Herman Wouk Full Length, Drama Characters:19 male (6 non-speaking) Simple set The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a court martial has been adapted by the author into suspenseful evening of theatre. A young lieutenant is relieved his captain of command in the midst of a typhoon on the grounds that the captain, Queeg is a psychopath in crisis and commanded the ship and its crew to destruction. Naval tradition is against him, but testimony eventually reveals a devastating picture of Queeg's mental disintegration. "Enormously exciting. It is the modern stage at its best." -N.Y. Daily News

A simple guide to the location and recognition of stars and constellations presents the constellations in shapes that correspond sensibly to their names.

"Drawn from more than two decades of pathbreaking writing, the iconic and bestselling David Graeber's most important essays and interviews"--

From the bestselling, twice-Orange Prize-shortlisted, National Book Award-nominated author comes a tale of transformation; a richly layered masterpiece' ( Financial Times ) A brilliant novel ' Philip Roth Impossible to put down ' Independent Dazzling ' Guardian Jules Epstein has vanished from the world. He leaves no trace but a rundown flat patrolled by a solitary cockroach, and a monogrammed briefcase abandoned in the desert. To Epstein 's mystified family, the disappearance of a man whose drive and avidity have been a force to be reckoned with for sixty-eight years marks the conclusion of a gradual fading. This transformation began in the wake of Epstein 's parents ' deaths, and continued with his divorce after more than thirty-five years of marriage, his retirement from a New York legal firm, and the rapid shedding of his possessions. With the last of his wealth and a nebulous plan, he departs for the Tel Aviv Hilton. Meanwhile, a novelist leaves her husband and children behind in Brooklyn and checks into the same hotel, hoping to unlock her writer 's block. But when a man claiming to be a retired professor of literature recruits her for a project involving Kafka, she is drawn into a mystery that will take her on a metaphysical journey and change her in ways she could never have imagined. Bursting with life and humour, this is a profound, mesmerising, achingly beautiful novel of metamorphosis and self-realisation.

'Liberty' is a modern classic of liberalism which gathers together Isaiah Berlin's principal statements on human freedom, and surveys the huge and growing literature stimulated by his ideas.

For many years, the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher and Charlie Citrine, a young man inflamed with a love for literature, were the best of friends. At the time of his death, however, Humboldt is a failure, and Charlie's life has reached a low point: his career is at a standstill, and he's enmeshed in an acrimonious divorce, infatuated with a highly unsuitable young woman, and involved with a neurotic mafioso. And then Humboldt acts from beyond the grave, bestowing upon Charlie an unexpected legacy that may just help him turn his life around.

A spirited classic of American Jewish literature, a historical novel about ancient sage-turned-apostate Elisha ben Abuyah in the late first century C.E. At the heart of the tale are questions about faith and the loss of faith and the repression and rebellion of the Jews of Palestine. Elisha is a leading scholar in Palestine, elected to the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court in the land. But two tragedies awaken doubt about God in Elisha's mind, and doubt eats away at his faith. Declared a heretic and excommunicated from the Jewish community, he journeys to Antioch in nearby Syria to begin a quest through Greek and Roman culture for some fundamental irrefutable truth. The pace of the narrative picks up as Elisha directly encounters the full force of the ancient Romans' all-consuming culture. Ultimately, Elisha is forced by the power of Rome to choose between loyalty to his people, who are rebelling against the emperor's domination, and loyalty to his own quest for truth.-Publishers Weekly

A city of tropical heat, sweat, ramshackle beauty, and its very own cadence--a city that always surprises--Havana is brought to pulsing life by New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky. Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider's view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky's own pen-and-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city's singular music, literature, baseball, and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its extraordinary blend of cultures. Like all great cities, Havana has a rich history that informs the vibrant place it is today--from the native Taino to Columbus's landing, from Cuba's status as a U.S. protectorate to Batista's dictatorship and Castro's revolution, from Soviet presence to the welcoming of capitalist tourism. Havana is a place of extremes: a beautifully restored colonial city whose cobblestone streets pass through areas that have not been painted or repaired since long before the revolution. Kurlansky shows Havana through the eyes of Cuban writers, such as Alejo Carpentier and Jose Marti, and foreigners, including Graham Greene and Hemingway. He introduces us to Cuban baseball and its highly opinionated fans; the city's music scene, alive with the rhythm of Son; its culinary legacy. Through Mark Kurlansky's multilayered and electrifying portrait, the long-elusive city of Havana comes stirringly to life. "

'Brodsky charged at the world . . . there is no voice, no vision, remotely like it' The New York Times Book Review Self-educated, intense, impulsive and unmoored, Joseph Brodsky emerged in mid-century Russia as a poetic virtuoso, recognized by such greats as Anna Akhmatova as their worthy heir. He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972. Together, the poems in this volume unfold the project that, as Brodsky saw it, the condition of exile presented: 'to set the next man - however theoretical he and his needs may be - a bit more free.' This edition includes poems translated by Derek Walcott, Richard Wilbur and Anthony Hecht, and poems written in English or translated by the author himself. It surveys Brodsky's tumultuous life and illustrious career, and showcases his most notable and poignant work as a poet. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Edited and introduced by Ann Kjellberg

