The writer M has lived in the city of B ever since her homeland declared war on a neighboring state. Exiled, she is unable to write there and suffers from loneliness, shame, and despair, but then M is invited to give a reading at a literary festival in a...

In 1902, Morris and Rose Michtom invented the Teddy Bear in the back room of their Brooklyn candy store. Together, they launched the Ideal Toy Corporation into a prewar market rife with other first-generation American Jewish toymakers: the Hassenfield...

The true story of Daniel Defoe and the dirty tricks which helped bring Scotland into union with England In 1706, Edinburgh was on the brink of a popular uprising. Men and women took to the streets to protest the planned union with England, fearing the...

This manifesto for the next food revolution by acclaimed environmental historian Kate Brown speaks to nature lovers, food activists, social-justice warriors, urban planners, WOOFers, and the climate-concerned. Ever since wage labor in cities replaced...

A revelatory account of sexual nonconformity and radical religious dissent in Renaissance Italy, drawing on never-before-studied Inquisition trials. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, a series of highly controversial Inquisition trials took...

Alice, the German writer Judith Hermann’s 2009 short-story collection, was short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.When someone very close to you dies, your whole life changes. Everything is different. Alice is the central figure in these...

A look at the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the plant specimens the great explorers gathered on their way—and of their amazing afterlife. Elizabeth Adelman's Chasing the Missing Monkeyflower is the two hundred-year saga of finding, losing, and finding...

Mollusks’ innermost selves are absolute secrets because, not only do they hide in shells or distant habitats, but also that’s just how it is with innermost selves.Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl collects Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s reminiscences, dreams,...

From the Marginalian creator and bestselling author Maria Popova, a bold exploration of what makes a meaningful life. In Traversal, her startling and moving new book, Maria Popova traverses the border between life and death, chance and choice, chemistry...

A publication chronicling a new sound art project led by the bestselling author of Lost Children Archive and The Story of My Teeth, Valeria Luiselli, with Ricardo Giraldo and Leo HeiblumEchoes from the Borderlands is a timely, poignant exploration of the...

The true story of the first female captain of a merchant ship and her treacherous navigation of Antarctica's deadly waters, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow ClicquotSummer, 1856 Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her husband,...

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of America unites centuries of essential American voices to understand our national debates and divisions from 1619 to the present, with his signature commentary on the consequential speeches, letters,...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America’s most beloved comedy show “The kind of biographical monument usually consecrated to founding fathers, canonical authors and world-historical scientific...

"A remarkable work about women writers in the Renaissance explodes our notion of the Shakespearean period and brings us in close to four women who were committed to their craft before there was any possibility of "a room of one's own." In a sparkling and...

An illuminating, electrifying exploration of the work of Toni Morrison by an award-winning novelist and Harvard professorToni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is...

"[A]n exuberant biographical novel . . . Riffing cleverly on O. Henry’s most cherished stories, Yagoda presents a vivid, witty, and delectable tale of crime and creativity."—BooklistO. Henry, who may be best remembered for his short story “The...

The real succession story of the Murdoch empire is more shocking than the fictional TV series. When Rupert Murdoch made a fateful decision about who should inherit his media colossus, he believed that pitting his children against each other would produce...

A vibrant debut and powerful meditation on family, motherhood, and the cost of holding on to your dreams, reminiscent of Ann Napolitano.In New England, Susan Bliss is a young mother married to a professor. In LA, Susan Byrne stars in a soap opera beloved...

“[A] meticulously excavated tribute to the formerly enslaved mothers, fathers, siblings, and kin who published ‘last seen’ advertisements in search of loved ones stolen from them in bondage…a vital work of recovery.” —Ilyon Woo, Pulitzer Prize–winning...

On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, law professor, legal analyst, and bestselling author of The Indispensable Right Jonathan Turley explores how the unique origins of American democracy set it apart from other revolutions,...