Political oppression and persecution Books

Book Synopsis'[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY JORDAN B. PETERSONA vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair.A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation. 'Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece...The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today' Anne Applebaum THE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & IIITrade ReviewTo live now and not to know this work is to be a kind of historical fool missing a crucial part of the consciousness of the age * Guardian *The ferocious testimony of a man of genius * London Magazine *What gives the book its value is the sound it gives out; the harsh roar give out by a wise and experienced animal as a warning that the herd is in danger * Sunday Telegraph *He is one of the towering figures of the age as a writer, as moralist, as hero... in The Gulag Archipelago he has acheived the impossible * Observer *It is impossible to name a book that had a greater effect on the political and moral consciousness of the late twentieth century * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisAn essay on the nature of human revolt, this book makes a critique of communism, how it had gone wrong behind the Iron Curtain, and the resulting totalitarian regimes. It also questions two events held sacred by the left wing, the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917.

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Book SynopsisBringing into harsh focus the daily struggle for existence in a Soviet gulag, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn''s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is translated by Ralph Parker in Penguin Modern Classics. This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth and food are the first objectives. Reading it, you enter a world of incarceration, brutality, hard manual labour and freezing cold - and participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigours of nature and the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.Though twice-decorated for his service at the front during the Second World War, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was arrested in 1945 for making derogatory remarks about Stalin, and sent to a series of brutal Soviet labour camps in the Arctic Circle, where he remained for eight years. Released after Stalin''s death, he worked as a teacher, publishing his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich with the approval of Nikita Khrushchev in 1962, to huge success. His 1967 novel Cancer Ward, as well as his magnum opus The Gulag Archipelago, were not as well-received by Soviet authorities, and not long after being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970, Solzhenitsyn was deported from the USSR. In 1994, after twenty years in exile, Solzhenitsyn made his long-awaited return to Russia.If you enjoyed One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, you might also like Yevgeny Zamyatin''s We, available in Penguin Classics.''It is a blow struck for human freedom all over the world ... and it is gloriously readable''Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisMalm unearths the shared roots of colonial adventurism in Palestine and fossil fuelled warfare.Israel’s pulverization of Gaza since October 7, 2023 is not only a humanitarian crisis, but an environmental catastrophe. Far from the first event of its kind, the devastation Israel has inflicted on Palestine since October 2023 has merely ushered in a new phase in a long history of colonization and extraction that reaches back to the nineteenth century. In this urgent pamphlet, Andreas Malm argues that a true understanding of the present crisis requires a longue durée analysis of Palestine's subjugation to fossil empire. Returning to the British empire’s first use of steam-power in war, in which it destroyed the Palestinian city of Akka, Malm traces the development of Britain’s fossil empire and shows how this enduring commitment to fossil energy continues to drive Western support for the destruction of Palestine today.

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Book Synopsis'[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday TelegraphWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY NATALIA SOLZHENITSYNA vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair.A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation.'Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece...The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today' Anne ApplebaumTHE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & III

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Book SynopsisWho Killed My Father is the story of a tough guy – the story of the little boy I never was. The story of my father.‘What a beautiful book’ MAX PORTERIn Who Killed My Father, Édouard Louis explores key moments in his father’s life, and the tenderness and disconnects in their relationship. Told with the fire of a writer determined on social justice, and with the compassion of a loving son, the book urgently and brilliantly engages with issues surrounding masculinity, class, homophobia, shame and social poverty. It unflinchingly takes aim at systems that disadvantage those they seek to exclude – those who have their expectations, hopes and passions crushed by a society which gives them little thought.‘Édouard Louis is the vanguard of France’s new generation of political writers’ Evening StandardTrade ReviewEdouard Louis [is] the vanguard of France’s new generation of political writers -- Arjun Neil Alim * Evening Standard *Edouard Louis… speaks with an emotional authenticity and a stylistic confidence that is hard to ignore -- Tim Adams * Observer *This short work tackles the intersections of class, gender and sexuality... Louis gives voice to the way the cruel, crude hegemony of masculinity has essentially destroyed his father’s life, making him “as much a victim of the violence” he inflicted as of the violence he endured -- Lauren Elkin * Guardian *This valuable tale brings emotion to a discussion led by numbers, encouraging us to remember the real human lives affected by policy and political point-scoring -- Todd Gillespie * Financial Times *To understand what is happening now in France, or indeed, all over Europe, this is an essential text * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisBobby Sands was 27 years old when he died. He spent almost nine years of his life in prison because of his Irish republican activities. He died, in prison, on 5 May 1981, on the sixty-sixth day of his hunger strike at Long Kesh Prison, outside Belfast. This book documents a day in the life of Bobby Sands. It is a tale of human bravery, endurance and courage against a backdrop of suffering, terror and harassment. It will live on as a constant reminder of events that should never have happened – and hopefully will never happen again.Trade Review'They were followed in 1982 by Bobby’s ‘One Day in My Life’ with an introduction by Seán Mac Bride. This was published by Mercier Press of Dublin and Cork whose founder and director John M. Feehan in 1983 wrote and published ‘Bobby Sands and the Tragedy of Northern Ireland’, an impassioned account of the political context of Bobby’s life and the war then raging. Feehan deserved credit for such work in the face of the prevailing censorship and demonization of republicans. With superb irony, he placed on the title page of his own book Margaret Thatcher’s words: “You have to be prepared to defend the things in which you believe and be prepared to use force to secure the future of liberty and self-determination.” ' - MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA, An Phoblact

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Book SynopsisA major film, co-written and directed by Angelina Jolie Until the age of five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. She was a precocious child who loved the open city markets, fried crickets, chicken fights and being cheeky to her parents.When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Loung's family fled their home and were eventually forced to disperse to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier while her brothers and sisters were sent to labour camps. The surviving siblings were only finally reunited after the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia and started to destroy the Khmer Rouge.Bolstered by the bravery of one brother, the vision of the others and the gentle kindness of her sister, Loung forged on to create for herself a courageous new life.First They Killed My Father is an unforgettable book told through the voice of the young and fearless Loung. It is a shocking and tragic tale of a girl who was determined to survive despite the odds.Trade ReviewSo sharp with pain that when I read it, the words plunged into me like a knife -- Jon Swain * Sunday Times *There can be absolutely no doubt about the innate power of [Ung's] story, the passion with which she tells it or its enduring importance * Washington Post Book World *Ung's memoir should serve as a reminder that some history is best not left just to historians but to those left behind when the terror ends * Booklist *I was deeply affected by Loung’s book. It deepened my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it * Angelina Jolie Pitt *

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Book SynopsisThis landmark book uncovers for the first time in detail one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century: the vast system of Soviet camps that were responsible for the deaths of countless millions.Gulag is the only major history in any language to draw together the mass of memoirs and writings on the Soviet camps that have been published in Russia and the West. Using these, as well as her own original research in NKVD archives and interviews with survivors, Anne Applebaum has written a fully documented history of the camp system: from its origins under the tsars, to its colossal expansion under Stalin''s reign of terror, its zenith in the late 1940s and eventual collapse in the era of glasnost. It is a gigantic feat of investigation, synthesis and moral reckoning.

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Book SynopsisOrlando Figes'' The Whisperers is a groundbreaking account of daily life in the chaotic and paranoid atmosphere of Stalinist Russia. Exploring the inner life of a Russia where everyone was afraid to talk and society spoke in whispers, whether to protect friends and family - or to betray them - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin''s Terror. Where a junior worker might inform on their superior to get their job; a husband to get rid of a lover; a neighbour out of petty jealousy. Where living a double life became the norm and yet, somehow, a few defied the state. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. Drawing on hundreds of family archives from across the whole spectrum of Russian society, The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them. ''Wonderful ... an amazing panoramic view ... I''ve rarely read anything like it''   Claire Tomalin ''Awesome ... one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage''    Simon Sebag Montefiore, Mail on Sunday ''This is a heart-rending book ... its importance cannot be overestimated ... This book should be made compulsory reading in Russia today''   Antony Beevor, author Of Stalingrad ''A masterful account of lost and stolen lives''   Sunday Times Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A Peoples Tragedy, Natasha''s Dance and The Whisperers. He lives in Cambridge and London. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.Trade ReviewWonderful ... an amazing panoramic view ... I've rarely read anything like it * Claire Tomalin *Awesome ... one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage ... a celebration of family love in an epoch of hellish cruelty ... now in this book these righteous heroes have their rightful memorial -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Mail on Sunday *This is a heart-rending book ... its importance cannot be overestimated ... This book should be made compulsory reading in Russia today -- Antony Beevor, author of * Stalingrad *A masterful account of lost and stolen lives * Sunday Times *Awesome … one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage … a celebration of family love in an epoch of hellish cruelty … now in this book these righteous heroes have their rightful memorial -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Mail on Sunday *Awesome … one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage … a celebration of family love in an epoch of hellish cruelty … now in this book these righteous heroes have their rightful memorial -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisMadeline Potter was born in Romania in 1989 and grew up Romani in nineties post-Communist Romania. She now lives in Scotland and is a scholar of nineteenth-century literature at the University of Edinburgh, having earned her PhD from the University of York in 2020. Her academic monograph, THEOLOGICAL MONSTERS, will be published in 2024. THE ROMA: A TRAVELLING HISTORY is her first trade book.

