Search results for ""ATLANTIC BOOKS""

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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Mary Lou McDonald is the bookies' favourite to be Ireland's next Taoiseach. She would be the first woman to reach the office, and the first Sinn Féin leader ever to enter government in the Republic of Ireland. But how did a quintessentially bourgeois woman become the leader of a political party with such recent links to terrorism?This exhaustively researched biography unearths new details of her family background and her privileged education, as well as her initial foray into politics through the more traditional Fianna Fáil party. It explores her unusually late commitment to political life and traces her mysterious but meteoric rise through the ranks of Sinn Féin and her relentless drive to reach the top of the party.Scrupulously fair and balanced, Mary Lou McDonald illuminates its subject's political awakening and her interactions with the hard men of the IRA, while posing important questions about the evolution and future of Sinn Féin.

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'Revisiting this selection of diaries and essay-reviews from the London Review of Books is restorative, an extended spa treatment that stretches tired brains and unkinks the usual habitual responses where Hitchens is concerned.' James Wolcott in his introduction Christopher Hitchens was a star writer wherever he wrote, and the same was true of the London Review of Books, to which he contributed sixty pieces over two decades. Anthologised here for the first time, this selection of his finest LRB reviews, diaries and essays (along with a smattering of ferocious letters) finds Hitchens at his very best. Familiar bêtes noires - Kennedy, Nixon, Kissinger, Clinton - rub shoulders with lesser-known preoccupations: P.G. Wodehouse, Princess Margaret and, magisterially, Isaiah Berlin. Here is Hitchens on the (first) Gulf War and the 'Salman Rushdie Acid Test', on being spanked by Mrs Thatcher in the House of Lords and taking his son to the Oscars, on America's homegrown Nazis and 'Acts of Violence in Grosvenor Square' in 1968. Edited by the London Review of Books, with an introduction by James Wolcott, this collection recaptures, ten years after his death, 'a Hitch in time': barnstorming, cauterising, and ultimately uncontainable.

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When a choice must be made between love and duty, solace comes in unexpected forms... Summer, 1929. The Hinton Dysart estate is dying from lack of money, and Kit Dysart, the heir, sees no way out. Then, at his sister's wedding, he meets the vibrant Daisy Chudleigh and her cousin, the heiress Matty Verrall. In love with Daisy but troubled by his family's decline, Kit chooses to marry Matty, though neither Kit nor Daisy is able to forget the other. When Matty, growing increasingly unhappy in her troubled, empty marriage, decides to re-create the estate's garden, she discovers solace and a gift of which she never dreamt. A haunting, passionate story played out between three people, Consider the Lily is also a poignant and beautiful novel of England between the wars that propels the reader into its own rich and nostalgic world.

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'We have eaten our way into this epidemic of diabetes, what if we could eat our way out of it? Read this book to find out how!' Dr David Unwin, clinical expert in diabetesHow to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes provides an effective and evidence-based approach to guide people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes towards a healthier future. Focusing on the lifestyle changes that help reverse the diabetes disease process, the book will be an invaluable source of hope and inspiration for the millions of people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes around the world.Drawing upon Dr Cavan's extensive research into diabetes management and his professional experience, How to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes reveals the latest scientific evidence behind his innovative approach in helping people reverse their diabetes, providing specific advice for people with prediabetes as well as those with type 2 diabetes. Explaining in easy-to-understand terms how today's lifestyles are driving millions of people into prediabetes and then on to developing type 2 diabetes, the author then describes the changes we can make to halt the process in its tracks, and help people turn around their health to look forward to a future free from diabetes.Advocating a diet based on healthy fresh foods that avoids sugars, refined carbohydrates and other highly processed foods, and with simple suggestions for how to incorporate physical activity into the daily routine, this accessible guide shows us sustainable and achievable ways of adjusting our lifestyles to reverse prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, authenticated with first-hand testimonies from people who in following Dr Cavan's evidence-based approach have already done just that.Previously published as Busting the Diabetes Myth'Excellent book - written for patients but also great for clinicians' - Amazon 5-star reader review'[Busting the Diabetes Myth] should be compulsory reading for anyone recently diagnosed.' - Amazon 5-star reader review'Full of valuable information about the condition and how to beat it' - Amazon 5-star reader review

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'Charming - a love-letter to home, history, and nature.'LEAH BROAD, Author of Quartet'A tender and illuminating history of an overlooked world.'HORATIO CLARE'Truly a revelation on every page.'PETROC TRELAWNY'A richly textured book, replete with illuminating discoveries and observations.' COUNTRY LIFE'A wide-ranging meditation on place and past.'LITERARY REVIEWGavin considered himself an urban being... until he met his husband, Alastair. Together, they bought Stepps House in Pembridge, Herefordshire - on love at first sight. But then came the question: 'How old is it?' With its ancient beams, the date they'd been given seemed out by centuries. As Gavin traced Stepps House through various hands and eras, he saw a past emerge that resonates powerfully with our present.Mixing history and art, memoir and landscape, A Home for All Seasons is grand in its sweep and intimate in its account of rural life.

