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Alberto Manguel praises the Hungarian writer László Földényi as “one of the most brilliant essayists of our time.” Földényi’s extraordinary , with its profusion of literary, ecclesiastical, artistic, and historical insights, gives proof to such praise. His book, part history of the term and part analysis of the melancholic disposition, explores many centuries to explore melancholy’s ambiguities. Along the way Földényi discovers the unrecognized role melancholy may play as a source of energy and creativity in a well-examined life.

Földényi begins with a tour of the history of the word from ancient Greece to the medieval era, the Renaissance, and modern times. He finds the meaning of melancholy has always been ambiguous, even paradoxical. In our own times it may be regarded either as a psychic illness or a mood familiar to everyone. The author analyzes the complexities of melancholy and concludes that its dual nature reflects the inherent tension of birth and mortality. To understand the melancholic disposition is to find entry to some of the deepest questions one’s life.

This distinguished translation brings Földényi’s work directly to English-language readers for the first time.

Pierre is a veteran bartender in a café in the outskirts of Paris. He observes his customers as they come and go — the young man who drinks beer as he reads Primo Levi, the fellow who from time to time strips down and plunges into the nearby Seine, the few regulars who eat and drink there on credit — sizing them up with great accuracy and empathy. Pierre doesn’t look outside more than necessary; he prefers to let the world come to him. Soon, however, the café must close its doors, and Pierre finds himself at a loss. As we follow his stream of thoughts over three days, Pierre’s humanity and profound solitude both emerge. The Waitress Was New is a moving portrait of human anguish and weakness, of understated nobility and strength. Lire est un plaisir describes Dominique Fabre as a "magician of the everyday."<

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This was one case when Bertha Cool didn’t see much of her partner, Donald Lam. This time he was living with the clients instead of running up expensive hotel bills. Still, it made it even harder for Bertha to keep tabs on him.

But she had to admit that Henry C. Ashbury was a pretty smart cookie, and it was his idea to take Donald on as a gym coach so the little smoothie could gain his daughter’s confidence. Someone was blackmailing Alta Ashbury — and her father didn’t trust any of the household, least of all his second wife.

Bertha Cool was in a flap. The distinguished Mr Homer Breckinridge had been waiting twenty minutes for Donald Lam to make an appearance, and around Mr Breckinridge was the heady aroma of C-A-S-H. Then Donald appeared and in no time found himself hired to investigate an insurance claim. “Such nice, safe, respectable work”, purred Bertha, “and it’s up for grabs.” But it didn’t take Donald long to find out he was anything but safe and that he was the one up for grabs...<

Have you ever met one of those one-armed bandits standing innocently against a wall — waiting for you to play his game? There are thousands of them throughout the country — slot machines.

The notorious slot-machine rocket furnishes the background for A. A. Fair’s new murder mystery — featuring Bertha Cool and Donald Lam in as exciting and original a detective story as you’re read since GOLD COMES IN BRICKS.

The setting is Las Vegas, Nevada, and later, Reno.

A bod siege of flu and pneumonia has just forced Bertha Cool to slough off same hundred pounds of excess weight, and until she catches distinguished — looking Arthur Whitewell appreciatively eyeing her sleek, svelte figure, she’s not in the best of humors. To Donald Lam’s amazement, however, Berth presently begins to purr, and persist with her diet.

It was Corla Burke they were looking for — the lovely Corla who disappeared so mysteriously just before she was to marry Whitewell’s son, Philip, and no one knew “why” or “how” or “where.”

It didn’t look to Donald Lam as through it were going to be a particularly tough or exciting assignment. That was before he really got started, for from the moment he spotted level-eyed, smartly dressed Helen Framley coolly milking a slot machine in the big room of the “Cactus” he had pull up his belt and get on his toes.

Questo libro dovrebbe essere letto quasi come se fosse un libro di fantascienza. Infatti, è stato pensato per stimolare l'immaginazione del lettore. Tuttavia, non si tratta di fantascienza, ma di scienzavera. Anche se è un cliché, "più strano della fantascienza" esprime esattamente il modo in cui io sento la realtà. Noi siamo macchine da sopravvivenza - robot semoventi programmati ciecamente per preservare quelle molecole egoiste note sotto il nome di geni. Questa è una verità che non cessa mai di stupirmi e, anche se la conosco da anni, non riesco mai ad abituarmici del tutto. Una delle mie speranze è diriuscire almeno in parte a stupire altre persone. Ho scritto questo libro immaginando di avere dietro le spalle tre lettori che seguivano il mio lavoro, e ora è a loro che lo dedico.

Il primo è il lettore qualunque, il profano. Per lui ho evitato quasi completamente il gergo tecnico e dove sono stato costretto a usare parole specializzate ne ho dato una definizione. Chiunque può divulgare la scienza semplificandola oltre misura, ma io ho fatto del mio meglio per rendere comprensibili alcuni concetti sottili e complicati in un linguaggio non matematico senza che laloro essenza andasse perduta. Non saprei dire fino a che punto abbia raggiunto questo scopo né un altro per me altrettanto ambito: quello di rendere il libro piacevole e avvincente quanto il soggetto di cui tratta.

Il mio secondo lettore immaginario è l'esperto. Questo è un critico severo, che talvolta storce il naso di fronte alle mie analogie e al mio linguaggio figurato. Le sue espressioni preferite sono "ad eccezione di", "ma d'altra parte" e "uh". L'esperto non sarà totalmente soddisfatto del modo in cuiespongo le cose, ma la mia più grande speranza è che anche lui troviqui qualcosa di nuovo, forse un nuovo modo di guardare a idee familiari e perfino lo stimolo a formulare nuove idee. Se questa èun'aspirazione troppo alta, posso almeno sperare che il libro glirenda più piacevole un viaggio in treno?

