{"title":"Fiction \u0026 Literature - S to Z","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrowse alphabetical by author: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/fiction-literature-a-to-e\"\u003eA to E\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/fiction-literature-f-to-l\"\u003eF to L\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/fiction-literature-m-to-s\"\u003eM to R\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/fiction-literature-s-t\"\u003eS to Z\u003c\/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/fiction-literature-anthologies\"\u003eanthologies\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"chasm-a-weekend","title":"Chasm - A Weekend - Dorothea Tanning","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChasm: A Weekend by Dorothea Tanning \/ ISBN 9780349012629 \/ paperback from Virago Modern Classics\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Tanning's fictional debut unquestionably deserves to be recognized as a complete artistic success . . . Tanning has assembled all the ingredients necessary for an extraordinary drama of love and betrayal, jealousy and regret...told in confident, fluid prose highlighted by passages of hallucinatory beauty\"--Guardian\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the stark beauty of the desert, a mansion built by a madman rears its impudent architecture like an insult.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe estate is called Windcote, 'its very name a masquerade', and its master, the odious Raoul Meridian, has invited a group of guests to spend a weekend, during the course of which they will find themselves driven by obsessions and confusions unlike any they've experienced before. Untouched by the fevers and failures around her is the indomitable child Destina, who will lead them into the heart of a mysterious canyon, where desire and cruelty forge an implacable truth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"It seems hardly fair that Dorothea Tanning, in a long, passionately inventive career as a painter, should have acquired as well the other harmony of prose, and that her passionate inventions as a writer should be so lovingly, so wisely resolved\"-- Richard Howard\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Virago Modern Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39270241665200,"sku":"9780349012629","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Dorothea-Tanning-Chasm2.jpg?v=1615651223"},{"product_id":"bedouin-of-the-london-evening","title":"Bedouin of the London Evening - Rosemary Tonks","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBedouin of the London Evening: Collected Poems \u0026amp; Selected Prose by Rosemary Tonks \/ ISBN 9781780373614 \/ paperback from Bloodaxe Books (UK)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1970s, after publishing two extraordinary poetry collections - and six satirical novels - Rosemary Tonks turned her back on the literary world after a series of personal tragedies and medical crises that made her question the value of literature and embark on a restless, self-torturing spiritual quest. This involved totally renouncing poetry and suppressing her own books. Her poetry--published in Notes on Cafes and Bedrooms (1963) and Iliad of Broken Sentences (1967)--is exuberantly sensuous, a hymn to sixties hedonism set amid the bohemian nighttime world of a London reinvented through French poetic influences and sultry Oriental imagery. All her published poetry is now available in this edition for the first time in over 40 years, along with a selection of her prose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A fragrant reopening of a bottle stoppered up forty years ago. As an amplification of the furibund poems that stood out a mile in the sheepish anthologies where they appeared.\"--Poetry\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Tonks was a far superior poet - awesomely sick, wickedly goo...her ugliness is shot through with vital impropriety, a kind of punk feminism that subtly interrogates the empires of English poetry.\"--Chicago Review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Tonks consumed the city of London during the bohemian '60s with more elan and euphoria than any British poet of her era.\"--Rain Taxi\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloodaxe Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39271775174832,"sku":"9781780373614","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/RosemaryTonks-BedouinOfTheLondonEvening-cover2.jpg?v=1622085086"},{"product_id":"the-man-of-jasmine-and-other-texts","title":"The Man of Jasmine and Other Texts - Unica Zürn","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Man of Jasmine \u0026amp; Other Texts by Unica Zürn \/ ISBN 9781900565820 \/ hardcover from Atlas Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntense. A 50 Watts favorite.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 25 years since Atlas Press first published this account by \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=unica+zurn\"\u003eUnica Zürn\u003c\/a\u003e (1916–70) of her long history of mental crises, she has come to be recognized as a great artist at least the equal of her partner, the Surrealist Hans Bellmer. Yet her work is barely comprehensible without the texts printed here―now revised by translator Malcolm Green―in which she demonstrates how Surrealist conceptions of the psyche allowed her to welcome the most alarming experiences as offering access to an inner existence that was the vital source for her artistic output. Green's introduction to this volume was the first study to consider her life and work from this perspective.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eZürn’s first mental collapse was initiated when she encountered her fantasy figure, “the Man of Jasmine,” in the person of the writer and artist Henri Michaux. This meeting plunged her into a hallucinatory world in which visions of her desires, anxieties and events from her unresolved past overwhelmed her present life. Her greatest works were produced during times of mental crisis, often when confined in asylums, and she tended to encourage the onset of these crises in order to provoke intense creativity. Her description of these episodes reveals how language itself was part of the divinatory method that could aid her recovery or predict a new crisis. Her compulsion for composing anagrams allowed her to release from everyday language an astonishing flood of messages, threats and evocations. This method, and Zürn’s eloquent yet direct style, make this book a literary masterpiece, while providing a rare insight into extreme psychological states.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atlas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39271877345456,"sku":"9781900565820","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/UnicaZurn_ManOfJasmine2.jpg?v=1615651006"},{"product_id":"copy-of-pataphysical-essays","title":"The Cathedral of Mist - Paul Willems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Cathedral of Mist by Paul Willems \/ ISBN 9781939663184 \/ small paperback with flaps published by \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/spotlight-collection-wakefield-press\"\u003eWakefield Press\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThere are a lot of reasons to love this (including the expert translation by Edward Gauvin), but the illustrations by Bette Burgoyne put it over the top (once featured on 50 Watts).\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in French in 1983, \u003cem\u003eThe Cathedral of Mist\u003c\/em\u003e is a collection of stories from the last of the great Francophone Belgian fantasists: distilled tales of distant journeys, buried memories and impossible architecture. Described here are the emotionally disturbed architectural plan for a palace of emptiness; the experience of snowfall in a bed in the middle of a Finnish forest; the memory chambers that fuel the marvelous futility of the endeavor to write; the beautiful woodland church, built of warm air currents and fog, scattering in storms and taking renewed shape at dusk, that gives this book its title. \u003cem\u003eThe Cathedral of Mist\u003c\/em\u003e offers the sort of ethereal narratives that might have come from the pen of a sorrowful, distinctly Belgian Italo Calvino. It is accompanied by two meditative essays on reading and writing that fall in the tradition of Marcel Proust and Julien Gracq.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Willems\u003c\/strong\u003e (1912–97) published his first novel, \u003cem\u003eEverything Here Is Real\u003c\/em\u003e, in 1941. Three more novels and, toward the end of his life, two collections of short stories bracketed his career as a playwright.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39271878623408,"sku":"9781939663184","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/PaulWillems_CathedralOfMist-cover_311f8ef8-cfc4-4321-8a5e-4b05d6541840.jpg?v=1621715933"},{"product_id":"king-in-the-golden-mask","title":"The King in the Golden Mask - Marcel Schwob","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe King in the Golden Mask by Marcel Schwob \/ ISBN 9781939663238 \/ paperback with flaps from \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/spotlight-collection-wakefield-press\"\u003eWakefield Press\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in French in 1892 and never before translated fully into English, \u003cem\u003eThe King in the Golden Mask\u003c\/em\u003e gathers together twenty-one of Marcel Schwob’s cruelest and most erudite tales. Melding the fantastic with historical fiction, these stories swarm around moments of unexplained violence both historical and imaginary, often blending the two through Schwob’s collaging of primary source documents into fiction. Brimming with murder, suicide, royal leprosy, and medieval witchcraft, this collection describes for us historically attested clergymen furtively attending medieval sabbaths, Protestant galley slaves laboring under the persecution of Louis XIV, a ten-year-old French viscountess seeking vengeance for her unwilled espousal to a money-grubbing French lord, and dice-tumbling sons of Florentine noblemen wandering Europe at the height of the 1374 plague. These writings are of such hallucinatory detail and linguistic specificity that the reader is left wondering whether they aren’t newly unearthed historical documents. To read Schwob is to encounter human history in its most scintillating and ebullient form as it comes into contact with his unparalleled imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=%22marcel+schwob%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMarcel Schwob\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (1867–1905) was a scholar of startling breadth and an incomparable storyteller. A secret influence on generations of writers, from Guillaume Apollinaire and Jorge Luis Borges to Roberto Bolaño, Schwob was as versed in the street slang of medieval thieves as he was in the poetry of Walt Whitman. His allegiances were to Rabelais and François Villon, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe. Paul Valéry and Alfred Jarry both dedicated their first books to him, and in doing so paid tribute to the author who could evoke both the intellect of Leonardo da Vinci and the anarchy of \u003cem\u003eUbu Roi\u003c\/em\u003e. He was also the uncle of Lucy Schwob, better remembered today as the Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePress\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Famous in Europe for his uncategorisable, indelible texts, which mix history and phantasmagoria, Marcel Schwob has been too-little known in English for too long. Wakefield Press and its brilliant young translator Kit Schluter is changing all that. \u003cem\u003eThe King in the Golden Mask\u003c\/em\u003e (first published in French in 1892) gathers 21 of Schwob’s most cruel and erudite tales, full of murder, medieval witchcraft, galley slaves, royal intrigue, gambling aristocrats and the plague of 1374. Schwob’s weird hallucinatory fables now not only shine in English, but glow in the dark.”