"Splendid" —New York Times "Mind-bending." —Wall Street Journal "Brilliantly original. The best new novel I've read this year." —Salman Rushdie A daring, kaleidoscopic novel about the clash of empires and ideas, told through a tennis match in the sixteenth century between the radical Italian artist Caravaggio and the Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo, played with a ball made from the hair of the beheaded Anne Boleyn. The poet and the artist battle it out in Rome before a crowd that includes Galileo, a Mary Magdalene, and a generation of popes who would throw the world into flames. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII execute Anne Boleyn, and her crafty executioner transforms her legendary locks into those most-sought-after tennis balls. Across the ocean in Mexico, the last Aztec emperors play their own games, as the conquistador Hernán Cortés and his Mayan translator and lover, La Malinche, scheme and conquer, fight and f**k, not knowing that their domestic comedy will change the course of history. In a remote Mexican colony a bishop reads Thomas More’s Utopia and thinks that it’s a manual instead of a parody. And in today’s New York City, a man searches for answers to impossible questions, for a book that is both an archive and an oracle. Álvaro Enrigue’s mind-bending story features assassinations and executions, hallucinogenic mushrooms, bawdy criminals, carnal liaisons and papal schemes, artistic and religious revolutions, love and war. A blazingly original voice and a postmodern visionary, Enrigue tells the grand adventure of the dawn of the modern era, breaking down traditions and upending expectations, in this bold, powerful gut-punch of a novel. Game, set, match. “Sudden Death is the best kind of puzzle, its elements so esoteric and wildly funny that readers will race through the book, wondering how Álvaro Enrigue will be able to pull a novel out of such an astonishing ball of string. But Enrigue absolutely does; and with brilliance and clarity and emotional warmth all the more powerful for its surreptitiousness.” —Lauren Groff, New York Times-bestselling author of Fates and Furies "Engrossing... rich with Latin and European history." —The New Yorker "[A] bawdy, often profane, sprawling, ambitious book that is as engaging as it is challenging.” —Vogue

Outrageous, irrepressible and endlessly entertaining, the bestselling author of Rubyfruit Jungle and Bingo spins a behind-the-scenes tale of women's professional tennis that dramtically intertwines the heart-stopping excitement of competition and the lingering heartache of intimate human bonds. Carmen Semanan loves three things passionalty: tennis, money and professor Harriet Rawls. Just twenty-four, Carmen is at her peak as one of the world's top-seeded tennis champions, determined to win the coveted Grand Slam. She is protected from everything but the grueling demands of her sport by an avericious agent and her devoted gusty Harriet. All the odds are in her favor. But there are weeds growing in her paradise patch. Carmen's vey latin brother, Miguel, parlays her succes into a financial house of cards with deals that include smuggling, forgery, and fraud. Susan Reilly, Carmen's archrival and former lover, leaks word of Carms's relationship with Harriet to the press--and tennis's best-kept secret is blown into a front-page scandal. From the French Open to Wimbledon, jealousies, ambitions and passions are set to explode. Now, with everything she cherishes on the line, Carmen must test the true depths of her feelings-both on and off the court.

Following the success of Bury the Lead, David Rosenfelt delivers a "wise cracking legal thriller" featuring Defense Attorney Andy Carpenter (Publishers Weekly). Kenny Schilling is the new star running back for the New York Giants.Troy Preston was a wide receiver for the Jets, until his recent murder. Could rivalry have turned Kenny Schilling into a cold-blooded killer? The police say yes. And now the football hero needs a good lawyer-quick. Still basking in the glow of his last successful case, Andy Carpenter is called to defend Kenny's innocence. Then it's revealed that Troy wasn't the only murdered player Kenny was in contact with. Now, amid a collapsing personal life and death threats from a drug king-who may or may not have a hand in things-Andy must keep his eye on the ball during what could become the media trial of the century.

Restoring dignity to sudden death.

When Jake Bastin's father, a former soccer star turned coach, is hired to coach a team in Saint Petersburg, Russia, they encounter a string of mysterious deaths, and Jake begins to wonder if his father could be involved in the crimes.

Determining the cause of death in children and young adults can pose considerable challenges. Professor Byard provides for the first time a complete overview of pathological aspects of sudden death in the young, from before birth to middle adult life. Highly illustrated with more than 800 colour figures, this third edition contains new sections on sexual abuse, pregnancy-related deaths and rare natural diseases, as well as expanded coverage of unexpected death in young adults up to the age of 30 years. Chapters are organised by systems and cover all aspects of natural death, as well as accidents, suicides and homicides. Supported by extensive referencing and numerous tables, the book can also be used as a practical autopsy manual. An encyclopaedic overview and analysis of sudden death in the young, this is a key text for pediatric and forensic pathologists, pediatricians, and lawyers and physicians involved in medicolegal cases.