After Henrietta barely surives the savage murder of her family, Italy's Social Welfare Agency takes her in and repairs her injuries using the latest in cybernetic technology. All traces of Henrietta's past are wiped from her mind as she becomes one of the Agency's most lethal assassins. Despite her progamming, Henrietta is troubled by fragmented memories. Her handler Jose must keep her feelings in check and ensure that she stays on mission; a task made all the more difficult by Henrietta's striking resemblance to Jose's late younger sister.

The Social Welfare Agency: a secret counter-terrorism unit for the Italian government that rescues troubled young girls and turns them into cybernetically-enhanced ruthless killers who do the government's dirty work. Yet the child assassins are not as heartless as they were programmed to be. Henrietta struggles with her conflicted feelings towards her handler Jose, while fellow agent Triela combats her own inner demons as she strives to remember the girl she once was. Meanwhile, the clash between the Social Welfare Agency and the covert radical group known as the Five Republics continues. As the Five Republics targets one of the Agency's handlers, the Agency plans its own counter-strike that will pit Triela against the professional assassin and martial arts master known as Pinocchio in a rematch to the death.

Innocence Lost.... Henrietta barely survived a brutal attack that killed her family. "Rescued" by the Social Welfare Agency, her injuries were repaired with robotic components and she was brainwashed - lost with the memory of her family's death was almost every trace of her own humanity. Today she is an extraordinarily lethal cyborg assassin, obediently working with her handler Giuseppe to carry out her deadly tasks. Despite her conditioning and programming, Henrietta still has the heart of a young girl; she has not completely forgotten how to love. Yet the very emotion is contrary to her training and programming. Can the Gunslinger Girl survive? Can she find peace in a struggle against her very nature?

The Social Welfare Agency in Italy is not what it seems. Yes, it rescues young girls who have been brutalized--but brainwashes them and transforms them into ruthless killers for an elite and secret counter-terrorism unit for the Italian government. Enter Henrietta, a young girl who witnessed the savage murder of her family and barely survived. The Agency takes her in and repairs her injuries using the latest in cybernetic technology, wiping her mind of all traces of her past and turning her into one of the Agency's most lethal assassins. Yet despite her programming, Henrietta is troubled by fragmented memories. It is her handler's job, Jose, to keep her feelings in check and ensure that she stays on mission. This task is made all the more difficult because Henrietta bears an uncanny resemblance to Jose's younger sister who died in a car bombing years earlier.

The thrilling New York Times best selling series reaches a heart-pounding conclusion The Gunslinger Girl saga comes to a stunning conclusion as the scattered factions of the Five Republics movement have united together under the leadership of the terrorist Dante. Utilizing a cache of stolen cruise missles, the Padanian terrorists unleash a series of devistating attacks across the Italian Peninsula and seize control of the New Turin Nuclear Plant. Their demands are simple: shut down the Social Welfare Agency or die. A must-have for fans of Gunsmith Cats and Battle Royale, the Gunslinger Girl manga series has spawned two highly successful anime series and a direct-to-video follow-up special. All of these anime have been released in North America on both DVD and Blu-ray by FUNimation.

The Social Welfare Agency: a secret counter-terrorism unit for the Italian government that rescues troubled young girls and turns them into cybernetically-enhanced ruthless killers who do the government's dirty work. Yet the child assassins are not as heartless as they were programmed to be. Henrietta struggles with her conflicted feelings towards her handler Jose, while fellow agent Triela combats her own inner demons as she strives to remember the girl she once was. Meanwhile, the clash between the Social Welfare Agency and the covert radical group known as the Five Republics continues. As the Five Republics targets one of the Agency's handlers, the Agency plans its own counter-strike that will pit Triela against the professional assassin and martial arts master known as Pinocchio in a rematch to the death.

The Social Welfare Agency in Italy is not what it seems. Yes, it rescues young girls who have been brutalized--but brainwashes them and transforms them into ruthless killers for an elite and secret counter-terrorism unit for the Italian government. Enter Henrietta, a young girl who witnessed the savage murder of her family and barely survived. The Agency takes her in and repairs her injuries using the latest in cybernetic technology, wiping her mind of all traces of her past and turning her into one of the Agency's most lethal assassins. Yet despite her programming, Henrietta is troubled by fragmented memories. It is her handler's job, Jose, to keep her feelings in check and ensure that she stays on mission. This task is made all the more difficult because Henrietta bears an uncanny resemblance to Jose's younger sister who died in a car bombing years earlier.

When new children are brought into the Social Welfare Agency, their minds are wiped and their bodies enhanced with the latest in cutting edge cybernetics. They are blank slates ready to be molded and conditioned as their handlers see fit. Yet for Angelica, the first of the Agency's cyborg assassins, memories of the life she once knew have started to return. Dreams of her childhood fill her sleep, and visions of her old dog, Perro, haunt her by day. Worst of all, remembering her past seems to be making her forget who she is now.

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK * INDIE NEXT SELECTION * LIBRARY READS SELECTION * AMAZON EDITORS' CHOICE * WASHINGTON POST BEST OF THE YEAR The "terrifying, wise, tender, and thrilling" (R.O. Kwon) adventure story of a fugitive girl, a mysterious gang of robbers, and their dangerous mission to transform the Wild West. In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw. The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows. She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all. Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear.

Grand in its scope, Asian Comics dispels the myth that, outside of Japan, the continent is nearly devoid of comic strips and comic books. Relying on his fifty years of Asian mass communication and comic art research, during which he traveled to Asia at least seventy-eight times and visited many studios and workplaces, John A. Lent shows that nearly every country had a golden age of cartooning and has experienced a recent rejuvenation of the art form. As only Japanese comics output has received close and by now voluminous scrutiny, Asian Comics tells the story of the major comics creators outside of Japan. Lent covers the nations and regions of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Organized by regions of East, Southeast, and South Asia, Asian Comics provides 178 black-and-white illustrations and detailed information on comics of sixteen countries and regions—their histories, key creators, characters, contemporary status, problems, trends, and issues. One chapter harkens back to predecessors of comics in Asia, describing scrolls, paintings, books, and puppetry with humorous tinges, primarily in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan. The first overview of Asian comic books and magazines (both mainstream and alternative), graphic novels, newspaper comic strips and gag panels, plus cartoon/humor magazines, Asian Comics brims with facts, fascinating anecdotes, and interview quotes from many pioneering masters, as well as younger artists.