Books with category 🩸 Violence / Abuse
Displaying books 1-48 of 49 in total

You Are The Snake

2024

by Juliet Escoria

You Are the Snake offers a glimpse into the lives of characters who straddle the line between conformity and rebellion. In this collection of previously unpublished stories, we are introduced to a range of individuals, from a community college student to an imaginative portrayal of an abusive grandmother, and a young woman discovering her passion for gardening.

The characters crafted by Juliet Escoria are complex—they either strive to meet society's expectations or defiantly turn away from them. These stories exploit the short story form, showcasing Escoria's unique voice that challenges conventional storytelling and resists the temptation for simple moral lessons.

Exploring themes such as girlhood and the transition into womanhood, Escoria does not shy away from the peculiar, the impulsive, and the desires that drive us. Each narrative is set in its own distinct environment, from the suburbs of California to the mountains of West Virginia, and together they form a tapestry that expands and defies preconceived notions of what women are capable of writing and being.

Juliet Escoria's prose has been lauded for its vividness and honesty, and You Are the Snake continues to deliver with its charged and eloquent storytelling. The maturity and style of the short story format are a perfect vessel for Escoria's electric narrative energy.

Counting Feminicide

Why grassroots data activists in Latin America count feminicide—and how this vital social justice work challenges mainstream data science. What isn’t counted doesn’t count. And mainstream institutions systematically fail to account for feminicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, including cisgender and transgender women.

Against this failure, Counting Feminicide brings to the fore the work of data activists across the Americas who are documenting such murders—and challenging the reigning logic of data science by centering care, memory, and justice in their work. Drawing on Data Against Feminicide, a large-scale collaborative research project, Catherine D’Ignazio describes the creative, intellectual, and emotional labor of feminicide data activists who are at the forefront of a data ethics that rigorously and consistently takes power and people into account.

Individuals, researchers, and journalists—these data activists scour news sources to assemble spreadsheets and databases of women killed by gender-related violence, then circulate those data in a variety of creative and political forms. Their work reveals the potential of restorative/transformative data science—the use of systematic information to, first, heal communities from the violence and trauma produced by structural inequality and, second, envision and work toward the world in which such violence has been eliminated.

Specifically, D’Ignazio explores the possibilities and limitations of counting and quantification—reducing complex social phenomena to convenient, sortable, aggregable forms—when the goal is nothing short of the elimination of gender-related violence. Counting Feminicide showcases the incredible power of data feminism in practice, in which each murdered woman or girl counts, and, in being counted, joins a collective demand for the restoration of rights and a transformation of the gendered order of the world.

The Bullet Swallower

A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He's good with his gun and is drawn to trouble but he's also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.

In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico's most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio's timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors' crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.

A family saga that's epic in scope and magical in its blood, and based loosely on the author's own great-grandfather, The Bullet Swallower tackles border politics, intergenerational trauma, and the legacies of racism and colonialism in a lush setting and stunning prose that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.

The Fury

This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that's not quite true. At its heart, it's a love story, isn't it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time - it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind...and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse - a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I? My name is Elliot Chase, and I'm going to tell you a story unlike any you've ever heard.

The Will of the Many

2023

by James Islington

At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE. The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart. And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family. To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy's ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me. And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

Birnam Wood

2023

by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. It is an unflinching look at the surprising consequences of even our most well-intended actions, and an enthralling consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster has created an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira, Birnam Wood’s founder, stumbles on an answer: occupying the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. The enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira and Birnam Wood, he makes them an offer that would set them up for the long term. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?

Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In takes place in autumn 1981, introducing us to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden shaken by an inconceivable horror. The body of a teenager is found, emptied of blood, sparking rumors of a ritual killing. Amidst this terror, twelve-year-old Oskar dreams of revenge against the relentless bullying he faces at school.

However, the murder is not Oskar's only concern. A new girl, Eli, moves in next door. She's never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, yet she can solve it instantly. But there's something peculiar about her, something unsettling. And she only comes out at night...

