{"title":"Fiction--Absurdist","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"one-none-and-a-hundred-grand","title":"One, None, and a Hundred Grand","description":"\u003cb\u003eA hilarious exploration of the relativism of identity from Italian novelist and playwright Luigi Pirandello, winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis uproarious new translation of \u003ci\u003eOne, None, and a Hundred Grand\u003c\/i\u003e delivers the defining work of Italian existentialism to an English speaking audience--in all its madcap glory. The novel's hero is a wealthy twenty-four-year-old naïf who considers himself \"a regular guy,\" despite being cursed at birth with a surname that's \"ugly to the point of cruelty: Maggot. Destined to become a fly, with its sour, spiteful, annoying drone.\" The story tracks Maggot's reaction to an offhand act of matrimonial malice. Was he aware that his nose leans to the right? He is struck by the full force of the fact that he does not, and cannot, know how others see him. So he sets out on a quest \"to coax forth the many Maggots living inside my closest companions, and destroy them one by one.\" It's a premise, played straight, that acts as an inspired metaphor for the rightward-leaning madness of the 20th century, and a catalyst for a series of absurd scenarios and comic set pieces on par with the very best of 21st century observational comedy--imagine \u003ci\u003eCurb Your Enthusiasm\u003c\/i\u003e in fascist Sicily. Pirandello splits the atom of the self and detonates a tiny moment into \"a catastrophe that supervened the very machinery of the cosmos.\" Perception and identity are leveled in a literary performance the Nobel laureate regarded as a \"complete synthesis of everything I have done and the wellspring of what I will go on to do.\"\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1962770346\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781962770347\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Pirandello, Luigi, Wilsey, Sean, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Archipelago Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Archipelago Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Oct 2025)","offer_id":45657325338821,"sku":"9781962770347","price":17.82,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781962770347.jpg?v=1768890994"},{"product_id":"sad-grownups","title":"Sad Grownups","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor those who've been sad and tried not to be, seventeen stories about the absurdity of searching for joy in a dying world. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWinner of the 2025 PEN\/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA neighborhood of picturesque content-creation houses perched on too-green lawns in a California desert; a meandering stampede of unleashed dogs on the streets of San Francisco; a skein of snow geese alighting in a state park in Missouri; an uncanny fundraising auction at an upscale suburban-DC prep school. Inhabiting these worlds of disconnection and dislocation are the \"sad grownups\" a middle-aged queer couple arguing over whether to have children, a college professor dying from cancer, two recent high school graduates plotting a robbery, a sixty-year-old counselor at a boys' summer camp sheltering herself from the realities of life-all connected more closely to the landscapes around them than to other people, searching fervently for liberation, understanding, and even happiness, wherever and however they might be found. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0996981667\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780996981668\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Stuber, Amy, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Stillhouse Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Stillhouse Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Oct 2024)","offer_id":45657327763653,"sku":"9780996981668","price":14.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780996981668.jpg?v=1768891011"},{"product_id":"pale-fire-introduction-by-richard-rorty","title":"Pale Fire: Introduction by Richard Rorty","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe urbane authority that Vladimir Nabokov brought to every word he ever wrote, and the ironic amusement he cultivated in response to being uprooted and politically exiled twice in his life, never found fuller expression than in \u003ci\u003ePale Fire\u003c\/i\u003e published in 1962 after the critical and popular success of \u003ci\u003eLolita\u003c\/i\u003e had made him an international literary figure. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn ingeniously constructed parody of detective fiction and learned commentary, \u003ci\u003ePale Fire\u003c\/i\u003e offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures, at the center of which is a 999-line poem written by the literary genius John Shade just before his death. Surrounding the poem is a foreword and commentary by the demented scholar Charles Kinbote, who interweaves adoring literary analysis with the fantastical tale of an assassin from the land of Zembla in pursuit of a deposed king. Brilliantly constructed and wildly inventive, this darkly witty novel of suspense, literary one-upmanship, and political intrigue achieves that rarest of things in literature-perfect tragicomic balance. With an introduction by Richard Rorty.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0679410775\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780679410775\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Nabokov, Vladimir, Rorty, Richard, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Everyman's Library\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Everyman's Library","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Mar 1992)","offer_id":45657480724677,"sku":"9780679410775","price":25.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780679410775.jpg?v=1768892100"},{"product_id":"a-mountain-to-the-north-a-lake-to-the-south-paths-to-the-west-a-river-to-the-east","title":"A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East","description":"The grandson of Prince Genji lives outside of space and time and wanders the grounds of an old monastery in Kyoto. The monastery, too, is timeless: a place of prayer and deliverance, with barely a trace of any human presence. The wanderer is searching for a garden that has long captivated him: \"he continually saw the garden in his mind's eye without being able to touch its existence.