Europa Editions

A deluxe cloth hardcover with sprayed edges and colored end papers illustrating the Bay of Naples.

#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY —NEW YORK TIMES

“An unconditional masterpiece.” —Jhumpa Lahiri 

When Elena Ferrante set out to write the story of Elena and Lila, she conceived it as one single work of fiction, one expansive novel that would capture the reality and ambivalence of female friendship, motherhood, marriage, class and adolescence.  

2025 marks 10 years since publication of the quartet was completed. To celebrate this anniversary, as well as honor and acknowledge the author’s original conception, we are releasing the four novels in one volume.    

Described by the New Yorker’s James Wood as “large, captivating, amiably peopled...a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal,” the Neapolitan Quartet tells a poignant, universal story about friendship and belonging.   

“The capacity of stories to speak to anyone and in any time is the fruit of a mysterious mixture of sensibility, ability, and luck, and no writer really knows how that fruit ripens and if it has fully matured.” —Elena Ferrante 

Contains the four Neapolitan Novels: My Brilliant Friend; The Story of a New Name; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay; The Story of the Lost Child

A Fall 2025 Indies Introduce and Indie Next Pick

★ “A small treasure... A bloody and beautiful sojourn in the distant past.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A brilliant Scottish debut, shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and the Bookmark Book Festival Book of the Year.

The year is 825 CE. In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead. 

As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them. Told with humor and alive with sharply exquisite dialogue, David Greig deftly lifts the curtain between our world and the past. The Book of I is an entirely unique novel that serves as a philosophical commentary on guilt and redemption, but also humanity, love, and the things we choose to believe in.

“Gruesome, exciting... I haven’t read many books that are at once so murderous and so breezily cheerful.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

New York Times Bestseller
Barnes & Noble 2025 Book of the Year
Publishers Weekly Bestseller
National Indie Bestseller
Indie Next Pick
Indigo Heather’s Pick

Ten-year-old Mona and her beloved grandfather have only fifty-two Wednesdays to visit fifty-two works of art and commit to memory “all that is beautiful in the world” before Mona loses her sight forever.

While the doctors can find no explanation for Mona’s brief episode of blindness, they agree that the threat of permanent vision loss cannot be ruled out. The girl’s grandfather, Henry, may not be able to stop his granddaughter from losing her sight, but he can fill the encroaching darkness with beauty. Every Wednesday for a year, the pair abscond together and visit a single masterpiece in one of Paris’s renowned museums. From Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona learns how each artist’s work shaped the world around them. In turn, the young girl’s world is changed forever by the power of their art. Under the kind and careful tutelage of her grandfather, Mona learns the true meaning of generosity, melancholy, love, loss, and revolution. Her perspective will never be the same—nor will the reader’s.

Mona’s Eyes is a heartfelt, enlightening journey across five centuries of Western art history. With the emotional impact of The Elegance of the Hedgehog and the readability of The Little Paris Bookshop, Thomas Schlesser’s sensational debut novel is at once a moving book about the beauty of life and a deeply touching story about the special bond between a girl and her grandfather.

“Vibrant debut ... Schlesser seamlessly interweaves the art lessons with Mona’s story... Readers of Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie's World will love this.”—Publishers Weekly

Discover all 52 masterpieces inside the fold-out dustjacket.

NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025
Best Book of the Year - Washington Independent Review of Books 

“A gorgeous novel.”—New York Times

Based on a true story, The Rarest Fruit is a captivating tale of resilience, discovery, and the secret history of a beloved flavor.

Born into slavery, orphaned at an early age, and raised by a passionate botanist on Réunion Island, Edmond Albius will defy the expectations of his time and, with his extraordinary natural talent for botany, revolutionize global culinary culture by discovering the secret life of vanilla orchids.

A novel of 19-century adventure, perseverance, a book at the intersection of science, exploration, and cuisine, The Rarest Fruit brings to light the contributions of a Black botanical innovator, who, during a time of colonial exploitation and against all odds, changed food culture forever. It is both a poignant tribute to the unsung heroes of history and a vivid portrayal of intertwined destinies shaped by a single discovery.

“The book is that rare find: a revealing, history-infused novel that spills its tale with the eager breathlessness, wry commentary, and frank truths of a close friend... exquisite.”—Christian Science Monitor

At once a subversive autobiography of a mercurial woman and a mesmerizing history of the body as a site of resistance to power.

“I bite my friends to heal them.”—Diogenes the Cynic, c. 350 BCE

From a Roman amphitheater where 4th century martyrs are fed to wild beasts to the S&M leather bars of New York in the 1970s, this sinuous and illuminating book by novelist and cultural critic Fernanda Eberstadt explore the lives of uncommonly brave men and women—saints, philosophers, artists--who have used their own wounded or stigmatized bodies to challenge society’s mores and entrenched power structures.

The Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes who lived “a dog’s life,” sleeping, teaching, having sex in the public square; Saints Perpetua and Felicitas, two early Christian martyrs; twentieth-century prophets of bodily freedom like filmmaker-poet Pier Paolo Pasolini and philosopher Michel Foucault; Russian punk feminist group Pussy Riot; the political artist Piotr Pavlensky, who nailed his scrotum to the pavement of Red Square to protest Vladimir Putin’s tyranny; these are the outrageous, uncommon, but deeply committed activists featured through original interviews and careful case studies in Eberstadt’s immensely readable book, which is part political treatise, part manifesto, part memoir.

Running through her narrative of the Body Militant is Eberstadt’s own story and the story of her mother, a New York writer and glamor figure of the 1960s, whose illness-scarred body first led Eberstadt to seek connections between beauty, belief, and the truths taught through the body.

Eberstadt asks crucial questions for our time: what drives certain individuals to risk pain, disgrace, even death, in the name of freedom? And, what can we learn from their example to become braver ourselves?

From prize-winning author Su Bristow comes a fascinating coming-of-age novel about magic and the choices that define future generations.

It’s 1959. To eight-year-old Felicity—who lives on a dying farm in England—the fairies in the woods have much more to offer than the people in her everyday life. As she becomes more rooted in their world, she learns that their magic is far from safe. Their queen, Elfrida, offers Felicity a gift. But fairy bargains are never what they seem.

As an adult, Felicity leaves for university. Unfortunately, books are not her only company at school: Elfrida and Hobb—the queen’s constant companions—wield the ability to appear at any time, causing havoc in her new friendships and love life. Desperate, Felicity finally begins to explore the true nature of the Fair Folk and their magic. Her ally, the folklorist Professor Edgerley, asks, “What do they want from you?” The answer lies in the distant past, and in the secrets of her own family.

As the consequences of the “gift” play out, Felicity must draw on her courage to confront Elfrida, and make the right choice. Interwoven with traditional stories and striking characters, The Fair Folk poses questions about how we care for our children, our land, and our love-hate relationship with what we desire most.

A sweeping, multigenerational novel of art, exile, memory, and the enduring legacies of war—set between London and Baghdad in the shadow of the Islamic State’s rise. 

In the autumn of 2014, as the Islamic State tightens its grip on Iraq and images of cultural destruction flood the airwaves, three estranged Iraqi-British sisters are pulled back into each other’s orbit by the sudden discovery of their late father’s long-lost paintings. Beautiful, elusive Zainab; embittered, practical Mediha; and headstrong, queer Ishtar each lay claim to his legacy—an artistic and personal inheritance entwined with betrayal, exile, and a homeland they no longer recognize. 

Told in four parts—Archive Fever, Prisons of Hope, Carcasses of Home, and Where the Rivers Meet—Floodlines traces the emotional and political aftershocks of the US-led invasion of Iraq and the rise and fall of Saddam’s regime. As the sisters fight to preserve, erase, or repurpose the past, Zainab’s estranged son Nizar, a war correspondent haunted by trauma and heartbreak, returns to the family fold. With the reemergence of buried memories comes a reckoning: with nationhood, with mental health, with generational wounds too long left unspoken. 

Spanning continents and decades—from 1950s Baghdad to contemporary London, from the Tigris River to Yemeni refugee camps—Floodlines is at once intimate and epic in scope. Haddad’s textured prose and profound insight explore queerness in Arab culture, the role of art in survival and resistance, and the lingering, often invisible scars of colonialism and diaspora. 

Inspired by the author’s own family history and the artistic legacy of his great uncle, Jewad Saleem—pioneer of the Baghdad Modern Art Group—Floodlines is a rare novel that bridges the personal and the political, the historic and the immediate. It is a powerful meditation on what it means to belong, to create, to endure. 

A searing story of identity, ambition, and the cost of leaving home, from one of Italy’s most vital contemporary voices

Gabriele left Rome to reinvent himself. He traded the working-class streets of his childhood for the sleek design studios of Milan, where he’s built a successful career and a new life—one carefully distanced from the neighborhood he came from.

But when he returns home for a family celebration, Gabriele is pulled back into a world that feels both comforting and claustrophobic: the slow rhythms of Rome, his loving but provincial family, and childhood friends whose lives have remained circumscribed by the same few blocks. Torn between nostalgia and shame, Gabriele is forced to reckon with everything he tried to leave behind.

And when a rumor about the true source of his success begins to circulate, the careful identity he’s constructed in Milan begins to crumble. In the space between who he was and who he’s become, Gabriele must confront the of where he truly belongs.

Written with grace, empathy, and psychological precision, The Burning Origin is a powerful story about social mobility, self-invention, and the double-edged freedom of those who leave.

Both a love letter and a window into the rural places that have shaped many, In a Distant Valley sets the stage for a final act to play out across a deep winter in snowy Maine. 

For a while, Rose Douglas believed life had given her a break. She was enjoying a steady job at the local clinic in Dalton; her two young boys, Adam and Brandon, were doing well in school; and their little family had found an easy friendship with widower Nate Theroux and his daughter, Sophie. The possibility of something deeper even hung between her and Nate—until the day Tommy Merchant, her ex and the father of her sons, showed up without warning on her doorstep. While Rose knows all too well his erratic and abusive nature, he swears he’s clean, and ready to turn over a new leaf. 

Tommy isn’t the only one who’s found his way back to the town that defined him. Lost after a disastrous stint living down south with her father, Angela Muse has returned home to Dalton. There she runs into Greg Fortin, the friend who once saved her life when they were children and finally starts to believe there may be someone who understands her in a world that offers more questions than answers.  

But secrets are the lifeblood of a small town, and everyone in Dalton soon finds themselves part of a chain of events hurtling towards outcomes beyond their control, where more than one future will be decided. Brimming with compassion and heart, In a Distant Valley is the remarkable conclusion to the story readers have been following since Shannon Bowring’s debut novel, The Road to Dalton. 

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE

From the horrors of WWII to the spy games of the Cold War: a haunting tale of survival, vengeance, and the enduring shadows of history

“Stunning... Every line is a jewel.”—Lea Carpenter, New York Times

Shlomo Libowitz and Anton Epstein, two Jewish prisoners subjected to horrific experiments in a Nazi concentration camp, survive the unimaginable. Decades later, their lives converge again as they hunt Hans Lichtblau, the SS officer who tormented them, now operating in the shadowy world of Cold War geopolitics.   

Their pursuit takes them from the ashes of Europe to the jungles of Central America, where justice and revenge blur against the backdrop of CIA conspiracies and a haunting past. But one life may be too short to settle all accounts, and Anton and Shlomo’s belated revenge is also a race against time...  

With vivid characters and a masterful blend of fact and fiction, perfectly balanced between two continents and two eras, The Feeling of Iron confronts the moral ambiguities of vengeance and the inescapable echoes of history.  

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.  

IN THIS VOLUME: Paolo Macry on Naples’ “monarch mayors”・Francesco Abazia on the influence of the US Army’s presence on Neapolitan popular music・Cristina Napolitano on the Neapolitan diaspora, and what it means to come back・Gianni Montieri on the city’s passion for football・Alessandra Coppola on the cult of the young victims of the Camorra, or the police, and much more… 

In recent years, Naples has been the subject of countless books, films and TV series, making it even more difficult to imagine a Neapolitan normality, if it exists at all.  As Naples becomes the most filmed city in Italy, where to look for the ordinary, the average? Maybe we need to "go up" to Vomero, a neighborhood considered almost alien to the city, middle class, homogeneous, peaceful? A reality in sharp contrast with the over-the-top life of the historic centre, crossed as it is by a thousand stratifications - architectural, historical and social. And yet even there we find an alternative reading: the city as a model of coexistence between ancient and modern.    

While some areas have been waiting for decades for much promised redevelopment, others have benefited from cutting-edge projects with far-reaching positive impact, representing a Naples that attracts talent, exports models, and colonizes instead of being colonized.  

From the winner of the MWA Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Mystery, Alan Parks, comes a new, gripping installment in the gritty Glasgow-based Harry McCoy series.

A woman enters a Glasgow police station to report her son missing, but no record can be found of the boy. When Detective Harry McCoy, who is on temporary transfer from a station across town, discovers the family is part of the cultish Church of Christ’s Suffering, he suspects there is more to the boy’s disappearance than meets the eye.

Meanwhile reports arrive of a string of poisonings of down-and-outs across the city. The dead are men who few barely notice, let alone care about—but, as McCoy is painfully aware, among this desperate community is his own father.