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Book SynopsisThe nation-state and the colonial state have always been the same thing: the ethnic and religious majorities of the former created only through the violent “minoritization” inherent in the latter. Assessing cases from the United States to Eastern Europe, Israel, and Sudan, Mahmood Mamdani suggests a radical solution: the state without a nation.Trade ReviewDemonstrates how a broad rethinking of political issues becomes possible when Western ideals and practices are examined from the vantage point of Asia and Africa. -- Pankaj Mishra * New York Review of Books *Argues for a wider, political approach to understanding historical violence rather than an individual, criminal one. Mamdani examines everything from the treatment of Native Americans to Nazism to South African apartheid. It is a complex and at times painful book, but history is often complex and painful, and trying to understand it is one of our few real paths to progress. -- Candice Millard * New York Times *Over half a century, Mamdani has carved out a reputation as a forceful and articulate critic of political modernity’s supposed peace-bringing qualities…Neither Settler nor Native is [his] most comprehensive exploration yet of the subject of majority–minority relations. In a comparative analysis of five countries…he locates the origin story of contemporary postcolonial political violence far back in history. -- Francis Wade * The Baffler *Mamdani makes a compelling case… Although the book’s scope is ambitious…it has a clear starting point: the invention of indirect rule as a technique of modern colonial governance…Mamdani draws on the details of his case studies to formulate some broad lessons for decolonizing politics today—most importantly, disaggregating the nation from the state and creating more inclusive forms of democratic politics in the wake of identity-based strife. -- Hari Ramesh * Boston Review *Provocative, elegantly written…with the aim of understanding the sources of the extreme violence that has plagued so many postcolonial societies. -- Fara Dabhoiwala * New York Review of Books *This book compels the reader to rethink the origin and development of the nation-state and its replication as inseparable from European colonialism, beginning with the establishment of the Spanish state through racialized ethnic cleansing and the 1492 deportations of Jews and Moors. In elegant prose with no wasted words or jargon, this original and brilliant work argues that the United States created the template for settler-colonialism, providing the model upon which the South African apartheid regime and the Israeli state were patterned, a model also used by the Nazi regime that adopted US race theory and catastrophic ethnic cleansing. The book provides not only profound historical analysis but also deeply researched descriptions of the current US and Israeli regimes of settler-colonialism and more. -- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United StatesBrilliant! A deeply learned account of the origins of our modern world. Situating the beginnings of the nation-state in the settler-colonial practice of creating permanent minorities, Mamdani illustrates how this damaging political logic continues into our own era, resulting far too often in today’s extraordinary political violence. Through his own elegant contrarianism, Mamdani rejects the current focus on human rights as the means to bring justice to the victims of this colonial and postcolonial bloodshed. Instead, he calls for a new kind of political imagination, one that will pave the way for a truly decolonized future. Joining the ranks of Hannah Arendt’s Imperialism, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, and Edward Said’s Orientalism, this book is destined to become a classic text of postcolonial studies and political theory. -- Moustafa Bayoumi, Brooklyn College, City University of New YorkNeither Settler nor Native analyzes seemingly disparate political histories to illuminate the intertwined logic of colonial statecraft and nation-building, the legacy of which was the violent manufacture of permanent majorities and minorities the world over. This is a masterwork of historical comparison and razor-sharp political analysis, with grave lessons about the pitfalls of forgetting, moralizing, or criminalizing this violence. Mamdani also offers a hopeful rejoinder in a revived politics of decolonization, not as romantic revolution but a renewed art of politics. Decolonization uses the tools of political engagement and negotiation to unsettle inherited identities, to convert perpetrators and victims into survivors, natives and settlers into citizens, nation-states into inclusive democracies. -- Karuna Mantena, Columbia UniversityA powerfully original argument, one that supplements political analysis with a map for our political future. -- Faisal Devji, University of OxfordAn urgent intervention in contemporary politics. In a searing critique of the nation-state, Mamdani persuasively argues that there will be no decolonization, no democracy, no peace until we de-link the association between the ‘nation’ and state power. -- Nandita Sharma * The Wire *Mamdani [is] one of the most perceptive and savviest analysts of postcolonial African history…A major achievement. A veritable testimony to the strength and resources of political thought that is a boon to his students and admirers, and to every other reader not enchanted by the discourses of the powers-that-be. -- S. Parvez Manzoor * Muslim World Book Review *

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Book SynopsisThe official line is clear: the UK does not 'participate in, solicit, encourage or condone' torture. And yet, the evidence is irrefutable: when faced with potential threats to our national security, the gloves always come off. Drawing on previously unseen official documents, and the accounts of witnesses, victims and experts, prize-winning investigative journalist Ian Cobain looks beyond the cover-ups and the equivocations, to get to the truth. From WWII to the War on Terror, via Kenya and Northern Ireland, Cruel Britannia shows how the British have repeatedly and systematically resorted to torture, bending the law where they can, and issuing categorical denials all the while. What emerges is a picture of Britain that challenges our complacency and exposes the lie behind our reputation for fair play.

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Book SynopsisSelected as a Book of the Year in 2017 in the Scottish Herald ''The beauty of the prose is in contrast with the horror anticipated by this superbly subtle narrative'' Kapka KassabovaIn 1971, on a routine outing through the Cambodian countryside, the young French ethnologist Fran-ois Bizot is captured by the Khmer Rouge. Accused of being an agent of ''American imperialism'', he is chained and imprisoned. His captor, Douch - later responsible for tens of thousands of deaths - interrogates him at length; after three months of torturous deliberation, during which his every word was weighed and his life hung in the balance, he was released. Four years later, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. Fran-ois Bizot became the official intermediary between the ruthless conqueror and the terrified refugees behind the gate of the French embassy: a ringside seat to one of history''s most appalling genocides. Written thirty years later, Fran-ois Bizot''s memoir of his horrific experiences in the ''killing fields'' of Cambodia is, in the words of John le Carr-, a ''contemporary classic''.

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Book SynopsisIn the terrible aftermath of the moorland battle of Culloden, the Highlanders suffered at the hands of their own clan chiefs. Following his magnificent reconstruction of Culloden, John Prebble recounts how the Highlanders were deserted and then betrayed into famine and poverty. While their chiefs grew rich on meat and wool, the people died of cholera and starvation or, evicted from the glens to make way for sheep, were forced to emigrate to foreign lands. Mr Prebble tells a terrible story excellently. There is little need to search further to explain so much of the sadness and emptiness of the northern Highlands today' The Times.

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Soon to be a major film, co-written and directed by Angelina Jolie PittUntil the age of five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. She was a precocious child who loved the open city markets, fried crickets, chicken fights and being cheeky to her parents.When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Loung's family fled their home and were eventually forced to disperse to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier while her brothers and sisters were sent to labour camps. The surviving siblings were only finally reunited after the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia and started to destroy the Khmer Rouge.Bolstered by the bravery of one brother, the vision of the others and the gentle kindness of her sister, Loung forged on to create for herself a courageous new life.First They Killed My Father is an unforgettable book told through the voice of the young and fearless Loung. It is a shocking and tragic tale of a girl who was determined to survive despite the odds.

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Book SynopsisAn edited collection Silvia Federici's work, spanning over twenty years, in which she provides a detailed history and critique of the politics of the commons from a feminist perspective.

