Non-fiction

translated by Michael Reynolds On March 5, 2007, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, foreign news correspondent on assignment in Kandahar, his driver and his interpreter were captured by the Taliban. His captors threatened to execute him if Italy did not immediately withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. When Italy refused this demand, the driver, twenty-five-year-old Sayed Agha, was decapitated before Mastrogiacomo’s eyes. A video of this horrifying event was shown around the world, and Mastrogiacomo spen...

Translated by Will Schutt Ferrante's four-volume novel cycle known in English as the Neapolitan quartet has become a global success, with over ten million readers in close to fifty countries. Her readers recount feeling "addicted" to the novels; they describe a pleasure in reading that is as rare as it is irresistible, a compulsion that leads them either to devour the books or to ration them so as to prolong the pleasure. De Rogatis here addresses that same transnational, diverse, transversal...

translated by Ann Goldstein Frantumaglia invites readers into Elena Ferrante’s workshop. The bestselling Italian author of My Brilliant Friend opens her desk drawers and offers readers a chance to sort through what they find there. Consisting of over twenty years of letters, essays, reflections, and interviews, it is a unique depiction of an author who embodies a consummate passion for writing. In these pages Ferrante answers many of her readers’ questions. She addresses her choice to stand a...

Translated by Ann GoldsteinIllustrated by Andrea Ucini Elena Ferrante is the best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend, now an HBO original series. Collected here for the first time are the seeds of future novels, the timely reflections of this internationally beloved storyteller, the abiding preoccupations of a writer who has been called "one of the great novelists of our time" (New York Times). "This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me... I have written as an au...

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 cur...

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 nov...

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 ye...

From its very first contact with the West, India has been subject to great mystification. India's long history, the survival of ancient rituals, and its variety of languages and cultures, continues to fascinate. This narrative is intertwined with a newer one that sees the frenetic change of a society at the forefront of innovation. Success stories coexist alongside stories of daily struggle. A large slice of the population still does not have access to drinking water, and agriculture (still t...

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 structur...

In this volume: Shipwrecks Under Istanbul by Elif Batuman - Nations Within Nations by Asli Erdoga - How Turkish TV Is Taking Over the World by Fatima Bhutto - Also: the failed coup that was thirty years in the making; the rise of femicide in New Turkey; the flooding of a 12000 year-old town; the political satirist resisting censorship; the communist mayor, business à la Turque, and much more… The birth of the “New Turkey”, as the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called his own cre...

In Twelve Who Don’t Agree, journalist Valery Panyushkin profiles twelve Russians from across the country’s social spectrum, including: a politician, a journalist, an army officer, an author, a bank manager, a laborer, and a university student. Despite varied backgrounds, they all have one thing in common: participation in 2007’s historic March of the Dissidents. Though each of these men and women had personal reasons for joining the demonstration, they shared a belief that the government of V...