Search results for ""atlantic monthly press""

A Glass of Water is a gripping tale of family, loyalty, ambition, and revenge that offers an intimate look into the tragedies unfurling at our country’s borders. The first novel from award-winning memoirist, poet, and activist, Jimmy Santiago Baca, it is a passionate and galvanizing addition to Chicano literature.The promise of a new beginning brings Casimiro and Nopal together when they are young immigrants, having made the nearly deadly journey across the border from Mexico. They settle into a life of long days in the chili fields, and in a few years their happy union yields two sons, Lorenzo and Vito. But when Nopal is brutally murdered, the boys are left to navigate life in this brave but capricious new world without her.A Glass of Water is a searing, heartfelt tribute to brotherhood, and an arresting portrait of the twisted paths people take to claim their piece of the ever-elusive American dream.

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In the twenty years he has lived in Bangkok, Christopher G. Moore has written nine novels starring Vincent Calvino, a disbarred American lawyer working as a PI in the steamy Thai capital. Internationally acclaimed, the prize-winning novels have been translated into ten languages, and were first published in North America in 2007, with The Risk of Infidelity Index, the latest in the series. When Calvino’s surveillance of a drug piracy ring ends in definitive video evidence, it looks like his fortunes are about to turn. But when Calvino’s client dies of a heart attack, and he finds the body of a murdered massage girl downstairs, the authorities get suspicious of the farang in the wrong place at the wrong time, twice. To make matters worse, with the dead man unlikely to pay, Calvino is forced to take on a job he doesn’t want, trailing the spouses of three expat housewives who have been rattled by “The Risk of Infidelity Index,” a handbook that ranks Bangkok as the city where men are most likely to stray. Unfortunately for Calvino, jealous wives tend to be unhappy, regardless of the results, and drug pirates aren’t the type to play nice.

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“Ohitika Woman might be the nonfiction find of the year.” —Houston Chronicle The beloved sequel to the now-classic Lakota Woman, Ohitika Woman follows Mary Brave Bird as she continues her powerful, dramatic tale of ancient glory and present anguish, of courage and despair, of magic and mystery, and, above all, of the survival of both body and mind. Coming home from Wounded Knee in 1973, married to American Indian movement leader Leonard Crow Dog, Mary was a mother with the hope of a better life. But, as she says, “Trouble always finds me.” With brutal frankness she bares her innermost thoughts, recounting the dark as well as the bright moments in her always eventful life. She not only talks about the stark truths of being a Native American living in a white-dominated society but also addresses the experience of being a mother, a woman, and, rarest of all, a Sioux feminist. Filled with contrasts, courage, and endurance, Ohitika Woman is a powerful testament to Mary’s will and spirit.

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Surgery is the crude art of cutting people open, yet it is also a symphony of delicate manipulation and subtle chords. So says Jonathan Kaplan in his stunning book Contact Wounds, an electrifying account of a doctor’s education in the classroom, in life, and on the battlefield. Inspired by his father, a military surgeon in World War II and Israel’s nascent fight for statehood, Kaplan became a doctor and was appointed to a post at a woefully understaffed South African general hospital in a black township. Fleeing apartheid, he traveled the globe in search of sanctuary, experiencing riots, tropical fevers, political upheaval, and a jungle search for a lost friend. Kaplan eventually landed in Angola, taking charge of a combat-zone hospital, the only surgeon for 160,000 civilians, where he was exposed daily to the horrors of war. Journeying further into dangerous territory, Kaplan portrays serving as a volunteer surgeon in Baghdad—where he treated civilian casualties amid gunfights for control of hospitals and dealt with gangs of AK-47-wielding looters stripping pharmacies. Contact Wounds is a stirring testament of adventure, discovery, survival, and the making of a career devoted to saving people caught in the crossfire of war.

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From Lily King, author of the award-winning and critically acclaimed "The Pleasing Hour", comes her thrilling successor, "The English Teacher". Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at Fayer Academy. By living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her now teenage son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts an impulsive marriage proposal, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled. Peter, however, welcomes the changes. Excited to move off campus, eager to have siblings at last, Peter anticipates a regular life with a "normal" family. But his new stepsiblings are still grieving, and the memory of their recently dead mother exerts a powerful hold on the house. When Vida begins to act erratically, Peter not only realizes how complicated a normal family can be, but he sees that the mother he perceived as indomitable is collapsing and it is up to him to rescue her. "The English Teacher" is a passionate tale of a mother and son's vital bond and a provocative look at our notions of intimacy, honesty, loyalty, family and the real meaning of home. A triumphant and masterful follow-up to her lauded debut, "The English Teacher" confirms Lily King as one of the most accomplished and vibrant young voices of today.

