Collection: Adult

Longlisted for the NBCC Award for Autobiography

A deeply reflective memoir weaving together the personal story of Hester Kaplan's acclaimed biographer father and his fraught effect on her artistic development with a rich portrait of twentieth century intellectual life and a meditation on family intimacy, identity, and the art of writing

Twice Born opens with the death of Hester's father, Justin Kaplan, known for his award-winning biographies of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. Despite his relatively prolific output, Justin rarely wrote, or said, much about himself--even to his daughter. Standing at his open casket, Hester has the realization that while alive, her father never looked her in the eyes.

Hester takes on the challenge of piecing together as intimate a biography of her own father as possible, comparing his story to the lives of his biographical subjects and dissecting the various personas he presents to the world--from which the name "dad," "daddy," or even "father" is conspicuously and painfully absent. Parallel to Justin's story runs Hester's own journey of development as a writer and a thinker, which begins in the shadow of not only her talented father, but also her novelist mother, and the fiercely protective union the two of them had built, often to the exclusion of their own children.

In sensitive, intimate writing, Kaplan paints a rich picture of the twentieth century literary world that she grew up in, all while reflecting on the deceptive nature of memory, the loneliness of creative pursuits, and the dovetailing paradoxes of biographical and autobiographical writing.

A hilarious, suspenseful metaphysical thriller following a day in the life of an English professor who would rather be lifting weights from the author of the cult hit The Novelist

Harold, a middling literature professor at a liberal arts college, lives in a state of dissatisfaction and fear. His colleagues and students evoke nothing but disgust and disdain. None of them understand strength, power, and spiritual actualization like he does. His university's campus--seemingly picturesque--constantly threatens to reveal something sinister.

Over the course of a single afternoon, he wanders the halls, sits in meetings, steals from a student, and goes to the gym--all while reflecting on his professional and existential situation. With every line of Harold's frenetic consciousness, his mundane routine transforms into something more foreboding, culminating in an ingenious twist.

Brilliantly imagined and darkly funny, Muscle Man is as much a critique of resentment and contemporary masculinity as a satire on the state of higher education, exploring weakness and strength, rationality and irrationality, the spirit and the flesh, and the individual and the collective.

With his minute-to-minute occupation of Harold's existential disquietude, Castro imbues the novel's philosophical inquiries with thrilling suspense. Is Harold a raving lunatic whose disdain stems from his own perilous inadequacies, or is there something truly sinister about his colleagues? When all is said and done, is strength a virtue, or a mirage?

Named a Best History Book of the Year by The Times (London)

From "one of the most thoughtful Russian writers of our time" (Yulia Navalnaya) comes "an extraordinarily revealing account" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of why the Soviet Union's collapse was incomplete and the Cold War never really ended--resulting in the resurgence of Russian imperialism, the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia's tense relationship with Western Europe and America.

Russian-born journalist Mikhail Zygar was ten years old when the Soviet Union collapsed. Now, after a decade of research, he offers a timely new approach to Russian history--one that rewrites everything we thought we knew about the fall of the Soviet Union and argues that what was perceived as a triumph for freedom and political courage led inexorably and tragically to the reestablishment of totalitarianism. Starting with the historic launch of the first human into space in April 1961, Zygar unfolds the dramatic story of resistance and resilience that led to the Soviet Union's dissolution--and which echoes today in Russia's oppressive regime.

Zygar conducted several hundred exclusive interviews with key figures, including former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, the first presidents of the independent post-Soviet republics, the final First Secretaries of these republics, and leaders of independence movements within them, as well as Western politicians and diplomats who were witnesses to and participants in those events. He dives into the struggles and triumphs of such figures as Andrei Sakharov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Vladimir Vysotsky, whose defiance of totalitarianism is both inspiring and deeply relevant. Zygar explains how the "victory" over the Soviet Empire was short-lived, as today's Russian regime under Vladimir Putin maintains its expansionist ambitions.

More than a history lesson, The Dark Side of the Earth "challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about the unfinished business of the 20th century and the enduring shadows cast by empire" (The Cipher Brief). Bold, brilliant, and magisterial in scope, this is a deeply human story that demands to be heard.

If you've ever streamed a show on HBO Max, seen a Formula One race, hummed a tune on SiriusXM, bought concert tickets via Ticketmaster, or watched an Atlanta Braves game, you've crossed paths with John Malone. You just didn't know it.

John Malone remains a stranger to most people, though millions have been touched by the technologies and content he made possible.

In Born to Be Wired, this legendary "cable cowboy" shares stories from behind the scenes of the most transformative deals in media, entertainment, and technology. He recounts the extraordinary saga of how America was wired--how a single copper strand evolved from a rural TV antenna service into a high-speed backbone powering the internet and clearing the path for Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Malone offers an insider's account of launching television's first cable networks--including Discovery, TBS, QVC, and BET--and the strategy behind era-defining mergers, from Warner Bros. Discovery to Live Nation Entertainment. His Liberty Media ventures, including Formula One, have delivered long-term returns often compared to Berkshire Hathaway. More than a business story, this is a personal reflection--from a quiet kid with a mechanic's curiosity to a media visionary confronting the costs and consequences of disruption in an industry he helped reshape.

