40 MILLION BOOKS SOLD WORLDWIDEHe's the best cop they've got. When a drug bust turns into a bloodbath it's up to Inspector Macbeth and his team to clean up the mess. He's also an ex-drug addict with a troubled past. He's rewarded for his success. He's convinced he won't get what is rightfully his.
From jungle clearings to stately homes and anonymous airport hotels, Talking to Terrorists puts us in the room with those who seek to change the course of history. Here are the terrorists, secret agents and go-betweens who make up the invisible world of negotiations between terrorists and governments. Across the world governments proclaim that they will never 'negotiate with evil'. And yet they always have done and always will. Why then do we ignore the lessons of this history of clandestine communication, often with devastating consequences? Jonathan Powell has spent nearly two decades mediating between governments and terrorist organisations. Here he argues that no conflict - however bloody, ancient or difficult - is insoluble. With attention to the lessons of the past, patience and above all political leadership, they can be solved, even where previous attempts have failed. Talking to terrorists will always be practically difficult and morally hazardous. But it is the right thing to do. Drawing on conflicts from Colombia and Sri Lanka to Palestine and South Africa, this optimistic, wide-ranging, authoritative book is about why we should and how best to go about it.
A selection of writing spanning the past quarter-century, including pieces on Milton, Jane Austen, Nabokov and John Updike as well as Margaret Thatcher and Andy Warhol. The hardback edition was published to huge acclaim and his biography, }Experience{ has sold in excess of 50,000 copies.
75 new and ingenious plant-led recipes that help get delicious dinners on the table with even less effort and even more delicious flavour. Rukmini Iyer changed the way we eat when she started the Roasting Tin revolution. Constantly thinking about ne
All that stands between one man and murder by the mafia is a penguin. Viktor is an aspiring writer with only Misha, his pet penguin, for company. Although Viktor would prefer to write short stories, he earns a living composing obituaries for a newsp
Born in 1931, the illegitimate child of an abandoned mother, Thomas Bernhard was brought up by an eccentric grandmother and adored grandfather. Tormented as a young student in a right-wing, catholic Austria, Bernhard ran away from home aged fifteen. At eighteen he contracted pneumonia. Placed in a hospital ward for the old and terminally ill, he observed with unflinching acuity protracted suffering and death. From the age of 21, everything he wrote was shaped by the urgency of a dying man's testament - his witness, the quintessence of his life and knowledge - and where this account of his life ends, his art begins.
Booker prize winning author Michael Ondaatje invites you on a brutal, beautiful journey into the American West. . .At twenty-one years old, Billy the Kid has killed a man for each year he’s been alive. Roaming the blasted planes of the Wild West, he moves between friends, foes and lovers, fighting to keep just one step ahead of the law. Yet in this twisted wasteland – a country of mad dogs, of sweat and gore and blinding heat – the sheriffs play dirty too.Melding prose, poetry, imagined interviews and ephemeral photography, Ondaatje weaves together a lyrical reinterpretation of Billy’s short, infamous existence, forming a portrait of a young man, and a young country, borne out of violence, threaded through with disaster, yet rich in wonder. 'Ondaatje’s language is clean and energetic, with the pop of bullets. This is literature, art.’ Annie Dillard'Ondaatje’s eye for detail is wonderful and he uses it poetically, with superb restraint' Larry McMurtry
A 2023 POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR (WATERSTONES) | 'GROUND-BREAKING' Bernardine Evaristo | 'UNIVERSAL AND TIMELY' Elif Shafak | 'IMPORTANT' Sathnam Sanghera | 'A GENEROUS OFFERING' Nana Darkoa Sekiyamah | 'QUIETLY RADICAL' Evening Standard | 'INTIMATE' GuardianWhat can ancestral practices teach us about how to live fuller lives today?Upon turning forty, Afua Hirsch had an encounter that forever altered her preconceived notions of ancestry and body image, making her question everything from body-modification rituals such as tattoos and piercings to the foundations of sexuality, as well as attitudes towards puberty, ageing and death. This book charts her year-long journey of radical unlearning. Bringing together global scholarship, on-the-ground reportage, personal anecdotes and interviews with beauty experts, practitioners and service users, she reassesses notions of body image beyond those of the colonial, patriarchal gaze. Decolonising My Body is a powerful excavation of the Eurocentric beauty standards that have long shaped how, in particular, those from the Global Majority are perceived and view themselves. Taking us from puberty to end-of-life, Hirsch shows us that the ways in which we adorn and present ourselves have spiritual implications and shape the possibilities we see for ourselves in the world. These insights and discoveries will empower you to reconnect with your own ancestry, better understand the link between beauty, history and (respectability) politics, and liberate yourself from mainstream standards and systems that aren't serving you. *Co-host of the LOYALTY podcast with Peter Frankopan*
VINTAGE CLASSICS' HARLEM RENAISSANCE SERIES'Why did I want to mix mahself up in a white folk's war? It ain't ever was any of black folks' affair'When Jake Brown joined the World War I effort, he was treated more like a slave than a soldier. After briefly defecting to France to escape the racial violence he was facing, Jake travelled back home to Harlem. But despite the distance he travelled, Jake cannot seem to escape the past and the explosive ways in which it can culminate in every aspect of your life.Written with brutal accuracy, Home to Harlem is the debut novel by one the first significant writers of the Harlem Renaissance. 'One of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance' Washington Post
The second book from the "exact and poetic" (New York Times) author of critical smash Young Skins, winner of the Guardian First Book Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35, Homesickness is an emotion
The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-grandaughter of Iran's last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. This is a beautiful and intimate story full of tragedy and humour - raw, honest and incredibly illuminating.
