We’re pleased to announce these March releases from NYRB Classics: Vladimir Sorokin’s thrilling apocalyptic epic, Ice Trilogy, now translated in its entirety for the first time; Tove Jansson’s beautiful novel, Fair Play, in an award-winning translation; and J. R. Ackerley’s We Think the World of You, released in an edition that restores the previously expurgated text.

For a limited time, these March titles, as well as all NYRB Classics by Tove Jansson, Vladimir Sorokin, and J. R. Ackerley, are available at 25% off.

 

Ice Trilogy

By Vladimir Sorokin
Translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell

From one of Russia’s boldest and most infamous contemporary authors, now in its first English translation, comes an exhilarating, apocalyptic epic, an exemplary illustration of Sorokin’s singular prose style and sense for modern myth.

 

Beginning with Bro, Ice Trilogy follows the surreal and destructive journey of ‘the brotherhood’—a severe and severely conflicted group of idealists who are seeking to return to their origins in pure light. Their goal: global destruction. The middle section, Ice, serves as the central episode of Sorokin’s trilogy. In the last, gripping section, 23,000, Sorokin wields an unfettered narrative of suspense as he brings his readers to the brink of the brotherhood’s ultimate fate. To say the least, Sorokin’s harrowing vision of the future is sure to remain a classic of dystopic fiction for many years to come.

Fair Play

By Tove Jansson
Introduction by Ali Smith
Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal

Fair Play follows the life and love of two unforgettable women as they travel, argue, live, and create side by side in a friendship that celebrates truly caring for and respecting a fellow human being.

 

Mari and Jonna are creators—one of drawing and film, the other of stories—and they share a tender, unique friendship bound together as much by their art as by life itself. Jansson’s Fair Play transports us into their world as they critique each other’s work, summer on an island off the Finnish coast, travel to Arizona, and, in a particularly memorable vignette, get lost in an unforgiving fog on a boat.

 

Both thoughtful and liberating, Jansson’s delicate exploration of Mari and Jonna’s relationship, which reflects Jansson’s own relationship with lifelong partner and artist Tuulikki Pietilä, is an inspiring tribute to the author’s belief in “work and love.” From start to finish, Fair Play never fails to compel and delight.

We Think the World of You

By J. R. Ackerley
Introduction by P. N. Furbank

Described by Ackerley himself as “a fairy tale for adults,” We Think the World of You combines acute social realism and dark fantasy.

 

Frank, Ackerley’s narrator, is a smart, self-righteous civil servant who has just hit middle-age; he is angry, acerbic and lonely. And he has just fallen for his neighbor, Johnny, a handsome, young married man with a wife, children, and a German shepherd named Evie. When the carefree Johnny is arrested for petty theft, Frank is forced to fight Johnny’s family for access to the prison in which his beloved is incarcerated. Frank’s struggle to stay connected to Johnny spirals out into a fantastical and often hilarious tale of star-crossed love, social misunderstandings, and the true meaning of caring for another.

This month NYRB Classics adds to its collection three remarkable nineteenth-century European novels. Theodor Fontane’s Irretrievable tells the tragic yet beautiful story of a married couple who begin to slowly and irreversibly drift apart. Bolesław Prus’s The Doll is an epic masterpiece about the life, politics, and tumultuous social climate of late-nineteenth-century Warsaw. Marcellus Emants’s gripping tale of murder and self-hatred, A Posthumous Confession, is superbly translated by Nobel prize winner J. M. Coetzee. For a limited time, each of these February titles is available at 25% off.

Irretrievable

By Theodor Fontane
Afterword by Phillip Lopate
Translated from the German and with an
introduction by Douglas Parmée

Written with a delicate sense of irony, Irretrievable follows the heartbreaking disintegration of a marriage that, though seemingly happy, has begun to buckle under the weight of inexplicable strains, misunderstandings, and incompatibilities.

Helmut Holk and Christine Arne could not be more different. Helmut is carefree and convivial; Christine harbors a dark and reverent seriousness. Yet opposites attract and for twenty-three years of marriage they are happy. But, of late, they have begun to sense a disturbing tension seeping into their interactions with one another. The couple’s asides, casual jokes, and long-term plans begin to reveal devastating conflicts and bring them to a destructive point of no return in Fontane’s profoundly humane domestic drama.

“…the combination of so many factors—the accuracy and vividness of the background and setting (not forgetting the very comical secondary characters), the skilful narrative technique, the sureness of purpose, the brilliantly aphoristic style, the pervasive irony, the importance and modernity of theme, make Irretrievable one of the outstanding novels of the nineteenth century.”
—From Douglas Parmée’s Introduction

Read Douglas Parmée’s Introduction

The Doll

Bolesław Prus
Introduction by Stanisław Barańczak
Translated from the Polish by David Welsh

In this novel, considered the Polish novel of the nineteenth century, the author examines late-nineteenth-century Warsaw through the eyes of a fascinating and colorful cast of characters, all of whom must come to terms with the swiftly changing landscape of life in Eastern Europe.

Prus’s work centers around the stories of three men from three different generations: Wokulski, the fatally flawed and hopelessly love-struck hero; Rzecki, the methodical and romantic old clerk; and Ochocki, a bright young scientist who hopes for universal progress in the midst of a darkening political climate. As the stories of the three men intertwine, Prus’s novel spins a web of encounters with an embattled aristocracy, the new men of finance, and the urban poor. Written with a quasi-prophetic sensibility, The Doll looks ahead to the social forces of imperialism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism that would soon hound the entire continent.

