The Ticking Is The Bomb A Memoir

Haunted by a history of addiction, his unsteady father and a longing to connect with his mother who committed suicide, the author interweaves passages from his childhood, his relationships with women and his concern over the post-9/11 world of terror, torture and political crimes. By the author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.

"A beautiful, intelligent book that renders pain both ordinary and extraordinary into art."—Susanna Sonnenberg, San Francisco Chronicle In 2007, during the months before Nick Flynn’s daughter’s birth, his growing outrage and obsession with torture, exacerbated by the Abu Ghraib photographs, led him to Istanbul to meet some of the Iraqi men depicted in those photos. Haunted by a history of addiction, a relationship with his unsteady father, and a longing to connect with his mother who committed suicide, Flynn artfully interweaves in this memoir passages from his childhood, his relationships with women, and his growing obsession—a questioning of terror, torture, and the political crimes we can neither see nor understand in post-9/11 American life. The time bomb of the title becomes an unlikely metaphor and vehicle for exploring the fears and joys of becoming a father. Here is a memoir of profound self-discovery—of being lost and found, of painful family memories and losses, of the need to run from love, and of the ability to embrace it again.

A searing memoir on how childhood spills into parenthood from the critically acclaimed author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. When Nick Flynn was seven years old, his mother set fire to their house. The event loomed large in his imagination for years, but it’s only after having a child of his own that he understands why. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his feral childhood has him still in its reins, and forms his memories into lyrical bedtime stories populated by the both sinister and wounded Mister Mann. With the spare lyricism and dark irony of his classic, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Flynn excavates the terrain of his traumatic upbringing and his mother’s suicide. This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire unravels the story of the fire that Flynn had to escape, and the ways in which, as an adult, he has carried that fire with him until it threatens to burn down his own house. Here Nick confronts his failings with fierce candor, even as they threaten to tear his family apart. His marriage in crisis, Flynn seeks answers from his therapist, who tells him he has “the ethics of a drowning man.” This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire takes us on the journey of a man struggling to hold himself together in prose that is raw and moving, sharp-edged and wry. Alternating literary analysis and philosophy with intimate memoir, Flynn probes his deepest ethical dilemmas.

Memoirs, autobiographies, and diaries represent the most personal and most intimate of genres, as well as one of the most abundant and popular. Gain new understanding and better serve your readers with this detailed genre guide to nearly 700 titles that also includes notes on more than 2,800 read-alike and other related titles. The popularity of this body of literature has grown in recent years, and it has also diversified in terms of the types of stories being told—and persons telling them. In the past, readers' advisors have depended on access by names or Dewey classifications and subjects to help readers find autobiographies they will enjoy. This guide offers an alternative, organizing the literature according to popular genres, subgenres, and themes that reflect common reading interests. Describing titles that range from travel and adventure classics and celebrity autobiographies to foodie memoirs and environmental reads, Life Stories: A Guide to Reading Interests in Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Diaries presents a unique overview of the genre that specifically addresses the needs of readers' advisors and others who work with readers in finding books.

THE MOST TRUSTED GUIDE TO GETTING PUBLISHED The 2012 Writer’s Market details thousands of publishing opportunities for writers, including listings for book publishers, consumer and trade magazines, contests and awards, literary agents, newspapers, playwriting markets, and screenwriting markets. These listings include contact and submission information to help writers get their work published. Look inside and you’ll also find page after page of all-new editorial material devoted to the craft and business of writing. It’s the most information we’ve ever jammed into one edition! You’ll find insightful interviews and articles, guidelines for finding work, honing your craft, and promoting your writing. You’ll also learn how to navigate the social media landscape, negotiate contracts, and protect your work. And as usual, this edition includes the ever popular "How Much Should I Charge?" pay rate chart. You also gain access to: • Lists of professional writing organizations • Sample query letters • A free digital download of Writer's Yearbook featuring the 100 Best Markets: WritersDigest.com/upload/images/WritersDigest-Yearbook-11.pdf Includes an exclusive 60-minute FREE WEBINAR with the staff of Writer’s Digest that will teach you how to begin building your own writing platform today. "What I appreciate most about Writer’s Market is that it’s impossible to pick up the book, flip through it, and put it down 15 minutes later without at least five, new profitable ideas that I can execute immediately. No other book on my shelf that can inspire this many practical, profitable, career-building ideas in this same amount of time." —Christina Katz, author of The Writer’s Workout, Get Known Before the Book Deal and Writer Mama

What is 'postirony'? Foremost, it is a response to the ironic zeitgeist. Moreover, it is the key to understanding a specific form of literature. The contemporary reader is familiar with and - unfortunately - used to postmodernism's ironic, self-reflexive metafiction. Authors like David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers chose a different path: Despite the reign of contemporary irony, they strive to reach the reader on a level beyond, cognitively as well as emotionally - they claim to be sincere and true. Focusing largely on nonfiction by said authors, Lukas Hoffmann explores the means the texts use to achieve something new - namely, a new form of sincerity.

'Extraordinary.' New York Times 'Savagely beautiful.' The Times Tokyo, January 26th, 1948. As the third year of the US Occupation of Japan begins, a man enters a downtown bank. He speaks of an outbreak of dysentery and says he is a doctor, sent by the Occupation authorities. Clear liquid is poured into sixteen teacups. Sixteen employees of the bank drink this liquid according to strict instructions. Within minutes twelve of them are dead, the other four unconscious. The man disappears along with some, but not all, of the bank's money. And so begins the biggest manhunt in Japanese history. In Occupied City, David Peace dramatises and explores the rumours of complicity, conspiracy and cover-up that surround the chilling case of the Teikoku Bank Massacre. 'Marvellous.' Daily Telegraph 'Genuinely hypnotic.' Harper's Magazine

An intimate group portrait of contemporary Hudson Valley writers.