In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest--. Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades...  more

In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest--. Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago. It's a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you're Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you're expected to make trouble--when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you're encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire--you've got no reason to rebel...until making love and raising hell, daring death and running wild just leave you cold and empty. Ravenous for true adventures of the mind and body, desperate to find some meaning, one restless spirit finally bucks the system--and by shattering the rules, strikes at the very heart of a soulless society.... Contains both novels, Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine, in one volume.

It is just before New Year's. Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife on three successive evenings. But Frank's behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: that his new client is...  more

It is just before New Year's. Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife on three successive evenings. But Frank's behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: that his new client is in fact the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. It isn't until the second night, however, in a scene that will shock you and make you laugh and make you hate yourself for laughing, that Kenji learns exactly how much he has to fear and how irrevocably his encounter with this great white whale of an American will change his life. Kenji's intimate knowledge of Tokyo's sex industry, his thoughtful observations and wisecracks about the emptiness and hypocrisy of contemporary Japan, and his insights into the shockingly widespread phenomena of "compensated dating" and "selling it" among Japanese schoolgirls, give us plenty to think about on every page. Kenji is our likable, if far from innocent, guide to the inferno of violence and evil into which he unwillingly descends - and from which only Jun, his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, can possibly save him...

The poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal...  more

The poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.

You can survive a nuclear blast. All you need is some luck, and maybe a customized business suit coated in cockroaches. It could work. At least that's what Dean believed before the bombs actually dropped and his suit led him to murder a Very Important Man at the foot of a blackened obelisk....  more

You can survive a nuclear blast. All you need is some luck, and maybe a customized business suit coated in cockroaches. It could work. At least that's what Dean believed before the bombs actually dropped and his suit led him to murder a Very Important Man at the foot of a blackened obelisk. Now D.C. is looking awfully empty. Life on Earth is pretty much coming to an end. All of which leaves Dean with a single question-"What now?" The answer to that question will take him on an uncanny voyage across a newly nuclear America where he must confront the problems associated with loneliness, radiation, love, and an ever-evolving cockroach suit with a mind of its own. Dean's bizarre adventures mark the last chronicle of human existence, the final entries in our species' own… Extinction Journals

The author's experience as a prisoner captured by American forces during WWII figures prominently in this haunting novel about the ultimate degradation of a man by war. Set in Leyte, where the Japanese army is disintegrating under the hammering blows of American forces, the story focuses on the...  more

The author's experience as a prisoner captured by American forces during WWII figures prominently in this haunting novel about the ultimate degradation of a man by war. Set in Leyte, where the Japanese army is disintegrating under the hammering blows of American forces, the story focuses on the disintegration of one man, Private Tamura. One by one, each of his ties to society is destroyed, until Tamura, a sensitive and intelligent man, becomes an outcast. Yet it is the novel's uplifting vision during a time of ultimate horror that has made it one of Japan's greatest novels.

Its first-person protagonist, Jacob Horner, suffers from nihilistic paralysis: an inability to choose a course of action. As part of a schedule of unorthodox therapies, Horner's nameless Doctor has him take a teaching job at a local teachers college. There Horner befriends the super-rational...  more

Its first-person protagonist, Jacob Horner, suffers from nihilistic paralysis: an inability to choose a course of action. As part of a schedule of unorthodox therapies, Horner's nameless Doctor has him take a teaching job at a local teachers college. There Horner befriends the super-rational existentialist Joe Morgan and his wife Rennie, with whom he becomes entangled in a love triangle, with tragic results.

In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young childen, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20...  more

In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young childen, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book. By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations," keeping in touch with himself and the life around him. Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This book is a lasting testament to his life.

The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo links the role of tea (Teaism) to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and life in general. Addressed to a western audience, it was originally written in this English edition and is one of the great English Tea classics. Okakura had been...  more

The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo links the role of tea (Teaism) to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and life in general. Addressed to a western audience, it was originally written in this English edition and is one of the great English Tea classics. Okakura had been taught at a young age to speak English and was proficient at communicating his thoughts to the Western mind. In his book, he discusses such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the wonderful secular aspects of tea and life. The book emphasizes how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. He ends the book with a chapter on Tea Masters, and the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Are young photographer, Mikael, finds a small, man - like creature in his courtyard: a troll, known from Scandinavian mythology as a demonic wild beast, a hybrid like the werewolf, and supposedly extinct. Mikael takes him home but soon discovers that trolls exude pheromones that smell like...  more

Are young photographer, Mikael, finds a small, man - like creature in his courtyard: a troll, known from Scandinavian mythology as a demonic wild beast, a hybrid like the werewolf, and supposedly extinct. Mikael takes him home but soon discovers that trolls exude pheromones that smell like Calvin Klein aftershave and have a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those around him. But what Miquel and others who come into contact with the troll fail to learn, with tragic consequences, is that the troll is the interpreter of man's darkest, most forbidden desires. A best seller in Finland and translated into ten languages, Not Before Sundown (aka Troll: A Love Story) is a multi - award - winning novel of sparkling originality, it wry, peculiar and beguiling story of nature and man's relationship with wild things and of the dark power of the wildness within us.

16 August 1870, Alain de Monèys makes his way to the village fair. He arrives at two o'clock. Two hours later, the crowd has gone crazy; they have lynched, tortured, burned, and eaten him. With frightening precision, Jean Teulé reconstructs one of the most shameful stories in the history of France.

