Now in paperback, Satantango, the novel that inspired Béla Tarr’s classic film, is proof that the devil has all the good times. Set in an isolated hamlet, the novel unfolds over the course of a few rain-soaked days. Only a dozen inhabitants remain in the bleak village, rank with the stench of failed schemes, betrayals, failure, infidelity, sudden hopes, and aborted dreams. ‘Their world,’ in the...

War and War, Laszla Krasznahorkai's second novel in English from New Directions, begins at a point of danger: on a dark train platform Korim is on the verge of being attacked by thuggish teenagers and robbed; and from here, we are carried along by the insistent voice of this nervous clerk. Desperate, at times almost mad, but also keenly empathic, Korim has discovered in a small Hungarian town's...

One February day, an elephant appears in every home. Enormous. Silent. Uninvited. No one knows where it came from or why it's there. Some pretend nothing is happening, others try to figure it out, and still others write about it in the comments. Sasha Filipenko's new novel is about fear and courage, about love and detachment, about people who have faced something greater than themselves and...

Ukrainian novelist and publicist Yan Valetov's novel 'The Best Age to Die' conceals, beneath the guise of a tense action film, a conversation about what awaits humanity if it doesn't come to its senses. The dynamic post-apocalyptic plot is truly intriguing, and you won't want to take a break from the characters, as something new is constantly happening to them. A terrifying virus has...

This book has four anonymous authors. But there are many more—volunteers living in Russia who have evacuated and continue to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from the bombings. Throughout the years of war, they have been active: they meet them at checkpoints between Russia and Ukraine, bring them to safe, warm apartments where they can breathe a sigh of relief, provide them with suitcases, food,...

Where are we and where is Russian literature? The answer is: here. Everything is here, close by, no matter how many years have passed and wherever we may be. 'Simply Classics!' is a book for free reading. It was written by novelist, philologist, and teacher Alexander Arkhangelsky*. Its addressee is anyone interested in learning. Myths and theater, Antiquity and the Enlightenment, poor Liza...

The new era has posed old questions head-on—and rejected the old answers. No allowances have been made for Pushkin. Was he an imperialist? A militarist? If so, how can we love him? Was the government able to tame him, and he to influence it? Is it true that he wanted to emigrate? The convention about 'our everything' must be revisited once a generation, no less often and no less frequently....

This book is by no means another gospel of healthy food, a healthy diet, a proper nutrition system, or the like. For any food, if prepared thoughtfully and with love, and eaten with appetite and pleasure, is undoubtedly healthy and wholesome. This book is dedicated not only to food, but to everything connected with it (and everything is connected with it). This is not a collection of recipes,...

Twenty years have passed since Maxim Kammerer's mission on the planet Saraksh. He now works on Earth, at COMCON-2. His latest assignment is to locate the progressor Lev Abalkin, who left Saraksh without permission but ignored the requirement to register on Earth. Kammerer's encounters with Abalkin's acquaintances uncover a secret that could cause serious harm not only to those around him, but...

Die 17-jährige Cassie kann andere Menschen lesen wie ein Buch – absolut nichts bleibt ihr verborgen. Als eines Tages ein mysteriöser junger Mann bei ihr auftaucht, behauptet, beim FBI zu sein, und sie zu einem Gespräch einlädt, hält sie das zunächst für einen schlechten Scherz. Aber ihre besondere Begabung hat sie zur Anwärterin für einen Platz in der »Cold Case Academy« gemacht. Und so findet...

Der Traum vom Wohlstand hat sich für die meisten Figuren in Maria Leitners Hotel Amerika noch lange nicht erfüllt – unter harten Bedingungen schuften die irische Wäscherin Shirley, das schwedische Zimmermädchen Ingrid oder der deutsche Küchenjunge Fritz in einem New Yorker Luxushotel. Der Roman erzählt einen Tag aus ihrem Leben, der zunächst ganz normal mit den Vorbereitungen einer...

»Wie dieses Buch zu lesen sei, um möglicherweise verstanden werden zu können, habe ich hier anzugeben mir vorgesetzt. – Was durch dasselbe mitgetheilt werden soll, ist ein einziger Gedanke. Dennoch konnte ich, aller Bemühungen ungeachtet, keinen kürzern Weg ihn mitzutheilen finden, als dieses ganze Buch. – Ich halte jenen Gedanken für Dasjenige, was man unter dem Namen der Philosophie sehr...