Archives de l’auteur : WebmasterBenisti

DOXOLOGY de Nell Zink

Two generations of an American family come of age—one before 9/11, one after—in this wildly original novel from the “intellectually restless, uniquely funny” (New York Times Book Review) mind of Nell Zink

DOXOLOGY
by Nell Zink
Ecco, Spring/Summer 2019

Pam, Daniel, and Joe might be the worst punk band on the Lower East Side. Struggling to scrape together enough cash and musical talent to make it, they are waylaid by surprising arrivals—a daughter for Pam and Daniel, a solo hit single for Joe. As the ‘90s wane, the three friends share in one another’s successes, working together to elevate Joe’s superstardom and raise baby Flora. On September 11, 2001, the city’s unfathomable devastation coincides with a shattering personal loss for the trio. In the aftermath, Flora comes of age, navigating a charged political landscape and discovering a love of the natural world. Joining the ranks of those fighting for ecological conservation, Flora works to bridge the wide gap between powerful strategists and ordinary Americans, becoming entangled ever more intimately with her fellow activists along the way. And when the country faces an astonishing new threat, Flora’s family will have no choice but to look to the past—both to examine wounds that have never healed, and to rediscover strengths they have long forgotten. At once a biting takedown of today’s political climate and a touching invocation for humanity’s goodness, Doxology offers daring revelations about America’s past and possible future that could only come from Nell Zink, one of the sharpest novelists of our time.

Nell Zink is the critically acclaimed author of “Nicotine”, “Private Novelist”, “Mislaid”, and “he Wallcreeper”. Her writing has appeared in n+1 and Harper’s. She lives in Germany.

THE HEALER de Donna Freitas

An intensely romantic story of love, faith, betrayal and redemption

THE HEALER
by Donna Freitas
HarperTeen, October 2018

Marlena Oliveira has been given an extraordinary gift. She has been given the power to heal. She can cure paralysis, mental illness, even a broken heart. People with all kinds of ailments come from around the world seeking an audience with her, believing her to be a saint. But it all comes at a price. Marlena must remain untainted by the influences of the secular world. She can’t have friends or go to school. She can’t date. She can’t even touch anyone. And the older she gets, the more trapped she feels. Marlena has never questioned her abilities until she meets Finn, a boy who makes her want to be the kind of girl who could fall in love. For the first time, she begins to doubt her gift, and herself. Is her gift real? And even if it is, is it worth it to sacrifice her chance at a happy life? And who would—or could—she be without it? All Marlena wants is to experience what it is to be normal. To swim in a bathing suit. To eat lunch in the diner in town. To be kissed. But if she gives up her gift, will she ever be able to get it back?

Donna Freitas is the author of several young adult and middle grade novels. She is also the author of adult nonfiction. She has written for national newspapers and magazines about religion, sex, hookup culture, and life on a college campus today, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.

FALL; or, Dodge in Hell de Neal Stephenson

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seveneves, Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon returns with a wildly inventive and entertaining science fiction thriller—Paradise Lost by way of Philip K. Dick—that unfolds in the near future, in parallel worlds

FALL
or, Dodge in Hell
by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow, June 2019

In his youth, Richard “Dodge” Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire. Now in his middle years, Dodge appreciates his comfortable, unencumbered life, managing his myriad business interests, and spending time with his beloved niece Zula and her young daughter, Sophia. One beautiful autumn day, while he undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. Dodge is pronounced brain dead and put on life support, leaving his stunned family and close friends with difficult decisions. Long ago, when a much younger Dodge drew up his will, he directed that his body be given to a cryonics company now owned by enigmatic tech entrepreneur Elmo Shepherd. Legally bound to follow the directive despite their misgivings, Dodge’s family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it can eventually be revived.
In the coming years, technology allows Dodge’s brain to be turned back on. It is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem …
FALL, OR DODGE IN HELL is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age.

Neal Stephenson is the bestselling author of the novels “Reamde”, “Anathem”, “The System of the World”, “The Confusion”, “Quicksilver”, “Cryptonomicon”, “The Diamond Age”, “Snow Crash”, and “Zodiac”.

