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NOW AVAILABLE AT CITY LIGHTS!

The Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette

A gripping noir masterpiece and New York Times notable book in a movie-tie edition.

The Gunman is now a major motion picture directed by Pierre Morel (Taken) and starring Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Idris Elba and Ray Winstone, releasing March 20th, 2015.

This tightly plotted, corrosive parody of "the success story" is widely considered to be Jean-Patrick Manchette's masterpiece, and was named a New York Times "Notable Book" in 2002. The Gunman is a classic of modern noir.

"For Manchette and the generation of writers who followed him, the crime novel is no mere entertainment, but a means to strip bare the failures of society, ripping through veils of appearance, deceit, and manipulation to the greed and violence that are the society's true engines."—Boston Globe

Also available in its original edition titled The Prone Gunman, along with Manchette's Three to Kill, published by City Lights in 2002.

City Lights Books of San Francisco

City Lights is a landmark independent bookstore and publisher that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics.

Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark."... Read more>>

New at City Lights Bookstore

Ghettoside
A True Story of Murder in America

Jill Leovy

"Ghettoside is fantastic. It does what the best narrative nonfiction does: It transcends its subject by taking one person's journey and making it all our journeys. That's what makes this not just a gritty, heart-wrenching, and telling book, but an important one. From the patrol cop to the president, everyone needs to read this book."

S O S
Poems 1961-2013

Amiri Baraka

"[S O S is] a signal of blunt urgency . . . this is undeniably the work of the kind of poet we will not see again; Amiri Baraka was one of the last of the 20th century's literary lions. This momentous collection exhibits his abiding resistance to almost everything, but subversiveness." —Terrance Hayes, Publishers Weekly

Hell and Good Company
The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made

Richard Rhodes

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning and bestselling author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb—the remarkable story of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of the reporters, writers, artists, doctors, and nurses who witnessed it.

The Internet Is Not the Answer

Andrew Keen

he Internet, created during the Cold War, has now ushered in one of the greatest shifts in society since the Industrial Revolution. There are many positive ways in which the Internet has contributed to the world, but as a society we are less aware of the Internet's deeply negative effects on our psychology, economy, and culture.

Gateway to Freedom
The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad

Eric Foner

The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga...

Fields of Blood
Religion and the History of Violence

Karen Armstrong

From the renowned and best-selling author of A History of God, a sweeping exploration of religion and the history of human violence. For the first time, religious self-identification is on the decline in American. Some analysts have cited as cause a post-9/11 perception: that faith in general is a source of aggression, intolerance, and...

All the Light We Cannot See
A Novel

Anthony Doerr

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

Jill Lepore

A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of one of the world's most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story—and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, no superhero has lasted...

This Changes Everything

Naomi Klein

The most important book yet from the author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core "free market" ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems.

Here

Richard McGuire

A beautiful exploration of a single place through time, from void to form to void again. Go ahead, open to a page, any page... —Recommended by Vanessa, City Lights Books Also recommended by Paul, City Lights Books

Citizen
An American Lyric

Claudia Rankine

So groundbreaking is Rankine's work that it's almost impossible to describe; suffice it to say that this is a poem that reads like an essay (or the other way around) — a piece of writing that invents a new form for itself, incorporating pictures, slogans, social commentary...

New and Forthcoming from City Lights Publishers

The Gunman

Jean-Patrick Manchette

Now Available!: A gripping noir masterpiece and New York Times notable book in a movie-tie edition. Recommended by both Andy and Jeff, City Lights Books

Beautiful Chaos
A Life in the Theater

Carey Perloff

NOW Available: Carey Perloff, Artistic Director of San Francisco's ACT, pens a memoir of her career in the theater offering a provocative, passionate, and deeply personal view of theater's role today. Carey's book tour includes San Francisco on March 8th at A.C.T., plus events in LA, SD, NY, MN & IL. Go to the book's page for more info.

Rad American Women A-Z
Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries Who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future!

Kate Schatz, Miriam Klein Stahl

Forthcoming in March! A book for children—and their parents, teachers, and cool grown-up friends—documenting America's famous and unsung heroines.

City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology
60th Anniversary Edition

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Forthcoming! A comprehensive selection from Ferlinghetti's famed City Lights Pocket Poets Series, published on the 60th anniversary of its founding.

I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career
The Selected Correspondence of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, 1955-1997

Bill Morgan

Forthcoming: Marking the 60th anniversary of City Lights Publishers, we present the intimate correspondence of Ginsberg & Ferlinghetti, documenting one of the longest relationships between a publisher and a writer.

Lit Up Inside
Selected Lyrics

Van Morrison

It's here!! Van Morrison selects his best and most iconic lyrics, spanning 50 years of writing and representing his entire creative journey. Gorgeous hardcover edition now available.

Lunch Poems
50th Anniversary Edition

Frank O'Hara

Now available! Exquisite 50th anniversary hardcover gift edition of the groundbreaking poetry collection by the leader of the "New York School" of poetry.

Man Alive
A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man

Thomas Page McBee

Far from a transgender transition tell-all, here is a personal yet universal story of charting one's course to ultimate self-recognition. Thomas Page McBee's writings on gender have appeared in the New York Times, Vice, and Salon, and he writes the "Self-Made Man" column for The Rumpus

The Penguin's Song

Hassan Daoud

A family in exile from their home in old Beirut contends with claustrophobic conditions, recriminations, and unrealizable dreams of return. Daoud is one of the Arabic world's premier novelists. Translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth.

The Poetry Deal
San Francisco Poet Laureate Series No. 5

Diane di Prima

San Francisco Poet Laureate Series No. 5: The Poetry Deal is the first full-length collection of poems in decades from legendary feminist Beat poet, Diane di Prima. "A prolific writer generally associated with the Beat Generation, di Prima deserves wider recognition."—Library Journal

Deep Code
City Lights Spotlight No. 12

John Coletti

City Lights Spotlight Series No. 12: Deep Code explores "side language," as a subset of other languages, whether slang or metaphor, to both communicate and obfuscate.