Trained at the storied Bell Labs and gifted with a mathematical mind, Malone saw patterns in complexity. Where others saw chaos, he saw systems--and reconfigured companies with the precision of an engineer, unlocking value no one else could see.

Sweeping, revealing, and deeply human, Born to Be Wired offers a rare glimpse into the logic--and the life--behind the screen.

This debut novel from food writer Leah Eskin of the Chicago Tribune combines the historical sweep and emotional power of The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer and the resonant use of food and recipes of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

The story opens on the mountaintop town of Pitigliano, Italy, once called Little Jerusalem for its vibrant, centuries-old Jewish community. But the year is 1943. Mussolini has enacted anti-Jewish laws across Italy, and the family of Stella Fortuna struggles to maintain any sense of their former life. Then, one night, a neighbor comes to their door holding a ricotta pudding and tells them, "You must leave now. You're in grave danger." The Nazis have arrived to help the Fascists of Italy enact their own Final Solution.

Grabbing what few things they can carry (and the pudding), Stella Fortuna escapes into the woods below Pitigliano with her two older brothers and younger sister, Marcella. What follows is a desperate months-long flight. Stella finds temporary and precarious shelter with sympathetic, but fearful families in the countryside, dodging the ever-closer Fascists in pursuit. Meanwhile, she dreams of romance, the comforts of home, and the food that was not just her mother's love, but the delicious expression of an entire culture in danger.

In a separate timeline, Edda Servi Machlin is a housewife in 1960s Westchester trying to make sense of a new culture, as well as the "spaghetti and meatballs" food that passes for Italian cuisine. With caustic wit, we see twentieth-century America through an immigrant's eyes, someone who can never return to her former home because it no longer exists. Someone who comes to understand that it might be up to her to preserve the indelible flavors of an Italian-Jewish way of life that is in danger of extinction, as her family once was.

In between these two remarkable stories are more than forty recipes (updated for today's cooks), all inspired by the life and example of Edda Servi Machlin, author of The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews.

P R A I S E

"My father, himself an Italian Jew, used Edda Servi Machlin's recipes as a bridge to his culinary and personal roots. Machlin's life inspired this beautiful novel by Leah Eskin: a survival story and a cultural archive. It honors a nearly vanished world through narrative and recipes, showing how memory, food, and storytelling can resist erasure." --Yotam Ottolenghi, author of Jerusalem: A Cookbook and Ottolenghi Comfort

"A tale of survival, faith, and family. Leah Eskin writes beautifully, powerfully, and with an exquisite tenderness." --Achy Obejas, author of Days of Awe and The Tower of the Antilles

"Edda Servi Machlin was an icon of Jewish food writing and almost mythical in stature. Eskin's novel illuminates the very human stories of love, longing, family, and food that made Servi Machlin so remarkable. It is a delicious delight to read." --Leah Koenig, author of Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome's Jewish Kitchen

"Is it a disconnect to call a novel about an Italian-Jewish girl and her family surviving Mussolini's atrocities and the Holocaust 'charming'? Author Leah Eskin has portrayed Edda Servi Machlin's story with humor, elegance, delicious recipes, and always a deep humanity. I ate it up." --Betsy Andrews, co-author of Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip

"Leah Eskin has woven her passion for food and history into a delicious and moving tale of Jewish survival. Her book will inspire readers from all backgrounds to cook and to persevere." --Gabriella Gershenson, James Beard Award-winning food writer

A surprising look at how modern capitalism changed sugar from a natural food to a scientific commodity.

Sugar is everywhere in the western diet, blamed for epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and other modern maladies. Our addiction to sweetness has a long and unsavory history. Over the past five hundred years, sugar has shaped empires, made fortunes for a few, and brought misery for millions of workers both enslaved and free. How did sugar become a defining modern food and an essential global commodity?

In Unrefined, David Singerman recasts our thinking about this crucial substance in the history of capitalism. Before the nineteenth century, sugar's value depended on natural qualities: its color, its taste, where it was grown, and who had made it. But beginning around 1850, a combination of plantation owners, industrialists, and scientists set out to redefine sugar itself. Deploying the tools and rhetoric of science, they transformed not just how sugar was produced or traded but even how people thought about it. By changing sugar into a pure chemical object, these forces stripped power from workers and enabled--and obscured--new kinds of fraud, corruption, and monopoly.

Taking us to unexplored spaces in the world of sugar, from laboratories and docks to refineries and the halls of Congress, Singerman illuminates dark intersections of the histories of corruption, science, and capitalism.

Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

From National Book Award finalist Susan Straight, a captivating new novel about a group of nurses fighting through the first year of a pandemic and the beloved California community they will risk their lives to protect

In August 2020, a group of nurses are working in the ICU at a hospital in San Bernardino at the height of a Covid surge: Larette Embers, whose husband, Grief, is an animal control officer; Cherrise Martinez, whose husband died years ago in a car crash, and whose daughter Raquel has been sent to a Coachella date farm to live with her great-aunt to avoid the virus; and Marisol Manalang, born in the Philippines but based in Sacramento. To safeguard their families, the nurses are living in a makeshift RV camp close to the hospital; they share food and cigarettes yet keep their work private. For this is a country in crisis, and they are assisting strangers at the edge of death with infinite tenderness and growing desperation.

