the artist as a young man in Chile in the tumultuous 1930s.In Where the Bird Sings Best, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s visionary autobiographical novel that NPR compared to One Hundred Years of Solitude and called “a genius’s surreal vision brought to life,” we followed Jodorowsky’s predecessors as they fled to Chile amid a fantastical array of circuses, Tarot, Catholic and Jewish mysticism, sexual extravagance, political violence, and the ghost of a wise rabbi serving as advisor. Now, in The Son of Black Thursday, Jodorowsky himself takes the stage as we’re introduced to the unforgettable cast of his early years in Chile in the 1930s. We follow his father, Jaime, who’s obsessed with assassinating the dictator he ends up serving; his mother, Sarah, a giantess who never speaks but communicates through operatic singing; his grandparents, Ukrainian Jewish exiles fleeing persecution in the Ukraine; his twin sister, who is made to suckle a mannequin until she is ten in order to silence her delirious speeches; among other creatures of every description as they struggle against the misery and oppression of the copper mines of the Chilean desert. As he’s done across media from film to comics to mystic philosophy to fiction, Jodorowsky once again demonstrates his boundless capacity for creating a universe of wonder, horror, humor, magic, and cosmic truth beyond our wildest imaginings. The Son of Black Thursday is a gripping novel from one of our most treasured masters.

The Restless Classics edition of Chekhov: Stories for Our Time presents a must-have collection by the great Russian author who captured humanity in all its complexity, and reintroduces Chekhov as a funny, playful, deeply human, and thoroughly modern writer.The great 19th-century Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov wrote nearly one thousand stories, a body of work that is unmatched in its alchemy of sensitivity, wisdom, precision, verve, soulfulness, and economy. Chekhov’s sensibility was radically human and thoroughly modern: write not how you think things should be, but rather as they are. Universally recognized as one of the greatest short story writers of all time, he revolutionized the form and had a profound influence on his successors from Flannery O’Connor to Alice Munro. As the celebrated Russian-immigrant author Boris Fishman writes in his bold, incisive, and delightfully counterintuitive introduction to this Restless Classics collection, Chekhov is funny, optimistic, ceaselessly curious, and undogmatic—a significant break from the bleak and morally rigid tradition of his contemporaries Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Unlike those peers born to privilege, Chekhov was raised in the peasantry and worked as a doctor. In his writing, he portrays the complexity of human beings as changeable and contingent, neither saints nor sinners—an approach intimately linked with his work as a clinician and humanitarian. Chekhov’s humanity, just as much as his mastery of the writing craft, is potent medicine in times that seem so divided by ideology and antipathy for groups seen as “other.” The first new selection of his work in over a decade, the Restless Classics edition of Chekhov: Stories for Our Time pairs beloved favorites with lesser known gems, all stunningly illustrated by Matt McCann: a perfect introduction for novices and a must-have for Chekhov devotees.

One of the world's oldest and best-loved tales, now retold and illustrated in thrilling detail for readers of all ages.Rama pulled the splendid arrow out of his quiver. It had been given to him long ago by the sage Agastya who had told him that he could use it only once and only for a great enemy. The incomparable arrow held the wind in its feathers, the sun and the moon in its shining tip, the earth in its shaft and the power of the doomsday fire in its flight.Ramayana-an unforgettable tale of love, adventure, flying monkeys and god acting in the world of humans-has been treasured by readers around the world for thousands of years. Now in an authoritative, gripping retelling by the renowned Ramayana scholar Arshia Sattar, readers have a new chance to explore this classic's riches.Rama is a brave young prince who is forced into exile. His brother Lakshmana and his wife, the beautiful princess Sita, loyally follow him into the depths of the mysterious forest, where they encounter strange and dangerous creatures. None is as terrifying as Ravana, the ten-headed demon king who kidnaps Sita and takes her to a fortified city in the middle of the ocean. To rescue her, Rama enlists the help of hundreds of thousands of magical monkeys and bears to fight the demon army and win her back. Even the gods gather to witness the harrowing battle. Will Rama and his friends prevail, and will Sita return to him? Only these captivating pages will tell...

