4.48 Psychosis marks the ultimate narrowing of Sarah Kane's focus in her work. The struggle of the self to remain intact has moved from civil war, into the family, into the couple, into the individual, and finally into the theatre of psychosis: the mind itself.

This play was written in 1999, shortly before the playwright took her own life at the age of 28. On the page, the piece resembles a poem. No characters are named, and even their number is unspecified. It could be a journey through one person's mind, or an interview between a doctor and their patient.

In the Dream House is a revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author Carmen Maria Machado. This engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad offers a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse.

Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. Her struggle gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope—the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman—through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles.

She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships. Machado's narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry.

She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, Disney villains, and iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.

Accused of political subversion as a young man, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp — a horrifying experience from which he developed this astounding semi-autobiographical memoir of a man condemned to ten years of servitude for murdering his wife.

As with a number of the author's other works, this profoundly influential novel brilliantly explores his characters' thoughts while probing the depths of the human soul. Describing in relentless detail the physical and mental suffering of the convicts, Dostoyevsky's character never loses faith in human qualities and the goodness of man.

A haunting and remarkable work filled with wonder and resignation, The House of the Dead ranks among the Russian novelist's greatest masterpieces.

Diary of a Drug Fiend was Aleister Crowley's first published novel. To the reader of 1922, it presented a shocking look at a little-known phenomenon. Today, while we are more familiar with drugs due to their widespread use in our culture, Diary of a Drug Fiend remains one of the most intense, detailed, and accurate accounts of drug addiction and the drug experience.

The book was written by Crowley after years of deep personal study and experimentation with drugs. It tells the story of a young man and woman who fall madly in love and whirl through Europe in a frenzied haze of heroin and cocaine adventure. Their ecstasy is brought to an abrupt end when their drug supply is cut off, and despair replaces joy. Through the guidance of King Lamus, a master Adept, they free themselves from the entanglements of addiction by the application of practical Magick.

The narrative carries the reader aloft through the brilliance of the imagery created by this master of language; his prose development parallels the growth and increasing depth of his characters in an uncanny fashion. This is a book to be read and reread.

Pădurea spânzuraţilor is a profound exploration of the psychological and moral dilemmas faced by individuals during the tumultuous times of World War I. Authored by Liviu Rebreanu, this novel delves into the tragic condition of the Transylvanian intellectual forced to fight under a foreign flag against his own people.

The narrative is a realistic and objective portrayal of the war, emphasizing the internal conflicts and national identity crises experienced by the characters. The novel is often described as a "monograph of harrowing uncertainty", capturing the essence of the human psyche caught in the throes of war.

Rebreanu is celebrated as an analyst of consciousness, skillfully depicting the chaos of thoughts and tyrannical obsessions that plague individuals. The book is a testament to the enduring spirit of those who listen to the call of blood and choose to stand by their own.

For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, this erotic novel will challenge your boundaries and take you on an intensely charged journey.

"It's simple. No sight. No questions. Forty-eight hours."

Dr. Alexandra Blake is about to give a series of prestigious lectures, but her excitement comes from a far more thrilling reason. After the lecture, she reunites with Jeremy Quinn, an esteemed doctor and her dangerous ex-lover, the only person with whom she has ever let her guard down completely.

After a few glasses of champagne in his luxurious penthouse suite, Jeremy presents her with an intriguing offer: stay with him for the next forty-eight hours and accept two extraordinary conditions, the first of which leaves her utterly at his mercy. In return, he promises an experience more sensual and extreme than any game they have ever played before.

This scorching novel is an erotic exploration of trust and betrayal, experimentation and control, lust and love. Forget Fifty Shades of Grey; this daring debut will leave you breathless for more.

It was an icy morning in January 1945 when the patrol came for seventeen-year-old Leo Auberg to deport him to a camp in the Soviet Union. Leo would spend the next five years in a coke processing plant, shoveling coal, lugging bricks, mixing mortar, and battling the relentless calculus of hunger that governed the labor colony: one shovel load of coal is worth one gram of bread.

In her novel, Nobel laureate Herta Müller calls upon her unique combination of poetic intensity and dispassionate precision to conjure the distorted world of the labor camp in all its physical and moral absurdity. She has given Leo the language to express the inexpressible, as hunger sharpens his senses into an acuity that is both hallucinatory and profound.

In scene after disorienting scene, the most ordinary objects accrue tender poignancy as they acquire new purpose—a gramophone box serves as a suitcase, a handkerchief becomes a talisman, an enormous piece of casing pipe functions as a lovers' trysting place. The heart is reduced to a pump, the breath mechanized to the rhythm of a swinging shovel, and coal, sand, and snow have a will of their own.

