Bücher veröffentlicht von Harper Perennial

The follow-up and companion volume to the New York Times bestselling How to Read Literature Like a Professor--a lively and entertaining guide to understanding and dissecting novels to make everyday reading more enriching, satisfying, and funOf all the literary forms, the novel is arguably the most discussed . . . and fretted over. From Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote to the works of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and today's masters, the novel has grown with and adapted to changing societies and technologies, mixing tradition and innovation in every age throughout history.Thomas C. Foster--the sage and scholar who ingeniously led readers through the fascinating symbolic codes of great literature in his first book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor--now examines the grammar of the popular novel. Exploring how authors' choices about structure--point of view, narrative voice, first page, chapter construction, character emblems, and narrative (dis)continuity--create meaning and a special literary language, How to Read Novels Like a Professor shares the keys to this language with readers who want to get more insight, more understanding, and more pleasure from their reading.

"If one had to identify the single most influential shaping force in modern Black literary history, one would probably have to point to Wright and the publication of Native Son." --Henry Louis Gates Jr.Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.This beautifully designed Harper Perennial Deluxe Edition--the restored text of Native Son established by the Library of America--also includes an essay by Wright titled, How "Bigger" was Born, along with notes on the text.

In 70 AD, the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son Titus plundered the great Temple of Jerusalem, claiming for themselves a priceless hoard. The golden candelabrum, silver trumpets, the bejeweled Table of the Divine Presence--the central icons of the Jewish faith--were cast adrift in Mediterranean lands and exposed to centuries of turbulent history and the rule of four different civilizations. Only an intriguing trail of clues remains to betray the treasure's ever-changing destiny--a trail eminent archaeologist Dr. Sean Kingsley has followed on one of the most remarkable quests of this or any other age: the search for the final resting place of God's gold.

"That this story is still unfolding makes it especially exciting to read. These men are still in their workshops, tinkering their way into orbit." --David Gelles, FORBESOn June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne, built by aircraft designer Burt Rutan, entered space and ushered in the commercial space age. Investment capital began to pour into the new commercial spaceflight industry. Richard Branson's VirginGalactic plans to ferry space tourists out of the atmosphere. Las Vegas hotelier Robert Bigelow is developing the world's first commercial space station (i.e., space hotel). These space entrepreneurs, including Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, now see space as the next big thing.In Rocketeers, Michael Belfiore goes behind the scenes of this nascent industry, capturing its wild-west, anything-goes flavor. Likening his research to "hanging out in the Wright brothers' barn," Belfiore offers an inspiring and entertaining look at the people who are not afraid to make their bold dreams a reality."The commercial space race is heating up so fast you need a cheat sheet to keep track of all the billionaires and gamblers vying to be the first private entrepreneur to blast paying customers into orbit. [Belfiore] does a stellar job introducing an intriguing cast of characters." --Mark Horowitz, Wired"The privatization of space travel is an essential step toward realizing our cosmic destiny. In his engaging, highly readable Rocketeers, Michael Belfiore tells the fascinating story of the entrepreneurs who have already made it happen." --Buzz Aldrin"A riveting, you-are-there account of how this ragtag collection of innovative thinkers, brave pilots, and bold visionaries is--right now--launching one of the most exciting new industries in history. Belfiore's eloquent writing and exhaustive reporting really bring this mysterious, secretive world to life." --Eric Adams, Popular Science

'Young Hearts Run Free' is an antidote to 'I Love the 1970s'; it is the real story of the 1970s from the critically acclaimed author of 'Manchester, England'. The 1970s is a decade frequently miscast; a parade of fashion disasters backed by a soundtrack of glam rock or frothy, mainstream disco. The generation who grew up in the 1970s remember the decade differently: inflation, strikes, and power cuts; the rise of the National Front; IRA terror campaigns on the British mainland; women's liberation; 'Mean Streets'; 'Taxi Driver' and 'Apocalypse Now'. 'Young Hearts Run Free' tells the story of the 1970s, celebrating the musicians and songs that illuminated the ideas, fashions and sexual revolutions of the decade including: the politicised soul and funk of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, the Punk explosion, New Wave, David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust, gay disco, the Stooges, Patti Smith, the Raincoats, Cabaret Voltaire, the Specials, and black British reggae. 'Young Hearts Run Free' uses in-depth research, drawing not only on interviews with musicians, writers, and artists but also a wide range of representatives of the 70s generation. They introduce us to life and music away from the mainstream: nothing bland, nothing obvious, definitely not Abba. CHAPTERSIntro: Boogie Wonderland (Earth, Wind & Fire, 1979)One: Lolo (The Kinks, 1970)Two: Riders on the Storm (The Doors, 1971)Three: Freddie's Dead (Curtis Mayfield, 1972)Four: All the Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople, 1972)Five: Raw Power (The Stooges, 1973)Six: Sad Sweet Dreamer (Sweet Sensation, 1974)Seven: Turn the Beat Around (Vicki Sue Robinson, 1976)Eight: God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols, 1977)Nine: Handsome Revolution (Steel Pulse, 1978)Outro: Everyone's Happy Nowadays (Buzzcocks, 1979)

A land of enormous proportions, countless secrets, and incredible history, Central Asia was the heart of the great Mongol empire of Tamerlane and scene of Stalin's cruelest deportations. A remote and fascinating region in a constant state of transition--never more so than since the collapse of the Soviet Union--it encompasses terrain as diverse as the Kazakh steppes, the Karakum desert, and the Pamir mountains. In The Lost Heart of Asia, acclaimed, bestselling travel writer Colin Thubron carries readers on an extraordinary journey through this little understood, rarely visited, yet increasingly important corner of the world.

At Mt. Douglas (a.k.a. Mt. Drug) High, all the girls have feathered hair, and the sweet scent of Love's Baby Soft can't hide the musk of raw teenage anger, apathy, and desire. Sara Shaw is a girl full of fever and longing, a girl looking for something risky, something real. Her only possible salvation comes in the willowy form of the mysterious Justine, the outlaw girl in the torn skirt. The search for Justine will lead Sara on a daring odyssey into an underworld of hookers and johns, junkies and thieves, runaway girls and skater boys, and, ultimately, into a violent tragedy.

Childhood best friends Bassam and George have grown to be men in war-ravaged Beirut. Now they must choose between the only two futures available to them: to stay in the devastated city and consolidate power through crime or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have ever known. Told in a distinctive, captivating voice that fuses vivid cinematic imagery, a page-turning plot, and exquisite, dark poetry, De Niro's Game is an explosive portrait of life in a war zone and a powerful meditation on what comes after. It won the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2008.

When she was very young, Baby Halder was abandoned by her mother and left with a cruel, abusive father. She was married off at twelve to a man twice her age who beat her. At fourteen, she was a mother herself. Her early life was marked by overwhelming challenges and heartbreak until, exhausted and desperate, she fled with her three children to Delhi, to work as a maid in some of the city's wealthiest homes. Expected to serve her employers' every demand, she faced a staggering workload that often left her no time to care for her own children. But she never complained, for such is the lot of the poor in modern-day India.Written without a trace of self-pity, A Life Less Ordinary is a shocking look deep inside a world of poverty and subjugation that few outsiders know about--and an inspiring true story of one remarkable woman's strength, courage, and determination to soar above her circumstances.

From the critically acclaimed author of I Am Not Myself These Days comes the very odd adventures of a starry-eyed young man from the Midwest seeking fame and fortune in the flamboyant surreality of New York, Los Angeles . . . and everywhere in between.Jayson Blocher is tired of worshiping pop culture; he wants to be part of it. So he's off, accompanied by an ever-changing cast of quirky extended family members, on an extremely bumpy journey from rural Wisconsin to a New York escort agency for Broadway chorus boys, to a Hollywood sitcom set. Somewhere out there his destiny awaits?along with the discovery of first love, some unusual coincidences, a kidnapping mystery . . . and the sobering truth that being America's sweetheart can leave a very sour aftertaste.

