{"title":"Books by John Freeman","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781611854732","title":"Freeman's California","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe sixth volume in the series that has been hailed by \u003ci\u003eNPR\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eO Magazine a\u003c\/i\u003end \u003ci\u003eVogue\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFreeman's: California\u003c\/i\u003e features stunning new work from a broad selection of writers, revealing everything that is important and fascinating about America's most populous state.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eFreeman's: California\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003cb\u003eLauren Markham\u003c\/b\u003e describes how four generations of her family have lived in and tried to manipulate the water in one of the driest parts of the state and how water and land means everything. \u003cb\u003eRabih Alameddine\u003c\/b\u003e recounts becoming a bartender in the mid-1980s as his friends began to die of AIDS. \u003cb\u003eRachel Kushner\u003c\/b\u003e reminisces on all the amazing cars she's owned and their peculiar, vivid personalities. \u003cb\u003eNatalie Diaz \u003c\/b\u003enarrates the process of making her body into a professional basketball player, and how that assembly stalled some of the internal vulnerabilities she'd felt as a gay native woman growing up in California. And \u003cb\u003eElaine Castillo\u003c\/b\u003e visits her brother in prison.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmid the raging the forest fires plaguing California, \u003cb\u003eWilliam T. Vollmann\u003c\/b\u003e drives to the Carr fire and sees how fire has become the new state of normality for California. And \u003cb\u003eJaime Cortez\u003c\/b\u003e riffs on pulling over at a rest-stop and smelling the fires of Paradise burning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeanwhile home is in transition as \u003cb\u003eKaren Tei Yamashita \u003c\/b\u003erecalls a Japanese-American who goes to Japan after the dropping of the bomb, writing back and forth. \u003cb\u003eReyna Grande \u003c\/b\u003eexplores how her mother fell out of society and became a woman who collects recycling, while she and her siblings have become model immigrants.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlso featuring a haunting ghost story from \u003cb\u003eOscar Villalon\u003c\/b\u003e, bold new fiction from \u003cb\u003eTommy Orange\u003c\/b\u003e, and stunning poems from \u003cb\u003eMai Der Vang\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eJuan Felipe Herrera\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eMaggie Millner\u003c\/b\u003e and more, \u003ci\u003eFreeman's: California\u003c\/i\u003e assembles a diverse list of brilliant writers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301682852213,"sku":"9781611854732","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781611854732_ce00de9e-af1d-4d79-94cd-66371aa9d9b5.jpg?v=1786023648"},{"product_id":"9781611854244","title":"Freeman's Animals","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver a century ago, Rilke went to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where he watched a pair of flamingos. A flock of other birds screeched by, and, as he describes in a poem, the great red-pink birds sauntered on, unphased, then 'stretched amazed and singly march into the imaginary.' This encounter - so strange, so typical of flamingos with their fabulous posture - is also still typical of how we interact with animals. Even as our actions threaten their very survival, they are still symbolic, captivating and captive, caught in a drama of our framing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis issue of \u003ci\u003eFreeman's\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of that interaction, its costs, its tendernesses, the mythological flex of it. From lovers in a Chiara Barzini story, falling apart as a group of wild boars roams in their Roman neighbourhood, to the soppen emergency birth of a cow on a Wales farm, stunningly described by Cynan Jones, no one has the moral high ground here. Nor is this a piece of mourning. There's wonder, humour, rage and relief, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFeaturing pigeons, calves, stray dogs, mascots, stolen cats, and bears, to the captive, tortured animals who make up our food supply, powerfully described in Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk's essay, this wide-ranging issue of \u003ci\u003eFreeman's\u003c\/i\u003e will stimulate discussion and dreams alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303946334581,"sku":"9781611854244","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781611854244_c95fd9fd-b143-400b-869c-989fda145063.jpg?v=1786023625"},{"product_id":"9781804710647","title":"Freeman's Conclusions","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver the course of ten years, \u003ci\u003eFreeman's \u003c\/i\u003ehas introduced the English-speaking world to countless writers of international import and acclaim, from Olga Tokarczuk to Valeria Luiselli, while also spotlighting brilliant writers working in English, from Tommy Orange to Tess Gunty. Now, in its last issue, this unique literary project ponders all the ways of reaching a fitting conclusion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Sayaka Murata, keeping up with the comings and goings of fashion and its changing emotional landscapes can mean being left behind, and in her poem 'Amenorrhea' Julia Alverez experiences the end of the line as menopause takes hold. Yet sometimes an end is merely a beginning, as Barry Lopez meditates while walking through the snowy Oregonian landscapes. While Chinelo Okparanta's story 'Fatu' confronts the end of a relationship under the spectre of new life, other writers look towards aging as an opportunity for rebirth, such as Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, who takes on the role of being her own elder, comforting herself in the ways that her grandmother used to. Finally, in his comic story 'Everyone at Dinner Has a Max Von Sydow Story,' Dave Eggers suggests that sometimes stories don't have neat or clean endings - that sometimes the middle is enough.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith new writing from Sandra Cisneros, Colum McCann, Omar El Akkad and Mieko Kawakami, \u003ci\u003eFreeman's: Conclusions\u003c\/i\u003e is a testament to the startling power of literature to conclude in a state of beauty, fear and promise.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307427410293,"sku":"9781804710647","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781804710647_e814e003-1c65-4141-b5c8-2b7364c0bec4.jpg?v=1786028193"},{"product_id":"9781905881673","title":"Granta 123","description":"Barker, Barnes, Hollinghurst, Ishiguro, Mitchell, Rushdie, Smith, Tremain, Winterson . . .   