In the late 1980s, two teenage girls found refuge from a world of cosy conformity, sexism and the nuclear arms race in protest and punk. Then, drawn in by a promise of meaning and purpose, they cast off their punk outfits and became born-again Christians. Unsure which fate would come first - nuclear annihilation or the Second Coming of Jesus - they sought answers from end-times evangelists, scrutinising friends and family for signs of demon possession and identifying EFTPOS and barcodes as signs of a looming apocalypse.

Fast forward to 2021, and Rebecca and Maz - now a science historian and an engineer - are on a road trip to the West Coast. Their journey, though full of laughter and conversation and hot pies, is haunted by the threats of climate change, conspiracy theories, and a massive overdue earthquake.

End Times interweaves the stories of these two periods in Rebecca's life, both of which have at heart a sleepless fear of the end of the world. Along the way she asks: Why do people hold on to some ideas but reject others? How do you engage with someone whose beliefs are wildly different from your own? And where can we find hope when it sometimes feels as if we all live on a fault line that could rupture at any moment?

In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling standalone novel.

On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.

Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.

Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of midcentury American life, The River We Remember is an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, comes a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them.

In 1972, workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development when they unexpectedly discovered a skeleton at the bottom of a well. The skeleton's identity and how it ended up there were long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill—a dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side, sharing ambitions and sorrows.

Chicken Hill was home to Moshe and Chona Ludlow, where Moshe integrated his theater and Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state sought to institutionalize a deaf boy, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who conspired to keep the boy safe.

As the characters' stories intertwine and deepen, it becomes clear how much those living on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. The revelation of what truly happened on Chicken Hill and the role played by the town’s white establishment, McBride reveals that even in the darkest times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

James McBride brings his masterful storytelling skills and deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, crafting a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.

American Prometheus is the gripping biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic physicist who became known as the father of the atomic bomb. Co-authored by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, this comprehensive work delves into Oppenheimer's complex life and character, exploring his significant contributions to science, his leadership of the Manhattan Project, and the subsequent struggles he faced during the Red Scare.

Oppenheimer's story is not just about scientific triumph but also about tragedy, as the very weapon he helped create brought about profound ethical questions and fears about the future of humanity. The biography captures the essence of a man who was both a brilliant scientist and a person of conflicting emotions and loyalties, providing insight into the human side of the scientific endeavors that reshaped the world.

Anansi's Gold is the astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds.

When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas.

Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece--if only you would "invest" in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices--including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general--scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam "one of the most fascinating--and lucrative--in modern history."

In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call "history" writes itself into being, one lie at a time.

When Crack Was King offers an account of the crack cocaine era and a community's resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the rise and fall of the epidemic. Journalist Donovan X. Ramsey provides an exacting analysis beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan's war on drugs.

The book follows four individuals: Elgin Swift, who represents American industry and ambition and is the son of a crack-addicted father; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist and a founding member of Newark's most legendary group of drug traffickers.

With riveting research and the voices of survivors, this book is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.

From the award-winning author comes a gripping account of one of the most scandalous chapters in modern Irish history, at once a propulsive work of true crime and an act of literary subversion.

Malcolm Macarthur was a well-known Dublin socialite and heir.  Suave and urbane, he passed his days mingling with artists and aristocrats, reading philosophy, living a life of the mind. But by 1982, his inheritance had dwindled to almost nothing, a desperate threat to his lifestyle. Macarthur hastily conceived a He would commit bank robbery, of the kind that had become frightfully common in Dublin at the time. But his plan spun swiftly out of control, and he needlessly killed two innocent people. The ensuing manhunt, arrest, and conviction amounted to one of the most infamous political scandals in modern Irish history, contributing to the eventual collapse of a government.

Author Mark O'Connell spent countless hours in conversation with Macarthur—interviews that veered from confession to evasion. Through their tense exchanges and O’Connell’s independent reporting, a pair of narratives a riveting account of Macarthur's crimes and a study of the hazy line between truth and invention. We come to see not only the enormity of the murders but the damage that’s inflicted when a life is rendered into story.

Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck, is a novel of great emotional depth and historical resonance. Set against the backdrop of the collapsing German Democratic Republic (GDR), this intricate love story weaves together the lives of two individuals caught in the midst of transformative times.