Il terzo lettore che ho in mente è lo studente, che sta passando da profano a esperto. Se non ha ancora deciso in quale campo vuole essere esperto, spero di incoraggiarlo a considerare con maggiore attenzione quello della zoologia. C'è una ragione più importante per studiare la zoologia della sua possibile "utilità" e della generale amabilità degli animali, ed è il fatto che gli animali sono le macchine più complicate e più perfettamente disegnate dell'interouniverso conosciuto.<

First there was Everett Belder. He seemed to have a round-trip ticket from the frying pan to the fire.

Bertha Cool had no sooner agreed to help him than she found herself traveling the same route.

And everywhere she looked there were women—

A jealous wife with a tell-tale cat...

A corpse that have been killed twice...

A mother-in-law in the worst tradition...

An adopted daughter with more brains than past...

An hysterical secretary with more past than brains...

A maid with strange qualification...

And money, money everywhere, not any spot of cash.

But worst of all — no Donald! Bertha’s reconciled now to his being in the Navy; she’s proud of the fact that he’s a hero; but when it comes to pulling her own chestnuts out of the fire, well—

Money in the bank had always been a persuasive factor in Bertha Cool’s life — and Lamont Hawley represented a lot of it. He also represented an insurance company that smelled a rat about a traffic-accident claim. The trouble was the claimant had drifted away — a beautiful blonde who had been co-operative and level-headed. In fact, too level-headed... she sounded almost professional. Donald Lam didn’t like it. Why should a large insurance company need an outside investigator? But Bertha’s eyes see $$$ so Donald gets cracking, and within no time he is the prime suspect. For what on earth is a body doing in the trunk of Donald’s car?<

"I suoi racconti sono perfette macchine narrative: la situazione di partenza sembra comune, addirittura banale, ma nel corso della vicenda subentra un piccolo incidente che rovescia in modo sinistro o grottesco i fatti... Dahl ha l'abilità di far diventare la cattiveria una qualità rivelatrice della natura umana." (Corrado Augias)<

The French Quarter of New Orleans — where everything happened, where anything happen... the exciting and colorful French Quarter — where the past is the present and there is no future.

It was a long trail from New York to Los Angeles to New Orleans, but a girl had disappeared and the New York lawyer with the mouthful of teeth wanted her found — quickly. Donald couldn’t understand why he dragged a private detective all the way from California, but he soon found out.

Donald and Bertha followed a devious path — into some lives that preferred anonymity. Bertha discovered pecan waffles and gumbo; Donald found a sprawling body in a quiet apartment — a gun and newspaper clippings behind an old desk drawer — a girl who might have been somebody else — a beautiful nightclub hostess who made the error of falling in love — and a trail that led back to an older, unsolved West Coast murder... And last but not least, he found the perfect answer to Bertha’s foray into war work.

I racconti di Roald Dahl sono perfetti meccanismi narrativi, piccole bombe che esplodono immancabilmente in finali sorprendenti e spiazzanti. Il punto di partenza è la normalità - incontri occasionali, piccole scommesse, gesti comuni - che proseguono per una decina di pagine attraverso ambienti, personaggi, situazioni in sé gustose, ma apparentemente scontate. Ed ecco, nell'ultima pagina, nell'ultima frase, spesso addirittura nell'ultima riga, il ribaltamento, l'irrisione, la beffa e soprattutto l'imprevisto: che puntualmente riesce a strappare al lettore una risata amara, crudele, ma proprio per questo liberatoria.<

Set in a Scottish caravan park during a freak winter — it is snowing in Jerusalem, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to arrive off the coast of Scotland — THE SUNLIGHT PILGRIMS tells the story of a small Scottish community living through what people have begun to think is the end of times. Bodies are found frozen in the street with their eyes open, euthanasia has become an acceptable response to economic collapse, schooling and health care are run primarily on a voluntary basis. But daily life carries on: Dylan, a refugee from panic-stricken London who is grieving for his mother and his grandmother, arrives in the caravan park in the middle of the night — to begin his life anew.<

Sandeep Sanghavi, the mixed-race son of an Indian businesswoman and a famous American astronomer lives a nomadic albeit mundane life traveling the country with his mother's hotel consulting firm. His life becomes more interesting when various lost objects suddenly begin to reappear. Then a stranger calls and claims responsibility for the returned objects in exchange for an introduction to Sandeep’s astronomer father, the rebellious and eccentric Van Ray, who has no phone, email or qualms about having abandoned his son twenty years ago.

Van Ray shows up broke with his pregnant ex-wife astronaut in tow, claiming to have discovered a big secret that will change their lives forever; a new discovery guaranteed to change him from “science famous” to “famous famous.”

With his family together for the first time in years, Sandeep must juggle his father’s scientific search, his mother’s failing business and the tension of having family all together for the first time in decades.

It started as a routine tail — shadowing an oily hustler who’d been courting a well-healed matron. But the assignment soon led Donald Lam to a sleazy hotel room with a sexy barfly. And now she’s left him high and dry with a pair of corpses dumped in his lap. Suddenly he’s the cops’ prime suspect. And it’ll take some fancy footwork to sidestep the law — and the real killer, who intends to leave Bertha Cool partnerless.<