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Civilization can build bridges and barriers at the same time…<

She has been hailed by Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction” and by Neil Gaiman as “a national treasure.” Now Kelly Link’s eagerly awaited new collection — her first for adult readers in a decade — proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have.

Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The nine exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In “The Summer People,” a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In “I Can See Right Through You,” a middle-aged movie star makes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In “The New Boyfriend,” a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-size animated doll.

Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, superheroes, the Pyramids. . These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty — and the hidden strengths — of human beings. In this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.

Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government there is… except for all the rest.”<

ABBIAMO BISOGNO DI ALTRE LENTI PER MIGLIORARE LA VISTA SUL MONDO E PER VEDERE LA LUCE. UN ROMANZO PER NON RESTARE INDIFFERENTI«Poetico, coinvolgente, lancinante.»The Times«Un libro ambizioso e importante... un racconto morale, che segue gli eventi attraverso gli occhi di un ottico ordinario, mai nominato nel testo e che quindi potrebbe essere ognuno di noi... Emma Jane Kirby ci sfida a fare, più che a piangere.»The Observer«La cronaca romanzata del tragico incontro di un uomo con la crisi dei migranti in Europa - una storia vera che dà una nuova prospettiva a eventi che sono spesso difficili da visualizzare.»Financial TimesCarmine di mestiere fa l’ottico, ha cinquant’anni e vive sull’isola di Lampedusa. Ha scelto di vivere nella meravigliosa isola incastonata nel Mediterraneo per la sua pace, per il mare bellissimo, blu cobalto, in cui nuotano i delfini. Carmine potrebbe essere ognuno di noi: ha la sua vita, si preoccupa del futuro dei figli ormai grandi, si tiene in forma facendo jogging, ha un’attività ormai avviata, degli amici, insomma una vita tranquilla e solida nella calma di questa terra tra la Sicilia e l’Africa. Sì, certo, anche qui qualcosa è cambiato, i turisti, i resti dei barconi abbandonati, i sacchetti di plastica che svolazzano, quei gruppetti di africani che vede camminare stancamente sulle strade dell’isola, autobus che ormai quasi ogni giorno escono dal porto stipati di migranti appena sbarcati, e poi tv e giornali traboccano di notizie di annegamenti e naufragi. Meglio non pensarci. Ma quel 3 ottobre del 2013 Carmine esce in barca con i suoi amici, a pescare e godersi il mare d’autunno, e all’improvviso si ritrova calato in quella realtà sino ad allora così lontana. In otto, con un solo salvagente recuperano quarantasette naufraghi, e la loro vita e quella dei salvati non sarà mai più la stessa. Tutti gli altri sono morti. Questo romanzo non è solo il racconto intenso e indimenticabile del risveglio di una coscienza, ma anche una testimonianza toccante che riesce a evitare la retorica e l’invettiva riportando il problema dei migranti, senza banalizzarlo, alle sue dimensioni umanitarie, e che chiarisce la situazione di una crisi tuttora in corso, culminata in una delle più imponenti migrazioni di massa della storia dell’umanità.«Non sono un eroe. Ho fallito. Noi tutti abbiamo fallito. Noii, l'Italia, l'Europa.»L'ottico di Lampedusa

"[A] hilariously satirical debut novel. Miller, Lawrence, and Genet stop by like proud ancestors… But it's a more recent generation of mischievous deviant writers (Nicholson Baker, Mary Gaitskill) that truly looms large — 's closest predecessor might be Baker's The Fermata. [An] ambitious book… [A] biting satire." — Zach Baron,

"Sex is familiar, but it's perennial, and Levy makes it fresh." — Richard Rayner,

"Levy seems to have an eye for detail for all that is absurd, commonly human, and uniquely American." — Beth Harrington,

"It's a great book, written with flawless verve by a tremendous fictioneer and thinker, and it deserves glory. A classic." — Andre Codrescu,

"[] can just as easily be a bookend to the beautifully nuanced prose of Milan Kundera as it can be a long-version story for a nudie mag minus the accompanying photographs. It's all in the context — as it is with most relationships." —

" wields a comedic punch that makes it, above all, a fun novel to read." —

"The funniest American novel since Sam Lipsyte's ."

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"A ribald chronicle of [a] 60-something Manhattan accountant, who's come to Rio de Janeiro as a sex tourist. [A] fever dream of a novel."

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"Levy delivers a visceral blend of hilarious satire and study in human sexuality, taking us on a deviant tour of Rio."

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So muses Kenny Cantor, always dapper in his seersucker suit from the Brooks Brothers 346 collection. Kenny is a CPA, amateur psychoanalyst, and sex-tourist vacationing in Rio when he gets waylaid at a psychoanalytic conference.

What ensues is a provocative journey that merges sex and psychoanalysis through Rio's tawdry netherworld of Susan Sontag-quoting denizens as only an incendiary voice like Francis Levy could imagine.

The very things that make some eager for starflight may make others determined to prevent it.<

A collection of essays on writers and writing by the Booker-shortlisted novelist and critic.

Writing about real lives takes various forms, which overlap and may be combined with each other: biography, autobiography, biographical criticism, biographical fiction, memoir, confession, diary.

In these thoughtful and enlightening essays David Lodge considers some particularly interesting examples of life-writing, and contributes several of his own. The subjects include celebrated modern British writers such as Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, Muriel Spark and Alan Bennett, and two major figures from the past, Anthony Trollope and H.G.Wells. Lodge examines connections between the style and the man in the diaries of the playwright Simon Gray and the cultural criticism of Terry Eagleton, and recalls how his own literary career was entwined with that of his friend Malcolm Bradbury.

All except one of the subjects (Princess Diana) are or were themselves professionally "in writing", making this collection a kind of casebook of the splendours and miseries of authorship. In a final essay Lodge describes the genesis and compositional method of his recent novel about H.G.Wells, A Man of Parts, and engages with the critical controversies that have been provoked by the increasing popularity of narrative and dramatic writing that combines fact and fiction.

Drawing on David Lodge's long experience as a novelist and critic, Lives in Writing is a fascinating study of the interface between life and literature.