Nineteen-year-old Katharina encounters a married writer in his fifties, Hans, by chance in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s. The narrative follows their passionate, yet challenging, long-running affair through the decline and eventual dissolution of the GDR in 1989, and into the era that follows.

With her distinctive style and broad narrative sweep, Erpenbeck charts the journey of these two lovers. Katharina matures and grapples with a romance that is far from ideal, paralleling the disintegration of an entire world along with its ideology.

Erpenbeck is celebrated for her ability to capture the nuances of human relationships amidst the dramatic shifts of history, and Kairos is no exception. It is a powerful exploration of love, identity, and the indelible impact of political change on personal lives.

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. This revelatory new portrait offers an intimate view of the preacher and activist who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.

Eig casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. He reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death.

Following MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation's most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig presents an MLK who was a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history's greatest movements. His demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime. The book also includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences…

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.

Our Migrant Souls is a defining exploration of the Latino identity in the United States by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar. The term "Latino" is one of the most rapidly growing but loosely defined major race categories in the country.

Composed as a direct address to young people who identify or are classified as "Latino," this book stands as the first account of the historical and social forces shaping Latino identity. Tobar examines the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, media, and pop culture, decoding the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in contemporary America.

Our Migrant Souls gives voice to the frustrations and aspirations of young Latinos who have witnessed the transformation of Latinidad into negative stereotypes and have faced insult and division. Tobar shares his experiences as a journalist, novelist, mentor, leader, and educator, intertwining his personal narrative and his parents' migration from Guatemala with his journey across the country to uncover a narrative that is expansive, inspiring, and alive.

Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food is an eye-opening investigation into the science, economics, history, and production of ultra-processed food, also known as UPF. Medical doctor and broadcaster Chris van Tulleken takes us through the hard facts about our food intake and its links to various diseases such as metabolic disease, depression, inflammation, anxiety, and cancer. He also discusses the environmental damage caused by the production, distribution, and disposal of UPF.

Van Tulleken reframes the conversation around healthy eating by providing both shocking and empathetic insights into our eating habits. He delves into the concept of the 'third age of eating' characterized by the abundance of ultra-processed eating options and provides guidance on making informed choices amidst this landscape. This book is not just about diet trends or individual willpower; it's about our right to know what we eat and its effects on our bodies and our environment.

Small Mercies, a compelling novel by Dennis Lehane, unfolds against the backdrop of a sweltering Boston summer in 1974. Mary Pat Fennessy is caught in a relentless struggle to fend off the bill collectors, living a life steeped in the traditions of Southie, the Irish American neighborhood that prides itself on its heritage and independence.

As the city simmers under a heatwave, Mary Pat's world is upended when her teenage daughter Jules fails to return home one evening. Concurrently, the mysterious death of a young Black man on the subway tracks appears to be a separate tragedy. Yet, as Mary Pat delves deeper into her search for Jules, she unwittingly stirs the pot of a brewing storm—posing questions that draw the ire of Marty Butler, the local Irish mob boss, and his henchmen who are quick to silence any disturbance to their operations.

Set against the explosive period of school desegregation in Boston, which ignites violence in the streets, Small Mercies is not just a thriller; it's a stark portrayal of criminality, the abuse of power, and a raw examination of America's persistent racial divide. Lehane delivers a narrative that is as enthralling as it is unsettling—a testament to his prowess as one of the finest novelists of our time.

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History offers a sweeping and overdue retelling of U.S. history that recognizes that Native Americans are essential to understanding the evolution of modern America.

Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century. In this transformative synthesis, he reveals that:

• European colonization in the 1600s was never a predetermined success;
• Native nations helped shape England's crisis of empire;
• The first shots of the American Revolution were prompted by Indian affairs in the interior;
• California Indians targeted by federally funded militias were among the first casualties of the Civil War;
• The Union victory forever recalibrated Native communities across the West;
• Twentieth-century reservation activists refashioned American law and policy.

Blackhawk's retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, The Wager is a riveting story of shipwreck, survival, and the wild extremes of human behavior. David Grann delivers a narrative with the suspense of a thriller, revealing the profound implications of the events aboard the Wager, and challenging the very notion of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a makeshift vessel stumbled upon the coast of Brazil with thirty severely weakened men. These survivors of the British ship, the Wager, recounted an incredible ordeal. Dispatched from England in 1740 during a war with Spain, the Wager was in pursuit of a Spanish galleon laden with treasure when disaster struck off the Patagonian coast.