There were many musical souls adrift on that raft of silence that is Venice. There was the music of Johannes Karelsky.There was the music of Erasmus, the violin maker. And there was the music of war. But of that, the two men never spoke. From the internationally acclaimed author of Snow comes a...  more

There were many musical souls adrift on that raft of silence that is Venice. There was the music of Johannes Karelsky.There was the music of Erasmus, the violin maker. And there was the music of war. But of that, the two men never spoke. From the internationally acclaimed author of Snow comes a timeless tale of love and music set against the romantic backdrop of eighteenth-century Venice. In 1797, the violin prodigy Johannes Karelsky arrives in Venice after fighting with Napoleon's army in the Italian campaign. After the war, he boards with an aged violin maker named Erasmus who created the legendary "Black Violin," which he forbids Johannes to touch because, as he says, "Once you have tasted it, you will never be the same again." Johannes becomes obsessed with the idea of playing this violin as well as finding the woman who saved his life when he was injured in battle. Beautifully written and highly evocative, The Black Violin interweaves Johannes's quest for love and the history of this mysterious instrument in a narrative that is sure to resonate long after the last page is turned.

Kathleen Winter's debut novel is an intimate portrait of the family of a mixed-gendered child born into a remote, blue-collar sea-side town in Eastern Canada. In 1968, into the devastating, beautiful landscape of Labrador, a child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor...  more

Kathleen Winter's debut novel is an intimate portrait of the family of a mixed-gendered child born into a remote, blue-collar sea-side town in Eastern Canada. In 1968, into the devastating, beautiful landscape of Labrador, a child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor fully girl, but both at once. Only three people are privy to the secret -- the baby's parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and their trusted neighbor and midwife, Thomasina. Though Treadway makes the difficult decision to raise the child as a boy named Wayne, the women continue to quietly nurture the boy's female side. And as Wayne grows into adulthood within the hypermasculine hunting society of his father, his shadow-self, a girl he thinks of as "Annabel", is never entirely extinguished. When Wayne finally escapes the confines of his hometown and settles in St. John's, the anonymity of the city grants him the freedom to confront his dual identity. His ultimate choice will once again call into question the integrity and allegiance of those he loves most.

It was 1994 when Xinran, a journalist and the internationally acclaimed author of The Good Women of China, received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet a woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China. Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called...  more

It was 1994 when Xinran, a journalist and the internationally acclaimed author of The Good Women of China, received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet a woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China. Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called Shu Wen, who recounted the story of her thirty-year odyssey in the vast landscape of Tibet. In Sky Burial, Xinran has re-created Shu Wen’s journey, painting an extraordinary portrait of a woman and a land, each at the mercy of fate and politics. It is an unforgettable, ultimately uplifting tale of love, loss, loyalty, and survival.

A miracle of a book--a joyous celebration of the unspoken but deeply felt bond between animals and people and, in Roger Caras's words, "a celebration of life in the face of death".

Why is there an old woman, in a hanging cage for punishment, keeping a journal written in blood? Candas Jane Dorsey has written an ambitious, feminist novel about women coming to terms with their identity in a barbarous fantasy world. Dorsey's women travel across the world, from the slave...  more

Why is there an old woman, in a hanging cage for punishment, keeping a journal written in blood? Candas Jane Dorsey has written an ambitious, feminist novel about women coming to terms with their identity in a barbarous fantasy world. Dorsey's women travel across the world, from the slave dens to the merchant cities, across seas by ship and by dirigible, to isolated mountain villages and back again. "But there remains provocative ambiguity as the story progresses. There is a woman exiled from her family, a mother who has abandoned her daughter, an old woman in a cage, a young women slave on a lord's estate who does not remember her past. How many of them are the same woman?

In a remote and dangerous corner of the ocean, the renowned gourmet and food journalist Louis De Gustibus is held captive by an elite chef-and vegan cannibal-named André. But André would never eat his dear friend Louis. Andre only eats millionaires! Over a five star French meal of...  more

In a remote and dangerous corner of the ocean, the renowned gourmet and food journalist Louis De Gustibus is held captive by an elite chef-and vegan cannibal-named André. But André would never eat his dear friend Louis. Andre only eats millionaires! Over a five star French meal of fine wine, organic vegetables and human flesh, a lunatic delivers a witty, chilling, disturbingly sane argument in favor of eating the rich. It's a darkly hilarious dessert to Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Foer's Eating Animals-a tale of good and evil, of rich and poor, of manners, madness and meat.

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"Dark and erotic in addition to being clever and charming. It is laced with sexual scenes so graphic I hesitate to share them with you"-New York Times Book Review??When Ira Fishblatt's girlfriend, Ruth Grubstein, moves into his apartment, he has the kitchen renovated to make her feel at home....  more

"Dark and erotic in addition to being clever and charming. It is laced with sexual scenes so graphic I hesitate to share them with you"-New York Times Book Review??When Ira Fishblatt's girlfriend, Ruth Grubstein, moves into his apartment, he has the kitchen renovated to make her feel at home. She is tickled pink, but hundreds of other houseguests aren't-the cockroaches who'd been living high on the hog before they were starved out. Weiss is a witty fabulist whose animals have profound things to say about the human condition.?Daniel Evan Weiss's novels include Hell On Wheels, Honk If You Love Aphrodite and The Swine's Wedding. He lives in New York City.