\"\u003cbr\u003e This exquisitely beautiful novel by National Book Award-winner László Krasznahorkai--perhaps his most serene and poetic work--describes a search for the unobtainable and the riches to be discovered along the way. Despite the difficulties in finding the garden, the reader is closely introduced to the construction processes of the monastery (described in poetic detail) as well as the geological and biological processes of the surrounding area (the underground layers revealed beneath a bed of moss, the travels of cypress-tree seeds on the wind, feral foxes and stray dogs meandering outside the monastery's walls), making this an unforgettable meditation on nature, life, history, and being.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0811234479\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780811234474\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Krasznahorkai, László, Mulzet, Ottilie, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Nov 2022)","offer_id":45657985712325,"sku":"9780811234474","price":12.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780811234474.jpg?v=1768896661"},{"product_id":"ones-company","title":"One's Company","description":"\u003cp\u003eBonnie Lincoln just wants to be left alone. To come home from work, shut out the ghosts of some devastating losses, and unwind in front of the nostalgic, golden glow of her favorite TV show, \u003cem\u003eThree's Company\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Bonnie wins the lottery, a more grandiose vision--to completely shuck off her own troublesome identity--takes shape. She plans a drastic move to an isolated mountain retreat where she can re-create the iconic apartment set of \u003cem\u003eThree's Company\u003c\/em\u003e and slip into the lives of its main characters: no-nonsense Janet Wood, pleasantly airheaded Chrissy Snow, and confident Jack Tripper. While her best friend, Krystal, tries to drag her back to her old life, Bonnie is determined to transcend pain, trauma, and the baggage of her past by immersing herself in the ultimate binge-watch.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0393866645\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780393866643\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Hutson, Ashley, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jun 2022)","offer_id":45658789445829,"sku":"9780393866643","price":13.73,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780393866643.jpg?v=1768904658"},{"product_id":"spadework-for-a-palace","title":"Spadework for a Palace","description":"Spadework for a Palace bears the subtitle \"Entering the Madness of Others\" and offers an epigraph: \"Reality is no obstacle.\" Indeed. This high-octane obsessive rant vaults over all obstacles, fueled by the idées fixe of a \"gray little librarian\" with fallen arches whose name--mr herman melvill--is merely one of the coincidences binding him to his lodestar Herman Melville (\"I too resided on East 26th Street . . . I, too, had worked for a while at the Customs Office\"), which itself is just one aspect of his also being \"constantly conscious of his connectedness\" to Lebbeus Woods, to the rock that is Manhattan, to the \"drunkard Lowry\" and his Lunar Caustic, to Bartok. And with this consciousness of connection he is not only gaining true knowledge of Melville, but also tracing the paths to \"a Serene Paradise of Knowledge.\" Driven to save that Palace (a higher library he also serves), he loses his job and his wife leaves him, but \"people must be told the truth: there is no dualism in existence.\" And his dream will be \"realized, for I am not giving up: I am merely a day-laborer, a spade-worker on this dream, a herman melvill, a librarian from the lending desk, currently an inmate at Bellevue, but at the same time--may I say this?--actually a Keeper of the Palace.\"\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0811228401\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780811228404\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Krasznahorkai, László, Batki, John, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Sep 2022)","offer_id":45659576860869,"sku":"9780811228404","price":14.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780811228404.jpg?v=1768913006"},{"product_id":"the-masters-of-atlantis","title":"The Masters of Atlantis","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMasters of Atlantis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is a cockeyed journey into an America of misfits and con men, oddballs, and innocents, by one of America's most respected novelists, #1 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e bestselling author Charles Portis.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"One of the few laugh-out-loud novels I've read.\" --Conan O'Brien\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the \u003ci\u003eCodex Pappus\u003c\/i\u003e: the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on Earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCharles Portis wrote five novels, and this is his penultimate. Portis is often compared to Mark Twain because, like Twain, Portis focuses on and plays with the wide range of expression found in American speech. Every character in this novel has a unique way of expressing himself, and it's clear to the reader that Portis genuinely loves each and every one of these characters and creating for them a unique vernacular. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA brilliantly comic novel, this cult classic is a masterwork of American fiction--an unforgettable portrait of idealists chasing secrets that may never have existed. For fans of \u003ci\u003eTrue Grit\u003c\/i\u003e or other Charles Portis novels and for readers who have yet to discover his work, a trip with Portis and Lamar Jimmerson will be great fun and full of rewards. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A wonderful talent--original, quirky, exciting.