Even as McCoy searches for the missing boy, he must conceal from his colleagues the real reason for his presence—to investigate corruption in the station. Some people pray for justice, but Detective Harry McCoy hasn't got time to wait for God’s divine intervention.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Lovestruck in Barcelona by Enrique Vila-Matas • Supermanza 503 by Gabi Martinez • The Great Barcelona Novel by Miqui Otero • plus: the complex legacy of the Olympics; the future of Catalonia; the radical left and the once best in the world soccer team; an endless subway line, and much more…

Thirty years after the 1992 Olympics, which redefined the city’s contemporary identity and changed its destiny, The Passenger travels to Barcelona to understand the history and future of one of the cradles of political, cultural, and urban change in Europe.

From the debate about the impact of mass tourism to the search of new and sustainable models of economic and social development; from the eternal rivalry with Madrid to the rediscovery of the city’s rich tradition of political activism: this volume of The Passenger offers a panoramic view of a city striving to trace a new path forward out of the current crisis, and find a way of life centered on the well-being of its citizens.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: The mass is ended by Catherine Dunne and Caelainn Hogan・ The Way Back by Colum McCann・A Trip to Westeros by Mark O’Connell・plus: life on the margins of two unions and right in the middle of Brexit, making war on each other for 30 years while playing on the same national rugby team, emigrating to the great enemy or transforming the country one referendum at a time, digging peat bogs and building cottages, talking of the sea in Gaelic, and much more….. 

The Passenger sets off to discover a land full of charm and conflict, a country that in just a few decades has gone from being a poor, semi-theocratic society to a thriving economy free from the influence of the Catholic Church. 

With the 1998 peace agreements, the conflict between nationalists and unionists seemed, if not resolved, at least dormant.  But Brexit—with the ambiguous position it leaves Northern Ireland in—caused old tensions to resurface. The Passenger explores their ramifications in politics, society, culture, and sport.   

Meanwhile, south of the border, epochal transformation has seen a deeply patriarchal, conservative society give space to diversity, the only country in the world to enshrine gay marriage in law through a referendum.  And there’s a whole other Ireland abroad, an Irish diaspora that looks to the old country with new-found pride but doesn’t forget the ugliness it fled from.   

Memory and identity intertwine with the transformations—from globalisation to climate change—that are remodelling the Irish landscape, from the coastal communities under threat of disappearing together with the Irish language fishermen use to talk about the sea, while inland the peat bogs, until recently important sources of energy and jobs, are being abandoned. From Catherine Dunne to Colum McCann, Mark O’Connell and Sara Baume, Irish (but not only) writers and journalists tell of a country striving to stay a step ahead of time. 

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: When the Circus Came to Town: The Resurrection of Potsdamer Platz by Peter Schneider・Berlin Suite by Cees Nooteboom・Tempelhof: A Field of Dreams by Vincenzo Latronico・plus: the controversial reconstruction of a Prussian castle, Berlin’s most transgressive sex club and its disappearing traditional pubs, a green urban oasis, suburban neo-Nazis, North Vietnamese in the East, South Vietnamese in the West, techno everywhere and much more...

“Berlin is too big for Berlin” is the curious title of a book by the flaneur Hanns Zischler, who joked about the low population density of a city so spread-out and polycentric—one of the reasons why it still inspires feelings of freedom and space. But the phrase also carries a symbolic, broader meaning: how can a single city encompass and sustain such a weighty mythology as that of contemporary Berlin, “the capital of cool”?

In order to find out, it is necessary to travel to the 1990s, the origins of today’s Berlin, when time seemed to have stopped. The scars of a century of war were still visible everywhere: coal stoves, crumbling buildings, desolate minimarts, not a working buzzer or elevator. To visit the city then was a hallucinatory experience, a simultaneous journey into the past and into the future. The city’s youth seemed to have appropriated—and turned into a positive—the famous phrase pronounced by Karl Scheffler at the beginning of the 20th century: “Berlin is a place doomed to always become, never be.”

The abandoned ruins, the hidden gems found at the flea market, the illegal basement raves are a thing of the past. The era of Berlin as a site of urban archeology is over. Almost all the damaged buildings have been repaired, squatters have been removed, the shops selling East German furniture have closed down. Without its wounds, the landscape of the city is perhaps less striking but more solid, stronger. Even the city’s inhabitants have lost some of their melancholia, their romantic and self-destructive streak: today you can even find people who come to Berlin to actually work, not just to “create” or idle their days away. Yet, Berlin remains a youthful city that doesn’t cling to its “poor but sexy” past, whose only sacrosanct principles are an uncompromising multiculturalism and the belief that its future is yet to be written. To quote someone who knows the city well, Berlin is and always will be “pure potential.”

A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Order and Progress? by Jon Lee Anderson・Funk, Pride and Prejudice by Alberto Riva・On the River, I Was King by Eliane Brum・Also: the road that dissects the Amazon; the TV tycoon who shaped Brazilian history; the neo-Pentecostal community that is winning the hearts (and wallets) of Brazilians; politicised samba dancers, idealist gangsters and much more ...

In the second half of the 20th century Brazil made extraordinary contributions to music, sport, architecture. From “bossa nova,” to acrobatic soccer, to the daring architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa, the country seemed to embody a new, original vision of modernity, at once “fluid, agile, and complex.”

Seen from abroad, the victory of the far right in the 2018 elections was a rude awakening that suddenly turned the Brazilian dream into a nightmare. For locals, however, illusions had started fading long ago, amid paralyzing corruption, environmental degradation, racial discrimination, and escalating violence. Luckily Brazilians have not lost their desire to fight, minorities are still determined to assert their rights and, now that the glorious past is dead and buried, a desire to rebuild for the future is emerging. Today the challenge of telling the story of this extraordinary country consists in finding its enduring vitality amid the apparent melancholy.

“How can we define the indefinable? Is it possible to pin a single label on a country so multi-faceted that it appears almost schizophrenic?”―From “In Defense Of Fragmentation,” Michel Laub

A SEPTEMBER 2024 INDIE NEXT PICK

Return to Dalton as Shannon Bowring draws another stunningly human portrait of small town America. 

It’s been five years since Bridget Theroux’s death shocked the small town of Dalton, Maine, leaving behind husband Nate and daughter Sophie, now a vibrant young child. Nate doesn’t always know how to answer her questions, but he is intent on raising her with joy—and shielding her from her grandmother, Annette, who remains dangerously locked away in her grief.

After his first year away at college, Greg Fortin is back in town for the summer to work at the family store. It’s expected he'll take over the hardware business eventually, but finding the words to tell them no—and the truth about who he is—has become his own Everest. Rose’s abusive ex, Tommy finally disappeared a few years ago, though sometimes his presence in the eyes of her oldest son unnerves her. She and Nate are finding themselves drawn together by their children’s playdates, and into a delicate balance between friendship and the possibility of more. 

And Trudy and Bev, always so sure of their love for each other, find themselves rocked when Trudy’s husband Richard suffers a heart attack, bringing into focus all the guilt she has felt about their empty marriage for years.

Shannon Bowring demonstrates once again that she understands exactly where the heart of a story lies. Where the Forest Meets the River is a poignant return to the small town of Dalton, whose inhabitants continue to startle and humble both themselves—and us.

This meticulously researched and brilliantly told historical novel, the first of the Machiavelli trilogy, recounts the enigmatic life of Niccolò Machiavelli, revealing the complex man behind the infamous political strategist.

October 1502. As Cesare Borgia sets out to invade the Florentine Republic, Niccolò Machiavelli is sent to spy on him and to glean details of his nefarious plan. But when Borgia asks Machiavelli to write his life story, their bond gains complexity and nuance: ultimately, they both aspire to everlasting fame and to achieve it, they need each other, for the one’s sword can only rule in eternity via the pen of the other.

Set against the backdrop of the Renaissance, rife with political intrigue and cultural flourishing, Bernini's richly imagined novel masterfully captures a society teetering on the brink of change and revolution, as one man takes his chance at greatness, navigating the treacherous corridors of power with guile and charisma.

The Throne is a captivating reflection on ambition, morality, and the pursuit of power and influence. As elucidating as Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, as gripping and stylish as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and as atmospheric as Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, The Throne reveals one of the most impactful and controversial minds in political history, and questions and asks to what lengths can one justifiably go to achieve greatness.

A NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, “measured, wise, and beautiful.”

In most small towns, the private is also public. In the town of Dalton, one local makes an unthinkable decision that leaves the community reeling. In the aftermath, their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors, and remind us all that no one is exactly who we think they are.

It’s 1990. In Dalton, Maine, life goes on. Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that’s charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best friend.

Trudy and Bev have been friends for longer than they can count, and something more than lovers to each other for some time now—a fact both accepted and ignored by their husbands. Across town, new mother Bridget lives with her high school sweetheart Nate, and is struggling with postpartum after a traumatic birth. And nearer still is teenager Greg, trying to define the complicated feelings he has about himself and his two close friends.

The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world—of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
TIME Magazine・NPR・Library Journal・The Globe and Mail・Lilith・Forward Magazine・Toronto Star・The New Yorker

Winner of the Choix Goncourt Prize, Anne Berest’s The Postcard is a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, an enthralling investigation into family secrets, and poignant tale of a Jewish family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling.

January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz.

Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga that shatters long-held certainties about Anne’s family, her country, and herself.

From the best-selling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes this delightful, delicate tale that pays tribute to the poetry of the everyday, to Japanese philosophy, and to the ingenuity and sardonic humor of cats. 

What a mysterious, confounding thing is a writer! Yet, spend a little time with the writer’s cats and one might just understand her better. 

Muriel Barbery, via her feline friends and co-conspirators, takes readers into her atelier, offering them a behind-the-scenes peek into her process and problems, joys and disappointments. The tale is told from the perspective of one of the writer’s four cats, Kirin, who, together with her cohort, may or may not be a reliable narrator. There’s Ocha, the leader of the gang, a tough guy with a soft heart; the bandy-legged and affectionate Mizu, Ocha’s sister; the phlegmatic and refined Petrus, lover of flowers; and finally, pretty Kirin, narrator of this bewitching story. 

A superb, funny, and touching text for writers, readers, fans of Muriel Barbery’s best-selling novels, and cat lovers.

A “beguiling fairy tale” by the bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (The New York Times).

The villagers had never seen anything like it: dense white curtains of snow that instantly transformed the landscape. Not in autumn, not here in Burgundy. And on the same night a baby was discovered, dark-eyed little Maria, who would transform all their lives. Hundreds of miles away in the mountains of Abruzzo, another foundling, Clara, astonishes everyone with her extraordinary talent for piano playing. But her gifts go far beyond simple musicianship. As a time of great danger looms, though the girls know nothing of each other, it is the bond that unites them and others like them which will ultimately offer the only chance for good to prevail in the world.

“Vivid imagery and a thread of mystery draw readers into the timeless and ethereal world of these young girls with a destiny to fulfill.”—Booklist

“The novel is essentially a parable about the power both of art, which abolishes the ‘border between earth and mind,’ and of women.”—The New Yorker

“Fans of both Barbery and fantasy from writers like Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen will be enchanted.”—Library Journal

A Publishers Weekly Most Ancitipated Book of Spring 2025

A bold call to abandon the myth of endless economic growth and embrace a sustainable, just, and thriving future. 

★ “Blistering debut... An urgent and elegant challenge to the status quo.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

One of the most deeply ingrained beliefs of our age is that perpetual economic growth is the solution to most, if not all, of society’s problem. In Slow Down or Die, French economist Timothée Parrique brilliantly challenges this myth, demonstrating how producing more won’t solve climate change, poverty, or inequality. In fact, our obsession with growth is accelerating social and ecological collapse. 

Parrique argues that we don’t need endless growth to prosper; instead, we must radically rethink how our economies are organized. He reveals that the GDP, the standard measure of progress, is blind to human well-being and environmental health, making it a poor—and indeed, dangerous—guide for the future. 

This book proposes a different vision, tracing a path toward a “post-growth” economy where decisions are made collectively and democratically. The goal is not the infinite accumulation of wealth but the creation of a just, equitable, and sustainable society. In this accessible and inspiring work, Parrique invites us to embrace a future of moderation and shared prosperity, proving that slowing down is the key to true progress and equality. 

From France’s leading Jewish intellectual, an intimate yet universal meditation on October 7, its legacy, and the way forward  

Devastated by the massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Delphine Horvilleur sees her world shatter. As a rabbi dedicated to supporting and alleviating the suffering of others, she suddenly finds herself in a state of shock, feeling powerless and voiceless. 

In this fevered state, she pens this small yet powerful treatise on survival, a slice of self-analysis that reconnects her with her existential foundations. The text unfolds through ten real or imagined conversations: with her pain, her grandparents, Jewish paranoia, her children, Israel, and more. 

Horvilleur seamlessly moves between the intimate and the universal, intertwining exegesis of sacred texts with societal analysis. She skillfully balances acknowledging the gravity of her subject with defying it through humor. The result is a book that charts a path from trauma and distress to healing and recovery; from anxiety and doubt to reassurance and wisdom. 

The remarkable (and occasionally ridiculous) stories of 48 nations that fell off the map.

“Countries are just daft stories we tell each other. They’re all equally implausible once you get up close.”

Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. This is an atlas of 48 nations that fell off the map. Their causes of death range from the implausible (jerky prices) to the unfortunate (too evil) to the downright bizarre (the flip of a coin). The polite way of writing an obituary is: dwell on the good bits, gloss over the embarrassing stuff. This book refuses to do so, because these dead nations are so ridiculous that it’s impossible to skip the embarrassing stuff.

 ★ “This book is a sparkling gem.”—Booklist (Starred Review)

“Perfect for fans of Atlas Obscura.”—Publishers Weekly

Amazon Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book of 2018

One of Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best YA Books of 2018

One of Publishers Weekly's Best YA Book of the Year

A National Indie Bestseller

Longlisted for Irish YA prize Great Reads Award

Lose yourself in the fantastic world of the arks and in the company of unforgettable characters in this French runaway hit, Christelle Dabos’ The Mirror Visitor quartet.