Enchantment, peril and romance pervade the shadowy Far East, from the elegant throne room of the emperor's palace to the humble teahouse of a peasant village. In these dozen stories of adventure and magic from the Orient, a maiden encounters an oni demon in the forest, a bride discovers her...  more

Enchantment, peril and romance pervade the shadowy Far East, from the elegant throne room of the emperor's palace to the humble teahouse of a peasant village. In these dozen stories of adventure and magic from the Orient, a maiden encounters an oni demon in the forest, a bride discovers her mother-in-law is a fox woman, a samurai must appease his sister's angry ghost, strange luck is found in a jade locket, and dark and light are two sides of harmony. Eugie Foster in many dimensions / by Vonda McIntyre -- Daughter of Bótù -- The tiger fortune princess -- A thread of silk -- The snow woman's daughter -- The tanuki-kettle -- Honor is a game mortals play -- The raven's brocade -- Shim Shung the lotus queen -- The tears of my mother, the shell of my father -- Year of the fox -- The archer of the sun and the lady of the moon -- Returning my sister's face

"The machine had been invented a few years ago: a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, how you were going to die. It didn't give you the date and it didn't give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters,...  more

"The machine had been invented a few years ago: a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, how you were going to die. It didn't give you the date and it didn't give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters, the words DROWNED or CANCER or OLD AGE or CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN. It let people know how they were going to die." MACHINE OF DEATH tells thirty-four different stories about people who know how they will die. Prepare to have your tears jerked, your spine tingled, your funny bone tickled, your mind blown, your pulse quickened, or your heart warmed. Or better yet, simply prepare to be surprised. Because even when people do have perfect knowledge of the future, there's no telling exactly how things will turn out.

A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most…unusual…way. To avoid war, Earth’s government must find an equally unusual object: A type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony. To find the...  more

A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most…unusual…way. To avoid war, Earth’s government must find an equally unusual object: A type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony. To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinaire, who with the help of Brian Javna, a childhood friend turned artificial intelligence, scours the earth looking for the rare creature. And they find it, in the unknowing form of Robin Baker, pet store owner, whose genes contain traces of the sheep DNA. But there are others with plans for the sheep as well: Mercenaries employed by the military. Adherents of a secret religion based on the writings of a 21st century science fiction author. And alien races, eager to start a revolution on their home world and a war on Earth. To keep our planet from being enslaved, Harry will have to pull off the greatest diplomatic coup in history, a grand gambit that will take him from the halls of power to the lava-strewn battlefields of alien worlds. There's only one chance to get it right, to save the life of Robin Baker -- and to protect the future of humanity.

THE IGUANA SPEAKS MY NAME?Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Lush landscapes, enchanted happenings, tangled roots and violence suffuse this beguiling collection of stories set in the highlands of Guatemala. Quince, the narrator of these interlocking stories, is a writer living in the village of...  more

THE IGUANA SPEAKS MY NAME?Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Lush landscapes, enchanted happenings, tangled roots and violence suffuse this beguiling collection of stories set in the highlands of Guatemala. Quince, the narrator of these interlocking stories, is a writer living in the village of Panimache, near three volcanoes and a deep blue lake. He serves as a keen observer of the vibrant, tense surroundings in a land that ?bled from a war no one wanted to notice.? Panimache is a town divided by conflict, caste and consciousness. It?s teetering between bourgeois aspirations and Mayan peasant culture, seemingly placid but on edge from the fighting between government soldiers and guerillas, and simmering with repressed bad memories. The title novella introduces a diverse, intriguing set of characters?shopkeepers and restaurateurs; Quince?s friend Uno, a nature photographer and reputed shaman; El Capitan Lobo, the urbane army commander who feels apologetic about the brutal counterinsurgency he?s waging (?[s]ometimes we massacre the Indians, other times it?s the guerillas?); and La China, a whore longing to be a muse. These and other figures recur in 10 more yarns that are often shot through with exquisite threads of magical realism: A youth is beguiled to his doom by a gorgeous vampire; a con man makes his living with a fortunetelling sparrow; a man?s frantic search for buried treasure yields an astounding payoff; an orphaned, ostracized Mayan girl hides herself in the shapes of birds and animals. Moulun?s clear prose balances sensual sounds, colors and foods against a deadpan humor and a detached, meditative mood. His writing has a fablelike quality, featuring strong narratives linked to mythic themes, but it?s also full of social nuance and subtle psychological shadings. Moulun transforms Guatemala?s troubled, complex reality into a rich, compelling aesthetic vision. Imaginative storytelling with real literary depth. Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2012 ISBN: 9780985774400 Publisher: EgretBooks.com Program: Kirkus Indie Review Posted Online: Aug. 31st, 2012

"I began writing this book quite a while ago actually. Too long, so I won't bore the hell out of you with the schematics,and just get to the point. It's a simple book of poetry about wanting something you can never have. Loving the unlovable, or maybe only loving yourself, and...  more

"I began writing this book quite a while ago actually. Too long, so I won't bore the hell out of you with the schematics,and just get to the point. It's a simple book of poetry about wanting something you can never have. Loving the unlovable, or maybe only loving yourself, and blaming it on the one that got away. Regardless, it's about chasing God, and love, and family, but arriving back at yourself, the beginning, too late. I hope you'll enjoy my past as much as I did, and arrive at some beautiful place inside of yourself by the end of your journey as I have.  You will find that I use many styles of poetry in the process, but you will also see that I have sewn them all together in such a manner as to weave a bigger quilt then at first suspected, and thus is the mystery in aging, and the adventure in arriving at the origin." --Jeremi Handrinos, AKA the poet horus8

