Dear Restless Readers,
From the frigid temperatures of Brooklyn, where our Restless office is located, I want to wish you un feliz año nuevo. May the new year bring you and your loved ones health, happiness, clarity, and the company of great books.
I never thought that the sheer act of reading would come to be seen as defiant. Truth is, you have to work at it in order to find its pleasures. Our political climate is obnoxiously polarized. Offering a dissenting opinion turns you into the target of bullying armies.
As a reader, you have to claim a space for yourself. You need to make choices. You must like nuance. And you are prone to take a stand and have an opinion. Reading is among the most democratic of intellectual endeavors. To prove it, just visit your local library: the assortment of viewpoints you’ll come across is astonishing.
Those of us who read know that life is about contradictions. You’ll find those complications in the pages of any book Restless puts out. Our books come from a wide range of cultures and are all very different. What unites them is that they are direct, courageous, and beautifully written.
We publish a highly selective list of about 12 books a year. The reason is simple: we want to give every one of them the commitment it deserves. We know that a small list of expertly curated titles shows discernment. We don’t work alone but with a dedicated community of independent booksellers, devoted bloggers, sensitive translators, and passionate readers who, like us, believe in quality, not quantity.
Precisely because reading is under siege, our mission is more relevant. Honestly, we aren’t hoping to save humanity. We simply want to make sure cultures interact with one another and the diversity of ideas remains a staple of democracy. As long as you keep on reading our books, we’ll keep on publishing them for you—first-rate novels, memoirs, collections of stories, and nonfiction explorations that bring us closer together.
Please remember Restless Books in your end-of-year donations, or sign up for our Restless Readers Club to ensure your 2018 is filled with great books.
Muchas gracias,
Ilan Stavans
Header image by Clever Visuals.