Raising Steam

Pratchett's 40th Discworld novel brings in one--or, as it turns out, two--intriguing new characters and introduces a radical new concept: the railway. Young genius engineer Dick Simnel invents a steam locomotive he names Iron Girder . Waste management tycoon Sir Harry King immediately grasps the lucrative possibilities and invests part of his fortune in the railway. Ankh-Morpork's Lord Vetinari intends for the city to keep control of the new enterprise and appoints con man-turned-civil servant Moist von Lipwig to keep an eye on matters. The railway proves wildly popular with the public. Unfortunately, dwarf fundamentalists opposed to fraternization with trolls or humans begin making terrorist attacks, murdering railway workers and setting fire to clacks communications towers. The terrorists eventually overthrow the legitimate dwarf government in Uberwald while the dwarf Low King is more than 1,000 miles away. Only by means of the railway, declares Lord Vetinari, can Low King Rhys return to Uberwald in time to foil the plotters. But Uberwald, haunted by vampires and werewolves, may be approached only across high plains covered with stumbleweed ("like tumbleweed, but less athletic"). And, Moist protests, the railway isn't finished. Somehow, Vetinari explains kindly, Moist better find a way to finish it if he wants his head to remain attached to his neck. Young Dick, meanwhile, entertains a most peculiar notion: that Iron Girder is female and sentient. And after witnessing the locomotive deal with a misguided dwarf's attempted sabotage, Moist is inclined to agree with him. In recent years, Discworld humor has become implicit (check out the hilarious names of Uberworld towns, for example) rather than explicit, while continuing to explore serious themes with impeccable Discworld logic, and the trend continues here. Brimming with Pratchett's trademark wit, a yarn with a serious point made with style and elegance. --Kirkus Reviews

Do They Hear You When You Cry

The harrowing and by now well-publicized story of a young West African girl fleeing the much-debated ritual of female circumcision and seeking asylum in the US. This worm's-eye view of her torturous incarceration at the hands of the INS is so well told that, even knowing the outcome in advance, you are held in suspense by the sheer horror of her ordeal. Seventeen-year-old Kassindja fled her native Togo the night before her circumcision and arranged marriage were to take place. Still in her wedding clothes, with only $3,000 of her sister's money, a fake passport, and the covert guidance of a refugee smuggler, she flew to D¿sseldorf, Germany. There she befriended a German woman in the airport lounge and went home with her. Within a few weeks, she met a young Nigerian who offered her yet another passport and ticket, this time to Newark, N.J., where she had family and felt sure she could find refuge from the mutilation and possible death that awaited her back in Togo. Instead, she found herself in Esmor prison in Elizabeth, N.J., and, over the course of nearly two years, a series of similar jails where abuse, humiliation, malnutrition, filth, and human rights violations were the norm. In deceptively plain English, rich with fear, pain, and unflinching detail, Kassindja, a devout Muslim, takes the reader on an unforgettable religious pilgrimage into the many-tiered Inferno of the INS penal system. Through the Herculean efforts of a devoted legal team who took her case pro bono (one lawyer, Bashir, is her coauthor), Kassindja was finally granted asylum on appeal, and now resides in Arlington, Va. Readers will find themselves testing their naivetß by how many times they stop to remind themselves that this story takes place in the mid-1990s in America. A Midnight Express in New Jersey--this book will make one by turns, angry, afraid, and ashamed of one's complacency. --Kirkus Reviews

The Haunted Life

"In late 1944, under rather mysterious circumstances, aspiring writer Jack Kerouac lost a novella-length manuscript titled The Haunted Life. Set in Galloway, a fictionalized version of Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, the coming-of-age story of Peter Martin-a character based on the author's recently departed friend Sebastian Sampas-tackles the pressing issues of the day. At home in the working-class town the summer before his sophomore year at Boston College, Peter finds himself conflicted. Like many Americans, Peter is unsure, suspended between the economic crisis of the previous decade and the impending US entry into World War II. In The Haunted Life, Peter struggles to define what he believes to be intellectually true and worthy of his life and talents. Skillfully edited by Todd F. Tietchen, assistant professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell,The Haunted Life is rounded out by sketches, notes, and reflections Kerouac kept during the novella's composition as well as a revealing selection of correspondence with his father, Leo. "-- Provided by publisher.