Hunger becomes an insatiable angel who haunts the camp day and night, but also a bare-knuckled sparring partner, delivering blows that keep Leo feeling the rawest connection to life. Müller has distilled Leo's struggle into words of breathtaking intensity that take us on a journey far beyond the Gulag and into the depths of one man's soul.

The pain of Lucile, my mother, was a part of our childhood and later our adult lives. This pain, undoubtedly, constitutes my sister and me, yet any attempt at explanation is doomed to failure. Writing cannot resolve it; at most, it allows me to pose questions and interrogate memory.

The family of Lucile, ours consequently, has throughout its history sparked numerous hypotheses and comments. People I encountered during my research speak of fascination; I often heard this in my childhood. My family embodies what joy has of the most noisy, the most spectacular, the tireless echo of the dead, and the resounding disaster. Today I also know it illustrates, like so many other families, the power of destruction of the Word, and that of silence.

The book, perhaps, would be nothing other than that: the narrative of this quest, containing within itself its own genesis, its narrative wanderings, its unfinished attempts. But it would be this momentum, from me towards her, hesitant and unfulfilled.

In this dazzling investigation at the heart of family memory, where the most luminous memories meet the most buried secrets, Delphine de Vigan unfolds all our lives, our flaws, and our own wounds with strength.

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr. Grene, and their relationship intensifies and complicates.

Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland's changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.

Beauty's Punishment is the delicious and erotically charged sequel to The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, from the author of Beauty's Kingdom. This sequel continues the explicit, teasing exploration of the psychology of human desire.

Now Beauty, having indulged in a secret and forbidden infatuation with the rebellious slave Prince Tristan, is sent away from the Satyricon-like world of the Castle. Sold at auction, she will soon experience the tantalizing punishments of "the village," as her education in love, cruelty, dominance, submission, and tenderness is turned over to the brazenly handsome Captain of the Guard.

Once again, Rice's tale of pleasure and pain dares to explore the most primal and well-hidden desires of the human heart.

Falling Man is a magnificent, essential novel about the event that defines turn-of-the-century America. It begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and tracks the aftermath of this global tremor in the intimate lives of a few people.

First, there is Keith, walking out of the rubble into a life that he'd always imagined belonged to everyone but him. Then Lianne, his estranged wife, memory-haunted, trying to reconcile two versions of the same shadowy man. And their small son Justin, standing at the window, scanning the sky for more planes.

These are lives choreographed by loss, grief, and the enormous force of history. From these intimate portraits, Don DeLillo shifts to an extrapolated vision: he charts the way the events have reconfigured our emotional landscape, our memory, and our perception of the world. Falling Man is an unforgettable novel, at once cathartic, beautiful, and heartbreaking.

Carmen Laforet’s "Nada" ranks among the most important literary works of post-Civil War Spain. Loosely based on the author’s own life, it is the story of an orphaned young woman named Andrea who leaves her small town to attend university in war-ravaged Barcelona.

Residing amid genteel poverty in a mysterious house on Calle de Aribau, young Andrea falls in with a wealthy band of schoolmates who provide a rich counterpoint to the squalor of her home life. As experience overtakes innocence, Andrea gradually learns the disquieting truth about the people she shares her life with: her overbearing and superstitious aunt Angustias; her nihilistic yet artistically gifted uncle Román and his violent brother Juan; and Juan’s disturbingly beautiful wife, Gloria, who secretly supports the clan with her gambling.

From existential crisis to a growing maturity and resolve, Andrea’s passionate inner journey leaves her wiser, stronger, and filled with hope for the future.

The incomparable Edith Grossman’s vital new translation captures the feverish energy of Laforet’s magnificent story, showcasing its dark, powerful imagery, and its subtle humor.

Wonderland is a compelling narrative and the final novel in Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet. This remarkable series explores social class in America and delves into the inner lives of young Americans.

Spanning from the Great Depression to the turbulent Vietnam War era, Wonderland is the epic account of Jesse Vogel, a boy who emerges from a family tragedy with his life spared but his world torn apart. Orphaned after witnessing his father murder his entire family, Jesse embarks on a personal odyssey from a Dickensian foster home to college and graduate school, eventually reaching the pinnacle of the medical profession.

As an adult, Jesse must summon the strength to bridge the "generation gap" and rescue his endangered teenage daughter, who has fallen into the drug-infused 1960s counterculture.

This novel plunges beneath the glossy surface of American life, offering an introspective look at the challenges and triumphs of its characters.

"You've eaten too much, you fat pig."