\u003cbr\u003e —Barbara Epler, \u003cem\u003eTank Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Kit Schluter’s translation from the French is superb and he provides a thoughtful afterward.”\u003cbr\u003e —Martin Billheimer, \u003cem\u003eCounterpunch\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Schwob disbelieved in originality—everything had been said, had been done—but he trusted in the creative spirit. His stories both draw on historical sources and forfeit narrative by instead acknowledging that thieves, pirates, street urchins and prisoners are equally cursed to be human, and to be human is to indulge in casual cruelty. This confluence is unexpected, even jarring. Indeed, the mystery and inexplicability of the stories often result in something profoundly moving.”\u003cbr\u003e —Tristan Foster, \u003cem\u003eMusic \u0026amp; Literature\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Let’s call Marcel Schwob (1867–1905) the Mallarmé of short fiction.”\u003cbr\u003e —Garrett Caples, \u003cem\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39271894745264,"sku":"9781939663238","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/MarcelSchwob-KingInTheGoldenMaskWakefield.jpg?v=1615651327"},{"product_id":"marketa-lazarova","title":"Marketa Lazarova - Vladislav Vancura","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMarketa Lazarova by Vladislav Vancura \/ ISBN 9788086264431 \/ 183-page hardcover from Twisted Spoon Press (Czech)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery attractive little book. Cover by Dan Mayer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCinematic in approach to draw the reader into the action, as if it were happening right before one's eyes, Marketa Lazarova deserves its place among the classics of interwar modernism, and it was awarded Czechoslovakia's State Prize for Literature upon its publication in 1931. Yet the novel has been largely known by Frantisek Vlacil’s 1967 film adaptation, generally considered one of the greatest achievements of Czech cinema, and unavailable in English until now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Using the narrator to give his clear and not always objective views on what is going on and at times jumping ahead or back in time, we get a fascinating modernist take on a medieval romance (in both senses of the word).\"--The Modern Novel\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Twisted Spoon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39300960256176,"sku":"9788086264431","price":22.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/TwistedSpoonPress-Marketa-Lazarova-cov.jpg?v=1615839847"},{"product_id":"narcotics-nicotine-alcohol-cocaine-peyote-morphine-ether","title":"Narcotics - writings on drugs by Witkacy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNarcotics: Nicotine, Alcohol, Cocaine, Peyote, Morphine, Ether + Appendices by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz \/ ISBN 9788086264486 \/ 200-page hardcover from Twisted Spoon Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA top notch production.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the vein of the well-known drug writings of De Quincey and Baudelaire from a century earlier and those of his contemporaries Walter Benjamin and Jean Cocteau –- and foreshadowing the later writings of Aldous Huxley and Carlos Castaneda on psychoactive drugs –- Witkacy composed \u003cem\u003eNarcotics\u003c\/em\u003e in 1930 to discuss and document not only his own experimentation with different substances but the nature of addiction itself and the prevailing social attitude toward drugs, particularly those that were considered “acceptable.” As life became increasingly mechanized, Witkacy felt that a sense of the metaphysical could only be achieved by artificial means, and like Henri Michaux, he produced an extensive oeuvre of singular visual art while under the influence of a variety of substances.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeandering, acerbic, and burlesque, rife with neologisms and expressions from German, French, English, and Russian, Witkacy dissects Polish society and the art world as well as himself via the hypocrisy surrounding drug use. Since it was first published in the 1930s, Narcotics has achieved a cult status in Poland where it is considered both a modernist classic and a paragon of Witkiewiczian madness. This edition, the first complete translation in English, includes a second appendix written later, passages from the novel Farewell to Autumn, and 34 color reproductions of a cross section of portraits to show how various substances impacted Witkacy’s art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePainter, photographer, novelist, and playwright, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (known as Witkacy) was born on February 24, 1885, in Warsaw, but grew up and lived most of his life in Zakopane. After witnessing firsthand the Russian Revolution, he returned to Poland in 1918 and joined the Formists, a group of artists pursuing a program of Pure Form. Over the next two decades Witkacy penned a number of plays and his two great dystopian novels. 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These objects subsequently evoked associations, memories and anecdotes from both the original author and his friends Filliou, Emmett Williams, Dieter Roth and Roland Topor. Many of the principal participants of Fluxus also make an appearance (texts by Higgins, Jouffroy, Kaprow, Restany and Tinguely are included, among others). \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAn Anecdoted Topography of Chance\u003c\/em\u003e is an archaeological game, a poem to the arbitrary, an encyclopaedia, and above all else, a celebration of friendship and creativity. The \u003cem\u003eTopography\u003c\/em\u003e personifies and predates the spirit of Fluxus and constitutes one of the strangest and most compelling insights into the artist’s life. 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Where exilic, inherited memory encounters its limits, FANTASY reaches towards cult cinematic atmospheres, irreverent flowers, pop culture, and photographs with no images, making for a reading experience like no other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"The semi-autobiographical fantastic FANTASY of Kim-Anh Schreiber is rooted 1\/4 in Vietnamese\/Germanic realism and ancestral context, 1\/2 in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 HOUSE, 1\/4 in matriarchal estrangement, and 0% bikini-clad pool party. Schreiber uses the fabric of cinema and horror to quasi-measure the length and width of her pre-adolescent and adolescent consciousness. It's a GORGEOUS dress that the ghost in her psyche demands that it wears before falling into ash. Here, in these immolatable, scriptive dialogues with all of her consanguineous, anecdotal, exegetical selves ('who become shoes without feet that walk back and forth' in a house that eats like hungry ghosts), her psyche is cut, recut, uncut, though not forgotten, un-linearly and nonchalantly and numerously, by her relationship to film and her relationship with her Vietnamese mother, surrogated mother in grandmother(s) and auntie(s). Through the art of disfigurement\/defacement, her intimate rapport to pain and her sacral joint, and her friendship with abandonment, she is able to elevate her daughterly North Star duties to subliminal heights. As Kim-Anh Schreiber seeks closure with the uncloseable, we see an acutely talented scholar and inventive memoirist on her way to becoming more than Sandra Bullock's neighbor.\"—Vi Khi Nao\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"'Every seam I encountered in the fabric of my reality was like a disfigurement that someone had smoothed over and left silent,' writes Kim-Anh Schreiber in this remarkable investigation of female anger and resilience, intergenerational trauma, and what might be called the development of literacy in the subject of pain. Schreiber, the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee and a German immigrant, combines recognizable modes—memoir, criticism, dramatic play script—into something as uncategorizable as the film she deploys throughout the book as muse and foil: Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1977 post-Hiroshima 'horror-comedy' HOUSE, in which generations of women are trapped together in a haunted house. Beginning with extended considerations of the instability of memory ('an evocative curator'), of the 'impossible problem of drawing a picture,' and of the pull to use projection and doubling as bridges across gaps in experience and understanding, FANTASY finally resolves into a flickering, unstable but vivid portrait of a mother and daughter both separated and bonded by history, violence, human fallibility, and love.\"—Anna Moschovakis\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sidebrow Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39371673141424,"sku":"9781940090115","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Kim-Anh-Schreiber-Fantasy2.jpg?v=1621914011"},{"product_id":"jakob-von-gunten","title":"Jakob von Gunten - Robert Walser","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eJakob von Gunten by Robert Walser \/ ISBN 9780940322219 \/ paperback from NYRB Classics \/ My favorite book.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Swiss writer \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=robert+walser\u0026amp;type=product\"\u003eRobert Walser\u003c\/a\u003e is one of the quiet geniuses of twentieth-century literature. Largely self-taught and altogether indifferent to worldly success, Walser wrote a range of short stories, essays, as well as four novels, of which Jakob von Gunten is widely recognized as the finest. The book is a young man's inquisitive and irreverent account of life in what turns out to be the most uncanny of schools. It is the work of an outsider artist, a writer of uncompromising originality and disconcerting humor, whose beautiful sentences have the simplicity and strangeness of a painting by Henri Rousseau.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"As a literary character, Jakob von Gunten is without precedent. In the pleasure he takes in picking away at himself he has something of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man and, behind him, of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau of theConfessions. But--as Walser’s first French translator, Marthe Robert, pointed out--there is in Jakob, too, something of the hero of the traditional German folk tale, of the lad who braves the castle of the giant and triumphs against all odds. Franz Kafka, early in his career, admired Walser’s work (Max Brod records with what delight Kafka would read Walser’s humorous sketches aloud). Barnabas and Jeremias, Surveyor K.’s demonically obstructive “assistants” in The Castle, have Jakob as their prototype.