"[An] engrossing study, told mainly by the subjects themselves... a valuable addition to POW literature and unique for its positive view of wartime captivity." —Publishers Weekly "Lieblich has skillfully integrated oral histories to produce a compelling story." —Library Journal "The minutes of the meetings recorded hereby are an excerpt of the lives of ten men, who had spent all their days and nights together. Each one observed the other in his grief and joy.Each one, according to his ability and sensitivity, saw it as his duty to contribute to the general welfare, to save our boat from sinking....In fact, we managed to keep afloat most of the time, and if we erred here or there, at least we had the best intentions." —From a secret collective diary kept by ten POWs A national bestseller when it first appeared in Israel, Seasons of Captivity is a story of human survival and hope that documents the experience of ten Israeli prisoners of war who shared a single jail cell in Egypt for more than three years. The engrossing chronicle of the prisoners' ordeal is told in their own words—from their capture in 1969, through six months of interrogation, torture, and isolation, to their movement to a common room. A watershed event, their transfer to shared living quarters enabled them to forge a community and an almost utopian social system. They held weekly meetings, kept a common diary, started study classes, and, among other projects, translated The Hobbit into Hebrew. The narrative goes on to describe the re-entry of the POWs into family and social roles upon their release and return to Israel in 1973. An exploration of the personal impact of the experience on the wives of the married prisoners introduces the women's own stories of separation and reunion. Some of them had suddenly found themselves, in effect, single mothers—yet their husbands were alive. Their husbands found stronger, more independent women in place of the traditional ones they had left behind. One of the women remarks, I thought [my husband] had been angry at me, in part unconsciously, for being so strong and competent in his absence...I had managed, well, almost effortlessly. This dramatic and moving account illustrates the resilience of the human spirit in the face of the most dehumanizing circumstances.

Are you longing to hear from God, aching to know who He really is? The beautiful truth is this—we can encounter the living God today and every day in the pages of His Word. Whether you are a seasoned Bible reader or struggle to keep up with studying Scripture, Open Your Bible will leave you with a greater appreciation for the Word of God, a deeper understanding of its authority, and a stronger desire to know the Bible inside and out. Using powerful storytelling, real-life examples, and scripture itself, Open Your Bible will quench a thirst you might not even know you have, one that can only be satisfied by God's Word.

Microdoses of the straight dope, stories so true they had to be wrapped in fiction for our own protection, from the best-selling author of But What if We're Wrong? A man flying first class discovers a puma in the lavatory. A new coach of a small-town Oklahoma high school football team installs an offense comprised of only one, very special, play. A man explains to the police why he told the employee of his local bodega that his colleague looked like the lead singer of Depeche Mode, a statement that may or may not have led in some way to a violent crime. A college professor discusses with his friend his difficulties with the new generation of students. An obscure power pop band wrestles with its new-found fame when its song "Blizzard of Summer" becomes an anthem for white supremacists. A couple considers getting a medical procedure that will transfer the pain of childbirth from the woman to her husband. A woman interviews a hit man about killing her husband but is shocked by the method he proposes. A man is recruited to join a secret government research team investigating why coin flips are no longer exactly 50/50. A man sees a whale struck by lightning, and knows that everything about his life has to change. A lawyer grapples with the unintended side effects of a veterinarian's rabies vaccination. Fair warning: Raised in Captivity does not slot into a smooth preexisting groove. If Saul Steinberg and Italo Calvino had adopted a child from a Romanian orphanage and raised him on Gary Larsen and Thomas Bernhard, he would still be nothing like Chuck Klosterman. They might be good company, though. Funny, wise and weird in equal measure, Raised in Captivity bids fair to be one of the most original and exciting story collections in recent memory, a fever graph of our deepest unvoiced hopes, fears and preoccupations. Ceaselessly inventive, hostile to corniness in all its forms, and mean only to the things that really deserve it, it marks a cosmic leap forward for one of our most consistently interesting writers.