Plain-spoken, headstrong Ophelia cares little about appearances. Her ability to read the past of objects is unmatched in all of Anima and, what’s more, she possesses the ability to travel through mirrors, a skill passed down to her from previous generations. Her idyllic life is disrupted, however, when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, a taciturn and influential member of a distant clan. Ophelia must leave all she knows behind and follow her fiancé to Citaceleste, the capital of a cold, icy ark known as the Pole, where danger lurks around every corner and nobody can be trusted. There, in the presence of her inscrutable future husband, Ophelia slowly realizes that she is a pawn in a political game that will have far-reaching ramifications not only for her but for her entire world.

The World of the Arks

Long ago, following a cataclysm called the Rupture, the world was shattered into many floating celestial islands, now known as arks. Over each, the spirit of an omnipotent and immortal ancestor abides. The inhabitants of these arks each possess a unique power. Ophelia, with her ability to read the pasts of objects, must navigate this fantastic, disjointed, perilous world using her trademark tenacity and quiet strength.

An unforgettable heroine, a rich and bountiful universe, intrigue and suspense: A Winter’s Promise is perfect for readers of Margaret Rogerson’s An Enchantment of Ravens, Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood, V.E. Schwab’s “Shades of Magic” series, Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, Kenneth Oppel’s “Airborne” series, and N.K. Jemisin “Broken Earth” series.

Extract:

I think we could have all lived happily, in a way, God, me and the others, if it weren’t for that accursed book. It disgusted me. I knew what bound me to it in the most sickening of ways, but the horror of that particular knowledge came later, much later. I didn’t understand straight away, I was too ignorant.

A Fall 2025 Indies Introduce and Indie Next Pick

★ “A small treasure... A bloody and beautiful sojourn in the distant past.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A brilliant Scottish debut, shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and the Bookmark Book Festival Book of the Year.

The year is 825 CE. In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead. 

As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them. Told with humor and alive with sharply exquisite dialogue, David Greig deftly lifts the curtain between our world and the past. The Book of I is an entirely unique novel that serves as a philosophical commentary on guilt and redemption, but also humanity, love, and the things we choose to believe in.

“Gruesome, exciting... I haven’t read many books that are at once so murderous and so breezily cheerful.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

A dazzling journey into the eccentric, troubled, and luminous minds that shaped literature.

In this bold, personal, and deeply researched blend of memoir, essay, literary analysis, psychological reflection, and intellectual sleuth story, Montero draws on psychology, neuroscience, creative literature, and the testimonies and biographies of authors and artists to weave a fascinating narrative on the connection between creativity and mental instability.

With intelligence, generosity, and narrative élan, Montero brings to life figures such as Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Marcel Proust, Joseph Conrad, and Doris Lessing, painting a fresco of the ways in which the brain works, its quirks and dark corners. She breaks down the forces that influence creativity and miraculously reassembles them before the reader’s eyes over three hundred gripping pages.

Like a masterfully plotted detective story, each clue leads readers one step closer to new definitions of both the creative act and of what is and is not “normal.” Blending intimate memoir with wide-ranging cultural history, The Danger to Be Sane is a moving and inspirational homage to minds and lives that are outside of the mean.

’Twas a Divine Insanity— 
The Danger to be Sane 

From Emily Dickinson, Poem 593 

A light, humorous, amiably peopled, and tender novel about found families, the people who shape our lives, and the complexities of non-traditional family ties.  

Yuko has had four different surnames and been brought up in several families. The parental figures in her life, despite not being related by blood, have always cared deeply for her. Through it all, pragmatic and resilient and Yuko has navigated life’s changes and its occasional conflicts without bitterness, always managing to find a kind of equilibrium.   

As an adult, Yuko falls in love with Hayase, a talented pianist she’s known since her school years. Now a married woman, she embarks on a journey to reconnect with the various parental figures from her past to seek their blessing for her marriage. Along the way, she revisits her former life and the people in it and gains a deeper understanding of what truly defines a family.  

Cages is a sweeping, polyphonic portrait of a man seen through the eyes of those who loved him, feared him, and betrayed him. At its center is Felix—a zookeeper in 1960s Cuba, an exile in London, and finally a dying man in Miami.  His story is pieced together like a puzzle that can never fully be solved by one who knew him only as an absence and seeks to know him before it is too late. 

In Cuba, during the Missile Crisis, Felix risks everything for an illicit love affair with René, a fellow keeper. In a society where homosexuality is branded “counterrevolutionary,” their tenderness unfolds in the shadow of danger, betrayal, and political oppression. In London, Felix and his wife Anabel navigate exile and reinvention, while an aspiring actress named Claudia finds herself drawn into their orbit, her ambitions and desires colliding with Felix’s own hunger for connection. Years later, Virgilio—Anabel’s devoted brother—recounts the disintegration of Felix’s marriage and the exile that follows, even as he steps in to protect the family Felix abandoned. 

From Anabel, long silent about her complicity in the events that forced Felix’s flight from Cuba, to Rita, the daughter who knew him differently, each voice brings a sliver of truth. Together, these testimonies form a mosaic of longing, deception, survival, and reconciliation. 

Spanning Havana, London, and Miami, Acevedo’s luminous, formally inventive novel explores exile, forbidden love, fractured families, the nature of truth, and the stories we tell to make sense of the people we cannot forget. 

A word-of-mouth phenomenon turned cult classic in Korea, Hunger is a visceral, psychologically daring novel that reveals how love and money shape, wound, and consume us.

“A feast for the literary senses.”—Anton Hur, Judge of the International Booker Prize

On an ordinary afternoon, a woman sees her partner murdered in the street. Time freezes. She lifts his body from the pavement, cradles him home, disinfects each inch of skin—and sits down to begin.

As he witnesses his own funeral from beyond, their two voices—living and dead—lament a lifetime of bone-grinding labor in a society that devours everyone whole. But the woman is no longer willing to bow before law, God, or money. In an act of love and rebellion, she transforms his body into her own, entombing him within her flesh so that he may live again.

Raw, furious, and unflinchingly intimate, Hunger is the Korean underground phenomenon that indicts capitalism, mourns lost love, and pushes the boundaries of what the body can endure for justice and survival. A psychologically and philosophically thrilling novel, it cuts to the core of how we are consumed by the world—and how we might consume it back.

“An instant cult classic… You have to read it.”—Harper’s Bazaar

The first novel written about the enigmatic literary legend

“A pure delight.”—Elle

“Lapierre’s best novel so far.”—Le Nouvel Obs

Australia, 1901. Miles Franklin, the young daughter of poor bush farmers, manages to publish her first novel against all odds. A work of remarkable boldness and passion, it becomes an immense success in the English-speaking world. While she strives to maintain her anonymity under a male pseudonym, her identity is revealed and she is exposed to the misogynistic prejudices of her time.

Restless, indomitable, and unwilling to be silenced, Miles reinvents herself again and again across three continents. In Sydney, she pens a searing exposé of working women’s lives. In America, she throws herself into the suffrage movement. She volunteers with the Serbian Red Cross during the First World War, then joins the radical circles of 1920s Europe, sparring with critics and mingling with writers and artists.

She forges countless friendships, experiences magnificent loves, and, through it all, nurtures her passion for writing and her ambition for literary success. 

Guided by her generosity and sense of humor, Miles eventually returns to Australia, where she will deliver a final blow to the critics who proclaimed that her wit and her genius had dried up. 

The definitive study of the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde after his death, written by Wilde’s only grandson 

“A fascinating sweep through a hundred years from Wilde’s death to now.”―Stephen Fry 

Oscar Wilde died in November 1900, exiled in Paris and exhausted by scandal and prison life. The details of his life in the limelight are well known; what have regularly been ignored are the reverberations of the scandal for decades after his death. 

With pathos, humor, and his grandfather’s signature wit, Holland charts the extraordinary afterlife of the legendary writer and thinker, and traces the dramatic fluctuations in Wilde’s posthumous reputation over the past 125 years. A true feat of storytelling and scholarship, including 56 illustrated pages, After Oscar tells the story of Oscar’s wife Constance and his sons Cyril and Vyvyan; his lovers, friends, and enemies; the afterlife of De Profundis; sightings from beyond the grave; the fate of the Wilde estate; and Oscar’s contemporary status as a gay icon.  

One of the most important works on Wilde in over fifty years, After Oscar exposes decades of sensationalist conjecture surrounding the Wilde family, and documents a century of homophobia within the British establishment. Illuminating and heartbreaking, Holland has written a book that will amuse, infuriate, fascinate, and shock. Readers beware―you’re in for a Wilde ride. 

A Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated Book

Valérie Perrin’s First New Novel since her breakout bestseller Fresh Water for Flowers

“Tata is Perrin’s most ambitious, most intimate, most liberating, most important book yet.”—Le Parisien 

When Agnes hears from the local police her Aunt Colette has died, she can’t believe her ears.  Her father’s sister Colette, her Tata, died three years ago and has been resting in peace in the cemetery of Gueugnon. 

Agnes is called to identify the body: there is no doubt, it’s Aunt Colette. But then, who rests under the stone engraved with Colette’s name? And why did she fake her own death? So begins an investigation back in time, as Agnes pieces together the multitude of stories that lie behind her aunt's second death.       

An intricate, compelling web of stories told with irony, delicacy and depth, Tata will keep readers glued to every page.  

“Valérie Perrin is a prodigious storyteller.”—Elle  

An intimate portrait of genius, love, and betrayal at the end of Gustav Mahler’s life. 

In the spring of 1910, Gustav Mahler—wrapped in a wool blanket—sits on the deck of the Amerika, sailing back to Europe. The ocean around him is gray and endless, the air sharp with wind and steel. Not yet fifty, Mahler is already a legend: in Vienna and New York, audiences fight for tickets to see the restless, small man who commands the most stubborn orchestra in the world. 

Yet his fame is shadowed by illness. His body is failing, his wife Alma has fallen in love with another man: the young architect Walter Gropius. Mahler has begged, humiliated himself, tried everything to keep her. Nothing worked, except the certainty of his approaching death. Alma has stayed, tending to him with care, perhaps to ease his final passage. 

On board, Mahler reflects on life, art, and above all, love. Finalist for the Deutscher Buchpreis and one of the most acclaimed German novels of recent years, Robert Seethaler’s The Last Movement is a haunting, tender portrait of a great artist confronting his farewell to life. 

A luminous, erotically charged novel about ambition, desire, and the dangerous pursuit of self-knowledge. 

Ina is a 41-year-old literary scholar on the cusp of professional success. With a coveted university job, a kind husband, and a book on Eugene O’Neill due in months, her life appears enviably stable. But when an impulsive kiss with a stranger shatters her self-control, Ina finds herself plunged into an erotic and emotional freefall. 

She tells herself it’s research—a brief detour before returning to real life. But what begins as a flirtation becomes a reckoning with everything Ina thought she wanted: marriage, intellect, control. As she navigates the ecstatic confusion of newfound desire, she risks upending her work, her relationship, and her understanding of who she is. 

Set in Brooklyn and Manhattan at the turn of the millennium, Don’t Stop is a bold, immersive debut that explores what happens when a woman dares to want more—of the world, of her body, of herself. Bonnie Friedman delivers a novel of transgression, transformation, and unapologetic longing. 

A saga inspired by the incredible but true story of the iconic Klimt painting 

Painted in Vienna in 1910, Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of a Lady” was purchased by an anonymous collector in 1916, retouched by the master a year later, then stolen in 1997 before reappearing in the gardens of an Italian modern art museum in 2019.  

No art experts, museum curators, or police investigators know the identity of the young woman in the painting, nor the mysteries that surround the turbulent history of her portrait.   

From the streets of Vienna in 1900 to Texas in the 1980s, and from Manhattan during the Great Depression to contemporary Italy, de Peretti imagines the destiny of this young woman as well as that of her descendants, and creates a masterful fresco that intertwines family secrets, disappearances, and thwarted loves.  

New York Times Best Historical Fiction of 2025

A May 2025 Indie Next List Great Read

“Like Gabriële herself, this book takes on big ideas about modern art and modern life.”—The New York Times

The story of a passionate love affair that triggered a revolution.

An atmospheric, exuberant novel from the best-selling author of The Postcard, Anne Berest, and her sister, Claire Berest, about love and sex, art and revolution, experimentation and creativity, and three young people who changed the world.

The year is 1908, the height of the Belle Époque, and a brilliant, young French woman named Gabriële, newly graduated from the most elite music school in Europe, meets a volcanic Spanish artist named Francis. Following a whirlwind romance, they marry and fall headlong into a Paris that is experimenting with new forms of living, thinking, and creating. Soon after marrying Francis, Gabriële meets Marcel, another young artist, five years her junior. Soon, Francis, Marcel, and Gabriële are all involved in a fervent affair that will change the course of art history and redefine the avant-garde.

As the Belle Epoque gives way to rebellion and revolution, and the world descends into the devastation of World War I, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, and Gabriële Buffet revolutionize art and open up new ways of seeing and thinking, along the way posing a vital question for their age and ours: what is the connection between new ways loving and new ways of creating?

Moving between Paris, New York, Berlin, Zurich, Barcelona, London, and Saint-Tropez, Gabriële is as audacious, uninhibited, intimate, and unforgettable as its central character, the mercurial, pioneering Gabriële Buffet.

