Straw Sandals is a collection of 23 stories, a play, and a poem by 16 Chinese writers selected to represent the radical literature produced in China between 1918 and 1933. It was assembled in Peking in 1934 by Harold R. Isaacs with the advice and guidance of Lu Hsün, China's foremost literary figure of this century, and Mao Tun, leading novelist of the younger group that had gathered around Lu Hsün in those tumultuous years. The first half of the collection, including several of Lu Hsün's most famous stories, typifies work that appeared in the first years of China's modern cultural renaissance—short stories written in vernacular Chinese that rejected surviving Chinese traditionalism with its philosophic and social outlooks, its rules of behavior for family life and relationships between men and women. The second group of stories represents the growing ideological and political turbulence of the 1920s and 1930s. Straw Sandals is introduced by Professor Isaacs, who describes the historical setting in which this short-lived and violence-ridden literary movement tried to make its way. He vividly presents the Shanghai of that period, where many of these writers struggled to pursue their craft and were caught between the pressures of Kuomintang repression (many were imprisoned and executed) and the demands for total conformity inside the Communist movement. His account adds an ironic perspective to the collection in light of all that has happened since that time—for the writers who survived Kuomintang repression and the war against Japan to see the Communist victory they had fought so hard and so long to bring about ultimately fell in their turn in the repeated purges that marked the Communist regime's imposition of total control over all art and literature. The English translations of a number of these stories first appeared in the China Forum, a journal that Professor Isaacs edited and published in Shanghai from 1932 to 1934. They were made by a distinguished Chinese language scholar, the late George A. Kennedy, while he was teaching in a Shanghai school. The rest of the collection was translated by several Chinese collaborators and then edited by Isaacs. The book includes updated biographical notes on the writers, many of which were originally supplied by the writers themselves, and an appendix, Mao Tun's "Notes on Chinese Left-wing Literary Magazines."

"Andrea Goldsmith takes a group of Melbourne graduates to Oxford in the 1980s, then revisits them 20-odd years later. Now they are in their mid to late 40s, and life has left its mark on all of them: Jack, the brilliant Islamic scholar, whose career has stalled as he pursues his obsessive and unrequited love for Ava, the brilliant novelist, whose affair with Fleur - her muse - has ended, and who fears she may never write again, despite the constant love and support of Harry, the interloper in the group, the one who caught and married the beautiful Ava, the man who collected barbed wire and knew too much about cheese, and who now holds all their lives in his hands as the director of the academic institute that has brought them all back together in Australia and completely alienated Helen, the brilliant bio-scientist dedicated to eliminating shingella disease, whose work to save lives is being put to very sinister ends by those who fund her, unlike Connie (Conrad) who has been chosen by Harry to give the keynote lecture for his institute because of his media glamour and his easy charisma - though privately Connie would much prefer to spend his time with the beautiful twenty-five-year-old Sara than consider too closely the work his academic reputation rests upon. This is engrossing, character-driven storytelling. As it reveals the excitement and frustration of academic life (from conveying the complete absorption Helen can feel at a conference of scientists to Connies queasy compromises between popularity and rigour) the tissue of friendship remains, changing now as the group reconnects for the first time in decades, dealing with the reality of their present lives and their memories of the past. None will be unchanged by this. And not all will survive ..."--Provided by publisher.

From the Publisher: Beautifully written, and composed with a novelist's eye for detail, this book tells the story of an exceptional man and the culture from which he emerged. Taha Muhammad Ali was born in 1931 in the Galilee village of Saffuriyya and was forced to flee during the war in 1948. He traveled on foot to Lebanon and returned a year later to find his village destroyed. An autodidact, he has since run a souvenir shop in Nazareth, at the same time evolving into what National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Eliot Weinberger has dubbed "perhaps the most accessible and delightful poet alive today." As it places Muhammad Ali's life in the context of the lives of his predecessors and peers, My Happiness offers a sweeping depiction of a charged and fateful epoch. It is a work that Arabic scholar Michael Sells describes as "among the five 'must read' books on the Israel-Palestine tragedy." In an era when talk of the "Clash of Civilizations" dominates, this biography offers something else entirely: a view of the people and culture of the Middle East that is rich, nuanced, and, above all else, deeply human

Now available as a New Directions paperbook, Love and Terror, William Herrick's second novel with ND, both reflects and anticipates today's headlines. Terrorist kidnappings, hijackings, and dramatic rescues all form a part of the plot, but Herrick's interest lies less in tension-filled heroics than in the human cost of flawed idealism. Through the notebook of the principal terrorist, Viktor X, the complex characters of Viktor and Gabriele, for whom love and terrorism are intertwined and inseparable, are revealed. And in a series of interviews with a nameless reporter, the lives of three disillusioned revolutionaries--"the old ones," now hostages to a new brand of revolution--gradually and movingly unfold. In his earlier Shadows and Wolves (New Directions, 1980), Herrick showed us the possibility of human solutions that transcend politics. In Love and Terror he shows us why any ideology, inflexibly adhered to, makes such solutions necessary.