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Book Synopsis‘Joyous … a book that makes other journalists weep with envy’ The Economist 'Provocative, touching, and sensitively written … an eloquent, brilliantly researched account’ Sunday Times One of The Economist’s best books by foreign correspondents. A story of grim comedy amid the apocalypse and a celebration of the sheer indestructibility of the human spirit in a nation run riot: Michela Wrong’s vision of Congo/Zaire during the Mobutu years is incisive, ironic and revelatory. Mr Kurtz, the colonial white master, brought evil to the remote upper reaches of the Congo River. A century after Conrad’s 'Heart of Darkness' was first published, Michela Wrong revisits the Congo as the era of Mobutu Sese Seko collapses into absurdity, anarchy and corruption. Hers is a brilliant portrait of the grotesque as confusion takes over: pink lipsticked rebel soldiers mingle with tracksuited secret policemen in hotels where fin de siecle dinner parties are ploughing through hotel wine cellars rather than see bottles lost to the new regime. Congo, Africa’s richest country in terms of its natural resources, has institutionalised kleptomania: everyone is on the take. In a country where the minimum wage has dropped to below $150 a year, the government over twenty-five years spent $250 million providing courtesy cars. Congo has a vanity nuclear reactor built on a subsiding slope and one of its uranium rods is missing… The Mobutu reign, successor to Belgium’s failed imperial experiment in Africa, was fed by World Bank dollars and IMF loans. Having presided over unprecedented looting of the country’s wealth, Mobutu, like Kurtz, retreated deep within the jungle to his absurdly overwrought palace of marble floors and gold taps. A century on, nothing seems to have changed at the heart of Africa: it is lawless, graceless and it slaughters its own.Trade Review‘A brilliant account of Africa’s most extraordinary dictator told with wry wit and delicious irony… this book will become a classic’ The Economist ‘Provocative, touching, and sensitively written … an eloquent, brilliantly researched account and a remarkably sympathetic study of a tragic land’ Sunday Times ‘Michela Wrong made the so-called ‘Heart of Darkness' much less opaque to me when I visited the Congo. She can do the same for you if you read this brave and witty book’ Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great ‘Michela Wrong nimbly balances absurdity and outrage in her portrait of Mobutu Sese Seko and the wreckage he visited – with steady Western sponsorship – on the country he called Zaire. Her book is charged with pity and terror, and with the sort of sustaining humour that she rightly admires in Mobutu’s former subjects’ Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We will be Killed With Our Families

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Book SynopsisA Must-Read Book of 2020 - TIME'Should be read around the world.' Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist'Garza is ferociously smart and laser-focused... her passion is infectious.' Guardian_______________Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag when Alicia Garza wrote what she calls 'a love letter to Black people' on Facebook. But hashtags don't build movements, she tells us. People do. Interwoven with Garza's experience of life as a Black woman, The Purpose of Power is the story of how she responded to the persistent message that Black lives are of less value than white lives by galvanizing people to create change. It's an insight into grass roots organizing to deliver basic needs - affordable housing, workplace protections, access to good education - to those locked out of the economy by racism. It is an attempt not only to make sense of where Black Lives Matter came from but also to understand the possibilities that Black Lives Matter and movements like it hold for our collective futures. Ultimately, it's an appeal to hearts and minds, demanding that we think about our privileges and prejudices and ask how we might contribute to the change we want to see in the world._______________'Alicia Garza combines immense wisdom with political courage to inspire a new generation of activists, dreamers and leaders... People like Alicia have been speaking up for decades. If we want to turn protest into substantive change, it's about time we finally listened.' David Lammy, MP'Insightful, compelling and necessary.' Bryan Stevenson, author of Just MercyTrade Review"Black lives matter" - Alicia Garza's love letter read around the world. The Purpose of Power is another love letter that should be read around the world. * IBRAM X. KENDI, bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist *In a year where a long overdue reckoning with racism is once again in the spotlight, Garza's call to action to create a sustainable movement bigger than hashtags and social media followings is urgent and critically necessary * TIME *Lessons from a 20-year career spent organizing for change. * INDEPENDENT, A Book of 2020 *Read it for a fresh dose of inspiration for activism and justice. * GLAMOUR *Incisive, uplifting, and exactly what the world needs right now... A must-read book. * STYLIST *Alicia Garza has articulated the aspiration of generations of Black people to be valued, protected, respected and free. This beautiful, important and timely memoir is insightful, compelling and necessary in this critical moment of reckoning with our history * BRYAN STEVENSON, author of New York Times bestseller Just Mercy *As co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Garza has been leading the fight against racism for years. * COSMOPOLITAN *Alicia Garza's story is the definition of powerful. Part memoir, part roadmap, this book will light the way for anyone who wants to follow in her inspiring footsteps. Fed up of hashtag activism? This is the read you've been waiting for. * VIV GROSKOP, author of HOW TO OWN THE ROOM *Alicia Garza combines immense wisdom with political courage to inspire a new generation of activists, dreamers and leaders. Transforming the very meaning of solidarity, unity and leadership, The Purpose of Power offers a new model of organizing that makes room for those willing to learn. People like Alicia have been speaking up for decades. If we want to turn protest into substantive change, it's about time we finally listened * DAVID LAMMY, MP *'The Purpose of Power is a must read... Anyone interested in turning the page of our contemptible past toward a brighter future should put this book on their reading list' * Congresswoman Barbara Lee *A rousing, rigorous book to enlighten and inspire. * CULTURE WHISPERER *In a year when a long overdue reckoning with racism is once again in the spotlight, Garza's call to action to create a sustainable movement bigger than hashtags and social media followings is urgent and critically necessary. * TIME *

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Book SynopsisThe first major book on the uprisings in Iran in 2022 and 2023Trade Review'A document of real optimism, and a thoughtful examination of the layers of work on which political change is built.' Guardian'The question on many policymakers’ lips at the moment is: "What does Iran want?" In the past few weeks the regime has launched missile strikes on Iraq, Syria and Pakistan … But this book by the Iranian-American historian Arash Azizi seeks to answer a different question — what do Iranians want?' The Times'In What Iranians Want, Arash Azizi achieves what has eluded many historians and journalists. His retelling of historical events is precise, illuminating, while his narrative style stays informal and accessible. What Iranians Want is an important achievement and a great addition to the rich library on modern Iran.' Maziar Bahari, author of Then They Came For Me'Deeply moving, thoughtful and thought-provoking, What Iranians Want is a homage to the Iranian people, especially women, and their struggles for life and freedom.' Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran'Iran is an enigma for many people, not least because the Western media usually only scratches the surface of this multi-layered society. Arash Azizi’s book is a guide for the perplexed. Not only does he deliver on the promise that the book’s title suggests, but he also goes beyond that by trying to explain "why" Iranians are fighting for women’s rights, freedom of expression, peace…and a "normal life". A truly absorbing and enlightening book for general readers and scholars alike!' Erfan Sabeti, editorial board member, Aasoo.org‘This passionate book… the author lays out the situation in a cleareyed manner, and readers will leave with a deeper understanding of Iran’s historical and current circumstances… In a brave, disturbing book, Azizi exposes the nature of the Iranian regime and applauds the courage of its opponents.’ Kirkus Reviews'We’re told history is written by the victors – if that’s the case, the Iranian people will win out. Arash Azizi’s new book is a passionate and urgent examination of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Azizi lays out how this movement is a culmination of events – years of the Iranian people beating back and rising above their oppressors. Not only does Azizi study the root causes of the movement, but he shows people who are yearning to be who they are, who are standing firm in their ancient history, determined to save their country, even as they retain and celebrate their diversity. This is required reading.' Neda Toloui-Semnani, author of They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents‘An Iranian in exile, Azizi reveals his love for home and country in this exposé that supports the protest movement as much as it takes a critical stance… With insider insights into the Iranian protests for freedom and dignity, What Iranians Want declares love for people who refuse to cower.’ Foreword Reviews‘A popular book that addresses an authoritarian, possibly totalitarian regime, in the Middle East is a welcome addition to the field… this book decentralised the story of Iran away from the West.’ History With Jackson

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Book SynopsisNo choice. No way out. Believed to be dead, Adrian Hell now fights for a new cause, knowing he can never go back to his old life. But death might have been the better option. As the world recovers from the shocking events in A Necessary Kill, Adrian is living a new life, killing without prejudice to repay the debt he owes the people who saved him. But he can't change who he is. When he begins to question the motives of his saviors, he puts himself in a dangerous situation that could cost him everything. An intensely gripping thriller that fans of John Milton and Jason Bourne will love. _____________________________________________________GENRE: Action ThrillerKEY THEMES: Assassins, Conspiracy, Espionage, Politics, Terrorism, Vigilante Justice_____________________________________________________Praise for the Adrian Hell series5.0 out of 5 stars I'm hooked!5.0 out of 5 stars - Can't say edge of my seat; more like edge of a nonstop blockbuster! Fantastic read! With more twists and turns than a Fall Corn Maze. A definite MUST read. 5.0 out of 5 stars - Folks, it doesn't get any better than this. (I wish I could give it more stars.)5.0 out of 5 stars - From the first page it was one of the best nooks I've ever read. 5.0 out of 5 stars - Fast paced and ferocious. Hell rocks! I absolutely loved this book.

