According to ancient Japanese protocol, foreigners deigning to approach the emperor did so only with fear and trembling. Terror and self-abasement conveyed respect. Am?lie, our well-intentioned and e
With wry humor and a deceptively simple style, Amelie Nothomb, the author of over twenty-three best-selling novels tells an unusual story about twin abiding passions: one for champagne, and the other
One morning, Nothomb receives a letter from one of her readers, am American soldier called Melvin Mapple, who is fighting in Iraq. Horrified by the endless violence around him, he takes comfort in ove
“I lived everything daring those three years: heroism, glory, treachery, love, indifference, suffering, humiliation. It was China; I was seven years old.” So announces the narrator of Loving Sabotage,
The Japanese believe that until the age of three children, whether Japanese or not, are gods, each one an okosama, or "lord child." On their third birthday they fall from grace and join the rest of th
Amélie Nothomb brings humor, intelligence, and a refreshing honesty to this highly autobiographical work. Her storytelling appeals to those who feel that their own immediate and personal sense of love
Prétextat Tach, Nobel laureate and one of the world's most renowned contemporary novelists, has only two months to live. He has been living in seclusion for years, refusing interviews an
