In 1939 the Savage Mountain claimed its first victim. Born into vast wealth yet uneasy with a life of leisure, Dudley Wolfe set out to become the first man to climb K2, the world`s second-highest mountain. Although close to middle age & inexperienced at high altitude, Wolfe, with the team leader, made it higher than any other members of the expedition but he couldn`t get back down. Suffering from altitude sickness & severe dehydration, he was abandoned at nearly 25, 000 feet; it would be another sixty-three years before Jennifer Jordan discovered his remains. In a story where The Great Gatsby meets Into Thin Air, readers follow Wolfe from the salons of Europe to the most forbidding landscape on earth. Wolfe went to K2 to find his own strength, only to encounter his team-mates` lethal weaknesses in a place called the Death Zone. ...

In an era in which explorers can use cell phones to call from the peaks of the Himalayas, Irian Jaya & Papua New Guinea have somehow remained untouched by 'civilization'. There are still hundreds of unknown populations in Irian Jaya, many of which are dying out. This volume introduces readers to this place that is the reign of the last men of the earth. Hundreds of specially commissioned pictures taken by a photographer famous for his daring reportage from every corner of the globe bring to life this remarkable vestige of prehistory. Through authoritative text & unsurpassed photography, this book investigates the everyday lives & the challenges confronted by these people evoking the island's splendid yet hostile natural environment & depicting the unique uncultivated characteristics of its flora & fauna. ...

The Last Mughal
- The Fall of Delhi 1857 is William Dalrymple’s account of the life & death of Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the Seige
...

Travelling throughout the remote Celtic world, award-winning author Marcus Tanner describes the relentless pressure on Celtic communities to assimilate & warns that a distinct Celtic identity may not survive for another generation--a sobering loss that would impoverish us all. Tanner has concluded we must resign ourselves to the fact that Celticism is done, over, finis. He proves it in a very good & special book that every prodigal & true Celt should read & try to prove wrong.--Malachy Mc Court, Washington Post Book World Lively.... [A] thoughtful book.--Publishers Weekly An exceptional journey into the remarkable cultural history of the Celtic people.... [ Tanner`s] experience reads like a travelogue & an insightful history with an emphasis on cultural heritage.--Raymond L. Flynn, Boston Sunday Herald[ An] angry, elegiac & meticulously researched book.--Christian Century ...

In 1930 a sixteen-year-old boy left England to become one of the last of the 'gentlemen adventurers' -- the fur traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. In the Arctic he found adventure, love & sadness as he came to grips with Eskimo life. Beautifully written, inspiring & funny, this is a boy's own story that captures a world now lost forever. Every boy dreams of adventures, but few have the courage or opportunity to make them a reality. When the Great Depression began to bite, finances forced the Maurice family to leave Britain. Edward was faced with a stark choice: to follow his mother & elder siblings to farm in New Zeal&, or pursue an uncertain future as an apprentice fur trader among the Eskimos. Preferring to make his own destiny, he signed up for five years at the princely sum of fifty pence a week, packing up the two spoons that remained of his inheritance to become one of the last ever 'gentleman adventurers'. Life in Baffin Land was harsh: there was no telephone, no radio communication, only one annual visit from the supply ship to keep in contact with the outside world. But it was also one of tremendous excitement. Under the expert tutelage of his drunken boss, Geordie, Edward learnt to build igloos, hunt polar bears & survive the myriad difficulties of Northern existence. Despite Geordie's warnings against becoming too involved with 'the natives' (and Geordie had taken one for a wife) the young boy became fascinated with the mythic Eskimo culture, learning the language & forming close friendships. After three years, he was sent to his own outpost, where, alone, he had to save the community from illness & starvation, as well as teach them English & contend with the amorous attentions of the local ladies. In charming, timeless prose, The Last of the Gentlemen Adventurers transports the reader to worlds that are now forever inaccessible. It is at once a vivid portrait of a unique society & the moving, often hilarious story of an unforgettable young man determined to triumph over every circumstance. ...

