Atlantic Books strana 8 z 31

''A novel you can read in one sitting that will stay with you forever'' Karen Russell''Very funny, very sad, very sharp, and completely delightful'' Elif BatumanThe Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love each other deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There''s Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of 21st century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who''s barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage give him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love''s survival in this great, mad, imploding world.Both biting and deeply moving, Vera, or Faith is a boldly imagined story of family and country told through the clear and wondrous eyes of a child. With a nod to What Maisie Knew, Henry James''s classic story of parents, children, and the dark ironies of a rapidly transforming society, Gary Shteyngart''s newest novel is among his best and shows why, in the words of Jonathan Safran Foer, he is ''a national treasure''.

Cairo, 1938Archie Nevenden is many things: amateur archaeologist; theatre impresario; absent father; potential defector. And now, he''s a missing person.His daughter, Prim, hasn''t seen him for nearly fifteen years. But she''s never given up on him, and now she''s on her way to Cairo to assist in the search.Harry Taverner claims to work for the British Council, but Prim knows there''s more to it. He clearly has a theory about what happened to Archie, one she''s not going to like.As Prim and Harry uncover the layers of Archie''s existence in Cairo, they find themselves drawn in to more than one conspiracy. And soon they''ll discover that Archie may not be the only one in danger...

'Brimming over with gossip' Guardian'The new Gwyneth Paltrow biography is juicy as hell' Marie ClaireCome inside the world of one of the most influential, aspirational and polarizing celebrities of the last thirty years. Love her or hate her, Gwyneth Paltrow has managed to stay on the A-list, her influence spanning entertainment, fashion and the wellness industry. Throughout her career, Paltrow has participated in countless carefully managed interviews, but the real Gwyneth - the basis of her motives, desires, strengths, faults and vulnerabilities - has never been fully revealed, until now. Drawing from extensive conversations with more than 220 sources, including close current and former friends and colleagues, Amy Odell provides insight and behind-the-scenes details of Paltrow's relationships, family, friendships, iconic films and tenure as the CEO of Goop. Gwyneth is the definitive account of how Paltrow rose to prominence, has stayed in the limelight and continues to shape culture - for better or worse.

''Fun, rooted in science... May this book give all women strength for the times we now live in.'' Cat Bohannon A myth-busting vindication of women''s physical strengths For decades, Starre Vartan - like most women - was told that having a woman''s body meant being weaker than men. Like many women, she mostly believed it. Not anymore. Following a half decade of research into the newest science, Vartan shows in The Stronger Sex that women''s bodies are incredibly powerful, flexible, and resilient in ways men''s bodies aren''t. Tossing aside the narrow notion of the tall, muscular man as the measure of strength, Vartan reveals the ways that women surpass men in endurance, flexibility, immunity, pain tolerance, and the ultimate test of any human body: longevity. In interviews with dozens of researchers from biology, anthropology, physiology, and sports science, plus in-depth conversations with runners, swimmers, wrestlers, woodchoppers, thru-hikers, firefighters, and more, The Stronger Sex squashes outdated ideas about women''s bodies. It''s a celebration of female strength that doesn''t argue "down with men" but "up with us all."

''Elaine is not just a serious work of art, but an unexpected act of filial generosity'' GuardianStanding by the mailbox in Ithaca, New York, Elaine thinks of her child and husband, an Ivy League academic, inside her house and wonders...is this it? As she begins to push back against the strictures of her life in 1950s America, she undertakes a disastrous affair that ends her marriage and upends her life.Based on the intimate diaries Will Self''s mother kept for over forty years, Elaine is a writer''s attempt to reach the almost unimaginable realm of a parent''s interior life prior to his own existence. Perhaps the first work of auto-oedipal fiction, Elaine shows Self working in an exciting new dimension, utilizing his stylistic talents to tremendous effect.

''Gorgeous ... like being in Pride and Prejudice, if Jane Austen had lived in 70s Mumbai'' HARRIET EVANS''So much fun!'' KATIE FFORDEIla has her pride. And she''s about to discover just how much trouble that can be...It''s 1976 and in the Vile Parle suburb of Mumbai, bastion of the Maharashtrian middle-class, Ila Bendre''s mother is determined to get her four daughters married off as soon as possible.Ila has no intention of snaring a proposal from some dull specimen of Marathi manhood so she can pretend to care about cricket for the rest of her life. She wants a career and life of her own, and she''ll do whatever it takes to escape married bliss, no matter what the neighbours might say.But when Ila''s Bollywood-obsessed younger sister, Latika, takes the matter of marriage into her own hands, it looks as if the Bendre family''s reputation in this close-knit community will be ruined once and for all...As we follow the Bendre sisters from dinners to parties to weddings, from Vile Parle to Pune, will love eventually conquer all in this ingeniously witty and charming tale of pride, prejudice and puran polis?''Fresh, funny ... vivid'' Daily Mail''Warm and clever'' i