How did money come to be invented? Why does it now have such significance in our lives? Does it make us happier or unhappier? And what does the future hold for it? With brilliant clarity and insight, Yuval Noah Harari takes the reader on a journey from the very first coins through to 21st century economics and shows us how we are all on the brink of a revolution, whether we like it or not.
Why We Drive is a rebellious and daring celebration of the human spirit and the competence of ordinary people by the bestselling author of The Case for Working with Your Hands. Once we were drivers on the open road. Today we are more often in the back seat of an Uber.As we hurtle toward a 'self-driving' future, are we destined to become passengers in our own lives too?In Why We Drive, the philosopher and mechanic Matthew Crawford celebrates the risk, skill and freedom of driving. He reveals what we are losing to technology and government control in the modern world, and speaks up for play, dissent and occasionally being scared witless. 'Fascinating...A pleasure to read' Sunday Times'Persuasive and thought-provoking... A vivid and heartfelt manifesto' Observer
Selin, a tall, highly strung Turkish-American from New Jersey turns up at Harvard and finds herself dangerously overwhelmed by the challenges and possibilities of adulthood. She studies linguistics and literature, and spends a lot of time thinking about what language - and languages - can and cannot do.
Language: English, Binding: Hardback, Number of pages: 356, Publishers: Vintage Publishing, Author: Chris Ware, ISBN-13: 9780224078139, Date of issue: 2019
A captivating graphic edition of Timothy Snyder's bestselling book of lessons for surviving and resisting the arc toward authoritarianism. Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny is one of the essential books of recent years, using the darkest moments in twentieth-century history to teach twenty lessons on resisting modern-day authoritarianism. These include a warning to be aware of how symbols used today could affect tomorrow, an urgent reminder to research everything for yourself and to the fullest extent, and an encouragement to use personalised and individualised speech rather than clichéd phrases when arguing a point In this graphic edition, Nora Krug draws from her highly inventive style in Heimat - at once a graphic memoir, collage-style scrapbook, historical narrative and trove of memories - to breathe new life, colour and power into Snyder's modern classic, turning a quick-read pocket guide of lessons into a visually striking rumination and call for action. History does not repeat, but it does instruct. In a time of great uncertainty and instability, this edition of On Tyranny emphasises the importance of being active, conscious, and deliberate participants in resistance.
Five killers. One train journey. But who will survive? The original and propulsive thriller from a massive Japanese bestseller.* SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE *Satoshi looks like an innocent schoolboy but he is really a viciously cunning psychopath. Kimura's young son is in a coma thanks to him, and Kimura has tracked him onto the bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka to exact his revenge. But Kimura soon discovers that they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard.Nanao, the self-proclaimed 'unluckiest assassin in the world', and the deadly partnership of Tangerine and Lemon are also travelling to Morioka. A suitcase full of money leads others to show their hands. Why are they all on the same train, and who will get off alive at the last station?'A locked-room crime drama played out at 200mph' The Times'A high-octane thriller...Thoroughly enjoyable' GuardianReaders can't stop reading Bullet Train!'Original, quirky and highly entertaining"A dark-humoured, twisty thriller that's a lot of fun"One of the most addictive thrillers I've ever read... smart and cinematic"What an original novel! Exciting from beginning to end"A whole lot of darkly comic fun"A thrilling ride'Bullet Train was originally published in Japan with the title Maria Beetle.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom the author of internationally acclaimed The Flamethrowers - a fearless and heartbreaking novel about love, friendship and incarceration.Romy Hall is starting two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women's Correctional Facility. Her crime? The killing of her stalker.Inside awaits a world where women must hustle and fight for the bare essentials. Outside: the San Francisco of her youth. The Mars Room strip club where she was once a dancer. Her seven-year-old son, Jackson.As Romy forms friendships over liquor brewed in socks and stories shared through sewage pipes her future seems to unfurl in one long, unwavering line - until news from beyond the prison bars forces Romy to try and outrun her destiny.'Kushner is one of our most outstanding modern writers' STYLIST'More knowing about prison life [than Orange Is The New Black]... so powerful' NEW YORK TIMES'Breathtaking' VOGUE
A journey through the culinary landscape of Japan, a place that goes to extraordinary lengths and expense to eat the finest, most delectable and sometimes bizarre food imaginable, such as whale penis and octopus ice cream. Along the way, Booth learns fascinating tips and recipes that are virtually unknown in the western world.
The dreamlike story of a young woman in contemporary Beijing forging a different life for herself, from one of our brightest new literary stars. One morning in autumn, just after breakfast, Jia Jia finds her husband dead in the bathtub of their Beijing apartment. Next to him is a piece of folded paper, a sketch of a strange creature from his dream.He has left her no other sign. Young, alone, and with many unanswered questions, Jia Jia sets out on a journey. It takes her deep into her past where, for the very first time, she begins to have a sense of her future.'Startlingly original... A portrait of alienated young womanhood as it is set free' Guardian'Rich and wild...it gets under your skin' Observer'An Yu writes with style and in a way that is hard to resist' Sunday Times'A seductive, sharply observed tale of love, loss and hope' Daily Mail
A dazzling history of the modest family which rose to become one of the most powerful in Europe, The Medici is a remarkably modern story of power, money and ambition. Against the background of an age which saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning - of humanism which penetrated and explored the arts and sciences and the 'dark' knowledge of alchemy, astrology, and numerology - Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence, as well as the Italian Renaissance which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello, as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola, both of whom clashed with the religious authorities. In this enthralling study, Paul Strathern also follows the fortunes of those members of the Medici family who achieved success away from Florence, including the two Medici popes and Catherine de' Medicis who became Queen of France and played a major role in that country through three turbulent reigns.Vivid and accessible, the book ends with the gloriously decadent decline of the Medici family in Florence as they strove to be recognised as European Princes.
A brilliant new collection of stories from one of the greatest living short story writers. At the centre of the three stories is a marvellously rich narrative about Juliet, and different stages of her life. It is about the power and betrayals of love, and about lost children and lost chances. "The greatest living short story writer" A.S. Byatt, }Sunday Times{
One of the world's leading experts on reading and dyslexia delivers this comprehensive, up-to-date book to help readers understand, identify, and overcome reading problems.Dr. Shaywitz translates cutting-edge research into an easy-to-follow plan of action offering help and hope. High school & older.
An award-winning account of a girl growing up in Iran during the Revolution. "Brings home the effects of war and oppression on ordinary people as powerfully as }Maus{." }Borderline{.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY YANIS VAROUFAKIS The Communist Manifesto was first published in London in 1848, by two young men in their late twenties. Its impact reverberated across the globe and throughout the next century, and it has come to be recognised as one of the most important political texts ever written. Maintaining that the history of all societies is a history of class struggle, the manifesto proclaims that communism is the only route to equality, and is a call to action aimed at the proletariat. It is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand our modern political landscape. Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth, this pocket edition includes a new introduction by the economist and bestselling author of And the Weak Suffer What They Must? and Adults in the Room, Yanis Varoufakis.
}Trainspotting{ ten years on. Reintroduces characters from the bestselling novels, }Trainspotting{ and }Glue{. "A worthy sequel...A touching love song to the possibilities and limits of friendship. Charming, funny and sly, }Porno{ is a good poke at all kinds of pretence and moral tidiness". }Evening Standard{. Unmissable, high-profile marketing campaign, including national press ads and British Rail posters.