\"--J.M. Coetzee\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39389198745776,"sku":"9780940322219","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/RobertWalser-JakobVonGunten.jpg?v=1622082194"},{"product_id":"copy-of-jakob-von-gunten","title":"Little Snow Landscape - Robert Walser","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLittle Snow Landscape by Robert Walser \/ \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eISBN 9781681375229 \/ new paperback from the New York Review of Books Classics \/ Just published in 2021\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA collection of previously unpublished short prose by one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLittle Snow Landscape opens in 1905 with an encomium to Robert Walser’s homeland and concludes in 1933 with a meditation on his childhood in Biel, the town of his birth, published in the last of his four years in the cantonal mental hospital in Waldau outside Bern. Between these two poles, the book maps Walser’s outer and inner wanderings in various narrative modes. Here you find him writing in the persona of a girl composing an essay on the seasons, of Don Juan at the moment he senses he’s outplayed his role, and of Turkey’s last sultan shortly after he’s deposed. In other stories, a man falls in love with the heroine of the penny dreadful he’s reading (and she with him?), and the lady of a house catches her servant spread out on the divan casually reading a classic. Three longer autobiographical stories—“Wenzel,” “Würzburg,” and “Louise”—brace the whole. 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Opening with a sequence from Walser’s first book, “Fritz Kocher’s Essays,” the complete classroom assignments of a fictional boy who has met a tragically early death, this selection ranges from sketches of uncomprehending editors, overly passionate readers, and dreamy artists to tales of devilish adultery, sexual encounters on a train, and Walser’s service in World War I. Throughout, Walser’s careening, confounding, delicious voice holds the reader transfixed.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39389247307952,"sku":"9781590176726","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Walser-Schoolboy-1.jpg?v=1615680693"},{"product_id":"head-to-toe-portrait-of-suzanne","title":"Head-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne - Roland Topor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHead-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne by Roland Topor \/ ISBN 9780993148750 \/ Small paperback from the legends at Atlas Press (UK)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWorking from the 1960s on, the French writer, artist and illustrator Roland Topor (1938–97) was an all-round maverick known for his paintings and drawings as much as for his novels (such as The Tenant), plays and short stories, all dominated by a sense of irrational, everyday menace. He was also a filmmaker, actor (appearing as Renfield in Herzog's Nosferatu) and the cofounder, with Arrabal and Jodorowsky, of the Panic performance art movement. The tone of Topor’s fiction and art could be interpreted as humorous, but it’s a humor pushed deep into discomfort, almost to the point of total horror. From the collision of these factors, rooted in the author’s experiences and his irrepressible personality, come works increasingly seen as unique in European art and writing of the late 20th century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHead-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne tells of an isolated, misanthropic narrator and his encounter with the beautiful Suzanne, an old flame from his past. It is at once a fable, a love story of enormous tenderness and a tale of increasingly unpleasant events that culminate in horror and atrocity. With its distinct blend of sympathetic cynicism and grotesquerie, Head-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne―Topor’s first work to be translated into English in half a century―offers an ideal introduction to the work and worldview of an artist currently undergoing a major reassessment and rediscovery in his home country and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atlas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39401746530480,"sku":"9780993148750","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Topor-Head-to-Toe-Portrait-of-Suzanne.jpg?v=1615778579"},{"product_id":"munchausen-and-clarissa-a-berlin-novel","title":"Munchausen and Clarissa - Paul Scheerbart","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMunchausen and Clarissa: A Berlin Novel by Paul Scheerbart \/ ISBN 9781939663511 \/ small paperback with flaps \/ \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/spotlight-collection-wakefield-press\"\u003eWakefield Press\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBaron Munchausen returns with visions of mobile architecture and journeys to sausage moons, in this previously untranslated novel from Paul Scheerbart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is 1905 and a raging stupidity is holding sway over Europe. As an 18-year-old Clarissa and her family take refuge on the icy shores of Lake Wannsee, the legendary Baron Munchausen makes an unexpected appearance at their door. Returning to German society after a century of absence at the ripe age of 180, the Baron is cajoled into presenting his impressions of the World Fair in Melbourne, Australia, to a select gathering of Berlin celebrities. Over the course of a week, the sprightly Baron arrives nightly by sleighmobile to combat the dreary days with a series of fantastical visions and theories: he discusses mobile architecture, the role of technology in the arts and the need for art to ignore nature in its quest to discover new planetary organs and senses; the new household miracles of vacuum tubes for cleaning and potato-peeling machines; the repressive function of sexuality; and the need for progressive taxation. His tales of Melbourne eventually take his audience from a restaurant in the ocean depths to the dwellings of mineral giants in mountain caverns, before culminating in a spiritual voyage to outer space among sausage moons and sun-skins.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=paul+scheerbart\"\u003ePaul Scheerbart\u003c\/a\u003e (1863-1915) was a novelist, playwright, poet, critic, draftsman, visionary, proponent of glass architecture and would-be inventor of perpetual motion. Dubbed the “wise clown” by his contemporaries, he opposed the naturalism of his day with fantastical fables and interplanetary satires that would influence Expressionist authors and the German Dada movement, and which helped found German science fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39415821729968,"sku":"9781939663511","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/PaulScheerbart-Munchausen.jpg?v=1622084571"},{"product_id":"the-collected-poems-of-chika-sagawa","title":"The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa \/ paperback in the Modern Library Torchbearers series\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWinner of the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation \/ The electrifying collected works of “one of the most innovative and prominent avant-garde poets in early twentieth-century Japan” (The New Yorker) \/ Translated by and with an introduction by Sawako Nakayasu\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn important and daringly experimental voice in Tokyo’s avant-garde poetry scene, Chika Sagawa broke with the gender-bound traditions of Japanese poetry. Growing up in isolated rural Japan, Sagawa moved to Tokyo at seventeen, and begin publishing her work at eighteen. She was immediately recognized as a leading light of the male-dominated Japanese literary scene; her work combines striking, unique imagery with Western influences. The results are short, sharp, surreal poems about human fragility and the beauty of nature from Japan’s first female Modernist poet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Modern Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39431653720240,"sku":"9780593230015","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/ChikaSagawa-Poems-cover.jpg?v=1616114948"},{"product_id":"lynd-ward-gods-man-madmans-drum-wild-pilgrimage","title":"Lynd Ward - Gods' Man, Madman's Drum, Wild Pilgrimage","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLynd Ward: Gods' Man, Madman's Drum, Wild Pilgrimage \/ ISBN 9781598530803 \/ an 812-page hardcover from the Library of America\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Library of America brings together Lynd Ward’s earliest books, published when the artist was still in his twenties. Gods’ Man (1929), the audaciously ambitious work that made Ward’s reputation, is a modern morality play, an allegory of the deadly bargain a striving young artist often makes with life. Madman’s Drum (1930), a multigenerational saga worthy of Faulkner, traces the legacy of violence haunting a family whose stock in trade is human souls. Wild Pilgrimage (1932), perhaps the most accomplished of these early books, is a study in the brutalization of an American factory worker whose heart can still respond to beauty but whose mind is twisted in rage against the system and its shackles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe images reproduced in this volume are taken from prints pulled from the original woodblocks or first-generation electrotypes. Ward’s novels are presented, for the first time since the 1930s, in the format that the artist intended, one image per right-hand page, and are followed by five essays in which he discusses the technical challenges of his craft. Art Spiegelman contributes an introductory essay, “Reading Pictures,” that defines Ward’s towering achievement in that most demanding of graphic-story forms, the wordless novel in woodcuts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLynd Ward was born in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of six novels in woodcuts and three picture books for children, and the illustrator of some two hundred other books. Storyteller Without Words, an autobiographical monograph on his work in wood engraving, was published in 1974. He died in 1985.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Library of America","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39518751391920,"sku":"9781598530803","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Lynd-Ward-cover.jpg?v=1621715261"},{"product_id":"the-ice-palace","title":"The Ice Palace - Tarjei Vesaas - Peter Owen hardback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Ice Palace by \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eNorwegian author Tarjei Vesaas \/ An attractive hardcover reprint from Peter Owen (UK) \/ ISBN 9780720620146 \/ \u003cstrong\u003enew book with minor shelf wear\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"How simple this novel is. How subtle. How strong. How unlike any other. It is unique. It is unforgettable. It is extraordinary'.\" —Doris Lessing\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I'm surprised it isn't the most famous book in the world.\" —Max Porter\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn rural Norway, one evening after school, 11-year-old Siss and Unn strike up a deep and unusual bond. When the next day Unn sets off into the wintry woods in search of a mysterious frozen waterfall, known locally as the \"ice palace,\" and does not return, a devastated Siss takes it upon herself to find her missing friend. The Ice Palace is one of the most memorable achievements in modern literature thanks in large part to Vesaas's unique command of a sparse, figurative, and fragmentary style. As part of the new and improved Peter Owen Cased Classics series, this edition features a false die cutting in the shape of an ice shard on the dust jacket, while printed on the cover board is the work of acclaimed contemporary artist Kaye Donachie.