In "Consolations of the Forest", Sylvain Tesson explains how he found a radical solution to his need for freedom, one as ancient as the experiences of the hermits of old Russia: he decided to lock himself alone in a cabin in the middle taiga, on the shores of Baikal, for six months. From February to July 2010, he lived in silence, solitude, and cold. His cabin, built by Soviet geologists in the Brezhnev years, is a cube of logs three meters by three meters, heated by a cast iron skillet, six-day walk from the nearest village and hundreds of miles of track. To live isolated from the world while retaining one's sanity requires a routine, Tesson discovered. In the morning, he would read, write, smoke, or draw, and then devoted hours to cutting the wood, shoveling snow, and fishing. Emotionally, these months proved a challenge, and the loneliness was crippling. Tesson found in paper a valuable confidant, the notebook, a polite companion. Noting carefully, almost daily, his impressions of the silence, his struggles to survive in a hostile nature, his despair, his doubts, but also its moments of ecstasy, inner peace and harmony with nature, Sylvain Tesson shares with us an extraordinary experience. Writer, journalist and traveler, Sylvain Tesson was born in 1972. After a world tour by bicycle, he developed a passion for Central Asia, and has travelled tirelessly since 1997. He came to prominence in 2004 with a remarkable travelogue, Axis of Wolf (Robert Laffont). Editions Gallimard have already published his "A Life of a Mouthful" (2009) and, with Thomas Goisque and Bertrand de Miollis, "High Voltage" (2009). In 2009 he won the Prix Goncourt for "A Life of a Mouthful", and in 2011 won the Prix Medicis for non-fiction for "Consolations of the Forest: Alone in Siberia".

Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga

Science & Math

TESSON, Sylvain

Nature & Ecology

Rizzoli Ex Libris

From Italy's popular author Corrado Augias comes the most intriguing exploration of Rome ever to be published. In the mold of his earlier histories of Paris, New York, and London, Augias moves perceptively through twenty-seven centuries of Roman life, shedding new light on a cast of famous, and infamous, historical figures and uncovering secrets and conspiracies that have shaped the city without our ever knowing it. From Rome's origins as Romulus's stomping ground to the dark atmosphere of the Middle Ages; from Caesar's unscrupulousness to Caravaggio's lurid genius; from the notorious Lucrezia Borgia to the seductive Anna Fallarino, the marchioness at the center of one of Rome's most heinous crimes of the post-war period, Augias creates a sweeping account of the passions that have shaped this complex city: at once both a metropolis and a village, where all human sentiment-bravery and cowardice, industriousness and sloth, enterprise and laxity-find their interpreters and stage. If the history of humankind is all passion and uproar, then, as the author notes, "for centuries Rome has been the mirror of this history, reflecting with excruciating accuracy every detail, even those that might cause you to avert your gaze."

The Secrets of Rome: Love and Death in the Eternal City

History

Augias, Corrado

Europe

By now most of us are aware of the threats looming in the food world. The best-selling Fast Food Nation and other recent books have alerted us to such dangers as genetically modified organisms, food-borne diseases, and industrial farming. Now it is time for answers, and Slow Food Nation steps up to the challenge. Here the charismatic leader of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, outlines many different routes by which we may take back control of our food. The three central principles of the Slow Food plan are these: food must be sustainably produced in ways that are sensitive to the environment, those who produce the food must be fairly treated, and the food must be healthful and delicious. In his travels around the world as ambassador for Slow Food, Petrini has witnessed firsthand the many ways that native peoples are feeding themselves without making use of the harmful methods of the industrial complex. He relates the wisdom to be gleaned from local cultures in such varied places as Mongolia, Chiapas, Sri Lanka, and Puglia. Amidst our crisis, it is critical that Americans look for insight from other cultures around the world and begin to build a new and better way of eating in our communities here.

Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, And Fair

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

PETRINI, CARLO

Cooking Education & Reference

This novel, the first from the mayor of Rome, chronicles two parallel stories. Giovanni Astengo, employed by the Italian State Archives, is driven to uncover the fate of his father, who disappeared in 1977 after the murder of his best friend and colleague. Returning to the former country house of his parents, he is compelled to dial the number of his childhood home, and due to forces unknown, someone answers: his thirteen-year-old self, just days before his father’s disappearance. The telephone establishes a mysterious link between the older man and his younger self, at a pivotal moment in their lives. While his family life unravels, Giovanni’s search for the cause of his father’s disappearance intensifies, setting the scene for a dramatic conclusion.With this unpredictable detective story, Veltroni explores a troubled era in Italian life: the bloody terrorism that marked the seventies. Through the protagonist’s journey into his family’s past and the secrets that he uncovers, Veltroni offers a new perspective on a period in contemporary history—and its devastating consequences—that many of his compatriots still have not come to terms with.

