Burt Darwin is a writer & world religions specialist. Lady Chanel Mallory, a former hand model, has married into the aristocracy & loves romance novels. Her husband Lord Percy, a natural cynic, mistakenly thinks she`s French. Sister Mary dresses like Mother Teresa & hopes to be a nun one day. Four passengers on a cruise ship, thrown together by chance, experience the mysteries & contradictions of contemporary Africa when they take an ill-judged trip into the interior. As each is exposed to ancient African mythology & belief, their hypocrisies, petty jealousies & venality are revealed
- with hilarious & unforgettable results. The Importance of Manners is a slapstick, satirical comic novel for adults in the vein of Alexander Mc Call Smith, Evelyn Waugh & PG Wodehouse, from an acclaimed YA author.
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The Impossible Fairy Tale tells the story of the nameless ` Child`, who struggles to make a mark on the world, & her classmate Mia, whose spoiled life is everything the Child`s is not. At school, adults are nearly invisible, & the society the children create on their own is marked by cruelty, soul-crushing hierarchies & an underlying menace. Then, one day after hours, the Child sneaks into the classroom to add ominous sentences to her classmates` notebooks, unlocking a series of events with cataclysmically horrible consequences. But that is not the end of this eerie, unpredictable novel... ...

Much discussed & often maligned, precious little is known or understood about North Korea, the world`s most controversial & isolated country. In ” The Impossible State” Victor Cha pulls back the curtain, providing an unprecedented insight into North Korea`s history, the rise of the Kim family dynasty, & the obsessive personality cult that surrounds them. He illuminates the repressive regime`s complex economy & culture, its appalling record of human-rights abuses, its belligerent relationship with its neighbours & the United States, & analyzes the regime`s major security issues
- from the seemingly endless war with its southern counterpart to its terrifying nuclear ambitions
- all in the light of the destabilizing effects of Kim Jong-il`s recent death. How has this enigmatic nation-state continued to survive when it regularly violates its own citizens` inalienable rights & has suffered severe famine, global economic sanctions, a collapsed economy, & near-total isolation from the rest of the world? Cha reveals a land facing a pivotal & disquieting transition of power from tyrannical father to inexperienced son, & delves into the ideology that leads an oppressed, starving populace to cling so fiercely to its failed leadership. With rare personal anecdotes from the author`s time in Pyongyang & his tenure as a White House adviser, this engagingly written, authoritative, & highly accessible account offers much-needed answers to the most pressing questions about North Korea & ultimately warns of a regime that might be closer to its end than many might think
- a political collapse for which the Western world may be woefully unprepared.


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” We killed Americans. We are killing Americans. We will kill Americans”. (North Korean schoolchildren conjugating verbs). In North Korea, citizens found humming South Korean pop songs risk being sent to a gulag for six months of hard labour. Jail sentences are handed out if portraits of the late Kim Jong-il are not properly dusted. Shoot-to-kill orders are in effect for anyone caught trying to cross the Yalu or Tumen Rivers into China. Yet despite this, an oppressed, starving populace clings fiercely to its new Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un, & signs with the revolutionary slogan We Have Nothing To Envy line the streets of Pyongyang. So how did North Korea become this Impossible State? What does the future hold for a regime with terrifying nuclear ambitions & a seemingly endless war with its southern counterpart? Former White House adviser Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on the world`s most isolated country to provide an unprecedented & timely insight into North Korea`s history, present & future. ...

When Adam moves into an abandoned house on the dusty edge of town, he is hoping to recover from the loss of his job & his home in the city. But when he meets Canning
- a shadowy figure from his childhood
- & Canning`s enigmatic & beautiful wife, a sinister new chapter in his life begins. Canning has inherited a vast fortune & built for himself a giant folly in the veld, a magical place of fantasy & dreams that seduces Adam & transforms him absolutely, violently
- & perhaps forever. Damon Galgut`s magnificent novel evokes a hot & cruel & claustrophobic world, in which sex & death are never far from the surface.


