Search results for ""author ivan"

Hunger, disease, poverty, environmental insecurity, illegitimate governance, civil war, and international conflict are only a few of the causes of today's global turmoil and gross human suffering. Written in honour of Ivan Head, foreign affairs advisor to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, past president of Canada's International Development Research Centre, and professor emeritus of International law at the University of British Columbia, this collection of distinguished essays addresses the imperative to enhance human dignity and protect human life by humanizing our global order and improving international relations - goals Professor Head strove for throughout his career. The authors argue that the search for possible solutions to these challenges, which has so far tended to proceed without due recognition of the needs, demands, and solutions that emanate from the geo-political South, must in future be conducted with alternate visions that take these factors into account. Each essay seeks to re-assess and re-imagine a specific topic that relates in some significant way to our current global circumstance in ways that advance the book's thematic. With essays grappling with such issues as Multilateral Environmental Agreements, the Use of Force, the Prevention of Civil War through Minority Protection, Common Heritage of Humankind, and the Civil Dimensions of Strategy, the volume deals with a range of diverse topics that are as crucial as they are topical.

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The Core and the Periphery is a collection of papers inspired by the linguistics career of Ivan A. Sag (1949-2013), written to commemorate his many contributions to the field. Sag was professor of linguistics at Stanford University from 1979 to 2013; served as the director of the Symbolic Systems Program from 2005 to 2009; authored, co-authored, or edited fifteen volumes on linguistics; and was at the forefront of non-transformational approaches to syntax. The papers collected here tackle a range of grammar-related issues and share the perspective that the best theories of grammar attempt to account for the full diversity and complexity of language data.

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Shakespeare's comedy Love's Labour's Lost has perplexed scholars and theatergoers alike for over 400 years due to its linguistic complexity, obscure topical allusions and decidedly non-comedic ending. According to traditional scholarly interpretations, it is Shakespeare's "French" play, based on events and characters from the French Wars of Religion.This work argues that the play's French surface conceals a Russian core. It outlines a comprehensive interpretation of Love's Labour's Lost that is rooted in diplomatic and trade relations between Russia and Elizabethan England during the dramatic decades following England's discovery of a northern trade route to Muscovy in 1553. Drawing on original research of 16th-century sources in English, Latin and French, the text also surveys Russian sources that have been previously unavailable in translation. This analysis provides new explanations for some of the play's previously most enigmatic elements, such as its unconventional ending, the significance of its secondary characters, linguistic anomalies and the Masque of the Muscovites itself.

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In this amply illustrated book, Hellman and Rogachevskii tell the fascinating story behind the screen adaptation of one of the most impactful novels of all times. Despite its huge global success, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn refused all offers to have his One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich turned into a movie for many years for artistic reasons. It took the full resolve and commitment of the Finnish director Caspar Wrede to bring this challenging project to fruition, eight years after the novel had been published. This second, expanded edition offers an all-encompassing account of the movie's production, reception and impact. Filled with little-known facts, it also gives unique and valuable insights into Solzhenitsyn's complex relationship with the art of film-making.

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The sea, mist, loud noises...Ivan's afraid of everything! And with all those frights and shivers, his dreams of having great adventures and visiting far-away places seem more and more unlikely. But could an unexpected visitor help him overcome his deepest fears? Could an old African song change his life forever? Ivan's Fear is an inspiring tale about the bravery we need in order to live our lives with joy and happiness. It is a journey to the very center of our hearts, which will give us the courage and bravery to face up to any obstacle that stands in our way. Lexile Level 810L Guided Reading Level O

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'Brisk and thoughtful, this book could hardly be more timely' Dominic Sandbrook, BBC History Magazine, Books of the YearFrom a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prize-winning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialismIn 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the merging of imperialism and nationalism in Russia today by delving into its history.Spanning over two thousand years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. A strikingly ambitious book, Lost Kingdom chronicles the long and belligerent history of Russia's empire and nation-building quest.

