Biographies & True Stories

Bev Stohl ran the MIT office of the renowned linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky for nearly two and a half decades. This is her account of those years, working next to a man described by theNew York Timesas "arguably the most important intellectual...

Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Freddie Mercury form one of the greatest rock bands in the world. Under the leadership of its charismatic singer, Queen is a planetary success for each hit with its decadent shows, inimitable aesthetics, and style...

Martha Shelley didn't start out in life wanting to become a gay activist, or an activist of any kind. The daughter of Jewish refugees and undocumented immigrants in New York City, she grew up during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s, was...

From the depths of the '70s rock 'n' roll excesses through unimaginable personal losses to an inspiring late-life transformation, Cidny Bullens's story is an utterly compelling journey about living and singing with your authentic voice.An androgynous...

Lisa Cornwell never shied away from standing up to bullies.When she was a freshman in college, she saw a manhit a woman in the face with a closed fist while aparalyzed crowd stood by and watched. Secondslater, she took matters into her own hands-with...

Originally published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2016; hardcover sold 3,000 copies The remarkable story of a series of murders that occurred in a remote corner of the Arctic in 1941 About people, technology, and the loss of connection to our natural...

From the global successes of My Beautiful Laundrette and The Buddha of Suburbia, through to late masterpieces such as The Nothing, Hanif Kureishi is one of Britain's most popular and versatile writers.Drawing on Kureishi's unexplored personal archive,...

Archaeological historian Amara Thornton of the University of London, and Classical archaeologist Katy Soar from the University of Winchester have curated a selection of twelve outstanding short stories encompassing horror, ghosts, hauntings, and...

The great Romantic poet Lord Byron starved himself compulsively for most of his life. His behaviour mystified his friends and other witnesses, yet he never imagined he was ill. Instead, he rationalised his behaviour as a fight for spiritual freedom and...

In the last years of his life, the writer Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with him as the editor of his final novel, Judas. These candid, uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw. What Makes an Apple?...

'A faker,' said Orson Welles, 'makes fools of the experts. So, who's the expert? Who's the faker?'Griffith Review 79 lifts the curtain on fakes, frauds and forgeries. Treading the tightrope between art and...

Our political leaders spend their careers spinning their images and polishing their achievements; Michael Cockerell has spent his professional life stripping off the gloss. Over fifty years, he has gained unrivalled access to the secret chambers of...

Bringing psychoanalysis to bear on the diagnosis of ecological crisisWhy has psychoanalysis long been kept at the margins of environmental criticism despite the many theories of eco-Marxism, queer ecology, and eco-deconstruction available today? What is...

**AVanity FairBest Book of 2022****Mosaic Magazine Best Book of 2022**The untold story of Leonard Cohen's concert tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War, including never-before-seen selections from an unfinished manuscript by Cohen and rare...

Edited by Rebecca Brewer, formerly of Ace/Roc (Penguin Random House), Giving the Devil His Due features sixteen major names and rising stars in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror today. 'In Giving the Devil His Due, sixteen of speculative...

A powerful and provocative collection of essays that offers poignant reflections on living between society's most charged, politicized, and intractably polar spaces - between black and white, rich and poor, thin and fat.Savala Nolan knows what...

Based on exclusive interviews with the United Nations Secretary-General himself, this is the first book to explain how Antnio Guterres thinks and operates, in an era of renewed great power competition and rising nationalism. The UN leader was re-elected...

You want to know why dying is like orgasm? Blayney Colmore, thirty years an Episcopal priest and life escort, explains: Does death make hash of all our efforts? Is there a dimension beyond what we know? Can normal people access it? As we burn down our...

In Drawing/Breath: Inhales and Exhales on Body and Word, PEN/Bellwether Prize-winning writer Gayle Brandeis' essays explore both the writing life and the embodied life, along with potent intersection between the two. From the title essay investigating...

Death stalks a quartet of girls or is it the other way around?A simple, elemental story of a group of adorable, little girls evading the specter of Death perfectly complements Gabriel Howell's poetic diary/manifesto/wishlist. What looks like a Victorian...

All Of Us Together In The End is a lyrical examination of transformation after loss, by a writer the New York Times calls "irresistible" and "utterly convincing."Vollmer's family memoir shimmers with wonder and enchantment and begins with the death of...

Gossamer Years is a remarkably frank diary written by an unnamed noblewoman in Tenth-century Japan-the same period as Murasaki Shikibu's celebrated Tale of Genji. In her diary, the author describes her tempestuous and unhappy marriage and...

The entire fascinating story of Japan told in one exciting manga-style volume!A History of Japan in Manga tells the action-packed saga of Japan from its misty origins up to the present day. Epic battles, noble Samurai and duplicitous leaders are all...

A charming guide to Japan in comic-book form!For comic-book artist Audry Nicklin, visiting Japan was the trip of a lifetime. Armed with her watercolors and accompanied by her husband, Connor, she explored Hiroshima and its Peace Memorial Park; the famous...

