Archives par étiquette : HarperCollins

SONITA de Sonita Alizada

Nearly 15 million girls, including many in the U.S., are forced into marriage each year. Each of these girls has a price tag—and a story. Sonita Alizada was almost sold twice. Her price tag was $9,000. The money her family received for selling her would pay for her brother’s wife.

SONITA:
My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom
by Sonita Alizada
HarperOne, July 2025

The first time Sonita was put up for sale, she was 10 years old and she thought that she was participating in a dress-up game. She quickly realized that, in her culture, a wedding is a kind of funeral for the bride. Sonita says, “It represents the loss of a future. The loss of a voice.” After the marriage fell through, she was placed on sale again. She was expected to form a family, sleep with a man she never met, and then repeat the terrible cycle with her own children. But Sonita wanted more.

In SONITA, the Afghan rap artist and activist shares the story of how she fled Afghanistan to pursue her dreams and evolved into a woman who is changing the world. She shares incredible highs, like winning the song writing contest that gave her the opportunity of a lifetime, and unimaginable lows, like when the cruel Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, and how some of her family escaped, and how some were left behind.

Sonita teaches us all to hold to hope. You were chosen to be part of this world and your dreams have power, too. You can be a difference maker. In these pages, Sonita shares her pictures, poems, and songs. Readers are invited to scan QR codes so they can listen to Sonita’s music. This book is more than Sonita’s story. It is a love letter for anyone who has ever dreamed of more and held onto hope that their story would be different than the ones that came before them.

Sonita Alizada is an Afghan rapper and activist who escaped child marriage in 2015, when her viral music video, “Daughters for Sale,” helped her secure a scholarship to study in the United States. Through her music and advocacy work, Sonita has campaigned for women’s rights and against child marriage, partnering with organizations like the Malala Fund, Global Partnership for Education, and Girls Not Brides. She has received the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award, the MTV Europe Music Generation Change Award, and was included in BBC’s 100 Women in 2015. Sonita, who learned English upon coming to the U.S., graduated from Bard College in 2023; she is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. 

HOW WE GROW UP de Matt Richtel

Building off his award-winning New York Times series on the contemporary teen mental-health crisis, the Pulitzer Prize–winning science reporter delivers a groundbreaking investigation into adolescence, the pivotal life stage undergoing profound—and often confounding—transformation.

HOW WE GROW UP:
Understanding Adolescence
by Matt Richtel
Mariner Books/HarperCollins, July 2025

The transition from childhood to adulthood is a natural, evolution-honed cycle that now faces radical change and challenge. The adolescent brain, sculpted for this transition over eons of evolution, confronts a modern world that creates so much social pressure as to regularly exceed the capacities of the evolving mind. The problem comes as a bombardment of screen-based information pelts the brain just as adolescence is undergoing a second key change: puberty is hitting earlier. The result is a neurological mismatch between an ultra-potent environment and a still-maturing brain that can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. It is a crisis that is part of modern life but can only be truly grasped through a broad, grounded lens of the biology of adolescence itself. Through this lens, Richtel shows us how adolescents can understand themselves, and parents and educators can better help.

For decades, this transition to adulthood has been defined by hormonal shifts that trigger the onset of puberty. But Richtel takes us where science now understands so much of the action is: the brain. A growing body of research that looks for the first time into budding adult neurobiology explains with untold clarity the emergence of the “social brain,” a craving for peer connection, and how the behaviors that follow pave the way for economic and social survival. This period necessarily involves testing—as the adolescent brain is programmed from birth to take risks and explore themselves and their environment—so that they may be able to thrive as they leave the insulated care of childhood.

Richtel, diving deeply into new research and gripping personal stories, offers accessible, scientifically grounded answers to the most pressing questions about generational change. What explains adolescent behaviors, risk-taking, reward-seeking, and the ongoing mental health crisis? How does adolescence shape the future of the species? What is the nature of adolescence itself?

Matt Richtel is a reporter at the New York Times. He received the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of articles about distracted driving that he expanded into his first nonfiction book, A Deadly Wandering, a New York Times bestseller. His second nonfiction book, An Elegant Defense, on the human immune system, was a national bestseller and chosen by Bill Gates for his annual Summer Reading List. Richtel has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, CBS This Morning, PBS NewsHour, and other major media outlets. He lives in San Francisco, California.

SO FAR GONE de Jess Walter

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins—and in the wild, propulsive spirit of Charles Portis’ True Grit—comes a hilarious and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.

SO FAR GONE
by Jess Walter
Harper, June 2025

A few weeks after the 2016 election, at Thanksgiving with his daughter’s family, Rhys Kinnick snapped. After an escalating fight about politics, he hauled off and punched his conspiracy theorist son-in-law. Horrified by what he’d done, by the state of the country and by his own spiraling mental health, Rhys chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, off the grid and with no one around—except a pack of hungry raccoons. 

Now, seven years later, Kinnick’s old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no phone, no computer, and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a madcap journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he’d left behind. SO FAR GONE is a rollicking, razor-sharp, and ultimately moving road trip through a fractured nation, from a writer who has been called “a genius of the modern American moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Jess Walter is the author of seven previous novels, including the bestsellers, The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins, the National Book Award Finalist The Zero, and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction, collected in The Angel of Rome and We Live in Water, has won the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize and appeared three times in The Best American Short Stories. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

PEOPLE COLLIDE de Isle McElroy bientôt adapté en série tv

Abbi Jacobson, co-créatrice et star de la série Broad City, adaptera le roman de Isle McElroy en série TV.  C’est la société Killer Films (Boys Don’t Cry, I’m Not There, Mildred Pierce, Still Alice, Carol…) qui produira la série en partenariat avec UCP (Monk, Suits, Mr. Robot, The Umbrella Academy…) Abbi Jacobson écrira également le scénario tiré du roman.

