Archives par étiquette : St. Martin’s Press

LIFE, AND DEATH, AND GIANTS de Ron Rindo

A remarkable child transforms a small, rural community—and soon the world.

LIFE, AND DEATH, AND GIANTS
by Ron Rindo
St. Martin’s Press, September 2025

A young, unmarried Amish woman, attended by the country veterinarian, delivers an enormous baby, and no one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of the boy. Raised by his brother on a struggling farm, Gabriel Fisher walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and possesses extraordinary athletic abilities. When his brother dies, Gabriel is taken in by devout Amish grandparents, and for a time, he disappears into the anonymity of Amish life. But at age seventeen, and nearly eight feet tall, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach, and his life changes.

In LIFE, AND DEATH, AND GIANTS, Gabriel’s remarkable story is told by those whose lives are transformed by him: Thomas Kennedy, the veterinarian who delivers him and becomes his mentor; Hannah Fisher, Gabriel’s Amish grandmother, who is troubled by deep gaps in her faith; Billy Walton, the salty bar owner and bridge between the Amish and English communities in Lakota; and Trey Beathard, the football coach, who tries to counsel Gabriel as his fame explodes―with consequences that no-one can predict.

Threaded through with the poems of Emily Dickinson, Life, and Death, and Giants weaves together an unforgettable story of faith, family, buried secrets, and everyday miracles.

« Straddling the Wisconsin of the Amish and “English,” Life, and Death, and Giants assays the limitations and temptations of the godly and the worldly. Ron Rindo has fashioned a small-town novel as magical and moral as a tall tale. » —Stewart O’Nan, author of Snow Angels and Songs for the Missing

« With Life, and Death, and Giants, Ron Rindo has performed literary magic. This is a remarkable, profoundly moving novel. » —Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948

Ron Rindo is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He has published one previous novel, Breathing Lake Superior, and three short story collections. He lives in Pickett, Wisconsin.

THE ZORG de Siddharth Kara

From Pulitzer finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Cobalt Red: A notorious slave ship incident that led to the abolition of slavery in the UK and sparked the US abolitionist movement.

THE ZORG:
A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
by Siddharth Kara
St. Martin’s Press, October 2025

In late October 1780, a slave ship set sail from the Netherlands, bound for Africa’s Windward and Gold Coasts, where it would take on its human cargo. The Zorg (a Dutch word meaning both “care” and “worry”) was one of thousands of such ships, but the harrowing events that ensued on its doomed journey were unique.

After reaching Africa, The Zorg was captured by a privateer and came under British command. With a new captain and crew, the ship was crammed with 442 slaves, and departed in 1781 for Jamaica. But a series of unpredictable weather events and mistakes in navigation left the ship drastically off course and running out of food and water. So a proposition was put forth: Save the crew and the most valuable of the slaves―by throwing 140 people, mostly women and children, overboard.

What followed was a fascinating legal drama in England’s highest court that turned the brutal calculus of slavery into front page news. For the first time, concepts such as human rights and morality entered the discourse on slavery, in a notorious case that boiled down to a simple but profound question: Were the Africans on board the Zorg people or cargo?

The case of the Zorg catapulted the nascent anti-slavery movement from a minor evangelical cause to one of the most consequential moral campaigns in history. In this book, Siddharth Kara utilizes primary source research, masterful storytelling, and painstaking investigation to uncover the Zorg’s journey, the lives and fates of the slaves on board, and the mystery of who finally revealed the truth of what happened on the ship.

Siddharth Kara is an author, researcher, and activist on modern slavery. He is a British Academy Global Professor and an Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at Nottingham University. Kara has authored several books and reports on slavery and child labor, and he won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. He has also taught courses on modern slavery at Harvard University, UC Berkeley, and Cornell University. He divides his time between the U.K. and the U.S.

HUBRIS MAXIMUS de Faiz Siddiqui

The rise, fall, and revival of the Caesar of Silicon Valley.

HUBRIS MAXIMUS:
The Shattering of Elon Musk
by Faiz Siddiqui
St. Martin’s Press, April 2025

Elon Musk has cast himself as the savior of humanity, an altruistic force whose fortune is tied to noble pursuits from halting our dependence on fossil fuels to colonizing Mars. Once frequently heralded as a modern-day Edison, Musk has taken up a new place in the public consciousness with his growing desire to disrupt not just the automotive and space industries but the policies that shape our nation, placing him at the center of America’s most complex undertakings in manufacturing, politics, and defense and technology, even as his increasingly erratic personal behavior has raised questions about his stability and judgement.

Musk famously leads his companies from a bully pulpit, eroding guardrails and cutting through red tape whenever possible with little regard for the fallout as long as it serves his larger goals. Many in his orbit have seen their lives upended or their careers throttled by believing in his utopian vision. As the scale of the wagers he makes with his fortune and concerns about his credibility have grown in recent years, he alternately seems to be in complete command or on the verge of a meltdown. Yet in the long run, he has only become wealthier, and now the stakes have risen. Thanks to astute political maneuvering, Musk is no longer limited to gambling with a company’s bottom line or the livelihoods of his workers; he is poised to apply his uncompromising approach to business to the foundational rules and regulations that hold our society together.

At a moment when America’s tech gods are more influential than ever, Hubris Maximus is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of lionizing magnetic leaders. Washington Post journalist Faiz Siddiqui offers a gripping, detailed portrait of a singularly messy and lucrative period in Musk’s career, as well as a case study in the power of using one’s platform to shape the public narrative in a world that can’t turn away from its screens.

