Marked by powerful and evocative prose, Ferenc Barnas's novel tells the fascinating story of a young man's journey through his strange obsessions towards possible recovery. The unnamed narrator is the parasite, feeding off others' ailments, but he is...

In Japan there is a legend that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their wishes realized. But folding cranes, and the meditative, solemn care that it involves, has come to mean more than just an exercise in wish making. Origami cran...

In "The Atlas of an Anxious Man", Christoph Ransmayr offers a mesmerizing travel diary – a sprawling tale of earthly wonders seen by a wandering eye. This is an exquisite, lyrically told travel story. Translated by Simon Pare, this unique account fol...

"Porcelain" is a book-length cycle of forty-nine poems written over the course of more than a decade that together serve as a lament for Durs Grunbein's hometown, Dresden, which was destroyed in the Allied firebombing of February 1945. The book is at...

We defy augury. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, "this not to come... the readiness is all. Under the sign of Hamlet's last act, Helene Cixous, in her eightieth year, launched her new book – and the latest chapter...

This entry in the popular Little Bit of series introduces the ancient practice of Zen Buddhism. What is Zen? It's an ancient spiritual system rooted in Buddhism that began in China and spread throughout Asia, finally reaching the West. It encompasses...

Kubrick grew up in the Bronx, a doctor's son. From a young age he was consumed by photography, chess, and, above all else, movies. He was a self?taught filmmaker and self?proclaimed outsider, and his films exist in a unique world of their own outside...

This definitive introduction to the gnostic scriptures provides a crucial look at the theology, religious atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. It provides authoritative translations of ancient texts fro...

Full of memorable and surprising buildings, Nottinghamshire is a county that rewards close investigation. Great medieval churches are represented by Newark, Worksop Priory, and Southwell Minster, famous for its exquisite carved "leaves". Of the count...

Degas's ballerina paintings are well known and admired and his sculptural work Little Dancer Aged Fourteen – the only sculpture he exhibited in his lifetime – is particularly beloved for capturing the essence of a ballerina. This book tells the ficti...