Witty banter, lust, ennui, and an undercurrent of violence underlie a seemingly paradisiacal summer on the eve of World War II, in this landmark translation of the first and only novel by Éric Rohmer, the French New Wave’s most prolific and beloved filmmaker.Fifteen years before completing his first feature film—and ten before beginning a transformative editorial stint at the journal Cahiers du cinéma that would usher French cinema into a new era—the man w...

This “rich . . . highly enjoyable portrait of an extraordinary moment in French history” introduces us to 7 dazzling aristocrats who rose and fell during the French Revolution (Guardian).Benedetta Craveri reveals the history of the Libertine generation “whose youth coincided with the French monarchy’s final moment of grace—a moment when . . . a style of life based on privilege and the spirit of caste might acknowledge the widespread demand for change, and ...

The lone novel by a Latin American author of very short fiction (praised as “the most beautiful stories in the world” by Italo Calvino)—an antic, metafictional send-up of the Mexican literary scene told through the unreliable recollections of an aging critic’s friends, relatives, and attendants.The one and only novel by the renowned Guatemalan writer Augusto Monterroso—Latin America’s most expansive miniaturist, whose tiny, acid, and bracingly surreal narratives It...

Albert is nineteen, grew up in an orphanage, and never knew his mother. All his life Albert had to be a father to his father: Fred is a child trapped in the body of an old man. He spends his time reading encyclopedias, waves at green cars, and is known as the hero of a tragic bus accident. Albert senses that Fred, who has just been given five months left to live, is the only one who can help him learn more about his background.With time working against them, Albert and Fred set out...

This book explores the stupid as it manifests in media—the cinema, television and streamed content, and videogames. The stupid is theorized not as a pejorative term but to address media that “fails” to conform to established narrative conventions, often surfacing at evolutionary moments. The Transformers franchise is often dismissed as being stupid because its stylistic vernacular privileges kinetic qualities over conventional narration. Similarly, the stupid is often present in g...

When representing the Holocaust, the slightest hint of narrative embellishment strikes contemporary audiences as somehow a violation against those who suffered under the Nazis. This anxiety is, at least in part, rooted in Theodor Adorno's dictum that "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." And despite the fact that he later reversed his position, the conservative opposition to all "artistic" representations of the Holocaust remains powerful, leading to the insistent demand that it b...

Meet the overlooked women in history who loved, nurtured, and defended the famed American scientist and founding father.“ . . . highlights a side of Ben Franklin too often ignored by historians . . . and provides a necessary reminder that the women who came into his life are as deserving of our attention as Ben himself.” —Carol Berkin, author of Revolutionary MothersEveryone knows Benjamin Franklin—the thrifty inventor-statesman of...

This critical biography of Winston Churchill is “a powerful corrective” as it shines a light on the real history and war crimes of ‘Britain’s greatest leader’ (Independent).The subject of numerous biographies and history books, Winston Churchill has been repeatedly voted as one of the greatest of Englishmen. The wartime leader has become a household god for many, preserving an antiquated vision of Britain still shared by all 3 parties. Yet, was he...

This intimate biography of Francesco di Marco Datini offers fascinating insights into the methods of medieval trade and vibrancy of Italian life in 14th-century Tuscany.“For God and Profit” is how the medieval merchant Francesco di Marco Datini headed a notebook in which he kept track of his business dealings, and these were certainly his guiding lights. Born in the 1330s in the Tuscan town of Prato, Datini set out at the age of 15 for Avignon, where over the cours...

**A gripping, unflinching biography of SS Overseer Maria Mandl, one of the most notorious and contradictory figures at the heart of the Nazi regime, and her transformation from harmless small-town girl to hardened killer.With new details and previously unpublished photographs, this gripping, unflinching examination charts her transformation from engaging country girl to “The Beast” of Auschwitz.**By the time of her execution at thirty-six, Maria Mandl had achieved the highe...

Gripping, deeply researched, and authoritative, the history of one of the closest intelligence and security relationships in the worldThe Special Relationship between the United States and Britain is touted by politicians when it suits their purpose and, as frequently, dismissed as myth, not least by the media. Yet the truth is that the two countries are bound together more closely than either is to any other ally. In The Real Special Relationship, Michael...

“A fierce, scholarly tour-de-force. . . . Hunting the Falcon brilliantly shows how time, circumstance and politics combined to accelerate Anne’s triumph and tragedy." —Tina Brown, New York Times Book Review“A sumptuous drama of lust, intrigue, and betrayal, underpinned by the harsh reality of politics.”—Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of DevonshireA groundbreaking, freshly-researched work of Tudor history and a dual historical biography that examines one of the...