Jonathan Miles

It has been a hotbed of war and revolution, a place of siege and starvation, and the crucible for Lenin and Stalin's power-hungry brutality.In St Petersburg, Jonathan Miles recreates the drama of three hundred years in this absurd and brilliant city, bringing us up to the present day, when - once more - its fate hangs in the balance.

Eradication is a blackly comic literary gem in which a broken man confronts a broken world on a remote Pacific island.Reeling from tragedy, a former jazz musician-turned-schoolteacher named Adi answers a job listing advertising a chance to save the world. The assignment: to spend five weeks alone on the tiny, isolated Pacific Island of Santa Flora and reckon with its invasive population of goats that's sent the ecological balance severely out of whack, and in doing so preserve the countless bird and plant species from certain extinction.What follows, however, is anything but balanced. The threats to the once-Edenic island, Adi soon learns, aren't exactly what his employers said they were - and, complicating things further, he discovers he's not alone on the island. Fearful for his own life, and for the fate of the island's, Adi spends his sun-drenched days rooting out the true threat to Santa Flora, and, by extension, to the world it occupies - and the desperate steps he must take to eradicate it.A desert-island meditation on the contours of love and grief and solitude as well as jolt to your emotional core, Eradication is an utterly unforgettable reading experience, a narrative tour de force, and the work of a truly singular imagination.

From acclaimed author Jonathan Miles ("a writer so virtuosic that readers will feel themselves becoming better, more observant people from reading him"--LA Times) comes a blackly comic literary gem in which a broken man confronts a broken world on an uninhabited Pacific island. Reeling from tragedy, a former jazz musician-turned-schoolteacher named Adi answers a job listing advertising a chance to save the world. The assignment: to spend five weeks alone on the tiny, isolated Pacific Island of Santa Flora righting an ecological balance that's gone severely out of whack, with the aim of preserving countless bird and plant species from certain extinction. What follows, however, is anything but balanced. The threats to the once-Edenic island, Adi soon learns, aren't exactly what his employers said they were--and, complicating things further, he discovers he's not alone on the island. Fearful for his own life, and for the fate of the island's, Adi spends his sun-drenched days rooting out the true threat to Santa Flora, and, by extension, to the world it occupies--and the desperate steps he must take to eradicate it. A desert-island meditation on the contours of love and grief and solitude as well as jolt to your emotional core, Eradication is an utterly unforgettable reading experience, a narrative tour de force, and the work of a truly singular imagination. With this fourth work of fiction, Jonathan Miles, "a fluid, confident, and profoundly talented writer" (Dave Eggers) has truly come into his own.

"Larry Brown wrote the way the best singers sing: with honesty, grit, and the kind of raw emotion that stabs you right in the heart. He was a singular American treasure." —Tim McGrawA career-spanning collection, Tiny Love brings together for the first time the stories of Larry Brown’s previous collections along with those never before gathered. The self-taught Brown has long had a cult following, and this collection comes with an intimate and heartfelt appreciation by novelist Jonathan Miles. We see Brown's early forays into genre fiction and the horror story, then develop his fictional gaze closer to home, on the people and landscapes of Lafayette County, Mississippi. And what’s astonishing here is the odyssey these stories chart: Brown’s self-education as a writer and the incredible artistic journey he navigated from “Plant Growin’ Problems” to “A Roadside Resurrection.” This is the whole of Larry Brown, the arc laid bare, both an amazing story collection and the fullest portrait we’ll see of one of the South’s most singular artists.

A profound new novel about a paralyzed young man?s unexplainable recovery?a stunning exploration of faith, science, mystery, and the meaning of lifeRendered paraplegic after a traumatic event four years ago, Cameron Harris has been living his new existence alongside his sister, Tanya, in their battered Biloxi, Mississippi neighborhood where only half the houses made it through Katrina. One stiflingly hot August afternoon, as Cameron sits waiting for Tanya during their daily run to the Biz-E-Bee convenience store, he suddenly and inexplicably rises up and out of his wheelchair.In the aftermath of this ?miracle,? Cameron finds himself a celebrity at the center of a contentious debate about what?s taken place. And when scientists, journalists, and a Vatican investigator start digging, Cameron?s deepest secrets?the key to his injury, to his identity, and, in some eyes, to the nature of his recovery?become increasingly endangered. Was Cameron?s recovery a genuine miracle, or a medical breakthrough? And, finding himself transformed into a symbol, how can he hope to retain his humanity?Brilliantly written as closely observed journalistic reportage and filtered through a wide lens that encompasses the vibrant characters affected by Cameron?s story, Anatomy of a Miracle will be read, championed, and celebrated as a powerful story of our time, and the work of a true literary master.

