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MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING | MHPBOOKS.COM 1


A new novel by a master of Iranian letters—often rumored to be a contender for the Nobel Prize—that directly engages politics in Iran today

Ten years in the writing, this fearless novel—so powerful it’s banned in Iran—tells the stirring story of a tortured people forced to live under successive oppressive regimes.

It begins on a pitch black, rainy night, when there’s a knock on the Colonel’s door. Two policemen have come to summon him to collect the tortured body of his youngest daughter. The Islamic Revolution is devouring its own children. Set over the course of a single night, the novel follows the Colonel as he pays a bribe to recover his daughter’s body and then races to bury her before sunrise.

As we watch him struggle with the death of his innocent child, we find him wracked with guilt and anger over the condition of his country, particularly as represented by his own children: a son who fell during the 1979 revolution; another driven to madness after being tortured during the Shah’s regime; a third who went off to martyr himself fighting for the ayatollahs in their war against Iraq; one murdered daughter, and another who survives by being married to a cruel opportunist.

An incredibly powerful novel about nation, history and family, The Colonel leaves no taboo unbroken.

MAHMOUD DOWLATABADI is one of Iran’s most important writers of the last century, and a fearless—and often imprisoned—critic of both the Shah and the current regime. The author of numerous novels, plays and screenplays, he is a leading proponent of social and artistic freedom in contemporary Iran. Dowlatabadi pioneered the use of the everyday language of the Iranian people as suitable for high literary art, and often examines the lives of the marginal and oppressed in his work, such as in his previous Melville House title, Missing Soluch, his first work translated into English.

PRAISE FOR DOWLATABADI ’S PREVIOUS TITLE, MISSING SOLUCH

“Beautifully and incisively rendered, and imbued throughout with hope.”

—Publishers Weekly

“An outstanding master achievement.”—Der Spiegel

THE COLONELA NOVEL

Translated by Tom PatterdaleMAHMOUD DOWLATABADI


ON SALE: MAY 8

FICTIONPAPERBACK256 PAGES, 5" × 8"$17.95 / $17.95978-1-61219-132-4 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-133-1RIGHTS: US AND CANADA

MARKETING:

Currently a finalist for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize—the

“Asian Booker”

The Colonel was shortlisted for the Haus der Kulturen Berlin International Literary Award in 2009.

The Colonel is banned in its native Iran, where the office of censorship has prohibited publication.

Events in LA, SF and NYC

ARCs to media, booksellers

Email blast to Middle Eastern Studies Association email list

Displays at ALA 2012 (June)

“It’s about time everyone even remotely interested in Iran read this novel.”

—The Independent


One of the most wildly popular detective series in Europe—where each book has sold over 300,000 copies—finally comes to the US and UK

Wolf Haas’ Detective Brenner series has become wildly popular around the world for a reason: They’re timely, edgy stories told in a wry, quirky voice that’s often hilarious, and with a protagonist it’s hard not to love.

In this episode, Brenner—forced out of the police force—tries to get away from detective work by taking a job as the personal chauffeur for two-year-old Helena, the daughter of a Munich construction giant and a Viennese abortion doctor. One day, while Brenner’s attention is turned to picking out a chocolate bar for Helena at a gas station, Helena gets snatched from the car. Abruptly out of a job, Brenner decides to investigate her disappearance on his own.

With both parents in the public eye, there’s no scarcity of leads—the father’s latest development project has spurred public protest, and the mother’s clinic has been targeted by the zealous leader of an anti-abortion group.

Brenner and God is told with a dark humor that leaves no character, including Brenner, unscathed. Haas tells the story of a fallible hero who can be indecisive and world-weary, baffled and disillusioned by what he finds, but who presses forward nonetheless out of a stubborn sense of decency—a two-year-old is kidnapped, so you find her, because that’s just what you do.

WOLF HAAS was born in 1960 in the Austrian province of Salzburg. He is the author of seven books in the bestselling Detective Brenner mystery series, three volumes of which have been made into popular German-language films. Among other prizes, the Brenner books have been awarded the German thriller prize and the 2004 Literature Prize from the City of Vienna.

ANNIE JANUSCH is the translator of the Art of the Novella edition of Heinrich von Kleist’s The Duel.

