A teenage girl finds unexpected sexual freedom on a trip to Amsterdam. A woman trapped at a dinner party comes up against an ugly obsession. The stories in Free Love are about desire, memory, sexual ambiguity and the imagination. In the harsh light of dislocation, the people in them still find connections, words blowing in the street, love in unexpected places. Ali Smith shows how things come together and how they break apart. She disconcerts and affirms with the lightest touch, to make us love and live differently.

Tibor Déry (1894-1977), winner of Hungary's highest artistic honor, the Kossuth Prize, in 1948, was first imprisoned in 1934 by the Horthy regime for translating André Gide's diary of his journey to Russia, and again, over twenty years later, for his writings and political activities during the Hungarian Revolt of 1956 against Soviet occupation. Around the world, Tibor Déry Committees formed: Picasso, Camus, Sartre, Bertrand Russel, E.M. Forster, and in the Indian Congress Committee were among the many involved. Today, Tibor Déry is venerated as one of the most important literary figures of Hungary and, like Chekhov, a master of the modern short story. Love and Other Stories presents some of Déry's finest work. In "Games of the Underworld," ordinary people in Budapest try to survive the winter of war in cramped cellars and encounter menacing Arrow-Cross men, a towering giant, a blind horse, a vinegar sponge; in "The Circus," a group of bored children transmogrifies into a grotesque spectacle; in "Love," a political prisoner is released after seven years and returns home to his wife and son. George Szirtes, the award-winning translator from the Hungarian and winner of the 2004 T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry, gives a brilliant introduction to this visionary collection that deals passionately with questions of responsibility and conscience, of social justice and renewal.

Now in trade paperback, this fantastic collection features the origin of Harley Quinn, co-starring The Joker and Poison Ivy. Also included are tales starring The Scarecrow, Ra's al Ghul, Mr. Freeze and Batgirl from BATMAN ADVENTURES ANNUAL #1-2, BATMAN ADVENTURES HOLIDAY SPECIAL, ADVENTURES IN THE DC UNIVERSE #3 and BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE #1.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes a confection from David Levithan that is sure to have fans of Boy Meets Boy eager to devour it. Here are 18 stories, all about love, all kinds of love. From the aching for the one you pine for, to standing up and speaking up for the one you love, to pure joy and happiness, these love stories run the gamut of that emotion that at some point has turned every one of us inside out and upside down. What is love? With this original story collection, David Levithan proves that love is a many splendored thing, a varied, complicated, addictive, wonderful thing.

Like the author of this remarkable collection of thirteen linked stories, the protagonist, Nadia, was born and raised in Egypt, educated in England, and immigrated to the United States. Samia Serageldin draws her characters out with subtlety and control, moving from the narrator’s grandmother’s garden house in Cairo to the suburbs of North Carolina, yielding powerful portraits of cultural dislocation, faith, and multigenerational conflicts. As the narratives shift in time and place, they unfold through memory. In "The Zawiya," Nadia reflects on the change in women’s space from the coiffeur’s salon to a religious pulpit as she revisits a childhood ritual. In the title story, Nadia offers a vivid sketch of her grandmother Nanou, "a force of nature" who, as an early widow, single-handedly raised six children and ran the household. At a time when few women experienced such independence, Nanou had a potent influence on the young narrator. Told with compassion and clarity, Serageldin’s stories reveal one woman’s exploration of identity, finding it in both the sweeping backdrop of Egyptian history and the quotidian exchanges with friends and family.

Collection of short stories concerning the nature of love: love in its differing forms and vision; in its differing participants and their differing approaches.