Most Popular Books by Roxane Gay

“Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there.” — Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be? A New York Times Bestseller Best Book of the Year: NPR • Boston Globe • Newsweek • Time Out New York • Oprah.com • Miami Herald • Book Riot • Buzz Feed • Globe and Mail (Toronto) • The Root • Shelf Awareness A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generation In these funny and insightful essays, Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.

From beloved and bestselling author Roxane Gay, “a strikingly fresh cultural critic” (Washington Post) comes an exhilarating collection of her essays on culture, politics, and everything in between. Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society—state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy—alongside more individually personalized matters: can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8 am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights. Opinions is a collection of Roxane Gay’s best nonfiction pieces from the past ten years. Covering a wide range of topics—politics, feminism, the culture wars, civil rights, and much more—with an all-new introduction in which she reflects on the past decade in America, this sharp, thought-provoking anthology will delight Roxane Gay’s devotees and draw new readers to this inimitable talent.

A high-stakes heist thriller about the most daring and successful thieves in Chicago: three generations of women from the Banks family. For fifty years the women of the Banks family have been the most successful thieves in Chicago by following one simple rule: never get greedy. But when the youngest Banks stumbles upon the heist of a lifetime, the potential windfall may be enough to bring three generations of thieves together for one incredible score and the chance to avenge a loved one taken too soon. From NY Times bestselling writer Roxane Gay (Hunger; Black Panther) and artist Ming Doyle (The Kitchen). "The Banks is the best kind of heist story: a sharp, tight robbery with escalating tensions and threats coming from every direction." - The A.V. Club "It will leave most readers smiling at the end of their journeys with the Banks family." - The Beat

From the New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself. “I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.” In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.

The New York Times–bestselling author of Bad Feminist shares a collection of stories about hardscrabble lives, passionate loves and vexed human connection. The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister’s marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls’ fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Roxanne Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America with her “signature wry wit and piercing psychological depth” (Harper’s Bazaar).

The story of Mireille Duval Jameson, a rich and self-assured Haitian woman kidnapped by a gang of heavily armed men who intend to hold her until her unwilling father pays up.

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Hunger and Bad Feminist, a powerful short story collection exploring the Haitian diaspora experience. In Ayiti, a married couple seeking boat passage to America prepares to leave their homeland. A young woman procures a voodoo love potion to ensnare a childhood classmate. A mother takes a foreign soldier into her home as a boarder, and into her bed. And a woman conceives a daughter on the bank of a river while fleeing a horrific massacre, a daughter who later moves to America for a new life but is perpetually haunted by the mysterious scent of blood. Roxane Gay is an award-winning literary voice praised for her fearless and vivid prose, and her debut collection Ayiti exemplifies the raw talent that made her “one of the voices of our age” (National Post, Canada). Praise for Ayiti “Highly dimensioned characters and unforgettable moments. . . . Dismantling the glib misconceptions of her complex ancestral home, Gay cuts and thrills. Readers will find her powerful first book difficult to put down.” —Booklist “The themes explored in Gay’s nonfiction, such as the transactional nature of violence and the ways in which stereotypes of poverty add another layer of dehumanization, are just as potent here. Even her more lyrical mode is filtered through a keen sense of the lost promise of one country and the blinkered privilege of the other. It’s Gay’s unflinching directness—the sense that her characters are in the room with you, telling it like it is—that makes her irresistible.” —Vogue “A set of brief, tart stories mostly set amid the Haitian-American community and circling around themes of violation, abuse, and heartbreak . . . This book set the tone that still characterizes much of Gay’s writing: clean, unaffected, allowing the (often furious) emotions to rise naturally out of calm, declarative sentences. That gives her briefest stories a punch even when they come in at two pages or fewer, sketching out the challenges of assimilation in terms of accents, meals, or ‘What You Need to Know About a Haitian Woman’. . . . This debut amply contains the righteous energy that drives all her work.” —Kirkus Reviews