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTarjei Vesaas (1897–1970) was a Norwegian poet and novelist whose sparse, poetic, and figurative style won him international acclaim and three separate nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Best known and best loved of his works are The Ice Palace, for which he won The Nordic Council's Literature Prize; The Birds; and The Bridges. Vesaas is an enduring literary figure in his native Norway where his home has become a site of pilgrimage. Elizabeth Rokkan was awarded the St. Olav Medal for her efforts to make Norwegian literature available to English speakers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Peter Owen Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39547740258480,"sku":"9780720620146","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/IcePalace-cover.jpg?v=1621714939"},{"product_id":"the-book-of-monelle","title":"The Book of Monelle - Marcel Schwob","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Book of Monelle by Marcel Schwob \/ ISBN 9780984115587 \/ small paperback with flaps \/ \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/spotlight-collection-wakefield-press\"\u003eWakefield Press\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Marcel Schwob published \u003cem\u003eThe Book of Monelle\u003c\/em\u003e in French in 1894, it immediately became the unofficial bible of the French symbolist movement, admired by such contemporaries as Stephane Mallarmé, Alfred Jarry, and André Gide. A carefully woven assemblage of legends, aphorisms, fairy tales, and nihilistic philosophy, it remains a deeply enigmatic and haunting work over a century later, a gathering of literary and personal ruins written in a style that evokes both the Brothers Grimm and Friedrich Nietzsche. \u003cem\u003eThe Book of Monelle\u003c\/em\u003e was the fruit of Schwob’s intense emotional suffering over the loss of his love, a “girl of the streets” named Louise, whom he had befriended in 1891 and who succumbed to tuberculosis two years later. Transforming her into Monelle, the innocent prophet of destruction, Schwob tells the stories of her various sisters: girls succumbing to disillusion, caught between the misleading world of childlike fantasy and the bitter world of reality. This new translation reintroduces a true fin-de-siècle masterpiece into English.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=%22marcel+schwob%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMarcel Schwob\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (1867–1905) was a scholar of startling breadth and an incomparable storyteller. A secret influence on generations of writers, from Guillaume Apollinaire and Jorge Luis Borges to Roberto Bolaño, Schwob was as versed in the street slang of medieval thieves as he was in the poetry of Walt Whitman. His allegiances were to Rabelais and François Villon, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe. Paul Valéry and Alfred Jarry both dedicated their first books to him, and in doing so paid tribute to the author who could evoke both the intellect of Leonardo da Vinci and the anarchy of \u003cem\u003eUbu Roi\u003c\/em\u003e. He was also the uncle of Lucy Schwob, better remembered today as the Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePress\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“[A]n utterly heartbreaking book, beautiful in the torment and suffering that is manifested through its words.”\u003cbr\u003e —Janice Lee, \u003cem\u003eHTML Giant\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“[\u003cem\u003eThe Book of Monelle\u003c\/em\u003e] is an unsettling work, a triptych in which the singular is transformed into the universal.\"\u003cbr\u003e —Stephen Sparks, \u003cem\u003e3:AM Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In Monelle Schwob fractures fairy tales, myths, legends, and literature—one catches glimpses, reflections, and re-imaginings of genies from the \u003cem\u003e1001 Nights\u003c\/em\u003e, of De Quincey’s Ann, of Bluebeard, and of Cinderella—but so skillfully does he make the old stories new, so skillfully does he preserve the strangeness of the old, that his tales never come off as warmed-over borrowings. One reason for this is that, in Kit Schluter's English, Schwob's style is a continual delight.”\u003cbr\u003e —David Cozy, \u003cem\u003eThe Review of Contemporary Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It is a work of poetic force and intuitive form, and the book Schwob was best known for during his lifetime.”\u003cbr\u003e —Martin Riker, \u003cem\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39551359942832,"sku":"9780984115587","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/BookOfMonelle-MarcelSchwob.jpg?v=1622085931"},{"product_id":"lesabendio-an-asteroid-novel","title":"Lesabendio - An Asteroid Novel - Paul Scheerbart","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLesabendio: An Asteroid Novel by Paul Scheerbart \/ ISBN 9780984115594 \/ paperback with flaps, 6 x 9 inches \/ \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/spotlight-collection-wakefield-press\"\u003eWakefield Press\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI once featured Kubin's \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/50watts.com\/filter\/paul-scheerbart\/Illustrations-for-An-Asteroid-Novel\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eillustrations\u003c\/a\u003e for this book on 50 Watts\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in German in 1913 and widely considered to be Paul Scheerbart’s masterpiece, \u003cem\u003eLesabéndio\u003c\/em\u003e is an intergalactic utopian novel that describes life on the planetoid Pallas, where rubbery suction-footed life forms with telescopic eyes smoke bubble-weed in mushroom meadows under violet skies and green stars. Amid the conveyor-belt highways and lighthouses weaving together the mountains and valleys, a visionary named Lesabéndio hatches a plan to build a 44-mile-high tower and employ architecture to connect the two halves of their double star. A cosmic ecological fable, Scheerbart’s novel was admired by such architects as Bruno Taut and Walter Gropius, and such thinkers as Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem (whose wedding present to Benjamin was a copy of Lesabéndio). Benjamin had intended to devote the concluding section of his lost manuscript “The True Politician” with a discussion of the positive political possibilities embedded in Scheerbart’s “Asteroid Novel.” As translator Christina Svendsen writes in her introduction, “Lesabéndio helps us imagine an ecological politics more daring than the conservative politics of preservation, even as it reminds us that we are part of a larger galactic set of interrelationships.” This volume includes Alfred Kubin’s illustrations from the original German edition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The serene and gentle amazement with which [Scheerbart] tells of the strange natural laws of other worlds . . . makes him one of those humorists who, like Lichtenberg or Jean Paul, seem never to forget that the earth is a heavenly body.”--Walter Benjamin\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=Paul+Scheerbart\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Scheerbart\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (1863–1915) was a novelist, playwright, poet, newspaper critic, draftsman, visionary, proponent of glass architecture and would-be inventor of perpetual motion, who wrote fantastical fables and interplanetary satires that were to influence Expressionist authors and the German Dada movement, and which helped found German science fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39556894523568,"sku":"9780984115594","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Lesabendio-cover.jpg?v=1618095353"},{"product_id":"roadside-picnic","title":"Roadside Picnic - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRoadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, translated by Olena Bormsahenko \/ ISBN 9781613743416 \/ paperback from Chicago Review Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRed is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel’s publication in Russia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=strugatsky\"\u003eArkady and Boris Strugatsky\u003c\/a\u003e are the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, and the authors of over 25 novels and novellas. Their books have been widely translated and have been made into a number of films. Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Boris Strugatsky died in November 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chicago Review Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39556923850928,"sku":"9781613743416","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Strugatsky-RoadsidePicnic-cov.jpg?v=1618096078"},{"product_id":"the-inhabited-island","title":"The Inhabited Island - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Inhabited Island by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, translated by Andrew Bromfield \/ ISBN 9781613735978 \/ 416-page paperback from Chicago Review Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Maxim Kammerer, a young space explorer from twenty-second-century Earth, crash-lands on an uncharted world, he thinks of himself as a latter-day Robinson Crusoe. Eager to establish first contact with the planet’s humanlike inhabitants, he finds himself increasingly entangled in their primitive way of life. After his experiences in their nightmarish military, criminal justice, and mental health systems, Maxim begins to realize that his sojourn on this radioactive and war-scarred world will not be a walk in the park.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Inhabited Island is one of the Strugatsky brothers’ most popular and acclaimed novels, yet the only previous English-language edition (Prisoners of Power) was based on a version heavily censored by Soviet authorities. Now, in a sparkling new edition by award-winning translator Andrew Bromfield, this land-mark novel can be newly appreciated by both longtime Strugatsky fans and new explorers of the Russian science fiction masters’ astonishingly rich body of work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArkady and Boris Strugatsky are the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, and the authors of over 25 novels and novellas. Their books have been widely translated and have been made into a number of films. Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Boris Strugatsky died in November 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chicago Review Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39556933779632,"sku":"9781613735978","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Strugatsky-InhabitedIsland-cov.jpg?v=1618096371"},{"product_id":"hard-to-be-a-god","title":"Hard to Be a God - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHard To Be a God by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, a new translation by Olena Bormashenko \/ ISBN 9781613748282 \/ 375-page paperback \/ Chicago Review Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“A thoroughly good book...robust, imaginative, satisfying.” —Ursula K. Le Guin\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely known as the greatest Russian writers of science fiction, and their 1964 novel Hard to Be a God is considered one of the greatest of their works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt tells the story of Don Rumata, who is sent from Earth to the medieval kingdom of Arkanar with instructions to observe and to influence, but never to directly interfere. Masquerading as an arrogant nobleman, a dueler and a brawler, Don Rumata is never defeated but can never kill. With his doubt and compassion, and his deep love for a local girl named Kira, Rumata wants to save the kingdom from the machinations of Don Reba, the First Minister to the king. But given his orders, what role can he play?