This international bestseller by John Ajvide Lindqvist is a brilliant take on the vampire myth, offering a roaring good story that explores themes of rejection, friendship, loyalty, and the supernatural. It has inspired a Swedish film, a U.S. adaptation, and a Showtime TV series, marking its place as a significant influence in horror literature.

Blood on the Tracks

2022

by Shuzo Oshimi

Seiichi is back home for the first time in ages to inter his father's remains in the family grave. After that, he'll be finished, nothing left to hold him in this world...until he happens to bump into Fukiishi, resurrecting all the feelings he had buried along with his past—

Will Seiichi finally find peace in death? Or will the specters of the past keep him here against his will...?

Kick the Latch

2022

by Kathryn Scanlan

Kick the Latch is a piercing narrative about one woman's remarkable life at the racetrack. With its unyielding brevity and enigmatic complexities, the novel captures the essence of a life spent in the world of horse racing—the flat expanse, the improvised structures of the backstretch, the undercurrent of discord and tension, the euphoria of the winner's circle, and the convivial atmosphere of the racetrack bar.

Kathryn Scanlan's Kick the Latch vividly portrays the life of Sonia, a horse trainer, through the lens of her particular environment and the distinctive vernacular of those who inhabit it—grooms, jockeys, trainers, and others intimately involved in the sport. The book is a testament to Scanlan's skill in crafting a composite portrait that resonates with authenticity and a profound sense of character.

Carved with a unique artistic vision, the story launches out of the gates with intensity, inviting readers on an exhilarating journey through the inner circle of the racetrack.

Babel : Or the Necessity of Violence

2022

by R. F. Kuang

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

Babel is a profound exploration of the complexities of language, power, and colonialism, set against the backdrop of the British Empire's expansion.

When orphan Robin Swift is brought from Canton to London by Professor Lovell, he embarks on an intense education in languages and translation, aiming for a bright future at Oxford University's Royal Institute of Translation, known as Babel. This institution stands at the heart of the Empire's superiority, harnessing the mystical power of silver working to manifest the elusive meanings lost in translation.

As Robin becomes entrenched in the scholastic utopia of Babel, his ties to his heritage pull him into an inner conflict. When an aggressive war threatens China over silver and opium, Robin is torn between the comfort of academia and the call for justice. He must confront a crucial question: Can change come from within, or is violence an inevitable part of revolution?

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

2022

by Gabrielle Zevin

In this exhilarating novel, two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.

Blood on the Tracks

2022

by Shuzo Oshimi

It's been 20 years since his mother told Seiichi that she renounced motherhood, since she thanked him for being a killer, since he tried to strangle her there in the courtroom—and somehow he made it through. Living alone, working the night shift at a commercial bakery, barely speaking to his father, Seiichi's life is solitary and empty, and he likes it that way. But nothing lasts forever... The grand preface is over—and now the real story begins!!

Ten Steps to Nanette

2022

by Hannah Gadsby

Ten Steps to Nanette continues Gadsby’s tradition of confounding expectations and norms, properly introducing us to one of the most explosive, formative voices of our time. Gadsby grew up as the youngest of five children in an isolated town in Tasmania, where homosexuality was illegal until 1997. She perceived her childhood as safe and “normal,” but as she gained an awareness of her burgeoning queerness, the outside world began to undermine the “vulnerably thin veneer” of her existence. After moving to mainland Australia and receiving a degree in art history, Gadsby found herself adrift, working itinerant jobs and enduring years of isolation punctuated by homophobic and sexual violence. At age twenty-seven, without a home or the ability to imagine her own future, she was urged by a friend to enter a stand-up competition. She won, and so began her career in comedy. Gadsby became well known for her self-deprecating, autobiographical humor that made her the butt of her own jokes. But in 2015, as Australia debated the legality of same-sex marriage, Gadsby started to question this mode of storytelling, beginning work on a show that would become “the most-talked-about, written-about, shared-about comedy act in years” (The New York Times).