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In 1971, priest, theologian, and philosopher Ivan Illich wrote Deschooling Society, a plea to liberate education from schooling and to separate schooling from the state. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its publication, Ivan Illich Fifty Years Later looks at the theological roots of Illich’s thought and the intellectual and ideological strands that contributed to his ideas. Guided by the central question of how Illich reached the point of writing Deschooling Society, the book sheds light on how Illich produced a critique of schooling that can be defined by its eclecticism. Bruno-Jofré and Igelmo Zaldívar explore how this controversial book was framed by Illich’s early neo-scholastic and anti-modern foundation, his discovery of St. Thomas through Jacques Maritain, and the existential turning points that influenced his public life and intellectual direction in moving from a critique of the Church as institution to a critique of schooling. Drawing from the interpretative theories of Quentin Skinner, Reinhart Koselleck, and William H. Sewell and from concepts such as educationalization, transnationality, and configuration, among other heuristic tools, the authors provide an original and cross-disciplinary analysis of Deschooling Society and its place in Illich’s journey.

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The first story in this volume, How the Two Ivans Quarrelled, is an amusing portrayal of two exceptionally close friends, the mortal insult that drives them apart, and the ensuing chaos that occurs. This is Gogol’s humour at its best, where the most irrelevant-seeming details and turns of phrase take on a bizarre life of their own. Ivan Krylov’s Panegyric in Memory of My Grandfather has an ingenuous narrator praise the nobility and modesty of a landowner whose actions prove him to be otherwise. The two tales by Mikhail Saltykov are satirical attacks on civil servants and Russia’s autocracy. The final piece, Tolstoy’s Ivan the Fool, is a playful and allegorical critique of contemporary Russian society. Together, they represent some of Russia’s finest comic writing before the twentieth century.

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The first book-length study of modern Peruvian narrative and its resurgence in the 1990s, focussing on Jaime Bayly, Iván Thays and Jorge Eduardo Benavides. This book provides the first look at the dynamic resurgence of Peruvian narrative since the late 1990s. Talk-show host Jaime Bayly's seven novels have scandalized Lima's society with their treatment of homosexuality and haveattracted record sales throughout the Spanish-speaking world with their exciting re-creation of Lima slang and focus on McOndo themes. University lecturer Iván Thays has vigorously opposed this light narrative by providinga "high" cultural alternative. His three novels have played an important role in the regeneration of Peruvian culture since the fall from power of President Alberto Fujimori. Madrid-based Jorge Eduardo Benavides' narrative has offered an aesthetically challenging and explicitly politicized alternative. His marrying of aesthetics and politics stands in importance alongside Mario Vargas Llosa and José María Arguedas in terms of the mediation between cultureand politics in Peru since the 1930s.. ROBERT RUZ completed his PhD at Cambridge University under the supervision of Geoffrey Kantaris. En este libro se ofrece la primera perspectiva del dinámico resurgimiento que ha experimentado la narrativa peruana desde finales de la década de los noventa. Las siete novelas de Jaime Bayly, presentador de televisión, han escandalizado a la sociedad limeña debido al tratamiento que en ellas se da al tema de la homosexualidad y han generado un récord de ventas por todo el mundo de habla hispana debido a su apasionante recreación del argot limeño y a su concentración en los temas del grupo McOndo. El profesor de universidad Iván Thays se ha opuesto firmemente a esta literatura light, ofreciendo en su lugar una alternativa culta. Sus tres novelas han desempeñado un importante papel en la regeneración de la cultura peruana desde la caída del poder del Presidente Alberto Fujimori. La narrativa de Jorge Eduardo Benavides, radicado en Madrid, ha presentado una alternativa estéticamente estimulante y explícitamente politizada. Por lo que respecta a la mediación entre la cultura y la política en el Perú desde la década de los años treinta, la labor de unificación de la estética y la política de Benavides se halla, en cuanto a importancia, al nivel de Mario Vargas Llosa y José Marí

