In a world full of devils, the giant ape Kong defends what he loves the most. But who and what is this undomesticated animal? Might it reside within us? As we tread confidently, is this where the earth opens up beneath us?   In Kong's "Finest Hour",...

What happened to paradise after Adam and Eve were expelled? The question may sound like a theological quibble, or even a joke, but in "The Kingdom and the Garden", Giorgio Agamben uses it as a starting point for an investigation of human nature and t...

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was renowned for his revolutionary theater performances in both his native Poland and abroad. Despite nominally being a Catholic, Kantor had a unique relationship with Jewish culture and incorporated many elements of Jewish...

When Keith Stapperpfennig and his family give their grandfather the trip of a lifetime – an all expenses paid holiday to any destination in the world – the eccentric old man arbitrarily chooses China, and he asks Keith to accompany him. But when Keit...

Rich and multilayered, with elements of both memoir and fiction, Dominique Edde's "Kite" defies categorization. Beginning in the 1960s and ending in the late '80s, it is at once a narrative of a passionate, and ultimately tragic, relationship between...

Chandrasekhar Kambar is one of the most accomplished Indian writers working today. In each of Kambar's novels, the archetypical Mother, Karimayi, is at the center. The narrative of "Karimayi" moves through an astounding time span, beginning with the...

Franz Kafka was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His writing contributed greatly to existentialism, and the term "Kafkaesque" is now synonymous with the literature of the surreal, the complex and the illogical. His works...

Dominique Edde's gripping novel tells the story of the doomed Jann family as they plot against one another for revenge and power. Kamal Jann, a successful lawyer in New York City, has a troubled past unseen to most. When he was a boy in Syria, his un...

Photographer Pedro Meyer is one of the pioneers of contemporary photography and was an early leader in its digital revolution. In "A Kind of Touching Beauty" his lens is focused on the American city, capturing its growth and transition through the 19...

If it takes only a few rogue financiers to collapse the economy, can one earnest investment officer save the dollar from collapse? Ken Murai, the protagonist of this fast-paced novel by Michael S. Koyama, is a young officer in the Japanese ministry o...