Harrowing and hilarious, Ten Steps to Nanette traces Gadsby’s growth as a queer person, to her ever-evolving relationship with comedy, and her struggle with late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD, finally arriving at the backbone of Nanette: the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling.

Small Things Like These

2021

by Claire Keegan

Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family.

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.

Hour of the Witch

2021

by Chris Bohjalian

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant, the enthralling story of a young Puritan woman who marries the wrong man and soon finds herself caught up in the violence and hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials.

Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four years old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary--a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony--soon finds herself the object of suspicion and rumor.

When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows. A twisting, tightly plotted thriller from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying novel of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.

The Arsonists' City

2021

by Hala Alyan

The Arsonists' City delivers all the pleasures of a good old-fashioned saga. In Alyan's hands, one family's tale becomes the story of not just a nation--Lebanon and Syria--but also the United States. It's a rich family story that gives a personal look at the legacy of war in the Middle East and an indelible rendering of how we hold on to the people and places we call home.

The Nasr family is spread across the globe--Beirut, Brooklyn, Austin, the California desert. With a Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three American children, they have all lived a life of migration. Yet, they've always had their ancestral home in Beirut--a constant touchstone--and the complicated, messy family love that binds them. However, following his father's recent death, Idris, the new patriarch, has decided to sell. This decision brings the family to Beirut, where they unite against Idris in a fight to save the house. They all have secrets--lost loves, bitter jealousies, abandoned passions, deep-set shame--that distance has helped smother. But in a city smoldering with the legacy of war, an ongoing flow of refugees, religious tension, and political protest, these secrets ignite, imperiling the fragile ties that hold the family together.

In a novel teeming with wisdom, warmth, and remarkable human insight, award-winning author Hala Alyan shows us that fiction often provides the best filter for the real world around us.

Páradais

Páradais, escrita por Fernanda Melchor, una de las escritoras mexicanas más destacadas de la actualidad, explora la facilidad con la que el deseo puede convertirse en obsesión y, más aún, en violencia. En un conjunto residencial de lujo, dos adolescentes inadaptados se reúnen por las noches para embriagarse a escondidas y compartir sus descabelladas fantasías.

Franco Andrade, obeso y solitario, adicto a la pornografía, sueña con seducir a la vecina de al lado -una atractiva mujer casada, madre de familia-, por quien ha desarrollado una obsesión malsana; mientras que Polo, su reacio compañero, fantasea con renunciar a su agobiante empleo como jardinero del exclusivo fraccionamiento y huir de su casa, de su pueblo infestado de narcos, y del yugo de su dominante madre.

Ante la imposibilidad de conseguir lo que cada uno cree merecer, Franco y Polo maquinarán un plan tan pueril como macabro.

Blood on the Tracks

2020

by Shuzo Oshimi

Seiichi's aunt and uncle have arrived to confront Seiko, and the truth has come out at last. The lies—and his family—are falling apart, and Seiichi is left to pick up the pieces... But as he shakes off his mother's influence and faces police questioning, a shocking revelation about his past emerges!

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

2020

by Meg Medina

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is a compelling novel by Meg Medina that delves into the life of Latina teen Piddy Sanchez, who finds herself the target of a school bully. The story begins when Piddy is told that Yaqui Delgado hates her and is out to get her, despite Piddy having no idea who Yaqui is or what she might have done to provoke such animosity.

Yaqui's gripe seems to be that Piddy comes across as stuck-up, flaunts her figure, and doesn't fit the stereotypical Latin image due to her white skin, academic achievements, and lack of an accent. Facing an increasingly threatening situation, Piddy's initial concerns about understanding her absent father and managing her studies and weekend job become secondary as she tries to evade Yaqui and her gang.