CARBON IDEOLOGIES de William T. Vollmann

A timely, eye-opening book about climate change and energy generation that focuses on the consequences of nuclear power production, from award-winning author William T. Vollmann

CARBON IDEOLOGIES
Viking

NO IMMEDIATE DANGER #1
April 2018

In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age, from poverty to violence to the dark soul of American imperialism as it has played out on the U.S./Mexico border. Now, Vollmann turns to a topic that will define the generations to come–the factors and human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins NO IMMEDIATE DANGER, the first volume of “Carbon Ideologies”, by examining and quantifying the many causes of climate change, from industrial manufacturing and agricultural practices to fossil fuel extraction, economic demand for electric power, and the justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort. Featuring Vollmann’s signature wide learning, sardonic wit, and encyclopedic research, NO IMMEDIATE DANGER, whose title co-opts the reassuring mantra of official Japanese energy experts, builds up a powerful, sobering picture of the ongoing nightmare of Fukushima.

NO GOOD ALTERNATIVE #2
June 2018

The second volume of William T. Vollmann’s epic book about the factors and human actions that have led to global warming begins in the coal fields of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where “America’s best friend” is not merely a fuel, but a “heritage.” Over the course of four years Vollmann finds hollowed out towns with coal-polluted streams and acidified drinking water; makes covert visits to mountaintop removal mines; and offers documented accounts of unpaid fines for federal health and safety violations and of miners who died because their bosses cut corners to make more money. As with its predecessor, this volume seeks to understand and listen, not to lay blame–except in a few corporate and political cases where outrage is clearly due. Vollmann is a carbon burner just like the rest of us; he describes and quantifies his own power use, then looks around him, trying to explain to the future why it was that we went against scientific consensus, continually increasing the demand for electric power and insisting that we had no good alternative.

In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age, from poverty to violence to the dark soul of American imperialism as it has played out on the U.S./Mexico border.

A ROPE FROM THE SKY de Zach Vertin

The untold story of America’s attempt to forge a nation from scratch, from euphoric birth to heart-wrenching collapse

A ROPE FROM THE SKY
The Making and Unmaking of the World’s Newest State
by Zach Vertin
Pegasus Books, January 2019

South Sudan’s historic independence was celebrated around the world―a triumph for global justice and an end to one of the world’s most devastating wars. But the party would not last long; South Sudan’s freedom fighters soon plunged their new nation into chaos, shattering the promise of liberation and exposing the hubris of their foreign backers. Chronicling extraordinary stories of hope, identity, and survival, A Rope from the Sky journeys inside an epic tale of paradise won and then lost. This character-driven narrative follows a cast of liberators who rally around a common idea and achieve the unthinkable. Mobilizing on their behalf is an unprecedented coalition of Americas: Democrats and Republicans, ideologues and activists, evangelical Christians, and Hollywood celebrities. This righteous alliance helps deliver South Sudan from tyranny, only to watch in disbelief as it comes dramatically undone. Finally, a war-weary people must pick up the piece and start over again―an uncertain quest to salvage a republic from the shards of a broken dream. Weaving together narratives local and global, this is first a story of power, promise, greed, compassion, violence, and redemption from the world’s most neglected patch of territory. But is also a story about the best and worst of America―both its big hearted ideals and its difficult reckoning with the limits of American power amid a changing global landscape.
Zach Vertin’s firsthand accounts, from deadly war zones to the halls of Washington power, bring readers inside this unique episode in global history―an unprecedented experiment in state-building, and a cautionary tale. From battlefields and ballrooms to the emerald green marshes of the Nile, A ROPE FROM THE SKY is brilliant and breathtaking, a modern-day Greek tragedy that will challenge our perspectives on global politics.

Zach Vertin is an American writer, foreign policy expert, and former diplomat; he has spent the last twelve years working in international peace and conflict issues, not least in South Sudan. He is currently a Lecturer at Princeton University and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center. He previously served in the Obama Administration as a Senior Adviser to the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and Sudan South Sudan, and prior to that he was a Senior Analyst for the International Crisis Group. He has written or commented for: The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, The Atlantic, CNN, the BBC, and more.