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'Funny, merciless, brilliant... I loved it' CURTIS SITTENFELD, bestselling author of Romantic ComedySeamus, Fyodor, Ivan, Noah and Fatima are running out of time to decide on their futuresIn a university town in the American Midwest, this circle of lovers and friends ask themselves: what is the right thing to stake a life on? Work, love, money, dance, poetry? Is love possible without harm? And what does true connection look like in an age of precarity?The author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Real Life returns with a deeply involving new novel of young men and women trying to work out what they want, and who they are.***A DAILY TELEGRAPH AND FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***'Taylor is a sharp chronicler' RAVEN LEILANI, author of Luster'Assures Taylor's position as one of the most important novelists of his generation' GUARDIAN

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KinoSputniks closely analyse some key films from the history of Russian and Soviet cinema. Written by international experts in the field, they are intended for film enthusiasts and students, combining scholarship with an accessible style of writing. This KinoSputnik on Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature Ivan's Childhood examines the production, context and reception of the film, whilst offering a detailed reading of its key themes. Through a close examination of its intricate narrative structure, unique stylistic approach and deep philosophical underpinnings, this KinoSputnik provides a thorough analysis of a truly remarkable debut film, from an artist now considered a towering figure of Russian culture. Primary readership will be among film studies students and film enthusiasts. A list of all books in the series is here on the Intellect website on the series page KinoSputnik

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'Funny, merciless, brilliant... I loved it' CURTIS SITTENFELD, bestselling author of Romantic ComedySeamus, Fyodor, Ivan, Noah and Fatima are running out of time to decide on their futuresIn a university town in the American Midwest, this circle of lovers and friends ask themselves: what is the right thing to stake a life on? Work, love, money, dance, poetry? Is love possible without harm? And what does true connection look like in an age of precarity?The author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Real Life returns with a deeply involving new novel of young men and women trying to work out what they want, and who they are.***A DAILY TELEGRAPH AND FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***'Taylor is a sharp chronicler' RAVEN LEILANI, author of Luster'Assures Taylor's position as one of the most important novelists of his generation' GUARDIAN

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**THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH****A SUNDAY TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2022**In the outback, nothing stays buried forever...'Classic Hammer. A crime novel that will stay with me for a long time.' Ann Cleeves'This novel is Hammer's best work yet.' The Times'A complex, twisty thriller, with nuanced characters and a winding plot all set in the oppressive Australian heat.' Lisa Hall'This slice of Australian noir sparkles like an opal in the blistering sun.' Lisa Gray'Opal Country is a top-notch Aussie Noir with real heat coming off the pages.' Christopher FowlerOpals...In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable youngsters and billionaires do as they please.Bodies...Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot down his mine. Nothing about the miner's death is straight-forward, not even who found the body. Homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, assisted by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan.But Finnigans Gap has already ended one police career and damaged others, and soon both officers face damning allegations and internal investigations. Have Ivan and Nell been set up, and if so, by whom?Secrets...As time runs out, their only chance at redemption is to find the killer. But the more they uncover, the more harrowing the mystery becomes, and a past long forgotten is thrown into scorching sunlight.Because in Finnigans Gap, nothing stays buried for ever.Praise for Chris Hammer:'Hammer is a great writer - a leader in Australian noir' Michael Connelly'Shimmers . . . A tortured tale of blood and loss' Val McDermid'Stunning - a page-turner which stays long in the memory' Sunday Times

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'Essential reading, not just for those interested in the Eastern Front, but for anyone who wants to understand Russia.' Antony Beevor, Sunday Times They died in their millions, shattered by German shells and tanks, freezing behind the wire of prison camps, driven forward in suicidal charges by the secret police. Yet in all the books about the Second World War on the eastern front, there is very little about how the Russian soldier lived, dreamed and died. Catherine Merridale's discovery of archives of letters, diaries and police reports have allowed her to write a major history of a figure too often treated as part of a vast mechanical horde. Here are moving and terrible stories of men and women in appalling conditions, many not far from death. They allow us to understand the strange mixture of courage, patriotism, anger and fear that made it possible for these badly fed, dreadfully governed soldiers to defeat the Nazi army that would otherwise have enslaved the whole of Europe. The experience of the soldiers is set against a masterly narrative of the war in Russia. Merridale also shows how the veterans were treated with chilling ingratitude and brutality by Stalin, and later exploited as icons of the Great Patriotic War before being sidelined once more in Putin's new capitalist Russia.

