In 1876 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors annihilated Custer’s Seventh Cavalry at Little Bighorn. Three years later and half a world away, a British force was wiped out by Zulu warriors at Isandhlwana in South Africa. In both cases the total defeat of regular army troops by forces regarded as undisciplined barbarian tribesmen stunned an imperial nation. Although the similarities between the two frontier encounters have long been noted, James O. Gump’s book The Dust Rose Like Smoke is the first to scrutinize them in a comparative context. “This study issues a challenge to American exceptionalism,” he writes. Viewing both episodes as part of a global pattern of intensified conflict in the latter 1800s resulting from Western domination over a vast portion of the globe, Gump’s comparative study persuasively traces the origins and aftermath of both episodes. He examines the complicated ways in which Lakota and Zulu leadership sought to protect indigenous interests while Western leadership calculated their subjugation to imperial authority. The second edition includes a new preface from the author, revised and expanded chapters, and an interview with Leonard Little Finger (great-great-grandson of Ghost Dance leader Big Foot), whose story connects Wounded Knee and Nelson Mandela.

Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.

"Here is the story of Jon Hassler's early years. His poignant remembrance of family and friends, of youthful calamities and triumphs, show what shaped him and opened his path to become one of Minnesota's best-loved and iconic writers. Memoirs are written from the vantage point of age. Here, his close examination of memory-what endures and why-unfold the pivotal moments of his growing up. Family, friends, new neighborhoods and old, questions of faith and doubt-all had deep meaning, he comes to see. In this book, Hassler also confirms William Faulkner's opinion: 'The past is never dead. It's not even past'"--

In Lt. Josie Facundo’s first appointment as an officer in the Salvation Army, they send her to the rural small town of Kayne. It’s a picturesque small town where everyone knows each other, but also a town where not everyone gets along. Under the surface, there is a divide of hatred and grudge that no one ever talks about, One day, an old man misname Josie as Deirdre Chisholm, a girl that died in a tragic accident four decades earlier. Josie is stunned by the reaction the name stirs up, and why no one has ever mentioned her or the accident before. What really happened to Deirdre? And how is this connected to the conflicts in the town today? Josie is certain that the answer to these questions will be the way to heal this broken community. This leads her on a search where the evidence is buried deep, and someone is working against her. Someone who will stop at nothing, not even murder.

After the death of her abusive father and loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn runs away, desperately seeking peace, as her younger sister, a sophomore in high school, also tries to put the pieces of her life back together.

It looks like ex-con Jack Palace’s troubles will never end when he is pressured by the mob to kill one of his best friends. Jack Palace is trying to go legit with his own security company — but his old life keeps trying to pull him back in. A mobster named Sammy DiAngelo wants revenge for a killing that happened in Jack’s past. DiAngelo blames Jack’s friend Grover for the murder and gives Jack an ultimatum: kill Grover or be killed himself. Meanwhile, Grover has plans of his own. He wants to rip off the mob, and he needs Jack’s help to do it. Jack is desperate to start a new life with Suzanne, a woman from his past ... but is he desperate enough to kill?

"Land of Smoke is one of my favourite books by one of my favourite Argentinian authors." – Samanta Schweblin, author of Seven Empty Houses Dazzling, hallucinatory short stories by a rediscovered Argentinian contemporary of García Márquez, whose groundbreaking novel January is being published in English for the first time Resplendent with otherworldly imagery and beguiling prose, Land of Smoke presents a uniquely compelling voice in Latin American literature. An old man wakes up one morning to find that his beloved garden, the envy of all his neighbours, is floating away with him on board. A young woman moves to Buenos Aires, bringing with her a replacement head. A meek German missionary leaves Paraguay for the Pampas, completely unprepared for what he will encounter there. Dazzling and hallucinatory, the stories collected here recall the masters of magical realism ­– but with Gallardo’s distinctive, idiosyncratic slant.

How often have you felt that you just can’t take it any more? Felt that nothing is worth the head ache, the heart ache? The good news - you are not alone. The bad news – you are not alone – for every teen carries the angst of teenagedom as a badge of honour and sometimes dishonour. Welcome to the battle zone of twenty young people who stand on the precipice of choices and dilemmas. Gritty, stories of courage, hope and love. Stories that are not only for you, but about you.

Dazzling, hallucinatory stories by Sara Gallardo, a rediscovered Argentinian contemporary of García Márquez never before published in English These stunning stories by Sara Gallardo astonish, overwhelm and illuminate. Deeply real, they are also shot through with the supernatural. Every muscular, musical story reveals the way that the habits of everyday life can become unknowable and unpredictable. Recently rediscovered, Sara Gallardo is a major Latin American writer whose stories recall the masters of magical realism - but maintain a domestic, whimsical atmosphere all of their own.

How to smoke a variety of foods, including turkey, cheese, sausage, fish, beef, nuts, wild game. A classic reference.