Daniel Hahn

Sidarta Ribeiro

A groundbreaking history of the human mind told through our experience of dreams—from the earliest accounts to current scientific findings—and their essential role in the formation of who we are and the world we have made. What is a dream? Why do we dream? How do our bodies and minds use them? These questions are the starting point for this unprecedented study of the role and significance of this phenomenon. An inves­tigation on a grand scale, it encompasses literature, anthropology, religion, and science, articulating the essential place dreams occupy in human culture and how they functioned as the catalyst that compelled us to transform our earthly habitat into a human world. From the earliest cave paintings—where Sidarta Ribeiro locates a key to humankind’s first dreams and how they contributed to our capacity to perceive past and future and our ability to conceive of the existence of souls and spirits—to today’s cutting-edge scientific research, Ribeiro arrives at revolutionary conclusions about the role of dreams in human existence and evolution. He explores the advances that contempo­rary neuroscience, biochemistry, and psychology have made into the connections between sleep, dreams, and learning. He explains what dreams have taught us about the neural basis of memory and the transfor­mation of memory in recall. And he makes clear that the earliest insight into dreams as oracular has been elucidated by contemporary research. Accessible, authoritative, and fascinating, The Oracle of Night gives us a wholly new way to under­stand this most basic of human experiences.

The History and Science of Dreams

The Oracle of Night

In Catching Fire, the translation of Diamela Eltit's Never Did the Fire unfolds in real time as a conversation between works of art, illuminating both in the process. The problems and pleasures of conveying literature into another language—what happens when you meet a pun? a double entendre?—are met by translator Daniel Hahn's humor, deftness, and deep appreciation for what sets Eltit's work apart, and his evolving understanding of what this particular novel is trying to do.

A Translation Diary

Catching Fire

Gonçalo M. Tavares

In a city not quite of any particular era, a distant and calculating man named Lenz Buchmann works as a surgeon, treating his patients as little more than equations to be solved: life and death no more than results to be worked through without the least compassion. Soon, however, Buchmann's ambition is no longer content with medicine, and he finds himself rising through the ranks of his country's ruling party . . . until a diagnosis transforms this likely future president from a leading player into just another victim. In language that is at once precise, clinical, and oddly childlike, Gonc¸alo M. Tavares—the Portuguese novelist hailed by Jose´ Saramago as the greatest of his generation—here brings us another chilling investigation into the limits of human experience, mapping the creation and then disintegration of a man we might call “evil,” and showing us how he must learn to adapt in a world he can no longer dominate.

Lenz Buchmann's Position in the World

Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique

Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

Noel Hernández González

A Novel

Simpatía

Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Society of Reluctant Dreamers

Étienne Balibar

Politics and the Other Scene

Julián Fuks

Occupation

Machado De Assis

Essential Stories

Looking-Glass

Roger Mello

Charcoal Boys

Maria Duenas

Seamstress

José Eduardo Agualusa

Creole paints a vivid and dramatic picture of a decadent social order in tatters. Extraordinary characters, Real and fictional, Look on as their world collapses.

Creole

Margarita Valencia

Twelve contemporary stories inspired by Shakespeare and Cervantes, to mark the 400th anniversaries of their deaths. Introduced by Salman Rushdie.

Twelve Stories After Cervantes and Shakespeare

Lunatics, Lovers & Poets

Johanne Mercier

Arthur is a seven-year-old boy who is brilliant at being a seven-year-old boy. When Arthur visits his grandparents' house by the lake, more often than not, he becomes entangled in a new adventure, which he must solve with the help of his pet dog and useless duck - and hopefully without too much help from eccentric cousin Eugene.

Arthur and the Mystery of the Egg

Leonie Flynn

Susan Reuben

A guide for children themselves to discover some of the most significant works ever published as well as little-known treasures and brand new books.

Over 600 Top Books for 8-12s

The Ultimate Book Guide

Thomas Bunstead

Albert Sanchez Pinol

In this sweeping tale of heroism, treason, war, love, and regret, Albert Sánchez Piñol breathes new life into the infamous siege of a legendary city. At the turn of the eighteenth century a dark cloud looms over Spain. Her "bewitched" ruler dies without a clear successor, pitting two of Europe's most powerful kings against each other for control of the crown. Caught in the crosshairs of war, the Catalonian state finds herself in a bloody contest for independence. Abandoned by their allies and outnumbered tenfold, the defiant and ill-equipped citizens of Barcelona defend their homeland with vicious determination. Martí Zuviría, an accomplished military engineer and tactician with the power to change history, leads the defense against the Bourbons, but he is torn between his loyalties and his purse. Politically ambitious yet morally weak, Martí fights on both sides of the long War of the Spanish Succession, carefully navigating a sea of Machiavellian intrigue and betraying the city he was commended to keep. Rich in color and characters, abundant in epic battles, and illustrated with stunning portraits of war, Victus is a magnificent literary achievement that is destined to become classic.

The Fall of Barcelona, a Novel

Victus

An energizing real-time journey through the translation of Never Did the Fire and the process of literary translation.

Odyssey, a volume of twenty-one stories aimed at young adults, offers a variety of takes on the theme of travelling – at times funny and playful, at others dramatic and poignant – covering a wide range of themes relevant to teenagers across Europe such as coming of age, sexuality, migration, identity and displacement. Whether you're after realism or escapism, tales about inner cities, sunny holidays or sci-fi ventures into the future, this book will have something for everyone. Hay Festival is delighted to present Aarhus 39, a two-volume collection of the best emerging writers for young readers from across wider Europe. Three of among Europe's best loved children's authors – Matt Haig (UK), Kim Fupz Aakeson (Denmark) and Ana Cristina Herreros (Spain) – have selected thirty-nine writers under the age of forty, and invited them to write an original story on the theme of “journey”. These new stories, together with the specially commissioned illustrations that accompany them, are a celebration of great new writing for young people and reflect issues facing them in contemporary Europe. Reading stories of other people's lives and journeys extends understanding and empathy to new generations.

Stories of Journeys From Around Europe by the Aarhus 39

Odyssey

Clare Elsom

Arthur is a 7-year-old boy who is brilliant at being a 7-year-old boy. When Arthur visits his grandparents' house by the lake, more often than not, he becomes entangled in a new adventure, which he must solve with the help of his pet duck and useless dog - and hopefully without to much from eccentric Cousin Eugene.

Arthur and the Witch

Wolfgang Seiberl

Geoffrey A. Power

Jared R. Fletcher

Tobias Siebert

The Stretch-shortening Cycle of Active Muscle and Muscle-tendon Complex: What, Why and How It Increases Muscle Performance?

A history of the strange and exotic collection of wild animals kept in the Tower of London, which were used at various times for both entertainment and scientific study by royalty and members of English society.

The Amazing 600-year History of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts Kept at the Tower of London

The Tower Menagerie

Daniel Hahn

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