A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade in 1920s Berlin. The city's crowded streets, thriving arts scene, passionate politics and seedy cabarets provide the backdrop for a chance meeting with a woman, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings and the unfathomable nature of the human soul.

Goethe¡¯s two-part dramatic work, Faust, based on a traditional theme, and finally completed in 1831, is an exploration of that restless intellectual and emotional urge which found its fullest expression in the European Romantic movement, to which Goethe was an early and major contributor. Part I of the work outlines a pact Faust makes with the devil, Mephistopheles, and encompasses the tragedy of Gretchen, whom Faust seduces. Part II, developed over a long period of Goethe¡¯s later life, reflects Goethe¡¯s own transition from a predominantly Romantic to a wider world-view and explores more extensive themes, including the values of the Classical past, as it moves towards the work¡¯s resolution.

The protagonist, Faust, is presented in a complex manner, and Goethe¡¯s treatment of the subject matter raises ethical and spiritual issues, many of which are not resolved within the drama itself. Goethe¡¯s stress is on Faust¡¯s striving towards the good, and on the nature of human error, rather than on the traditional Christian view of sin and redemption, and the play¡¯s opening sections and its conclusion can be seen as humanist allegory or metaphor rather than an expression of orthodox religious belief. It is left to the reader to draw their own conclusion about Faust¡¯s everyman character, and the extent to which he earns his ultimate spiritual salvation.

The play had an enormous influence on later German thought and literature, and together with his lyric poetry has ensured Goethe¡¯s place among the great European writers.

Published by Poetry in Translation.

Allen and his fellow Exorcist, the formidable and misanthropic Yu Kanda, discover the latter's background¡ªincluding his true nature and purpose¡ªin visions that flash back to his childhood. Yu's memories of this time have long been suppressed, and it seems for good reason. They not only involve Yu but another child named Alma, and expose how desperate certain factions within the Black Order were to counter the threat posed by the akuma and their master, the Millennium Earl!

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman¡¯s work,¡± including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl¡¯s book¡± her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.