Experiments with a mirror, positive psychology and a convoluted detective story: the books "The Way of Blood" and "Nimble People" were published in October

Highlights: Experiments with a mirror, positive psychology and a convoluted detective story: the books "The Way of Blood" and "Nimble People" were published in October. In October, a new detective story about an FBI agent investigating mysterious murders in Savannah, Georgia, was released. American writer Ruth Ozeki, an American writer of Japanese descent and author of the bestseller My Fish Will Live, conducted an unusual experiment: she sat in front of a mirror and looked at her face for three hours.

In October, a new detective story by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child called "The Way of Blood" about an FBI agent investigating mysterious murders in Savannah, the novel "House of Lights" by Donato Carrisi, as well as the work of the American writer Ruth Ozeki, "The Time Code of the Face", for which the author looked at herself in a mirror for three hours, was released. Among other things, Anna Luzhbina's collection of short stories "Nimble People", historian Francis Vanes's book "The Turbulent 16th Century: Habsburgs, Witches, Heretics, Bloody Rebellions" and a social study on the influence of "positive psychology" on people's consciousness - "The Factory of Happy Citizens. How the Happiness Industry Controls Our Lives."

The Way of Blood, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child (ABC-Atticus)

In the new detective novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast, his partner Armstrong Coldmoon and intern Constance will have to investigate a complicated case related to the appearance of bloodless bodies in Savannah, Georgia.

The agent gradually unravels the tangle of events and finds a connection between the victims and an unsolved case from half a century ago - in 1971, a certain D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane that was en route from Portland to Seattle. He threatened to kill all the passengers and crew with a bomb, but after receiving the sum of $200,<>, he parachuted into the unknown, never to be seen again.

Pendergast and his team scrutinize both cases, discover the thread that connects the cases, and find an extraterrestrial evil that is almost impossible to defeat.

The novel "The Way of Blood" is part of the Agent Pendergast series, and Douglas Preston is the author of more than 20 NewYork Times bestsellers, some of which he co-wrote with Lincoln Child. Their novel The Reliquary became the basis for Peter Hyams' horror film Relic (1997).

"He pressed a button, and footage of Paul's Steadicam appeared on the screen with police officers inspecting the crime scene among abandoned graves.

Batts stopped the video.

"Here. See, behind them, behind those bushes? I've been there. You can't see well, but there are still graves farther away. And a mausoleum with a door ajar. It's hard to say exactly, but it looks like it flew off its hinges. Maybe we'll be able to get in there and shoot the inside.

"I see.

"Good. That's where we're going to shoot. We'll bring spotlights with filters, a smoke machine and do everything right. Let's see if we can spot some other evil spirits, that is, real evil like vampires... If you know what I'm getting at.

Mueller's face darkened even further.

"But the young man was not attacked among these bushy tombs. And I recorded powerful supernatural manifestations in the wrong place either.

"It doesn't matter. I mean, it's important, of course, but... Holy saints, this is a cemetery! It's full of spirits, right? And we need a good backdrop for an abandoned cemetery after sunset. Gannon turns on the generator and blows up the fog. In low oblique light, everything will look cool. Isn't that right, Gannon?

"Exactly.

"Well, what do you say, Gerhard?"

"I'll try." When are you going to go there?

"When?" As soon as the sun goes down, of course."

The Way of Blood, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
© Azbuka-Atticus Publishing Group

"Face Timecode" by Ruth Ozeki (ACT)

Ruth Ozeki, an American writer of Japanese descent and author of the bestseller My Fish Will Live, conducted an unusual experiment: she sat in front of a mirror and looked at her face for three hours, while writing down the thoughts that came to her mind. In this way, the author of the book tried to re-realize herself and see what kind of person she had become.

As she watched herself, Ruth Ozeki reflected on the flaws and virtues of her appearance and lost herself in memories. For example, the author shares with readers his thoughts on childhood, first love, roots and ancestors, love for Shakespeare, publicity, and much more.

By the end of the book, the writer realizes her "true face" and appears to herself and the reader as she is — a person shaped by life circumstances, experiences, and environment.

The inspiration for this unusual work was the Buddhist koan "What Is Your True Face?" and the observation experiment described in the article "The Power of Patience" by Harvard professor of art history and literature Jennifer L. Roberts. Each year, Roberts gave the students the following task: to spend at least three hours in the museum looking at just one work of art, and then to write a report of what they saw with personal assumptions and observations.

