Set in 1933, with Germany sliding under Gestapo’s control, Marek Krajewski’s Death in Breslau is a powerful thriller bringing to life this interesting city which 12 years later would pass to Poland & become Wroclaw. Mutilated bodies of a young woman & her ladies’ maid are found dead on a train. Scorpions writhe in their slashed stomach
- a horrifying image that becomes crucial to the investigation. Inspector Eberhard Mock is called in to deal with the case, & is assigned an assistant, Herbert Anwaldt, an orphan. The investigation leads them deep into the city’s dirty underbelly, where perverted aristocrats cavort with prostitutes, corrupt ministers torture confessions from lowly Jews & Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail & daggers. As Mock & Anwaldt unravel a mystery of ritual killing that dates back to the time of the Crusades, the elderly Mock & the young, fatherless Anwaldt become close. But the dark, occult aspect of this most macabre of cases might prove too much for Anwaldt’s sanity before a solution is secured. Krajewski`s evocative tale is uncommonly powerful, particularly in the stifling atmosphere he conjures of a city in the grip of the Gestapo. His depiction of the sinister, beautiful, corrupt city of Breslau is not only the vehicle for his dark & gripping stories but a notable literary achievement in itself. The book is part of Marek Krajewski’s series of thrillers featuring Inspector Mock (the remaining titles are yet to be translated into English). The end of the Communist rule in Poland ushered in a wave of interest in the history of regions which before World War II belonged to Germany, particularly of Wroclaw & Gransk, & produced several outstanding novels describing both the pre-war days & the painful change of identity under the new regime.
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CREAM TEAS! SCHOOL DINNERS! SATANIC SURFERS! Join our heroes as they follow up a Norfolk Mystery with a bad case of.. .DEATH IN DEVON. Swanton Morley, the People`s Professor, sets off for Devon to continue his history of Engl&, The County Guides. Morley`s daughter Miriam & his assistant Stephen Sefton pack up the Lagonda for a trip to the English Riviera. Morley has been invited to give the Founder`s Day speech at All Souls School in Rousdon. But when the trio arrive they discover that a boy has died in mysterious circumstances. Was it an accident or was it
- murder? Join Morley, Sefton & Miram on another adventure into the dark heart of 1930s Engl&.
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Lorenzo de` Medici: The embodiment of Florence`s most powerful family, a brutal man who ruled the city with an iron fist, whilst protecting it from the shifting mire of Italian politics. Fra Girolamo Savonarola: An unprepossessing provincial monk whose sermons, filled with Old Testament fury, resonated with the disenfranchised population of the city. The battle between these two men would be a fight to the death, a series of sensational events
- including a mighty foreign invasion, trial by fire, the ` Bonfire of the Vanities`, terrible executions & mysterious deaths
- featuring a cast of the most important & charismatic Renaissance figures.

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By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. As generous patrons to the likes of Botticelli & Michelangelo, the ruling Medici embodied the progressive humanist spirit of the age, & in Lorenzo the Magnificent they possessed a diplomat capable of guarding the militarily weak city in a climate of constantly shifting allegiances between the major Italian powers. However, in the form of Savonarola, an unprepossessing provincial monk, Lorenzo found his nemesis. Filled with Old Testament fury & prophecies of doom, Savonarola's sermons reverberated among a disenfranchised population, who preferred medieval Biblical certainties to the philosophical interrogations & intoxicating surface glitter of the Renaissance. Savonarola's aim was to establish a ' City of God' for his followers, a new kind of democratic state, the likes of which the world had never seen before. The battle which this provoked would be a fight to the death, a series of sensational events
- invasions, trials by fire, the ' Bonfire of the Vanities', terrible executions & mysterious deaths
- featuring a cast of the most important & charismatic Renaissance figures. This famous struggle has often been portrayed as a simple clash of wills between a benign ruler & religious fanatic, between secular pluralism & repressive extremism. However, in an exhilaratingly rich & deeply researched story, Paul Strathern reveals the paradoxes, self-doubts & political compromises which made the battle for the soul of the Renaissance city one of the most complex & important moments in Western history.

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Florence, October 1966. The rain is never-ending. When a young boy vanishes on his way home from school the police fear the worst, & Inspector Bordelli begins an increasingly desperate investigation. Then the flood hits. During the night of 4th November the swollen River Arno, already lapping the arches of the Ponte Vecchio, breaks its banks & overwhelms the city. Streets become rushing torrents, the force of the water sweeping away cars & trees, doors, shutters & anything else in its wake. In the aftermath of this unimaginable tragedy the mystery of the child`s disappearance seems destined to go unsolved. But obstinate as ever, Bordelli is not prepared to give up. ...

Can the US president really just disappear into thin air...? Helen Barclay, the first female of the United States, has been kidnapped on a state visit to Norway: it is up to the FBI & the Norwegian police to work together to find her. But their enemy is far more powerful than they could ever imagine. The President`s abduction represents the biggest threat to homeland security since 9/11. However, as Johanne Vik assists on the investigation she learns that the private life of President Barclay is also under attack. There are those who would stop at nothing to destroy the leader of the free world. & in a twist of fate, secrets from Johanne`s own past are at risk of being revealed, jeopardising all she has worked for & endangering the lives of those she loves most... The third instalment in the gripping Vik/ Stubo series. ...

Since the rediscovery of her work in the late 1980s, Annemarie Schwarzenbach
- journalist, traveler, archaeologist, opium addict,
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In Rome, four members of a German family are reunited by chance. A young composer, Siegfried; his estranged father, Freidrich, who held office under the Nazis & is once more making his way in public life, this time as a democratically elected buromaster; Siegfried`s uncle, Judejahn, a unrepentant former SS general; & Judejahn`s renegade son, Adolf, who is preparing himself for a Catholic priesthood. The four men recount their separate experiences in music, bureaucracy, arms & religion- taken together they personify the German soul. Death in Rome is a history book, a family book, a book about the battle over who gets to represent the authentic face of post-war Germany. It is a devastating & brilliant provocation of an entire nation. ...

Florence, 1965. A man is found murdered, a pair of scissors stuck through his throat. Only one thing is known about him
- he
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` Soaringly beautiful, urgent & disturbing... A masterpiece.` Colm Toibin, from the introduction Death in Spring is a dark & dream-like tale of a teenage boy`s coming of age in a remote village in the Catalan mountains; a place cut off from the outside world, where cruel customs are blindly followed, & attempts at rebellion swiftly crushed. When his father dies, he must navigate this oppressive society alone, & learn how to live in a place of crippling conformity. Often seen as an allegory for life under a dictatorship, Death in Spring is a bewitching & unsettling novel about power, exile, & the hope that comes from even the smallest gestures of independence. ` Rodoreda has bedazzled me` Gabriel Garcia Marquez` Rodoreda`s artistry is of the highest order` Diana Athill ` Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise & subvert your desires, & as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality & willful inhumanity.` Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing ...