Archives de catégorie : Nonfiction

THE INVISIBLE HAND OF MARIA EDGEWORTH de Jeanna Smialek

The untold story of the nineteenth-century novelist who outearned Jane Austen and wove provocative theories into her fiction—changing economics forever.

THE INVISIBLE HAND OF MARIA EDGEWORTH:
How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics
by Jeanna Smialek
Knopf, October2026
(via David Black Agency)

At the end of the eighteenth century, Europe faced revolutions, famine, and war. It was out of this chaos that the field of economics was born—and while that founding has for centuries been attributed almost entirely to men, they were only part of the story.

Maria Edgeworth, known to her contemporaries as “the Great Maria,” was one of the most important authors of the Regency era, envied by Lord Byron, admired by Jane Austen, and read avidly by the British royalty. But she was more than just a novelist and a society fixture: She was also a covert economist, working just after Adam Smith and alongside her friends David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus. As the earliest economists established their philosophies on production and investment, Edgeworth published dozens of stories, many with lessons on finance, society, and trade tucked into their plots. Through her fiction, Edgeworth delivered new ideas to a broader public, stretching the boundaries of what a woman of her time could achieve and captivating an empire in the process.

Here, her tale is told alongside those of the men—and women—who invented a field that would reshape our world. Lively and original, The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth brings this astonishing woman and her world vividly to life and rewrites the origin story of modern economics.

“Whoever thought economics could be such a joy to read? Maria Edgeworth may have written the novels, but Jeanna Smialek’s book brings them—and their world—to life. Take a fascinating voyage with Ricardo, Malthus, and Maria, from the age of the American, French, and Industrial revolutions to the Great Irish Famine, and learn some economics along the way.” —Claudia Goldin, Nobel Prize laureate in Economics and author of Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey Toward Equity

“Revelatory and riveting—an original perspective on the history of economic thought that will change how you see today’s economy, and a pleasure to read from start to finish.” —Jason Furman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief at The New York Times. She has covered economic policy in one way or another since 2013, and is the author of Limitless, a book on the history and future of the Federal Reserve. She has previously written for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek. A native of Pittsburgh, Smialek has spent most of her career in New York City and Washington, D.C., and now lives in Belgium with her husband.

MY NAME IS JANA. I AM FIFTEEN. I LIVE IN GAZA. by Jana

A remarkable work of first-person history: the diary of a teenage girl living in Gaza. Begun at the start of the war, Jana continued to document her experiences as her family was forced to leave their home, using writing as a form of self-expression and resistance, and as a way of sustaining precious hope in the worst of times.

MY NAME IS JANA. I AM FIFTEEN. I LIVE IN GAZA.
by Jana
William Morrow, November 2026

As bombs screamed overhead, a young Palestinian teenager grabbed her notebook and wrote, “If I survive today, I will write everything.” Jana was thirteen at the time; studious, precocious, and dreaming of one day becoming a doctor. Through hunger, cold and continuous resettlement; under the constant threat of death, Jana has kept her promise to write it all down, be it on cardboard; on wet paper; on empty bags of flour. She promises herself that, when she has walls again, she will write on those too. My Name is Jana is an incredible testament to one teenage girl’s will to live, and her determination to make her voice heard. It bears witness to all Jana has seen: a little girl asking if her toy is still alive under the rubble; the death of neighbor after neighbor in the tent city in which she now lives; her siblings’ hunger and her mother’s quiet tears. Amidst the unspeakable horrors of a war that has claimed the lives of over twenty thousand children, Jana writes about the same two dreams again and again: her desire to become a doctor, and for the world to recognise her beautiful, individual existence: « I am still Jana, and I am still here. » This is her story.

Jana and her family now live in a refugee tent camp in Khan Younnis almost 50 miles from the neighborhood where she grew up, which was destroyed by bombs. She is one of five children.

Layla Faraj has translated many works of Palestinian writing, including other Gazan diaries, and here is what she has to say about Jana’s: “Writing as an act of hope, and as proof of existence, permeates many Palestinian literary works written in and after 1948, including recently published Gazan writers such as Nadine Murtaja and Nima Hasan. Jana’s diary continues this legacy with conviction. Her work is not only a testament to writing’s power in documenting violence, but it also proves just how indispensable writing is in affirming one’s existence amidst the destruction of a nation, city, home, family, and body: “I am Jana. I am Gaza’s daughter.’”

STRANGE AND TERRIBLE THINGS de Devin Forst

A chilling collection of terrifying creatures from around the world, perfect for readers who want to know what lurks in the shadows.

STRANGE AND TERRIBLE THINGS:
A Guide to Creatures That Haunt Our Dreams
by Devin Forst
Abrams Books for Young Readers, August 2026

A Romanian Strigoi rising from its grave. The Boogeyman’s claws scraping beneath the bed. A Banshee’s wail echoing through Ireland. The glowing eyes of the Mothman staring from a West Virginia tree line. Krampus arriving to punish naughty children in the Yuletide season.