PRAISE FOR THE GERMAN EDITION OF BRENNER AND GOD :

“One of Germany’s most loved thriller writers: he’s celebrated by the literary critics and venerated by the readers.”

—Der Spiegel

“This is great art, great fun.”—Germany Radio

“Wolf Haas writes the funniest and cleverest mysteries.” —Die Welt

BRENNER AND GODA NOVEL

Translated by Annie JanuschWOLF HAAS


ON SALE: JUNE 26

CRIME FICTIONPAPERBACK240 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 8 1⁄4" $14.95 / $14.95978-1-61219-113-3 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-114-0ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

The first book to be translated from the wildly popular “Brenner” detective series.

Huge bestseller in Europe: each book in the series has sold over 300,000 copies in Germany. Also published in Spain, China, Hungary, Poland, Korea, Latvia, and France.

Three volumes of the Brenner series have been made into popular German-language films

Large ARC mailing (500 copies) to media, bloggers, and critics

Author tour

Ads in Crime Spree magazine and The Strand

Promotion at ALA 2011

Bouchercon 2012: finished copy giveaway, bookmarks

Noir Con 2012

“Thanks to Simon Brenner, the Austrian Wolf Haas is one of the German-speaking world's premier crime writers, beloved by critics and readers alike.” —Der Spiegel

MELVILLE INTERNATIONAL

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An edgy but big-hearted poetry debut in the style of Ada Limón and Tao Lin, by a winner of Poets & Writers magazine's prestigious Amy Award to outstanding women poets

Leigh Stein’s poetry has been creating a buzz since her days as a New Yorker staffer. Funny, charming and imaginative, her work deals with the experience of growing up in a world saturated with fantasy and social media, and explores the trials of becoming an adult. Her numerous readings of her work around town—often presented dramatically, sometimes with puppets—made her a local hit.

Now, in the wake of the publication of her greatly anticipated first novel, The Fallback Plan, she lives up to the buzz with a funny, charming and imaginative debut poetry collection.

Uncanny yet lyrical, these poems go from the darkest side of Facebook to the remotest corner of the desert. Through online dating, beauty pageants, Greek mythology, and road trips, Stein weaves a tapestry of young women in love and in longing. Post-confessional, like Sylvia Plath raised on MTV, or Anne Sexton on Twitter, Stein knows how to draw readers in with a narrative hook, or a pop culture reference. This irreverent collection points the way to what contemporary poetry can be.

LEIGH STEIN is a former New Yorker staffer and frequent contributor to its “Book Bench” blog. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and awarded the prestigious Poets & Writers Amy Award. Her first novel, The Fallback Plan, is being published by Melville House in January, 2012. She lives in Brooklyn, where she works in children’s publishing and teaches musical theater to elementary school students.

PRAISE FOR LEIGH STEIN’S PREVIOUS BOOK, THE FALLBACK PLAN :

“Beautiful, funny, thrilling, and true.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of

Super Sad True Love Story

“Stein’s light, accessible, self-deprecating prose makes this coming-of-age story a pleasure.” —Publishers Weekly

“Intimate, urgent, and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . Think Franny and Zooey. Think Goodbye, Columbus. Think of this book as your next great read.”

—Joe Meno, author of Hairstyles of the Damned

DISPATCH FROM THE FUTUREPOEMS

LEIGH STEIN


ON SALE: JULY 17

POETRYPAPERBACK144 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 7 1⁄2"$14.95 / $14.95978-1-61219-134-8 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-135-5ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

Aggressive outreach to poetry blogs

Author is very active online, with two blogs, and will promote book

Readings in New York, Boston, Chicago areas, and more

Pre-launch campaign at AWP conference

Author coming off major tour and press for previous book— O magazine, Elle, Allure, and The Paris Review

AUTHOR WEBSITES:

leighstein.blogspot.com

poetsandpuppets.blogspot.com

“Leigh Stein's poems know how to laugh it off after a stunning tumble down a flight of stairs.”

—Rob MacDonald, editor of Sixth Finch


The publisher of Harper’s Magazine presents “an able, witty, and suitably pissed-off guide” (Bookforum) to American politics

Barack Obama swept into the White House in January 2009 still floating—or so it appeared to millions of his admirers—high above the crude realities of contemporary American political life. Old-fashioned landmarks—party loyalty, ideology, campaign fundraising, patronage, corruption, even race—seemed hopelessly outdated as points of reference for understanding what was trumpeted as a new phenomenon in the nation’s civic history. But Obama was soon forced to confront a system that proves nearly impossible to change in any meaningful way.

