5 results for "Mystery"

The last policeman

Winters, Ben H.
“A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.” –Alexandra Alter, The New York Times Winner of the 2013 Edgar® Award for Best Paperback Original! What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares. The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?
Quirk Books 2012 335 pages

The experience of death: and, The moral problem of suicide

Landsberg, Paul-Louis
" The human race is the only one that knows it must die, and it knows this only through its experience. " - Voltaire A timeless study of the 'Experience of Death' by a thinker who was to die early in a German concentration camp. He writes with a freshness and vitality rarely met with in works of philosophy. Also includes "The Moral Problem of Suicide". One of the great masterpieces of 20th Century philosophy, its investigation and analysis of the "Experience of Death" is as searching and significant as that of Martin Heidegger in 'Being and Time'. For many years unavailable and therefore underestimated, this publication includes the two works by Landsberg that accompany each other the best: 'The Experience of Death' and 'The Moral Problem of Suicide'. Editor Edouard d'Araille here presents a revised version of Margaret Kerr's accurate translation. Paul-Louis Landsberg was a philosopher who was closely associated with the group of Parisian thinkers embracing Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Emmanuel Mounier and others. He has been classified as an Existentialist thinker, due both to the subject matter of his work and realistic, humanistic approach he takes. However, it should be borne in mind that Landsberg is Christian in faith, and he approaches the topics of death and suicide both from a Christian and a secular point-of-view. It is especially interesting to see how he tackles the controversial issue of suicide from the standpoint of Christianity - an act seen by some branches of that religion as a mortal sin, making its agent unworthy of Christian burial. FEATURES - This Living Time(TM) Press edition of Paul-Louis Landsberg's masterpiece includes: The Complete Texts of these key works - ' The Experience of Death ' and ' On the Moral Problem of Suicide ' A Biographical Sketch of Paul-Louis Landsberg Textual Annotations to both works, included at the end of the volume A Select Bibliography of his philosophical works B&W illustration as a frontispiece to the work (relating to the ' Intermezzo in the Bull Ring ') The core contents of the two philosophical essays are as follows: The Experience of Death I. The State of the Question II. The Limitations of Scheler's Answer III. Individualism and the Experience of Death IV. The Death of a Friend, and the Experience of "Repetition" V. The Ontological Basis VI. The Death of a Friend, according to the Fourth Book of the Confessions of St. Augustine VII. The Forms of Experience of Death VIII. Intermezzo in the Bull Ring IX. The Christian Experience of Death The Moral Problem of Suicide 1. Traditional Arguments 2. A Personal View Though both of these works are deeply personal and it is true that Landsberg is a Christian by denomination, in no way does he implore the reader to take up his own faith and he presents ideas and perspectives that are of equal interest to the atheist. The reader will find it valuable to read Heidegger's analysis of death in 'Being and Time' alongside this book, as it presents a wholly atheistic existential analysis that contrasts interestingly with this one. " What is the meaning of death to the human being as a person? The question admits of no conclusion, for we are dealing with the very mystery of man, taken from a certain aspect. Every real problem in philosophy contains all the others in the unity of mystery. It is necessary, therefore, to set a limit and seek a basis in experience for any possible answer: there are always problems of the utmost importance left on one side. Our enquiry would seem inevitable in the present state of philosophy, for we are far from having a metaphysics of death, as we have of life. " - Paul-
Living Time 2002-08-22 113 pages

Descent

Bergelson, David
Descent , a novella published in 1920, is set against the background of Jewish life in Russia and Ukraine during the turbulent period leading up to the October Revolution of 1917, a period characterized by the rise of secularism, the rejection of old traditions, the alienation of intellectuals, and the attempt of different generations to find a place for themselves inside and out of the shtetl. The novella centers on the mystery of the suicide of a young pharmacist in Rakitne, a provincial town. Did his death have anything to do with the two women who loved him? Was it the result of despair or an act of protest? And if protest, against what? His old friend seeks answers but finds none. The prose is immaculately crafted, the narrative indirect, and the mood poignant, dark, and disquieting.
Modern Langugage Association of America 1999-01-01 240 pages