Over 200 years of regional history is recounted here--including the internal divisions and interference by outside forces that provided the roots of the ethnic hatred that erupted so violently following the collapse of the Soviet empire.

David Sedaris's collection of stories and essays features the famed "Santaland Diaries," in which he recounts his experiences as a Christmas elf at the Herald Square Macy's.

David Sedaris's collection of stories and essays features the famed "Santaland Diaries," in which he recounts his experiences as a Christmas elf at the Herald Square Macy's.

Short stories by Japan's most difficult and challenging but popular writer.

Roden reports on the lives of Jewish communities past and present, and examines both Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions. There is a chapter on Sephardic breads and one on New York delicatessens, and she includes recipes for Mandelbrot, Yellow Split Pea Soup, Cold Stuffed Vine Leaves, Fish Balls in Tomato Sauce, and Algerian Anise Bread.

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV states and exemplifies Dostoevsky's most urgent concerns as a writer: the struggle between faith and the lack of it, the nature of love and hate, the question of God's existence, and generational conflict. The latter is represented in his novel by the father, Fyodor Karamazov, and his four very different sons: the saintly Alyosha, passionately sensual Dmitri, Ivan the intellectual, and the repulsive bastard son, Smerdyakov, who eventually becomes the murderer of his cruel father. All four sons, however, hate him, and the question of guilt is ambiguous. It has been theorized that Dostoyevski's hatred for his own father was the springboard for this examination of patricide and guilt.