A sweeping ecological fantasy from one of Japan’s most beloved storytellers—where two girls must unlock a forgotten power to save their world from collapse. 

The vast Umar Empire has flourished for centuries thanks to the miraculous Ohaleh rice, a sacred grain brought by the first Empress Kokun from a distant land. Resistant to all parasites, the rice has sustained peace and prosperity—until now. When a mysterious infestation strikes, famine spreads, and the empire begins to crumble. 

Fifteen-year-old Aisha, granddaughter of the deposed king of the West Kantar domain, flees to the imperial capital with her younger brother after a violent coup. There, she meets the reigning Kokun, Olie—an enigmatic girl worshipped for her supposed gift of scent, yet secretly powerless. As Aisha uncovers her own latent ability to perceive the natural world through smell, she and Olie form an unlikely alliance. 

Together, they must confront a hidden history, uncover the truth behind the Ohaleh rice, and confront forces that threaten not just the empire’s survival, but the very balance of nature. 

Kokun: Volume 1 marks the beginning of an epic tale of rebellion, inheritance, and the fight to reconnect with a world on the brink of collapse. 

A deeply moving family story unfolding in richly evocative prose and a poetic portrayal of a town in decline during the final decades of the American century, Ashland is a book of metamorphoses—of the dance between permanence and transformation. 

In Ashland, New Hampshire, Carolyn, born of a teenage pregnancy, grows up alongside her mother Ellie, her aunt Jennie, and her cousins. Ashland is the type of place that most people plan to leave, but few do. Beauty can be found in small things—the trees in the wind, the sky’s particular shade of blue, a swim in the river, love, and family. But life can often be unforgiving and solace hard to come by. Carolyn reconciles the losses in her own life with an education at Plymouth State, the local university, and then by capturing in words her world and the people who inhabit it.  

Recalling the novels of Richard Russo, Paul Harding, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout, Ashland is a novel of debut great intensity and poetry told in the voices of many vivid characters and, through them, in the voice of Ashland itself. 

WINNER 

Prix Goncourt des Lycéens 

American Choix Goncourt 

A Masterful New Novel by Sandrine Collette, One of France’s Most Daring and Acclaimed Writers. 

In a time outside time, in a world hemmed in by dark woods and silence, the villagers of Les Montées endure a life of hardship and submission. The land is stingy, the lords are merciless, and resistance is a dream dreamt by the village women.  

Twin sisters Aelis and Ambre are born with an otherworldly beauty that turns heads and decides destinies. Ambre, childless and quietly suffering in a loveless marriage, adopts a wild, starving foundling who appears one day at the edge of the forest. Madeleine’s arrival unsettles the fragile order of Les Montées. She is fierce, brave, mysterious, magnetic, brilliant, and shockingly adept with an axe. One day, she slaughters a stag in defiance of the lord’s decrees. The land, the laws, and the lives of those around her tremble in response, and a new destiny begins to take root, one lit by rebellion and fed by ancient wounds.

Narrated by Bran, a boy Madeleine’s age who watches her with a mix of awe and dread, Madelaine Before the Dawn is a wild, lyrical novel about the inheritance of silence, the fire of female defiance, and the long-suppressed urge to upend the rules of a world written by men. 

Collette’s storytelling evokes the brutal beauty of Zola’s Germinal and possesses the sweep of the novels of García Márquez. Hers is an elemental, undeniable voice, and with Madelaine Before the Dawn, she delivers the most ambitious novel of her career—an electrifying vision of revolt and resilience at the edge of civilization. 

Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 

A bold, psychologically rich novel of identity, exile, and resistance from one of Palestine’s most vital literary voices—written entirely from behind bars. 

Nur, a young Palestinian refugee from a camp near Ramallah, is often mistaken for an Ashkenazi Jew. Fluent in Hebrew and with a degree in archaeology, he dreams of freedom beyond the fences of the camp—and of writing a novel about Mary Magdalene based on the Gnostic Gospels. When he discovers an Israeli ID card in the pocket of a secondhand coat, he assumes a false identity and is hired for an archaeological dig near Megiddo. Passing as an Israeli, he moves through a world previously off-limits, gaining insight into the lives and beliefs of those he’s been taught to see as enemies. 

But as Nur’s borrowed identity deepens, so does the rift within: between Nur, the Palestinian, and “Ur,” the Israeli. By exploring this internal conflict, unfolding alongside friendships and love affairs, Bassem Khandaqji offers a meditation on the personal toll of occupation and the elusive desire to belong somewhere—fully, honestly, and without fear. 

New York’s five boroughs tell a million human stories of revolution, rebellion, and resistance in this singular and timely guide to the city that never sleeps. 

Cities are multifaceted creatures and nowhere is that truer than in New York. Opulent, venal, frenetic, frivolous, full of hubris, it is also a city alive with stories of revolt, rebellion, iconoclasm, creativity, kindness, and transgression. It is the birthplace of vibrant progressive politics, historic organized labor movements, mutual care organizations, and radical ideas that not only thrived in their native soil but have traveled and flourished abroad. New York as the home of Stonewall and the Gay Liberation Movement, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union ,of  Occupy Wall Street, of the Harlem Renaissance, Tin Pan Alley, Abstract Expressionism, of the Beat poets, the Living Theater, punk music, hip hop, and bebop! 

In this entertaining and easy-to-use guide to the city that never sleeps, readers are invited to soak up New York’s subversive history—the New York of  Frederick Douglass, Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Tubman, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Emma Goldman, Sacco and Vanzetti, Leon Trotsky, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, and popular movements the birthplaces of which still evoke a spirit of rebellion and resistance.  Some of the most powerful dissenting voices in American politics, art and literature found their voices in New York—among them, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and the pioneers of countless musical revolutions and innovations. 

A Philosophy of Walking meets Atlas Obscura meets Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Rebel City also includes a comprehensive index that cross references NYC boroughs, locations, and locales with the unforgettable personalities that give life to this book. There’s also extensive bibliography for readers who want to discover more about New York’s rebel history. This is a unique, indispensable, informative, and entertaining guide to New York’s wild side—past, present, and future. 

New York Times Bestseller
Barnes & Noble 2025 Book of the Year
Publishers Weekly Bestseller
National Indie Bestseller
Indie Next Pick
Indigo Heather’s Pick

THE SENSATIONAL #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THAT HAS TAKEN THE WORLD BY STORM, IN A LARGE PRINT EDITION

"Vibrant debut ... Schlesser seamlessly interweaves the art lessons with Mona's story ... Readers of Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World will love this." —Publishers Weekly

Ten-year-old Mona and her beloved grandfather have only fifty-two Wednesdays to visit fifty-two works of art and commit to memory "all that is beautiful in the world" before Mona loses her sight forever.

While the doctors can find no explanation for Mona's brief episode of blindness, they agree that the threat of permanent vision loss cannot be ruled out. The girl's grandfather, Henry, may not be able to stop his granddaughter from losing her sight, but he can fill the encroaching darkness with beauty.

Every Wednesday for a year, the pair abscond together and visit a single masterpiece in one of Paris's renowned museums. From Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona learns how each artist's work shaped the world around them. In turn, the young girl's world is changed forever by the power of their art. Under the kind and careful tutelage of her grandfather, Mona learns the true meaning of generosity, melancholy, love, loss, and revolution. Her perspective will never be the same — nor will the reader's.

Mona's Eyes is a heartfelt, enlightening journey across five centuries of Western art history. With the emotional impact of The Elegance of the Hedgehog and the readability of The Little Paris Bookshop, Thomas Schlesser's sensational debut novel is at once a moving book about the beauty of life and a deeply touching story about the special bond between a girl and her grandfather.

“Italian literature has been waiting years for a novel like this.”—Vincenzo Latronico, author of Perfection

A luminous debut about the search for belonging, the tension between departure and return, and the legacy of migration, Tangerinn is a novel of memory, a stirring meditation on culture, identity, and inheritance set between London and the windswept beaches of southern Italy.

Mina is thirty and living in London. She fled there at twenty to reinvent herself to escape her small-town past, but a decade later she is drifting, untethered and uncertain. When her Moroccan-born father Omar dies, she returns to her childhood home on the Calabrian coast, where he ran a bar called the Tangerinn. It was more than just a bar—it was a gathering place, a haven for migrants and misfits, a dream that Mina’s sister, Aisha, is struggling to keep alive.

In searching for traces of her father, Mina begins to piece together her own fractured sense of identity. As she reconnects with the memories embedded in the land, she must confront what it means to belong—not just to a place, but to a lineage, a language, a self.

With precise, sensual prose and an acute sensitivity to atmosphere and emotion, Anechoum delivers a novel that is at once tender and fierce, local and borderless, as intimate as it is political. 

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE

★ “Mesmerising, tragic, horrifying, utterly unputdownable... An outstanding read for fans of WWII fiction and of writers like Anthony Doerr.”—Emily Melton, Booklist (Starred Review)

Shortlisted for Kerry Group Novel of The Year 

A Parade Most Anticipated Book of the Year 

In the final, perilous months of WWII, a secret network known as The Choir smuggles thousands out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a route known only as the Escape Line. But when a wounded airman falls from the sky, the entire operation is thrown into jeopardy. From the Vatican, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty struggles to maintain the fragile network as the ruthless SS Commander Paul Hauptmann closes in. Enter Contessa Giovanna Landini, a bold and defiant member of the Resistance whose actions will tip the balance of power. But in whose favor?

Brimming with suspense, unforgettable characters, and historical resonance, The Ghosts of Rome is a masterfully written novel of resistance, sacrifice, and survival from an acclaimed and bestselling storyteller. 

“The power of The Ghosts of Rome comes from the dazzling variety of voices... not just a wartime thriller, but a meditation on how we remember, how we resist, and how, even in the darkest times, humanity endures.”—The New York Times Book Review 

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE

WINNER
2025 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
2025 Winston Graham Historical Prize for Fiction

“Tender, elegant, soulful and perfect...Superb.”—Samantha Harvey, Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital

December 1962: In a village deep in the English countryside, two neighboring couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric Parry commences his rounds in the village while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their old house, mulling over the space that has grown between the two of them.

On the farm nearby lives Irene’s mirror image: witty but troubled Rita Simmons is also expecting. She spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer’s wife, but her head still swims with images of a raucous past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget.

When Rita and Irene meet across the bare field between their houses, a clock starts. There is still affection in both their homes; neither marriage has yet to be abandoned. But when the ordinary cold of December gives way—ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory—so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives.

An exquisite, page-turning examination of relationships, The Land in Winter is a masterclass in storytelling—proof yet again that Andrew Miller is one of the most dazzling chroniclers of the human heart.

“Andrew Miller’s writing is a source of wonder and delight.”—Hilary Mantel

A powerful, unflinching portrait of a generation fighting for change in Iran, Afghanistan, and Ukraine 

In The Fire, acclaimed journalist Cecilia Sala takes readers on a gripping journey through some of the world’s most volatile regions, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Through the eyes of young people like Kateryna, a Ukrainian soldier; Assim, an Iranian student at the forefront of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests; Nabila, a Muslim kickboxing champion and lesbian; and Zarifa, a political activist in Afghanistan, Sala offers an intimate portrayal of lives caught amidst turmoil and fighting for a better life.

By immersing herself in their worlds—in their daily lives and political battles—Sala crafts a poignant narrative that captures the human dimension of some of the world’s most intense conflicts. The Fire is a testament to the courage and hunger for freedom of a generation at the forefront of global change.

“This is essential reading for understanding the present.”—Il Messaggero

★ “The Golden Age is pretty much perfect.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Frank Gold’s Jewish Hungarian family have fled Europe and the looming threat of Nazi Germany for the safety of Australia. Not long after their arrival, however, thirteen-year-old Frank is diagnosed with polio and is sent to a sprawling children’s hospital called the Golden Age. There he meets Elsa, the most beautiful and radiant girl he has ever seen.

Frank and Elsa’s love fuels their rehabilitation, allows them to face the perils of their illness with humor and bravery, and scandalizes the prudish staff of the Golden Age. Meanwhile, their parents are coping with challenges of their own. Frank and his family are isolated newcomers in a country they do not love and that does not seem to love them. His mother, a renowned pianist in Hungary, refuses to let the empty western deserts of Australia become her home. While Elsa’s mother must reconcile her big dreams with the new realities of her daughter’s sickness.

The Golden Age is a deeply moving, inspiring, and prize-winning novel about resilience, youth, and the will to live life to the fullest, whatever the odds.

WINNER OF THE PRIME MINISTER’S LITERARY AWARD AND THE PATRICK WHITE AWARD
FINALIST FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD

WINNER of the Philip K. Dick Award for BEST Science Fiction

In a near and mildly dystopic future, Francine has finally been freed from years of undiagnosed pain—a recent surgery has provided relief. Her subversive “Theory of Bastards,” which has unseated public figures and past presidents, has proven fruitful for other scientists and rewarded her with a generous grant and a prestigious placement at The Foundation. Now she is spearheading further research on a group of remarkable animals, bonobos. Her steady, significant progress is interrupted when windstorms sweep up out of the abandoned places and her colleagues retreat to safety. Francine and the man she has come to love stay behind to weather the storm, protect their simian research subjects, and continue the work, as a new and better future begins to emerge from the dust.

Audrey Schulman has once again written a spellbinding, original novel that never loses sight of its humanity.