“In the fall, I went for walks and brought home bones. The best bones weren’t on trails—deer and moose don’t die conveniently—and soon I was wandering so far into the woods that I needed a map and compass to find my way home. When winter came and snow blew into the...  more

“In the fall, I went for walks and brought home bones. The best bones weren’t on trails—deer and moose don’t die conveniently—and soon I was wandering so far into the woods that I needed a map and compass to find my way home. When winter came and snow blew into the mountains, burying the bones, I continued to spend my days and often my nights in the woods. I vaguely understood that I was doing this because I could no longer think; I found relief in walking up hills. When the night temperatures dropped below zero, I felt visited by necessity, a baseline purpose, and I walked for miles, my only objective to remain upright, keep moving, preserve warmth. When I was lost, I told myself stories . . .”So Charles D’Ambrosio recounted his life in Philipsburg, Montana, the genesis of the brilliant stories collected here, six of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. Each of these eight burnished, terrifying, masterfully crafted stories is set against a landscape that is both deeply American and unmistakably universal. A son confronts his father’s madness and his own hunger for connection on a misguided hike in the Pacific Northwest. A screenwriter fights for his sanity in the bleak corridors of a Manhattan psych ward while lusting after a ballerina who sets herself ablaze. A Thanksgiving hunting trip in Northern Michigan becomes the scene of a haunting reckoning with marital infidelity and desperation. And in the magnificent title story, carpenters building sets for a porn movie drift dreamily beneath a surface of sexual tension toward a racial violence they will never fully comprehend. Taking place in remote cabins, asylums, Indian reservations, the backloads of Iowa and the streets of Seattle, this collection of stories, as muscular and challenging as the best novels, is about people who have been orphaned, who have lost connection, and who have exhausted the ability to generate meaning in their lives. Yet in the midst of lacerating difficulty, the sensibility at work in these fictions boldly insists on the enduring power of love. D’Ambrosio conjures a world that is fearfully inhospitable, darkly humorous, and touched by glory; here are characters, tested by every kind of failure, who struggle to remain human, whose lives have been sharpened rather than numbed by adversity, whose apprehension of truth and beauty has been deepened rather than defeated by their troubles. Many writers speak of the abyss. Charles D’Ambrosio writes as if he is inside of it, gazing upward, and the gaze itself is redemptive, a great yearning ache, poignant and wondrous, equal parts grit and grace.A must read for everyone who cares about literary writing, The Dead Fish Museum belongs on the same shelf with the best American short fiction.

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl. Every morning, A wakes in a different person?s body, a different person?s life. There?s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established...  more

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl. Every morning, A wakes in a different person?s body, a different person?s life. There?s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. It?s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin?s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with?day in, day out, day after day. With his new novel, David Levithan has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A?s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.    From the Hardcover edition.

The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback with an all-new afterword by the author.Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller,...  more

The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback with an all-new afterword by the author.Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller, Robert Sullivan spends a year investigating a rat-infested alley just a few blocks away from Wall Street. Sullivan gets to know not just the beast but its friends and foes: the exterminators, the sanitation workers, the agitators and activists who have played their part in the centuries-old war between human city dweller and wild city rat. Sullivan looks deep into the largely unrecorded history of the city and its masses-its herds-of-rats-like mob. Funny, wise, sometimes disgusting but always compulsively readable, Rats earns its unlikely place alongside the great classics of nature writing.

Yakuza Moon is the shocking, yet intensely moving memoir of 37-year-old Shoko Tendo, who grew up the daughter of a yakuza boss. Tendo lived her life in luxury until the age of six, when her father was sent to prison and her family fell into terrible debt. Bullied by classmates and terrorizedat...  more

Yakuza Moon is the shocking, yet intensely moving memoir of 37-year-old Shoko Tendo, who grew up the daughter of a yakuza boss. Tendo lived her life in luxury until the age of six, when her father was sent to prison and her family fell into terrible debt. Bullied by classmates and terrorizedat home by a father who became a drunken, violent monster after his release from prison, Tendo rebelled. A regular visitor to nightclubs at the age of 12, she soon became a drug addict and a member of a girl gang. At 15 she was sentenced to eight months in a juvenile detention center. Adulthood brought big bucks and glamour when Tendo started working as a bar hostess during Japan's booming bubble economy of the nineteen-eighties. But among her many rich and loyal patrons there were also abusive clients, one of whom beat her so badly that her face was left permanently scarred.When her mother died, Tendo plunged into such a deep depression that she tried to commit suicide twice.Tendo takes us through the bad times with warmth and candor, and gives a moving and inspiring account of how she overcame a lifetime of discrimination and hardship. Getting tattooed, from the base of her neck to the tips of her toes, with a design centered on a geisha with a dagger in her mouth, wasan act that empowered her to start making changes in her life. She quit her job as a hostess. On her last day at the bar she looked up at the full moon, a sight she never forgot. The moon became a symbol of her struggle to become whole, and the title of the book she wrote as an epitaph for herselfand her family.

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations. It's an A to Z of plants...  more

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations. It's an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You'll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln's mother). Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.

Into the booming, gold-rush city of Shanghai fly Bill and Becca Holden with their small daughter Holly - a young family seeking their fortune far from their north London home. When tragedy forces Becca to return to London with Holly, the friendship between a lonely family man, working night...  more

Into the booming, gold-rush city of Shanghai fly Bill and Becca Holden with their small daughter Holly - a young family seeking their fortune far from their north London home. When tragedy forces Becca to return to London with Holly, the friendship between a lonely family man, working night and day, and a neglected second wife grows into something more - something that threatens to destroy all their lives. And when Becca and Holly come back, it is time for all of them to learn something about the meaning of love and the bonds of family.