“A vision of the future derived from an interpretation of society’s past and a critical assessment of its present state—this is actually what Prus’s The Doll is all about. This is the minimum that this novel demands from successive generations of its readers. It is also an old-fashioned yet still fascinating love story, a historically determined yet still topical diagnosis of society’s ills, and a forceful yet subtle portrayal of a tragically doomed man.”
—From Stanisław Barańczak’s Introduction

“The Doll demonstrates 19th-century realism at its best.”
—Czesław Miłosz

Read Stanisław Barańczak’s Introduction

A Posthumous Confession

By Marcellus Emants
Translated from the Dutch and with an
introduction by J. M. Coetzee

This novel is a powerful and unsettling psychological study of the relationship between hatred and desire. Translated by Nobel prize-winning author J. M. Coetzee, the novel that “won a permanent place for [Emants] in the history of Dutch literature” is now available after being out of print for many years.

Termeer, Emants’s narrator and antihero, is a deeply frustrated, emotionally stunted man who finds himself continually reminded of his own worthless mediocrity. Due to a dark and condemning upbringing and his own sense of self-loathing, Termeer can only seem to live up to the low expectations of his family and community—until, that is, he successfully woos a beautiful and gifted woman. Their marriage, however, leads only to further distress, and Termeer soon decides that only in murder can he find ultimate satisfaction. Reminiscent of Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, Termeer’s chilling narrative will have every reader pondering the delicate nature of self.

“Since the time of Rousseau we have seen the growth of the genre of the confessional novel, of which A Posthumous Confession is a singularly pure example. Termeer, claiming to be unable to keep his dreadful secret, records his confession and leaves it behind as a monument to himself, thereby turning a worthless life into art.”
—From J. M. Coetzee’s Introduction

Read J. M. Coetzee’s Introduction

We’re very, very pleased to announce the publication of Daniel Pinkwater’s cult classic Lizard Music as the newest title in The New York Review Children’s Collection. Lizard Music and more books for children ages 8-14 are available at a limited-time 30% discount.

Lizard Music

Written and illustrated by Daniel Pinkwater

When you’re an eleven-year-old kid like Victor, and your parents go on vacation, leaving you at home with your older sister, you’re not too happy. But to Victor’s surprise, when Leslie packs up to go camping with her friends as soon as the parents are out the door, a whole new life of options and independence opens up. Staying up late watching movies on TV, drinking grape soda for breakfast, eating donuts for dinner, taking the bus to watch weird wavy-horned animals at the zoo, and visiting the next town where you meet unusual characters like the Chicken Man (and Claudia, the hen, who lives under his hat), all leave you feeling pretty grown up, or at least like a teen. That is until strange things start happening.

Seeing a lizard band, playing their music on TV after the late-late movie has ended, is especially puzzling, until Victor discovers that the Chicken Man knows about the lizard musicians, too. With the help of Chicken Man, Claudia, and some of those life-size clarinet and saxophone playing lizards, Victor sets off for an invisible floating island anticipating high adventures and hoping to learn the answers to the questions that could fix the unfortunate problems that have occurred. What will happen next? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

But there’s one thing we can report on for sure: with a copy of Lizard Music you’re irresistibly and unforgettably transported to Planet Pinkwater. It’s a place where anything can happen—a land that’s magical for both adults and kids.

“No author has ever captured the great fun of being weird, growing up as a happy mutant, unfettered by convention, as well as Pinkwater has. When I was a kid, Pinkwater novels like Lizard Music…made me intensely proud to be a little off-center and weird—they taught me to woo the muse of the odd and made me the happy adult I am today.” —Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net

Lizard Music
Written and illustrated by Daniel Pinkwater
For ages 8-14

 

Winter months have us wishing for long summer days spent outside. While waiting for the first signs of spring, there’s no better way to keep warm than spending some time baking something delicious in the kitchen. With January 23rd marking National Pie Day, and February declared National Pie Month, bakers everywhere will be digging through their cookbooks for the perfect recipe to share. If you’re looking for something truly unique to try, especially with the littlest of chefs in mind, we have the perfect suggestion for you—Mud Pies!

 

Written by Marjorie Winslow, charmingly illustrated by Erik Blegvad, and called “delightfully digestible” by Life magazine, Mud Pies and Other Recipes is a cookbook for dolls filled with the finest of culinary curiosities. Reading it aloud is a perfect way to celebrate our pie holiday, while plotting plans for parties out among the garden plants when warmer weather finally comes our way.

Bon Appétit !

“Mud Pies delights because, like the very best children’s books, it gives young folks their due. Winslow’s recipes appeal to the considerable wit, sophistication and imaginative prowess of many young children…. Winslow’s book is a gem.” —Prospero, on The Economist website

“When I was about five years old, Granny gave me my first cookbook— Mud Pies and Other Recipes. Even though it was a pretend cookbook, it somehow persuaded me that real cooking must be fun.”—Sara Moulton

“One of the most charming picture books ever published.” —Horn Book

Our first releases of the year are by authors well known to NYRB Classics readers. The Traveller’s Tree by Patrick Leigh Fermor is “still the best piece of travel writing on the Caribbean” (The Guardian) and Conquered City by Victor Serge is a tragic novel of revolutionary terror.