Best Selling Books by Jim Shepard

Eleven short masterworks from this great American writer of catastrophe fiction, in which lives are upended as much by broken hearts as by collapsing dams, vainglorious wars, gargantuan wildfires, and shipwrecks "Built on twin foundations of nostalgia for the never-was, and of that millennial American optimism that is indistinguishable from despair." —Michael Chabon on Jim Shepard''s short stories "A deft, audacious artist." —Norman Rush, National Book Award-winning author of Mating Across centuries and wildly diverse locations, Shepard holds us in his grip. We witness the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida from multiple points of view, read the 1864 letters between Lucy in Boone, NC (“Three privates are currently sleeping soundly on our porch in their muddy blankets”) and her great love William, on the march in Tennessee (“I can’t write much for it seems we are looking for a fight every minute”), and in the title story, meet the stubborn Constance, who had “no gift for flirtation” with men, preferring Minna, her best friend and “queen of bad influences” as their devotion unfolds in part on the doomed liner Lusitania. With irony, compassion, and withering humor, these stories evoke the terrible ease with which catastrophe, human-engineered or otherwise, can sweep away all we find most precious and expose those limitations we’ve refused to address. At the same time, Shepard raises up what is best in us: the love and friendships that sustain, and the consolations and sacrifices we provide one another on a beleaguered planet.

Below the sign welcoming the new eighth-grade class to school is one that promises to leave no child unsuccessful and a handout that offers eight ways of being smart. For Edwin Hanratty, at times as hilarious as he is miserable, this is part of what makes junior high pretty much a relentless nightmare. And so, with Flake, his only friend, he contends with clique upon clique-the jocks who pummel them, the girls who ignore or taunt them-as well as the dogged and disconcerting attentions of a sixth-grader who''s even more ferociously disaffected than they are. And while Edwin''s parents work hard to understand him, they face without fully realizing it demoralization so systemic that he and Flake have no recourse other than their own bitter and smart remarks, until they gradually begin flirting with the most horrible revenge of all. This lethal impulse, which has touched communities across America, has never been given such shocking credibility as it has in Project X, which suggests that these boys'' central predicament is not their hatred of the world but their agonized and enduring love of it. Never before has Jim Shepard''s compassionate virtuosity been on such conspicuous, unsettling, and haunting display.

Chwytająca za serce powieść o chłopcu, który trafia pod skrzydła Janusza Korczaka Wzruszający obraz Holokaustu przedstawiony oczami dziecka. „Arcydzieło”. The Washington Post Ośmioletni Aron wraz z rodziną przeprowadza się z małej polskiej wioski do zatłoczonej Warszawy. Ojciec podejmuje pracę w fabryce, a chłopiec zaprzyjaźnia się z Lutkiem, który zdradza mu tajemnice podwórkowego życia. Szanse na szczęście przekreśla wybuch II wojny światowej. Opaski z gwiazdą Dawida, kradzieże i strach przed niemieckimi mundurami stają się codziennością, a wkrótce cały świat Arona zamyka się w ciasnych murach getta. By przeżyć, chłopiec musi podejmować okrutne decyzje – z wagi których często nawet nie zdaje sobie sprawy. Gdy traci bliskich, trafia pod opiekę Janusza Korczaka, który na nowo budzi w nim człowieczeństwo.

This "novel of contagion and collapse is also the story of love’s unlikely survival in the most hostile conditions” (Karen Russell, bestselling author of Swamplandia!)—from the National Book Award-nominated author of The Book of Aron. In a tiny settlement on the west coast of Greenland, 11-year-old Aleq and his best friend, frequent trespassers at a mining site exposed to mountains of long-buried and thawing permafrost, carry what they pick up back into their village, and from there Shepard''s harrowing and deeply moving story follows Aleq, one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, through his identification and radical isolation as the likely index patient. While he shoulders both a crushing guilt for what he may have done and the hopes of a world looking for answers, we also meet two Epidemic Intelligence Service investigators dispatched from the CDC--Jeannine, an epidemiologist and daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Danice, an M.D. and lab wonk. As they attempt to head off the cataclysm, Jeannine--moving from the Greeland hospital overwhelmed with the first patients to a Level 4 high-security facility in the Rocky Mountains--does what she can to sustain Aleq. Both a chamber piece of multiple intimate perspectives and a more omniscient glimpse into the megastructures (political, cultural, and biological) that inform such a disaster, the novel reminds us of the crucial bonds that form in the midst of catastrophe, as a child and several hypereducated adults learn what it means to provide adequate support for those they love. In the process, they celebrate the precious worlds they might lose, and help to shape others that may survive.

Inside this three mini-book volume (bedecked with art by printmaker David Ryan), you''ll find a new play, The Headliners, by Jeffrey Neuman (produced here in an extended playbill of black and white photos from the Denver world-premiere production along with the play''s full text); and experience the hardships and thrills of life on the road as comedian and musician Tim Heidecker guides you through his intimate diary and documentary photos of his "The Two Tims" tour. With your whistle appropriately wetted, settle in for a full festival''s worth of literary stars including Ed Park''s latest tale of generational differences in family and love; Selena Gambrell Anderson on the intentional wrecking of a rich man''s ill-used ship; Jim Shepard''s new narrative perspective of Dr. Jekyll and his Mr. Hyde; Caleb Crain''s painfully accurate take on the time-honored tradition of hooking up at a writing conference; Lauren Spohrer on the frightening specter of ghost planes and ghost citations, misattributions and appropriations; and somehow still more. Find all this plus letters considering product demand, the future as an airport terminal, teleportation of orgies to Iowa City, and lingering baby teeth from Dan Poppick, Mina Tavakoli, Vi Khi Nao, and Justin Carder; a excerpt from Eskor David Johnson''s Pay As You Go;Brian Robert Moore new translation of Lalla Romano; new work from Erin Somers, Adrian Van Young, Sahar Delijani, and Kevin Moffett; and the winner and runner-up of our inaugural Stephen Dixon Prize: Kristina Ten and Maz Do. Get ready to enrich your soul and live it up in the most introverted way possible, with this jam-packed blast of stunning literary periodical content. Ever changing, each issue of the quarterly is completely redesigned (there have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head), but always brings you the very best in new literary fiction.

anthology of fine art images from Laura Christensen, and fiction and poetry from numerous authors -- compared to the larger THEN AGAIN featuring over thirty authors, THEN AGAIN Remix is a smaller edition containing works by ten authors.

The novella "Gojira: King of the Monsters" presents a fictionalized account on the personal and professional struggles of special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya during the production of Godzilla (Gojira, 1954).