{"title":"Ze Books","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-sterns-are-listening-a-raucous-novel-of-family-dramas-losses-and-rock-roll","title":"The Sterns Are Listening: A Raucous Novel of Family Dramas, Losses, and Rock \u0026 Roll","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom acclaimed poet and memoirist Jonathan Wells comes a raucous and aching New York novel about family derangement, Boomer laments and youthful revolt, rock and roll, and the sacrifices we make for what we love.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBenjamin and Dita Stern are seasoned New Yorkers whose life in the pre-war, Upper East Side building Benjamin’s grandfather built has settled into stasis―two children no longer at home, professional lives never fully realized. Then Benjamin's brash younger brother Spence, founder and CEO of the hearing aid company Belphonics, asks him to collaborate on a new product line inspired by the brothers' rock-and-roll youth at CBGB's―the club where, Spence believes, his hearing was permanently damaged. If the idea works, it might salvage Benjamin and Dita's tenuous financial position. Yet they both know that getting involved in Spence's schemes comes at a high price.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat same evening, with the Sterns’ daughter Alessandra over for dinner, Benjamin’s news is upstaged by the startling appearance of their son, Giorgio, whose violent adolescent behavior resulted in his being sent away for most of high school. Now seventeen, he is adrift and still a very troubled young man. As Benjamin and Dita reckon with their parental choices, Giorgio takes the reins of his own story, and we learn not only that his name is not, in fact, Giorgio, but also the extent to which all the Sterns share some measure of responsibility for his plight.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA funny and deeply felt debut novel from poet and memoirist Jonathan Wells, The Sterns Are Listening explores a family on the verge of both collapse and regeneration. Brimming with affection for its troubled characters and the troubled city they call home, the novel traces a courageous path to the deeply uncomfortable heart of the matter, one that just might lead to redemption.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ze Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardback | Signed Copy - 2167180","offer_id":50431242109259,"sku":"2167180","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Hardback - 2167181","offer_id":50431242207563,"sku":"2167181","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/81NvKIbUZyL._SY522__ecf148ac_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726856933"},{"product_id":"twist-an-american-girl","title":"Twist: An American Girl","description":"\u003cp\u003e In frank prose without an ounce of self-pity, Twist is an episodic survival of the fittest, navigating the crooked rivers of poverty, race, sexuality, and gender.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e It is a world of little girl gangsters, drag queen solidarity, wild roller-skating, and magical thinking. With Twist, Bertei gives us a story of violence and madness, of heartbreak and perseverance, and redemption.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough the eyes of her alter ego Maddie Twist, Adele Bertei threads together the tapestry of an extraordinary, troubled childhood in the 60s and 70s. It begins with her beautiful mother, whose delusions of grandeur bring both wonders and horrors to the Bertei home. It is her undiagnosed schizophrenia that eventually leads to the removal of her children, and the beginning of young Maddie’s wild journey. By her middle school years, Maddie Twist has moved through several foster homes and reformatories. With each new posting, she discovers sanctuary amongst her peers—outcast girls—while gaining belief in her identity, and unwavering trust in her own voice. As she ages out of the system and finds herself navigating the world alone, Maddie’s only constant is a ribbon of music that weaves itself around her heart. She can sing, and she is certain it will be the beacon that guides her towards another life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdele Bertei's music career began in Cleveland with Peter Laughner of Pere Ubu. She entered New York's downtown scene of the late 1970s as an organist for the Contortions and went on to form the Bloods, the first out, queer, all women-rock band. Bertei has appeared in several indie films, most notably Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames and The Offenders. As a singer\/songwriter, she has toured with, written songs for, and recorded as a backup vocalist for a diverse group of artists including Tears for Fears, Thomas Dolby, Sandra Bernhard, Culture Club, Scritti Politti, Whitney Houston, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Sheena Easton, Oleta Adams, Lydia Lunch, the Pointer Sisters, Matthew Sweet, and Sophie B. Hawkins. Bertei charted top twenty internationally with featured leads on Thomas Dolby's \"Hyperactive!\" and Jellybean's \"Just a Mirage.\" Berteiis the author of Peter and the Wolves, a short memoir of her rock and roll education.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ze Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardback | Signed Copy","offer_id":50486216524107,"sku":"2019285","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":50486216098123,"sku":"2019278","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/41xpehGWF6L._SX322_BO1204203200__7d71460a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727606651"},{"product_id":"how-to-prepare-for-the-past-travels-in-music-and-time","title":"How To Prepare for the Past: Travels In Music and Time","description":"\u003cdiv data-expanded=\"true\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content a-expander-content-expanded\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eWriter and musician Brian Cullman’s rapturous evocation of life in the bike lane, before the world was digital, when music was everything and magic was everywhere, encompassing friendships with Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, Tim Hardin, and Paul Bowles.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen people asked Brian Cullman his favourite song, he would say the radio. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt was all one sound. It was all one song: the drums and the words, the words without words, the rhythm and the static and the joy and amplified tears. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTV was a clunky box in the corner, nothing but images on a screen telling the same story over and over. The stories were old and small, over before they began. Yesterday’s gossip and twice cold toast. They gave him nothing. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut Smokey Robinson crying like a flower with a hangover, The Ronettes, so carnivorous \u0026amp; tender, the sound of eternity in bed with the night: this was love and death and a ticket to places the buses don’t go. These were the dreams of the dead, the regrets of the living, stolen prayers from the broken church where God \u0026amp; The Devil relax after work and trade places. He went to sleep to it, woke up to it. The idiot announcers and jingles and calls from New Jersey, the news and guitars, all one. He wanted to walk in it, dance in it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-header a-expander-partial-collapse-header\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ze Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57100860096843,"sku":"R3800-5932","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/81abUgyV_wL._SY522.jpg?v=1776951512"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/ze-books.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}