"There is gold at the end of the rainbow." As a child, Karin Jarman loved to gaze into the distance, longing to reach the horizon. She had an urge to travel--the very word seeming to have an enchanting effect. This, along with a deep connection to fairy tales, inspired her to embark on her own magical journey to discover a mysterious castle by a far-off Golden City. Karin's opportunity came in her forty-ninth year, with her children grown and independent. Entertaining many doubts, she eventually set aside work and family and began a pilgrimage to the fourteenth-century Gothic castle of Karlstein, which had been built by Charles IV near Prague in the Czech republic. Unlike many modern-day pilgrims, however, she made the entire journey on foot while gratefully accepting the hospitality of strangers. Her purpose was not feats of endurance or athletic prowess; rather, she was trying to create a mood of true pilgrimage--to encounter the sacred through outer travels and inner transformation. Her eventful travels covered more than 1,200 miles, taking around twenty-two weeks, during which time she stayed with more than a hundred hosts. Having confronted many issues of her biography, she returned home a changed person with fresh resolve and initiative. Touching the Horizon is Karin Jarman's remarkable story, from her first inklings that such a journey might be possible, to the arrival at the beautiful fairy-tale castle of Karlstein. She also describes the aftermath of her pilgrimage and its effects on her and her family. This is a rare and gripping narrative of possibility, realization and metamorphosis.

FICTION-ROMANCE/GOTHIC

'Touching the Next Horizon' explores the exceedingly rare gift of genuine physical mediumship through the UK medium Stewart Alexander which includes communications between the living and so-called dead, as reported by Katie Halliwell, a first-hand witness who has kept meticulous records. Detailing 20 years of the author's experiences with the 'Stewart Alexander Circle' it contains the best of her original trilogy and further interesting reports of trance and physical phenomena up to 2019. Katie includes the results of the tragic passing of a prominent circle member and the death of a much-loved friend of the circle and his 'return' to speak to a friend and later materialize to hold his wife's hand. Also in the book are fine detailed illustrations depicting physical phenomena in action, as Katie takes us into the séance room. The interesting account of the traditional Christmas tree séance which the Alexander Circle gave in 2006 is included with a report on the evident joy of the sitters as the Spirit children played with the toys provided. New information from the spirit team clarifies the different energy needed for the matter-thru-matter experiment and we read of new steps in developing transfiguration which brings us up to date. These are just some of the wonders within this new edition as it seeks to demonstrate and prove survival after death and how it is all made possible by the blending of the two worlds through the physical mediumship of Stewart Alexander.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen combines romance and adventure in this exotic tale of finding the love of your life—in the last place you’d ever look. She was stranded in a deadly sandstorm when he rode to her rescue like a desert prince on his black stallion. On a lark Billie Callahan had come to the Middle East to play a minor film role in a desert epic. Suddenly she found herself starring in a real-life romantic adventure. Cowboy, hero, friend of sheikhs and princes, David Bradford spoke like a poet in the drawl of his native Texas. What was this mysterious, eccentric, and irresistibly seductive man doing in Sedikhan, and what did he want with an ordinary woman like Billie? Her curiosity piqued, Billie followed David to the lavish pleasure fortress he called home, with its armed guards and adoring staff. He warned her that the pleasure he offered her would last forever. What he didn’t know was that Billie only believed in now.

New Directions is proud to be the publisher of the the distinguished Italian novelist Antonio Tabucchi, whose works include The Edge of the Horizon, a story of an "unimportant death," now available for the first time in a paperback edition.

From two-time Newbery medalist and living legend Lois Lowry comes a moving account of the lives lost in two of WWII's most infamous events: Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. With evocative black-and-white illustrations by SCBWI Golden Kite Award winner Kenard Pak. Lois Lowry looks back at history through a personal lens as she draws from her own memories as a child in Hawaii and Japan, as well as from historical research, in this stunning work in verse for young readers. On the Horizon tells the story of people whose lives were lost or forever altered by the twin tragedies of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Based on the lives of soldiers at Pearl Harbor and civilians in Hiroshima, On the Horizon contemplates humanity and war through verse that sings with pain, truth, and the importance of bridging cultural divides. This masterful work emphasizes empathy and understanding in search of commonality and friendship, vital lessons for students as well as citizens of today's world. Kenard Pak's stunning illustrations depict real-life people, places, and events, making for an incredibly vivid return to our collective past. In turns haunting, heartbreaking, and uplifting, On The Horizon will remind readers of the horrors and heroism in our past, as well as offer hope for our future.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES • NPR • THE GUARDIAN From pole to pole and across decades of lived experience, National Book Award-winning author Barry Lopez delivers his most far-ranging, yet personal, work to date. Horizon moves indelibly, immersively, through the author’s travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica. Along the way, Lopez probes the long history of humanity’s thirst for exploration, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in northern Canada, the colonialists who plundered Central Africa, an enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific, a Native American emissary who found his way into isolationist Japan, and today’s ecotourists in the tropics. And always, throughout his journeys to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world.