På slutten av 1980-årene møtes fire jenter i en bakgård i Tbilisis gamleby. Her, omgitt av fuktige vegger og tilgrodde trebalkonger begynner et livslangt vennskap, mellom den frihetssøkende Dina, den kloke outsideren Ira, romantikeren Nene, niese av en av byens mektigste kriminelle, og den ettertenksomme Keto, historiens forteller. Den første, forbudte kjærligheten som bare kan blomstre i det skjulte. Kaoset som oppstår i kjølvannet av Georgias løsrivelse fra Sovjetunionen. Strømbruddene. Heroinen som strømmer inn i landet. Splittelsene som oppstår i et ungt demokrati i borgerkrig. Vennskapet deres trosser alt, helt til et utilgivelig svik og et tragisk dødsfall til slutt driver dem bort fra hverandre. Først i 2019 møtes tre av dem igjen, til åpningen av en større retrospektiv utstilling med fotografier av deres avdøde venninne. Bildene viser fram historien deres, som også er historien om hjemlandet. Det intime tilbakeblikket tvinger kvinnene til å se tilbake på sin egen fortid - og til å vurdere om tilgivelse er mulig.

I en by på en øy bor Mulegutten. Han får et varsel om en katastrofe, og stenger seg inne. Rottene har tatt over byen.
Skal han stikke, eller bør han bli? Han våger seg ut i de tomme gatene, og treffer noen som gjør motstand.
En eventyrlig, apokalyptisk actionhistorie om isolasjon, vågemot og kjemperotter.
 

A beautiful collection of paintings, drawings and reflections on creatures, our constant companions, from the masterful narrative artist Shaun Tan.
A creature does not necessarily represent one thing or another; it just is. A mysterious being in a mysterious world, much like you and me, trying to fit in, trying to be unique, or just trying to make sense of things as best we can, to exist.

World-renowned artist Shaun Tan turns his hand to the theme of creatures. The first thing Shaun ever drew as a child was a creature, and they are still at the heart of his work. This volume collects together unseen and stand-alone drawings and paintings, along with rich and thoughtful commentary from Shaun on his inspirations. Delving deep into the timeless allure of non-human creatures, and what they might tell us about our 'normal' human selves, this book is perfect for artists, writers and dreamers alike.

In recent years, more and more small-scale shops are choosing to focus on food take-out services. Many people who want to open a restaurant or food shop in future also tend to start a food truck first. The range and variety of unique and stylish shops focusing on take-out food are on the rise not only in Japan but also around the world.

This book showcases a variety of visual examples of small but unique takeout shops and food trucks, introducing everything from their logos and product packages to menu/floor map designs and more. Each shop is also presented with a simple floorplan, interior photos of facades and key design elements.

This book is a great reference for graphic designers and shop owners alike.

How artists from Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi to Whistler and Arthur Wesley Dow embraced and transformed Hokusai’s dynamic style and innovations

The great painter, book illustrator and print designer Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) has become the best known of all Japanese artists and one of the most famous and influential artists in the world. He was a key figure for the Japonisme movement in late 19th-century Europe, and his iconic images―especially the color woodblock print nicknamed “The Great Wave”―are frequently referred to in present-day art in both serious and frivolous forms, from sculpture, printmaking and painting to anime and emojis.
This book looks at Hokusai from the viewpoint of fellow artists who incorporated lessons learned from him into their own work, including Hokusai’s own students, his contemporary rivals and his many posthumous admirers working in a wide range of mediums, in Japan and around the world, from the late 19th century to the present. Lavishly illustrated and accompanied by illuminating and engaging texts, this publication invites readers to encounter the origins and enduring appeal of Hokusai’s delightful art.

Ukiyo-e are paintings of the “floating world” of the Edo Period, in other words, the daily life of the time that is depicted in an exciting, satirical and at times joyful way. Because they were popular among common people, they are said to have laid the foundation of Japanese pop culture.

This book is about two painters and their students, who are still highly regarded in the world of ukiyo-e: Kuniyoshi Utagawa, who gained popularity both in Japan and internationally as a “fantastical painter,” and Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, who painted a harsh yet beautiful fantasy world, and even influenced modern manga with his at times frenzied depictions, along with the painters who were active in the Bakumatsu years at the end of the Edo period.

Flashy, punk, mysterious and bursting with energy, ukiyo-e paintings fascinate not only fans of traditional Japanese culture both in Japan and overseas, but also serve as a source of inspiration for a range of creators around the world, including manga artists, illustrators, and tattoo artists who perceive the dynamic and subversive essence of these works.

Sushi is one of the most popular Japanese foods enjoyed around the world. The traditions and techniques of sushi have been passed down from generation to generation through apprenticeship, in which apprentice sushi chefs watch and learn from their masters. This book introduces the techniques for each fish that sushi chef Seiichi Sakanishi has spent his life refining to make delicious sushi. Readers can learn about the spirit of Japanese technique and sophistication that goes into making the ultimate sushi; the optimum season and location to obtain the best quality fish; how to identify good fish and how to prepare it; techniques to bring out the best flavor and more is all explained in detail.

What does it mean to be female? Mother, carer, the weaker sex? Think again.
In the last few decades a revolution has been brewing in zoology and evolutionary biology. Lucy Cooke introduces us to a riotous cast of animals, and the scientists studying them, that are redefining the female of the species.

