Announcing Open Season on Spring Paperbacks

Spring is (finally) in the air. Although we officially left winter behind almost two months ago, only recently have the pre-summer months begun to offer their full bounty. Birds are chirping, trees are blooming, flowers are blossoming, and baseball season is in full swing.

Because spring is a season to celebrate rebirth and renewal, there's no better time to dive into a paperback. This month brings yet another collection of Overlook hardcover favorites into print, in beautifully repackaged paperback editions. So whether you're looking to discover the true story of one woman's journey to break into the brutal world of professional boxing, a riveting literary murder mystery set in the Warsaw Ghetto, or a fascinating account of American history in the making, grab your favorite picnic blanket, find a grassy patch of park, and dig into one of the latest paperbacks from Overlook!

The Warsaw Anagrams
Richard Zimler
Available Now

It is autumn, 1940. The Nazis have sealed 400,000 Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto. Erik Cohen, an elderly psychiatrist, moves into a tiny apartment with his last remaining relatives. Then, his beloved great-nephew Adam goes missing and his body is discovered, strangely mutilated. Soon afterward, another body turns up, this time a young girl. Could there be a Jewish traitlor luring children to their deaths? With an unlikely hero and hair-raising suspense, The Warsaw Anagrams is a profoundly moving and darkly atmospheric thriller.

"Part murder mystery and part historical fiction ... thrilling." — Boston Globe

The Mabinogion Tetralogy
Evangeline Walton
Available Now

The Mabinogion is to Welsh mythology what the tales of Zeus, Hera, and Apollo are to Greek myth. These tales constitute a powerful work of the imagination, ranking with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Evangeline Walton's compelling rendition of these classic, thrilling stories of magic, betrayal, lost love, and bitter retribution include the encounter between Prince Pwyll and Arawn, the God of Death, which Pwyll survives by agreeing to kill the one man that Death cannot fell, and the tale of Bran the Bless and his family's epic struggle for the throne.



The Ancient Guide to Modern Life
Natalie Haynes
Available Now

Is Buffy the Vampire Slayer our Aeneid? Do the Beckhams have parallel lives with The Satyricon's Trimalchio? What does Barack Obama have in common with Pericles? In The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, Natalie Haynes brings her scholarship and wit to the most fascinating true stories of the ancient world. Haynes not only reveals the origins of our own culture in classical philosophy, politics, language, and art, she also draws illuminating connections between antiquity and the present day.

"A constantly amusing but quite serious book." — Associated Press


The White-Luck Warrior
R. Scott Bakker
On-Sale: 5/29/2012

 Widely praised by reviewers and a growing body of fans, R. Scott Bakker has established his reputation in the fantasy genre. In The White-Luck Warrior, the second book in the Aspect-Emperor series, Anasûrimbor Kellhus and his Great Ordeal march ever farther into the Ancient North. Meanwhile, his consort Esmenet finds herself at war with not only the Gods, but her own family. And Achamian leads a ragtag expedition to the ruins of Sauglish, and to a truth he can scarcely survive. Into this tumult, walks the White-Luck Warrior, assassin and messiah both. The White-Luck Warrior delves into a universe of myth, violence, and sorcery. Dazzling and suspenseful, it is a magnificent portrayal of war itself. 

"A must-read that will not only appeal to fans of R. Scott Bakker's brilliant Prince of Nothing trilogy, but also new readers wanting to see what all the fuss is about." — FantasyBookCritic

Reporting America

Alistair Cooke

On-Sale: 5/29/2012

"For nearly sixty years, Alistair Cooke reported on American life for the BBC. His beloved radio show, Letter from America, saw eleven presidents, four wars, and an incredible shift in culture. Compiling his most striking and significant essays and "letters," many of which were previously unpublished in America, Reporting America is a fascinating account of history in the making. Cooke adored the United States as only a naturalized citizen could, and his reports were incisive and often moving. He traveled extensively across the country to convey the views of citizens in all the nuances of regional opinion as well as those of the presidents and policy makers to whom he had easy access. Here, in Cooke's own signature voice, are the triumphs, disasters, and vicissitudes of American life—from Korea, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, JFK, the moon landings, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, Clinton's scandals, the attacks of 9/11, right up to the war in Iraq—as told by one of the world's most admired reporters.

"A peerless observer of the American scene for almost 70 years ... his observations were not only insightful but also gracefully written and often gently witty." — The New York Times

The Boxer's Heart

Kate Sekules

On-Sale: 5/29/2012

Published to coincide with the first Olympic event for women's boxing, The Boxer's Heart is a brilliantly candid memoir of the world of this headline-grabbing sport. In raw and vivid style, and updated with a new afterword by the author, it tells the story of how a young writer moves to New York City and, despite disappointments in her personal life, rises through the ranks at the famed Gleason's gym to box professionally. Any woman who has grappled with anger or trust within a relationship, felt insecure at the gym, or wondered what it feels like to throw a punch will identify with this remarkable account of the "sweet science of bruising."

"The best sportswriting often touches on the fundamental of human nature, and Sekules has that skill nailed. In prose both sensitive and muscular, she relates in candid detail how good it feels to land a punch." — US Weekly

THE WARSAW ANAGRAMS Author Richard Zimler Interviewed in Los Angeles Times

Richard Zimler, author of The Warsaw Anagrams and The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times. In a fascinating interview with Nick Owchar, Zimler recounts his trip to Poland last Fall. Here's a brief excerpt:

"In his most recent novel, "The Warsaw Anagrams," published earlier this year by Overlook Press, Zimler tells a ghostly tale of murder set in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Along with his regular book tour responsibilities, Zimler traveled last month to Poland to read and discuss his novel with readers there. Did he find audiences receptive or hostile to his novel, which examines a tragic period in their history? I caught up with him on his return.

"The Warsaw Anagrams" is set in the Warsaw ghetto where some of your father's uncles and aunts were interned before being sent to the death camps. How did this personal connection influence your writing?

When my grandparents emigrated from Poland to New York around 1905, they left behind nine brothers and sisters, as well as many other relatives. None of them survived the Holocaust. So I always suspected that I'd one day research what happened to them. Writing about the kinds of experiences they would have had in the Jewish ghettos was perfect for me because my passion is stimulated by exploring the lives of people who have been largely forgotten or whose voices have been systematically silenced. It was "The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon" that taught me that about myself. That novel is about a Jewish family that survives the Lisbon Massacre of 1506, a largely forgotten pogrom in which 2,000 Jews were murdered.

How long were you in Poland? What places did you visit or was your stay mainly in Warsaw? How did this tour come about?

I spent three days in Warsaw, two in Poznan and one in Lodz. I'm the first person in my family to go back to Poland since the Holocaust, so it was a very emotional journey for me. This is the fourth novel of mine to come out in Poland, and when my publisher discovered I had written a book set in Warsaw, he was keen on having me do a tour.

I imagine that critics and readers there would be particularly sensitive to a novel set in the Warsaw ghetto. What were reactions like?

Most Jews I know regard Polish society as anti-Semitic to the core, so I was worried that I would encounter a lot of hostility. But all the readers I met and journalists who interviewed me were generous and enthusiastic. What I learned from my conversations with them was that educated Poles regard the Holocaust as a supremely solemn and fundamental event. That came as a very welcome surprise.

What most interested reviewers and readers was the way I recreated daily life in the Warsaw ghetto and my references to Jewish mysticism — to kabbalah. For instance, the high school kids I spoke to in Warsaw were very curious about my choice of a ghost — an "ibbur" — as the narrator of the book, and also about his use of anagrams. Readers did sometimes express one concern, however: that my portrayal of Poles may have been too negative. In "The Warsaw Anagrams," the narrator, Erik Cohen, is denounced by Polish Christian neighbors while in hiding and taken to a labor camp. Unfortunately, it was a fate that awaited many Jews in hiding. And yet the majority of Poles I spoke to seemed to truly believe that most of their parents and grandparents did their very best to protect their Jewish neighbors, which just isn't true. The most reliable estimates are that about five percent of the Polish population — one person in 20 — came to the aid of the country's Jews.

Izzy, one of "Anagrams'" main characters, keeps his sense of humor even when terrible things are happening to him and the narrator. How did you avoid giving the book a depressing tone?

What came to interest me most about the ghetto was the quiet heroism of its residents — by people like Izzy, a clockmaker who has his beautiful shop closed by the Nazis and who lives in his small, nearly lightless workshop. And who resists by refusing to lose his humanity, including his wonderful sense of humor. I felt it was vitally important to write about people like him because one of my main goals was to restore individuality to its residents, to go beyond the statistics. As my narrator Erik says in the book, "We owe uniqueness to our dead at the very least." He and Izzy — their courage and camaraderie — keep the book hopeful.