Looking closely at congress, elections, and money in politics, and sparing neither side of the political spectrum, MacArthur delivers a devastating exposé of the entrenched interests and elites that make change in America so impossible. Surveying local activists fighting again moneyed interests, he finds much the same as what’s going on in Washington.

First released in September 2008, MacArthur’s book was the first book to criticize Obama from the Left. It is presented here in a new package; it’s also fully revised and contains a new introduction discussing Obama’s first years in office.

JOHN R. MacARTHUR is the president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine. An award-winning journalist, he has previously written for The New York Times, United Press International, The Chicago Sun-Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author of the acclaimed books The Selling of Free Trade: NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy, and Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. He lives in New York City.

PRAISE FOR THE OUTRAGEOUS BARRIERS TO DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

“This book lays bare the malfunctions of our democracy and the solutions in a superb literary style and a convincing manner.”

—George McGovern, Democratic candidate for President, 1972

“A chapter-by-chapter postmortem of cherished American ideals. . . MacArthur’s tone is wry-enraged, but he includes serious anecdotal discussion, looking at the startling numbers behind election-year pomp and following the end result of our politics to America’s economically depressed, hollowed-out small cities.”

—Time Out Chicago

“His careful narrative of political power abuses, from the national to the local, from yesterday to today and maybe tomorrow, shows us that if we do not become committed as ‘we the people,’ we will continue to be ruled by ‘they the corporations.’ ” —Ralph Nader

THE OUTRAGEOUS BARRIERS TO DEMOCRACY IN AMERICAOR, WHY A PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENCY IS IMPOSSIBLE

JOHN R. MacARTHUR


ON SALE: JULY 31

POLITICSPAPERBACK288 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 7 1⁄2"$16.95 / $16.95 978-1-61219-137-9 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-138-6ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

Fully revised

New introduction

Radio tour

Feature coverage of the author

Ads in Harper’s Magazine

TV campaign focusing on Democracy Now, C-Span, and MSNBC

Author received significant media for previous book, including appearances on The Colbert Report, NPR, and Now with Bill Moyers.

“Written with a personal, engrossing style, MacArthur draws your attention page after page with enraging and

motivating stories of conditions on the ground in America.” —Ralph Nader, candidate for president, 2000, 2004, 2008


Completely updated and revised edition of one of the most widely-praised food books of recent years

It’s a perverse fact of modern life: There are more starving people in the world than ever before, while there are also more people who are overweight.

To find out how we got to this point and what we can do about it, Raj Patel launched a comprehensive investigation into the global food network. It took him from the colossal supermarkets of California to India’s wrecked paddy-fields and Africa’s bankrupt coffee farms, while along the way he ate genetically engineered soy beans and dodged flying objects in the protestor-packed streets of South Korea.

What he found was shocking, from the false choices given us by supermarkets to a global epidemic of farmer suicides, and real reasons for famine in Asia and Africa.

Yet he also found great cause for hope—in international resistance movements working to create a more democratic, sustainable and joyful food system. Going beyond ethical consumerism, Patel explains, from seed to store to plate, the steps to regain control of the global food economy, stop the exploitation of both farmers and consumers, and rebalance global sustenance.

RAJ PATEL is an award-winning best-selling writer, activist and academic. He has degrees from the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and Cornell University. He has worked for the World Bank and WTO, and protested against them around the world. He’s currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, SA and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy (aka Food First).

PRAISE FOR STUFFED & STARVED :

“One of the most dazzling books I have read in a very long time. The product of a brilliant mind and a gift to a world hungering for justice.”

—Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine

“Compelling. At first glance, Raj is another depressing voice in the chorus. But in traveling the world researching the book, he also found hope in international social movements working to create more democratic, sustainable, and joyful food systems.”

—Mark Bittman, The New York Times

“A book full of insight, that makes an important contribution to understanding that the politics of food is not a narrow matter of shopping, ethical or otherwise.”

