Random House New Releases - Literary Criticism & Collections

Inseparable by Emma Donoghue

2010-05-25T00:30:00-05:00

Inseparable Desire Between Women in Literature
Written by Emma Donoghue

Hardcover, 304 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism & Collections - Gay & Lesbian | $27.95 | 978-0-307-27094-8 (0-307-27094-7)

From the much-admired literary critic, novelist, and scholar—a book that illuminates the long-standing but little-known tradition of love between women in English and other Western literature from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Chaucer and Shakespeare, Coleridge and Charlotte Brontë, Dickens and Diderot, Agatha Christie and Lillian Hellman—writers of every age have addressed the “unspeakable subject” of one woman’s passion for another, questioning whether such desire is freakish or omnipresent, holy or evil, heartwarming or ridiculous. Now Emma Donoghue brings to bear all of her celebrated erudition and wry insight on the theme of desire between women—from schoolgirls to vampires to runaway wives; from cross-dressing knights to contemporary murderers. She writes about the half-dozen contrasting girl-girl plots that have been retold over the centuries, and explores how they have changed from generation to generation and how all the writers, acutely aware of the potential dangers of the subject, did their best to veil what they were writing about even as they exploited its appeal.

A brilliant, witty, and revelatory book that restores an age-old literary tradition to its rightful place in our cultural history.

Inseparable by Emma Donoghue

2010-05-25T00:30:00-05:00

Inseparable Desire Between Women in Literature
Written by Emma Donoghue

eBook, 304 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism & Collections - Gay & Lesbian | $27.95 | 978-0-307-59361-0 (0-307-59361-4)

Making an Elephant by Graham Swift

2010-05-04T00:30:00-05:00

Making an Elephant Writing from Within
Written by Graham Swift

Trade Paperback, 416 pages | Vintage | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs; Literary Criticism & Collections - Books & Reading | $16.95 | 978-0-307-45575-8 (0-307-45575-0)

In his first-ever work of nonfiction, the Booker Prize–winning author of such acclaimed novels as Waterland and Last Orders gives us a highly personal book: a singular and open-spirited account of a writer’s life.

As generous in its scope as it is acute in its observations, Making an Elephant brings together a richly varied selection of essays, portraits, poetry and interviews, full of insights into Graham Swift’s passions and motivations, and wise about the friends, family and other writers who have mattered to him over the years. Kazuo Ishiguro advises on how to choose a guitar; Salman Rushdie arrives for Christmas under guard; Caryl Phillips shares a beer with the author at a nightclub in Toronto. There are private moments with his father and with his own younger self, as well as musings on history, memory and imagination that illuminate the work of a writer who, in his fiction, regards it as “a mark of achievement” when his own voice and presence vanish into his characters.

A journey through place and time, conversation, encounters and ideas, Making an Elephant brims with charm and candor, an alertness to experience and a true engagement with words—in short, with what it means to believe that writing and reading are an essential part of living.

From the Hardcover edition.

2013 by Richard Grossinger

2010-04-06T00:30:00-05:00

2013 Raising the Earth to the Next Vibration
Written by Richard Grossinger

Trade Paperback, 416 pages | North Atlantic Books | Body, Mind & Spirit - New Thought; Literary Criticism & Collections - Essays; Religion - Spirituality | $15.95 | 978-1-55643-878-3 (1-55643-878-8)

For the Earth to move to the next vibration, says Richard Grossinger, consciousness must change in profound ways, and these involve core elements of humanity: evil, grief, bliss, and compassion. 2013 locates these elements in often unlikely places and seeks their nature and capacity for change. With playfulness and precision, 2013 tackles the questions of creation and existence in their twenty-first-century incarnation. In these intellectual field notes, the author’s absorbing style combines memoir with scientific deconstruction, metaphysical ontology, and experimental prose that recalls the Black Mountain school to draw transcendental insight from the ephemeral space-time we call daily life. Moving with equal ease between matters cosmic and earthly, Grossinger details existence as an exhilarating adventure always pushing us toward a higher state in this wide-ranging, humorous, and heartfelt book. Including an informal course in psychic development, 2013 sheds light on the ephemera of planets and iPods, politics and Zen, Buddy Holly and road trips in its study of the elements of psychic development that could transform humankind and the Earth.