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NO ONE IS EVER INNOCENT IN PARADISE.**THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH**A small town. A closely guarded secret, stretching back decades. And blood in the water.'A masterful, stunning thriller. A twisting mystery epic in scale yet intricate in detail. Irresistible.' Chris Whitaker'Epic. Shakespearean in depth and range' The Times'Fierce, gripping and spine-chilling.' Daily MailA body has washed up in an irrigation canal, the artery running through Yuwonderie, a man-made paradise on the border of the Outback. Stabbed through the heart, electrocuted and dumped under cover of night, there is no doubt that detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are dealing with a vicious homicide. The victim is Athol Hasluck, member of one of the seven dynasties who have controlled every slice of bountiful land in this modern-day Eden for generations.But this is not an isolated incident. Someone is targeting the landed aristocracy of this quiet paradise in the desert. Secrets stretching back decades are rising to the surface at last - but the question remains, who stands to gain most from their demise? Can Ivan and Nell track down a killer before the guilt at the heart of these seven families takes the entire town down with it?Praise for Chris Hammer:'My favourite Australian detective is Nell Buchanan.' - Ann Cleeves'Hammer is a great writer - a leader in Australian noir' Michael Connelly'Shimmers . . . A tortured tale of blood and loss' Val McDermid'Stunning - a page-turner which stays long in the memory' Sunday Times'Utterly brilliant, a darkly simmering mystery.' - Dervla McTiernan'Chris Hammer is at the height of his power here.' - William Shaw'This novel is Hammer's best work yet.' The Times'This may well be Hammer's best work yet. Atmospheric and thrilling. I was gripped.' Victoria Selman'A vivid and gripping thriller' Gytha Lodge'A complex, twisty thriller, with nuanced characters and a winding plot all set in the oppressive Australian heat.' Lisa Hall'This slice of Australian noir sparkles like an opal in the blistering sun.' Lisa Gray'Top-notch Aussie Noir with real heat coming off the pages.' Christopher FowlerScrublands was named Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year 2019 and won the CWA John Creasey Dagger Award in the same year.Dead Man's Creek was named the Times Crime Book of the Year in 2023.

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NO ONE IS EVER INNOCENT IN PARADISE.**THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH**A small town. A closely guarded secret, stretching back decades. And blood in the water.'A masterful, stunning thriller. A twisting mystery epic in scale yet intricate in detail. Irresistible.' Chris Whitaker'Epic. Shakespearean in depth and range' The Times'Fierce, gripping and spine-chilling.' Daily MailA body has washed up in an irrigation canal, the artery running through Yuwonderie, a man-made paradise on the border of the Outback. Stabbed through the heart, electrocuted and dumped under cover of night, there is no doubt that detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are dealing with a vicious homicide. The victim is Athol Hasluck, member of one of the seven dynasties who have controlled every slice of bountiful land in this modern-day Eden for generations.But this is not an isolated incident. Someone is targeting the landed aristocracy of this quiet paradise in the desert. Secrets stretching back decades are rising to the surface at last - but the question remains, who stands to gain most from their demise? Can Ivan and Nell track down a killer before the guilt at the heart of these seven families takes the entire town down with it?Praise for Chris Hammer:'My favourite Australian detective is Nell Buchanan.' - Ann Cleeves'Hammer is a great writer - a leader in Australian noir' Michael Connelly'Shimmers . . . A tortured tale of blood and loss' Val McDermid'Stunning - a page-turner which stays long in the memory' Sunday Times'Utterly brilliant, a darkly simmering mystery.' - Dervla McTiernan'Chris Hammer is at the height of his power here.' - William Shaw'This novel is Hammer's best work yet.' The Times'This may well be Hammer's best work yet. Atmospheric and thrilling. I was gripped.' Victoria Selman'A vivid and gripping thriller' Gytha Lodge'A complex, twisty thriller, with nuanced characters and a winding plot all set in the oppressive Australian heat.' Lisa Hall'This slice of Australian noir sparkles like an opal in the blistering sun.' Lisa Gray'Top-notch Aussie Noir with real heat coming off the pages.' Christopher FowlerScrublands was named Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year 2019 and won the CWA John Creasey Dagger Award in the same year.Dead Man's Creek was named the Times Crime Book of the Year in 2023.

