The Raw Shark Texts: A Novel
by Steven Hall

Paperback $14.00

From Publishers Weekly
Hall’s debut, the darling of last year’s London Book Fair, is a cerebral page-turner that pits corporeal man against metaphysical sharks that devour memory and essence, not flesh and blood. When Eric Sanderson wakes from a lengthy unconsciousness, he has no memory. A letter from “The First Eric Sanderson” directs him to psychologist Dr. Randle, who tells Eric he is afflicted with a “dissociative condition.” Eric learns about his former life—specifically a glorious romance with girlfriend Clio Aames, who drowned three years earlier—and is soon on the run from the Ludovician, a “species of purely conceptual fish” that “feeds on human memories and the intrinsic sense of self.” Once he hooks up with Scout, a young woman on the run from her own metaphysical predator, the two trek through a subterranean labyrinth made of telephone directories (masses of words offer protection, as do Dictaphone recordings), decode encrypted communications and encounter a series of strange characters on the way to the big-bang showdown with the beast. Though Hall’s prose is flabby and the plethora of text-based sight gags don’t always work (a 50-page flipbook of a swimming shark, for instance), the end result is a fast-moving cyberpunk mashup of Jaws, Memento and sappy romance that’s destined for the big screen.

Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think
by John L. Esposito & Dalia Mogahed

Hardcover $22.95

In a post-9/11 world, many Americans conflate the mainstream Muslim majority with the beliefs and actions of an extremist minority. But what do the world’s Muslims think about the West, or about democracy, or about extremism itself? Who Speaks for Islam? spotlights this silenced majority. The book is the product of a mammoth six-year study in which the Gallup Organization conducted tens of thousands of hour-long, face-to-face interviews with residents of more than 35 predominantly Muslim nations — urban and rural, young and old, men and women, educated and illiterate. It asks the questions everyone is curious about: Why is the Muslim world so anti-American? Who are the extremists? Is democracy something Muslims really want? What do Muslim women want? The answers to these and other pertinent, provocative questions are provided not by experts, extremists, or talking heads, but by empirical evidence — the voices of a billion Muslims.

Mountains and Rivers Without End: Poem     *New Edition
by Gary Snyder

Paperback $13.95

In simple, striking verse, legendary poet Gary Snyder weaves an epic discourse on the topics of geology, prehistory, and mythology. First published in 1996, this landmark work encompasses Asian artistic traditions, as well as Native American storytelling and Zen Buddhist philosophy, and celebrates the disparate elements of the Earth — sky, rock, water — while exploring the human connection to nature with stunning wisdom. Winner of the Bollingen Poetry Prize, the Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Orion Society’s John Hay Award, among others, Gary Snyder finds his quiet brilliance celebrated in this new edition of one of his most treasured works.

The Betrayal of Africa
by Gerald Caplan

Paperback $10.00

In the wealthy West, it’s assumed that Africa is the problem and we are the solution. This timely book argues the opposite. Though couched in benevolent terms, Western policies in fact have for decades helped fuel the continent’s devastating decline. Every year, far more of Africa’s riches flow out to the rich world than we plough into Africa. In this systematic process of exploitation, explains author Gerald Caplan, first-world leaders work in happy harmony with African despots to wreak havoc on their nations and peoples. The Betrayal of Africa explains its historical background, the contemporary situation, and how a conflation of elements — China’s bold new presence in Africa, an active and angry civil society demanding government reform, and fresh leadership — is creating the possibility for positive change. Using simple, lucid language, the book helps Western readers understand what they can do to remedy a complex, increasingly dire situation that affects us all.

An Actor’s Work: A Student’s Diary
by Konstantin Stanislavski, translated by Jean Benedetti

Hardcover $35.00 - 10%

Stanislavski’s ‘system’ has dominated actor-training in the West since his writings were first translated into English in the 1920s and 30s. His systematic attempt to outline a psycho-physical technique for acting single-handedly revolutionised standards of acting in the theatre.

Until now, readers and students have had to contend with inaccurate, misleading and difficult-to-read English-language versions. Some of the mistranslations have resulted in profound distortions in the way his system has been interpreted and taught. At last, Jean Benedetti has succeeded in translating Stanislavski’s huge manual into a lively, fascinating and accurate text in English. He has remained faithful to the author’s original intentions, putting the two books previously known as An Actor Prepares and Building A Character back together into one volume, and in a colloquial and readable style for today’s actors.