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Book SynopsisIsraeli universities have long enjoyed a reputation as liberal bastions of freedom and democracy. Drawing on extensive research and making Hebrew sources accessible to the international community, Maya Wind shatters this myth and documents how Israeli universities are directly complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights.As this book shows, Israeli universities serve as pillars of Israel's system of oppression against Palestinians. Academic disciplines, degree programs, campus infrastructure, and research laboratories all service Israeli occupation and apartheid, while universities violate the rights of Palestinians to education, stifle critical scholarship, and violently repress student dissent. Towers of Ivory and Steel is a powerful expose of Israeli academia's ongoing and active complicity in Israel's settler-colonial project.Trade ReviewThis book lands like a grenade, detonating comfortable and long held myths about the liberalism and independence of Israel's university system. In their place, Wind's rigorous and jaw-dropping research reveals countless ways that the nation's most celebrated and storied education institutions are utterly entangled in the violent machinery of Palestinian dispossession, occupation, incarceration, surveillance, siege and military bombardment. From the development of deadly weapons to the crafting of state propaganda to the training of officers, there is no escaping the conclusion that these universities are part and parcel of the official infrastructure that has enabled Israel to systematically avoid the political solutions that are the only hope of enduring peace in the region. An explosive contribution from a brilliant young scholar. -- Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and DoppelgangerThere are no ivory towers! Maya Wind brings this truth to the light with a forensic accounting of Israeli universities and their complete implication in Israel's occupation and apartheid regime. Towers of Ivory and Steel lays bare Israeli campuses as Jewish settlements of replacement in occupied lands, the knowledge arm for security forces and the local military industry, and as sites of Palestinian intellectual suppression, all co-signed by the "liberal silence" of Israeli academics. Fearless, emphatic, and unflinching. No other work better demonstrates why higher education remains a vital site of struggle over the future of democracy, in Israel, in Palestine, and across the world. -- Davarian L. Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our CitiesThis book is a must read - meticulously researched, lucidly written, and convincingly argued. Wind deftly illuminates the myriad ways in which the university is a site of meaningful struggle, debunking the deep-seated myths that heretofore have served to normalize Israel's academic complex as it is part and parcel of the state's settler colonial projects of both occupation and apartheid that violently dominate and dispossess the Palestinian people. Towers of Ivory and Steel provides a roadmap for Israeli academics to end the institutional complicity and join the movement to remake higher education for liberation. -- J. Kehaulani Kauanui, author of Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State NationalismA devastating analysis of the extensive, insidious ways that the Israeli academy is central to the architecture of occupation, settler colonial violence, and repression of Palestinians. Through meticulous ethnographic and archival research, Wind not only gives lie to the claim that the Israeli academy is a bastion of academic freedom and vigorous debate. She provides a model for the decolonial work we must all do until there is freedom and liberation for all. -- Jessica Winegar, co-author with Lara Deeb of Anthropology's Politics: Disciplining the Middle EastDrawing on Hebrew sources, Maya Wind shatters the myth of liberal expression in Israeli universities, revealing instead how they prop up apartheid. -- Rebecca Ruth Gould * New Arab *Towers of Ivory and Steel is a paradigm-shifting book, with incredible insider reporting that provides riveting detail of how Israeli universities serve primarily as centers of military research, propaganda, and command. A must read. -- Sarah Schulman * Bookforum *Table of ContentsForeword by Nadia Abu El-HajIntroductionPart I:COMPLICITY1. Expertise of Subjugation2. Outpost Campus3. The Scholarly Security StatePart II:REPRESSION4. Epistemic Occupation5. Students Under Siege6. Academia Against LiberationEpilogueAfterword by Robin D. G. KelleyNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisYang Jisheng''s Tombstone is the book that broke the silence on of one of history''s most terrible crimesMore people died in Mao''s Great Famine than in the entire First World War, yet this story has remained largely untold, until now. Still banned in China, Tombstone draws on the author''s privileged access to official and unofficial sources to uncover the full human cost of the tragedy, and create an unprecedented work of historical reckoning.''A book of great importance'' Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans''The first proper history of China''s great famine ... So thorough is his documentation that some are already calling Yang China''s Solzhenitsyn'' Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag: A HistoryTrade ReviewA book of great importance -- Jung Chang, author of 'Wild Swans'The first proper history of China's great famine ... So thorough is his documentation that some are already calling Yang "China's Solzhenitsyn" -- Anne Applebaum, author of 'Gulag: A History'In 1989 hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Chinese died in the June Fourth massacre in Beijing, and within hours hundreds of millions of people around the world had seen images of it on their television screens. In the late 1950s, also in Communist China, roughly the inverse happened: thirty million or more died while the world, then and now, has hardly noticed. If the cause of the Great Famine had been a natural disaster, this double standard might be more understandable. But the causes, as Yang Jisheng shows in meticulous detail, were political. How can the world not look now? -- Perry Link, University of California, RiversideThough a sense of deep anger imbues Yang Jisheng's book, it is all the more powerful for its restraint ... Tombstone meticulously demonstrates that the famine was not only vast, but manmade; and not only manmade but political, born of totalitarianism -- Tania Branigan * Guardian *Tombstone is not just a history but a political sensation ... rich with details ... there is no doubting Yang Jisheng's immense political courage in compiling and writing it ... His book is not just a tombstone for his father and other famine victims, but for the reputation of the Communist party's leadership at a time when they should have acted -- Rana Mitter * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisA shadowy figure funds Antifa anarchists, threatening to tear America apart with violent riots. Adam Drake, a lawyer and ex-Special Forces operative, is tasked with uncovering the mastermind behind the chaos. Evidence points to a Russian oligarch in New York, but as Drake closes in, the Deep State intervenes to protect their own. With tensions boiling over and violence spiraling out of control, Drake has one final shot to expose the truth and prevent America from descending into anarchy. A fast-paced, action-packed thriller with a plot that could be tomorrow's headline. _____________________________________________________Praise for the Adam Drake series:5.0 out of 5 stars The start of another great series... 5.0 out of 5 stars A Chilling and Realistic Story5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Novel5.0 out of 5 stars As they say, Ripped from the Headlines5.0 out of 5 stars This novel will make you think about the future of America. 5.0 out of 5 stars A Series Born to Be Read5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and realistic. Tight, excellent writing with attention to detail.

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys PrizeBy the acclaimed winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018

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Book SynopsisAmid ethnic violence, political corruption, and petty professional intrigue, an artist tries to live free of lies. Set during the last years of the Soviet Union, Stone Dreams tells the story of Azerbaijani actor Sadai Sadygly, who lands in a Baku hospital while trying to protect an elderly Armenian man from a gang of young Azerbaijanis. Something of a modern-day Don Quixote, Sadai has long battled the hatred and corruption he observes in contemporary Azerbaijani society. Wandering in and out of consciousness, he revisits his hometown, the ancient village of Aylis, where Christian Armenians and Muslim Azeris once lived peacefully together, and dreams of making a pilgrimage of atonement to Armenia. Stone Dreams is a searing, painful meditation on the ability of art and artists—of individual human beings—to make change in the world.

