Because Chekhov’s plays convey the universally recognizable, sometimes comic, sometimes dramatic, frustrations of decent people trying to make sense of their lives, they remain as fresh and vigorous as when they were written a century ago. Gathered here in superb new renderings by one of the most highly regarded translators of our time—versions that have been staged throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain—are Chekhov’s four essential masterpieces for the theater.

A perceptive literary critic, a world-famous writer of witty and playful verses for children, a leading authority on children’s linguistic creativity, and a highly skilled translator, Kornei Chukovsky was a complete man of letters. As benefactor to many writers including Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky, he stood for several decades at the center of the Russian literary milieu. It is no exaggeration to claim that Chukovsky knew everyone involved in shaping the course of twentiet...

The Czech Avant-Garde Literary Movement Between the Two World Wars tells the little-known story of the renaissance of Czech literary arts in the period between the two world wars. The avant-garde writers during this period broke down the barrier between the elite literary language and the vernacular and turned to spoken language, substandard forms, everyday sources such as newspapers and detective stories, and forms of popular entertainment such as the circus and the cabaret. In h...

The Book of Blam, Aleksandar Tišma’s “extended kaddish . . . [his] masterpiece” (Kirkus Reviews), is a modern-day retelling of the book of Job. The war is over. Miroslav Blam walks along the former Jew Street, and he remembers. He remembers Aaron Grün, the hunchbacked watchmaker; and Eduard Fiker, a lamp merchant; and Jakob Mentele, a stove fitter; and Arthur Spitzer, a grocer, who played amateur soccer and had non-Jewish friends; and Sándor Vértes, a lawyer who was a Communist. A...

**A Wall Street Journal Best Book To ReadA song comes on—and suddenly, you’re somewhere else.**Reliving past heartbreak. Picturing a serene future. Imagining a fantastical scene. Across genres, music has an uncanny ability to carry us into distinct inner worlds.In Transported, acclaimed music cognition researcher Elizabeth Margulis explores the phenomenon of musical daydreams—the vivid, spontaneous, emotionally charged images, stories, and...

A provocative, personal, blazingly intelligent examination of one of the most vexing questions facing the United States today: Who is, and should be, a citizen?“[A] fascinating, urgently needed new book.”—Chicago Tribune**“How did ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ turn upside down to where we are today? Everyone needs to read this book, citizens and non-citizens alike. Brilliant!”—Sandra ...

A Library Reads pick!A Best Book of the Year from Esquire. Featured on NPR.Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other ...

The Lie That Binds Them is the thrilling conclusion to the Soulfire Saga, an epic fantasy series packed with adventure and intrigue, set in a world of ancient myth and dangerous magic.The Eternity King, Caradan Diar, is dead. But a dread Queen rules in his place and a new age of darkness threatens to overwhelm Khalad.Tyzanta - greatest of the free cities - has fallen to the Queen's armies. Worse, the leader of the rebellion, Bashar Vallant, is miss...

**Six CIA officers. Dear friends and cherished enemies. For a quarter century they have stolen other people’s secrets. Now they must steal each other’s."[McCloskey] brings an impressive knowledge of spycraft to the proceedings." —Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review"Absolutely everything you could want in a spy novel." —I. S. Berry, Edgar Award–winning author of The Peacock and the Sparrow**A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. W...

*Soon to be a TV series*Jimmy Fallon’s Book Club Top Four Pick and a PBS Book Club PickFor fans of Kazuo Ishiguro and Emily St. John Mandel, this “mind-bending take on time travel” (The New York Times) is about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future, and a young girl who spots two elderly visitors from across the border: the grieving parents of the boy she loves.Sixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat ...

**A sharp and timely exploration of the dark art of manipulation through weaponized storytelling, from the best-selling author of Four Lost Cities."Newitz is so skillful at elucidating such a tangled, morally contentious history that I never felt lost." —Jennifer Szalai, New York TimesA Book Riot Best Book of the Year**In Stories Are Weapons, best-selling author Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent...

From the bestselling authors of Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura comes a nature book like no other—a dazzling, over-the-top collection of the world's most extraordinary wild species that takes you to all seven continents and beyond. It's more than a field guide–it's an adventure. * National Bestseller * Named a Best New Book by BookRiot, New York Post and more * Named a Best White Elephant Gift Under $30 by Taste of H...