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The author of the smash hit, The Floor is Lava, is back with 101 fun-filled, boredom-busting games to occupy the whole family during the summer holidays. Starting to get fed up of endless games of Would You Rather? Or is screen-time taking over your life? Well, this is the book to bring everyone together, with an endless selection of creative games you can come back to time and time again.You'll quickly find the right game to match ANY occasion with games for one, for pairs or for groups. Most are quick to set up and require minimal equipment - ideal for anyone looking for straight up fun. Bored? Games! is the ultimate book of games to keep everyone entertained.There's games for any occasion: * Rainy days* Around the table games* Single-player games* Games for groups* Travel games* Summer holiday ideasNO BATTERIES REQUIRED.

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The second book in the page-turning Worktown Girls at War series, from the bestselling author of A Shilling for a Wife, perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin.At seventeen, Renee Rushmore lives at home with her father Ivan - a cruel man who rules the house with an iron fist and keeps Renee isolated and alone. She is desperate to escape him, but with no friends to help her, what hope does she have?Then war breaks out. With factories and farms looking to take on female workers, Renee dares to hope that her freedom might be within grasp. And when she hears through a kindly local farmhand named Jimmy that Oak Valley Farm is in need of help, she might just have found her chance. But her father's eyes are on her day and night. With the help of Jimmy, will Renee be able to escape Ivan's cruelty and find happiness at last?Readers love Emma Hornby:'Similar to Rosie Goodwin and Dilly Court, Emma Hornby tells a brilliant story''Emma Hornby's books just keep getting better and better''Keep writing Emma, you are very talented and can't wait for your next book''Emma is a wonderful storyteller and I can't wait for the next one!''Thank you again Emma Hornby for a captivating read''Another beautifully written story by Emma Hornby'

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Leading New Zealand and Australian children's authors not only tell the stories behind their books and share some of their writing secrets, they describe trends that influence what is being published now. Until the past decade or so, children in Australia and New Zealand grew up reading mostly books from Britain or the United States. Several of the authors explain why so few children's books were published in Australia and New Zealand before the 1980s and why children's book publishing is now a flourishing industry there. Each chapter features an informal presentation given to a group of American librarians, teachers, readers, and writers during a story tour of New Zealand and Australia. The reader will meet New Zealand authors Dorothy Butler, Tessa Duder, Gavin Bishop, and Margaret Mahy, and Australian authors Jeannie Baker, Robin Klein, Peter Gouldthorpe, John Marsden, and Ivan Southall. Overviews by Betty Gilderdale, professor of children's literature in New Zealand, and Mark MacLeod, children's publishing director for Random House Australia, set the stage for chapters about the authors.

