Dropping Ashes On the Buddha

‘somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha statue, blows smoke in its face, and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing…

Asia Hand

“Navigating Bangkok’s dark side streets and myriad underground cultures requires keen insight as well as the courage to look at corruption but see the hope that lies beneath. Vincent Calvino,…

Anthology of Japanese Literature

The sweep of Japanese literature in all its great variety was made available to Western readers for the first time in this anthology.

The Breaking of Nations

“Essentially an attempt to bridge the ideological divide between hard and soft power. Both, he suggests in this short, elegant collection of essays, are necessary in today’s messy world.” –The…

Eight Days at Yalta

Meticulously researched and vividly written, published on the 75th anniversary of the historic Yalta conference, Eight Days at Yalta is the definitive new history of the meeting that reordered the…

And the War Is Over

“[And the War Is Over] has the dramatic intensity of a kick in the guts. . . . [Marahimin’s] mastery of the universe he’s created is flawless.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer…

The Industrial Revolutionaries

“[An] engaging survey . . . Weightman expertly marshals his cast of characters across continents and centuries, forging a genuinely global history that brings the collaborative, if competitive, business of…

New Japanese Voices

“A happy marriage of contemporary Western culture with the traditional Japanese sensibility makes this story collection by young Japanese writers a worthwhile successor to a distinguished literary past.” –Kirkus Reviews…

Zen Poetry

Much Depends On Dinner

“Fascinating . . . Margaret Visser is a gifted informal writer, and these chapters combine a wealth of unusual information with extreme readability. . . . In short, Visser whetted…