With Calvin Baker’s first novel, Naming The New World, he was named a “Notable First Novelist” by Time magazine. Since his second novel, Once Two Heroes, Baker has continued to be acclaimed by the major media from the Los Angeles Times to Esquire. Now, with Dominion, Baker has written a lush, incantatory novel about three generations of an African American family in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. Dominion tells the story of the Merian family who, at the close of the seventeenth century, settle in the wilderness of the Carolinas. Jasper is the patriarch, freed from bondage, who manages against all odds to build a thriving estate with his new wife and two sons — one enslaved, the other free. For one hundred years, the Merian family struggles against the natural (and occasionally supernatural) world, colonial politics, the injustices of slavery, the Revolutionary War and questions of fidelity and the heart. Footed in both myth and modernity, Calvin Baker crafts a rich, intricate and moving novel, with meditations on God, responsibility, and familial legacies. While masterfully incorporating elements of the world’s oldest and greatest stories, the end result is a bold contemplation of the origins of America.

A review by Victoria Strauss

Joe Pitt's a Vampyre. He's been infected by a Vyrus that slows aging, imparts phenomenal strength and sensory abilities, and survives by feeding off its host's blood – which forces its host to go out and drink more blood so the Vyrus can survive. There's a whole Vampyre subculture in New York City, dominated by several powerful Clans – a hidden world of power and violence unsuspected by ordinary human beings. In this secret world, Joe's what's known as a Rogue. Though he was once an enforcer for the politically-minded Society, does occasional strong-arm work for the powerful Coalition, and is the object of periodic recruitment efforts by the mysterious Enclave, he has no fixed Clan alliance.

This can be a problem when the freelance jobs dry up, and there's no money to buy the packaged blood that keeps a Vampyre from prowling the streets and ripping people's throats out. To make matters worse, Joe's worried about his girlfriend Evie, whose HIV status is deteriorating and whose medical bills are mounting. Swallowing his pride, he goes to Terry Bird, leader of the Society, and asks for work. As it happens, Terry's got something that needs looking into. There's a growing drug problem in the Vampyre community, some really bad stuff that makes users go crazy – not easy to manage for those infected with the Vyrus, which is solicitous of its hosts and cleans drugs and alcohol out of their systems almost as fast as they go in. Terry asks Joe to find out who's dealing.

A little pressure on Joe's favorite snitch turns up a middleman: a trust fund kid in a downtown loft who calls himself the Count. The drug is in bags of fresh, Vyrus-infected blood. Drinking infected blood would kill a Vampyre – but the drug isn't consumed, it's injected. The Count doesn't know what the drug is or why it works, but he does know where it comes from: Uptown, above 110th Street, the area controlled by the Vampyre Clan known as the Hood. This is enemy turf. To reach it, Joe will have to cross Coalition territory, and he's not exactly on good terms with the Coalition either. But Hood thugs and Coalition enforcers turn out to be the least of his problems. A forgotten evil waits in an Uptown mansion, along with a deadly plot that could lead to war among the Clans – unless Joe can survive long enough to figure out who's pulling the strings.

Already Dead was gritty and hip, packed with exciting action yet carefully attentive to the nuances of character. No Dominion is even better. The plot is a nonstop, explosively gory thrill-ride whose twists and reversals deliver surprises right up until the end – a true page-turner, impossible to put down. The glimpses of Vampyre culture, a bizarre nighttime world invisible to those who walk in daylight, are both fascinating and chilling, and the vicious complexities of Vampyre politics, where the smallest alteration of the balance could tip the Clans into open conflict, have plenty of real-world resonance.

As before, Charlie Huston fills the book with memorable characters – from the bigoted, relentless Vampyre matriarch Maureen Vandewater, to DJ Grave Digga, the charismatic leader of the Hood, to Terry Bird, who combines a post-Woodstock cultural ethos with a Machiavellian mastery of double dealing, to the Count, an amoral Gen-X slacker whose home life is a series of satirical references to Dracula movies ("I hate that self-aware, ironic, pop culture Vampyre shit," Joe tells him at one point). Huston has an amazing ear for dialogue, and endows each of these characters with his or her own distinctive voice. As for Joe, a tough guy's tough guy whose profane, world-weary first-person narration anchors the story, he edges close to noir stereotype, but is saved from actually becoming stereotypical by his very human doubts, and his unflinching recognition of his own moral failings.

Huston doesn't neglect the meta-story. Once again, Joe must seek help from the secretive Enclave, which is founded on the belief that the Vyrus is a spiritual force that will ultimately produce a Vampyre savior. Joe's discoveries about the drug may reflect upon that spiritual quest, and also raise disturbing questions about the origins and history of Vampyre society. Hopefully, we'll learn more in the series' next installment. I can't wait.