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'Great is the Soviet Union, vast its territories, warm its entrails...' 1959. Whispers of dissidence are spreading in the U.S.S.R. Texts published in the West are circulating in samizdat, tormenting the secret police. Lieutenant Ivanov of the K.G.B, under pressure from his enraged superiors, is handed the case.Leads emerge, flare up, vanish. Years pass. 'Abram Tertz' publishes another short story, a new novel, mocking the competent authority. Shielded by his fierce wife Maria Vasilyevna Rozanova, Andrei Sinyavsky, one of the Soviet Union's most renowned and brilliant figures of resistance, waits in his wired apartment, drinking, sure his days as a free man are numbered.But as Rozanova continues to taunt Ivanov with her cheerful intransigence, a crisis of confidence opens up within the regime's resolve, causing the young lieutenant to wonder, 'are we actually as competent as we claim to be?''With the unique insight afforded by his mother, Rozanova, Gran pays remarkable homage to Andrei Sinyavsky, his father, reimagining the six long years leading up to his infamous arrest, trial and conviction. Framed within a riveting cat-and-mouse dynamic; irreverent and darkly comic, Gran balances a satirical lightness with deeper meditations on dogma and freedom of expression, state control and creative resistance, the ghosts of which, at a time when political criticism is being crushed once again, are as present today as ever before.

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Text in English and Italian. Ivano Gianola is one of the most important exponents of the so-called Ticino School. This developed in the early 1970s as a loose association of architects who thought in related ways. At the time, their ambition was to set radical alternatives of a powerfully symbolic nature against the increasing destruction of the environment by new building in Ticino. What made Gianola's buildings different from others of the Ticino School from the outset was the subtle way they were bound into their context, and their precise craftsmanship. The latter meant that building after building, especially in terms of interior finish and the coherence of all the details, became real total works of art. So it is hardly surprising that Gianola created the most beautiful living spaces in Ticino, in the best Artsand-Crafts tradition. This craft precision, combined with high formal and aesthetic values, was probably also crucial to the fact that in the 1990s Gianola was commissioned to design a series of public and private buildings abroad. Thus his conversions and new buildings for the Bayerische Vereinsbank in Schäfflerhof in Munich made a major contribution to the new concept for the well-known Fünf Höfe site. But Gianola's greatest success so far was winning an international competition for redesigning the extensive site around the ruins of the former 'Palace' luxury hotel in Lugano. Here a theatre seating over 1 200 people, a modern art museum, housing and offices, a municipal park and a new section of the lakeside promenade will be created over the next five years. This is the biggest project that the Canton of Ticino has ever awarded, and it will have found an appropriate architect. This first publication of the complete works of Gianola gives the latest of the leading protagonists of the Ticino School a monograph of his own.

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Graham Hettlinger's brilliant translations of Bunin's stories in Sunstroke (2002) were widely acclaimed. In The Elagin Affair, Mr. Hettlinger continues to acquaint English-language readers with a Bunin they may not have appreciated. Bunin's sensual, elaborate, and highly rhythmic prose has proven deeply resistant to earlier translations. In these new stories, Mr. Hettlinger captures both the music and the grace, as well as the literal meaning, of Bunin's renowned prose. The Elagin Affair contains three of the author's greatest novellas, the title piece, "Mitya's Love," and "Sukhodol" as well as a broad range of stories written between 1900 and 1940 and centered on themes of love, loss, and the Russian landscape, including several of Bunin's most haunting stories from his final collection, Dark Avenues. Praise for Sunstroke, Graham Hettlinger's first translations of Ivan Bunin: "Bunin is, unaccountably, the least translated of the great Russian writers (and his best work ranks with that of Turgenev and Chekhov). This splendid volume takes an important step toward righting a long-standing wrong."—Kirkus Reviews "Graham Hettlinger's new translation...gives us a Bunin startling in his vividness, sensuality, and restraint."—Virginia Quarterly Review "Vibrant...a fine introduction to Bunin's work and a reminder of its importance."—New York Sun

