Set in 18th century Naples, based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his celebrated wife Emma, and Lord Nelson, and peopled with many of the great figures of the day, this unconventional, bestselling historical romance from the National Book Award-winning author of In America touches on themes of sex and revolution, the fate of nature, art and the collector's obsessions, and, above all, love.

This collection of two decades of Susan Sontag essays reinforces our sense of her maverick importance. So stubbornly eclectic that she has been accused of squandering her genius, she explores what she pleases, delving into new subjects and new genres as she will. These essays, grouped into invitingly open sections ("Reading," "Seeing," "There & Here"), follow her enthusiasms through almost every branch of artistic venture and thought.

Cultural Writing. Susan Sontag delivered LITERATURE IS FREEDOM as her acceptance speech after receiving the highly prestigious Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Past recipients of the prize, awarded annually since 1950, include Martin Buber, Hermann Hesse, Octovio Paz, Vaclav Havel, Chinua Achebe and Mario Vargas Llosa. Among other things this brilliant speech touches on the historical and philosophical roots of Sontag's fervent opposition to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.