Showing titles in Absurdist

Is Sex Necessary? was originally published in 1929 as a satirical and comedic exploration of romantic and sexual relationships, co-authored by iconic comedic writers E.B. White and James Thurber. Written in the aftermath of the Jazz Age and amidst changing societal norms regarding gender and relationships, Is Sex Necessary? parodies the burgeoning field of psychological and sexual analysis, poking fun at the over-seriousness with which such topics were increasingly dissected in the early 20th century.

A woman metamorphoses into a giant slug; another quite literally eats her heart out; a wasp falls in love with an orchid; and hair starts sprouting from the walls. These stories slip and slide between genres - from video games to fan fiction, body horror to choose-your-own-adventure - as characters cycle through giddying changes in gender, physiology, species, and identity. Collapsing boundaries between bodies and forms, these fictions interrogate the visceral, gross, and absurd.

Ayn Rand and the Refusal of the Abyss Ayn Rand enters the existential field not as a participant but as its counter‑figure - the thinker who accepts the existential demand for self-authorship while rejecting the ontological conditions that make that demand tragic, unstable, and ethically charged. Her protagonists stand in the same architectural posture as the existential subject: solitary, defiant, self-authorizing, and unwilling to submit to the world’s interpretive machinery. Yet the ground beneath them is fundamentally different. Where the existentialists begin from contingency, ...

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR For fans of Interior Chinatown and American War, a surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OUR CULTURE...

Gregor Samsa, el protagonista, se despierta una mañana sintiendo extraños dolores. Asustado, se percata de que sus miembros no le responden, y además nota que su cuerpo pesa en exceso. Gregor vive con sus padres y hermana, y piensa en ellos y en su trabajo, cuando aquella mañana descubre que ha dejado de ser humano para convertirse en un bicho.

Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed. For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey.

My dad's best friend is my boss with benefits… It’s been 10 years since I saw my childhood crush- my dad’s best friend, Todd Anderson. He’s always grabbed my attention with his broad chest and alpha-hole personality. Now it seems I’m not the only one with a crush… A few too many cocktails at my dad‘s wedding, and he’s in my bed with nothing but the sheets on us. We both know this cannot continue. He's nearly twice my age and Daddy would never forgive us. It gets complicated when my dad gets me a job at Todd’s company. Now temptation’s growing stronger with our desks 10 ...

Smith Babbitt is in the prime of his life: he’s only 25 years into his 89-year lifespan. He knows this because of Timmy®, the mysterious app that can tell you with infallible accuracy how old you will be when you die. Smith still has 64 years to go. But lately he’s been in a rut, and his long lifespan is starting to feel like a sentence.

Forbidden from pursuing her calling, Shadow Holmes, the great-granddaughter of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older—and smarter—brother, works for her father selling real estate in Miami. To compound matters, Shadow has no idea her father is the director of The Bee, a clandestine British spy agency, until she and her parents are poisoned by the bewitching—and decidedly evil— Professor Jane Moriarty.

In this reissue of her electric debut collection, Madeline Cash, the author of Lost Lambs, synthesizes the godlessness of a digital age into a glimmering, life-affirming collage of stories. Earth Angel is a book like no other, a story collection of postmodern angst that swallowed the smartphone...

Dive into the whimsical and satirical world of James Thurber and E.B. White with the audiobook "Is Sex Necessary? or Why You Feel the Way You Do," narrated by the talented Mike Vendetti. This classic work, first published in 1929, explores the perplexities of love, relationships, and human behavior with humor and wit. Through a series of essays, Thurber and White dissect the absurdities of the sexual revolution, the nature of the American male, and the quirks of feminine types.

When a man's favourite elephant vanishes, the balance of his whole life is subtly upset. A couple's midnight hunger pangs drive them to hold up a McDonald's. A woman finds she is irresistible to a small green monster that burrows through her front garden. An insomniac wife wakes up in a twilight world of semi-consciousness in which anything seems possible - even death. In every one of these stories Murakami makes a determined assault on the normal.

Bob Honey, the disillusioned divorcee with a penchant for murder by mallet, weaves his way toward Washington DC, for the ultimate showdown with a certain nefarious "landlord", but nothing is as it seems, and Bob will have more than just the government working against him. Part comedy and part thriller, Bob Honey Sings Jimmy Crack Corn establishes Sean Penn as a fixture of the literary landscape for years to come.

A retired general—the leader of the latest military takeover—moves to a peaceful island and decides to rid it of what he sees as its last remaining “anarchic” components. The island, described by its people as a utopia, the last peaceful resort for mankind, morphs into dystopia when the general, in the hope of bringing order to the island life, begins to act more and more like a dictator. The first ones to revolt against the general are the seagulls.

A surrealist story of mourning and messiahs, deserts and droughts, cowboys and junkies, miracles and mass hysteria, the lure of despair and the solace of friendship. Peter Mendelsund's Weepers is a novel for this age: our age of anesthesia and anger.

*BONUS: Includes the viral essay sensation "The Crane Wife"* "An innovative work of climate fiction, a nuanced and empathic family story, and, for my money, the summer's best novel thus far." --NPR.org "The most oddly enticing novel you will read this year...Keenly satirical yet unashamedly...

First Runner Up, Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2024 Eric Hoffer Award & Grand Prize Shortlist Finalist! Aliens have hatched a rockstar. Brain extractions, falling body parts, and blood-vessel explosions are the norm. Alex’s dream job has turned into a nightmare. What should she do? It's the 1990s. Alex arrives at Acht Records, her improbable blonde hair streaked stress magenta and anger black. Her first duty is to wipe blood off her boss's walls. It goes downhill from there. Rock Gods & Messy Monsters is a humorous story about life inside a record company.

What happens when a man tries to abolish desire from his life — and discovers desire has other plans? In this fearless, fast-paced erotic dark comedy, Puchy Mushkin attempts the impossible: to purge himself of every dream, ambition, and craving. The result is a cascade of hilariously catastrophic misadventures that blur the line between absurdity, scandal, intimacy, and self-destruction. Both wildly funny and provocatively candid, The Tyranny of Desire is brilliantly written smut — a true sexistential masterpiece.

A transformação (Die Verwandlung, 1915) foi publicada originariamente na revista expressionista Weiße Blätter, que abrigava textos da nova geração de escritores alemães como Heinrich Mann, Ernst Bloch e Rosa Luxemburgo. A novela narra a singular história de Gregor Samsa, um caixeiro viajante que certo dia acorda em sua cama transformado em inseto. Plena de significados simbólicos, a obra deu origem às mais diversas interpretações.

A daring, hilariously neurotic literary debut from the acclaimed actor and comedian Brett Gelman (Stranger Things, Fleabag). Enter the wonderfully weird, always uncomfortable, side-splittingly funny world of The Terrifying Realm of the Possible, where your worst fears of who you are or might...