Search results for ""times books""

Shortlisted for the 2023 Illustrated Sports Book of the Year The ideal gift for football fans Pairing epic sports photography with articles from The Times and The Sunday Times archive, this volume brings together 100 of the most iconic moments from World Cup history. With striking, full-colour photography, rarely seen archival images and sensational reporting on the action, The Times World Cup Moments tells the unofficial story of the world’s largest single sporting event as it unfolded on – and off – the pitch. Featuring the greatest goals, most historic line-ups, heroic players and unforgettable controversies, these split-second moments have changed the course of World Cup history and generated a global sensation along the way. The perfect Christmas gift for any football fan, some of the best moments from this book include:• The first World Cup, Uruguay 1930• North Korea’s fairy tale, England 1966• David Beckham’s perfect free-kick, France 1998• Brazil’s golden line-up, Mexico 1970• The infamous Hand of God, Mexico 1986• Roger Milla’s celebration, Italy 1990• Zinedine Zidane’s chipped Panenka penalty, Germany 2006• Germany’s humiliation of the hosts, Brazil 2014• Cristiano Ronaldo’s spectacular hat-trick, South Korea 2018

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An unforgettable 3,000-year-old journey - from Mesopotamian clay tablets trying to predict the future, to Tudor book-hunters and Nazi bonfires, and on into the dangers of our increasingly digital existence, Burning the Books shows how the preservation of knowledge is vital for the survival of civilization itself. 'A wonderful book, full of good stories and burning with passion' SUNDAY TIMES, BOOKS OF THE YEAR'Compelling, fascinating and rewarding' LITERARY REVIEW'When books burn, it is more than just words under attack . . . this extraordinary book should stir us to thinking and to action' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A tale of ingenuity and deep courage' GUARDIAN'A stark warning - the truth itself is under attack' THE TIMES, BOOKS OF THE YEAR

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'Exceptional young adult/crossover debut reminiscent of Mark Haddon or Harper Lee. Compelling, sharply observed.'Nicolette Jones, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE WEEK. 'Hilarious.' Mugglenet. Nominated for The Carnegie. An outstanding debut-funny, brave and unpredictable. Lou observes her family breaking apart in sharp witty asides. A beautiful blend of humour, insight, compassion and a touch of darkness. The narrator's voice is strong, funny and original.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'Affectionate, evocative, illuminating. A story of survival - of a flock, a landscape and a disappearing way of life. I love this book' Nigel Slater'Triumphant, a pastoral for the 21st century' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year'The nature publishing sensation of the year, unsentimental yet luminous' Melissa Harrison, The Times, Books of the YearSome people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years. A Viking would understand the work they do: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the gruelling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells.

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BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR'Mesmerising' Sunday Times'Magnificent' Guardian'Monumental' The TelegraphLeigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings.Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.'Utterly compelling' The Times, Books of the Year'Profound and thrilling' New Statesman, Books of the Year'A far-reaching epic' Financial Times, Books of the Year

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The acclaimed account of the English people, now updated with two new chapters'Masterful, an enormously readable narrative of the English people from the Anglo-Saxons to the present' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times, Books of the YearIn The English and their History, the first full-length account to appear in one volume for many decades, Robert Tombs gives us the history of the English people, and of how the stories they have told about themselves have shaped them, from the prehistoric 'dreamtime' through to the present day.'As ambitious as it is successful . . . Packed with telling detail and told with gentle, sardonic wit, a vast and delightful book' Ben MacIntyre, The Times, Books of the Year'A stupendous achievement ... a story of a people we can't fail to recognize: stoical, brave, drunken, bloody-minded, violent, undeferential, yet paradoxically law-abiding ... I found myself gripped' Daniel Hannan, Spectator'Original and enormously readable, this brilliant, hugely engaging work has a sly wit and insouciance that are of themselves rather English' Sinclair MacKay, Daily Telegraph

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AN INSTANT THE TIMES BESTSELLERBLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR'Mesmerising' Sunday Times'Magnificent' Guardian'Monumental' The TelegraphLeigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings.Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.'Utterly compelling' The Times, Books of the Year'Profound and thrilling' New Statesman, Books of the Year'A far-reaching epic' Financial Times, Books of the Year