— The Guardian

STUFFED & STARVEDTHE HIDDEN BATTLE FOR THE WORLD FOOD SYSTEM

RAJ PATEL


ON SALE: JUNE 5

POLITICSPAPERBACK432 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 8 1⁄4"$19.95 (US ONLY)978-1-61219-127-0 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-128-7RIGHTS: US

MARKETING:

Mailing to academic journals

Will pitch feature coverage about the author

Radio tour

Select author events

Email blasts to large food organizations and academics

Author was subject of a glowing New Yorker profile last year when a small group in Cleveland declared him a god

Author is a regular on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, and appears often on The Colbert Report

AUTHOR WEBSITE :

www.rajpatel.org

“Indispensable.”—Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma


In search of the spirit of Paul Gauguin, Stuart Pedrell—eccentric Barcelona businessman, construction magnate, dreamer, and patron of poets and painters—disappeared not long after announcing plans to travel to the South Pacific.

A year later he is found stabbed to death at a construction site in Barcelona. Gourmand gumshoe Pepe Carvalho is hired by Pedrell’s wife to find out what happened. Carvalho, a jaded former communist, must travel through circles of the old anti-Franco left wing on the trail of the killer. But with little appetite for politics, Carvalho also leads us on a tour through literature, cuisine, and the criminal underbelly of Barcelona in a typically brilliant twist on the genre by a Spanish master.

Pepe Carvalho is set to retire. Content to live out the rest of his days enjoying the best food and wine Catalonia has to offer, his plans are put on hold when an executive from Barcelona's world-famous soccer team pays him a visit. “The center forward will be killed at dusk,” reads the note the executive gives to Carvalho.

With that, the detective, former communist, and one-time employee of the CIA, must find out where this note is from. Is the threat real? Is it the work of one person? Or is it one of the real estate moguls tearing Barcelona apart in their battle over the most important properties of Catalonia?

Here Montalbán does for the game of soccer what he has done for food. In an exquisite portrait of Spain’s most beloved sport, soccer and politics mix in a gripping mystery about the reckless excesses—and limits—of power.

SOUTHERN SEAS / OFF SIDEMANUEL VÁZQUEZ MONTALBÁN

Barcelona detective Pepe Carvalho’s radical past catches up with him when a powerful businessman— a patron of artists and activists—is found dead after going missing for a year.

Barcelona’s new soccer star is receiving death threats and Pepe Carvalho, gourmet gumshoe and former political prisoner under Franco, is hired to find out who’s behind it.


OFF SIDE ON SALE: JULY 17

FICTION—MYSTERY & DETECTIVEPAPERBACK ORIGINAL288 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 8 1⁄4"$14.95 / $14.95 CAN978-1-61219-060-0EBOOK: 978-1-61219-061-7 WORLD ENGLISH RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

SOUTHERN SEAS ON SALE: MAY 15

FICTION—MYSTERY & DETECTIVEPAPERBACK ORIGINAL224 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 8 1⁄4"$14.95 / $14.95 CAN978-1-61219-062-4EBOOK: 978-1-61219-063-1ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MELVILLE INTERNATIONAL

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ALSO AVAILABLE:

THE ANGST-RIDDEN EXECUTIVE978-1-61219-038-9EBOOK: 978-1-61219-039-6

MURDER IN THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 978-1-61219-036-5EBOOK: 978-1-61219-037-2

THE BUENOS AIRES QUINTET978-1-61219-034-1EBOOK: 978-1-61219-035-8

$14.95 / $16.95 CAN

Poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist MANUEL VÁZQUEZ

MONTALBÁN (1939–2003) was one of modern Spain’s greatest writers. A politically active leftist as a young man, he was jailed under Franco for four years for supporting a miners’ strike. As an adult, he also became a gourmand, and wrote often about food. His Pepe Carvalho series—set in Montalbán’s native Barcelona—has won international acclaim, including the Planeta prize (1979) and the International Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (1981).

PATRICK CAMILLER (Southern Seas) has also translated Che Guevara’s African diaries. ED EMERY (Off Side) has also trans-lated Mohamed Choukri, Antonio Negri, and Dario Fo.