Poets in a Landscape by Michael Putnam

2010-03-23T00:30:00-05:00

Poets in a Landscape
Written by Gilbert Highet
Introduction by Michael Putnam

Trade Paperback, 296 pages | NYRB Classics | Literary Criticism & Collections - Poetry; Poetry - Ancient, Classical & Medieval | $17.95 | 978-1-59017-338-1 (1-59017-338-4)

Gilbert Highet was a legendary teacher at Columbia University, admired for his scholarship and his charisma as a lecturer. Poets in a Landscape is his delightful exploration of both Latin literature and the Italian landscape. As Highet writes in his introduction, “I have endeavored to recall some of the greatest Roman poets by describing the places were they lived, recreating their characters and evoking the essence of their work.” The poets are Catullus, Vergil, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, and Juvenal. Highet sketches the stories of the poets’ lives and fills in the historical background, while offering crisp modern translations of their finest work and memorably vivid descriptions of the natural world. The result is an entirely sui generis amalgam of travel writing, biography, criticism, and pure poetry—altogether an unexcelled introduction to the world of the classics.

Poetry in Person by Alexander Neubauer

2010-03-16T00:30:00-05:00

Poetry in Person Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America's Poets
Edited by Alexander Neubauer

Hardcover, 368 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism & Collections - Belles Lettres | $27.95 | 978-0-307-26967-6 (0-307-26967-1)

“In the fall of 1970, at the New School in Greenwich Village, a new teacher posted a flyer on the wall,” begins Alexander Neubauer’s introduction to this remarkable book. “It read ‘Meet Poets and Poetry, with Pearl London and Guests.’” Few students responded. No one knew Pearl London, the daughter of M. Lincoln Schuster, cofounder of Simon & Schuster. But the seminar’s first guests turned out to be John Ashbery, Adrienne Rich, and Robert Creely. Soon W. S. Merwin followed, then Mark Strand and Galway Kinnell.

London invited poets to bring their drafts to class, to discuss their work in progress and the details of vision and revision that brought a poem to its final version. From Maxine Kumin in 1973 to Eamon Grennan in 1996, including Amy Clampitt, Marilyn Hacker, Paul Muldoon, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, and U.S. poet laureates Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, Louise Glück, and Charles Simic, the book follows an extraordinary range of poets as they create their poems and offers numerous illustrations of the original drafts, which bring their processes to light. With James Merrill, London discusses autobiography and subterfuge; with Galway Kinnell, his influential notion that the new nature poem must include the city and not exclude man; with June Jordan, “Poem in Honor of South African Women” and the question of political poetry and its uses. Published here for the first time, the conversations are intimate, funny, irreverent, and deeply revealing. Many of the drafts under discussion—Robert Hass’s “Meditation at Lagunitas,” Edward Hirsch’s “Wild Gratitude,” Robert Pinsky’s “The Want Bone”—turned into seminal works in the poets’ careers.

There has never been a gathering like Poetry in Person, which brings us a wealth of understanding and unparalleled access to poets and their drafts, unraveling how a great poem is actually made.

Thoreau and the Art of Life by Roderick MacIver

2010-03-16T00:30:00-05:00

Thoreau and the Art of Life Reflections on Nature and the Mystery of Existence
Written by Henry David Thoreau
Edited by Roderick MacIver
Illustrated by Roderick MacIver

Trade Paperback, 116 pages | North Atlantic Books | Nature - Essays; Literary Criticism & Collections - Essays | $16.95 | 978-1-55643-883-7 (1-55643-883-4)

Featuring nearly 100 luminous watercolor illustrations, Thoreau and the Art of Life collects eloquent passages from the writings of the seminal author and philosopher. Drawn mainly from his journals, the short excerpts provide fascinating insight into his thought processes by presenting his raw, unedited feelings about the things that meant the most to him. The book reflects Thoreau’s deep beliefs and ideas about nature, relationships, creativity, spirituality, aging, simplicity, and wisdom. By eloquently expressing his thoughts about life and what gives it value, he leads the reader to a closer examination of life. Thoreau’s work asks us to live our own truths with joy and discipline and to recognize that we live in a universe of extraordinary beauty, mystery, and wonder.

