For many years, Thu has lived in exile, writing the tragic history of her life as the favourite concubine of Ramses III—and her role in the conspiracy to kill him. A young soldier, Kamen, has read her words and believes her testimony that she was not acting alone. When Kamen shows Thu’s manuscript to his general, he unknowingly sets in motion a stirring drama of revenge and punishment, miraculous disclosures, and unexpected vindication. House of Illusions is the stunning sequel to the bestselling House of Dreams, and brings Thu’s story to its surprising and dramatic conclusion.
A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost silent film by comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years. When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico-supposedly written by Hector's wife. "Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever. This stunning novel plunges the reader into a universe in which the comic and the tragic, the real and the imagined, the violent and the tender dissolve into one another. With The Book of Illusions, one of America's most powerful and original writers has written his richest, most emotionally charged work yet.
A physician-anthropologist explores how public health practices--from epidemiological modeling to outbreak containment--help perpetuate global inequities. In Epidemic Illusions, Eugene Richardson, a physician and an anthropologist, contends that public health practices--from epidemiological modeling and outbreak containment to Big Data and causal inference--play an essential role in perpetuating a range of global inequities. Drawing on postcolonial theory, medical anthropology, and critical science studies, Richardson demonstrates the ways in which the flagship discipline of epidemiology has been shaped by the colonial, racist, and patriarchal system that had its inception in 1492. Deploying a range of rhetorical tools and drawing on his clinical work in a variety of epidemics, including Ebola in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, leishmania in the Sudan, HIV/TB in southern Africa, diphtheria in Bangladesh, and SARS-CoV-2 in the United States, Richardson concludes that the biggest epidemic we currently face is an epidemic of illusions—one that is propagated by the coloniality of knowledge production.
Taking us back to a time that is half history, half myth and wholly magical, bestselling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni gives voice to Panchaali, the fire-born heroine of the Mahabharata, as she weaves a vibrant retelling of an ancient epic saga. Married to five royal husbands who have been cheated out of their father's kingdom, Panchaali aids their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war. But she cannot deny her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna—or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy—as she is caught up in the ever-manipulating hands of fate.
Renee was adopted by Walter and Frances Burt--of the notorious Burt crime family of Rhode Island--when she was just 15 months old. While the Burts are known for their crimes involving arson, welfare fraud, and assaults, Renee's own experiences are more far-ranging and horrific than any newspaper headlines suggest. Beginning at age 6, Renee faced unspeakable instances of sexual abuse, physical beatings, and constant verbal tirades of her worthlessness, all by the "good Catholic" parents who'd adopted her. From weekly nighttime visits from her father, to lacerations inflicted by her mother's power cord, Renee's childhood was filled with traumatic horrors. It was not until Renee had her own child at age 17 that she finally found something to live and to fight for. Author Renee Snyder painstakingly details every torment she faced at the hands of the Burts for a period exceeding 20 years. House of Shadows and Illusion is Renee's own story of unspeakable suffering and, ultimately, survival.
A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.
Rings of seahorses seem to rotate and butterflies seems to transform into warriors right on the page. Astonishing creations of visual trickery by masters of the art, such as Escher, Dali, and Archimbolo make this breathtaking collection the definitive book of optical illusions. Includes an illuminating Foreword by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hofstadter.
A new and groundbreaking historical narrative, Grand Illusion: Phantasmagoria in Nineteenth-Century Opera explores how technical innovations in Paris transformed the grand opera into a transcendent, dream-like audio-visual spectacle.
Discover how artists have been tricking the human eye for centuries in this gorgeous and wide-ranging exploration of the art of illusion. This spellbinding look at the history and development of illusionistic art reveals wide-ranging techniques that have piqued the public's fascination with this medium. Beautifully reproduced, the images featured in the book includes centuries-old work such as the scenery at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy, and the ceiling frescos at the Würzburg Residence in Germany, that showcase processes such as trompe l'oeil and anamorphosis. It also features work from the 20th and 21st centuries, including René Magritte's classic Surrealist works; M.C. Escher's magical and mathematically precise drawings; the seemingly undulating paintings of Bridget Riley; the manipulated photography of Andreas Gursky; Duane Hanson's eerily lifelike sculptures; JR's larger-than-life portrait photographs; and Georges Rousse's mind-bending constructions. The book also has examples of amazing street art including subway graffiti and a sidewalk painting that makes pedestrians think twice. This extraordinary and informative guide to all kinds of artistic trickery will satisfy scholars as well as everyday fans.
The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half-history, half-myth, and wholly magical; narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the five Pandava brothers, we are - finally - given a woman's take on the timeless tale that is the Mahabharata Tracing Panchaali's life - from fiery birth and lonely childhood, where her beloved brother is her only true companion; through her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna; to marriage, motherhood and Panchaali's secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy - The Palace of Illusions is a deeply human novel about a woman born into a man's world - a world of warriors, gods and the ever manipulating hands of fate. ‘A mythic tale brimming with warriors, magic and treachery’ Los Angeles Times ‘A radiant entree into an ancient mythology . . . Charming and remarkable’ Houston Chronicle ‘A woman’s look at crime and punishment, loyalty, promises, love and vengeance . . . With The Palace of Illusions, Divakaruni has proven that her storytelling talents put her right up there with the best’ Miami Herald
