New Releases by Sean Michaels

"Timely and lovely." —The New York Times "Stunningly compelling." —The Walrus Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels' luminous new novel takes readers on a lyrical joy ride through seven epic days in Silicon Valley with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old. It's both a love letter to and an aching examination of art-making, family, identity and belonging. Dear Marian, the letter from the Company begins. You are one of the great writers of this century. At 75, Marian Ffarmer is almost as famous for her signature tricorn hat and cape as for her verse. She has lived for decades in the one-bedroom New York apartment she once shared with her mother, miles away from any other family, dedicating herself to her art. Yet recently her certainty about her choices has started to fray, especially when she thinks about her only son, now approaching middle age with no steady income. Into that breach comes the letter: an invitation to the Silicon Valley headquarters of one of the world's most powerful companies in order to make history by writing a poem. Marian has never collaborated with anyone, let alone a machine, but the offer is too lucrative to resist, and she boards a plane to San Francisco with dreams of helping her son. In the Company's serene and golden Mind Studio, she encounters Charlotte, their state-of-the-art poetry bot, and is startled to find that it has written 230,442 poems in the last week, though it claims to only like two of them. Over the conversations to follow, the poet is intrigued, confused, moved and frightened by Charlotte's vision of the world, by what it knows and doesn't know ("Do you remember being born?" it asks her. Of course Marian doesn't, but Charlotte does.) This is a relationship, a friendship, unlike anything Marian has known, and as it evolves—and as Marian meets strangers at swimming pools, tortoises at the zoo, a clutch of younger poets, a late-night TV host and his synthetic foam set—she is forced to confront the secrets of her past and the direction of her future. Who knew that a disembodied mind could help bend Marian's life towards human connection, that friendship and family are not just time-eating obligations but soul-expanding joys. Or that belonging to one’s art means, above all else, belonging to the world.

Traduit de l'anglais par Catherine Leroux Fils d'épicier, gambler et humoriste du vendredi soir, Theo Potiris n'a jamais craint de remettre son sort entre les mains du hasard et de ses caprices. Mais en ce printemps montréalais où le destin le frappe durement, la chance paraît l'avoir abandonné. Fidèle à ce que lui a appris son père avant de mourir, Theo cherche alors à secouer la fatalité, à « entrer en duel avec les possibles » - sans se douter que certaines entités ont la capacité d'agir sur ce que les profanes appellent des « coïncidences ». Les coups de dés se lit comme un roman d'aventure où Ocean's 11 rencontrerait Robin des bois. Des comedy clubs à Taipei, du Mile-End au désert marocain, ce livre qui semble en contenir plusieurs insuffle tout naturellement du surnaturel à l'ordinaire. Dans cette oeuvre portée par une écriture évocatrice et un humour pince-sans-rire, Sean Michaels jette un regard unique sur notre foi en notre bonne étoile et sur nos tentatives pour contrôler l'incontrôlable.

From Giller-Prize-winning author Sean Michaels, The Wagers is a wild and magical novel about what it means to not only chase luck, but find it. When Theo Potiris performed his stand-up comedy act on Conan at 25, he thought he’d hit it big. But ten years later, he’s still spending his days working at his parents’ grocery store, bicycling to the local open mic, and writing letters to a girlfriend who lives halfway around the world. Theo’s desperate for a break. But when he brings his thirteen-year-old niece to the horse track to place a birthday bet—a Potiris family tradition—the goddess of good luck strikes her instead, in the form of a small fortune. Try as he might to be happy for her, Theo’s shock and envy finally push him out of the family nest, away from his comedy dreams and toward a new calling. First: a mysterious corporation called The Rabbit’s Foot, which carefully quantifies and cashes in on luck. Then: to a gang of vigilantes, who recruit Theo to help them steal luck from those who carry more than their fair share. The Wagers is a literary motorcycle chase, carried by stylish prose and delightful invention. But it’s also an investigation of work and purpose, happiness and art, the randomness of good fortune, and all the ways we choose to wage our lives.

Où je cherche le coeur de Clara Rockmore, mon seul et unique amour, la plus grande joueuse de thérémine que le monde connaîtra jamais. L'apocalypse surviendrait qu'il ne s'en rendrait pas compte. Séquestré dans une cabine du Stary Bolchevique voguant vers Leningrad, un inventeur écrit une missive à Clara, son aimée. Scientifique, espion, musicien, maître de kung-fu et prisonnier, Léon Thérémine est avant tout amoureux. Comme les notes de l'invention qui porte son nom, les mots qu'il adresse à celle qu'il aime voyagent dans les airs, traces éthérées de son coeur déchiré entre la Russie et New York, Carnegie Hall et le goulag, la science et l'inexpliqué. Avec la maestria d'un virtuose, Sean Michaels mêle l'histoire et la légende dans ce premier roman couronné par le prix Giller. Plus qu'un concerto pour coeur seul, Corps conducteurs montre que l'amour, comme la musique, est une puissante invention.

A Russian spy and scientist imparts to his paramour interconnected memories detailing his early days as a Bolshevik-era theremin innovator through his Moscow imprisonment and assignments to eavesdrop on Stalin. By the award-winning founder of the Said the Gramophone blog. Original.

Pure JavaScript, Second Edition is a substantial and focused reference for experienced Web developers. This book begins with an accelerated introduction to the newest features of JavaScript so that experienced Web developers can quickly understand the concepts of JavaScript and begin developing their own JavaScript solutions immediately. Pure JavaScript, Second Edition contains concise descriptions of JavaScript forms, cookies, windows, and layers. Beyond the brief descriptions and short syntax snippets found in most references, this book also provides real-life, well-commented JavaScript examples for each documented object, property, method, and event handler. This not only helps the reader's understanding of the syntax, but also provides a contextual aid in determining how and why a specific object or method may be used. It also includes a special reference section dedicated to server-side JavaScript, coverage of JScript and Active Scripting, and a complete reference to browser-supported JavaScript.