From a Pulitzer Prize winner, a new and eye-opening interpretation of the meaning of the frontier, from early westward expansion to Trump's border wall.

Ever since this nation's inception, the idea of an open and ever-expanding frontier has been central to American identity. Symbolizing a future of endless promise, it was the foundation of the United States' belief in itself as an exceptional nation--democratic, individualistic, forward-looking. Today, though, America has a new symbol: the border wall.

In The End of the Myth , acclaimed historian Greg Grandin explores the meaning of the frontier throughout the full sweep of U.S. history--from the American Revolution to the War of 1898, the New Deal to the election of 2016. For centuries, he shows, America's constant expansion--fighting wars and opening markets--served as a "gate of escape," helping to deflect domestic political and economic conflicts outward. But this deflection meant that the country's problems, from racism to inequality, were never confronted directly. And now, the combined catastrophe of the 2008 financial meltdown and our unwinnable wars in the Middle East have slammed this gate shut, bringing political passions that had long been directed elsewhere back home.

It is this new reality, Grandin says, that explains the rise of reactionary populism and racist nationalism, the extreme anger and polarization that catapulted Trump to the presidency. The border wall may or may not be built, but it will survive as a rallying point, an allegorical tombstone marking the end of American exceptionalism.

From the acclaimed author of River Town and Oracle Bones, an intimate excavation of life in one of the world's oldest civilizations at a time of convulsive change
Drawn by an abiding fascination with Egypt's rich history and civilization, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo to explore a place that had a powerful hold over his imagination. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, research ancient history, and visit the legendary archeological digs. After years of covering China for The New Yorker, friends warned him it would be a much quieter place. But just before his arrival, the Arab Spring had reached Egypt and the country was in chaos.
In the midst of the revolution, he attached himself to an important archeological dig at a site rich in royal tombs known in as al-Madfuna, or "The Buried." He and his wife set out to master Arabic, striking up an important friendship with their language instructor, a cynical political sophisticate named Rifaat. And a very different kind of friendship was formed with their garbage collector, an illiterate neighborhood character named Saaed, whose access to the trash of Cairo would be its own kind of archeological excavation. Along the way, he meets a family of Chinese small business owners who have cornered the nation's lingerie trade; their pragmatic view of the political crisis is a bracing counterpoint to the West's conventional wisdom.
Through the lives of these ordinary Egyptians in a time of tragedy and heartache, while drawing connections between contemporary politics and the ancient past, Hessler creates a richly textured and original portrait of a revolution and the people swept up in it. Whether he's investigating the relics of pharaohs, the neighborhood trash that Saeed brings him, the Arabic vocabulary lists from Rifaat, or the Muslim Brotherhood documents left behind after mobs have looted their offices, Hessler finds subtle and illuminating insights to understand a nation from a new perspective.
What emerges is a book of uncompromising intelligence and glorious humanity. Through the lives of Saeed and Rifaat, we encounter a land in which a weak state has collapsed but its underlying society remains painfully the same. The Buried is an extraordinary achievement that unearths a new world for the reader, one filled with unforgettable people who escape their context and become universal.

On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of north-east Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than 18,500 people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned.
It was Japan’s greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis, and the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways.
Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo, and spent six years reporting from the disaster zone. There he encountered stories of ghosts and hauntings. He met a priest who performed exorcisms on people possessed by the spirits of the dead. And he found himself drawn back again and again to a village which had suffered the greatest loss of all, a community tormented by unbearable mysteries of its own.
What really happened to the local children as they waited in the school playground in the moments before the tsunami? Why did their teachers not evacuate them to safety? And why was the unbearable truth being so stubbornly covered up?
Ghosts of the Tsunami is a classic of literary non-fiction, a heart-breaking and intimate account of an epic tragedy, told through the personal accounts of those who lived through it. It tells the story of how a nation faced a catastrophe, and the bleak struggle to find consolation in the ruins.

☆《碗》是金宇澄继《回望》之后的另一部非虚构力作。一老友在聚会上追忆三十年前的岁月，引发了一场千里赴约的温故之旅。在历史的斑驳印记中，辨认早已碎裂消失的苍凉青春。
☆非虚构的记录与三十年前的小说相互映照，小说笔法与真实事件相互渗透，展现文学技艺的世故与讲究。
☆附作者手绘插图，展示文字与图像错落交叠的多重叙述。
------------------------
“姑娘，你长得多像你妈妈。”
三十年前，在农场，上海青年小英死于井中。三十年后，一名女孩忽然出现，原来，她就是小英的女儿——小英生前，从东北赶回上海，秘密生下了一名女婴。
面对年轻的生命，这些历史的幸存者们才终于面对不愿追述的往事，并且承认：曾经至为重要的东西都已经纷纷碎裂、消失。
只有青春的回忆，和早逝的同伴一起，无法平静，不能安息。
------------------------
金宇澄的非虚构里，充溢着小说家笔法，这是一种文体的自觉和清醒，透着精心和讲究。但更重要的，是其中思想的力量。他对知青年代的反思，对那段生存的展现和认知，让我觉得超出了我所读过的同题材的作品。
——钟红明
《碗》中记叙知青生活人物命运走向，几种时空闪回，荒芜峥嵘。金宇澄近年作品，开始体现一种直插历史路径的自由清明，还原语言之魅。
——《明报》
金宇澄《金宇澄作品选辑：轻寒、方岛、碗》写的是大时代的小人物故事，苍凉中见人性温暖，长篇运镜迷离整个像一部电影，短篇则充满金宇澄特殊的南方的忧愁以及对“屈辱”的反思。
——台北书展评审团

本书是《正午故事》主笔郭玉洁在媒体从业多年后，首度将人生沉淀积累成书。
十八篇文字里，记录了来自人生现场的如实观察。在泰国清道潜心体验工匠生活，在柏林墙下回顾城市历史，从乌兰巴托往北，去往成吉思汗出生的地方，在台湾的文学课堂上倾听大师们分享文化记忆。
这是一本非虚构文字作品合集，关于文学、历史、城市、命运。辗转四座城市，对话十位名人，与更多普通人的心灵，追忆数段往事，去理解每个人的生命选择。不同的声音汇聚，就是一个时代。
重回生命的现场，丰富、智性，又留存着天真的热情。