The Atlantic salmon is an extraordinary & mysterious fish. In To Sea & Back, Richard Shelton combines memoir & deep scientific knowledge to reveal, from the salmon`s point of view, both the riverine & marine worlds in which it lives. He explores this iconic fish`s journey to reach its feeding grounds in the northern oceans before making the return over thousands of miles to the burns of its birth to reproduce. Along the way, Shelton describes the feats of exploration that gave us our first real understanding of the oceans, & shows how this iconic fish is a vital indicator of the health of our rivers & oceans. Above all, To Sea & Back is the story of Richard Shelton`s lifelong passion for the sea & his attempt to solve the perennial enigmas of the salmon`s secret life. ...

Now in its twelfth year, the Caine Prize for African Writing is Africa`s leading literary prize, & is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. This collection collects the five 2011 shortlisted stories, along with stories written at the Caine Prize Writers` Workshop, taking place in Spring 2011. ...

When a woman refuses to sit next to him on the bus, Rick Braithwaite is saddened & angered by her prejudice. In post-war cosmopolitan London he had hoped for a more enlightened attitude. When he begins his first teaching job in a tough East End school the reactions are the same. Slowly & painfully some of the barriers are broken down. He shames his pupils, wrestles with them, enlightens them & eventually comes to love them. To Sir With Love is the story of a dedicated teacher who turns hate into love, teenage rebelliousness into self-respect, contempt into consideration for others
- the story of a man`s own integrity winning through against all the odds.
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After returning from a pleasant holiday with his wife, Astrid, & their two children, Thomas walks out the front door. Thomas walks up the street. Thomas keeps walking. Astrid gradually realizes that her husband has not just gotten up early to go to work. She waits for as long as she can & then puts as much energy as she can into trying to find him
- coming to underst&, along the way, that there is little she can do if Thomas is striving to stay lost. In precise & hypnotic prose that cuts as cleanly as a scalpel, To the Back of Beyond is a novel that takes away the safe foundations of a marriage & a lifestyle to ask deeper questions about identity, connection & how free we are to change our lives. It is a graceful & resonant work from one of Europe`s most important writers.
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Shortlisted for a 2016 Edward Standford Travel Writing Award. Set in the Alaskan landscape that she brought to stunningly vivid life in THE SNOW CHILD, Eowyn Ivey`s TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD is a breathtaking story of discovery & adventure set at the end of the nineteenth century. Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester receives the commission of a lifetime when he is charged to navigate Alaska`s hitherto impassable Wolverine River, with only a small group of men. The Wolverine is the key to opening up Alaska & its rich natural resources to the outside world, but previous attempts have ended in tragedy. Forrester leaves behind his young wife, Sophie, newly pregnant with the child he had never expected to have. Adventurous in spirit, Sophie does not relish the prospect of a year in a military barracks while her husband carves a path through the wilderness. What she does not anticipate is that their year apart will demand every ounce of courage & fortitude of her that it does of her husb&. ...

The 36-page book folds out to 9 connected double-page spreads, taking you from the Earth`s surface to the edge of the universe as a single, highly illustrated panorama. Once you have completed your journey to the outer limits of the universe, reverse the 4.3-metre fold-out to reveal stunning infographics explaining facts & statistics about the universe in a simple & beautiful way. ...

It is the world`s longest railway line. But it is so much more than that, too. The Trans-Siberian stretches nearly 6, 000 miles between Moscow & Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast & was the most ambitious railway project in the nineteenth century. A journey on the railway evokes a romantic roam through the Russian steppes, but also reminds travellers of the vastness of our world & hints at the hardships that were endured in its construction. Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception & construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev & its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War -Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post
- & the Second World War, during which the railway saved the country from certain defeat. Like the author`s previous railway histories, it focuses on the personalities, as well as the political & economic events, that lay behind one of the most extraordinary engineering triumphs of the nineteenth century.
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Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception & construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev & its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War -Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post
- & the Second World War, during which the railway saved the country from certain defeat. Like the author`s previous railway histories, it focuses on the personalities, as well as the political & economic events, that lay behind one of the most extraordinary engineering triumphs of the nineteenth century.
...

This is the gripping true story of how Briton Tom Avery led three men, one woman & sixteen dogs to the North Pole in just under thirty-seven days, in doing so breaking the world record & solving the greatest mystery of polar exploration. The electrifying true story of a race against time to solve the greatest mystery of polar exploration. Facing some of the most hostile terrain on the planet, how did Arctic pioneer Robert Peary travel 413km in just 37 days to reach the North Pole with only dogs & wooden sleds as his transportation? 100 years later, British explorer Tom Avery & his team set themselves against the elements to recreate Peary`s journey, risking their lives to break the record & rewrite history. ...

Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is about to celebrate her son Ofer`s release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensive. Instead of waiting at home for the `notifiers` who could arrive at any moment to tell her of her son`s fate, she sets off for a hike in Galilee, leaving no forwarding address. If a mother is not there to receive the news, a son cannot die, can he? Recently estranged from her husb&, Ora drags along an unlikely companion: their former best friend & her former lover Avram, the man who in fact turns out to be her son`s biological father. As they sleep out in the hills, ford rivers & cross valleys, Ora recounts, step by step & word by word, the story of her son`s birth, life & possible death, in one mother`s magical, passionate & heartbreaking attempt to keep her son safe from harm. ...