“Bad Monkeys has wit and imagination by the bucketload. . . . Buy it, read it, memorize then destroy it. There are eyes everywhere.¿ --Chris Moore, bestselling author of A Dirty Job and Lamb Jane Charlotte has been arrested for murder. She tells police that she is a member of a secret organization devoted to fighting evil; her division is called the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons--“Bad Monkeys¿ for short. This confession earns Jane a trip to the jail's psychiatric wing, where a doctor attempts to determine whether she is lying, crazy, or playing a different game altogether. Clever and gripping, full of unexpected twists and turns, teasing existential musings, and captivating prose, Bad Monkeys unfolds at lightning speed, taking readers to another realm of imagination.

"Brilliant. . . . A shimmering meditation on the ebb and flow of love." -- New York Times"In her elegant, sophisticated prose, Dillard tells a tale of intimacy, loss and extraordinary friendship and maturity against a background of nature in its glorious color and caprice. The Maytrees is an intelligent, exquisite novel." -- The Washington TimesToby Maytree first sees Lou Bigelow on her bicycle in postwar Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her laughter and loveliness catch his breath. Maytree is a Provincetown native, an educated poet of thirty. As he courts Lou, just out of college, her stillness draws him. He hides his serious wooing, and idly shows her his poems. In spare, elegant prose, Dillard traces the Maytrees' decades of loving and longing. They live cheaply among the nonconformist artists and writers that the bare tip of Cape Cod attracts. When their son Petie appears, their innocent Bohemian friend Deary helps care for him. But years later it is Deary who causes the town to talk.In this moving novel, Dillard intimately depicts willed bonds of loyalty, friendship, and abiding love. She presents nature's vastness and nearness. Warm and hopeful, The Maytrees is the surprising capstone of Dillard's original body of work.

From Doris Lessing, "one of the most important writers of the past hundred years" (Times of London), comes a brilliant, darkly provocative alternative history of humankind's beginnings.In this fascinating and beguiling novel, Lessing confronts the themes that inspired much of her early writing: how men and women manage to live side by side in the world and how the troublesome particulars of gender affect every aspect of our existence.In the last years of his life, a Roman senator retells the history of human creation and reveals the little-known story of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic coastal wilderness. The Clefts have neither need nor knowledge of men; childbirth is controlled through the cycles of the moon, and they bear only female children. But with the unheralded birth of a strange new child--a boy--the harmony of their community is suddenly thrown into jeopardy.

In 1917, the notorious Oriental dancer Mata Hari was arrested on the charge of espionage; less than one year later, she was tried and executed, charged with the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. The mistress of many senior Allied officers and government officials, even the French minister of war, she had a sharp intellect and a golden tongue fluent in several languages; she also traveled widely throughout war-torn Europe, with seeming disregard for the political and strategic alliances and borders. But was she actually a spy? In this persuasive new biography, Pat Shipman explores the life and times of the mythic and deeply misunderstood dark-eyed siren to find the truth.

The ideals of the French Revolution inflamed a longing for liberty and equality within courageous, freethinking women of the era--women who played vital roles in the momentous events that reshaped their nation and the world. In Liberty, Lucy Moore paints a vivid portrait of six extraordinary Frenchwomen from vastly different social and economic backgrounds who helped stoke the fervor and idealism of those years, and who risked everything to make their mark on history.Germaine de Staël was a wealthy, passionate Parisian intellectual--as consumed by love affairs as she was by politics--who helped write the 1791 Constitution. Théroigne de Méricourt was an unhappy courtesan who fell in love with revolutionary ideals. Exuberant, decadent Thérésia Tallien was a ruthless manipulator instrumental in engineering Robespierre's downfall. Their stories and others provide a fascinating new perspective on one of history's most turbulent epochs.