Long before they were household names, they were Granta Best of Young British Novelists. With each Young Novelist list - in 1983, 1993, and 2003 - came new ways of witnessing the world, introductions to unforgettable characters and mysterious and addictive voices. In 2013, thirty years after the first collection, the magazine asked once again: which writers are setting the bar for a new decade in British literature?","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308301365621,"sku":"9781905881673","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781905881673_3ad3be2e-a54f-47cf-9ebc-c3ecf685028b.jpg?v=1786029335"},{"product_id":"9781984877826","title":"The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story","description":"\u003cb\u003eA selection of the best and most representative contemporary American short fiction from 1970 to 2020, including such authors as Ursula K. LeGuin, Toni Cade Bambara, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandra Cisneros, and Ted Chiang, hand-selected by celebrated editor and anthologist John Freeman\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the past fifty years, the American short story has changed dramatically. New voices, forms, and mixtures of styles have brought this unique genre a thrilling burst of energy. \u003ci\u003eThe Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story\u003c\/i\u003e celebrates this avalanche of talent.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis rich anthology begins in 1970 and brings together a half century of powerful American short stories from all genres, including—for the first time in a collection of this scale—science fiction, horror, and fantasy, placing writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken Liu, and Stephen King next to some beloved greats of the literary form: Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Denis Johnson. Culling widely, John Freeman, the former editor of \u003ci\u003eGranta \u003c\/i\u003eand now editor of his own literary annual, brings forward some astonishing work to be regarded in a new light. Often overlooked tales by Dorothy Allison, Percival Everett, and Charles Johnson will recast the shape and texture of today’s enlarging atmosphere of literary dialogue. Stories by Lauren Groff and Ted Chiang raise the specter of engagement in ecocidal times. Short tales by Tobias Wolff, George Saunders, and Lydia Davis rub shoulders with near novellas by Susan Sontag and Andrew Holleran. This book will be a treasure trove for readers, writers, and teachers alike.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309436055925,"sku":"9781984877826","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781984877826_52cbd1e9-23ca-4673-89bf-fc4e08c8d658.jpg?v=1786035154"},{"product_id":"9781597146920","title":"California Rewritten","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDive into the revelatory worlds of California's most exciting writers, and discover how their books uncover our history and can help us imagine our shared future.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In Freeman's hands, California is a literary mecca, and each essay a revelation.\" —\u003cb\u003eIngrid Rojas Contreras\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Could Move Clouds\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePercival Everett, Rebecca Solnit, Tommy Orange, Michael Connelly, Julie Otsuka: As John Freeman writes in \u003ci\u003eCalifornia Rewritten\u003c\/i\u003e, \"Literature of so many kinds and so many genres from so many different types of people—at the highest level—has been coming out of California and from Californians for decades now.\" Freeman, one of the sharpest editors working today, has followed the evolution of California's literary life since his teenage years in Sacramento. In over fifty essays inspired by his hosting of \u003ci\u003eAlta Journal\u003c\/i\u003e's popular California Book Club, he offers an essential road map to California literature now. He shows us how the state's most exciting writers can unlock our understanding of the past, and how they can deepen our imaginations as we confront the most pressing issues that face our society: labor and inequality, migration and citizenship, technology and its limits, changing landscapes and climate catastrophe. Incisive and compulsively readable, \u003ci\u003eCalifornia Rewritten\u003c\/i\u003e will be a source of empowering discovery for any book lover who cares about the Golden State.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368087466357,"sku":"9781597146920","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781597146920_59c376f1-b60c-44fb-a034-658bc6b0bd37.jpg?v=1786023413"},{"product_id":"9781939946638","title":"Hide or Seek – When Men Get Real with God about Sex","description":"Are you stuck in a never-ending cycle of defeat that fills you with shame, prevents you from leading your family well, getting involved in the church, and spending your time and money on the things that really matter? You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by ending this cycle.   You are not powerless in the fight against pornography and lust. Hide or Seek won't ask you to jump through a series of hoops; it will simply suggest one clear step forward. One step to reorient your heart toward God's love for you. One step to take the energy out of the vicious cycle that keeps you from being the man God has called you to be, the man you want to be.   Discover how the gospel speaks in practical terms to the most private areas of your life and how God offers the freedom you desire. Hide or Seek is easy-to-read, full of real-life stories, and points you to the hope for change that many men have given up on finding. Don't settle for the cycle.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56420156473717,"sku":"9781939946638","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"tales-of-two-planets","title":"Tales of Two Planets","description":"In the course of John Freeman's editorial work one major theme has come up repeatedly: how climate change is making inequalities much worse. Freeman has engaged with some of today's most eloquent writers on this issue, resulting in a collection of fiction, essays, poems, and reportage. Margaret Atwood conjures with a dystopian future in three remarkable poems. Lauren Groff takes us to Florida; Edwidge Danticat to Haiti; Tahmima Anam to Bangladesh. Eka Kurniawan takes us to Indonesia and Chinelo Okparanta to Nigeria. These are news stories, with the emphasis on story, about the most important crisis of our times.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466758201717,"sku":"9780143133926","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780143133926.jpg?v=1785654819"},{"product_id":"the-duchy-of-courlands-colonial-networks","title":"The Duchy of Courland's Colonial Networks","description":"The Duchy of Courland, a vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eastern Baltic, became a brief but unexpected colonial power in the mid-seventeenth century. The dukes of Courland attempted to engage in oceanic trade to improve their fortunes, establishing fortresses in the Caribbean and Western Africa. Histories of the Couronian colonial venture often focus on the figure of Duke Jakob Kettler as an inspired or overambitious innovator. Yet, embarking on such an enterprise required the utilisation of intricate networks stretching across oceans in a range of different contexts and locations. The study investigates the connections, entanglements and ruptures present in this remarkable example of early modern colonisation.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57680153248117,"sku":"9789048575541","price":37.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9789048575541.jpg?v=1792423289"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-john-freeman.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}