“Siddiqui blends insightful reporting with prescient analysis to give an authoritative look at one of the world’s most polarizing figures. He captures the ambition of Elon Musk’s innovations while also holding power to account, questioning the societal and cultural impact at the heart of his transformation. In this time, when Musk’s influence is tangible in everything from how information is shared to the race for space colonization, Siddiqui’s work could not be more vital.”
―Astead Herndon, host of the New York Times political podcast “The Run-Up”

« Siddiqui dissects the rise and psychological unraveling of one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time. Combining meticulous research with vivid storytelling, he reveals how Musk’s bold vision and unchecked ambition transformed industries, reshaped public narratives, and courted chaos. From Tesla’s triumphs to Twitter’s disasters, this gripping book exposes the cost of power without accountability in a world that idolizes innovation. »
―Bradley Hope, Pulitzer Prize finalist and coauthor of New York Times bestseller Billion Dollar Whale

“An electrifying masterpiece of investigative journalism, offering a riveting deep dive into the rise and fall of Elon Musk, and the definitive account of his transformation from inspirational entrepreneur to a dangerous and polarizing figure. With unmatched clarity and depth, Siddiqui dissects Musk’s power and influence. The book is a gripping cautionary tale and a masterful cultural critique―essential reading for anyone captivated (or confounded) by the most controversial billionaire of our time.”
―Taylor Lorenz, Author of Extremely Online and founder of User Magazine

Faiz Siddiqui is a technology journalist who writes for the Washington Post and has covered companies such as Tesla, Uber and Twitter (now X) for the Business Desk. His reporting has focused on transportation, social media and government transformation, among other issues. His work has been recognized by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and he has earned multiple Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence and Hearst Journalism awards. His writing has also appeared in the Boston Globe and NPR.

MILENA AND MARGARETE de Gwen Strauss

A profoundly moving and expertly researched WWII history from the author of The Nine. A celebration of love under the darkest of circumstances, Strauss sheds light on both an untold WWII love story and an untold chapter in queer history.

MILENA AND MARGARETE:
A Love Story in Ravensbrück
by Gwen Strauss
St. Martin’s Press, August 2025

From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrück concentration camp, Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann were inseparable. Czech Milena was Kafka’s first translator and epistolary lover and a journalist opposed to fascism. A non-conformist, bi-sexual feminist, she was way ahead of her time. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, her home became a central meeting place for Jewish refugees. German Margarete, born to a middle-class family, married the son of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. But soon swept up in the fervor of the Bolshevik Revolution, she met her second partner, the Communist Heinz Neumann. Called to Moscow for his “political deviations,” he fell victim to Stalin’s purges while Margarete was exiled to the hell of the Soviet gulag. Two years later, traded by Stalin to Hitler, she ended up outside Berlin in Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp built for women.

Milena and Margarete loved each other at the risk of their lives. But in the post-war survivors’ accounts, lesbians were stigmatized, and survivors kept silent. This book explores those silences and finally celebrates two strong women who never gave up and continue to inspire. As Margarete wrote: “I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrück, because it was there I met Milena.”

Gwen Strauss is the author of The Nine and a collection of poetry, Trail of Stones. Her poems, short stories and essays have appeared in numerous journals including The New Republic, London Sunday Times, New England Review, and Kenyon Review. She was born and spent her early years in Haiti. Strauss lives in Southern France, where she is the Executive Director of the Dora Maar Cultural Center.

AGENT UNICORN de Jenny Alvarado

An ambitious Unicorn learns that it takes more to be a detective than flashy moves, sneaky disguises, and cool gadgets in this zany, action-packed comic adventure about following your dreams.

AGENT UNICORN
by Jenny Alvarado
Page Street/St. Martin’s Press, September 2024

While unicorns usually shimmer and sparkle in the spotlight, Unicorn longs for fame of another kind: he wants to be a cool, case-crackin’ undercover agent, just like his hero, Agent Sparrow. And he’s finally gotten his big break—a job at Agent Goat’s Detective Agency! True, he might be sweeping the floors for now, but it’s one step closer to his dream.

When Unicorn intercepts the case of a missing pet bird, he leaps into action! This is his moment to shine—or, erm, sneak. He’s sure he’s ready to be a detective even though he has no actual experience. With the best disguises and coolest gadgets, how hard can it be?

But before long, he’ll discover that there’s more to being an agent than sneaky moves and looking cool. He’ll have to track down the humility and heart of a true detective and avoid getting distracted by the annoying bunny that keeps following him—a bunny that might just bear some resemblance to the missing pet—if he ever hopes to officially become Agent Unicorn.

Comic fans, unicorn fans, and anyone who’s ever had an improbable dream will love getting wrapped up in this humorous comic adventure about pursuing your dreams with passion and patience.

“An accidental training day where doing the right thing beats flashy appearances.” —Kirkus

“[T]his picture book grappling-hooks across the gap for younger readers who are setting their junior spyglasses on comic formatting but are not quite ready for a full-length graphic novel—an exciting literacy skills mission, should readers choose to accept it.” —BCCB

Jenny Alvarado is an author-illustrator who was born and raised in Miami, Florida. When she’s not searching for her next book idea, she can be found drawing, singing, or hanging out with her family in the Space Coast of Florida where she currently lives.