“A brilliantly conceived page-turner.”

—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Command and Control

America lost 1.4 million citizens in the North Korean attacks of March 2020. This is the final, authorized report of the government commission charged with investigating the calamity.

“The skies over the Korean Peninsula on March 21, 2020, were clear and blue.” So begins this sobering report on the findings of the Commission on the Nuclear Attacks against the United States, established by law by Congress and President Donald J. Trump to investigate the horrific events of the next three days. An independent, bipartisan panel led by nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis, the commission was charged with finding and reporting the relevant facts, investigating how the nuclear war began, and determining whether our government was adequately prepared for combating a nuclear adversary and safeguarding U.S. citizens. Did President Trump and his advisers understand North Korean views about nuclear weapons? Did they appreciate the dangers of provoking the country’s ruler with social media posts and military exercises? Did the tragic milestones of that fateful month—North Korea’s accidental shoot-down of Air Busan flight 411, the retaliatory strike by South Korea, and the tweet that triggered vastly more carnage—inevitably lead to war? Or did America’s leaders have the opportunity to avert the greatest calamity in the history of our nation?

Answering these questions will not bring back the lives lost in March 2020. It will not rebuild New York, Washington, or the other cities reduced to rubble. But at the very least, it might prevent a tragedy of this magnitude from occurring again. It is this hope, more than any other, that inspired The 2020 Commission Report.

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For more than a half century, Father Damien Modeste has served his beloved people, the Ojibwe, on the remote reservation of Little No Horse. Now, nearing the end of his life, Father Damien dreads the discovery of his physical identity, for he is a woman who has lived as a man. To complicate his fears, his quiet life changes when a troubled colleague comes to the reservation to investigate the life of the perplexing, difficult, possibly false saint Sister Leopolda. Father Damien alone knows the strange truth of Sister Leopolda's piety and is faced with the most difficult decision of his life: Should he reveal all he knows and risk everything? Or should he manufacture a protective history though he believes Leopolda's wonder-working is motivated by evil?

The English-language debut of 2012’sInternational Arabic Fiction Prize winner

A complex thriller, The Mehlis Report introduces English readers to a highly talented Arabic writer. When former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri is killed by a massive bomb blast, the U.N. appoints German judge Detlev Mehlisto conduct an investigation of the attack — while explosions continue to rock Beirut. Mehlis’s report is eagerly awaited by the entire Lebanese population.

First we meet Saman Yarid, a middle-aged architect who wanders the tense streets of Beirut and, like everyone else in the city, can’t stop thinking about the pending report. Saman’s sister Josephine, who was kidnapped in 1983, narrates the second part of The Mehlis Report:

Josephine is dead, yet exists in a bizarre underworld in the bowels of Beirut where the dead are busy writing their memoirs. Then the ghost of Hariri himself appears…

Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick’s works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works.

This collection includes all of the writer’s earliest short and medium-length fiction (including some previously unpublished stories) covering the years 1954-1964. These fascinating stories include “Service Call”, “Stand By”, “The Days of Perky Pat”, and many others.

The Official Report on Human Activity by kim d. hunter, which is neither official nor a report, is a collection of long stories that are linked by reoccurring characters and their personal struggles in societies rife with bigotry, in which media technology and capitalism have run amok. These stories approach the holy trinity of gender, race, and class at a slant. They are concerned with the process and role of writing intertwined with the roles of music and sound.

The four stories range from the utterly surreal—a factory worker seeking recognition for his writing gives birth to a small black elephant with a mysterious message on its hide—to the utterly real—a nerdy black teen’s summer away from home takes a turn when he encounters half-white twins on the run from the police. Prominently known as a Detroit poet, hunter creates illusions and magic while pulling back the curtain to reveal humanity—the good, bad, and absurd. Readers will find their minds expanded and their conversations flowing after finishing The Official Report on Human Activity.

The Official Report on Human Activity is sure to appeal to readers of literary fiction, particularly those interested in postmodernism and social justice.

Здесь собраны перлы американского остроумия, которые, возможно, составят одну из краеугольных основ философии разных людей, не желающих терять чувство юмора в новом тысячелетии.

Ольга Голотвина, "Вереница миров или Выводы из закона Мерфи". Книга-игра.

