Author: Lavie Tidhar
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1250753473
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
A retelling of Arthurian myth from World Fantasy Award-winner Lavie Tidhar, By Force Alone. Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. The fact is they don't know sh*t. Arthur? An over-promoted gangster. Merlin? An eldritch parasite. Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer. Britain? A clogged sewer that Rome abandoned just as soon as it could. A savage and cutting epic fantasy, equally poetic and profane, By Force Alone is a magical adventure and a subversive masterwork. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
By Force Alone
Author: Lavie Tidhar
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1250753473
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
A retelling of Arthurian myth from World Fantasy Award-winner Lavie Tidhar, By Force Alone. Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. The fact is they don't know sh*t. Arthur? An over-promoted gangster. Merlin? An eldritch parasite. Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer. Britain? A clogged sewer that Rome abandoned just as soon as it could. A savage and cutting epic fantasy, equally poetic and profane, By Force Alone is a magical adventure and a subversive masterwork. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1250753473
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
A retelling of Arthurian myth from World Fantasy Award-winner Lavie Tidhar, By Force Alone. Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. The fact is they don't know sh*t. Arthur? An over-promoted gangster. Merlin? An eldritch parasite. Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer. Britain? A clogged sewer that Rome abandoned just as soon as it could. A savage and cutting epic fantasy, equally poetic and profane, By Force Alone is a magical adventure and a subversive masterwork. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
How to Be Alone
Author: Lane Moore
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501178849
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
The former Sex & Relationships Editor for Cosmopolitan and host of the wildly popular comedy show Tinder Live with Lane Moore presents her poignant, funny, and deeply moving first book. Lane Moore is a rare performer who is as impressive onstage—whether hosting her iconic show Tinder Live or being the enigmatic front woman of It Was Romance—as she is on the page, as both a former writer for The Onion and an award-winning sex and relationships editor for Cosmopolitan. But her story has had its obstacles, including being her own parent, living in her car as a teenager, and moving to New York City to pursue her dreams. Through it all, she looked to movies, TV, and music as the family and support systems she never had. From spending the holidays alone to having better “stranger luck” than with those closest to her to feeling like the last hopeless romantic on earth, Lane reveals her powerful and entertaining journey in all its candor, anxiety, and ultimate acceptance—with humor always her bolstering force and greatest gift. How to Be Alone is a must-read for anyone whose childhood still feels unresolved, who spends more time pretending to have friends online than feeling close to anyone in real life, who tries to have genuine, deep conversations in a roomful of people who would rather you not. Above all, it’s a book for anyone who desperately wants to feel less alone and a little more connected through reading her words.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501178849
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
The former Sex & Relationships Editor for Cosmopolitan and host of the wildly popular comedy show Tinder Live with Lane Moore presents her poignant, funny, and deeply moving first book. Lane Moore is a rare performer who is as impressive onstage—whether hosting her iconic show Tinder Live or being the enigmatic front woman of It Was Romance—as she is on the page, as both a former writer for The Onion and an award-winning sex and relationships editor for Cosmopolitan. But her story has had its obstacles, including being her own parent, living in her car as a teenager, and moving to New York City to pursue her dreams. Through it all, she looked to movies, TV, and music as the family and support systems she never had. From spending the holidays alone to having better “stranger luck” than with those closest to her to feeling like the last hopeless romantic on earth, Lane reveals her powerful and entertaining journey in all its candor, anxiety, and ultimate acceptance—with humor always her bolstering force and greatest gift. How to Be Alone is a must-read for anyone whose childhood still feels unresolved, who spends more time pretending to have friends online than feeling close to anyone in real life, who tries to have genuine, deep conversations in a roomful of people who would rather you not. Above all, it’s a book for anyone who desperately wants to feel less alone and a little more connected through reading her words.
By Blood Alone
Author: William C. Dietz
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110149574X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
It takes more than guts to win a war...In a Legion gone lax, Colonel Bill Booly, with his mixed-blood and by-the-book attitude, is a misfit. So when he steps on some important toes, his punishment is assignment to the worst post in the galaxy: Earth.But Booly and his troops will turn out to be Earth's best line of defense, when a Legion-led military coup topples the government.It's Legionnaire against Legionnaire in a struggle that will be won by strength, by courage, and...
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110149574X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
It takes more than guts to win a war...In a Legion gone lax, Colonel Bill Booly, with his mixed-blood and by-the-book attitude, is a misfit. So when he steps on some important toes, his punishment is assignment to the worst post in the galaxy: Earth.But Booly and his troops will turn out to be Earth's best line of defense, when a Legion-led military coup topples the government.It's Legionnaire against Legionnaire in a struggle that will be won by strength, by courage, and...