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Sabina Murray's first book since she won the PEN/Faulkner Award for The Caprices seduces with its dark delight in her taboo subject. When we meet Katherine, the winning-and rather disturbing-twenty-three-year-old narrator, she has just left Italy and arrived in New York City, but what has propelled her there is a mystery. She soon strikes up an affair with a middle-aged Russian émigré novelist she meets on the subway, and almost immediately moves into his apartment. Katherine's occasional allusions to a frighteningly eccentric mother and tyrannical father suggest a somberness at the center of her otherwise flippant and sardonic demeanor. Soon restless, she begins journeying across the continent, trailed, everywhere she goes, by a string of murders. As the ritualistic killings begin to pile up, Katherine takes to meditating on cannibalism in literature, art, and history. The story races toward a hair-raising conclusion, while Katherine and the reader close in on the reasons for both her and her mother's fascination with aberrant, violent behavior. A brilliantly subtle commentary on twenty-first-century consumerism and Western culture's obsession with new frontiers, A Carnivore's Inquiry is an unsettling exploration of the questionable appetites that lurk beneath the veneer of civilization.

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This collection brings together four full-length plays from the same dazzling pen that produced the one-act comic masterpieces of All In The Timing: Polish Joke is about a young Polish-American's trip through ethnic stereotypes. Nine-year-old Midwesterner Jan Bogdan Sadlowski, nicknamed, Jasiu, is told by his uncle that Poles are thought to be" backward, stupid, inept, and gloomy." The only way out is for Jaisu "to impersonate someone not Polish." Don Juan In Chicago, called in which a Renaissance innocent makes a deal with the devil only to become a reluctant Latin lover. Ancient History, this comedy-drama about the holy war that breaks out when two people from two very different cultures fall in love. The Red Address, the searing portrait of a man with a secret who is forced by tragedy into self-revelation.

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Into Tibet is the incredible story of a 1949-1950 American undercover expedition led by America's first atomic agent, Douglas S. Mackiernan -- a covert attempt to arm the Tibetans and to recognize Tibet's independence months before China invaded. Thomas Laird reveals how the clash between the State Department and the CIA, as well as unguided actions by field agents, hastened the Chinese invasion of Tibet. A gripping narrative of survival, courage, and intrigue among the nomads, princes, and warring armies of inner Asia, Into Tibet rewrites the accepted history behind the Chinese invasion of Tibet. 8 pages of black-and-white photographs are featured.

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With a distinctive voice, Sheri Joseph's remarkably assured debut explores the interior lives of two Georgia families soon to be linked by a marriage, and though it tackles dark themes -- the menace of homophobia, the splintering of families, the discordant voice of religious fundamentalism -- at its core is a hopeful portrait of the different and often elusive faces of salvation. Sidra and Curtis, two twenty-somethings who impulsively decide to make their relationship permanent, form an arch that connects their fractured families. Sidra has already lost a sister to the fatal allure of drugs, and now Curtis's young gay stepbrother, Paul, a lonely and defiant outsider, seems to be drifting out of control. As Paul tests the boundaries of his world and explores his sexuality, Curtis can hardly control his homophobic rage, while Sidra reacts with an overwhelming need to protect him. By the book's exquisite conclusion, no character is left untouched by the challenge of having to choose between guiding and thwarting troubled souls in their precarious passage toward firmer ground. Sheri Joseph fashions a subtle and affecting exploration of the sacrifices we must make to be our brothers' keepers, and the consequences of refusing to do so.

