Erik Spiekermann

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A novel of sensational literary and psychological suspense from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged high school friends in a vibrantly fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles as a serial killer strikes across the city “A thrilling page turner from Ellis, who revisits the world that made him a literary star with a stylish scary new story that doesn't disappoint.” –Town & Country Bret Easton Ellis’s masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalized Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city. Seventeen-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with the Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them—and Bret in particular—with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friends—or his own mind—to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, he spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between the Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision. Set against the intensely vivid and nostalgic backdrop of pre-Less Than Zero L.A., The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction, the real and the imagined, that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret’s life at seventeen—sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting, and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best.

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical questions about how we approach the biggest urban problem, reflecting on the apparent successes of Dutch cities. Making our communities safer, cleaner, and greener starts with asking the fundamental question: who do our streets belong to? Although there have been experiments in decreasing traffic in city centres, and an increase in bike-friendly infrastructure in the UK, there is still a long way to go. In this enlightening and provocative book, Thalia Verkade and Marco te Brömmelstroet confront their own underlying beliefs and challenge us to rethink our ideas about transport to put people at the centre of urban design.

Combining a wide-ranging discussion of the major issues of design with detailed and practical information, Norman Potter looks at the possibilities and limits of design, considers the designer as artisan and as artist, and asks: "What is good design?"What is a Designer prompts its readers to think and act for themselves. The work adds up to a powerful and endlessly rewarding resource for students of all ages. First published in 1969, the book is now reissued to present the enduring core of Potter's arguments. An afterword by Robin Kinross sets the work andits author in their contexts.

This years submissions for The Best Dutch Book Designs were of a high standard. The jurys selections reflect some clear trends, such as intensive crowdfunding, designers who have also taken on publishing, and the shift away from reading to a culture based on images. Designed by Studio Rob van Hoesel, this detailed review of the 33 finalists offers a special tribute to the printed form, with subjects ranging from salamanders and urban and spatial analyses, to artists books and a fairy tale-like adventure. Among them are books by Marjan Teeuwen, Anne Geene & Arjan de Nooy, Henk Wildschut, Gorilla Collective, Natasha Ginwala, Willem van Zoetendaal, and more.

Read in an afternoon. Remember for a lifetime. In his acclaimed new bestseller, now in paperback, James Hawes tells the story of Europe's most admired and feared country, from Julius Caesar to Angela Merkel. With more than 100 maps and images, this is a fresh, concise and entertaining attempt to answer the question: are the Germans really us, or them?