Susans mother Lucy Fowler nee Smetana was a Viennese Jew who fled to Nottingham England in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution. She lost most of her immediate family but spoke little of her experiences for decades. In 1995 Susan learned for the first time of other members of the extended family who had survived & were now scattered around the world. Thus began an 18-year search for her mothers family & for the story of what had happened to them during that dreadful era. She also travelled back two hundred years into her familys past uncovering in the process an oral family history claiming descent from the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. Just as she was completing her research Susan was the astonished recipient of some 3 000 pages of Nazi documents sent by the Austrian State Archives from which she learnt the fate of several family members. Still her search was not over. Days before publication & after attending a conference in Paris she finally learned the horrific details of the arrest of her grandmother & aunt in France & their deportation to Auschwitz. Richly illustrated with archive photographs & rare historical documents this biography & family history spanning eight generations is an extraordinary story of one familys struggle to deal with the impact & the legacy of the Holocaust. It is also a Holocaust memoir which offers a unique insight into the inner workings of the Nazi regime in Austria. ...

Fifteen years ago a teenage girl is assaulted & raped as she picks flowers for a Midsummers Eve ritual. Cut to the present & a man is killed in a hit & run. He has no identification on him he is not reported missing nor wanted by the police. At the same time a priest & his wife are found dead in an apparent suicide. Fredrika Bergman along with Alex Rechts federal investigation unit is assigned to the seemingly unconnected cases. The investigations lead to a clandestine people-smuggling network: a new player on the international human smuggling market operating out of Bangkok. As the police slowly uncover the shocking hypocrisy behind the network they begin to find a trail that runs all the way back to the 1980s to a crime that went unreported but whose consequences will reach further & deeper than anyone ever expected. ...

Professional cleaner Jonathan Quinn has a new client & a strange job: find & remove the remains of a body hidden twenty years ago inside the walls of a London building before the building is demolished. But Quinn & his team are being watched. Suddenly caught in the crossfire between two dangerous rivals Quinn must unravel the identity of the body & why it still poses so great a threat even in death. Because a plot stretching from the former Soviet Union to Hong Kong from Paris to London from Los Angeles to Maine is rapidly falling apart. & Quinn hasnt just been hired to tie up loose ends
- he is one.
...

The fatwa against Salman Rushdie & the 2005 Danish cartoon fracas awakened many people to the potency of blasphemy accusations in the Muslim world. Accusations & charges such as blasphemy " "apostasy " "insulting Islam " or "hurting Muslims religious feelings" pose a far greater danger than censorship of irreverent caricatures of Mohammad: they are increasingly used as key tools by authoritarian governments & extremist forces in the Muslim world to acquire & consolidate power. These charges which draw on disputed interpretations of Islamic law & carry a traditional punishment of death have proved effective in crushing or intimidating not only converts & heterodox groups but also political & religious reformers. In fact one reason for the recent growth of more repressive forms of Islam is their use of accusations of blasphemy apostasy & related charges to intimidate & silence their religious opponents & make any criticism of their own actions & ideas religiously suspect. The effect of such laws thus goes far beyond what might narrowly be called religious matters. This volume provides the first world survey of the range & effects of apostasy & blasphemy accusations in the contemporary Muslim world in international organizations & in the West. The authors argue that we need to understand the context history impact & mechanics of the blasphemy phenomenon in modern Muslim societies & guidance on how to effectively respond. The book covers the persecution of Muslims who convert to another religion or decide that they have become agnostic or atheists as well as heretics: those who are accused of claiming a prophet after Mohammed such as Bahais & Ahmadis. It also documents the political effects in Muslim societies of blasphemy & apostasy laws as well as non-governmental fatwas & vigilante violence. It describes the cases of hundreds of victims including political dissidents religious reformers journalists writers artists movie makers & religious minorities throughout the Muslim world. Finally it addresses the legal evolution toward new blasphemy laws in the West; the increasing use of laws on "toleration" in the West which may become surrogate blasphemy laws; increasing pressure by Muslim governments to make Western countries & international organizations enforce laws to restrict speech; & the increasing use of violence to stifle expression in the West even in the absence of law. Its foreword is by Indonesias late President Abdurrahman Wahid." ...

Thomas Merton's life especially once he had become a writer was to a great extent one of dialogue with people who were distant both geographically & historically. In these probing & perceptive studies Rowan Williams looks closely at the key intellectual & spiritual relationships that emerge in Merton's writings exploring the impact on him of thinkers as diverse as Hannah Arendt Karl Barth William Blake Dietrich Bonhoeffer Olivier Clement Fyodor Dostoevsky Paul Evdokimov Gerard Manley Hopkins Vladimir Lossky John Henry Newman Boris Pasternak & St John of the Cross. ...

Here at last is the book his legions of fans have been waiting for. Kevin Smith the legendary independent film-maker columnist & cultural commentator launches himself on an unsuspecting world with a series of hilarious rants on the absurdity of just about everything. Unlike his unforthcoming screen alter-ego Silent Bob Smith is ready to let rip at maximum volume whether it be on the madness of Hollywood The Unholy Tale of Greasy Reese Witherspoon his bloodcurdling hatred of Britney Spears or the highly-sexed comics industry. Along the way we get a shocking insight into the making of Smiths movies & learn far more than is necessary about his bathroom habits. ...

From the author of Sunday Times bestsellers One Child & Ghost Girl comes a heartbreaking story of a boy trapped in silence & the teacher who rescued him. When special education teacher Torey Hayden first met fifteen-year-old Kevin he was barricaded under a table. Desperately afraid of the world around him he hadnt spoken a word in eight years. He was considered hopeless incurable. But Hayden refused to believe it though she realised it might well take a miracle to break through the walls he had built around himself. With unwavering devotion & gentle patient love she set out to free him -- & slowly uncovered a shocking violent history & a terrible secret that an unfeeling bureaucracy had simply filed away & forgotten. Torey refused to give up on this tragic lost case." For a trapped & frightened boy desperately needed her help -- & she knew in her heart she could not rest easy until she had rescued him from the darkness." ...

In the dead of night in a notorious area of Victorian London's East End known as St Giles a factory girl stumbles over the bloody bodies of two City gentlemen. When Detective John Evan finally arrives at the scene he is confronted by a most difficult investigation. First he must identify the men. Then he must find out why men of means & social standing would go to such a sordid area. Most importantly who are their assailants? & how could they escape unharmed & unnoticed? Mercifully the younger victim is not quite dead. Having sustained terrible internal injuries he's later released home from hospital severely traumatised & unable to speak
- to be told that the other victim his father is dead & Hester Latterly has been employed to help nurse him back to full recovery. With too many obstacles impeding his progress Evan finally enlists the aid of his old friend William Monk who together with Hester's help must unravel one of his most complex & shocking cases yet.
...

A Violent Death: When a hand is found in an alley in Bostons Chinatown it is detective Jane Rizzoli who finds its owner
- a woman
...

When the burnt headless body of a young woman is found on the steps of a Baptist Church in Harlem Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper is one of the first on the shocking scene. Alex has seen some gruesome crimes committed in New York but the barbarity of this latest discovery leaves her nauseous. With NYPD cop Mike Chapman Alex begins to investigate but before long another woman is slaughtered & found on the steps of a Catholic church in Little Italy; her throat slashed & her tongue cut out. It becomes clear there is a zealous serial killer on the loose. Now Alex & Mike must keep one step ahead of a religious fanatic bent on silencing the women he believes are bringing shame to his beliefs
- before he kills anyone else.
...