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The trilogy has rapidly assumed the status of modern science fiction classic, capturing the imagination of hundreds of thousands of readers around the world. Now, with , comes Kim Stanley Robinson’s essential companion to the series. New novellas and short stories head the collection, along with texts on the Martian constitution, maps and Martian inspired poetry. In short, is a unique collection of previously unpublished fiction, a fascinating addition to Robinson’s oeuvre, and a must for all lovers of the red planet.<

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In una Parigi dagli umori cangianti, crepuscolare e indifferente, si dipana l’indagine del protagonista: un ispettore di polizia, scettico e puro, in lotta contro la corruzione che alberga nei gangli del potere. Il suo piano inclinato verso l’inferno comincia quando Calhoune, la donna che un tempo lo ha amato e che ora è arrivata ai vertici della polizia, decide di incastrarlo. Poco prima di essere sospeso dal commissariato, l’ispettore riceve la proposta di Franck, un vecchio amico e collega ormai corrotto: impadronirsi dei sei milioni di franchi che dovevano servire all’acquisto di una partita di droga. Potrebbe essere l’ultimo appiglio per non affondare, ma l’ispettore rifiuta. Franck decide di provarci da solo, e finisce brutalmente ucciso. Immerso in una notte estenuata, l’ispettore assiste impassibile alla propria caduta e, mentre una rete fitta di rancori, odi e gelidi opportunismi va stringendosi intorno a lui, tenterà fino all’ultimo di spezzare il buio che sembra avvolgerlo, per far brillare una verità disperata. Noir duro e metafisico, Dead End Blues è la ballata di un uomo senza nome, la cronaca estrema e lucida di uno che non ha più niente da perdere se non la voce: il timbro opaco, il ritmo irrimediabile di un blues metropolitano.<

Per lo studio, il lavoro, il rilassamento, il rafforzamento e il potenziamento cerebrale

Ismail, the , is a retired teacher in a small Colombian town where he passes the days pretending to pick oranges while spying on his neighbor Geraldina as she lies naked in the shade of a ceiba tree on a red floral quilt. The garden burns with sunlight; the macaws laugh sweetly.

Otilia, Ismail's wife, is ashamed of his peeping and suggests that he pay a visit to Father Albornoz. Instead, Ismail wanders the town visiting old friends, plagued by a tangle of secret memories. "Where have I existed these years? I answer myself; up on the wall, peering over."

When the armies slowly arrive, the reveries are gradually taken over by a living hell. His wife disappears and he must find her. We learn that not only gentle, grassy hillsides surround San Joseacute; but landmines and coca fields. The reader is soon engulfed by the violence of Rosero's narrative that is touched not only with a deep sadness, but an extraordinary tenderness.

Considered by many to be the grand achievement of her later period, is one of Mercè Rodoreda's most complex and beautifully constructed works. The novel tells the story of the bizarre and destructive customs of a nameless town — burying the dead in trees after filling their mouths with cement to prevent their soul from escaping, or sending a man to swim in the river that courses underneath the town to discover if they will be washed away by a flood — through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy who must come to terms with the rhyme and reason of this ritual violence, and with his wild, child-like, and teenaged stepmother, who becomes his playmate. It is through these rituals, and the developing relationships between the boy and the townspeople, that Rodoreda portrays a fully-articulated, though quite disturbing, society.

The horrific rituals, however, stand in stark contrast to the novel’s stunningly poetic language and lush descriptions. Written over a period of twenty years — after Rodoreda was forced into exile following the Spanish Civi War— is musical and rhythmic, and truly the work of a writer at the height of her powers.

A book for the ages, can be read as a metaphor for Franco's Spain (or any oppressed society), or as a mythological quest novel. Rodoreda’s last novel is a bold, ambitious statement, and a fitting capstone to her remarkable career.

Pobby and Dingan live in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, the opal capital of Australia. They are friends with Kellyanne Williamson, the daughter of a miner: indeed only she can see them. Pobby and Dingan are imaginary. Ashmol Williamson, Kellyanne's brother thinks his sister should grow up and stop being such a fruit loop — until the day when Pobby and Dingan disappear. As Kellyanne, grief-stricken, begins to fade away, Ashmol recruits the whole town in the search for Pobby and Dingan. In the end, however, he discovers that only he can find them, and he can only find them if he too begins to believe they are real.<

Carl meets Annie Risk and falls for her. Hurt by a recent relationship, she resists becoming involved. A chance find offers distraction. Carl stumbles across part of a map to an unknown town. He becomes convinced it represents the city of his dreams, where ice skaters turn quintuple loops and trumpeters hit impossibly high notes…. where Annie Risk will agree to see him again. But if he ever finds himself in the streets on his map, will they turn out to be the land of his dreams or the world of his worst nightmares?

British Fantasy Award winner Nicholas Royle has written a powerful story set in a nightmarish otherworld of fathers and sons, hopes and dreams, love and death.

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.

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Carl Streator è un uomo solitario. Ha quarant'anni, è vedovo e fa il giornalista. Mentre lavora a un reportage sulla sindrome della morte improvvisa del neonato scopre qualcosa di terribile: la presenza in tutti i luoghi dove sono morti dei bambini piccoli del libro Poesie e filastrocche da tutto il mondo , immancabilmente aperto su una nenia africana usata per dare la "dolce morte". Il canto si rivela un'arma micidiale: basta leggerlo a voce alta o anche solo recitarlo a mente "dirigendolo" verso qualcuno e quel qualcuno finisce per tirare le cuoia. Carl diventa - più o meno involontariamente - un serial killer e si associa con un'agente immobiliare (tale Helen Hoover Boyle, specializzata nella compravendita di case "infestate" da spiriti e che anni prima ha perso un figlio piccolissimo per colpa della ninna nanna). Insieme solcano in lungo e in largo gli Usa, allo scopo di fare piazza pulita di tutte le copie esistenti del libro, nel timore che il mortale virus verbale si diffonda fino a cancellare ogni forma di vita umana. Ad accompagnarli sono l'assistente di Helen, Mona Sabbat, serissima aspirante strega, e il suo boyfriend Oyster, un ecoterrorista che vive di truffe e ricatti. Benvenuti nella nuova famigliola! Ninna Nanna è una raggelante parabola sul pericolo di infezioni psichiche in un'epoca di proliferazione spropositata dell'informazione. Ma è anche un thriller mozzafiato, con una trama ricca di suspence e di sorprese. Infine, trattandosi di un romanzo di Palahniuk, è anche una black comedy che lo impone una volta per tutte come il più divertente e visionario dei nichilisti di oggi.<

From the author of the award-winning comes a heart-twisting tale of a lonely man struggling to make sense of a world moving faster than he is. Set over the course of one year of Johnsey Cunliffe's life, breathes with Johnsey's grief, bewilderment, humour and agonising self-doubt.

While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who have protected him from a harsh world all his life. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, every which way he turns. It's no wonder the crossbeam in the slatted shed seems to call to Johnsey.