\" --Larry McMurtry, author of\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e The Last Picture Show\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTerms of Endearment\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"I've loved his work all my life--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Dog of the South\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is a family favorite, as is \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMasters of Atlantis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e. . . . The books are so funny that they cry to be read aloud.\" --Donna Tartt, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Goldfinch\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Secret History\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, in the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1585670219\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781585670215\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Portis, Charles, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Overlook Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Overlook Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2000)","offer_id":45659973746885,"sku":"9781585670215","price":15.39,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781585670215.jpg?v=1768916423"},{"product_id":"invitation-to-a-beheading","title":"Invitation to a Beheading","description":"\u003cb\u003eLike Kafka's \u003ci\u003eThe Castle\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eInvitation to a Beheading\u003c\/i\u003e embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for \"gnostical turpitude,\" an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers, an executioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by his in-laws, who lug their furniture with them into his cell. When Cincinnatus is led out to be executed, he simply wills his executioners out of existence: they disappear, along with the whole world they inhabit.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0679725318\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780679725312\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Nabokov, Vladimir, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Sep 1989)","offer_id":45659986428101,"sku":"9780679725312","price":13.77,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780679725312.jpg?v=1768916512"},{"product_id":"the-dog-of-the-south","title":"The Dog of the South","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom Charles Portis, the #1 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e bestselling author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrue Grit\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Dog of the South\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is a novel about a husband on a crazy road trip pursuing his runaway wife.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Hilarious . . . A very American voice.\" --Bob Odenkirk, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Week\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRay Midge is waiting for his credit card bill to arrive. His wife, Norma, has run off with her ex-husband, taking Ray's cards, shotgun, and car. But from the receipts, Ray can track where they've gone. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHe takes off after them, as does an irritatingly tenacious bail bondsman, both following the romantic couple's spending as far as Mexico. There Ray meets Dr. Reo Symes, the seemingly down-on-his-luck and rather eccentric owner of a beaten-up and broken-down bus, who needs a ride to Belize. The farther they drive, in a car held together by coat hangers and excesses of oil, the wilder their journey gets. But they're not going to give up easily. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"[Charles Portis] understood, and conveyed, the grain of America, in ways that may prove valuable in future to historians trying to understand what was decent about us as a nation.\" --Donna Tartt, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1585679313\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781585679317\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Portis, Charles, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Overlook Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Overlook Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jun 2007)","offer_id":45659990917317,"sku":"9781585679317","price":14.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781585679317.jpg?v=1768916545"},{"product_id":"norwood","title":"Norwood","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNorwood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Charles Portis's first novel, displayed right out of the gate the wit, style, and singular voice that made him one of our great American writers. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A great American deadpan comedy. . . . \u003ci\u003eNorwood\u003c\/i\u003e, like a belt of whiskey, cleared my sinuses right up.\" --Slate\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Out of the Neon Desert of Roller Dromes, chili parlors, the Grand Ole Opry, and girls who want \"to live in a trailer and play records all night\" comes ex-marine and troubadour Norwood Pratt. Sent on a mission to New York by Grady Fring, the Kredit King, Norwood has visions of \"speeding across the country in a late model car, seeing all the sights.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e By the time he returns home to Ralph, Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a Trailway bus; befriended Edmund B. Ratner, the self-described \"world's smallest perfect man\"; and helped Joann, \"the chicken with a college education,\" realize her true potential in life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As with all of Portis's fiction, the tone is cool, sympathetic, funny, and undeniably American. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Flawless . . . \u003ci\u003eNorwood\u003c\/i\u003e is a road novel as indispensable as \u003ci\u003eOn the Road\u003c\/i\u003e itself.