The escalation of harassment forces Piddy to navigate the challenges of her life while being pushed to the brink. The novel is a poignant exploration of identity and resilience, as Piddy must ultimately confront the question of who she wants to be, in the face of adversity.

Blood on the Tracks

2020

by Shuzo Oshimi

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes his latest suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

Seiichi's outburst has brought him and his mother closer together, but also served to deepen his aunt's suspicions. It's only a matter of time before the truth comes out...and before Seiichi's psychic tension erupts into violence!!

Blood on the Tracks

2019

by Shuzo Oshimi

Shigeru has finally awakened from the coma he's been in since Seiko pushed him off the cliff—but he remembers nothing of the incident, nor does he even recognize his assailant. Rather than setting Seiko's mind at ease, however, this only serves to disturb her further.

Meanwhile, Seiichi is determined to keep his promise to his mother—with devastating consequences for everyone around him.

Blood on the Tracks

2019

by Shuzo Oshimi

Beset by mental images of his mother, Seiichi flees from Fukiishi's embrace and returns home. Safety and reconciliation aren't the only things that await him there, however. The Osabes have become one big happy family again...but at what cost?

Shuzo Oshimi's masterfully nuanced tale of familial horror continues to tighten its grip on the minds of its characters and readers alike.

Trust Exercise

2019

by Susan Choi

In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving “Brotherhood of the Arts,” two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed—or untoyed with—by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley.

The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls—until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down. What the reader believes to have happened to David and Sarah and their friends is not entirely true—though it's not false, either. It takes until the book’s stunning coda for the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place—revealing truths that will resonate long after the final sentence.

As captivating and tender as it is surprising, Susan Choi's Trust Exercise will incite heated conversations about fiction and truth, and about friendships and loyalties, and will leave readers with wiser understandings of the true capacities of adolescents and of the powers and responsibilities of adults.

Blood on the Tracks

2019

by Shuzo Oshimi

Encouraged by Fukiishi to stand up for himself, Seiichi exploded in a moment of rage, telling his mother Seiko, "I don't need you"—the first rebellious act of his young life. Now Fukiishi has offered him sanctuary in her room, hidden from her father and away from the watchful eyes of his own parents.

But as Seiichi fumbles toward sexual awakening, his mother's specter is never far from his mind... Shuzo Oshimi's masterwork of psychological terror continues, as Seiichi struggles to navigate the tangled web of his competing emotions. Meanwhile, Seiko's desperate search for her son brings her to Fukiishi's doorstep...

Perras de reserva

Las heroínas de Perras de reserva son mujeres fuertes, decididas a resolver por sí mismas sus problemas porque saben que si con algo no pueden contar es con la ayuda de Dios. Como mucho, se encomiendan al Diablo, ya que ante la perspectiva de convertirse en víctimas –usadas, explotadas o muertas– prefieren optar por la sangre ajena. Como Yuliana, la macabramente entrañable heredera al trono de un capo del narcotráfico, que no va a aceptar que sus compañeras de escuela se burlen de su look. O la adolescente que antes de dejarse arrinconar por la pobreza y el hambre se vuelve una malandrina de calle con principios, que solo desvalija a gente bien. O la bruja que recurre al Señor de las Tinieblas para que le ayude con la vecina cuyos perros hacen sus necesidades en su patio.

Sean sicarias o universitarias, influencers o amas de casa, beatas o prostitutas, las memorables protagonistas de estos relatos comparten las dificultades y los peligros derivados de haber nacido mujer.

Con un talento desbordante para reflejar el habla de la calle y no pocas dosis de humor negro, la autora mexicana Dahlia de la Cerda nos recuerda en este genial libro que «la vida es una perra, por eso hay que patearle la jaula».

Blood on the Tracks

2018

by Shuzo Oshimi

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes a new suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

Unable to process the horrifying events of the past few months, Seiichi’s anger, fear, and frustration boil over. But even as he is haunted by the memory of his mother’s hands around his throat, he finds his voice again thanks to his classmate Fukiishi. Their puppy love provides a tenderness he has been missing, but it quickly comes under threat from his mother’s insane jealousy...