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Text in English & Italian. Ivano Gianola is one of the founding members of the so-called Ticino School. Like the other significant figures of this legendary school he is primarily concerned with urban-development and architectonic quality of building in the Canton of Ticino. The extensive uvre that has sprung from this concern has produced a plethora of intuitively designed, distinctive buildings. After more than ten years of planning and building, Gianola's most extensive project and at the same time the largest project of the Canton of Ticino to date is now open to the public. The new Cultural and Art Centre of Lugano is located directly on the shore of Lake Lugano. The spacious and spatially differentiated new building is an architectonic hybrid that combines a museum for contemporary art, a convention centre, various restaurants and cafés as well as a theatre under one roofscape. The theatre is not only equipped as an optimal venue for operas and theatrical performances, but can also be used as a concert hall or convention auditorium. Moreover the urban configuration of the new complex functions as a most convincing contemporary gateway to the largest city in Ticino. This Opus volume tries to decipher not only the obvious and hidden urban-planning aspects of this major project but also its multilayered formal esthetic and haptic connotations. Thereby the book pays tribute to a high point of contemporary Ticino architecture and to Ivano Gianola's late masterpiece.

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Early-nineteenth-century America experienced the first "wave" of immigration after Independence, when Germans, Irish, English, Scandinavians, and, on the West Coast, even Chinese began to arrive in significant numbers. These new settlers had a profound impact on such national developments as westward expansion, urban growth, industrialization, city and national politics, and the Civil War. James M. Bergquist's chronicle of the early immigrants' experiences describes where they came from, what their journey to America was like, and where they entered the new nation, and where they eventually settled. He highlights immigrant contributions to American life as well as their struggles to gain wider acceptance by the mainstream culture. The approach, similar to David Kyvig's highly successful Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1940 (published by Ivan R. Dee in 2004), presents history with an appealing immediacy, on a level that everyone can understand.

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Aleksey Peshkov overcame indigence, violence, and suicidal despair to become Maksim Gorky, one of the most widely read and influential writers of the twentieth century. Childhood, the first book in Gorky's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy, depicts his early years, when after his father's death he was taken to live in the home of his maternal grandfather, a violent and vindictive man who both provided the child with a rudimentary education and subjected him to savage beatings. With remarkable freshness and candor, Gorky immerses his reader in a young child's world, recreating in dynamic prose a boy's bewilderment at the senseless cruelty that surrounds him, his solace in the quiet beauty of the natural world, and his often funny, guileless observations of the many vivid characters who enter his early life. At the center of this story stands Gorky's grandmother, Akulina Kashirina, one of Russian literature's most remarkable heroines. Her tender love for her grandson serves as a vital antidote to the brutality that threatens to consume him. Her buoyant faith in a merciful, loving, but limited God provides the young Gorky with a life-affirming alternative to the vengeful, omniscient deity his grandfather worships ardently. Although often unsettling in its portrayal of the poverty and ignorance that gripped nineteenth-century Russia, Childhood is ultimately a heartening account of a young boy's formative struggle to overcome the limitations of a decaying and corrupt society, and the remarkable old woman who enabled him to succeed and instilled in him an abiding, fierce compassion for Russia's destitute and defenseless. Childhood is freshly and beautifully translated by Graham Hettlinger, lauded for his translations of Ivan Bunin.

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The poems in William Virgil Davis's Landscape and Journey constitute forays onto actual terrain—either close to home in Texas or farther off in Wales—as well as exploring what the poet Guy Davenport once called the geography of the imagination. A number of the poems here recount the closely observed details of journeys the poet has made, travels he has literally taken. At other times they tell of imaginary journeys—travels the poet would like to take or "travels" to places only "visible" in the mind's eye. Often Davis's elegant lyrics combine a bit of both. They take off from a particular painting or line of poetry—by Geoffrey Hill or Charles Tomlinson—and carry the reader beyond the surfaces of art to the very heart of things. His poems are, in this sense, like travelers sent out into the world to make their way, to survive and to endure. The New Criterion, which has published poetry since 1984, is recognized as one of the foremost contemporary venues for poetry with a regard for traditional meter and poetic form. The magazine was thus an early leader in that poetic renaissance that has come to be called the New Formalism. Building on its commitment to serious poetry, The New Criterion in 2000 established an annual poetry prize, which carries an award of $3,000. In 2001, Ivan R. Dee began publication of the annual New Criterion poetry prizewinner.

