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Acclaimed literary critic Adam Kirsch examines some of our most beloved writers, including Haruki Murakami, Elena Ferrante, Roberto Bolano, and Margaret Atwood, to better understand literature in the age of globalization.  The global novel, he finds, is not so much a genre as a way of imagining the world, one that allows the novel to address both urgent contemporary concerns -- climate change, genetic engineering, and immigration -- along with timeless themes, such as morality, society, and human relationships. Whether its stories take place on the scale of the species or the small town, the global novel situates its characters against the widest background of the imagination. 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From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience.   Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers—ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow—he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud, and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity.   An insightful and engaging work from \"one of America’s finest literary critics\" (Wall Street Journal), The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49921967456529,"sku":"GOR013814333","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50060048695569,"sku":"CIN0393652408G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50195435782417,"sku":"CIN0393652408VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53333587460369,"sku":"CIN0393652408A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0393652408.jpg?v=1750813835"},{"product_id":"revolt-against-humanity-book-adam-kirsch-9781735913766","title":"The Revolt Against Humanity","description":"Should we welcome the end of humanity?    In this blistering book about the history of an idea, one of our leading critics draws on his dazzling range and calls our attention to a seemingly inconceivable topic that is being seriously discussed: that the end of humanity’s reign on earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it. Kirsch journeys through literature, philosophy, science, and popular culture, to identify two strands of thinking: Anthropocene antihumanism says that our climate destruction has doomed humanity and we should welcome our extinction, while Transhumanism believes that genetic engineering and artificial intelligence will lead to new forms of life superior to humans.   Kirsch’s introduction of thinkers and writers from Roger Hallam to Jane Bennett, David Benatar to Nick Bostrom, Patricia MacCormack to Ray Kurzweil, Ian McEwan to Richard Powers, will make you see the current moment in a new light. The revolt against humanity has already spread beyond the fringes of the intellectual world, and it can transform politics and society in profound ways—if it hasn’t already.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49930115088657,"sku":"NGR9781735913766","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50092927287569,"sku":"CIN1735913766VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50228992311569,"sku":"CIN1735913766G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50989843546385,"sku":"NIN9781735913766","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52690912477457,"sku":"NLS9781735913766","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52866431287569,"sku":"GOR014649302","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1735913766.jpg?v=1750833020"},{"product_id":"on-settler-colonialism-book-adam-kirsch-9781324105343","title":"On Settler Colonialism","description":"Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last 7 October, the term “settler colonialism” has become a centre of political debate in the United States. Many progressives, academics and student organisations justified the attack on the grounds that Israel is a settler colonial state, meaning that it was created on land taken from an indigenous people and so can never be legitimate. The phrase was new to most Americans and leading publications like The New York Times and The Atlantic have published articles explaining what it means. But the concept has been influential in academic and activist circles for years, shaping the way many young people think—not just about Israel and Palestine, but about the history of the United States and a host of political issues.   Building on Adam Kirsch’s October 2023 Wall Street Journal article on the topic, this short book examines the idea critically for a general readership. By exploring the most important writers, texts and ideas in the field of settler colonial studies, Kirsch shows that it is really a new political ideology, aimed at delegitimising not only Israel but also the United States, Canada and Australia. He examines the sources of its appeal, which are spiritual as much as political, and how it turns indignation at past injustices into a source of new injustices today. As a compact and accessible introduction to one of the crucial political ideas of our moment, the book will speak to readers interested in the Middle East, American history and today’s most urgent cultural-political debates.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50162088837393,"sku":"CIN1324105348G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50227053691153,"sku":"CIN1324105348VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50934340485393,"sku":"NGR9781324105343","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51023308357905,"sku":"NIN9781324105343","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":52995571450129,"sku":"CIN1324105348LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53073531044113,"sku":"GOR014728394","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1324105348.jpg?v=1751303752"},{"product_id":"who-wants-to-be-a-jewish-writer-book-adam-kirsch-9780300240139","title":"Who Wants to Be a Jewish Writer?","description":"From one of today’s keenest critics comes a collection of essays on poetry, religion, and the connection between the two   Adam Kirsch is one of today’s finest literary critics. 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He closes by asking why so many American Jewish writers have resisted that category, inviting us to consider “Is there such a thing as Jewish literature?”","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50195792494865,"sku":"GOR011314934","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50956762054929,"sku":"CIN0300240139G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52633521226001,"sku":"CIN0300240139VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300240139.jpg?v=1750941378"},{"product_id":"why-trilling-matters-book-adam-kirsch-9780300187823","title":"Why Trilling Matters","description":"The distinguished poet and critic argues for the abiding relevance of a great literary mind of the twentieth century   Lionel Trilling, regarded at the time of his death in 1975 as America’s preeminent literary critic, is today often seen as a relic of a vanished era. His was an age when literary criticism and ideas seemed to matter profoundly in the intellectual life of the country. In this eloquent book, Adam Kirsch shows that Trilling, far from being obsolete, is essential to understanding our current crisis of literary confidence—and to overcoming it.  