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Book SynopsisSUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERDear Leader contains astonishing new insights about North Korea which could only be revealed by someone working high up in the regime. It is also the gripping story of how a member of the inner circle of this enigmatic country became its most courageous, outspoken critic.Jang Jin-sung held one of the most senior ranks in North Korea's propaganda machine, helping tighten the regime's grip over its people. Among his tasks were developing the founding myth of North Korea, posing undercover as a South Korean intellectual and writing epic poems in support of the dictator, Kim Jong-il.Young and ambitious, his patriotic work secured him a bizarre audience with Kim Jong-il himself, thus granting him special status as one of the 'Admitted'. This meant special food provisions, a travel pass and immunity from prosecution and harm. He was privy to state secrets, including military and diplomatic policies, how the devastating 'Scrutiny' was effected, and the real position of one of the country's most powerful, elusive men, Im Tong-ok. Because he was praised by the Dear Leader himself, he had every reason to feel satisfied with his lot and safe.Yet he could not ignore his conscience, or the disparity between his life and that of those he saw starving on the street. After breaking security rules, Jang Jin-sung, together with a close friend, was forced to flee for his life: away from lies and deceit, towards truth and freedom.Trade ReviewA searing true story that takes the reader to some of the most frightening places on earth...utterly compelling...real lyricism...As an historical document, this is an enormously important book that deserves the widest possible readership. As a story of survival, it is an instant classic. * The Times *Extraordinary...exciting...A rare portrait of life and death in North Korea...This year a United Nations commission of enquiry found that the Kim regime has committed crimes against humanity. The commission warned China that its treatment of Koreans violated international law. It recommended that the case be tried by the International Criminal Court or a UN tribunal. One day that will happen, and this book will be part of the indictment. * Sunday Times *As one of the most prominent North Koreans in exile in South Korea, Jang Jin-sung is eminently placed to interpret North Korea...His memoirs change the way we look at the country...they offer a radically different explanation of who holds power in North Korea and the historical sequence of events leading up to this situation. As such they are an absolute must-read for those who wish to formulate a sensible action plan [for the country]. -- Remco Breuker, Professor of Korean Studies, University of LeidenA fascinating insider account… a testament to Mr Jang’s literary flair * Economist *Harrowing...important and convincing...A major contribution to understanding what appears to be a nation impossible to understand * Observer *

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Book SynopsisIt was a massive, yet little-known landmark in modern history: in 1923, after a long war over the future of the Ottoman world, nearly 2 million citizens of Turkey or Greece were moved across the Aegean, expelled from their homes because they were of the 'wrong' religion. Orthodox Christians were deported from Turkey to Greece, Muslims from Greece to Turkey. At the time, world statesmen hailed the transfer as a solution to the problem of minorities who could not coexist. Both governments saw the exchange as a chance to create societies where a single culture prevailed. But how did the people who crossed the Aegean feel about this exercise in ethnic engineering? Bruce Clark's fascinating account of these turbulent events draws on new archival research in Greece and Turkey and interviews with some of the surviving refugees, allowing them to speak for themselves for the first time.Trade ReviewTwice a Stranger is a book that needed to be written, and Bruce Clark has achieved it superbly. Anyone with an interest in Greece or Turkey ought to read it * Daily Telegraph *[A] wise new book ... fascinating * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisThe essays collected in "Persecution and the Art of Writing" all deal with one problem the relation between philosophy and politics. Here, Strauss sets forth the thesis that many philosophers, especially political philosophers, have reacted to the threat of persecution by disguising their most controversial and heterodox ideas."

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPraise for A Dying Colonialism "The writing of Malcolm X or Eldridge Cleaver or Amiri Baraka or the Black Panther leaders reveals how profoundly they have been moved by the thoughts of Frantz Fanon." -The Boston Globe

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Book SynopsisSpread out over many years and many different publications, the late author and activist Marta Russell wrote a number of groundbreaking and insightful essays on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism. In this volume, Russell’s various essays are brought together in one place in order to provide a useful and expansive resource to those interested in better understanding the ways in which the modern phenomenon of disability is shaped by capitalist economic and social relations. The essays range in analysis from the theoretical to the topical, including but not limited to: the emergence of disability as a “human category” rooted in the rise of industrial capitalism and the transformation of the conditions of work, family, and society corresponding thereto; a critique of the shortcomings of a purely “civil rights approach” to addressing the persistence of disability oppression in the economic sphere, with a particular focus on the legacy of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; an examination of the changing position of disabled people within the overall system of capitalist production utilizing the Marxist economic concepts of the reserve army of the unemployed, the labor theory of value, and the exploitation of wage-labor; the effects of neoliberal capitalist policies on the living conditions and social position of disabled people as it pertains to welfare, income assistance, health care, and other social security programs; imperialism and war as a factor in the further oppression and immiseration of disabled people within the United States and globally; and the need to build unity against the divisive tendencies which hide the common economic interest shared between disabled people and the often highly-exploited direct care workers who provide services to the former.Trade Review"Discovering Marta Russell’s work was a watershed moment for my family, changing not just how we saw ourselves as able-bodied or disabled individuals but how we understood the modern world. It led us to a new understanding of disability as a political issue, a social condition embedded in economic structures of exploitation and oppression, not simply a product of personal embodiment. To have any hope of building an accessible future, more people are going to need to read Russell and this collection is the place to begin.” —Astra Taylor

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Book SynopsisA sinister plot echoes the Opium Wars, as a weaponized drug threatens to bring America to its knees. Adam Drake's honeymoon bliss is shattered when he uncovers the Chinese Communist Party's ruthless scheme. Leaving his new wife behind, Drake embarks on a perilous mission to stop the CCP's new war on America. Plunged into a treacherous world where human life is cheap, Drake becomes a target for those who will stop at nothing to protect their deadly trade. As the body count rises and the stakes skyrocket, Drake races against time to track down the billionaire mastermind behind the supply chain. With everything on the line, Drake must risk it all in a final, desperate gambit to bring down the criminal empire and save countless American lives. A fast-paced, action-packed thriller with a plot that could be tomorrow's headline. _____________________________________________________________Praise for the Adam Drake series:5.0 out of 5 starsNonstop action5.0 out of 5 starsJust What I Needed This Week5.0 out of 5 starsThis will make you think about the future of America. 5.0 out of 5 starsA Chilling and Realistic Story5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent Political/Terrorist Thriller5.0 out of 5 starsA Series Born to Be Read

