What was it about Hjoggbole, a farming village in the northernmost part of Sweden, that created so many idiots
- & writers? There
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` Fresh, energetic, & completely hilarious, The Wangs vs. the World is my favorite debut of the year.` Jami Attenberg, author of Saint Mazie & The Middlesteins Charles Wang has just lost the cosmetics fortune he built up since emigrating to the US. Gone are the houses, the cars, & the incredible lifestyle. Faced with this loss, he decides to take his family on a trip to China & attempt to reclaim his ancestral lands. But first they must go on a cross-country journey from their foreclosed Bel-Air home to the Upstate New York retreat of his eldest daughter, Saina. Charles takes his other two children out of schools that he can no longer afford & packs them into the only car that wasn`t repossessed-along with their wealth-addicted stepmother, Barbra. But with his son waylaid by a much-older temptress in New Orleans, his wife ready to defect for a set of 1, 000-thread-count sheets, & an epic smash-up in North Carolina, Charles may have to choose between the old world & the new, between keeping his family intact & finally, finally fulfilling his dream of China. ...

Are you ready for the truth about World War Two? In the first of an extraordinary three-volume account of the war on l&, in the air & at sea, James Holland reveals not only the truth behind the familiar legends of the Second World War but he also unveils those lesser known events which were to have the greatest significance. The first book to consider the economic, political & social as well as the military aspects of World War Two, this is a unique retelling of a monumental event in all its terrible & majestic glory. Holland has spent over twelve years unearthing new research, visiting archives, battlefields & the very people who fought & lived through the conflict. He has, in his own accessible & inimitable style, written an account to redefine our understanding of the war. It is unlike anything else on the subject. ...

Wars come & go across the headlines & television screens, but for those who survive them, scarred & scattered, they never end. This is a book about post-conflict irresolution, about the lives of those who survived the gulag of concentration camps in north-western Bosnia & about seeking justice for Bosnia today. But justice is not Reckoning. The book finds that the survivors are lost not only geographically, but in history
- betrayed in war, & also in peace.
...

Mountainous regions are home to only ten percent of the world`s population yet host a strikingly disproportionate share of the world`s conflicts. Mountains provide a natural refuge for those who want to elude authority, & their remoteness has allowed archaic practices to persist well into our globalized era. As Judith Matloff shows, the result is a combustible mix those in the lowlands cannot afford to ignore. Travelling to conflict zones across the world, she introduces us to Albanian teenagers involved in ancient blood feuds; Mexican peasants hunting down violent poppy growers; & Jihadists who have resisted the Russian military for decades. At every stop, Matloff reminds us that the drugs, terrorism, & instability cascading down the mountainside affect us all. A work of political travel writing in the vein of Ryszard Kapuscinski & Robert Kaplan, The War is in the Mountains is an indelible portrait of the conflicts that have unexpectedly shaped our world. ...

When the spoilt & haughty Dona Constanza tries to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, she starts a running battle with the locals. The skirmishes are so severe that the Government dispatches a squadron of soldiers led by the fat, brutal & stupid Figueras to deal with them. Despite visiting plagues of laughing fits & giant cats upon the troops, the villagers know that to escape the cruel & unusual tortures planned for them, they must run. Thus they plan to head for the mountains & start a new & convivial civilisation. ...

A spellbinding children`s story from from War Horse author & former Children`s Laureate, Michael Morpurgo
- now with a brand new
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Mario Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World is one of the great modern historical novels- tragic, compelling & incredible to read. Inspired by a real episode in Brazilian history, the author tells the story of an apocalyptic movement, led by a mysterious prophet, in which prostitutes, beggars & bandits establish Canudos, a new republic, a libertarian paradise. Originally published in 1981, the narrative takes its cue from the War of Canudos, an incident in nineteenth century Brazil in which an armed millenarian cult held off a siege by the national army for a number of months. As with some of his later works, Llosa interweaves the lives & actions of a great tapestry of different characters to paint a sociological view of Brazil at the time, giving an incredible sense of place & presence to the events taking place. This is an awesome, truly memorable read. ...

Mario Vargas Llosa`s The War of the End of the World is one of the great modern historical novels- tragic, compelling & incredible to read. Inspired by a real episode in Brazilian history, the author tells the story of an apocalyptic movement, led by a mysterious prophet, in which prostitutes, beggars & bandits establish Canudos, a new republic, a libertarian paradise. Originally published in 1981, the narrative takes its cue from the War of Canudos, an incident in nineteenth century Brazil in which an armed millenarian cult held off a siege by the national army for a number of months. As with some of his later works, Llosa interweaves the lives & actions of a great tapestry of different characters to paint a sociological view of Brazil at the time, giving an incredible sense of place & presence to the events taking place. Described by The Listener as ”a tragic masterpiece with something of the sweep & freedom of the great novels of the nineteenth century”, this is a major work by the Nobel Prize winning Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America`s most significant novelists & essayists & one of the leading authors of his generation. An awesome, truly memorable read. ...

Niall Ferguson`s ” The War of the World: History`s Age of Hatred” re-tells the story of history`s most savage century as a continual war that raged for 100 years. At the beginning of the twentieth century, globalizing, booming economies married to technological breakthroughs seemed to promise a better world for most people. Instead, the 20th century proved to be overwhelmingly the most violent, frightening & brutalized in history with fanatical, often genocidal warfare engulfing most societies between the outbreak of the First World War & the end of the Cold War. What turned it into a bloodbath? From the plains of Poland to the killing fields of Cambodia, Niall Ferguson reveals how economic boom-&-bust, decaying empires &
- above all
- poisonous ideas of race led men to treat each other as aliens. It was an age of hatred that ended with the twilight, not the triumph, of the West. &, he warns, it could happen all over again. ”A heartbreaking, serious & thoughtful survey of human evil that is utterly fascinating & dramatic”. (Simon Sebag Montefiore, ” The New York Times”). ” Unputdownable, controversial, compelling”. (” Independent on Sunday”).”A big, bold & brilliantly belligerent book”. (” Sunday Telegraph”). ” Hums with energy, "able insights & pithy summaries”. (” Observer”). ” Gripping”. (Tristram Hunt). Niall Ferguson is one of Britain`s most renowned historians. He is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford & a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the bestselling author of ” Paper & Iron”, ” The House of Rothschild”, ” The Pity of War”, ” The Cash Nexus”, ” Empire”, ” Colossus”, ” The War of the World” & ” The Ascent of Money”.

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