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Chosen as Book of the Year in London by both the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Kate Caterina is a passionate love story and a heartbreaking saga of a family torn apart by war, situated against a canvas of Italy during World War II. Brilliantly linking the atmosphere of war-torn Europe and a palpable love for Italy and its people, Riviere tells the story of Kate Fenn, a great English beauty who marries a young left-wing Italian doctor and moves to Tuscany, where she relishes the countryside splendor and the strong ties her new family has. She changes her name to Kate Caterina to unite her internationally conflicted sides, but soon finds herself isolated inside Nazi-Fascist Europe with a family completely torn apart by politics. Captivating from the first pages to the unforgettable end, Kate Caterina is the story of a family and a nation traumatized, of loyalty and betrayal, and of Caterina's effort to retain an inner freedom in a country at war. "A masterpiece of a tour through Mussolini's Italy." -- Scott Bernard Nelson, The Boston Globe "Kate Caterina belongs in the great tradition of the European novel." -- The Sunday Telegraph "[The] central characterizations ... diverse places of the heart and mind ... is strong enough to make this novel a remarkable achievement." -- The Spectator

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Rich in detail and crackling with wit, The Race for the Triple Crown is a personal narrative that captures the affecting stories of the Thoroughbred racing world. From ostentatious owners, to radiant unrivaled horses, to young trainers trying to make a name for themselves, everyone has a gripping story, and all are in search of the sport's Holy Grail. How they get to and through the enormously famous races is a tale of action, high-stakes finance, and impossible odds. Told in the compelling voice of the award-winning New York Times sportswriter Joe Drape, The Race for the Triple Crown is a vivid portrait of a year in the life of the oldest, most majestic sport in the world. "I loved it!" -- Jane Smiley, author of Horse Heaven "[Drape] opens up a magical, mysterious world -- and he does it with equal parts humor, affection and wisdom...." -- Bill Minutaglio, The Dallas Morning News "Drape's narrative never falters. He captures the personalities that dominate the sport." -- David Davis, Raleigh News and Observer "In crisp, elegant prose, Drape captures his subjects and their sport.... -- Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit

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With its hilariously honest look at the single male in America -- from his apartment furnishings to his career struggles to his dating habits -- Bruce Jay Friedman's book The Lonely Guy's Book of Life quickly became a hit when it first appeared in 1978, winning raves from critics and inspiring Steve Martin's classic cult comedy The Lonely Guy. Twenty years later, Friedman returned to the subject with The Slightly Older Guy, finding his quarry no longer alone and not so young anymore, but just as funny. Now these classic humor books are available together for the first time in a single paperback edition from Grove Press. With a new afterword about "The Considerably Older Guy," this edition deals with such topics as divorce and grandchildren. Offering advice on exercise (walk, don't run) and insomnia (read Solzhenitsyn), Friedman took the pulse of the aging American male -- and found him still in need of some good satire.

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Darcey Steinke's first novel, now back in print, is an unusually assured and lyrical debut. Set on an island resort town off North Carolina, it tells of summer people and islanders, mothers and sons, women and men, love and its dangers. It is the story of Emily, a woman free as the waves she swims in every day, of the man who wants to clip her wings, of her son and the summer that he will become a man. George Garrett called it "clean-cut, lean-lined, quickly moving, and audacious. . . . [Steinke is] compassionate without sentimentality, romantic without false feelings, and clearly and extravagantly gifted." "Beautifully written . . . a seamless and almost instinctive prose that often reads more like poetry than fiction." -- Robert Olmstead, The New York Times Book Review; "Dazzling and charged . . . Darcey Steinke has the sensuous and precise visions of female and male, and of the light and dark at the edge of the sea." -- John Casey.

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Filled with wry logic and a magical, unpredictable musicality, Kay Ryan's poems continue to generate excitement with their frequent appearances in The New Yorker and other leading periodicals. Say Uncle, Ryan's fifth collection, is filled with the same hidden connections, the same slyness and almost gleeful detachment that has delighted readers of her earlier books. Compact, searching, and oddly beautiful, these poems, in the words of Dana Gioia, "take the shape of an idea clarifying itself." "A poetry collection that marries wit and wisdom more brilliantly than any I know.... Poetry as statement and aphorism is rarely heartbreaking, but reading these poems I find myself continually ambushed by a fundamental sorrow, one that hides behind a surface that interweaves sound and sense in immaculately interesting ways." -- Jane Hirshfield, Common Boundary; "The first thing you notice about her poems is an elbow-to-the-ribs playfulness." -- Patricia Holt, San Francisco Chronicle.

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