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"This gripping novel is as good at describing the magnificent seascapes and the unforgiving elements as it is at examining the inner lives of the besieged crew, toiling ceaselessly against implacable nature" -Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR"Gripping and Exciting" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEARIn February 1959, several Icelandic trawlers were caught in a storm off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. What happened there is the inspiration for this novel. Not since The Perfect Storm has there been a book which captures the sheer drama and terror of a crisis at sea. Karason is an exceptional storyteller, an Icelandic Erskine Caldwell or William Faulkner.The side trawler Mafurinn is hit by a major storm just as they prepare to turn for home. Thirty-two men aboard, and a hold full of redfish. The sea is cold enough to kill a man in minutes, and the trawler quickly ices up in the biting frost and violent tempest. The heavy icing weighs down the already fully laden craft, which is pummelled by one breaker after another - and here, out on the open sea, there is no exit route. Distress signals from other ships in the same circumstance and be heard from the fishing grounds around them. It is a battle of life and death.Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates

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The highly anticipated novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Pull of the Stars and Room'This is Donoghue at her strange, unsettling best.' - Maggie O'Farrell, author of Hamnet'Combines pressure-cooker intensity and radical isolation, to stunning effect.' – Margaret Atwood via TwitterIn seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks – young Trian and old Cormac – he travels down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. Their extraordinary landing spot is now known as Skellig Michael. But in such a place, far from all other humanity, what will survival mean?Haunting, moving and vividly told, Haven displays Emma Donoghue’s trademark world-building and psychological intensity – but this tale is like nothing she has ever written before . . .One of The Times Books of the Year 2022One of Easons 'Favourite Book of the Year 2022'.The Irish Times 'Books to Look Out For in 2022'.Pre-order Learned By Heart, the dazzling new love story from Emma Donoghue.

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and her truly unique family secret, born on the slopes of Mount Olympus and passed on through three generations. Growing up in 70s Michigan, Calliope’s special inheritance will turn her into Cal, the narrator of this intersex, inter-generational epic of immigrant life in 20th century America. Middlesex won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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Philip Parker is a writer, consultant and publisher specialising in ancient and medieval political and military systems. He studied history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and is the author of A History of Britain in Maps (2016), the DK Eyewitness Companion Guide to World History (2010) and many more. He was the general editor of Anova's Great Trade Routes (2010), and winner of a Certificate of Merit for the Mountbatten Maritime Award in the Maritime Media Awards 2013. As a publisher he ran The Times books list, including works on ancient civilizations and The Times History of the World. Philip lives in London with his partner and daughter.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA SUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN & IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARSHORTLISTED FOR THE CRIME WRITERS ASSOCIATION GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONA perspective-shattering work into the minds of violent criminals that reveals profound consequences for human nature and society at large. *INCLUDES A NEW CHAPTER*'Brilliant . . . The book is a powerful myth buster. Name a sterotype about violent offenders and Adshead upends it.'SUNDAY TIMES'Deeply moving . . . the most overwhelming feeling I had on finishing this book was of hope . . . Compassionate and fascinating.'GUARDIANDr Gwen Adshead is one of Britain's leading forensic psychiatrists. She treats serial killers, arsonists, stalkers, gang members and other individuals who are usually labelled 'monsters'. Whatever their crime, she listens to their stories and helps them to better understand their terrible acts of violence. Here Adshead invites the reader to step with her into the room to meet twelve patients and discover how minds can change. These men and women are revealed in all their complexity and shared humanity. Their stories make a powerful case for rehabilitation over revenge, compassion over condemnation. The Devil You Know will challenge everything you thought you knew about human nature.'An unmissable book.' OBSERVER'Adshead's compassion is almost as shocking as the offences themselves . . . it gives her distance and extraordinary insight.'THE TIMES, Books of the Year'The Devil You Know has permanently recalibrated my empathy dial.'NEW STATESMAN, Books of the Year'Deeply humane.'IRISH TIMES, Books of the Year'Exceptional.' VAL McDERMID'Extraodinary.' SEBASTIAN FAULKS'Gripping . . . ultimately enlightening.' PHILIPPE SANDS'Fascinating and beautifully written.' CHRISTIE WATSON

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. When No Logo was first published, it became an instant bestseller and international phenomenon. Its riveting exposé of the branded and corporate world in which we live became a rallying cry for rebellion and self-determination. Engaging, humanising and inspiring, No Logo is a book that defined both a generation and its language of protest. Its analysis is as timely and powerful as ever.

