LEECHES

David Albahari Translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac ISBN: 9780151015023 Hardcover, $24.00 Rights: US, C, O The place is Serbia, the time is the late 1990s. Our protagonist, a single he man, writes a regular op-ed column for a Belgrade newspaper and ed spends the rest of his time with his best friend, smoking pot and talking about sex, politics, and life in general. One day on the shore of the Danube he spots a man slapping a beautiful woman. Intrigued, he follows the woman into the tangled streets of the city until he loses sight of her. A few days later he receives a mysterious manuscript whose contents seem to mutate each time he opens it. To decipher the manuscripta collection of fragments on the Kabbalah and the history of the Jews of Zemun and Belgrade he contacts an old schoolmate, now an eccentric mathematician, and a group of men from the Jewish community. As the narrator delves deeper into arcane topics, he begins to see signs of anti-Semitism, past and present, anti throughout the city and he feels impelled to denounce it. But his increasingly passionate columns erupt in a ity scandal culminating in murder. Following in the footsteps of Foucaults Pendulum Leeches is a cerebral Pendulum, adventure into the underground worlds of secret societies and conspiracy theories.

THE HEART AND THE FIST

The Education of A Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL Eric Greitens ISBN: 9780547424859 Hardcover, $27.00 Rights: US, C, O How best to save the worldas saint or soldier? The answer for Eric as Greitens is both. Like many young idealists, Eric Greitens wanted to make a difference. During college and afterward, he traveled to the worlds trouble spots, working in refugee camps, serving the sick and the poor on four continents, from Gaza to Croatia to Mother Teresas home in Calcutta, among others. Yet he could not prevent violence or save anyone from becoming a refugee; he could only step in afterward and try to ease the damage. So he joined the Navy SEALs and became an elite warrior. In a moving and inspiring memoir, told with genuine humility, Eric offers something new in the history of military memoirs: a warrior who wanted to be strong to be good, only to discover that he had to be good to be strong. Throughout his SEAL training and deployments in Kenya, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the lessons of his humanitarian work bore fruit. The result is a lesson for us all: the heart and fist together are more powerful than either one alone.

PLASTIC
A Toxic Love Story

Susan Freinkel ISBN: 9780547152400 Hardcover, $27.00 Rights: US, C, O How we can learn to live with the material that never dies Plastic built the modern world. Where would we be without bike helmets, baggies, toothbrushes, and pacemakers? But a century into our love affair with plastic, were starting to realize its not such a healthy relationship. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. As journalist Susan Freinkel points out in this engaging and eye-opening book, were nearing a crisis point. Weve produced as much plastic in the past decade as we did in the entire twentieth century. Were drowning in the stuff, and we need to start making some hard choices. Freinkel gives us the tools we need with a blend of lively anecdotes and analysis. She combs through scientific studies and economic data, reporting from China and across the United States to assess the real impact of plastic on our lives. She tells her story through eight familiar plastic objects: comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. Her conclusion: we cannot stay on our plasticpaved path. And we dont have to. Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love to hate but cant seem to live without.

HERETICS
The Cretion of Christianity From The Gnostics To The Modern Church Jonathan Wright

ISBN: 9780151013876 Hardcover, $28.00 Rights: US, C, O (- EU)

In Heretics Jonathan Wright charts the history of dissent in the Christian Church through the stories of some of its most emblematic heretics from Arius, a fourth-century Libyan cleric who doubted the very divinity of Christ, to more successful heretics like Martin Luther and John Calvin. As he traces the Churchs attempts at enforcing orthodoxy, from the days of Constantine to the modern Catholic Churchs lingering conflicts, Wright argues that heresy, by forcing the Church to continually refine and impose its beliefs, actually helped Christianity to blossom into one of the worlds most formidable and successful religions.

Today, all believers owe it to themselves to grapple with the questions raised by heresy. Can you be a Christian without denouncing heretics? Is it possible that new ideas challenging Church doctrine are destined to become as popular as have Luthers once outrageous suggestions of clerical marriage and a priesthood of all believers? A delightfully readable and deeply learned new history, Heretics overturns our assumptions about the role of heresy in a faith that still shapes the world.

THE ROGUE REPUBLIC

How Would-Be Patriots Waged The Shortest Revolution in American History William C. Davis ISBN: 9780151009251 Hardcover, $28.00 Rights: World

From acclaimed Civil War historian and awardwinning author of The Pirates Laffite comes the absorbing history of an upstart ninety-day republic that jump-started Manifest Destiny. When Britain ceded the territory of West Florida what is now Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Floridato Spain in 1783, America was still too young to confidently fight in one of Europes endless territorial contests. So it was left to the settlers, bristling at Spanish misrule, to establish a foothold in the area. Enter the Kemper brothers, whose vigilante justice culminated in a small band of American residents drafting a constitution and establishing a new government. By the time President Madison sent troops to occupy the territory, assert U.S. authority under the Louisiana Purchase, and restore order, West Floridas settlers had already announced their independence, becoming our countrys shortest-lived rogue republic. Meticulously researched and populated with the colorful characters that make American history a joy, this is the story of a young country testing its power on the global stage and a lost chapter in how the frontier spirit came to define American character. The first treatment of this little-known historical moment, The Rogue Republic shows how hardscrabble frontiersmen and gentleman farmers planted the seeds of civil war, marked the dawn of Manifest Destiny, and laid the groundwork for the American empire.

MY FIRST SUMMER IN THE SIERRA

John Muir Photography by Scot Miller ISBN: 9780618988518 Hardcover, $30.00 Rights: World

A beautifully illustrated 100th-anniversary edition of an American classic, with a newforeword by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns From the photographer who brought Thoreaus Walden and Cape Cod to life comes a new work combining classic literature with brand-new photography. This time, Scot Miller takes on the seminal work of John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra. The book details Muirs first extended trip to the Sierra Nevada in what is now Yosemite National Park, a landscape that entranced him immediately and had a profound effect on his life. The towering waterfalls, natural rock formations, and abundant plant and animal life helped Muir develop his views of the natural world, views that would eventually lead him to push for the creation of the national parks. Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the books original publication, and published in collaboration with Yosemite Conservancy, My First Summer in the Sierra is illustrated with Millers stunning photos, showcasing the dramatic landscape of the High Sierra. The publication of My First Summer in the Sierra inspired thousands to journey there, and this newly illustrated anniversary edition will surely inspire thousands more.

FRESH & FAST VEGETARIAN

Receipes That Make A Meal Marie Simmons ISBN: 9780547368917 Paperback, $17.95 Rights: US, C, O Marie Simmons loves bold, imaginative flavors from around the world, and her magically simple combinations have been featured in many magazines, from Redbook to Bon Apptit, where she was a popular columnist, and in her award-winning cookbooks. Over the years, she has come to rely more and more on vegetables and grains, because, as she says, They taste good and they make me feel better. Now, in Fresh & Fast Vegetarian, she offers up more than 150 of her favorite dinners. Most can be made in half an hour or less, and for each one, Simmons provides an equally easy accompaniment. Like Roasted Vegetables and Mozzarella Quesadillas, some are meals in themselves, while others are smaller dishes that can be paired to create a quick but sumptuous dinner. A number of Simmonss nearly effortless, vibrant recipes are vegan. Each tells exactly how long it will take to prepare. Fresh & Fast Vegetarian also provides hundreds of tips for shortcuts and substitutions.