By Light Alone
Author: Adam Roberts
Publisher: Gollancz
ISBN: 0575099089
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
In a world where we have been genetically engineered so that we can photosynthesise sunlight with our hair, hunger is a thing of the past, food an indulgence. The poor grow their hair, the rich affect baldness and flaunt their wealth by still eating. But other hungers remain ... The young daughter of an affluent New York family is kidnapped. The ransom demands are refused. A year later a young woman arrives at the family home claiming to be their long lost daughter. She has changed so much, she has lived on light, can anyone be sure that she has come home? Adam Roberts' new novel is yet another amazing melding of startling ideas and beautiful prose. Set in a New York of the future it nevertheless has echoes of a Fitzgeraldesque affluence and art-deco style. It charts his further progress as one of the most important writers of his generation.
Publisher: Gollancz
ISBN: 0575099089
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
In a world where we have been genetically engineered so that we can photosynthesise sunlight with our hair, hunger is a thing of the past, food an indulgence. The poor grow their hair, the rich affect baldness and flaunt their wealth by still eating. But other hungers remain ... The young daughter of an affluent New York family is kidnapped. The ransom demands are refused. A year later a young woman arrives at the family home claiming to be their long lost daughter. She has changed so much, she has lived on light, can anyone be sure that she has come home? Adam Roberts' new novel is yet another amazing melding of startling ideas and beautiful prose. Set in a New York of the future it nevertheless has echoes of a Fitzgeraldesque affluence and art-deco style. It charts his further progress as one of the most important writers of his generation.
Alone in America
Author: Robert A. Ferguson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674070704
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
Robert A. Ferguson investigates the nature of loneliness in American fiction, from its mythological beginnings in Rip Van Winkle to the postmodern terrors of 9/11. At issue is the dark side of a trumpeted American individualism. The theme is a vital one because a greater percentage of people live alone today than at any other time in U.S. history. The many isolated characters in American fiction, Ferguson says, appeal to us through inward claims of identity when pitted against the social priorities of a consensual culture. They indicate how we might talk to ourselves when the same pressures come our way. In fiction, more visibly than in life, defining moments turn on the clarity of an inner conversation. Alone in America tests the inner conversations that work and sometimes fail. It examines the typical elements and moments that force us toward a solitary state—failure, betrayal, change, defeat, breakdown, fear, difference, age, and loss—in their ascending power over us. It underlines the evolving answers that famous figures in literature have given in response. Figures like Mark Twain’s Huck Finn and Toni Morrison’s Sethe and Paul D., or Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March and Marilynne Robinson’s John Ames, carve out their own possibilities against ruthless situations that hold them in place. Instead of trusting to often superficial social remedies, or taking thin sustenance from the philosophy of self-reliance, Ferguson says we can learn from our fiction how to live alone.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674070704
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
Robert A. Ferguson investigates the nature of loneliness in American fiction, from its mythological beginnings in Rip Van Winkle to the postmodern terrors of 9/11. At issue is the dark side of a trumpeted American individualism. The theme is a vital one because a greater percentage of people live alone today than at any other time in U.S. history. The many isolated characters in American fiction, Ferguson says, appeal to us through inward claims of identity when pitted against the social priorities of a consensual culture. They indicate how we might talk to ourselves when the same pressures come our way. In fiction, more visibly than in life, defining moments turn on the clarity of an inner conversation. Alone in America tests the inner conversations that work and sometimes fail. It examines the typical elements and moments that force us toward a solitary state—failure, betrayal, change, defeat, breakdown, fear, difference, age, and loss—in their ascending power over us. It underlines the evolving answers that famous figures in literature have given in response. Figures like Mark Twain’s Huck Finn and Toni Morrison’s Sethe and Paul D., or Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March and Marilynne Robinson’s John Ames, carve out their own possibilities against ruthless situations that hold them in place. Instead of trusting to often superficial social remedies, or taking thin sustenance from the philosophy of self-reliance, Ferguson says we can learn from our fiction how to live alone.
Are You Alone on Purpose?
Author: Nancy Werlin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101577401
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 133
Book Description
Though fourteen-year-old Alison Shandling is a brain, her twin brother, Adam, is autistic. All of her life, Alison's parents have focused on Adam and what he needs, while Alison has always felt she had to be perfect. When the rabbi's son, Harry Roth, begins taunting Alison about her brother, she does her best to stand up for herself. But when Harry is injured in a diving accident, Alison senses that he's hiding something that he wants to share with someone. And she begins to think that she's just the someone he can share it with....
