The Heart of the Matter

Morris Berman wrote one of the best works of cultural history (the "Consciousness" trilogy) and one of the best works of political history (the "American Decline" trilogy) in recent decades. Since retiring, his output has been equally impressive: essays, memoirs, fiction, broad-gauged appraisals of Japanese and Italian culture. The stories in The Heart of the Matter, especially the title story, are astonishingly, even maniacally inventive. His imagination almost tires you out.

--George Scialabba, author of The Modern Predicament, How To Be Depressed, and other works

A group of would-be moon travelers takes a time machine back to Los Alamos in 1945, disrupts the Manhattan Project, and heads off the Cold War. A woman of 24, and a man of 85, copy Gandhi's practice of lying together naked without having sex. An archivist at the Met stumbles across a manuscript of Anaximenes, 6th century BC, which contains material that Plato apparently plagiarized. A 7-year-old boy gives his parents the slip and joins a traveling circus act, where he learns about love and magic. These are just a few of the delightfully fresh stories in Morris Berman's new collection of page-turners, which are at once funny, erotic, droll, and politically incorrect. Guaranteed to have you laughing out loud on cold winter nights.

Morris Berman is the author of a number of books. His latest works, published by Echo Point Books, include Genio: The Story of Italian Genius; Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West; Are We There Yet?--Essays and Reflections, 2010 to 2017; and Spinning Straw into Gold: Straight Talk for Troubled Times.