Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 44 items
Talking to the enemy: stories
By Avner Mandelman. 2005
Nine stories about the Israeli experience. In "Terror" a father beats the son who fails to stand up for his…
five-year-old brother, thus instilling the precept that, right or wrong, family comes first, even before justice or fear. Strong language and some violence. Sophie Brody Medal. 2005The Pillow Book of the Flower Samurai
By Barbara Lazar. 2012
I am Kozaisho: Fifth daughter, Woman-For-Play, teller of stories, lover, wife and Flower Samurai. In the rich, dazzling, brutal world…
of twelfth century Japan, one young girl begins her epic journey, from the warmth of family to the Village of Outcasts. Marked out by an auspicious omen, she is trained in the ancient warrior arts of the samurai. But it is through the power of storytelling that she learns to fight her fate, twisting her life onto a path even she could not have imagined...A History of Modern Manga
By Insight Editions. 2005
Discover the major events and artists who have shaped the history of modern manga, with this deluxe expanded volume.Amid reconstruction…
after World War II, Japan saw the emergence of modern manga, which quickly became a favorite pastime of its citizens. Over the decades, the art form bore witness to the anxieties and dreams of several generations of Japanese citizens, reflecting both dark and joyful experiences. The history of manga is inextricably linked to the social, economic, political, and cultural evolution of Japan. Essential to the daily lives of its inhabitants and to its economy, manga is one of the drivers of the international development of one of the world&’s largest economies. How did the manga market reach one billion copies annually in less than half a century? Who are the major players in this incredible expansion? Discover, over the pages and years, the major events and artists who have marked the history of modern manga in this new, updated and expanded edition. DEFINITIVE GUIDE: Beginning with the advent of modern manga in 1952, A History of Modern Manga covers the development and impact of the art form through to present day. THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE: Discover fascinating new details about essential entries in the manga canon, including Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Death Note, Naruto, Berserk, and more. STUNNING VISUALS: Features original, full-color illustrations as well as artwork from the featured manga titles! PERFECT GIFT FOR MANGA FANS: A History of Modern Manga is a fantastic gift for manga enthusiasts, as well as fans of Japanese history. A MANGA HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Explores the unique ways in which historical events you may already be familiar with impacted and influenced manga as we know it today.China Coup: The Great Leap to Freedom
By Roger Garside. 2021
An expert’s take on how a coup in China could launch a transition to democracy. This short book predicts—contrary to…
the prevailing consensus—that China’s leader Xi Jinping will very soon be removed from office in a coup d’état mounted by rivals in the top leadership. The leaders of the coup will then end China’s one-party dictatorship and launch a transition to democracy and the rule of law. Long-time diplomat and development banker author Roger Garside draws on his deep knowledge of Chinese politics and economics first to develop a detailed scenario of how these events may unfold, and then—in the main body of the book—to explain why. His gripping, persuasive account of how Chinese leaders plot and plan away from the public eye is unique in published literature. Garside argues that under Xi’s overconfident leadership, China is on a collision course with an America that is newly awakened out of complacency. As Xi’s rivals look abroad, they are alarmed that he is blind to the reactions that China’s actions have provoked from the world’s strongest power and its allies. In domestic affairs, Xi’s rivals recognize that economic and social change without political reform have created problems that require not just new leaders but a new system of government. Security abroad and stability at home demand a revolution to which Xi is implacably opposed. To save China—and themselves—from catastrophe, they must remove him and end the dictatorship he is determined to defend. But their will and capacity to do so depend crucially on how liberal democracies act. Garside’s scenario shows America leading its allies in creating the conditions in which Xi’s rivals move against him.Yankees in the land of the gods: Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan
By Peter Booth Wiley. 1990
Before Perry's 1853 expedition, contact between the United States and Japan occurred mainly through shipwrecked sailors, including Americans who stranded…
themselves on Japan's shore to try to enter the self-isolated country. Using newly translated Japanese documents as well as reports from Perry and his crew, Wiley provides both countries' perspectives on the historic encounterA group of one
By Rachna Gilmore. 2001
Fifteen-year-old Tara Mehta's life is turned upside down when her grandmother visits from India. Naniji disapproves of the family's Canadian…
lifestyle and feminist mother. But Tara also learns of her heritage and Naniji's involvement in Gandhi's peace movement. Some strong language. For junior and senior high readers. 2001Come back to Afghanistan: a California teenager's story
By Said Hyder Akbar, Susan Burton, Said Akbar. 2005
Provides an insider's view of the post-Taliban Afghanistan government. The author describes his father's return to Afghanistan in December 2001,…
as President Hamid Karzai's spokesman and later governor of Kunar province, and his own experiences while spending summers there beginning in 2002. For senior high and older readers. 2005Dignity: From the award-winning author of Pigeon
By Alys Conran. 2019
Magda lives alone in her a huge house by the sea. Bad tempered and elderly, Magda does not need help…
from anyone, despite being wheelchair bound. With her sharp tongue, she gets through carers at a rate of knots, until Susheela arrives. And Susheela, it turns out, is in even more trouble than Magda. Still reeling from the recent death of her mum and trying to prop up her dad who is at risk of losing the family business, she finds she is pregnant. The future suddenly looks uncertain and frightening. But Magda and Susheela strike up an unlikely and sometimes uneasy friendship. Magda finds herself thinking back to her early childhood in colonial India before she was sent "home" to England; a childhood filled with servants and privilege but also terrible secrets. We also follow the story of her mother, Evelyn, once a warm hearted, and free spirited school teacher who slowly has all life and optimism ground away by a controlling husband and the misery of being a respectable member of the ruling classes. What becomes clear is that Evelyn searched for home for a long time, just like Magda, just like Susheela. And Magda begins to realise that home might not be a fortress to be ferociously defended, but may mean something else altogether. Thoughtful, clever, and beautifully observed Dignity considers the legacy of the Raj in Britain today, but more importantly what it means to belong to a place and to other people.(p) Orion Publishing Group Ltd 2019Daisy Chain: a novel of The Glasgow Girls
By Maggie Ritchie. 2021
Lily Crawford and Jeanie Taylor, from very different backgrounds, are firm friends from their childhoods in Kirkcudbright. They share their…
ambitions for their futures, Lily to be an artist, Jeanie to be a dancer.The two women's eventful lives are intertwined. In the years before the First World War, the girls lose touch when Jeanie runs away from home and joins a dance company, while Lily attends The Mack, Glasgow's famous school of art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. A chance meeting reunites them and together they discover a Glasgow at the height of its wealth and power as the Second City of the Empire - and a city of poverty and overcrowding. Separated once again after the war, Lily and Jeanie find themselves on opposite sides of the world. Lily follows her husband to Shanghai while Jeanie's dance career brings her international fame. But the glamour and dissolution of 1920s Shanghai finally lead Lily into peril. Her only hope of survival lies with her old friend Jeanie, as the two women turn to desperate measures to free Lily from danger.Inspired by the eventful and colourful lives of the pioneering women artists The Glasgow Girls, particularly that of Eleanor Allen Moore, Daisy Chain is a story of independence, women's art, resilience and female friendship, set against the turbulent background of the early years of the 20th century.(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedViolets
By Kyung-Sook Shin. 2001
We join San in 1970s rural South Korea, a young girl ostracised from her community. She meets a girl called…
Namae, and they become friends until one afternoon changes everything. Following a moment of physical intimacy in a minari field, Namae violently rejects San, setting her on a troubling path of quashed desire and isolation.We next meet San, aged twenty-two, as she starts a job in a flower shop. There, we are introduced to a colourful cast of characters, including the shop's mute owner, the other florist Su-ae, and the customers that include a sexually aggressive businessman and a photographer, who San develops an obsession for. Throughout, San's moment with Namae lingers in the back of her mind.A story of desire and violence about a young woman who everyone forgot, VIOLETS is a captivating and sensual read, full of tragedy but also beauty in its lush, vibrant prose."[VIOLETS] binds a spell around the reader until the very end" Park Wanseo"I always find myself acting out the main character in my mind when I read Kyung-Sook Shin's novels. Reading VIOLETS is like she's writing a script written perfectly for me" Doona Bae, actor (Netflix's SENSE8, CLOUD ATLAS)"The story of thwarted desires and the isolated individuals that harbor them... clean prose filled with Shin's trademark rich descriptions" Korea Economic DailyThe Palace of Lost Dreams
By Charlotte Betts. 2018
A sumptuously evocative story set in 18th century India from bestselling author Charlotte Betts, perfect for readers of Dinah Jefferies,…
Lucinda Riley and Jenny Ashcroft.'Romantic, engaging and hugely satisfying' Katie Fforde on The Apothecary's DaughterIndia, 1798. Beatrice Sinclair, a grieving young widow facing financial destitution, has travelled from Hampshire to Hyderabad to visit her brother, an employee of the British East India Company. There, she is astonished to discover that he has married a beautiful Indian girl and lives with his wife's extended family in a dilapidated palace, the Jahanara Mahal - famed for the theft of a fabled diamond many years ago.As an outsider in an unfamiliar world, Bee faces many challenges - not least of all building a new and meaningful life after the heartbreak she has endured. Meanwhile the French and British forces become locked in a battle over India's riches, and matters are complicated further by the presence of the dashing Harry Wyndam: a maverick ex-soldier and suspected spy.With rebellion in the air, Bee must decide where her loyalties lie . . .Reader reviews for Charlotte Betts:'You will never be disappointed with a Charlotte Betts book!' Amazon reviewer'Well-written and thought-provoking' Goodreads reviewer'A fantastic story loaded with history' Amazon reviewerThe President's Gardens
By Muhsin Al-Ramli. 2017
One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Kite Runner in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "A contemporary tragedy of epic proportions. No…
author is better placed than Muhsin Al-Ramli, already a star in the Arabic literary scene, to tell this story. I read it in one sitting". Hassan Blasim, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Iraqi Christ. On the third day of Ramadan, the village wakes to find the severed heads of nine of its sons stacked in banana crates by the bus stop.One of them belonged to one of the most wanted men in Iraq, known to his friends as Ibrahim the Fated.How did this good and humble man earn the enmity of so many? What did he do to deserve such a death?The answer lies in his lifelong friendship with Abdullah Kafka and Tariq the Befuddled, who each have their own remarkable stories to tell.It lies on the scarred, irradiated battlefields of the Gulf War and in the ashes of a revolution strangled in its cradle.It lies in the steadfast love of his wife and the festering scorn of his daughter.And, above all, it lies behind the locked gates of The President's Gardens, buried alongside the countless victims of a pitiless reign of terror.Translated from the Arabic by Luke LeafgrenMoth: One of the Observer's 'Ten Debut Novelists' of 2021
By Melody Razak. 2021
Observer's 'Ten Debut Novelists' of 2021 Harper's Bazaar's 'Five Debut Female Authors to Read This Summer''Powerful and heartbreaking'Observer'Gripping... Razak painstakingly…
paints a portrait of a family; their rituals, their private languages, their shared lives'The Times 'Both a heartbreaking and heart-warming story, Melody Razak's debut transports the reader into the home of a Brahmin family in 1940s Delhi... The character portrayal is so intricate that as the plot twists and turns, you'll truly care what happens to them'Independent'Assured and powerful'Harper's Bazaar'One of the best debuts I've ever read. It made my heart swell'Sarah Winman, author of Tin Man and Still Life'A stunning, powerful work by a brave new voice in British fiction'Anna Hope, author of Expectation 'Powerful and moving... Every character springs from the page'Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures Delhi, 1946 Ma and Bappu are liberal intellectuals teaching at the local university. Their fourteen year-old daughter - precocious, headstrong Alma - is soon to be married: Alma is mostly interested in the wedding shoes and in spinning wild stories for her beloved younger sister Roop, a restless child obsessed with death.Times are bad for girls in India. The long-awaited independence from British rule is heralding a new era of hope, but also of anger and distrust. Political unrest is brewing, threatening to unravel the rich tapestry of Delhi - a city where different cultures, religions and traditions have co-existed for centuries.When Partition happens and the British Raj is fractured overnight, this wonderful family is violently torn apart, and its members are forced to find increasingly desperate ways to survive.But the resilience of the human spirit is an extraordinary thing...MEET THE FAMILY AT THE HEART OF MOTH:Alma: the beating heart of the novel. We meet her as a precocious 14-year old who becomes entangled with the chaos of Partition with devastating consequencesRoop: Alma's younger sister. Obsessed with death, she is a fierce, funny and rather wild child trying to make sense of the destruction that has befallen her familyMa and Bappu: their dream of an independent India collapses under the weight of History. Ma's experience mirrors that of the many Indian women who were hoping for new freedom under an independent India - and had to face more harassment and insecurity insteadAnd many more: the Muslim nanny, forced to hide in a water tank; the widowed house-keeper whose mission is to keep the family together; the old grandmother, obsessed with the family's honour and determined to preserve it no matter the cost...As Though She Were Sleeping
By Elias Khoury. 2007
Meelya's dreams are her refuge from events that threaten her or escape her understanding. She leaves her home in Lebanon…
to live in Nazareth with her Palestinian husband, but Mansour - an older man who fell for her beauty - is frustrated by her spiritual absence.When Mansour's brother's death demands a move to Jaffa - the centre of early tensions between Jewish settlers and displaced Palestinians - Meelya withdraws further into the realm of dreams. Expecting the birth of their son, Mansour can only watch as she cuts loose from the physical world.Over three traumatic nights, past, present and future merge seamlessly into a series of visions that draw the reader towards a conclusion that is powerfully symbolic of the ongoing troubles in the Middle East.The Folded Earth: A Novel
By Anuradha Roy. 2012
In a remote town in the Himalaya, Maya tries to put behind her a time of great sorrow. By day…
she teaches in a school and at night she types up drafts of a magnum opus by her landlord, a relic of princely India known to all as Diwan Sahib. Her bond with this eccentric, and her friendship with a peasant girl, Charu, give her the sense that she might be able to forge a new existence away from the devastation of her past. As Maya finds out, no place is remote enough or small enough. The world she has come to love, where people are connected with nature, is endangered by the town's new administration. The impending elections are hijacked by powerful outsiders who divide people and threaten the future of her school. Charu begins to behave strangely, and soon Maya understands that a new boy in the neighbourhood may be responsible. When Diwan Sahib's nephew arrives to set up his trekking company on their estate, she is drawn to him despite herself, and finally she is forced to confront bitter and terrible truths. A many-layered and powerful narrative, by turns poetic, elegiac and comic, by the author of An Atlas of Impossible Longing.East of the Sun: A Richard and Judy bestseller
By Julia Gregson. 2008
The captivating million copy bestseller of three young women in search of freedom and love in 1920s India.India 1928. A…
land of heat, dust and dreams, and the promise of love ...Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naïve bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom.Each of them has their own reason for leaving their homeland but the hopes and secrets they carry can do little to prepare them for what lies ahead in India. From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites, to the ragged orphans on Tamarind Street, EAST OF THE SUN is an utterly engaging novel that will captivate readers everywhere.Praise for Julia Gregson:'A rich historical novel' Sunday Times'I adored this wonderful story. From the moment I began reading I truly felt as if I was there. Astonishingly good' Dinah Jefferies, author of The Tea Planter's Wife'Lively, atmospheric novel' Sunday Telegraph'Exotic, decadent, dangerous and terrific storytelling' Woman & Home'What a gorgeous read. Exciting, romantic, unpredictable and funny. I didn't want it to end' Tracey UllmanThe Folded Earth
By Anuradha Roy. 2011
In a remote town in the Himalaya, Maya tries to put behind her a time of great sorrow. By day…
