Narrative theme: politics / economics

Book SynopsisGathering the best twenty stories from Cynthia Flood’s career, these spare, stylistically inventive stories explore subjects ranging from the domestic to the political.In this collection, Flood navigates a wide range of subject matter with a writing style which gradually becomes more intense, tighter, and sometimes experimental with each story. Most themes are familiar—love, hate, children, the natural world, parents, failure, despair, anger, regret. Other stories are more unusual, dealing with topics such as far-left political activity. Containing what may be some of Flood’s most poignant work, You Are Here is a sharp and engaging exploration of the world today.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR YOU ARE HERE"These stories defy categorization; they are wonderful, layered, powerful, and imbued with clear senses of their often-Canadian settings and eras ... And they infuse bursts of joy into their cadences and descriptions of people’s literal and mental landscapes ... You Are Here is a rich and beautiful short story collection via which the voice of an era can be savored."—Foreword Reviews (starred)"You Are Here presents insightful, often incisive, glances into fictional lives ... Cynthia Flood employs a realistic style to glances into characters who are products of their respective time and place, while at the same time surprising, sometimes jarring, us with unpredictability."—BC ReviewPRAISE FOR CYNTHIA FLOOD“The prose of short story writer Cynthia Flood is sharp, minimalist and concise. Her 2013 collection Red Girl Rat Boy was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her latest book, What Can You Do, is a collection of 12 short stories that features flawed characters who are emotionally broken and adrift.”—Ryan B. Patrick, CBC Books"As the fifth collection of short stories from an award-winning author, it’s no surprise that What Can You Do is an exceptionally written and thought-provoking read. The twelve stories make up just under 150 pages, and in each one Flood does a masterful job creating a sense of existence for her characters that extends beyond the pages of their story."—Joanna Graham, The Winnipeg Review“Cynthia Flood scatters fleeting moments of personal insight throughout the dozen intriguing stories of What Can You Do, her fifth collection. Funnily, though, they’re sporadic, unreliable, and not what Flood’s characters (or readers) might expect. With characters muddling through or getting by with what life hands them, wisdom of the transcendent clarity variety turns out to be a rare commodity. In understated yet nuanced pieces that are bittersweet, sobering, or chuckle-inducing, the Vancouver-based author introduces a gallery of figures for whom paths fork unexpectedly, plans go awry, and expectations require extensive revising. Still, Flood’s characters are managing. And committed to their decisions, as on-the-fly as they might be.”—Brett Josef Grubisic, Vancouver Sun“Her latest collection, What Can You Do? cements her reputation as a gifted and observant storyteller. Technically superb, demonstrating Flood’s unstinting grasp of complex, subterranean emotion, these twelve stories tread familiar territory. The haunting “Struggle,” about a disturbed woman’s memories of her activist past, mines the rivalries and chauvinism of far-left politics in 1970s Vancouver.”—Trevor Corkum, Toronto Star“With rapid-fire narration, power-point prose, and darts of minimalist description, Flood nails her subject. Her characters are impatient to be heard, grabbing your attention, word bullets flying, hope and despair spilling over the pages.”—M.A.C. Farrent, The Vancouver Sun

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Book SynopsisAfter many generations, it is now Harold who runs Ard Farm. Out on the fells, he feels his father’s presence, and there is hope that he, his grandmother and his Uncle Joe will be able to take the farm forward and prosper. But their way of life is under threat: farming is undergoing huge change and increasingly harmful intervention. Towards Mellbreak is a hymn both to the landscape of Cumbria and to a disappearing world. Poetic, beautiful and tragic, it exposes the struggle to preserve traditions and beliefs in the face of change, and an assertion of the power to be found in the rituals we pass down through our families.Trade ReviewA really extraordinary, beautiful meditation on place and time, tradition and identity... passionate, quiet, political * Rowan Williams *This novel is so subtly written, building up the stories of good people and their tough lives, that we feel and then understand the depth of their relationships to each other and this beautiful, hard land - and so the tragedy of what happens is all the more heartbreaking. -- Tim PearsHow refreshing to find a first novel that does not read like the stilted product of a creative writing course… Bragg… not only displays a remarkable gift of observation – of human beings, animals, landscapes – but has written an impassioned elegy for a way of life that has come into head-on collision with the modern world -- Max Davidson * Mail on Sunday *A literary force... In so richly depicting the hermetic bond between the Cumbrian landscape and the people who live there, she makes a subtle political point about the ease with which governments and big business disregard those whose lives are, for the most part, hidden from view -- Claire Allfree * Daily Mail *Toward Mellbreak tells the story of struggling Cumbrian fell farmers, with a blunt lyrical richness that is resonant of Ted Hughes * Good Housekeeping *

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Book SynopsisNever stake more than you can afford to lose. When failed magician turned cardsharp Valen Quinol is given the chance to play in the Forbearance Game—the invitation-only tournament where players gamble with secrets—he can’t resist. Or refuse, for that matter, according to the petty gangster sponsoring his seat at the table. Valen beats the man he was sent to play, and wins the most valuable secret ever staked in the history of the tournament. Now Valen and his motley crew are being hunted by thieves, gangsters, spies and wizards, all with their own reasons for wanting what’s in that envelope. It’s a game of nations where Valen doesn’t know all the rules or who all the players are, and can’t see all the moves. But he does know if the secret falls into the wrong hands, it could plunge the whole world into war…Trade Review‘Intrigue and magic aplenty’ -- Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *‘A fast-paced action story steeped in magic, history, political intrigue, and suspense.’ -- Booklist * Booklist *‘A thrilling tale of intrigue’ -- Aurealis * Aurealis *‘As exciting and as fast-paced as a game of cards’ -- Seattle Book Review * Seattle Book Review *

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Book SynopsisOne Man’s Journey is a re-imagining of events that occurred from the day of Tony Blair's resignation in 2007. The story is a satirical take on our hero's search for meaningful employment from that date onwards. We follow Tony in his desperation to find a job. His bitterness at having being forced out of office pervades the entire story as does his wish to be re-united with his best friend, former-President Bush. Following a traumatic event, Tony is finally contacted by George who offers him a job: to be his personal representative on the first manned NASA mission to the planet Mars. In light of very little else, he accepts and blasts off to Mars accompanied by a crew of elderly astronauts. But the mission isn't as plain sailing as he'd hoped and Tony's time could be running out...

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Book SynopsisWhat happens when two revolutionaries are left with nothing to believe in, not even each other?Never Did the Fire unfolds in the humdrum of everyday working class existence, making the afterlife of an agitator that of anyone living next door. For one old couple, brought together years ago in an underground cell, the revolution has ended in a small apartment, a grinding job caring for the bodies of the unwell well-to-do, and all the aches and pains that go with a long life and a long marriage. Untethered from the political action that defined them, and mourning the loss of their child, their bonds dissolve, but the consequences of their former life, and their dependence on each other, won't let them go.A literary icon in Chile and a major figure in the anti-Pinochet resistance, Diamela Eltit is at the height of her powers in this novel of breakdowns. Never Did the Fire evokes the charged air of Chile's violent past, and the burdens it carries into the present-day, when the structures we built, and the ones we succumbed to, no longer offer us any comfort or prospect of salvation.Trade Review"Never Did the Fire will be a first-rate literary experience for any reader." —El País"One of the greatest merits of Diamela Eltit’s work is the way she narrates failure from the interior of her language." —Letras Libres************Praise for Diamela Eltit Guggenheim Fellowship, 1985 Prize José Nuez Martín, 1995 for Los vigilantes Nominated to Altazor Award 2001 in the category of literary essay with Emergencias. Escritos sobre literatura, arte y política Prize Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso 2010 Nominated to Altazor Award 2011 with the novel with Impuesto a la carne Finalist in the Prize Rómulo Gallegos 2011 with Impuesto a la carne Finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2012 Altazor Award 2014 in the fiction category for Fuerzas especiales Simón Bolívar Professor at University of Cambridge (2014) National Prize for Literature (Chile), 2018 "Her novels are radical projects that dispute the public space, the national interpretation and the role of genres under authoritarian conditions. (...) Her writing has an avant-gardist’s freedom of forms, a political reaffirmation of margins, and an exploratory and rebellious edge." Julio Ortega, BOMB magazine‘One of the most brilliant literary voices in the region (…). Eltit writes furiously.’BBC Mundo

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Book SynopsisJohn Matthews is a janitor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He talks to his wife, Kristen, as he drives to work. He is exhausted and weary from his difficult and long days and the two discuss their economic and other systemic troubles. John never sees Tara, a security guard with her own struggles, when she loses control of her car and barrels into him on the Scranton highway. John wakes up into a foreign world where a guide named Sophia shows him a new and different society. This world is called Amoena Vieta and Sophia shows him a vivid and exciting new societal structure there. It has re-imagined language, government, basic rights, transportation, religion, economics, education, the legal system, media, taxes, and other societal systems and institutions. All of the institutions and systems described eliminate or largely mitigate the constant social problems that exist in his world. As John hears, sees, and learns these things, his life continues to hang in the balance