The result is a major contribution to the theatre, and a service to one of the great innovators of the twentieth century.

The Secret of Lost Things
by Sheridan Hay

Paperback $14.95

In this charming novel about the eccentricities and passions of booksellers and collectors, a captivating young Australian woman takes a job at a vast, chaotic emporium of used and rare books in New York City and finds herself caught up in the search for a lost Melville manuscript.

Eighteen years old and completely alone, Rosemary arrives in New York from Tasmania with little more than her love of books and an eagerness to explore the city she’s read so much about. She begins her memorable search for independence with appealing enthusiasm, and the moment she steps into the Arcade bookstore, she knows she has found a home. The gruff owner, Mr. Pike, gives her a job sorting through huge piles of books and helping the rest of the staff—a group as odd and idiosyncratic as the characters in a Dickens novel. There’s Pearl, the loving, motherly transsexual who runs the cash register; Oscar, who organizes the nonfiction section and shares his extensive, eclectic knowledge with Rosemary, but furiously rejects her attempts at a more personal relationship; and Arthur Pick, who supervises the art section and demonstrates a particular interest in photography books featuring naked men.

The store manager, Walter Geist, is an albino, a lonely figure even within the world of the Arcade. When Walter’s eyesight begins to fail, Rosemary becomes his assistant. And so it is Rosemary who first reads the letter from someone seeking to “place” a lost manuscript by Herman Melville. Mentioned in Melville’s personal correspondence but never published, the work is of inestimable value, and proof of its existence brings the simmering ambitions and rivalries of the Arcade staff to a boiling point.

Including actual correspondence by Melville, The Secret of Lost Things is at once a literary adventure that captures the excitement of discovering a long-lost manuscript by a towering American writer and an evocative portrait of life in a surprisingly colorful bookstore.

Cubist Picasso: 1960-1925
by Anne Baldassari, with contributors Irving Lavin, Leo Steinberg, Pierre DaixPepe Karmel

Hardcover $95.00 - 10%

In the world of art, Cubism was nothing less than revolutionary, representing a paradigm shift in the way artists perceived the world, and incontestably one of the most influential movements in art history. To celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of Picasso’s seminal work Les Demoiselles d’Avigon, leading Picasso scholars and art historians assess its legacy and the extraordinary influence of Picasso’s Cubism on the development of twentieth-century art.

The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World
by Joshua Prager

Paperback $15.95

From Publishers Weekly
October 3, 1951, 3:58 p.m., Polo Grounds, New York City: “Branca throws. There’s a long drive. It’s gonna be, I believe—the Giants win the pennant!” That’s the way New York Giants’ announcer Russ Hodges described what is arguably the greatest moment in American sports, the shot “heard round the world,” as the Giants defeated the Dodgers to win the National League pennant. Prager, a senior special writer at the Wall Street Journal, has written a brilliant narrative not only about the most famous homerun in baseball history but also about the mystery that haunts it. Americans love a conspiracy, be it the grassy-knoll variety or perhaps a more innocuous one, like the stealing of baseball signs. For that is at the crux of this book: did the Giants know what the Dodger pitchers were going to throw before they threw it? (It should be pointed out that there is no baseball rule prohibiting stealing the opposing team’s signs.) Prager, who first broke this story for the Wall Street Journal in 2001, tells a tale worthy of a “Deep Throat.” The sign heist was ingeniously simple—all that was involved was a telescope, a buzzer and an isolated bullpen catcher.The baseball story is exciting, but Prager concentrates on what happened to the protagonists: Ralph Branca, the pitcher, forever branded a loser; Bobby Thomson, the phlegmatic gentleman, equally haunted by his heroics. We see the change in Branca when he learns the truth years later from Sal Yvars and the bitterness it engendered toward Thomson, a God-fearing man uncomfortable with his legal cheating. Finally we see a reconciliation between old adversaries, who became business partners, lucratively exploiting their infamy, becoming friends along the way.Although Prager does have a tendency to overpsychoanalyze both ballplayers, he paints a marvelous portrait of New York City baseball in the tradition of The Boys of Summer and Summer of ‘49, bringing to life once again a genuine piece of Americana.