Admirers and detractors of Vladimir Nabokov have viewed him as an ingenious contriver of literary games, teasing and even outsmarting his readers through his self-reflexive artifice and the many codes and puzzles he devises in his fiction. Nabokov himself spoke a number of times about reality as a term that always has to be put in scare quotes. Consequently, many critics and readers have thought of him as a writer uninterested in the world outside literature. Robert Alter shows how Nabokov was passionately concerned with the real world and its complexities, from love and loss to exile, freedom, and the impact of contemporary politics on our lives. In these essays, Alter spans the breadth of Nabokov's writings, from his memoir, lectures, and short stories to major novels such as Lolita. He demonstrates how the self-reflexivity of Nabokov's fiction becomes a vehicle for expressing very real concerns. What emerges is a portrait of a brilliant stylist who is at once serious and playful, who cared deeply about human relationships and the burden of loss, and who was acutely sensitive to the ways political ideologies can distort human values.

Tales of adventure, misadventure, love and loss - this collection of non-fiction short stories from the Australian rock legend turned writer is vintage Jimmy. Outrageous, witty, warm and wise, Killing Time shares more than forty yarns reflecting an epic life - from an encounter with a soul legend in Memphis, a night in a haunted studio in upstate New York, and a doomed haircut in Thailand to a madcap misunderstanding in a Japanese ski resort, a family feud on a remote coral atoll, and an all-too-revealing appearance for a Sydney charity. PRAISE FOR KILLING TIME: "A moving and deeply felt kaleidoscope of life, love, family, music, friendship and the fragility of time. Barnes proved his storytelling mettle with his memoirs. But in Killing Time he has refined his unique voice with this wildly entertaining suite of tales, anecdotes, observations and reflections that can have you laughing out loud on one page and moved to tears on the next. It is all here, the joys and fears of parenthood, the search for your sense of place, fortune-tellers, the loss of beloved pets, bad golf, ghosts, backstage stories, celebrities, the homeless, and the wonder of being alive, all told with searing honesty. What sets Barnes's writing above the rest is that it comes from an authentic and soulful place. His work cannot help but ring true, like the strike of a tuning fork." Matt Condon "Jimmy Barnes is never a bystander. Stories happen to him. He not only remembers every circumstance, he has the ability to distil the moment in a way that's both poetic and uncontrived. He's funny, chaotic, insightful and heartbreaking. Jimmy is truly a natural-born storyteller. It's like writing has just been waiting for him to arrive. And now, he's here." Mandy Nolan