By reading Trilling primarily as a writer and thinker, Kirsch demonstrates how Trilling’s original and moving work continues to provide an inspiring example of a mind creating itself through its encounters with texts. Why Trilling Matters introduces all of Trilling’s major writings and situates him in the intellectual landscape of his century, from Communism in the 1930s to neoconservatism in the 1970s. But Kirsch goes deeper, addressing today’s concerns about the decline of literature, reading, and even the book itself, and finds that Trilling has more to teach us now than ever before. 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In The Wounded Surgeon \"one of the most promising young poet-critics in America\" (Los Angeles Times) reclaims their achievement by offering critical \"biographies of the poetry\"-tracing the development of each poet's work, exploring their major themes and techniques, and examining how they transformed life into art.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50352743350545,"sku":"CIN0393051978VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50509230997777,"sku":"GOR006675307","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52836486021393,"sku":"CIN0393051978G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0393051978.jpg?v=1750696436"},{"product_id":"modern-element-book-adam-kirsch-9780393062717","title":"The Modern Element","description":"Over the last ten years, through essays in The New Republic, The New Yorker, and other magazines, Adam Kirsch—“one of the most promising young poet-critics in America” (Los Angeles Times)—has established himself among the most controversial and fearless critics writing today. Sure to cause heated debate, this collection of essays surveys the world of contemporary poetry with boldness and insight, whether Kirsch is scrutinizing the reputation of popular poets such as Billy Collins and Sharon Olds or admiring the achievement of writers as different as Derek Walcott, Czeslaw Milosz, and Frederick Seidel. For readers who want an introduction to the complex world of contemporary American poetry, from major figures like Jorie Graham to the most promising poets of the younger generation, Kirsch offers close readings and bold judgments. For readers who already know that world, The Modern Element will offer a surprising and thought-provoking new perspective.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50353131880721,"sku":"CIN0393062716A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51002022232337,"sku":"NIN9780393062717","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51825862377745,"sku":"CIN0393062716G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52673450541329,"sku":"NLS9780393062717","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0393062716.jpg?v=1777542261"},{"product_id":"thousand-wells-book-adam-kirsch-9781566634519","title":"The Thousand Wells","description":"In 2001, Ivan R. Dee began publication of the annual New Criterion Poetry Prize–winner with the appearance of Donald Petersen’s Early and Late. The New Criterion, which has published poetry since 1984, is recognized as one of the foremost contemporary venues for poetry with a regard for traditional meter and poetic form. The magazine was thus an early leader in that poetic renaissance that has come to be called the New Formalism. For 2002 The New Criterion Poetry Prize was awarded to Adam Kirsch. His first book of poems, The Thousand Wells, is now published. Combining a passionate lyricism with commanding technical skill, Mr. Kirsch offers a beguiling and memorable sequence of poems that are deeply alive to the enchantments of nature and the chastenings of history. This is a remarkable debut by a notable young poet.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50381283787025,"sku":"CIN1566634512G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52817008591121,"sku":"CIN1566634512VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1566634512.jpg?v=1750894812"},{"product_id":"invasions-book-adam-kirsch-9781566637749","title":"Invasions","description":"In his second collection of poems, Adam Kirsch examines the world we live in now, a world in which the dangers of history have invaded the pleasures of private life. His connected poems use traditional forms to create a free, contemporary music amidst the omens of the post-September 11 world. Mr. Kirsch is at home with all the strange juxtapositions of our culture: he can celebrate \"the paradisal sighs\" of Jane Birkin and still hear the \"angelic harmonies\" of Handel's Messiah; he can observe military jets trailing \"stripes of smoke\" and find the quiet of a synagogue in Queens. Invasions is a moving and highly personal collection, Mr. Kirsch's exploration of what he calls, with fear and hope, \"the magically real.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50392018518289,"sku":"CIN1566637740G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51323677311249,"sku":"CIN1566637740VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1566637740.jpg?v=1750761958"},{"product_id":"people-and-the-books-book-adam-kirsch-9780393241761","title":"The People and the Books","description":"An essential exploration of a rich literary tradition from the Bible to modern times, by a rare literary authority (New York Times Book Review) and one of our keenest critics (Washington Post).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50469143249169,"sku":"GOR008915283","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50761994174737,"sku":"CIN0393241769VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50901523792145,"sku":"CIN0393241769G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51148060033297,"sku":"GOR012128751","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53196203852049,"sku":"GOR012136340","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0393241769.jpg?v=1751196683"},{"product_id":"wounded-surgeon-book-adam-kirsch-9780393339352","title":"The Wounded Surgeon","description":"Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, and Delmore Schwartz formed one of the great constellations of talent in American literature. 