When Jessica was thirteen years old, she met the Monkey. The Monkey lived inside her: a driving, fiery voice telling her that thinness was the only way. The only way to be safe, to be good, to be acceptable, and above all, to escape from the cold, looming threat of approaching adulthood. Jessica listened to the Monkey, and it consumed her.

This is the illuminating story of a teenage girl's wanderings in darkness: the spiral down into madness, the terrible realities of an adolescent psychiatric unit, and the stark choice that she must either tame her monster—or die.

Through memory, reflection, and enduring black humour, Jessica makes a tenuous peace with the world and with her emerging adult self.

Clássico da literatura brasileira, este texto de Machado de Assis continua sendo, cento e trinta anos depois de sua publicação original, uma das mais devastadoras observações sobre a insanidade a que pode chegar a ciência. Tão palpitante quanto de leitura prazerosa, O Alienista é uma dessas joias da ficção da literatura mundial.

Médico, Simão Bacamarte passa a se interessar pela psiquiatria, iniciando um estudo sobre a loucura em Itaguaí, onde funda a Casa Verde - um típico hospício oitocentista -, arregimentando cobaias humanas para seus experimentos. O que se segue é uma história surpreendente e atual em seu debate sobre desvios e normalidade, loucura e razão.

The Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf's first novel, offering a haunting exploration of a young woman's mind. Join Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose and their niece, Rachel, on a sea journey from London to the South American coast. This is not just any voyage; it is a voyage into the depths of the soul, capturing the mysteries and complexities of the inner life.

Rachel Vinrace, a young girl innocent and wholly ignorant of the world of politics, society, books, sex, love, and marriage, embarks on this journey. She encounters Terence Hewet, an aspiring writer, and her greatest discovery will be her own self.

Woolf began work on The Voyage Out by 1910 and completed it by 1912. The novel had a long and difficult gestation and was finally published in 1915. The resultant work contained the seeds of all that would blossom in her later work: the innovative narrative style, the focus on feminine consciousness, sexuality, and death.

In the stories that make up Oblivion, David Foster Wallace joins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite involutions of self-consciousness—a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his. These are worlds undreamt of by any other mind.

Only David Foster Wallace could convey a father's desperate loneliness by way of his son's daydreaming through a teacher's homicidal breakdown ("The Soul Is Not a Smithy"). Or could explore the deepest and most hilarious aspects of creativity by delineating the office politics surrounding a magazine profile of an artist who produces miniature sculptures in an anatomically inconceivable way ("The Suffering Channel").

Or capture the ache of love's breakdown in the painfully polite apologies of a man who believes his wife is hallucinating the sound of his snoring ("Oblivion"). Each of these stories is a complete world, as fully imagined as most entire novels, at once preposterously surreal and painfully immediate.

"Appointment in Samarra" is a profound exploration of small-town life and the unraveling of a man's existence over the course of just 72 hours around Christmas. Julian English is a man who squanders what fate gave him. He lives on the right side of the tracks, with a country club membership and a wife who loves him.

His decline and fall is a matter of too much spending, too much liquor, and a couple of reckless gestures. This story is powerful because his calamity is both petty and preventable. Unlike Faulkner's Olympus-like tragedies, in O'Hara, they could be happening to you.

Brimming with wealth and privilege, jealousy and infidelity, O’Hara’s iconic first novel is an unflinching look at the dark side of the American dream—and a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence of a major American writer.

First U.S. Publication

A major literary event—the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time. Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life.

Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons.

The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essential reading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath's life and work.

Arnes Nachlaß is a tale woven with a cool, calm narrative flow that takes its time, embodying the essence of North German tranquility. This novel by Siegfried Lenz is a testament to the art of storytelling, rewarding those who appreciate simple, yet profound narratives.

The story revolves around Arne Hellmer, the sole survivor of a family tragedy, who finds refuge with the family of a former captain, a friend of his deceased father. Arne forms a deep bond with Hans, the narrator, who becomes his spiritual brother. However, Hans suspects that beneath Arne's reticence and the trauma of his family's tragic demise lies a deeper, more enigmatic secret.

Set in a shipbreaking yard in the remote corners of the Hamburg harbor, Lenz crafts a masterful tapestry of wanderlust and adventure, conjuring long-forgotten maritime artifacts from his linguistic treasure chest. In the nocturnal room where ocean giants glide past, Hans comes to understand his enigmatic friend Arne, this seeker and despairing soul, only to lose him again.

Now, it is time to organize Arne's legacy. In this sad collection, Hans discovers the truth about his lost friend. Who, if not I, should now tell your story, Arne?