Marooned and facing death, the crew constructed a crude boat and embarked on an extraordinary 2500-mile voyage across tempestuous waters, only to be branded as heroes upon their return. However, a subsequent arrival of three castaways in Chile unveiled a starkly contrasting narrative of mutiny and betrayal. As the Admiralty held a court martial to uncover the truth, the account of anarchy, conflict, and murder emerged, leading to a verdict that could mean the gallows for the accused.

Grann's masterful recounting of this historical saga echoes the literary achievements of Patrick O’Brian and the gripping survival tales akin to The Endurance. The Wager is a testament to the extremes of human conduct in the face of adversity, crafted by one of today's most exceptional nonfiction storytellers.

A historian explores the complicated relationship between womanhood and motherhood in this timely, refreshingly open-hearted study of the choices women make and the cards they’re dealt.

In an era of falling births, it’s often said that millennials invented the idea of not having kids. But history is full of women without children: some who chose childless lives, others who wanted children but never had them, and still others—the vast majority, then and now—who fell somewhere in between. Modern women considering how and if children fit into their lives are products of their political, ecological, and cultural moment. But history also tells them that they are not alone.

Drawing on deep research and her own experience as a woman without children, historian Peggy O’Donnell Heffington shows that many of the reasons women are not having children today are ones they share with women in the past: a lack of support, their jobs or finances, environmental concerns, infertility, and the desire to live different kinds of lives. Understanding this history—how normal it has always been to not have children, and how hard society has worked to make it seem abnormal—is key, she writes, to rebuilding kinship between mothers and non-mothers, and to building a better world for us all.

A Fever In The Heartland by Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author Timothy Egan presents a historical thriller that delves into the riveting story of the Ku Klux Klan's rise to power in the 1920s. At the heart of this rise was a cunning con man named D.C. Stephenson, whose magnetic presence and ever-changing life story captivated many.

In just two years upon his arrival in Indiana, Stephenson climbed the ranks to become the Grand Dragon of the state, establishing a strategy that would bring the Klan out of the shadows. Their hateful message, targeting Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants, was endorsed by local churches, spread at family picnics, and celebrated in towns across the Heartland and the West. With judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors, and senators openly supporting the Klan, Stephenson's influence seemed unshakeable.

However, at the peak of his power, it was the courage of a seemingly powerless woman, Madge Oberholtzer, that would expose his heinous acts. Her deathbed testimony would become the catalyst for the Klan's downfall. A Fever In The Heartland is not only a propulsive drama but also a poignant reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.

Shadow and Bone meets Lore in Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals, an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

In the aftermath of a seemingly inconsequential battle in the fourteenth century of southern India, a young girl named Pampa Kampana is thrust into an extraordinary destiny. Following the tragic death of her mother, she becomes the chosen vessel for a goddess, who empowers her with a profound mission. Pampa Kampana is to be the architect of a magnificent city, Bisnaga—known as "Victory City", destined to be the wonder of the world.

As the centuries unfold, Pampa Kampana's fate and the city's fortunes become inextricably linked. From its mystical inception—planted from a sack of magical seeds—to the inevitable decay wrought by the arrogance of its rulers, Bisnaga's story is one of love, ambition, and myth. Pampa Kampana, whispering the city and its inhabitants into existence, strives to fulfill the goddess's decree: to forge a world where women wield equal influence in a society dominated by men.

Yet, as with all tales, the narrative spirals beyond the control of its creator. Through the ebb and flow of time, as monarchs rise and fall, as victories are celebrated and defeats mourned, and as loyalties evolve, Bisnaga's tapestry grows ever more intricate—with Pampa Kampana at its very heart.

Rendered in the grandeur of an ancient epic, Victory City is a saga that celebrates the enduring power of storytelling, penned by the visionary Salman Rushdie. It is a testament to the fleeting nature of power and the eternal legacy of the stories we leave behind.

Red Memory: The Afterlives Of China's Cultural Revolution explores the lasting impact of one of the most tumultuous periods in China's history. Author Tania Branigan delves into personal stories and historical accounts to shed light on how the Cultural Revolution has continued to shape China and its people long after its official end.

The book offers a nuanced look at the complex ways in which the events from that time are remembered, forgotten, and reinterpreted by those who lived through it, as well as the younger generations. It's a profound examination of memory, identity, and the power of history in contemporary society.

