'Genius ... bringing ardent intelligence to bear upon poetry, politics and autobiography' Seamus HeaneyEssayist and poet Joseph Brodsky was one of the most penetrating voices of the twentieth century. This prize-winning collection of his diverse essays includes uniquely powerful appreciations of great writers: on Dostoevsky and the development of Russian prose, on Auden and Akhmatova, Cavafy, Montale and Mandelstam.These are contrasted with his reflections on larger themes of tyranny and evil, and subtle evocations of his childhood in Leningrad. Brodsky's insightful appreciation of the intricacies of language, culture and identity connect these works, revealing his remarkable gifts as a prose writer. 'Sparkles with intellect, and combines the precision of scholarship with the passion of the poet' The TimesWinner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
Shao Xunmei, poet, essayist, publisher, and printer, played a signifcant role in the publication and dissemination of journals and pictorial magazines in Shanghai during the 1920s and 1930s, but this is the first collection of his prose writings to be published in English. The essays in this book, some of which were selected by the writer's daughter, Shao Xiaohong, include long essays such as “One Man Talking” and “A Year in Shanghai” as well as several shorter essays on subjects as diverse as the caricatures of Miguel Covarrubias, woodblockprinting, and pictorial magazines—all of which were published in Shao’s own magazines.
The author of My Country and My People, The Importance of Living, and The Wisdom of China and India, Lin Yutang's works were praised by The New York Times as "wise, humorous and altogether charming."
Tsering Woeser and Wang Lixiong are widely regarded as the most lucid, insightful writers on contemporary Tibet. Their reportage on the economic exploitation, environmental degradation, cultural destr
