A highly anticipated novel from a rising star, nonfiction that examines why (and how) we lie, a new issue of Granta Magazine, and more
THE SISTERS BROTHERS
by
Patrick deWitt"A fragile, brutal revision of the Western." -- Gil Adamson Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. Eli and Charlie Sisters can be counted on for that. Though Eli has never shared his brother's penchant for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. On the road to Warm's gold-mining claim outside San Francisco -- and from the back of his long-suffering one-eyed horse -- Eli struggles to make sense of his life without abandoning the job he's sworn to do.
DeWitt spins a violent, lustful, hung-over and humorous odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier. Doffing his hat to the classic Western, he then transforms it into a comic tour-de-force with an unforgettable narrative voice that captures all the absurdity, melancholy, and grit of the West -- and of these two brothers, bound to each other by blood and scars and love.
Film rights have been sold to actor
John C. Reilly's production company in a major deal, with Reilly to play one of the brothers.
Advance reviews of The Sisters Brothers:
"[Patrick] DeWitt has produced a genre-bending frontier saga that is exciting, funny, and perhaps unexpectedly, moving." --
Publishers Weekly". . . a lushly voiced picaresque story . . . It's a kind of True Grit told by Tom Waits."
--
Esquire". . . smooth and seamless, shot through with dark humor . . . as easy to slip into as the old HBO series 'Deadwood.'" --
LA Times>> Enter to win a copy of The Sisters Brothers in our May contest!
BORN LIARS
WHY WE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT DECEIT
by
Ian Leslie"A genuine achievement: a lively, engaging read that makes a bold argument about the role of lying in our lives." -- Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You and The Ghost Map Lying is an intrinsic part of our social fabric, but it is also a deeply problematic and misunderstood aspect of what makes us human. Author and journalist Ian Leslie takes us on a fascinating journey that makes us question not only our own relationship to the truth, but also virtually every daily encounter we have. On the way he dissects the history of the lie detector, how parents affect their children's attitude to lying (and vice versa),
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the philosophical ambiguity of telling the truth, Bill Clinton's presentational prowess, Wonder Woman's lasso of truth, and why we should be wary of anyone with more than 150 Facebook friends.
Born Liars is thought-provoking, anecdotally driven narrative nonfiction at its best. Ian Leslie's intoxicating blend of anthropology, biology, cultural history, philosophy, and popular psychology belies a serious central message: that humans have evolved and thrived in large part because of their ability to deceive.
FROM GRANTA
GRANTA 115: THE DIRTY WORD
edited by
John FreemanThe world's most prestigious English-language magazine of new writing. Women in the twenty-first century -- from Kent to Accra -- still live in a world in which the balance of power remains tipped towards men.
This bold, political issue of
Granta will explore this dynamic from a wide variety of literary genres and perspectives. In "You Speak to Save Your Life,"
A. L. Kennedy investigates the surprising ways in which the human voice can be trapped and unlocked.
Sara Wheeler retraces the American travels of Fanny Trollope, who uprooted to Ohio from England at the age of forty-eight and began an improbable second life.
Julie Otsuka contributes a powerful piece of fiction about mail-order brides from Japan arriving in the US, and with "The Sex Lives of African Girls," the issue will introduce an astonishing new voice,
Taiye Selasi, who spins a haunting story about the way adult sexuality can be imposed upon the young.
With award-winning reportage, memoir and fiction, over the years
Granta has illuminated the most complex issues of modern life through the refractory light of literature.
The Dirty Word will continue this tradition by addressing a theme many readers know has never lost its urgency.
BRIDE FLIGHT
by
Marieke van der PolTaking off in London in 1953 and touching down in New Zealand some fifty years later, Bride Flight is a compelling debut. In 1953, the last great transcontinental air race from London to Christchurch is about to begin, but even before the KLM plane has left the runway, it has already become famous as the "bride flight" for its cargo of brides-to-be flying out to join their fiances on the other side of the world. Among them are Ada, Marjorie, and Esther, who all have their own reasons for wanting to leave the past behind and make a fresh start. And then there's Frank, a charismatic bachelor with big dreams for the future, whose path will continue to cross with each of the women as they build very different lives for themselves in New Zealand. It is only when they meet again, years later at Frank's funeral, that the three women realize just how tightly their lives have been bound together by what happened on that fateful voyage.