The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as “his” slave.

In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.

Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.

But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.

With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation’s core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us even now.

Stay True is a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art, by New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu. In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes 'zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to.

The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn't seem to have a place for either of them. But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.

Determined to hold on to all that was left off one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he's been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.

In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend.

But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape. Its population represented a society in miniature, full of heroes and traitors, class conflicts and secret alliances, and the full range of human joy and despair. In Macintyre’s telling, Colditz’s most famous names—like the indomitable Pat Reid—share glory with lesser known but equally remarkable characters like Indian doctor Birendranath Mazumdar whose ill treatment, hunger strike, and eventual escape read like fiction; Florimond Duke, America’s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent; and Christopher Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture covert escape aids for POWs.

Bringing together the wartime intrigue of his acclaimed Operation Mincemeat and keen psychological portraits of his bestselling true-life spy stories, Macintyre has breathed new life into one of the greatest war stories ever told.

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?

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check - because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.

In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely. Vaclav Smil is neither a pessimist nor an optimist, he is a scientist; he is the world-leading expert on energy and an astonishing polymath. This is his magnum opus and is a continuation of his quest to make facts matter. Drawing on the latest science, including his own fascinating research, and tackling sources of misinformation head on - from Yuval Noah Harari to Noam Chomsky - ultimately Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead?

Trust is a sweeping puzzle of a novel about power, greed, love and a search for the truth that begins in 1920s New York. Can one person change the course of history? A Wall Street tycoon takes a young woman as his wife. Together, they rise to the top in an age of excess and speculation. Now a novelist is threatening to reveal the secrets behind their marriage. Who will have the final word in their story of greed, love and betrayal?

Composed of four competing versions of this deliciously deceptive tale, Trust by Hernan Diaz brings us on a quest for truth while confronting the lies that often live buried in the human heart.

An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception.

From a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author and poet comes a galvanizing meditation on the power of art and culture to illuminate America's unresolved problem with race.

In the midst of civil unrest in the summer of 2020 and following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, Elizabeth Alexander—one of the great literary voices of our time—turned a mother's eye to her sons’ and students’ generation and wrote a celebrated and moving reflection on the challenges facing young Black America. Originally published in the New Yorker, the essay incisively and lovingly observed the experiences, attitudes, and cultural expressions of what she referred to as the Trayvon Generation, who even as children could not be shielded from the brutality that has affected the lives of so many Black people.

The Trayvon Generation expands the viral essay that spoke so resonantly to the persistence of race as an ongoing issue at the center of the American experience. Alexander looks both to our past and our future with profound insight, brilliant analysis, and mighty heart, interweaving her voice with groundbreaking works of art by some of our most extraordinary artists.

At this crucial time in American history when we reckon with who we are as a nation and how we move forward, Alexander's lyrical prose gives us perspective informed by historical understanding, her lifelong devotion to education, and an intimate grasp of the visioning power of art.

This breathtaking book is essential reading and an expression of both the tragedies and hopes for the young people of this era that is sure to be embraced by those who are leading the movement for change and anyone rising to meet the moment.

The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas is an exploration of the formation of social movements through history and the role of technology in shaping them. Gal Beckerman, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, presents a narrative that spans from the 1600s to the present, examining how the quiet conception of revolutionary ideas in small, private groups has led to significant social changes, from the scientific revolution to the suffrage movement, and from feminism to modern-day epidemiology.

This book delves into the correspondence that ignited the scientific revolution, the petitions that won voting rights in 1830s Britain, the zines that expressed women's rage in the early 1990s, and the messaging apps utilized by epidemiologists during a pandemic. Beckerman highlights the importance of secluded spaces where radical ideas can incubate before reaching a wider audience and cautions that the prevalence of social media may be undermining these productive environments. By examining the successes and failures of movements like the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter, The Quiet Before offers insights into what current social media platforms lack and proposes ways to foster the growth of radical ideas in the future.

Ésta es la profecía de Quetzalcóatl, su revelación, nuestro destino. El 13 de agosto de 1521 cayó Tenochtitlán en manos de decenas de miles de guerreros de diversos pueblos y ciudades del Anáhuac. Los herederos de los toltecas se liberaron del terrible yugo de los hijos de Huitzilopochtli, con el inesperado pero indispensable apoyo de un puñado de aventureros castellanos. Una era llegó a su fin y, como siempre ocurre en la historia humana, una nueva comenzó a nacer. Descendió la noche sobre el Pueblo del Sol e inició el amanecer de un México que no ha sabido salir de las tinieblas.