*A GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK*From the bestselling, award-winning author of Fun HomeAll her life, Alison Bechdel has searched for an elusive secret. The secret to superhuman strength. She has looked for it in her favourite books, the lives of her heroes, celibacy, polyamory, activism, therapy, and most obsessively, in her lifelong passion for exercise.Skiing, running, karate, cycling, yoga, weight lifting - you name it, she's tried it. "Oh, to be self-sufficient! Hard as a rock! An island!"But as she gets older, her body isn't getting any stronger. And in a changing, sometimes overwhelming world, are "cantaloupe-sized guns" all a person needs? Maybe the all-important secret is not where she expected to find it .. . In this, her third graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel has written a deeply layered, personal story about selfhood, self-sabotage, mortality, addiction, bliss, wonder, and the concerns of a generation.This is an extraordinary, laugh-out-loud chronicle of the conundrums we all grapple with as we seek our true place in the world.
Die außergewöhnliche, tragische und komische Geschichte der Kindheit und Jugend des Autors im kriegsgeschüttelten Jerusalem der 40er und 50er Jahre - gleichzeitig eine Familiensaga, die sich über 120 Jahre von ihren Wurzeln in Osteuropa bis zur Gründung Israels entfaltet.
'Consistently illuminating... considered, compassionate and appreciative... This book is a wonderful tribute to a family and to an idea' Guardian63 rue de Monceau, ParisDear friend, As you may have guessed by now, I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well. Count Moïse de Camondo lived a few doors away from Edmund de Waal's forebears, the Ephrussi, first encountered in his bestselling memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes. Like the Ephrussi, the Camondos were part of belle époque high society. They were also targets of anti-semitism.Camondo created a spectacular house and filled it with the greatest private collection of French eighteenth-century art for his son to inherit. But when Nissim was killed in the First World War, it became a memorial and, on the Count's death, was bequeathed to France. The Musée Nissim de Camondo has remained unchanged since 1936. Edmund de Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and uncovers new layers to the family story. In a haunting series of letters addressed to the Count, he tells us what happened next.'Letters to Camondo immerses you in another age... de Waal creates a dazzling picture of what it means to live graciously' Financial Times'Subtle and thoughtful and nuanced and quiet. It is demanding but rewarding' The Times
This is the winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the year award. He was the first black heavyweight champion in history (1908-1915) and the most celebrated - and most reviled - African American of his age. In Unforgivable Blackness, prize-winning biographer Geoffrey C. Ward brings to vivid life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more complex than the newspaper headlines could ever convey. Johnson battled his way from obscurity to the top of the heavyweight ranks and in 1908 won the greatest prize in American sports - one that had always been the preserve of white boxers. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if colour did not exist. Because of this, the federal government set out to destroy him and he was forced to endure a year of prison and seven years of exile. As Ward shows, Johnson was seen as a perpetual threat to white and African Americans alike - profligate, arrogant, amoral, a dark menace and a danger to the natural order of things. Unforgivable Blackness is the first full-scale biography of Johnson in more than twenty years.Accompanied by more than fifty photographs and drawing on a wealth of new material - including Johnson's never-before-published prison memoir - it restores Jack Johnson to his rightful place in the pantheon of sporting and social warriors.
Meet the Little Prince, a young fellow who hails from a tiny, distant planet. He loves to watch sunsets and look after his flower, to ask questions and to laugh. And now here he is on Earth, appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the desert, looki
Set in the valley of the Mesta, one of the oldest inhabited river valleys in Europe and a nexus for wild plant gatherers, Elixir is an unforgettable exploration of the deep connections between people, plants and place. 'Kassabova had me under her sp
A beautiful hardback edition of one of the most subversive anti-war novels ever written - reading Catch-22 is a rite of passage. Set in the closing months of World War II, this is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious
A one-volume narrative history of the Mediterranean from Ancient Egypt to 1919, written in the racy, readable prose for which Norwich is famous. The Mediterranean has nurtured three dazzling civilisations, three great religions and links three of the worlds six continents.
Why have all human cultures - today and throughout history - made music? Why does music excite such rich emotion? And how do we make sense of musical sound? These are questions that have, until recently, remained mysterious. Now "The Music Instinct" explores how the latest research in music psychology and brain science is piecing together the puzzle of how our minds understand and respond to music. Ranging from Bach fugues to nursery rhymes to heavy rock, Philip Ball interweaves philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology to reveal why music moves us in so many ways. Without requiring any specialist knowledge, "The Music Instinct" will both deepen your appreciation of the music you love, and open doors to music that once seemed alien, dull or daunting, offering a passionate plea for the importance of music in education and in everyday life.
