Full AspenCat Catalog

Garnering international prizes and acclaim before its publication, Ilustrado has been called "brilliantly conceived and stylishly executed ...It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humor" (2008 Man Asian Literary Prize panel of judges). It begins with a body. On a clear day in winter, the battered corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River-taken from the world is the controversial lion of Philippine...

Haunting and evocative, brutal and surreal, these twelve connected tales evoke the life of the Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), whose short story "In the Grove" served as an inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's famous film Rashōmon, and whose narrative use of multiple perspectives and different versions of a single event influenced generations of storytellers. Writing out of his own obsession with Akutagawa, David Peace delves into the...

Praise for Barbara Browning: "A provocative novel . . . that blurs the boundaries between life and performance, dance, art, and viral video."-- Slate "Deftly blending highbrow intellectual concerns with the informality of Facebook-era communiqu#65533;s, Browning's newest is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking."-- Publishers Weekly , starred review In the midst of Occupy, Barbara Andersen begins spamming people indiscriminately with ukulele...

"Following a fight with her mother about her boyfriend, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her family and her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew as "the radio people," Holly has caught the attention of dangerous mystics - and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family scarred. This unsolved mystery will...

"Thousand Times Broken collects three never-before-translated texts by Henri Michaux. Composed between 1956 and 1959, during Michaux's mescaline experiments, the texts include 400 Men on the Cross, a contemplation of his loss of Catholic faith; "Peace in the Breaking," a poem written under the influence of mescaline; and Watchtowers on Targets, a singular, automatic collaboration with surrealist painter Roberto Matta. "To record the ineffable is...

"Palahniuk's fashion-model protagonist has it all, boyfriend, career, loyal best friend-- until an accident destroys her face, her ability to speak, and her self-esteem. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a bona-fide woman. Laced in are new chapters of memoir and further scenes with the book 's characters."--Provided by publisher.

"A collection of very short stories composed entirely of example sentences from various dictionaries, perfect for fans of The Lover's Dictionary and The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? " Dictionary Stories brings to literature the spirit of the musical mashup, digging in the crates to find old hooks and arrange them into new delights with an appeal that's not merely academic but truly pop. This kind of work reminds us: it's all there, love and disappointment...

Virginia Woolf's third novel, Jacob's Room (1922) differs from its two predecessors in its experimental, abstract approach to writing. Jacob Flanders' life is examined largely through the impressions and accounts of others in his life, mostly women, creating a portrait of a young man both representative of and victimized by Edwardian society. The novel coincided with Woolf's emerging interest in feminism and is critical of the righteous patriarchy...

Autobiography of a Wardrobe is an entirely original story of a woman's life told from her wardrobe's point of view, in the wardrobe's own exquisitely controlled, savvy, slightly bitchy but always vibrant voice.