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Using these photographs as a lens, Adam Kirsch's poems connect the legacy of the First World War with the turmoil of the Weimar Republic and foreshadow the Nazi era. Kirsch writes both urgently and poignantly about these photographs, creating a unique dialogue of word and image that will speak to readers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51544523964689,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51544524259601,"sku":"CIN1590517342G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1590517342.jpg?v=1750762806"},{"product_id":"z-word-book-adam-kirsch-9781760645458","title":"The Z Word","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the aftermath of October 7, Zionism has increasingly been used by critics of Israel as a term of derision. From university campuses to TikTok and Twitter\/X, the term is employed as a self-evident slur that presumes that Zionists are racist and supremacist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYet, as Adam Kirsch writes in this groundbreaking essay, the challenge for Jews today is not merely to counter attempts to distort and corrupt the meaning and origins of Zionism. The Jewish people, he argues, do not need to defend the term - they need to reclaim it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Z Word reckons with the current trajectory of a people: in an age in which Jewish existence is under threat, the promise of Zionism is essential.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52686035747089,"sku":"NLS9781760645458","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52754411847953,"sku":"NIN9781760645458","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53605439373585,"sku":"GOR014977589","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781760645458.jpg?v=1762327041"},{"product_id":"culture-as-counterculture-book-adam-kirsch-9780197792087","title":"Culture As Counterculture","description":"In Culture as Counterculture, leading literary critic and intellectual Adam Kirsch explores the question of how 21st-century religion, art, and science engage with the past, and are both re-enlivened and redefined by it.Since the early 20th-century, \"high culture\"-particularly classical music-has steadily been losing its authority, and not just because it was supplanted, as some argue, by mass-produced kitsch. For years after World War Two, it still represented that to which \"popular culture\" compared itself: the standard against which artistic achievement was measured. Today, no one disses classical music-\"Roll Over Beethoven\"-in the same way. It has become the embodiment of art for its own sake, moving from \"high culture,\" argues Adam Kirsch, to \"counterculture\"-subversive, challenging, and defiant. Kirsch, a poet and critic who currently serves as the editor of the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Review Section, has written on a wide range of subjects. This new collection of previously published works reflects the full extent of that range. Kirsch explores the question of how 21st-century religion, art, and science engage with the past, and are both re-enlivened and redefined by it. He takes on such topics as the literary abilities of ChatGPT, the return to tradition by contemporary Jewish novelists, and the 19th-century perception of poets William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley as radical rather than canonical figures. The book concludes with \"Nothing That Is Not There,\" an essay new to this volume that engages Jewish terms to reflect and respond to the challenges to faith and meaning in a secular age.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53511263846673,"sku":"NGR9780197792087","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780197792087.jpg?v=1778192621"},{"product_id":"we-want-to-believe-book-adam-kirsch-9781967190164","title":"We Want to Believe","description":"Why do we still believe in UFOs, despite repeated efforts to dismiss them?    For most of the twentieth century, reports of unidentified flying objects were treated as cultural error: cranks, hoaxes, late-night radio. Then, abruptly, the posture changed. The Pentagon released videos it could not explain. Navy pilots testified under oath about encounters that defied known technology. Intelligence agencies acknowledged that something unfamiliar appears to move through the skies.    In We Want to Believe, Adam Kirsch, one of our most searching literary critics, traces the intellectual history behind this reversal to see UAPs not as fantasies or threats, but as a mystery closer to home. Moving from Cold War skeptics such as physicists Edward Condon and Carl Sagan—who helped define the boundaries of legitimate inquiry—to figures like Air Force officer Edward Ruppelt and astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who encountered anomalies from within official institutions, Kirsch follows how UAPs migrated from dismissed error to unresolved problem. Tracing how figures such as Pentagon official Luis Elizondo and astrophysicist Avi Loeb have reopened the question under radically different conditions, Kirsch draws on declassified documents, military encounters, and a wide literature of belief and skepticism to examine why some questions endure and what it means for modern societies when certainty fails and curiosity persists.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53648822403345,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53648823451921,"sku":"NGR9781967190164","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781967190164.jpg?v=1781130831"},{"product_id":"the-republic-of-plato-book-adam-kirsch-9781541609372","title":"The The Republic of Plato","description":"The definitive translation of Plato's Republic, the most influential text in the history of Western philosophy    “To read The Republic as Bloom means it to be read is to question everything we think we know about government, politics, the best human life, and the nature of truth.”—Adam Kirsch, from the introduction    A cornerstone of Western thought, The Republic remains an unmatched exploration of justice in which lofty ideals collide with the practicalities of human existence. Just as the ancient city-states grappled with the notion of virtue and the proper role of the citizen, so too do we today face profound questions about our own society and its values.     In this masterful translation by Allan Bloom, readers encounter Plato's timeless insights with clarity and vigor. And whether you’re approaching this seminal text for the first time or the fiftieth, Bloom’s insightful commentary provides a deeper understanding of Plato’s philosophical arguments. This definitive translation invites you to engage with the eternal struggle to define justice and the nature of human flourishing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53654350790929,"sku":"NGR9781541609372","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781541609372.jpg?v=1781303244"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-adam-kirsch.oembed?page=2","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}