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE 21st CENTURY

“Remarkable, lucid, austerely honest.”—The New Yorker

Elena Ferrante’s shattering English-language debut remains an unforgettable reading experience for her die-hard readers and a thorny pleasure still to be discovered for the millions of fans who only know her from My Brilliant Friend. “A masterpiece,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer; “Stunning,” says The New Yorker; “Nothing prepares you for the ferocity of it,” wrote Amy Rowland in The New York Times. Even two decades after its first publication, The Days of Abandonment remains a groundbreaking, propulsive, and cathartic account of a woman’s wrath.

Olga’s husband of fifteen years has announced that he is leaving her. In a “raging, torrential voice” (New York Times) that is nonetheless “intelligent and darkly comic” (Publishers Weekly), Olga recounts her journey from denial to devastating emptiness. When she finds herself trapped within the four walls of her apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own self, and the possibility that life may never return to normal. 

“If that's not a great literary novel, I don't know what is.”—Kate Christensen, ELLE

An ode to memory, to home, and to the beauty of the natural world 

What remains of the springs, summers, autumns, and winters of a woman’s life? 

Isadora, now an old woman relegated to a hospice, looks back on her life and how intimately intertwined it was with that of the big, sprawling house where she spent almost her entire existence. 

Her memories of childhood and beyond come back to her, season by season: from the games and warmth of Summer and the back-to-school days of Autumn, to the crisp, cold days of Winter—days of loneliness and death—and to Spring’s promise of renewal, and of the return to the house that meant so much to her. 

Told in lyrical, beguiling language, Isadora guides the reader through the maze of her memory by classifying, like a watercolor painter, her recollections by season. 

“A masterly, hypnotic book I read in just two sittings.”—Edmund White

A propulsive, enigmatic novel that moves fluidly between London, Germany, Belgrade, Cape Town, and Tokyo, Fathers and Fugitives is a formally inventive and emotionally charged book about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance, loss, and belonging. 

Estranged from his elderly, senile father, Daniel nonetheless returns to South Africa to care for him during his final months. Shortly after arriving in Cape Town, however, Daniel learns of an unusual clause in the old man’s will: he will inherit his share of his father’s estate only if he spends time with Theon, a cousin whom he hasn’t seen since they were boys, and who lives on a sprawling farm in the Free State. With the conditions bearing on Daniel’s inheritance shifting in real time, Theon and Daniel travel to Japan to seek out an experimental cure for the son of the woman Theon lives with. The trip will change their lives forever.

S.J. Naudé’s masterful novel is many things at once: a literary page page-turner full of vivid, unexpected characters and surprising twists; a loving and at times shockingly raw portrayal of its protagonist’s complex psyche; and a devastatingly subtle look into South Africa’s fraught recent history. 

“Coolly funny, frequently surprising and in parts almost overwhelming in its emotional force…One of the best novels of the year.”—The Guardian

Love is the only lifeline.

“A historical romance of a grand, old-fashioned and very British variety, with hints of L.P. Hartley, D.H. Lawrence and Evelyn Waugh... Compelling and ultimately convincing, which is one of the most difficult things a love story can be.”—Mary Marge Locker, The New York Times Book Review

Post-WWI England is a nation in upheaval, its foundations shaken by the Great War and the collapse of genteel Edwardian society. The streets are haunted by shell-shocked men, runaways, mutilated veterans, damned poets, and revolutionaries.

Marion has fled Galway for Oxford after her elopement with a violent man ended violently. In the City of Dreaming Spires, where the cobbled streets, barely lit pubs, and underground book presses hum with restless energy, she meets Jamie, a damaged soul like her who is struggling to recover from his experiences at the front. He alone sees her scars. She alone knows his secret name. Their love is wild, anarchic, dangerous, absolute. Everything, it seems, is at stake. When the “talkers” in Marion’s head get too loud and the circumstances of her life too dire, she disappears, leaving Jamie bereft and without word. But their love is like gravity--an undeniable force pitted against the dark forces that would keep them apart.

At once an erotic drama, a formally inventive romantic epic, and a historical novel written with an emotional intensity that bears comparison to classics like Wuthering Heights, Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square, and Madame Bovary, Amanda is a poignant, atmospheric meditation on love, trauma, and redemption. H.S. Cross delivers an unforgettable novel on the infinite varieties of human experience.

From the author of Ties and The House on Via Gemito 

★ “Starnone’s sensitivity, nuance, and subtlety are wonderful to behold.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Domenico Starnone’s The Old Man by the Sea is a slim masterpiece of a novel about an 82-year-old Neapolitan man, Nicola, who has spent his entire life telling stories, becoming very, very good at it. In words, with his pen, in the notebook he carries with him everywhere, he records life’s minutiae, its ephemera, those vibrating essences and almost imperceptible atoms of existence that most of us barely notice but that constitute the very stuff of life. Yes, recording the universe in each grain of sand has become second nature to Nicola. But of course, there is always something that escapes. Something unnamable that resists, remaining on the margins, slithering away, a movement intuited rather than identified. And this fact, for Nicola, is a source of deep anxiety and a growing sense of failure.

Now, ensconced in a house on the dunes south of Rome, Nicola spends his mornings writing, watching the waves, and observing Lu, a store clerk in her twenties whose graceful canoeing stirs faint echoes of his mother—a glamorous, headstrong woman who defied convention with her beauty and creativity. As Nicola reflects on the women who shaped him and the passions he has never outgrown, he finds himself drawn into the nefarious intrigues of the small seaside town and its inhabitants. He will end by embarking on an improbable and ill-advised kayak adventure of his own with Lu’s young son, as Starnone himself brings this slim, virtuoso novel about eros and melancholy, memory and reinvention, age and imagination, to an unexpected conclusion.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.  

IN THIS VOLUME: Buddhism, the State, and Superpowers by Pitchaya Sudbanthad • The Country of Spirits by Emma Larkin • Monarchy Under Attack by Claudio Sopranzetti • plus: soft power and the working class, the heart of rural Thailand and the separatism of the southern peninsula, the success of Boy Love, the palm oil scandal, and much more...  

Thailand’s recent history has been marked by political turbulence, with palace coups, intrigue, attempted revolution, restoration, and democratic elections. In this complex democracy, the working class, progressives, and young urban professionals push for reforms, often clashing with landowners and business elites. While Thailand is perceived as permissive and tolerant, it hides a conservative core. Yet, one of its main cultural exports is Boy Love stories, romantic tales featuring male protagonists, whose success epitomises a cultural revolution that is boosting the country’s entertainment industry and soft power. 

Behind Thailand's glittering image, exemplified by Bangkok—the world’s most visited city in 2023—lie rural regions like Isaan, far from typical tourist paths. These areas reflect the country’s diverse and complex identity and reveal that, despite government efforts to impose cultural uniformity, Thailand’s true strength still lies in its ability to embrace diversity and syncretism. 

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. 

IN THIS VOLUME: Hell Joseon by Elisa Shua Dusapin • The View from the North by Lee Hyeonseo • Lessons in Democracy by Jiyoung Choi  • plus: the Samsung Republic and the most militarized border in the world, the real reason why Korean women don’t have children, democracy and K-pop, baseball, esports, and shamanism, and much more… 

From kimchi to TV series, from Oscar-winning films to K-pop, from webtoons to cosmetics, in recent years Korea has captured the global imagination, one viral trend at a time. In this volume, The Passenger sets out in search of the world’s coolest nation. 

Eighty years ago, at the end of a devastating civil war, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, under constant threat from the Communist regime north of the 38th parallel and completely dependent on the United States for its security and prosperity. Today, it is the world’s tenth-largest economy, a dynamic and innovative country with a per capita GDP similar to that of Western Europe, a lively and participatory democracy that stands up to its larger, more powerful neighbors. And above all, the country is the origin of the hallyu—the Korean wave—which has reached every corner of the world and taken the global entertainment, food, and culture industries by storm. 

This extremely rapid and astonishing transformation has inevitably brought ruptures and contradictions. If the global youth looks to Korea as previous generations looked to Hollywood and New York, young Koreans instead talk about Hell Joseon: a country that is rapidly aging, an economic system dominated by powerful chaebols (family-controlled conglomerates), a fiercely competitive educational system, a generational gap in outlook and behavior and, at the center of it all, the role of women— one of the keys that The Passenger has chosen to try to decipher a complex, fascinating country, central to the dynamics of today’s world, and that is often exoticized and idealized to the same extent. 

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: The Sea Between Lands by David Abulalfia; The Liquid Road by Leïla Slimani; The Cold One, the Hot One, the Mad One, and the Angry One by Nick Hunt • plus: the sounds and smells of the Mediterranean; the ceaseless hunt for tuna; the invention of the Mediterranean diet; and much more…

The word “Mediterranean” has always evoked something larger than geography. For millennia, it has designated a distinct cultural and historical space, one where different peoples have met, traded, and—not infrequently—clashed. Starting from its Latin etymology (“in the middle of the Earth”), the Mediterranean is intimately connected with ideas of connection, exchange, and multiplicity.

Today, however, the Mediterranean appears to be in crisis. Neglected by the European Union—which often sees North Africa and the Middle East as a threat, or at best as a source of energy—the Mediterranean is at the center of one of the greatest migrations in history. While every year hundreds of millions of vacationers flock to its shores, as in a distorting mirror hundreds of thousands of people face a dramatic journey in the opposite direction—to escape wars, persecutions, and poverty. The liquid road, as Homer called it, is increasingly militarized, trafficked, and polluted—as well as overheated and overfished.

This volume of The Passenger dives deep into the complex issues and contradictions facing the Mediterranean. As the book shows, despite its problems, the Mediterranean remains a source of wonder and fascination—a space not entirely colonized by modernity, where time flows differently, and where multiple cultures and languages are in closer contact and dialogue than elsewhere.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Underground Tenochtitlan by Guadalupe Nettel • Crime and (No) Punishment by Juan Villoro • The Birth of Fridolatry by Valeria Luiselli • plus: the cocaine that washes in from the sea and the pearl of the west, the jungle train and the last stop on the line, femicide and TikTok politics, mole, rice, the Virgin of Guadalupe and much more ...

Once synonymous with escape and freedom, Mexico is now more frequently described as a place plagued by widespread violence, drug trafficking, endemic corruption, and uncontrolled migration. Under the patina of a tourist paradise—with its beaches, its ancient ruins, its tequila—lies a complex, dynamic country trying to carve out a place for itself in the shadow of its powerful neighbor.

The most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, Mexico is also home to 89 indigenous peoples and languages: one of the many contradictory legacies of the country’s colonial past, which still permeates its politics, society, religion, food, and culture. With a fifth of the population identifying as indigenous, the issue of rediscovering and revaluing the country’s pre-Columbian roots is at the center of the public debate. The controversial Mayan train project, which would connect Mexico’s Caribbean resorts with the South’s archaeological sites, crossing (and endangering) communities and forests, is a perfect example of the opposition between the two souls of the country.

The attempts to resolve this contradiction, or better still to learn to live with it, will define the Mexico of the future. Only by recognizing equal status to ethnic and linguistic minorities will the country be able to reconcile its fractured identity.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Still Becoming by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie・A Nation called Ineba by A. Igoni Barrett・The Niger Delta by Noo Saro-Wiwa・plus: independent cinema and the do-it-yourself society; indiscriminate abductions and discrimination against women; the discrete charm of repair shops and the irresistible fascination with Afrobeat, and much more…

Since gaining independence Nigeria has been in a state of permanent crisis. Even the arrival of democracy in the 1990s failed to bring much improvement. It’s estimated that over 100 million Nigerians, half of the country’s population, live below the poverty line.

Violence is widespread: from the Boko Haram terrorists to the new armed secessionist movements and the growing scourge of kidnappings. How to live in a country where the state is, at best, absent? With regular power cuts, virtually non-existent health care and education, and where the army, present in every one of the 36 states of the federation, is not able to control the violence?

In these circumstances, the only possible society is a do-it-yourself one that blossoms wherever and however it can. 

At the first glimmer of opportunity, Nigerians bring out all their dynamism, entrepreneurial skills, and inventiveness. They develop apps to get around the inaccessibility of the banking system, use solar power to render themselves independent from the unreliable public energy grid, sometimes even resorting to artisanal (but deeply polluting) methods to refine oil/petrol, embrace e-commerce and social media to sell their goods, while films produced on shoestring budgets, books and music find success all over the world.

Nigeria’s energy is unlike that of any other African country. As the generation of generals who won the civil war and governed the country for 60 years dies out, and younger citizens refuse to ignore injustice and violence, the hope is born that a new, vibrant generation will take the country’s future into their hands. And, as they are accustomed to doing, fix it.

FINALIST FOR THE 2022 MCILVANNEY PRIZE

Detective Harry McCoy returns in the suspenseful, atmospheric fifth instalment in Alan Park’s internationally bestselling thriller series.

Glasgow is a city in mourning. An arson attack on a hairdresser’s has left five dead. Tempers are frayed and sentiments running high.

When three youths are charged the city goes wild. A crowd gathers outside the courthouse but as the police drive the young men to prison, the van is rammed by a truck, and the men are grabbed and bundled into a car. The next day, the body of one of them is dumped in the city centre. A note has been sent to the newspaper: one down, two to go.

Detective Harry McCoy has twenty-four hours to find the kidnapped boys before they all turn up dead, and it is going to mean taking down some of Glasgow’s most powerful people to do it.

