SUMMER/ FALL 2020 Letter from the Publisher
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SUMMER/ FALL 2020 Letter from the Publisher ear Restless Reader, D The world is at a vortex. A virus that has spread across the globe has com- restlessbooks.org promised the health of millions, brought all but essential endeavors to a halt, and ignited resentment within and across nations. In the United States, the electoral moment is once again revitalizing our democracy. In this atmosphere, literature Mission might seem irrelevant. In truth, it is just the opposite. Reading is thinking, and Restless Books is an independent, nonprofit publisher devoted to championing essential voices from around the world whose stories speak to us across linguistic and cultural borders. We seek reading wisely is thinking deeply. Our lineup of upcoming titles is a reminder of extraordinary international literature for adults and young readers that feeds our restlessness: our why writers are irreplaceable chroniclers of our time. hunger for new perspectives, passion for other cultures and languages, and eagerness to explore It is fitting that our first title to be published into the teeth of the catastrophe is beyond the confines of the familiar. about regeneration and new life. Gabriela Wiener’s Nine Moons, out in May 2020, Through cultural programming, we aim to celebrate immigrant writing and bring literature to is more than simply a chronicle of her pregnancy. It is a fierce and irreverent dis- underserved communities. We believe that immigrant stories are a vital component of our cultural quisition on our contorted attitudes toward human procreation and a woman’s tra- consciousness; they help to ensure awareness of our communities, build empathy for our neigh- bors, and strengthen our democracy. ditional role as mother. It is very different in tone from Yishai Sarid'sThe Memory Monster, a meditation on memory and terror that takes the form of a report to the Board of Directors director of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. A Annette Hochstein, Chair Alison Gore, Secretary bestseller in Israel and a prize-winner in Germany, it is, on the one hand, an in- Alison Sparks, Treasurer dictment of the younger generation’s disconnection from Nazi atrocities, and on Ilan Stavans the other, a reflection on the effects of Israeli military power over the Palestinians. Steven G. Kellman I am also delighted to be publishing The Way Out, a thriller by the late Argentine Advisory Board literary critic and novelist Ricardo Piglia (1940-2017). Arguably his best work, it Stephanie Anderson, Assistant Director of Selection for BookOps (NYPL & BPL) brings back his best-loved characters. We are publishing it along with the third and Jeff Deutsch, Director of Seminary Co-op Bookstore last volume of Piglia's autobiographical epic, The Diaries of Emilio Renzi. Cristina García, Author Galit Hasan-Rokem, Author Yonder, our children's-book imprint, features Ellie’s Voice, an inspiring look at David Bruce Smith, Author difference from Estonian author Piret Raud. Plus, we are bringing out a retelling Norton Juster, Architect, Author, and Professor of the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya people, lavishly illustrated by Salva- Mitchell Kaplan, Owner of Books & Books and Co-Founder of The Miami Book Fair Mario Vargas Llosa, Author doran folk artist Gabriela Larios. It offers a lesson on resistance and resourceful Ruth Ozeki, Author storytelling from which we might learn much. David L. Ulin, Author Indeed, it is during soul-searching periods like this one when it is most crucial to turn to literature. The answers to our crises are in the messages other cultures Support Us As a nonprofit organization, Restless Books relies on the generosity of our readers and partners to send us across space and time. achieve our mission. Your support enables us to discover and promote extraordinary authors from around the world, to champion perspectives from outside the confines of the familiar, and to take Un saludo, risks in our editorial choices, always emphasizing literary value over the concerns of the market. Ilan Stavans, Publisher Please contribute at restlessbooks.org/donate Cover illustration © Gabriela Larios, from Popol Vuh: A Retelling, by Ilan Stavans (Oct 2020) Restless Books | Summer and Fall 2020 1 Nine Moons And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Gabriela Wiener Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic Translated from the Spanish by Jessica Powell Edited by Ilan Stavans Gabriela Wiener is not one to shy away from unpleasant As our world is transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, truths or to balk at a challenge. She began her writing career writers offer a powerful antidote to the confines of isolation: by infiltrating Peru’s most dangerous prison, going all in at a window onto lives and corners of the world beyond our own. swingers clubs, ingesting ayahuasca in the Amazon jungle. So And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title at 30, when she gets unexpectedly pregnant, she looks forward from the last line of Dante’s Inferno, when the poet and his to the experience the way