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The sixth novel in a stunning series set in eighteenth-century Cornwall, perfect for fans of Poldark, Tracy Rees and Dinah JefferiesCornwall, 1800. Imprisoned on false pretences, Madeleine Pelligrew, former mistress of Pendenning Hall, has spent the last 14 years shuttled between increasingly destitute and decrepit mad houses. When a strange man appears out of the blue to release her, she can't quite believe that her freedom comes without a price. Hiding her identity, Madeleine determines to discover the truth about what happened all those years ago.Unsure who to trust and alone in the world, Madeleine strikes a tentative friendship with a French prisoner on parole, Captain Pierre de la Croix. But as she learns more about the reasons behind her imprisonment, and about those who schemed to hide her away for so long, she starts to wonder if Pierre is in fact the man he says he is. As Madeleine's past collides with her present, can she find the strength to follow her heart, no matter the personal cost?

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Christopher Hitchens goes straight for the jugular in The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Under his fearsome gaze, the former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor is accused of being a war criminal whose reckless actions and heinous disregard for international law have led to torture, kidnapping, and murder.This book is a polemical masterpiece by a man who, for forty years, was the Angloshpere's preeminent man of letters. In The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Hitchens' verve, style and firebrand wit are on show at the height of their potency.'A good liar must have a good memory: Kissinger is a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.' Christopher Hitchens

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'Boldly reactionary... What looks like feast, Carr argues, may be closer to famine' Sunday Times'Chilling' The EconomistIn this ground-breaking and compelling book, Nicholas Carr argues that not since Gutenberg invented printing has humanity been exposed to such a mind-altering technology. The Shallows draws on the latest research to show that the Net is literally re-wiring our brains inducing only superficial understanding. As a consequence there are profound changes in the way we live and communicate, remember and socialise - even in our very conception of ourselves. By moving from the depths of thought to the shallows of distraction, the web, it seems, is actually fostering ignorance. The Shallows is not a manifesto for luddites, nor does it seek to turn back the clock. Rather it is a revelatory reminder of how far the Internet has become enmeshed in our daily existence and is affecting the way we think. This landmark book compels us all to look anew at our dependence on this all-pervasive technology.This 10th-anniversary edition includes a new afterword that brings the story up to date, with a deep examination of the cognitive and behavioural effects of smartphones and social media.

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The bestselling cult classicgod Is Not Great is the ultimate case against religion. In a series of acute readings of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens demonstrates the ways in which religion is man-made, dangerously sexually repressive and distorts the very origins of the cosmos. Above all, Hitchens argues that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged humanity, and proposes that the world might be a great deal better off without 'him'. In god is Not Great Hitchens turned his formidable eloquence and rhetorical energy to the most controversial issue in the world: God and religion. The result is a devastating critique of religious faith

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1978 and two 14-year-old white boys are creating dubious art by using a hacksaw to cut multiple quarters into pieces. A child who's just bought ice cream from a Mr. Softee truck witnesses a daylight sidewalk shooting in 1979. At another time, a couple of blocks over, a kid gets caught trying to shoplift an adult magazine from a Puerto Rican hole-in-the-wall. A Black teenager and his white friends square up to a rival Italian gang over the right to play hockey in the street. In 1977 a white kid craters a baseball right in the centre of a Cuban guy's windscreen. And so it goes. On the streets of Brooklyn, the faces of the children change but the patterns remain the same: sex; boredom; friendship; violence; a million daily crimes committed, some small, some unimaginably big. But the real action is away from the streets, played out behind closed doors by parents; cops; renovators; landlords; gentrifiers; those who write the headlines, the histories, and the laws; those who award this neighbourhood its name and control its shifting demographics. Across the decades, buildings are developed and homes are razed; communities come in and muscle other communities out; the past haunts the present and perspectives change, so that perpetrators sometimes become victims, and victims sometimes become the worst criminals of all... Written with kaleidoscopic verve and delirious wit, Brooklyn Crime Novel is a breathtaking tour de force of a quarter of a city and the humanity it contains, and an epic interrogation of how we fashion stories to contain the uncontainable: our remorse at the world we've made