Torn between the two women in his life, Seiichi is forced to make a choice that could bring his whole world crashing down.

The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals

2018

by Aaron Mahnke

A chilling, lavishly illustrated Who's Who of the most despicable people ever to walk the earth, featuring both rare and best-loved stories from the hit podcast Lore, soon to be an online streaming series.

Here are the incredible true stories of some of the mortals who achieved notoriety in history and folklore through horrible means. Monsters of this sort—serial killers, desperate criminals, and socially mobile people with a much darker double-life—are, in fact, quite real, including:

  • H. H. Holmes, the infamous Chicago serial killer;

  • William Brodie, the Edinburgh criminal mastermind who inspired The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;

  • And Bela Kiss, a Hungarian tinsmith with a most disturbing hobby: collecting women in gasoline drums.

This riveting best-of-the-worst roundup will haunt your thoughts, chill your bones, and leave you wondering if there are mortal monsters lurking even closer than you think.

Blood on the Tracks

2018

by Shuzo Oshimi

The last days of summer creep toward a violent climax... Seiichi's family begins to fall apart in the wake of his cousin's accident, but nothing compares to the mental and emotional torture he undergoes as he tries to maintain some sense of self in the face of his mother's manipulations.

Torn by his love for her, Seiichi is pushed to the breaking point and finds himself unable to speak, both literally and figuratively. The tension continues to build in Shuzo Oshimi's masterwork of understated psychological horror, as Seiichi falls further and further into the abyss of his mother's unraveling psyche.

Aednan

Aednan marks the American debut of Sweden's esteemed literary figure Linnea Axelsson with an epic, multigenerational novel-in-verse that delves deep into the lives of two Sámi families. This groundbreaking work explores their enduring bond through a century marked by migration, violence, and the scars of colonial trauma.

This sweeping Scandinavian epic, reminiscent of classics such as Halldór Laxness’s Independent People and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, begins in the 1910s. We follow Ristin and her family as they migrate their reindeer herd to summer pastures. Amidst this journey, a tragedy strikes, etching a path of sorrow that echoes throughout the novel.

In the 1970s, we meet Lise, a member of a new Sámi generation confronting her identity and legacy. Her reflections on a childhood marred by forced separation from her family and the loss of her ancestral language at a Nomad School paint a vivid picture of the struggles faced by her people.

The narrative then carries us to the 2010s, introducing Sandra, Lise’s daughter. Sandra stands as a symbol of Indigenous resilience, an activist demanding justice in a landmark land rights trial during a time when the Sámi language teeters on the brink of extinction.

Through the interwoven voices of characters spanning generations, Axelsson crafts a poignant family saga centered around the fallout of colonial settlement. Ædnan serves as a testament to the tenacity of language, even when adopted, to encapsulate memories of what has been lost. The verse of one character to another resonates beyond mortality: "I was the weight / in the stone you brought / back from the coast // to place on / my grave," and the haunting call, "There will be rain / there will be rain."

Casas vacías

2018

by Brenda Navarro

Casas vacías habla del dolor de las mujeres ante la desaparición de un hijo y de su propia vida. Es una novela que también cuestiona la maternidad y abre la posibilidad de un diálogo sobre cómo se enfrentan las maternidades no solicitadas y que son impuestas socialmente. La maternidad, que casi siempre asociamos con la felicidad, también puede ser una pesadilla: la de una mujer cuyo hijo desaparece en el parque donde estaba jugando, y la de aquella otra mujer que se lo lleva para criarlo como propio

Brenda Navarro ha conseguido un prodigio: caminar siempre, sin caerse nunca, sobre la delgada línea que separa –pero también une– el olvido y la memoria, la esperanza y la depresión, la vida privada y la vida pública, la pérdida y el encuentro, los cuerpos de las mujeres y el acto político. Casas vacías estremece de forma tan devastadora como ilumina: brillante y extrañamente esperanzadora.