Isle McElroy a fait part de son enthousiasme pour ce projet : “I’ve been a massive fan of Abbi Jacobson’s work for years, and I’m thrilled by her vision for the project. I can’t think of a better writer to capture People Collide’s mix of intimacy, drama, and humor. Killer Films has made some of my favorite movies of all time. I deeply admire their commitment to creating unique, unforgettable work. I’m so grateful for the enthusiasm UCP has brought to People Collide. It’s an honor to be working together.”

(Lire l’article de Deadline)

Le roman PEOPLE COLLIDE, publié aux États-Unis chez HarperVia en septembre 2023, explore les notions de genre, d’identité, de couple et de sexualité, et soulève des questions profondes sur la vraie nature des relations amoureuses :

Engrossing, eye-opening, and provocative, PEOPLE COLLIDE delivers a clever twist on the “body swap” concept. Set mainly in Bulgaria and France, the novel centers on the courtship and marriage of Elijah and his wife, Elizabeth. On an otherwise regular day, Eli wakes up alone in the cramped Bulgarian apartment he shares with his more organized and successful wife, and finds himself, somehow, in her body. His male body has vanished, and the person who once resided in Elizabeth’s is gone without a trace. He comes to label this transformation as “the Incident”.  Everyone they know assumes Eli abandoned Elizabeth suddenly and without explanation. What follows is a search across Europe for a missing woman—and a roving, no-holds-barred exploration of gender, identity, and embodied experience. As Eli learns to live in Elizabeth’s body (and wonders if he has lost his mind), he also begins to wonder: will their once vibrant, recently stagnant marriage finally wither in their new bodies? Or could it actually thrive?

« A more agile, universal book, with its title alluding to the randomness of human connection. It’s a variety of rom-com, really, that somewhat lost art. . . . [People Collide‘s] naturalness and ease with the most fundamental questions of existence make it a big project knocking around in a small package, portending even bigger projects ahead. » — The New York Times

« People Collide takes a sudden turn in its final pages, building toward an ending that’s genuinely moving and redemptive, though not in the way the reader has been expecting. The finale is so good, in fact, that it elevates the entire book, making it one of the year’s most compelling reads. Ultimately, McElroy discovers that gender-swap narratives may really be about tracing the wavy line between envy and desire. » —  The Washington Post 

« People Collide‘s Freaky Friday concept covers a deep exploration of marriage, love, and the ways we know one another—and don’t—as well as how slippery a sense of self can be when so much of how we navigate the world depends on how it sees us. » — NPR

« A creative, well-written exploration of marriage, gender, and desire. » — Kirkus Reviews

« Engrossing . . . an impressive twist on the familiar trope of marital ennui. » — Publishers Weekly

« Compelling, hilarious, and thought-provoking, this is a fascinating Freaky Friday-like thought-experiment that questions the performance and expectations of gender roles, the body-mind puzzle, how class can define a person’s perspective, and the definition of identity. » — Booklist

« Expertly interrogates gender roles and questions the ties that bind lovers together. » — Vogue

« Fascinating … an entertaining, thoughtful depiction of how we choose to exist, and its implications for how we love. » — Elle

Isle McElroy (they/them) is a nonbinary author based in Brooklyn. Their writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Cut, Esquire, The Guardian, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, and elsewhere. Isle has been named one of the Strand’s 30 Writers to Watch and has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and the National Parks Service. Their first novel, The Atmospherians, was named a book of the year by Debutiful, Esquire, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and more.

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KITTEN’S FIRST FULL MOON de Kevin Henkes

Kevin Henkes’s acclaimed national bestseller about a kitten, the moon, and a bowl of milk was awarded the Caldecott Medal and was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book.

KITTEN’S FIRST FULL MOON
by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow, September 2015

KITTEN’S FIRST FULL MOON is an acclaimed modern classic, from one of the most celebrated and beloved picture book creators working in the field today. This memorable character and her suspenseful adventure are just right for the very youngest child. It is Kitten’s first full moon, and when she sees it she thinks it is a bowl of milk in the sky. And she wants it. Does she get it? Well, no . . . and yes. What a night!

A concise story, large type, and luminescent pictures play second fiddle to the true star of this book: a brave young kitten who sets out into the world on a quest that leaves her bruised, bewildered, and hungry, but that ultimately leads her back home, where something special is waiting just for her. This perfectly sized board book edition introduces Kitten to a new generation of the youngest readers. 

Indefatigable Kitten is a role model for all ages—taking chances, picking herself up when she fails, trying out new strategies to get what she wants, and figuring out when enough is enough.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal, an ALA Notable Book, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book, and winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award.

Kevin Henkes has been praised both as a writer and as an illustrator and is the recipient of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his lasting contribution to literature for children. He received the Caldecott Medal for KITTEN’S FIRST FULL MOON; Caldecott Honors for Waiting and Owen; two Newbery Honors, one for Olive’s Ocean and one for The Year of Billy Miller;and Geisel Honors for Waiting and Penny and Her Marble. His other books include The World and Everything in It; A House; A Parade of Elephants; Chrysanthemum; and the beloved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Kevin Henkes lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.