New Releases by Jonathan Carroll

The famous novelist Samuel Bayer is stuck in the middle of the first writer''s block he has ever known. Hoping to be inspired, he returns to his hometown for the first time in years to investigate the mystery of a seemingly unsolved murder of a young woman, Pauline Ostrova, whose boyfriend was convicted of the crime and later died in prison. But the further he looks into the crime, Bayer begins to question the validity of the conviction. As he navigates his childhood memories and the eerie atmosphere of his hometown, he becomes increasingly involved in unraveling the truth behind Pauline''s death. Digging deeper into the past, he encounters various characters that shape his understanding of the events surrounding the murder, ultimately leading to a reflection on the nature of truth and the impact of unresolved histories on personal identity. Praise for Kissing the Beehive: "Carroll''s book is strung like a piano wire whose surprising final note only sounds on the last page. Stephen King has aptly compared Carroll to Alfred Hitchcock. This novel is sure to find a wide audience and will be in demand by Carroll''s rabid fans. Recommended." — Library Journal "Carroll blends all these elements beautifully, and brings the novel to a smashing and surprising climax. If this be Carroll''s attempt to enter the commercial mainstream, more power to him. With this terrifically entertaining tale, he has improved the quality of the water." — Kirkus

The Crow''s Dinner weaves a tapestry of tales, spotlighting striking, poignant moments of raw human emotion and fleeting connections, keenly and compassionately observed by Carroll. This collection is a nocturnal journey through intimate encounters in cafes, episodes of beautiful youth without shelter, and the subtle unraveling of personal facades. As one critic wrote "It captures a magic akin to the invisible, compassionate observers in Wim Wenders'' Wings of Desire, who peer into the soul of Berlin, absorbing the silent stories and hidden pains of its inhabitants. With narratives that are concise yet profound, often spanning just a page or two, each piece centers around a pivotal experience or theme, unraveling layers of meaning and insight. Carroll''s work is reminiscent of a Zen koan, each story a path to deeper understanding, inviting readers into a reflective journey."

We all know a Tony Areal: Nice guy, inoffensive, semi-invisible, living a mostly gray day to day. As the old saying goes, throw a stick on a busy city street and you''ll hit at least three men just like him. We don''t know the Tony Areal who dreams at night about a stampeding pack of rhinoceros and bull terrier dogs, Cro Magnon men who just happen to have been Tony in an earlier incarnation and want to have a chat now, and a beautiful alluring woman who keeps reappearing night after night with secrets to tell. And what about those extraordinary gifts that keep appearing in Day—Tony''s life, no strings attached—could they be gifts from his night self? Are we the same people in our days and our nights? Tony Areal is about to find out and the answer is wholly unexpected.

For some, the magic of certain books lasts a lifetime. For Thomas Abbey, the works of reclusive children''s fantasy author Marshall France have been an essential part of his life ever since he was a boy. Son of a famous movie star, Abbey is now approaching middle age having spent too many years trying to get out from under the shadow of just ''being the son of...'' and finding something meaningful in his life. When he meets the puppeteer Saxony Gardner, who shares his passion for the France books, together they decide to collaborate on a biography of their favorite author. To do so, they must travel to the small town of Galen where France spent much of his life. Once there, they must gain the permission to write the book from France''s daughter Anna who is very protective of her father''s legacy. What happens to them after they arrive in Galen and receive Anna''s blessing to write the story of her father''s life is beyond their wildest dreams. A story that Marshall France himself might have written...

From one of the great modern masters of the fantastic, “A beautiful, brilliant, meditation on art, love, inspiration and what makes life worthwhile."-- Neil Gaiman "[Carroll''s] prose is spare, polished and quick-moving, sometimes lightly comic, always immensely engaging... Mr. Breakfast is pure pleasure to read. It will surprise you, make you laugh and scare you — and then, just when you think it’s over, add several extra twists." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Graham Patterson’s life has hit a dead end. His career as a comedian is failing. The love of his life recently broke up with him and he literally has no idea what to do next. With nothing to lose, he buys a new car and hits the road, planning to drive across country and hopefully figure out his next moves before reaching California. But along the way Patterson does something his old self would never have even considered: he gets tattooed by a brilliant tattoo artist in North Carolina. The decision sets off a series of extraordinary events that changes his life forever in ways he never could have imagined. Among other things, Patterson is gifted with the ability to see in real time three different lives that are available to him. The choice is his: The life he is leading right now, or two very different ones. In all of them there is love or fame and of course danger because once he has chosen, there is no telling what will happen next. Mr. Breakfast is a dazzling, absorbing and deeply moving novel about the choices that we have to confront and face, confirming Jonathan Carroll’s status as one of our greatest and most imaginative storytellers.

In Jonathan Carrol''s new Tor.com original short story, "Porgee''s Bear," an artist''s work attracts the eye of Andrey Porgee, a notorious gangster, who becomes her best customer. But when he commissions a painting based on a childhood photograph, the artist lives in fear of his reaction to the final product. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Davis Sterling, scion of Houston''s leading newspaper family, was enjoying the playboy life until his father challenges him to make something of himself. Always a talented writer, his rebellious streak leads him to sports writing, a craft without the status in the 1940s that it has today and knowing this move would drive his father crazy. With the help of the Houston Star''s elevator man, an ex-slave named Jeffery, he finds a team worth covering. But he never thought it would lead him to meet the first white man to play in the Negro Baseball Leagues. And he did not expect it to bring him the woman of his dreams.