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LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN`S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 When lovelorn Annie Mc Dee stumbles across a dirty painting in a junk shop while looking for a present for an unsuitable man, she has no idea what she has discovered. Soon she finds herself drawn unwillingly into the tumultuous London art world, populated by exiled Russian oligarchs, avaricious Sheikas, desperate auctioneers & unscrupulous dealers, all scheming to get their hands on her painting
- a lost eighteenth-century masterpiece called ` The Improbability of Love`. Delving into the painting`s past, Annie will uncover not just an illustrious list of former owners, but some of the darkest secrets of European history
- & in doing so she might just learn to open up to the possibility of falling in love again.

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In this fresh & provocative view of a seven-million-year evolutionary journey, Finlayson demonstrates the radical implications for the interpretation of fossils & technologies & shows that understanding humans within an ecological context provides insights into the emergence & spread of Homo sapiens worldwide. Finlayson argues that environmental change, particularly availability of water, played a critical role in shaping the direction of human evolution, contributing to our spread & success. He argues that our ancestors carved a niche for themselves by leaving the forest & forcing their way into a long-established community of carnivores in a tropical savannah as climate changes opened up the landscape. They took their chance at high noon, when most other predators were asleep. Adapting to this new lifestyle by shedding their hair & developing an active sweating system to keep cool, being close to fresh water was vital. As the climate dried, our ancestors, already bipedal, became taller & slimmer, more adept at travelling farther in search of water. The challenges of seeking water in a drying landscape moulded the minds & bodies of early humans, & directed their migrations & eventual settlements. ...

Perfect for fans of Nick & Norah`s Infinite Playlist & The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Improbable Theory of Ana & Zak is Stonewall Award-winning author Brian Katcher`s hilarious he said/she said romance about two teens discovering themselves on an out-of-this-world accidental first date at a sci-fi convention. When Ana Watson`s brother ditches a high school trip to run wild at Washingcon, type-A Ana knows that she must find him or risk her last shot at freedom from her extra-controlling parents. In her desperation, she`s forced to enlist the last person she`d ever want to spend time with-slacker Zak Duquette-to help find her brother before morning comes. But over the course of the night, while being chased by hordes of costumed Vikings & zombies, Ana & Zak begin to open up to each other. Soon, what starts as the most insane nerdfighter manhunt transforms into so much more... ...

This new survey from the leading authorities on the subject provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date & authoritative account available of the rapid ascendancy of the Incas, their politics, economics, religion, architecture, art & technology, & their subsequent downfall. The authors look in detail at Cusco & at the four parts of the empire, following the vast road system to explore not just famous sites such as Machu Picchu, but all the major regional settlements, on & off the Inca Trail. The concluding chapter & epilogue are devoted to the end of the empire: the arrival of the Spaniards, the assassination of the Inca ruler Atawallpa, & the final years of the rebellious, neo-Inca state in the tropical forests of Vilcabamba. ...

But this glittering culture only obscured the rich & diverse civilizations that had preceded it: Chavin, Moche, Nazca, Tiwanaku, Huari, & Chimu. Described as a ”masterly study” & an ”outstanding volume” on its first publication, The Incas & Their Ancestors quickly established itself as the best general introduction to the cultures & civilizations of ancient Peru. Now this classic text has been fully updated for the revised edition. New discoveries over the last decade are integrated throughout. The occupation of Peru`s desert coast can now be traced back to 12, 000 BC & ensuing maritime adaptations are examined in early littoral societies that mummified their dead & others that were mound builders. The spread of Andean agriculture is related to fresh data on climate, & protracted drought is identified as a recurrent contributor to the rise & fall of civilizations in the Cordillera. The results of recent excavations enliven understanding of coastal Moche & Nazca societies & the ancient highland states of Huari & Tiwanaku. Architectural models accompanying burials provide fresh interpretations of the palaces of imperial Chan Chan, while the origins of the Incas are given new clarity by a spate of modern research on America`s largest native empire. ...