Imagine if war broke out
- not in Iraq or Afghanistan, somewhere far far away, but here, in our country. In War, Janne Teller
...

Winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize War & War begins at a point of danger: on a dark train platform Korim is on the verge of being attacked & robbed by thuggish teenagers. From here, we are carried along by the insistent voice of this nervous clerk. Desperate, at times almost mad, but also keenly empathic, Korim has discovered in a small Hungarian town`s archives an antique manuscript of startling beauty: it narrates the epic tale of brothers-in-arms struggling to return home from a disastrous war. Korim is determined to do away with himself, but before he commits suicide, he feels he must escape to New York with the precious manuscript & commit it to eternity by typing it all out onto the world wide web. Following Korim with obsessive realism through the streets of New York (from his landing in a Bowery flophouse to his move far uptown with a mad interpreter), War & War relates his encounters with a fascinating range of people in a world torn between viciousness & mysterious beauty. Following the eight chapters of War & War is a short `prequel acting as a sequel`, ` Isaiah`, which brings us to a dark bar, years before in Hungary, where Korim rants against the world & threatens suicide. Written like nothing else (turning single sentences into chapters), War & War affirms W. G. Sebald`s comment that Krasznahorkai`s prose far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing. ...

In the sixteenth century, Spanish conquistadors discovered the New World. The vast quantities of gold & silver would make their country rich, yet the new wealth, which was plunged into multiple wars, would eventually lead to the economic ruin of their empire. Here, historian & politician Kwasi Kwarteng shows that this moment in world history has been echoed many times, from the French Revolution to both World Wars, right up to the present day, when our own financial crisis saw many of our great nations slip into financial trouble. Kwarteng reveals a pattern of war-waging, financial debt & fluctuations between paper money & the gold standard, & creates a compelling study of the powerful relationship that has shaped the world as we know it, that between war & gold. ...

Tolstoy`s enthralling epic, War & Peace, depicts Russia`s war with Napoleon & its effects on the lives of those caught up in the conflict. He creates some of the most vital & involving characters in literature as he follows the rise & fall of families in St Petersburg & Moscow who are linked by their personal & political relationships. His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his ambitious friend, Prince Andrei, & the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them, the enchanting Natasha Rostov. ...

Tolstoy`s enthralling epic, War & Peace, depicts Russia`s war with Napoleon & its effects on the lives of those caught up in the conflict. He creates some of the most vital & involving characters in literature as he follows the rise & fall of families in St Petersburg & Moscow who are linked by their personal & political relationships. His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his ambitious friend, Prince Andrei, & the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them, the enchanting Natasha Rostov. ...

Leo Tolstoy`s epic Russian classic, retold in just 64 pages. First published in 1869, this novel is one of the most famous books in the world, & this simple but atmospheric retelling now makes it accessible for young readers. Set in Russia following the French invasion of Russia in 1812, as the Tsarist regime is succeeded by the Napoleonic era. ...

THE ACCLAIMED TRANSLATION BY RICHARD PEVEAR & LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY. ” If you`ve never read it, now is the moment. This translation will show that you don`t read War & Peace, you live it”. (The Times). From sophisticated Moscow soirees to breathless troika rides through the snow, from the bloody front line at Austerlitz to a wife`s death in childbirth, Tolstoy conjures a broad panorama of rich, messy, beautiful & debased human life. We follow the fates of open-hearted, impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his melancholy friend Prince Andrei & the enchanting Natasha Rostov, as history & fiction are combined in one of the wisest & most enthralling novels ever written. ”A joy to read... The sense of actually being in the skin of these people is phenomenally, brilliantly rendered by this translation”. (Simon Schama). The Vintage Classic Russians Series: Published for the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, these are must-have, beautifully designed editions of six epic masterpieces that have survived controversy, censorship & suppression to influence decades of thought & artistic expression. ...

In 1862 Sonya Tolstoy married the greatest author the world has ever known. For forty-eight years they shared their lives in an enmeshed union that was both passionate & combative. Sixteen years younger than her husb&, Sonya bore him thirteen children & worked for years as his copyist, rewriting countless drafts of his timeless novels. Both were mercurial & personalities &, towards the end & exhausted, Tolstoy deserted her. In War & Peace & Sonya, Judith Armstrong tells Sonya`s own story, exploring the couple`s devotion & ambivalence to one another, their immense passion for great literature & the creative process, & showing us just how remarkably true to life fiction can be ...

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Caucasus was wracked by ethnic & separatist violence as the peoples of the region struggled for self-determination. Vicken Cheterian, who spent many years as a reporter & analyst covering the region`s conflicts, asks why nationalism emerged as a dominant political current, & why, of the many nationalist movements that emerged, some led to violence while others did not. He explains also why minority rebellions were victorious against larger armies, in mountainous Karabakh, Abkhazia, & in the first war of Chechnya, & discusses the ongoing instability & armed resistance in the North Caucasus. He concludes his book by examining chapters the great power competition between Russia, the US, & the EU over the oil & gas resources of the Caspian region. ...

A smoke bomb went off. Then shots were fired from buildings overlooking the square... The camera had a BBC News sign on it. Someone cried out from the crowd: ` You are the world, you are the world, you have to tell what they are doing to our people.` From Vietnam to Iraq, Martin Bell has seen how war has changed over the last fifty years, neither fought nor reported the way it used to be. Truth is degraded in the name of balance & good taste, reports are delivered from the sidelines, & social media, with rumours & unverifiable videos, has ushered in a post-truth world. As modern news increasingly seeks to entertain first & inform second, the man in the white suit provides a moving account of all he has witnessed throughout his career & issues an impassioned call to put the substance back into reporting. ...