You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe. But would you recognize a percontation point? How about an obelus? In ON THE MARK, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind. The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them.

You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe. But would you recognize a percontation point? How about an obelus? In ON THE MARK, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind. The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them.

A lively history of punctuation, from ancient times to the age of the emoji.

You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe. But would you recognize a percontation point? How about an obelus? In this irreverent and delightfully intellectual book, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind.

The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them.

From the papyruses of the ancient world to our sprawling internet ecosystem, one thing has remained constant: Punctuation is powerful. These tiny marks can move markets, shift elections, topple political systems, and decide the fate of a precious human life on death row.

Weaving together anthropology, the history of writing, the philosophy of language, psychology, literature and more, ON THE MARK masterfully proves that punctuation is at the heart of human communication.

Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken was born into a mining family in Hreodwater, a small, totally isolated salt town in the Fens of England. At age 16, he fled, abandoning his faith in the god of the mine --- the Salt King --- and the mythology that killed his whole family. When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent by the Vatican to investigate. But in Hreodwater, the town's gentle doctor, Jericho, tells him that the priest is not the only one experiencing strange cures --- and may not be the only one in danger from a substance in the mine that the locals call “salt light.” As salt light spreads, devastating cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what and who to believe --- and if his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.

Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken was born into a mining family in Hreodwater, a small, totally isolated salt town in the Fens of England. At age 16, he fled, abandoning his faith in the god of the mine --- the Salt King --- and the mythology that killed his whole family. When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent by the Vatican to investigate. But in Hreodwater, the town's gentle doctor, Jericho, tells him that the priest is not the only one experiencing strange cures --- and may not be the only one in danger from a substance in the mine that the locals call “salt light.” As salt light spreads, devastating cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what and who to believe --- and if his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.

An apocalyptic novel about belief, religion and the power of myth that blends the gripping, end-of-the-world storytelling of THE PASSAGE with the biting wit and epic queer romance that makes Natasha Pulley's books “delightful” (The Washington Post).

Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken was born into a mining family in Hreodwater, a small, totally isolated salt town in the Fens of England. At age 16, he fled, abandoning his faith in the god of the mine --- the Salt King --- and the mythology that killed his whole family.

When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent by the Vatican to investigate. But in Hreodwater, the town's gentle doctor, Jericho, tells him that the priest is not the only one experiencing strange cures --- and may not be the only one in danger from a substance in the mine that the locals call “salt light.”

Avelyn and Jericho team up to protect the world from the salt light --- but they already may be too late: strange happenings are occurring at mines all around the world. At an archaeological dig on the Dead Sea, electrical devices froth salt; at another salt mine in Russia, a KGB officer finds the bodies of five tourists who seem to have turned to salt; and at the huge salt works at Wieliczska in Poland, all communication is lost and rumors circulate of total annihilation.

As salt light spreads, devastating cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what and who to believe-and if his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.

Audiobook available, read by Luke R. Francis

A writer in her 30s struggling to make rent, Mary has moved back to her childhood town to bartend and save money, when she starts remembering absurd events, clear and visceral as if they’d really happened to her. But she knows they’re too wild to be possible. Flashing back to her school years, she searches the past for what could have caused this split in her reality. The lives of their close group of school friends have since diverged, as life choices and politics, partners and children, have taken them to different places and placed them into other stories. But Mary must reconnect with them to find solid ground again.

A writer in her 30s struggling to make rent, Mary has moved back to her childhood town to bartend and save money, when she starts remembering absurd events, clear and visceral as if they’d really happened to her. But she knows they’re too wild to be possible. Flashing back to her school years, she searches the past for what could have caused this split in her reality. The lives of their close group of school friends have since diverged, as life choices and politics, partners and children, have taken them to different places and placed them into other stories. But Mary must reconnect with them to find solid ground again.

Mary has started remembering things that she knows aren't real. But the events feel exactly like her actual memories. Who is she if she can't be sure she knows her own past?

A writer in her 30s struggling to make rent, Mary has moved back to her childhood town to bartend and save money, when she starts remembering absurd events, clear and visceral as if they’d really happened to her. But she knows they’re too wild to be possible. Flashing back to her school years, she searches the past for what could have caused this split in her reality. The lives of their close group of school friends have since diverged, as life choices and politics, partners and children, have taken them to different places and placed them into other stories. But Mary must reconnect with them to find solid ground again.
 
Set against the disorienting and rapidly changing political backdrop of the 2000s and 2010s, Booker Prize finalist Mozley’s disarming coming-of-age tale is addictively readable and poignantly captures the shakiness of identity --- both personal and national --- and the anchoring force of friendship.

