American & British troops are not going to stay in Iraq for ever. But what will happen when they start to leave? In this lucid & enormously readable book, acclaimed analyst Gwynne Dyer predicts that the Middle East will go through the biggest shake-up since the region became part of the Ottoman Empire five centuries ago
- & argues that the rest of the world should stand back & leave them to it. Taking a step back from issues of blame & ideology, Dyer looks at what motivates the key players in the Middle East, from the various Iraqi factions through Iran, Lebanon & Syria to Israel & the Palestinians
- not to mention the United States & the United Kingdom. Along the way, he shatters many myths & identifies the real threats to the status quo
- such as the enormous Iraqi refugee problem, & the demographic & political forces that mean that Israel may be running out of time. Refreshingly direct, entirely non-partisan & frequently disturbing, this is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of the Middle East & the wider world.


...

Ireland is suffering a crisis of authority. Catholic Church scandals, political corruption, & economic collapse have shaken the Irish people`s faith in their institutions. The nation`s struggle for independence is thrown into doubt. But, as Declan Kiberd argues in this engaging survey of post-war Irish literature, the country`s creative writers have been alert to this reality from the start. He describes the young Samuel Beckett witnessing the burning of Dublin in 1916 & realising that `the birth of a nation might also seal its doom.` Surveying thirty works by modern Irish writers, Kiberd traces the response to the crisis of Irish Statehood in the work of Seamus Heaney, Edna O` Brien, Joseph O` Connor, Tom Murphy, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Derek Mahon & John Banville, among others. Placing these writers at the centre of Ireland`s on-going exploration of the true meaning of freedom, Kiberd shows how Irish artists preserve & extend a humane culture that imagines a renewed, more plural & open nation. Kiberd`s Inventing Irel&, originally published in 1995 is a dazzlingly ambitious critical history of modern Irish literature & the standard work on the Irish Literary Revival. In After Irel&, Kiberd responds to the next generation of Irish writers, in this second renaissance of Irish literature. ...

Two women. Two villages. Different destinies. Odeta`s life has shrunk to a daily round of drudgery, running her father`s grocery store in a remote Albanian village. One day a stranger from Tirana walks into the shop & promises her a new career in London. Odeta`s life is about to change, but not in the way she expected. Journalist Kate lives on a quiet London street & seems to have a perfect life but she worries about her son Ben, who struggles to make friends. Kate blames the internet & disconnects her family from the online world so they can get to know their neighbours. On a visit to her home village in Wales, Kate is forced to confront a secret from her past. But greater danger lies closer to home. Perhaps Kate`s neighbours are not the friendly community they seem. ...

When Nelson Mandela & the African National Congress declared victory over the bitter injustice of apartheid, some thought South Africa`s future was assured. But despite Mandela`s mission of reconciliation, rampant inequality remains; race relations are uneasy, violence is endemic & many in the ANC appear to have lost sight of the liberation ideals. With the election in 2009 of Jacob Zuma, a charismatic populist embroiled in scandal, uncertainty over the trajectory of the nation has only intensified. South Africa now stands at a crossroads, & award-winning journalist Alec Russell draws on his deep knowledge of the country to tell us how it got there & to give us a compelling account, revised & updated for this edition, of the journey from Mandela to Zuma. ...

Jo Stoyle is afraid of death. But Stoyle is also a millionaire, & so he pours his riches into scientific research, desperate to find the secret of immortality. This ruthless quest will enmesh everyone around him in a web of greed, seduction, murder & debasement. Written while he was living in California, this is Huxley`s response to Hollywood`s superficiality & obsession with youth, a powerful cautionary tale which employs all his customary wit & merciless insight. ...

Tamerlane, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Manchus, the British, the Soviets, the Japanese & the Nazis. All built empires they hoped would last forever: all were destined to fail. But, as John Darwin shows in his magnificent book, their empire building created the world we know today. From the death of Tamerlane in 1405, last of the ‘world conquerors’, to the rise & fall of European empires, & from America’s growing colonial presence to the resurgence of India & China as global economic powers, ” After Tamerlane” provides a wonderfully intriguing perspective on the past, present & future of empires. ...

After Taste: Expanded Practices in Interior Design is an edited volume comprising texts, interviews & portfolios that collectively document new theories & emerging critical practices in the field of interior design. The material is informed by, but not limited to, the annual After Taste symposia hosted by Parsons The New School of Design. The book`s central argument is that the field of interior design is inadequately served by its historical reliance on taste-making & taste-makers, &, more recently from a set of theoretical concerns derived from architecture; the volume seeks to set an expanded frame by advancing new voices & perspectives in both the theory & practice of interior design, considered as an independent discipline. In 2007, the Department of Architecture, Interior Design & Lighting at Parsons The New School for Design inaugurated an annual international symposium series dedicated to the critical study of the interior. Titled After Taste, these yearly symposia offer expansive views of interior studies, highlight emerging areas of research, identify allied practices, make public its under-explored territory, & attract future designers & scholars to the field. Now in its fourth year, After Taste has proven to be one of the very few venues internationally for critically exploring interior design. The field of interior design is asymmetrically served by the current literature in the field. Too frequently, the current writing & making in interiors emphasize the ineffable, the biographical, & the social elite, & promote a curiously unsubstantiated notion of connoisseurship as the principal basis for design. Other attempts to construct an intellectual agenda for the study of the interior draw heavily from architectural theory, ignoring the discipline`s own specific & autonomous history. After Taste, the book, is intended to adjust this imbalance by introducing interior design material that is theoretically & historically situated, technically grounded, demographically inclusive, & aesthetically adventurous. ...

For years Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm & shrewdness. But when the she falls in love with one of her clients, an aristocratic retired politician, she renounces her business in order to become his wife. But it is not so easy to renounce her independent spirit, & eventually Kazu must choose between her marriage & the demands of her irrepressible vitality. After the Banquet is a magnificent portrait of political & domestic warfare. ...

Edwidge Danticat had long been scared off from Carnival by a loved one, who spun tales of people dislocating hips from gyrating with too much abandon, losing their voices from singing too loudly, going deaf from the clamor of immense speakers, & being punched, stabbed, pummeled, or fondled by other lustful revelers. Now an adult, she resolves to return & exorcise her Carnival demons. During her journeys she traces the heroic & tragic history of the isl&, from French colonists & Haitian revolutionaries to American invaders & home-grown dictators. Danticat also introduces us to many of the performers, artists, & organizers who re-create the myths & legends that bring the Carnival festivities to life. When Carnival arrives, we watch as she goes from observer to participant & finally loses herself in the overwhelming embrace of the crowd. Part travelogue, part memoir, this is a lyrical narrative of a writer rediscovering her country along with a part of herself. ...

Father John controls everything inside The Fence. & Father John likes rules. Especially about never talking to Outsiders. Because Father John knows the truth. He knows what is right, & what is wrong. He knows what is coming. But Moonbeam is starting to see the lies behind Father John`s words. She wants him to be found out. What if the only way out of the darkness is to light a fire? ...