As the nurses struggle with the skyrocketing number of sick patients, Cherisse's daughter goes missing. Grief's friend Johnny Frias, a California Highway Patrol officer, joins the search to find her, and the resulting journey leads to new love and loss, pushing all our characters to their breaking points. Brilliantly highlighting both the quiet heroism and extraordinary bravery of first responders, Sacrament once again proves that Susan Straight is the "essential voice in American writing and in writing of the West" (The New York Times).

An excellent introduction to the power of public dissent." -- Kirkus

"If supporting grassroots activists taught us anything, it is that when enough individuals come together, it is possible to take on a system." -- Yvon Chouinard

What would the world look like if we couldn't express outrage against the systems we disagree with or support the changes we seek?

Our right to peaceful protest is under attack, and we must act now!

Protest: Respect It Defend It Use It offers a powerful look at the role peaceful activism has played in advancing the public good--and shines a light on the urgent need to protect this democratic right. This is not a how-to guide. Rather, it is a celebration of what collective action can achieve, an invitation to be inspired, and a reminder that each of us has the capacity to make a difference.

Featuring more than 40 iconic campaigns from around the world, the book combines photos, artifacts, and memorable quotes to create a vivid testament to the power of public dissent. Guest essays from Jane Fonda, Tennessee Representative Justin Pearson, Dolores Huerta, Nemonte Nenquimo, and others reveal how protest shaped their own commitment to driving change. Through storytelling and first-hand reflection, readers are invited to witness, reflect, and engage in peaceful activism--right here, right now.

Rivers that don't catch fire. The freedom to marry whom we love. Clean air and water. Even weekends off. Peaceful protest--protected in the U.S., as in many countries, as a cornerstone of participatory democracy-- helped bring about each of these victories. Free speech, dissent, and public mobilization are essential tools for advancing so many causes, including environmental protection, workers' rights, human rights, self-determination, and climate, social, and racial justice.

Yet even as protest has delivered lasting progress--and perhaps because of it--the right to speak freely and organize is increasingly under threat. Crackdowns are no longer confined to authoritarian regimes; anti-protest sentiment is spreading across established democracies. Activists are being vilified, targeted, and even criminalized. In the U.S., anti-protest laws have been enacted in 49 states. SLAPP suits--meritless legal actions used to silence dissent--are on the rise. New legal concepts like "negligent protest" are being used to hold organizers liable for damages, while violent actions by anti-democratic forces are reframed or excused.

Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary of one of history's most consequential acts of protest--the signing of the Declaration of Independence--this book is an invitation. It invites readers to learn about the creativity, courage, and impact of peaceful protest, to be inspired by those who came before, and to recognize that this essential democratic right belongs to everyone--now more than ever.

Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

A rich and nuanced story beginning with a moment of fear and abandonment that will reverberate across decades and change the course of many lives, by a beloved PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author

In the gritty East Village of 1970s New York, Ivan and his best friend, Eddie, a popular local bartender, are dabbling in drugs following a short tour of Europe. One night, as Ivan and Eddie experiment with heroin, things go horribly wrong. In a panic, Ivan rushes Eddie to a crowded local ER and, believing his friend is about to die, makes the awful choice to leave him there.

This one act of abandonment haunts Ivan his entire life. He keeps this secret from his friends and later his family, forever searching for mercy from "a remorse that never dies." Ivan's decision also ripples across time through an extended community, affecting a host of other people unknowingly connected to that night.

Following a bold cast of characters across decades, and set against the changing social and sexual mores from the 1970s onward, Mercy is Silber's most ambitious and expansive novel yet, proving once again how we are all connected in mysterious and often unknown ways.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

An incredibly evocative and action-filled story of one man's fight in the First World War, rich and raw with remarkable detail.

As he tended to the chores on his homestead, Lester Harper never imagined that he would turn in his hoe for a Lee-Enfield rifle on the Western Front. But the farmer from Pouce Coupe, in northern British Columbia, found himself at a party agreeing to help form a small-town regiment headed for France and the Great War. Lester left behind his wife, Mabel, in the shadow of the loss of their infant daughter, Hilda. A marksman before he even volunteered for the Canadian Army, Lester joined his cousin and friends, thousands of miles from his home, mere yards from the bayonets, bullets, and gas bombs of the feared Boche. In Till We Meet Again, the First World War comes to life in unprecedented detail, drawing on Lester's letters as well as meticulous historical research.

Not since Timothy Findley's The Wars, Tim Cook's magisterial works about the First World War, or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front has a book about a soldier's life at the sharp end been told with such humour, gravitas, and in a heart-pounding narrative that drops you behind enemy lines. For at one point, Lester was trapped in a shell hole, a heartbeat away from the Germans setting up their machine gun to mow down his comrades.

This is a remarkable story, remarkably told. This book will be heralded by historians as a new approach to telling a soldier's story and will become beloved by readers of military history and anyone who wants to understand what life was like for our boys behind the wire.