An avid reader of Thoreau, editor and illustrator Roderick MacIver organized the passages by themes: love and friendship; art, creativity, and writing; aging, disease, and death; human society and culture; nature and the human connection to the natural world; and wisdom, truth, solitude, and simplicity. The book includes a chronology and brief biography. Thoreau’s words of wisdom combined with MacIver’s vivid illustrations of the American landscape will resonate with nature enthusiasts and a broad range of readers interested in art, environmentalism, literature, and philosophy.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

2010-03-09T00:30:00-05:00

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes
Written by David Grann

eBook, 304 pages | Doubleday | Literary Criticism & Collections | $26.95 | 978-0-385-53316-4 (0-385-53316-0)

Acclaimed New Yorker writer and author of the breakout debut bestseller The Lost City of Z, David Grann offers a collection of spellbinding narrative journalism.

Whether he’s reporting on the infiltration of the murderous Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system, tracking down a chameleon con artist in Europe, or riding in a cyclone- tossed skiff with a scientist hunting the elusive giant squid, David Grann revels in telling stories that explore the nature of obsession and that piece together true and unforgettable mysteries.

Each of the dozen stories in this collection reveals a hidden and often dangerous world and, like Into Thin Air and The Orchid Thief, pivots around the gravitational pull of obsession and the captivating personalities of those caught in its grip. There is the world’s foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes who is found dead in mysterious circumstances; an arson sleuth trying to prove that a man about to be executed is innocent; and sandhogs racing to complete the brutally dangerous job of building New York City’s water tunnels before the old system collapses. Throughout, Grann’s hypnotic accounts display the power—and often the willful perversity—of the human spirit.

Compulsively readable, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant mosaic of ambition, madness, passion, and folly.

From the Hardcover edition.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

2010-03-09T00:30:00-05:00

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
Written by David Grann

Unabridged Compact Disc | Random House Audio | Literary Criticism & Collections | $35.00 | 978-0-307-73457-0 (0-307-73457-9)

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

2010-03-09T00:30:00-05:00

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
Written by David Grann

Unabridged Audiobook Download | Random House Audio | Literary Criticism & Collections | $17.50 | 978-0-307-73458-7 (0-307-73458-7)

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

2010-03-09T00:30:00-05:00

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
Written by David Grann

Hardcover, 352 pages | Doubleday | Literary Criticism & Collections | $26.95 | 978-0-385-51792-8 (0-385-51792-0)

Travelling Heroes by Robin Lane Fox

2010-03-09T00:30:00-05:00

Travelling Heroes In the Epic Age of Homer
Written by Robin Lane Fox

Trade Paperback, 496 pages | Vintage | History - Ancient - Greece; Literary Criticism & Collections - Ancient & Classical | $17.00 | 978-0-679-76386-4 (0-679-76386-4)

The eighth century B.C. was the formative age of the great epics of Homer, a remote and, in some ways, mysterious era. In this groundbreaking book, Robin Lane Fox takes us into that time before history to explore questions ranging from the origins of the Greek gods to the spread of classical culture in the Mediterranean world. It is a remarkable tour de force of scholarship and creative reasoning, written with flair and the authority gained from a lifetime of study and personal experience of key sites.

Presented as a kind of historical detective story, Travelling Heroes draws upon archaeology, ancient texts, and new discoveries to develop a fresh and provocative thesis: that migrants from in the Greek island of Euboea settled in specific places both in the Near East and in Italy and that what they found there helped shape their most distinctive myths. In fascinating detail, Lane Fox describes the journeys of the travellers and the contacts they made with Phoenicians, Assyrians, and the people of north Cyprus and Syria, and he shows the way they drew themes—and even references to particular topographic features—into what would become the classic stories of gods and legend. He also offers new insights into Homer himself.