\" --Ed Park, \u003ci\u003eBeliever\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0879517034\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780879517038\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Portis, Charles, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Overlook Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Overlook Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Aug 1999)","offer_id":45659997700293,"sku":"9780879517038","price":14.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780879517038.jpg?v=1768916600"},{"product_id":"the-unconsoled","title":"The Unconsoled","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize-winning novel \u003ci\u003eThe Remains of the Day\u003c\/i\u003e, here is a novel that is at once a gripping psychological mystery, a wicked satire of the cult of art, and a poignant character study of a man whose public life has accelerated beyond his control. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe setting is a nameless Central European city where Ryder, a renowned pianist, has come to give the most important performance of his life. Instead, he finds himself diverted on a series of cryptic and infuriating errands that nevertheless provide him with vital clues to his own past. 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Delivering a near-Beckettian whopping to the reader's imagination, this is one of the sharpest and funniest novels of recent years, a tale for our dispossessed times.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0811237850\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780811237857\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: de Marcken, Anne\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2024)","offer_id":46079918080197,"sku":"9780811237857","price":12.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780811237857.jpg?v=1776033069"},{"product_id":"piglet","title":"Piglet","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e NOTABLE BOOK - A BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK - AN NPR 2024 \"BOOKS WE LOVE\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"If I owned a bookstore, I'd hand-sell \u003ci\u003ePiglet\u003c\/i\u003e to everyone.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Jennifer Weiner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \"sensuous\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e) debut about women's ambitions and appetites--and the truth about having it all\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOutside of a childhood nickname she can't shake, Piglet's rather pleased with how her life's turned out. 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As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love, and hope in times of encroaching darkness. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: \u003ci\u003eTHE WASHINGTON POST\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTHE NEW YORKER\u003c\/i\u003e, NPR, \u003ci\u003eGOOD HOUSEKEEPING\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, THE GUARDIAN, LIBRARY JOURNAL\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Startling and ambitious.\"--\u003ci\u003eNew York Times - \u003c\/i\u003e\"Virtuosic.\"--NPR, \u003ci\u003eFresh Air - \"\u003c\/i\u003eBrilliant and heart-stopping.\"--\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUkraine, 2022. 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But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious and achingly raw metafictional spiral, Endling brilliantly balances horror and comedy, drawing on Reva's own experiences as a Ukrainian expat tracking her family's delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? 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During an exceptionally hot summer, the young married couple move in, and Asa does her best to quickly adjust to their new rural lives, to their remoteness, to the constant presence of her in-laws and the incessant buzz of cicadas. While her husband is consumed with his job, Asa is left to explore her surroundings on her own: she makes trips to the supermarket, halfheartedly looks for work, and tries to find interesting ways of killing time.\u003cbr\u003e One day, while running an errand for her mother-in-law, she comes across a strange creature, follows it to the embankment of a river, and ends up falling into a hole--a hole that seems to have been made specifically for her. 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As he goes through the man's belongings, Carlos comes across a manuscript that tells the unsettling story of a secret affair, a love child, and a butterfly. 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A truffle--\u003ci\u003eun\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003etartufo\u003c\/i\u003e, that is--sits beneath the soil with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse the village has ever seen. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Written with the same enchanting style and raucous humor that defines \u003ci\u003eHollow Kingdom \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eFeral Creatures\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTartufo\u003c\/i\u003e is a reflection on the interconnectedness of life in all its manifestations--and how holding on to harmony in the face of hardship can grow something beautiful and rare beneath the surface.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1538770814\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781538770818\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Buxton, Kira Jane\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Grand Central Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Grand Central Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jan 2025)","offer_id":46080387285189,"sku":"9781538770818","price":23.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (Jan 2026)","offer_id":46080387317957,"sku":"9781538770825","price":15.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781538770818.jpg?v=1776036785"},{"product_id":"autocorrect-stories","title":"Autocorrect: Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom one of the preeminent literary voices in Israel comes a darkly funny collection of surrealist stories exploring the increasingly complex relationship between humans and technology.