Working as a cook on a merchant ship, a woman comes to know and love Samsa, a woman who gives her the nickname 'Boulder'. When Samsa gets a job in Reykjavik and the couple decides to move there together, Samsa decides that she wants to have a child. She is already forty and can't bear to let the opportunity pass her by. Boulder is less enthused, but doesn't know how to say no – and so finds herself dragged along on a journey that feels as thankless as it is alien.With motherhood ch...

Mammoth's protagonist is a disenchanted young lesbian. She's inexperienced, irritated by life, eager to gestate, and determined to strip everything else down to essentials. She seduces men at random, swaps her urban habitat for an isolated farmhouse, befriends a shepherd, nurses lambs, battles stray cats, waits tables, cleans house, and dabbles in sex work – all in pursuit of life in the raw. This small bomb of a novel, not remotely pastoral, builds to a howling crescendo of socia...

Permafrost's no-bullshit lesbian narrator is an uninhibited lover, a no-hope employee, and a some-time suicidal student of her own dislocated self. As she tries to break out of the roles set for her by a controlling, overprotective mother, a relentlessly positive sister, and a society which imposes a gut-wrenching pressure to conform, she contemplates the so-called will to live when that life is given, rather than chosen. Attempting to bridge the gap between the perennially frozen...

Life guidance from a famed Renaissance man.This influential work of philosophy by one of the great thinkers of the Renaissance era advises people of all walks of life how to approach political, professional, and personal situations in a dog-eat-dog world. Comprised of three hundred pithy aphorisms, it offers thought-provoking and accessible advice. Some subjects include " Never Compete," " The Art of Letting Things Alone," and " Anticipate Inju...

Wisdom for today's world from three great thinkers of the Renaissance era.This collection of three philosophical works by Renaissance men offers timeless advice on how to prosper and live morally in business, romance, religion, and society. Although written in the Renaissance era, these guides still resonate today and are collected here for easy reference.In The Art of Worldly Wisdom, Baltasar Gracián advises people of all walks of life how to appro...

Baroque philosopher Balthasar Gracian’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom consists of three hundred maxims spanning a wide range of topics relating to all aspects of life and human behavior. Gracian was a Spanish Jesuit Priest whose sermons and writings were disapproved of by his superiors. Admired by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche for the depth and subtlety of his observations, Gracian’s collection of pithy insights deserves place alongside similar classic manuals of self-improvement from an...

Three timeless books on the art of living gracefully—from a Renaissance philosopher, a beloved first lady, and the original matron of American manners.The Art of Worldly Wisdom: Seventeenth-century Spanish philosopher Baltasar Gracián advises people of all walks of life on how to approach political, professional, and personal situations in a dog-eat-dog world. Comprised of three hundred pithy aphorisms, this influential work offers thought-provoking and ac...

A centuries-old rediscovered masterpiece of 300 adages on how to live successfully yet responsibly in a society governed by self-interest, as astonishingly appropriate today as it was in seventeenth-century Spain“The Art of Worldly Wisdom is a book of strategies for knowing, judging, and acting: for making one’s way in the world and achieving distinction and perfection. . . . Like all aphorisms, these are meant to be read slowly, a few at a time.”—...

'Better mad with the crowd than sane all alone'In these witty, Machiavellian aphorisms, unlikely Spanish priest Baltasar Gracián shows us how to exploit friends and enemies alike to thrive in a world of deception and illusion.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ...

...The bathroom, .... you know, the loo, yes, that’s it... The more I seclude myself in a hole I’m familiar with, the better. The loo is the only environment in which I can feel relatively serene.Ah, ... fear, terror, ... the mere memory of that awful fact frightens me to death.I make sure, in the loo, ... that there is always enough toilet paper left,for I use it to wipe the sweat off my face as well!Toilet paper, ... so soft on my dripping face, ... t...

...What I am about to dance, is a roundabout dance, around myself.A dervish-like dance, a circular dance, a silent dance ... that disorients me, unbalances me, and sets before me, while I continue to see an image of myself, the truth on my inability to know the Truth. My knowledge blurred by ignorance, by prejudice, and by lies...“I am the Gate, whoever enters through me will be saved” were the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John.The Gate, one of the...

A Pocket Mirror for Heroes is a mirror because it reflects "the person you are or the one you ought to be." It is a pocket mirror because its author took the time to be brief. And it is a mirror for heroes because it provides a vivid image of ethical and moral perfection to which all can aspire. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian was all but forgotten for three hundred years, until its republication in 1992 turned this lost classic into a New York Times