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Book SynopsisA Guardian Best Fiction Book of 2023 The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award—winning author of The Animals in That Country. A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men. With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans. The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.Trade Review‘McKay’s deployment of language is as exciting and original as her manipulation of ideas. The stories in Gunflower are provocative, poetic, vibrantly alive to contemporary concerns.’ -- Nina Allan * The Guardian *‘It’s not often that a short story collection feels like more than the sum of its parts, but Gunflower is a work of rare depth and skill.’ -- Doug Johnstone * The Big Issue *‘Startling, beautiful, and dangerous. McKay is the brightest of talents. We're lucky to have her.’ -- Robbie Arnott, author of Limberlost‘Amidst a pile of shed skin and fur, McKay moulds a kaleidoscopic and horrifyingly real portrait of life at the fringes. By turns gritty, surreal, and absurd, Gunflower isn’t afraid to weigh flesh on the scales of our own judgments, a delicate balancing act between life and death, connection and disconnection. Perhaps part Kelly Link and Ottessa Moshfegh, McKay delivers an assured follow-up to The Animals in That Country in her own singular voice that zeroes in on our anxieties and existential crises with deft and often poetic flair.’ -- Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark‘Gunflower is like a swarm of small earthquakes: nothing is steady anymore, and the world feels bigger, scarier, almost transcendent in its strangeness.’ -- Miles Allinson, author of In Moonland‘[Laura Jean McKay] has another sense, an extra one that we mortals do not have. She sees and feels the world differently. So acutely, so astutely, so uncannily.’ -- Sian Prior, author of Shy‘The genre-hopping short stories in Gunflower, written over the past two decades, offer invaluable insight into the obsessions that have compelled McKay to return to the page … McKay circles around her thematic obsessions — familial fracture, social and economic liminality, negotiations with motherhood, human and nonhuman subjectivities — and approaches them from multiple angles.’ -- Jack Cameron Stanton * Sydney Morning Herald *‘The stories in Gunflower move between genres and subjects with the queasy swiftness of a fever dream. They are united, however, in their exploration of life in an increasingly changeable and precarious word.’ -- Julian Novitz * The Conversation *‘[M]any of the stories in Gunflower end just as they seem to be approaching the edge of a cliff, giving rise to an uncomfortable sense of urgency. McKay’s ability to close the apparent distances between past and present, human and nonhuman, us and them, feels vital as we approach the precipice of the Anthropocene.’ -- Megan Cheong * Meanjin *‘Gunflower is distinguished by its tonal and formal variety: its bracing sense of the weird jostling with heartfelt compassion; the audacity of brevity and the artful unfolding of detail; a keen ear for working-class vernacular and the more sophisticated language of the educated middle class … Above all, McKay’s stories challenge us to make our own meanings … [Gunflower] is one of the most inventive short story collections I have read this year. It will delight the many admirers of The Animals in that Country and readers new to McKay’s thought-provoking fiction.’ -- Susan Midalia * Australian Book Review *‘The short stories in Laura Jean McKay’s Gunflower are weird and wonderful, just as you’d expect from the author of The Animals in That Country. Some of the concerns of the earlier book are in its follow-up, with a similar dreamlike, even fabulist take on a world that’s familiar but with improbable and fantastical twists. Funny, creepy and addictive.’ -- Michael Williams * Qantas Travel Insider *‘[A] cohesive collection of dizzying, formally inventive, marvellously unique stories … Laura Jean McKay’s latest work is a poetic and mesmerising collection for the holidays.’ * Melbourne Writers Festival *‘A strange and wonderful collection of short stories, set in a slightly “wrong” version of the real world … It’s an uncomfortable view of Australia, and the world, that will really push your thinking.’ * Zee Feed *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘A fierce debut novel … Her writing about people is filthy, fresh, and funny; this is prose on high alert, hackles up and teeth bared in every sentence. The novel becomes both a stirring attempt to inhabit other consciousnesses and a wry demonstration of the limits of our own language and empathy.’ -- Justine Jordan * The Guardian *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘This is a game-changing, life-changing novel, the kind that comes along right when you need it, and compels you to listen to its terrifying poetry. Compulsively readable and yet also pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of language and narrative, this is a brilliant and disturbing book that will make you rethink everything you thought you understood about non-human animal sentience and agency. I don’t think any reader can ever forget a voice like Sue the dingo’s — wise and obscene in equal measure. A triumph.’ -- Ceridwen Dovey, author of Only the AnimalsPraise for The Animals in That Country: ‘This is an absorbing and affecting book, and one to which I’m able to pay the highest compliment: that, in the days after finishing it, the world felt different to me, its animals not speaking but not silent either.’ -- Ben Brooker * Australian Book Review *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘The genius stroke of The Animals in That Country is the preternatural “body talk” of its animals … an affecting book, one that gets remarkably close to the unknowable wildness of animal sentience.’ -- Jack Callil * The Age *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘Laura Jean McKay, an expert in animal communication, has her animals speaking in hallucinogenic haikus — it’s disturbing but compelling, and somehow totally believable. I loved every bizarre, unexpected moment.’ -- Corinna Hente * Herald Sun *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘What a pertinent time to be reading The Animals in That Country … the responses and lockdown efforts of the government and authorities in this novel mirror the scenario unfolding around the coronavirus pandemic … The writing is vibrant, energetic, and refreshing, and the narrative leaps off the page. Jean is an unexpected and unforgettable main protagonist. She’s gutsy, raw, degenerate, and believable … [A] wild, engaging ride.’ -- Karen Viggers * The Australian *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘[The Animals in That Country] is disturbing and darkly comic, disrupting anthropocentric assumptions, revealing how animals might see our often violent intrusion into their lives … McKay’s innovation lies in the startling newness of the plot and the innovations in form in conveying animal voices as agentic and different … The Animals in That Country marks a striking new moment in animal representation in Australian fiction.’ * ALS Gold Medal Judges' Citation *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘What is so exciting about McKay’s novel is the way she refuses both anthropocentrism and the philosophical position that non-human animals are inevitably alien to us … [A]nother of the novel’s strengths is that its thought experiment is conducted without sentimentality, though it is always characterised by humour and warmth … The Animals in That Country will be the wildest ride you take all year.’ -- Maria Takolander * The Saturday Paper *Praise for The Animals in That Country: ‘As we grapple with a worldwide pandemic, Australian author McKay’s novel is incredibly timely and feels all the more real for it … filled with humour, optimism, and grace: a wild ride worth taking. An eye-opening glimpse into a world that’s turned upside down and eventually becomes its own version of whole.’ -- Carol Gladstein * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisA collection of seven short stories, 'The Strength of the Strong' is London's marvellous composition. In these stories London highlighted the problems of the working classes and given a vivid picture of socialistic society. With various symbolic characters for government, industry, labour, religion etc., these stories set in diverse settings. He starts to look back with prehistoric stories, but also includes the stories of Chinese invasion of the world later in twentieth century.

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Book SynopsisDiana Of The Crossways Book 1 is a feminist novel written by George Meredith. The plot introduces you to the life of Diana in Victorian work of fiction, based on the life of notorious socialite Caroline Norton, who married a bad man, wrote pro-feminist literature, and got involved with several political figures. In a Victorian culture that sexualizes all relationships between men and women. Diana is a singular heroine who is impulsive, passionate, and in every way in jeopardy. On the other hand, Diana's friendship with Lady Emma, her best friend, is one that can be compared to romantic love in that it is both physically tactile and emotionally strong. But, how will Diana manage her relationship? Will she ever get overcome by society's taunts? Read to know how Diana will help herself from his bad husband and how she will be the heroine of this story!

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Book SynopsisThe Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli wrote Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius in the early 1600s. It is a book about politics. The book is a commentary on the first ten books of the History of Rome by the Roman historian Titus Livy. Machiavelli wrote this book to give practical advice on how to set up and run a republic. He did this by looking at the Roman Republic, which Livy described. He says that a republic can only work if its citizens are good and are willing to put the needs of the community ahead of their own. Machiavelli talks about many different parts in this book of republican government, such as the importance of law, the role of the military, and the need for good leaders. The author also talks about the problems that come up when trying to set up a republic, like the risk of corruption and how hard it is to keep public support. Thus, readers can find this novel highly analytical and often confrontational, challenging conventional wisdom.