Try the Wilderness First: Eric Gill & David Jones at Capel-y-Ffin is the story of controversial artist Eric Gill’s artistic and religious community in the Black Mountains of Wales during the 1920s, told through the character and work of Gill himself and poet and artist David Jones, two of Britain’s most significant twentieth century artists. In it Jonathan Miles offers a commentary on the radical Catholicism of Gill and on the community’s Arts and Crafts-style focus on the handmade at its home in a former monastery. Capel-y-ffin’s remoteness offered Gill time to develop his religious thinking and also to experiment sexually in a period in which he was intensely busy as an artist. For the sexually repressed Jones, on the other hand, it offered escape from his wartime experiences and a cultural homecoming which resulted in a productive period of painting and engraving. The personality and practice of both men was to be marked indelibly by their time there and in this new edition of his book Jonathan Miles, incorporates new images and new research into a page-turning and accessible narrative.

A New York Times Notable Book, Want Not offers funny and occasionally devastating "portraits of humanity...as beautifully mundane and unique as a fingerprint." (Entertainment Weekly)"Wonderful...the work of a fluid, confident and profoundly talented writer." --Dave Eggers A highly inventive and corrosively funny story of our times, Want Not exposes three different worlds in various states of disrepair--a young freegan couple living off the grid in New York City; a once-prominent linguist, sacked at midlife by the dissolution of his marriage and his father's losing battle with Alzheimer's; and a self-made debt-collecting magnate, whose brute talent for squeezing money out of unlikely places has yielded him a royal existence, trophy wife included. Want and desire propel these characters forward toward something, anything, more, until their worlds collide, briefly, randomly, yet irrevocably, in a shattering ending that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.

In June 1816, the Medusa, flagship of a French expedition to repossess the colony of Senegal from the British, set sail but ran aground off the desolate West African coast. This book presents the study of the Medusa tragedy.

'Spies should be glamorous - James Bond in a Savile Row suit rather than Harry Palmer in a grubby mac . . . In those terms, Otto Katz was perfect. He was a Hollywood playboy who hobnobbed with Fritz Lang, he inspired the character of Victor Laszlo in Casablanca, he was a drinking buddy of Bertolt Brecht and among his lovers he claimed Marlene Dietrich. He was even known to Nöel Coward' The TimesIf you were to imagine the perfect spy, you may well be picturing Otto Katz. He was charming, suave, and utterly ruthless. In the golden years of the spy game, from Hitler's rise to power, through the Second World War, and on into the Cold War, Otto Katz was at the centre of Russia's web of international intrigue. His fingerprints can be found on one world changing event after another.Using recently released FBI, MI5 and Czech files, Jonathan Miles has created an action-packed story of the life (or lives) of one of the world's most successful spies . At the same time he paints a vivid portrait of the shadow world that exists behind the headlines where the actions of a man like Katz can, and do, change the course of history.

Sometimes the planes don't fly on time. Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughter's wedding when his flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of O'Hare airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter. But what begins as a hilariously excoriating demand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, for years misspent, talent wasted, and happiness lost. A man both sinned against and sinning, Bennie writes in a voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit, heart-on-sleeve emotion, and wide-ranging erudition, underlined by a consistent groundnote of regret for the actions of a lifetime -- and made all the more urgent by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he might have a chance to do something right. A margarita blend of outrage, wicked humor, vulnerability, intelligence, and regret, Dear American Airlines gives new meaning to the term "airport novel" and announces the emergence of major new talent in American fiction.

This is an introductory book that provides students with the tools to master the basic principles of physics and chemistry needed by the aspiring technology professional. Like all the books in the critically acclaimed Preserving the Legacy series, each chapter is divided into subsections featuring learning objectives and a "Check Your Understanding" section to help students focus on important concepts. Questions requiring written and mathematical answers at the end of each chapter provide students with the opportunity to further demonstrate their understanding of the concepts. The only book available that specifically addresses the emerging need for a course to teach physics and chemistry principles to the growing number of students entering the various fields of technology, it offers a thorough grounding in foundational concepts along with "Technology" boxes that offer practical applications. Physical Science: What the Technology Professional Needs to Know features: *Crucial topics such as measuring systems, matter, energy, motion, electricity and magnetism, electromagnetic radiation, nuclear radiation and reactions, and chemical reactions and solutions *Integrated coverage linking specific concepts to everyday applications *An extensive glossary offering quick access to essential terminology *An accompanying laboratory manual with additional exercises to enhance learning With its comprehensive coverage and quick-reference format, Physical Science: What the Technology Professional Needs to Know is also a handy resource for any technology professional needing a quick refresher or useful working reference.