Quiet City

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Economist and Kirkus Reviews From one of China’s most celebrated—and silenced—literary authors, riveting portraits of eight Wuhan residents at the dawn of the pandemic When a strange new virus appeared in the largest city in central China late in 2019, the 11 million people living there were oblivious to what was about to hit them. But rumors of a new disease soon began to spread, mostly from doctors. In no time, lines of sick people were forming at the hospitals. At first the authorities downplayed medical concerns. Then they locked down the entire city and confined people to their homes. From Beijing, Murong Xuecun—one of China’s most popular writers, silenced by the regime in 2013 for his outspoken books and New York Times articles—followed the state media fearing the worst. Then, on April 6, 2020, he made his way quietly to Wuhan, determined to look behind the heroic images of sacrifice and victory propagated by the regime to expose the fear, confusion, and suffering of the real people living through the world’s first and harshest COVID-19 lockdown. In the tradition of Dan Baum’s bestselling Nine Lives, Deadly Quiet City focuses on the remarkable stories of eight people in Wuhan. They include a doctor at the frontline, a small businessman separated from his family, a volunteer who threw himself into assisting the sick and dying, and a party loyalist who found a reason for everything. Although the Chinese Communist Party has devoted enormous efforts to rewriting the history of the pandemic’s outbreak in Wuhan, through these poignant and beautifully written firsthand accounts Murong tells us what really happened in Wuhan, giving us a book unlike any other on the earliest days of the pandemic.

The rich history and long-hidden stories of those buried in Adelaide's West Terrace story are uncovered in this poetic traipse through the iconic burial ground.

A candid and fascinating portrait of the American composer. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Aaron Copland (1900-1990) became one of America's most beloved and esteemed composers. His work, which includes Fanfare for the Common Man, A Lincoln Portrait, and Appalachian Spring, has been honored by a huge following of devoted listeners. But the full richness of Copland's life and accomplishments has never, until now, been documented or understood. Howard Pollack's meticulously researched and engrossing biography explores the symphony of Copland's life: his childhood in Brooklyn; his homosexuality; Paris in the early 1920s; the Alfred Stieglitz circle; his experimentation with jazz; the communist witch trials; Hollywood in the forties; public disappointment with his later, intellectual work; and his struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, Pollack presents informed discussions of Copland's music, explaining and clarifying its newness and originality, its aesthetic and social aspects, its distinctive and enduring personality. "Not only a success in its own right, but a valuable model of what biography can and probably should be. " - Kirkus Reviews

A girl out of time, a fish out of water Alchemists used to be a dime a dozen in the Kingdom of Endalsia, so Mariela was never particularly special. But her skills were put to the test one fateful day when a horde of monsters came stampeding from the nearby forest. In a desperate attempt to escape the horror, the young alchemist put herself in a state of suspended animation that lasted just a little longer than she'd planned-an entire two hundred years! Needless to say, there have been some big changes, and biggest of all: Mariela is now the sole alchemist in the entire kingdom. Her one wish in this strange new environment is to get back her quiet, leisurely, low-key lifestyle!

Everything works out – except in the end. In the meantime, concentrate on temptations of the flesh; on naked desire. Being properly damned brings its own joy: that's what Richard Meadows is thinking on his way to the city dump to retrieve his wife's favourite chair, which he had thrown away earlier. And that's where he meets old flame Virginia Coates. So begins a dance of circumstance that feeds on Richard's newfound fearlessness, and his desire to be daring. Time to lean in to the danger. How can a nice man like him get things so wrong? For some reason, the sudden closeness between Richard and Virginia doesn't yield the desired intimacy, doesn't satisfy the passion. It is Richard's wife, Gloria, who truly fastens on her chance for fulfilment. Quiet City is a literate, satisfying work of fiction which crosses Richard Ford with Kinky Friedman, with a noir undercurrent. Spellbinding storytelling from a novelist at the height of his powers.