Have you ever wondered: How it feels to be eponymous? Why some German pigeons were painted blue in the First World War? What connects Rachmaninoff to Chief Sitting Bull? It is 1972. Bernard Robins is in London – American, innocent, uninformed and arrogant – to make his name and fortune as a pianist, composer and conductor. He lives at the Kensington Music Society, a haven for aspiring musicians, including afro-headed violinists, cellists in caftans and coloraturas from Colorado. During his time there, Bernard accidentally encounters his long lost great-uncle, Hermann Heinrich Zweck, a nonagenarian – a once eminent, now forgotten composer, who has known most of the great musical figures of the Twentieth Century and hated almost all of them. Zweck is engaged in a war against stupidity, laziness and cowardice with the entire world, and especially with Bernard and Charles Forsythe – a hapless English musicologist whose only crime, (grievous in Zweck's view) is to be both English and an academic. The romantic relationships the three principals have with strong women, ranging from promiscuity to endless love, change the lives of all concerned. Throughout the novel, Zweck engages in a battle of words with the author in a series of interruptions and monologues. Comically written by an author skilled in both writing and music, Zweck is an accessible and hilarious novel about fame, identity, music and dumplings.

"...an important voice that ought to become more important still". -- The Globe and Mail "May our dark age never get so dark that there is no piece in it for voices such as his" -- Books in Canada It is the beginning of the 21st century and an election has been called, but the traditional political parties no longer exist. With only a video camera and his gifted ability to improvise, actor Matthew Deans begins his own campaign. What transpires makes Rick Salutin's The Age of Improv a provocative and fascinating novel about the relationship between politics and theater.

Someday giant cities will travel through space, orbiting the sun or carrying colonists to distant worlds as they circle alien stars. These space cities resemble ocean liners more than battleships. Or they may develop complete, self-contained civilizations, producing their own food, housing, and entertainment. Forever City is the story of Alfonso Ivanovich Petrov and Mariel O'Hara, two members of a space-bred generation to whom Earth is little more than their ancestral home, a legend of the past. When Mariel's brother, Dylan, disappears on an expedition to explore the distant Oort Cloud that circles the sun at a distance far beyond the orbit of the most remote planet, Mariel refuses to give him up for lost. Along with Alfonso, Mariel explores deep space in search of her missing brother! Also included in Deep Space: A Novel and Two Novelettes are Richard A. Lupoff's acclaimed, Nebula-nominated stories "After the Dreamtime" and "Sail the Tide of Mourning."

While waiting in line for apple pie at a party, Imogene Gilfeather, a lingerie designer who does not understand the reason for romance, meets Wally Yez, a scientist whose business card says “An Answer for Everything.” Imogene is told that Wally is the perfect guy. (“Perfect,” she replies, “is not my type.”) He is told that her company, Featherware, manufactures intimates ( that gets his attention). Unfazed by Imogene’s indifference (who needs love when you have a career, friends, and an undemanding affair with a married man?), Wally resolves to win her over. E-mails turn into late-night phone calls; one date turns into two and then into more. Thus begins the most absurd and amusingly unbalanced relationship to grace the pages of a novel. Wally is certain he and Imogene are meant for each other (They both use mechanical pencils! Neither has had mumps! They are so alike!), but convincing his beloved is another matter. (“Do you know why it is I don’t have pierced ears?” she asks. “Because it’s too permanent.”) In defiance of the odds, or the gods, or perhaps just Imogene’s qualms, Wally and Imogene become a pair. They celebrate their anniversaries—the first time they touched each other on purpose, took public transportation together, saw the other with wet hair. But can they possibly end as happily as they’ve begun? (“Does he really have a cowlick? If yes, no bed will ever be big enough.”) Made up of hundreds of chaplettes, clever illustrations, and darkly funny commentary on getting together and staying the course, Starting from Happy is a cunning and sophisticated send-up of coupledom that showcases one of the finest comic writers of our time.