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Book SynopsisA Kirkus Best Indie Book of the Year & a Library Journal Best World Literature read, from Pulitzer Prize-winning AP Journalist and Director/Producer/Writer of 20 Days in Mariupol, Winner of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival's Audience Award in World Cinema Documentary“[A] book for our times—vivid enough to grab us and not let go.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"A powerful psychological thriller about borderline situations in life, hopes and dreams. Written against the backdrop of the war, before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the story acquires an additional passionate and humanistic significance." — Andrey Kurkov, author of Grey Bees“[T]his timely novel from a Ukrainian author excels at examining the connection between reality and dreams and exploring the effects of war on the human psyche.” — Library JournalThe Dreamtime is a fusion of documentary and military fiction inspired by the author’s experience as an award-winning war correspondent that offers a unique and gritty point of view on the horrors of war through four intertwining narratives. Parallel storylines from a guilt-ridden doctor trying to exorcise his demons by exposing himself to war; a young woman tending to her ailing father as the bombs fall around them in Russian-occupied Slovyansk; a mysterious sociopath playing a cat-and-mouse game; and a forensic expert solving a murder case while trying to save her marriage with a discharged soldier bring a raw intensity and a deeply personal connection to the effects of war. As the threads of their stories unfurl, through harrowing scenes of personal and collective trauma, an enigmatic pattern emerges.Shifting from Ukraine's war-torn Donbas to southern Europe and southeast Asia, The Dreamtime ties together themes of existential conflict, the blurred line between reality and dreams, and how easily the boundary dissolves between waking life and nightmare. Originally published in Kyiv in 2020, The Dreamtime has been well received by critics around the world and praised for its realism in depicting war, for its creative literary depiction of how dreams reflect the psyche, and for its masterly prose.Trade Review"Scene by scene, Chernov vividly describes battles fought in the streets, the bombing and shelling of apartments, and the dreams of those on the front lines, physically and psychologically. … [T]his timely novel from a Ukrainian author excels at examining the connection between reality and dreams and exploring the effects of war on the human psyche.”— Library Journal“This ambitious structure gives the novel a disorienting quality that underscores themes of trauma and loss . . . First published in Kyiv in 2020 in conjunction with a visual art exhibition on media and culture, Chernov’s now translated novel will resonate even more today, given the current escalation of Russia's ongoing attack on Ukraine.” — Booklist"A powerful psychological thriller about borderline situations in life, hopes and dreams. Written against the backdrop of the war, before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the story acquires an additional passionate and humanistic significance."— Andrey Kurkov, author of Grey Bees“The Dreamtime is a dark, multi-layered, modern Ukrainian war novel. It demonstrates that war doesn't only occur on the front line, but that it quickly and relentlessly corrodes society, breaking down its structure. Chernov's dense, labored prose is tightly intertwined like blades of grass after a storm. But when engaged with, these interweaving shadows and voices gradually become clear and transparent to the reader.”— Serhiy Zhadan, author of The Orphanage“An ambitious yet highly readable book, Mstyslav Chernov’s The Dreamtime builds on the tragically rich personal experience of this acclaimed and fearless photographer whose deeply moving images from the world’s conflict zones, and especially from the war in his native Ukraine, are now seared in our memory. This novel helps us understand how life goes on in wartime—and how it changes us irrevocably. An impressive literary debut that successfully transfers Chernov’s keen eye and psychological insight to the page.”— Vitaly Chernetsky, University of Kansas"Kaleidoscopic and deeply unsettling, The Dreamtime depicts how the routine of war dissolves boundaries between civilian and soldier, care and violence, waking life and nightmare. Chernov has written an expansive, thought-provoking Ukrainian novel for the early post-Maidan era.”— Sonya Bilocerkowycz, 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow; author of On Our Way Home from the Revolution: Reflections on Ukraine (2019)“The Dreamtime is about survival, living through war, mental illness, and alcoholism in a world where even love has jagged edges. The parallel storylines make it a page turner as we look for moments of hope and vulnerability. This is the creation of a new history.”– Olena Jennings, author of Temporary Shelter (Cervena Barva Press, 2021)“Chernov is a singular voice writing about Ukraine today, and The Dreamtime is essential reading to understanding the ways that war has infiltrated people’s everyday lives far beyond the front lines. It is an ambitious novel that draws together diverse perspectives to reflect the raw emotions of life and death.”— Emily Channell-Justice, Director, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program"Reading the news about and being an eyewitness to the Russian war in Ukraine, there is a strong desire to wish that the current events are all a dream and that one only needs to wake up for it all to disappear. In his novel, Mstyslav Chernov skillfully captures the war's origins, paying attention to important details of the individual choices and tragedies of his characters. Drawing on the images and testimonies he has collected during his time as a war photographer, he masterfully combines the real with the fictional to capture his and others’ unique experiences, revealing another angle of war--one that is intimate and hidden. In doing so, he creates a story where everything may be true, but may also be the author's dream. But, being in someone else’s dream is one of the most fascinating things, isn't it?"— Kateryna Iakovlenko, Ukrainian visual culture scholar, critic, and writerTable of ContentsFirst WallSecond WallThird Wall

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Book SynopsisAn overflowing, mesmeric masterpiece about greed from one of the most remarkable authors on the Spanish scene (The Guardian)Trade Review"Chirbes imbues the characters with passion and intellect...what emerges is a strong sense of late 20th-century Spanish culture and politics." -- Publishers Weekly"A man’s death stirs thoughts among his family and friends, who are also connected by their experience of Spain’s economic surge through the early aughts. A challenging excursion from one of Europe’s most distinctive voices." -- Kirkus, (Starred Review)"Utterly convincing in its psychological details, but also memorable for the beauty of its writing and rhythms." -- Colm Tóibín"Rafael Chirbes is a master of the kind of Spanish literature that shines most brightly in lyrical descriptive passages and powerful metaphors." -- Mara Faye Lethem - The New York Times"The works of the late Spanish novelist Rafael Chirbes offer a rebuke to what we might call lifestyle literature. Two of his final novels, Cremation and On the Edge, both published in translation by New Directions, reclaim a decayed form of modernism to castigate the late aughts’ feast of mammon." -- Dustin Illingworth - The Baffler"Chirbes' novel is a quite powerful book of testimonies and experiences, an indictment of post-Franco Spain that has barreled more or less blindly ahead, damn to many of the consequences." -- Complete Review

