Metropolis Vienna

Peter Rosei

Peter Rosei's prose has been compared to that of Franz Kafka, and in 1993 he was awarded the Franz-Kafka Prize. Rosei's novel concerns the great Austrian city after World War II. His characters, caught up in a society of avoidance, pick up existence as if the War had not occurred, attempting to ignore or outrun their terrible past in a rush for money and success.

When a Poet Sees a Chestnut Tree

Jean-Pierre Rosnay

At 16, Jean-Pierre Rosnay joined the French Resistance, operating under the code name Bébé. He took an assignment to assassinate Klaus Barbie in 1943, but was arrested and confined in the infamous prison at I'Ecole de Santé Militaire in Lyons. He escaped four months later, enrolling in the regular army, serving briefly with the occupying forces in Alsace and Germany. The young veteran joined the Parisian intellectual community, becoming associated with Boris Vian, the singer Juliette Greco, Isidore Isou, and others.

My Year 2006: Serving

Douglas Messerli

The third installment of Douglas Messerli's "cultural memoir" contains essays on a wide-range of events relating to what Messerli has perceived as an interconnecting concern of the year -- in this case issues relating to "servitude" and "serving."

Contradicta: Aphorisms

Nick Piombino

Inspired by the notion of the dialectic in the work of philosophers such as Hegel and Bachelard, Piombino created his idea of paired aphorisms he calls contradicta, recasting the classic form of the great aphorists such as La Rochefoucauld, Blake, and Emerson in a contemporary context. His poetic, wise and witty aphorisms are well complemented by the humor, warmth and lyricism of Toni Simon's collages.

The Arrival of Autumn in Constantinople

Norberto Luis Romero

Born in Cordoba, Argentina in 1949, Norberto Luis Romero, author of several books of magical and fantastic tales, has lived in Madrid, Spain since 1975. He is one of the most noted of contemporary authors in Spain. In 1999 he won the Antonio Machado Prize for Short Stories.

Duke, the Dog Priest

Domício Coutinho

This novel fabulously purports to be the tale of a dog who desired to become a priest -- or a least to learn Latin. Narrated by Amarante, a Brazilian and former sacristan living in New York, it will challenge the most sophisticated of readers in its dazzling mix of priests, brothers, nuns, students, church workers, parishioners, city luminaries and the marvelous tales of their interrelationships.

The Hermaphrodite

Daniel Grandbois

Daniel Grandbois' writing has been described as "avant-garde stand-up," "Dr. Seuss for adults," and "between Brautigan's and Basho's." Alfredo Benavidez Bedoya's surreal and satirical woodcuts are collected by major museums all over the world. Together, they have created a happening as much as a book.

Depictions Of Blaff

Christopher Middleton

In these forty short prose texts Blaff is depicted from at least three different angles: that of some young people, that of himself as he soliloquizes, and that of his (external) author. Who is Blaff? He appears as a troubled but dauntless captive of his time, an academic outsider at loose ends, an affable bluffer, a bit of a laugh.

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