Benci, Irene, and their four children live in Budapest, Hungary. In the fall of 1956, they find themselves, along with the rest of the country, caught in a revolution that is ignited by young men and women. Fed up with a communist regime that has ruled since World War II, they march in protest, determined to rid their city of total control from a government with no conscience. Because Benci is a former soldier and a college professor, his life is threatened if he doesnt report for duty to fight his fellow citizens. Ignoring those orders, Benci and his family prepare to flee. Hundreds have already died in what started as peaceful demonstrations. A neighbors twelve-year-old son is killed for the crime of looking out a window. Their neighbors look to Benci for guidance. He is a man who is a world-champion fencer, which has earned him a celebrity status among his countrymen. Reluctantly, he takes on the challenge to lead about two dozen citizensmen, women, and children. Along the way, they face death several times and a frightening walk across a swaying bridge made of nothing more than planks and rope. Keeping the children safe and protected from the realities of their situation becomes the harshest, most emotional role Irene has ever played as a mother. Irenes entire world has always been devoted to her childrenMara, ten; Vera, eight; Andow, seven; and Gari, five. Now more than ever, they need her the most. Once they arrive safely in Austria, everyone rejoicesthat is, whoever is still alive. Of the two dozen who started out on this long journey, only fifteen remain. Irene cannot share the jubilations; she is heartbroken. Their freedom forced her to abandon her homeland and forsake her family, especially her mother, Gitta, who proclaimed that she was too old to make such a journey. My slowing you down could end in disaster for you and the children. No, its better that I stay here. The story continues until the children are young men and women. Because of Irenes fear of strangers due to years of not being able to trust anyone, she refuses to attend functions at Rutgers University, where Benci is employed. She will not allow a stranger to babysit her children, which leads to a bitter divorce; and Irene, though devastated, never accepts any responsibility for the failed marriage.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and Fosse comes the revelatory account of the making of a modern American masterpiece Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered dealmaking of "The Kid" Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne's fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written. Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation. Looming over the story of this classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the '70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today. In telling that larger story, The Big Goodbye will take its place alongside classics like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and The Devil's Candy as one of the great movie-world books ever written. Praise for Sam Wasson: "Wasson is a canny chronicler of old Hollywood and its outsize personalities...More than that, he understands that style matters, and, like his subjects, he has a flair for it." - The New Yorker "Sam Wasson is a fabulous social historian because he finds meaning in situations and stories that would otherwise be forgotten if he didn't sleuth them out, lovingly." - Hilton Als

An updated edition including new color photographs and a new afterword looking back at the journeyAlastair Humphreys' around-the-world journey of 46,000 miles was an old-fashioned adventure: long, lonely, low-budget, and spontaneous. Cycling across five continents and sailing over the oceans, his ride took four years to complete, on a tiny budget of hoarded student loans. Here is the story of the first remarkable stage of the expedition. Just two weeks into the ride the September 11th attacks changed everything. All Humphreys' plans went out the window and, instead of riding towards Australia, he suddenly found himself pedaling through the Middle East and Africa and on toward Cape Town. This book recounts an epic journey that succeeded through Humphreys' trust in the kindness of strangers, at a time where the interactions of our global community are more confused and troubled than ever.

In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.

Public Issues, Private Tensions suggests the intellectual scope and esthetic parameters of this book: a critical exploration of the public issues and private tensions that seem central to American drama and theater since 1945. The critical point of departure for these seventeen essayists is the delicate moral balance between the civic function of the theater and its relationship to the spirit of the individual. Playwrights observed include Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Lillian Hellman, Sam Shepard, David Mamet, David Rabe, Lanford Wilson, Wallace Shawn, Megan Terry, Denise Hamilton, Maria Irene Fornes, Arthur Kopit, Emily Mann, Israel Horovitz, Charles Fuller, and others. Some of the contributors address questions of performance theory, audience reception, semiotics and theater, and feminist ideology.