This historical novel is focussed around a church located in Florence, & what happens to it through different periods of history. The story starts in the present day, with a tour guide taking a family around a museum that originally was the church. The tour guide, Molly Cavendish is the present day link, & as the story changes from the past to the present day, she asks the questions as well as proving the answers to what happened to the ” Chiesa di Santa Maria” during its history. This is a tragic story of one man`s quest using the brightest & the best talent in Florence of that age. Through time we see the trials & tribulations of the Chiesa di Santa Maria, dating through the Napoleonic War, World War Two & the Florentine Floods of 1966; & the end of the story is based in the present day. ...

Indonesia is the world`s largest archipelago, encompassing nearly 18, 000 islands. The fourth most populous country in the world, it has a larger Muslim population than any other nation. ” The Indonesia Reader” is a unique introduction to this extraordinary country. Assembled for the traveller, student, & expert alike, the Reader

Includes:: more than 150 selections: journalists` articles, explorers` chronicles, photographs, poetry, stories, cartoons, drawings, letters, speeches, & more. Many pieces are by Indonesians; some are translated into English for the first time. All of them are preceded by introductions written by the volume`s editors. Well-known figures such as Indonesia`s acclaimed novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer & the American anthropologist Clifford Geertz are featured alongside other artists & scholars as well as politicians, revolutionaries, colonists, scientists, & activists. Organized chronologically, the volume addresses early Indonesian civilizations; contact with traders from India, China, & the Arab Middle East; &, the European colonization of Indonesia, which culminated in centuries of Dutch rule. Selections offer insight into Japan`s 1942-45 occupation, the establishment of an independent Indonesia, & the post-independence era, from the Sukarno presidency (1945-67), through Suharto`s dictatorial regime (1967-98), to the present Reformasi period. Themes of resistance & activism recur: in a book excerpt decrying the exploitation of Java`s natural wealth by the Dutch; in the writing of Kartini (1879-1904), a Javanese princess considered the icon of Indonesian feminism; in a 1978 statement from East Timor objecting to annexation by Indonesia; &, in an essay by the founder of Indonesia`s first gay activist group. From fifth-century Sanskrit inscriptions in stone to selections related to the 2002 Bali bombings & the 2004 tsunami, ” The Indonesia Reader” conveys the long history & the cultural, ethnic, & ecological diversity of this far-flung archipelago nation.

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The Infatuations is a metaphysical murder mystery & a stunningly original literary achievement by Javier Marias, the internationally acclaimed author of A Heart So White & Your Face Tomorrow. Every day, Maria Dolz stops for breakfast at the same cafe. & every day she enjoys watching a handsome couple who follow the same routine. Then one day they aren't there, & she feels obscurely bereft. It is only later, when she comes across a newspaper photograph of the man, lying stabbed in the street, his shirt half off, that she discovers who the couple are. Some time afterwards, when the woman returns to the cafe with her children, who are then collected by a different man, & Maria approaches her to offer her condolences, an entanglement begins which sheds new light on this apparently random, pointless death. With The Infatuations, Javier Marias brilliantly reimagines the murder novel as a metaphysical enquiry, addressing existential questions of life, death, love & morality. The Infatuations is an extraordinary, immersive book about the terrible force of events & their consequences. I am greatly impressed by the quality of Marias' writing.. .he uses language like an anatomist uses the scalpel to cut away the layers of the flesh in order to lay bare the innermost secrets of that strangest of species, the human being. (W. G. Sebald). Years ago, I said that Marias was Spain's best living writer... Nothing, afterwards, has made me alter that opinion. (Eduardo Mendoza, El Pais). [I am] enthralled by his strange mix of made-up memories, lost experiences & real-life fantasies. (Marina Warner, Guardian). Stylish, cerebral... Marias is a startling talent. (The New York Times). Sentence by glorious sentence, is there a better novelist alive in Europe now than Javier Marias?. (Independent) Javier Marias was born in Madrid in 1951. He has published ten novels, two collections of short stories & several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into thirty-two languages & won a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the prestigious Dublin IMPAC award for A Heart So White. He is also a highly practised translator into Spanish of English authors, including Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Thomas Browne & Laurence Sterne. He has held academic posts in Spain, the United States & in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University. Margaret Jull Costa has been a literary translator for over twenty-five years & has translated many novels & short stories by Portuguese, Spanish & Latin American writers, including Javier Marias, Fernando Pessoa, Jose Saramago, Bernardo Atxaga & Ramon del Valle-Inclan. She has won various prizes for her work, including, in 2008, the PEN Book-of-the-Month Translation Award & the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize for her version of Eca de Queiroz's masterpiece The Maias, &, most recently, the 2011 Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize for The Elephant's Journey by Jose Saramago. ...

The Infatuations is a critically acclaimed novel by the great Spanish writer Javier Marias. Every day, Maria Dolz stops for breakfast at the same cafe. & every day she enjoys watching a handsome couple who follow the same routine. Then one day they aren`t there, & she feels obscurely bereft. It is only later, when she comes across a newspaper photograph of the man, lying stabbed in the street, his shirt half off, that she discovers who the couple are. Some time afterwards, when the woman returns to the cafe with her children, who are then collected by a different man, & Maria approaches her to offer her condolences, an entanglement begins which sheds new light on this apparently random, pointless death. With The Infatuations, Javier Marias brilliantly reimagines the murder novel as a metaphysical enquiry, addressing existential questions of life, death, love & morality. Praise for The Infatuations: ” Mesmerising...chillingly clear & hypnotically eerie... At this very fine & disturbing novel`s core is a compelling meditation on love in all its ramifications”. (Herald). ” Keeps us guessing until almost the last page”. (Financial Times).” Few writers have sustained such an engagement with the classic (Anglophone) canon. As a translator he has rendered into Spanish work by Hardy, Yeats, Conrad, Nabokov, Faulkner, Updike, Salinger & many others. As a novelist, he has threaded his work with traces of these writers, & is explicitly underpinned by an empathy with Shakespeare & Sterne, as well as Cervantes & Proust”. (Guardian). Javier Marias was born in Madrid in 1951. He has published thirteen novels, two collections of short stories & several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into forty-two languages & won a dazzling array of international literary awards. Margaret Jull Costa has been a literary translator for over twenty-five years & has translated many novels & short stories by Portuguese, Spanish & Latin American writers, including Javier Marias, Fernando Pessoa, Jose Saramago, Bernardo Atxaga & Ramon del Valle-Inclan. ...