PRAISE FOR MANUEL VÁZQUEZ MONTALBÁN

“Pepe Carvalho is a phlegmatic investigator. His greatest concern is with his stomach, but when not pursuing delicacies, he can unravel the most tangled of mysteries.” —Sunday Times

“Montalbán writes with authority and compassion— a Le Carré-like sorrow.” —Publishers Weekly

MARKETING:

Bouchercon 2012: finished copy giveaway, bookmarks

Noir Con 2012

Focus on food, lifestyle, and travel magazines

Ads in Crime Spree magazine and The Strand

Shelf-Awareness ad

“The most original detective to come along in an age and the mix of political intrigue, Barcelona style, and Catalan cooking tips, makes for a great read.” —Venue


“Fascinating . . . Intriguing . . . Herzog, the son of the film-maker Werner Herzog, shares his father’s curious and mordant wit.” —The Financial Times

Is it permissible to laugh at Hitler? Given the horrors committed by the Third Reich, people have difficulty taking a satiric look at it. And whenever some do, they’re accused of trivializing the Holocaust. But as this groundbreaking book shows, there is a long history of jokes about the Nazis.

It’s a fascinating and frightening history: from the suppression of the anti-Nazi cabaret scene of the 1930s, to jokes about Hitler and the Nazis told during World War II, to the collections of “whispered jokes” that were published in the immediate aftermath of the war, to the horrific accounts of Germans who were imprisoned and executed for telling jokes about Hitler and other Nazis.

Significantly, the jokes collected here also show that not all Germans were hypnotized by Nazi propaganda—or unaware of what Hitler was up to (his concentration camps were the subject of numerous jokes). Thus, Rudolph Herzog’s tale is one of terrible cowardice and silence, as well as occasional, and inspiring, bravery.

As a director, RUDOLPH HERZOG is best known for the crime series The Heist, which aired on Channel 4 (U.K.) and was called

“riveting” by The Daily Telegraph. His documentary on humor in the Third Reich, Laughing With Hitler, scored top audience ratings on German Channel 1 and was also broadcast on the BBC. The son of the celebrated filmmaker Werner Herzog, he lives in Berlin.

JEFFERSON CHASE is one of the foremost translators of German history. He has translated Wolfgang Scivelbusch, Thomas Mann and Gotz Aly, among many others.

“A concise, compelling book.” —The Independent

In Nazi Germany, telling jokes about Hitler could get you killed: the first history of humor directed at the Nazis

ON SALE: AUG 7

HISTORYPAPERBACK256 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 8 1⁄4"$16.95 / $16.95978-1-61219-130-0 EBOOK: 978-1-935554-93-6ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

Radio tour, focusing on NPR

Coverage in “new in paperback columns”

Ads on Outbrain.com (to syndicate to Slate, USA Today, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and more)

Ads on nytimes.com

DEAD FUNNYTELLING JOKES IN HITLER'S GERMANY

Translated by Jefferson ChaseRUDOLPH HERZOG


“Aurorarama is a magnificent achievement . . . stunning. . . .” —The Guardian

1908: New Venice—”the pearl of the Arctic”—a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds and elegant Victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice.

But local “poletics” are wracked by tensions with the Eskimos circling the city, with suffragette riots led by an underground music star, with drug round-ups by the secret police force known as the Gentlemen of the Night. An ominous black airship hovers over the city, and the Gentlemen are hunting for the author of a radical pamphlet calling for revolt.

Their lead suspect is Brentford Orsini, one of the city’s most prominent figures. But as the net around him tightens, Orsini receives a mysterious message from a long-lost love that compels him to act.

What transpires is a literary adventure unlike anything you’ve ever read before. Brilliant in its conception, masterful in its prose, thrilling in its plot twists, and laced with humor, suspense, and intelligence, it marks the beginning of a great new series of books.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VALTAT was born in 1968. Educated in the Ecole Normale Superieure and the Sorbonne, he lives in Paris and teaches Comparative Literature. He has written a book of short stories, Album, and two novels, Exes, and 03, as well as award-winning radio-plays and a movie Augustine (2003), which he also co-directed.

“Marvelous, perfect, and perfectly marvelous! . . . [Aurorarama] promises to attract discerning and sophisticated readers galore, those fans of the fantastical who are tired of second-hand visions and stale conceits.”

—Paul Di Filippo, The Barnes and Noble Review

“This page-turner is as sparkling and colorful as the northern lights.”—The San Francisco Chronicle

Introducing the Mysteries of New Venice steampunk trilogy with a first volume that “entrances and delights” (NPR)

ON SALE: MAY 1

FICTIONPAPERBACK416 PAGES, 5 1⁄2" × 8 1⁄4"$16.95 / $16.95 978-1-61219-131-7 EBOOK: 978-1-935554-88-2ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

Author tour to U.S. in October, to promote the sequel to Aurorarama (New York, Boston, Chicago)

Focus on “new in paperback” columns

Ads on i09 (a blog for science fiction enthusiasts, with 2 million monthly visitors)

New book trailer and author website, to feature paperback release and the forthcoming sequel

Promo via steampunk and sci-fi fan sites

AURORARAMAA NOVEL

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VALTAT


An unnamed narrator in an unnamed country is a schoolteacher with “a safe job with a pension at the end of it.” But, when he reprimands a student—“You shouldn’t have said that it doesn’t matter whether the negroes live or die. They’re human too, you know.”—he is accused of “sabotage of the Fatherland.” His students revolt: “We do not wish to be taught by you,” their petition reads. He tries to protect himself, first by retreating into silence, then by mouthing the platitudes of the regime. But when at last he fails to prevent a murder, he finds himself on trial . . . and one of the most reviled of society’s outcasts.

First published in 1939, the year after his tragic death at age 36, von Horváth’s Youth Without God was a harbinger of the brutalizing conformity of the totalitarian state. Its highly stylized characterizations and bizarre plot mirrored the unendurable reality engulfing Europe on the precipice of World War II.

ÖDÖN VON HORVÁTH (1901–1939) is best known for his important plays, including Tales of the Vienna Woods, and for his novel, The Eternal Philistine. Born in Austria, he fled the Nazis to Paris, were he died when a tree limb struck by lightning hit him as he walked down the Champs-Elysee.

“Ödön von Horváth was a brilliant German writer. . . . He makes the truth irresistible.” —Edmund Wilson

“The most gifted writer of his generation.” —Stefan Zweig

“Horváth is better than Brecht.” —Peter Handke

Written in exile while in flight from the Nazis, this dark, bizarre evocation of everyday life under fascism is available for the first time in thirty years.

ON SALE: JUNE 5

FICTIONPAPERBACK224 PAGES, 5" × 8"$15.00 / $15.00978-1-61219-119-5 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-120-1ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

ARCs to media, booksellers

Shelf-Awareness ad

London Review of Books (July)

Displays of Neversink Library at ALA 2012 (June)

German Studies Association conference

Email blast to German studies professors in U.S.

NetGalley Promo

YOUTH WITHOUT GODA NOVEL

Translated by R. Wills ThomasÖDÖN VON HORVÁTH

T H E N E V E R S I N K L I B R A R Y


No one has journeyed to as many foreign lands as Baron von Munchausen. Nor, when it comes time to fire a cannon, will you find anyone more accurate. Courtly life is as natural to him as the harshest polar desert. On the subject of politics and science he has no equal. And all discussion of the moon must start and stop with the only man who has ever been there. His feats of prowess are famed the world over. Who else could leap a hedgerow with a carriage and horse on their back? No one. And then of course there are the bears. . . My god the poor bears!

Written at a time when science was replacing religion, and explorers were mapping the globe, and in our own time made into an acclaimed movie by Terry Gilliam, The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen unleashed the quintessential madman upon the Age of Enlightenment—and it remains the tallest of tall tales to this day.

RU D O L P H E R I C H RAS P E (1736–1794) was a librarian, scientist, and sometime gemstone thief. After a botched confidence scheme, Raspe fled Germany for England, where he wrote and anonymously published The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Written in English, the work remained obscure until translated into German by Gottfried August Bürger, to whom it was attributed. After Raspe’s death, the true author was revealed.

The restored, unbowdlerized text of Raspe’s slapstick travel epic featuring the classic illustrations from Strang & Clark (1895)

ON SALE: JUN 26

FICTIONPAPERBACK272 PAGES, 5" × 8"$15.00 / $15.00 978-1-61219-123-2 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-124-9ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

A long neglected classic of slapstick satire, The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen will appeal to a wide variety of readers, including YA.