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSet in our world, alternate realities, distant futures, and the immortal realm, the stories in \u003ci\u003eAutocorrect\u003c\/i\u003e traverse the wide range of human experience. With wit and creativity, Keret blends the absurd and the profound, juxtaposing life's smallest details with weighty existential questions. A man names an asteroid after his wife only to find that it's on a collision course with Earth in \"For the Woman Who Has Everything.\" In \"Squirrels,\" a widower's husband reincarnates as a rodent, and \"Eating Olives at the End of the World\" considers proper social etiquette in the face of destruction. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKeret's collection speaks to the uncertainty and fragility of our time, expertly capturing its misunderstandings and miscommunications. 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These are some of the inhabitants of \u003ci\u003ePeople from My Neighborhood\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn their lives, details of the local and everyday--the lunch menu at a tiny drinking place called the Love, the color and shape of the roof of the tax office--slip into accounts of duels, prophetic dreams, revolutions, and visitations from ghosts and gods. In twenty-six \"palm of the hand\" stories--fictions small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand and brief enough to allow for dipping in and out--Hiromi Kawakami creates a universe ruled by mystery and transformation.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1593767110\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781593767112\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Kawakami, Hiromi, Goossen, Ted\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Soft Skull\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Soft Skull","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Nov 2021)","offer_id":46080435126469,"sku":"9781593767112","price":12.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781593767112.jpg?v=1776037058"},{"product_id":"vanishing-world","title":"Vanishing World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the bestselling literary sensations \u003ci\u003eConvenience Store Woman\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEarthlings \u003c\/i\u003ecomes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in \u003ci\u003eConvenience Store Woman\u003c\/i\u003e and a young woman convinced she is an alien in \u003ci\u003eEarthlings \u003c\/i\u003ehave endeared her to millions of readers worldwide. \u003ci\u003eVanishing World\u003c\/i\u003e takes Murata's universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents \"copulated\" in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange \"system\" by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable. As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage--sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest--Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only \"Kodomo-chan.\" Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0802164668\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780802164667\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Murata, Sayaka, Takemori, Ginny Tapley\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Grove Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Grove Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Apr 2025)","offer_id":46080437911749,"sku":"9780802164667","price":22.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780802164667.jpg?v=1776037075"},{"product_id":"acts-of-god","title":"Acts of God","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe twenty-first-century heir to Kurt Vonnegut, Kanan Gill's debut, \u003ci\u003eActs of God\u003c\/i\u003e, is a madcap futuristic romp that dares to question the meaning of existence--with equal parts reverence and hilarity.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrivate detective P. Manjunath thinks like fire and works like dust as he sets out to investigate existential cataclysms unfolding all over the globe--not knowing that the ripples in reality he sees are being caused by Dr. Krishna, a scientist in a utopian future and technically the God of their world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Manjunath's investigation disrupts God's plans, a Danish police officer attains enlightenment, a lapel pin gives disruptive advice, a sentient wall provides the key to creativity, a pill cures the human condition, and everyone in the world develops a lisp at the same time. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA blend of philosophical provocation, inventive lyricism, humor, and chaos, \u003ci\u003eActs of God\u003c\/i\u003e marks the evolution of one of the finest voices in comedy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798874830946\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gill, Kanan\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Blackstone Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Blackstone Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Aug 2025)","offer_id":46080512295109,"sku":"9798874830946","price":23.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (Aug 2025)","offer_id":46080512327877,"sku":"9798228000667","price":15.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798228000667.jpg?v=1776037995"},{"product_id":"the-complete-stories-of-leonora-carrington","title":"The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eComplete Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of Carrington's published and unpublished short stories--many newly translated from their original French and Spanish--is a terrific introduction to her bizarre, dreamlike worlds.\" --Carmen Maria Machado, \u003ci\u003eNPR \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePublished to coincide with the centennial of her birth, \u003ci\u003eThe Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington\u003c\/i\u003e collects for the first time all of her stories, including several never before seen in print. With a startling range of styles, subjects, and even languages (several of the stories are translated from French or Spanish), \u003ci\u003eThe Complete Stories\u003c\/i\u003e captures the genius and irrepressible spirit of an amazing artist's life.