"My mother was humorous, but she made such dry and ironic jokes that it was often difficult to understand whether she was joking or not. Especially towards the end of her life, when she had less reason for humor. She had Alzheimer's disease, but despite this, her mother managed to joke. When we went out for a walk or on business, she would sometimes stop at the mirror in the store, in the restaurant, or in the doctor's office, look at it for a long time, and then ask me, "Who is this old woman?"

The first time she did this, I thought she was having an Alzheimer's attack, so I took a deep breath, suppressed my own panic attack, and explained as gently and comfortingly as I could:

"It's you, Mom.

"No! She said, shaking her head. "I've never seen this woman before.

She narrowed her eyes, staring at her reflection, then our eyes met in the mirror, and I knew it wasn't dementia that spoke. Mom was well aware that she was looking at herself in the mirror, but she did not recognize herself. Both were true. Now I understand what it's like, and it's getting clearer over the years."

"Face Timecode" by Ruth Ozeki
© AST

House of Lights, Donato Carrisi (ABC-Atticus)

The new novel by Italian writer Donato Carrisi is a sequel to the books "House of Voices" and "House Without Memories" about the Florentine hypnotist and psychologist Pietro Gerbera, who specializes in working with traumatized children.

This time, Pietro's patient is ten-year-old Eva. The girl lives in a mansion on the hill with a nanny Maya and a housekeeper. Eva has an imaginary friend, the presence of which worries the young nanny - she turns to Gerber for help, and he takes up the case, despite the fact that he himself is not in the best state of mind. As he talks to Eva, Pietro discovers a frightening fact: it turns out that the patient's non-existent friend knows too much about the doctor from somewhere.

Donato Carrisi's books are published in more than 20 countries around the world. The author is widely known for his detective stories "The Girl in the Fog", "The Girl in the Labyrinth" and "The Prompter".

"Banishing imaginary friends is not my specialty," Gerber said, holding on to the still-open door. "But tomorrow I'll stop by to see Eva."

At first the girl was glad of this unexpected turn, but at once she grew gloomy.

"I must warn you," she began, "that the imaginary friend does not like novelty: if anything goes wrong with him, he takes revenge on Eva, and I see new bruises on her body.

It won't be easy, the psychologist thought. But he reassured Maya.

"He's only a kid, after all," he said with a smile. "And children are my specialty.

Before the taxi left, they agreed to meet the next afternoon.

Maya rummaged through the pockets of her blue jacket and pulled out Eva's letter, which she had been trying to hand to the doctor as she left his office a few hours earlier.

"Though it wasn't written for you, Dr. Gerber, I think you deserve the right to read it.

Forgetting the fiction with which Maya had tried to flatter him, Gerber accepted the gift of a battered envelope. For a long time I looked after the departing taxi, hoping that I had made the right choice. Before continuing on my way home, I decided to open the envelope. He expected to see a picture or a touching letter with grammatical errors, a letter of this kind he had received many times before.

But there was a single word written on the sheet of paper that instantly sucked him into the past. That word had been waiting for him for 25 years.

Arimo."

House of Lights by Donato Carrisi

Nimble People, Anna Luzhbina (AST)

Novelist and psychologist Anna Luzhbina, with special attention to all living creatures, has written a collection of stories about people whom the reader may see every day, but does not notice. About people without sparkling ambitions, dreams of multimillion-dollar earnings and a high position, about those who are in search of themselves and move towards happiness in small steps.

The collection contains more than 20 stories about such characters as the homeless Yegorych, who loves to watch birds and lives in a manhole, the cook Roma, who after a divorce brings up a step-child child, the girl Varya, who got into a car with strangers, and many others.

There are no positive or negative characters in the book. Her characters, like people in the real world, can be disingenuous, make mistakes, disobey, but at the same time make bird feeders, take care of children, and believe that animals have more souls than humans.

Anna Luzhbina is a finalist for the Lyceum Award (2023), and "Nimble People" is her first book. Prior to that, she was published in such magazines as "Friendship of Peoples", "Znamya", "Etazhi", "Novy Mir".

