From the highly acclaimed author of Atlas of Unknowns (“Dazzling . . . One of the most exciting debut novels since Zadie Smith’s White Teeth”—San Francisco Chronicle; “An astonishment of a debut”—Junot Díaz), a bravura collection of short stories set in locales as varied as London, Sierra Leone, and the American Midwest that captures the yearning and dislocation of young men and women around the world. In “Lion and Panther in London,” a turn-of-the-century Indian wrestler arrives in London desperate to prove himself champion of the world, only to find the city mysteriously absent of challengers. In “Light & Luminous,” a gifted dance instructor falls victim to her own vanity when a student competition allows her a final encore. In “The Scriptological Review: A Last Letter from the Editor,” a young man obsessively studies his father’s handwriting in the hope of making sense of his death. And in the marvelous “What to Do with Henry,” a white woman from Ohio takes in the illegitimate child her husband left behind in Sierra Leone, as well as an orphaned chimpanzee who comes to anchor this strange new family. With exuberance and compassion, Tania James once again draws us into the lives of damaged, driven, and beautifully complicated characters who quietly strive for human connection.

When seventeen-year-old Anju wins an all-expenses-paid scholarship to study in New York for a year, she jumps at the chance to leave her home town in Kerala and embrace all that America has to offer. But there are bittersweet consequences ahead, not only for Anju, but also for the father and older sister she has left behind. For when the lie behnd Anju's scholarship is suddenly revealed she is left without a visa and, too proud to confess to her family, goes into hiding. She accepts a job in a suburban beauty salon and the offer of a roof over her head from the kindly Bird, who strangely seems to know more about Anju's past than Anju herself has told her. Meanwhile, Anju's family are on a mission to find her, trying not to contemplate the possibility that they might never see her again… Atlas of Unknownsis vibrant, moving and breathtakingly told -- the debut of an irresistible and utterly original new voice in fiction.

When a young elephant is brutally orphaned by poachers, it is only a matter of time before he begins terrorising the countryside, earning his malevolent name from the humans he kills and then tenderly buries with leaves. Manu, the studious son of a rice farmer, loses his cousin to the Gravedigger and is drawn into the alluring world of ivory hunting. Emma is working on a documentary set in a Kerala wildlife park with her best friend. Her work leads her to witness the porous boundary between conservation and corruption and she finds herself caught up in her own betrayal. As the novel hurtles toward its tragic climax, these three storylines fuse into a wrenching meditation on love and revenge, fact and myth, duty and sacrifice. In a feat of audacious imagination and arrestingly beautiful prose, The Tusk That Did the Damage tells an original and heart-breaking story about how we treat nature, and each other.

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero’s quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years. A Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Kirkus Reviews “Addictively absorbing.” —The New York Times Book Review This wildly inventive, irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers is "an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger" (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe. Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.

Shaping the World: Women Writers on Themselves addresses these very questions. The array of formidable writers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – acclaimed both nationally and internationally – share their insecurities and triumphs that occurred on their journeys to becoming writers. Was it easy? The answer is No. Many of them were closet writers, not sharing their writings with the world. Writing was no career, they were told. But they persevered. And they wrote. Because they had to. Because it was their calling. The writers reveal their inspirations: be it another writer, a personal tragedy, or triumph, a fascination with the English language, or a passion for putting pen to paper and finding wings. Shaping the World: Women Writers on Themselves is an anthology of intimate, honest and brave accounts that will provide the reader with an insight into the realm of writing: its adventurous terrain of highs and lows and how it continues to shape these 24 women and the world we all inhabit. The contributors are: Ameena Hussein (www.ameenahussein.com), Amruta Patil (www.amrutapatil.blogspot.in), Anita Nair (www.anitanair.net), Anjum Hasan (www.anjumhasan.com), Anuradha Marwah, Bapsi Sidhwa (www.bapsisidhwa.com), Bina Shah (www.binashah.net), Jaishree Misra (www.jaishreemisra.com), Janice Pariat (www.janicepariat.com), Kavery Nambisan (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kavery-Nambisan/671608229544955), Lavanya Sankaran (www.lavanyasankaran.com), Maniza Naqvi, Manju Kapur (www.manjukapur.com), Meira Chand (www.meirachand.com), Mishi Saran (www.mishisaran.com), Moni Mohsin (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moni_Mohsin), Namita Devidayal, Ru Freeman (www.rufreeman.com), Shashi Deshpande (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashi_Deshpande), Shinie Antony, Susan Visvanathan (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Visvanathan), Tania James (www.taniajames.com), Tishani Doshi (www.tishanidoshi.com)

Reaching as far back as ancient times, Ronojoy Sen pairs a novel history of India's engagement with sport and a probing analysis of its cultural and political development under monarchy and colonialism, and as an independent nation. Some sports that originated in India have fallen out of favor, while others, such as cricket, have been adopted and made wholly India's own. Sen's innovative project casts sport less as a natural expression of human competition than as an instructive practice reflecting a unique play with power, morality, aesthetics, identity, and money. Sen follows the transformation of sport from an elite, kingly pastime to a national obsession tied to colonialism, nationalism, and free market liberalization. He pays special attention to two modern phenomena: the dominance of cricket in the Indian consciousness and the chronic failure of a billion-strong nation to compete successfully in international sporting competitions, such as the Olympics. Innovatively incorporating examples from popular media and other unconventional sources, Sen not only captures the political nature of sport in India but also reveals the patterns of patronage, clientage, and institutionalization that have bound this diverse nation together for centuries.

Parakeet Races and Other Stories is a memoir that recounts the challenges and escapades of a family of six children in the 1950's which faces the premature death of its mother. Always authentic, each self-contained story can be read in just a few richly rewarding minutes that may leave the reader laughing out loud, crying, or both. Together the stories recount the collective memories of a remarkable set of siblings, three boys and three girls, the father who gives it his very best, and the mother whom the children can barely remember. The stories explore the "mystery" of the mother's death and reflect how the death of a parent in that era was often a topic not to be discussed or processed. The author, Cindy Hall Ranii, is the oldest daughter in the Hall Family, and beyond sharing the memories of her childhood and that of her siblings, she also shares her experiences as a world traveler, first as a teenager in Finland, then as a college student in India and finally as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran. With her keen powers of observation and respectfulness of different cultures she gives the reader the opportunity to eavesdrop on other peoples and other places. In the final segment of Parakeet Races Dr. Ranii takes the reader into the world of disability. Stricken with Transverse Myelitis, a rare neuro-immunologic disorder, she went from playing golf one day to being paralyzed from the chest down four days later. Her accounts of this chapter of her life are told with the same delicious, rhythmic writing style as the other two segments of the book. The author skillfully weaves her stories from decade to decade, taking the reader on a journey that captivates, entertains and challenges.

The author of Atlas of Unknowns presents a collection of stories that explores the yearning and dislocation of characters from various world regions, including a gifted Indian dance instructor who falls victim to her insecurities and a widower who travels Kentucky highways to bury roadkills. 20,000 first printing.

Denny's Call Sheets: Seabiscuit. The Grifters. Entourage. Indiana Jones: Crystal Skull. Hail Caesar. Atlas Shrugged. Simone. War of the Worlds. Bosch. Mad Men. Grey's Anatomy. 24. Vice. A Bride's Revenge. Aftermath. Gaslit and many more. Actors, Writers. Directors. As Mank might write and as Bette might say: "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumopy, fun read." You coudln't buy this education. Until now. . .