An Esquire "Best Book of Spring 2022" A San Francisco Chronicle "Most Anticipated Novel of 2022" A Literary Hub "Most Anticipated Book of 2022" From "an important writer in every sense" (David Foster Wallace), a novel that imagines a future in which sweeping civil conflict has forced America's young people to flee its borders, into an unwelcoming world. One such American is Ron Patterson, who finds himself on distant shores, working as a repairman and sharing a room with other refugees. In an unnamed city wedged between ocean and lush mountainous forest, Ron can almost imagine a stable life for himself. Especially when he makes the first friend he has had in years--a mysterious migrant named Marlise, who bears a striking resemblance to a onetime classmate. Nearly a decade later--after anti-migrant sentiment has put their whirlwind intimacy and asylum to an end--Ron is living in "Little America," an enclave of migrants in one of the few countries still willing to accept them. Here, among reminders of his past life, he again begins to feel that he may have found a home. Ron adopts a stray dog, observes his neighbors, and lands a repairman job that allows him to move through the city quietly. But this newfound security, too, is quickly jeopardized, as resurgent political divisions threaten the fabric of Little America. Tapped as an informant against the rise of militant gangs and contending with the appearance of a strangely familiar woman, Ron is suddenly on dangerous and uncertain ground. Brimming with mystery, suspense, and Kalfus's distinctive comic irony, 2 A.M. in Little America poses several questions vital to the current moment: What happens when privilege is reversed? Who is watching and why? How do tribalized politics disrupt our ability to distinguish what is true and what is not? This is a story for our time--gripping, unsettling, prescient--by one of our most acclaimed novelists.

Russia, 1910. Leo Tolstoy lies dying in Astapovo, a remote railway station. Members of the press from around the world have descended upon this sleepy hamlet to record his passing for a public suddenly ravenous for celebrity news. They have been joined by a film company whose cinematographer, Nikolai Gribshin, is capturing the extraordinary scene and learning how to wield his camera as a political tool. At this historic moment he comes across two men -- the scientist, Professor Vorobev, and the revolutionist, Joseph Stalin -- who have radical, mysterious plans for the future. Soon they will accompany him on a long, cold march through an era of brutality and absurdity. "The Commissariat of Enlightenment" is a mesmerizing novel of ideas that brilliantly links the tragedy and comedy of the Russian Revolution with the global empire of images that occupies our imaginations today.

Joyce and Marshall each think the other is killed on September 11--and must swallow their disappointment when the other arrives home. As their bitter divorce is further complicated by anthrax scares, suicide bombs, and foreign wars, they suffer, in ways unexpectedly personal and increasingly ludicrous, the many strange ravages of our time. In this astonishing black comedy, Kalfus suggests how our nation's public calamities have encroached upon our most private illusions.

In "the story collection of the year" "(Paper" magazine), Ken Kalfus mines a vast terrain of geography and metaphor to create a stunning series of portraits of people caught in the seismic collision of cultures, be they real, hallucinated, dreamed, or desired. With his "magical, transformative, and captivating" "(Boston Book Review)" mix of fantasy and dark humor, Kalfus has crafted an extraordinary collection that is, by turns, hilarious, mysterious, and touching.

It's the late nineteenth century, and British astronomer Sanford Thayer has won international funding for his scheme to excavate an equilateral triangle, three hundred miles to a side, from the remote wastes of Egypt's Western Desert. Nine hundred thousand Arab fellahin have been put to work on the project, even though they can't understand Thayer's obsessive purpose. They don't believe him when he says his perfect triangle will be visible to the highly evolved beings who inhabit the planet Mars, signaling the existence of civilization on Earth. Political and religious dissent rumbles through the camps. There's also a triangle of another sort--a romantic one, involving Thayer's secretary, who's committed to the man and his vision, and the mysterious servant girl he covets without sharing a common language. In the wind-blasted, lonely, fever-dream outpost known only as Point A, we plumb the depths of self-delusion and folly that comprise Thayer's characteristically human enterprise. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white astronomical diagrams, "Equilateral "is an elegant intellectual comedy that's extravagant in its conception and intimately focused on the implications of empire, colonization, and what we expect from contact with "the other."

Christopher Morley was one of the most celebrated American authors of the 1920s and 1930s. Best known as the author of Parnassus on Wheels and Kitty Foyle, Morley wrote for a popular audience that keenly appreciated his style, his wit, and his exuberant championing of the written word. Morley wrote most of the pieces collected in this volume from 1918 to 1920, while a columnist for the Philadelphia Evening Ledger. His assignment: to "saunter" around town and the Philadelphia suburbs, and then - usually after a leisurely lunch - report back. The result was a series of lively essays that, read now, not only reveals a city's colorful past, but sheds light on its present: much of the Philadelphia Morley explored remains intact for the native or visitor with the eye and patience to discover it. Morley's best Philadelphia work, scattered among 12 volumes published during his lifetime, have been collected in this handsome new book, which includes period illustrations by Walter Jack Duncan and Frank Taylor, and a critical introduction by Ken Kalfus. Published on May 5, 1990, on the 100th anniversary of Morley's birth, Christopher Morley's Philadelphia brings together numerous essays that have been out of print for 50 years or longer. The book joins Fordham University Press's 1988 collection, Christopher Morley's New York, as a lasting contribution to the Morley oeuvre.

Christopher Morley was one of the most celebrated American authors of the 1920s and 1930s. Best known as the author of Parnassus on Wheels and Kitty Foyle, Morley wrote for a popular audience that keenly appreciated his style, his wit, and his exuberant championing of the written word. Morley wrote most of the pieces collected in this volume from 1918 to 1920, while a columnist for the Philadelphia Evening Ledger. His assignment: to "saunter" around town and the Philadelphia suburbs, and then a usually after a leisurely lunch a report back. The result was a series of lively essays that, read now, not only reveals a cityas colorful past, but sheds light on its present: much of the Philadelphia Morley explored remains intact for the native or visitor with the eye and patience to discover it. Morleyas best Philadelphia work, scattered among 12 volumes published during his lifetime, have been collected in this handsome new book, which includes period illustrations by Walter Jack Duncan and Frank Taylor, and a critical introduction by Ken Kalfus. Published on May 5, 1990, on the 100th anniversary of Morleyas birth, Christopher Morleyas Philadelphia brings together numerous essays that have been out of print for 50 years or longer. The book joins Fordham University Pressas 1988 collection, Christopher Morleyas New York, as a lasting contribution to the Morley oeuvre.