Audiobook available, read by Arabella Arnott 

When Joey Zhang’s brother, Sam, drowns off the coast of Kauai, she must return to the island to piece together the clues he left behind. In the process, Joey unearths secrets Sam had kept from her all her life, along with their mother’s journal, which reveals what really happened the night their parents died when Joey was only 11. With the help of Sam’s best friend, Ethan, Joey embarks on a journey to unveil long-buried family trauma that reaches back to a Taiwan plagued with mass violence and totalitarian rule during the White Terror. Moved by her mother’s heartbreaking confessions and following the cherished mythology of the Old Man Under the Moon, who unites all predestined couples with a silken cord, Joey becomes a witness to a past she never imagined.

When Joey Zhang’s brother, Sam, drowns off the coast of Kauai, she must return to the island to piece together the clues he left behind. In the process, Joey unearths secrets Sam had kept from her all her life, along with their mother’s journal, which reveals what really happened the night their parents died when Joey was only 11. With the help of Sam’s best friend, Ethan, Joey embarks on a journey to unveil long-buried family trauma that reaches back to a Taiwan plagued with mass violence and totalitarian rule during the White Terror. Moved by her mother’s heartbreaking confessions and following the cherished mythology of the Old Man Under the Moon, who unites all predestined couples with a silken cord, Joey becomes a witness to a past she never imagined.

From the martial law era of Taiwan to present-day Kauai, a woman uncovers her family’s secrets in a moving multigeneration saga by the author of THE FOURTH DAUGHTER.

When Joey Zhang’s brother, Sam, drowns off the coast of Kauai, she must return to the island to piece together the clues he left behind. In the process, Joey unearths secrets Sam had kept from her all her life, along with their mother’s journal, which reveals what really happened the night their parents died when Joey was only 11.

With the help of Sam’s best friend, Ethan, Joey embarks on a journey to unveil long-buried family trauma that reaches back to a Taiwan plagued with mass violence and totalitarian rule during the White Terror. Moved by her mother’s heartbreaking confessions and following the cherished mythology of the Old Man Under the Moon, who unites all predestined couples with a silken cord, Joey becomes a witness to a past she never imagined.

Sweeping across decades, continents and lifetimes of impossible choices that still echo into the present, Joey must decide whether she is strong enough to face the horrifying truth about her parents’ lives and discover who she truly is, or turn her back on the only family she has left.

Audiobook available, read by Natalie Naudus

On a small tobacco farm in the south of Brazil, a family of five tries to keep up with the economic tribulations and environmental threats of modern rural life. The father, Carlos, is reckoning with a depression that has hollowed his soul. His wife, Guerlinda, must cope with her husband's mental absence from family life while raising three children. Alice, the eldest daughter, rebels against her mother and traditional gender standards. Her younger sister, Maria, struggles to reconcile her book smarts with the harsh manual labor demanded by the farm. And two-year-old Pedrinho is already being put to work tending the tobacco. As the harvesting and burning season approaches, big tobacco companies, unpredictable conditions and consequences of pesticide treatments threaten the family’s livelihood and mental well-being.

On a small tobacco farm in the south of Brazil, a family of five tries to keep up with the economic tribulations and environmental threats of modern rural life. The father, Carlos, is reckoning with a depression that has hollowed his soul. His wife, Guerlinda, must cope with her husband's mental absence from family life while raising three children. Alice, the eldest daughter, rebels against her mother and traditional gender standards. Her younger sister, Maria, struggles to reconcile her book smarts with the harsh manual labor demanded by the farm. And two-year-old Pedrinho is already being put to work tending the tobacco. As the harvesting and burning season approaches, big tobacco companies, unpredictable conditions and consequences of pesticide treatments threaten the family’s livelihood and mental well-being.

This whimsical novel by a beloved Brazilian writer follows a family of tobacco farmers through the eyes of various objects in their home --- an old mirror, a pickup truck, a protective work smock, and a sick, loving tree.

On a small tobacco farm in the south of Brazil, a family of five tends their crop and tries to keep up with the economic tribulations and environmental threats of modern rural life.

The father, Carlos, is reckoning with a depression that has hollowed his soul, likely caused by exposure to pesticides. His wife, Guerlinda, must cope with her husband's mental absence from family life while raising three children and keeping the household afloat. Alice, the eldest daughter, rebels against her mother and traditional gender standards. Her younger sister, Maria, is the only one who still attends school, struggling to reconcile her book smarts with the harsh manual labor demanded by the farm. And little two-year-old Pedrinho still hasn't started talking but is already being put to work tending the tobacco.

All the while, the objects surrounding them are watching and telling us their story. There's the old, sick tree in their backyard; the mirror inside, which reflects the unsaid emotions and hidden traumas; the truck that transports them; and the protective smock that accompanies the family during the harvest.

As the harvesting and burning season approaches, big tobacco companies, unpredictable conditions and consequences of pesticide treatments threaten the family’s livelihood and mental well-being. In this utterly groundbreaking novel, Mariana Salomão Carrara experiments with language and form to portray a family in crisis.