This is not a recipe book, it is a journey around China in a clockwise direction from the south-east, by one of Australia's leading food and travel photographers.  Contains a map, and a central section of 32 pages of colour photography.

National Book Award-winner Ha Jin's arresting debut novel ,  In the Pond, is a darkly funny portrait of an amateur calligrapher who wields his delicate artist's brush as a weapon against the powerful party bureaucrats who rule his provincial Chinese town.Shao Bin is a downtrodden...  more

National Book Award-winner Ha Jin's arresting debut novel ,  In the Pond, is a darkly funny portrait of an amateur calligrapher who wields his delicate artist's brush as a weapon against the powerful party bureaucrats who rule his provincial Chinese town.Shao Bin is a downtrodden worker at the Harvest Fertilizer Plant by day and an aspiring artist by night. Passed over on the list to receive a decent apartment for his young family, while those in favor with the party's leaders are selected ahead of him, Shao Bin chafes at his powerlessness. When he attempts to expose his corrupt superiors by circulating satirical cartoons, he provokes an escalating series of merciless counterattacks that send ripples beyond his small community. Artfully crafted and suffused with earthy wit, In the Pond is a moving tale about humble lives caught up in larger social forces.

When the story opens, the narrator Snowman, self-named though not self-created, is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his companions Oryx and Crake as he, himself, slowly starves in a wasteland once the home of people and now the home of insects, pigoons and...  more

When the story opens, the narrator Snowman, self-named though not self-created, is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his companions Oryx and Crake as he, himself, slowly starves in a wasteland once the home of people and now the home of insects, pigoons and wolvogs. Snowman tries to understand the events that led to the decline of the world he knew.  As he tries to piece together what has taken place--why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories?--the narrative shifts to decades earlier in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.  

"Salt Fish Girl" is the mesmerizing tale of an ageless female character who shifts shape and form through time and place. Told in the beguiling voice of a narrator who is fish, snake, girl, and woman - all of whom must struggle against adversity for survival - the novel is set alternately in...  more

"Salt Fish Girl" is the mesmerizing tale of an ageless female character who shifts shape and form through time and place. Told in the beguiling voice of a narrator who is fish, snake, girl, and woman - all of whom must struggle against adversity for survival - the novel is set alternately in nineteenth-century China and in a futuristic Pacific Northwest. At turns whimsical and wry, "Salt Fish Girl" intertwines the story of Nu Wa, the shape-shifter, and that of Miranda, a troubled young girl living in the walled city of Serendipity circa 2044. Miranda is haunted by traces of her mother's glamourous cabaret career, the strange smell of durian fruit that lingers about her, and odd tokens reminiscient of Nu Wa. Could Miranda be infected by the Dreaming Disease that makes the past leak into the present? Framed by a playful sense of magical realism, "Salt Fish Girl" reveals a futuristic Pacific Northwest where corporations govern cities, factory workers are cybernetically engineered, middle-class labour is a video game, and those who haven't sold out to commerce and other ills must fight the evil powers intent on controlling everything. Rich with ancient Chinese mythology and cultural lore, this remarkable novel is about gender, love, honour, intrigue, and fighting against oppression.

Jack the Fish Boy ~ Vessel of Life: Our world holds two bodies of water with the same echoing name. The first Dead sea is a Jordanian lake of salt located in the heart of the Middle East. The second Dead sea is located somewhere in the inner-world south of the Atlantic sea, between Africa and...  more

Jack the Fish Boy ~ Vessel of Life: Our world holds two bodies of water with the same echoing name. The first Dead sea is a Jordanian lake of salt located in the heart of the Middle East. The second Dead sea is located somewhere in the inner-world south of the Atlantic sea, between Africa and Antarctica. It is a place of mystery and wonder for Jack William Thomas, a young British boy grieving with emotions from the loss of his mother, while a distant father searches for means of communication with his son. The year of the Great War is born. Jack secretly boards his father's sailing ship during Germany's declaration of war upon the great British Isles. During a menacing storm, Jack is lost at sea, before he is befriended by many different sea creatures, including a beautiful girl named LiLi whom is half human, and half fish. With daring escapes, Jack's life is quickly turned upside down when he's forced to engage in two very different wars at sea. Join Jack as both grueling wars come together in one grand, dueling spectacle. Follow his newfound faith, as it is tested in the blackness of a mad underworld filled with fiendish creatures preventing his return to his native Welsh homeland. This is Jack's first journey for all ages to enjoy. It is the very essence of a well defined, classic story of good versus evil set in the past, present, and future. A magical fable with a twist of faith to help guide the human spirit.