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Book SynopsisThis new study offers a fresh interpretation of apartheid South Africa. Emerging out of the author''s long-standing interests in the history of racial segregation, and drawing on a great deal of new scholarship, archival collections, and personal memoirs, he situates apartheid in global as well as local contexts. The overall conception of Apartheid, 1948-1994 is to integrate studies of resistance with the analysis of power, paying attention to the importance of ideas, institutions, and culture. Saul Dubow refamiliarises and defamiliarise apartheid so as to approach South Africa''s white supremacist past from unlikely perspectives. He asks not only why apartheid was defeated, but how it survived so long. He neither presumes the rise of apartheid nor its demise. This synoptic reinterpretation is designed to introduce students to apartheid and to generate new questions for experts in the field.Trade ReviewThis work is a first-rate, clearly written account of a bizarre 20th century political experiment. * Alexander du Toit, Times Higher Education *As a lecturer on modern South African history, I will find this book extremely valuable. It provides a strong, textured historical narrative and simultaneously engages critically in key conceptual debates. It is impressively up-to-date and draws on an immensely wide range of literature, much of which is helpfully laid out in a bibliographical annexure ... the book stands in any context as an important work of synthesis with a coherent, and sometimes controversial, set of arguments. * Clive Glaser, South African Historical Journal *Dubow's history emphasizes ideas and contexts, from global realities like the Cold War to philosophical, theological, and theoretical debates. It is a superb, easily readable, book that offers a comprehensive historical overview and nuanced analysis. * Fran Buntman, American Historical Review *Apartheid 19481994 is relevant for a broad audience. * Melanie Boehi, H-Soz-Kult *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. The Apartheid Election, 1948 ; 2. The Consolidation of Apartheid ; 3. Sharpeville and its Aftermath ; 4. Apartheid Regnant ; 5. The Opposition Destroyed ; 6. Cracks within the System ; 7. The Limits and Dangers of Reform ; 8. A Balancing of Forces ; 9. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisNils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, uncovers a systematic campaign to persecute Assange. He reveals that Assange has faced grave and systematic due process violations, judicial bias, collusion and manipulated evidence. He has been the victim of constant surveillance, defamation and threats. Melzer also gathered together consolidated medical evidence that proves that the prison has suffered prolonged psychological torture. Melzer's compelling investigation puts the UK and US state into the dock, showing how, through secrecy, impunity and, crucially, public indifference, unchecked power reveals a deeply undemocratic system. Furthermore, the Assange case sets a dangerous precedent: once telling the truth becomes a crime, censorship and tyranny will inevitably follow.Trade ReviewThis is a landmark book, the first by a senior international official to call out the criminality of Western governments, and their craven media echoes, in the persecution of Julian Assange. Mark the word, persecution, says Nils Melzer, as well as "our" responsibility for the ravages inflicted on an heroic man for telling forbidden truths and on democracy itself. -- John PilgerMelzer, a brave and honest man, tells the whole truth about the brutality and illegality of what is being done to Julian Assange. Read this book. -- Brian EnoThis is a harrowing account of a corruption of justice that crosses not only borders, but the United Nations itself. Melzer's work is an urgent corrective to a false history - and an act of public service. -- Edward SnowdenPolitically motivated and unjustified, the prosecution of Julian Assange by a mature democracy threatens and undermines press freedom, the rule of law, and the prohibition of torture. By painstakingly and rigorously documenting the facts, Nilz Melzer reveals the full disturbing account of how the human rights of Julian Assange have been violated over years. It's a story that must be told and from which we all must learn. -- Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General, Amnesty International, former UN Rapporteur on TortureA stunning account on how official secrecy, corruption and impunity suffocate the truth and poison the rule of law. The present-day prosecution of Julian Assange aims to complete what Richard Nixon tried and failed to do in the Pentagon Papers case fifty years ago: rescind the foundation of our republic, the First Amendment protection of freedom of the press. As Melzer argues compellingly, nothing less than our continued status as a democracy is at stake in the need to block Assange's extradition, drop the unconstitutional charges against him, or if necessary, win his acquittal. It is the legal scandal of the century. -- Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower, the Pentagon PapersIt is as if all the Anglo-American frustrations over the disasters of Iraq, Trump and a teetering Washington political system have become concentrated in official hatred of one man: Julian Assange. This dissident faces a 175 year sentence but the soldiers who shot dead innocent Iraqi civilians- the war crime he exposed and is facing extradition for- are escaping even an investigation. The ferocious cruelty summoned for pursuit of Assange is anatomised here by Nils Melzer who implies a question that should chill us: Assange now, who next? -- Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and longest serving Premier of New South WalesA powerful investigation into the heart of darkness of our legal and political systems. Once you read this breath-taking book by Nils Melzer, you will know why Julian Assange is being tortured so terribly and why he should be celebrated as a true hero of the 21st century -- Srecko Horvat, author of Poetry From the FutureThe most compelling case yet made for Assange's defence and a swingeing indictment of politicians, security services and judicial authorities ... [Melzer] marshal[s] a wealth of detail and legal evidence to make his case. -- Mary Dejevsky * Independent *The most methodical and detailed recounting of the long persecution by the United States and the British government of Assange -- Chris Hedges * New Age *Enlightening ... The material Melzer has gathered over his two-year investigation is riveting, and his motivation is clear. -- Andrew Hankinson * Spectator *A remarkable book by a remarkable man ... The research, knowledge and considered thought Melzer has given to Assange's case is powerful and unanswerable. * Morning Star *Nils Melzer has given us an invaluable record of the whole judicial witch-hunt. His evolution from sceptic to truth-seeker is particularly admirable. -- Peter Whittaker * New Internationalist *

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Book SynopsisDiscover unrelenting spirit and strength in the extraordinary true story of Franci: a woman who survived the holocaust against all of the odds''Achingly moving, gives much-needed hope. Deserves the status both as a valuable historical source and as a stand-out memoir'' Daily Express ''A story that needs to be heard'' 5***** Reader Review ______ In 1942 Franci Epstein, a young Jewish woman, was imprisoned in Terezin, a concentration camp close to her home in Prague. Few could expect anything other than death. But for Franci it was the start of a journey that would take her into the very heart of Nazi genocide. Through a combination of guile, ingenuity, endurance and sheer bloody mindedness, Franci survived not one but five death camps, including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. In this astonishing memoir, unpublished for 50 years, Franci lays bare the appalling sacrifices she and other women had to Trade ReviewFranci's story is a testament to the human spirit . . . a mesmerising read * Jewish Chronicle *The extraordinary true story of the girl who survived the holocaust against all of the odds . . . In this astonishing memoir, she lays bare the appalling sacrifices she and other women had to make to survive * Eastern Daily Press *Achingly moving, gives much-needed hope . . . Deserves the status both as a valuable historical source and as a stand-out memoir * Daily Express *First-hand accounts of life in Nazi death camps never lose their terrible power but few are as extraordinary as Franci's War * Mail on Sunday *

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Book Synopsis***WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS'' ASSOCIATION ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION***''Meticulous and gripping - a thriller that disturbs for revelations about a singular act of murder, and the national security state which we call home'' Philippe Sands, author of East West StreetA groundbreaking examination of a terrifying murder and its aftermath by the bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf and The House by the Lake.On 14 June 2006, police were called to 9 Downshire Hill in Hampstead. The owner, Allan Chappelow, was a writer and notorious recluse who had not been seen for several weeks. Inside the darkened house, officers found piles of rubbish, trees growing through the floor, and the body of Chappelow, battered to death, partially burned and buried under four feet of paper.The man eventually arrested on suspicion of his murder was a Chinese dissident named Wang Yam, who claimed to be the gTrade ReviewMeticulous and gripping – a thriller that disturbs for revelations about a singular act of murder, and the national security state which we call home. -- Philippe Sands, author of 'East West Street'A real-life procedural... which might have important implications for us all. -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *Blood on the Page is an In Cold Blood for our time – a brilliant and unflinching anatomy of a murder that is both brutal true crime and heartbreaking human tragedy. -- Tony ParsonsA fine and fascinating read, bolstered by exemplary research and nuanced insights. Absorbing. -- Tobias Jones * Observer *An absolute gem of a true-crime story ... The author's investigation, and his storytelling, are peerless. A superb book. * Evening Standard *