"Celebrated stage actress Mona Zahid wakes up on Thanksgiving morning to the clamor of guests packed into her Manhattan apartment and to a wave of dread: her in-laws are lurking on the other side of the bedroom door; she's still fighting with her husband; and in just a few weeks she will begin rehearsals as Shakespeare's Cleopatra, the hardest role in theater. In an impulsive burst, Mona bounds out the door with the family dog in tow ("I forgot the parsley!" is her lame excuse) to find her estranged mentor, Milton Katz, who was recently forced out of the legendary theater company he founded amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Mona's escape turns into an overnight adventure that brings her face-to-face with her past, with her creative power and its limitations, and ultimately, with all the people she has ever loved. Beguilingly approachable and intricately constructed, at once funny and sad and wise, Mona Acts Out is a novel about acting and telling the truth, about how we play roles to get through our days, and how the great roles teach us how to live."--Amazon

This gripping novel of adventure, love, and religious persecution follows the life and flight of a Jew under the Spanish Inquisition.

A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard is the highly acclaimed, moving debut of Levy Hideo (also known as Ian Hideo Levy), a white American author living in Japan who writes fiction and nonfiction in Japanese. Set against the political and social upheavals of the 1960s, which include student protests against the Vietnam War and the U.S.-Japan Mutual Cooperation and Security Treaty (AMPO), the novel tells the story of Ben Isaac, a blond-haired, blue-eyed American youth living with his father at the American consulate in Yokohama. Chafing against his father's strict authority and the cultural trappings of an America that grows more and more remote, Ben flees his home to live with Ando, his Japanese friend. Refusing to speak English with Ben, Ando shows the young American the way to Shinjuku, the epicenter of Japan's countercultural movement and the closest Ben has every felt to home. As Ben struggles to understand the full contours of his identity, Levy's coming-of-age novel offers an eloquent elegy to a lost time. From the vantage point of a privileged and alienated "outsider" (gaijin), A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard beautifully captures a heady, eventful moment in Japanese history. Ben's experiences virtually recreate Levy's own youth. Wandering the streets of Shinjuku, Ben can barely decipher the signs around him or make sense of the sounds that reach his ears. Eventually, the symbols and sensations take root, disproving the common assumption that foreigners can never really know Japanese language and culture. Through Ben's explorations, both he and the author break free from English and the constraints of being a "gaijin." Ben's character plays a leading role in each of the book parts: "A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard," "The End of November," and "One of the Guys."

"[A] hilariously satirical debut novel. Miller, Lawrence, and Genet stop by like proud ancestors... But it's a more recent generation of mischievous deviant writers (Nicholson Baker, Mary Gaitskill) that truly looms large — Erotomania's closest predecessor might be Baker's The Fermata. [An] ambitious book... [A] biting satire." —Zach Baron, Village Voice "Sex is familiar, but it's perennial, and Levy makes it fresh." —Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Levy seems to have an eye for detail for all that is absurd, commonly human, and uniquely American." —Beth Harrington, Bookslut "It's a great book, written with flawless verve by a tremendous fictioneer and thinker, and it deserves glory. A classic." —Andre Codrescu, Exquisite Corpse "[Erotomania] can just as easily be a bookend to the beautifully nuanced prose of Milan Kundera as it can be a long-version story for a nudie mag minus the accompanying photographs. It's all in the context — as it is with most relationships." —Quarterly Conversation "Erotomania wields a comedic punch that makes it, above all, a fun novel to read." —Nerve.com Erotomania is an absurdist portrait of a modern-day romance. It follows James and Monica from their early days as couple that is forced to move into a nuclear fall-out bunker so their explosive sex life doesn’t physically harm their neighbors, down the long journey to marriage counseling. Francis Levy’s short stories, criticism, humor, and poetry have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Village Voice, and The Quarterly.

Deena Metzger brings us a novel of mysterious and deep insight. Twelve years in the writing, this novel is written in the voice of a woman astronomer. It is a profound self-examination and mediation on the nature of the darkness we have called down into this century and a lyrical vision of the possibilities of light that are opening to each of us now.

"A piercing novel about the experience of a life abroad in a cultural setting not one's own: Reut is an Israeli translator in Paris with a French husband and their child. But she feels isolated and misunderstood, resulting in a sense of estrangement that explodes at a festive dinner party with affluent, intellectual friends. During the elaborate meal, she sits at the edge of her chair, alert and navigating a tangle of cultural codes with which she's never been fully at ease. Eventually, Reut gets up and leaves. Will she escape the alienation that accompanies her everywhere? Where I Am, Dana Shem-Ur's virtuoso debut, blends comedy and travelogue to examine a woman's attitudes about belonging to a man, to a culture, to language. It concerns migration and wandering, long journeys and changing landscapes. Filled with intercultural mishaps, this intimate, heartbreaking book portrays a profoundly human yearning to stop everything, to lay down one's head, and to feel-if only for a moment-at home"--

Part autobiographical novel and part cookbook, Keeping House tells the story of a young Italian woman struggling to find self-definition and self-identity. Born into a prominent Jewish Italian family full of strong personalities and colorful figures, Clara narrates the humorous, dramatic, and often poignant events that inform her life. Intertwining recipes with her narrative, Clara uses food as markers for the cornerstones of her life, allowing her to discover and remember both public and private events—a Yom Kippur dinner, fascism and antifascism, the early years of the young Italian republic, the politics and culture of the Italian left, the openness of the 1960s and ’70s, and the retreat into privacy of the 1980s.

