The Red Tram by C K Stead is another fine collection by one of New Zealands best writers. It

Includes:: some

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The most active
- & the most visited
- volcano on earth is Kilauea in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, seen by 3 million

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The Internet in Russia is either the most efficient totalitarian tool or the device by which totalitarianism will be overthrown. Perhaps both. On the eighth floor of an ordinary-looking building in an otherwise residential district of southwest Moscow, in a room occupied by the Federal Security Service (FSB), is a box the size of a VHS player marked SORM. The Russian government`s front line in the battle for the future of the Internet, SORM is the world`s most intrusive listening device, monitoring e-mails, Internet usage, Skype, & all social networks. But for every hacker subcontracted by the FSB to interfere with Russia`s antagonists abroad--such as those who, in a massive denial-of-service attack, overwhelmed the entire Internet in neighboring Estonia--there is a radical or an opportunist who is using the web to chip away at the power of the state at home. Drawing from scores of interviews personally conducted with numerous prominent officials in the Ministry of Communications & web-savvy activists challenging the state, Andrei Soldatov & Irina Borogan peel back the history of advanced surveillance systems in Russia. From research laboratories in Soviet-era labor camps, to the legalization of government monitoring of all telephone & Internet communications in the 1990s, to the present day, their incisive & alarming investigation into the Kremlin`s massive online-surveillance state exposes just how easily a free global exchange can be coerced into becoming a tool of repression & geopolitical warfare. Dissidents, oligarchs, & some of the world`s most dangerous hackers collide in the uniquely Russian virtual world of The Red Web. ...

From the Nobel Prize winner & best-selling author of Snow & My Name Is Red, a fable of fathers & sons & the desires that come between them. On the outskirts of a town thirty miles from Istanbul, a master well digger & his young apprentice are hired to find water on a barren plain. As they struggle in the summer heat, excavating meter by meter, the two will develop a filial bond neither has known before -not the poor middle-aged bachelor nor the middle-class boy whose father disappeared after being arrested for politically subversive activities. The pair will come to depend on each other & exchange stories reflecting disparate views of the world. But in the nearby town, where they buy provisions & take their evening break, the boy will find an irresistible diversion. The Red-Haired Woman, an alluring member of a travelling theatre company, catches his eye & seems as fascinated by him as he is by her. The young man`s wildest dream will be realized, but, when in his distraction a horrible accident befalls the well digger, the boy will flee, returning to Istanbul. Only years later will he discover whether he was in fact responsible for his master`s death & who the redheaded enchantress was. ...

Shortlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize for best work of literary fiction translated into English. On the outskirts of a town thirty miles from Istanbul, a master well-digger & his young apprentice are hired to find water on a barren plain. As they struggle in the summer heat, excavating metre by metre, the two will develop a father/son bond that neither has known before. But in the nearby town, where they spend their evenings, the boy will find an irresistible diversion. The Red-Haired Woman, an alluring member of a travelling theatre group, catches his eye, & she seems as fascinated by him as he is by her. But in his distraction a horrible accident occurs, & he will spend his life unaware of the outcome, or who the Red-Haired Woman was, until many years later. ...

It is a freezing December night & Christmas shoppers have gathered to listen to a carol concert. Then a shot rings out & one of the singers falls to the floor, dead. Detective Harry Hole & his team are called in to investigate but have little to work with
- there is no immediate suspect, no weapon & no motive. But when the assassin discovers he`s shot the wrong man, Harry finds his troubles have only just begun.
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What makes India a nation? What has held its many disparate societies with their diverse, sometimes conflicting, narratives together for more than sixty years? What has allowed India to sustain its commitment to the democratic process, given its location in a region that is largely undemocratic? In this magisterial analysis of the last five hundred years of Indian history, Meghnad Desai looks at India`s colonial past, its struggle for independence & its many contemporary conundrums, to discover answers to the questions that have confronted India-watchers for decades. Meghnad Desai draws on a wealth of sources to illuminate India`s journey to the twenty-first century. Whether it is an examination of British parliamentary debates on the question of India`s independence, or the liberalization of the economy after decades of licence-permit Raj, or the state`s complicity in the Gujarat riots, Meghnad Desai`s original, occasionally iconoclastic, approach to seemingly settled arguments makes The Rediscovery of India a ground-breaking & comprehensive account of India`s past & present. ...

Iain Mc Calman`s brilliant history of the Great Barrier Reef, told in 12 extraordinary tales, charts its shifting status from labyrinth of terror to global treasure. Equal parts gifted storyteller & acclaimed historian, Mc Calman brings to life the people who`ve shaped our knowledge & perception of this World Heritage
- listed site. He describes encounters between peoples & places, ideas & environments, over the past two centuries & more. Where today the Reef is known for its astonishing underwater beauty & diversity, once it was notorious for the shipwrecks in its treacherous waters. Scientists theorised about the creation of this massive structure, & the fiery debate between Darwinists & creationists caught the world`s attention. Then came successive waves of resource hunters & exploiters, followed by beachcombers & artists who fought to stop them, & the marine specialists who first became aware of the threats to the Reef`s survival. In between, the Indigenous peoples of the Reef gave succour to castaways such as Eliza Fraser, & were then vilified for it. The first social, cultural, & environmental history to be written of the Great Barrier Reef, * The Reef* is an effortlessly readable & often moving story of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
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From the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction ` Nguyen`s eight heart-wrenching & hopeful stories ought to be required reading for every politician in this era of wall-building & xenophobia` the Guardian In The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland & the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia & starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams & hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice, The Refugees is a beautifully written & sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, & the relationships & desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.` With anger but not despair, with reconciliation but not unrealistic hope, & with genuine humour that is not used to diminish anyone, Nguyen has breathed life into many unforgettable characters, & given us a timely book focusing, in the words of Willa Cather, on ”the slow working out of fate in people of allied sentiment & allied blood”` the Guardian ...

In The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland & the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia & starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams & hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice, The Refugees is a beautifully written & sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, & the relationships & desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives. ...