Caleb Calder is a cartographer at a time when the discipline is refocusing from paper to pixels. He is a man whose search for meaning centers on the idea of belonging to a place that nourishes him. While out cycling, Caleb is hit by a car and suffers traumatic brain injuries. An outgrowth of his TBI is that the ability to feel emotions is rewired in a way that allows the part of his brain he utilizes as a cartographer to become interconnected with the affective part. Thus, after his accident, he discovers-borrowing from Descarte's dictum: I map, therefore I am--that mapping has become perception itself captured like an eddy in a stream in which each and every perception is a map of yet another map. It is on his journey to seek a place of safety and succor for his young family that Caleb becomes enmeshed in a web of internecine intrigue that threatens to destroy everything he has worked for.
In this hypnotic epic novel, Mo Yan, the most critically acclaimed Chinese writer of this generation, takes us on a journey to a conjured province of contemporary China known as the Republic of Wine—a corrupt and hallucinatory world filled with superstitions, gargantuan appetites, and surrealistic events. When rumors reach the authorities that strange and excessive gourmandise is being practiced in the city of Liquorland (so named for the staggering amount of alcohol produced and consumed there), veteran special investigator Ding Gou'er is dispatched from the capital to discover the truth. His mission begins at the Mount Lou Coal Mine, where he encounters the prime suspect—Deputy Head Diamond Jin, legendary for his capacity to hold his liquor. During the ensuing drinking duel at a banquet served in Ding's honor, the investigator loses all sense of reality, and can no longer tell whether the roast suckling served is of the animal or human variety. When he finally wakes up from his stupor, he has still found no answers to his rapidly mounting questions. Worse yet, he soon finds that his trusty gun is missing. Interspersed throughout the narrative—and Ding's faltering investigation—are letters sent to Mo Yan by one Li Yidou, a doctoral candidate in Liquor Studies and an aspiring writer. Each letter contains a story that Li would like the renowned author's help in getting published. However, Li's tales, each more fantastic and malevolent than the last, soon begin alarmingly to resemble the story of Ding's continuing travails in Liquorland. Peopled by extraordinary characters—a dwarf, a scaly demon, a troupe of plump, delectable boys raised in captivity, a cookery teacher who primes her students with monstrous recipes—Mo Yan's revolutionary tour de force reaffirms his reputation as a writer of world standing. Wild, bawdy, politically explosive, and subversive, The Republic of Wine is both mesmerizing and exhilarating, proving that no repressive regime can stifle true creative imagination.
‘A truly compelling read with a shocking climax. Well written and incredibly descriptive, the author of this particular work has clearly done homework about the field of gastronomy to produce a wonderful and memorable read.’ Publishers Weekly'I was going to say a brilliant debut novel, but it needs no qualification. A brilliant novel, full stop.' Paula LeydenWhen a group of food-obsessed academics at Oxford University form a secret dining society, they happily devote themselves to investigating exotic and forgotten culinary treasures. Until a dish is suggested that takes them all by surprise. Professor Arthur Plantagenet has been told he has a serious heart problem and decides that his death should not be in vain. He sets out his bizarre plan in a will, that on his death, tests the loyalty of his closest friends, the remaining members of this exclusive dining society. A dead Japanese diplomat, police arrests and charges of grave robbing. These are just some of the challenges these culinary explorers must overcome in tackling gastronomy’s ultimate taboo: cannibalism.
“Surprising. Impressive. Cannibalism restores my faith in humanity.” —Sy Montgomery, The New York Times Book Review For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we’ve come to accept as fact. In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History,zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism’s role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti). Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother’s skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species--including our own. Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us.
At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost—who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs—decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better. The Sex Lives of Cannibals tells the hilarious story of what happens when Troost discovers that Tarawa is not the island paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a variety of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, toxic fish—all in a country where the only music to be heard for miles around is “La Macarena.” He and his stalwart girlfriend Sylvia spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending with a bizarre cast of local characters, including “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life). With The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Maarten Troost has delivered one of the most original, rip-roaringly funny travelogues in years—one that will leave you thankful for staples of American civilization such as coffee, regular showers, and tabloid news, and that will provide the ultimate vicarious adventure.
California's upper Napa Valley is regarded by many as the premier wine-growing region in America. Producing vintages since the 1850s, the mountain-ringed valley studded with ancient oaks is the setting for several wineries that have been active for more than a century, overcoming a variety of challenges from insect invasions to Prohibition. But Napa's "Up Valley" also has a rich pioneer heritage that extends beyond its famous vineyards and cellars. Home to some of California's earliest settlers and the staging and recruiting area for the Bear Flag Revolt, the region was also home to California's first resort spas and a silver and cinnabar mining industry that brought wealth to some investors but disappointment to many others.
Special 20th Anniversary Edition When Marilyn Monroe died in October 2003, she left behind the first volume of her memoirs (1926 to 1962), award-winning performances, and the memories of a thirty-five-year marriage. Now, after two and a half years of intensive research, (including interviews with noted figures such as Jane Fonda and Hilary Clinton, as well as Marilyn’s children, friends, and co-workers), a detailed accounting of the second half of this incredible life can be told. Utilizing exclusive access to her personal papers granted by her family, Life Among the Cannibals 1962-2003 chronicles not only Monroe’s response to the war and assassinations of the Sixties, her encounters with the likes of Janis Joplin, Pat Nixon, and Mikhail Gorbachev, but traces her evolution from sex symbol to Hollywood’s Conscience. Above all, now in a special 20th Anniversary Edition, Life Among the Cannibals puts an end to the innuendo and speculation surrounding the life and career of one of the 20th century’s most beloved figures. “Instead of mourning what was lost, Marshall celebrates what should have been. With this highly entertaining book, Marshall gives Marilyn Monroe the second act she surely deserved.” Author Tara Hanks “David’s book is absolutely terrific and well deserves a space on your bookshelves. I promise you won’t be disappointed.” Biographer Michelle Morgan “David Marshall has given us all a wonderful gift; a joyful chance to see what SHOULD have been, what COULD have been, as Marilyn makes her way through the rest of the 2Oth century, gaining the personal happiness and respect she always yearned for, forging friendships with some of the most influential figures of our time - and always remaining our beloved Marilyn.” Online Reviewer Mickey52 Cover Photograph of Suzie Kennedy by Chris Bissell
In Converging on Cannibals, Jared Staller demonstrates that one of the most terrifying discourses used during the era of transatlantic slaving—cannibalism—was coproduced by Europeans and Africans. When these people from vastly different cultures first came into contact, they shared a fear of potential cannibals. Some Africans and European slavers allowed these rumors of themselves as man-eaters to stand unchallenged. Using the visual and verbal idioms of cannibalism, people like the Imbangala of Angola rose to power in a brutal world by embodying terror itself. Beginning in the Kongo in the 1500s, Staller weaves a nuanced narrative of people who chose to live and behave as “jaga,” alleged cannibals and terrorists who lived by raiding and enslaving others, culminating in the violent political machinations of Queen Njinga as she took on the mantle of “Jaga” to establish her power. Ultimately, Staller tells the story of Africans who confronted worlds unknown as cannibals, how they used the concept to order the world around them, and how they were themselves brought to order by a world of commercial slaving that was equally cannibalistic in the human lives it consumed.
