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August: Osage County by
Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2008 Tony Award for Best New Play. Now a major motion picture! "A tremendous achievement in American playwriting: a tragicomic populist portrait of a tough land and a tougher people." --Time Out New York "Tracy Letts' August: Osage County is what O'Neill would be writing in 2007. Letts has recaptured the nobility of American drama's mid-century heyday while still creating something entirely original." --New York magazine. "I don't care if August: Osage County is three-and-a-half hours long. I wanted more." -Howard Shapiro, Philadelphia Inquirer. "This original and corrosive black comedy deserves a seat at the table with the great American family plays."--Time. One of the most bracing and critically acclaimed plays in recent history, August: Osage County is a portrait of the dysfunctional American family at its finest--and absolute worst. When the patriarch of the Weston clan disappears one hot summer night, the family reunites at the Oklahoma homestead, where long-held secrets are unflinchingly and uproariously revealed. The three-act, three-and-a-half-hour mammoth of a play combines epic tragedy with black comedy, dramatizing three generations of unfulfilled dreams and leaving not one of its thirteen characters unscathed. August: Osage County has been produced in more than twenty countries worldwide and is now a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard, Juliette Lewis, and Ewan McGregor. Tracy Letts is the author of Killer Joe, Bug, and Man from Nebraska, which was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His plays have been performed throughout the country and internationally. A performer as well as a playwright, Letts is a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where August: Osage County premiered.
The Best of Enemies by
C. P. Ellis grew up in the poor white section of Durham, North Carolina, and as a young man joined the Ku Klux Klan. Ann Atwater, a single mother from the poor black part of town, quit her job as a household domestic to join the civil rights fight. During the 1960s, as the country struggled with the explosive issue of race, Ellis and Atwater met on opposite sides of the public school integration issue. Their encounters were charged with hatred and suspicion. In an amazing set of transformations, however, each of them came to see how the other had been exploited by the South's rigid power structure, and they forged a friendship that flourished against a backdrop of unrelenting bigotry. Now a major motion picture, The Best of Enemies offers a vivid portrait of a relationship that defied all odds. View the movie trailer here: https://youtu.be/eKM6fSTs-A0
Doubt by
Now a major motion picture! Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play. "The best new play of the season. That rarity of rarities, an issue-driven play that is unpreachy, thought-provoking, and so full of high drama that the audience with which I saw it gasped out loud a half-dozen times at its startling twists and turns. Mr. Shanley deserves the highest possible praise: he doesn't try to talk you into doing anything but thinking-hard-about the gnarly complexity of human behavior."--Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal "A breathtaking work of immense proportion. Positively brilliant."--Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly "#1 show of the year. How splendid it feels to be trusted with such passionate, exquisite ambiguity unlike anything we have seen from this prolific playwright so far. In just ninety fast-moving minutes, Shanley creates four blazingly individual people. Doubt is a lean, potent drama . . . passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing."--Linda Winer, Newsday John Patrick Shanley is the author of numerous plays, including Danny in the Deep Blue Sea, Dirty Story, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia, Sexualis, Sailor's Song, Savage in Limbo, and Where's My Money? He has written extensively for TV and film, and his credits include the teleplay for Live from Baghdad and screenplays for Congo; Alive; Five Corners; Joe Versus the Volcano, which he also directed; and Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for best original screenplay.
The German Doctor by
Now a major motion picture, this is a story of obsession, loyalty, and control as one man with dark intentions charms his way into the lives of an innocent, unsuspecting family, based on the true exile of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele to South America Patagonia, 1960. José is on the run. Having fled from his homeland of Germany, he has come to South America to continue his work as a doctor seeking to manipulate genes to create the "perfect" human race. In the small village of Chacharramendi he meets Lilith, a child he first notices from the balcony of his motel who instantly fascinates yet repulses him. Lilith has a growth defect, and the disproportionate size of her features represents all that José is trying to exterminate from humankind. Yet, even more intriguing is the fact that her siblings are perfect examples of the Aryan race: tall, strongly built, and fair. The anomaly of Lilith's existence enthralls José, and when he discovers Lilith's mother is pregnant, the temptation to involve himself in their lives and even interfere with the pregnancy is too much for him to pass up. A cold, calculating, but eerily charming man, José befriends Lilith and manipulates his way into the family. And so begins a dark relationship between the doctor and the little girl, a kind of love that cannot end well. For José is actually Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, infamous for performing human experiments at Auschwitz, and sooner or later his past is going to catch up with him.
The Motorcycle Diaries by
The young Che Guevara's lively and highly entertaining travel diary, now a popular movie and a New York Times bestseller. This new, expanded edition features exclusive, unpublished photos taken by the 23-year-old Ernesto on his journey across a continent, and a tender preface by Aleida Guevara, offering an insightful perspective on the man and the icon. "A journey, a number of journeys. Ernesto Guevara in search of adventure, Ernesto Guevara in search of America, Ernesto Guevara in search of Che. On this journey of journeys, solitude found solidarity, 'I' turned into 'we'." --Eduardo Galeano "When I read these notes for the first time, I was quite young myself and I immediately identified with this man who narrated his adventures in such a spontaneous manner... To tell you the truth, the more I read, the more I was in love with the boy my father had been..." --Aleida Guevara "Our film is about a young man, Che, falling in love with a continent and finding his place in it." --Walter Salles, director of "The Motorcycle Diaries." "As his journey progresses, Guevara's voice seems to deepen, to darken, colored by what he witnesses in his travels. He is still poetic, but now he comments on what he sees, though still poetically, with a new awareness of the social and political ramifications of what's going on around him."--January Magazine. Also available in Spanish: DIARIOS DE MOTOCICLETA (978-1-920888-11-4) Features of this edition include: A preface by Che Guevara's daughter Aleida Introduction by Cintio Vintier, well-known Latin American poet Photos & maps from the original journey Postscript: Che's personal reflections on his formative years: "A child of my environment." Published in association with the Che Guevara Studies Center, Havana
My Friend Dahmer by
The bone-chilling graphic novel that inspired the major motion picture starring Ross Lynch as Jeffrey Dahmer. You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer—the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper—seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, Dahmer was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche—a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and readers will never forget. This new paperback edition will coincide with the release of the movie adaptation of My Friend Dahmer and will include additional bonus content from the author archives.