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Book SynopsisAn expert's take on how a coup in China could launch a transition to democracy. This short book predictscontrary to the prevailing consensusthat 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 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 thenin the main body of the bookto explain why.Hisgripping, 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 ChinaTrade Review"I just finished reading China Coup and loved it. . . . By posing a provocative ‘what if,’ Mr. Garside expands the terms of our debate on China." * CHINADebate *"A compelling read and a convincing one. At the very least, if Canadians are worried about growing Chinese Communist influence in the free world, they can find in this book a key to unlock a twenty-first-century riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." * Literary Review of Canada *"I decided to treat China Coup as a kind of Orwellian-but-with-a-happy-ending foray into speculative fiction. I knew I would need to take Garside’s claims with a grain of salt, as he would focus as intently on finding cracks in seemingly smooth facades as CCP propagandists, who create ‘semi-fictional’ texts of their own, strive to present those surfaces as flawless." -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom * Mekong Review *"The credentials of the author are burnished by a lifetime of close scrutiny of the People’s Republic, so in a field of many self-proclaimed experts, but fewer genuine authorities, Garside demands attention." * The Tablet *"Garside has had an illustrious career in the financial sector and as a diplomat, including two stints at the British embassy in Beijing. In China Coup he applies his extensive experience to map out a plausible scenario for Xi’s ouster. . . . Garside’s book serves as a timely reminder that there are deep divisions within the CCP, that many of Xi’s policies are vastly unpopular, and that he has powerful enemies among the party’s top leaders. Most importantly, Garside reminds us that the outcome of the 2022 party congress is not a done deal." * The Strategist *"Thought-provoking but not fanciful." * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPreface 1 · The Coup 1 The Coup 2 · Why a Coup? 2 Totalitarian China: Outwardly Strong, Inwardly Weak 3 The Looming Economic Crisis 4 No Trust, No Truth 5 Who Rules: God or the Party? 6 An Environmental Catastrophe 7 Coronavirus: Cover-up and Costs 8 America and the Fate of Xi 9 The Great Unfinished Business 3 · After the Coup, a Revolution 10 Launching the Revolution Afterword: One Life, Two Questions Acknowledgments Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'Brilliant' – V. E. Schwab, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Darker Shade of MagicFor one apprentice assassin, the clock is ticking . . .Pyrre Lakatur doesn’t like the description skullsworn. It doesn’t capture the beauty of her devotion to Ananshael, God of Death. And she’s not an assassin, but a priestess. Or she will be, if she can pass her final trial. The problem isn’t killing, as Pyrre has spent her life training for this. The problem is love. To pass the trial, she will have fourteen days to kill seven people detailed in an ancient song, including one true love, ‘who will not come again’. However, Pyrre has never been in love, time is short, and if she fails she’ll be given to her god. Pyrre’s not afraid to die, but she hates to fail. So a month before the trial begins, she returns to the violent city of her birth, where she once offered an abusive father to the god. Here Pyrre hopes to find love – and end it with the edge of her knife.'Pleasantly grim and emotionally complex' – Kirkus Reviews'Lush, evocative descriptions . . . remarkably intimate' – Publishers WeeklySkullsworn is a thrilling standalone set in the world of the Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne by Brian Staveley.Trade ReviewBrilliant -- V. E. SchwabPleasantly grim and emotionally complex . . . an accessible entree for new readers, who will undoubtedly go on to consume the rest of the series -- Kirkus ReviewsLush, evocative descriptions sharpen the setting . . . Visceral action scenes and memorable characters bring this tale to life. Despite the outsize aspects of this adventure, it still feels remarkably intimate -- Publishers WeeklyBrian Staveley deftly weaves a fast-paced and compelling tale filled with excellent characterization, vivid world-building, and high personal stakes, making this one an outstanding novel on every level -- BibliosanctumSkullsworn is a fantastic standalone book with a very satisfying conclusion -- TheBookBagSkullsworn displays Staveley’s signature bleak style, characters that are teeming with conflict and inner turmoil and exciting small and large-scale fight scenes that should keep every fan of the genre entertained . . . it makes me look forward to my next foray into this exciting universe and makes it easy to give this one a very high recommendation -- FantasyFactionThis is a warm, funny, character focused novel which is also darkly charming, bloody, and lethal. It was very, very hard to put down, and had an emotional punch to match its high adrenaline moments. If you enjoyed the Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne, this is a more than worthy successor text – and if you’ve never read those, you can pick this up, and know you’re in for a fantastic (if sometimes violent) journey -- SF&FReviewsHighly recommend, especially for fans of female characters that like to kick ass -- SpeculativeHeraldA highly engrossing fantasy world -- FantasyBookReviewBrian Staveley is a must-read author -- TheBookGeekKept me mesmerized from start to finish . . . Unique, bold, and exciting, Skullsworn is not to be missed -- Qwillery

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Book SynopsisA brilliantly twisty, 80-page novella from the No. 1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae series. Including an extract from his new Logan novel, THE MISSING AND THE DEAD.It's the night of the big Referendum, and all Acting Detective Inspector Logan McRae has to do is find a missing No' campaigner. Should be easy enoughBut, as usual, DCI Steel has plans of her own. As the votes are counted there's trouble brewing in the pubs and on the streets of Aberdeen.Logan's picked up a promising lead, but all is not quite what it seems, and things are about to go very, very wrongTrade ReviewPraise for Stuart MacBride: ‘MacBride is the natural heir to the late and much lamented Reginald Hill’ Andrew Taylor, Spectator ‘MacBride is a damned fine writer – no one does dark and gritty like him’ Peter James ‘Fierce, unflinching and shot through with the blackest of humour; this is crime fiction of the highest order’ Mark Billingham ‘Some of the grittiest crime-writing in the field’ Independent ‘Admirers of tough, modern crime novels will be in seventh heaven – or should that be hell?’ Express ‘Ferocious and funny’ Val McDermid ‘Hard-hitting prose with a bone-dry humour and characters you can genuinely believe in, Stuart MacBride’s novels are a real treat’ Simon Kernick

