Recommended by PEN. One night before putting him to bed Enaiatollahs mother tells him three things: dont use drugs dont use weapons dont steal. The next day he wakes up to find she isnt there. They have fled their village in Ghazni to seek safety outside Afghanistan but his mother has decided to return home to her younger children. Ten-year-old Enaiatollah is left alone in Pakistan to fend for himself. In a book based on a true story Italian novelist Fabio Geda describes Enaiatollahs remarkable five-year journey from Afghanistan to Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum. His ordeal took him through Iran Turkey & Greece working on building sites in order to pay people-traffickers & enduring the physical misery of border crossings squeezed into the false bottoms of lorries or trekking across inhospitable mountains. A series of almost implausible strokes of fortune enabled him to get to Turin where he found help from an Italian family & met Fabio Geda. The result of their friendship is this unique book in which Enaiatollahs engaging moving voice is brilliantly captured by Gedas subtle storytelling. In Gedas hands Enaiatollahs journey becomes a universal story of stoicism in the face of fear & the search for a place where life is liveable. ...

In the Shadow of ASPAR thrillingly explores the mess of fraught personal & professional relationships set against the backdrop of the late-twentieth century nuclear industry replete with political corruption organised crime & anti-nuclear demonstrations. ...

Following the collapse of his business & the loss of his home Frank Kane made a catastrophic decision. In desperation he agreed to smuggle cocaine out of Venezuela. Almost inevitably he & his girlfriend Sam were caught. The price they paid was a ten-year sentence in the hell of the overcrowded Venezuelan prison system notorious for corruption & abuse & rife with weapons & gangs. At one point Frank was held in the remote El Dorado prison better known for being the one-time home of Henri Charriere or Papillon. He witnessed countless murders as gang leaders fought for power & he had to become as ruthless as his fellow inmates in order to survive. In an attempt to dull the reality of the horrendous conditions he succumbed to drugs. After enduring years of systematic beatings by the guards & attempts on his life by inmates Frank suffered more than one breakdown. He lost over four stone & was riddled with disease but somehow he found the strength within himself to survive & was eventually released in 2004 after serving over seven years of his sentence. During the long walk back from hell Frank decided to tell his story. ...

For seven-year-old Raami the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh Cambodias capital. Soon the familys world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution & forced exodus. Over the next four years as she endures the deaths of family members starvation & brutal forced labour Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood
- the mythical legends & poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness & justification for execution Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the authors extraordinary gift for language In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative & a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.
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For nearly a decade Matteo Pistono smuggled out of Tibet evidence of atrocities by the Chinese government showing it to the United States government human rights organisations & anyone who would listen. Yet Pistono did not originally intend to fight for social justice in Tibet
- he had gone there as a Buddhist pilgrim. Pistonos quest led him to Tibet & to a meditation master whose spiritual brother is Sogyal Rinpoche bestselling author of The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying. Pistono not only became the masters student but also couriered messages to him in Tibet from the Dalai Lama in India. This began an extraordinary & ultimately vital adventure. In the Shadow of the Buddha" is a book about Tibet through the eyes of a devotee
- a stranger hiding in plain sight. Its about how a cultures rich spiritual past is slipping away against the force of a tyrannical future. Its about how Tibetans live today & the tenacity of their faith in the future in spite of dire repression & abuse. Its also about Pistonos own journey from being a frustrated political activist to becoming a practicing Buddhist mystic a man who traveled thousands of miles & risked his own life to pursue freedom & peace."

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In the 6th century AD the Near East was divided between two venerable empires: the Persian & the Roman. A hundred years on & one had vanished forever while the other seemed almost finished. Ruling in their place were the Arabs: an upheaval so profound that it spelt in effect the end of the ancient world. In The Shadow of the Sword Tom Holland explores how this came about. Spanning Constantinople to the Arabian desert & starring some of the most remarkable rulers who ever lived he tells a story vivid with drama horror & startling achievement. ...

In the 6th century AD the Near East was divided between two great empires: the Persian & the Roman. A hundred years on & one had vanished for ever while the other was a dismembered bleeding trunk. In their place a new superpower had arisen: the empire of the Arabs. So profound was this upheaval that it spelled in effect the end of the ancient world. But the changes that marked the period were more than merely political or even cultural: there was also a transformation of human society with incalculable consequences for the future. Today over half the world's population subscribes to one of the various religions that took on something like their final form during the last centuries of antiquity. Wherever men or women are inspired by belief in a single god to think or behave in a certain way they bear witness to the abiding impact of this extraordinary convulsive age
- though as Tom Holland demonstrates much of what Jews Christians & Muslims believe about the origins of their religion is open to debate. In the Shadow of the Sword explores how a succession of great empires came to identify themselves with a new & revolutionary understanding of the divine. It is a story vivid with drama horror & startling achievement & stars many of the most remarkable rulers ever seen.
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As Internet usage has exploded in recent years so has the prevalence of compulsive online sexual behavior
- a problem first addressed
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French-born Marie Gabin forms a friendship with Veronica Attwood in their final two years at school but this is tested when Marie is forced to disclose a secret to her friend. The First World War takes its toll when Marie loses the man she loves. Veronica's husband suffers injuries which eventually leave her a widow but she finds consolation in her love for the l&. Returning to France Marie marries her childhood sweetheart but once again life brings involvement in war for the two friends. Loving their Yorkshire land Veronica & her daughters enlist in the Land Army. When a bomber squadron arrives on a newly constructed airfield on part of the estate relationships are formed. Veronica's daughter Elise joins the RAF & is recruited into the SOE. But secrets will out. On a mission to France Elise faces dangers she did not expect as she searches for Marie & the truth
- a truth that will have an outcome she never envisaged.
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In this fourth book in the Monkey & Robot series Monkey & Robot are very excited when it starts to snow. Of course they cannot resist going out to play & have fun. But when they start making a snowball the snowball becomes bigger & bigger & BIGGER until it is out of control! Monkey & Robot end up rather wet & snowy but a big mug of hot chocolate helps to cheer them up. ...