From analytic epistemology to gender theory, testimony is a major topic in philosophy today. Yet, one distinctive approach to testimony has not been fully appreciated: the recent history of contemporary continental philosophy offers a rich source for another approach to testimony. In this book, Gert-Jan van der Heiden argues that a continental philosophy of testimony can be developed that is guided by those forms of bearing witness that attest to limit experiences of human existence, in which the human is rendered mute, speechless, or robbed of a common understanding. In the first part, Van der Heiden explores this sense of testimony in a reading of several literary texts, ranging from Plato's literary inventions to those of Kierkegaard, Melville, Soucy, and Mortier. In the second part, based on the orientation offered by the literary experiments, Van der Heiden offers a more systematic account of testimony in which he distinguishes and analyzes four basic elements of testimony. In the third part, he shows what this analysis implies for the question of the truth and the truthfulness of testimony. In his discussion with philosophers such as Heidegger, Derrida, Lyotard, Agamben, Foucault, Ricoeur, and Badiou, Van der Heiden also provides an overview of how the problem of testimony emerges in a number of thinkers pivotal to twentieth- and twenty-first-century thought.

Robert Garin Carlyle never expected his life to take such a dramatic turn. While visiting a friend in Europe, he experiences a violent encounter outside her university. Now, Robert is on the run, trying to prove his innocence and find the true killer. He becomes a modern day pirate as his life-changing journey forces him into the ports of Liverpool, Dublin, Lisbon, and more. He hides his true identity but runs into some bad business while learning the dark secrets of the shipping trade. The murder of Samantha Atwater is the reason for everything Robert has done. He must avenge her death and clear his name. However, when surrounded by evil, some of it rubs off. Robert hopes to eventually be the hero, but he might find new motivation to stay in the shadows and sink deeper into darkness.

This book reveals the strain of a moment in American cultural history that led several remarkable writers -- Emerson, Warner, and Melville -- to render loss in innovative ways. These three key writers rejected Calvinist and sentimental models of bereavement, creating instead the compensations of a mature American literature.

Once I started, I couldn't stop. It felt like falling down the stairs.... Meet David Gould: abandoned by his girlfriend, pushing the deadline for his first book, tormented by writer's block, and obsessed with the impossibly sexy, overwhelmingly alive diaries young people keep online. Outside it's a beautiful, Brooklyn summer. But inside his apartment David is sleeping in, screening calls, draining beer after beer, and dreaming of Miss Misery -- aka twenty-two-year-old provocateur Cath Kennedy -- a total stranger with impeccable music taste and an enviable nightlife. Now meet David Gould online. Here, in his fictional diary, he's a downtown DJ and an inveterate night owl, drinking and charming countless girls until the sun comes up. But when Miss Misery moves to New York City and begins canoodling with an insufferable hipster, David's diary mysteriously begins updating itself. The reason? David Gould has a doppelgänger, an obnoxious shadow set on claiming David's newly glamorous life as his own. Even worse for David, the phone calls from his editor are becoming increasingly desperate, and the voice mails from his girlfriend -- an ocean away -- are becoming more and more distant. And then there are all of the instant messages from seventeen-year-old Ashleigh Bortch, an emo kid in Salt Lake City with an inappropriate crush on David and a knack for showing up at precisely the wrong time. Forced out of his apartment, David Gould is facing the fight of his life. With humor, heart, and a vibrant, genre-jumping soundtrack, Andy Greenwald captures the essence of what it means to be young and struggling with identity in the new century. From cyberspace to nightclub bathrooms, from New York City to Utah, Miss Misery is a fast-paced, funny story about the timeless need to become the main character in your own life.

Following the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean, a concerted effort was made to replace enslaved labour with indentured Indian labour. This is the story of one Indian woman's tragic experience in trying to immigrate to the Caribbean in the 19th century.