Blood on the Tracks

2017

by Shuzo Oshimi

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes a new suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

His mother has done the unthinkable...and now Seiichi must decide if he will be complicit. But before he can even catch his breath, what remains of his sense of self is smashed to pieces by her next shocking act...

Shuzo Oshimi invites us to watch as a once-happy household quietly transforms into an inescapable living hell.

Blood on the Tracks

2017

by Shuzo Oshimi

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes a new suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

Seiichi's mother loves him very much, and his days pass with placid regularity. School, friends, even the attention of his attractive classmate Fukiishi. Until one terrible summer day, that all changes...

Shuzo Oshimi delivers his most unsettling work yet, the tale of a seemingly normal family suddenly swallowed up by the creeping horror of everyday life. Gorgeous art and an understated script only serve to heighten the tension as we watch Seiichi Osabe's life spiral into nightmare.

Temporada de huracanes

Con un ritmo y un lenguaje magistrales, Fernanda Melchor, autora de Falsa liebre explora en esta obra las sinrazones que subyacen a los actos más desesperados de barbarie pasional. Una novela cruda y desgarradora en la que el lector quedará envuelto, atrapado por las palabras y la atmósfera de terrible, aunque gozosa, fatalidad.

Un grupo de niños encuentra un cadáver flotando en las aguas turbias de un canal de riego cercano a la ranchería de La Matosa. El cuerpo resulta ser de la Bruja, una mujer que heredó dicho oficio de su madre fallecida, y a quienes los pobladores de esa zona rural respetaban y temían. Tras el macabro hallazgo, las sospechas y habladurías recaerán sobre un grupo de muchachos del pueblo, a quienes días antes una vecina vio mientras huían de casa de la hechicera, cargando lo que parecía ser un cuerpo inerte.

A partir de ahí, los personajes involucrados en el crimen nos contarán su historia mientras los lectores nos sumergimos en la vida de este lugar acosado por la miseria y el abandono, y donde convergen la violencia del erotismo más oscuro y las sórdidas relaciones de poder. 

México racista

Con un afán polémico y un tono irreverente, este libro busca despertar el debate y denunciar la prevalencia de nuestras costumbres racistas y las formas de pensar que las acompañan.

A partir de ejemplos cercanos y actuales, el historiador Federico Navarrete realiza un original análisis de los vínculos entre el racismo y graves casos que han cimbrado a México desde los feminicidios en Juárez, pasando por la matanza de migrantes en San Fernando, hasta la desaparición forzada de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa.

El racismo impera en México. Es un hecho cotidiano que cobra forma lo mismo en una charla privada que en anuncios de tintes "aspiracionales" o en políticas públicas excluyentes. Desafortunadamente, una gran parte de la población es indiferente ante el fenómeno.

Amén de ofrecer un examen de los orígenes históricos del racismo en México, vinculados con lo que llama la "leyenda del mestizaje", Federico Navarrete nos ofrece una serie de posibles caminos para liberarnos de esta lacerante situación en busca del respeto a las diferencias y la convivencia sensata. Su aviso es claro y estamos a tiempo de hacer de la pluralidad un germen de convivencia y esperanza.

Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego

Las autodenominadas «mujeres ardientes», que protestan contra una forma extrema de violencia doméstica que se ha vuelto viral; una estudiante que se arranca las uñas y las pestañas, y otra que intenta ayudarla; los años de apagones dictados por el gobierno durante los cuales se intoxican tres amigas que lo serán hasta que la muerte las separe; el famoso asesino en serie llamado Petiso Orejudo, que sólo tenía nueve años; hikikomori, magia negra, los celos, el desamor, supersticiones rurales, edificios abandonados o encantados... En estos doce cuentos el lector se ve obligado a olvidarse de sí mismo para seguir las peripecias e investigaciones de cuerpos que desaparecen o bien reaparecen en el momento menos esperado. Ya sea una trabajadora social, una policía o un guía turístico, los protagonistas luchan por apadrinar a seres socialmente invisibles, indagando así en el peso de la culpa, la compasión, la crueldad, las dificultades de la convivencia, y en un terror tan hondo como verosímil.