The Discovery of Dawn

Literature & Fiction

Walter Veltroni

Literary

Two brothers, Fabio and Lorenzo Telmari—one a corrupt politician, the other an impassioned writer and the novel’s hero—inherit a secret upon the death of their father, an internationally renowned virologist. At his funeral, Lorenzo is approached by a mysterious redheaded woman who asks him a single question and then disappears: "Have you ever heard of Ndiogene?" From then on, Lorenzo’s life undergoes rapid changes involving political and religious intrigue, narrow escapes, and a life-altering love affair. He learns that at the time of his death his father had two documents written by Ndiogene, a Senegalese cardinal who had recently died of AIDS. These documents contain slander against the Catholic church and controversial opinions about population control, among other issues. De Carlo confronts these themes with poise, avoiding sensationalism and tempering rage with irony, emotion, and equilibrium. A grand chase for the documents ensues, pitting brother against brother, and results in a crescendo of disappearances and deaths. With Sea of Truth, De Carlo has executed an engaging and adventurous novel, writing with conviction about the modern world and the values of its citizens.

Sea of Truth

De Carlo, Andrea

The electrifying best-selling crime thriller from Italy, available for the first time in English. An instant sensation and number-one best seller since its publication, Temporary Perfections is the fourth crime novel by former Italian prosecutor Gianrico Carofiglio to feature Guido Guerrieri. A lawyer practicing in Bari, in southwest Italy, Guido Guerrieri is hired by an old colleague to work a missing-persons case that the police have failed to solve. Manuela Ferraro disappeared six months ago after spending a September weekend at a beach resort; as Guerrieri digs deep into her life and activities, he stumbles into a sinister drug ring and the real truth about why Ferraro vanished. Simultaneously thoughtful and suspenseful, this is crime fiction at its best.

Temporary Perfections

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Carofiglio, Gianrico

Mystery

“A vivid portrait of life at the top of a podium heap…[a] fascinating memoir – a must-read for all who would gain insights into what makes a dedicated and complicated man of music tick.” ~Chicago Tribune From a small town in the south of Italy to the pinnacle of the classical music world, Riccardo Muti has enthralled audiences across the globe as conductor of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and opera houses. Now, after fifty years on the podium, he reflects on an extraordinary career, working with the great artists of his generation. Here, for the first time, he shares the personal anecdotes and revelations of a remarkable life in music.

Riccardo Muti: An Autobiography: First the Music, Then the Words

Biographies & Memoirs

Muti, Riccardo

Arts & Literature

What is it in the operatic Italian psyche that allows-indeed, forgives, even applauds-Italy’s premier for conducting a lifestyle as decadent as a Fellini extravaganza, while organizing an ongoing string of questionable behaviors and politically incorrect gaffes not seen since the days of Nero? All this, and yet Mr. Berlusconi remains completely “understood” by so many of his countrymen-some of whom keep coming back for more! Best-selling writer Beppe Severgnini, who by explaining America to Italians humorously immortalized American behavior in his book Ciao, America!, now trains his sights on his own countrymen. Through witty yet substantive anecdotes touching on Italy’s current political and economic climate, Severgnini decodes the Italian premier’s style and appeal, exploring his rise to power and creating a compulsively readable portrait of Italy today.

Mamma Mia!

Humor & Entertainment

Severgnini, Beppe

Humor

From Italy’s former Minister of Economy and Finance, a provocative and galvanizing jeremiad on the Euro crisis and global economic status quo  As Europe’s debt crisis persists and the aftershocks of the 2008 collapse hinder recovery across the globe, Giulio Tremonti underscores the dangers that unchecked financial markets pose to democracy, and what nations must do to protect their autonomy.  Condemning what he calls “marketism” – an insidious ideology that puts speculative financial markets above all else – Tremonti bemoans a world in which finance, not governments, sets the rules and determines political discourse.  But when finance fails, it’s the people who must pay the price.  An instant and enduring bestseller in Italy, Exit Strategy calls for sweeping changes in both policy and mindset. Candid and critical as few politicians have been in the aftermath of the crisis, Tremonti breaks down the systemic failures of global finance and proposes a “New Alliance” between citizens and governments to free politics from the thrall of the financial markets, and put populations back in control.  

Exit Strategy: Ending the Tyranny of Finance

Business & Money

Tremonti, Giulio

Economics

An intimate exploration of inspiration and creativity, from the "parfumeur exclusif" of the house of Hermès. A scent has incantatory powers, capable of transporting you to your past, of kindling fantasies, of creating a vivid mise en scène—literally out of thin air. In the hands of the truly great, perfume creation is a kind of alchemy. Where does inspiration for this visceral art come from? How does one capture the essence of emotions, of desire? Jean-Claude Ellena has a sublime gift. As "parfumeur exclusif" (or "the nose") for Hermès, he elevates fragrance to an art form. A "writer of perfume," his concoctions are as finely composed and evocative as a haiku. He is also a conjurer of sorts: "I create an illusion that is actually stronger than reality . . . you enter the scent and follow the path." The Diary of a Nose is a collection of Ellena’s meditations on the world of scents, and what stirs his creation of some of the world’s most desired fragrances. Inspiration can come from anywhere—a market stall, a landscape, or even the movement of calligraphy. Though each smell has its own distinct character, a gifted perfumer creates olfactory experiences that are intensely personal and unique, that blossom on the body and leave a trace of us lingering after we have left a room. Seductive, delicate, and elegant as any of Ellena’s creations, The Diary of a Nose seeks to capture the most elusive facets of this rarefied and mysterious art.

The Diary of a Nose: A Year in the Life of a Parfumeur

Ellena, Jean-Claude

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