The Japanese believe that until the age of three children, whether Japanese or not, are gods, each one an okosama, or "lord child." On their third birthday they fall from grace and join the rest of the human race. In Amelie Nothomb's new novel "The Character of Rain," we learn that divinity is a difficult thing from which to recover.

The Japanese believe that until the age of three, children are gods, each one a 'Lord Child'. On their third birthday they fall from grace and join the rest of humanity. Narrated by a child - from the age of two and a half up until her third birthday - this novel reveals that the move from deity to ordinary member of the human race can be a very difficult thing indeed from whic...(展开全部)

What is consciousness? How does the subjective character of consciousness fit into an objective world? How can there be a science of consciousness? In this sequel to his groundbreaking and controversial The Conscious Mind, David Chalmers develops a unified framework that addresses these questions and many others. Starting with a statement of the "hard problem" of consciousness...(展开全部)

What is consciousness? How does the subjective character of consciousness fit into an objective world? How can there be a science of consciousness? In this sequel to his groundbreaking and controversial The Conscious Mind, David Chalmers develops a unified framework that addresses these questions and many others. Starting with a statement of the "hard problem" of consciousness...(展开全部)

In these Messenger Lectures, originally delivered at Cornell University and recorded for television by the BBC, Richard Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common features into one broad principle of invariance. He maintains at the outset that the importance of a physical law is not "how clever we are to have found it out, but . . . how clever...(展开全部)

Mislabeled boxes, problems with visiting nurses, confusing notes, an outing to the county fair--such are the obstacles in the way of the unnamed narrator of "The End of the Story "as she attempts to organize her memories of a love affair into a novel. With compassion, wit, and what appears to be candor, she seeks to determine what she actually knows about herself and her past, ...(展开全部)

Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore's great-grandmother has di...(展开全部)

弗兰克·施茨廷（Frank Schätzing），1957年出生，在科隆过着多彩多姿的生活：广告公司的创意总监、作曲家、音乐制作人，同时也是热情的业余厨师和受过训练的潜水员。 1995年，施茨廷的首部小说《科隆911》即让他成为畅销书作家；2000年的政治惊悚小说《悄无 声息》则被媒体誉为“对这即将结束的世纪，所捕捉到的精彩瞬间”；2004年，《群》大放异彩，让施茨廷与迈克尔·克莱顿、丹·布朗等国际作家平起平坐，也让德国人首度学会了“海啸”这个词。无巧不成书，《群》出版后九个月，震惊世界的东南亚海啸发生，世人纷纷追问他如何能“预测”此事。《群》大获成功后，施茨廷利用写作时没用上的剩余五分之四资料，写出了《海：另一个未知的宇宙》，同样大卖。 《群》始于施茨廷数年前的梦境；而《群》的男主角西古尔·约翰逊，黄金单身汉、魅力中年型男、都会雅痞、无可救药的品味...(展开全部)

The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners—a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as we...(展开全部)

As a new age dawns in England s twelfth century, the building of a mighty Gothic cathedral sets the stage for a story of intrigue and power, revenge and betrayal.