It is 1757. Across north-eastern America the armies of Britain & France struggle for ascendancy. Their conflict, however, overlays older struggles between nations of native Americans for possession of the same lands & between the native peoples & white colonisers. Through these layers of conflict Cooper threads a thrilling narrative, in which Cora & Alice Munro, daughters of a British commander on the front line of the colonial war, attempt to join their father. Thwarted by Magua, the sinister ` Indian runner`, they find help in the person of Hawkeye, the white woodsman, & his companions, the Mohican Chingachgook & Uncas, his son, the last of his tribe. Cooper`s novel is full of vivid incident- pursuits through wild terrain, skirmishes, treachery & brutality- but reflects also on the interaction between the colonists & the native peoples. Through its characters, Cooper raises lasting questions about the practises of the American frontier & the eclipse of the indigenous cultures. This is a fast-paced portrait of fierce individualism & courage, set against massacres, raids, battles & a doomed love affair. It is also the unforgettable story of the friendship between two men. ...

In 1996, Marcelo dos Santos & Altair Algayer, part of a team of men who worked for FUNAI, the Brazilian government agency charged with protecting indigenous interests & cultures, heard an intriguing rumour: One man, believed to be the last of his tribe, was living completely alone in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Marcelo, Altair & their team embark on numerous expeditions to find the Indian, who is constantly on the move, & as they piece together the clues he leaves behind they come to believe that his tribe was murdered. Until the land on which he has taken refuge is declared an official preserve, he is in constant danger from the ranchers, loggers & l&-grabbers who want the land for themselves. In order to protect him, first they must find him & prove that he exists. But here they are thwarted by the ranchers, by the machinations of the Brazilian courts & their own government agency, & by the Indian himself, a man determined to preserve his solitude & keep the outside world at bay...at any cost. With special access to documentary footage & the cooperation of the FUNAI team, Washington Post correspondent Monte Reel takes readers on a thrilling journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle, to the wild frontier of the state of Rondonia, which was only declared a Brazilian state in the 1980s, & into the fascinating world of spirited modern-day ethnologist/explorers & the Indian tribes whom they try to protect from the dangers of progress. The Last of the Tribe is a heart-pounding adventure & a story of survival against enormous odds, set in one of the world's last truly wild places. ...

In March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated & the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Now, on the hundredth anniversary of that revolution, Robert Service, the eminent historian of Russia, examines Nicholas`s reign in the year before his abdication & the months between that momentous date & his death, with his family, in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. The story has been told many times, but Service`s profound understanding of the period & his forensic examination of hitherto untapped sources, including the Tsar`s diaries & recorded conversations, shed remarkable new light on his reign, also revealing the kind of ruler Nicholas believed himself to have been, contrary to the disastrous reality. The Last of the Tsars is a masterful study of a man who was almost entirely out of his depth, perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social, economic & political foment in Russia in the aftermath of Alexander Kerensky`s February Revolution, the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 & the beginnings of Lenin`s Soviet republic. ...

In the 1600s Sara de Vos, a mother & painter, loses her young daughter suddenly to illness. In her grief, she secretly begins paintingh a dark landscape of a girl watching a group of ice skaters from the edge of a wood In 1950s New York, Martijn de Groot has At the Edge of a Wood hanging above his bed. Though it is a dark, peculiar painting, by a scarcely known female painter of the Golden Age, he holds the painting dear & when it is stolen, he is beeft. In Brooklyn, struggling art student Ellie Shipley accepts a commission to paint an intricate forgery of de Vos` sole surviving work, not realising that her decision will come to haunt her. ...

This is a riveting debut novel of fathers & daughters, & the conflict between duty & desire, set in rural Morocco & urban Catalunya. The Last Patriarch is narrated by the daughter of Mimoun Driouch
- the patriarch of the title
- from his birth to her entrance into university. Mimoun believes that life on his parents' land 'is not his destiny' & so we follow his journey from rural Morocco to urban Cataluna. Mimoun's own violent nature & paranoia leads to frustration & rage, which he duly takes out on his wife & children. ' This was not his destiny'
- this phrase is repeated almost like a mantra for Mimoun, who truly believes he is meant for great things. However, as the years pass, it begins to sound hollow; he does not escape the limitations of the role assigned to him by the patriarchal system, but his daughter will. El Hachmi looks at the role of women within a patriarchal culture & tradition while tackling more contemporary issues such as immigration & integration, as well as the fractured identity that results from having roots in two very distinct cultures. It is at once a powerful saga of a Moroccan family & a story of a girl's struggle to find her own identity & break free of a domineering father.


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