The Book Of Absent People

Alive with all the flavor and ferment of contemporary Iran, The Book Of Absent People is an exquisitely crafted novel that at once creates an exotic feast for the mind and the senses. As it unravels the haunting tale of a young man's search for his missing brother, it takes the reader on an unpredictable voyage of discovery into the depths of one family's innermost passions. It is the last day of the month of Khordad and Khan Papa Doctor, physician and great patriarch of the Heshmat Nezamis, has examined his final patient. For reasons which become startlingly apparent, the reticent Khan Papa Doctor has become staunchly devoted to reuniting his family - a family split apart by scandal, secrets, and ultimately, by destiny. When youngest son Rokni, a dreamer and an artist, is called to his father's side, little does he know the strange journey that lies ahead. He is recruited to seek out his older brother Zia, the hotheaded revolutionary who long ago fled the house of the Heshmat Nezamis...and it will be a quest that brings Rokni face to face with the truths of his noble family. He will learn about Khan Papa Doctor's first wife who died mysteriously and in disgrace, and who is never discussed. He will understand, at long last, why his beautiful sister lives in her own private world, unable to reach those sharing a common reality. He will discover, too, the startling complexities of his father's past as well as the momentous contributions the Heshmat Nezamis made to the turbulent history of their proud homeland. Gracefully told with the magic of a writer who is part chronicler and part mystic, here is a story of people both physically and emotionally lost, of those in life whom we miss knowing through circumstances of fate and through their own design. But most of all, The Book Of Absent People is about knowing ourselves - a book that will linger in the heart for days to come.

"Of beach plums, ramps, and Ramada Inns: a quietly sensitive eminently sensible consideration of the landscapes of our lives . . . A gift." —Kirkus Reviews Following her bestselling The Architect of Desire, Suzannah Lessard returns with a remarkable book, a work of relentless curiosity and a graceful mixture of observation and philosophy. This intriguing hybrid will remind some of W. G. Sebald’s work and others of Rebecca Solnit’s, but it is Lessard’s singular talent to combine this profound book–length mosaic— a blend of historical travelogue, reportorial probing, philosophical meditation, and prose poem—into a work of unique genius, as she describes and reimagines our landscapes. In this exploration of our surroundings, The Absent Hand contends that to reimagine landscape is a form of cultural reinvention. This engrossing work of literary nonfiction is a deep dive into our surroundings—cities, countryside, and sprawl—exploring change in the meaning of place and reimagining the world in a time of transition. Whether it be climate change altering the meaning of nature, or digital communications altering the nature of work, the effects of global enclosure on the meaning of place are panoramic, infiltrative, inescapable. No one will finish this book, this journey, without having their ideas of living and settling in their surroundings profoundly enriched.

When seventeen-year-old Paige dies in a freak fall from the roof during Physics class, her spirit is bound to the grounds of her high school. At least she has company: her fellow ghosts Evan and Brooke, who also died there. But when Paige hears the rumor that her death wasn't an accident—that she supposedly jumped on purpose—she can't bear it. Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get to the most popular girl in school and stop the rumors once and for all.

In 2014's The Accidental Superpower, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan made the case that geographic, demographic and energy trends were unravelling the global system. Zeihan takes the story a step further in The Absent Superpower, mapping out the threats and opportunities as the world descends into Disorder.

The secrets of a group of childhood friends unravel in this haunting thriller by Edgar Award winner Rozan, set in New York in the unforgettable aftermath of September 11.

Where live our most cherished (or painful) memories? Where do our beloved (or dreaded) exist when departed? In the gray zone between our self and our world, they can exist as internal reminiscences for some and striking images for others; individually or collectively perceived and interacted; vividly or as tenuous presences. This book familiarizes us with six examples of individuals and families in therapy who live and interact with the presence of their absent, pivotal people in their lives who either died or disappeared, but are still there. It familiarizes us with their plight in a tender, compassionate style, describing in detail interviews and therapeutic transformations and, in several cases, follow-ups as well as echoes of those processes. It teaches us to respect those presences as well as how to help families and individuals treasure them...and in many cases to let them go. Written in a vivid, intense language, The Presence of the Absent offers a marvelous insight into these processes that may prove transformative for the therapist (both family and individually-oriented), as well as enlightening to the general public.

A Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction book of 2011 A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction title for 2011 On a hill above the Italian village of Ravello sits the Villa Cimbrone, a place of fantasy and make-believe. The characters that move through Michael Holroyd's new book are destined never to meet, yet the Villa Cimbrone unites them all. A Book of Secrets is a treasure trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements, and family mysteries. With grace and tender imagination, Holroyd brings a company of unknown women into the light. From Alice Keppel, the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe and the Prince of Wales; to Eve Fairfax, a muse of Auguste Rodin; to the novelist Violet Trefusis, the lover of Vita Sackville-West—these women are always on the periphery of the respectable world. Also on the margins is the elusive biographer, who on occasion turns an appraising eye upon himself as part of his investigations in the maze of biography. In A Book of Secrets, Holroyd gives voice to fragile human connections and the mystery of place.

Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2014 The Absent Therapist is a book of soundings, a jostle of voices that variously argue, remember, explain, justify, speculate and meander . . . Sons and lovers, wanderers, wonderers, stayers, leavers, readers and believers: 'The biggest surprise of all is frequently that things and people really are as they seem.' 'The whole book is like someone deeply charismatic and charming daring you not to find them insane. It's wonderful.' Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian 'I was gripped and awed by Will Eaves's The Absent Therapist, touching, addictive and unlike any other book.' Thomas Adès, TLS 'Books of the Year' 'The Absent Therapist is a miniature but infinite novel, and unlike anything I've read before. It's just achingly good.' Luke Kennard