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHard to Be a God has inspired a computer role-playing game and two movies, including Aleksei German’s long-awaited swan song. Yet until now the only English version (out of print for over thirty years) was based on a German translation, and was full of errors, infelicities, and misunderstandings. This new edition—translated by Olena Bormashenko, whose translation of the authors’ Roadside Picnic has received widespread acclaim, and supplemented with a new foreword by Hari Kunzru and an afterword by Boris Strugatsky, both of which supply much-needed context—reintroduces one of the most profound Soviet-era novels to an eager audience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=strugatsky\"\u003eArkady and Boris Strugatsky\u003c\/a\u003e are the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, and the authors of over 25 novels and novellas. Their books have been widely translated and have been made into a number of films. Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Boris Strugatsky died in November 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chicago Review Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39556961304752,"sku":"9781613748282","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Strugatsky-HardToBeAGod-cov.jpg?v=1618096505"},{"product_id":"the-snail-on-the-slope","title":"The Snail on the Slope - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Snail on the Slope by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky \/ ISBN 9781613737545 \/ 256-page paperback \/ Chicago Review Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Snail on the Slope\u003c\/em\u003e may be the most dizzyingly concentrated dose of the Strugatskys’ strange and powerful medicine.”--Jonathan Lethem\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Snail on the Slope is a neglected masterpiece by Russian science fiction greats Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, who thought of it as ther \"most complete and important work.\" now, in a stunning translation, this tour de force is ready to be introduced to a new generation of American readers. The novel takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the Forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive but garrulous people, and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the Forest. Candide crashed in the Forest years ago and wants to return to the Administration. Their journeys are surprising and bizarre, and readers are left to puzzle out the mysteries of these foreign environments. Brilliant, enigmatic, and revelatory, The Snail on the Slope is one of the greatest literary works to come out of Soviet Russia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=strugatsky\"\u003eArkady and Boris Strugatsky\u003c\/a\u003e are the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, and the authors of over 25 novels and novellas. Their books have been widely translated and have been made into a number of films. Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Boris Strugatsky died in November 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chicago Review Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39556979949744,"sku":"9781613737545","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Strugatsky-SnailOnTheSlope-cov.jpg?v=1632754247"},{"product_id":"lame-fate-ugly-swans","title":"Lame Fate - Ugly Swans - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLame Fate - Ugly Swans by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, a new translation by Maya Vinokour \/ ISBN 9781641600712 \/ 375-page paperback \/ Chicago Review Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday, Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are counted among the best science fiction writers of the twentieth century, but their relationship with the late-Soviet literary establishment was often fraught. By the late 1960s, publishers had become increasingly reluctant to release their works, but their novels and short stories, retyped by hand, circulated widely through unofficial channels within the Soviet Union and occasionally turned up abroad in unauthorized translation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nested novels \u003cem\u003eUgly Swans\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eLame Fate\u003c\/em\u003e offer insight into this period of enforced silence. Never before translated into English, \u003cem\u003eLame Fate\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of middle-aged author Felix Sorokin, who is asked by the Soviet Writers’ Union to submit a writing sample to a new computer program that will scientifically evaluate its “objective value” as a literary work. Sorokin must choose whether to present something establishment-approved or risk sharing his unpublished masterpiece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSorokin’s masterwork is \u003cem\u003eUgly Swans\u003c\/em\u003e, previously published in English as a standalone work but presented here in an authoritative new translation. Its hero, disgraced literary celebrity Victor Banev, returns to his hometown to find it haunted by the mysterious “clammies”—black-masked outcasts with supernatural talents who terrify the town’s adult population but enthrall its teenagers, including Banev’s own daughter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTogether, \u003cem\u003eLame Fate\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eUgly Swans\u003c\/em\u003e illuminate some of the Strugatskys' favorite themes—the (im)possibility of political progress, the role of the individual in society, the nature of honor and courage, and the enduring value of art—in consummately entertaining fashion. By turns chilling, uproarious, and moving, these intertwining stories are sure to delight readers from all walks of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=strugatsky\"\u003eArkady and Boris Strugatsky\u003c\/a\u003e are the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, and the authors of over 25 novels and novellas. Their books have been widely translated and have been made into a number of films. Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Boris Strugatsky died in November 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chicago Review Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39556986437808,"sku":"9781641600712","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Strugatsky-LameFateUglySwans-cov.jpg?v=1618096913"},{"product_id":"dreamverse","title":"Dreamverse - Jindrich Styrsky","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDreamverse by Jindrich Styrsky \/ 237-page paperback from Twisted Spoon Press, first press run with a great feel to it \/ ISBN 9788086264387\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublished posthumously as Dreams, Styrsky’s dream journal spanning the interwar years comprises prose, sketches, collages, and paintings. The present volume includes the complete series based on Styrsky's layout for its publication, his sole volume of poetry (also published posthumously), as well as a selection of his essays, lectures, manifestos, and other text fragments. This edition presents in English for the first time the broad range of Styrsky's contribution to the interwar avant-garde and Surrealism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJindřich Štyrský (1899-1942) was a painter, poet, editor, photographer, and collagist. His outstanding and varied oeuvre included numerous book covers and illustrations. He also wrote studies of both Rimbaud and Marquis de Sade. A member of Devetsil, he participated in their group exhibitions and in 1928-29 was director of the group's drama wing, the \"Liberated Theater.\" In addition to his Edition 69 series, Styrsky also edited the Erotic Review, which he launched in 1930, and Odeon, where many of his shorter texts appeared. He was a founding member of the Surrealist Group of Czechoslovakia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Twisted Spoon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39581227090096,"sku":"9788086264387","price":28.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/JindrichStyrsky-Dreamverse.jpg?v=1618501762"},{"product_id":"the-corner-that-held-them","title":"The Corner That Held Them - Sylvia Townsend Warner","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner \/ ISBN 9781681373874 \/ paperback from NYRB Classics\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI love this book.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA unique novel about life in a 14th-century convent by one of England's most original authors.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSylvia Townsend Warner’s \u003cem\u003eThe Corner That Held Them\u003c\/em\u003e is a historical novel like no other, one that immerses the reader in the dailiness of history, rather than history as the given sequence of events that, in time, it comes to seem. Time ebbs and flows and characters come and go in this novel, set in the era of the Black Death, about a Benedictine convent of no great note. The nuns do their chores, and seek to maintain and improve the fabric of their house and chapel, and struggle with each other and with themselves. The book that emerges is a picture of a world run by women but also a story—stirring, disturbing, witty, utterly entrancing—of a community. What is the life of a community and how does it support, or constrain, a real humanity? How do we live through it and it through us? These are among the deep questions that lie behind this rare triumph of the novelist’s art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“[A]n exhilarating event, a radical work of fiction from seventy years ago which resonates sharply today.” —Tobias Carroll, BOMB\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Warner’s style is delicate and arch . . . Though she teeters on the edge of satire, she lands instead . . . on poignancy.\" —Josephine Livingstone, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=sylvia+townsend\"\u003eSylvia Townsend Warner\u003c\/a\u003e (1893–1978) was a poet, short-story writer, and novelist. Her first novel, \u003cem\u003eLolly Willowes\u003c\/em\u003e, appeared in 1926 and was the first ever Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Over the course of her long career, Warner published six more novels, seven books of poetry, a translation of Proust, fourteen volumes of short stories, and a biography of T.H. White.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39722136436912,"sku":"9781681373874","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Warner-The-Corner-That-Held-Them-NYRB.jpg?v=1620503488"},{"product_id":"dark-spring","title":"Dark Spring - Unica Zurn","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDark Spring by Unica Zurn \/ ISBN 9781878972309 \/ 128-page paperback from Exact Change\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis dark, autobiographical coming-of-age novel reads more like an exorcism than a memoir\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Dark Spring, author \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=unica+zurn\"\u003eUnica Zürn\u003c\/a\u003e traces the roots of her obsessions: The exotic father she idealized, the \"impure\" mother she detested, the masochistic fantasies and onanistic rituals which she said described \"the erotic life of a little girl based on my own childhood.