New Releases by Andrew Kaufman

Een overvaller steelt de dierbaarste bezittingen van mensen die daarna de meest eigenaardige problemen ervaren.

Poetry. "For many years I have admired the restless and generously spirited poems of Andrew Kaufman. He really does go to both sides of the Niger—both literally and metaphorically. This is not only a splendid book but it''s also splendid journey!"—Thomas Lux "Kaufman accomplishes what few poets ever achieve—a travel and poetry book combined, which is as earthy and spiritual as anything the renowned anthropologist Levi-Straus could have written. This isn''t an Americanized poetical version of Conrad''s Heart of Darkness, but the real thing."—Hal Sirowitz "As in his earlier work, Andrew Kaufman once again assumes the voice and the manner of the traveler in the ancient sense of that particular character that recurs throughout eastern and western literature. In BOTH SIDES OF THE NIGER, the world the traveler inhabits—because he is never simply an observer here—is the otherworldly literal and figurative landscape of West Africa, where more than just hunger and dehydration are at stake. What distinguishes Mr. Kaufman''s poems from others whose work is driven by the facts and fictions of their world travels, is that the poems gathered here are illustrative of an obsessive and undeniable desire to be inside of the place the poet almost haphazardly finds himself in, and once there to participate as fully as possible in the pathologies of love and work that define our world and the world of cultures other than ours. This is a complicated gesture, especially when expressed in the form of poetry, and it can only be accomplished by having a craftsman''s ear for the turn of the line, a palpable generosity of spirit that understands the sameness of us all, and a regard for language that compels the poet to settle on nothing less than getting the words right. Andrew Kaufman understands these things and his poetry is therefore worthy of our attention and our praise."—Bruce Weigl "As in his earlier collection, Earth''s Ends, Andrew Kaufman here takes the considerable risk of writing poems based on experiences sought, at least in part, for that purpose. They splendidly transcend reportage, largely because of Kaufman''s deep knowledge of the craft. He allows traditional verse into the poems just long enough to establish the contrasting perceptions of order in the observer''s mind and in the cultures observed. Thus he creates an exhilarating balance between the joys of discovery and the tragic limits of our understanding."—Henry Taylor

The Weirds have always been a little off, but not one of them ever suspected that they''d been cursed by their grandmother. At the moment of the births of her five grandchildren Annie Weird gave each one a special power. Richard, the oldest, always keeps safe; Abba always has hope; Lucy is never lost and Kent can beat anyone in a fight. As for Angie, she always forgives, instantly. But over the years these so-called blessings ended up ruining their lives. Now Annie is dying and she has one last task for Angie: gather her far-flung brothers and sisters and assemble them in her grandmother''s hospital room so that at the moment of her death, she can lift these blessings-turned-curses. And Angie has just two weeks to do it. What follows is a quest like no other, tearing up highways and racing through airports, from a sketchy Winnipeg nursing home to the small island kingdom of Upliffta, from the family''s crumbling ancestral Toronto mansion to a motel called Love. And there is also the search for the answer to the greatest family mystery of all: what really happened to their father, whose maroon Maserati was fished out of a lake so many years ago?

Andrew Kaufman has been exploring the concepts of containment, breach and contamination in a multiplicity of forms ranging from painting to video installation. While the canvases he works with might contain the images he creates, Kaufman''s process suggests a breach when his lines run rampant; rugs bend, vitrines tip over. In an installation of 10 small, disassembled television monitors, Kaufman makes and remakes drawings in an endless loop, containing the mark making and interrupting it.

Tout commence par un cambriolage. Non pas un banal vol dʹargent, mais un crime aux conséquences drôlement plus sérieuses. Un mercredi du mois de février, un homme coiffé dʹun extravagant chapeau violet demande à ses treize victimes de lui remettre lʹobjet qui a la plus grande valeur à leurs yeux, et en profite pour subtiliser 51% de leur âme. Dès le lendemain, une série dʹévénements étranges sʹamorce : lʹun se réveille transformé en bonhomme de neige, une autre métamorphosée en bonbon, une jeune fille est poursuivie par son tatouage, un bébé défèque des devises. Et Stacey Hinterland se met à rapetisser.--[Memento].