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Book Synopsis**Winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose**''A devastating front-line account of the police killings and the young activism that sparked one of the most significant racial justice movements since the 1960s: Black Lives Matter ... Lowery more or less pulls the sheet off America ... essential reading'' Junot Díaz, The New York Times, Books of 2016''Electric ... so well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart'' Dwight Garner, The New York Times, ''A Top Ten Book of 2016''''I''d recommend everyone to read this book ... it''s not just statistics, it''s not just the information, but it''s the connective tissue that shows the human story behind it. I really enjoyed it'' Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central''s ''The Daily Show''A deeply reported book on the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement, offering unparalleled insight inTrade ReviewA courageous chronicle of how police violence sparked a political movement ... A century and a half after slavery, and 50 years since the end of legal segregation, They Can't Kill Us All impressively brings us up to date with America's fraught history of racial injustice -- K Biswas * New Statesman *A devastating front-line account of the police killings and the young activism that sparked one of the most significant racial justice movements since the 1960s: Black Lives Matter. In his quest to understand how and why this movement sprang up when it did, Lowery seems to have been everywhere and spoken to everyone (his interview of Alicia Garza is especially noteworthy). Lowery more or less pulls the sheet off America, exposing the malign disavowals and horrendous racial structures and logics that make the unjust deaths of young men like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Sean Bell not only possible but inevitable. As a primer for the Black Lives Matter movement and as a meditation on the death-grip that white supremacy has on the American soul, "They Can't Kill Us All" is essential reading -- Junot Diaz, 'Book of the Year' * The New York Times *Electric... So well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart... Valuable for many reasons -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *Lowery is unflinchingly honest...a skillful reporter and storyteller. He takes the reader through the laborious task of reportage with a humanity and forthrightness, making this book more than just a catalog of tragedy. He succinctly presents a story of human grief * New York Times Book Review *You've really captured it. One reason I'd recommend everyone to read this book is because it's not just statistics, it's not just the information, but it's the connective tissue that shows the human story behind it. I really enjoyed it * Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show' *Vital and important. * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisA collection of the writings of survivors of the Gulag, the Soviet concentration camps. It includes the personal stories of figures such as renowned literary scholar Dmitri Likhachev; Anatoly Marchenko, the son of illiterate labourers; and, American citizen Alexander Dolgun.Trade Review“The power of Gulag Voices is not only to remind us of the horrors of the Soviet Union’s corrective labour institutions and to honour those who were incarcerated there. It is also to illuminate the human consequences that ensue when any state’s legal system fails to recognise the human rights of prisoners.”—Wendy Slater, Times Literary Supplement -- Wendey Slater * Times Literary Supplement *“[Gulag Voices] will inform a generation fortunate enough to be living in different times.”—Mary Dejevsky, The Independent -- Mary Dejevsky * The Independent *“Applebaum….is the ideal editor, providing introductions to each account, as well as a general explanation of the Gulag system. Her selection, each depicting a different aspect of Gulag life, leaves an unforgettable impression.”—Anthony Beevor, The Mail on Sunday -- Anthony Beevor * The Mail on Sunday *“…Applebaum has performed an invaluable service…. She has put together a marvellous collection of memoirs, stories and reminiscences written by surviving Gulag inmates ranging from the 1920’s when Lenin opened camps in the first days after the Revolution, to the late 1970’s, a time when most Westerners, as well as Russians, presumed that such places no longer existed.”—Victor Sebestyen, The Spectator -- Victor Sebestyen * The Spectator *“A shocking mosaic of misery, of courage and of just about unimaginable resilience – this anthology brings together first-hand accounts of what it took men and women to survive. A disturbing and yet, in its way, inspiring book.” Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman, 19th March 2011 -- Michael Kerrigan * The Scotsman *"A book that weaves together chilling official history and personal stories of suffering and survival."—Contemporary Review * Contemporary Review *"Anne Applebaum, who had plumbed the archives to great effect in her Pulitzer Prize-winning book Gulag: A History (2003), persuasively argues in the introduction to Gulag Voices that the profoundly personal perspective of Gulag memoirists . . . mean[s] that their works—valuable as both 'literature and testimony'—serve a 'moral and didactic' purpose as well as an historical one. . . . Works such as Gulag Voices encourage historical understanding and moral catharsis and should be welcomed by Russians and Westerners alike."—Daniel J. Mahoney, The New Criterion -- Daniel J. Mahoney * The New Criterion *"[T]he perfect companion for college courses on Soviet history. . . . This book, along with several similar books more or less simultaneously published, should be read widely."—Timothy J. Colton, Journal of Cold War Studies -- Timothy J. Colton * Journal of Cold War Studies *"'A journey into an incredibly rich and sharp recollection of feelings and emotions… The memoirs of these authors take the reader far beyond the duty of memory towards the dead, into the depths of the human heart where, as Solzhenitsyn disclosed when he wrote The Gulag Archipelago, 'the line separating good and evil passes.'" The Global Journal, June 2012 * The Global Journal *