Inspiration for the Netflix Limited Series, Tales of the CityThe seventh novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin's best-selling San Francisco saga.Nearly two decades after ending his groundbreaking Tales of the City saga of San Francisco life, Armistead Maupin revisits his all-too-human hero Michael Tolliver--the fifty-five-year-old sweet-spirited gardener and survivor of the plague that took so many of his friends and lovers--for a single day at once mundane and extraordinary... and filled with the everyday miracles of living.

In this breathtaking debut novel, Ami McKay has created an unforgettable portrait of the struggles that women have faced to control their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare--the first daughter in five generations of Rares. As apprentice to the outspoken Acadian midwife Miss Babineau, Dora learns to assist the women of an isolated Nova Scotian village through infertility, difficult labors, breech births, unwanted pregnancies, and even unfulfilling sex lives. During the turbulent World War I era, uncertainty and upheaval accompany the arrival of a brash new medical doctor and his promises of progress and fast, painless childbirth. Dora soon finds herself fighting to protect the rights of women as well as the wisdom that has been put into her care.A tale of tradition and science, matriarchy and paternalism, past and future, The Birth House is "a dazzling first novel." (Library Journal), and a story more timely than ever.

Being sane has long been defined simply as that bland and nebulous state of not being mentally ill. While writings on madness fill entire libraries, until now no one has thought to engage exclusively with the idea of sanity.In a society governed by indulgence and excess, madness is the state of mind we identify with most keenly. Though ultimately destructive, it is often credited as the wellspring of genius, individuality, and self-expression. Sanity, on the other hand, confounds us. One of the world's most respected psychoanalysts and original thinkers, Adam Phillips redresses this historical imbalance. He strips our lives back to essentials, focusing on how we--as human beings, parents, lovers, as people to whom work matters--can make space for a sane and well-balanced attitude to living. In a world saturated by tales of dysfunction and suffering, he offers a way forward that is as down-to-earth and realistic as it is uplifting and hopeful.

For more than 150 years, academics have questioned how William Shakespeare of Stratford--a man with limited schooling who apparently never traveled abroad--wrote such a rich body of work said to draw on the largest vocabulary of any writer in the English language. Motivated by scholarship, Shakespeare historian Brenda James set out to uncover the truth behind literature's greatest mystery.The Truth Will Out is the culmination of James's search, a book five years in the making that details the intensive research, painstaking deciphering, and remarkable historical detection into the true identity of William Shakespeare. Coauthors James and respected history professor William D. Rubinstein explore these monumental findings and demonstrate how studying the dedication to Shakespeare's sonnets led them to the real author behind the English language's most enduring works. Offering eye-opening and definitive evidence, this groundbreaking work points to Sir Henry Neville, a prominent Elizabethan diplomat and member of Parliament, whose position in society forced him to allow an actor to take credit for his literary genius. Captivating, elucidating, and certain to provoke lively debate, The Truth Will Out is a revelatory exploration of two men and their time that will forever change the landscape of Shakespearean scholarship.

Five years after escaping into the mountains of North Carolina, Eric Rudolph was becoming a figure of folk legend. The FBI had long since abandoned its manhunt--the largest ever on U.S. soil--for the fugitive accused of bombing the Atlanta Olympics, two abortion clinics, and a gay bar. Then, one night, Rudolph got careless; he was arrested and put in jail--possibly forever. But even in custody, he remained unrepentant . . . and an enigma.In Lone Wolf, Maryanne Vollers brings the reader deep inside one of the most sensational cases of domestic terrorism in American history. At the same time, without losing sight of the hideous nature of Rudolph's violent crimes, she successfully puts a human face on an iconic killer while exploring the painful mysteries of the heart.

