” 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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This is a book with no practical purpose whatsoever. As any fan of Dave`s would probably guess, a book by him won`t make you a better sailor, & it won`t provide any instruction on boat maintenance. But it will entertain
- his light but observational writings tap the rich well of all those things that sailors know but few dare admit. The Impractical Boat Owner is a collection of Dave`s columns for Practical Boat Owner magazine, expanded for the book, & with additional ` Lessons Not Learned` hints & tips boxes, all accompanied by Jake Kavanagh`s wonderful cartoons. Taking us from Dave`s first flounderings afloat to more recent, er, flounderings afloat, themes covered include:
- first attempts at sailing
- how not to sail singlehanded
- mysteries of maintenance
- how not to sail with a dog
- the impenetrable mysteries of navigation & weather
- how not to race The Impractical Boatowner is an antidote to all that`s written about expensive shiny new yachts, self-improvement, the quest for qualifications & practical skills.






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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. ...

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. ...

When Francisco Pizarro disembarked in Peru in 1532 he found a vast empire seemingly overflowing with gold & silver. Ruled by monarchs claiming direct descent from the sun itself, its inhabitants built roads, bridge & terraced fields in the precipitous Andes, & made brilliant textiles & dazzling jewelry
- all without possessing either writing or the wheel. Within a few short months this empire had been conquered & its subjects killed or enslaved.
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” Paris, 1959. As dusk settles over the immigrant quarter, 12-year-old Michel Marini
- amateur photographer & compulsive reader
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” Maybe the earth will continue to spin, & the stars won`t implode for a bazillion more years, but I know, with a certainty my stupid brain has done its best to ignore, that this moment
- right here, with the people I love most
- is not going to last.” Alba is facing one of the most important summers of her life. School is over & while her friends want to escape their sleepy hometown, she just wants to stay put. But when a viral video about the end of the world announces that Eden Valley is the only safe place to be, thousands of people descend on the town. Amidst parties & prayer circles, Alba feels like her world has turned upside down. At least she`s got Cinnamon Girl
- the comic-strip alter ego she`s created...A funny & unique feel-good read about how to keep on being yourself when everything around you is changing, perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell, Non Pratt & John Green.


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