On a white-hot day in Tripoli, Libya, in the summer of 1979, nine-year-old Suleiman is shopping in the market square with his mother. His father is away on business
- but Suleiman is sure he has just seen him, standing across the street... From a breathtaking new talent comes an utterly gripping, emotional novel told from the point of view of a young boy growing up in a terrifying & bewildering world where his best friend's father disappears & is next seen on state television at a public execution; where a mysterious man sits outside the house all day & asks strange questions; & where it seems his father has finally disappeared for good. Soon the whispers & fears, secrets & lies will become so intense that Suleiman can bear them no longer & in his terrified efforts to save his family may end up betraying his friends, his parents & ultimately himself.
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Nine-year-old Suleiman is just awakening to the wider world beyond the games on the hot pavement outside his home & beyond the loving embrace of his parents. He becomes the man of the house when his father goes away on business, but then he sees his father, standing in the market square in a pair of dark glasses. Suddenly the wider world becomes a frightening place where parents lie & questions go unanswered. Suleiman turns to his mother, who, under the cover of night, entrusts him with the secret story of her childhood. ...

` Cracking another country`s cipher is an undercover fight to the death...` Hidden deep in the mountains, the recruits at ` Unit 701`, China`s secret services, operate in a dark, shadowy world. There is the `wind-listener`, a blind surveillance officer who can hear sounds from miles away; the beautiful, unstable maths genius who meets a violent end; the old man who deciphers codes in his dreams; the spy who recounts a dangerous mission from beyond the grave. In this story of conspiracies, geniuses, revolutionaries & terrible moral choices, people sacrifice everything for a world of secrets
- until, ultimately, it destroys them.
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She lost her sight, but she can still see the truth... Jenny Aaron was once part of an elite police unit tracking Germany`s most dangerous criminals. She was the best. Until it all went wrong. A disastrous mission saw her abandon a wounded colleague & then lose her sight forever. Now, five years later, she has learnt to navigate a darkened world. But she`s still haunted by her betrayal. Why did she run? Then she receives a call from the unit. They need her back. A prison psychologist has been brutally murdered. & the killer will only speak to one person... ...

In the Darkness of the Night takes the reader through the sounds that a young child hears whilst curled up in bed waiting to fall asleep. From the familiar, reassuring noises of the family & the home including muffled voices & humming pipes. Next we move out into the garden, with the snuffling & screeching of foxes. & then suddenly what`s that? Zoom! A car speeds by & a distant siren sounds. Then the illustrations expand to the city beyond, as we see those who work throughout the night, such as cleaners or nurses. & finally, as the sun rises, the early morning sounds begin with the birdsong, clatter of dustbins & letterboxes as the city wakes up again. Emily Rand takes us on a gentle journey through the night, looking at all the sounds & activity that happen whilst you`re tucked up warm in your bed! ...

In the vein of Bad Blood & Why be Happy when you can be Normal?: an enthralling, at times shocking, & deeply personal family memoir of growing up in, & breaking away from, a fundamentalist Christian cult. ` At university when I made new friends & confidantes, I couldn`t explain how I`d become a teenage mother, or shoplifted books for years, or why I was afraid of the dark & had a compulsion to rescue people, without explaining about the Brethren or the God they made for us, & the Rapture they told us was coming. But then I couldn`t really begin to talk about the Brethren without explaining about my father...` As Rebecca Stott`s father lay dying he begged her to help him write the memoir he had been struggling with for years. He wanted to tell the story of their family, who, for generations had all been members of a fundamentalist Christian sect. Yet, each time he reached a certain point, he became tangled in a thicket of painful memories & could not go on. The sect were a closed community who believed the world is ruled by Satan: non-sect books were banned, women were made to wear headscarves & those who disobeyed the rules were punished. Rebecca was born into the sect, yet, as an intelligent, inquiring child she was always asking dangerous questions. She would discover that her father, an influential preacher, had been asking them too, & that the fault-line between faith & doubt had almost engulfed him. In In the Days of Rain Rebecca gathers the broken threads of her father`s story, & her own, & follows him into the thicket to tell of her family`s experiences within the sect, & the decades-long aftermath of their breaking away. ...

Håkan Söderström is a man who has become a legend. Giant in size, rumoured to be bloodthirsty & fearless, he is known simply as the Hawk. But behind this myth is a tale of longing & survival. As a young man he is sent from Gothenburg with his brother Linus, to seek their fortunes in New York. In the chaos of the port, he is separated from Linus & finds himself instead on a ship bound for California. Determined to find Linus, Håkan sets out on a journey east, moving against the tide of history, experiencing the Gold Rush & its effects, encountering capitalists & colonialists, explorers & early scientists, & witnessing the formation of America & the betrayal of its dream. This is the story of a stranger in a strange new l&, looking out onto the vast landscape in confusion, fear & wonder. As Håkan confronts desert & mountains, heat & ice, he is thrown between the threat of violence & devastating loneliness
- all the while keeping the image of his brother, & the hope of companionship, in the distance.
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An amusing & erudite account of Harry Bucknall`s 183-day journey through the Greek islands from Venice, in the West, to Istanbul, in the East In the summer of 2006, Harry Bucknall traveled from Venice to Istanbul--a journey across the Aegean of more than 5, 500 miles that included the glories of Mount Athos, 36 islands, & every island chain in the Greek Archipelago. It also involved 57 sea passages on 35 ferries, four landing craft, three hydrofoils, a fishing caique, a sea plane, 11 buses, two trains, an open-top Land Rover, & a duck egg blue 1961 Morris Oxford. Recounted with humor, pathos, & at times drama, this is not only a journey through the Greek islands but also a journey through Greek history, mythology, custom, & folklore--a Greek island companion loaded with adventure, mishap, & laughter offering a contemporary image of Aegean life today. ...

A morose provincial inspector of roads in Aragon settles down to write the fable of the Snow Queen. The Netherlands has now been stretched into a vast country with Northern flatlands & hazardous Alpine ranges in the south. Kai & Lucia are circus illusionists, & when Kai is kidnapped, Lucia must rescue him from the Snow Queen`s palace. In the Dutch Mountains is an elegantly constructed story within a story, laced with the wit that characterises the work of this outstanding European writer. ...

*WINNER OF THE THOMAS COOK/ DAILY TELEGRAPH TRAVEL BOOK 2001*” In The Empire of Genghis Khan” is a superb book, feeling like ...