AN UNTHINKABLE THING de Nicole Lundrigan

A stylish Mid-Century set that asks a shocking question: Can an eleven-year-old boy really be a cold blooded killer?

AN UNTHINKABLE THING
by Nicole Lundrigan
Viking Canada, Spring 2022

The residents of affluent Upper Washbourne certainly believed so when they charged and then tried young Thomas Ware for triple murder in 1958. All is not as it seems behind the hedgerow surrounding the lavish Henneberry estate where Tommie Ware’s mother, Esther, works as the live-in housekeeper. When Tommie is unexpectedly transplanted into this unfamiliar and rarefied world, he is left on his own to navigate the grounds, the massive house, and the twisted family inside. There’s the delusional pill-popping mother, Muriel, who takes a strange shine to Thomas; her husband, a respected dentist who may have known Tommie’s recently deceased aunt; and their entitled son, Martin, who reveals a dark and dangerous side as he cruelly torments the old widow who lives next door. High class comes with high stakes, and as Tommie is dragged deeper into the Henneberrys’ dysfunction, he can’t help but wonder: what does someone good and brave have to do to stop such people?
Alternating with Tommie’s vivid tale of that summer is the story of his murder trial, told entirely through newspaper and radio coverage, forensic reports, trial transcripts, and witness testimonies. The result is a masterful, mesmerizing dual-narrative that is sure to keep readers on the edges of their seats and guessing until the very last page.

Nicole Lundrigan grew up in Newfoundland, and now lives in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of seven published novels including her most recent, Hideaway (Viking/PRHC, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel conveyed by the Crime Writers of Canada and which was included on many best-of/must-read lists in 2019 including Globe & Mail, Chatelaine, Bustle, Toronto Star, Loan Stars, NOW, Post Media, and the CBC. Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door, called Hideaway « Authentic, disturbing and unbearably tense, [it] will leave you reeling.” In its starred review of Nicole’s earlier novel The Substitute (House of Anansi Press, 2017), Booklist noted Lundrigan’s writing, “is both elegant and darkly humorous, delivering bareknuckle social commentary that will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn, Karin Fossum, and Laura Lippman.”

MIRIAM de Deborah Feldman

The first novel by the bestselling author of Unorthodox, and the first book Deborah Feldman is writing in German.

MIRIAM
by Deborah Feldman
Luchterhand/PRH Germany, August 2021

© Alexa VachonSet in Antwerpen, New York and Jerusalem. Miriam is the only daughter of the famous Antwerpen diomand trader Volvi Halpern, and the family’s hopes are set on her: By marrying her off to a rich New Yorker, they are hoping to save the family business. But Miriam fights their decision. Ever since her birth she carries the burden of an unusual, transcendent old knowledge, she hears voices, she has visions that, like memories from a distant past, burst into her presence. Torn between her family’s expectations and the voices of the past, she is trying to find out what defines her, who she is, and which path she wants to take.

Deborah Feldman is an American-born German writer living in Berlin, Germany. Her 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, tells the story of her escape from an ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn, New York, and was the basis of the 2020 Netflix miniseries Unorthodox.

MEDITATIONS ON THE TRAIL de Christopher Ives

Discover how to explore and deepen your connection to nature with a rich array of do-anywhere meditations.

MEDITATIONS ON THE TRAIL
by Christopher Ives
Wisdom Publications, May 2021

MEDITATIONS ON THE TRAIL offers a rich array of do-anywhere meditations that will help you explore and deepen your connection to nature, and yourself, in new ways, making the most of your time on the trail. This small book—perfect for throwing in a daypack or a back pocket as you head out for the trail—is filled with practices to take you into the heart of the natural world and uncover your most vibrant self. You’ll return home grateful, more aware of interconnection, and maybe just a little wiser.