Your novels have always engaged a mystical element in their structures. For this novel, how did you hit upon that idea of having a spirit for a narrator?

My idea for the first chapter was to write about an elderly Jewish psychiatrist, Erik Cohen, walking back to Warsaw after surviving a Nazi labor camp. But on the very first page of the book, while inside his head, I wrote, "I'm a dead man." I meant it figuratively — that Erik had lost all his friends and relatives and no longer had any reason to continue living. But those words gave me a whole new idea for the book. I realized that Erik was indeed dead. He was an "ibbur," a spirit that remains in this world to fulfill a duty or "mitzvah" that he failed to fulfill in life. But what was it? After he returns to Warsaw, he comes upon a man on a ghetto street who, unlike everyone else, is able to see and hear him. So Erik tells this visionary man about his life in the ghetto — in particular, about how he tracked down the murderer of his beloved grandnephew — in the hopes of figuring out what duty he still needs to perform in our world.

NOTE: The Overlook Press will publish Richard Zimler's new novel The Seventh Gate in May 2012.

Richard Zimler's THE WARSAW ANAGRAMS: Giving Uniqueness Back to Our Dead

Richard Zimler's profoundly moving historical thriller The Warsaw Anagrams goes on sale tomorrow. Set in a Jewish ghetto during World War II, The Warsaw Anagrams won Portugal’s Marques de Ouro Prize in 2010 and now, at last, is available to American readers.

Zimler, author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, has written 8 novels over the last 15 years that have been translated into 22 languages and been bestsellers in 12 countries. Born and educated in New York, Zimler now lives and teaches in Portugal.
Here's what some of the early reviewers are saying:

“Wrenching and raw, The Warsaw Anagrams by Richard Zimler is an historical suspense novel as unique as it is compelling. This chilling novel explores themes of loss, survival, deprivation and the resilience of the human spirit; and while it contains several disturbing and graphic scenes essential to describing the horrors of ghetto life, Zimler’s skill as a writer is without question. . . .The anagrams in the book’s title refer to the scrambling of letters in names to guard identities—but the word puzzles end up resonating more deeply as the novel is resolved. – ForeWord Magazine

"As he did so brilliantly in The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (1998), Zimler builds a riveting mystery around one of the most horrific moments in Jewish history. In 1940, following the German invasion of Poland, the Warsaw ghetto, once a vibrant Jewish neighborhood, became a walled-in prison, its inhabitants forced to exist with little food, inadequate heat and sanitation, and a future even bleaker than the present. Erik Cohen, formerly a prominent psychiatrist, lives with his niece and young nephew, Adam. Then, in the dead of winter, Adam goes missing, his mutilated body eventually discovered in the barbed-wire enclosure that separates the ghetto from the rest of the city. Vowing to find the killer (soon other, similarly slain Jewish children are discovered), Erik attempts to investigate, finding that the trail seems to point toward a Jewish traitor. Moving back and forth in time, Zimler brings the dailiness of life in the ghetto—both its overwhelming horror and claustrophobia and its moments of startling humanity—to vivid, sometimes unbearable life, all in the context of a nightmare version of the classic locked-room mystery. Gripping and deeply disturbing. - Booklist


“Zimler, who examined the slaughter of Jews in 16th-century Portugal in The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, explores a different dark period in the Jewish people’s history in this solid mystery thriller. In 1940, psychiatrist Erik Cohen moves into the Warsaw ghetto before the Nazis force him to do so, along with his niece, Stefa, and his beloved great nephew, Adam, who appears to be about nine. Cohen is frantic when the boy vanishes and is beyond distraught when Adam’s corpse is located with the child’s right leg severed from the knee down. Determined to track down the killer, Cohen has further cause for alarm after discovering that Adam was not the murderer’s only victim; that Benjamin Schrei, a representative of the ghetto’s Jewish Council, knew the killing was part of a series; and that a Jew might be responsible for the butchery. The highly unusual setting adds tension to the investigation, and Zimler successfully manages to convey the horrors of the Holocaust through the experiences of one family.” – Publishers Weekly