{"title":"Books by Simon May","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781529042863","title":"How to Be a Refugee","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A lyrical, fascinating, important book. More than just a family story, it is an essay on belonging, denying, pretending, self-deception and, at least for the main characters, survival.' \u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Simon May's remarkable \u003ci\u003eHow to Be a Refugee\u003c\/i\u003e is a memoir of family secrets with a ruminative twist, one that's more interested in what we keep from ourselves than the ones we conceal from others.' \u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe most familiar fate of Jews living in Hitler’s Germany is either emigration or deportation to concentration camps. But there was another, much rarer, side to Jewish life at that time: denial of your origin to the point where you manage to erase almost all consciousness of it. You refuse to believe that you are Jewish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow to Be a Refugee\u003c\/i\u003e is Simon May’s gripping account of how three sisters – his mother and his two aunts – grappled with what they felt to be a lethal heritage.  Their very different trajectories included conversion to Catholicism, marriage into the German aristocracy, securing ‘Aryan’ status with high-ranking help from inside Hitler’s regime, and engagement to a card-carrying Nazi. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven after his mother fled to London from Nazi Germany and Hitler had been defeated, her instinct for self-concealment didn’t abate. Following the early death of his father, also a German Jewish refugee, May was raised a Catholic and forbidden to identify as Jewish or German or British.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the face of these banned inheritances, May embarks on a quest to uncover the lives of the three sisters as well as the secrets of a grandfather he never knew. His haunting story forcefully illuminates questions of belonging and home – questions that continue to press in on us today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204648730802,"sku":"9781529042863","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529042863_4b0288e3-d045-4985-95c5-d47b0fdd4423.jpg?v=1786021614"},{"product_id":"9780300187748","title":"Love – A History","description":"An illuminating exploration of how love has been shaped, idolized, and misconstrued by the West over three millennia, and how we might differently conceive it Love—unconditional, selfless, unchanging, sincere, and totally accepting—is worshipped today as the West's only universal religion. To challenge it is one of our few remaining taboos. In this pathbreaking and superbly written book, philosopher Simon May does just that, dissecting our resilient ruling ideas of love and showing how they are the product of a long and powerful cultural heritage.   Tracing over 2,500 years of human thought and history, May shows how our ideal of love developed from its Hebraic and Greek origins alongside Christianity until, during the last two centuries, \"God is love\" became \"love is God\"—so hubristic, so escapist, so untruthful to the real nature of love, that it has booby-trapped relationships everywhere with deluded expectations. Brilliantly, May explores the very different philosophers and writers, both skeptics and believers, who dared to think differently: from Aristotle's perfect friendship and Ovid's celebration of sex and \"the chase,\" to Rousseau's personal authenticity, Nietzsche's affirmation, Freud's concepts of loss and mourning, and boredom in Proust. Against our belief that love is an all-powerful solution to finding meaning, security, and happiness in life, May reveals with great clarity what love actually is: the intense desire for someone whom we believe can ground and affirm our very existence. The feeling that \"makes the world go round\" turns out to be a harbinger of home--and in that sense, of the sacred.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56232100462965,"sku":"9780300187748","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780300187748_d64da7a0-5e44-41a6-9cd4-eebb9fce8954.jpg?v=1786012724"},{"product_id":"9780691271149","title":"The Power of Cute","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of cuteness and its immense hold on us, from emojis and fluffy puppies to its more uncanny, subversive expressions\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCuteness has taken the planet by storm. Global sensations Hello Kitty and Pokémon, the works of artists Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons, Heidi the cross-eyed opossum and E.T.—all reflect its gathering power. But what does “cute” mean, as a sensibility and style? Why is it so pervasive? Is it all infantile fluff, or is there something more uncanny and even menacing going on—in a lighthearted way? In \u003ci\u003eThe Power of Cute\u003c\/i\u003e, Simon May provides nuanced and surprising answers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe usually see the cute as merely diminutive, harmless, and helpless. May challenges this prevailing perspective, investigating everything from Mickey Mouse to Kim Jong-il to argue that cuteness is not restricted to such sweet qualities but also beguiles us by transforming or distorting them into something of playfully indeterminate power, gender, age, morality, and even species. May grapples with cuteness’s dark and unpindownable side—unnerving, artful, knowing, apprehensive—elements that have fascinated since ancient times through mythical figures, especially hybrids like the hermaphrodite and the sphinx. He argues that cuteness is an addictive antidote to today’s pressured expectations of knowing our purpose, being in charge, and appearing predictable, transparent, and sincere. Instead, it frivolously expresses the uncertainty that these norms deny: the ineliminable uncertainty of who we are; of how much we can control and know; of who, in our relations with others, really has power; indeed, of the very value and purpose of power.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Power of Cute\u003c\/i\u003e delves into a phenomenon that speaks with strange force to our age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295420363125,"sku":"9780691271149","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691271149_602efb54-e3c3-49f3-98b3-19b7d25386e2.jpg?v=1786014592"},{"product_id":"9781399807104","title":"Jump!","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDo you repeatedly defer life to later, convinced there will come a time when you'll be better prepared to seize its opportunities?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDo you spend your best hours on chores or trivia before allowing yourself to get to what most matters to you?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe real mystery of procrastination is why we avoid goals to which we're passionately committed.  It's understandable that we'd put off cleaning the fridge or completing our tax return; but why do we swerve a loved one, a vocation, a hobby, or a new life that feels supremely meaningful to us?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimon May argues that the almost universal consensus around overcoming procrastination - setting priorities and optimizing time management: working \"smarter not harder\" - might work for the boring things but is of little use when it comes to treasured goals that we're avoiding.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJump!\u003c\/i\u003e proposes seven radically new ways in which we can overcome this life-sabotaging procrastination. May claims that, for all their pain, the regret and boredom created by procrastination can shine the brightest light on our top priorities, either reaffirming our commitment to them or teaching us that we're on the wrong path. This is the unexpected blessing of procrastination: that it offers hope of becoming ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368810623349,"sku":"9781399807104","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399807104_8437f5dc-a15d-4478-813a-cdf7842e600b.jpg?v=1786019346"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-simon-may.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}