El regreso de Quetzalcóatl es un recorrido que abarca a toda la humanidad, y que pasa de la historia a la filosofía, de la psicología a la religión, y de ahí al misticismo para volver a la historia. Va de Teotihuacán a Roma, del mundo maya al valle del Nilo, de Mesoamérica a la India, de la toltequidad a la filosofía griega, y ante todo del pasado que debemos superar al presente en el que tenemos una última oportunidad para tratar de vislumbrar el futuro. Si descifras a Quetzalcóatl podrás salvar a México de hundirse en su inframundo.

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow presents a groundbreaking account of human history, challenging established notions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of the state, political violence, and social inequality. The book reveals new perspectives on human emancipation and the history of civilization itself.

The authors, renowned for their respective fields in activism, public intellectualism, and comparative archaeology, delve into the origins of theories that have shaped our understanding of humanity's past. They question the portrayal of remote ancestors as either innocent and equal or aggressive and warlike, and they explore the implications of these characterizations for today's society.

Graeber and Wengrow draw on extensive research in archaeology and anthropology to challenge the conventional wisdom about human history. They invite readers to consider what humans were doing throughout evolutionary history if not living in small hunter-gatherer bands, and what kinds of social and economic organization arose from agriculture and urban development if not hierarchy and domination.

The Dawn of Everything not only transforms our understanding of the human past but also offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom and ways of organizing society. This monumental book is a testament to intellectual range, curiosity, moral vision, and the power of direct action.

A Land With a People is a collection of personal stories, history, poetry, and art that elevates rarely heard Palestinian and Jewish voices and visions. Eloquently framed with a foreword by the dynamic Palestinian legal scholar and activist, Noura Erakat, this book began as a storytelling project of Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City and subsequently transformed into a theater project performed throughout the New York City area.

Stories touch hearts, open minds, and transform our understanding of the “other”―as well as our comprehension of own roles and responsibilities. A Land With a People emerges from this reckoning, bringing us the narratives of secular, Muslim, Christian, and queer Palestinians who endure the particular brand of settler colonialism known as Zionism. It relays the transformational journeys of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, queer, and Palestinian Jews who have come to reject the received Zionist narrative.

Unflinching in their confrontation of the power dynamics that underlie their transformation process, these writers find the courage to face what has happened to historic Palestine, and to their own families as a result. Contextualized by a detailed historical introduction and timeline charting 150 years of Palestinian and Jewish resistance to Zionism, this collection will stir emotions, provoke fresh thinking, and point to a more hopeful, loving future―one in which Palestine/Israel is seen for what it is in its entirety, as well as for what it can be.

Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner.

Mary Wollstonecraft's work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage, yet it established her as the mother of modern feminism. She firmly established the demand for women’s emancipation in the context of the ever-widening urge for human rights and individual freedom that surrounded the great upheavals of the French and American revolutions.

Challenging the prevailing culture that trained women to be nothing more than docile, decorative wives and mothers, Wollstonecraft was an ardent advocate of equal education and the full development of women’s rational capacities. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she dared to ask a question whose urgency is undiminished in our time: how can women be both female and free?

It is October in the year 1675. New England trader, Tobias Hopkins, arrives in Jamaica to discover the truth about his missing father. It transpires that, not only has the man been dead for six years, but he has left Toby with a half-brother and the clue to an inheritance which promises to change the course of their lives.

Haunted by nightmares from his past, Toby continues with his quest, unaware his actions are being followed closely by others who will stop at nothing to get what they want. But who can he trust? His faithful associate, John, the astute businesswoman Elizabeth, or Magdalena, mother of his half-brother Eduardo?

New disclosures concerning his father's past are revealed and a legacy is in the offing. Will the cryptic message written by his father lead Toby to a promised fortune, or will it lead him into the hands of those who aim to destroy him?

Toby sets a course for the Island of Nevis where he reaps the fruits of his search.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

When We Cease to Understand the World is a fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining.

This book explores the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the reader. They grapple with the most profound questions of existence, experiencing strokes of unparalleled genius, alienating friends and lovers, and descending into isolation and insanity.

Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better, while others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.

Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas is an insightful and perspective-shifting journey by celebrated journalist Omar Mouallem. In the book, Mouallem explores his personal connection with Islam, delving into its influence on his values, politics, and heritage. Having grown up in a Muslim household, he later adopted atheism and used his voice to critique organized religion. However, as a father, Mouallem is confronted with the challenges his children may face due to their heritage in an increasingly nativist Western world.

Mouallem embarks on a quest to uncover the untold history of Islam across the Americas, visiting thirteen unique mosques from California to Quebec, and Brazil to Canada's icy north. Through his travels, he encounters diverse Muslim communities, each providing varied perspectives on what it means to be Muslim in the Americas. This exploration reveals the significant role Islam has played in shaping the continent, influencing everything from industrialization to political shifts.

Ultimately, Praying to the West uncovers a hidden narrative of home and belonging. It highlights the ongoing struggle for acceptance in towns and cities across the Americas, advocating for a more inclusive future for all.

First you march, then you run. From the #1 bestselling, award–winning team behind March comes the first book in their new, groundbreaking graphic novel series, Run: Book One.

“In sharing my story, it is my hope that a new generation will be inspired by Run to actively participate in the democratic process and help build a more perfect Union here in America.” –Congressman John Lewis

The sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series March—the continuation of the life story of John Lewis and the struggles seen across the United States after the Selma voting rights campaign.

To John Lewis, the civil rights movement came to an end with the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. But that was after more than five years as one of the preeminent figures of the movement, leading sit–in protests and fighting segregation on interstate busways as an original Freedom Rider. It was after becoming chairman of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and being the youngest speaker at the March on Washington. It was after helping organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the ensuing delegate challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. And after coleading the march from Selma to Montgomery on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

All too often, the depiction of history ends with a great victory. But John Lewis knew that victories are just the beginning. In Run: Book One, John Lewis and longtime collaborator Andrew Aydin reteam with Nate Powell—the award–winning illustrator of the March trilogy—and are joined by L. Fury—making an astonishing graphic novel debut—to tell this often overlooked chapter of civil rights history.

Capturing the same charm and whimsy she brought to Seattle Walk Report, Instagram darling Susanna Ryan takes things a step further, revealing the forgotten history behind the people, places, and things that shaped Seattle.

Cartoonist and creator of Seattle Walk Report, Susanna Ryan strolls on with a quirky new illustrated guide celebrating Seattle's historical treasures and outdoor wonders.

In Secret Seattle, Ryan explores the weird and wonderful hidden history behind some of the city's most overlooked places, architecture, and infrastructure, from coal chutes in Capitol Hill, to the last remainder of Seattle's original Chinatown in Pioneer Square, to the best places in town to find century-old sidewalks.

Discover pocket parks, beautiful boulevards, and great public gardens while learning offbeat facts that will make you see the Emerald City in a whole new way.

Perfect for both the local history buff who never leaves a favorite armchair to a walking enthusiast looking for offbeat and off-the-beaten-path scavenger hunts.

Os Maias é uma das obras mais conhecidas do escritor português Eça de Queiroz. O livro foi publicado no Porto em 1888. A ação de Os Maias passa-se em Lisboa, na segunda metade do século XIX, e apresenta-nos a história de três gerações da família Maia. A ação inicia-se no Outono de 1875, quando Afonso da Maia, nobre e pobre proprietário, se instala no Ramalhete com o neto recém formado em Medicina. Neste momento faz-se uma longa descrição da casa - "O Ramalhete," cujo nome tem origem num painel de azulejos com um ramo de girassóis, e não em algo fresco ou campestre, tal como o nome nos remete a pensar.

Afonso da Maia era o personagem mais simpático do romance e aquele que o autor mais valorizou, pois não se lhe conhecem defeitos. É um homem de carácter, culto e requintado nos gostos. Em jovem aderiu aos ideais do Liberalismo e foi obrigado, por seu pai, a sair de casa e a instalar-se em Inglaterra. Após o pai falecer regressa a Lisboa para casar com Maria Eduarda Runa, mas pouco tempo depois escolhe o exílio por razões de ordem política.