Космический Патруль поднят по тревоге: из научно-исследовательского центра похищен опытный образец нового оружия, способного уничтожать планеты! Страшное орудие разрушения может попасть в руки межпланетных пиратов! Содружеству цивилизаций Галактики угрожает опасность! Предотвратить катастрофу может лишь один человек — отважный майор Космического Патруля, отправившийся по следам похитителя.

И этот герой — Вы!

Хотите путешествовать с планеты на планету, сражаясь с пиратами, иноземными чудовищами и роботами-убийцами? Хотите блуждать по переходам загадочных пещер, налаживать контакты с разумными насекомыми, пировать в феодальном замке, пробираться через линию фронта механических армий? Для этого требуется только одно: раскрыть эту книгу и вооружиться карандашом и игральным кубиком.

Только от ВАС будет зависеть, чем эта книга закончится: удастся ли пиратам завоевать Галактику — или их чудовищные планы будут сорваны.

В путь, майор! Возвращайтесь с победой!

Так называемый закон Мерфи был впервые сформулирован и использован на авиабазе Эдвардс в 1949 году.

Этот закон назван так в честь его создателя – капитана Эдварда Мерфи, бывшего в то время инженером на проекте MX981 ВВС США. Целью проекта было определение максимальной перегрузки, которую способен выдержать человеческий организм.

В один прекрасный день капитан обнаружил критическую ошибку, допущенную одним из техников при монтаже экспериментального оборудования, и сказал в его адрес фразу, ставшую прототипом закона Мерфи – "Если что-то можно сделать неправильно, этот человек так и сделает!".

Руководитель проекта, составлявший список различных правил и законов, добавил это высказывание в свой список и озаглавил его "Закон Мерфи". Конечно же, это правило и так уже витало в воздухе, но в тот исторический день оно наконец-то легло на бумагу и получило имя.

С течением времени список "законов" пополнялся новыми перлами армейских технических специалистов, оставаясь, тем не менее, не известным практически никому кроме них самих.

Однако по результатам успешного завершения проекта MX981 военный врач Джон Стапп, фактически сыгравший роль подопытного кролика в этом эксперименте, рассказал на одной из пресс-конференций о том, что их команде удалось избежать многих несчастных случаев и неприятностей именно благодаря хорошему знанию законов Мерфи. Стапп поделился списком этих законов с многочисленными журналистами и представителями компаний-подрядчиков. И через некоторое время законы Мерфи стали известны всему миру.

Сразу после этого начали появляться все новые и новые "законы Мерфи", не имеющие уже никакого отношения ни к самому капитану Мерфи, ни к проектам ВВС, ни даже к технике вообще. Авторами многих таких "законов" являются весьма известные личности, занимавшие высокие должности. Авторы других так и остались неизвестными. Некоторым из этих законов давались вымышленные, ничего не значащие имена.

Сэмюэл Беккет (1906–1989) – один из самых известных представителей авангардной литературы двадцатого века, лауреат Нобелевской премии 1969 года. По насыщенности слова его сравнивают с Джойсом, а по умению показать тщету и безысходность человеческого существования – с Кафкой.

Творчество Сэмюэла Беккета – это поразительное сочетание рациональной иррациональности и творческой свободы, обузданной могучим и трезвым рассудком. Как человеку справиться с пониманием того, что его забросили в этот мир без его согласия, и какова глубинная природа нашего «я» – таковы вопросы, волнующие писателя.

На первый взгляд герои романа «Мерфи» выглядят бездельниками и моральными уродами, хотя, в сущности, это обычные люди, подобные тем, с которыми мы сталкиваемся ежедневно. Беккет лишь намеренно доводит до абсурда их мотивы и побуждения, не чуждые каждому из нас, искусно фокусируя внимание на отдельных сторонах личности. Как и в других его романах, здесь высокая трагедия неожиданно превращается в фарс, увлекая забавными ситуациями и неожиданными развязками…

Вилли и его старший брат обречены. Мало того, что каникулы безнадежно испорчены, – наказание, которое придумали мама и папа, грозит испортить братьям всю оставшуюся жизнь. Несколько часов в неделю им предстоит проводить в библиотеке, где повелевает очень страшная миссис Мерфи. Другого такого коварного и беспощадного библиотекаря еще не видывал свет. И горе тому, кто осмелится засмеяться в ее мрачном царстве или, не дай бог, чуточку пошалит…

Ничто не бывает таким простым, как кажется в начале.

Здесь собраны перлы американского остроумия, которые, возможно, составят одну из краеугольных основ философии разных людей, не желающих терять чувство юмора в новом тысячелетии.

Для широкого круга читателей.

Составлено из переводов с английского, сделанных по изданиям, увидевшим свет в США в 1997–2003 гг.