Showing you how to take raw data and transform it for use in computations, tables, graphs, and more, this unique book provides a toolkit of strategies for analyzing and visualizing data of all sorts using R and RStudio. --

"The Loud Table" by Jonathan Carroll is an sf-fantasy about four elderly men who regularly hang out. One of the men is worried that he’s getting Alzheimer’s, but the truth might be even more discomforting. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

El reino de los muertos se construye a partir de los sueños (y pesadillas) de los vivos. Los pulpos conducen autobuses. Dios es un oso polar. Y una autopista atestada de vehículos con-duce literalmente al Infierno. Vincent Ettrich y su amada, Isabelle Neukor, cruzaron una vez la frontera que separa la vida de la muerte y regresaron de allí. Ahora, Isabelle lleva en su vientre a un niño muy especial, que podría restaurar algún día el inestable mosaico de la realidad. A menos que los agentes del Caos consigan atraerla de vuelta a la tierra de los muertos… y retenerla allí para siempre.

Vincent Ettrich, un gran mujeriego, descubre que ha muerto y que ha vuelto a la vida, pero no tiene ni idea de por qué ni de cómo ha sido la experiencia. Empujado y animado por extraños augurios y aún más extrañas personas, averigua que ha vuelto junto a su único amor verdadero, Isabelle, porque esta va a tener un hijo suyo. Un niño que tendrá un papel crucial en la salvación del universo. Pero para que cumpla con su destino, el niño debe conocer lo que Vincent ha aprendido en el otro lado, si es que este pudiese recordarlo… El futuro de todo lo que existe puede depender del amor y de la lucha de un padre. A veces estrafalario y a veces romántico, fantástico e irresistible, Manzanas blancas es un cuento de amor, paternidad, vida y muerte, que le hará ver el mundo con otros ojos.

In Jonathan Carroll''s surreal masterpiece, Bathing the Lion, five people who live in the same New England town go to sleep one night and all share the same hyper-realistic dream. Some of these people know each other; some don''t. When they wake the next day all of them know what has happened. All five were at one time "mechanics," a kind of cosmic repairman whose job is to keep order in the universe and clean up the messes made both by sentient beings and the utterly fearsome yet inevitable Chaos that periodically rolls through, wreaking mayhem wherever it touches down—a kind of infinitely powerful, merciless tornado. Because the job of a mechanic is grueling and exhausting, after a certain period all of them are retired and sent to different parts of the cosmos to live out their days as "civilians." Their memories are wiped clean and new identities are created for them that fit the places they go to live out their natural lives to the end. For the first time all retired mechanics are being brought back to duty: Chaos has a new plan, and it''s not looking good for mankind...

Crane''s View es un pequeño y agradable pueblo situado junto a un río, un lugar donde nunca sucede nada fuera de lo ordinario, al menos, para un observador casual. Porque desde el momento en que un perro de tres patas entra en la confortable vida del jefe de policía Frannie McCabe, muere a sus pies, y vuelve a la vida, McCabe se encuentra a sí mismo lanzado a un nuevo mundo de inenarrables y perturbadoras maravillas. Una pluma multicolor, misteriosos dibujos y un Frannie McCabe de diecisiete años se aparecen para insinuarle la verdad sobre su pasado, su presente y su futuro: él está en el centro de una conspiración, y lo que haga en los próximos días puede tener consecuencias para el mundo entero.

Cullen James is a young woman whose life dictates her dreams-and whose dreams control her life. In her first dream, she found the perfect man-and the same thing promptly happened in life. Now, she has begun to dream dreams set in Rondua, a fantasy world of high adventure, full of tests of her courage and strength. Slowly and quietly, her dream world is spilling over into her New York City reality and beginning to threaten everything she loves in life. Her friends are gathered to help her-but even her newfound courage may not be enough. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"I envy anyone who has yet to enjoy the sexy, eerie, and addictive novels of Jonathan Carroll. They are delicious treats—with devilish tricks inside them."—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Neil Gaiman has written: "Jonathan Carroll has the magic. He''ll lend you his eyes, and you''ll never see the world in quite the same way ever again." Welcome to the luminous and marvelously inventive world of The Ghost in Love. A man falls in the snow, hits his head on a curb, and dies. But something strange occurs: the man doesn''t die, and the ghost that''s been sent to take his soul to the afterlife is flabbergasted. Going immediately to its boss, the ghost asks, what should I do now? The boss says, we don''t know how this happened but we''re working on it. We want you to stay with this man to help us figure out what''s going on. The ghost agrees unhappily; it is a ghost, not a nursemaid. But a funny thing happens—the ghost falls madly in love with the man''s girlfriend, and things naturally get complicated. Soon afterward, the man discovers he did not die when he was "supposed" to because for the first time in their history, human beings have decided to take their fates back from the gods. It''s a wonderful change, but one that comes at a price. The Ghost in Love is about what happens to us when we discover that we have become the masters of our own fate. No excuses, no outside forces or gods to blame—the responsibility is all our own. It''s also about love, ghosts that happen to be gourmet cooks, talking dogs, and picnicking in the rain with yourself at twenty different ages. Stephen King has said that "Jonathan Carroll is as scary as Hitchcock, when he isn''t being as funny as Jim Carrey." Jonathan Lethem sees Carroll as the "master of sunlit surrealism." However one regards this beguiling original, two facts are indisputable: It''s tough being a ghost on an empty stomach. And The Ghost in Love is a triumphant return.

Beginning two months after the end of "White Apples, Glass Soup" continues the story of Vincent and Isabelle, a 21st-century Orpheus and Eurydice--with a twist.

A novel of love, death, and architecture