In this epic dual biography, one of our most distinguished scholars--the bestselling author of An Unfinished Life--probes the lives and times of two unlikely leaders whose partnership dominated American and world affairs and changed the course of history Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were two of the most compelling, contradictory, and important leaders in America in the second half of the 20th century. Both were largely self-made men, brimming with ambition, driven by their own inner demons, and often ruthless in pursuit of their goals. Tapping into a wealth of recently declassified documents and tapes, Robert Dallek uncovers fascinating details about Nixon and Kissinger's tumultuous personal relationship--their collaboration and rivalry--and the extent to which they struggled to outdo each other in the reach of foreign policy achievements. He also brilliantly analyzes their dealings with power brokers at home and abroad, including the nightmare of Vietnam, the brilliant opening to China, détente with the Soviet Union, the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East, the disastrous overthrow of Allende in Chile, and growing tensions between India and Pakistan, while recognizing how both men were continually plotting to distract the American public's attention from the growing scandal of Watergate. Authoritative, illuminating, and deeply engrossing, Nixon and Kissinger provides a shocking new understanding of the immense power and sway these two men held in affecting world history.

Vishnu, the odd-job man in a Bombay apartment block, lies dying on the staircase landing. Around him the lives of the apartment dwellers unfold: the warring housewives on the first floor, lovesick teenagers on the second, and the quietly grieving widower on the top floor of the building. In a fevered state Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmini and wonders if he might actually be the god Vishnu, guardian of the entire universe. Blending incisive comedy with Hindu mythology and a dash of Bollywood sparkle, The Death of Vishnu is an intimate and compelling view of an unforgettable world.

"Belongs on your must-read list. This novel is a gem." --Omaha World-HeraldNancy E. Turner's unforgettable These Is My Words melds the sweeping adventures and dramatic landscapes of Lonesome Dove with the heartfelt emotional saga of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon--from child to determined young adult to loving mother--she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her, and recalls the enduring love with cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot that gave her strength and purpose. Rich in authentic everyday details and alive with truly unforgettable characters, These Is My Words brilliantly brings a vanished world to breathtaking life again.

From Booker and Orange Prize-nominated author Sarah Hall comes the tale of an imaginary England, a future dystopian society where the right to bear a child is determined by a state lottery system.In this stunning novel Sarah Hall draws on the work of Margaret Atwood and George Orwell to imagine a dystopic England where terrifying new systems of control are in place and reproduction has become a lottery. When a girl known only as "Sister" escapes the confines of her increasingly repressive marriage to find an isolated group of women living on a remote northern farm, she must find out whether she has it in herself to become an active insurgent.This fascinating novel considers what lengths women will go to in a brutalized world in order to resist their oppressors, what tactics they must employ to survive and remain free. But the story asks a wider and more difficult question: under what circumstances might an ordinary person become a terrorist?

Volume 1 of the classic anthology of political thought: a comprehensive selection of the crucial ideas in political philosophy from Plato and Aristotle to Locke and MontesquieuAs an introduction to political theory and science, this standout collection of writings by the great philosophers is a must for readers of philosophy. It also forms a basic textbook for students of government and political theory. Such fundamental concepts as Democracy, the Rule of Law, Justice, Natural Rights, Sovereignty, Citizenship, Power, the State, Revolution, Liberty, Reason, Materialism, Toleration, and the Place of Religion in Society are traced from their origins, through their development and changing patterns, to show how they guide political thinking and institutions today.Among the authors in this volume: Sophocles, Plato, Artistotle, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Calvin, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, and Montesquieu.

This carefully selected compilation of the significant writings of the great political philosophers, scientists, and thinkers has long been an invaluable guide to the general reader as well as to the serious student of history, political science, and government. Such essential forces as Revolution, Idealism, and Nationalism are examined in detail and expounded by their leading exponents. Professor Curtis has written running commentary that places the extracts and their authors in the sequence of modern history.

The Espejo family of El Paso, Texas, is like so many others in America in 1967, trying to make sense of a rapidly escalating war they feel does not concern them. But when the eldest son, Gustavo, a complex and errant rebel, receives a certified letter ordering him to report to basic training, he chooses to flee instead to Mexico. Retreating back to the land of his grandfather?a foreign country to which he is no longer culturally connected?Gustavo sets into motion a series of events that will have catastrophic consequences on the fragile bonds holding the family together. Told with raw power and searing bluntness, and filled with important themes as immediate as today's headlines, Names on a Map is arguably the most important work to date of a major American literary artist.