Infinite games, infinite fun, infinite possibilities. Designed by James Kyle to be for board games what a deck of cards is for card games
- versatile, portable, complete
- the piecepack system is an ingenious 56-piece gaming set that can be used to play hundreds & hundreds of board games, both classic & newly created. A piecepack

Includes:: dice, pawns, tiles, & coins & is already an online phenomenon among gamers. The Infinite Board Game
- meticulously edited & curated by W. Eric Martin, a widely respected figure in the gaming world
- combines a complete, custom-designed 56-part piecepack game set with a full-colour book containing instructions for 50 of the liveliest games to play. It`s the perfect kit for game night with friends, for families, for board game lovers of all ages. There are classic games like Checkers & a version of the ancient Indian game Pachisi. Games for one: Fuji-san, Piece Gaps, Landlocked, & Crocodile Hop
- possibly the most entertaining way to kill 15 minutes by yourself. Plus, destroy the enemy in Sea Battle; play the part of a corporate bigwig in Takeover; & get the adrenaline going with Moto X. You can also go online to join the piecepack community & discover hundreds more games to play.






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An innovative, visually exciting, informative &, perhaps most importantly, not at all gimmicky way of presenting to the reader a multitude of facts: from history & current affairs, from nature & science, from sociology or the art, etc. The subjects are grouped into: In the Beginning, Getting Civilised, Nation Building, & The Modern World. Each form of graphic presentation is specially chosen to illuminate the subject & the accompanying text provides more information. The book fully justifies its publishers’ enthusiastic description:“ The History of the World, but not as you know it. A new type of history is here
- all 13.8 billion years of it, exploded into a visually jaw-dropping feast of facts, trends & timelines that tell you everything you`d ever want to know about the history of the world. From the primordial soup to the technological revolution of the 21st century, interesting stuff has been going on; & ever since prehistoric man scratched the first tally markings into a damp cave wall, we`ve been counting & measuring it all. Which historic warriors conquered the most territory, killed the most people, or had the largest empire? When did everything evolve? Which languages are related to which? What`s been invented & when? Where are we being born, & what are we dying of? Which countries are eating all the food, causing all the pollution & taking all the drugs? A story of civilisation & barbarism, of war & peace, this is history done in a new way
- a beautifully designed collection of the most insightful & revealing trends that tell us what the human race has been up to, & where we`re heading.”

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The British Cartographic Society WINNER The BCS Award 2015 WINNER The Stanfords Award for Printed Mapping 2015 WINNER John C Bartholomew Award for Thematic Mapping 2015 In London: The Information Capital, geographer James Cheshire & designer Oliver Uberti join forces to bring you a series of new maps & graphics charting life in London like never before. When do police helicopters catch criminals? Which borough of London is the happiest? Is `czesc` becoming a more common greeting than `salaam`? James Cheshire & Oliver Uberti could tell you, but they`d rather show you. By combining millions of data points with stunning design, they investigate how flights stack over Heathrow, who lives longest, & where Londoners love to tweet. The result? One hundred portraits of an old city in a very new way. Dr James Cheshire is a geographer with a passion for London & its data. His award-winning maps draw from his research as a lecturer at University College London & have appeared in the Guardian & the Financial Times, as well as on his popular blog, mappinglondon.co.uk. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Oliver Uberti is a visual journalist, designer, & the recipient of many awards for his information graphics & art direction. From 2003 to 2012, he worked in the design department of National Geographic, most recently as Senior Design Editor. He has a design studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ...

The Information Officer by Mark Mills is set in wartime Malta of 1942. It is summer, & the Maltese suffer daily bombing raids from the Nazis. The British are the country’s last line of defence & it is Max Chadwick’s job as the information officer to ensure the news the islanders receive maintains morale. But Max finds himself torn between patriotic duty & personal honour when he is given proof that suggests a British officer is murdering local women. With violence on the war-ravaged island escalating daily, Max embarks on a private investigation. ...

This work is now a major film starring Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger & Billy Bob Thornton. Capturing the lives of a group of people in Los Angeles, The Informers is an intense narrative that blurs genders, generations & even identities. The characters go to the same schools & eat at the same restaurants. Their voices enfold us as seamlessly as those of DJs heard over a car radio. They have sex with the same boys & girls & buy from the same dealers. In short, they are connected in the only way people can be in L.A.
- suffering from nothing less than the death of the soul.
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When Gabriel Santoro publishes his first book, a biography of a Jewish family friend who fled Germany for Colombia shortly before World War Two, it never occurs to him that his father will write a devastating review in a national newspaper. Why does he attack him so viciously? Do the pages of his book unwittingly hide some dangerous secret? As Gabriel sets out to discover what lies behind his father`s anger, he finds himself undertaking an examination of the guilt & complicity at the heart of Colombian society, as one treacherous act perpetrated in those dark days returns with a vengeance half a century later. ...