New Releases by Sebastian Junger

A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on death—and what might follow—by the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm. For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. “It’s okay,” his father said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ll take care of you.” That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived. This experience spurred Junger—a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical—to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when forced to reckon with such existential questions? In My Time of Dying is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery.

"A profound rumination on the concept of freedom from the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe"--

We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding--"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. Tribe explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today''s divided world.

In his breakout bestseller, The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger created "a wild ride that brilliantly captures the awesome power of the raging sea and the often futile attempts of humans to withstand it" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Now, Junger turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat--the fear, the honor, and the trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan''s Korengal Valley. Through the experiences of these young men at war, he shows what it means to fight, to serve, and to face down mortal danger on a daily basis.

The incredible true story of a tempest born from so rare a combination of factors it was deemed "perfect" and of the doomed Boston boat with her crew of six fishermen that was helpless in the midst of a force beyond comprehension.

These stories rocket readers across the roof of the world on the new high-speed railway in Tibet, describe the tension between Indian farmers and the sacred elephants besieging their villages, and introduce them to a shaman whom some believe can cure the most serious depressions.

What would you write if no one knew who you were? In the spirit of the demolition derby, where drivers take heedless risks with reckless abandon, welcome to the first convocation of the Secret Society of Demolition Writers. Here is a one-of-a-kind collection by famous authors writing anonymously–and dangerously. With the usual concerns about reputations and renown cast aside, these twelve daredevils have each contributed an extreme, no-holds-barred unsigned story, each shining as brightly and urgently as hazard lights. Unconventional and unapologetic, this publishing equivalent of a whodunit features an eclectic group of fictional characters, including a delusional schizophrenic narrator, an egg donor with second thoughts about her decision, a pharmacist who forms a weird crush on a woman who beat both of her parents to death, and a little girl who understands that an old safe is the threshold to another, ghostly, world. Equally diverse and surprising are the authors themselves: Aimee Bender, Benjamin Cheever, Michael Connelly, Sebastian Junger, Elizabeth McCracken, Rosie O’Donnell, Chris Offutt, Anna Quindlen, John Burnham Schwartz, Alice Sebold, Lauren Slater, and Marc Parent, the editor of the collection. Never before has such a wide-ranging and talented group of authors been assembled to such explosive and entertaining effect. The Secret Society of Demolition Writers is an intriguing puzzle in itself, but it’s also an important addition to the careers of some of our finest storytellers–even if we never really know who wrote what. Its boundary-smashing fiction offers exhilarating proof that for an artist, withholding your identity can mean gaining your freedom.

"In 1963, with the city of Boston already terrified by a series of savage crimes known as the Boston Stranglings, a murder occurred in the quiet suburb of Belmont, just a few blocks from the house of Sebastian Junger''s family - a murder that seemed to fit exactly the pattern of the Strangler. Roy Smith, a black man who had cleaned the victim''s house that day, was arrested, tried, and convicted, but the terror of the Strangler continued." "Two years later, Albert DeSalvo, a handyman who had been working at the Jungers'' home on the day of the Belmont murder, and who had often spent time there alone with Sebastian and his mother, confessed in lurid detail to being the Boston Strangler." "This is the point of entry to Junger''s book: a narrowly averted tragedy for Junger''s family opens out into an electrifying exploration of race and justice in America. By turns exciting and subtle, the narrative chronicles three lives that collide - and are ultimately destroyed - in the vortex of one of the first and most controversial serial murder cases in America."--BOOK JACKET.

Junger''s essays deal with the primal power of fire and with man''s capacity for destruction.

Automne 1991. En embarquant sur l''Andrea Gail, Bobby Shatford et ses compagnons se préparent une fois encore à affronter les périls de leur métier : la pêche à l''espadon, dans les eaux de l''Atlantique Nord. Mais la saison est belle, et Bobby fait taire le pressentiment qui l''assaille. Or, à l''insu des experts, un monstrueux dispositif météorologique, capable de broyer une flotte entière, est en train de se mettre en place. Ce qu''un spécialiste appellera the perfect storm, la tempête parfaite. L''Andrea Gail va s''y trouver pris. Durant des jours et des nuits, l''équipage doit affronter des vents de plus de cent nœuds, des vagues de vingt à trente mètres... Sebastian Junger a enquêté pendant deux ans pour reconstituer la tragédie. Best-seller aux Etats-Unis, traduit en trente-neuf langues, son récit a été porté à l''écran par Wolfgang Petersen.

In October 1991, three weather systems collided off the coast of Nova Scotia to create a storm of singular fury--the perfect storm. This nationally bestselling account of some victims of that storm, the doomed crew of the "Andrea Gail", is now a specially priced hardcover with movie-art bellyband. The new summer-release film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Diane Lane.

In October 1991, three weather systems collided off the coast of Nova Scotia to create a storm of singular fury--the perfect storm. This nationally bestselling account of some victims of that storm, the doomed crew of the "Andrea Gail", is now a specially priced hardcover with movie-art bellyband. The new summer-release film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Diane Lane.

Con la tensin narrativa de la propia furia de los elementos, Junger nos lleva al corazn de la tormenta, describiendo con gran fuerza el valor, el temor y el pnico que se desatan ante un fenmeno de estas caractersticas. Recrea los ltimos momentos de la tripulacin del Andrea Gail y relata la valenta de unos rescates en alta mar que dejaron hroes y vctimas, entretejiendo la historia de la industria pesquera, la meteorologa y los testimonios de personas que se vieron afectadas por la tormenta. La tormenta perfecta nos deja en los labios un sabor a mar y nos trasmite el desamparo que se siente cuando se est dominado por una fuerza de la naturaleza que escapa a nuestro conocimiento y control.