Challenge your biases and broaden your understanding of power and how we wield it with this essential guide. Power is complex. But Do The Work is a guide to navigating those complexities. From ancient theories of power to contemporary examples, from cultural patterns to personal insights, this guide provides a foundation for examining hierarchies and inequalities and establishes a framework for understanding power and how it shapes our lives and communities. Between these pages, theory, commentary, and analysis create an engaging, creative, and mindful reading experience. This guide features approachable overviews of complex topics, thought-provoking questions, evocative illustrations, pages for your reflections, and steps we can all take to reframe our relationship to power and reinvigorate our desire to empower the people around us. Thanks to the work of writer and scholar Megan Pillow, educator and New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay, and New York Times bestselling illustrator Aurélia Durand, Do The Work is a must-read for a more just future—and a more equitable now. Do The Work asks: What can we learn about power from history and from our current moment? Who are the powerful, and who are the people denied power? Where are our own sources of power? How do we recognize our mistakes and become more self-aware? What does it mean to reclaim our power and to build community? Do The Work explains: How theorists from Aristotle to Hannah Arendt have shaped our understanding of power Why Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality is at the heart of power discussions What Laura Mulvey and Audre Lorde can teach us about power and gender How poverty, redlining, and The Voting Rights Act all illustrate power imbalances What the Stonewall Riots showed us about resistance and community How to train ourselves in collective thinking, and what it means to “choose the margins”

New York Times Bestseller Edited and with an introduction by Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling and deeply beloved author of Bad Feminist and Hunger, this anthology of first-person essays tackles rape, assault, and harassment head-on. Vogue, “10 of the Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2018” * Harper’s Bazaar, “10 New Books to Add to Your Reading List in 2018” * Elle, “21 Books We’re Most Excited to Read in 2018” * Boston Globe, “25 books we can’t wait to read in 2018” * Huffington Post, “60 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018” * Hello Giggles, “19 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018” * Buzzfeed, “33 Most Exciting New Books of 2018” In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are “routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied” for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics, including actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union and writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz, Claire Schwartz, and Bob Shacochis. Covering a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation, this collection is often deeply personal and is always unflinchingly honest. Like Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, Not That Bad will resonate with every reader, saying “something in totality that we cannot say alone.” Searing and heartbreakingly candid, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that “not that bad” must no longer be good enough.

New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay (World of Wakanda, Difficult Women) adapts her short story “We Are the Sacrifice of Darkness” as a full-length graphic novel with writer Tracy Lynne Oliver (This Weekend), and artist Rebecca Kirby (Biopsy.) Expanding an unforgettable world where a tragic event forever bathes the world in darkness, The Sacrifice of Darkness follows one woman’s powerful journey through this new landscape as she discovers love, family, and the true light in a world seemingly robbed of any. This young adult drama challenges notions of identity, guilt, and survival in a graphic novel for fans of On A Sunbeam and Are You Listening?

Best-selling, award-winning, pop culture powerhouse Roxane Gay guest edits this year’s Best American Short Stories, the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction. “I am looking for the artful way any given story is conveyed,” writes Roxane Gay in her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2018, “but I also love when a story has a powerful message, when a story teaches me something about the world.” The artful, profound, and sometimes funny stories Gay chose for the collection transport readers from a fraught family reunion to an immigration detention center, from a psychiatric hospital to a coed class sleepover in a natural history museum. We meet a rebellious summer camper, a Twitter addict, and an Appalachian preacher—all characters and circumstances that show us what we “need to know about the lives of others.”

Nova edição do clássico contemporâneo de Roxane Gay Má feminista já se tornou um clássico contemporâneo com seu olhar sincero, irônico e sem preconceitos sobre o que significa ser mulher no início do século XXI. A obra de Roxane Gay reúne ensaios incisivos, engraçados e corajosos sobre raça, identidade, gênero, sexualidade, cinema, literatura e a forma como a cultura que consumimos molda quem somos. Ao compartilhar suas ideias e experiências, Roxane demonstra que, apesar de todas as conquistas do feminismo, ainda há muito a ser discutido, questionado e mudado. Má feminista é um convite inspirador para combater os retrocessos que nossa sociedade tem apresentado e pensar no que ainda precisa ser conquistado.

