On July 11th, 1897, three men set out in a hydrogen balloon bound for the North Pole. Led by engineer August Soloman Andree, they want to make history, but are frighteningly underprepared. Three days into their journey they make a crash landing & disappear into a white nightmare. They never return. 33 years later. The men`s bodies & equipment are found buried beneath the snow & ice on a deserted glacier. They had enough food, clothing & ammunition to survive. Why did they die? 100 years later. Artist & doctor Bea Uusma is at a party. Bored, she pulls a books off the shelf. It is about the Andree Expedition. For the next fifteen years, Bea will think of nothing else... This is her journey to uncover the truth. ...

` The seething cauldron of life, the infinite stratification of reality, the inextricable tangle of knowledge are what Gadda wants to depict` Italo Calvino At the height of Fascist rule in Italy & following the death of his mother, Carlo Emilio Gadda began work on his first novel, The Experience of Pain. This portrait of a highly educated young man whose anger & frustration frequently erupt in ferocious outbursts directed towards his ageing mother is a powerful critique of the society of his time & the deep wounds inflicted on his generation. Set in a fictional South American country, The Experience of Pain is at once richly imaginative & intensely personal: the perfect introduction to Gadda`s innovative style & literary virtuosity. Translated by Richard Dixon ...

Marie is a child with a dark past
- a secret family history that her guardian protects her from. She`s not sure what the dark secret
...

Completely revised & updated to account for the new realities of international travel, this is an easy-to-follow guidebook for global nomads, full of practical suggestions for successfully relocating overseas. The book covers everything from pre-departure reconnaissance through reentry. ...

Discover some of the great archival treasures of the Royal Geographical Society. Some of the greatest expeditions are described & illustrated with maps, photographs & illustrations by official artists & photographers, & members of the expedition teams. The book also

Includes:: the first travellers, who set off with sketchbook or camera, as well as diplomats who chose to explore the wider regions into which they were posted. These men & women provided Westerners with the first images of Northern Arabia, China & Nepal, & South America. They record the attempts to summit the world`s highest mountain & reach the polar extremes. For anyone with a love of adventure, this book will be an informative journey & a visual delight.

...

A tense, claustrophobic & gripping science fiction thriller from the author of The Testimony. When journalist Cormac Easton is selected to document the first manned mission into deep space, he dreams of securing his place in history as one of humanity`s great explorers. But in space, nothing goes according to plan. The crew wake from hypersleep to discover their captain dead in his allegedly fail-proof safety pod. They mourn, & Cormac sends a beautifully written eulogy back to Earth. The word from ground control is unequivocal: no matter what happens, the mission must continue. But as the body count begins to rise, Cormac finds himself alone & spiralling towards his own inevitable death.. .unless he can do something to stop it. ...

Shortlisted for a 2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award. From his seat in the tiny aeroplane, Fred watches as the mysteries of the Amazon jungle pass by below him. He has always dreamed of becoming an explorer, of making history & of reading his name amongst the lists of great discoveries. If only he could land & look about him. As the plane crashes into the canopy, Fred is suddenly left without a choice. He & the three other children may be alive, but the jungle is a vast, untamed place. With no hope of rescue, the chance of getting home feels impossibly small. Except, it seems, someone has been there before them.. . ...

Winner of the London Book Fair Children`s Travel Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2018 From his seat in the tiny aeroplane, Fred watches as the mysteries of the Amazon jungle pass by below him. He has always dreamed of becoming an explorer, of making history & of reading his name amongst the lists of great discoveries. If only he could land & look about him. As the plane crashes into the canopy, Fred is suddenly left without a choice. He & the three other children may be alive, but the jungle is a vast, untamed place. With no hope of rescue, the chance of getting home feels impossibly small. Except, it seems, someone has been there before them. ...

In the 18th century, exploration entered a new dimension
- explorers were motivated by scientific inquiry rather than greed. To
...

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL 2017 With the Yi River on one side & the Balou Mountains on the other, the village of Explosion was founded a thousand years ago by refugees fleeing a volcanic eruption. But in the post-Mao era, the name takes on a new significance as the rural community grows explosively from a small village to a town to a city to a vast megalopolis. Behind this rapid expansion are three rival clans linked together by a web of ambition, madness & greed. The four Kong brothers; Zhu Ying, the daughter of the former village chief; & Cheng Qing, who starts out as a secretary & goes on to become a powerful political & business figure in her own right, transform their hometown into a Babylon of modern times -- an unrivalled urban superpower built on lies, sex & thievery. Brimming with absurdity, intelligence & wit, The Explosion Chronicles considers the high stakes of passion & power, the consequences of corruption & greed, the dynamics of love & hate, as well as the seemingly boundless excesses of capitalist culture.` One of the masters of modern Chinese literature` Jung Chang` One of China`s most successful writers... [ Yan Lianke] writes in the spirit of the dissident writer Vladimir Voinovich, who observed that ”reality & satire are the same”` Evan Osnos, New Yorker ...