«El terror, en los cuentos de Mariana Enriquez, se desliza como un jadeo de agua negra sobre baldosas al sol. Como algo imposible que, sin embargo, podría suceder» (Leila Guerriero).

Station Eleven

Station Eleven, an audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame, and ambition, is set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse. Day One: The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%. Week Two: Civilization has crumbled.

Year Twenty: A band of actors and musicians, known as the Travelling Symphony, move through the territories of a changed world, performing concerts and Shakespeare at the settlements that have formed. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and it threatens the world every hopeful survivor has tried to rebuild.

Moving backward and forward in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: celebrated actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan, a bystander warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife, Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend, Clark; Kirsten, an actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed "prophet."

Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the fragility of life, the relationships that sustain us, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

Space Invaders

Space Invaders is a dreamlike evocation of a generation that grew up in the shadow of a dictatorship in 1980s Chile. It tells the story of a group of childhood friends who, in adulthood, are preoccupied by uneasy memories and visions of their classmate, Estrella Gonzlez Jepsen. In their dreams, they catch glimpses of Estrella's braids, hear echoes of her voice, and read old letters that eventually, mysteriously, stopped arriving.

They recall regimented school assemblies, nationalistic class performances, and a trip to the beach. Soon it becomes clear that Estrella's father was a ranking government officer implicated in the violent crimes of the Pinochet regime, and the question of what became of her after she left school haunts her erstwhile friends. Growing up, these friendsfrom her pen pal, Maldonado, to her crush, Riquelmewere old enough to sense the danger and tension that surrounded them, but were powerless in the face of it.

They could control only the stories they told one another and the "ghostly green bullets" they fired in the video game they played obsessively. Nona Fernández, one of the leading Latin American writers of her generation, effortlessly builds a choral and constantly shifting image of young life in the waning years of the dictatorship. In her short but intricately layered novel, she summons the collective memory of a generation, rescuing felt truth from the oblivion of official history.

Wait for You

Some things are worth waiting for... Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago--an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace.

The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself. Some things are worth experiencing... Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple.... Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring their simmering tension becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet... But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls—forcing her to face a past she wants silenced—she has no other choice but to acknowledge that she will not be allowed to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, can she resurface this time with one less scar? And will Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Michael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander - the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire.

As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander's innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to visit her dark past in an effort for her to settle with it, once and for all.

Blue-Eyed Devil

2008

by Lisa Kleypas

MEET THE BLUE-EYED DEVIL - His name is Hardy Cates. He's a self-made millionaire who comes from the wrong side of the tracks. He's made enemies in the rough-and-tumble ride to the top of Houston's oil industry. He's got hot blood in his veins. And vengeance on his mind.

MEET THE HEIRESS - She's Haven Travis. Despite her family's money, she refuses to set out on the path they've chosen for her. But when Haven marries a man her family disapproves of, her life is set on a new and dangerous course. Two years later, Haven comes home, determined to guard her heart. And Hardy Cates, a family enemy, is the last person she needs darkening her door or setting her soul on fire.

WATCH THE SPARKS FLY... - Filled with Lisa Kleypas's trademark sensuality, filled with characters you love to hate and men you love to love, Blue-Eyed Devil will hold you captive in its storytelling power as the destiny of two people unfolds with every magical word.

Half of a Yellow Sun

Half of a Yellow Sun is a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria during the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed. The novel tells the story of the Biafran War through the perspective of the characters Olanna, Ugwu, and Richard.

Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor's beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna's twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone.

As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.