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In this frank and damning exposé of the Teresa cult, Hitchens details the nature and limits of one woman's mission to help the world's poor. He probes the source of the heroic status bestowed upon an Albanian nun whose only declared wish was to serve God. He asks whether Mother Teresa's good works answered any higher purpose than the need of the world's privileged to see someone, somewhere, doing something for the Third World. He unmasks pseudo-miracles, questions Mother Teresa's fitness to adjudicate on matters of sex and reproduction, and reports on a version of saintly ubiquity which affords genial relations with dictators, corrupt tycoons and convicted frauds. Is Mother Teresa merely an essential salve to the conscience of the rich West, or an expert PR machine for the Catholic Church? In its caustic iconoclasm and unsparing wit, The Missionary Position showcases the devastating effect of Hitchens' writing at its polemical best.

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Not even the Blitz can shake a mother's love.Cathy was a happy, blushing bride when Britain went to war with Germany three years ago. But her youthful dreams were crushed by her violent husband Stanley's involvement with the fascist black-shirts, and even when he's conscripted to fight she knows it's only a brief respite - divorce is not an option. Cathy, a true Brogan daughter, stays strong for her beloved little son Peter.When a telegram arrives declaring that her husband is missing in action, Cathy can finally allow herself to hope - she only has to wait 6 months before she is legally a widow and can move on with her life. In the meantime, she has to keep Peter safe and fed. So she advertises for a lodger, and Sergeant Archie McIntosh of the Royal Engineers' Bomb Disposal Squad turns up. He is kind, clever and thoughtful; their mutual attraction is instant. But with Stanley's fate still unclear, and the Blitz raging on over London's East End, will Cathy ever have the love she deserves?Jean Fullerton, the queen of the East End saga, returns with a wonderful new nostalgic novel.

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The Magic Lantern is one of those rare books that capture history in the making, written by an author who was witness to some of the most remarkable moments that marked the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. Timothy Garton Ash was there in Warsaw, on 4 June, when the communist government was humiliated by Solidarity in the first semi-free elections since the Second World War. He was there in Budapest, twelve days later, when Imre Nagy - thirty-one years after his execution - was finally given his proper funeral. He was there in Berlin, as the Wall opened. And most remarkable of all, he was there in Prague, in the back rooms of the Magic Lantern theatre, with Václav Havel and the members of Civic Forum, as they made their 'Velvet Revolution'.

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''[Tsiolkas''s] most heartfelt novel to date'' Financial Times''A love story par excellence...he''s simply one of the great writers of our time'' Irish Times''Warm and rewarding...it triumphantly succeeds'' GuardianIt''s been a long time since I''ve been on a date,'' he says, pocketing his own phone. ''Please ignore anything I say for at least the first ten minutes.''Ivan''s laugh is loud, delighted. ''I know, mate, I''m bloody terrified.''Two middle-aged men meet on an internet date. Each has been scarred by a previous relationship; each has his own compelling reasons for giving up on the idea of finding love.But still they both turn up for the dinner, feel the spark and the possibility of something more. How can they take the risk of falling in love again. How can they not?A tender, affecting novel of love, of hope, of forgiveness by one of today''s most fearless and trut

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Ross Perlin is a linguist, writer and translator. He has written for the New York Times, the Guardian, Harper's and n+1 and the Endangered Language Alliance has been covered by the New York Times, the New Yorker, BBC, NPR and many others. He is also the author of Intern Nation.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' BEST BOOKS OF 2023ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023ONE OF THE NEW YORKER'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023TIME MAGAZINE'S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR'A journalistic masterpiece' David Remnick, New YorkerMy job is to go to places where people die. I pack my bags, talk to the survivors, write my stories, then go home to wait for the next catastrophe. I don't wait very long.Journalist Patricia Evangelista came of age in the aftermath of a street revolution that forged a new future for the Philippines. Three decades later, in the face of mounting inequality, the nation discovered the fragility of its democratic institutions under the regime of strongman Rodrigo Duterte.Some People Need Killing is Evangelista's meticulously reported and deeply human chronicle of the Philippines' drug war. For six years, Evangelista chronicled the killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of Duterte's war on drugs - a war that has led to the slaughter of thousands - immersing herself in the world of killers and survivors and capturing the atmosphere of fear created when an elected president decides that some lives are worth less than others.The book takes its title from a vigilante whose words seemed to reflect the psychological accommodation that most of the country had made: 'I'm really not a bad guy,' he said. 'I'm not all bad. Some people need killing.'A profound act of witness and a tour de force of literary journalism, Some People Need Killing is also a brilliant dissection of the grammar of violence and an important investigation of the human impulses to dominate and resist.