When Fox is a Thousand is a lyrical, magical novel, rich with poetry and folklore and elements of the fairytale. Larissa Lai interweaves three narrative voices and their attendant cultures: an elusive fox growing toward wisdom and her 1000 birthday, the ninth-century Taoist poet/nun Yu Hsuan-Chi...  more

When Fox is a Thousand is a lyrical, magical novel, rich with poetry and folklore and elements of the fairytale. Larissa Lai interweaves three narrative voices and their attendant cultures: an elusive fox growing toward wisdom and her 1000 birthday, the ninth-century Taoist poet/nun Yu Hsuan-Chi (a real person executed in China for murder), and the oddly named Artemis, a young Asian-American woman living in contemporary Vancouver.With beautiful and enchanting prose, and a sure narrative hand, Lai combines Chinese mythology, the sexual politics of medieval China, and modern-day Vancouver to masterfully revise the myth of the Fox (a figure who can inhibit women's bodies in order to cause mischief). Her potent imagination and considerable verbal skill result in a tale that continues to haunt long after the story is told.First published to wide acclaim in 1995 and out of print since 2001, this new edition of When Fox is a Thousand, published by Arsenal Pulp Press for the first time, features a new foreword by the author.Praise for When Fox is a Thousand:"A sure-footed writer and teller of tales, Lai takes the reader on a magnificent journey through layers of time, myth, and imagery."-Susan Crean"A particularly acute pleasure."-The AdvocateLarissa Lai was born in La Jolla, California and lives in Calgary where she is completing a Ph.D. in English at the University of Calgary. She was awarded an Astraea Foundation Emerging Writers Award in 1995. She is also the author of the novel Salt Fish Girl (2002).

Ryuji Nagatsuka did not know, when he made an application to become a pilot in October 1943, that by the following autumn Japan’s situation in the war would be so critical that the role for which he was destined would be part of the most incomprehensible phenomenon of the hostilities...  more

Ryuji Nagatsuka did not know, when he made an application to become a pilot in October 1943, that by the following autumn Japan’s situation in the war would be so critical that the role for which he was destined would be part of the most incomprehensible phenomenon of the hostilities – that of a suicide pilot, known to the world as a kamikaze. He and his fellow kamikaze pilots had to be highly trained to crash exactly on target and to evade dense antiaircraft fire. In this way, thirteen US warships were sunk and 174 damaged in the battle of Okinawa. Here in this extraordinary document, Nagatsuka gives us a unique insight into what it was that enabled these young men to die for their country in such a way – and to die willingly.

Three Volumes in One "I am a cat. As yet I have no name." So begins one of the most origianl and unforgettable works in Japanese literature. Richly allegorical and delightfully readable, I AM A CAT is the chronicle of an unloved, unwanted, wandering kitten who spends all his time...  more

Three Volumes in One "I am a cat. As yet I have no name." So begins one of the most origianl and unforgettable works in Japanese literature. Richly allegorical and delightfully readable, I AM A CAT is the chronicle of an unloved, unwanted, wandering kitten who spends all his time observing human nature -- from the dramas of businessmen and schoolteachers to the foibles of priests and potentates. From this unique perspective, author Soseki Natsume offers a biting commentary -- shaped by his training in Chinese philosophy--on the social upheaval of the Meiji era. I AM A CAT first appeared in ten installments in the literary magazine HOTOGUISU (Cuckoo), between 1905 and 1906. Soseki had not intended to write more than the short story that makes up the first chapter of this book. After its great critical and popular success, he expanded it into this epic novel, which is universally recognized as a classic of world literature.

This visionary debut spans the uncommon range of Anne Rice's voluptuous darkness, Salman Rushdie's literary provocation and Quentin Tarantino's violent hipnessWhat is Beauty?To the men of the Hierarchate, it is death...and worse than death: A scent that rises each evening from the depths of the...  more

This visionary debut spans the uncommon range of Anne Rice's voluptuous darkness, Salman Rushdie's literary provocation and Quentin Tarantino's violent hipnessWhat is Beauty?To the men of the Hierarchate, it is death...and worse than death: A scent that rises each evening from the depths of the forest called Herwood, luring them to eternal damnation. To the women of the Hierarchate, Beauty is a rival, an enemy to be fought tooth and nail. Each night, the women bind their men, plugging their nostrils to protect them from the evil scent and keep close watch over their sleep.In this astonishing first novel, part parable, part fantasy and all erotic adventure, Paul Witcover transports readers to an awesome world where the visionary and the voluptuous are at war. It is a world deeply strange and strangely familiar, a new literary landscape lying somewhere between the fabulous realms of Anne Rice and Salman Rushdie.

This is a collection of 15 short stories written by the famous Chinese author Mao Tun during the period of 1927-44. Through these stories he depicts Chinese society in the thirties: calamities in the countryside and economic depression, caused by the dual pressure of imperialist aggression and...  more

This is a collection of 15 short stories written by the famous Chinese author Mao Tun during the period of 1927-44. Through these stories he depicts Chinese society in the thirties: calamities in the countryside and economic depression, caused by the dual pressure of imperialist aggression and feudal exploitation, as well as the misery of the people and the process of their awakening. He also describes the upheavals experienced by people of various classes and strata during the period of the Japanese invasion. He portrays various characters, including those workers who heroically resisted the enemy; students who took part in movements to save the nation; weak-kneed vacillating petty-bourgeois intellectuals; wealthy capitalists who hated the people and supported the reactionary policies of the Kuomintang government; stock exchange speculators, women employees and young, homeless waifs in the cities. Dealing with a wide range of subjects, this book is a mirror of the old China after the failure of the First Revolutionary Civil War, when it was under reactionary Kuomintang rule. These stories are outstanding for their progressive outlook and artistry. Shen Yanbing (1896-1981), better known by the pen name Mao Tun, was a member of the generation that created a truly vernacular Chinese literature in the early twentieth century. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he was named Minister of Culture.