Fight Club

1996

by Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, the protagonist finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups. Then he meets a mysterious man named Tyler Durden and establishes an underground fighting club as radical psychotherapy.

In this novel, Chuck Palahniuk offers a dark and provocative look into the depths of the human psyche, delivering a tale that is as unsettling as it is compelling. With biting satire and a unique voice, Fight Club has become a modern classic, exploring themes of identity, consumerism, and the search for meaning in a contemporary world.

Blindness

Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers. A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped. This is not anarchy, this is blindness.

Saramago repeatedly undertakes to unite the pressing demands of the present with an unfolding vision of the future. This is his most apocalyptic, and most optimistic, version of that project yet.

Death Without Weeping

When lives are dominated by hunger, what becomes of love? When assaulted by daily acts of violence and untimely death, what happens to trust? Set in the lands of Northeast Brazil, this is an account of the everyday experience of scarcity, sickness, and death that centres on the lives of the women and children of a hillside favela. Bringing her readers to the impoverished slopes above the modern plantation town of Bom Jesus de Mata, where she has worked on and off for 25 years, Nancy Scheper-Hughes follows three generations of shantytown women as they struggle to survive through hard work, cunning and triage.

It is a story of class relations told at the most basic level of bodies, emotions, desires and needs. Most disturbing – and controversial – is her finding that mother love, as conventionally understood, is something of a bourgeois myth, a luxury for those who can reasonably expect, as these women cannot, that their infants will live.

The Handmaid's Tale

1985

by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now . . .

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

Los recuerdos del porvenir

1963

by Elena Garro

En 1963, cuatro años antes de la publicación de Cien años de soledad, apareció en México una novela singular, historia de amor sombría, misteriosa, que cambió el tono de la narrativa mexicana de tan profunda y sorprendente manera como Pedro Páramo de Juan Rulfo: Los recuerdos del porvenir.

La asombrosa novela de Elena Garro es gótica y barroca. Más que una crónica -que sí lo es, de la Revolución Mexicana y de la guerra de los Cristeros- es una nostalgia y una soledad, es la voz de un pueblo iluminado, hallado y perdido, que habla en una primera persona desesperanzada y triste.

Una familia y otra familia, más las amantes solitarias, el loco del pueblo, las cuscas, los soldados, las beatas, un cura y un sacristán, más un campanario y una joven endemoniada de amor por el general Francisco Rosas, constituyen los solistas, las parejas y las comparsas de esta bella, ebria y condenada Danza de la Muerte.

To Kill a Mockingbird

1960

by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless classic that delves into the heart of a sleepy Southern town, exposing the moral dilemmas that shake its foundation. First published in 1960 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, Harper Lee's novel captures the essence of innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.

This compelling narrative is told through the eyes of a young girl named Scout, whose father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer tasked with defending a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Set against the backdrop of the mid-1930s Depression in Alabama, the story is a profound commentary on the virulent prejudice that plagues the town. Atticus's quiet heroism and the events that unfold challenge the conscience of a community steeped in hypocrisy and violence.

Lee herself described the book as a simple love story, yet it resonates with readers as much more—a reflection on human behavior and societal norms.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bront's only novel, is a tale of passion and revenge on the Yorkshire moors. At its heart lies the tumultuous relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how their unresolved passion eventually leads to their destruction, affecting those around them. First published in 1847, Bront's work was initially met with mixed reviews but has since become an undisputed classic of English literature.

This novel is known for its complex structure, reminiscent of Russian nesting dolls, and its innovative narrative that was controversial at the time of publication. The dark and tragic story, set in a stark and austere setting, explores themes of social class, love, and the impact of vengeance. The intense emotional depth of the story transforms a simple tale into one with the resonance of ancient tragedy.

Bront wrote under the pseudonym Ellis Bell and her work was posthumously edited by her sister Charlotte. The novel's title comes from the remote Yorkshire manor, Wuthering Heights, which forms the central focus of the story's tumultuous events.

Are you sure you want to delete this?