Tahar Ben Jelloun

Carol Volk

Winner of the Prix Goncourt and the 1994 Prix Maghreb, Tahar Ben Jelloun is one of the most acclaimed novelists writing in French today. Casablanca and Tangier provide the backdrops for Corruption, an exotic and erotic tale of modern-day morality about Mourad, the last honest man in Morocco. After a lifetime of resistance, Mourad finally gives in to the demands of his materialistic wife and accepts "commissions" for his work: just one envelope stuffed with cash, then another. . .

Corruption

Ying Chen

Yan-Zi has been dominated by her mother for all of her life--so Yan-Zi decides to commit suicide in order to shake off the yoke of her mother's love. In this novel she tells the story of her last days with a cool, cruel detachment that recalls Camus's The Stranger. A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year 1998.

Ingratitude

Jean-Louis Besson

Recounts the World War II experiences of a seven to twelve-year-old French boy from a middle-class Catholic family, describing how he reacted to the changing circumstances

Childhood Memories of War

October '45

Jesper Svenbro

John Scheid

In this dazzling commentary on Greek and Roman myth and society, weaving emerges as a metaphor rich with possibility. From rituals symbolizing the cohesion of society to the erotic and marital significance of weaving, this lively book defines the logic of one of the central concepts in Greek and Roman thought.

Carol Volk

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