\" Dark Spring is the story of a young girl's simultaneous introduction to sexuality and mental illness, revealing a different aspect of the \"mad love\" so romanticized by the (predominantly male) Surrealists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnica Zürn (1916–70) emigrated in 1953 from her native Berlin to Paris in order to live with the artist Hans Bellmer. There she exhibited drawings as a member of the Surrealist group and collaborated with Bellmer on a series of notorious photographs of her nude torso bound with string. In 1957, a fateful encounter with the poet and painter Henri Michaux led to the first of what would become a series of mental crises, some of which she documented in her writings. She committed suicide in 1970―an act foretold in this, her last completed work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Exact Change","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39738373898416,"sku":"9781878972309","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/UnicaZurn-DarkSpring-cover.jpg?v=1622083689"},{"product_id":"terminal-boredom-stories","title":"Terminal Boredom - Izumi Suzuki","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTerminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\/ ISBN 9781788739887 \/ 218-page paperback from Verso, published 2022\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first English language publication of the work of Izumi Suzuki, a legend of Japanese science fiction and a countercultural icon\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt turns nonchalantly hip and charmingly deranged, Suzuki's singular slant on speculative fiction would be echoed in countless later works, from Margaret Atwood and Harumi Murakami, to Black Mirror and Ex Machina. In these darkly playful and punky stories, the fantastical elements are always earthed by the universal pettiness of strife between the sexes, and the gritty reality of life on the lower rungs, whatever planet that ladder might be on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTranslated by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O'Horan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIzumi Suzuki (1949-1986) was a writer, actress, model and a countercultural icon in Japan. In the last decade of her life she produced an influential body of radical, punky and groundbreaking fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Verso Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39768355143856,"sku":"9781788739887","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Terminal_Boredom_Suzuki.jpg?v=1621047727"},{"product_id":"prophetika","title":"Prophetika (discounted) - Sun Ra","description":"\u003cp\u003eProphetika by Sun Ra, Foreword by Charles Plymell \/ small paperback from Kicks\/Norton Records \/ discounted copies but like new\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I'm a troubleshooter for the cosmos,\" said Sun Ra, \"sent here by the outer space beings from my home planet, Saturn.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntroduction by Phast Phreddie Patterson.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lost trove of unpublished end-times poetry and prose--hard-edged predictions and prognostications to mankind from the doomsday pen of visionary genius Sun Ra!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kicks Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39821770784944,"sku":"9781940157054","price":11.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Sun-Ra-Book-Prophetika.jpg?v=1621709873"},{"product_id":"lynd-ward-prelude-to-a-million-years-song-without-words-vertigo","title":"Lynd Ward - Prelude to a Million Years, Song Without Words, Vertigo","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLynd Ward: Prelude to a Million Years, Song Without Words, Vertigo \/ ISBN 9781598530810 \/ an 690-page hardcover from the Library of America \/ edited by Art Spiegelman\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this, the second of two volumes collecting all his woodcut novels, The Library of America brings together Lynd Ward’s three later books, two of them brief, the visual equivalent of chamber music, the other his longest, a symphony in three movements. Prelude to a Million Years (1933) is a dark meditation on art, inspiration, and the disparity between the ideal and the real. Song Without Words (1936), a protest against the rise of European fascism, asks if ours is a world still fit for the human soul. Vertigo (1937), Ward’s undisputed masterpiece, is an epic novel on the theme of the individual caught in the downward spiral of a sinking American economy. Its characters include a young violinist, her luckless fiancé, and an elderly business magnate who—movingly, and without ever becoming a political caricature—embodies the social forces determining their fate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe images reproduced in this volume are taken from prints pulled from the original woodblocks or first-generation electrotypes. Ward’s novels are presented, for the first time since the 1930s, in the format that the artist intended, one image per right-hand page, and are followed by four essays in which he discusses the technical challenges of his craft. Art Spiegelman contributes an introductory essay, “Reading Pictures,” that defines Ward’s towering achievement in that most demanding of graphic-story forms, the wordless novel in woodcuts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLynd Ward was born in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of six novels in woodcuts and three picture books for children, and the illustrator of some two hundred other books. Storyteller Without Words, an autobiographical monograph on his work in wood engraving, was published in 1974. He died in 1985.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Library of America","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40024350458032,"sku":"9781598530810","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/lynd-ward-vertigo-library-of-america.jpg?v=1624599398"},{"product_id":"codex-1962-a-trilogy","title":"Codex 1962 - A Trilogy (discounted) by Sjon","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCodex 1962: A Trilogy by Sjón \/ ISBN 9780374125639 \/ discounted hardcover copies with a remainder mark and light wear\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e***\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpanning eras, continents, and genres, CoDex 1962--twenty years in the making--is Sjón’s epic three-part masterpiece\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the course of four dazzling novels translated into dozens of languages, Sjón has earned a global reputation as one of the world’s most interesting writers. But what the world has never been able to read is his great trilogy of novels, known collectively as CoDex 1962―now finally complete.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJosef Löwe, the narrator, was born in 1962―the same year, the same moment even, as Sjón. Josef’s story, however, stretches back decades in the form of Leo Löwe―a Jewish fugitive during World War II who has an affair with a maid in a German inn; together, they form a baby from a piece of clay. If the first volume is a love story, the second is a crime story: Löwe arrives in Iceland with the clay-baby inside a hatbox, only to be embroiled in a murder mystery―but by the end of the volume, his clay son has come to life. And in the final volume, set in present-day Reykjavík, Josef’s story becomes science fiction as he crosses paths with the outlandish CEO of a biotech company (based closely on reality) who brings the story of genetics and genesis full circle. But the future, according to Sjón, is not so dark as it seems.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn CoDex 1962, Sjón has woven ancient and modern material and folklore and cosmic myths into a singular masterpiece―encompassing genre fiction, theology, expressionist film, comic strips, fortean studies, genetics, and, of course, the rich tradition of Icelandic storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBorn in Reykjavík in 1962, Sjón is the author of the novels The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, From the Mouth of the Whale, Moonstone, and CoDex 1962, for which he won several awards, including the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literary Prize. He has also been short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and his work has been translated into thirty-five languages.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FSG","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40146870632624,"sku":"9780374125639","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Sjon-Codex-1962-book.jpg?v=1626117337"},{"product_id":"blues-for-a-black-cat-and-other-stories","title":"Blues for a Black Cat and Other Stories - Boris Vian","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBlues for a Black Cat and Other Stories by Boris Vian, foreword by Louis Malle \/ ISBN 9780803296091 \/ 116-page paperback from University of Nebraska Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Ten avant-garde fables of serious whimsy, ushered in by Older's useful introduction, bibliography, and discography....the collection displays Vian's range from gallows humor to verbal fireworks....Playful and tough, fresh and zany.\"--Publishers Weekly\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"[Blues for a Black Cat] brings back the nimble Vian in a collection of his short fiction, initially published as Les Fourmis in 1949. The work has the unmistakable flavor of the time and place, Claude Abadie's jazz band, the coded and absurdist messages of rebellion, the wistful fables, verbal riffs and goofy anarchic encounters; the mise-en-scene includes an expiring jazzman who sells his sweat, a cat with a British accent and a piano that mixes a cocktail when \"Mood Indigo\" is played.\"--Boston Globe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoris Vian (1920-59), a trained engineer and jazz trumpet player, was a major literary figure in World War II France. Julia Older is the author or editor of many works. Her stories, translations, and poems have appeared in New Directions, the New Yorker, and many other journals.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40148011942064,"sku":"9780803296091","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Boris-Vian-Blues-for-a-Black-Cat.jpg?v=1626137530"},{"product_id":"speaking-to-the-rose-writings-1912-1932","title":"Speaking to the Rose - Robert Walser","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSpeaking to the Rose: Writings, 1912-1932 by Robert Walser, translated by Christopher Middleton \/ ISBN 9780803298330 \/ paperback from Bison Books.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a wandering, precarious life during which he produced poems, essays, stories, and novels, Walser entered an insane asylum, saying, “I am not here to write, but to be mad.” Many of the unpublished works he left were in fact written in an idiosyncratically abbreviated script that was for years dismissed as an impenetrable private cipher. Fourteen texts from these so-called pencil manuscripts are included in this volume--rich evidence that Walser’s microscripts, rather than the work of incipient madness, were in actuality the product of desperate genius building a last reserve, and as such, a treasure in modern literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003eWith a brisk preface and a chronology of Walser’s life and work, this collection of fifty translations of short prose pieces covers the middle to later years of the writer’s oeuvre. It provides unparalleled insight into Walser’s creative process, along with a unique opportunity to experience the unfolding of his rare and eccentric gift.