"The stars in the sky are emptiness, timelessness. In the distance there are a few lights-windows, long shadows of low houses, under your feet there is dirt, mobile and alive. Horses with braided tails, sheep, goats, light men, unarmed people walk slowly around. There is nothing else to go on. Among the voices of people and animals, the Kozubai River is noisy. It smells of wet stones, melted snow, fish scales. In the mountains, it is summer during the day and winter at night. The place for a tent is too crowded, therefore dangerous. The deer goes to the river, collects ice water, sees someone's porch nearby and sits down on the steps. Everything is black, he grabs this blackness with his hand: a frozen bucket, fishing rods, a hardened net. Apparently, it's a fisherman's house."

Nimble People, Anna Luzhbina
© AST

The Turbulent Sixteenth Century: Habsburgs, Witches, Heretics, Bloody Rebellions, by Francis Vanes (ABC-Atticus)

Historian Francis Vanes wrote a book about the turning point of the 16th century in Europe, when the Middle Ages with witch hunts and certain cultural traditions were replaced by the Reformation with bloodshed, and then the Modern Age came and brought discoveries in the field of science and many changes.

According to the author of the book, this century is considered to be the transition to the Age of Enlightenment, which laid the foundation for the modern worldview - to look forward, not back.

The work is divided into ten main parts: "The End of the Duchy", "The Summer King", "Austere Beauty", "The Age of Great Changes", "Imperator Romanum", "The Hunt for Heretics", "The Great Emperor", "The Prince Without Land, the Count Without a Head", "The Escape from Antwerp", "The Devil and His Friends".

Each of the parts includes several chapters, in which the writer vividly and literarily immerses the reader in the events of the times of Charles V, the great artists and the Inquisition. Veins focuses on both famous historical figures and ordinary people, making it possible to see the picture of what was once happening from different angles.

"The sale of counterfeit relics, the zealous fornication of the clergy, the thousands of illegitimate children of Catholic priests, and the papal paled in comparison to the frenzied trade in indulgences. According to church teaching, anyone who violated the moral principles established by the church was committing a sin. The sinning flock went to the priest for repentance, who could absolve them of their sins and release them from atonement for their guilt or assign punishment to atone for their guilt. For example, it was possible to atone for one's guilt by taking part in a crusade or donating to the construction of a chapel or church. The document of absolution of sins was called an indulgence. In 1476, Pope Pius IV developed a real business model for the trade in indulgences. From that point on, believers were encouraged to buy indulgences to atone for the sins of both living and deceased Christians.

The acquisition of an indulgence served as a guarantee of shortening the period of atonement for sins in purgatory, the place of temporary residence of the soul before it entered paradise. Buyers of full (and therefore more expensive) indulgences could expect to get right where they needed to go."

"The Turbulent Sixteenth Century: Habsburgs, Witches, Heretics, Bloody Rebellions" by Francis Waynes

"Factory of Happy Citizens. How the Happiness Industry Controls Our Lives, by Eva Illuz, Edgar Cabanas (ACT)

This book is not a motivational manual, but a social study on how the phenomenon of "positive psychology" affects corporations, political doctrines, and social institutions. As Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Alexander Pavlov writes in the "Preface", the authors of the book describe a sober view of the phrases "do not be sad" or "be happy". Picking up the book, the reader learns exactly how the concept of "positive psychology" appeared and how it became a form of mind control.

The scientific work was written by Eva Illuz and Edgar Cabanas. Illouz is the director of research at EHESS in Paris and a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In recent years, her works have been actively translated into Russian. Edgar Cabanas is a Research Fellow in Talent Studies at Camilo Hoche Sela University and is also co-editor of the Routledge Publishing Series.

"There is no doubt that happiness is a highly political concept today, and it has been so in Anglo-Saxon cultures since at least the early modern period. This is confirmed by both happiness economists and positive psychologists, who believe that happiness has political, economic, and social consequences. As Ashley Frawley has argued, nearly forty percent of the work of positive psychologists contains conclusions that influence policy responses. However, they are reluctant to acknowledge that there may be political and cultural underpinnings to the research and implementation of happiness: there may be ideological agendas as well as cultural biases behind the scientific study of happiness and its political, economic, and social applications. Happiness researchers try to avoid any cultural, historical, or ideological questioning by adhering to the science/values dichotomy and insisting that the scientific approach does not allow their definition of a happy person to be burdened with moral principles, ethical precepts, and ideological values. Yet this is in stark contrast to the close connection that happiness maintains with the basic individualistic assumptions and ethical demands that characterize neoliberal ideology."

"Factory of Happy Citizens. How the Happiness Industry Controls Our Lives, by Eva Illouze, Edgar Cabanas
© AST