Gary Schwartz

The Night Watch series has caused a sensation never before seen in Russia -- its popularity is frenzied and unprecedented, and driven by a truly great, epic story. In 2005 Fox Searchlight announced it had acquired the Russian film adaptation for an American release. Interest in the books here is now set to reach a fever pitch.Set in modern day Moscow, Night Watch is a world as elaborate and imaginative as Tolkien or the best Asimov. Living among us are the "Others," an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. A thousand-year treaty has maintained the balance of power, and the two sides coexist in an uneasy truce. But an ancient prophecy decrees that one supreme "Other" will rise up and tip the balance, plunging the world into a catastrophic war between the Dark and the Light. When a young boy with extraordinary powers emerges, fulfilling the first half of the prophecy, will the forces of the Light be able to keep the Dark from corrupting the boy and destroying the world?An extraordinary translation from the Russian by noted translator Andrew Bromfield, this first English language edition of Night Watch is a chilling, engrossing read certain to reward those waiting in anticipation of its arrival.

Altstad is a 29-year old art historian from a Dutch Jewish family which was nearly wiped out by the Nazis. Leaving academic life uneasily behind him after earning a PhD in New York, he has high ambitions that by the age of 30 he will have succeeded both in love and as an international dealer in old masters. He is confident of success until, with the deadline just weeks away, his girlfriend questions the quality of their relationship and his accountant the solvency of his business. Piling risk upon risk, Altstad puts the one valuable heirloom in his family - Emanuel De Witte's painting of a Portuguese synagogue - into play in a plunging market. Altstad's best customer is the Beverly Hills project developer, Mitchell Fleishig. Fleishig idolizes Dutch painting, regarding it as mankind's supreme accomplishment in manipulating reality. Unable to cope with the economic downturn of the 1990s, he overextends himself by lying to the bank and to a moneylending shark who has connections with the Mafia. When both the bank and the mob clamp down on him, he turns to the only source where his credit for money is still good, Altstad, with life-threatening results. Altstad's bet is pitted against Fleishig's scam in a novel of the art world in the 1990's and of two men unable to face defeat.

"This important new work provides the clearest and most complete introduction available to the visionary art of Bosch, replete with splendid reproductions of all the paintings and drawings in Bosch's core oeuvre. Gary Schwartz provides concise interpretations of every work, including commentary on many of the most extraordinary details for which Bosch is acclaimed."--Provided by publisher.

Surveys the life and work of the well-known seventeenth-century Dutch artist and discusses the reasons for the rise and fall of artists' reputations.