Anna Petrovna rules the ancestral estate of the Golovlev family with an iron h&. Around her swarm her family; her alcoholic sons, dissipated grandchildren & degenerate husb&. But, in his darkened study, her son Porfiry
- ` Judas the Bloodsucker`
- schemes for an overthrow of power. In this powerful novel, the great Russian satirist presents a stark portrait of the Russian gentry sapped by generations of idleness & social irrelevance.

...

Stay with indigenous tribes in the Amazon. Dog-sled with the Inuit in the Arctic. Walk the Songlines of central Australia with Aboriginal guides. Learn African drumming in Ghana or how to dance salsa in Cuba Bored with the same old package tours & identikit resorts. Then this book is your key to a whole new world of inspirational holidays. Throughout Asia, Africa, the Americas & the Pacific, tribal people & rural villagers are setting up their own tours
- & they want you to visit. These holidays are a better alternative. Better for you, with real insights into local life & culture in some of the most beautiful places on earth; better for the people you visit, leaving them with more money & supporting local development projects; &, better for the environment, offering sustainable alternative incomes for communities living in threatened ecosystems. Compiled by Mark Mann for Tourism Concern, Europe`s leading ethical tourism organization, this updated version of ” The Community Tourism Guide” is still the only guide to this type of holiday. It not only explains the principles of `community-based tourism`, but also lists hundreds of guesthouses & tours, with full contact details to help you arrange your next holiday.
...

This is the new novel from the US editor of The Help & The Postmistress. Alex George's A Good American is a positive & uplifting novel about the American Dream. Germany, 1904: When Frederick & Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute they take one destined for New Orleans, & later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together. From bare-knuckle prizefighting & Prohibition to sweet barbershop harmonies & the Kennedy assassination, the family is caught up in the sweep of history as they find their place in their adopted country. Poignant, funny & heartbreaking, A Good American is a universal story about our search for home. 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). ...

In The Good Angel of Death, when Kolya moves into a new flat in Kiev, he finds a book hidden within a volume of War & Peace. Intrigued by the annotations that appear on every page, Kolya sets out to discover more about the scribbler. His investigations take him to a graveyard, & more specifically to the coffin of a Ukrainian nationalist who died in mysterious circumstances & was buried with a sealed letter & a manuscript. An exhumation under cover of darkness reveals that an item of great national importance is buried near a fort in Kazakhstan. As nightwatchman at a baby-milk factory, Kolya exposes himself to the attentions of a criminal gang, & so he decides to leave Kiev for a while. Armed with only three cases of baby milk, which have unexpected hallucinogenic properties, he sets off on what turns out to be a very bizarre journey: crossing the Caspian Sea & traversing the deserts of Kazakhstan. He meets a host of unlikely characters on the way, including Bedouins, ex-KGB officers & a spirit-like companion in the form of a chameleon. The Good Angel of Death is a classic, first-rate Kurkov yarn which is sure to delight old & new fans alike. ...

When Kolya moves into a new flat in Kiev, he finds a book hidden within a volume of ” War & Peace”. Intrigued by the annotations that appear on every page, Kolya sets out to discover more about the scribbler. His investigations take him to a graveyard, & more specifically to the coffin of a Ukrainian nationalist who died in mysterious circumstances & was buried with a sealed letter & a manuscript. An exhumation under cover of darkness reveals that an item of great national importance is buried near a fort in Kazakhstan. As nightwatchman at a baby-milk factory, Kolya exposes himself to the attentions of a criminal gang, & so he decides to leave Kiev for a while. Armed with only three cases of baby milk, which have unexpected hallucinogenic properties, he sets off on what turns out to be a very bizarre journey: crossing the Caspian Sea & traversing the deserts of Kazakhstan. He meets a host of unlikely characters on the way, including Bedouins, ex-KGB officers & a spirit-like companion in the form of a chameleon...” The Good Angel of Death” is a classic, first-rate Kurkov yarn which is sure to delight old & new fans alike. ...

Laurence Walters arrives at his rural hospital posting full of optimism. Frank, the disgruntled deputy, is forced to share his room with the new arrival but is determined to stay out of Laurence`s ambitious schemes. When the dilapidated hospital is looted, the two men find themselves uneasy allies in a world where the past is demanding restitution from the present. ...

` You do not leave a sick child alone to face the dark & you do not leave a child at a time like this.` Warsaw, 1940. The Jewish ghetto is under the Nazis` brutal control. Hundreds of thousands of men, women & children slowly starve within the walls. But while all around is darkness, one man brings hope, caring for the ever-increasing number of destitute orphans in the face of unimaginable conditions.&, torn apart as the noose tightens around the ghetto, how will one young couple`s love survive the terrible tests of wartime? Half a million people lived in the Warsaw ghetto. Less than one percent survived to tell their story. This novel is based on the true accounts of Misha & Sophia, & on the life of one of Poland`s greatest men, Dr Janusz Korczak. ...

Morag & Heather, two eighteen-inch fairies with swords, green kilts & badly dyed hair fly through the window of the worst violinist in New York, an overweight & antisocial type named Dinnie, & vomit on his carpet. Who they are, how they came to New York & what this has to do with the lovely Kerry
- who lives across the street, & has Crohn`s Disease, & is making a flower alphabet
- & what this has to do with the other fairies (of all nationalities) of New York, not to mention the poor repressed fairies of Britain, is the subject of this book. It has a war in it, & a most unusual production of Shakespeare`s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT`S DREAM & Johnny Thunders` New York Dolls guitar solos. What more could anyone desire from a book?

...

An ordinary boy with an ordinary life stands accused of killing the next president of the United States. WHAT HAPPENED? Dr Paul Allen is a well-respected man. He lives a happy, comfortable life with his second wife & their family. Until the night when a knock at the door blows his world apart: a hugely popular presidential candidate has been shot, & they say the young man who pulled the trigger is Paul`s son. Daniel, the only child from his first, failed marriage, was always a good kid & Paul is convinced his quiet boy is not capable of murder. Overwhelmed by a vortex of feelings, Paul embarks on a mission to understand what happened & why. Following the trail of his son`s journey across America, he is forced to re-examine his life as a husband & a parent, & every decision he ever made. What follows is a powerfully emotional & suspense-filled quest that keeps you guessing to the very end. ` Monsters don`t just become monsters, after all.` ...

Love eating out? Looking for suggestions from a source you can trust? Whether you re holidaying in Cornwall, on a business trip to the highlands, ambling through Suffolk, or simply want to try a new place close to home, The Good Food Guide will help you discover the UK s very best restaurants, pubs & hidden gems on a budget that suits you. Our expert inspectors dine anonymously & pay the bill in full. Their detailed, entertaining, impartial reviews take account of feedback from thousands of regular diners, making The Good Food Guide for decades the nation s bestselling restaurant handbook your essential companion to eating out in Britain. Acting fearlessly on the recommendations of our inspectors & readers, we tell it like it is. Read interviews with top chefs, catch up with exciting foodie trends, & find out which restaurants are the ones inspectors can t wait to revisit & which dishes really set their hearts racing. ...