Vivid, intimate and evocative exploration of the hidden personal lives of the great Impressionist painters including Manet, Monet , Pissarro, Cezanne, Renoir and Sisley. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout and reads like a novel.
A collection of twenty-five essays on Spain, from the author of }Rituals{ and }The Following Story{. Written between 1979 and 1992, these pieces can be used as a guide to the Spain beyond the tourist resorts, at the same time filling the reader with a longing for the country. 40 b/w photos by Simone Sassen.
An epic story of peoples, cultures and adventures among the world's highest mountains: here Jesuit missionaries exchanged technologies with Tibetan Lamas, Mongol Khans employed Nepali craftsmen, Armenian merchants exchanged musk and gold with Mughals
Vintage Feminism: classic feminist texts in short form. The term feminism did not yet exist when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote this book, but it was the first great piece of feminist writing. In these pages you will find the essence of her argument - for the education of women and for an increased female contribution to society. Her work made the first ripples of what would later become the tidal wave of the women's rights movement.Rationalist but revolutionary, Wollstonecraft changed the world for women.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOE SIMPSON. In 1950, no mountain higher than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed. Maurice Herzog and other members of the French Alpine Club resolved to try. This is the enthralling story of the first conquest of Annapurna and the harrowing descent. With breathtaking courage and grit manifest on every page, Annapurna is one of the greatest adventure stories ever told. As well as an introduction by Joe Simpson, this new edition includes 16 pages of photographs, which provide a remarkable visual record of this legendary expedition.
Anders Ericsson has spent three decades studying the geniuses and sports stars amongst us and reveals in "Peak" that, contrary to popular belief, we all have that same potential within us, it's just a question of exercising it and having a little guidance along the way.
Pauline first became ill when she was fifteen. What seemed to be a urinary infection became joint pain, then life-threatening appendicitis. This book takes us on a journey into the very real world of psychosomatic illness, in which the author finds the secrets we are all capable of keeping from ourselves.
Monk's energetic enterprise is remarkable for the interweaving of the philosophical and the emotional aspects of Wittgenstein's life' Sunday Times. 'Ray Monk's reconnection of Wittgenstein's philosophy with his life triumphantly carries out the Wittgensteinian task of "changing the aspect" of Wittgenstein's work, getting us to see it in a new way' Sunday Telegraph. 'This biography transforms Wittgenstein into a human being' Independent on Sunday. 'It is much to be recommended' Observer. 'Monk's biography is deeply intelligent, generous to the ordinary reader...It is a beautiful portrait of a beautiful life' Guardian.
Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build because of its enormous size. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age, when finally completed in 1436 the dome was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world. It has gone down in history as a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. This book tells the extraordinary story of how the cupola was raised and of the dome's architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleschi. Denounced as a madman at the start of his labours, he was celebrated at their end as a great genius. His life was one of ambition, ingenuity, rivalry and intrigue - a human drama set against the plagues, wars, political feuds and intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence, the glorious era for which the dome remains the most compelling symbol.Brunelleschi's Dome was voted Non-Fiction Book of the Year by American Independent Booksellers.
Guy Delisle expertly lays the groundwork for a cultural road map of contemporary Jerusalem, utilizing the classic stranger-in-a-strange-land point of view that made his other books, Pyongyang, Shenzhen, and Burma Chronicles, required reading for understanding what daily life is like in cities few are able to travel to. In "Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City", Delisle explores the complexities of a city that represents so much to so many. He eloquently examines the impact of the conflict on the lives of people on both sides of the wall while drolly recounting the quotidian: checkpoints, traffic jams, and holidays. When observing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim populations that call Jerusalem home, Delisle's drawn line is both sensitive and fair, assuming nothing and drawing everything. "Jerusalem" showcases once more Delisle's mastery of the travelogue.
"The Worst Journey in the World" is a gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. One of the youngest members of Scott's team, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was later part of the rescue party that found the frozen bodies of Scott and the three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. Despite the horrors that Scott and his men eventually faced, Cherry-Garrard's account is filled with details of scientific discovery and anecdotes of human resilience in a harsh environment, supported by diary excerpts and accounts from other explorers. A masterpiece of travel writing, "The Worst Journey in the World" is the most celebrated and compelling of all the books on Antarctic exploration.