Cuando la escritora Roxane Gay se autodenominó –de broma– "mala feminista", reconocía que no podía cumplir con los requisitos de perfección del movimiento feminista. Mala feminista es un conjunto de ensayos ácidos sobre el feminismo en la cultura moderna, y una aguda y divertida reflexión sobre cómo la forma en que consumimos la cultura nos convierte en lo que somos; siempre con tono autocrítico y consciente del papel de la mujer –así como de su relación con los hombres y con las demás mujeres– en nuestros días, a través de su propia experiencia, y de las dinámicas políticas y culturales recientes. Para ella vivimos en un mundo apasionante, lleno de distracciones que nos gustan y que nos obsesionan, incluso si van en contra de nuestros principios. Le gusta la música rap, aunque es consciente de los clichés sexistas de muchos de sus autores. También le gusta el cine absurdo, el color rosa, engancharse a series como Girls y leer la revista Vogue. Mediante ejemplos de la cultura pop y de su propia vida, Gay nos habla del aborto, de la maternidad, del acoso sexual, de la igualdad de salarios, de los mitos sobre la amistad entre mujeres, de la reciente literatura escrita por ellas, de la misoginia en el mundo del espectáculo, etc. El feminismo, como la humanidad y la vida, es imperfecto, y la autora propone que aceptemos todos sus matices.

Diese Frauen kämpfen, diese Frauen geben nicht auf. Diese Frauen sind unsere Gegenwart: arm, reich, schwarz, weiß, sie sind Ehefrauen, Mütter, Wissenschaftlerinnen, Nachbarinnen, Verbrecherinnen, Liebende, Mächtige, von Gewalt Heimgesuchte. Das Schwesternpaar, das seit ihrer gemeinsamen Entführung als Kinder unzertrennlich ist. Die Frau, die mit einem Zwilling verheiratet ist, der manchmal von dessen Bruder ersetzt wird. Die Stripperin, die aufs College geht, und die schwarze Ingenieurin, die ihre Vergangenheit nicht vergessen kann: Sie alle sind gleichzeitig zu viel und zu wenig. Wir sind wie sie und geben nicht auf.

En sus tremendamente populares ensayos y en su blog de Tumblr, Roxane Gay ha escrito con intimidad y sensibilidad sobre la comida y el cuerpo, usando sus propias luchas emocionales y psicológicas como una forma de explorar nuestras ansiedades compartidas sobre el placer, el consumo, la apariencia y la salud. Como mujer que describe su propio cuerpo como "salvajemente indisciplinado", Roxane comprende la tensión entre el deseo y la negación, entre el confort con uno misma y cuidarse. En Hambre explora su pasado, incluido el devastador acto de violencia que supuso un punto de inflexión en su joven vida, y acerca a los lectores en su viaje para comprender y finalmente salvarse a sí misma.

Nesta autobiografia escrita com sinceridade impressionante, a autora best-seller Roxane Gay fala sobre como, após sofrer um abuso sexual aos doze anos, passou a utilizar seu próprio corpo como um esconderijo contra os seus piores medos. Ao comer compulsivamente para afastar os olhares alheios, por anos Roxane guardou sua história apenas para si. Até conceber este livro. Esta não é uma narrativa bem-sucedida de perda de peso. E este também não é um livro que Roxane gostaria de escrever. Entretanto, é uma história que precisa ser contada, e ela o faz com seu estilo contundente e impetuoso, ainda que dotado de um humor mordaz, características que a tornaram uma das vozes mais marcantes de sua geração. "Fome" é um relato ousado, doloroso e arrebatador.

Uma coletânea de histórias de força e beleza raras assinada por Roxane Gay, uma das mais relevantes e extraordinárias vozes da literatura contemporânea. As personagens dos vinte e um contos magistrais reunidos em Mulheres difíceis vivem tanto cercadas por privilégios quanto na pobreza, estão em casamentos amorosos ou criminosos, são assombradas pela chantagem emocional ou pelos fantasmas que habitam suas próprias mentes. Entre elas, estão uma mulher casada que finge não ver quando o marido troca de lugar com seu irmão gêmeo; uma universitária que faz um bico como stripper e tenta afastar um cliente “excessivamente zeloso”; uma engenheira negra que se muda a trabalho para uma cidade majoritariamente branca e enfrenta a perversa curiosidade de seus colegas e a dificuldade de deixar o passado para trás. De um clube da luta para garotas a um condomínio de luxo na Flórida, onde a principal ocupação dos vizinhos é investigar a vida alheia, Roxane Gay dá voz a um coro de mulheres inesquecíveis — muitas das quais refletem traços da sua própria trajetória —, compondo um panorama impressionante e ousado do que é ser mulher nos dias hoje. “Roxane Gay é brilhante; ao mesmo tempo sua melhor amiga e sua maior crítica. Ela é provocativa, chocante, hilária. Roxane Gay é leitura obrigatória.” — PEOPLE “Uma autora prodígio, um talento surpreendente.” — THE GUARDIAN “Roxane Gay é uma das vozes mais poderosas do nosso tempo.” — LENA DUNHAM

