Government Fiction

Setembre de 1962. Una jove mestra de vocació dubtosa i escassa capacitat de comunicació oral arriba a la seva primera plaça en una escola del Pirineu ribagorçà. Ella volia un poble, una feina i una casa des d'on veure caure la neu. Darrere deixa una infantesa marcada per l'enigmàtica activitat del pare i per l'original educació rebuda d'una mare dividida entre l'impuls irresistible d'apartar la filla de les consignes del Règim i la por d'aïllar-la excessivament de la normalitat imperant.

Un filo resistente lega gli uni agli altri i racconti di questa antologia: un'agenda rossa. Si affaccia dalla pagina declinata in diversi modi, una volta ha i fogli strappati, un'altra è gonfia di biglietti di teatro, ma sempre intende ricordare quella appartenuta a Paolo Borsellino - che conteneva appunti, nomi e forse rivelazioni sulla strage di Capaci, scomparsa immediatamente dopo l'attentato mafioso del 19 luglio 1992 e mai più riapparsa.

The bleak coal-mining settlement of Denniston, isolated high on a plateau above New Zealand's West Coast, is a place that makes or breaks those who live there. All sorts arrive here to work the mines and bring down the coal: ex-goldminers down on their luck, others running from the law or from a woman or worse. They work alongside recruited English miners, solid and skilled, who scorn these disorganised misfits and want them off the hill. Into this chaotic community come five-year-old Rose and her mother....

Costretto all'esilio dal duca di Lu, Confucio disse: "Se la mia strada finisce, salirò su una zattera e mi lascerò portare verso il mare". E così Kongzi, settantaseiesimo discendente diretto del grande filosofo, fugge con la moglie incinta e la figlia quando la Squadra della pianificazione familiare entra nel villaggio per sterilizzare con la forza tutte le donne fertili e interrompere le gravidanze di quelle che hanno già un figlio.

Poetry of the moment - "a smart frown on the political clown in all of us." Violet Headmess, author of The Ice Cream Wars. This is poetry as lyrics for a politicized year. Attack poems, if you prefer, sparing no one and approaching reggae. Wit works well with syncopation after all. The lyrics will be music soon.

Timothy Cooper's novel, 2020 or My Name Is Jesus Christ and I'm Running for President paints a hilariously envisioned America caught up in presidential politics. In actuality, it tells the prophetic story of the rise of Donald Trump. Here Jesus returns to Earth, only to find himself pitted against his satanic stepbrother, Beelzebub, in a contest for the presidency and for the very soul of America.

Justin Pitre was born and raised on his grandfather's Louisiana bayou, and he has made a promise to keep his family's prized 500-acre property safe. But across town, Big-Tex oil bigwig Tom Huff and his company have major plans to cash in on the resources that lie below the bayou.

Un relato vibrante, tenso y pormenorizado que empieza leyéndose como una novela policíaca y acaba leyéndose como una novela de terror.

Jackie is a poor boy from Harlem and the victim of abuse from his widowed, alcoholic father. But everything changes on the day he discovers the power of comedy. When his classmates make fun of his tattered clothes, Jackie turns everything around by freely poking fun at himself and soon has everyone on the floor with laughter. His amazing talent, and raging ambition, take him through the local club circuit to become the most sought after comedic entertainer in opulent, '50s Las Vegas and beyond.

Set internationally and spanning two decades, Annisa is an intricate portrait of a young Afghan girl's struggle to survive after the Soviet invasion in 1979. Her harrowing escape to America, and her fatal decision to return to her people in Afghanistan, evokes insight into a society torn apart by terrorism, drug smuggling, and bitter conflicts over the role of its women.

At the dawn of a killer colonial winter, starving and desperate to live, a brave band of animals escape the tyranny of their human masters. Led by a visionary stallion, they brave miles of wilderness and a treacherous river crossing to start a homeland of their own - Animal Colony. There, they find freedom and prosperity...for a while. But a strange new belief system invades Animal Colony. The humble beasts must then learn to tell truth from enticing lie, or risk losing everything for which they've fought and bled.

On February 1, 2016, the date of the Iowa caucus, David Breskin began a project that would carry him through the American presidential election. An ex-journalist, Breskin set out to "cover" this most strange and historic election, under the pressure of a reporter's daily deadline, by writing one poem a day. He created a deliberately awkward, rollickingly restrictive form - seven beats per line, 11 lines per poem - and, noting our preference for the convenience of sound-bite news and junk-food polls over more nutritious fare, called them "7-11s".

A groundbreaking collection of essays by celebrated international writers bears witness to the human cost of 50 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Cambridge professor and renowned historian Anthony Pagden covers a vast subject in a compact package with Peoples and Empires. This wide-ranging and intellectually stimulating work examines the origins and history of the West with terse, efficient prose. With a captivating narration by Robert O'Keefe, listeners will find this work enjoyable and utterly absorbing.

The timeless original text; required listening for any business-person or athlete interested in strategy. This is a work of subtlety and paradox that shows the way to a clean and aesthetic triumph. Sun Tzu insisted that a skilled warrior observes, calculates, outwits, and outmaneuvers an adversary, and in doing so averts the destruction of battle. Includes a soundtrack entitled "The Mysterious Sound of Wind in the Bamboo", a 43-minute 14-track collection of Zen-inspired Japanese music by the Matsu Take Ensemble.

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor, The Prince is a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince, a king, a president.

Este tratado de estrategia fue escrito hace más de 2000 años. Sin embargo, sorprende por su vigencia y por la claridad de sus explicaciones, comprensibles para cualquier lector. El autor ha visto claramente los aspectos de la guerra y de la estrategia que no cambian con el paso del tiempo. Leyendo sus páginas se comprende que el triunfo no está necesariamente en manos del más fuerte, sino del más inteligente.

"Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscatur": come distinguere l’adulatore dall’amico, è un vero e proprio manuale...

The Prince is a treatise that systematically charts the best strategies for successful governing. It unapologetically places realism above idealism, showing would-be kings how to get what they want while appearing to be generous and honourable, and advocates that the means — cruelty, duplicity and horror —justify the ends of secure monarchical rule. But it can also be read as the work of a secret republican subtly undermining the despotism of the ruling Medici family.

Perhaps one of the most influential and controversial books in history, Machiavelli’s The Prince raises issues that are still debated centuries after its publication. The theories he developed in The Prince were derived from his observation of the successes and failures of the ruling class. The Prince was designed as a practical guide for newly appointed rulers and is required reading for all persons in a position of authority who strive for grandeur in business and politics.