'CENSUS is a vital testament to selfless love; a psalm to commonplace miracles; and a mysterious evolving metaphor. So kind, it aches.' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas A father and son who are census takers journey across a nameless country from the town of A to the town of Z in the wake of the father's fatal diagnosis. Knowing that his time is menacingly short, the father takes his son, who requires close and constant adult guidance, on this trip of indefinite length. Their feelings for each other are challenged and bolstered as they move in and out of a variety of homes, meeting a variety of different people. Census is about the ways in which people react to the son's condition, to the son as a person in the world. It is about discrimination and acceptance, kindness and art, education and love. It is a profoundly moving novel, glowing with wisdom and grace, roaring with a desire to change the world.

The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. It features long articles, interviews, and book reviews, as well as poems, comics, and a two-page vertically-oriented Schema spread, more or less unreproduceable on the web. The common thread in all these facets is that The Believer gives people and books the benefit of the doubt (the working title of this magazine was The Optimist).
On each issue, Charles Burns's beautiful illustrations adorn the cover; our regular raft of writers, artists, and photographers fill the pages; and the feel of the Westcan Printing Group's gorgeous "Roland Enviro 100 Natural" recycled acid-free heavy stock paper warms your heart.

Each author has extensive fanbase Each author has been nominated for and/or has won numerous awards. Most recently Jesse Ball was long listed for the National Book Awards. A great Halloween or Day of the Dead book

From the celebrated author of "The Curfew" ("A spare masterwork of dystopian fiction" "--The New York Times Book Review"), Jesse Ball's "Silence Once Begun" is an astonishing novel of unjust conviction, lost love, and a journalist's obsession.
Over the course of several months, eight people vanish from their homes in the same Japanese town, a single playing card found on each door. Known as the "Narito Disappearances," the crime has authorities baffled--until a confession appears on the police's doorstep, signed by Oda Sotatsu, a thread salesman. Sotatsu is arrested, jailed, and interrogated--but he refuses to speak. Even as his parents, brother, and sister come to visit him, even as his execution looms, and even as a young woman named Jito Joo enters his cell, he maintains his vow of silence. Our narrator, a journalist named Jesse Ball, is grappling with mysteries of his own when he becomes fascinated by the case. Why did Sotatsu confess? Why won't he speak? Who is Jito Joo? As Ball interviews Sotatsu's family, friends, and jailers, he uncovers a complex story of heartbreak, deceit, honor, and chance.
Wildly inventive and emotionally powerful, "Silence Once Begun" is a devastating portrayal of a justice system compromised, and evidence that Jesse Ball is a voraciously gifted novelist working at the height of his powers.

William and Molly lead a life of small pleasures, riddles at the kitchen table, and games of string and orange peels. All around them a city rages with war. When the uprising began, William's wife was taken, leaving him alone with their young daughter. They keep their heads down and try to remain unnoticed as police patrol the streets, enforcing a curfew and arresting citizens. But when an old friend seeks William out, claiming to know what happened to his wife, William must risk everything. He ventures out after dark, and young Molly is left to play, reconstructing his dangerous voyage, his past, and their future. An astounding portrait of fierce love within a world of random violence, "The Curfew "is a mesmerizing feat of literary imagination.

In an age of national divisiveness, artists are creating moments of political resistance while also trying to forge paths towards reconciliation. This exciting and provocative collection shows how fifteen US-based multi-disciplinary artists are addressing the complexity of the 21st century. Jeffrey Gibson weaves together European and Native American cultures; Performance artist Cassils constructs images of resistance in the Trans community; Hayv Kahraman examines diasporic culture and the effect of being a refugee in America. Together these artists create a national collective portrait of a country at odds. This book examines the human condition from all sides and strives to show how acting together against suffering can lead to a new version of realness.

One morning in the park James Sim discovers a man, crumpled on the ground, stabbed in the chest. In the man's last breath, he whispers his confession: "Samedi. "
What follows is a spellbinding game of cat and mouse as James is abducted, brought to an asylum, and seduced by a woman in yellow. Who is lying? What is Samedi? And what will happen on the seventh day?

With his debut novel, "Samedi the Deafness," Jesse Ball emerged as one of our most extraordinary new writers. Now, Ball returns with this haunting tale of love and storytelling, hope and identity.
When Selah Morse sees a young woman get hit by a speeding taxicab, he rushes her to the hospital. The girl has lost her memory; she is delirious and has no identification, so Selah poses as her boyfriend. She is released into his care, but the doctor charges him to keep her awake, and to help her remember her past. Through the long night, he tells her stories, inventing and inventing, trying to get closer to what might be true, and hoping she will recognize herself in one of his tales. Offering up moments of pure insight and unexpected, exuberant humor, The Way Through Doors" "demonstrates Jesse Ball's great artistry and gift for and narrative.