Michiko Kon takes the classic tradition of the still-life photograph and gives it new life through the reanimation of object parts and body parts in new forms.

In the tradition of celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell. The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits. In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton-the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families-feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido. But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei-to whom he owes absolute loyalty-is a Japanese spy. Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.

Text by Donald Keene, Shuzo Takiguchi.

"This book offers a discovery: for the first time a comprehensive monograph explores the entire oeuvre of photographic artist Jan Groover (1943-2012), whose personal collection was transferred to the Swiss-based Musée de l'Elysée in 2017. Generously illustrated, 'Jan Groover, photographer: laboratory of forms' traces the artist's career from the beginnings in America to her late years in western France. Having started her career as a painter, when she turned to photography in the 1970s she developed a distinct artistic attitude that saw her amalgamate the disciplines of photography and painting. She was especially known for her carefully composed photographic still-lifes. Essays on her life and work, her significance as an artist, alongside a very personal contribution by her husband, French artist and critic Bruce Boice, complement the images."--Back cover.

Since 2015, British photographer Mark Neville (born 1966) has been documenting life in Ukraine, with subjects ranging from holidaymakers on the beaches of Odessa and the Roma communities on the Hungarian border to those internally displaced by the war in Eastern Ukraine. Employing his activist strategy of a targeted book dissemination, Neville is committed to making a direct impact upon the war in Ukraine. He will distribute 2,000 copies of this volume free to policy makers, opinion makers, members of parliament both in Ukraine and Russia, members of the international community and those involved directly in the Minsk Agreements. He means to reignite awareness about the war, galvanize the peace talks and attempt to halt the daily bombing and casualties in Eastern Ukraine which have been occurring for four years now. Neville's images are accompanied by writings from both Russian and Ukrainian novelists, as well as texts from policy makers and the international community, to suggest how to end the conflict.

In 2001, Rinko Kawauchi launched her career with the simultaneous publication of three astonishing photobooksUtatane, Hanabi, and Hanakofirmly establishing her as one of the most innovative newcomers to contemporary photography, not just in Japan, but across the globe. In the years that followed, she published other notable monographs, including Aila (2004), The Eyes, the Ears (2005), and Semear (2007). And now, ten years after her precipitous entry onto the international stage, Aperture is delighted to publish Illuminance, the latest volume of Kawauchis work and the first to be published outside of Japan. Kawauchis work has frequently been lauded for its nuanced palette and offhand compositional mastery, as well as her ability to incite wonder via careful attention to tiny gestures and the incidental details of her everyday environment. In Illuminance, Kawauchi continues her exploration of the extraordinary in the mundane, drawn to the fundamental cycles of life and the seemingly inadvertent, fractal-like organization of the natural world into formal patterns. This impressive compilation of previously unpublished images is proof of Kawauchis unparalleled, unique sensibility and her on-going appeal to the lovers of photography.

"Pulp Art Book--the multi-media collaboration between photographer Neil Krug and model Joni Harbeck--has become a virtual sensation online, and is now the subject of the artists' first monograph. Pulp Art Book: Volume One is an LP-sized hardcover book, split into several vignettes ranging from a spaghetti western theme to a Bonnie and Clyde revival and to the struggles of a 1950s housewife. These series tell the story of each character, and will be expanded in subsequent volumes. The inspiration for the pulp theme comes from the artists' collective appreciation of societal life and the artistic expressions of the 1960s and 70s. Old LP jackets, Giallo posters, vintage book covers, and B-movie cinema themes have defined their taste for this project. Initially they set out to capture something simple and sexy; as the shoots progressed, however, natural story lines emerged. The resulting work captures the smell of those decades and expresses them in a fresh way."--

Punctuating the series are images of Buddhist rituals and other religious ceremonies-a suggestion of other means by which humankind has traditionally attempted to transcend time and memory. The book is designed by award-winning Dutch designer Hans Gremmen, who brings a sense of the monumental and the mysterious to the design, including a seductive origami binding. The series is Kawauchi's first to be fully realized with a medium-format, 4 x 5 camera, instead of the 2- -inch format for which she has become best known. And while her work has frequently touched on the ephemeral, often using tiny details as a point of access to the larger cycles of life, with this new body of work, she purposely concentrates on the elemental and universal."--Publisher's description.