New Releases by Sean Michaels

A Best Book of 2023 - Marie Claire, Inside Hook, Our Culture Magazine, WIRED "[A] timely and lovely new novel." —Lincoln Michel, The New York Times Book Review "A compassionate and lyrical portrait . . . Do You Remember Being Born? far outshines its peers." —Terry Nguyen, Boston Review "Sean Michaels has already written the definitive novel about art in the age of AI." —Kate Knibbs, WIRED Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Sean Michaels’s moving, innovative and deeply felt novel about an aging poet who agrees to collaborate with a Big Tech company’s poetry AI, named Charlotte Marian Ffarmer is a world-renowned poet and a legend in the making—but only now, at 75 years old, is she beginning to believe in the security of her successes. Unfortunately, a poet’s accomplishments don’t necessarily translate to capital, and as her adult son struggles to buy his first home, her confidence in her choices begins to fray. Marian’s pristine life of mind—for which she’s sacrificed nearly all personal relationships, from romance to friendship to motherhood—has come at a cost. Then comes a cryptic invitation from the Tech Company. Come to California, the invitation beckons, and write with a machine. The Company’s lucrative offer—for Marian to co-author a poem in a ‘historic partnership’ with their cutting-edge poetry bot, named Charlotte—chafes at everything she believes about artmaking as an individual pursuit . . . yet, it’s a second chance she can’t resist. And so to California she goes, a sell-out and a skeptic, for an encounter that will unsettle her life, her work and even her understanding of kinship. Both a love letter to and interrogation of the nature of language, art, labor, capital, family, and community, Do You Remember Being Born? is Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Sean Michaels’s empathetic response to some of the most disquieting questions of our time—a defiant and joyful recognition that if we’re to survive meaningfully at all, creative legacy is to be reimagined and belonging to one’s art must mean, 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.