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A boxed set containing the first two novels and one short novel in the phenomenal epic fantasy series the Stormlight Archive, from fantasy sensation Brandon Sanderson.Containing The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance and Edgedancer, embark upon your journey to the Shattered Plains of Roshar, a breathtaking world like no other, and immerse yourself in one of the most epic fantasy series of modern times.Books by Brandon Sanderson:The CosmereThe Stormlight ArchiveThe Way of KingsWords of RadianceEdgedancer (Novella)OathbringerRhythm of WarThe Mistborn SagaMistbornThe Well of AscensionThe Hero of AgesThe Alloy of LawShadows of SelfThe Bands of MourningThe Lost Metal

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. In the spring of 1666, a bolt of infected cloth carries the plague from London to the quiet village of Eyam. The villagers elect to isolate themselves in a fateful quarantine, seen through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith. As death and superstition creep from household to household, she must confront loss and the lure of illicit love in an extraordinary Year of Wonders. This timeless and powerful novel, based on a true story, was the astonishing debut novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March.

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. ‘You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug – especially when it’s waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eyes’ Roaring down the desert highway, Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo are seeking out the dark side of the American Dream. Armed with a drug arsenal of stupendous proportions, they confront casino operators, police officers and assorted Middle Americans, in surreal, chemically enhanced encounters. Hilarious, hallucinogenic and subversive, Hunter S. Thompson’s semi-autobiographical novel is a cult classic and a masterpiece of gonzo journalism. ‘A scorching epochal sensation’ Tom Wolfe

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'Required reading for everyone' Adam RutherfordShortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021 Medicine, education, psychology, economics - wherever it really matters, we look to science for guidance. But what if science itself can't always be relied on?In this vital investigation, Stuart Ritchie reveals the disturbing flaws in today's science that undermine our understanding of the world and threaten human lives. With bias, careless mistakes and even outright forgery influencing everything from austerity economics to the anti-vaccination movement, he proposes vital remedies to save and protect science - this most valuable of human endeavours - from itself.* With a new afterword by the author *'Thrilling... Reminds us that another world is possible' The Times, Books of the Year'Excellent... We need better science. That's why books like this are so important' Evening Standard

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WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONTWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONTHE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR'Magnificent.' The Times, 'Books of the Year''Gripping.' Grazia'Peerless.' Daily Mail'Wise.' Sunday TimesMeet Willa Knox, a woman who stands braced against a world which seems to hold little mercy for her and her family - or their old, crumbling house, falling down around them. Willa's two grown-up children, a new-born grandchild, and her ailing father-in-law have all moved in at a time when life seems at its most precarious. But when Willa discovers that a pioneering female scientist lived on the same street in the 1800s, could this historical connection be enough to save their home from ruin? And can Willa, despite the odds, keep her family together?

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A mindbending new collection of short stories from the unique, internationally acclaimed author of Norwegian Wood and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERThe eight masterly stories in this new collection are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator. From nostalgic memories of youth, meditations on music and an ardent love of baseball to dreamlike scenarios, an encounter with a talking monkey and invented jazz albums, together these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world. Occasionally, a narrator who may or may not be Murakami himself is present. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides.Philosophical and mysterious, the stories in First Person Singular all touch beautifully on love and solitude, childhood and memory. . . all with a signature Murakami twist.A GUARDIAN AND SUNDAY TIMES 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK

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'An enormously useful achievement...every twist and turn of her political life is here' The Times, BOOKS OF THE YEARIn this abridged edition of John Campbell's two acclaimed volumes on Margaret Thatcher, we trace the life of Britain's only female Prime Minister, from her upbringing in Grantham to her unexpected challenge for leadership of the Conservative party to her eleven tumultuous years in Downing Street and her eventual removal from power. This is an extraordinary account of an extraordinary individual who changed the face of Britain; John Campbell portrays an ambitious and determined woman who started cautiously, grew in confidence after the Falklands War but became increasingly remote and domineering until she finally lost the trust of her colleagues.

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "one of our ageless radicals and true bards" (Booklist), has gathered here four decades of poetry in his inimitable everyman’s voice, including more than fifty pages of new work. The tone has deepened over the years, and he may now be seen as a true maestro in his field. Behind the irresistible air of immediacy and spontaneity lies much erudition and an antic imagination intent on subverting "the dominant paradigm." From his earliest books, including his landmark Coney Island of the Mind, Ferlinghetti has written poetry "in ways that those who see poetry as the province of the few and educated had never imagined. That strength has turned out to be lasting" (Joel Oppenheimer, N. Y. Times Books Review).

