Perception is everything but simple. As a word, it is the same for everybody. But the meaning, the sound, the smell, the emotions behind it are unique to each person. Some may think a lot about how the world came to be or how certain things work, while others may not spend that kind of time in their thoughts. Employee Nr. 1T2B3 finds herself questioning the way of the world while being rushed around the globe by the people she works for, and realizes that everything seems wrong. While her own mind drives her mad, the owner of the company she works for is getting lost in his hunger for power and recognition - a dangerous kind of frenzy that could overshadow everything he has done up to this point.

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

In a remote location, beyond the reach of time and the boundaries of space, there exists a library. One day, the librarian, guardian of knowledge, and the philosopher, seeker of truth, found a nameless book that led them on a quest for ultimate knowledge. This philosophical journey will take them to discover the secrets held in this mysterious place and discuss their very own fabric of reality, bringing them close to the edge of madness. Through conversations, they will dive deep into the exploration of the human condition, the nature of their own existence, and the search for purpose, questioning whether reality is merely a construct shaped by the mind or if there is a deeper truth that eludes them both. This psychological suspense story invites the reader to reflect and engage in a philosophical inquiry through a thought-provoking yet captivating narrative.

You are indestructible. Three whispered words transfer an astonishing power to Jacob Fielding that changes everything. At first, Jacob is hesitant to use the power, unsure of its implications. But there's something addictive about testing the limits of fear. Then Ophelia James, the beautiful and daring new girl in town, suggests that they use the power to do good, to save others. But with every heroic act, the power grows into the specter of a curse. How to decide who lives and who dies? In this nail-biting novel of mystery and dark intrigue, Jacob must walk the razor thin line between right and wrong, good and evil, and life and death. And time is running out. Because the Grim Reaper doesn't disappear. . . . He catches up.

The facts of life / W. Somerset Maugham -- Fifty pounds / A.E. Coppard -- The last day in the field / Caroline Gordon -- A worn path / Eudora Welty -- That evening sun / William Faulkner -- What we don't know hurts us / Mark Schorer -- Shivaree before breakfast / Jessamyn West -- Part of the act / Sidney Alexander -- A little cloud / James Joyce -- The secret life of Walter Mitty / James Thurber -- Effigy of war / Kay Boyle -- Sailor off the Bremen / Irwin Shaw -- Personal letter / William March -- Flowering Judas / Katherine Anne Porter -- Bliss / Katherine Mansfield -- The Gioconda smile / Aldous Huxley -- The basement room / Graham Greene -- The great fog / H.F. Heard -- The ape / V.S. Pritchett -- A hunger artist / Franz Kafka -- Mr. Andrews / E.M. Forster -- The apostate / George Milburn -- The forks / J.F. Powers -- The new dress / Virginia Woolf -- The lovely lady / D.H. Lawrence -- The use of force / William Carlos Williams -- The lottery / Shirley Jackson -- A clean, well-lighted place / Ernest Hemingway -- Mario and the magician / Thomas Mann.

We define our conscious experience by constructing narratives about ourselves and the people with whom we interact. Narrative pervades our lives--conscious experience is not merely linked to the number and variety of personal stories we construct with each other within a cultural frame, but is subsumed by them. The claim, however, that narrative constructions are essential to conscious experience is not useful or informative unless we can also begin to provide a distinct, organized, and empirically consistent explanation for narrative in relation to consciousness. Understanding the role of narrative in determining individual and collective consciousness has been elusive from within traditional academic frameworks. This volume argues that addressing so broad and complex a problem requires an examination from outside our insular disciplinary framework. Such an open examination would be informed by the inquiries and approaches of multiple disciplines. Recognition of the different approaches to examining personal stories will allow for the coordination of how narrative seems (its phenomenology), with what mental labor it does (its psychology), and how it is realized (its neurobiology). Only by overcoming the boundaries erected by multiple theoretical and discursive traditions can we begin to comprehend the nature and function of narrative in consciousness. Narrative and Consciousness brings together essays by exceptional scholars and scientists in the disciplines of literary theory, psychology, and neuroscience to examine how stories are constructed, how stories structure lived experience, and how stories are rooted in material reality (the human body). The specific topics addressed include narrative in the development of conscious awareness; autobiographical narrative, fiction and the construction of self; trauma and narrative disruptions; narrative, memory and identity; and the physiological and neural substrate of narrative. It is the editors' hope that the multidisciplinary nature of this collection will challenge the reader to move beyond disciplinary confines and toward a coherent interdisciplinary dialogue.

Who’s to Blame? Collective Guilt on Trial presents a psychoanalytic exploration of blame and collective guilt in the aftermath of large-scale atrocities that cause widespread trauma and victimization. Coline Covington explores various aspects of social and collective guilt and considers how both perpetrators and victims make sense of their experiences, with particular reference to group behavior and political morality. Covington challenges the concept of collective guilt associated with the aftermath of large-scale atrocities such as the Holocaust and examines the moral pressure placed on perpetrators to exhibit guilt as part of a realignment of political power and a process of restoring social morality. Who’s to Blame? Collective Guilt on Trial concludes with a chapter-length case study examining Russia’s war in Ukraine. Combining psychoanalytic ideas with political, philosophical and social theory, Who’s to Blame? Collective Guilt on Trial will be of great value to readers interested in questions of collective guilt, blame and the possibilities of atonement. It will also appeal to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, and to academics of psychoanalytic studies, political philosophy, sociology and conflict resolution.