she teaches in a school and at night she types up drafts of a magnum opus by her landlord, a relic of princely India known to all as Diwan Sahib. Her bond with this eccentric, and her friendship with a peasant girl, Charu, give her the sense that she might be able to forge a new existence away from the devastation of her past. As Maya finds out, no place is remote enough or small enough. The world she has come to love, where people are connected with nature, is endangered by the town's new administration. The impending elections are hijacked by powerful outsiders who divide people and threaten the future of her school. Charu begins to behave strangely, and soon Maya understands that a new boy in the neighbourhood may be responsible. When Diwan Sahib's nephew arrives to set up his trekking company on their estate, she is drawn to him despite herself, and finally she is forced to confront bitter and terrible truths. A many-layered and powerful narrative, by turns poetic, elegiac and comic, by the author of An Atlas of Impossible Longing.The President's Gardens
By Muhsin Al-Ramli. 2016
One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Kite Runner in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "A contemporary tragedy of epic proportions. No…
author is better placed than Muhsin Al-Ramli, already a star in the Arabic literary scene, to tell this story. I read it in one sitting". Hassan Blasim, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Iraqi Christ. On the third day of Ramadan, the village wakes to find the severed heads of nine of its sons stacked in banana crates by the bus stop.One of them belonged to one of the most wanted men in Iraq, known to his friends as Ibrahim the Fated.How did this good and humble man earn the enmity of so many? What did he do to deserve such a death?The answer lies in his lifelong friendship with Abdullah Kafka and Tariq the Befuddled, who each have their own remarkable stories to tell.It lies on the scarred, irradiated battlefields of the Gulf War and in the ashes of a revolution strangled in its cradle.It lies in the steadfast love of his wife and the festering scorn of his daughter.And, above all, it lies behind the locked gates of The President's Gardens, buried alongside the countless victims of a pitiless reign of terror.Translated from the Arabic by Luke LeafgrenThe Palace of Lost Dreams
By Charlotte Betts. 2018
A sumptuously evocative story set in 18th century India from bestselling author Charlotte Betts, perfect for readers of Dinah Jefferies,…
Lucinda Riley and Jenny Ashcroft.'Romantic, engaging and hugely satisfying' Katie Fforde on The Apothecary's DaughterIndia, 1798. Beatrice Sinclair, a grieving young widow facing financial destitution, has travelled from Hampshire to Hyderabad to visit her brother, an employee of the British East India Company. There, she is astonished to discover that he has married a beautiful Indian girl and lives with his wife's extended family in a dilapidated palace, the Jahanara Mahal - famed for the theft of a fabled diamond many years ago.As an outsider in an unfamiliar world, Bee faces many challenges - not least of all building a new and meaningful life after the heartbreak she has endured. Meanwhile the French and British forces become locked in a battle over India's riches, and matters are complicated further by the presence of the dashing Harry Wyndam: a maverick ex-soldier and suspected spy.With rebellion in the air, Bee must decide where her loyalties lie . . .Reader reviews for Charlotte Betts:'You will never be disappointed with a Charlotte Betts book!' Amazon reviewer'Well-written and thought-provoking' Goodreads reviewer'A fantastic story loaded with history' Amazon reviewerKingdom of Twilight
By Steven Uhly. 2014
HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH - THE TIMESOne night in autumn 1944, a gunshot echoes through the alleyways of…
a small town in occupied Poland. An S.S. officer is shot dead by a young Polish Jew, Margarita Ejzenstain. In retaliation, his commander orders the execution of thirty-seven Poles - one for every year of the dead man's life. First hidden by a German couple, Margarita must then flee the brutal advance of the Soviet army with her new-born baby. So begins a thrilling panorama of intermingled destinies and events that reverberate from that single act of defiance. KINGDOM OF TWILIGHT follows the lives of Jewish refugees and a German family resettled from Bukovina, as well as a former S.S. officer, chronicling the geographical and psychological dislocation generated by war. A quest for identity and truth takes them from Displaced Persons camps to Lübeck, Berlin, Tel Aviv and New York, as they try to make sense of a changed world, and of their place in it. Hypnotically lyrical and intensely moving, Steven Uhly's epic novel is a finely nuanced and yet shattering exploration of universal themes: love, hatred, doubt, survival, guilt, humanity and redemption.For readers of HHHH by Laurent Binet, THE KINDLY ONES by Jonathan Littell, THE ZONE OF INTEREST by Martin Amis, and ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony DoerrTranslated from the German by Jamie Bulloch