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* A Financial Times Book of the Year *'What does a conductor do? It may be a favourite joke among the musicians in an orchestra, but Wigglesworth wants to find a more thoughtful answer. Avoiding jargon, he analyses what he has discovered during 30 years in the job.' Financial Times, Books of the Year A conductor is one of classical music's most recognisable but misunderstood figures, attracting so many questions:'Surely orchestras can play perfectly well without you? ''Do you really make any difference to the performance?''Are the musicians even watching you?'The Silent Musician is not a manual for conductors, nor a history of conducting. It is for all who wonder what conductors actually do, and why they matter.

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. In 1950s London, novelist Anna Wulf struggles with writer’s block. Divorced with a young child, and fearful of going mad, Anna records her experiences in four coloured notebooks: black for her writing life, red for political views, yellow for emotions, blue for everyday events. But it is a fifth notebook – the golden notebook – that finally pulls these wayward strands of her life together. Widely regarded as Doris Lessing’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, ‘The Golden Notebook’ is wry and perceptive, bold and indispensable.

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A fascinating account of the intellectual origins of identity politics'' Financial Times, Books of the YearThe origins, consequences and limitations of an ideology that has quickly become highly influential around the world.For much of their history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. It is no surprise then that many who passionately believe in social justice have come to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity if they are to resist injustice.But over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minorities has transformed into an obsession with group identity in all its forms. A new ideology - which Yascha Mounk terms the ''identity synthesis'' - seeks to put each citizen''s matrix of identities at the heart of social, cultural and political life. This, he argues, is The Identity Trap.Mounk traces the intellectual o

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ONE OF THE NEW YORKER''S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 SO FARCHOSEN BY FINANCIAL TIMES'' READERS'' FOR BEST BOOKS OF 2023A NEW YORK TIMES BOOKS EDITOR'' S CHOICEHas the makings of a classic. -The TLSChilling and vital. . . sensitive and thought-provoking. - The TimesExhumation can divide brothers and restore fathers, open old wounds and open the possibility of regeneration-of building something new with the pile of broken mirrors that is loss and mourning.In this haunting and poetic account, anthropologist Alexa Hagerty joins forensic teams and families of the missing as they search for the hundreds of thousands victims of genocidal violence unleashed by authoritarian governments in Latin America.In Guatemala and Argentina, she learns to see the dead body with a forensic eye. She examines bones for evidence of torture and cause of death - hands bound by rope, cuts from machetes

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How do we shape a better world for LGBTQ+ people? Olly Alexander, Peppermint, Owen Jones, Beth Ditto, Shon Faye and more share their stories and visions for the future.'A vital addition to your bookshelf' Stylist, 5 Books for Summer'Captivating... A must-read' Gay Times, Books of the YearIn We Can Do Better Than This, 35 voices - actors, musicians, writers, artists and activists - answer this vital question, at a time when the queer community continues to suffer discrimination and extreme violence. Through deeply moving stories and provocative new arguments on safety and visibility, dating and gender, care and community, they present a powerful manifesto for how - together - we can change lives everywhere.'Powerful, inspiring...urgent' Attitude'Read and be inspired' Peter Tatchell'Illuminating' Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk'Friendly and fierce' Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar

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'A revelation' Sunday Times, Books of the Year 2018The first Penguin anthology of Japanese haiku, in vivid new translations by Adam L. Kern. Now a global poetry, the haiku was originally a Japanese verse form that flourished from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although renowned for its brevity, usually running over three lines in seventeen syllables, and by its use of natural imagery to make Zen-like observations about reality, in fact the haiku is much more: it can be erotic, funny, crude and mischievous. Presenting over a thousand exemplars in vivid and engaging translations, this anthology offers an illuminating introduction to this widely celebrated, if misunderstood, art form. Adam L. Kern's new translations are accompanied here by the original Japanese and short commentaries on the poems, as well as an introduction and illustrations from the period.

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The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readersSoon to be a Showtime/Paramount+ series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander RostovFrom the number one New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel 'A wonderful book' - Tana French'This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don't miss it' - Chris Cleave'No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year'[A] supremely uplifting novel ... It's elegant, witty and delightful - much like the Count himself.' - Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year'Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism' - The Times, Books of the YearOn 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol.Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval.Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?A BOOK OF THE DECADE, 2010-2020 (INDEPENDENT)THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017A MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017A DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017ONE OF BILL GATES'S SUMMER READS OF 2019NOMINATED FOR THE 2018 INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS WEEK AWARD