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Book SynopsisErasmas, 'Raz', is a young avout living in the Concent, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers. Three times during history's darkest epochs, violence has invaded and devastated the cloistered community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe.But they now prepare to open the Concent's gates to the outside world, in celebration of a once-a-decade rite. Suddenly, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world - as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet...and beyond.Trade Review"'The only catch to reading a novel as imposingly magnificent as this is that for the next few months, everything else seems small and obvious by comparison.' Christopher Brookmyre, Guardian 'Anathem is a brilliant, playful tour of the terrain where logic, mathematics, philosophy and quantum physics intersect, a novel of ideas par excellence, melding wordplay and mathematical theory with a gripping, human adventure.' The Times 'I think this novel is wonderful... Anathem is a call to move into the world.' Andrew McKie, Daily Telegraph 'Neal Stephenson's vertiginous new novel [holds], for me, a boundlessly engaging fascination that comes at the price of being made to feel infinitesimally small: not merely as a human being, but as a writer, too... The only catch to reading a novel as imposingly magnificent as this is that for the next few months, everything else seems small and obvious by comparison.' Christopher Brookmyre, Guardian 'You find yourself enveloped in the atmosphere of a good library, one populated by a cast of characters whose talking is anything but annoying - and often illuminating. Fabulous.' Jonathan Wright, SFX Magazine"

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Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES STYLE RECOMMENDLyrical, moving, revealing'TRACY CHEVALIERBrilliant' NIKITA LALWANISuch beautiful writing A little bit Rear Window, a little bit Home Fire, a little bit Shameless. I loved it'' LOUISA YOUNGDaring and devastating' FIONA MOZLEYA young woman spends her days watching the neighbours through their windows. She is a refugee, who has seen the failure of the Arab Spring in her homeland and who has been traumatized into silence by her brutal journey from Syria to Britain.As an outsider, a mute voyeur, she sees everything, she hears everything: the love, the fighting, the families, the secrets, the lies, the sex, the shame. Slowly drawn into the community that surrounds her, she begins to come to terms with all she has lost. After a brutal attack on the local mosque, she realises she is the only witness to the truth behind the violence. But will she finally speak of all she''s seen?Rear Window meets Exit West, this beautifully written novel tells the powerful story oTrade Review‘Compelling and original, Silence Is a Sense is uncomfortably close to the bone, depicting a country riven by racism and violence’ OBSERVER ‘Silence is a Sense is a fierce novel. The prose is ferocious, the pace is ferocious… Layla AlAmmar has skilfully woven a narrative of memory and grief with an illuminating social critique of the position of asylum seekers within contemporary British society. It is daring and devastating’ FIONA MOZLEY ‘Silence is a Sense is not an easy read, but it is a necessary one’ TLS ‘A powerful new voice, full of brilliant, sharp observational detail’ NIKITA LALWANI ‘I admire this book. It is an intelligent, insightful novel that asks vital questions about how we can begin to express trauma, and in what form’ GUARDIAN ‘Silence is a Sense opens the door on lives we need to hear more about. Lyrical, moving, revealing, it made me understand better the very human need for safety and contact’ TRACY CHEVALIER ‘I was properly enthralled: such intelligence, such a deep pure standard of human decency and connection, such beautiful writing. So intriguing and at the same time revelatory, and absolutely on point about trauma. A little bit Rear Window, a little bit Home Fire, a little bit Shameless. I loved it' LOUISA YOUNG ‘A haunting, lyrical novel about hope, healing and redemption’ RED MAGAZINE ‘The new genre: suburbanoir… Expect more riffs on the dark side of the picket fence to come: out this week is Silence Is a Sense by Layla AlAmmar described as “Rear Window meets [Mohsin Hamid’s] Exit West”, which follows a mute Syrian refugee watching her neighbours from her new apartment’ STYLE MAGAZINE ‘A stunning, evocative read’ J NEWS

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Book SynopsisThe Last Four Things is the second in Paul Hoffman''s remarkable series.Death, Judgement, Heaven and HellThese are the Last Four Things Now there are FiveMeet Thomas CaleReturning to the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, Thomas Cale is told by the Lord Militant that the destruction of mankind is necessary; the only way to undo God''s greatest mistake.Cale seemingly accepts his role in the ending of the world: fate has painted him as the Left Hand of God, the Angel of Death. Absolute power is within his grasp, the terrifying zeal and military might of the Redeemers a weapon for him to handle as simply as he once used a knife.But perhaps not even the grim power that the Redeemers hold over Cale is enough - the boy who turns from love to poisonous hatred in a heartbeat, the boy who switches between kindness and sheer violence in the blink of an eye. The annihilation that the Redeemers seek may well be in Cale''s hands - but his soul is far stranger than they could ever know.The Last Four Things follows on from The Left Hand of God. It is the second instalment in a gripping trilogy by Paul Hoffman. Imagine if Phillip Pullman''s His Dark Materials met Umberto Eco''s Name of the Rose. Fans of epic heroic fiction will love this series.Praise for Paul Hoffman:''This book gripped me from the first chapter and then dropped me days later, dazed and grinning to myself'' Conn Iggulden''Tremendous momentum'' Daily Telegraph''A cult classic . . .'' Daily Express

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Book SynopsisIn The Call of the Tribe, Mario Vargas Llosa surveys the readings that have shaped the way he thinks and has viewed the world over the past fifty years.

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Book SynopsisA tour de force: an utterly singular modern Moroccan classicTrade Review"Bouanani sought to bring out the truth of his homeland even as that land itself, one way or another, rendered honest expression impossible; he had no end of impediments and no more than the narrowest way out. Yet with The Hospital he made it, demonstrating, again, how the best work can run any gantlet, even one lined with devils." -- John Domini - Brooklyn Rail"Hallucinatory." -- Guy Gunaratne - Guardian"The Hospital has attained cult status." -- The Brooklyn Rail

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Book SynopsisDan Fesperman is a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun and a published author of several thrillers. The plots were inspired by the author's own international assignments in countries such as Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.Trade ReviewA first-class thriller that explores how drones may spell the end of privacy... Unmanned reads as the real world of Edward Snowden pollinated with the fictional world of Dave Eggers's novel The Circle. There is no escape. -- Raymond Bonner * Financial Times *Fesperman writes topical thrillers that probe beyond the headlines, and he asks questions about future developments: not just the ethics of long-range, video-game-like warfare, but the danger of rogue spooks using drones for their own ends. * Sunday Times *Part first-class techno thriller, part intriguing spy novel, Unmanned is a timely reminder of the dangers of deadly new technology when it falls into the wrong hands. * Irish Independent *Fesperman builds the prospect of a seriously scary future that's starting right now. Unmanned is a fine thriller which will have you staring at the skies a lot more than you would have done before you started it. * Weekend Sport *A new book by Dan Fesperman is becoming a major literary event * Sunday Telegraph *

