A brilliant & moving debut novel about one woman's struggle to preserve an artistic heritage from the horrors & destruction of World War II & the ensuing lifelong memories from this extraordinary experience. In this extraordinary first novel by Debra Dean the siege of Leningrad by German troops in World War II is echoed by the destructive siege against the mind & memory of an elderly Russian woman. Marina the woman in question was a guide at Leningrad's famous Hermitage Museum. In the late autumn of 1941 as the Luftwaffe roared over & around Leningrad she & her colleagues were set the task of taking the thousands of priceless paintings sculptures & objets d'art out of the grand galleries of the former Tsarist Palace & storing them safely against the German bombardment & seemingly inevitable invasion. The German assault threatened to destroy a large part of Europe's artistic history: if Leningrad fell to the Germans everything that was not destroyed would be looted & given to the Nazis. Marina whose own parents had disappeared during Stalin's persecution of intellectuals in the 1930s clings to her hope of becoming an art historian through her job at the Hermitage. The novel shifts between Marina's experiences at the Hermitage during the siege of Leningrad & her current existence as a very old lady in America whose mind has begun to fray. Debra Dean depicts with subtle skill how Marina's mind already ravaged by disease picks up some incident object or person at the wedding she's been brought to & flips back to the dreadful year-&-a-half in Leningrad which has informed her life ever since. ...

Michael Breins travel guides make city public transport simple. Maps include how to get to the top 50 sights in the area by public transit ultra-large transit maps detailed mini-area maps of attractions & instructions on how to get to places. ...

Explore the majestic city of Madrid with the help of this genuinely pocket-sized map. Small in size yet big on detail this compact dependable map will ensure you dont miss a thing. *

Includes:: 2 Pop Out maps
- a detailed street by street plan of the city centre as well as an overview map of greater Madrid * Additional locator maps of Madrid show the capital city in relation to neighbouring towns so you can get your bearings as well as a metro map * Ingenious self-folding map is small enough to fit in your pocket yet offers extensive coverage of the city in an easy-to-use format * Thorough street index is also featured & cross-referenced to the map so you can easily find your destination * Key places of interest are listed offering you advice on the best things to see


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This pathbreaking book of feminist criticism is now reissued with a substantial new introduction by Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar that reveals the origins of their revolutionary realization in the 1970s that the personal was the political the sexual was the textual"." ...

The Shongili twins Ronan & Murel accompany their friend Marmie on her luxury space craft Piaf to rescue their friend Ke-ola's ...

The most important thing to realise is that everyone is capable of telling a story. It doesnt matter where we were born or how we grew up? Maeve Binchy The Maeve Binchy Writers Club gives a unique insight into how a No.1 bestselling author writes. Inspired by a course run by the National College of Ireland it comprises 20 letters from Maeve offering advice tips & her own wonderfully witty take on the life of a writer in addition to contributions from top writers publishers & editors. Whether you want to write a saga or a thriller comedy or journalism or write for the radio or stage this also gives advice on the best way to get started & what editors publishers & agents are looking for. The Maeve Binchy Writers Club is a fascinating & informative guide to inspire all budding writers as well as entertaining Maeve Binchy fans the world over. ...

THE GLASS LAKE Kit Mc Mahon lives in the small Irish town of Lough Glass where everyone knows everyone & where change comes slowly. Then one day Kits mother the beautiful mysterious Helen Mc Mahon disappears presumed drowned in the lake & then the gossip runs wild. SCARLET FEATHER Cathy Scarlet & Tom Feather have decided to create the best catering company in Dublin. They have the perfect premises heaps of talent & even a few contacts
- but not everyone seems as pleased by the idea of Scarlet Feather as they are. QUENTINS Every table at Quentins Restaurant has a thousand stories to tell: tales of love betrayal & revenge. Ella Brady wants to make a documentary about the renowned Dublin restaurant
- but as she uncovers more of what has gone on she wonders about the wisdom of bringing it to the screen...

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Tracing its beginnings as an underground society which sprang up six hundred years ago in Sicily to the Mob which went on to run organised crime throughout Italy & America The Mafia: The First 100 Years" tells the gripping story of the most mythical & misunderstood criminal organisation. How did the Mob evolve from a gang of bumbling killers into the smooth-running international 'corporation' of today? Drawing on nearly two decades of research William Balsamo
- great-nephew of the original godfather
- & George Carpozi Jr. reveal the Mafia's coalescence into an organisation whose insidious influence reached across the Atlantic & into a presidential administration. Delving behind the headlines to uncover the true extent of the Mafia's influence " The Mafia: The First 100 Years" reads like the most compelling crime fiction yet is the terrifying deadly truth."

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Marisa Merico the daughter of one of Italy's most notorious Mafia Godfathers was dazzled by her father Emilio Di Giovine. To her he was all powerful sophisticated & loving; to the rest of the world he was staggeringly ruthless. Marisa knew her father would do anything for her but she hadn't expected just how much he would ask in return. Born to an English mother Marisa turned her back on her quiet life in Blackpool to join her charming father Emilio Di Giovine who had spent years trying to tempt her back to Italy. Arriving in Milan Marisa had no idea she was returning to the heart of one of the most notorious drugs arms & money laundering empires in the world. At first her father shielded her from the family operations & Marisa was overwhelmed by the attention & gifts he lavished on her. But soon the temptation of a new recruit was too great & Marisa was drawn ever deeper into the family's sinister & brutal regime witnessing things she was too scared to believe. The day she eloped with her father's chief henchman was the day her father decided she was ready to be initiated into the true nature of the family business. Suddenly Marisa saw there was no limit to what he would expect her to do for him. She knew it was wrong she knew she had to get out but she had no idea how she could break the sacred Coda Nostra
- & survive. Marisa's extraordinarily story is the most powerful portrayal of a Mafia family to emerge in recent years. It's the perfect balance of shocking violence dangerous betrayals & enduring love.
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He came from the same streets as mob bosses John Gotti & Vito Genovese. Before Scarface" " The Godfather" or " The Sopranos" there was Pulitzer Prize winner Jimmy Breslin the citys steadiest & most accurate chronicler (Tom Robbins " Village Voice"). In " The Mafia Rat" Breslin shows us the people & places that defined the Mafia. Here are Sammy The Bull Gravano Tony Cafe Gaspipe Casso & woven throughout the tale of Burt Kaplan one of the most devastating turncoats of all time. Breslins famous station was at the bar of Pep Mc Guires alongside Jimmy Burke who paid with Lufthansa robbery notes & was played by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas. Capturing the moments in which the Mafia was made & broken Breslin combines the most recent the most memorable & the long-forgotten stories into a sharp-eyed portrait of the Mob as it lived & breathed in its heyday & as it struggles to survive." ...