Дон Делилло (р.1936) — американский писатель и драматург, лауреат ряда престижных премий. За роман "Мао II" (1991 г.) был удостоен премии "ПЕН\Фолкнер". Спустя десять лет, когда рухнули башни в Нью-Йорке, Делилло объявили пророком. Эта книга об эпохе, когда будущее принадлежит толпам, а шедевры создаются с помощью гексогена. Ее герой — легендарный американский писатель, много лет проживший отшельником, — оказывается ключевой фигурой в игре ближневосточных террористов

Don DeLillo's follow-up to Libra, his brilliant fictionalization of the Kennedy assassination, Mao II is a series of elusive set-pieces built around the themes of mass psychology, individualism vs. the mob, the power of imagery and the search for meaning in a blasted, post-modern world. Bill Gray, the world's most famous reclusive novelist, has been working for many years on a stalled masterpiece when he gets the chance to aid a hostage trapped in a basement in war-torn Beirut. Gray sets out on a doomed, quixotic journey, and his disappearance disrupts the cloistered lives of his obsessed assistant and the assistant's companion, a former Moonie who has also become Bill's lover. This haunting, masterful novel won the PEN/Faulkner Award. This tale of a reclusive novelist drawn back into the world by acts of terrorism reconfirms DeLillo's status as a modern master and literary provocateur

From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America -and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice

Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before — and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him — this is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule — in peacetime. Combining meticulous research with the story-telling style of Wild Swans, this biography offers a harrowing portrait of Mao’s ruthless accumulation of power through the exercise of terror: his first victims were the peasants, then the intellectuals and, finally, the inner circle of his own advisors. The reader enters the shadowy chambers of Mao’s court and eavesdrops on the drama in its hidden recesses. Mao’s character and the enormity of his behavior toward his wives, mistresses and children are unveiled for the first time. This is an entirely fresh look at Mao in both content and approach. It will astonish historians and the general reader alike

Skaitydama paslaptingomis aplinkybėmis Naujojoje Zelandijoje žuvusios mamos dienoraštį, Sofija susipažįsta su savo prosenelių likimais. Toms drąsioms moterims tolimoje šalyje, žiauriame vyrų pasaulyje teko ne tik kovoti dėl išlikimo, bet ir ginti savo vaikus nuo baisaus šeimą slegiančio prakeiksmo. Jų gyvenimo patirtis Sofijai atveria akis ir priverčia susimąstyti, kaip gyvena pati, kodėl neatsiveria tikrajai meilei. Negana to, netrukus mergina pajunta, kad yra sekama. Sofija ryžtasi išsiaiškinti praeities ir dabarties paslaptis…