Shelf-Awareness ad


Displays of Neversink Library at ALA 2012 (June)

THE TRAVELS AND SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN

Illustrated by William Strang and J. B. Clark RUDOLF ERICH RASPE



Written in 14 days shortly after the September 11th attacks, Snowball’s Chance is an outrageous and unauthorized “sequel” to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, in which exiled pig Snowball returns to the farm, takes charge, and implements a new world order of untrammeled capitalism. Orwell’s “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” has morphed into the new rallying cry: “All animals are born equal—what they become is their own affair.”

A brilliant political satire and literary parody, John Reed’s Snowball’s Chance caused an uproar on publication in 2002, denounced by Christopher Hitchens, and barely dodging a lawsuit from the Orwell estate. Now, a decade later, with America in wars on many fronts, readers can judge anew the visionary truth of Reed’s satirical masterpiece.

JOHN REED was born in New York City in 1969. Among his many books are the novels A Still Small Voice and The Whole, a play, All the World’s a Grave, and the non-fiction Tales of Woe. He currently teaches at The New School, and is the book editor for The Brooklyn Rail.

“Reed is an extraordinary talent.” —Fran Gordon

“John Reed excels in the realm of the strange.” —San Francisco Examiner

“Orwell’s sacred pigs get a proper roast.” —Portland Tribune

“The estate of George Orwell is not happy about it.” —The New York Times

This unauthorized “sequel” to George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a controversial parable about September 11th by one of fiction’s most inventive and provocative writers

ON SALE: JULY 31

FICTIONPAPERBACK144 PAGES, 5" × 8"$15.00 / $15.00978-1-61219-125-6 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-126-3ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

First paperback edition, 10th anniversary of first publication

Author is a noted New York literary figure with strong ties to the media.

Events in NYC, Boston, Connecticut


Brooklyn Rail (email and print)

AWP 2012: postcards, free chapter download

SNOWBALL'S CHANCEA NOVEL

Foreword by Alexander Cockburn; Afterword by James SherryJOHN REED



THE ART OF THE NOVELLA

The characteristic themes of Cather’s mature work are already present in her debut novella, an evocation of a tragic love triangle.

Bartley Alexander, renowned engineer of bridges, is a man with a past who “looked as a tamer of rivers ought to look.” Discovered by his mentor “sowing wild oats in London,” he returned to America and the commission that made his name. Now, married to his wife of ten years, a chance encounter with actress Hilda Burgoyne, an almost forgotten love from his past, prompts a doomed attempt to recapture the boundlessness of his youth.

WILLA CATHER (1873–1947) was raised in Nebraska. She moved to New York to work for the renowned McClure’s Magazine. She published Alexander’s Bridge, her first book, in 1912.

A stunning new translation of a neglected masterpiece by one of history’s most celebrated writers.

Ten years before Baudelaire published his masterpiece, The Flowers of Evil, the great poet penned the only prose fiction of his career: La Fanfarlo. The novella describes the torrid real-life affair the poet had with Jean Duval, a dancer whose beauty and sexuality Baudelaire came to obsess over. The outcome is a work of raw emotional power and a clear distillation of the Parisian’s poetic genius. As Baudelaire himself said, “Always be a poet, even in prose.”

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (1821–1867), was one of the founding and most influential poets of modern literature. His masterpiece, The Flowers of Evil, is known for its keen psychological insight into the dark side of human nature.

EDWARD K. KAPLAN is a professor at Brandeis University and an award-winning French translator.

A classic work of literature by “the greatest author ever produced in Latin America.” (Susan Sontag)

Brilliant physician Simão Bacamarte sacrifices a prestigious career to return home and dedicate himself to the budding field of psychology. Bacamarte opens the first asylum in Brazil hoping to crown himself and his hometown with “imperishable laurels.” But the doctor begins to see signs of insanity in more and more of his neighbors. . . .

With dark humor and sparse prose, The Alienist lets the reader ponder who is really crazy.

MACHADO DE ASSIS (1839–1908), was a Brazilian novelist, poet, play-wright and short story writer. He is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer of Brazilian literature.

W.L. GROSSMAN was the first English translator of Machado de Assis.

