After an incident-packed 1938 attempt, an American team made another bid to climb the world's second highest peak the following year. The expedition was led by the mercurial Austrian emigre Fritz Wiessner. With the more experienced climbers recovering after the events of 1938, Wiessner was forced to take a weaker team that included a number of rich but inexperienced climber/adventurers. The problem was compounded by a personality clash between the leader & the second most experienced climber, Jack Durrance. The attempt reached a dramatic climax when Wiessner, returning from a final solo summit bid was forced to leave the stricken Dudley Wolfe in a high camp, descending to get assistance & supplies, only to find the lower camps had been emptied of all food & equipment. When a rescue attempt was finally mounted three leading Sherpas perished & Wolfe was found dead. The subsequent recriminations between Wiessner & Durrance have soured American climbing circles for over 50 years. With the help of the only-recently-available Durrance diaries, Putnam & Kauffman have made a re-examination of the decisions & actions that led to tragedy. ...

About the series: Maps designed specifically for the trekker, presenting the topography by line drawings of mountain ridges, with main peaks & passes shown with their height above sea level. The maps also show rivers & settlements & clearly indicate trekking routes. On the reverse are descriptions of suggested routes & other information about the area. ...

Ed Viesturs, one of the world’s premier high-altitude mountaineers, explores the remarkable history of K2 & of those who attempted to conquer it. Focusing on seven of the mountain’s most dramatic campaigns, from his own troubled ascent when he & Scott Fischer climbed it in 1992 & got caught in an avalanche that sent them sliding to almost certain death to the 2008 tragedy when 11 mountaineers from an international expedition died on the mountain, Viesturs crafts an edge-of-your-seat narrative that both climbers & armchair travellers alike will find compelling. The book is illustrated with photos from historical sources & from Viesturs’s own collection. ...

The 1:50 000 topographic map gives a more general picture of the ground features than a basic map. It shows settlements, houses, roads, cultivated areas, waterways, cutting areas, mires, rock exposures, & relief. One map sheet covers an area of 30 x 40 km & one centimetre corresponds to 500 metres on the ground. The 1:50, 000 topographic map is also an ideal complement to nautical charts as it provides useful information about the land areas adjacent to waterways. For example, all Finnish sea areas are covered by 1:50 000 topographic map sheets. ...

Focusing mainly on the small islands of the Netherlands, these two-sided GPS compatible walking maps at 1:25, 000 form a series of long-distance & local walking route maps. Printed on environmentally friendly paper, these maps are waterproof & tear-resistant. Varied colouring show different types of landscape. Symbols indicate various facilities. These maps have the lines of the Dutch National Grid for measuring distances & for determining location using GPS device. In Dutch but legend contains English translation. ...

Kabul & the Historic Khyber Pass map from ITMB combining on one side a street plan of Kabul showing government buildings, embassies, accommodation, etc, plus on the reverse the eastern half of Afghanistan on an indexed road map. On one side is a street plan of Kabul at 1:16, 500 extending well beyond the central part of the city to include the international airport. The map indicates locations of various governmental & other institutions, international organizations & NGOs, embassies, as well as selected hotels facilities such as markets, banks, restaurants, etc. Outside the centre only main traffic arteries are named, but the map does indicate district boundaries & gives names of numerous local neighbourhoods. A short index lists main streets in the city. On the reverse is a map at 1:1, 000, 000 covering eastern Afghanistan with northern Pakistan including Islamabad & Rawalpindi. Altitude colouring (in feet) shows the topography, with additional graphics for salt flats, swamps, glaciers & deserts, plus plenty of names of mountain ranges, peaks (heights in metres), etc. Road network

Includes:: selected local tracks & indicates the routes of the old Silk Road, Railway lines are included & local airports are marked. Within Afghanistan internal administrative boundaries are shown with names of the provinces. The map has latitude & longitude lines at 1° intervals & an extensive index.

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Map No. 763, Kachemak Bay State Park, AK, in an extensive series of GPS compatible, contoured hiking maps of USA’s national & state parks or forests & other popular recreational areas. Cartography based on the national topographic survey, with additional tourist information. The maps, with most titles now printed on light, waterproof & tear-resistant plastic paper, highlight walking trails along with campsites & other accommodation, picnic sites, areas for various recreational pursuits such as horse riding or skiing, drinking water sources, & many other facilities of interest to the outdoor enthusiast. Cartography is based on information from the USGS (United States Geological Survey
- the country’s national survey organization), revised by the National Geographic Maps in cooperation with the National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, etc. Topography is excellently presented by contours (interval varies according to scale), enhanced by relief shading & colouring/graphics for wood cover, glaciers, etc. All heights are given in feet. The maps have a UTM grid plus latitude & longitude margin ticks & GPS waypoints for selected important locations. Each map is double-sided to give either maximum coverage of the chosen area or additional enlargements of its important sections. Accompanying notes provide useful information on relevant regulations, safety precautions, contact addresses, etc.* *IMPORTANT
- PLEASE NOTE: the series is very extensive, ranging in scale from 1:400, 000 for the vast national parks of Alaska to 1:25, 000 for local map in several states. We recommend, therefore, viewing the series by state rather than the whole list.*

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” No!” is the first word of Imre Kertesz`s haunting novel, Kaddish for an Unborn Child. It is how the novel`s narrator, a middle-aged Hungarian-Jewish writer, answers an acquaintance who asks him if he has a child, & it is how he answered his wife years earlier when she told him that she wanted one. The loss, longing & regret that haunt the years between these two ” No!”s give rise to one of the most eloquent meditations ever written on the Holocaust. As Kertesz`s narrator addresses the child he couldn`t bear to bring into the world, he takes readers on a mesmerising, lyrical journey through his life, from his childhood to Auschwitz to his failed marriage. ...

Kadiköy district of the greater Istanbul conurbation in a street atlas at 1:7, 500 from Mepmedya, presented in a slim, 27-page paperback street atlas with colourful cartography & English language map legend. The maps clearly show the areas main traffic arteries & prominently highlight various official buildings, cultural & educational institutions, historic buildings & monuments, various facilities & services including petrol stations, Turkish bath, transport terminals, etc. Map legend

Includes:: English. Also provided are lists of useful telephone numbers of various institutions plus numerous adverts for local businesses. All the text here is in Turkish only.

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Kafka on the Shore follows the fortunes of two remarkable characters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father`s dark prophesy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices & mesmerising dramas. Cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghostlike pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since WWII. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim & killer is a riddle. Murakami`s novel is at once a classic quest, but it is also a bold exploration of mythic & contemporary taboos, of patricide, of mother-love, of sister-love. Above all it is a bewitching & wildly inventive novel from a master stylist. ...