At its heart lies the marriage of Peter and Maureen Tarnopol, a gifted young writer and the woman who wants to be his muse but who instead is his nemesis. Their union is based on fraud and shored up by moral blackmail, but it is so perversely durable that, long after Maureen's death, Peter is still trying—and failing—to write his way free of it.

Out of desperate inventions and cauterizing truths, acts of weakness, tenderheartedness, and shocking cruelty, Philip Roth creates a work worthy of Strindberg—a fierce tragedy of sexual need and blindness.

The Death of Artemio Cruz is a haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico. As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, an all-powerful newspaper magnate and land baron, lies confined to his bed. In dreamlike flashes, he recalls the pivotal episodes of his life.

Carlos Fuentes masterfully manipulates this kaleidoscope of images with dazzling inventiveness, layering memory upon memory. From Cruz’s heroic campaigns during the Mexican Revolution, through his relentless climb from poverty to wealth, to his uneasy death, this novel captures the essence of a nation’s struggles and triumphs.

With virile, honest writing in a stream of ebbing consciousness, Fuentes explores the ironies of Mexican history, the burden of its past, and the anguish of its present. Perhaps Fuentes’s masterpiece, this book remains a cornerstone of Latin American fiction.

La beauté de George Miles et son étrange passivité en font l’objet des désirs de son entourage. L’un après l’autre, ces garçons vont le soumettre à leurs fantasmes. Dans une suite d’expériences de plus en plus extrêmes, ils vont essayer, chacun à leur manière, de découvrir ce qui se cache derrière son apparence, ce qui se dissimule à l’intérieur même de cette image, quitte à le chercher littéralement sous la peau...

Ce premier roman de Dennis Cooper est une descente terrifiante dans les obsessions de l’Amérique contemporaine, un train fantôme dévalant les pentes du désir et plongeant vers la mort sur fond de rock’n’roll. Tous repères effondrés, toute morale abolie, ses personnages semblent évoluer dans une dimension parallèle dont le sexe, la drogue et les films d’horreur de série Z seraient les dernières balises.

Parmi eux, la figure « angélique » de George apparaît comme le déclencheur qui leur permet de découvrir et de repousser leurs limites.

Hard Times is the name of a town in the barren hills of the Dakota Territory. One day, a reckless sociopath arrives, intent on destruction. By the time he has ridden off, Hard Times is left a smoking ruin.

The de facto mayor, Blue, takes in two survivors of the carnage—a boy named Jimmy and a prostitute, Molly, who has suffered unspeakably—and makes them his provisional family. Blue begins to rebuild Hard Times, welcoming new settlers, while Molly waits with vengeance in her heart for the return of the outlaw.

This is E. L. Doctorow’s debut novel, a searing allegory of frontier life that sets the stage for his subsequent classics.

In the Country of Last Things is a gripping dystopian epistolary novel by Paul Auster. The story unfolds through a letter written by a young woman named Anna Blume to a childhood friend. Anna ventures into an unnamed city that has descended into chaos and disorder.

In this bleak environment, no industry thrives, and most of the population survives by collecting garbage or scavenging for objects to resell. The city governments are unstable, focusing only on collecting human waste and corpses for fuel. Amidst this turmoil, Anna searches for her brother William, a journalist, suggesting that the Blumes hail from an eastern world that has not yet collapsed.

Auster explores themes of the modern city, the mysteries of storytelling, and the elusive and unstable nature of truth. This novel is a tense, psychological take on the dystopian genre, echoing some of our darker societal legacies.

Letter to His Father is a profound piece of writing by the iconic author Franz Kafka. In this autobiographical letter, Kafka delves into the complex and often tumultuous relationship he had with his father.

Written with intense emotion and unflinching honesty, Kafka's letter provides deep insights into his psyche and the familial dynamics that shaped his life.

This edition offers a bilingual format, presenting the text in both German and English, making it a valuable resource for readers interested in linguistic nuances and cultural context.

Explore the psychological depth and historical significance of Kafka's reflections in this compelling work.

It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of World War II in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by burning down the home of an innocent family; only twelve-year-old Anton survives.

Based on actual events, The Assault traces the complex repercussions of this horrific incident on Anton’s life. Determined to forget, he opts for a carefully normal existence: a prudent marriage, a successful career, and colorless passivity. But the past keeps breaking through, in relentless memories and in chance encounters with others who were involved in the assassination and its aftermath, until Anton finally learns what really happened that night in 1945—and why.

La Mort est mon métier presents the pseudo-memoirs of Rudolf Höß (renamed Rudolf Lang in the book), the notorious commandant of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp during World War II.