a mountain climber approaches a guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the precipitous peak. heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection—from beloved authors including Jhumpa La- With a scientist’s curiosity and a libertine’s unbridled imagina- hiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee tion, Wiener hungrily devours every scrap of information and Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more—de- misinformation she encounters during the nine months of her tail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while Hardcover List Price: $22 pregnancy and holds up to the light the infinity of choices and pointing toward a less isolated future. Together they comprise Paperback List Price: $22 ISBN: 9781632062239 contradictory demands a pregnant woman confronts, each one a profound global portrait of the defining moment of our time, ISBN: 9781632063021 Publication: 5/26/2020 amplified to a life-and-death decision. and send a clarion call for solidarity across borders. Publication: 8/26/2020 5" x 7.125" • 240 pages 6" x 9" • 400 pages Memoir: Motherhood / Childbirth / While pregnant women are still placed on pedestals, or used as Our literary culture depends on bookstores—and those General Trade—Anthology Women / Feminism political battlegrounds, or made into passive objects of study, irreplaceable sources of conversation and community, of Rights Held: World, Audio, Film / TV Rights Held: World English Gabriela Wiener defies definition. With unguarded humor and inspiration and solace, have been decimated by the lockdown. eBook ISBN: 9781632063014 eBook ISBN:9781632062246 breathtaking directness, Nine Moons questions the dogmas, Net proceeds from And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars upends the stereotypes, and embraces all the terror, beauty, Again will go to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, In this rich, eye-opening, and Also by Gabriela Wiener: uplifting digital anthology, Sexographies and paradoxes of the propagation of the species. which helps the passionate booksellers we readers depend upon. dozens of esteemed writers, From the daring Peruvian • A bold, unflinching, and hilarious take on motherhood poets, and artists from more essayist and provocateur from the acclaimed author of Sexographies • With authors from 34 countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, than thirty countries send behind Sexographies comes a literary dispatches from life • Thrillingly explodes the stereotypes and proprieties Sudan, Palestine, Taiwan, Cuba, Italy, Kuwait, Chile, fierce and funny exploration during the pandemic. Net surrounding pregnancy and motherhood Mauritius, and more, And We Came Outside and Saw of sex, pregnancy, and the Stars Again is a truly global portrait of the global proceeds benefit booksellers motherhood. • The perfect pick for book clubs that love bold essay pandemic. in need. collections and memoirs by boundary-pushing authors like Rachel Cusk, Sheila Heti, and Leslie Jamison • Beloved authors offer a cornucopia of essays, stories, poems, artwork, journalism, polemics, and parables Authors include: about how life changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas © Paul Vallejos • A portion of proceeds go to the Book Industry Charitable Gabriela Wiener is the acclaimed author six collections of Llosa, Rivka Galchen, Daniel Foundation, which gives financial support to booksellers crónicas, including Sexographies (2018), her first to be trans- Alarcón, Gabriela Wiener, in crisis. lated into English. She writes regularly for the newspapers El Jon Lee Anderson, Chloe País (Spain), La República (Peru), and others in the US and Eu- • And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes Aridjis, Eavan Boland, Chris rope. In Madrid, she worked as editor of the Spanish edition its hopeful title from the last line of Dante’s Inferno, in Abani, Lynne Tillman, Juan of Marie Claire. She lives in Madrid. which the poet and his guide emerge from their journey Villoro, Claire Messud, through hell to see the beauty of the heavens once again. Andrés Neuman, Francine Prose, and many more 2 Restless Books | Summer and Fall 2020 Restless Books | Summer and Fall 2020 3 DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE: TWO CUBAN SCIENCE FICTION CLASSICS Red Dust Yoss Spiral Translated from the Spanish by David Frye Agustín de Rojas Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Hebe Powell On the intergalactic trading station William S. Burroughs, profit is king and aliens are the kingmakers. Earthlings have The long-awaited capstone to the landmark trilogy that began bowed to their superior power and weaponry, though the with A Legend of the Future and The Year 200 by Agustín de aliens, kindly allow them to do business through properly Rojas, “one of Cuba’s greatest science fiction writers” —SF controlled channels. Signal Enter our hero, Raymond. As part of the android police force, • The first two books in Agustín de Rojas’s science fiction this positronic robot detective navigates both worlds, human trilogy have been heralded with praise and compared and alien, keeping order and evaporating wrongdoers.