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A brilliant and original account of how Gorbachev's easing of information controls destroyed the illusions of communism and drove the Soviet system to ruin. Shane writes with such bracing authority, such startling insight, that Dismantling Utopia must be regarded as one of the essential works on the fall of the Soviet Union. —Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

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Toward the end of his career as a brilliant novelist, Turgenev turned his pen to the essays that comprise these Literary Reminiscences. Here he discusses the character of creative writing, the attitude of the artist to his environment, and the transmutation of the artist's experience into a work of art. He offers, as well, brilliant studies of Pushkin, Gogol, Belinsky, Lermontov, and Krylov, and a penetrating account of his own difficulties in writing Fathers and Sons. There are also descriptions of travels through Italy, simply and beautifully written pieces on country life, and eyewitness accounts of the 1848 political riots in Paris. David Magarshack has provided a first-class translation and has written an introduction which explains and sets the scene for each of the essays. "The best possible introduction to the author a reader could ask for....Turgenev is an uninsistent, lyric meditator, who sees with a precise eye wherever he looks, and whether he is drawing a bead on a quail or escaping from a burning ship, always asks the uncomfortable questions of himself."—New York Herald-Tribune.

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Carl Rollyson's Biography: A User's Guide is an informative and entertaining text for those interested in biography. No aspect of the genre, from A to Z, goes uncovered: issues around authorized and unauthorized biography, censorship, libel, fair use, public domain (referred to as "PD" by publishers and editors), and a great deal more-including examples drawn from published biographies, as well as general and specific assessments of the biographer's art. Mr. Rollyson demonstrates that biography has more dimensions than are generally gleaned from book reviews and academic discourse. In a lively and provocative style, he argues with other biographers and critics, avoiding the polite and vague tones of many reference books on the subject.

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Was J. Edgar Hoover a homosexual? And did organized-crime leaders, knowing this, blackmail the FBI director into leaving them alone? These charges won almost instant popular acceptance when they were aired in a sensational biography of Hoover in 1993. But Athan Theoharis, the foremost authority on Hoover and the FBI, here shows that the accusations are spurious—and not nearly as intriguing as Hoover's real attitudes toward sex and organized crime. Theoharis takes apart the argument for Hoover's homosexuality, then goes on to paint a chilling portrait of a moralistic bureaucrat who would not hesitate to use sex-related information against his political enemies—when it could not be traced to FBI investigations. Theoharis explains why the FBI's ineffectiveness in pursuing organized-crime leaders stemmed from the same political priorities that gave Hoover broad authority during the cold war years to use illegal investigative techniques and to focus on political activities. Punctuating his narrative with case materials from the FBI's secret files—on presidential candidates, senators, congressmen, artists and writers, college presidents, and others—Theoharis unravels the brilliantly devious means that Hoover used to accomplish his political ends. And he shows how they contributed to a culture of lawlessness within the FBI itself.

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Will Carroll, an acknowledged authority on baseball conditioning and injuries, calls for a scientific, reasoned approach to the steroids problem. He first explains the science of steroids and other drugs, describes how athletes are tested, considers the scientific evidence of effects and side effects, and, most important, analyzes whether and how these drugs impact the game.

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These artful new translations of nine of Schnitzler's most important stories and novellas reinforce the Viennese author's remarkable achievement.

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This new collection of essays by the author of Life at the Bottom bears the unmistakable stamp of Theodore Dalrymple's bracingly clearsighted view of the human condition. In these pieces, Dr. Dalrymple ranges over literature and ideas, from Shakespeare to Marx, from the breakdown of Islam to the legalization of drugs. Here is a book that restores our faith in the central importance of literature and criticism to our civilization. Theodore Dalrymple is the best doctor-writer since William Carlos Williams. —Peggy Noonan. Includes When Islam Breaks Down, named the best journal article of 2004 by David Brooks of the New York Times.

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