The acceleration of Earth''s spin begins gradually. At first, days are just a few seconds shorter than normal. Awareness of the mysterious phenomenon hasn''t reached Tanner, a young man who flees his Alaskan hometown to work at CWC, a corporation which runs a network of massive aircraft that orbit the Earth, allowing people to visit Paris for an evening or order sushi from Japan. But a wave of social unrest presents challenges for CWC. That unrest sweeps up Winnie. A high school outcast, she falls in with a group of teen activists who blame the company for the planet''s acceleration. As days on Earth quicken to twenty-three hours, then twenty, the sun rising and setting ever faster, causing violent storms and political meltdowns, Tanner and Winnie''s stories spiral closer together.Three-hour days. Two-hour days . . .A propulsive exploration of capitalism, technology, and our place within a system that dwarfs us, Circular Motion is one of the most ingenious debut novels of our time.

''Moderation is a novel that refuses to do things by halves. It is a piercing, laser-precise exploration of big tech... breathtakingly funny...and a highly charged, passionate and tender love story. A wonderful book.'' Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of TimeGirlie, a thirty-something Filipinx-American, works a day job at a social-media moderation centre, flagging and removing the very worst that makes it on to the internet. She''s good at it, too - dispassionate, unflinching, maybe because she learned by necessity to cauterise all her emotions when she was still a kid - so it''s no surprise to anyone when the social-media company for which she works offers her a big pay rise and an office to start moderating its new venture: virtual-reality theme parks, stunning simulations of civilizations long-since dead. Girlie takes the job, and it almost seems too good to be true. Almost. Sure, she signed up for having to deal with the ambient racism and misogyny of pretty much any virtual space, but as she begins to explore the intricate worlds that she moderates, she notices two deeply troubling things: that there might be something much darker built into the very code of the company, and that William, technically her new boss, a man whose barriers are as mighty as her own, might just be that long-forgotten thing... Girlie''s type.

A TOP 12 BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK IN THE TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMESTHE BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK FOR NOVEMBER 2024''This book is magic. It''s all I ever needed'' LENA DUNHAMEve Babitz died on December 17, 2021. Found in the wrack, ruin and filth of her apartment, a stack of boxes packed by her mother decades before. The boxes were pristine, the seals of duct tape unbroken. Inside, a lost world, centred on a two-story rental in a down-at-heel section of Hollywood in the sixties and seventies. 7406 Franklin Avenue was the making of one great American writer: Joan Didion, a mystery behind her dark glasses and cool expression, an enigma inside her storied marriage to John Gregory Dunne. Franklin Avenue was also the breaking and then the remaking - and thus the true making - of another great American writer: Eve Babitz, goddaughter of Igor Stravinsky, nude of Marcel Duchamp, consort of Jim Morrison (among many, many others), a woman who burned so hot she finally almost burned herself alive. Didion and Babitz formed a complicated alliance, a friendship that went bad, amity turning to enmity. With deftness and skill, journalist Lili Anolik uses Babitz, Babitz''s brilliance of observation, Babitz''s incisive intelligence and, most of all, Babitz''s diary-like letters - letters found in those sealed boxes, letters so intimate you don''t read them so much as breathe them - as the key to unlocking Didion.

A season of secrets... Celia Grey appears to have the perfect life: married to Dominic, the man of her dreams, and living on a glorious, thriving vineyard in the south of France. To celebrate their good fortune, she decides to throw a huge party. When she is contacted by a stranger who claims to be her long-lost son, David, the newborn she gave up at twenty and has never spoken of since, Celia impulsively invites him for the weekend of celebrations - without mentioning it to her husband. Despite his surprise, Dominic graciously welcomes David and his unexpected companion - but secretly he harbours doubts. Is David really Celia's son? And who is the mysterious young woman travelling with him? Only Celia can decide how far she will go to hold everything together, to keep her perfect life from unravelling... One Summer in Provence is a story of betrayal and belonging, and of discovering love in unexpected places.