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bison Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40263943389360,"sku":"9780803298330","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Robert-Walser-Speaking-to-the-Rose.jpg?v=1627590227"},{"product_id":"the-robber","title":"The Robber - Robert Walser","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Robber by Robert Walser, translated by Susan Bernofsky \/ ISBN 9780803298095 \/ paperback from Bison Books.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Robber, Robert Walser's last novel, tells the story of a dreamer on a journey of self-discovery. It is a hybrid of love story, tragedy, and farce, with a protagonist who sweet-talks teaspoons, flirts with important politicians, plays maidservant to young boys, and uses a passerby's mouth as an ashtray. Walser's novel spoofs the stiff-upper-lipped European petit bourgeois and its nervous reactions to whatever threatens the stability of its worldview.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Walser (1878–1956), the Swiss-German master of high modernist prose, was once so well known that the novelist Robert Musil, reviewing Franz Kafka’s first book of stories, described Kafka as “a special case of the Walser type.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bison Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40263958364336,"sku":"9780803298095","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Robert-Walser-The-Robber.jpg?v=1627590409"},{"product_id":"the-dark-eidolon-and-other-fantasies","title":"The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies - Clark Ashton Smith","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith \/ ISBN 9780143107385 \/ 400-page paperback from Penguin\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA much-awaited collection of prose and poetry from one of the great cosmic masters of the supernatural\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNot just any fantasy, horror, and science fiction author could impress H. P. Lovecraft into calling him “unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living” or compel Fritz Lieber to employ the worthy term sui generis. Clark Ashton Smith—autodidact, prolific poet, amateur philosopher, bizarre sculptor, and unmatched storyteller—simply wrote like no one else, before or since. This new collection of his very best tales and poems is selected and introduced by supernatural literature scholar S. T. Joshi and allows readers to encounter Smith’s visionary brand of fantastical, phantasmagorical worlds, each one filled with invention, terror, and a superlative sense of metaphysical wonder.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40450368667824,"sku":"9780143107385","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Clark-Ashton-Smith-Penguin-Classics.jpg?v=1630285250"},{"product_id":"the-street-of-crocodiles-and-other-stories","title":"The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz \/ ISBN 9780143105145 \/ 368-page paperback from Penguin Classics\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e***\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe collected fiction of \"one of the most original imaginations in modern Europe\" (Cynthia Ozick)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBruno Schulz's untimely death at the hands of a Nazi stands as one of the great losses to modern literature. During his lifetime, his work found little critical regard, but word of his remarkable talents gradually won him an international readership. This volume brings together his complete fiction, including three short stories and his final surviving work, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. Illustrated with Schulz's original drawings, this edition beautifully showcases the distinctive surrealist vision of one of the twentieth century's most gifted and influential writers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40450435580080,"sku":"9780143105145","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Bruno-Schulz-Street-of-Crocodiles.jpg?v=1630285920"},{"product_id":"fantastic-tales","title":"Fantastic Tales - Iginio Ugo Tarchetti","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFantastic Tales by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti \/ ISBN 9781939810625 \/ 260 pages, small paperback with flaps from Archipelago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Tarchetti's beguiling fantasies are triumphs of imagination as well as masterfully told stories. Tarchetti writes with comic bravura and surrealist invention that makes him a cousin, at least, of Kafka and Isak Dinesen.\" - Guy Davenport\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLawrence Venuti, winner of a Guggenheim fellowship and the Global Humanities Translation Prize, among many other awards, has translated into English these Italian Gothic tales of obsessive love, mysterious phobias, and the hellish curse of everlasting life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this collection of nine eerie stories, Iginio Ugo Tarchetti switches effortlessly between the macabre and the breezily comical. Set in nineteenth-century Italy, his characters court spirits and blend in with the undead: passionate romances filled with jealousy and devotion are fueled by magic elixirs. Time becomes fluid as characters travel between centuries, chasing affairs that never quite prosper. First published by Mercury House in 1992.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Tarchetti was pretty much the sole practitioner of the Gothic tale in his own language. Until his death in 1869 at the age of 29, he poured out a stream of freakish and fervid stories that made him moderately famous -- and definitively minor. Does I. U. Tarchetti deserve better? Judging from Lawrence Venuti's elegantly translated collection, \"Fantastic Tales,\" the answer is yes.\" -James Marcus, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Archipelago Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40657526063280,"sku":"9781939810625","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Tarchetti-Fantastic-Tales-book.jpg?v=1631928833"},{"product_id":"the-snail-on-the-slope-sf-masterworks","title":"The Snail on the Slope (discounted) - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Snail on the Slope by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky \/ ISBN 9781473228283 \/ 248-page paperback in the SF Masterworks series from Gollancz (UK) \/ discounted copies but like new (I also have new copies of the US edition available)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The Snail on the Slope may be the most dizzyingly concentrated dose of the Strugatskys’ strange and powerful medicine.”--Jonathan Lethem\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Snail on the Slope is a neglected masterpiece by Russian science fiction greats Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, who thought of it as ther \"most complete and important work.\" now, in a stunning translation, this tour de force is ready to be introduced to a new generation of American readers. The novel takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the Forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive but garrulous people, and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the Forest. Candide crashed in the Forest years ago and wants to return to the Administration. Their journeys are surprising and bizarre, and readers are left to puzzle out the mysteries of these foreign environments. Brilliant, enigmatic, and revelatory, The Snail on the Slope is one of the greatest literary works to come out of Soviet Russia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=strugatsky\"\u003eArkady and Boris Strugatsky\u003c\/a\u003e are the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, and the authors of over 25 novels and novellas. Their books have been widely translated and have been made into a number of films. Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Boris Strugatsky died in November 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SF Masterworks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40719324217520,"sku":"9781473228283","price":11.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Strugatskys-Snail-on-the-Slope-SF-Masterwork.jpg?v=1632754613"},{"product_id":"last-and-first-men-sf-masterworks","title":"Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon - UK paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLast and First Men by Olaf Stapledon \/ ISBN 9781857988062 \/ 300-page paperback in the SF Masterworks series from Gollancz (UK)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Stapledon's literary imagination was almost boundless.\"--Borges\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most extraordinary, imaginative and ambitious novels of the century: a history of the evolution of humankind over the next 2 billion years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmong all science fiction writers Olaf Stapledon stands alone for the sheer scope and ambition of his work. First published in 1930, Last and First Men is full of pioneering speculations about evolution, terraforming, genetic engineering and many other subjects.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SF Masterworks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40719350071472,"sku":"9781857988062","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Olaf-Stapledon-Last-and-First-Men-SF-Masterworks.jpg?v=1632754705"},{"product_id":"mr-penumbras-24-hour-bookstore","title":"Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan \/ ISBN 9781250037756 \/ 288-page paperback from Picador\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Winner of the Alex Award, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything―instead, they \"check out\" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore's secrets extend far beyond its walls. Rendered with irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40749571375280,"sku":"9781250037756","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Robin-Sloan-Mr-Penumbra_s-24-hour-bookstore.jpg?v=1633065518"},{"product_id":"a-mammal-s-notebook-the-writings-of-erik-satie","title":"A Mammal's Notebook - The Writings of Erik Satie","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Mammal’s Notebook: The Writings of Erik Satie, Edited and introduced by Ornella Volta, translated by Antony Melville \/ ISBN 9781900565660 \/ 224-page hardcover from Atlas Press (UK)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHumorous and Dadaistic writings from the original Velvet Gentleman and pioneering composer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the largest selection, in any language, of the writings of Erik Satie (1866-1925). Although once dismissed as an eccentric, Satie has come to be seen as a key influence on modern music, and his writings reveal him as one of the most beguiling of absurdists, in the mode of Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear--but with a strong streak of Dadaism (a movement in which he participated). The nonconformism of Satie's private life seems deliberately calculated: he assumed various personae at different periods of his life, from the mystical \"velvet gentleman\" to the Dadaist disguised as quizzical bureaucrat. His poignant, sly and witty writings embody all of his contradictions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIncluded here are his \"autobiographical\" \"Memoirs of an Amnesic\"; gnomic annotations to his musical scores (\"For the Shrivelled and the Dimwits, I have written a suitably ponderous chorale … I dedicate this chorale to those who do not like me\"); the publications of his private church; his absurdist play Medusa's Snare; advertising copy for his local suburban newspaper; and the mysterious, calligraphed \"private advertisements\" found stuffed behind his piano after his death. Satie referred to himself as \"a man in the manner of Adam (he of Paradise)\" and added: \"My humor is reminiscent of Cromwell's.I am also indebted to Christopher Columbus, as the American spirit has sometimes tapped me on the shoulder, and I have joyfully felt its ironically icy bite.