This novel, like Jurassic Park , hinges on the real-world technology incorporated in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), one of the most important breakthroughs in biomedical science. The 1993 Nobel Prize in chemistry recognized the immense significance of PCR, which is a process for quickly generating and then infinitely replicating fragments of genetic material. An impostor takes all of the credit in Carl Djerassi's fictionalized account of PCR's discovery and development. As the scientific community eventually discovers, Professor Diana Skordylis is not really one of their own, she is four of their own--three men and a woman--who publish their collaborative work under the Skordylis pseudonym. Two of them American, one Japanese, and one Austrian, they average around sixty-five years of age. Their archetype is a famous group of French mathematicians who actually have been publishing collectively for several decades under the nom de plume of Nicolas Bourbaki. Revenge is the Skordylis group's initial motivation. Victims of subtle age discrimination, they have all seen their research budgets and faculty privileges curtailed; two have been forcibly retired. Each Skordylis project they complete, each paper they publish under her name, is a satisfying poke at a scientific community that marginalized its senior members. But PCR is different. It is not only their best work, it is among the best work done by any scientist in recent memory. Professional jealousy soon threatens Diana Skordylis's life, as some group members struggle with the urge to claim their share of the fame and separately seek out PCR's most innovative applications. Djerassi writes engagingly--and from experience--about the collaborative nature at the heart of the scientific enterprise and the desire for personal recognition in the hearts of most scientists; about the graying of Western science; and about the human frailties and humanistic concerns of its practitioners.

This novel is the saga in five parts of Isaac Jacob Blumenfeld, who grows up in Kolodetz, a small town near Lvov, which, when he's a boy, belongs to the Hapsburg Empire, but which subsequently belongs to Poland, Soviet Russia, Germany, and then Russia again. Isaac survives the absurdity and horror of Eastern Europe during the 20th century by pretending to be a fool. If this is an old Jewish art, then Isaac is a consummate artist. He plays the fool all his life, from his boyhood in Kolodetz shetl to the time when he is an accused war criminal in a Gulag in Siberia. Inseparable from Isaac's life and story are the Yiddish jokes and fables of Kolodetz. These and the counsel of his dear friend, the rabbi and chair of the atheist club in Kolodetz, Shmuel Ben David, sustain Isaac through two world wars, three concentration camps, and five motherlands. The book puts on record, with full art, what is perhaps the central story of the last one hundred years.

Beloved NPR commentator and popular author Andrei Codrescu makes a stunning return to historical fiction, detailing the adventurous life and erotic times of the famed illuminist Giacomo Casanova. In his national bestseller The Blood Countess, Andrei Codrescu brought to life the bloodthirsty royal Elizabeth Bathory, who embodied nearly all the contradictions of the seventeenth century. Now he depicts the astonishing life of the legendary Casanova, as the old adventurer relives his life while writing his memoirs in a provincial Bohemian castle at the end of the eighteenth century. Far from being defeated by age, Casanova delights in the maidservants, reacts with intellectual vigor to the unfolding of the French Revolution, and collaborates with Mozart on Don Giovanni. Long considered the rhapsodist of an age of aristocratic mirth, scandal, and innumerable affairs, Casanova was also a first-rate intellect who corresponded and argued with Voltaire and Rousseau. His published work, besides the celebrated History of My Life, includes a multivolume fantasy fiction novel that predates and anticipates Jules Verne; translations of Italian classics into French; and a number of plays that were produced on the great stages of Europe. Casanova's romantic legend overshadowed his literary work, which was, for the most part, not published until 1960. The fate of his writings was nearly as fabulous and intriguing as that of their author. Still, even in abridged, bowdlerized, and fragmentary form, Casanova's memoirs have inspired writers as diverse as Flaubert, Stendhal, Hermann Hesse, and now, Andrei Codrescu. Codrescu's vivid fictional account illuminates the interest we still have in this uncompromising and magical libertine, while it imagines how his life would have continued if Casanova's immortality had extended beyond the literary. In Codrescu's retelling of the Casanova legend, readers are introduced to an age far less inhibited than our own, and far more interesting in its vices. At once a libertine, a defender of women, a reactionary, a revolutionary, a brilliant observer, and a visionary, Casanova was a man ahead of his time both in thought and in action. Finally, in this inventive and absorbing work, Casanova is given due credit for his writings, his philosophies, and, of course, for the amorous magic that has been made known to so many.