Station Eleven is a post-apocalyptic novel set in a world devastated by a flu pandemic. The story follows several interconnected characters as they navigate life before and after the collapse of civilization, focusing on themes of survival, art, and human connection. A key element of the novel is the Traveling Symphony, a troupe of actors and musicians who travel the altered world performing Shakespeare and keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. 

The Things They Carried is a collection of twenty-two stories chronicling the author, Tim O’Brien’s, recollections of his time as a soldier in the Vietnam War. While O’Brien admits in the book to often blurring the line between fact and fiction, the names of the characters in the book are those of real people. Since it is a collection of stories rather than a novel, there is not a traditional narrative arc. Yet, the collection functions as a self-contained work.

Poems New and Collected: 1957-1997 is the definitive, complete collection of poetry by Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska. Described by Robert Hass as “unquestionably one of the great living European poets” and by Charles Simic as “one of the finest poets living today,” Szymborska mesmerizes her readers with poetry that captivates their minds and captures their hearts.

Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos from about 630 b.c. She was a musical genius who devoted her life to composing and performing songs. Of the nine books of lyrics Sappho is said to have composed, none of the music and only one poem has survived complete. All the rest are fragments. In If Not, Winter Carson presents all of Sappho’s fragments in Greek and in English.

Césaire’s masterpiece is a work of immense cultural significance. The long poem was the beginning of Césaire’s quest for négritude, and it became an anthem of Blacks around the world. With its emphasis on unusual juxtapositions of object and metaphor, Césaire considered his style a “beneficial madness” that could…reach the powerful and overlooked aspects of black culture.

Alan Strang is a disturbed youth whose dangerous obsession with horses leads him to commit an unspeakable act of violence. As psychiatrist Martin Dysart struggles to understand the motivation for Alan’s brutality, he is increasingly drawn into Alan’s web and eventually forced to question his own sanity. Equus is a timeless classic and a cornerstone of contemporary drama that delves into the darkest recesses of human existence.

Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom, and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery and spiritual healing, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, moving millions across the globe and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations. Helping them find inner peace, strength, gratitude, and a deeper, divine connection with themselves and the world around them. 

In an Argentine prison, two men share a cell: Molina, a gay window dresser who is self-centered, self-denigrating, yet charming as well; and Valentin, an articulate, fiercely dogmatic revolutionary haunted by memories of a woman he left for the cause. Valentin believes in the just cause that makes all suffering bearable; Molina believes in the magic of love that makes all else endurable.