A psychological drama with a masterful, pulse-quickening plot revolving around two seemingly very different men, who have more in common than they know.Thomas Clarin is a divorce lawyer whose profession has fostered a deep and abiding distrust of marriage, preferring instead to "play the field." Thomas Loos is a somber widower intensely mourning his wife's death. With Clarin's flirtatious, roving eye and Loos's complete disenchantment with the world around him, it would seem these ...

"The economization of our entire lifespan and the apparent compulsion to constant self-optimization are dead ends into which the dynamics of the market economy have led us. Julian Poerksen asks how we might re-emerge from this state and, drawing on the speculative approaches of Georges Bataille, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, and Friedrich Schiller, recommends an investment in its antithesis: the waste of time and talent without guilt feelings and bad conscience. This is fun to read and...

Stanislavski's simple exercises fire the imagination, and help readers not only discover their own conception of reality but how to reproduce it as well.

The photograph has fixed the three figures for ever, two men and a woman bathed in bright sunshine.Parisian archivist Hélène knows very little about her mother, Nathalie, who died when she was three. She decides to place a newspaper advert requesting information on Nathalie and two unknown men pictured with her at a tennis tournament in 1971.Against the odds, she receives a response from Stéphane, a Swiss biologist: his father is one of the people in the photo. Further letters and photos p...

First published in 1973, The Book of Eve has become a classic. When Eva Carroll walks out on her husband of 40 years, it is an unplanned, completely spontaneous gesture. Yet Eva feels neither guilt nor remorse. Instead, she feels rejuvenated and blissfully free. As she builds a new life for herself in a boarding house on the “wrong” side of Montreal, she finds happiness and independence – and, when she least expects it, love.

The innocent bride: Victoria was from a poor background, but Greek billionaire Alexei Christou still wanted her.The wayward wife? But passion wasn't enough, and soon their marriage fell apart.His bought mistress: Victoria must ask for a divorce and is desperate for cash. Alexei won't refuse her the money, but he'll make her work for it…as his mistress!

**WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATUREA New York Times Notable Book**Annie Ernaux's father died exactly two months after she passed her practical examination for a teaching certificate. Barely educated and valued since childhood strictly for his labor, Ernaux's father had grown into a hard, practical man who showed his family little affection.Narrating his slow ascent towards material comfort, Ernaux's cold observation reveals the shame that haunted...

Sophie Fontanel, bestselling novelist and iconic editor of French Elle, tells the provocative story of her decision to stop having sex—a choice that profoundly changed her view of herself and her place in the world.At the age of twenty-seven, after many years of having (and, for the most part, enjoying) an active sex life, beloved French author, journalist, editor, and fashion blogger Sophie Fontanel decided she wanted to take a break. Despite having it al...

A rediscovered masterwork from the famed Hungarian novelist Sándor Márai, Portraits of a Marriage is in fact a startling exploration of a triangle of entanglement.A wealthy couple in bourgeois society, Peter and Ilonka appear to enjoy a fine union. Their home is tastefully decorated; their clothes are well tailored; they move in important circles. And yet, to hypersensitive Ilonka, her choice in décor is never good enough, and her looks are never fair enough to fully win t...

The modern German classic that has shaped an entire generation.A mother and her two teenage children sit at the dinner table. In the middle stands a large pot of cooked mussels. Why has the father not returned home? As the evening wears on, we glimpse the issues that are tearing this family apart.‘I wrote this book in August 1989, just before the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I wanted to understand how revolutions start. It seemed logical to use the figure of a tyrannical father...

This classic Austrian novella paints a deeply moving portrait of a woman whose quest for passion and purpose comes at a steep priceThe less I felt in myself, the more strongly I was drawn to those places where the whirligig of life spins most rapidly.So begins an extraordinary day in the life of Mrs C—recently bereaved and searching for excitement and meaning. Drawn to the bright lights of a casino, and the passion of a desperate stranger, she disc...

Together in one volume—Hanif Kureishi's highly acclaimed and controversial novel, Intimacy, and his collection of provocative short stories, Midnight All Day.Jay, the narrator of Intimacy, tells his story on the night he is preparing to leave his lover, Susan, and their two boys. Stripping away all posturing and self-justification, Hanif Kureishi explores the fears and desires that drive a man to leave a woman. Midnight All Day i...