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisSomething about your generation I've noticed, she said not unkindly once I had fallen silent, is that you give up very easily. Autumn 2018. A young woman starts a job as a research assistant at Oxford. But she can't shake the feeling that real life is happening elsewhere. Eight months later she finds herself in London. She's landed a temp contract at a society magazine and is paying £80 a week to sleep on a stranger's sofa. As the summer rolls on, tensions with her flatmate escalate. She is overworked and underpaid, spends her free time calculating the increasing austerity in England through the rising cost of Freddos. The prospects of a permanent job seem increasingly unlikely, until she finally asks herself: is it time to give up?**A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR **________________________________PRAISE FOR THREE ROOMS'I was bowled over by this barbed, supple book...spiky, unsettling.' OLIVIA LAING'Cool, sharp and perceptive' Stylist'Crisp and resonant' New Statesman'A phenomenal achievement' The Times'One of the most candid and subtle explorations of class by an English novelist in recent years' TLS'A biting dissection of privilege, race, inequality and ideology in 21st century Britain' i'Jo Hamya is an exceptionally gifted writer...slowly but surely broke my heart' CLAIRE-LOUISE BENNETT'Intelligent, melancholy, funny and subtle' CHRIS POWER'Both spectral and steeped in contemporary reality' OLIVIA SUDJIC'Resigned to renting forever and feeling guilty every time you buy a cup of coffee? You'll want to read Jo Hamya's urgent and intelligent debut' EVENING STANDARDTrade ReviewA phenomenal achievement. Perfectly judged set pieces at parties, offices and art galleries are infused with the illuminating and inquiring mind of an author who watches our society with an unflinching x-ray eye and tells its stories back to us with elegance and wit. And that, surely, is the mark of an excellent writer. -- Melissa Katsoulis * The Times *Biting and truthful ... A polemical novel, in a tradition of women writing about the cost of freedom that includes Woolf and leads to novelists such as Deborah Levy and Rachel Cusk ... [it] also belongs to a new genre of socially realist writing about millennial poverty and what it does to women's ambitions. -- Shahidha Bari * Guardian *An intelligent, original examination of privilege and belonging in 21st-century England. Its account of thwarted progress proves absorbing, enriched as it is by shrewd observations and insightful meditations on the trials of modern life and the state of the nation. * Economist *A biting dissection of privilege, race, inequality and ideology in 21st-century Britain. * i *I was bowled over by this barbed, supple book about precarity and power, both for its spiky, unsettling intelligence and the frank beauty of the writing. -- OLIVIA LAING

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Book SynopsisThe third volume in the million-copy bestselling Nazi spy series for fans of Dan Brown, Steve Berry and Wilbur Smith.'I can't wait to read the next instalment!' -Kindle customer, Amazon'The 3rd instalment in a fantastic series.' -Julien, Amazon'Excellent.' -Dominique, Amazon'Such a pleasure to read... can be read as a standalone.' -Tacha, AmazonJuly 1942. Never has the outcome of the war been more uncertain. Britain might have ruled out any risk of invasion, but Stalin's Russia is bowing under the blows of Hitler's armies. The Nazis unleash an occult war in an attempt to tip the scales: whoever reunites the four sacred Swastikas will win. Double agent Tristan Marcas sets out in search of the Romanov treasure, which is said to harbour the final relic. He's got no time to lose: the battle is about to come to a head...

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Book Synopsis'The best novel I've encountered this year, brilliant and funny and profound, producing some of the most complex, fascinating characters I've ever known. As far as I'm concerned, the novel is an instant classic' Jaroslav Kalfar, author of Spaceman of Bohemia'This is art of the highest order, a masterpiece of restraint, insight and style' Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves9th November 1989, East Berlin, the day the Berlin Wall will fall - Bernd Zeiger, a Stasi agent whose life's work, a manual on the demoralisation of political opponents, once made him renowned now faces an ailing psyche and the fading twilight of his career. His whole life has been reduced to a preoccupation with the disappearance of Lara, a young waitress at his local café. Twenty-five years earlier, during the Cold War, a physicist Johannes Held had been sent by the East Germans to infiltrate a US military operation in the Arizona desert, where teleportation and other paranormal activities were being investigated. On his return to Germany he refused to divulge what he had learned there and Zeiger was summoned to obtain his confession. The torturer and the tortured strangely became friends. But Zeiger soon betrayed Held - a treachery that haunts him to this day and one that will prove to be connected to Lara's disappearance. Darkly comic and hauntingly surreal, The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures examines obsession, Cold War paranoia and the dwindling career of a Stasi operative. Set against the brutal backdrop of communist East Germany, Hofmann's debut captures the fate of humanist fantasies under an extreme surveillance state. Trade ReviewThe Standardization of Demoralization Procedures is a must-read for anyone looking for serious fiction that engages with the biggest issues of our times as well as a hilarious, humanist, gorgeously written treatise on the currents that stir the human soul under the direst circumstances. I read this book in almost a single breath, and it is easily the best novel I've encountered this year, brilliant and funny and profound, producing some of the most complex, fascinating characters I've ever known. As far as I'm concerned, the novel is an instant classic.Reading this gorgeous, dark, and haunted book, one is astonished time and again at Jennifer Hofmann's prodigious gifts ... This is art of the highest order, a masterpiece of restraint, insight, and style. It is a singular feat for a book about subject matter this chilling to make the reader feel so deeply; and yet that is part of the work of timeless literature. * We Are Not Ourselves *A beautiful and haunting novel that will linger in the minds of its readers... The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures challenges the reader to separate the fantastical from the merely bizarre. Is it the state or its citizens who are losing their minds? And how much repression can the human heart and soul withstand? * The Betrayers *Intelligent and thought-provoking but also deeply funny * NB Magazine *[C]lever and constantly surprising...This is a novel in which nothing much appears to happen, yet the gradual accumulation of facts gives it a powerful fascination * The Times *