The modern German classic that has shaped an entire generation. A mother and her two teenage children sit at the dinner table. In the middle stands a large pot of cooked mussels. Why has the father not returned home? As the evening wears on, we glimpse the issues that are tearing this family...  more

The modern German classic that has shaped an entire generation. A mother and her two teenage children sit at the dinner table. In the middle stands a large pot of cooked mussels. Why has the father not returned home? As the evening wears on, we glimpse the issues that are tearing this family apart. ------ 'I wrote this book in August 1989, just before the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I wanted to understand how revolutions start. It seemed logical to use the figure of a tyrannical father and turn the story into a German family saga.' Birgit Vanderbeke ------ Why Peirene chose to publish this book: 'I love this monologue. It's the first Peirene book which made me laugh out loud with tears in my eyes. The author lays bare the contradictory logic of an inflexible mind. This is a poignant yet hilarious narrative with a brilliant ending.' Meike Ziervogel, Publisher

Written and illustrated by award-winning Japanese artist Katsumi Komagata, Little Tree is a unique edition of extraordinary delicacy and beauty, as much an art object as it is a storybook. Composed of pop-up paper cutouts and veil-like illustrations dotted with gold ink, it tells the...  more

Written and illustrated by award-winning Japanese artist Katsumi Komagata, Little Tree is a unique edition of extraordinary delicacy and beauty, as much an art object as it is a storybook. Composed of pop-up paper cutouts and veil-like illustrations dotted with gold ink, it tells the story of a single tree and its stages of life through many years and seasons. Each page includes translations of the text in English, French and Japanese. ABOUT KATSUMI KOMAGATA Katsumi Komagata was born in Shizuoka Prefecture. Following a stint at Nippon Design Center, Inc., he moved to the United States in 1977, where he worked as a graphic designer developing corporate identity packages for such companies as CBS and the Schecter Group. He returned to Japan in 1983 and three years later founded One Stroke, which began as a graphic design studio and later expanded into publishing. The birth of a daughter prompted him to take up picture-book authoring, beginning with the ten-volume Little Eyes series (1990–92), which garnered attention for its innovative ideas. He has also created picture books for children with disabilities, including tactile and sign-language books. He has held shows and workshops around the world, and won numerous honors, including an ADC Silver Cube (New York), the Prize for Creativity (Paris), a New Art Prize as well as a Ragazzi Mention at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, an International Children's Book Award (Switzerland), and two Good Design Awards (Japan).

The history of false teeth from the Etruscans to the mid-20th century.

A Dog's Heart: An Appalling Story is Mikhail Bulgakov's hilarious satire on Communist hypocrisies. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes by Andrew Bromfield, and includes an introduction by James Meek. In this surreal work by the author of The Master and Margarita,...  more

A Dog's Heart: An Appalling Story is Mikhail Bulgakov's hilarious satire on Communist hypocrisies. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes by Andrew Bromfield, and includes an introduction by James Meek. In this surreal work by the author of The Master and Margarita, wealthy Moscow surgeon Filip Preobrazhensky implants the pituitary gland and testicles of a drunken petty criminal into the body of a stray dog named Sharik. As the dog slowly transforms into a man, and the man into a slovenly, lecherous government official, the doctor's life descends into chaos. A scathing indictment of the New Soviet Man, A Dog's Heart was immediately banned by the Soviet government when it was first published in 1925: alternating lucid realism with pulse-raising drama, the novel captures perfectly the atmosphere of its rapidly changing times. Andrew Bromfield's vibrant translation is accompanied by an introduction by James Meek, which places the work in the context of the Russian class struggles of the era and considers the vision, progressive style and lasting relevance of an author who was isolated and suppressed during his lifetime. This edition also contains notes and a chronology.

Iris (or balletgirl_42 as she's known on the Internet dating circuit) is a zookeeper looking for love when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Overnight, her life becomes populated by a carnival of daunting hospital characters. Despite the attempts of her friends--Maud, Grandma Suggs, Larry the...  more

Iris (or balletgirl_42 as she's known on the Internet dating circuit) is a zookeeper looking for love when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Overnight, her life becomes populated by a carnival of daunting hospital characters. Despite the attempts of her friends--Maud, Grandma Suggs, Larry the Monkey, and a group of singing penguins--to comfort her, her fears begin to encircle her, and she clings to the attention of a lighthouse keeper called sailor_buoy_39. The Inflatable Woman combines magical realism with the grit of everyday life to create a poignant and surreal journey inside the human psyche.

These short fictions and prose poems are beautifully bizarre: bread can no longer be thought of as wholesome comforting loaves; the pretensions of the male chef are subjected to a loght roasting; a poisonous brew is concocted by cynical five year olds; and knowing when to stop is of deadly...  more

These short fictions and prose poems are beautifully bizarre: bread can no longer be thought of as wholesome comforting loaves; the pretensions of the male chef are subjected to a loght roasting; a poisonous brew is concocted by cynical five year olds; and knowing when to stop is of deadly importance in a game of Murder in the Dark.

It is the eve of the French Revolution. The aristos are drinking life to the dregs, indulging in every conceivable sensual vice as if there were no tomorrow, while the citizens, miserable in their poverty, seethe with envy and hatred in a sorcerous Paris, beautiful in the center, rotting into...  more

It is the eve of the French Revolution. The aristos are drinking life to the dregs, indulging in every conceivable sensual vice as if there were no tomorrow, while the citizens, miserable in their poverty, seethe with envy and hatred in a sorcerous Paris, beautiful in the center, rotting into mighty slums around the edges. In this sweeping novel, Tanith Lee depicts the savage spirit of Year I, following the life of journalist, pamphleteer and patriot Camille Desmoulins through these turbulent days. A fascinating and complex creature of the mind who maneuvered through all levels of Paris society, Desmoulins was the journalist and voice of the Revolution. Silenced by the guillotine during the Terror in the prime of his youth, Desmoulins, with his circle of friends, is the heart and soul of this gripping novel.

Elliot is a bachelor in his late thirties whose new girlfriend, Joanna, is everything he ever wanted in a woman -- intelligent, beautiful, warm, independent -- and it terrifies him for precisely that reason. A twice-divorced real estate broker who likes order in her life, she is equally scared...  more

Elliot is a bachelor in his late thirties whose new girlfriend, Joanna, is everything he ever wanted in a woman -- intelligent, beautiful, warm, independent -- and it terrifies him for precisely that reason. A twice-divorced real estate broker who likes order in her life, she is equally scared of the precariousness of having someone matter to her. Their uncertainties come to a head when Elliot takes her to a party to meet "the guys" -- Bobby, who works for Playing; Phil, a recovering alcoholic; and Larry, who "is not comfortable with a woman outside the confines of a divorce court." The encounter becomes an initiation ceremony crackling with witty, barbed, and devastating dialogue that strips the two lovers of all pretensions forcing them to confront each other anew in a painful awareness of their vulnerability. The result is a bitterly funny play about the ambiguities of being in love, with Jules Feiffer at his most incisive, wise, and wickedly honest.

The Floating Opera is a 1956 novel by the American writer John Barth. It chronicles one day in the life of Todd Andrews, a day on which he makes a very important decision. It was Barth's first novel. "Why The Floating Opera? Well, that's part of the name of a showboat that used...  more

The Floating Opera is a 1956 novel by the American writer John Barth. It chronicles one day in the life of Todd Andrews, a day on which he makes a very important decision. It was Barth's first novel. "Why The Floating Opera? Well, that's part of the name of a showboat that used to travel around the Virginia and Maryland tidewater areas, and some of this book happens aboard it... But there's a better reason. It always seemed a fine idea to me to build a showboat with just one big flat open deck on it, and to keep a play going continuously. The boat wouldn't be moored, but would drift up and down the river on the tide, and the audience would sit along both banks. They could catch whatever part of the plot happened to unfold as the boat floated past, and then they'd have to wait until the tide ran back again to catch another snatch of it, if they still happened to be sitting there. To fill in the gaps they'd have to use their imaginations, or ask more attentive neighbors, or hear the word passed along from upriver or downriver. Most times they wouldn't understand what was going on at all, or they'd think they knew, when actually they didn't. Lots of times they'd be able to see the actors, but not hear them. I needn't explain that that's how much of life works..."

A wildly funny, irreverent tale of murder, mayhem, and the mob.  All is not well at the Dreadnought Grill.  The chef has a smack habit, the owner has been set up by the FBI and in the midst of this, the sous-chef Tommy is just trying to do his job.  When up-and-coming chef Tommy...  more

A wildly funny, irreverent tale of murder, mayhem, and the mob.  All is not well at the Dreadnought Grill.  The chef has a smack habit, the owner has been set up by the FBI and in the midst of this, the sous-chef Tommy is just trying to do his job.  When up-and-coming chef Tommy Pagano settles for a less than glamorous stint at his uncle's restaurant in Manhattan's Little Italy, an operatically eccentric group of wise guys become his superiors and he unwittingly finds himself their partner in big-time crime.  And when the mob decides to use the kitchen for a murder, nothing Tommy learned in cooking school has prepared him for a kettle of fish like this. .

Haven to Nazis, smugglers’ paradise, home to some of the earth’s oddest wildlife and most baroquely awful dictatorships, Paraguay is a nation waiting for the right chronicler. In John Gimlette, at last it has one. With an adventurer’s sang-froid, a historian’s erudition,...  more

Haven to Nazis, smugglers’ paradise, home to some of the earth’s oddest wildlife and most baroquely awful dictatorships, Paraguay is a nation waiting for the right chronicler. In John Gimlette, at last it has one. With an adventurer’s sang-froid, a historian’s erudition, and a sense of irony so keen you could cut a finger on it, Gimlette celebrates the beauty, horror and–yes–charm of South America’s obscure and remote “island surrounded by land.”He takes readers from genteel drawing rooms in Asuncion–where ladies still gossip about the nineteenth-century Irish adventuress who became Paraguay’s Empress to the “Green Hell” of the Chaco, a vast, inhospitable tract populated by aging Mennonites and discouraged Indians. Replete with eccentrics and scoundrels, ecologically minded cannibals and utopians from every corner of the earth, At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig is a madly entertaining book.

In this "extremely moving tale", Puig keenly depicts and examines the relationship between Molina, a homosexual window dresser, and Valentin, a fierce revolutionary, two men imprisoned in the same cell in a country in Latin America.

From the same landscape that inspired Cannery Row comes Mordecai of Monterey, a comic novel about the late '60s and early '70s. The hero, Mordecai, discovers that he has been fidted with melanoia, the opposite of paranoia. Melanoia means that Mordecai actually trusts people and...  more

From the same landscape that inspired Cannery Row comes Mordecai of Monterey, a comic novel about the late '60s and early '70s. The hero, Mordecai, discovers that he has been fidted with melanoia, the opposite of paranoia. Melanoia means that Mordecai actually trusts people and expects good things to happen, which they often do. When Mordecai hooks up with fast-talking Buck and the erotic adventuress Francine Fingers, he finds out just how far good luck can go.

Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa, which was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far...  more

Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa, which was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims, one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere. Krakatoa gives us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event.