by Stanley Grauso & Gerald W. Isaac (2012)
A compelling story, based on the testimony of real events, that takes a look into the life of young Stanley Grauso, who was raised in a middle class Italian family in Connecticut during the prohibition years and whose life spirals out of control landing him in the company of some of the most reputed mobsters of the era (i.e. Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Aurthur Flegenheimer aka Dutch Schultz and F. Donald Coster aka Phil Musica).
edited and introduced by Paul Auster
In 1999, Paul Auster and National Public Radio's Weekend All Things Considered programme asked listeners to send in true stories, to be read on-air as part of the National Story Project. The response was overwhelming : everyone, it seemed, had a story to tell. *True Tales of American Life* gathers 180 of these stories in one extraordinary volume.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
It is 1871 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and fourteen-year-old Pringle Rose, still grieving from the death of her parents, takes her brother Gideon, who has Down syndrome, escapes from her uncle and aunt, and takes a train to Chicago--but disaster seems to follow her there.
Lucie Bertrand
"Ce que l'on conçoit bien s'énonce clairement", écrivait Boileau dans son Art poétique. Comment cependant "concevoir bien" une situation si monstrueusement hors du commun que l'enfer des camps de concentration ? Au problème pour le moins épineux de la création de l'écrit concentrationnaire s'ajoute celui de la réception. La plupart de ceux qui ont connu les camps sont morts : c'est à un public essentiellement constitué de néophytes que le rescapé s'adresse. "Ce qui est inconcevable peut s'exprimer clairement", c'est ce que nous apprend L'espèce humaine. Encore faut-il, pour le comprendre, concevoir que "clairement" renvoie moins à une clarté textuelle qu'à une écriture éclairante.
Sergeĭ Plekhanov
Moscow, Publishing house “Journalist”, 2007 The first biography of Saddam Hussein published after his death. Based on impressions of Iraq in the years of Saddam’s rule the book gives an idea of historical and cultural peculiarity of the country. The writer has met representatives of the political elite, commons, has made acquaintance with heads of different religious confessions, has been to the tribes of Bedouins and “marsh Arabs”. Sacred towns of the Shiites and orthodox monasteries, ruins of Babylon and of Assyrian cities, battle-fields of Iran-Iraq war and places of combats against American invaders are a kind of a scenery of a breath-taking drama that “The Life and the Death of Saddam” has been. A political portrait of a revolutionary and politician shows strong and weak sides of Hussein, his achievements and failures. The character of the book is shown as a strong and contradictory personality who does not stop against anything in order to achieve his goal.