“A series that no crime fan should miss: dangerous, thrilling, but with a kind voice to cut through the darkness.”—Scotsman

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Night, Sleep, Death and the Stars by Lauren Groff・The Universe Underground by Paolo Giordano・We All Hated Each Other So Much by Frank Westermann・plus: discovering new planets and destroying satellites; returning to the Moon (this time to stay); the Mars delusion; the hunt for extraterrestrial life, and much more…

In the 1960s, the rivalry between the superpowers brought us into space, adding a whole new dimension to human life. The last frontier was open, the solar system seemed close at hand, Mars was the next step... Then, nothing. Between 1969 and 1972 twelve men (but no women) walked on the moon, but no one has since. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union revealed itself for what it really was: a political and military competition between opposing nationalist narratives.

Space agencies, however, have not been idle since the 1970s—quite the opposite. While funding for space missions has been cut and their objectives have changed, humanity has continued to explore the solar system with probes and robots, less costly than human astronauts, and has observed celestial bodies more closely than ever before. Without politics, science has thrived. But the lack of government funding has also opened space exploration to the forces of capitalism. NASA and other space agencies rely more and more on private companies to build modules and rockets, and a generation of visionary and megalomaniac entrepreneurs has become determined to bring humans back to space, this time to stay. The race has started again, with different rules and different players in an increasingly multipolar world.

But for those of us who remain on Earth, space also offers something else—a spiritual dimension, which science keeps alive by seeking answers to fundamental questions: what is the universe made of? How did the solar system form? What are the origins of life? And while colonizing Mars might not be the solution to humanity’s problems, the promise of space—whether expressed in a tweet by Elon Musk or a photo taken by a NASA rover on Mars—is to finally demonstrate that, when necessary, we are able to work together to build a common future for the whole of humanity.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Growing Uncertainty in the Central Valley by Anna Wiener • How Does It Feel to Be a Solution? by Vanessa Hua • The Burning of Paradise by Mark Arax • plus: direct democracy and unsustainable development, the rise of the ‘land back’ movement, the cultural renaissance of Los Angeles in defiance of rampant gentrification, and much more…

California has stood for more than a century as the brightest symbol of the American dream. In recent years, however, the country’s mainstream media has been declaring with increasing frequency—and thinly veiled schadenfreude—the “end of California as we know it.”

The pessimists point to rising inequality, racial tensions, and the impact of climate change as evidence that the Californian dream has been shattered. Between extreme heat, months-long droughts, devastating wildfires, and rising sea levels, looking at California is like watching the trailer for what awaits the world if we don’t act to reduce global warming. Faced with these pressures, more and more Californians are leaving the state, leading to an unprecedented decline in population that could change the cultural and political balance of power in the country at large. 

That said, demographic decline and climate disasters don’t tell the whole story of one of the most dynamic and diverse states in the Union—one that continues to drive technological and political innovation and define the evolution of work, food, entertainment, and social relations. This volume offers a fascinating picture of California in all its complexity and contradictions; an attempt to understand the laboratory where much of the world’s future continues to be written.

FINALIST FOR THE 2022 MCILVANNEY PRIZE

Set in 1976, seven years after the murders recounted in Liam McIlvanney’s breakout novel, The Quaker, this new Glasgow noir novel is a standalone mystery featuring serial character, Detective Duncan McCormack.

McCormack has returned to Glasgow after a stint with the Metropolitan Police in London. The reason for his return is left a lurking mystery throughout. He is investigating a series of murders that seem at first to be the result of random bouts of violence among Glasgow’s poor and destitute. McCormack, however, has insight into Glasgow’s underground that many of his colleagues don’t. He has a secret of his own that he guards carefully but that takes him places and introduces him to people that prove essential to his investigations.

Mcilvanney’s The Quaker was named the Scottish Crime Fiction Book of the Year and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. The Guardian called it “a solidly crafted and satisfying detective story.” McIlvanney is known for his well crafted plots, his deep characterization, and his stylish prose. The Heretic is no exception.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Rome doesn’t judge you by Nicola Lagioia・The soul of the city by Matteo Nucci・39 memos for a book about Rome by Francesco Piccolo・Plus: a guide to the sounds of Rome by Letizia Muratori; the feigned unrest and real malaise of the suburbs; the influence of the Vatican; the excessive power of real estate speculators and the rule of gangs; disillusioned trappers; football fans of every age, and much more...

If you believe what’s currently being said about Rome—in the media and by its residents—the city is on the verge of collapse. Each year, it slips further down the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities. To the problems faced by all large capitals—hit-and-run tourism, traffic, the divide between elegant, Airbnb-dominated city centers and run-down suburbs—in recent years Rome seems to have added a list of calamities of its own: a string of failing administrations, widespread corruption, the resurgence of fascist movements, rampant crime. A seemingly hopeless situation, perfectly symbolized by the fact that Rome currently leads the world in the number of self-combusting public buses.

If we look closer, however, this narrative is contradicted by just as many signs that point in the opposite direction. Above all, the lack of the mass migration one would be except in these circumstances: the vast majority of Romans don’t think for a second of “betraying” their hometown, and the many newcomers who have populated it in recent decades are often indistinguishable from the natives in the profound love that binds them to the city.

Rome is a place of contradictions and opposites: an “incredibly deceptive city”, always different from what it appears to be. It is thought to be large but it is actually immense, the largest metropolis in Europe. Most important, contrary to the most common and least accurate stereotype about it, Rome is a profoundly modern city. While the city itself was founded almost three millennia ago, 92 per cent of its buildings have been built after 1945. The bottom line is that, in order to understand Rome and fix its problems, we should start considering it a normal city, “not unlike Chicago or Manchester.” Only, incomparably more beautiful.

WINNER of the 2022 British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year

In this scorching prequel, New York Times best-selling author Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DC Jack Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.

Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong kind of people. When his body is found in an alley behind a pub that is known to be under the protective wing of a local crime boss, the fragile equilibrium that has been keeping Glasgow relatively safe for months is shattered. Besides a distraught family and any number of powerful friends, Carter has left behind his fair share of enemies. So who is responsible for his death?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks Carter’s death up to the usual rivalries, but Laidlaw knows it can’t be that simple. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, he needs to find Carter’s killer before the whole city explodes.

William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Ian Rankin has finished what McIlvanney started. Here, in The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth.

“Fantastic—like witnessing Scottish noir’s Big Bang creation in the company of its greatest living exponent... Like Maradona and Messi playing in the same team.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers

The tenth Commissario Ricciardi Neapolitan mystery is “endlessly surprising… a delicate balancing act between love and pain, horror and beauty.”—ThrillerNord

Christmas has just passed and the city is preparing to celebrate New Year when, on the stage of a variety show, famous actor Michelangelo Gelmi fires a gun at his wife,  Fedora Marra.

The shooting itself would be nothing strange: it is repeated every evening as part of their performance. But this time, someone replaced one of the blanks with a real bullet. Gelmi swears his innocence, but few believe him. Approaching old age and with a career in decline, the actor has become increasingly dependent on his wife, much younger than him and at the height of her fame. However, rumor has it that she had fallen in love with another man and was preparing to leave Gelmi. A straightforward case of infidelity and marital jealousy? Commissario Ricciardi has more than one doubt.

A mystery made darker by the sudden fog that envelops an almost gothic Naples, Commissario Riccardi’s latest adventure will enrapture readers until its final, dramatic act.

The Bastards of Pizzofalcone Series

In the fifth installment in Maurizio de Giovanni’s bestselling series, the Bastards of Pizzofalcone face their hardest challenge yet: will they emerge stronger or will they succumb to Naples’s darkest forces?

Sometimes it takes facing a formidable adversary to truly know one’s worth. The Bastards of Pizzofalcone may have found just that: when the brutal murder of a baker rattles the city, they are ready to investigate. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do to prove themselves to their community. But this time the police are divided: for the special anti-mob branch, the local mafia is doubtlessly responsible for the crime, but the Bastards are not so sure. 

De Giovanni is one of Europe’s most renowned and versatile mystery writers. His award-winning and bestselling novels, all of which take place in Naples, engage readers in gripping tales of Europe’s most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city.

WINNER of the 2022 British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year

In this scorching prequel, New York Times best-selling author Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DC Jack Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.

Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong kind of people. When his body is found in an alley behind a pub that is known to be under the protective wing of a local crime boss, the fragile equilibrium that has been keeping Glasgow relatively safe for months is shattered. Besides a distraught family and any number of powerful friends, Carter has left behind his fair share of enemies. So who is responsible for his death?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks Carter’s death up to the usual rivalries, but Laidlaw knows it can’t be that simple. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, he needs to find Carter’s killer before the whole city explodes.

William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Ian Rankin has finished what McIlvanney started. Here, in The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth.

“Fantastic—like witnessing Scottish noir’s Big Bang creation in the company of its greatest living exponent... Like Maradona and Messi playing in the same team.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Out of the Shadows by Tash Aw・Against the Stars by Tommaso Melilli・Afraid of Being Free by Samar Yazbek・plus: the Champs-Elysées between luxury and riots, the French Republic between antisemitism and islamophobia, the most elegant Congolese dandies of all time, one Parisian woman you will not encounter, the city’s legendary football team that is not the PSG, and much more...

Nothing is what it seems in this city, starting with its size: small if you look only at its core of the twenty arrondissements but the second-largest in Europe if you consider the whole Île-de-France. The radiance of the “city of lights” can be blinding even for tourists: the clash with the real city, so different from the one depicted in films and books, results in some of them developing the so-called “Paris syndrome.” That said, the cracks in the postcard image of the city seem to multiply: the November 2015 terrorist attacks, the demonstrations of the yellow vests, the riots in the suburbs, Notre-Dame in flames, record heatwaves and the coronavirus. Meanwhile, soaring living costs are forcing many Parisians to leave the city.

Yet these are not just a series of unfortunate events. They are phenomena—from increasing population density to climate change, from immigration to the repercussions of globalization and geopolitics— that all metropolises in the world must face. And in Paris, today, the mood is not one of defeat but of renewal: from the city’s ongoing environmental and urbanistic transformation to the fight by a new generation of chefs against the traditionalism of starred restaurants; from the children of immigrants who take to the streets for the right to feel French to the women determined to break the sexism and stereotypes that dominate the fashion industry. Is there anyone who seriously thinks they can teach Parisians how to make a revolution?

When an American sailor from the Holy Loch Base goes missing, Harry McCoy is determined to find him. But as he investigates, a wave of bombings hits Glasgow. Soon McCoy realises that the sailor may be part of a shadowy organization led by a dangerous fanatic and committed to a very different kind of Scotland. A Scotland its members are prepared to kill for.

Meanwhile Cooper, McCoy’s long-time criminal friend, is released from jail and is convinced he has a traitor in his midst. As allies become enemies, Cooper has to fight to maintain his position as crime kingpin. He needs something done, something illegal, and his old friend McCoy is the only one who can do it.

As word begins to circulate on the streets that another, bigger explosion is being planned for Glasgow, McCoy battles corruption in his ranks in an attempt to save the city for which he is the perfect noir hero.

It’s Always Watching…

A distressed young woman arrives at the police station claiming her friend has been abducted, and that the man threatened to return and “claim her next.” Detectives Carrigan and Miller are drawn into a terrifying new world of cyberstalking—where the threat of online intimidation, hacking, and control is ever-present, and disturbing contemporary themes and dark psychology are explored with Stav Sherez’s customary skill.

Under scrutiny themselves, and with old foes and enmities re-surfacing, how long will Carrigan and Miller have to find out the truth behind what these two women have been subjected to?

An all-too-plausible entry into a terrifying new world just reaching the public mind—in which a computer can turn against its owner with the push of a button—The Intrusions shows how easy it can be to become an unwilling victim to the new generation of stalkers.

Winner of the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original

The third dark and gripping Harry McCoy thriller from the most exciting new voice in Scottish noir.

July 1973. The Glasgow drug trade is booming and Bobby March, homegrown rock hero, has overdosed in a downtown hotel. Alice Kelly, meanwhile, is thirteen years old, alone, and missing. Harry McCoy is quietly asked to find his boss’s niece, who’s fallen in with a dodgy crowd and hasn’t been seen for days.

McCoy has a hunch that there’s a connection between all three events, but the clock is running, the papers are out for blood, and the department wants results.

Alan Parks worked in the music business for decades and his familiarity with the industry together with his intimate knowledge of the deeply noir 1970s Glasgow—its music scene, hard men, political infighting, class divisions—make this a pitch-perfect installment in the lauded Harry McCoy series.

Shortlisted for the 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards, Illustrated Travel Book Of The Year

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Caste: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Arundhati Roy・The Invention of Hindu Nationalism by Prem Shankar Jha・No Country for Women by Tishani Doshi・plus: the grand ambitions of the world’s most underrated space program, Bollywood’s obsession with Swiss landscapes, an ode to Bengali food, eagerly awaiting the monsoon, the wrestler tackling stereotypes and much more...

Since its earliest interactions with the West, India has been the object of a gross misinterpretation that has survived to the present day, a vague association with ideas of peace, spiritualism, the magic of the fakirs. Constantly reframed and mythicised by Westerners fleeing their supposedly rationalist societies, India continues to fascinate with its millennia-old history, its shrines on every street corner, its ancient beliefs and rituals, and its unique linguistic and cultural diversity.

Today this picture is mixed with that of a society that is changing at a frenetic pace and is at the forefront of the digital revolution—a “shining India” of dynamic, fast-expanding megalopolises. Yet, these success stories coexist with the daily plight of the large section of India’s population without access to drinking water or a toilet, with a rural economy (still employing the majority of India’s over 1.3 billion inhabitants) that depends on monsoons for irrigation and is threatened by climate change. The greatest democratic experiment ever attempted, India remains plagued by one of the vilest forms of class and racial discrimination, the caste system, which is being exacerbated by the Hindu nationalist regime currently in power.

