On the Trail of Elder Brother


Book Description

Native American tales about Glous'gap, an Algonquin hero, presented for the first time in a comprehensive cycle, retold and illustrated by Native authors. Stories of Glous'gap, the embodiment of the Great Spirit, are told by the many Algonquin tribes of North America--from the Dakotas through New England, and south to Delaware. Among them is the Micmac of Maine, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces. Since the seventeenth century, anthropologists have listened to Micmac storytellers and recorded their tales. Finally, here is a book devoted entirely to Glous'gap's adventures, told to us firsthand in the traditional Micmac versions by two Micmac authors. On the Trail of Elder Brother follows Glous'gap during the time he lived among the Micmac. When he arrives, the earth is barely formed. Glous'gap helps to shape it and populate it with creatures and plants. He teaches his people the right way to live, and how to live together harmoniously in the natural world. He battles the monsters who threaten them--a water-hoarding monster, a fearsome lake serpent, a giant bird of prey, and an evil sorceress, among them. By the time he leaves, the world has become a more settled place. With their pipe-smoking whales, irascible porcupines, witches, and the like, these stories are wondrous and magical. But they are also wise, immersed in what it means to be fully human in a fragile world. The sixteen accompanying pen-and-ink drawings enhance their appeal. Every reader, from the uninitiated to the specialist, will fall under the spell of this powerful, joy-filled volume.




Older Brother


Book Description

Prix Goncourt Winner: A “superb” novel of a Syrian immigrant in France and his two sons (The New York Times Book Review). Older Brother is the poignant story of a Franco-Syrian family whose father and two sons try to integrate themselves into a society that doesn’t offer them many opportunities. The father, an atheist communist who moved from Syria to France for his studies and stayed for love, has worked for decades driving a taxi to support his family. The eldest son is a driver for an app-based car service, which comically puts him at odds with his father, whose very livelihood is threatened by this new generation of disruptors. The younger son, shy and serious, works as a nurse in a French hospital. Jaded by the regular rejections he encounters in French society, he decides to join a Muslim humanitarian organization to help wounded civilians in the war in Syria. But when he stops sending news home, the silence begins to eat away at his father and brother, who wonder what his real motivations were. And when the younger brother returns home, he has changed . . . “A masterpiece of a first novel.” —The Guardian “A striking debut that reveals the breadth of emotional disconnection that prejudice can stoke within a family.” —Kirkus Reviews




Brothers


Book Description

Blends history and memoir in an account that in alternating chapters explores the author's quest to understand the impact of his brothers on his life and the complex relationships between iconic brothers, including the Thoreaus, the Van Goghs, and the Marxes.




Big Brother


Book Description

Big Brother is a striking novel about siblings, marriage, and obesity from Lionel Shriver, the acclaimed author the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. Alas, her husband, Fletcher, a self-employed high-end cabinetmaker, now spurns the “toxic” dishes that he’d savored through their courtship, and spends hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me. Rich with Shriver’s distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.







Kwakiutl Tales


Book Description




Brother Robert


Book Description

A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020 “[Brother Robert} book does much to pull the blues master out of the fog of myth.”—Rolling Stone An intimate memoir by blues legend Robert Johnson's stepsister, including new details about his family, music, influences, tragic death, and musical afterlife Though Robert Johnson was only twenty-seven years young and relatively unknown at the time of his tragic death in 1938, his enduring recordings have solidified his status as a progenitor of the Delta blues style. And yet, while his music has retained the steadfast devotion of modern listeners, much remains unknown about the man who penned and played these timeless tunes. Few people alive today actually remember what Johnson was really like, and those who do have largely upheld their silence-until now. In Brother Robert, nonagenarian Annye C. Anderson sheds new light on a real-life figure largely obscured by his own legend: her kind and incredibly talented stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This book chronicles Johnson's unconventional path to stardom, from the harrowing story behind his illegitimate birth, to his first strum of the guitar on Anderson's father's knee, to the genre-defining recordings that would one day secure his legacy. Along the way, readers are gifted not only with Anderson's personal anecdotes, but with colorful recollections passed down to Anderson by members of their family-the people who knew Johnson best. Readers also learn about the contours of his working life in Memphis, never-before-disclosed details about his romantic history, and all of Johnson's favorite things, from foods and entertainers to brands of tobacco and pomade. Together, these stories don't just bring the mythologized Johnson back down to earth; they preserve both his memory and his integrity. For decades, Anderson and her family have ignored the tall tales of Johnson "selling his soul to the devil" and the speculative to fictionalized accounts of his life that passed for biography. Brother Robert is here to set the record straight. Featuring a foreword by Elijah Wald and a Q&A with Anderson, Wald, Preston Lauterbach, and Peter Guralnick, this book paints a vivid portrait of an elusive figure who forever changed the musical landscape as we know it.




Takelma Texts


Book Description




The Sibling Effect


Book Description

A provocative and surprising exploration of the longest sustained relationships we have in life—those we have with our siblings. Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters. Our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away. Our siblings are the only people we know who truly qualify as partners for life. In this perceptive and groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Kluger explores the complex world of siblings in equal parts science, psychology, sociology, and memoir. Based on cutting-edge research, he examines birth order, twins, genetic encoding of behavioral traits, emotional disorders and their effects on sibling relationships, and much more. With his signature insight and humor, Kluger takes science’s provocative new ideas about the subject and transforms them into smart, accessible insights that will help everyone understand the importance of siblings in our lives.