The story begins in 1913 when Rudolf Lang is just 13 years old. Raised in a misunderstood and highly normative Catholic environment, Rudolf's father, a merchant and military man, pressures him to become a priest to atone for his own past sins. Rudolf initially believes in God until a pivotal incident shatters his faith, leading to a strained relationship with his father.

As World War I erupts, a young Lang embarks on a military career, experiencing the harsh realities of war. After the war, he faces unemployment and family rejection, almost leading to suicide. Instead, he joins the Nazi party, eventually rising through the ranks to become the commandant of Auschwitz.

Under the orders of Reichsführer Himmler, Lang is tasked with the grim duty of exterminating 500,000 individuals annually. The camp evolves into a death factory, and Lang becomes a key figure in the Holocaust, overseeing the murder of millions.

Throughout the book, Lang is portrayed as devoid of personal feelings, driven solely by orders from his superiors. Even after the war, when imprisoned and sentenced to death, he claims he was merely following orders. The narrative concludes with Lang feeling betrayed by Himmler, who avoided accountability through suicide, leaving Lang to shoulder the blame.

This chilling tale offers a stark look into the mind of a man who played a pivotal role in one of history's darkest chapters, highlighting the psychological complexities and moral voids within.

Jassy is the tale of a remarkable woman born from a unique lineage, the daughter of a preacher and a gypsy.

She emerges as a strange and elusive child with powers of prophecy, maturing into a woman even more enigmatic. Those around her are drawn into a web of love and admiration or furious hatred; there is no middle ground.

Jassy has the uncanny ability to transform even those who cherish her into adversaries. Barney Hatton, the dispossessed heir of Mortiboys, finds himself in love with her but not sufficiently. Lindy, the servant girl, loves her excessively, while Elizabeth Twysdale, Jassy's teacher, grows to despise her more each day.

The lives of these individuals, intertwined with Jassy's own, are destined for passion and anguish, a journey of intense emotions that only Jassy could navigate.

The Thin Red Line is James Jones's fictional account of the battle between American and Japanese troops on the island of Guadalcanal. This gripping narrative shifts effortlessly among multiple viewpoints within C-for-Charlie Company, including commanding officer Capt. James Stein, his psychotic first sergeant Eddie Welsh, and the young privates they send into battle.

The descriptions of combat conditions—and the mental states it induces—are unflinchingly realistic, painting a vivid picture of the chaos and brutality of war. This novel delves deep into the psychological impacts of combat and the nature of male identity in the face of such adversity.

More than just a classic of combat fiction, The Thin Red Line stands as one of the most significant explorations of identity and survival in American literature.

Najznačajniji roman hrvatskog pisca Vladana Desnice, koji je po samom autorovom priznanju nastajao punih dvadeset godina od 1936. do same objave romana 1957. godine.

Fabula romana prilično je jednostavna; riječ je o prisjećanjima glavnog lika Ivana Galeba, glazbenika, za vrijeme njegova boravka u bolnici između dva proljeća.

Riječ je o ispovjednoj prozi, psihoanalitičkoj autoanalizi gdje se iznosi čitav život glavnog junaka, od djetinstva do boravka u bolnici, sa svim proživljanjima koje jedan intelektualac doživljava i osjeća.

السراب يتناول أحداثاً عاطفية مؤلمة بطلها شاب عجز عن الزواج بسبب سلبيته ولم يستطع ممارسته لأسباب نفسية متعلقة بتاريخه. أفضى بسره إلى طبيب لم يعرف الشاب عن قرابته من زوجته، فاستغل الطبيب ما أفضى به إليه. وتوالت الأحداث لتنتهي إلى فوضى من الخسارة والألم.

Perto do Coração Selvagem is a profound exploration of the inner world of Joana, a character who embodies a compelling mix of strength and vulnerability. Clarice Lispector, with her unique style, takes us on a journey through Joana's mind, revealing her intense introspection and desire for freedom.

Joana feels a powerful force within her, a desire to break free from societal norms and explore the depths of her own being. She questions the nature of good and evil, contemplating whether true liberation can be found only in embracing one's darker instincts. This inner conflict is portrayed with poetic intensity, as Joana navigates her relationships and her own sense of self.

Set against the backdrop of a patriarchal society, Joana's journey is both intimate and universal, reflecting the struggles of women to assert their individuality and seek their own truth. As she moves through her life, Joana becomes a symbol of the eternal quest for self-discovery and the courage to defy conventions.

Lispector's writing is celebrated for its lyrical beauty and psychological depth, making Perto do Coração Selvagem a timeless masterpiece that resonates with readers seeking to understand the complexities of the human soul.