The Bund, Shanghai in the Odyssey Guides series; aimed at travellers particularly interested in the culture & history of their destination; the guides focus on the atmosphere, customs, & distinctive character of a country, region or city. As the only English language publisher based in China, Odyssey Guides specialize in Asian destinations, relying on the expertise of local writers. This gives readers more of an insider ...

Shortlisted for a 2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award. Is going back the only way to start again? After more than thirty years in London, recently-widowed Thomas Imbalil returns to India. He spends his first months in uncluttered isolation in his house overlooking the Arabian Sea, in a small fishing village in Kerala. But when he agrees to look after his friend`s business, Chacko`s Optical Store, he meets & befriends Rani, the young assistant. Before long he discovers that Rani is using the store to run an intriguing side-business. He agrees to turn a blind eye to her operations until his friend returns, but this discovery makes him restless, & reminds him of the loneliness he is feeling & which lies ahead of him. Rani also reveals herself as a much more complex individual than he had first imagined, & while he had envisaged a quiet re-acquaintance with his homel&, Thomas finds himself becoming more & more entangled with the lives of those around him. ...

This is the extraordinary new novel from the author of Never Let Me Go & the Booker Prize winning The Remains of the Day. Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro`s first novel in a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge & war. The Romans have long since departed, & Britain is steadily declining into ruin. But at least the wars that once ravaged the country have ceased. The Buried Giant begins as a couple, Axl & Beatrice, set off across a troubled land of mist & rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen for years. They expect to face many hazards
- some strange & other
- worldly
- but they cannot yet foresee how their journey will reveal to them dark & forgotten corners of their love for one another.


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The extraordinary novel from the author of Never Let Me Go & the Booker Prize winning The Remains of the Day. The Romans have long since departed, & Britain is steadily declining into ruin. But at least the wars that once ravaged the country have ceased. The Buried Giant begins as a couple, Axl & Beatrice, set off across a troubled land of mist & rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen for years. They expect to face many hazards
- some strange & other-worldly
- but they cannot yet foresee how their journey will reveal to them dark & forgotten corners of their love for one another. Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro`s first novel in a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge & war.

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A lavishly photographed cookbook & historic travelogue, tracing contemporary & colonial Burmese dishes over the past century. With its rich traditions of empire, The Burma Cookbook highlights the best of present-day Myanmar, including foods of its immigrant populations
- from the subcontinent, down the Malay peninsula, & Britain itself. The authors spent some ten years researching the book, while organising & hosting culinary tours to uncover the country`s most popular dishes. The authors had exclusive access to The Strand Hotel`s collection of historic menus, pictures & photos, while contemporary photography by Morrison Polkinghorne portrays Myanmar street life.
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Bringing sixteenth-century Languedoc vividly to life, Kate Mosse`s The Burning Chambers is a gripping story of love & betrayal, mysteries & secrets; of war & adventure, conspiracies & divided loyalties... Carcassonne 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father`s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes her destiny forever. For Piet has a dangerous mission of his own, & he will need Minou`s help if he is to get out of La Cite alive. Toulouse: As the religious divide deepens in the Midi, & old friends become enemies, Minou & Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as sectarian tensions ignite across the city, the battle-lines are drawn in blood & the conspiracy darkens further. Meanwhile, as a long-hidden document threatens to resurface, the mistress of Puivert is obsessed with uncovering its secret & strengthening her power... ...

The fifth novel in Bernard Cornwell`s epic & bestselling series on the making of England & the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. BBC2`s major Autumn 2015 TV show THE LAST KINGDOM is based on the first two books in the series. To King Alfred he is the `lord of battles`. He has gained riches, loyal men & a beloved wife. But Uhtred is dogged by betrayal & tragedy. The ailing Alfred presses Uhtred to swear loyalty to his son & heir Edward, preventing the warrior lord from taking vengeance on those who stole his home at Bebbanburg. Now Uthred will once again defend the Christian kingdom
- in a battle which could smash the growing power of the deadly Danes. In so doing he meets a woman more dangerous than any warlord. A killer, a schemer with a dark power over men`s hearts: Skade. Uhtred of Bebbanburg`s mind is as sharp as his sword. A thorn in the side of the priests & nobles who shape his fate, this Saxon raised by Vikings is torn between the life he loves & those he has sworn to serve.
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`I am looking for something more mysterious. For the path you read about in books, the old lane choked with undergrowth, whose entrance the weary prince could not discover.`
- Alan Fournier Walkers, like lovers of literature, are driven by the urge to explore, & writers have blessed their fictional characters with itchy feet since the earliest of narratives. Milton`s Adam & Eve leaving Eden, Mrs Yeobright`s maternal anxiety spurring her across country in Hardy`s The Return of the Native, militant miners in Zola`s Germinal. Walks found in novels, short stories & even drama can have a multitude of meanings. Editor Duncan Minshull here forges a bold path through the greatest of the world`s literature, collecting extracts from Dickens & Dostoevsky, Proust & Poe, Kipling, Kafka & many more to show imaginations time & again set in motion by the simple act of walking.
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In the LAPD`s Open Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die almost a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other evidence is virtually non-existent. Now Bosch & his new partner, rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with solving what turns out to be a highly charged, politically sensitive case. Starting with the bullet that`s been lodged for years in the victim`s spine, they must pull new leads from years-old information which soon reveals that this shooting may have been anything but random. ...

Smithfield, settled on the fringes of Roman London, was once a place of revelry. Jesters & crowds flocked for the medieval St Bartholomew`s Day celebrations, tournaments were plentiful & it became the location of London`s most famous meat market. Yet in Tudor Engl&, Smithfield had another, more sinister use: the public execution of heretics. Spanning the reigns of British history`s most remarkable dynasty, The Burning Time is a vivid insight into an era in which what was orthodoxy one year might be dangerous heresy the next. The first martyrs were Catholics, who cleaved to Rome in defiance of Henry VIII`s break with the papacy. But with the accession of Henry`s daughter Mary
- soon to be nicknamed ` Bloody Mary`
- the charge of heresy was levelled against devout Protestants, who chose to burn rather than recant. At the centre of Virginia Rounding`s vivid account of this extraordinary period are two very different characters. The first is Richard Rich, Thomas Cromwell`s protege, who, almost uniquely, remained in a position of great power, influence & wealth under three Tudor monarchs, & who helped send many devout men & women to their deaths. The second is John Deane, Rector of St Bartholomew`s, who was able, somehow, to navigate the treacherous waters of changing dogma & help others to survive. The Burning Time is their story, but it is also the story of the hundreds of men & women who were put to the fire for their faith. It is a gripping insight into a time when people were willing to die, & to kill, in the name of religion.

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