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A provocative and shocking look at how western society is misunderstanding and mistreating mental illness. Perfect for fans of Empire of Pain and Dope Sick.In Britain alone, more than 20% of the adult population take a psychiatric drug in any one year. This is an increase of over 500% since 1980 and the numbers continue to grow. Yet, despite this prescription epidemic, levels of mental illness of all types have actually increased in number and severity.Using a wealth of studies, interviews with experts, and detailed analysis, Dr James Davies argues that this is because we have fundamentally mischaracterised the problem. Rather than viewing most mental distress as an understandable reaction to wider societal problems, we have embraced a medical model which situates the problem solely within the sufferer and their brain. Urgent and persuasive, Sedated systematically examines why this individualistic view of mental illness has been promoted by successive governments and big business - and why it is so misplaced and dangerous.

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A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick'A love letter to Japan and its literature' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan'Ingenious... Touching, surprising and sometimes heartbreaking' Guardian'An ideal tonic for anyone craving far-flung adventure' Mail on Sunday'If you're itching to read a new novel by David Mitchell...try this' The Times_______________In Tokyo - one of the world's largest megacities - a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways.But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers - from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo's denizens, drawing them ever closer.'Masterfully weaves together seemingly disparate threads to conjure up a vivid tapestry of Tokyo; its glory, its shame, its characters, and a calico cat.' David Peace, author of THE TOKYO TRILOGYOne of the Independent's best debutsLonglisted for the DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD, 2021

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From the author of When I Hit You, shortlisted for the 2018 Women's Prize for FictionKarim and Maya:[x] share a home [x] worry about money [x] binge-watch films [x] argue all the time Karim, a young film-maker, carries with him the starry-eyed dreams of the Arab Revolution. Maya carries her own pressing concerns: an errant father, an unstable job, a chain-smoking habit, a sudden pregnancy. When Karim's brother disappears in Tunis, and Karim wants to go after him, Maya must choose between her partner and her home city, her future and her history...In a conversation between forms, fictions and truths, Exquisite Cadavers is a novel about a young couple navigating love in London, and a literary hall of mirrors about an author navigating the inspirations behind her work.___________________'An inventive fusion' Observer'A work of brilliance' Financial Times'Wonderful' LitHub

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'A pageturner packed with family secrets and Arctic adventure' Dundee Courier How do you solve the mysteries of a love frozen in time?Caroline Gillan and her new husband Alasdair have moved back to Kelly Castle, his family estate in the wilds of Scotland. Stuck caring for their baby and trying to avoid her opinionated mother-in-law, Caroline feels lonely and adrift.But while sorting through old papers, Caroline stumbles across a century-old mystery which sparks her back to life. There is one Gillan bride who has disappeared from history. No photos or records of her exist. The only certainty is that she had a legitimate child: Alasdair's grandmother.As Caroline unearths a strange love story that stretches as far as the Arctic circle, her curiosity about the missing bride turns into an obsession. And when a body is found in the grounds of the castle, Caroline begins an investigation which could change the course of her life forever . . .From the wilds of Scotland to the glaciers of the Arctic, A Woman Made of Snow is a mesmerising tale of how one woman's past might hold the key to another's future.*Praise for Elisabeth Gifford's gorgeously atmospheric, uplifting novels:'Gorgeously written and devastating' Kate Riordan'One of the best novels I've read' Gill Paul'Desperately romantic' Katie Fforde'Compelling' Sarah Maine 'Gorgeous, melancholy' The Times'A glorious novel. You won't be able to put it down for a minute' Suellen Dainty'An undeniably haunting love story' Sunday Times'A moving story, beautifully told' Tim Pear

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*NOW UPDATED WITH EXTRA MATERIAL*The boy who fled Afghanistan and endured a terrifying journey in the hands of people smugglers is now a young man intent on changing the world. His story is a deeply harrowing and incredibly inspiring tale of our times.Gulwali Passarlay was sent away from Afghanistan at the age of twelve, after his father was killed in a gun battle with the US Army. He made a twelve-month odyssey across Europe, spending time in prisons, suffering hunger, making a terrifying journey across the Mediterranean in a tiny boat, and enduring a desolate month in the camp at Calais. Somehow he survived, and made it to Britain, where he was fostered, sent to school, and won a place at a top university. He was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in 2012. One boy's experience is the central story of our times. This powerful memoir celebrates the triumph of courage over adversity.

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In the run up to the 1987 election Christopher Hope returned to his native South Africa after a twelve-year absence. The nature of that year's whites-only election and the bitter defeat of the liberals led him to write this satirical, evocative portrait of what it looked and felt like growing up in a country gripped by an absurd, racist insanity.Full of exquisite and despairing descriptions, Hope weaves together journalistic commentary and his own personal story as he encounters the bloody battles that have divided his homeland. This is a mordantly witty account of escape, displacement and disillusionment, and a modern classic of journalistic memoir.

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Do you eat too much sugar? What proportion of your country are immigrants? What does it cost to raise a child? How much tax do the rich pay? Are we more ignorant than we used to be?Take a minute to answer these questions. No matter how educated you are, this book suggests you are likely to be very wrong indeed. Informed by exclusive research across 40 countries, conducted by global polling firm Ipsos, The Perils of Perception investigates why we don't know basic facts about the world around us. Using the latest research into the media and decision science, this book will transform the way you engage with the world.

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The hotly anticipated sequel to The Dark Lake, this is perfect for fans of The Dry, police procedurals, and classy, clever crime fiction._____________Highly recommended - LoveReading______________Senior Detective Gemma Woodstock is a small-town policewoman working on the biggest homicide cases in Melbourne. When an up-and-coming movie star is stabbed to death while the cameras are rolling on his new blockbuster, Gemma, eager to prove herself, is assigned to the case.With the whole thing caught from multiple angles, how hard can it be to catch the crazed culprit? And who would want to hurt Australia's adored boy-next-door? As Gemma uncovers the deadly underside of fame, her investigation turns into a dangerous game against those with money, power and everything to lose...

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From ancient riddles to modern Sudoku, people have been fascinated by puzzles. Whether they are seen as a glorious waste of time, a harmless way to spend a train journey or a valuable way of exercising the mind, the lure of puzzles has been irresistible. By using over a hundred examples of the most mindbending, the most challenging, the most satisfying, or simply the most humorous of puzzles throughout the ages, William Hartston traces the development of brainteasers of all varieties and the increasing ingenuity of puzzle setters from ancient civilisations to modern puzzle crazes.

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'Caroline Bond has a gift for weaving heart-rending tales of impossible decisions' Amanda Brooke, author of The Bad MotherHow do you protect the ones you love from the secrets that hurt them most?____________________Cassie is adopted. She's never felt like the odd one out in her family, but at seventeen she decides to find her birth mother. As she starts digging, she discovers her adoption was far more complicated than she could ever have imagined. And, in uncovering her history, Cassie learns of a terrible secret that her parents kept from her. A secret that will shatter relationships, expose the decisions of the past and lead everyone involved to question what really makes a family.

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"An exquisitely moving novel of sorrow, love, and the miracle of human connections." Kamila Shamsie, author of Home FireOne warm night Oliver Loving joins his classmates at the annual school dance, hoping for a glimpse of the girl he's long been in love with. But as music fills the gymnasium and students timidly approach the dancefloor, a young man enters with a gun, leaving five people dead and Oliver in a coma. A decade later, Oliver remains in limbo, wordless and paralyzed. His brother has long since fled. His father has turned to drink in the Texan desert. His town has withered, its people unable to forget. Only his mother, buoyed by the result of fresh neurological tests, holds onto the unshakeable hope that Oliver will soon wake up, and finally answer the questions that have slept with him for ten long years.

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THE NINTH INSTALMENT IN THE HANNE WILHELMSEN SERIES.Long-awaited sequel to Anne Holt's massive bestseller 1222.It has been eleven years since Hanne Wilhelmsen's life was forever changed by an assault that left her wheelchair bound. Now, Hanne's self-imposed exile is nearing its end. When Oslo comes under attack from Islamic extremists in a series of explosions, the city is left reeling. A militant group claim responsibility, but the Norwegian police force doubt on the authenticity of the declaration, and the group's very existence. The unfolding drama is brought to Hanne's door by her former partner Billy T., who is convinced that his son, Linus, is involved in the recent events. He begs Hanne for help. But Hanne soon learns that she cannot protect Linus, Billy T. or the people of Oslo. Those bent of destruction are one step ahead, and many lives will be lost before the truth is revealed... Don't miss this unforgettable sequel to Anne Holt's biggest bestseller 1222 - and penultimate novel in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series.

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AN IRISH TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLERONE OF AMAZON UK'S 'RISING STAR' BEST DEBUTS OF 2016 WINNER: BEST MYSTERY, INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARDS 2017 USASHORTLISTED FOR BOOKS ARE MY BAG IBA CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2016 SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY NEW BLOOD DAGGER 2017Did she leave, or was she taken?The day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads 'I'm sorry - S' sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her. Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate - and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before. To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground...Distress Signals is a highly confident and accomplished debut novel, impeccably sustained, with not a false note. The exploration of the often murky backstage workings of the luxury liner world is fascinating, and there is a psychologically acute portrait of a killer that is genuinely moving. We will hear a great deal more of this author. - Irish Times

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As a former president of Russia loses his marbles, those around him get down to losing their morals.Former Russian president, Vladimir P, is going senile, marooned in a world of memories from his years in power. To get him out of the way, he has been exiled to his luxury dacha, where he is served by a coterie of bickering house staff. Only Sheremetev, the guileless nurse charged with Vladimir's round-the-clock care, is unaware that everyone else is busily using every means at their disposal to skim money from their employer's inexhaustible riches. But when the nurse suddenly needs to find cash for a bribe or see his nephew rot in jail, the dacha's chef lets him in on the secret world of 'commissions' going on all around him. Yet surely Sheremetev wouldn't think to steal from his ailing patient? And surely, in the upstanding modern Russia that Vladimir P created, no one would actually let him...

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Exactly eight hundred years ago, Magna Carta established the right not to be thrown in the Tower of London for being slightly irritating, which is the closest we've ever got to a written constitution. But come on! Things have moved on since King John. Isn't it time we had another bash at setting down a few laws and principles for us all to live by? Isn't it time we knew how to queue properly, how to banter within the limits of decency, how to handshake in a regal fashion, how to appropriately and committedly observe the weather, and how to competitively own pets?It will no doubt confuse the Taliban, perplex the Americans and move the French to shrug their shoulders and say bof, but for the good people of this island, this first draft of the British Constitution sets out and celebrates the very best bits of being British.

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Alastair Cunningham wakes up in hospital with almost total amnesia. But he knows that something terrible happened in his past, something that haunts him still. A young family friend, Clémence, is called in to help rekindle his memory. Retreating with Alastair to his remote cottage by a Scottish loch, Clémence finds a peculiar manuscript hidden away from prying eyes. Reading the prologue, she discovers a murder by someone very much like a young Alastair. The victim? Clémence's grandmother, Sophie. Could this kindly old man truly be a killer? Clémence becomes determined to find out what happened all those years ago, even if she must risk everything to do so...

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A Sunday Times bestseller, this new paperback is an elegant and inspiring short guide to the art of meditation: another instant classic from the bestselling author of Happiness.Wherever he goes, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard is asked to explain what meditation is, how it is done and what it can achieve. In this authoritative and inspiring book, he sets out to answer these questions. Matthieu Ricard shows that practising meditation can change our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. He talks us through its theory, spirituality and practical aspects of deep contemplation and illustrates each stage of his teaching with examples. Through his experience as a monk, his close reading of sacred texts and his deep knowledge of the Buddhist masters, Matthieu Ricard reveals the significant benefits that meditation - based on selfless love and compassion - can bring to each of us.

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In the tradition of the best writing on human behaviour and moral choices in the face of disaster, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amidst chaos. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are for the impact of large-scale disasters - and how we can do better. A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms our understanding of human nature in crisis.

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Can you ever forgive the unforgivable?In 1962, Emil Clément comes face to face with Paul Meissner at a chess tournament in Holland. They haven't seen one another in almost two decades. Clément, once known only as The Watchmaker, is a Jewish former inmate of Auschwitz. Whilst there, he was forced to play chess against Nazi guards. If he won, he could save a fellow prisoner's life; if he lost, he would lose his own. Meissner, a soft-spoken priest, was also at Auschwitz. He was the SS Officer who forced The Watchmaker to play...

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In 2008 the art critic Tom Lubbock was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The tumour was located in the area controlling speech and language, and would eventually rob him of the ability to speak. He died early in 2011. Marion Coutts was his wife.In short bursts of beautiful, textured prose, Coutts describes the eighteen months leading up to her partner's death. This book is an account of a family unit, man, woman, young child, under assault, and how the three of them fought to keep it intact.Written with extraordinary narrative force and power, The Iceberg is almost shocking in its rawness. It charts the deterioration of Tom's speech even as it records the developing language of his child. Fury, selfishness, grief, indignity and impotence are all examined and brought to light.Yet out of this comes a rare story about belonging, an 'adventure of being and dying'. This book is a celebration of each other, friends, family, art, work, love and language.

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1941: In Communist-ruled, war-ravaged Estonia, two men are fleeing from the Red Army - Roland, a fiercely principled freedom fighter, and his slippery cousin Edgar. When the Germans arrive, Roland goes into hiding; Edgar abandons his unhappy wife, Juudit, and takes on a new identity as a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime... 1963: Estonia is again under Communist control, independence even further out of reach behind the Iron Curtain. Edgar is now a Soviet apparatchik, desperate to hide the secrets of his past life and stay close to those in power. But his fate remains entangled with Roland's, and with Juudit, who may hold the key to uncovering the truth... In a masterfully told story that moves between the tumult of these two brutally repressive eras - a story of surveillance, deception, passion, and betrayal - Sofi Oksanen brings to life both the frailty, and the resilience, of humanity under the shadow of tyranny.

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In the early 1850s, during the twilight of the Qing dynasty, word spread of a major revolution brewing in the provinces. The leader of this movement - who called themselves the Taiping - was Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil servant who claimed to be the son of God and the brother of Jesus Christ. As the revolt grew and battles raged across the empire, all signs pointed to a Taiping victory and to the inauguration of a modern, industrialized and pro-Western China. Soon, however, Britain and the United States threw their support behind the Qing, rapidly quashing the Taiping and rendering futile years of bloodshed. In Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, Stephen Platt recounts the events of the rebellion and its brutal suppression in spellbinding detail. It is an essential and enthralling history of the rise and fall of a movement that, a century and a half ago, might have launched China into the modern world.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 CWA ELLIS PETER HISTORICAL DAGGERSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 DEANSTON SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEARIt's 1947 and the worst winter in memory: Glasgow is buried in snow, killers stalk the streets - and Douglas Brodie's past is engulfing him.It starts small. The Jewish community in Glasgow asks Douglas Brodie, ex-policeman turned journalist, to solve a series of burglaries. The police don't care and Brodie needs the cash. Brodie solves the crime but the thief is found dead, butchered by the owner of the house he was robbing. When the householder in turn is murdered, the whole community is in uproar - and Brodie's simple case of theft disintegrates into chaos. Into the mayhem strides Danny McRae - Brodie's old sparring partner from when they policed Glasgow's mean streets. Does Danny bring with him the seeds of redemption or retribution? As the murder tally mounts, Brodie discovers tainted gold and a blood-stained trail back to the concentration camps. Back to the horrors that haunt his dreams. Glasgow is overflowing with Jewish refugees. But have their persecutors pursued them? And who will be next to die?

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2015SHORTLISTED FOR RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2016In the summer of 2009, the leader of the dreaded Tamil Tiger guerrillas was killed, bringing to a bloody end the stubborn and complicated civil war in Sri Lanka. For nearly thirty years, the war's fingers had reached everywhere: into the bustle of Colombo, the Buddhist monasteries scattered across the island, the soft hills of central Sri Lanka, the curves of the eastern coast near Batticaloa and Trincomalee, and the stark, hot north. With its genius for brutality, the war left few places, and fewer people, untouched. What happens to the texture of life in a country that endures such bitter conflict? What happens to the country's soul? Samanth Subramanian gives us an extraordinary account of the Sri Lankan war and the lives it changed. Taking us to the ghosts of summers past, and to other battles from other times, he draws out the story of Sri Lanka today - an exhausted, disturbed society, still hot from the embers of the war. Through travels and conversations, he examines how people reconcile themselves to violence, how religion and state conspire, how the powerful become cruel, and how victory can be put to the task of reshaping memory and burying histories.This Divided Island is a harrowing and humane investigation of a country still inflamed.

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Back from the Brink is a gripping and immediate account of the British government's handling of an unprecedented global financial catastrophe. Alistair Darling's knowledge and understanding make this not only a unique perspective on the events that rocked global capitalism, but a vital and fascinating historical document.

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From the international bestselling and Booker Prize nominated author of The Slap comes a blazingly brilliant new novel.Winner of the 2006 Age Fiction Prize Winner of the 2006 Melbourne Best Writing AwardPart long-forgotten myth, part meditation on the violence and tragedy of contemporary Europe, Dead Europe is an unsettling story about blood lust and blood revenge; a novel of blazing brilliance from the acclaimed author of The Slap.Isaac, a young Australian photographer, is travelling through Europe. His whole life he has longed for the sophistication and wealth of the Europe of his father's stories, the Europe at the centre of civilization and culture. But behind the facade of a unified and globalized contemporary society, he finds a history-blasted wasteland, a place forever condemned by the ghosts of its unspeakable past. In the mountain village in the Balkans where his mother was born, he unearths ancient terrors that have not been laid to rest, and perhaps never can be.

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Hereford's Diocesan Exorcist must encounter a legacy of evil within the crumbling walls of an old hotel along with memories of murder...'Merrily has become an ever more engaging protagonist, a passionate, flawed modern women every bit as concerned with the intricacies of crime as she is with demons that go bump in the night.' - Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail'There were certain phrases you could feel, like fingers up your spine. "Hattie Chancery's Room." Oh God . . .'A crumbling hotel on the border of England and Wales has long been linked with the possible origins of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and his obsession with contacting the dead. Fascinating for young Jane Watkins, flushed with the freedom of her first weekend job. But the sinister side soon becomes apparent to her mother, Merrily, diocesan exorcist for Hereford. Then come memories of a child who killed. And blood in the fresh snow.

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A unique and compelling exploration of why humans need animal companions - from dogs and cats to horses, birds and reptiles - as seen through the eyes of bestselling author Jacky Colliss Harvey. In The Animal's Companion, the acclaimed author of Red: A Natural History of the Redhead explores the human desire to share our everyday life with pets, a history that can be traced back to a cave in France where evidence has been unearthed of a boy and his dog taking a walk together, some 26,000 years ago. From those preserved foot and paw prints, Colliss Harvey draws on literary, artistic and archaeological artefacts to sweep readers through centuries and across continents to examine how our relationships with our pets have developed, but also stayed very much the same. Through delightful stories of the most famous, endearing and sometimes eccentric pet owners throughout history, she suggests fascinating new insights into one of the most long-standing of all human love affairs.

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Engines of War tells the dramatic story of how the railways revolutionized the nature of warfare, ushering in an age of industrialized conflict in which wars were fought on a previously unimaginable scale. From the moment of its first appearance, the 'iron road' not only rendered armies more mobile, but also massively increased the power and the deadliness of the weaponry available to them. Christian Wolmar's epic account - of how an invention that brought prosperity in peace-time metamorphosed in time of war into a weapon of death - is counterpointed by a wealth of human stories of personal endeavour and private tragedy. Embracing every major conflict in which railways have played a part - the Crimean War, the American Civil War, the First and Second Boer Wars, the two World Wars, the Korean War and the Cold War, Engines of War is awe-inspiring tale of industrial might and the transformative power of machinery.

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The birth of the railways and their rapid spread across the world triggered economic growth and social change on an unprecedented scale. From Panama to the Punjab, Tasmania to Turin, Blood, Iron and Gold describes the vision and determination of the pioneers who developed railways that would link cities that had hitherto been isolated, and would one day span continents. Christian Wolmar reveals how the rise of the train stimulating daring feats of engineering, architectural innovation and the rapid movement of people and goods around the world. He shows how cultures were enriched - and destroyed - by the unrelenting construction and how the railways played a vital role in civil conflict, as well as in two world wars.

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One of the world's greatest mathematicians explains his revolutionary hypothesis about the enigma at the heart of maths: omega. 'Chaitin comes across as a kind of mathematical Richard Feynman, intuitive and high-spirited, irreverent and plain-spoken.' -- Peter Pesic, TLSMeta Maths is Gregory Chaitin's exuberant account of his discovery of 'omega': the infinitely long, exquisitely complex and utterly incalculable representation of randomness and unknowability in mathematics. From Euclid to Gödel to Turing, Chaitin's infectious narrative guides us on a spellbinding journey through the historical advances in maths and science that led to his breakthrough discovery. Once there he takes us further, to the very frontiers of scientific thinking. Meta Maths shows that mathematics is as much art form as logic, as much science as pure reasoning, and sheds light on what we can ultimately hope to know about the universe and the very nature of life.

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