\" He died as he lived: \"without quite ceasing to smile.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe smallest work by Satie is small the way a keyhole is small. Everything changes when you put your eye to it. — Jean Cocteau\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atlas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40843397202096,"sku":"9781900565660","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Erik-Satie-Mammals-Notebook.jpg?v=1634494918"},{"product_id":"a-beam-of-sunlight-in-the-deep-forest","title":"A Beam of Sunlight in the Deep Forest - Edouard Schure","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Beam of Sunlight in the Deep Forest, mystical prose works by Edouard Schure, translations and introduction by Sam Kunkel \/ ISBN 9781734906035 \/ 280-page paperback from First to Knock Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“[Schuré is], in our time, the sole man of persuasion for whom the few Mysteries which haunt some of us are natural and part of a magnificent birthright.” — Stéphane Mallarmé\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eÉdouard Schuré was a 19th century French author and occultist who spent his life attempting to translate the ineffable realm of spiritual knowledge into literature. Prolific and enigmatic, Schuré navigated many of the seminal movements of his time, developing friendships with prominent figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Richard Wagner. Yet, despite these affinities, Schuré refused to adhere to any one group or dogma. Perhaps due to his singular persona, he has since lived in a netherworld of historical neglect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Beam of Sunlight in the Deep Forest is a landmark collection of Schuré’s prose works, offering a robust introduction to the forgotten figure. Among the texts included are the never-before-translated \u003cem\u003eProses mystiques\u003c\/em\u003e, short pieces invoking disembodied voices, philosophical anguish, and dark woods haunted by a virgin cloaked in a panther pelt. Central to the collection is The Angel and the Sphinx, Schuré’s hallucinatory novel of sexual possession and spiritual longing set against a Germany of fog‐enshrouded mountaintops infused with black magic. Also included is \"Aeolian Harps,\" a never-before-translated reminiscence of a boyhood mystical experience at the Baden spa, as well as an examination of notable correspondence with Nietzsche, Mallarmé, and Wagner. Taken together, these texts offer truths about the artistic process and the spiritual development of humanity in the face of an ever more industrialized, and secularized, world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll texts in A Beam of Sunlight in the Deep Forest are newly translated and presented with an introduction by Sam Kunkel, a scholar of 19th century religious literature. Kunkel has also provided translations for the First To Knock collection Echoes of a Natural World—Tales of the Strange \u0026amp; Estranged.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First to Knock Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40902875054256,"sku":"9781734906035","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Edouard-Schure-Beam-of-Sunlight.jpg?v=1635641999"},{"product_id":"the-war-of-the-worlds","title":"The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, illustrated by Edward Gorey \/ ISBN 9781681376097 \/ a small 221-page paperback, 4.75 x 7.25 inches, from NYRB Classics\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen massive, intelligent aliens from Mars touch down in Victorian England and threaten to destroy the civilized world, humanity’s vaunted knowledge proves to be of little use. First published in 1898, H. G. Wells’s masterpiece of speculative fiction has thrilled and delighted generations of readers, spawned countless imitations, and inspired dramatizations by such masters as Orson Welles and Steven Spielberg. The War of the Worlds is a fantasy that is startlingly up-to-date yet in touch with the most ancient of human fears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1960, Edward Gorey prepared a set of his inimitable pen-and-ink drawings to illustrate a new edition of The War of the Worlds for the legendary Looking Glass Library. Characteristically quirky, elegant, and entrancing, Gorey’s visual take on Wells’s seminal tour de force was unavailable until 2005, when NYRB Classics reissued it in a special hardcover edition. Now in paperback, this edition brings back for today’s readers a richly rewarding collaboration between two modern masters of all that’s wonderful and strange.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArtist and author Edward Gorey (American, 1925–2000) is beloved for the boundless imagination and sharp humor exhibited in his more than 100 published works. Gorey was also a set and costume designer for innumerable theater productions, including a staging of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, for which he won a Tony. He had a profound affection for literature, film, ballet, and animals. Cats and other odd creatures appear in many of his crosshatched illustrations. His humorously unsettling drawings of vaguely Victorian innocents facing unfortunate ends became familiar to a wide audience after appearing in the opening credits of the PBS television series Mystery! Gorey’s Cape Cod home, a veritable cabinet of curiosities, is now a museum celebrating his life and work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40915191365808,"sku":"9781681376097","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Edward-Gorey-War-of-the-Worlds-HG-Wells-NYRB.jpg?v=1635988670"},{"product_id":"imaginary-lives","title":"Imaginary Lives - Marcel Schwob","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eImaginary Lives by Marcel Schwob, translated by Chris Clarke \/ ISBN 9781939663344 \/ paperback with flaps from \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/collections\/spotlight-collection-wakefield-press\"\u003eWakefield Press\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The art of the biographer consists specifically in choice. He is not meant to worry about speaking truth; he must create human characteristics amidst the chaos.”―Marcel Schwob\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImaginary Lives remains, over 120 years since its original publication in French, one of the secret keys to modern literature: under-recognized, yet a decisive influence on such writers as Apollinaire, Borges, Jarry and Artaud, and more contemporary authors such as Roberto Bolaño and Jean Echenoz. Drawing from historical influences such as Plutarch and Diogenes Laërtius, and authors more contemporary to him such as Thomas De Quincey and Walter Pater, Schwob established the genre of fictional biography with this collection: a form of narrative that championed the specificity of the individual over the generality of history, and the memorable detail of a vice over the forgettable banality of a virtue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese 22 portraits present figures drawn from the margins of history, from Empedocles the “Supposed God” and Clodia the “Licentious Matron” to the pirate Captain Kidd and the Scottish murderers Messrs. Burke and Hare. In his quest for unique lives, Schwob also formulated an early conception of the anti-hero, and discarded historical figures in favor of their shadows. These “imaginary lives” thus acquaint us with the “Hateful Poet” Cecco Angiolieri instead of his lifelong rival, Dante Alighieri; the would-be romantic pirate Major Stede Bonnet instead of the infamous Blackbeard who would lead him to the gallows; the false confessor Nicolas Loyseleur rather than Joan of Arc whom he cruelly deceived; or the actor Gabriel Spenser in place of the better-remembered Ben Jonson who ran a sword through his lung.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/search?q=%22marcel+schwob%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMarcel Schwob\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (1867–1905) was a scholar of startling breadth and an incomparable storyteller. The secret influence on generations of writers, Schwob was as versed in the street slang of medieval thieves as he was in the poetry of Walt Whitman (whom he translated into French).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40936172028080,"sku":"9781939663344","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/products\/Marcel-Schwob-Imaginary-Lives.jpg?v=1636511224"},{"product_id":"the-battle-between-the-frogs-and-the-mice","title":"The Battle between the Frogs and the Mice - A. E. Stallings","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Battle between the Frogs and the Mice: A Tiny Homeric Epic, translated by A. E. Stallings, illustrated by Grant Silverstein \/ ISBN 9781589881426 \/ 109-page paperback, 7 x 10 inches, from Paul Dry Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A virtuosic, witty, charming translation of the greatest epic ever written about mice, with wonderful illustrations by Grant Silverstein. Stallings' elegant rhyming couplets are the perfect choice to honor the mousy Muse.\"―Emily Wilson\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Stallings' translation of this ancient epic is a delight: charming, witty, and vividly alive, with buoyant rhymes and eye-catching illustrations. I suspect this will become a beloved addition in many home libraries.\"―Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the award-winning poet and translator A. E. Stallings comes a lively new edition of the ancient Greek fable The Battle between the Frogs and the Mice. Originally attributed to Homer, but now thought to have been composed centuries later by an unknown author, The Battle is the tale of a mouse named Crumbsnatcher who is killed by the careless frog King Pufferthroat, sparking a war between the two species. This dark but delightful parable about the foolishness of war is illustrated throughout in striking drawings by Grant Silverstein.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe clever introduction is written from the point of view of a mouse who argues that perhaps the unknown author of the fable is not a human after all: “Who better than a mouse, then, to compose our diminutive, though not ridiculous, epic, a mouse born and bred in a library, living off lamp oil, ink, and the occasional nibble of a papyrus, constantly perched on the shoulder of some scholar or scholiast of Homer, perhaps occasionally whispering in his ear? 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