"A lyrical autobiography in essays from a celebrated author, honoring outlier artists and other heroes and villains who inspired him. In this collection of ten essays, Jerome Charyn takes readers on a tour through the New York of his youth and into the curious, probing mind of a great writer, crafting a love letter to the colorful places, people, and books--some famous, some forgotten--that have nourished him over his long and prolific literary career....

Presents a history of the period during which the Eastern seaboard was a frontier between colonizing Europeans and Native Americans.

"The deeply reported story of identical twin brothers who escape El Salvador's violence to build new lives in California--fighting to survive, to stay, and to belong. Growing up in rural El Salvador in the wake of the civil war, Ernesto Flores had always had a fascination with the United States, the faraway land of skyscrapers and Nikes, while his identical twin, Raul, never felt that northbound tug. But when Ernesto ends up on the wrong side of the...

Six years exploring how the U.S. carnival industry fights to keep itself alive by legally employing Mexican migrant workers with the controversial H-2B guestworker visa.

"The United States is detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants at a rate never before seen in American history. Hundreds of thousands languish in immigration detention centers, separated from their families, sometimes for years. Deportees are dropped off unceremoniously in sometimes dangerous Mexican border towns, or flown back to crime-ridden Central American nations. Many of the deported have lived in the United States for years, and have...

Identical twins Ernesto and Raul Flores, seventeen, must flee El Salvador, make a harrowing journey across the Rio Grande and the Texas desert, face capture by immigration authorities, and struggle to navigate life in America.

"This book looks at the role illegality or undocumentedness plays in our society and economy. It shows how the status was created, and how and why people, especially Mexicans and Central Americans, have been assigned this status. The first three chapters look at the histories of social exclusion. One looks specifically at the Mexican and Guatemalan contexts to understand why such large numbers of people from these countries enter the United States...

"Through a glass darkly : The Venetian island of Murano is known for its artisans who specialize in the traditional craft of glass making. When the owner of a glass factory is found murdered, Commissario Brunetti uncovers a connection between the colorful, filigree glass products that he made and some very toxic poisons. How else to explain the colorful slime containing arsenic oozing out from the factory?"--Container. "Suffer the little children...

"A searing story of starvation and survival in North Korea, followed by a dramatic escape, rescue by activists and Christian missionaries, and success in the United States thanks to newfound faith and courage Inside the hidden and mysterious world of North Korea, Joseph Kim lived a young boy's normal life until he was five. Then disaster struck: the first wave of the Great Famine, a long, terrible ordeal that killed millions, including his father,...

"From Tony Hsieh to Amy Chua to Jeremy Lin, Chinese Americans are now arriving at the highest levels of American business, civic life, and culture. But what makes this story of immigrant ascent unique is that Chinese Americans are emerging at just the same moment when China has emerged - and indeed may displace America - at the center of the global scene. What does it mean to be Chinese American in this moment? And how does exploring that question...