Alle vrienden van Tom zijn ware superhelden. Tom is er zelfs met een getrouwd, de Perfectioniste. Maar op hun bruiloft wordt de Perfectioniste gehypnotiseerd door haar ex, Hypno, die haar laat geloven dat Tom onzichtbaar is. Wat Tom ook doet, zijn vrouw ziet hem niet meer. Een halfjaar later weet de Perfectioniste zeker dat Tom haar heeft verlaten. Ze gebruikt haar superkrachten om haar liefdesverdriet achter zich te laten en ze verhuist naar Vancouver. Zonder enig idee dat Tom haar volgt, stapt ze op het vliegtuig. Tom heeft nog een paar uur tot de landing om haar te overtuigen dat hij bij haar is, anders gaat zij verder met haar perfecte leven en raakt hij haar voor altijd kwijt Een uitzonderlijk, hartverwarmend en grappig eerbetoon aan de mooie, zoete liefde.''

A magical story of love and the isolation that defines the modern condition - Andrew Kaufman pulls off the near impossible and creates a wholly original allegorical tale that is both emotionally resonant and outlandishly fun. Rebecca Reynolds is a young woman with a most unusual and inconvenient problem: no matter how hard she tries, she can''t stop her emotions from escaping her body and entering the world around her. Luckily she''s developed a nifty way to trap and store her powerful emotions in personal objects - but how many shoeboxes can a girl fill before she feels crushed by her past? Three events force Rebecca to change her ways: the unannounced departure of her husband, Stewart; the sudden death of Lisa, her musician sister; and, while on her way to Lisa''s funeral, a near-crash with what appears to be a giant frogwoman recklessly speeding in a Honda Civic. Meanwhile, Lisa''s inconsolable husband skips the funeral and flies to Winnipeg where he begins a bizarre journey that strips him of everything before he can begin to see a way through his grief… all with the help of a woman who calls herself God.

Tief traurig, total abgedreht, und wunderwunderschön! Aby will ihre Mutter zurückholen, die die Familie vor langer Zeit verlassen hat. Doch Aby ist keine normale junge Frau: ihre Haut schimmert grün, und es gelingt ihr nicht immer, die Kiemen an ihrem Hals zu verdecken. Sie gehört dem Volk der Aquatics an, sie möchte nicht, dass ihre Mutter als "entwässertes" Landwesen, weitab von der Heimat stirbt. Und auf ihrem beschwerlichen Weg von der Unterwasserstadt in die kanadische Prärie wirbelt Aby das Leben der Leute, denen sie begegnet, gehörig durcheinander.

"Russisch für Dummies" bietet einen leichten Einstieg in die russische Sprache. Los geht''s mit einer Einführung in die Besonderheiten der russischen Sprache, in die Betonung sowie in die Grammatik einschließlich der Fälle. Dann wird es auch schon praktisch: Jedes Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit einer Alltagssituation: Sie lernen, wie Sie sich auf Russisch vorstellen, etwas beschreiben, telefonieren oder ein Hotelzimmer reservieren. Dabei lernen Sie die wichtigsten Sätze, Umschreibungen und Begriffe, die Sie im Alltag benötigen und bekommen nebenbei viele Informationen zu Alltag und Kultur in Russland. Am Ende jedes Kapitels gibt es eine kleine Übung, mit der Sie Ihre erworbenen Sprachkenntnisse prüfen können. Im Anhang des Buches finden Sie Verb-Tabellen und ein kleines Russisch-Deutsch-/Deutsch-Russisch-Wörterbuch. Auf der beiliegenden CD gibt es die Sprachübungen aus dem Buch zum Anhören und Nachsprechen.

Die superlustigste und allertraurigste Liebesgeschichte der Welt Alle Leute, die Tom mag, sind Superhelden. Da ist zum Beispiel „Die Kopistin“, die jeden Gesichtsausdruck problemlos imitieren kann, oder „Die Froschküsserin“, die aus jedem Deppen einen strahlenden Sieger macht – und noch 40 weitere. Tom ist sogar mit einer Superheldin verheiratet. Leider haben die Feinde von Tom, der ein ganz normaler, liebenswerter Typ ist, auch Superheldenkräfte. Und so hat der Hypnotiseur Toms Frau am Hochzeitstag hypnotisiert. Seit sechs Monaten ist sie nun nicht mehr in der Lage, Tom zu sehen, er ist einfach unsichtbar für sie ...

Personne, pas un animal, rien n''avait traversé cette étendue, à part le vent. Tom ouvrit la portière de Super-Perfectionniste. Debout, ensemble, ils avaient regardé le champ de neige. " Est-ce que vous pouvez mettre de l''ordre dans ces flocons-là ? lui demanda-t-il. - Ils sont déjà rangés à la perfection ", répondit-elle. Et c''est à ce moment précis que Tom était tombé amoureux. Tom n''est pas un super héros, mais tous ses amis le sont. II y a SuperMon-ombre-m''a-quitté, Super-, Je-tape-l''incruste, Super-ma-moto-faitsuper-du-bruit, Super- Influenceuse. Et surtout, il y a sa femme, SuperPerfectionniste. Le problème, c''est que Super-Perfectionniste a été hypnotisée il y a six mois de ça par son ancien petit ami, Super-Hypno : depuis, Tom est devenu invisible à ses yeux. C''est à bord du vol Toronto-Vancouver que se joue le destin du couple : Tom a le temps du voyage pour convaincre Super-Perfectionniste de son existence. Un roman élégant et d''une incroyable drôlerie sur les affres de l''amour, où les super héros sont des êtres humains pathétiques, faibles, amoureux : des êtres humains plus-que-normaux.

The Golden Age of Fraternity was a unique time in American history. In the forty years between the Civil War and the onset of World War I, more than half of all Americans participated in clubs, fraternities, militias, and mutual benefit societies. Today this period is held up as a model for how we might revitalize contemporary civil society. But was America''s associational culture really as communal as has been assumed? What if these much-admired voluntary organizations served parochial concerns rather than the common good? Jason Kaufman sets out to dispel many of the myths about the supposed civic-mindedness of "joining" while bringing to light the hidden lessons of associationalism''s history. Relying on deep archival research in city directories, club histories, and membership lists, Kaufman shows that organizational activity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolved largely around economic self-interest rather than civic engagement. And far from spurring concern for the collective good, fraternal societies, able to pick and choose members at will, fostered exclusion and further exacerbated the competitive interests of a society divided by race, class, ethnicity, and religion. Tracing both the rise and the decline of American associational life - a decline that began immediately after World War I, much earlier than previously thought - Kaufman argues persuasively that the end of fraternalism was a good thing. Illuminating both broad historical shifts - immigration, urbanization, and the disruptions of war, among them - and smaller, overlooked contours, such as changes in the burial and life insurance industries, Kaufman has written a bracing revisionist history. Eloquently rebutting those hailing America''s associational past and calling for a return to old-style voluntarism, For the Common Good? will change the terms of debate about the history - and the future - of American civil society.

All Tom''s friends really are superheroes. There''s the Ear, the Spooner, the Impossible Man. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding, the Perfectionist was hypnotized (by ex-boyfriend Hypno, of course) to believe that Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, she''s sure that Tom has abandoned her. So she''s moving to Vancouver. She''ll use her superpower to make Vancouver perfect and leave all the heartbreak in Toronto. With no idea Tom''s beside her, she boards an airplane in Toronto. Tom has until the wheels touch the ground in Vancouver to convince her he''s visible, or he loses her forever.