Norman Lewis avoids the easy pleasures of travelling through the hill-forts of Rajasthan, visiting palace hotels & the Taj Mahal. Instead his travels in India begin in the impoverished, overpopulated & corrupt state of Bihar
- the scene of a brutal caste war between the untouchables & higher-caste gangsters. From these violent happenings, he heads down the west coast of Bengal & into the highlands of Orissa to testify to the life of the `indigenous tribals who have survived in isolation. As William Dalrymple observed in The Spectator, `the great virtue of Norman Lewis as a writer is that he can make the most boring things interesting; whatever he is describing whether it is a rickshaw driver, an alcohol crazed elephant, or a man defecating beside the road Lewis senses are awake for sounds or smells, & he can make you think twice about scenes you have seen ten thousand times before the book is full of some of the strangest facts imaginable.. . It is a joy to read. Other Norman Lewis titles published by Eland: Jackdaw Cake, The Missionaries, Voices of the Old Sea, A View of The World, Naples 44, A Dragon Apparent, Golden Earth, The Honoured Society, An Empire of the East, In Sicily & The Tomb in Seville.
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Spring, 1971, East Pakistan. Rehana Haque is throwing a party for her beloved children, Sohail & Maya. Her young family is growing up fast, & Rehana wants to remember this day forever. But out on the hot city streets, something violent is brewing. As the civil war develops, a war which will eventually see the birth of Bangladesh, Rehana struggles to keep her children safe & finds herself facing a heartbreaking dilemma. ...

Since it was founded in 2003, Good African Coffee has helped thousands of farmers earn a decent living, send their children to school & escape a spiral of debt & dependence. Africa has received over $1 trillion in aid over the last fifty years & yet despite these huge inflows, the continent remains mired in poverty, disease & systemic corruption. In A Good African Story, Andrew Rugasira argues that trade has achieved what years of aid failed to deliver, & has provided a tantalising glimpse of what Africa could be. As he recounts the very personal story of his company & the challenges that he has faced
- & overcome
- as an African entrepreneur, Rugasira discusses the barriers that currently prevent fair & equal trade between Africa & the rest of the world. He sets out the arguments for building a sustainable trade framework & reducing dependency on handouts. & he builds up a manifesto for a revolution in the way that Africa is perceived. This is a book about Africa taking its destiny in its own hands, & dictating the terms of its future.

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Alex George`s A Good American is a positive & uplifting novel about the American Dream. This is the story of the Meisenheimer family, told by James, a third-generation American living in Beatrice, Missouri. It`s where his German grandparents
- Frederick & Jette
- found themselves after journeying across the turbulent Atlantic, fording the flood-swollen Mississippi, & being brought to a sudden halt by the broken waters of the pregnant Jette. A Good American tells of Jette`s dogged determination to feed a town sauerkraut & soul food; the loves & losses of her children, Joseph & Rosa; & the precocious voices of James & his brothers, sometimes raised in perfect harmony.. .sometimes in discord. But above all, A Good American is about the music in Frederick`s heart, a song that began as an aria, was jazzed by ragtime, & became an anthem of love for his adopted country that the family still hears to this day. ” There`s plenty of storytelling charm on display here, with echoes of John Irving`s humane zaniness”. (The New York Times). ” Epic, lyrical, compelling”. (USA Today).”A sweeping, lush intergenerational novel about a family of German-Americans learning to live in 20th-century America”. (Oprah.com).

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How two unlikely heroes inspired a whole town Sometimes, in the blink of an eye, you do something that changes your life forever. Like climbing a tree with a girl you don`t know. Marnus is tired of feeling invisible, living in the shadow of his two brothers. His older brother is good at breaking swimming records & girls` hearts. His younger brother is already a crafty entrepreneur who has tricked him into doing the dishes all summer. But when a girl called Leila turns up on their doorstep one morning with a petition, it`s the start of an unexpected adventure. And finally, Marnus gets the chance to be noticed... ...

The old neighbourhood block in Beirut was home to an ever- changing population as the fighting intensified & lessened. But three people were almost always there. The older Polish woman, Margo, refugee from her past, her country & family after another war, spinning her tales of freedom fighters, itinerant peoples, despair & courage. & Lebanese born & bred Layla, only recently returned from Australia after fleeing the earlier civil war to teach her students again. Palestinian Kamal; refugee, writer & lecturer, whose cherished faith in a free, tolerant, democratic Lebanon has been shattered by difficulties of living there now. Among their friends are older politicians, university friends often visiting from lucrative posts in Europe or the USA, & local political activists. The retaliation raids by Israel & the political aftermath further shatter their community: some flee to the mountains, many leave the country. Some like Layla try to identify more deeply what it is that holds her to this place, why she cannot leave. Nada Awar Jarrar has written a powerful & moving novel, full of character & insight, of joy & tears, which makes us understand how people can stand such daily fear of violence & can continue to have faith in the country of their heart. ...

Escapee from suburbia, overweight, oversexed.. . Morgan Leafy isn`t overburdened with worldly success. Actually, he is refreshingly free from it. But then, as a representative of Her Britannic Majesty in tropical Kinjanja, it was not very constructive of him to get involved in wholesale bribery. Nor was it exactly oiling his way up the ladder to hunt down the improbably pointed breasts of his boss` daughter when officially banned from horizontal delights by a nasty dose.. . Falling back on his deep-laid reserves of misanthropy & guile, Morgan has to fight off the sea of humiliation, betrayal & ju-ju that threatens to wash over him. ...

Sometimes the end is just the beginning of a new adventure. Martin`s life changes the day his dad is killed in a car accident. No one talks about it. His mum refuses to leave the house. His sister is only interested in her boyfriend. & Martin? He spends his afternoons alone with the family chickens
- that`s why they call him ` Clucky`
- & at night, he solves difficult maths problems in his head to help him fall asleep. But one day Martin meets a boy called Vusi, who dreams of making a zombie movie. The two are plunged head first into a wild adventure, pulling everyone they know along with them. Shortlisted for the Found in Translation award, it has also since been made into a popular film in Afrikaans.

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Identifying the murderer of the Chancellor of the University is not the only challenge facing physician Matthew Bartholomew. Many of his patients have been made worse by the ministrations of a `surgeon` recently arrived from Nottingham, his sister is being rooked by the mason she has commissioned to build her husband`s tomb, & his friend, Brother Michael, has been offered a Bishopric which will cause him to leave Cambridge. Brother Michael, keen to leave the University in good order, is determined that the new Chancellor will be a man of his choosing. The number of contenders putting themselves forward for election threatens to get out of control, then more deaths in mysterious circumstances make it appear that someone is taking extreme measures to manipulate the competition. With passions running high & a bold killer at large, both Bartholomew & Brother Michael fear the very future of the University is at stake. ...

Identifying the murderer of the Chancellor of the University is not the only challenge facing physician Matthew Bartholomew. Many of his patients have been made worse by the ministrations of a `surgeon` recently arrived from Nottingham, his sister is being rooked by the mason she has commissioned to build her husband`s tomb, & his friend, Brother Michael, has been offered a Bishopric which will cause him to leave Cambridge. Brother Michael, keen to leave the University in good order, is determined that the new Chancellor will be a man of his choosing. The number of contenders putting themselves forward for election threatens to get out of control, then more deaths in mysterious circumstances make it appear that someone is taking extreme measures to manipulate the competition. With passions running high & a bold killer at large, both Bartholomew & Brother Michael fear the very future of the University is at stake. ...