Roxane Gay reúne grandes nomes do feminismo do século XXI em uma antologia extremamente necessária Roxane Gay coloca nesta obra reflexões, relatos, memórias, quadrinhos, contos, autoficção e ensaios escritos por mulheres das mais diferentes origens, raças e áreas de formação sobre o que significa viver em um mundo onde desde crianças precisam conviver com ameaças constantes de assédio, violência e agressões dos mais diferentes tipos simplesmente por serem mulheres. Com apresentação da jornalista Ana Paula Araújo, o livro possui textos de uma honestidade impressionante. São assinados por escritoras, acadêmicas, ativistas, atrizes e artistas plásticas e tratam de uma série de diferentes experiências que são compartilhadas por mulheres em praticamente todas as partes do mundo, incluindo ainda relatos de homens sobre como a cultura do estupro afeta a todos, ou seja, é uma luta que vai muito além de questões de gênero.

Uma vez, numa terra distante, fui raptada... Mantiveram-me em cativeiro durante treze dias. Queriam vergar-me. Não era pessoal. Não fui vergada. É o que digo a mim mesma. Mireille Duval Jameson é a caprichosa filha de um dos homens mais ricos do Haiti. Vive comodamente nos Estados Unidos com o marido e o filho. É privilegiada, amada, altiva. Um estado de graça que terá um fim abrupto. De férias no Haiti, é raptada por um grupo cujo líder abomina tudo o que a família Duval representa. Num país onde a miséria grassa e os raptos são frequentes, Mireille espera, imperturbável, que o pai pague o resgate. Mas o pai dela tem convicções fortes, que não incluem ceder à chantagem de criminosos oriundos de um mundo que despreza. Na luta de poder que se segue, o corpo de Mireille servirá de escudo e de moeda de troca. Ela terá de se refugiar em si mesma e na esperança de um desenlace rápido. Mas à medida que os dias passam, torna-se cada vez mais claro que o resgate não será pago... “Um livro magistral, intenso, inquietante e único. Jamais o esquecerei.” Meg Wolitzer, autora de Os Interessantes Roxane Gay é escritora, professora, editora, blogger e comentadora. Leciona Inglês na Purdue University, é fundadora da Tiny Hardcore Press, e co-editora da PANK, um coletivo das artes literárias sem fins lucrativos. Os seus trabalhos figuram nas mais prestigiadas publicações, incluindo The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times e Salon, entre muitas outras. Da sua obra destacam-se o livro de contos Ayiti e o ensaio Bad Feminist. Um Estado Selvagem é o seu primeiro romance. Roxane Gay vive atualmente em Charleston, no Illinois.

The first comprehensive monograph on Mickalene Thomas, a key figure in 21st-century contemporary art Over the past two decades, Mickalene Thomas''s critically acclaimed and extensive body of work has spanned painting, collage, photography, video, and the immersive installations that have become her signature. With influences ranging from nineteenth-century painting to popular culture, Thomas''s art articulates a complex and empowering vision of aspiration and self-image through gender and race while expanding on and subverting common definitions of beauty, sexuality, and celebrity. This book, made in close collaboration with Thomas, is the first to survey the breadth of her extraordinary career. Publication coincides with the opening of Mickalene Thomas''s first global exhibition, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, at Lévy Gorvy galleries in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris.