The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit's best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for a quick, idyllic weekend away. They'll soak in hot springs, then drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she's lost lately: her wildness, her independence and - most heartbreakingly of all - her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago. When she returns home, Kit tries to settle the routine of caring for her irrepressible young daughter. But in the secret recesses of Kit's mind, she's fantasizing about the hot playground mum and reminiscing about the band she used to be in with her sister - and how they'd go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. Keyed into everything that might distract her from her surfacing grief, Kit begins to spiral, and as her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasty blur, she starts to wonder: is Julie really gone?

The man who used to pull the strings of the global media is now pulling back the curtain: a bridge-burning, riotous confession by a top PR operative who exposes the secrets of the $129-billion industry that controls so much of what we see and hear in the media. After nearly two decades in the PR business, Phil Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry that's made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what he's been up to for the past twenty years - and it isn't pretty. From helping win the Qatar World Cup bid, to a four-day Las Vegas bacchanal with a dictator's son, and helping to land a Middle Eastern dictator's wife a glowing profile in Vogue at the same time the Arab Spring broke out, Elwood reveals all his slippery tricks for seducing journalists in order to create chaos and cover for politicians, dictators and spies. But as Phil moved up the ranks, he felt worse and worse about the sleaziness of it all - and his role in it - until he received a shocking wake-up call from the FBI. This risky game nearly cost Phil his life and his freedom. Seeing the light, he has decided to tell the full truth about who is the worst human.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER''Wise, funny and generous'' The Times''Warm and perceptive'' New York Times''So honest and funny and smart'' Observer''Griffin Dunne knows how to tell a story'' Washington Post''Dunne is a prospector for the incandescent detail'' Los Angeles Times''Full of light, life and colour...a startling tale of precarious American privilege, spotlighting a family that is blessed and cursed'' GuardianAt eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his aunt Joan Didion''s legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe''s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In his early twenties, he shared a Manhattan apartment with his best friend and soulmate Carrie Fisher while she was filming some sci-fi movie called Star Wars and he was a struggling actor selling popcorn at Radio City Music Hall. A few years later, he produced and starred in the now-iconic film After Hours, directed by Martin Scorsese.In the midst of it all, Griffin''s twenty-two-year-old sister, Dominique, a rising star in Hollywood, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne''s career as a bestselling author of true crime narratives.And yet, for all its boldface cast of characters and jaw-dropping scenes, The Friday Afternoon Club is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its loveable, infuriating, funny and moving characters - its author most of all.

''A unique and funny writer with a true understanding of what it takes to make it as an elite cyclist'' Chris BoardmanFurther immerses the reader in the world of endurance cycling as well-known former professional cyclist Michael Hutchinson talks to ultra-distance athletes, exercise scientists, nutritionists and psychologists - ''those who''ve done it and those who understand it''- as he unpicks both the physical and mental demands, attempts to understand the key to successful endurance, and tries not to get himself accidentally killed while riding a frankly terrifyingly long-distance event.

Iraq is where civilisation was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Alexander, and it was here by the waters of Babylon where Judaism was born and the Sunni-Shia schism took its bloody shape. Inspired by extensive reporting from the region and a decade delving deep into its history, Land Between the Rivers chronicles Iraq's uniquely central role on the global stage throughout the past five millennia. We begin the story with ancient Sumer and Gilgamesh building the walls of Uruk ('Iraq') to make a great name for himself at the edge of historical time. We end it in 1958, as the last royal family of Iraq is slaughtered on the steps of a small palace in Baghdad, the most effervescent, free and promising capital in the Middle East. Bartle Bull's remarkable, sweeping achievement reminds us that the region defined by the land between the rivers has, throughout history, played host to the contest pitting humanism against the machinations of power and fate.

''Glamorous, gripping, absolutely heaps of fun'' LUCY FOLEY''Crisp as a gin and tonic and delightfully wicked'' KEVIN KWAN''An old-fashioned mystery in the model of Agatha Christie'' VOGUE, Best Book of 2024______________________Murder. It''s terrible for your karma. Even worse for your holiday.Ro Krishna has just arrived at Samsara, a world-class hotel-spa nestled in the Indian Himalayas. With his charm and Oxford education, he had it all - well, until he left his job under mysterious circumstances. At Samsara, he can relax and enjoy the hotel''s various health and wellness treatments, as well as a sparkling dose of mysticism.Until one of the guests is found dead. As everyone scrambles to figure out what happened, Ro is pulled into an investigation that endangers them all. Because it turns out that it''s not just heiresses and Bollywood stars who have checked in - there''s a murderer in their midst . . ._______________________READERS ARE LOVING DEATH IN THE AIR''Spellbinding''''Excellently paced, wonderful twists''''I LOVED THIS''''Hard to put down''''Will leave you guessing until the very end''