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Book SynopsisBen Shippers doesn’t have much use for school, friends, or pretty much anyone except his smartass siser, but he does harbor a secret passion: Trash Mountain, the central feature of the noxious landfill next to his house, the fumes from which have made his sister ill. After a botched attempt to destroy Trash Mountain with a homemade firebomb, Ben begins a years-long infiltration operation that leads him to drop out of school to work alongside homeless trash-pickers, and then, eventually, intern at the very place he meant to destroy. Ben’s boss there, a charismatic would-be titan of sanitation, shows Ben the intricate moralities of the trash industry, forcing him to choose between monetary stability and his environmental principles. With dark humor, Trash Mountain reflects on life in small southern cities in decline and an adolescent’s search for fundamental values without responsible adults to lead the way.Trade Review"The novel has an episodic feel, as Ben encounters an array of fellow students, potential employers, and local luminaries. Throughout, Bazzle chronicles the ways in which Ben’s early idealism erodes under more complex concerns. The novel’s tone is occasionally uneven: Bazzle’s observations on questions of race and class feel rooted in a social realism tradition, while other characters, like a long-winded local businessman and his father, a contentious figure nicknamed “Donkey Dan,” seem imported from a more broadly satirical work. Bazzle’s novel explores the compromises one makes in life even as it blends the gritty and the extravagant along the way."--Kirkus Reviews“From Mark Twain to George Saunders, Bradley Bazzle's Trash Mountain joins a long tradition of dark humor, wild inventiveness, and social satire in American letters. By turns hilarious, colorful, and strange, this affecting debut novel revels in the absurd but never strays far from the deeply felt humanity of its characters.”—Maceo Montoya, author of The Deportation of Wopper Barraza “In Trash Mountain, ​Bradley Bazzle has created a perfect protagonist in Ben Shippers: peculiar yet endearing, curiouser than a cat, and ready to take on the (trashy) challenges his young life throws at him. The novel is funny and engaging, and Bradley's concise and vivid prose guides us masterfully to its insightful conclusion. What a fine debut!”—Samrat Upadhyay, author of Arresting God in Kathmandu"Trash Mountain is gripping, with a finely drawn young protagonist, Ben, and a gigantic dump next door to his home. He and his friends call it Trash Mountain, and it is the central character in this book, a multifaceted character that encompasses and compresses all the strands of modern life . . . So, sure, the dump is a veritable mountain of a metaphor for modern life, and even though the whole proposition sounds distasteful, you’ll want to keep on reading and living along with Ben as he tries to figure things out and wreak revenge on the man who owns Bi-Cities and enriches himself by trashing the lives of all who are impacted by Trash Mountain." —Pete McCommons, Flagpole Magazine

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Nazis, spies, romance, and murder collide in prewar eastern Europe in a mesmerizing historical novel by the award-winning author of Oliva’s Garden. It’s 1936. The seaside-resort village of Split on the Adriatic coast bustles. The tourist spots are booming, passenger steamers dot the harbor, and Jewish émigrés have found tenuous refuge from persecution. But as war in Europe looms, Split is also a nest of spies, fascists, and smugglers—and now, a locale suspiciously scouted by a German Reich film crew. Then one summer morning it becomes the scene of a murder investigation when a corpse is found entangled in fishing nets in the port. With so many suspects from all walks of life and with a myriad of motives at a time when tensions are boiling over, crime superintendent Mario Bulat has only rumors to follow. Political archrivals will take advantage of the crime. Local lovers will become embroiled in it. And a propagandist filmmaker will find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. War is coming, and for some in Split, it’s already here.

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Book SynopsisIn an alternate reality a lot like our world, every person's physical size is directly proportional to their wealth. The poorest of the poor are the size of rats, and billionaires are the size of skyscrapers.Warner and his sister Prayer are destitute - and tiny. Their size is not just demeaning but dangerous: day and night they face mortal dangers that bigger, richer people don't ever have to think about, from being mauled by cats to their house getting stepped on. There are no cars or phones built small enough for them, or schools or hospitals, for that matter - there's no point, when no one that little has any purchasing power, and when salaried doctors and teachers would never fit in buildings so small. Warner and Prayer know their only hope is to scale up, but how can two littlepoors survive in a world built against them?Brilliant, warm and funny, this is a social novel for our times in the tradition of 1984 or the work of Douglas Adams.Trade ReviewMunmun is satire at its finest: brilliant, insightful and at times hysterically funny. It's a powerful look at class, wealth and power in our modern world. * Nicola Yoon, bestselling author of EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING *Warner's distinctive voice and language compel readers to pay attention to this detailed world . . . Brilliant, savage, hilarious, a riveting journey through a harsh world that mirrors our own. * Kirkus *This was probably the funniest book I've ever read... Everyone should read this book. * The Guardian on ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL *Funny, warm, enjoyably scatterbrained... An honest depiction of society's reaction to illness and death. * The Observer on ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL *Shocking and funny, unsettling and charming * Roddy Doyle on THE HATERS *Somewhere in the unlikely intersection between 1984 and Douglas Adams sits Munmun, a hilarious and prescient novel that skewers the inequalities of today. In an alternative world, the poor are tiny and the rich skyscraper tall. Warner is the size of a rat, but for how long? * NetGalley *

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Book SynopsisFrom the winner of the 2021 Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature... Determined to overrule the Nigerian President, members of the powerful secret society, The Sacred Order of the Universal Forces, led by Chief Donald Amechi and Christian Evangelist Chris Chuba, employ a terrorist cell to carry out attacks in Northern Nigeria under the guise of forming an Islamic state. Adeline, Chuba's daughter, and young Donaldo Amechi, the only son of the Chief, are desperate to hide their love affair from their parents. When the Chief discovers the relationship, Evangelist Chuba is ordered to sacrifice his daughter. Adeline goes missing, but when it is revealed that the men sent to kill her never reached their target, Chuba and Amechi are haunted by what really happened to the young girl. Set against the backdrop of Nigeria's ongoing terrorism tensions and upcoming elections, Satans and Shaitans is a powerful story about love, politics, power, religion, terrorism, and corruption.

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