Americanon Author Jess McHugh asks “Who gets to tell the American Story?”

By: Jess McHugh   Who gets to tell the American story?   That was the question that preoccupied me in the years of researching and writing Americanon. I was fascinated by the ways in which commonplace books, owned by millions of Americans—from almanacs to primers to cookbooks—shaped and reshaped American identity over generations of reading.

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Now Available: Updated Educator Guides for Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

Kabul-born novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, is known for his evocative storytelling deeply rooted in Afghanistan’s history and culture. Like so many of us, he watched Afghanistan fall to the Taliban with profound sadness. In the wake of these events, Penguin Random House has updated the educator’s guides for Hosseini’s

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Carolyn Forché is awarded the American Book Award for In the Lateness of the World

Carolyn Forché is being awarded the American Book Award for In the Lateness of the World, a tenebrous book of crossings, of migrations across oceans and borders but also between the present and the past, life and death. The world here seems to be steadily vanishing, but in the moments before the uncertain end, an illumination

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Unlock the Key to Empowering Teams in Work That Counts: Breaking Down the Barriers to Extraordinary Results

One of Silicon Valley’s top leadership trainers distills his proven framework that has empowered teams at the world’s most innovative companies—from Google and Facebook to Cisco Systems and biotech giant Genentech/Roche—to do the best work of their lives.     Richard Lee has worked with thousands of ambitious leaders and their teams, and has found

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A Monthly Update from Penguin Classics

Because what you read matters.   Subscribe to the Penguin Classics Newsletter here.   Meet February’s winter chill with the warmth of reading new Classics this month. Discover our first Penguin Classic with the world-leading cultural institution, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, to celebrate Black History Month; our new one-volume translation of China’s

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THE FRIEND wins the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction

We celebrate THE FRIEND by Sigrid Nunez, published by Riverhead, chosen by the panel of five judges from 368 submissions, as the recipient of the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction, announced Wednesday evening, November 14, at the annual National Book Foundation dinner in downtown Manhattan. Sigrid Nunez’s previous literary honors include a Whiting Writer’s Award, and

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Penguin Random House Fiction Finalists for the 2018 National Book Awards

Presenting the five finalists for the 2018 National Book Awards published by Penguin Random House     Fiction: FLORIDA by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books, Penguin Audio) THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking Books, Penguin Audio) THE FRIEND by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead Books, Penguin Audio) Poetry: AMERICAN SONNETS FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books) Translated Literature: FLIGHTS by Olga Tokarczuk,

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Shane Bauer Tackles the Private Prison Industry in AMERICAN PRISON

In 2014, investigative journalist Shane Bauer took an entry-level, $9/hour job as a guard at Winn Correctional Facility, a private prison in rural Louisiana. For the next four months, he reported for work outfitted with a hidden recording device, ready to capture the reality of life in private prisons for guards and inmates alike. For

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National Book Awards Longlist

  Congratulations to our Penguin Random House authors and their publishing teams who have been chosen by the respective category judges as “longlisted” semi-finalists–including five of the ten Fiction titles–for the 2018 National Book Awards.     Wednesday, October 10: The “shortlist” of five finalists per category will be announced. Wednesday, November 14: The five winners

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