The men and women who inhabit Tommy Housworths stories are all chasing down redemption. As in life, some of them find it while others tumble into karmic detours that lead to harrowing - and at times, darkly humorous - results. An art critic becomes obsessed with an exhibit by a provocative performance artist. A man takes in the widow of a migrant worker after her husband is gunned down at the Texas border. A photographer faces a personal crossroads after being the sole witness to a suicide jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. At once idyllic and satiric, Buddhist Catnaps & Broken-Down Hymns captures the miracles and malaise of life in 21st century America. Soulful, honest, hilarious writing. Sean Daniels, Geva Theatre NYC Piercing and unforgettable...with grit, grace, humor, and wisdom, these stories reveal us to ourselves again and again. Stacey Brown, poet, Cradle Song These stories take you on a rush of a ride. Buckle up, put your bare feet on the dash and get ready to fly. Janece Shaffer, playwright, The Geller Girls

Imagine your plane is going down. Prayer is useless. Fiery death awaits. Now imagine your children. The hours spent feeding, giggling, teaching, changing diapers, soothing tantrums, gazing into eyes...all will fade from their memories until you're just a name. What are the stories-from "unabashedly sentimental" to "exceedingly age inappropriate"-you would want to preserve? What advice would you give them, the hard-earned wisdom to prepare them for life's challenges? Well, Mark Hsu was never in a plane crash, but his crippling fear of being in one led to Please Open in the Event of My Death. A litigation partner in New York City, Mark remembers hearing the refrain that having kids meant "your life is over"?and how he welcomed it. He recalls the night he first met his Italian wife and decided that the Japanese-Chinese guy needed to go for broke and show off his Roman-accented Italian. He describes his lonely, peripatetic youth in Japan, Italy, and all over the East Coast as the only child of a deep-cover CIA spy. Drawing inspiration from a range of sources, including the Japanese concept of omoiyari, Charles Barkley, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Prince, and a Nike print ad, Mark offers astute advice-not saccharine or blindingly idealistic-for modern times. Succeeding at work, navigating social waters, overcoming fear, surviving heartbreak, raising kids-this and other life advice, applicable to anyone, is in Please Open In the Event of My Death, just in case something horrible happens?which hopefully it won't.

The Tripitaka Master Xuanzang (A.D. 600-64), whose deeds and career as a Buddhist monk are described in this biography, was a prominent figure not only in the history of Buddhist learning but also in other fields of culture. He played a role in the establishment of friendly contacts between China and the countries through which he traveled in search of more knowledge of Buddhism and incidentally but not insignificantly provided posterity with data of historical value in his detailed records about regions in central Asia and particularly in ancient India. He is thus respected not only by the Buddhists and people of China but also by the peoples of other eastern Asian countries who have benefited from the Buddhist lore that he acquired through many hardships and perils during his seventeen-year journey, from 629 to 645, in foreign lands. Because of his translation of Buddhist text into Chinese, Xuanzang was an epoch-making figure in the history of Buddhism in China. Huili, the author of this biography, was born in 614 and became a monk at the age of fifteen. Out of his admiration for the Venerable Xuanzang, he wrote this biography about how the Master went to India to seek Buddhist texts and translate them into Chinese. The biography relates events up to the Master's arrival in the capital at the conclusion of his return journey from India and was compiled and edited by the monk Yancong, who added five fascicles to the original to relate the Master's activities after his return to China up to his death. He thus produced a more complete biography of the Venerable Tripitaka Master Xuanzang, which is presented here in the English version.

Welcome to Storyville, where a funeral gives way to rebirth, a high school reunion offers a shot at overdue revenge, and a third grade show-and-tell presentation changes the course of a boy's life. Storyville, where Zen wisdom can be found at a Red Sox game, in a waitress' small talk, or the liftoff of a boy's kite. Storyville, where every direction you take leads you to the Crossroads. Welcome To Storyville features 19 tales that go far beyond Tommy Housworth's humorous essays in his previous work (Smirking Into the Abyss). "Deep Six Holiday" portrays a man who gets a new lease on life after taking a stand at his friend's funeral. "All This Useless Beauty" harkens Raymond Carver in its sparse prose and lonely protagonists, reaching out for someone who can help them feel again. "Opening Day" follows a father and son to a baseball game on the day the father is separating from the boy's mom. "Meat is Murder" shows what can happen when a vegan and a right wing talk show host fall in love despite their best intentions. "Cutthroat Island" follows an out-of-work actor to the archipelago of the Seychelles as he tries his hand at playing a huckster on a reality program and gets more than he bargained for. "Charles Mingus Hates My Lily-White Ass" is an imagined experience between the ghost of the legendary jazz bassist and a music enthusiast that ends in violence and enlightenment. "One Horse, No Rider" follows two brothers a drunkard and a preacher - down divergent paths in the Old West. "The Ghosts of Birdland" is an allegorical jazz tale of healing in the wake of the September 11th tragedies, set on Christmas Eve, 2001 in New York City. "Sticks and Stones" is a dark and funny tale about a former geek returning to his high school reunion with a chip on his shoulder and revenge in his heart. "Me and The Devil Blues" is a fable that follows Charley Patton, a fictitious bluesman, who tried to emulate the deadly deal Robert Johnson made with the devil at the Crossroads in Mississippi. "The Mutineer" pays tribute to the late, great Hunter S. Thompson, recreating his life as if lived on the high seas, where pirates lurk over the horizon and the greatest treasure is truth. "God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut" is the bittersweet tale of a third grader who gets busted for brining Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions" to school for show and tell. "Beautiful Despair" is a study of what attracts two people who find beauty is such different corners. Welcome to Storyville also features flash fiction inspired by songs by U2, Emmylou Harris, Lou Reed, and Tom Waits.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”—The New York Times Book Review A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).