All things considered, though, it is hard to find a more dynamic and optimistic country or, as Arundhati Roy puts it, “a more irredeemably chaotic people.” This volume aims to depict India’s chaos and its contradictions, its terror and its joy, from the struggle of the Kashmiri people to that of non-believers (hated by all religious sects), from the dances of the hijra in Koovagam to the success of the wrestler Vinesh Phogat, a symbol of the women who seek to free themselves from the oppressive patriarchal mores. Despite the obstacles and steps back, India continues its journey on the long path towards freedom and towards ending poverty for some of the world’s most destitute people.

The Big Dig by Elif Batuman - A Story of Dust and Light by Burhan Sönmez - An Author Recommends by Elif Shafak - plus: the thirty-year coup and the dam that is washing away 12,000 years of history, and more.

The birth of the “New Turkey,” as the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called his own creation, is an exemplary story of the rise of “illiberal democracies” through the erosion of civil liberties, press freedom, and the independence of the judicial system. Turkey was a complex country long before the rise of its new sultan: born out of the ashes of a vast multi- ethnic and multi-religious empire, Turkey has grappled through its relatively short history with the definition of its own identity. Poised between competing ideologies, secularism and piousness, a militaristic nationalism and exceptional openness to foreigners, Turkey defies easy labels and categories. Through the voices of some of its best writers and journalists– many of them in self-imposed exile—The Passenger tries to make sense of this fascinating, maddening country, analyzing how it got to where it is now, and finding the bright spots of hope that allow its always resourceful, often frustrated population to continue living, and thriving.

In the town of Yport, during a run along Europe’s tallest cliff, Jamal notices a red scarf hanging on a fence. Then he sees the woman, her dress torn, her back to the void, her eyes fixed on his own. Jamal holds the scarf out to her like a buoy.

A few seconds later, the stranger’s lifeless body is found lying on the icy pebbles of the empty beach below. Around her neck, the red scarf.

Everyone thinks he pushed her. He only wanted to save her.

That’s Jamal’s version. Do you believe it?

A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Ghosts of the Tsumani by Richard Lloyd Parry・Living in Shimokitazawa by Yoshimoto Banana・Why Japan Is Populist-Free? by Ian Buruma・plus: a Shinto sect in the shadow of power, feeling debts by disappearing into thin air, the decline of sexual desire, the obsession with American blues, the strongest sumo wrestler of all time (who isn’s Japanese), the revenge of the Ainu and much more...

Visitors from the West look with amazement, and sometimes concern, at Japan’s social structures and unique, complex culture industry; the gigantic scale of its tech corporations and the resilience of its traditions; the extraordinary diversity of the subcultures that flourish in its “post-human” megacities. The country nonetheless remains an intricate and complicated jigsaw puzzle, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for stories, reflections, and reportage.

The subjects in this volume range from the Japanese veneration of the dead to the Tokyo music scene, from urban alienation to cinema, from sumo to toxic masculinity. 

Caught between an ageing population and extreme post-modernity, Japan is an ideal observation point from which to understand our age and the one to come.

“Some Japanese stories end violently. Others never end at all, but only cut away, at the moment of extreme crisis, to a butterfly, or the wind, or the moon.”―Brian Phillips

The next installment in Maurizio de Giovanni’s bestselling “Bastards of Pizzofalcone” series unfolds during the crisp beginning of April in contemporary Naples as a new evil spreads throughout the city.

A baby is left abandoned beside a dumpster. A young Ukranian maid fights the torrents of greed and frustration with the world around her. Small animals begin to disappear off the streets. The task of solving these mysteries is entrusted to a team of policemen in which few believe: the Bastards of Pizzofalcone. Complete with stirrings in the city’s criminal underbelly and a fight against a seemingly inhuman evil, this novel is sure to delight fans of de Giovanni’s previous works.

De Giovanni is one of Europe’s most renowned and versatile mystery writers. His award-winning and bestselling novels, all of which take place in Naples, engage readers in gripping tales of Europe’s most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city.

A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Once Upon A Time: The Greek Taverna by Petros Markaris・Land of Migration by Matteo Nucci・The Lost Generation by Christos Ikonomou・plus: Yorgos Lanthimos and the “Weird Wave” of Greek cinema, the island where people forget to die, the NBA’s most valuable player, the mayor who balanced the books but enraged the nationalists, abandoned buildings, oligarchs on the rise, the rebellious rhythm of rebetiko and much more...

Few countries have received more media attention in recent years and even fewer have been represented in such vastly divergent ways. There’s a downside to all this attention: everyone seems to have something final to say about Greece. News headlines replace people’s individual stories, impressions substitute facts, characters take the place of people.

In this volume of The Passenger, we chose to set those opinions aside in order to give to the stories, facts, and people of Greece the dignity and centrality they deserve.

“On the Greek island of Ikaria, life is sweet . . . and very, very long. What is the locals’ secret?” from The Island of Long Life by Andrew Anthony

International secret police operations, drug trafficking, prostitution, and identity theft set the stage for the eternal struggle between Good and Evil.

Acclaimed as one of today’s best contemporary noir writers, Massimo Carlotto reaches new heights in the most complex “Alligator” novel to date. Rich with biting humor, humanity, and psychological insight, this is an exemplary noir novel from a crime writer at the top of his game.

Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator, and his partners Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini have fallen into a trap laid by their worst enemy, Giorgio Pellegrini, a wanted man who has no intention of living as a fugitive for the rest of his life and turns state evidence, but something goes wrong. Blackmailed by a high government official, the Alligator and his partners are forced to investigate. But they’ve been framed: even if they discover who’s behind the crime, they’ll rot in prison. To survive, some rules will have to be bent, and others broken.

WINNER 2018 MCILVANNEY PRIZE FOR SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF 2019

Based on true events, a “Dickensian crime novel” (Mystery Matters) set in 1960s Glasgow

It is 1969 and Glasgow is in the grip of the worst winter in decades yet it is something else that has Glaswegians on edge: a serial killer is at large. The brutality of The Quaker‘s latest murder— a young woman snatched from a nightclub, her body dumped like trash in the back of a cold-water tenement—has left the city trembling with fear. The assassin leaves no clues and the police investigation seems to be going nowhere.

Duncan McCormick, a talented young detective from the Highlands, is brought into the investigation to identify where, exactly, it’s gone wrong. An outsider with troubling secrets of his own, DI McCormack has few friends in his adopted city and a lot to prove. His arrival is met with anger and distrust by cops who are desperate to nail a suspect. When they identify a petty thief as the man seen leaving the building where the Quaker’s last victim was found, they decide they’ve found their serial killer. But McCormack isn’t convinced.

From ruined backstreets, to deserted public parks, and down into the dark heart of Glasgow, McCormack follows a trail of secrets that will change the city—and his life—forever.

“Razor-sharp political thriller set in Berlusconi’s Rome.”—The New Statesman

Things are changing in Rome. The new Pope, determined to bring radical reform to the Vatican, proclaims an extraordinary Jubilee year, one “of Mercy.” A new center-left government replaces its disgraced predecessor. And with crime lynchpin Samurai in jail, his protégé Sebastiano Laurenti attempts to establish himself as the designated successor. But he must reckon not only with a new generation of enterprising gangsters and racketeers—out to carve for themselves a slice of the profits and opportunities offered by the major public works planned for the Jubilee—but also with ambitious newly elected politician, Chiara Visone.

Betrayals, ambushes and infighting will inevitably alter the fragile political balance in the Eternal City. As the sharks circle, some tenuous hope endures in the unlikely alliance of an incorruptible politician of the old left and a young bishop who refuses to play the Vatican’s power games. But it remains to be seen whether, in the long night of Rome, there is room for redemption.

Sharp, dark and taut, The Night of Rome is fiction that sails dangerously close to the wind of current events.

From the author of the “wonderfully ingenious” (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review) novel After The Crash comes a brilliant work of deception that dives deep into the psyche of a child and cruel game of manipulating a person’s memory.

Four-year-old Malone Moulin is haunted by nightmares of being handed over to a complete stranger and begins claiming his mother is not his real mother. His teachers at school say that it is all in his imagination as his mother has a birth certificate, photos of him as a child and even the pediatrician confirms Malone is her son. The school psychologist, Vasily, believes otherwise as the child vividly describes an exchange between two women. Vasily begins recording their conversations and reinterprets the creatures Malone uses in the childish tales he recounts to his stuffed toy to piece the story together as much as he can.

Convinced that Malone is telling the truth, Vasile approaches police commander Marianne Augresse with the case, who has been searching for a gang of thieves that robbed a luxury store and left a couple dead in the neighboring town of Deauville to no avail. Not knowing why a child would lie and with perhaps her own own maternal and protective instinct kicking in, Marianne takes Vasile’s plead for help seriously.

Marianne and her team soon discern that Malone’s memory is in the hands of those around him; the cold members of the Moulin family and the people that they associate themselves with. With Malone’s recollection of the past quickly fading to give way to pirates, animals and other more innocent thoughts children have at his age, Marianne is desperate to find a through line.

Well-crafted and showcasing the fragility of a child’s cognition, The Double Mother is a riveting investigation to follow.

Book 3 in de Giovanni’s bestselling “Bastards of Pizzofalcone” series is set in contemporary Naples during season of cold winds, political hijinks, and murder.

A heinous, double murder in a squalid apartment on the wrong side of town pits Inspector Lojacono, Di Nardo and the rest of the motley collection of cops known as the “bastards” of the Pizzofalcone precinct against their superiors, the press, and the local political hierarchy. Only by bringing the killer to justice can they save their reputations and the department.

De Giovanni is one of the most versatile, prolific, and successful Eurpean mystery in Europe. His award-winning and bestselling novels, all set in Naples, offer a brilliant vision of the criminal underworld and the lives of the cops in Europe's most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city.

Second in the renowned Marseilles trilogy following Total Chaos, “one of the masterpieces of modern noir” (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post).

This second novel in Izzo’s acclaimed Marseilles trilogy is a touching tribute to the author’s beloved city, in all its color and complexity. Fabio Montale is an unwitting hero in this city of melancholy beauty. Montale has left a police force marred by corruption, xenophobia, and greed. But getting out is not going to be so easy. When his cousin’s son goes missing, Montale is dragged back onto the mean streets of a violent, crime-infested Marseilles. To discover the truth about the boy’s disappearance, he infiltrates a dangerous underworld of mobsters, religious fanatics, crooked cops, and ordinary people driven to extremes by desperation.

“Noir at its finest.”—The Times Literary Supplement

“Izzo, who died in 2000, is more than adept at noir conventions—gritty light, sudden switches of scene, the pervasive rot of cynicism, which sullies even the best intentions. But what makes his work haunting is his extraordinary ability to convey the tastes and smells of Marseilles, and the way memory and obligation dog every step his hero takes.”—The New Yorker

“Like the best American practitioners in the genre, Izzo refrains from any sugarcoating of the city he depicts or the broken and imperfect men and women who people it.”—Publishers Weekly

“This hard-hitting series captures all the world-weariness of the contemporary European crime novel, but Izzo mixes it with a hero who is as virile as he is burned out.”—Booklist

Frankie Crowe is not one of the great criminal masterminds. A small time thug, he thinks-to the extent he can-that kidnapping one of Dublin's newly rich businessmen just may be the low-risk fast track to the status and money he knows he deserves. When the local crime boss refuses him permission to make the snatch, he shoots the boss and commences with his plan-such as it is.

After a somewhat haphazard selection, Frankie's crew of casually vicious miscreants kidnaps the wife of a moderately prosperous lawyer rather than the spouse of the wealthy banker Frankie thought he had chosen. From that point forward, no one from Inspector John Grace to that pillar of Dublin gangland Jo-Jo Mackendrick can predict the next twist in a scheme that has gone from wrong to bad to worse.

Like Elmore Leonard's, Kerrigan's writing is propelled by character. His novel is alive to the codes and expectations of the varied sections of modern Irish society. His narrative is taut and harrowing, his dialogue spot-on. The resulting story is everything Frankie Crowe is not: smart, assured and confident-forming an exciting combination of entertainment and art available only in superior crime fiction.

The second thrilling installment in the Harry McCoy series.

“McCoy is so noir he makes most other Scottish cops seem light grey.”—The Times

A man hangs himself in a neighborhood chapel. Bodies of young girls are being found in canals and rivers across the city with high levels of Mandrax in their bloodstream. McCoy is asked to watch over a colleague’s niece, who has left home young and is running with a bad crowd in Glasgow. DS Wattie is attempting to become a sergeant. Drugs in Glasgow have got darker and more dangerous.

Glasgow, its music and its inhabitants all have rough edges in this hard city fought over by gangs, organized crime, the forces of law and order, and ordinary people trying to get by.

From the bestselling author of After the Crash, “a novel so extraordinary it reminded me of reading Stieg Larsson for the first time” (The Sunday Times).

Holidaying in an idyllic resort on the island of Réunion, wealthy Parisians Martial and Liane Bellion are enjoying the perfect family moment with their six-year-old daughter. Turquoise skies, clear water, palm trees, a warm breeze.
Then Liane Bellion disappears from her hotel room. The door to her room is open, the walls and sheets are spotted with blood. A hotel employee swears he saw Martial in the corridor at the time Liane went missing, and he becomes the number one suspect. But then Martial also disappears, along with his daughter. An all-out manhunt is declared across the island.
Could Martial really have killed his wife? For fans of Gone Girl and The Fugitive, Bussi’s fast-paced, atmospheric thriller does not disappoint.

