The Living Days

WINNER OF THE NEUSTADT PRIZE This novel of post-9/11 London is a masterful dissection of racism, aging, and the perturbing nature of desire. Ananda Devi's "fluid, poetic language memorably conjures a union of two outcasts" (The New Yorker). A chance encounter on Portobello Road incites an unsettling, magnetic attraction between Mary, a seventy-five-year-old white British spinster, and Cub, a thirteen-year-old Jamaican boy from Brixton. Mary increasingly clings to phantoms as dementia overtakes her reality, latching on to Cub and channeling all of her remaining energy into their relationship. But their macabre romance comes to a horrific climax, as white supremacy, poverty, and class conflict explode on the streets of London. Through exquisite juxtaposition, Devi uses lush prose to confront the tensions of an increasingly nationalistic metropolis, and the queasy nature of desire muddled with power. “A gorgeously written, profoundly upsetting fairy tale of race, class, power, and desire.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Brutal and entirely believable, a gorgeous and haunting depiction of London and the real lives and memories of those unseen within it." —Publishers Weekly

This is a collection of Joan Kavanaugh's post-9/11 public pastoral prayers delivered at The Riverside Church in New York City. Written with a "newspaper in one hand and Bible in the other," they address the issues of human struggle and world crisis that have touched all of our lives in this era of terrorism, anxiety, and global conflict. Prophetic and pastoral, the prayers focus on contemporary themes of conflict, violence, poverty, racism, injustice, hope, and human longing from spiritual, psychological, and biblical perspectives. They are a resource for all who want to deepen their faith as they face a world deep in turmoil.

No other life has had such an amazing impact upon the human race as did our Savior, Jesus Christ. From His birth in a humble stable until His death upon the cross of Golgotha, He left all of us simple teachings, direct commandments and profound doctrines which have altered the history of the world. He performed astounding miracles that left His disciples and other onlookers stunned and speechless. He condemned the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day, who would eventually conspire and arrange His death at the hands of the Romans. The culminating act of His ministry was the priceless gift of His eternal Atonement, which opened the floodgates of the resurrection, ending the final and icy grip of death upon all mankind. One day we too will participate in the glorious experience of the resurrection, when all tears will be dried and fears will cease. In a matter of just three years, His brief ministry changed the course of history. Gone was the harsh and rigid Mosaic law, replaced by the higher law of love for friends and enemies alike. His life is an example to all. All of these magnificent scriptural accounts and doctrines can be found within the pages of Days of the Living Christ.

"I'm on death row; the state wants to kill me, but I'm innocent! Can you help me get through these days?" In this manner, I was invited to become Joe's pen pal. My agreement set in motion a long, arduous pilgrimage. Little in my background seemed suitable for such an undertaking, yet I had personally wrestled with the issues of criminal behavior, corrections, and capital punishment. Also, as a Christian, I felt that there was a spiritual dimension to be explored. If execution was to come, shouldn't we deal with Job's question: "If a man die, will he live again?" Indeed I believe that all people should prepare for the aftermath of physical death. Joe was an exceptional young man, an atypical inmate. He was a scholar in a place where such would be deemed next to impossible. He was a trustyin a place where the rank-and-file would ridicule industriousness. He became a saintin a place where unrepentant sinners were the norm. The pending peril of execution became the linchpin for our ongoing exchanges regarding the issues of capital punishment and spiritual readiness for early death. For the Living of These Days was, for both of us, a living toward dying. But isn't that true for everyone?

How can we know if the Bible’s promise of everlasting life is true? One word: prophecy. One prophecy (among many) says that troubled times would come, with “men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.” These certainly are troubled times. The CDC reported that in...

The second installment of the New Rebellion Series, Book of Days is a power-packed daily supplement designed to kick-start each day. It will include an inspiring message, scripture reading, and an affirmation to declare. Each daily message will resonate with the new generations of Christians who desire to radically live out the Gospel. These devotions are not "your momma's or your poppa's."

Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for the best translated novel of 2014, now a New Directions paperback Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Hans Fallada Prize, The End of Days, by the acclaimed German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, consists essentially of five “books,” each leading to a different death of the same unnamed female protagonist. How could it all have gone differently?—the narrator asks in the intermezzos. The first chapter begins with the death of a baby in the early twentieth-century Hapsburg Empire. In the next chapter, the same girl grows up in Vienna after World War I, but a pact she makes with a young man leads to a second death. In the next scenario, she survives adolescence and moves to Russia with her husband. Both are dedicated Communists, yet our heroine ends up in a labor camp. But her fate does not end there…. A novel of incredible breadth and amazing concision, The End of Days offers a unique overview of the twentieth century.