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101577401
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 133
Book Description
Though fourteen-year-old Alison Shandling is a brain, her twin brother, Adam, is autistic. All of her life, Alison's parents have focused on Adam and what he needs, while Alison has always felt she had to be perfect. When the rabbi's son, Harry Roth, begins taunting Alison about her brother, she does her best to stand up for herself. But when Harry is injured in a diving accident, Alison senses that he's hiding something that he wants to share with someone. And she begins to think that she's just the someone he can share it with....
Alone at Dawn
Author: Dan Schilling
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1538729679
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
The New York Times bestselling true account of John Chapman, Medal of Honor recipient and Special Ops Combat Controller, and his heroic one-man stand during the Afghan War, as he sacrificed his life to save the lives of twenty-three comrades-in-arms. In the predawn hours of March 4, 2002, just below the 10,469-foot peak of a mountain in eastern Afghanistan, a fierce battle raged. Outnumbered by Al Qaeda fighters, Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and a handful of Navy SEALs struggled to take the summit in a desperate bid to find a lost teammate. Chapman, leading the charge, was gravely wounded in the initial assault. Believing he was dead, his SEAL leader ordered a retreat. Chapman regained consciousness alone, with the enemy closing in on three sides. John Chapman's subsequent display of incredible valor -- first saving the lives of his SEAL teammates and then, knowing he was mortally wounded, single-handedly engaging two dozen hardened fighters to save the lives of an incoming rescue squad -- posthumously earned him the Medal of Honor. Chapman is the first airman in nearly fifty years to be given the distinction reserved for America's greatest heroes. Alone at Dawn is also a behind-the-scenes look at the Air Force Combat Controllers: the world's deadliest and most versatile special operations force, whose members must not only exceed the qualifications of Navy SEAL and Army Delta Force teams but also act with sharp decisiveness and deft precision -- even in the face of life-threatening danger. Drawing from firsthand accounts, classified documents, dramatic video footage, and extensive interviews with leaders and survivors of the operation, Alone at Dawn is the story of an extraordinary man's brave last stand and the brotherhood that forged him.
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1538729679
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
The New York Times bestselling true account of John Chapman, Medal of Honor recipient and Special Ops Combat Controller, and his heroic one-man stand during the Afghan War, as he sacrificed his life to save the lives of twenty-three comrades-in-arms. In the predawn hours of March 4, 2002, just below the 10,469-foot peak of a mountain in eastern Afghanistan, a fierce battle raged. Outnumbered by Al Qaeda fighters, Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and a handful of Navy SEALs struggled to take the summit in a desperate bid to find a lost teammate. Chapman, leading the charge, was gravely wounded in the initial assault. Believing he was dead, his SEAL leader ordered a retreat. Chapman regained consciousness alone, with the enemy closing in on three sides. John Chapman's subsequent display of incredible valor -- first saving the lives of his SEAL teammates and then, knowing he was mortally wounded, single-handedly engaging two dozen hardened fighters to save the lives of an incoming rescue squad -- posthumously earned him the Medal of Honor. Chapman is the first airman in nearly fifty years to be given the distinction reserved for America's greatest heroes. Alone at Dawn is also a behind-the-scenes look at the Air Force Combat Controllers: the world's deadliest and most versatile special operations force, whose members must not only exceed the qualifications of Navy SEAL and Army Delta Force teams but also act with sharp decisiveness and deft precision -- even in the face of life-threatening danger. Drawing from firsthand accounts, classified documents, dramatic video footage, and extensive interviews with leaders and survivors of the operation, Alone at Dawn is the story of an extraordinary man's brave last stand and the brotherhood that forged him.
Every Man Dies Alone
Author: Hans Fallada
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 1612198279
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 593
Book Description
This never-before-translated masterpiece—by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn’t join the Nazi Party—is based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in. In the end, it’s more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest order—it’s a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what’s right, and for each other.
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 1612198279
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 593
Book Description
This never-before-translated masterpiece—by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn’t join the Nazi Party—is based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in. In the end, it’s more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest order—it’s a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what’s right, and for each other.