A funny and intimate travelogue of one woman's unexpected adventures in Japan.French illustrator Julie Blanchin-Fujita arrived in Tokyo for what she thought would be a one-year stint, and ended up never leaving. In this graphic novel-style memoir she...

This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who - in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old-joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps - a group of airmen whose mission...

When Arrazola accepts a month long artist's residency in the Japanese capital, she has little idea of what to expect but gamely packs her paints and pencils and seizes the opportunity to create an illustrated diary of her time there, filling the pages of...

From Serial to The Jinx to Making a Murderer, true crime fever is sweeping America. But how does crime-and punishment-differ in other cultures? True Crime Japan offers a close-up look at this little-documented aspect of...

The most famous work in all of Japanese classical literature, the KonjakuMonogatari Shu is as integral a part of its nation's culture as Canterbury Talesand The Inferno are of ours. In Japanese Tales from Times Past, the editors andtranslators have...

First published in 1686, Five Women Who Loved Love was an immediate bestseller in the bawdy, life-loving world that was Genroku Japan. And the novel's popularity has, if anything, increased with the years, making it today a classic like Boccaccio's...

This modern classic, written in 1913, was the source for the highly acclaimed film, The Mistress In The Wild Geese, prominent Japanese novelist Ogai Mori offers a poignant story of unfulfilled love, set against the background of the...

The first publication of Thomas Putze's performances in one volume: full-on physical exertion guaranteed. Presented in English and German.Thomas Putze, born 1968 in Augsburg, is at first glance a true 'art maniac'. His roughly hewn and impertinent...

The memories, dreams and reflections of a modern lama born in the West who became heir to the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.River of Memory: Dharma Chronicles tells the remarkable story of the scholar and meditation master Lama Jampa Thaye one of the...

A sublime essayist and author of the masterful political novels 1984 and Animal Farm, George Orwell is at least as relevant in the age of Trump and Brexit as he was in his own short lifetime (1903-1950). Both of his classic novels have been hot sellers...

How does a secular, non-practising Jew who has lived most of her life outside the Jewish communitysuddenly find herself in the front rows of a Nazi war crimes tribunal?In 2015, the award-winning writer Judith Kalman was invited to Lneburg to testify at...

Now a film starring Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Greg Kinnear.Jennifer Hosten went to the 1970 Miss World pageant on a lark, representing the tiny Caribbean Island of Grenada, and came home with the crown and a place in history. What was supposed...

Dispatches from modern motherhood by a reluctant suburbaniteSend Me Into The Woods Alone is an honest, heartfelt, and often hilarious collection of essays on the joys, struggles, and complexities of motherhood.These essays touch on the major milestones...

Reckon, "Black Joy: 2022 Best of Books""Those of us who have been following her work for a while have known Reid would come flying out of the gates and, well, here is the emphatic proof."-Laird Hunt, National Book Award finalist for Zorrie Thotis a...

Cops on bikes, undercover security in the supermarket, TSA agents wondering why there appears to be a gun in his bag, Keith Lowell Jensen has a lot of run-ins with all manner of cops. Sometimes they arrest him. Sometimes they beat him up and arrest him...

Up-Rooted: Climbing Through Family Chaos details the conflict in T.J. Kyri's life, from marriage to adoption to divorce, despite being a conflict resolution professional. It describes her harrowing mission to adopt her older daughters from Ukraine and...

When the Bough Breaks, True Stories of Hope and Encouragement of Mothers Who Have Had to Reinvent Their Relationships with Their Children, seeks to shed light on that moment when Mom has to reach into the well of courage and ask for outside help.

The beard was never far from my mind. Twice daily, I shaved. I blended foundation into my skin with a practiced touch. I hoped for the miracle that never showed its face: smooth skin instead of the prickly surface I felt every time I ran my hand across...

"I loved-and to a slightly uncomfortable degree related to-this book."Charles Bethea, staff writer at The New YorkerFunny, perceptive, and deeply personal, Mediocre Monk follows Grant Lindsley's rocky journey toward spiritual growth-one that ultimately...

IPPY Awards Gold Medal Winner in the memoir categoryColorado Independent Book Publishers Association (CIPA) Gold Medal Winner in the memoir categoryNational Indie Excellence Awards finalist in the new non-fiction categoryA deeply personal memoir about...

Nationally regarded trial attorney and media personality Brian Claypool weaves together his personal story of trauma and his experiences litigating notorious child abuse cases to show how our cultural code of silence endangers children and what we can do...

Near the death zone on K2, the world's second-highest mountain, Lisa Thompson searched for the strength to continue climbing. Her choices were clear: give in to her doubts and descend or push past her own limits and continue up the mountain's steep face...

True stories of glamour, drama, and tragedy told through five generations of a Shanghai family, from the last days of imperial rule to the Cultural Revolution.A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family...

Pairing history's 100 greatest rock stars with recipes for their iconic drink of choice, How to Drink Like a Rock Star is the perfect guide to summoning the muse for music fans, rock and roll bartenders, and cocktail enthusiasts.Have you longed for a...