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0997366648\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780997366648\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Carrington, Leonora, Davis, Kathryn\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Dorothy a Publishing Project\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dorothy a Publishing Project","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Apr 2017)","offer_id":46080603291845,"sku":"9780997366648","price":14.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780997366648.jpg?v=1776039017"},{"product_id":"nadja","title":"Nadja","description":"\u003cb\u003eA new translation of one of the defining works of the French surrealist movement, an energetic autobiographical novel that is at once both a tumultuous romance story and an initiation into the surrealism of everyday life.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Paris, during the fall of 1926, André Breton met a young woman from the provinces who called herself Nadja because, she said, \"in Russian it's the beginning of the word for hope, and because it's only the beginning.\" Their love affair was brief, intense, and intensely self-conscious. They both talked exuberantly of the book that Breton would make out of their days and nights. And indeed a year later (after Nadja was institutionalized and Breton had moved on to other love affairs) he began to write \u003ci\u003eNadja\u003c\/i\u003e--a book of memory and analysis taking its cue in part from Freud's case studies, but also a book of ingeniously intercut images, drawing on Surrealist ideas to portray a soul whose very way of being approaches, in Breton's words, \"the extreme limit of the Surrealist aspiration.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this, the first new translation of \u003ci\u003eNadja \u003c\/i\u003ein more than sixty years, Mark Polizzotti captures the youthful excitement, the abiding strangeness, and above all the freshness of Breton's prose. He also provides an illuminating introduction about the fate of the real Nadja, whose identity remained jealously guarded until the twenty-first century. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA gripping tale of infatuation and a meditation on the surrealism of everyday life, \u003ci\u003eNadja \u003c\/i\u003eis still a thing of convulsive beauty, impossible to pin or put down, a precursor to works of Julien Gracq, Julio Cortázar, and W.G. 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Enter once again Citizen Orlov, a former fishmonger who is now the Minister of Security for a government teetering on collapse. When tensions between the government and revolutionaries erupt, Orlov, hoping to escape the conflict and return to his normal life, is instead recruited by both sides to spy on the other. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith war raging around them, the new king and his ministers are whisked away for safety to the highest point in the kingdom, the convent at the peak of Mount Zhotrykaw. 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They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels the lives of those who seek to possess it. Meanwhile a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee steals a cursed sneaker down the hall, but later finds he can't escape its tread. The cat in Room 206 begins to reveal the crimes of its former family, wanting to understand its own path to the Institute's dimly lit halls. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections \u003ci\u003eCursed Bunny \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eYour Utopia, \u003c\/i\u003ethese violent allegories subtly excavate the horrors of animal cosmetic testing, \"conversion therapy,\" domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. 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[Levine's] commitment to boinging around the loopy little world she's built is total. Only a killjoy would refuse to join her.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the cult classic \u003ci\u003eTreasure Island!!!\u003c\/i\u003e, a delightfully unhinged comedy following a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSara Levine debuted with her outrageously original and unforgettable novel \u003ci\u003eTreasure Island!!!\u003c\/i\u003e, which became a cult classic and bookseller favorite. With the ferocious absurdity of Rachel Yoder's \u003ci\u003eNightbitch \u003c\/i\u003eand the inventive comedy of Kevin Wilson's \u003ci\u003eNothing to See Here\u003c\/i\u003e, Levine's highly anticipated second novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Hitch\u003c\/i\u003e, follows a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs an antiracist, secular Jewish feminist eco-warrior, Rose Cutler is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parent her six-year-old nephew Nathan. When his parents reluctantly agree to let Rose babysit him while they go on a vacation designed to save their marriage, she is determined to follow their rules and not overstep. But on her first day with Nathan, Rose's beloved Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park and Nathan starts acting strangely: barking, overeating, talking to himself. 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This uncommonly original new novel confirms Emi Yagi as one of the most exciting Japanese writers published in English today.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1593768273\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781593768270\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Yagi, Emi, Tejima, Yuki\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Soft Skull\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Soft Skull","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jan 2026)","offer_id":46080904691909,"sku":"9781593768270","price":15.35,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781593768270.jpg?v=1776041577"},{"product_id":"the-copywriter","title":"The Copywriter","description":"\u003cb\u003eA portrait of the poet as an office worker, plumbing the depths of the spiritual gulf between art and work.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's the summer of 2017 and D__, a poet working by day as a copywriter at a retail start-up, can't dispel a creeping sense of dissolution on the horizon. 