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Book Synopsis* An award-winning account of Stalin s reign of terror when 1. 5 million people lost their lives in a single year. * Karl Schlogel reconstructs the process through which, month by month, the terrorism of a state-of-emergency regime spiraled into the Great Terror .Trade ReviewWinner of the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding "An almost impossibly rich masterpiece. The density and seriousness, the deliberation and literary art of this exhilarating tour de force testifies to the enduring value and purpose of that perhaps now-vanishing triumph of the human intellect, the book." The Atlantic, best five books of 2012 "A dizzyingly brilliant panorama of the enormous variety of events and processes unfolding in Moscow between 1936 and 1938. Schlogel succeeds admirably - indeed, better than any historian to date - in reproducing the atmosphere and grotesque contradictions." Times Higher Education "Exceptionally readable. An extraordinary, thought-provoking masterpiece." Literary Review “An excellent and original book. Not only is it a highly detailed account of a city in turmoil (containing many more fascinating stories than a review can ever do full justice), but it reveals clearly how 1937 was a year of extreme contradictions” Europe/Asia Studies "Schlögel's total history of Moscow during the fateful year ranks among the best of Sovietology." International Affairs "No book could be more equal to the task of restoring Stalin’s victims to Western memory than Schlögel’s Moscow, 1937 - it is an extraordinary work of scholarship, prose and remembrance." Times Literary Supplement "“A brilliant achievement of historical writing, one that can be read profitably by specialist and the general reader alike.” American Historical Review "Schlogel's comprehensive overview gives a profound overall view of what it was like to live in such a crucial place in such a crucial year." Dublin Review of Books "It is great. Moscow, 1937 teaches us that life goes on as usual, even in the midst of great catastrophe, but it also teaches that great catastrophe can look a lot like life going on as usual." Vol. 1 Brooklyn "Compelling in every way, the book startles the mind and stirs the imagination in the way that only poetry and music can sometimes do. An instant classic." Wichita Eagle "Karl Schlögel’s Moscow 1937 draws a living, multi-dimensional portrait of the megacity in a crucial year of upheaval that evokes all the hope, despair, creativity, horror, escapism, terror, fear, and striving that enveloped the Muscovite cityscape and its inhabitants. Schlögel is an unusually inventive historian and a brilliant stylist; it’s a great boon to have his latest work available in English." Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University and author of Stalin’s Genocides "This book’s focus is one year, 1937, and one place, Moscow, but it is no narrow history. The narrative has sweep and depth, encompassing the mundane, the spectacular, and the nightmare dream world of Stalin’s purges; an incomparable book about people during one of the most grandiose and terrifying epochs of the twentieth century." David Shearer, University of Delaware "Starting from a birds-eye view of the city from above, a homage to the flight of Bulgakov’s Margarita, Schloegel captures the complex specificity of a time and place of immense significance in Soviet and twentieth-century history. In this multivalent historical moment, interrogations at the Lubyanka coexist with happy summer vacations and the triumphant conquest of the North Pole by Soviet aviators. Schloegel brings into play an ingenious variety of sources, ranging from architectural blueprints and city directories to execution records, not forgetting diaries and literary evocations. This is a masterful, panoramic work by a gifted story-teller who is also a highly innovative, sophisticated and erudite historian." Sheila Fitzpatrick, University of Chicago "In brilliant fashion Karl Schlögel presents Moscow as a rotating stage of Soviet desire and Stalinist nightmares. Like no other author before him, he charges his prose and the sequence of scenes with the hallucinatory power of the Communist project. The vertiginous and terrifying effect is his very point and singular achievement." Jochen Hellbeck, Rutgers University "Karl Schlogel's Moscow 1937 is a brilliant essay of "Total history" on a crucial episode of Soviet history, on one of the greatest historical catastrophes of the Twentieth Century.This is the first book which goes beyond totalitarianism and revisionism and brings us a totally new interpretation of this tragic event by presenting together opposing experiences and manifestations such as the preparation for universal, free, direct and secret elections and carefully planned, organized mass killings. Or, in other words, Dream and Terror." Nicolas Werth, Institut d’histoire du temps présent "This is a montage of a great city in tumult, in equal parts depicting the optimism of progress and the horror of the show trials, all in the shadow of a looming war." Andrew Cornish, Readings "While most historians see both terror and civilisation as important to understanding the Soviet experience of the 1930s, they tend to spend their time investigating either one or the other. Schlögel is the first to attempt to knit them together so intricately. Moscow 1937 is an act of remembrance as well as a work of history.” London Review of Books "There is no book that so perfectly and completely captures the stark contradictions of Soviet life. Each scene is a marvel, and together they recreate for us a multisided and vanished world." Wendy Goldman, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USATable of ContentsPreface x Acknowledgements xiii Reproduction Acknowledgements xvii Translator's Note xx Introduction 1 1 Navigation: Margarita's Flight 10 Margarita's fl ight – Manuscripts don't burn: a writer in 1937 – Relief map of the city, locations, staging posts – Dramatis personae and their portrayal: dual characters – NKVD, the organization – 'People vanished from their apartments without trace' – Sudden deaths, execution as spectacle – 'It can't be!' 2 Moscow as a Construction Site: Stalin's General Plan in Action 33 Aleksandr Medvedkin's film New Moscow – A new cityscape: Stalin's General Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow – Moscow as a construction site: between demolition and new construction – Moscow beyond the ring roads – Human landscape, struggle for survival 3 A Topography of the Disappeared: The Moscow Directory of 1936 54 Snapshot of the status quo: directories as documents of their age – Topography of power and other locations – Traces of the disappeared – Lists of people to be shot and the posthumous reconstruction of their addresses 4 The Creation of Enemies: The Criminal Prosecution of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre, 19 - 24 August 1936 68 World-historical criminal cases: the rhetoric of the fi rst Moscow show trial – The echo of violence: how a latent civil war comes to be articulated in language – 'Double-dealers' – The birth of the show trial from the spirit of lynch-law – The ideal enemy 5 'Tired of the Effort of Observing and Understanding': Lion Feuchtwanger's Moscow 1937 81 A key scene in European intellectual history: Feuchtwanger's meeting with Stalin – The impotence of the anti-fascist movement: how to generate a point of view – The end of the fl âneur: journey in the shadow of the NKVD – The phenomenology of confusion and the creation of unambiguous meaning: credo quia absurdum – Leave-taking at Belorusskii Station 6 In the Glare of Battle: Spain and Other Fronts 95 Moscow maps: the scene is Spain – A world in meltdown, war scare – The Soviet nation as a patriotic fi ghting unit – Metastases: show trial in Barcelona, the NKVD abroad – Barcelona transfer: Moscow experiences 7 Blindness and Terror: The Suppressed Census of 1937 109 A journey into the interior of society – 6 January 1937: snapshot of an empire – Ten years after the census of 1926: balance sheet after the Great Leap Forward – Self-analysis, self-education, data acquisition – The shock of the missing millions – Statistics as crime 8 A Stage for the Horrors of Industrialization: The Second Moscow Show Trial in January 1937 125 'The Business-like atmosphere' – The language of expert witnesses – The topography of the Five-Year Plan – Human sacrifi ce, nemesis, chorus – Postscript 9 'A Feast in the Time of Plague': The Pushkin Jubilee of 10 February 1937 144 The New York Times: 'All Russia was Pushkin-mad today' – 'Comrade Pushkin': consecration of a classic – A feast in the time of plague: coded discourses – Platitudes of a new culture – Russian genius and imperial rule 10 Public Death: Ordzhonikidze's Suicide and Death Rites 160 The shock: Sergo is dead – Escape into ritual – Suicide as a weapon – A hopeless situation and protest – Death as a group experience: speaking of death in times of mass murder 11 The Engine Room of the Year 1937: The February-March Plenum of the Central Committee 177 A leadership at its wits' end: the voice of panic – Testing the limits and exceeding them: the Party indicts Bukharin and Rykov – The shock: 'universal, free, secret elections' – Audit report: ungovernability and fear of chaos – Wreckers at work in the NKVD – The dissolution of the Party and the creation of a new one – Setting the machinery in motion 12 Moscow in Paris: The USSR Pavilion at the International Exhibition of 1937 198 The exhibition trail: a journey through the map of the Soviet Union – The theme park of twentieth-century civilization – Marginal encounters 13 Red Square: Parade Ground and Place of Execution 209 14 Chopin Concert and Killing Ritual: Radio and the Creation of the Great Community 215 Radiofi katsia: the two faces of progress – Radio as the background noise of the new age – The sphere of feelings – Radio listeners as 'citizens of the world' – Stalin: the original soundtrack: the direction of the historical moment – Wreckers at work in the ether 15 Soviet Art Deco: Time Preserved in Stone 229 The First All-Union Congress of Architects, 16–26 June 1937 – Moscow as a building site – Chaos and stress – The Soviet universe as exhibition – The creation of a new style during a state of emergency – Closing speech: Frank Lloyd Wright 16 'Brown Bodies, Gaily Coloured Shorts': Sports Parade 248 'The glorious beauty of young people' – Fizkul'turnik, fi zkul'turnitsa: icons of the new age – 'Stalin's tribe': tableaux vivants in Red Square 17 Wealth and Destruction: The Seventeenth International Geology Congress in Moscow 256 The emergence of Soviet geologists: science and the dream of an affluent nation – Pioneers the nation does not need: geologists as enemies of the people – Vladimir Vernadskii: a patriot without fear – Excursion to the Moscow–Volga Canal: science and slave labour 18 A City by the Sea: The Opening of the Moscow–Volga Canal 274 After the White Sea Canal: Stalin's second arterial highway – A canal as a Gesamtkunstwerk: the aesthetics of a man-made riverscape – Dmitlag, the Gulag Archipelago at the gates of the capital: the parallel society of the camp zone – Perekovka/ reforging: the laboratory of the new man – 'I have seen a country that has been transformed into one great camp' 19 Year of Adventures, 1937: A Soviet Icarus 294 Triumphs, records: a city in a fever – Non-stop to America – The conquest of the Arctic – Twentieth-century adventures – Heroes of the age: Stalin's aviators – 'There are thousands of dreamers like me' – 'Bolshevik romanticism' and terror 20 Moscow as Shop-Window: The Abundance of the World, Hungry for Goods and Dizzy with Hunger 314 André Gide: on luxury and shortages – Advertisements, window displays: objects of desire and how to present them – Dizzy with hunger – A hopeless struggle: a nation of speculators – The queue as grapevine 21 Open Spaces, Dream Landscapes: Cruising on the Volga, Holidaying on the Red Riviera, Conspiracies in the Dachas 326 22 The National Bolshevik Nikolai Ustrialov: His Return Home and Death 332 Returning home from exile: establishing contact with the new Russia – National Bolshevism and Stalin's 'Socialism in One Country' – The world of 'former people' and 1937 – A double reading: a diary with comments by the NKVD 23 Celebrating the October Revolution on 7 November 1937 344 In the diplomats' box – Conversations in the inner circle of power 24 A Miniature of High Society before the Massacre 355 The bombs come closer – Beau monde, illustrious society – Masked ball at the American Embassy – Interior with piano and nursemaid – Yezhov's salon: art and the secret police – Postscript: inventory of luxury and fashion 25 Soviet Hollywood: Miracles and Monsters 372 Lenin in October: the Revolution corrected – The USSR as a land of film, picture palaces and stars – Mosfi lm 1937: chaos in the film factory – Volga-Volga: directors as conspirators, actors as spies – Terror and good entertainment 26 Death in Exile 387 Dimitrov's diary: a record of self-destruction – Vanishing point Moscow: biotope – Foreign comrades – Vulnerability: world communism as world conspiracy – Lists, dossiers and card indexes 27 Arcadia in Moscow: Stalin's Luna Park 404 'A centre of culture and rest' – 'What a summer!' – The locus of public opinion 28 'Avtozavodtsy': The Workforce of the Stalin Car Factories 413 'Shanghai': city of immigrants, city on the periphery – Ivan Likhachev, captain of industry – Factory patriotism: the factory as melting pot – 'Mass criticism', or the orchestration of hatred and despair 29 Dzhaz: The Sound of the Thirties 433 Dzhaz (Utesov) – Songs for the masses (Dunaevskii) – Classical music (Shostakovich) 30 Changing Faces, Changing Times 444 31 America, America: The Other New World 450 Ili' a Il' f and Evgenii Petrov's journey to America – Special relations: Soviet Americanism and the New Deal – The American way of life in 1937 – Utopia as present-day reality 32 'I Know of No Other Country . . .': 1937 and the Production of Soviet Space 463 The birth of the Soviet Union from the spirit of songs for the masses – Moscow as an image-making machine – Homogenizing labour: purges and the unity of the Soviet nation 33 The Butovo Shooting Range: Topography of the Great Terror 472 Looking for traces: the archaeology of the graveyard – Mass murder on the outskirts of the city – Sociology of the mass grave – Killing by quota: Order No. 00447 – World war, civil war 34 Lonely White Sail . . .: Dreamtime, Children's Worlds 505 35 Yezhov at the Bolshoi Theatre: Celebrating Twenty Years of the Cheka 510 At the heart of Moscow: power made visible – Celebratory speeches and music between the mass murders – Ovations for the executioners: morituri salutant 36 Bukharin Takes his Leave 519 Bukharin's final plea – The show trial: exercises in dialectics – The Lubianka: prison as a production site – Letter to Koba – A Moscow childhood in 1900 37 'For Official Use Only': Moscow as a City on the Enemy Map 538 38 The Foundation Pit 544 The imaginary centre: a support for the empire – The dome that disappeared: Russian Byzantium – Labouring away at a vacuum: fantasies of the building of the century – Rome, New York, Moscow: the genius of Boris Iofan – War, post-war, and the end of the state of emergency 39 Instead of an Epilogue 558 Notes 559 Select Bibliography 619 Index 638

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