Rabbit Hole by
"David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted a drama that's not just a departure but a revelation--an intensely emotional examination of grief, laced with wit, insightfulness, compassion and searing honesty." -David Rooney, Variety "A beautifully observed new play blessed with David Lindsay-Abaire's customary grace and wit." -Ben Brantley, New York Times "With Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted the most serious, simply told work of his career--a painstakingly beautiful, dramatically resourceful, exquisitely human new play." -Backstage A story of loss, heartbreak and forgiveness--told through daily moments and emotional hurdles--as a family moves on after the accidental death of their 4-year-old. After a critically acclaimed Broadway premier and successful film adaptation (starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, and Diane West), Rabbit Hole has been hailed as an artistic breakthrough for the highly regarded Lindsay-Abaire. A drama of what comes after tragedy, it captures "the awkwardness and pain of thinking people faced with an unthinkable situation--and eventually, their capacity for survival." -USA Today David Lindsay-Abaire is the Pulitzer-winning author of Rabbit Hole, which was made into a feature film. He is the author of Good People, Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World, A Devil Inside and Kimberly Akimbo, as well as the book and lyrics to Shrek the Musical. He has written the screenplays for Rabbit Hole, Rise of the Guardians and Oz: The Great and Powerful. Born in South Boston, he now lives in Brooklyn.
Twelve Years a Slave by
The astonishing memoir of a free man who was sold into slavery in Louisiana where he was kept for 12 years--a powerful, riveting condemnation of slavery, and a story soon to be introduced to a new audience through a major film. Tricked by two men offering him a job as a musician in New York state in 1841, Solomon Northup was instead drugged and kidnapped. Threatened with death, Northup was forced to assume a new name and fake past. Taken to Louisiana on a disease-ridden plague ship, he was initially sold to a cotton planter. In the 12 years that followed he was sold to many different owners who treated him with varying levels of savagery, including forced labor, scant food, and numerous beatings. Eventually Northup succeeded in contacting Samuel Bass, a white carpenter whom he knew to be sympathetic to the cause of black people. Bass contacted Northup's family and together they gained the necessary paperwork to travel to Louisiana to retrieve him. Northup pressed charges against his captors but in a triumph of irony the case was heard in Washington--meaning that as a black man he could not testify against the accused (in the end they were able to countersue him.) A true-life testament to tremendous courage and tenacity in the face of unfathomable injustice, Northup's account is also of extreme interest due to the meticulous recordings of slave life. Unique in its firsthand nature, the book became a runaway bestseller.
Americanah by
Soon to be an HBO mini-series! One of The New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year. From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a dazzling new novel: a story of love and race, centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu--beautiful, self-assured--departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze--the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor--had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion--for their homeland and for each other--they will face the toughest decisions of their lives. Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's most powerful and astonishing novel yet.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by
From the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the recent BBC series that has made a heartthrob out of Benedict Cumberbatch, the sleuth has been much a part of the British and global cultural legacy from the moment of his first appearance in 1887. The Complete Sherlock Holmes is comprised of 4 full-length novels and 56 short stories featuring the world's most famous pipe-smoking detective.
Poirot Investigates by
Poirot Investigates is a collection of eleven short stories involving the famed eccentric detective, Hercule Poirot. The problems Poirot unravels are skillfully tangled, and unraveled by the detective’s omniscient genius. Throughout the tales, which include The Adventure of the Western Star, The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb, and The Kidnapped Prime Minister, Poirot must solve a variety of mysteries involving greed, jealousy, and revenge.
Roots by
One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots galvanized the nation and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that hadn't been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America's past. Over the years, both Roots and Alex Haley have attracted controversy, which comes with the territory for trailblazing, iconic books, particularly on the topic of race. Some of the criticism results from whether Roots is fact or fiction and whether Alex Haley confused these two issues, a subject he addresses directly in the book. There is also the fact that Haley was sued for plagiarism when it was discovered that several dozen paragraphs in Roots were taken directly from a novel, The African, by Harold Courlander, who ultimately received a substantial financial settlement at the end of the case. But none of the controversy affects the basic issue. Roots fostered a remarkable dialogue about not just the past, but the then present day 1970s and how America had fared since the days portrayed in Roots. Vanguard Press feels that it is important to publish Roots: The 30th Anniversary Edition to remind the generation that originally read it that there are issues that still need to be discussed and debated, and to introduce to a new and younger generation, a book that will help them understand, perhaps for the first time, the reality of what took place during the time of Roots.