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What does all of this do to our art, and our souls? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Utterly original and lyrically beautiful, burrowing deep into contemporary disaffection without falling under its spell, \u003ci\u003eThe Copywriter\u003c\/i\u003e is a comic story in the vein of Kafka's Jewish mysticism, following the absurd paths that office work can take us on, and the subtle ways in which seemingly mindless labor can determine our fate.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1668090007\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781668090008\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Poppick, Daniel\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Scribner Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Feb 2026)","offer_id":46080910491845,"sku":"9781668090008","price":21.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781668090008.jpg?v=1776041616"},{"product_id":"the-cloven-viscount","title":"The Cloven Viscount","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCalvino's delightfully absurd and macabre novella about the separate halves of a nobleman split in two by a cannonball and the separate paths they forge, exploring the duality of good and evil.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat is the relationship between good and evil? 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I can think of no finer writer to have beside me while the world ends.\" --Salman Rushdie\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0544960068\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780544960060\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Calvino, Italo\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Mariner Books Classics\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mariner Books Classics","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Aug 2017)","offer_id":46080958529733,"sku":"9780544960060","price":15.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780544960060.jpg?v=1776042409"},{"product_id":"200-monas","title":"200 Monas","description":"\u003cb\u003eFor fans of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Miranda July comes a whip-smart, irresistible novel about a college senior who has 48 hours to sell her recently deceased mother's surprise stash of rare pills, or suffer the consequences. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Arvy Keening is just trying to get through the week. 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An Isis recruit, an adolescent beauty queen, and a childless millennial walk into a bar. A Biblical plague rains down head lice, aerial drone strikes, gender non-conforming frogs. An app throws a slumber party for a friendless office worker. 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The tropical air was heavy and full of the smells of cordite and motorcycle exhaust and rotting fish and wood-fire stoves, and the horizon flared ambiguously, perhaps from heat lightning, perhaps from bombs. Later each night, as was my custom, I would wander out into the steamy back alleys of the city, where no one ever seemed to sleep, and crouch in doorways with the people and listen to the stories of their culture and their ancestors and their ongoing lives. Bulgakov taught me to hear something in those stories that I had not yet clearly heard. One could call it, in terms that would soon thereafter gain wide currency, \"magical realism\". The deadpan mix of the fantastic and the realistic was at the heart of the Vietnamese mythos. It is at the heart of the present zeitgeist. And it was not invented by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as wonderful as his \u003ci\u003eOne Hundred Years of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e is. Garcia Marquez's landmark work of magical realism was predated by nearly three decades by Bulgakov's brilliant masterpiece of a novel. That summer in Saigon a vodka-swilling, talking black cat, a coven of beautiful naked witches, Pontius Pilate, and a whole cast of benighted writers of Stalinist Moscow and Satan himself all took up permanent residence in my creative unconscious. Their presence, perhaps more than anything else from the realm of literature, has helped shape the work I am most proud of. I'm often asked for a list of favorite authors. Here is my advice. Read Bulgakov. Look around you at the new century. 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One of the great works of art of this century.\" --Mary McCarthy, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Group\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn ingeniously constructed parody of detective fiction and learned commentary, \u003ci\u003ePale Fire\u003c\/i\u003e offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures, at the center of which is a 999-line poem written by the literary genius John Shade just before his death. Surrounding the poem is a foreword and commentary by the demented scholar Charles Kinbote, who interweaves adoring literary analysis with the fantastical tale of an assassin from the land of Zembla in pursuit of a deposed king. 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Hypnotic. Hjorth works finely parsed and brilliant variations on her unrelenting theme of familial mistrust and misunderstanding.\" --\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen a dispute over her parents' will grows bitter, Bergljot is drawn back into the orbit of the family she fled twenty years before. Her mother and father have decided to leave two island summer houses to her sisters, disinheriting the two eldest siblings from the most meaningful part of the estate. To outsiders, it is a quarrel about property and favoritism. But Bergljot, who has borne a horrible secret since childhood, understands the gesture as something very different--a final attempt to suppress the truth and a cruel insult to the grievously injured. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eWill and Testament\u003c\/i\u003e is a lyrical meditation on trauma and memory, as well as a furious account of a woman's struggle to survive and be believed. 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