When Emmett Till was murdered aged fourteen for allegedly whistling at a white woman, photographs of his destroyed face became a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. A decade earlier Emmett’s father, Louis, had also been killed – court-martialled and hanged. Though the circumstances could hardly have been more different, behind both deaths stood the same crime, of being black. In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman, born the same year as Emmett Till, investigates the tragic fates...
First published in 1956 when he was twenty-two years old, Let Us Compare Mythologies is Leonard Cohen's first collection of poetry. It is an accomplished and passionate collection which demonstrates Cohen's remarkably assured voice, even as a young man. An unprecedented debut published to immediate acclaim, new generations of readers will now rediscover not only the early work of one of our most beloved writers, but poetry that resonates loudly with relevance today.
Annie Dillard has spent a lifetime examining the world around her with eyes wide open, drinking in all things intensely and relentlessly. Whether observing a sublime lunar eclipse or a moth consumed in a candle flame, the trembling of lily pads on a pond or hundreds of red-winged blackbirds taking flight, Dillard's awe at the fragility of the natural world rejuvenates and inspires pleasure and heartache. Precise in language and deeply meditative in spirit, this is a landmark collection from...
'The crabby little girls of today are the crabby old women of tomorrow!' Entrepreneur, psychiatrist, fussbudget – Lucy van Pelt is the much-loved crabby heroine of the Peanuts gang. Never one to suffer in silence, in this brand new book she is presented as the role model she has always wanted to be. Packed with tips on how to stick up for yourself, how to make yourself heard, how to stand up for what you believe in and much more besides, How to be a Grrrl is Lucy's guide to...
In this dazzling collection, Annie Dillard explores the world over, from the Arctic to the Ecuadorian jungle, from the Galapagos to her beloved Tinker Creek. With her entrancing gaze she captures the wonders of natural facts and human meanings: watching a sublime lunar eclipse, locking eyes with a wild weasel, or beholding mirages appearing over Puget Sound through summer. Annie Dillard is one of the most respected and influential figures in contemporary non-fiction and winner of the Pulitzer...
'If I vanished he wouldn't notice, if I died he wouldn't care. I think of him all the time, and he thinks of me not at all. I love him, and my love torments me. There are times when I feel like a ghost beside him; as if he alone is real, and I'm just a daydream.' This is the story of two brothers. One is impassioned and one reserved. One is destined to go down in history and the other to be forgotten. In Pullman's hands, this sacred tale is reborn as one of...
With an introduction by Robert Plant Against an unflinching backdrop of 90s reservation life in the western Dakotas, Neither Wolf Nor Dog tells the story of two men, one white and one Native American Indian, connected by their own understandings of life yet struggling to find a common voice. As they journey together through small Native American Indian towns and down forgotten roads where the whisperings of the wind speak of ancestral voices, these two men will travel beyond myth and...
Herman Hesse remained clear-sighted and consistent in his political views and his passionate espousal of pacifism and the bloody absurdity of war from the start of World War I to the end of his life. He wrote the earliest essay in this book in September 1914, before he cemented his fame with the novels Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, and continued writing a stream of letters, essays and pamphlets throughout the war. In his native Germany his views earned him the labels 'traitor' and...
Idealistic young officer Giovanni Drogo is full of determination to serve his country well. But when he arrives at a bleak border station in the Tartar desert, where he is to take a short assignment at Fort Bastiani, he finds the castle manned by veteran soldiers who have grown old without seeing a trace of the enemy. As his length of service stretches from months into years, he continues to wait patiently for the enemy to advance across the desert, for one great and glorious battle . . . ...
Brothers and Keepers is John Edgar Wideman’s seminal memoir about two brothers – one an award-winning novelist, the other a fugitive. Wideman recalls the capture of his younger brother Robby, details the subsequent trials that resulted in a sentence of life in prison, and provides vivid views of the American prison system. A gripping, unsettling account, Brothers and Keepers weighs the bonds of blood, tenderness and guilt that connect him to his brother and measures the distance that lies...