The Man Booker International–winning author of Broken April and The Siege, Albania’s most renowned novelist, and perennial Nobel Prize contender Ismail Kadare explores three giants of world literature—Aeschylus, Dante, and Shakespeare—through the lens of resisting totalitarianism. In isolationist Albania, which suffered under a Communist dictatorship for nearly half a century, classic global literature reached Ismail Kadare across centuries and borders—and set him free. The struggles of Hamlet, Dante, and Aeschylus’s tragic figures gave him an understanding of totalitarianism that shaped his novels. In these incisive critical essays informed by personal experience, Kadare provides powerful evidence that great literature is the enemy of dictatorship and imbues these timeless stories with powerful new meaning. With eloquent prose and the narrative drive of a great mystery novel, Kadare renews our readings of the classics and lends them a distinctly Albanian tint. Like Mark Twain’s Mississippi River, Márquez’s Macondo, and Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, Kadare’s Albania emerges as a microcosm of civilization; here, blood vengeance in mountain communities reaches the dramatic heights of Hamlet’s dilemma, funereal rites take on the air of Greek tragedy, and political repression gives life the feel of Dante’s nine circles of Hell. Like Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, Essays on World Literature casts reading itself as a daring act of resistance to artistic suppression. Kadare’s insights into the Western canon secure his own place within it.

From ¿one of Iran's most important living fiction writers¿ (The Guardian) comes a fantastically imaginative story of love and war narrated by two angel scribes perched on the shoulders of a shell-shocked Iranian soldier whös searching for the mysterious woman haunting his dreams.Before he enlisted as a soldier in the Iran¿Iraq war and disappeared, Amir Yamini was a carefree playboy whose only concerns were seducing women and riling his religious family. Five years later, his mother and sister Reyhaneh find him in a mental hospital for shell-shocked soldiers, his left arm and most of his memory lost. Amir is haunted by the vision of a mysterious woman whose face he cannot see¿the crescent moon on her forehead shines too brightly. He names her Moon Brow. Back home in Tehran, the prodigal son is both hailed as a living martyr to the cause of Ayatollah Khomeini¿s Revolution and confined as a dangerous madman. His sense of humor, if not his sanity, intact, Amir cajoles Reyhaneh into helping him escape the garden walls to search for Moon Brow. Piecing together the puzzle of his past, Amir decides there¿s only one solution: he must return to the battlefield and find the remains of his severed arm¿and discover its secret. All the while, to angels sit on our herös shoulders and inscribe the story in enthrallingly distinctive prose. Wildly inventive and radically empathetic, steeped in Persian folklore and contemporary Middle East history, Moon Brow is the great Iranian novelist Shahriar Mandanipour¿s unforgettable epic of love, war, morality, faith, and family.

Winner of Asymptote Journal's 2016 Close Approximations Translation Contest and Shortlisted for the Ryszard Kapuscinski Prize, History of a Disappearance is the fascinating true story of a small mining town in the southwest of Poland that, after seven centuries of history, disappeared. Lying at the crucible of Central Europe, the Silesian village of Kupferberg suffered the violence of the Thirty Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, and World War I. After Stalin's post-World War II redrawing of Poland's borders, Kupferberg became Miedzianka, a town settled by displaced people from all over Poland and a new center of the Eastern Bloc's uranium-mining industry. Decades of neglect and environmental degradation led to the town being declared uninhabitable, and the population was evacuated. Today, it exists only in ruins, with barely a hundred people living on the unstable ground above its collapsing mines. In this work of unsparing and insightful reportage, renowned journalist, photographer, and architecture critic Filip Springer rediscovers this small town's fascinating history. Digging beyond the village's mythic foundations and the great wars and world leaders that shaped it, Springer catalogs the lost human elements: the long-departed tailor and deceased shopkeeper; the parties, now silenced, that used to fill the streets with shouts and laughter; and the once-beautiful cemetery, with gravestones upended by tractors and human bones scattered by dogs. In Miedzianka, Springer sees a microcosm of European history, and a powerful narrative of how the ghosts of the past continue to haunt us in the present.