Agnes Smedley: The Life and Times of...

Agnes Smedley: The Life and Times of an American Radical, Janice R. MacKinnon and Stephen R. MacKinnon (University of California Press). The life story of this ardent champion of the Chinese Communist revolution is “skillfully reconstructed and interpreted . . . compelling reading” (Joyce Antler).

The Western Lands, William S. Burroughs (Viking). “Illuminates and puts into perspective the whole body of work of the Grand Iconoclast who has altered the concept of the novel more powerfully . . . than any other writer of his time” (John Rechy).

A World Too Wide, Gregory McDonald (Hill & Co.), “develops quickly into a study in time, in the ‘passages’ of life, and in the way generations understand (or fail to understand) each other. McDonald is moving, challenging, thoughtful and--most important of all--wonderfully entertaining” (Digby Diehl).

Little Misunderstandings of No Importance, Antonio Tabucchi, translated from the Italian by Frances Frenaye (New Directions). In this “finely translated collection,” Antonio Tabucchi insists, “with thematic persistence, that the roles we play become us, literally” (Brian Stonehill).