“A nail biter of a manhunt across the spectacular terrain of the Indian Ocean island of Réunion drives this thriller after a tourist goes missing, triggering a police chase and exposing a cannily-constructed mystery with nods to both Agatha Christie and Harlan Coben.”—The Boston Globe

“Suspenseful . . . vengeance proves a common passion on Réunion, as detailed in this twist-filled novel told from several characters’ perspectives.”—The Wall Street Journal

“This novel, a multi-charactered French whodunit, squeezes all its frantic action into the 25 square miles of gorgeous but treacherous Réunion Island.”—Toronto Star

“A top-notch puzzle . . . A wonderfully immersive thriller.”—Booklist

An internationally acclaimed crime novel set in post-WWI Vienna: “A thrilling, deeply satisfying debut” by “the new star of Austrian crime fiction” (Kronen Zeitung).

Vienna, 1919. In the desperate years after World War I, the Habsburg Empire is a fading memory and most of Vienna’s remaining population survives by its wits, living hand to mouth in a city rife with crime, prostitution, and grotesquely wounded beggars. There are shakedowns on every street corner, the black market is the only market, and shortages of vital goods create countless opportunities for unscrupulous operators.
Into this cauldron of vice comes Insp. August Emmerich. A veteran himself, Emmerich is determined to join the Viennese major crimes unit, and he’s more than willing to break the rules in pursuit of his ambition. When a corpse is found in the woods outside the city and immediately labeled a suicide, Emmerich sees a chance to prove his mettle. His investigations into the suspicious death soon reveals an insidious and homicidal urge lurking in the city.
The Second Rider is the “outstanding series launch” of Alex Beer’s international-bestselling novels featuring police agent August Emmerich (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

The ninth Commissario Ricciardi Neapolitan mystery is “noir with a heart, haunting and beautiful . . . A literary thriller of exceptional quality” (NB Magazine).

Years ago, Vinnie Sannino left Naples on a ship bound for America, where he found fame and fortune as a boxer. But his gilded life in the new world came to an abrupt end when, during a fight, with a heavy punch to the head of his opponent, Vinnie killed a man in the ring.
Now, Vinnie’s back in Italy, pining for the woman he left behind. Cettina, however, is now a married woman. She was, at least, until her husband was recently found dead, killed by a single blow to the head. For Commissario Ricciardi, one of the most faceted cops in fiction, and his partner Maione, it is a going to be a long, rainy, week in Naples.

“Deep melancholy infuses the crafty whodunit plot of de Giovanni’s superior ninth mystery set in 1930s Italy . . . Ricciardi, who’s literally haunted by visions of the dead, continues to be one of the most nuanced and intriguing sleuths in contemporary crime fiction.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“De Giovanni is one of the best historical crime writers out there. His Commissario Ricciardi novels, set during the fascist period in Italy, are intelligent and totally engrossing. Nameless Serenade is a perfect addition to the series; a really satisfying murder mystery, an insight into 1930s Naples and a thrilling chapter in the life of the Commissario. Lyrical prose and intriguing rounded characters contribute to making this one of the finest in the Ricciardi chronicles.”—NB Magazine

Introducing Italy’s Commissario Ricciardi. “De Giovanni’s distinct brand of noir . . . will appeal to Agatha Christie and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán fans” (Publishers Weekly).

Commissario Ricciardi has visions. He sees the final seconds in the lives of victims of violent deaths. It is both a gift and a curse. It has helped him become one of the most successful homicide detectives on the Naples police front. But the horror of his visions has hollowed him out emotionally. He drinks too much and sleeps too little. Other than his loyal partner, Brigadier Maione, he has no friends.
Naples, March 1931. A bitter wind stalks the city streets, and murder lies at its cold heart. When the world’s greatest tenor, Maestro Arnaldo Vezzi, is found brutally murdered in his dressing room at Naples’ San Carlo Theatre, the enigmatic and aloof Commissario Ricciardi is called in to investigate.
Arrogant and bad-tempered, Vezzi was adored by millions and hated by hundreds, but with the livelihoods of everyone at the San Carlo opera at stake, who there would have committed such an act? Ricciardi is determined to find out.
Fans of Donna Leon and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán will thrill to this fresh voice in crime fiction. I Will Have Vengeance is the first book in a quartet of masterful crime novels set in fascist Italy.

“A welcome addition to the pantheon of Italian crime fiction . . . Ricciardi is a suitably principled, charismatic yet enigmatic detective.”—Euro Crime

“The combination of an unusual detective, historical setting and Italian opera was impossible to resist.”—Crimetime.co.uk

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. “Fans [of The Wire] can find many of the same strengths in Kerrigan’s work” (The New York Times).

Vincent Naylor has just been released from prison and has already begun to plot his next heist—the robbery of an armored car. Det. Sgt. Bob Tidey has been caught perjuring himself to protect fellow officers. He’s also found the link between an unsolved murder case and the recent execution of a corrupt banker in serious financial difficulty. An old acquaintance will change the course of the investigation. A retired nun living on regrets and bad memories notices something deeply suspicious and makes a phone call that sets in motion a series of fateful events.
In The Rage, Gene Kerrigan weaves together astute observations regarding a financial crisis, church abuse, and gangland crime. The writing is, as always with a Kerrigan novel, superb, with an engaging story that has pitch perfect dialogue and characters that come fully alive.
The prize-winning crime fiction is set in contemporary Ireland where nothing is neatly resolved and there are no easy choices. Like life itself.

“A perfect novel . . . beautifully constructed, with sharp and relevant dialogue, and not a superfluous word to be found.” —The Oregonian

“Gritty and compulsively readable.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Tightly plotted . . . the story’s pacing is masterly.”—The New Yorker

“A boundlessly readable portrait of an Ireland in which all the old certainties have vanished. Remarkable for its verve, moral trickiness, and nifty plotting.”—NPR Fresh Air

“Fans of Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and Declan Burke won’t want to miss this one.”—Booklist (starred review)

An ex-cop takes on the mafia in the blockbuster novel that kicks off the Marseilles trilogy with what “may be the most lyrical hard-boiled writing yet” (The Nation).

In Jean-Claude Izzo’s “Mediterranean noir” mysteries, the city of Marseilles is explosive, breathtakingly beautiful, and deadly. Total Chaos introduces readers to Fabio Montale, a disenchanted cop who turns his back on a police force marred by corruption and racism and, in the name of friendship, takes the fight against the mafia into his own hands. Ugo, Manu, and Fabio grew up together on the mean streets of Marseilles where friendship means everything. They promised to stay true to one another and swore that nothing would break their bond. But people and circumstances change. Ugo and Manu have been drawn into the criminal underworld of Europe’s toughest and most violent city. When Manu is murdered and Ugo returns from abroad to avenge his friend’s death, only to be killed himself, it is left to the third in this trio, Det. Fabio Montale, to ensure justice is done. Despite warnings from both his colleagues in law enforcement and his acquaintances in the underworld, Montale cannot forget the promise he once made Manu and Ugo. He’s going to find their killer no matter the consequences.

“One of the masterpieces of modern noir.”—The Washington Post

“Like the best noir writers—and make no mistake, he is among the best—Izzo not only has a keen eye for detail . . . but also digs deep into what makes men weep.”—Time Out New York

“The holy grail of noir fiction . . . a fast paced and stylishly told modern tragedy.”—NB Magazine

First in the series starring a South African police detective: “[A] picturesque backdrop, cast of authentic characters, and knotty story line” (Publishers Weekly).

Shortlisted for the International Dagger Award and Winner of the University of Johannesburg Debut PrizeInsp.

Albertus Markus Beeslaar is a traumatized cop who has abandoned tough city policing and a broken relationship in Johannesburg for a backwater post on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. But his dream of rural peace is soon shattered by the repeated attacks of a brutally efficient crime syndicate, as he struggles to train and connect with rookie local cops Ghaap and Pyl, who resent his brusqueness and his old-school ways.
A beautiful and eccentric artist and her four-year-old adopted daughter are murdered on a local farm, and angry white farmers point to her enigmatic Bushman farm manager as a key suspect. Along with Ghaap and Pyl, Beeslaar is plunged into the intrigue and racial tensions of the community, and finds that violence knows no geographical or ethnic boundaries.
Weeping Waters marks the beginning of a great new series with a striking setting, a strong ensemble of characters, and suspenseful storylines.

“Brooding. Riveting. Brilliant.”—Deon Meyer, author of Blood Safari

From the acclaimed author of After the Crash— “Harlan Coben fans will enjoy Bussi’s . . . mystery with its intriguing characters and twisty conclusion” (Library Journal).

A fatal accident in the past, broken lives, family secrets . . . Michel Bussi serves up a gripping thriller, set amid the beautiful scenery of Corsica.
In the summer of 2016, Clotilde is spending her vacation in Corsica with her husband, Franck, and her teenage daughter, Valentine. It is the first time she has been back to the island since the car accident in which her parents and her brother were killed decades earlier. She was in the car too, but miraculously escaped with her life. This return plunges Clotilde back into the deepest recesses of her adolescence. She reacquaints herself with her paternal grandparents, Lisabetta and Cassanu, members of a powerful Corsican family that reigns over the island.
When a mysterious letter, signed “Palma”—Clotilde’s mother—arrives, the truth about her family, her parents’ death, and her childhood is called into question. Time Is a Killer is a voyage into the complexities of Corsican society, a compelling portrait of a woman’s awakening, and a masterfully executed novel of psychological suspense.

“Michel Bussi’s writing always rings true. His crime novel is a bomb.”—Le Parisien

“Michel Bussi’s psychological crime novels are beyond masterful.”—Le Figaro Littéraire

“Bathed in the perfumes and flavors of Corsica . . .Time Is a Killer will be read with bated breath until the final twist!”—Le Magazine des Livres

“Don’t open these books if you have anything more pressing to do.”—Elle (France)

“Gripping noir.”—Publishers Weekly

A Glasgow detective goes up against a wealthy family whose corruption runs deep in this gritty noir series debut set in 1970s Scotland.

Glasgow, 1973. As poverty and crime drag the city deeper into a heroin epidemic, fighting in the streets has become depressingly mundane. But when an eighteen-year-old boy shoots a young woman dead in broad daylight and then commits suicide, Det. Harry McCoy knows it can’t be a simple act of random violence. With a newbie partner in tow, McCoy hunts down leads through the underworld, all of which lead to a secret society run by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops.
Among their inner circle, every nefarious predilection is catered to at the expense of society’s most vulnerable—including McCoy’s best friend from reformatory school, drug-tsar Stevie Cooper, and his on-off girlfriend, a prostitute named Janey. But with McCoy’s boss calling off the hounds, and his boss’ boss unleashing their own, the Dunlops seem to be untouchable. McCoy has other ideas.

“Parks’ debut novel has an in-your-face immediacy that matches its protagonist. Compelling portraits of minor characters tucked into several scenes add texture and interest.”—Kirkus Reviews

Tales from Japan that blend humor, surrealism, and sharp societal critique, by the acclaimed author of Where the Wild Ladies Are

“Piercing and sometimes surreal... Matsuda shines.”—Publishers Weekly

In The Woman Dies, renowned author Aoko Matsuda approaches often-thorny subjects such as sexism, prejudice, the normalizing effect of violence against women on screen, or the aesthetics associated with technology, with an inventiveness and quirky humor that keep these stories on the thrilling cusp between seriousness and levity.

Wordplay evolves into something much more complex, inanimate objects are endowed with their own point of view, and hard-hitting feminist stances are conveyed with a dry, detached humor that makes them even more undeniable.

Not so much a rollercoaster ride, rather an entire theme park, The Woman Dies is an out-of-the ordinary space readers will step into with feelings of wonder and discombobulation in equal parts. 

In this high-spirited, kaleidoscopic story, key moments of Iranian history, politics, and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph.

Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future she has built for herself as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which come to her in unstoppable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them.

It is Kimiâ herself––punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own “disorientalization”––who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel.

“A wonder and a pleasure to read.”—Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances

“What begins as a cruel comic romp ends as a surprisingly winning story of hardship and resilience.”—The New Yorker

The story of three women tangled up in a family dynamic at turns hilarious and tragic.

When Rosa Achmetowna discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter Sulfia is pregnant, she tries every bizarre home remedy to thwart the pregnancy. But despite her best efforts, the baby girl is born—and immediately wins Rosa’s heart. Dark-eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through, just like Rosa, who wastes no time in plotting to steal her away from Sulfia.

When Aminat, now a willful teenager, catches the eye of a sleazy German cookbook writer researching Tartar cuisine, Rosa is quick to broker a deal that will guarantee all three women passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the ties that bind mother, daughter, and grandmother begin to fray.

“Alina Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion.”—Vogue

“A masterpiece of storytelling.”—The Dallas Morning News

Sir Edward Feathers has had a brilliant career, from his early days as a lawyer in Southeast Asia, where he earned the nickname Old Filth (FILTH being an acronym for Failed In London Try Hong Kong) to his final working days as a respected judge at the English bar. Yet through it all he has carried with him the wounds of a difficult childhood. Now an eighty-year-old widower living in comfortable seclusion in Dorset, Feathers is finally free from the regimen of work and the sentimental scaffolding that has sustained him throughout his life. He slips back into the past with ever mounting frequency and intensity, and on the tide of these vivid, lyrical musings, Feathers approaches a reckoning with his own history. Not all the old filth, it seems, can be cleaned away.

“An extraordinary novel—the structure, the characters, the sweep of time.”—Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake