One Breath is a gripping & powerful exploration of the strange & fascinating sport of freediving, & of the tragic, untimely death of America`s greatest freediver Competitive freediving-a sport built on diving as deep as possible on a single breath-tests the limits of human ability in the most hostile environment on earth. The unique & eclectic breed of individuals who freedive at the highest level regularly dive hundreds of feet below the ocean`s surface, reaching such depths that their organs compress, light disappears, & one mistake could kill them. Even among freedivers, few have ever gone as deep as Nicholas Mevoli. A handsome young American with an unmatched talent for the sport, Nick was among freediving`s brightest stars. He was also an extraordinary individual, one who rebelled against the vapid & commoditized society around him by relentlessly questing for something more meaningful & authentic, whatever the risks. So when Nick Mevoli arrived at Vertical Blue in 2013, the world`s premier freediving competition, he was widely expected to challenge records & continue his meteoric rise to stardom. Instead, before the end of that fateful competition Nick Mevoli had died, a victim of the sport that had made him a star, & the very future of free diving was called into question. With unparalleled access & masterfully crafted prose, One Breath tells his unforgettable story, & of the sport which shaped & ultimately destroyed him. ...

Tang Shuxiu & her husband are on an 800-mile train journey from Beijing to Shifang, where they believe their only child has perished in a recent earthquake. Three days after the event, Tang is too dehydrated to cry. Liu Ting becomes a national hero when he brings his mother to college, a celebration of filial piety in a nation that now legally compels adult children to visit their elderly parents. Tian Qingeng & his parents are deeply in debt. They have bought an apartment they hope will improve his eligibility in a nation that has 30 million bachelors, or `bare branches`. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mei Fong has spent eight years documenting the effects of the one-child policy across all of Chinese society. In this critically acclaimed account, she weaves together personal stories, history & politics to produce an extraordinary, evocative investigation into how the policy has changed China & why the repercussions will be felt across the world for decades to come. ...

For over three decades, China exercised unprecedented control over the reproductive habits of its billion citizens. Now, with its economy faltering just as it seemed poised to become the largest in the world, the Chinese government has brought an end to its one-child policy. It may once have seemed a shortcut to riches, but it has had a profound effect on society in modern China. Combining personal portraits of families affected by the policy with a nuanced account of China`s descent towards economic & societal turmoil, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mei Fong reveals the true cost of this most controversial of policies. Drawing on eight years spent documenting its repercussions, she reveals a dystopian legacy of second children refused documentation by the state, only children supporting their parents & grandparents, & villages filled with ineligible bachelors. An exceptional piece of on-the-ground journalism, One Child humanizes the policy that defined China & warns that the ill-effects of its legacy will be felt across the globe. ...

It`s Christmas Eve & Theo
- left at home with a babysitter
- sees an odd-looking star out of his window & decides to make a

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One Day is written by David Nicholls, author of Starter for Ten, & is best described as a heartbreaking look at how we become the people we are today, but without the nostalgic motives on display in similar novels._`I can imagine you at forty, ` she said, a hint of malice in her voice. `I can picture it right now.` He smiled without opening his eyes. ` Go on then.`_ It all begins on 15th July 1988, when Emma & Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? & the year after that? & every year that follows? Twenty years, two people, one day. David Nicholls looks at the often painful gap between who we are now & who we once were, & crafts a compassionate, sad, funny & above all witty novel. ...

This gift edition of ONE DAY is presented in a beautiful slipcase with head & tail bands & ribbon marker.`I can imagine you at forty, ` she said, a hint of malice in her voice. `I can picture it right now.` He smiled without opening his eyes. ` Go on then.` 15th July 1988. Emma & Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? & the year after that? & every year that follows? Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY. From the author of the massive bestseller STARTER FOR TEN. ...

Shortlisted
- Cross British Sports Book Awards 2015. Grand Prize Winner
- 2014 Banff Mountain Book Festival. ` The wall was

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An account of the 1972 Munich Olympics, when 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists
- or inept German snipers.
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This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia & shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth & food are the first objectives. Reading it, you enter a world of incarceration, brutality, hard manual labour & freezing cold
- & participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigours of nature & the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.
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The Gulag, the Stalinist labour camps to which millions of Russians were condemned for political deviation, has become a household word in the West. This is due to the accounts of many witnesses, but most of all to the publication, in 1962, of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the novel that first brought Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn to public attention. His story of one typical day in a labour camp as experienced by prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is sufficient to describe the entire world of the Soviet camps. Translated from the Russian by H. T. Willetts ...