A literary companion to the 2006 World Cup of soccer provides a colorful look at the countries, teams, and players at the latest competition, in a collection that includes essays by Roddy Doyle, Zadie Smith, Caryl Phillips, James Surowiecki, Robert Coover, Aleksandar Hemon, John Lanchester, Tom Vanderbilt, and William Finnegan, among others. Original. 50,000 first printing.

A founding editor of McSweeney's documents his experiences of growing up in an eccentric society family, which was marked by his father's infidelity with his mother's best friend, his mother's post-depression international travels, their encounters with numerous political figures, and more. Reprint 150,000 first printing.