“For walkers of all paces and geographies, this lovely book is a helpful guide for savoring moments on the trail, and feeling how deeply related we are to all existence.”
—Stephanie Kaza, author of Conversations with Trees: An Intimate Ecology

Christopher Ives is a professor of religious studies at Stonehill College. In his teaching and writing he focuses on ethics in Zen Buddhism and Buddhist approaches to nature and environmental issues. His publications include Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics; Zen Awakening and Society; Divine Emptiness and Historical Fullness; a translation (with Abe Masao) of Nishida Kitaro’s An Inquiry into the Good; and a translation (with Gishin Tokiwa) of Hisamatsu Shin’ichi’s Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics and is serving as cochair of the Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group and on the steering committee of the Religion and Ecology Group of the American Academy of Religion.

COURAGEOUS COMPASSION de Sa Sainteté le Dalaï-Lama, avec Thubte Chodron

COURAGEOUS COMPASSION offers an in-depth look at bodhicitta, arhatship, and buddhahood that you can continuously refer to as you progress on the path to full awakening.

COURAGEOUS COMPASSION
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with Thubte Chodron
Wisdom Publications, May 2021

COURAGEOUS COMPASSION, the sixth volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, continues the Dalai Lama’s teachings on the path to awakening. The previous volume, In Praise of Great Compassion, focused on opening our hearts with love and compassion for all living beings, and the present volume explains how to embody compassion and wisdom in our daily lives. Here we enter a fascinating exploration of bodhisattvas’ activities across multiple Buddhist traditions—Tibetan, Theravada, and Chinese Buddhism.
After explaining the ten perfections according to the Pali and Sanskrit traditions, the Dalai Lama presents the sophisticated schema of the four paths and fruits for sravakas and solitary realizers and the five paths for bodhisattvas. Learning about the practices mastered by these exalted practitioners inspires us with knowledge of our minds’ potential. His Holiness also describes buddha bodies, what buddhas perceive, and buddhas’ awakening activities.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (b. 1935) is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. For sixty years, he was the also the political leader of the Tibetan people, first from the Potala Palace in Lhasa and then helping his compatriots adapt to the modern world from his residence in northern India. An advocate for science, ethics, and harmony among people of different faiths, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and travels widely in support of Buddhism, the cause of Tibet, and human happiness.

Thubten Chodron has been a Buddhist nun since 1977. A graduate of UCLA, she is the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State. She is a popular speaker and author of numerous books, including Buddhism for Beginners.

THE GLASSHOUSE de Chinenye Emezie

An engrossing, deeply unsettling and finally uplifting Nigerian family saga.

THE GLASSHOUSE
by Chinenye Emezie
Penguin South Africa, September 2021

Let me tell you a story. It’s about a war. This war is not the type fought with guns and machetes. It is a family type. A silent war. The type fought in the heart. It began long before I was formed.
Udonwa’s family is at war – a war of relationships, played out under the tyranny of a monster dad. Twelve-year-old Udonwa has a peculiar love of her father, Reverend Leonard Ilechukwu, who favours her but beats his wife and his other children. She sees his good side: after all, he pays the school fees in advance, and tells her that she, named ‘the peaceful child’, is the one most likely to become a doctor in the family. But luck doesn’t last forever. When Udonwa’s eldest sister Adaora, just married, suddenly takes her from their family compound in Iruama to live with her in Awka, Udonwa experiences violence first-hand. Years later, while home on holiday from the University of Lagos, she overhears a secret that shakes her life to the core and shatters the dynamics of her family. No longer the person she thought she was, Udonwa launches into a period of extreme change, and parts of her life spiral into chaos. Later, more pieces of the sinister picture emerge, and the young woman finds herself torn between her love for her father and an underlying need to free herself.

Chinenye Emezie studied creative writing at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and has a bachelor’s degree in public administration. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies and literary journals such as Africa Book Club, Kalahari Review and Book Lovers Hangout. Chinenye is an alumna of the Hedgebrook/Vortex Writers Workshop. In 2018, her award-winning short story Glass House was selected as a reading text for the first- and second-year classes of the department of Dramatic Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand.