What's a novelist supposed to do with contemporary culture? And what's contemporary culture sup­posed to do with novelists? In The Ecstasy of Influence, Jonathan Lethem, tangling with what he calls the "white elephant" role of the writer as public intellectual, arrives at an astonishing range of answers. A constellation of previously published pieces and new essays as provocative and idiosyncratic as any he's written, this volume sheds light on an array of topics from sex in cinema to drugs, graffiti, Bob Dylan, cyberculture, 9/11, book touring, and Marlon Brando, as well as on a shelf's worth of his literary models and contemporaries: Norman Mailer, Paula Fox, Bret Easton Ellis, James Wood, and oth­ers. And, writing about Brooklyn, his father, and his sojourn through two decades of writing, Lethem sheds an equally strong light on himself.BONUS MATERIAL: This edition includes an excerpt from Jonathan Lethem's Dissident Gardens.

In "Flying on Fried Wings" Deborah Smith portrays two very different version of the South's nouveau riche. Do you know anyone like Uncle Hoyt and Aunt Wesma? Does "Buck” remind you of anyone? - a short story in "Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes"

Abie follows the arc of a letter from London back to Africa to a coffee plantation that now could be hers if she wants it. Standing among the ruined groves she strains to hear the sound of the past, but the layers of years are too many. Thus begins the gathering of her family's history through the tales of her aunts - four women born to four different wives of a wealthy plantation owner, her grandfather. Asana, Mariama, Hawa and Serah: theirs is the story of a nation, a family and four women's attempts to alter the course of her own destiny.

This is the final corrected version

The Same Sea is Amos Oz's most adventurous and inventive novel, the book by which he would like to be remembered. The cast of characters ranges from a prodigal son to a widowed father who has taken in his son's enticing young girlfriend, who in turn sleeps with her boyfriend's close friend. The author himself receives phone calls from his characters, criticizing the way he portrays them in his novel. In this human profusion there is chaos and order, love and eroticism, loyalty and betrayal, and ultimately an extraordinary energy."I wrote this book with everything I have. Language, music, structure—everything that I have. . . . This is the closest book I've written. Close to me, close to what I always wanted. . . . I went as far as I could."—Amos Oz

From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams comes this harrowing tale of one man's struggle to cope in a wired world, even as his own biological wiring short-circuits. As Boston's Red Line shuttles Bill Chalmers to work one summer morning, something extraordinary happens. Suddenly, he can't remember which stop is his, where he works, or even who he is. The only thing he can remember is his corporate motto: the maximum information in the minimum time.Bill's memory returns, but a strange numbness afflicts him. As he attempts to find a diagnosis for his deteriorating illness, he descends into a nightmarish tangle of inconclusive results, his company's manic frenzy, and his family's disbelief. Ultimately, Bill discovers that he is fighting not just for his body but also for his soul.From the Trade Paperback edition.

'A heart-breaker . . . it has the kind of indefinably powerful impact of The Great Gatsby' Observer'The surprise bestseller ... read, loved and wept over by men and women of all ages' Guardian'A tale of young love and disenchantment, of missed opportunities and passion's elusive, flickering flame' Financial TimesHer dark eyes were lost in thought, absently staring into the distance, drawing on a last wisp of hope as she searched for something that she was almost certain she would never find.'The magical novel about a Turkish man who falls in love with an artist in 1920s Berlin ... recreates a vanished era and dramatises a doomed relationship with verve, depth and poignancy. The result is a miniature masterpiece' The National'Moving and memorable, full of yearning and melancholy' The Times'A tale of young...

Hailed as Italy's The Fault in Our Stars, this Italian bestseller is now available for the first time in English."I was born on the first day of school, and I grew up and old in just two hundred days . . ."Sixteen-year-old Leo has a way with words, but he doesn't know it yet. He spends his time texting, polishing soccer maneuvers, and killing time with Niko and Silvia. Until a new teacher arrives and challenges him to give voice to his dreams.And so Leo is inspired to win over the red-haired beauty, Beatrice. She doesn't know Leo exists, but he's convinced that his dream to win her over will come true. When Leo lands in the hospital and learns that Beatrice has been admitted too, his mission to be there for her will send him on a thrilling but heartbreaking journey. He wants to help her but doesn't know how—and his dream of love will force him to grow up fast.Having already sold over a million copies in Italy,...