Há em Os Maias um retrato da Lisboa da época. Carlos, que mora na Rua das Janelas Verdes, caminha com frequência até ao Rossio (embora, por vezes, vá a cavalo ou de carruagem). Algumas das lojas citadas no livro ainda existem - a Casa Havaneza, no Chiado, por exemplo. É possível seguir os diferentes percursos de Carlos ou do Ega pelas suas da Baixa lisboeta, ainda que algumas tenham mudado de nome. No final do livro, quando Carlos volta a Lisboa muitos anos depois, somos levados a ver as novidades - a Avenida da Liberdade, que substituiu o Passeio Público, e que é descrita como uma coisa nova, e feia pela sua novidade, exactamente como nos anos 70 se falava das casas de emigrante.

O romance veicula sobre o país uma perspectiva muito derrotista, muito pessimista. Tirando a natureza (o Tejo, Sintra, Santa Olávia...), é tudo uma choldra ignóbil. Predomina uma visão de estrangeirado, de quem só valoriza as civilizações superiores - da França e Inglaterra, principalmente. Os políticos são mesquinhos, ignorantes ou corruptos; os homens das Letras são boémios e dissolutos, retrógrados ou distantes da realidade concreta; os jornalistas boémios e venais; os homens do desporto não conseguem organizar uma corrida de cavalos, pois não há hipódromo à altura, nem cavalos, nem cavaleiros, as pessoas não vestem como o evento exigia, as senhoras traziam vestidos de missa. Para cúmulo de tudo isto, os protagonistas acabam vencidos da vida. Apesar de ser isto referido no fim do livro, pode-se ver que ainda há alguma esperança implícita, nas passagens em que Carlos da Maia e João da Ega dizem que o apetite humano é a causa de todos os seus problemas e que portanto nunca mais terão apetites, mas logo a seguir dizem que lhes está a apetecer um prato de paio com ervilhas, ou quando dizem que a pressa não leva a nada e que a vida deve ser levada com calma mas começam a correr para apanhar o americano (eléctrico). Mais do que crítica de costumes, o romance mostra-nos um país - sobretudo Lisboa - que se dissolve, incapaz de se regenerar. Quando o autor escreve mais tarde A Cidade e as Serras, expõe uma atitude muito mais construtiva: o protagonista regenera-se pela descoberta das raízes rurais ancestrais não atingidas pela degradação da civilização, num movimento inverso ao que predomina n'Os Maias.

The Personal Librarian reveals the remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

Corbin College, not quite upstate New York, winter 1959–1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian—but not an historian of the Jews—is co-opted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies.

Mixing fiction with nonfiction, the campus novel with the lecture, The Netanyahus is a wildly inventive, genre-bending comedy of blending, identity, and politics that finds Joshua Cohen at the height of his powers.

Poet and contributor to The Atlantic, Clint Smith’s revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave-owning nation.

Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history and ourselves.

It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving over 400 people on the premises. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola Prison in Louisiana, a former plantation named for the country from which most of its enslaved people arrived and which has since become one of the most gruesome maximum-security prisons in the world. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.

In a deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view—whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods—like downtown Manhattan—on which the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.

Informed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today, Clint Smith’s debut work of nonfiction is a landmark work of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in understanding our country.

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 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.

Heather McGhee's specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world's advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can't do on our own. McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint a story of racism's costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy's collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.

La Confusion des sentiments is a profound novella by Stefan Zweig that explores the intricate emotions and passions of a young student. At the twilight of his life, a seasoned professor reflects on an adventure that left an indelible mark on his existence. At nineteen, he was captivated by the charismatic personality of one of his professors, leading to a complex mix of idolization, submission, and a near-morbid love.

Freud himself acknowledged the precision and truth with which Zweig depicted the turmoil of a passion and the discomfort it causes to its subject. Published in 1926, this brief yet deep story achieved rapid success due to its bold and novel subject matter. It undoubtedly remains one of the masterpieces of the great Austrian writer.

The story unfolds as a young man, initially lost in the wilds of Berlin, is sent to a provincial university by his father. There, a brilliant lecture ignites in him a fervent passion for learning and a peculiar fascination with the aging professor who delivered the talk. The young man becomes a frequent visitor to the professor's home, which he shares with his much younger wife, and encourages him to complete his long-gestating scholarly work. However, the professor's behavior oscillates between welcoming and scornful, leaving the young man puzzled and wounded.

It is the professor's wife who comprehends the situation fully and helps the young man understand the complex dynamics at play. This novella is not just a tale of academic life but an exploration of the heart's tumultuous journey, a celebration of intellectual passion, and a reflection on the often-painful intersections of personal and professional admiration.