64 PAGES$11.00 / $11.00 978-1-61219-107-2 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-108-9

64 PAGES$11.00 / $11.00978-1-61219-109-6 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-110-2

160 PAGES$11.00 / $11.00 978-1-61219-105-8 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-106-5


ON SALE: AUGUST 14

PAPERBACK5" × 7"

ALL RIGHTS: MELVILLE HOUSE

MARKETING:

Marketing to college writing programs

Displays of novellas at ALA 2012 (June)

Displays of novellas at Boston and Brooklyn Book Festivals

Promotion on AuthorBuzz, Goodreads, LibraryThing

From the master of Victorian tragedy, the surprisingly comic adventures of a man caught between romance and religion

When young Mr. Stockdale arrives in a small village to fill in for the Methodist minister, he finds himself pining for his comely new landlady. But she leads a mysterious life, keeping odd hours and speaking in hushed tones. As his love for her grows, he’s soon at the center of a hilarious high-stakes adventure, complete with slapstick, hijinks, and a marauding band of cross-dressers. And he’s forced to choose: follow his heart or his higher purpose?

THOMAS HARDY (1840–1928) wrote stories, novellas, and novels. His work exposed the injustices of Victorian soci-ety. However, following the widespread outrage in reaction to his novel Jude the Obscure, Hardy abandoned fiction altogether and spent his last years writing poetry.

A new translation of the hilarious picaresque about a man with an indomitable spirit

The Enchanted Wanderer is a Russian Candide with a revolutionary edge, a picaresque that features a fast-talking monk named Ivan who is at war, it seems, with every level of society. Working as a carriage man for a Count, Ivan accidentally causes the death of a monk, which leads to his being ostracized by the local peasantry . . . until the dead monk returns as a ghost to guide him through trouble upon trouble.

NIKOLAI LESKOV (1831–1895) was one of Russia’s greatest writers. Anton Chekhov considered him his “teacher,” and Tolstoy hailed his courageous, anti-nihilist writing. Among his best-known works is Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

IAN DREIBLATT translated Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilych for the Art of the Novella series.

256 PAGES$12.00 / $12.00978-1-61219-103-4 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-104-1

64 PAGES$11.00 / $11.00 978-1-61219-111-9 EBOOK: 978-1-61219-112-6

“I wanted them all, even those I’d already read, because the editions were so well-made. . . .” —Ron Rosenbaum, New York Observer


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UNITED STATESRandom House Customer Service400 Hahn RoadWestminster, MD 21157To order by phone or for customer service:1-800-733-3000Available daily 8:30AM to 5:00PM EST(Eastern and Central Accounts)10:30AM to 7:00PM EST(Western Accounts)Fax: [email protected] the web site at www.randomhouse.com. You can place an order, check on an order, file claims, check title availability; request invoice copies and much more.

ELECTRONIC ORDERING (EDI): 1-800-726-0600Minimum orders: Initials: $100 retail valueReorders: $200 retail value

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIESThe Library and Academic Marketing DepartmentIs available to provide title information, review copies, desk and examination copies, and any other educational materials.For Libraries, visit www.randomhouse.com/library or email: [email protected] High Schools, visit www.randomhouse.com/highschool or email: [email protected] Colleges and Universities, visitwww.randomhouse.com/academic or email: [email protected]

ORDERING INFORMATION

VISIT OUR BOOKSTORE AT:Melville House Publishing | 145 Plymouth Street | Brooklyn, NY 11201T: 718-722-9204 | F: 718-722-9205 | www.mhpbooks.com

SPECIAL MARKETSRandom House Special Markets1745 BroadwayNew York, NY 10019Website: www.randomhouse.biz/specialmarketsEmail: [email protected] Fax: 212-572-4961

CANADARandom House of Canada Limited2775 Matheson Boulevard EastMississauga, Ontario. L4W4P7To order by phone or for customer service:1-888-523-92928:30AM to 5:00PM EST (Monday through Friday)Canadian Telebook I.D. S2013975Fax ordering: 1-888-562-9924Shipping Minimum (Reorders and New title): $100Retail notice to all Canadian customers:Suggested Canadian list prices do not include the Federal Goods and Services Tax (GST)

Returns: Random House of Canada, Ltd.2775 Matheson Boulevard EastMississauga, Ontario L4W 4P7

INTERNATIONALRandom House, Inc.International Department1745 Broadway New York, NY 100191-212-829-6712Fax: 1-212-572-6045; 1-212-829-6700Email: [email protected] order: $100 retail value

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