Imagine: A universe where a race of people amass billions of years worth of "gathered knowledge." A people that actually trust each other--and, who can see a time coming when their sphere of the cosmos will be taken by a natural process called entropy. By utilizing their strong tie to this ruler of nature, they cast their wisdom into the maelstrom of time by dispatching three emissaries bearing a gift. Then, long after a great journey, an item comes into the possession of Professor Bubb and company; knowledge gatherers themselves. They set out with little information in hand, on what they think will be an expedition as usual. Due to unexpected circumstances, their older world science becomes intertwined with futuristic technologies, many times in humorous ways.

The writer Hari Kunzru says “made me feel better about the Apocalypse than I have in ages” is back—with a hilarious coming-of-age love story The unruly undergraduates at Cambridge have a nickname for their new lecturer: Wittgenstein Jr. He’s a melancholic, tormented genius who seems determined to make them grasp the very essence of philosophical thought. But Peters—a working-class student surprised to find himself among the elite—soon discovers that there’s no place for logic in a Cambridge overrun by posh boys and picnicking tourists, as England’s greatest university is collapsing under market pressures. Such a place calls for a derangement of the senses, best achieved by lethal homemade cocktails consumed on Cambridge rooftops, where Peters joins his fellows as they attempt to forget about the void awaiting them after graduation, challenge one another to think so hard they die, and dream about impressing Wittgenstein Jr with one single, noble thought. And as they scramble to discover what, indeed, they have to gain from the experience, they realize that their teacher is struggling to survive. For Peters, it leads to a surprising turn—and for all of them, a challenge to see how the life of the mind can play out in harsh but hopeful reality. Combining his trademark wit and sharp brilliance, Wittgenstein Jr is Lars Iyer’s most assured and ambitious novel yet—as impressive, inventive and entertaining as it is extraordinarily stirring.

Broken, battered, and lost in a sea of uncertainty. Zelia survived, they had won, but she didn’t feel like she had won. The tortured souls of her past, of those lost, haunt her more now than ever as the threat of the elder wizards grows ever nearer. A dragon rules under the Dwarves’ mountain, but all is not as it seems. The dragon bares a warning, a gift, and a plea that leaves her more questions than answers. When the elder wizards of The Guild show their hand, a race to protect the gates of hell begins. But when Zelia’s soulmate throws herself into danger, will she be able to save her without bringing ruin to all those around her?

The battle has been won, but the real war has yet to begin. Zelia has a new body and new problems. Her body is weak, her bond with her dragon is incomplete, and the real war is upon them. The realm’s main defense from attack is in shambles and their plans to shore up the holes is crumbling under the probing tests of the Fenari. In their attempt to give her a childhood the Elves have left Zelia sorely unprepared for what’s to come… Her soulmate and her people are ready, but the same cannot be said for the races of men and Dwarves who’s memories are shorter than that of Elves. With time running out, will she be able to prepare in time? Will the races of men and Dwarves heed her pleas to arm themselves when she herself can barely stand?

She was created to destroy gods, but what happens when she doesn’t live up to the wizards’ expectations? Raised in the shadow of war, Zelia never questions why she was different from the Elves around her. They were her kin, she was safe here with them, and that was enough for her. That is until the elder Wizards in The Guild came to her home with a their vote cast upon her, they could wait no longer for her powers to emerge. They dragged her from her home and into the forbidden Darkan Mountains, a place where even the Elves dare not go. Here Asenten gave her two stones and one order, to go and prove herself. She had never used magic, sure she could talk to the animals, but that wasn’t something that could protect her from the Darkans. Still, they pushed her down the path of fire and ice to a fate worse than hell. She wakes, sleeps, and breathes in darkness, away from prying eyes and the stars she loved so much. They force her to spill the blood of innocents, to torture them, until she feels she is not worthy of anything but pain for all that she has done. But when the lives of those she cares about hangs in the balance, she must face the wizards or risk losing what gave her hope for all those years.

Waguih Ghali was raised in Cairo but spent much of his adult life studying and working in Europe. In Beer in the Snooker Club, Ghali chronicles the lives of Cairo's upper crust who, after the fall of King Farouk, are thoroughly unprepared to change its neo-feudal ways. Beer in the Snooker Club was the only book written by Ghali before his suicide in 1968. "Ghali's novel reproduces a cultural state of shock with great accuracy and great humor."–James Marcus of The Nation