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Just
in for October 2008
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People of the Book Geraldine Brooks PB £7.99 |
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The new novel from the author of 'March' and 'Year of Wonders' takes place in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, as a young book conservator arrives in Sarajevo to restore a lost treasure. When Hannah Heath gets a call in the middle of the night in her Sydney home about a precious medieval manuscript which has been recovered from the smouldering ruins of wartorn Sarajevo, she knows she is on the brink of the experience of a lifetime. A renowned book conservator, she must now make her way to Bosnia to start work on restoring The Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book -- to discover its secrets and piece together the story of its miraculous survival. | |
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It is 1951 in America, the second year of the Korean War. A studious, law-abiding, intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner is beginning his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at the local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hard-working neighbourhood butcher, seems to have gone mad - mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees in every corner for his beloved boy.As the long-suffering, desperately harassed mother tells her son, the father's fear arises from love and pride. Perhaps, but it produces too much anger in Marcus for him to endure living with his parents any longer. He leaves them and, far from Newark, in the Midwestern college, has to find his way amid the customs and constrictions of another American world. "Indignation", Philip Roth's twenty-ninth book, tells the story of the young man's education in life's terrifying chances and bizarre obstructions. | |
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This book is the winner of the Wales book of the year. Loss, grief and love are the themes of this remarkable memoir from one of Britain's most distinguished poets. Some months after Dannie Abse's wife Joan died in a car accident in June 2005, he began to write a diary which is both a record of present grief and a portrait of marriage which lasted more than fifty years. It is an extraordinary document, painful but celebratory; funny as well as sad, bursting with joy as well as sorrow and full of a deep understanding of what it means to be human. | |
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The grave situation in the Middle East threatens the future of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the stability of the whole region. In this urgent new book, leading Jewish writers and commentators sweep aside the atmosphere of bigotry and vilification which stymies intelligent discussion at every turn, to deliver a bold and richly nuanced exploration of Israel and Zionism today. "A Time To Speak Out" covers the Holocaust, varieties of Zionism, self-hatred, the multiplicity of Jewish identities, human rights and anti-Zionist traditions. In doing so, it reflects the background and the complexities of the situation, as well as the range of voices, outside and within Israel, which are so rarely articulated in the mainstream media. At once sober and radical, "A Time To Speak Out" reclaims an often hysterical debate for people more interested in morally defensible solutions than empty "victories.". | |
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Daniel Barenboim's new book
vividly describes his lifelong pursuit of knowledge and
understanding, not only of music and of life, but of one through the
other. As he himself says in the introduction, "This is not a book
for musicians, nor is it one for non-musicians, but rather for the
curious mind that wishes to discover the parallels between music and
life and the wisdom that becomes audible to the thinking ear."
Indeed, the topics covered in the book range from the problems of
timing - whether in a piece of music or a political process - to the
philosophy of Spinoza and its relevance to musical interpretation.
The main theme of the book is the impossibility of separating music
from other realms of intellectual pursuit. | |
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An eminent, aging Australian writer is invited to contribute to a book entitled "Strong Opinions". For him, troubled by Australia's complicity in the wars in the Middle East, it is a chance to air some urgent concerns: how should a citizen of a modern democracy react to their state's involvement in an immoral war on terror, a war that involves the use of torture? Then in the laundry room of his apartment block, he encounters an alluring young woman. He offers her work typing up his manuscript.Anya is not interested in politics, but the job will be a welcome distraction, as will the writer's evident attraction towards her. Her boyfriend, Alan, is an investment consultant who understands the world in harsh economic terms. Unsure about his trophy girlfriend's new pastime, Alan begins to formulate a plan... | |
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This memoir of an Egyptian Jewish family’s gradual ruin is told without melodrama by its youngest survivor, now a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Lagnado’s story hinges on her father, "the Captain," who cut a dashing figure in mid-century Cairo, consorting with British officers and Egyptian royalty at French cafés while his family, neglected, stayed home. At first refusing to join the tide of Jews fleeing Egypt under the Nasser regime, the Captain finally yields, in 1963, when the family escapes to Paris and then Brooklyn. Deprived of wealth, status, and any means of coping, Lagnado’s father fades, but he never loses his air of chivalry, manifested in a regular outflow of tiny checks to charitable causes—orphanages, vocational schools, and dowry funds for poor girls—overseas. "As if the Captain were capable of rescuing anyone," his daughter writes. | |
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Those endless afternoons where you struggled to remember the third person singular present indicative of volo (vult) may be a long time ago. But, if you have the vaguest memory of the ablative absolute, the locative and the gerund, you mastery of Latin will spring back to life with Amo, amas, amat...and all that. In his trip through the world's most influential language, Harry Mount uncorks its magic, drawing on Latin lovers from Kingsley Amis to John Cleese, from Evelyn Waugh to Donna Tart. Read this book and you will know Latin. Know Latin and - mirabile dictu - you will know Wilfred Owen's misery, Catullus's aching heart and the comedy of a thousand bachelor schoolmasters . | |
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The world has turned against the United States. Anti-American sentiments have swept the globe. Foreign leaders, pundits and ordinary people decry the United States, proclaiming at best their heartbreak that the American values they once admired have vanished, and at worst condemning America as a criminal state beyond redemption. The invasion of Iraq, America's refusal to sign the Kyoto accords, detention without trial in Guantanamo and torture in Abu Ghraib, the spread of American movies and fast food into every corner of the globe - all have contributed to a feeling that the United States, once a force for good in the world, is abusing its position as the world's sole superpower. But there is another side to the story.In this provocative, brilliant book, acclaimed foreign affairs columnist Bronwen Maddox shows how critics of America take the best of it for granted and exaggerate the worst. They give the US too little credit for their own freedom and wealth and struggle to fend off a monolithic American culture that does not exist. | |
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Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird and gives him a stick which can make fire.Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She's certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship's parrot. As it happens, they are not alone for long.Other survivors start to arrive to take refuge on the island they all call the Nation and then raiders accompanied by murderous mutineers from the Sweet Judy. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things - including how to milk a pig and why spitting in beer is a good thing - and start to forge a new Nation. As can be expected from Terry Pratchett, the master story-teller, this new children's novel is both witty and wise, encompassing themes of death and nationhood, while being extremely funny . Arrivals for September
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