An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs. This is the story Misery Nomaki (she/they), a nobody from a nowhere mining planet. Misery has abilities they shouldn't though: they can bend the will of stone, a dangerous magic that only saints are said to have. These abilities lead Misery to the center of the Empire, where rumors spread that Misery is the next Messiah, and where those in power seek to use Misery to win a terrible war. Amid a nest of vipers, Misery grows close to a rebellious royal, Lady Alodia Lightning, and decides to embrace the legacy the prophecies speak of. True or false, for better or worse, Misery Nomaki will be the Ninth Messiah.

From the Laws of Mount Misery: There are no laws in psychiatry. Now, from the author of the riotous, moving, bestselling classic, The House of God, comes a lacerating and brilliant novel of doctors and patients in a psychiatric hospital. Mount Misery is a prestigious facility set in the rolling green hills of New England, its country club atmosphere maintained by generous corporate contributions. Dr. Roy Basch (hero of The House of God) is lucky enough to train there *only to discover doctors caught up in the circus of competing psychiatric theories, and patients who are often there for one main reason: they've got good insurance. From the Laws of Mount Misery: Your colleagues will hurt you more than your patients. On rounds at Mount Misery, it's not always easy for Basch to tell the patients from the doctors: Errol Cabot, the drug cowboy whose practice provides him with guinea pigs for his imaginative prescription cocktails . . . Blair Heiler, the world expert on borderlines (a diagnosis that applies to just about everybody) . . . A. K. Lowell, née Aliyah K. Lowenschteiner, whose Freudian analytic technique is so razor sharp it prohibits her from actually speaking to patients . . . And Schlomo Dove, the loony, outlandish shrink accused of having sex with a beautiful, well-to-do female patient. From the Laws of Mount Misery: Psychiatrists specialize in their defects. For Basch the practice of psychiatry soon becomes a nightmare in which psychiatrists compete with one another to find the best ways to reduce human beings to blubbering drug-addled pods, or incite them to an extreme where excessive rage is the only rational response, or tie them up in Freudian knots. And all the while, the doctors seem less interested in their patients' mental health than in a host of other things *managed care insurance money, drug company research grants and kickbacks, and their own professional advancement. From the Laws of Mount Misery: In psychiatry, first comes treatment, then comes diagnosis. What The House of God did for doctoring the body, Mount Misery does for doctoring the mind. A practicing psychiatrist, Samuel Shem brings vivid authenticity and extraordinary storytelling gifts to this long-awaited sequel, to create a novel that is laugh-out-loud hilarious, terrifying, and provocative. Filled with biting irony and a wonderful sense of the absurd, Mount Misery tells you everything you'll never learn in therapy. And it's a hell of a lot funnier.

The Greatest Christmas Novels, Stories, Carols & Legends (Illustrated Edition) is an exemplary collection that embodies the spirit of Christmas through an eclectic mix of literary styles and historical periods. This anthology not only captures the traditional essence of Christmas but also explores its various interpretations across different cultures and times. Featuring an impressive array of authors from William Shakespeare to Leo Tolstoy, and encompassing genres from folk tales to Victorian classics, the collection stands out for its breadth and depth. Highlighting the richness of the anthology are seminal works that have shaped the literary and cultural perceptions of Christmas, promising a treasure trove of timeless narratives. The contributing authors, a veritable who's who of literary giants spanning several centuries, bring a diverse array of backgrounds to the anthology. From the poignant social commentary of Charles Dickens and Harriet Beecher Stowe to the imaginative realms fashioned by J.M. Barrie and L. Frank Baum, the collection bridges the literary contributions of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It aligns itself with significant historical, cultural, and literary movements, celebrating the spirit of Christmas through a tapestry of voices that collectively enrich the reader's understanding of this festive season. This anthology is recommended for readers who seek to immerse themselves in the multifaceted world of Christmas literature. It provides a unique opportunity to explore a multiplicity of perspectives, styles, and themes within a single volume. For educators, students, and enthusiasts of literature and history alike, The Greatest Christmas Novels, Stories, Carols & Legends (Illustrated Edition) offers an unparalleled educational value. It fosters a dialogue between the different authors works, inviting readers to delve into the rich tapestry of Christmas narratives that span centuries and cultures, all the while celebrating the enduring spirit of Christmas through the ages.