By Force Alone
Author: Lavie Tidhar
Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
ISBN: 1625676565
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
“Vicious, beautiful, profane and wickedly funny” – The Washington Post Narcos meets Excalibur in a wide-screen, spell-binding and radical re-imagining of the story of King Arthur as you’ve never seen it before. The king is dead. And so is chivalry. In a wild and lawless Britain still reeling from the fall of the Roman Empire, warring tribes fight for power in the remnants of civilization. A power that can only be bought with blood – by force alone. When the old king dies his son, Arthur, must rise to claim his throne. With his gang of ruthless knights (and one parasitic, eldritch wizard), he will slaughter his enemies and take a princess for his bride. But violence always has a price, and blood will always beget more blood. And when a dragon’s fire is seen flaring in the sky, Arthur and his knights must undertake a perilous quest for the grail stone, and into the mist-covered land of legends and myths from which modern Britain is formed. By Force Alone sees multiple award winning author Lavie Tidhar turn his attention to the Matter of Britain and the rise of a nation as only he can. In hypnotic, lyrical prose, he combines history and magic into a dark and violent gangster tale which re-examines the Arthurian saga – and turns it on its head. “Drawing on everything from wushu movies to The Wire by way of Tarkovsky and Tarantino, By Force Alone is wild, surprising and entertaining, and a hugely immersive read.” – M.R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts and The Unwritten Praise for By Force Alone: “A bloody, bravura performance” – The Guardian “Extraordinary and vivid... As eclectic as The Sword In The Stone and as ruthless as A Game Of Thrones, this retelling of the whole Arthurian Legend stands alongside the very best.” – The Daily Mail “Lavie Tidhar has crafted a punk epic on the mouldering bones of legend and jolted it to life with ten thousand volts of knowing wit and fury. By Force Alone eviscerates the complacent posturing of the Arthurian myth, explodes the well-worn conventions of the tale and from the shiny jagged pieces assembles a wholly fresh rollercoaster ride of cheap violence, vicious magic and messy human truth. Just read it. You’ll never look at a wizard the same way again.” – Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon and A Land Fit for Heroes “By Force Alone is a jolt of pure entertainment, a brilliant, revisionist blend of magic, crime syndicates and Kung-fu knights.” – Locus “Tidhar turns King Arthur’s court into a gangster’s paradise, full of wheelings and dealings, and true grit. If the tale didn’t go down like this, it should have.” – Silvia Moreno-García, author of Gods of Jade and Shadow and Mexican Gothic “Lavie Tidhar is a fearless madman. The last thing I wanted was another take on Camelot, but it turns out that what I absolutely needed was this profane, hilarious, brutal, genre-mashing story of Arthur as a rising goodfella, his thug knights, a Guinevere straight out of Kill Bill, and a Judean kung fu Lancelot. I haven’t even mentioned the UFOs. There’s no way this should work, but it kills as both sheer entertainment and canny political statement. To my fellow writers: the Arthurian Revision category is now closed. Take your ball and go home.” – Daryl Gregory, author of We Are All Completely Fine and Spoonbenders “A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious and funny, a Peaky Blinders of the Round Table.” – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time “A strong contender for the best Arthurian fantasy yet” – Samit Basu, author of Chosen Spirits and writer-director of House Arrest
Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
ISBN: 1625676565
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
“Vicious, beautiful, profane and wickedly funny” – The Washington Post Narcos meets Excalibur in a wide-screen, spell-binding and radical re-imagining of the story of King Arthur as you’ve never seen it before. The king is dead. And so is chivalry. In a wild and lawless Britain still reeling from the fall of the Roman Empire, warring tribes fight for power in the remnants of civilization. A power that can only be bought with blood – by force alone. When the old king dies his son, Arthur, must rise to claim his throne. With his gang of ruthless knights (and one parasitic, eldritch wizard), he will slaughter his enemies and take a princess for his bride. But violence always has a price, and blood will always beget more blood. And when a dragon’s fire is seen flaring in the sky, Arthur and his knights must undertake a perilous quest for the grail stone, and into the mist-covered land of legends and myths from which modern Britain is formed. By Force Alone sees multiple award winning author Lavie Tidhar turn his attention to the Matter of Britain and the rise of a nation as only he can. In hypnotic, lyrical prose, he combines history and magic into a dark and violent gangster tale which re-examines the Arthurian saga – and turns it on its head. “Drawing on everything from wushu movies to The Wire by way of Tarkovsky and Tarantino, By Force Alone is wild, surprising and entertaining, and a hugely immersive read.” – M.R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts and The Unwritten Praise for