Robin Lane Fox is probably the most widely read historian of the ancient Greek world, and Travelling Heroes displays the same lively originality that marked his writing about the Bible in The Unauthorized Version and about the triumph of Christianity in Pagans and Christians. Learned but never dry, controversial but soundly based, it brings a distant and nearly forgotten time brilliantly to life again.

From the Hardcover edition.

Reality Hunger by David Shields

2010-02-23T00:30:00-05:00

Reality Hunger A Manifesto
Written by David Shields

Hardcover, 240 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism & Collections - Essays | $23.95 | 978-0-307-27353-6 (0-307-27353-9)

An open call for new literary and other art forms to match the complexities of the twenty-first century.

Reality TV dominates broadband. YouTube and Facebook dominate the web. In Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, his landmark new book, David Shields (author of the New York Times best seller The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead) argues that our culture is obsessed with “reality” precisely because we experience hardly any.

Most artistic movements are attempts to figure out a way to smuggle more of what the artist thinks is reality into the work of art. So, too, every artistic movement or moment needs a credo, from Horace’s Ars Poetica to Lars von Trier’s “Vow of Chastity.” Shields has written the ars poetica for a burgeoning group of interrelated but unconnected artists in a variety of forms and media who, living in an unbearably manufactured and artificial world, are striving to stay open to the possibility of randomness, accident, serendipity, spontaneity; actively courting reader/listener/viewer participation, artistic risk, emotional urgency; breaking larger and larger chunks of “reality” into their work; and, above all, seeking to erase any distinction between fiction and nonfiction.

The questions Reality Hunger explores—the bending of form and genre, the lure and blur of the real—play out constantly all around us. Think of the now endless controversy surrounding the provenance and authenticity of the “real”: A Million Little Pieces, the Obama “Hope” poster, the sequel to The Catcher in the Rye, Robert Capa’s “The Falling Soldier” photograph, the boy who wasn’t in the balloon. Reality Hunger is a rigorous and radical attempt to reframe how we think about “truthiness,” literary license, quotation, appropriation.

Drawing on myriad sources, Shields takes an audacious stance on issues that are being fought over now and will be fought over far into the future. People will either love or hate this book. Its converts will see it as a rallying cry; its detractors will view it as an occasion for defending the status quo. It is certain to be one of the most controversial and talked-about books of the year.

Reality Hunger by David Shields

2010-02-23T00:30:00-05:00

Reality Hunger
Written by David Shields

eBook, 240 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism & Collections - Essays | $23.95 | 978-0-307-59323-8 (0-307-59323-1)

How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger

2010-02-16T00:30:00-05:00

How the Heather Looks A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books
Written by Joan Bodger

Trade Paperback, 264 pages | Emblem Editions | Travel - Europe - Great Britain; Literary Criticism & Collections - Children's Literature | $16.50 | 978-0-7710-1129-0 (0-7710-1129-6)

Over forty years ago, Joan Bodger, her husband, and two children went to Britain on a very special family quest. They were seeking the world that they knew and loved through children’s books.

In Winnie-the-Pooh Country, Mrs. Milne showed them the way to “that enchanted place on the top of the Forest [where] a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” In Edinburgh they stood outside Robert Louis Stevenson’s childhood home, tilting their heads to talk to a lamplighter who was doing his job. In the Lake District they visited Jemima Puddle-Duck’s farm, and Joan sought out crusty Arthur Ransome to talk to him about Swallows and Amazons. They spent several days “messing about in boats” on the River Thames, looking for Toad Hall and other places described by Kenneth Grahame in The Wind in the Willows. Mud and flood kept them from attaining the slopes of Pook’s Hill (on Rudyard Kipling’s farm), but they scaled the heights of Tintagel. As in all good fairy tales, there were unanswered questions. Did they really find Camelot? Robin Hood, as always, remains elusive.

One thing is certain. Joan Bodger brings alive again the magic of the stories we love to remember. She persuades us that, like Emily Dickinson, even if we “have never seen a moor,” we can imagine “how the heather looks.”

First published in 1965 by Viking in New York, How the Heather Looks has become a prized favorite among knowledgeable lovers of children’s literature. Precious, well-thumbed copies have been lent out with caution and reluctance, while new admirers have gone searching in vain for copies to buy second-hand. This handsome reprint, with a new Afterword by Joan Bodger, makes a unique and delightful classic available once more.