A new 30th Anniversary paperback edition of an award-winning classic. Winner of the National Book Award, 1976 World of Our Fathers traces the story of Eastern Europe's Jews to America over four decades. Beginning in the 1880s, it offers a rich portrayal of the East European Jewish experience in New York, and shows how the immigrant generation tried to maintain their Yiddish culture while becoming American. It is essential reading for those interested in understanding why these forebears to many of today's American Jews made the decision to leave their homelands, the challenges these new Jewish Americans faced, and how they experienced every aspect of immigrant life in the early part of the twentieth century. This invaluable contribution to Jewish literature and culture is now back in print in a new paperback edition, which includes a new foreword by noted author and literary critic Morris Dickstein.

"The great poems, plays, novels, stories teach us how to go on living. . . . Your own mistakes, accidents, failures at otherness beat you down. Rise up at dawn and read something that matters as soon as you can." So Harold Bloom, the most famous literary critic of his generation, exhorts readers of his last book: one that praises the sustaining power of poetry. "Passionate. . . . Perhaps Bloom's most personal work, this is a fitting last testament to one of America's leading twentieth-century literary minds." -- Publishers Weekly "An extraordinary testimony to a long life spent in the company of poetry and an affecting last declaration of [Bloom's] passionate and deeply unfashionable faith in the capacity of the imagination to make the world feel habitable"--Seamus Perry, Literary Review "Reading, this stirring collection testifies, 'helps in staying alive.'"-- Kirkus Reviews , starred review This dazzling celebration of the power of poetry to sublimate death--completed weeks before Harold Bloom died--shows how literature renews life amid what Milton called "a universe of death." Bloom reads as a way of taking arms against the sea of life's troubles, taking readers on a grand tour of the poetic voices that have haunted him through a lifetime of reading. "High literature," he writes, "is a saving lie against time, loss of individuality, premature death." In passages of breathtaking intimacy, we see him awake late at night, reciting lines from Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Montaigne, Blake, Wordsworth, Hart Crane, Jay Wright, and many others. He feels himself "edged by nothingness," uncomprehending, but still sustained by reading. Generous and clear‑eyed, this is among Harold Bloom's most ambitious and most moving books.

This is the first general history of World War II to be based both on the existing literature and on extensive work in British, American and German archives. It covers all the theaters of war, the weaponry used, and developments on the home front. Taking a global perspective, the work deals with all belligerents and relates events in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific to each other. The role of diplomacy and strategy, of intelligence and espionage, and the impact of war upon society are all dealt with, often on the basis of hitherto unknown material. New light is shed on the actions of great and small powers and on topics ranging from the beginning of the war to the dropping of the atomic bombs; the titanic battles on the Eastern Front are fitted into the war as a whole; the killing of six million Jews and millions of others is placed into context; and the fighting at sea and in the air is included in a coherent view of the great conflict. --

Bloom leads readers through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years.

These wickedly authentic introductions to twenty-first-century books preface tomes on teaching English to bacteria, using animated X-rays to create "pornograms," and analyzing computer-generated literature through the science of "bitistics." "Lem, a science fiction Bach, plays in this book a googleplex of variations on his basic themes" (New York Times Book Review). Translated by Marc E. Heine. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Satchel Paige was one of the greatest pitchers in baseball. Take a look at his life and his struggle to be accepted into the major league.

Journeying from the Bible to twentieth-century writings, the author explores how literature can shape one's life, discussing such topics as the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes, Plato and Homer, St. Augustine, and Freud and Proust.

In the Penal Colony ( In der Strafkolonie ) by Franz Kafka is presented here in a precise and faithful English translation. Written in 1914 and published in 1919, this stark and unforgettable story explores justice, obedience, and the cruelty of systems. It follows a visiting traveler to a remote island prison where executions are performed by a mechanical apparatus that inscribes the condemned man's sentence into his flesh. What unfolds is a confrontation between blind devotion to law and the dawning recognition of its absurdity. Kafka's calm, exact prose captures the horror of order turned against itself. Within this brief and haunting tale lies a vision of modern authority stripped of meaning. The officer's faith in the execution machine represents humanity's attachment to rules long after their purpose has decayed. Kafka portrays a civilization that worships efficiency over empathy and obedience over reason. The story's quiet tone and mechanical precision intensify its unease, leaving the reader to confront the terrifying logic of systems that operate without conscience. In the Penal Colony remains one of Kafka's most incisive works, combining psychological insight with moral clarity. It speaks to anyone who has questioned the power of institutions and the price of submission to them. This unabridged edition presents the complete text in a faithful, accessible translation that preserves Kafka's measured rhythm and disturbing lucidity. A cornerstone of twentieth-century literature and an essential read for those drawn to existential, philosophical, and allegorical fiction.

On the planet of Majipoor, Valentine struggles to reclaim his birthright when he realizes that he is the true Coronal, Lord Valentine, who has been drugged, physically altered, and replaced on the throne