By Force Alone: “A bloody, bravura performance” – The Guardian “Extraordinary and vivid... As eclectic as The Sword In The Stone and as ruthless as A Game Of Thrones, this retelling of the whole Arthurian Legend stands alongside the very best.” – The Daily Mail “Lavie Tidhar has crafted a punk epic on the mouldering bones of legend and jolted it to life with ten thousand volts of knowing wit and fury. By Force Alone eviscerates the complacent posturing of the Arthurian myth, explodes the well-worn conventions of the tale and from the shiny jagged pieces assembles a wholly fresh rollercoaster ride of cheap violence, vicious magic and messy human truth. Just read it. You’ll never look at a wizard the same way again.” – Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon and A Land Fit for Heroes “By Force Alone is a jolt of pure entertainment, a brilliant, revisionist blend of magic, crime syndicates and Kung-fu knights.” – Locus “Tidhar turns King Arthur’s court into a gangster’s paradise, full of wheelings and dealings, and true grit. If the tale didn’t go down like this, it should have.” – Silvia Moreno-García, author of Gods of Jade and Shadow and Mexican Gothic “Lavie Tidhar is a fearless madman. The last thing I wanted was another take on Camelot, but it turns out that what I absolutely needed was this profane, hilarious, brutal, genre-mashing story of Arthur as a rising goodfella, his thug knights, a Guinevere straight out of Kill Bill, and a Judean kung fu Lancelot. I haven’t even mentioned the UFOs. There’s no way this should work, but it kills as both sheer entertainment and canny political statement. To my fellow writers: the Arthurian Revision category is now closed. Take your ball and go home.” – Daryl Gregory, author of We Are All Completely Fine and Spoonbenders “A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious and funny, a Peaky Blinders of the Round Table.” – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time “A strong contender for the best Arthurian fantasy yet” – Samit Basu, author of Chosen Spirits and writer-director of House Arrest
Am I Alone Here?
Author: Peter Orner
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1936787261
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
This National Book Critics Circle Award is “an entrancing attempt to catch what falls between: the irreducibly personal, messy, even embarrassing ways reading and living bleed into each other, which neither literary criticism nor autobiography ever quite acknowledges.” —The New York Times “Stories, both my own and those I’ve taken to heart, make up whoever it is that I’ve become,” Peter Orner writes in this collection of essays about reading, writing, and living. Orner reads and writes everywhere he finds himself: a hospital cafeteria, a coffee shop in Albania, or a crowded bus in Haiti. The result is a book of unlearned meditations that stumbles into memoir. Among the many writers Orner addresses are Isaac Babel and Zora Neale Hurston, both of whom told their truths and were silenced; Franz Kafka, who professed loneliness but craved connection; Robert Walser, who spent the last twenty-three years of his life in a Swiss insane asylum, working at being crazy; and Juan Rulfo, who practiced the difficult art of silence. Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Yasunari Kawabata, Saul Bellow, Mavis Gallant, John Edgar Wideman, William Trevor, and Václav Havel make appearances, as well as the poet Herbert Morris--about whom almost nothing is known. An elegy for an eccentric late father, and the end of a marriage, Am I Alone Here? is also a celebration of the possibility of renewal. At once personal and panoramic, this book will inspire readers to return to the essential stories of their own lives.
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1936787261
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
This National Book Critics Circle Award is “an entrancing attempt to catch what falls between: the irreducibly personal, messy, even embarrassing ways reading and living bleed into each other, which neither literary criticism nor autobiography ever quite acknowledges.” —The New York Times “Stories, both my own and those I’ve taken to heart, make up whoever it is that I’ve become,” Peter Orner writes in this collection of essays about reading, writing, and living. Orner reads and writes everywhere he finds himself: a hospital cafeteria, a coffee shop in Albania, or a crowded bus in Haiti. The result is a book of unlearned meditations that stumbles into memoir. Among the many writers Orner addresses are Isaac Babel and Zora Neale Hurston, both of whom told their truths and were silenced; Franz Kafka, who professed loneliness but craved connection; Robert Walser, who spent the last twenty-three years of his life in a Swiss insane asylum, working at being crazy; and Juan Rulfo, who practiced the difficult art of silence. Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Yasunari Kawabata, Saul Bellow, Mavis Gallant, John Edgar Wideman, William Trevor, and Václav Havel make appearances, as well as the poet Herbert Morris--about whom almost nothing is known. An elegy for an eccentric late father, and the end of a marriage, Am I Alone Here? is also a celebration of the possibility of renewal. At once personal and panoramic, this book will inspire readers to return to the essential stories of their own lives.