Si vous êtes une femme et que vous vivez aux États-Unis ou dans un pays occidental ; si vous êtes obsédée par l’idée de manger trop ou de ne pas manger assez (c’est plus rare) ; si vous utilisez des mots comme "craquer" et "péché mignon" – ces mots qui nous inspirent un sentiment de honte et destinés à mettre nos corps au pas, il est fort probable, et ce quelle que soit votre silhouette, que vous entretenez un rapport à la nourriture frisant le fétichisme. À celles qui rentrent dans ce modèle de plus en plus étriqué, félicitations! Les vêtements sont coupés pour vous, les producteurs de chou kale vous adorent et l’opinion publique avec eux. Les autres risquent de rester dans l’ombre, à l’endroit précis où l’auteur de ce livre voulait se trouver. Dans Hunger, un essai courageux et sans concessions, Roxane Gay retrace comment une agression sexuelle subie dans son enfance l’a conduite à prendre volontairement du poids afin d’être invisible et par conséquent ''en sécurité''. Dès le début de son livre, elle recommande à ceux qui ont soif de témoignage triomphant sur la perte de poids de passer leur chemin. Pourtant Hunger n’en est pas moins un triomphe, car, à travers l’expérience de Roxane Gay, nous apprenons une leçon fondamentale : nous devrions tous faire preuve de davantage de bienveillance envers la réalité du corps des autres et nous réconcilier avec le nôtre.

Roxane Gay heeft in de afgelopen jaren openhartige en populaire essays en blogs geschreven over feminisme en het menselijk lichaam. Haar eigen emotionele en psychologische worstelingen geven haar een unieke inkijk in het spanningsveld tussen verlangen en ontkenning, troost en medelijden. Met Honger onderzoekt ze haar eigen verleden - waaronder een uiterst gewelddadige gebeurtenis in haar jeugd die een keerpunt in haar leven vormde - en betrekt ze de lezer op indringende wijze in haar poging om zichzelf beter te begrijpen, om uiteindelijk haar eigen leven te kunnen redden. Met haar kenmerkende eerlijkheid, kwetsbaarheid en kracht schrijft Gay over haar lichaam en haar overgewicht.

En esta valiosa y reveladora antología, la crítica cultural y exitosa autora Roxane Gay recoge piezas originales y publicadas anteriormente que abordan lo que significa vivir en un mundo donde las mujeres deben medir el acoso, la violencia y la agresión que enfrentan. Abarcando una amplia gama de temas y experiencias, desde una exploración de la epidemia de violación integrada en la crisis de refugiados hasta relatos en primera persona de abuso sexual infantil, esta colección es a menudo profundamente personal y siempre es decididamente honesta. Al igual que ''Los hombres me explican las cosas'' de Rebecca Solnit, , "No es para tanto'' resonará en cada lector, diciendo "algo en totalidad que no podemos decir solos".

Roxane Gay, the prominent novelist, New York Times bestselling author of Hunger and Bad Feminist, cultural critic, and columnist provides practical guidance for everyone who wants to use their voice to write powerful work to share with the world. All writing advice is terrible, Roxane Gay states early in How to Be Heard. And still, with her latest book, she steps forward with practical writing advice for aspiring and established writers alike. Roxane is often asked questions that can be boiled down to, “Will you please read my work and tell me if I have the talent to pursue writing?” What these hopeful wordsmiths all seek is encouragement and validation in a culture that is eager to reject creativity and those who pursue it, especially artists from underrepresented communities. These fans are desperate for someone to say, “Yes, you are good enough.” They are looking for permission to use their voice. In this invaluable guide, Gay provides realistic, frank, and humorous advice for inexperienced writers and those who aspire to the writing life, giving readers the confidence and practical tools they need to find their voice, use it, and be heard. In short chapters, Gay covers topics like “How to write a short story,” “How to write sex,” “How to revise your writing,” “How to handle criticism,” and “How to write about the world we live in,” with irreverence, warmth, and practicality. She also writes, about the business of writing, a topic all too often neglected in writing instruction. How to Be Heard will give writers the tools, guidance, and inspiration that will ultimately add their work to the rich tapestry of American and world culture—widening readers’ perspectives and deepening their understanding of how to be heard.

"New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as ''wildly undisciplined, '' Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twenties--including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life--and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn''t yet been told but needs to be"--Publisher''s description.