From the Hardcover edition.

"Dearest Georg": Love, Literature, and Power in Dark Times by Kristian Wachinger

2010-02-02T00:30:00-05:00

"Dearest Georg": Love, Literature, and Power in Dark Times The Letters of Elias, Veza, and Georges Canetti, 1933-1948
Written by Veza Canetti and Elias Canetti
Edited by Karen Lauer and Kristian Wachinger

Hardcover, 448 pages | Other Press | Literary Criticism & Collections | $24.95 | 978-1-59051-297-5 (1-59051-297-9)

In 1934, Veza Taubner and Elias Canetti were married in Vienna. Elias describes the arrangement to his brother Georges as a “functional” marriage. Meanwhile, an intense intellectual love affair develops between Veza and Georges, a young doctor suffering fromtuberculosis. Four years later, Veza and Elias flee Nazi-ruled Vienna to London, where they lead an impoverished and extremely complicated marital life in exile.
Spanning the major part of Elias’s struggle for literary recognition, from 1933, before the publication of his novel, Auto-da-Fé, to 1959, when he finished his monumental Crowds and Power, the Canetti letters provide an intimate look at these formative years through the prism of a veritable love triangle: the newly married Elias has a string of lovers; his wife, Veza, is hopelessly in love with an idealized image of his youngest brother, Georges; and Georges is drawn to good looking men as well as to his motherly sister-in-law. Independently and often secretly, the couple communicates with Georges, who lives in Paris: Veza tells of Elias’s amorous escapades and bouts of madness, Elias complains about Veza’s poor nerves and depression. Each of them worries about Georges’s health–if she could, Veza would kiss away the germs. Georges is an infrequent correspondent, but he diligently stores away the letters from his brother and sister-in-law. In 2003, long after his death, they were accidentally discovered in a Paris basement and comprise not only a moving and insightful document, but real literature.

A Jury of Her Peers by Elaine Showalter

2010-01-12T00:30:00-05:00

A Jury of Her Peers Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx
Written by Elaine Showalter

Trade Paperback, 608 pages | Vintage | Literary Criticism & Collections - Women Authors; Literary Criticism & Collections - American | $16.95 | 978-1-4000-3442-0 (1-4000-3442-6)

An unprecedented literary landmark: the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to the present.

In a narrative of immense scope and fascination, here are more than 250 female writers, including the famous—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Connor, and Toni Morrison, among others—and the little known, from the early American bestselling novelist Catherine Sedgwick to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell. Showalter integrates women’s contributions into our nation’s literary heritage with brilliance and flair, making the case for the unfairly overlooked and putting the overrated firmly in their place.

Best African American Essays 2010 by Gerald Early

2009-12-29T00:30:00-05:00

Best African American Essays 2010
Written by Gerald Early

Trade Paperback, 400 pages | One World/Ballantine | Literary Criticism & Collections - American - African-American | $16.00 | 978-0-553-38537-3 (0-553-38537-2)

Here is the superb second edition of the annual anthology devoted to the best nonfiction writing by African American authors—provocative works from an unprecedented and unforgettable year when truth was stranger (and more inspiring) than fiction.

The galvanizing election of Barack Obama was on the minds—and the pages—of authors everywhere. Best African American Essays 2010 features the insights of writers from Juan Williams to Kelefa Sanneh and even Obama himself (his seminal speech on race is included here in its entirety). Ta-Nehisi Coates, in The Nation, proclaims that the president has "redefined blackness for white America," while Adolph Reed, Jr., in The Progressive, calls him a "vacuous opportunist" and Colson Whitehead, in The New York Times, lightheartedly revels in the election of "someone who looked like me . . . slim." The First Lady is considered, too, as Lauren Collins, in The New Yorker, assesses the radical quality of Michelle Obama's very normalcy.