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF 2021 'Astonishing and compelling' Bernard Cornwell ‘This superb book is like a classical symphony, perfectly composed and exquisitely performed’ THE TIMES Books of the Year Follow bioarchaeologist Cat Jarman – and the cutting-edge forensic techniques central to her research – as she uncovers epic stories of the Viking age and follows a small ‘Carnelian’ bead found in a Viking grave in Derbyshire to its origins thousands of miles to the east in Gujarat. ‘This superb book is like a classical symphony, perfectly composed and exquisitely performed’ THE TIMES Books of the Year Dr Cat Jarman is a bioarchaeologist, specialising in forensic techniques to research the paths of Vikings who came to rest in British soil. By examining teeth that are now over one thousand years old, she can determine childhood diet, and thereby where a person was likely born. With radiocarbon dating, she can ascertain a death date down to the range of a few years. And her research offers new visions of the likely roles of women and children in Viking culture. In 2017, a carnelian bead came into her temporary possession. River Kings sees her trace its path back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings’ route was far more varied than we might think, that with them came people from the Middle East, not just Scandinavia, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, and all the way to Britain. Told as a riveting story of the Vikings and the methods we use to understand them, this is a major reassessment of the fierce, often-mythologised voyagers of the north, and of the global medieval world as we know it.

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Hollywood boldly went where it hadn't gone before and Nashawaty chronicles the journeys. Los Angeles Times (Books You Need To Read This Summer)Written with a fan's enthusiasm . . . An important inflection point in Hollywood filmmaking. New York Times (Nonfiction Books to Read This Summer)In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood''s now biggest namesaltering the art of movie-making to this day.In The Future Was Now, Chris Nashawaty recounts the riotous genesis of these films, featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood luminaries and gadflies alike: Steven Spielberg, at the height of his powers, conceives E.T. as an unlikely family tale, and quietly takes over the troubled production of

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. Alison Hart, a medium by trade, tours the dormitory towns of London’s orbital ring road with her flint-hearted sidekick, Colette, passing on messages from beloved dead ancestors. But behind her plump, smiling persona hides a desperate woman: she knows the terrors the next life holds but must conceal them from her wide-eyed clients. At the same time she is plagued by spirits from her own past, who infiltrate her body and home, becoming stronger and nastier the more she resists… Shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Hilary Mantel’s supremely suspenseful novel is a masterpiece of dark humour and even darker secrets.

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular bestseller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival. Through the story of three generations of women in her own family – the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother and the daughter herself – Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's twentieth century. Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece which is extraordinary in every way.

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Possibly the funniest novel of the decade' Sunday Times, Books of the Decade 2010-2019 Solomon Kugel has had enough of the past and its burdens. So, in the hope of starting afresh, he moved his family to a small rural town where nothing of import has ever happened. Sadly, Kugel’s life isn’t that simple. His family soon find themselves threatened by a local arsonist and his ailing mother won't stop reminiscing about the Nazi concentration camps she didn’t actually suffer through. And when, one night, Kugel discovers a living, breathing, thought-to-be-dead specimen of history hiding in his attic, bad very quickly becomes worse.‘The humour, at times can leave you gasping . . . comic brilliance’ Sunday Times ‘Singularly inventive and superbly shocking . . . nothing short of genius’ Scotland on Sunday ‘He will make you laugh until your heart breaks’ New York Times Book Review

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'Each flick of the page suggests the tick of a countdown' New York Times Books Review'Artfully well-orchestrated' Sunday Times'Splendidly tense' Los Angeles Times The D-day landings - the fate of millions of men and the entire future of Europe depends on the right weather conditions on the English Channel on a single morning. A team of Allied scientists is charged with agreeing on an accurate forecast five days in advance. But is it even possible to predict the weather so far ahead? Will Wallace Ryman, reclusive pacifist and renowned forecaster, divulge his secrets to the team? Can Henry Meadows, a young maths prodigy, save the day? Or will turbulence prove even more elusive than imagined and events, like the weather, begin to spiral out of control?FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

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“This thoughtful, intelligent book is all about connectivity, addressing a natural world in which we are the primary influence.” —The New York Times Books Review Many gardeners today want a home landscape that nourishes and fosters wildlife, but they also want beauty, a space for the kids to play, privacy, and maybe even a vegetable patch. Sure, it’s a tall order, but The Living Landscape shows you how to do it. You’ll learn the strategies for making and maintaining a diverse, layered landscape—one that offers beauty on many levels, provides outdoor rooms and turf areas for children and pets, incorporates fragrance and edible plants, and provides cover, shelter, and sustenance for wildlife. Richly illustrated and informed by both a keen eye for design and an understanding of how healthy ecologies work, The Living Landscape will enable you to create a garden that fulfills both human needs and the needs of wildlife communities.

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The debut collection from the acclaimed author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Our Share of Night. 'An utterly brilliant measure of deep existential terror... You [will] return home looking pale and haunted' Observer Sleep-deprived fathers conjuring phantoms; sharp-toothed children and stolen skulls; persecuted young women drawn to self-immolation. Organized crime sits side-by-side with the occult in Buenos Aires - a place where reality and the supernatural fuse into strange, new shapes. These acclaimed gothic tales follow the wayward and downtrodden, revealing the scars of Argentina's dictatorship and the ghosts and traumas that have settled in the minds of its people. Provocative, brutal and uncanny, Things We Lost in the Fire is contemporary gothic at its darkest and best. 'The only book that's ever left me afraid to turn out the lights... mercilessly incisive and deeply creepy' Irish Times 'Books of the Year' 'These spookily clear-eyed, elementally intense stories are the business' Helen Oyeyemi

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives we imagined. Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria. Self-assured Ifemelu heads for America. But quiet, thoughtful Obinze finds post-9/11 America closed to him, and plunges into a dangerous undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion – for each other and for their homeland. Fearless, gripping and spanning three continents and numerous lives, the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Americanah is a richly told story of love and expectation in a globalised world. ‘Some novels tell a great story and other make you change the way you look at the world. Americanah does both’ Guardian

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come.. Like everything else since the war, the sky was in a state of change Based on J. G. Ballard’s own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy’s life in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Trapped in a prison camp and separated from his parents, Jim is witness to the death, starvation and chaos of the Second World War. His story is a mesmerising vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and shortlisted for the Booker, Empire of the Sun is an astounding, hypnotically compelling novel by which the twentieth century will be not only remembered, but judged. ‘Remarkable … form, content and style fuse with complete success … one of the great war novels of the 20th century’ William Boyd

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. ‘Maths is one of the purest forms of thought, and to outsiders mathematicians may seem almost otherworldly’ In 1963, schoolboy Andrew Wiles stumbled across the world’s greatest mathematical problem: Fermat’s Last Theorem. Unsolved for over 300 years, he dreamed of cracking it. Combining thrilling storytelling with a fascinating history of scientific discovery, Simon Singh uncovers how an Englishman, after years of secret toil, finally solved mathematics’ most challenging problem. Fermat’s Last Theorem is remarkable story of human endeavour, obsession and intellectual brilliance, sealing its reputation as a classic of popular science writing. ‘To read it is to realise that there is a world of beauty and intellectual challenge that is denied to 99.9 per cent of us who are not high-level mathematicians’ The Times

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A brilliant reconstruction of an incredible journey across medieval Europe to Egypt, and an untold story of forbidden love. 'Enthralling... A spectacular tale told with spectacular accomplishment' Sunday Times, Books of the YearIn the small village in Provence where Stefan Hertmans has made his home, people have long spoken of an ancient pogrom and hidden treasure. Then, at the end of the nineteenth century, an extraordinary collection of Jewish documents was found in a synagogue in Cairo. Hertmans has based The Convert on these historical sources, tracing the life of a young Christian noblewoman who abandoned everything for the love of a rabbi's son. In this startlingly contemporary novel, Hertmans follows in her footsteps as the lovers flee through France together, pursued by crusading knights, and recounts her dazzling journey full of love and hardship, courage and hate, as she travels on towards Jerusalem alone.Jewish National Book Awards 2020 Finalist

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'Thrilling, tremendously enjoyable' The New York Times'A nail-biting escape story' Financial TimesAt the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill already believed he was destined for greatness. This is the incredible story of how one incredible year in Churchill's life - an adventure involving war in South Africa, imprisonment, endurance and escape - would be the making of one of the most extraordinary men in history. 'Few can match the originality and narrative power of Candice Millard's elegantly written and surprisingly revealing account of the young Churchill's exploits' Saul David, Daily Telegraph'A thrilling account ... This book is an awesome nail-biter and top-notch character study rolled into one' Jennifer Senior, The New York Times, Books of the YearGripping ... thrilling ... Millard tells it with gusto ... casts an interestingly oblique light on Churchill's personality, and on a traumatic war' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Observer, Books of the Year'Completely engrossing' Andrew Roberts

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'Affecting and engaging' COLM TÓIBÍN'A wistful, witty meditation on a gay man's twilight years and the twilight of America' GuardianOut in the drought-struck backwaters of rural Florida, The Kingdom of Sand's nameless narrator lives a life of semi-solitude, enjoying the odd, fleeting sexual encounter and the friendship of a few.His world is ageing, and the memories of another time flash, then fade - visions of parties filled with handsome young men, the parents whom he chose to spend his life besides, the generation he once knew, struck down by AIDS. But, when forced to watch the slow demise of a close neighbour, he is drawn back to the here and now, and his own borrowed time in this kingdom of sand.'Bracingly honest and wise' The Times, Books of the Year'Both melancholy and hilarious' New York Times

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*** The Sunday Times bestseller ***'Vividly imagined and prodigiously researched' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'Such a rewarding read' John Preston, Daily Mail, Books of the Year'This odd, secretive man is brought to life', Robbie Millen, The Times, Books of the YearMaxwell Knight was a paradox. A jazz obsessive and nature enthusiast (he is the author of the definitive work on how to look after a gorilla), he is seen today as one of MI5's greatest spymasters, a man who did more than any other to break up British fascism during the Second World War – in spite of having once belonged to the British Fascisti himself. He was known to his agents and colleagues simply as M, and was rumoured to be part of the inspiration for the character M in the James Bond series.Knight became a legendary spymaster despite an almost total lack of qualifications. What set him apart from his peers was a mercurial ability to transform almost anyone into a fearless secret agent. He was the first in MI5 to grasp the potential of training female agents.M is about more than just one man however. In its pages, Hemming reveals for the first time in print the names and stories of seven men and women recruited by Knight, on behalf of MI5, and then asked to infiltrate the most dangerous political organizations in Britain at that time. Until now, their identities have been kept secret outside MI5. Drawn from every walk of life, they led double lives—often at great personal cost—in order to protect the country they loved. With the publication of this book, it will be possible at last to celebrate the lives of these courageous, selfless individuals.Drawing on declassified documents, private family archives and interviews with retired MI5 officers as well as the families of MI5 agents, M reveals not just the shadowy world of espionage but a brilliant, enigmatic man at its centre.

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Breakfast at Sotheby's is a wry, intimate, truly revealing exploration of how art acquires its financial value, from Philip Hook, a senior director at Sotheby's'Reading it is like participating in a hugely enjoyable personal tutorial given by a cultured, witty, clear-eyed, world teacher with a fully functioning sense of humour. A real delight' - Spectator 'Hook's view of the art world is that of the professional auctioneer. In an A-Z format, it is an entire art education contained in under 350 pages. Wry, dry and completely beguiling' - William Boyd, Guardian, Books of the Year 'How to nail the mad, bad, crazy contemporary art world in print? Sotheby's senior director Hook draws on 35 years' experience in this informal memoir. He unravels, with humour, piquancy and erudition, what drives the economics of taste' - Financial Times, Books of the Year 'It's very hard to write an amusing book about art that has some serious things to say. But Philip Hook has done it' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'An auctioneer's alphabet of quirky reflections and off-beat lists such as 'middle-brow artists' and 'fictional artists': an ideal volume for the art-lover's bedside' - Martin Gayford, Spectator, Books of the Year 'His delightful Breakfast at Sotheby's is a house sale of a book, a chance for him to clear out 35 years of memories as an art dealer and auctioneer, first at Christie's and then Sotheby's, a rival auction house' - Economist Philip Hook is a director and senior paintings specialist at Sotheby's. He has worked in the art world for thirty-five years during which time he has also been a director of Christie's and an international art dealer. He is the author of five novels and two works of art history, including The Ultimate Trophy, a history of the Impressionist Painting. Hook has appeared regularly on television, from 1978-2003 on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow.

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Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019'[A] painfully intense, courageous and gripping account of [Fanning's] journey to the underworld of madness and back. This is a brave and instructive book.' Irish Times'Extraordinary. An account of mental illness, grief, delusions, homelessness, a fractured family relationship ... and all while trying to recover and create. Superb writing on a frequently difficult subject.' Sinéad Gleeson Arnold Thomas Fanning had his first experience of depression during adolescence, following the death of his mother. Some ten years later, an up-and-coming playwright, he was overcome by mania and delusions. Thus began a terrible period in which he was often suicidal, increasingly disconnected from family and friends, sometimes in trouble with the law, and homeless in London.Drawing on his own memories, the recollections of people who knew him when he was at his worst, and medical and police records, Arnold Thomas Fanning has produced a beautifully written, devastatingly intense account of madness - and recovery, to the point where he has not had any serious illness for over a decade and has become an acclaimed playwright. Fanning conveys the consciousness of a person living with mania, psychosis and severe depression with a startling precision and intimacy. Mind on Fire is the gripping, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately uplifting testament of a person who has visited hellish regions of the mind.'Arnold Thomas Fanning offers the most vivid and unflinching window into the mind of someone who is in the throes of madness ... It was like nothing I'd read before' Rick Edwards'Mind on Fire is a truly powerful, arresting, haunting account. Arnold Thomas Fanning has reckoned with the darkest matter of his heart and mind, and I challenge anyone not to be moved by that.' Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither and A Line Made by Walking'In this strange and singular book, Arnold Thomas Fanning mercilessly excavates the infernal underworld of his own years of madness. As reminiscent as it occasionally is of John Healy's The Grass Arena, and even of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, the book is ultimately not quite like anything else I've read, and brought me as close to the lived reality of mental illness as I have ever been. It's a significant achievement: a painful, inexorable work of autobiography, whose existence is its own form of redemption.' Mark O'Connell, Baillie Gifford Prize-shortlisted author of To Be a Machine'This is an extraordinary memoir about how it feels to be depressed, delusional, desperate' The Observer 'Incredibly important' Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self'A ratcheting pace, a tight first-person immediacy, and utterly staggering to be a passenger over its entire warped course ... An indelible, ground-shaking account' Hilary A White, Irish Independent, Memoir of the Year, Best Reads of 2018'A spellbinding memoir that should prove both moving and hopefully cathartic for the reader.' RTE Culture 'Told in tight and immediate first-person, and imbued with a startling momentum that ratchets unnervingly, Fanning's publishing debut ... is a significant achievement and should be a talking point in publishing this year.' Irish Independent 'Fanning's debut book lays it on the line in a deeply personal and compelling chronicle of his descent into depression and his way back out.' RTE Guide'Wonderful' Joseph O'Connor, Irish Times Books of the Year'Unsparingly direct, searing and honest ... It is gripping to read and must have been exhausting to live' Medical Independent 'One of the most gripping and revealing memoirs I've read in a long time. A controlled and artful exploration of absolute loss of control, an unsettling and at times very moving reconstruction of a period of serious mental illness, Mind on Fire is a beautiful book about a terrifying thing.' Mark O'Connell, Irish Times Books of the Year'Gripping' Sinéad Gleeson, Irish Times Books of the Year'Shocking' Liz Nugent, Irish Times Books of the Year'Poignant, beautifully detailed memoir' Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times, Best debuts of 2018'Brave and illuminating' Sunday Business Post'This is the type of account that not only grips you wholesale as the pages flitter past, it also changes your very perception of psychology' Hilary A White, Sunday Independent Memoir of the Year

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. Henry Skrimshander, newly arrived at college, shy and out of his depth, has a talent for baseball that borders on genius. But sometimes it seems that his only friend is big Mike Schwartz – who champions the talents of others, at the expense of his own. And Owen, Henry’s clever, charismatic, gay roommate, who has a secret that could put his brilliant college career in jeopardy. Pella, the 23-year-old daughter of the college president, has returned home after a failed marriage, determined to get her life in order. Only to find her father, a confirmed bachelor, has fallen desperately in love himself. Then, one fateful day, Henry makes a mistake – misthrows a ball. And everything changes…

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Winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year. Selected by Sunday Times Books of the Year and The Guardian as Best Thriller of the Year. Perfect for fans of John le Carré, a gripping and suspenseful spy thriller from ‘the master of the modern spy thriller’ (Mail on Sunday) Six weeks before she is due to become the first female head of MI6, Amelia Levene disappears without a trace. Disgraced ex-agent Thomas Kell is brought in from the cold with orders to find her – quickly and quietly. The mission offers Kell a way back into the secret world, the only life he’s ever known. Tracking her through France and North Africa, Kell embarks on a dangerous voyage, shadowed by foreign intelligence services. This far from home soil, the rules of the game are entirely different – and the consequences worse than anyone imagines…

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Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. Open your eyes, and see what you can with them before they close forever For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes: the miniature model of her Paris neighbourhood she traces with her fingers; the microscopic layers within the diamond in the Museum of Natural History; the unmapped future which brings her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, whose talents draw the attention of the Hitler Youth. A deeply moving novel about the ways people try to be good to one another, All the Light We Cannot See has touched the hearts of millions of readers across the world, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. ‘Far more than a conventional war story, it’s a tightly focused epic … A bittersweet and moving novel that lingers in the mind’ Daily Mail

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