In the tradition of A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, a sweeping tale of friendship, hardship and redemption set in North Korea. Gi lives behind North Korea's iron curtain under the watchful eye of Dear Leader. As an orphan, growing up on a diet of thin soup and propaganda, life is a constant struggle against hunger and fear. But when she meets headstrong Il-sun, tender Gi finds consolation in another human being for the first time, and their unlikely friendship grows as deep as the bond between sisters. Everything changes when they fall victim to a people trafficker and are indentured into the sex trade, first south of the border and then in America. The hardships they face on their journey from East to West test them to the very limits of what it is possible to endure. Perfect for fans of Khaled Hosseini and Chris Cleave, heart-wrenching but ultimately redemptive, ALL WOMAN AND SPRINGTIME provides an unforgettable insight into the most mysterious and unknown country on earth, and in Gi paints a portrait of a young woman who loses everything but refuses to be destroyed.

An Oprah Daily Top 25 Fantasy Book of 2022 From an award-winning team of authors, editors, and translators comes a groundbreaking short story collection that explores the expanse of Chinese science fiction and fantasy. In The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, you can dine at a restaurant at the end of the universe, cultivate to immortality in the high mountains, watch roses perform Shakespeare, or arrive at the island of the gods on the backs of giant fish to ensure that the world can bloom. Written, edited, and translated by a female and nonbinary team, these stories have never before been published in English and represent both the richly complicated past and the vivid future of Chinese science fiction and fantasy. Time travel to a winter's day on the West Lake, explore the very boundaries of death itself, and meet old gods and new heroes in this stunning new collection. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The death of a mother alters forever a family’s story of itself. Indeed, it taxes the ability of a family to tell that story at all. The Accounts narrates the struggle to speak with any clear understanding in the wake of that loss. The title poem attempts three explanations of the departure of a life from the earth—a physical account, a psychological account, and a spiritual account. It is embedded in a long narrative sequence that tries to state plainly the facts of the last days of the mother’s life, in a room that formerly housed a television, next to a California backyard. The visual focus of that sequence, a robin’s nest, poised above the family home, sings in a kind of lament, giving its own version of ways we can see the transformation of the dying into the dead. In other poems, called “Arguments,” two voices exchange uncertain truths about subjects as high as heaven and as low as crime. Grief is a problem that cannot be solved by thinking, but that doesn’t stop the mind, which relentlessly carries on, trying in vain to settle its accounts. The death of a well-loved person creates a debt that can never be repaid. It reminds the living of our own psychological debts to each other, and to the dead. In this sense, the death of this particular mother and the transformation of this particular family are evocative of a greater struggle against any changing reality, and the loss of all beautiful and passing forms of order.

From the Man Booker Prize Finalist comes the third novel in her Seasonal Quartet—a New York Times Notable Book and longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020 What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times? Spring. The great connective. With an eye to the migrancy of story over time and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tell the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown, Smith opens the door. The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story? Hope springs eternal.

The National Book Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Color Purple explores our modern world with “compassion, courage, and humor” (Booklist). Alice Walker once ached for retirement, but in the turmoil of the Democratic primaries and the economic collapse of 2008, she realized she simply had a great deal more to say. Leaving her meditation cushion behind, she found herself traveling the world once again to speak of our intertwined personal, spiritual, and political destinies through ruminations, poems, essays, and letters. At the height of her literary powers, this revered American novelist, poet, essayist, and activist invites readers on a journey of political awakening and spiritual insight. While visiting subjects she has addressed throughout her career—including racism, Africa, Palestinian solidarity, and Cuba—as well as addressing emergent issues, such as the presidency of Barack Obama and health care, Walker explores her conflicting impulses to retreat into inner contemplation and to remain deeply engaged with the world. Rich with humor and wisdom, and informed by Walker’s unique eye for the details of human and natural experience, The Cushion in the Road is “a heartfelt response to a new generation’s yearning for public service” (Kirkus Reviews). “Walker’s concern for the state of humanity and the planet comes through as impassioned and genuine.” —Publishers Weekly “Quintessential Alice Walker: edgy, demanding, prayerful, loving, and aware. An essential companion for those who wish to be a force for positive change in our perpetually challenging world.” —ForeWord Magazine “Infused with a quiet grace and gentle resolve to act responsibly.” —Kirkus Reviews