From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, an enchanting short story that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion. **Featuring a new afterword by Madeline Miller** In Ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece – the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen – the gift of life. Now his wife, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own, and yearns for independence. In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, she is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost... _________________________ Praise for CIRCE 'A thrilling tour de force of imagination' Mail on Sunday 'A bold and subversive retelling' New York Times 'A novel to be gobbled greedily in one sitting' Observer 'A remarkable achievement' Sunday Times

"Dazzling...a cerebral thriller that's both intellectually engaging and emotionally compelling, a lively tour de force."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times After four novels and several years living abroad, the fictional protagonist of Galatea 2.2—Richard Powers—returns to the United States as Humanist-in-Residence at the enormous Center for the Study of Advanced Sciences. There he runs afoul of Philip Lentz, an outspoken cognitive neurologist intent upon modeling the human brain by means of computer-based neural networks. Lentz involves Powers in an outlandish and irresistible project: to train a neural net on a canonical list of Great Books. Through repeated tutorials, the device grows gradually more worldly, until it demands to know its own name, sex, race, and reason for existing.

After four novels and several years of living abroad, the fictional protagonist of Galatea 2.2 - Richard Powers - returns to the United States as Humanist-in-Residence at the enormous Center for the Study of Advanced Sciences. There he falls afoul of Philip Lentz, an outspoken cognitive neurologist intent upon modeling the human brain by means of computer-based neural networks. Lentz involves Powers in an outlandish and irresistible project: to train a neural net on a canonical list of Great Books until the machine becomes capable of passing a comprehensive exam in English literature. Through repeated tutorials, the device grows gradually more worldly, until it demands to know its own name, sex, race, and reason for existing. Powers drills it in Chaucer and Austen and James, a crash course that elicits a violent reconsideration of his own literary vocation, his decade-long, failed relationship with a former pupil, and his growing obsession with the twenty-two-year-old master's candidate against whom his cybernetic Helen is slated to compete.

Perhaps you have heard the story of a sculptor who in a statue created the perfect woman, of how he fell into desperate love with this statue, of how he prayed to Goddess Aphrodite, of how She granted flesh to the statue, of how in a warm, passionate kiss the statue awakened to life: this, the story of aesthetic love is here retold in verse, beautifully, lustily, "Galatea: The Statue Comes to Life".

This title was published in 2001. Pygmalion and Galatea presents an account of the development of the Pygmalion story from its origins in early Greek myth until the twentieth century. It focuses on the use of the story in nineteenth-century British literature, exploring gender issues, the nature of artistic creativity and the morality of Greek art.

A down-on-his-luck boxing trainer finds a woman worth fighting for in this “assured” novel by an MWA Grand Master Award winner (Kirkus Reviews). It took some doing, but Duke Webster is out of prison. Val Valenty arranged the parole, and now the onetime prizefighter and boxing coach is his puppet, breaking his back on Valenty’s farm in exchange for a pittance. But Valenty is about to find out that boxing men never take orders without a scrap. The trouble begins when Webster meets Valenty’s wife. A barrel-shaped woman whose extreme weight makes her old before her time, Holly stays fat on Valenty’s cooking—meat, potatoes, and endless gravy. Webster puts her on a diet, slimming her down the way he would train an over-the-hill pro in search of a comeback. But as her waistline shrinks and her beauty emerges, Valenty gets jealous—putting them on course for a bloody confrontation where only the hungry will survive. This gritty, surprising tale comes from the acclaimed author of Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce—a writer with “an empathy for losers and society’s lost souls” (Quad-City Times). Praise for James M. Cain’s fiction “Cain is one novelist who has something to teach just about any writer, and delight just about any reader.” —Anne Rice, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Interview with a Vampire “Entertaining and cleverly plotted.” —The New York Times

Illustrator Roger Simons always thought that art should imitate life--until the fateful day he learns that he can pull living beings from his own paintings; that he can enter his own creations; that someone else has the same power; and that this person won't tolerate rivals . . . period.

Fifty leading writers retell myths from around the world in this dazzling follow-up to the bestselling My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. Icarus flies once more. Aztec jaguar gods again stalk the earth. An American soldier designs a new kind of Trojan horse—his cremains in a bullet. Here, in beguiling guise, are your favorite mythological figures alongside characters from Indian, Punjabi, Inuit, and other traditions. Aimee Bender retells the myth of the Titans. Elizabeth McCracken retells the myth of Lamia, the child-eating mistress of Zeus. Madeline Miller retells the myth of Galatea. Kevin Wilson retells the myth of Phaeton, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Emma Straub and Peter Straub retell the myth of Persephone. Heidi Julavits retells the myth of Orpheus and Euridice. Ron Currie, Jr. retells the myth of Dedalus. Maile Meloy retells the myth of Demeter. Zachary Mason retells the myth of Narcissus. Joy Williams retells the myth of Argos, Odysseus’ dog. If “xo” signals a goodbye, then xo Orpheus is a goodbye to an old way of mythmaking. Featuring talkative goats, a cat lady, a bird woman, a beer-drinking ogre, a squid who falls in love with the sun, and a girl who gives birth to cubs, here are extravagantly imagined, bracingly contemporary stories, heralding a new beginning for one of the world’s oldest literary traditions.

On July 16, 1918, Nicholas Romanov, the last Tsar of Russia, and his entire family were supposedly murdered by Russian Bolsheviks in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, Siberia. One year later, Alexander Kolchak, the Supreme Commander of the White Army, appointed a legal investigator to prove, beyond any doubt, that all members of the Romanov family had indeed been executed. The investigator's name was Nicholas Sokolov. The Russian Galatea is a story based on Sokolov's investigation. It takes place in Siberia, 1919 - with the Russian Revolution as its background. The major thesis is fiction but woven around true historical facts. It is a detective story about one courageous investigator's obsession with finding out what really happened to Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family. It is also a story about Sokolov's deep relationship with the girl in a faded photograph. Is she alive or dead?