Meet the female lemurs of Madagascar, our ancient primate cousins that dominate the males of their species physically and politically.

Or female albatross couples, hooking up together to raise their chicks in Hawaii.

Or the meerkat mothers of the Kalahari Desert - the most murderous mammals on the planet.

The bitches in BITCH overturn outdated binary expectations of bodies, brains, biology and behaviour. Lucy Cooke's brilliant new book will change how you think - about sex, sexual identity and sexuality in animals and also the very forces that shape evolution.

Trace the history of the world in over 500 easy-to-follow maps, from the dawn of humanity to the present day. Organized chronologically, A History of the World in 500 Maps tells a clear, linear story, bringing together themes as diverse as religion, capitalism, warfare, geopolitics, popular culture and climate change. Meticulously rendered maps chart the sequence of broad historical trends, from the dispersal of our species across the globe to the colonizing efforts of imperial European powers in the 18th century, as well as exploring moments of particular significance in rich detail.

Each tree we meet is filled with signs that reveal secrets about the life of that tree and the landscape we stand in. The clues are easy to spot when you know what to look for, but remain invisible to most people.

In How to Read a Tree, you'll discover the simple principles that explain the shapes and patterns you can see in trees and what they mean. And you'll learn rare skills that can be applied every time you pass a tree, whether you are in a town or a wilder spot.

As the author of the international bestsellers The Walker's Guide and How to Read Water, Tristan Gooley knows how to uncover the phenomena worth looking for. He has been instructing people in the art of reading trees for two decades and this book includes signs that will not be found in any other book in the world.

Once you have learned to see these things it is impossible to unsee them. We will never look at a tree the same way again.

What makes the work of the American experimental writer Kathy Acker so utterly relevant today, almost thirty years after her passing ? The articles collected in this volume aim to provide answers to this question. Indeed, through studies of both Acker's published and unpublished works, analyses of her writing process, and pieces blurring the boundaries between critical and creative writing, these articles map the writer's body of works and weave webs the way the "Black Tarantula" would.
Kathy Acker was part of a tradition of literary radicals and rebels of the 20th century avant-garde that flourished in the Counterculture and continued in the punk culture. Through acts of literary piracy and shock tactics, she unveiled and stood against techniques of domination and control. Indeed, she appropriated others' texts, subverted genres and genders and thus challenged the rigidity of meaning and identity to allow them to fluctuate and flow.
These texts confirm the central roles of both body and language in Acker's works as spaces of friction between power and liberation and position the writer as a radical practitioner, a visionary.

What comes after end-of-world narratives: visions of just futurity and multispecies flourishing.

There is widespread consensus that we are living at the end—of democracy, of liberalism, of capitalism, of a healthy planet, of the Holocene, of civilization as we know it. Drawing on radical futurisms and visions of justice-to-come emerging from the traditions of the oppressed—Indigenous, African-American, multispecies, anti-capitalist—as materialized in experimental visual cultural, new media, aesthetic practices, and social movements, in this book. T. J. Demos poses speculative questions about what comes after end-of-world narratives, arguing that it's as vital to defeat fatalistic nihilism as the false solutions of green capitalism and algorithmic governance.

How might we decolonize the future, and cultivate an emancipated chronopolitics in relation to an undetermined not-yet? If we are to avoid climate emergency's cooptation by technofixes, and the defuturing of multitudes by xenophobic eco-fascism, Demos argues, we must cultivate visions of just futurity and multispecies flourishing.

From Carl Phillips asking how wildness is tamed, to Esmé Weijun Wang finding moments of stillness in the simple act of observing her dog, to Cal Flyn befriending a sled dog called Suka in Finland, here we see dogs at every stage of their life.

This anthology promises to bring – much as our four-legged furry friends do – joy and delight, and surprising depth and poignancy. It goes beyond the wet snouts and wagging tails and gets to the heart of what makes dogs our true lifelong companions. These essays are sometimes toothy, sometimes bloody, and sometimes gentle: much like dogs.

All of the Earth's ocean, from the equator to the poles, is a single engine powered by sunlight - a blue machine. Earth is home to a huge story that is rarely told - that of our ocean. Not the fish or the dolphins, but the massive ocean engine itself: what it does, why it works, and the many ways it has influenced animals, weather and human history & culture.

In a book that will recalibrate our view of this defining feature of our planet, physicist Helen Czerski dives deep to illuminate the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it. From the ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves to permanent residents of the deep such as the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she explains the vast currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls that all have their place in the ocean's complex, interlinked system. Timely, elegant and passionately argued, Blue Machine presents a fresh perspective on what it means to be a citizen of an ocean planet.

The understanding it offers is crucial to our future. Drawing on years of experience at the forefront of marine science, Helen Czerski captures the magnitude and subtlety of Earth's defining feature, showing us the thrilling extent to which we are at the mercy of this great engine.

!2019 was the last great year for the world economy. For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it.

America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going. Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy.

The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms.

Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe. All of this was artificial. All this was temporary.

All this is ending. In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging. The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think.

Which means everything about our interconnected world - from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all - is about to change. A world ending. A world beginning.

Zeihan brings readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence.