For fans of We Were Never Here and Nine Perfect Strangers, a twisty, escapist suspense about a woman who inherits a multimillion-dollar estate and travels to a mysterious wellness commune in the Mexican jungle where she discovers dark, and potentially violent, secrets.
THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
by Katherine St. John
William Morrow, Fall/Winter 2022
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)
On a river deep in the Mexican jungle stands the colossal villa Xanadu, a retreat center that’s home to The Mandala, an ardent spiritual group devoted to self-help guru Paul Bentzen and his enigmatic wife Kali. But when, mysteriously, Paul suddenly dies, his entire estate—including Xanadu—is left to his estranged niece Sveta, a former model living in New York City.
Shocked and confused, Sveta travels to Mexico to pay her respects. At first, the retreat center seems like a secluded paradise with its tumbling gardens, beautiful people, transcendent vibe, and mesmerizing de-facto leader Kali. But soon the mystical façade wears thin, revealing a group of brainwashed members drunk on false promises of an impossible utopia and a disturbing, dangerous belief system—and leader—guiding them.
As the sinister forces surrounding Sveta become apparent, she realizes, too late, she can’t escape. Frantic and terrified, she discovers her only hope for survival is to put her confidence in the very person she trusts the least.
Katherine St. John is a native of Mississippi, graduate of the University of Southern California, and author of the critically acclaimed novels The Lion’s Den and The Siren.
In the New York Times bestseller Extraterrestrial, Avi Loeb, the longest serving Chair of Harvard’s Astronomy Department, presented a theory that shook the scientific community: our solar system, Loeb claimed, had likely been visited by a piece of advanced alien technology from a distant star. This provocative and persuasive argument opened millions of minds internationally to the vast possibilities of our universe and the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth. But a crucial question remained: now that we are aware of the existence of extraterrestrial life, what do we do next? How do we prepare ourselves for interaction with interstellar extraterrestrial civilization? How can our species become interstellar? 
L’Académie royale des sciences de Suède vient de décerner le prestigieux prix Crafoord 2022 dans la catégorie Géosciences à Andrew Knoll « pour les contributions fondamentales qu’il a apportées à notre compréhension des trois premiers milliards d’années de la vie sur Terre et des interactions du vivant avec l’environnement physique au fil du temps. » Ce prix, qui vise chaque année à promouvoir certaines disciplines scientifiques à travers le monde depuis 1982, est considéré comme un complément, voire dans certains cas un prix annonciateur, du Nobel. Il est accompagné d’une récompense de six millions de couronnes suédoises, soit plus de cinq cent mille euros.
Andrew Knoll est professeur à Harvard dans les départements de Biologie organismique et évolutive et des Sciences de la terre et des planètes. Il a notamment travaillé sur les microfossiles et développé des méthodes innovantes pour mettre en lumière leur évolution biochimique. En outre, il est l’un des chercheurs ayant présenté une explication probable à la troisième extinction de masse, qui s’est produite il y a 252 millions d’années – elle aurait été due à des éruptions volcaniques en Sibérie ayant provoqué l’émission d’énormes quantités de dioxyde de carbone dans l’atmosphère et entraîné une augmentation de la température moyenne sur Terre. Depuis vingt ans, Andrew Knoll fait également partie de l’équipe de recherche qui aide la NASA à analyser les images et autre données géologiques provenant de Mars.
A global pandemic, economic volatility, natural disasters, civil and political unrest. From New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it can feel as if the world as we know it is coming apart. Through it all, our human spirit is being tested. Now more than ever, it’s imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion. But in hard times like these, leaders need to make hard decisions—deliver negative feedback, make difficult choices that disappoint people, and in some cases lay people off. How do you do the hard things that come with the responsibility of leadership while remaining a good human being and bringing out the best in others? Most people think we have to make a binary choice between being a good human being and being a tough, effective leader. But this is a false dichotomy. Being human and doing what needs to be done are not mutually exclusive. In truth, doing hard things and making difficult decisions is often the most compassionate thing to do.
At age thirteen, she became Lady Diana Spencer. At twenty, Princess of Wales. At twenty-one, she earned her most important title: Mother. As she fell in love, first with Prince Charles and then with her sons, William and Harry, the world fell in love with the young royal family—Diana most of all. With one son destined to be King of England, and one to find his own way, she taught them dual lessons about real life and royal tradition. « William and Harry will be properly prepared, » Diana once promised. « I am making sure of this. » Even after the shield of her love is tragically torn away, she remains their greatest protector—and the world’s enduring inspiration.