Edgar Poe was born the son of itinerant actors on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. Abandoned by his father and the later death of his mother, he was taken into the foster care of John Allan, a Virginia tobacco farmer. Now styled as Edgar Allan Poe, he distinguished himself at the University of Virginia, bu was equally adept at collecting debts from his assiduous gambling. His...

One of the great classics of western literature, Les Misérables is a magisterial work which is rich in both character portrayal and meticulous historical description. Characters such as the absurdly criminalised Valjean, the street urchin Gavroche, the rascal Thenardier, the implacable detective Javert, and the pitiful figure of the prostitute Fantine and her daughter Cosette, have entered...

To say this series is "empowering" doesn't do it justice. Buy a copy for your daughters, sisters, mums, aunts and nieces - just make sure you buy a copy for your sons, brothers, dads, uncles and nephews, too.' - IndependentThe women who shaped and were erased from our history. Forgotten Women is a new series of books that uncover the lost herstories of influential women who have refused over...

Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s finest works: lucid, eloquent, and boldly structured. It can be seen as a tragedy, or a historical play, or a political drama, or as one part of a vast dramatic cycle which helped to generate England’s national identity. Today, to some of us, Richard II may appear conservative; but, in Shakespeare’s day, it could appear subversive: ‘I am Richard II’, declared...

Eigentlich sollte es für die Kluftingers ein erholsamer Kurzurlaub werden, auch wenn das Ehepaar Langhammer mit von der Partie ist: ein Winterwochenende in einem schönen Allgäuer Berghotel samt einem Live-Kriminalspiel. Doch aus dem Spiel wird blutiger Ernst, als ein Hotelgast unfreiwillig das Zeitliche segnet. Kluftinger steht vor einem Rätsel: Die Leiche befindet sich in einem von innen...

Ride the Rocket - Toronto Enabled weaves together travel and family. I explore Toronto, looking at the accessibility of many of the city's finest tourist attractions. I stay with newly-found family and tell the story of developing family ties and traditions. Ride the Rocket - Toronto Enabled is a humorous autobiographical guide to Toronto.

We are capable of savage acts of violence but also spectacular feats of kindness: is one side of our nature destined to win out over the other? Every act of human behaviour has multiple layers of causation, spiralling back seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, even centuries, right back to the dawn of time and the origins of our species. In the epic sweep of history, how does our...

First published in 1961, following the successful Cuban Revolution, this is Che Guevara's handbook for guerrilla war. Che considered that the Cuban Revolution taught would-be insurrectionists three fundamental lessons: (1) Popular forces can win a war against the army. (2) It is not necessary to wait until all conditions for making revolution exist; the insurrection can create them. (3) In...

The chance to join 'the Revival of the Great Lucia Berlin' (New York Times) From the author of A Manual for Cleaning Women. Ranging from Texas, to Chile, to New Mexico and New York, in Evening in Paradise Berlin writes about the good, the bad and everything in between: struggling young mothers, husbands who pack their bags and leave in the middle of the night, wives looking back at their...

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Nathan Law has experienced first-hand the shocking speed with which our freedom can be taken away from us, as an elected politician arrested simply for speaking his mind. He remembers what it is like to lack freedom - and his father's precarious three-day escape from China in a small rowing boat. When authoritarianism makes gains around the world, demanding our...

How can you save your friend's life if she doesn't want to be rescued? In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining. At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues...

Publishing in English for the very first time, Japan's beloved coming-of-age classic on what really matters in life The streets of Tokyo swarm below fifteen year-old Copper as he gazes out into the city of his childhood. Struck by the thought of the infinite people whose lives play out alongside his own, he begins to wonder, how do you live? Considering life's biggest questions for the first...

Ich kann nichts Wesentliches finden, das ich an diesem Buch heute andern wurde, wohl auch deshalb, weil nicht ich mich im Besitz des Schussels fur die Zukunft der Sowjetunion fuhle. Daher wage ich keine Prognosen, sondern ziehe es vor, festzuhalten und lebensfahigen Krafte sind, die zur Formund dieser Zukunft in der Lage sein konnten. Und die Photographien, heute viellecht sogar mehr denn...

Czarna woda poprzez opowieść o pogrążonym w kryzysie człowieku zgłębia najbardziej mroczne wydarzenia historii najnowszej – przenosimy się z Indonezji końca lat dziewięćdziesiątych do zimnowojennej Europy, z okresu dzieciństwa głównego bohatera w Kalifornii z czasów walki o prawa obywatelskie do Indonezji 1965 roku, gdy rozpoczynają się zbrodnie ludobójstwa. John Harper ukrywa się w...

START level 1, opowiada historię zwykłego człowieka, który nagle budzi się w innym świecie. Henry, początkowo wycofany ze społeczeństwa ma na celu jedynie przeżycie. Okazuje się, że nowy świat jest spełnieniem jego marzeń. Obowiązuje tam system gier, rozwijanie się poprzez zdobywanie doświadczenia. Cała książka opiera się na tzw. „boskiej grze”, według której kolejni bogowie przyzywają do...

Ces personnages vont vous jouer l'histoire d'Antigone. Antigone, c'est la petite maigre qui est assise la-bas, et qui ne dit rien. Elle regarde droit devant elle. Elle pense. Elle pense qu'elle va etre Antigone tout a l'heure, qu'elle va surgir soudain de la maigre jeune fille noiraude et renfermée que personne ne prenait au sérieux dans la famille et se dresser seule en face du monde, seule en...

Retired four-star general Stan McChrystal has lived a life associated with the deadly risks of combat; he has seen how individuals and organizations, too often and to great cost, fail to mitigate risk. Why? Because they focus on the probability of something happening instead of the interface by which it can be managed. In Risk, McChrystal offers a new system of responding to risk, through ten...

Mateo Lemoine est un prodige du football. A dix-huit ans, il surprend son entourage et ses fans en s'inscrivant a la fac de Vernet, la petite ville ou il vit avec sa mere, pour conquérir le titre universitaire que son pere, entraîneur de talent disparu prématurément, était sur le point de remporter avant sa mort. Malgré son niveau, ou a cause de lui, Mateo peine a trouver sa place au sein de...

A day without laughter is a day wasted.' It is Christmas Day when Charlie Chaplin receives a visit from Death. The great actor is 82 years old, but not yet ready to face the final curtain. Desperate to see his teenage son grow up, the actor strikes a deal: if he manages to make Death laugh, he will win an extra year of life.

The State We're In is the first new collection in a decade from the writer that John Updike credited with creating 'an entirely different kind of short story'. Cool, ironic and witty, these stories are sharply observed, but underpinned with a quiet tenderness. Told through the voices of vivid and engaging women of all ages, The State We're In explores their doubts and desires and reveals the...