But Best African American Essays 2010 goes beyond the Obamas with brilliant pieces from such writers as Hua Hsu, who declares the end of white America in "a new cultural mainstream which prizes diversity above all else"; Henry Louis Gates, who researches his family tree, adding to the "young discipline" that is African American history; and Jelani Cobb, who dares to defend George W. Bush. There are thoughtful and heartfelt tributes to living legends, including Bill Cosby (and an analysis of his famous "pound cake" speech, which promoted black responsibility, empowerment, and self-esteem), and remembrances of those who have passed, including Miriam Makeba, Isaac Hayes, Eartha Kitt, and Michael Jackson.

Selected by guest editor Randall Kennedy, a leading intellectual and legal scholar, the wide-ranging pieces in Best African American Essays 2010 comprise a thrilling collection that anyone who wishes to understand the meaning of the new America must own.

Best African American Essays 2010 by Gerald Early

2009-12-29T00:30:00-05:00

Best African American Essays 2010
Written by Gerald Early

Hardcover, 400 pages | One World/Ballantine | Literary Criticism & Collections - American - African-American | $25.00 | 978-0-553-80692-2 (0-553-80692-0)

Here is the superb second edition of the annual anthology devoted to the best nonfiction writing by African American authors—provocative works from an unprecedented and unforgettable year when truth was stranger (and more inspiring) than fiction.

The galvanizing election of Barack Obama was on the minds—and the pages—of authors everywhere. Best African American Essays 2010 features the insights of writers from Juan Williams to Kelefa Sanneh and even Obama himself (his seminal speech on race is included here in its entirety). Ta-Nehisi Coates, in The Nation, proclaims that the president has "redefined blackness for white America," while Adolph Reed, Jr., in The Progressive, calls him a "vacuous opportunist" and Colson Whitehead, in The New York Times, lightheartedly revels in the election of "someone who looked like me . . . slim." The First Lady is considered, too, as Lauren Collins, in The New Yorker, assesses the radical quality of Michelle Obama's very normalcy.

But Best African American Essays 2010 goes beyond the Obamas with brilliant pieces from such journals as The Washington Post and The Atlantic, in which Hua Hsu declares the end of white America in "a new cultural mainstream which prizes diversity above all else"; Henry Louis Gates researches his family tree, adding to the "young discipline" that is Africann American history; and Jelani Cobb dares to defend George W. Bush. There are thoughtful and heartfelt tributes to living legends, including Bill Cosby (and an analysis of his famous "pound cake" speech, which promoted black responsibility, empowerment, and self-esteem), and remembrances of those who have passed, including Miriam Makeba, Isaac Hayes, Eartha Kitt, and Michael Jackson.

Selected by guest editor Randall Kennedy, a leading intellectual and legal scholar, the wide-ranging pieces in Best African American Essays 2010 comprise a thrilling collection that anyone who wishes to understand the meaning of the new America must own.

Best African American Fiction 2010 by Gerald Early

2009-12-29T00:30:00-05:00

Best African American Fiction 2010
Written by Gerald Early

Trade Paperback, 336 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction - Anthologies (multiple authors); Literary Criticism & Collections - African-American & Black | $16.00 | 978-0-553-38535-9 (0-553-38535-6)

Bursting with energy and innovation, the second volume in the annual anthology collects the year's best short stories by African American authors.

Dealing with all aspects of life from the pain of war to the warmth of family, the superb tales in Best African American Fiction 2010 are a tribute to the stunning imaginations thriving in today's African American literary community. Chosen by this year's guest editor, the legendary Nikki Giovanni, these works delve into international politics and personal histories, the clash of armies and of generations—and come from such publications as The New Yorker, Harper's, The Kenyon Review, and Callaloo.

In "Ghosts," Edwidge Danticat portrays an aspiring radio talk show host in Bel Air—which some call the Baghdad of Haiti—who is brutally scapegoated, and in "Three Letters, One Song & a Refrain," Chris Abani gives a searing account of the violent life of a thirteen-year-old member of a Burmese hill tribe. Jeffery Renard Allen dramatizes the mysterious arrival in Harlem of a child's hated grandmother, and Wesley Brown fictionalizes the life of the great saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, with cameo appearances by Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and other immortals. John Edgar Wideman contributes dense and textured "Microstories" that interweave everything from taboo sex acts to Richard Wright's last works to murder in a modern family. Desiree Cooper depicts a debutante from Atlanta moving to Detroit, "a city where there's no place to hide," while in "Been Meaning to Say" by Amina Gautier, a widower gets an unforgettable holiday visit from his resentful daughter.

From Africa to Philadelphia, from the era of segregation to the age of Obama, the times and places, people and events in Best African American Fiction 2010 reveal inconvenient truths through incomparable fiction.

Random House New Releases - Literary Criticism & Collections

Inseparable by Emma Donoghue

Inseparable Desire Between Women in LiteratureWritten by Emma Donoghue

Inseparable by Emma Donoghue

Inseparable Desire Between Women in LiteratureWritten by Emma Donoghue

Making an Elephant by Graham Swift

Making an Elephant Writing from WithinWritten by Graham Swift

2013 by Richard Grossinger

2013 Raising the Earth to the Next VibrationWritten by Richard Grossinger

Poets in a Landscape by Michael Putnam

Poets in a Landscape Written by Gilbert Highet Introduction by Michael Putnam

Poetry in Person by Alexander Neubauer

Poetry in Person Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America's PoetsEdited by Alexander Neubauer

Thoreau and the Art of Life by Roderick MacIver

Thoreau and the Art of Life Reflections on Nature and the Mystery of ExistenceWritten by Henry David Thoreau Edited by Roderick MacIver Illustrated by Roderick MacIver

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Written by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and ObsessionWritten by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and ObsessionWritten by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and ObsessionWritten by David Grann

Travelling Heroes by Robin Lane Fox

Travelling Heroes In the Epic Age of HomerWritten by Robin Lane Fox

Reality Hunger by David Shields

Reality Hunger A ManifestoWritten by David Shields

Reality Hunger by David Shields

Reality Hunger Written by David Shields

How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger

How the Heather Looks A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's BooksWritten by Joan Bodger

"Dearest Georg": Love, Literature, and Power in Dark Times by Kristian Wachinger

"Dearest Georg": Love, Literature, and Power in Dark Times The Letters of Elias, Veza, and Georges Canetti, 1933-1948Written by Veza Canetti and Elias Canetti Edited by Karen Lauer and Kristian Wachinger

A Jury of Her Peers by Elaine Showalter

A Jury of Her Peers Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie ProulxWritten by Elaine Showalter

Best African American Essays 2010 by Gerald Early

Best African American Essays 2010 Written by Gerald Early

Best African American Essays 2010 by Gerald Early

Best African American Essays 2010 Written by Gerald Early

Best African American Fiction 2010 by Gerald Early

Best African American Fiction 2010 Written by Gerald Early

Inseparable Desire Between Women in Literature
Written by Emma Donoghue

Inseparable Desire Between Women in Literature
Written by Emma Donoghue

Making an Elephant Writing from Within
Written by Graham Swift

2013 Raising the Earth to the Next Vibration
Written by Richard Grossinger

Poets in a Landscape
Written by Gilbert Highet
Introduction by Michael Putnam

Poetry in Person Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America's Poets
Edited by Alexander Neubauer

Thoreau and the Art of Life Reflections on Nature and the Mystery of Existence
Written by Henry David Thoreau
Edited by Roderick MacIver
Illustrated by Roderick MacIver

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes
Written by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
Written by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
Written by David Grann

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
Written by David Grann

Travelling Heroes In the Epic Age of Homer
Written by Robin Lane Fox

Reality Hunger A Manifesto
Written by David Shields

Reality Hunger
Written by David Shields

How the Heather Looks A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books
Written by Joan Bodger

"Dearest Georg": Love, Literature, and Power in Dark Times The Letters of Elias, Veza, and Georges Canetti, 1933-1948
Written by Veza Canetti and Elias Canetti
Edited by Karen Lauer and Kristian Wachinger

A Jury of Her Peers Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx
Written by Elaine Showalter

Best African American Essays 2010
Written by Gerald Early

Best African American Essays 2010
Written by Gerald Early

Best African American Fiction 2010
Written by Gerald Early