In STRANGE AND TERRIBLE THINGS, author and artist Devin Forst takes you on a global tour of nightmares. Packed with eerie folklore, monstrous myths, and creepy tales from every corner of the world, this thoroughly-researched guide uncovers nearly 80 sinister beings that live in the heart of humanity’s oldest fears.

Perfect for fans of horror and role-playing games, this illustration-heavy older middle–grade book explores the stories we tell about monsters―and what those stories say about us. Creatures include those from classical mythology and contemporary folklore, and from diverse cultural traditions, including African, Aztec, British, Chinese, Egyptian, Filipino, Greek, Indian, Irish, Japanese, Mesopotamian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Nordic, Native American and North American, Slavic, and South American.

Devin Forst grew up running through the woods in search of strange and terrible things, reading creepy fairy tales, and watching all sorts of fantastical films, which he still does to this day. He is the creator of Witches Through History: Grimoire & Oracle Deck and corresponding calendars. Devin attended the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, and currently lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

DIE NATUR IST KEIN PARTEIMITGLIED de Harald Lesch & Axel Kleidon

Policy-makers must act now, but first, they need to understand how nature actually works. The physicists Harald Lesch and Axel Kleidon express frustration over the widespread unwillingness among broad political circles to understand how nature functions—an essay intended as a wake-up call.

DIE NATUR IST KEIN PARTEIMITGLIED
(Nature Belongs to No Party)
by Harald Lesch & Axel Kleidon
C. Bertelsmann/PRH Germany, March 2026

Again and again, political and economic leaders act as if we can simply ignore the laws of nature, and like to think that technology can perform magic tricks à la Harry Potter. In « Nature Belongs to No Party », two physicists speak truth to power: they explain in clear terms that nature does not negotiate, is not a party member and won’t cede to our demands. What exactly do energy-efficiency and climate protection entail? Why does energy depreciate? And what policies would a government that understands how nature works adopt?

DIE NATUR IST KEIN PARTEIMITGLIED is useful ammunition for anyone who’s as frustrated and angry as the authors about the seeming inability of politicians to tackle climate change head on.

Harald Lesch is a professor of theoretical astrophysics at the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and one of Germany’s most famous scientists. He has presented several accessible and popular science programmes, and written and co-written many popular and bestselling books.

Axel Kleidon studied physics and meteorology at the universities of Hamburg and Purdue. After graduating with a PhD in meteorology, he did a postdoc at Stanford and joined the faculty of the University of Maryland. Since 2006, he has led a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena. In his research, he uses thermodynamics to quantify natural energy conversions within the earth system, and applies this approach to understanding atmosphere-biosphere interactions, our planet’s response to global change, and the natural limits of renewable energy.

SEZ I TO MYSELF: The Collected Essays of Frank and Malachy McCourt

A treasure chest of never-before-collected essays from Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize–winning memoirist, and his boisterous brother Malachy, publishing on the 30th anniversary of Angela’s Ashes, with a foreword by Colum McCann.

SEZ I TO MYSELF:
The Collected Essays of Frank and Malachy McCourt
Abrams Press, September 2026

In 1996, a retired New York City high school English teacher published a memoir that took the publishing world by storm. Angela’s Ashes, the story of Frank McCourt’s childhood in Ireland, was a bold account of poverty and family tragedy, suffused with humor and compassion. It went on to sell over ten million copies and won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award.

Frank McCourt was suddenly an internationally celebrated memoirist, a writer who had invigorated the genre. But most readers didn’t know that Angela’s Ashes wasn’t Frank’s first published writing. For years, he and his actor brother Malachy contributed a column to a neighborhood newspaper called The West Side Spirit. Malachy, himself a bestselling writer, also contributed to Our Town, Irish America, and The Southampton Review. And Frank went on to write for prominent publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire, Life, and Rolling Stone.

Frank McCourt (1930–2009) and Malachy McCourt (1931–2024) were born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, grew up in Limerick, Ireland, and returned to America as young adults. For 30 years, Frank taught in New York City high schools. His first book, Angela’s Ashes, won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. He was also the author of the memoirs ’Tis and Teacher Man. In the 1950s, Malachy opened New York City’s original singles bar Malachy’s. He went on to a long career in film, television, radio, and on the stage, and as a bestselling author of many books, including A Monk Swimming and Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland.

Tom Allon is an award-winning journalist, columnist, media executive and publisher. He has written for The New York Times, the Daily News, New York Post, Huffington Post, Dan’s Papers, City & State, The West Side Spirit, Our Town, and many other publications. Allon is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Cornell University, and Stuyvesant High School. He has taught opinion writing at Hunter College, and journalism and American literature at Stuyvesant High School. He has four adult children, three cats, and is married to Rebecca Cohen. They live in Dumbo, Brooklyn, and East Moriches, Long Island.

sJonah Allon is a writer and political communications strategist who currently serves as Deputy Communications Director for New York Governor Kathy Hochul. A born-and-raised New Yorker, he lives in Brooklyn.