This Penguin Classics edition of Louisa May Alcott's inspiring tale of sisterhood, Little Women, is edited with an introduction by Elaine Showalter. The charming story of four 'little women' - Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth - and their wise and patient mother Marmee, was an instant success when first published in 1868. Enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England, the March sisters have been adored for generations. Readers have rooted for Laurie in his pursuit of Jo's hand, cried over little Beth's death, and dreamed of travelling through Europe with old Aunt March and Amy. Future writers have found inspiration in Jo's devotion to her writing. In this simple, enthralling tale, both parts of which are included here, Louisa May Alcott has created four of American literature's most beloved women. In her enlightening, thoughtful introduction, Elaine Showalter discusses Louisa May Alcott's influences, and her aspirations for Little Women, as well as the impact the novel has had on such women writers as Joyce Carol Oates and Cynthia Ozick. This edition also includes notes on the text by Siobhan Kilfeather and Vinca Showalter. Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) grew up surrounded by American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Drawing on her experience as a volunteer nurse in the Union Army during the American Civil War, she published Hospital Sketches in 1863, followed by gothic romances and lurid thrillers such as A Modern Mephistopheles and A Long Fatal Love Chase. In 1868, she published Little Women, which proved so popular that it was followed by two sequels. If you enjoyed Little Women you might like Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, also available in Penguin Classics.

To Live (Alive, ¿¿), one of the writer Yu Hua's (¿¿) masterpieces (¿¿¿), narrates the sufferings of Xu Fugui (¿¿¿) in the context of an era that witnessed the civil war (¿¿), Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns (¿¿¿¿¿¿), the Great Leap Forward (¿¿¿), the Cultural Revolution (¿¿¿¿¿) and several other social changes. Xu Fugui and his family continued to suffer through to the end. In fact, all relative left him successively, leaving only the old man and an old cow to live together. As such, "To Live" tells the story of a person's life. This is a life testimony of an old man who has experienced the vicissitudes and sufferings of the world. It is a drama that interprets the sufferings of life. The novel's narrator "I" gained a leisurely career when he, at a young age, went to the countryside to discover folk songs. In that just arrived summer season, "I" met the old man named Fugui, and listened to him talk about his bumpy life experiences. Yu Hua won the French Order of Arts and Literature (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) award for this novel in March 2004. The book has 10 chapters in the following order:Chapter 1: Destroyed Family Property (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 2: Father's death, Mother's Illness (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 3: Arrested into the City (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 4: Two Years in the Army (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 5: Going Home (¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 6: Land Reforms (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 7: Fengxia was Sold (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 8: Chronic Illness (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ )Chapter 9: Youqing's Death (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 10: Fengxia's Family is Gone (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) The current book volume, China's Great Contemporary Literature 1, is a Level 5 Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to the famous Chinese novel To Live (¿¿). The new volume in China's Great Contemporary Literature (¿¿¿¿¿¿, ¿¿¿) includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With over 1000 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3/4/5/6) to understand China as well as practice Chinese reading fast.

In the explosive instant New York Times bestselling romantasy, two fated lovers must unite against warring kingdoms to defend their home and crowns from those who wish to destroy them. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Yarros, Victoria Aveyard and Jennifer L. Armentrout. 'THE KIND OF BOOK THAT STEALS A PART OF YOUR SOUL ... I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' Imani Erriu, author of Heavenly Bodies She will claim her throne. He will ignite the realms. Cayden Veles, renowned Demon Commander turned King of Vareveth, overthrew the throne to save Elowen Atarah, the woman he searched for since childhood. Now he's determined to fulfil his quest for revenge against her father, even if it means forcing the only person he's ever wanted into a marriage of political convenience. Elowen Atarah has everything she thought she'd ever want. Finally reunited with her dragons, she now has an army to enact vengeance, but as events transpire, she begins contemplating if she wants more. As her father's only living heir, the Imirath throne is her right and destiny. But fighting and winning a war will require trusting Cayden Veles, her partner in crime and now king to her queen; the man she both longs for and doubts, especially after opening her heart only to become a pawn in his game. Navigating the shifting allegiances among all the kingdoms of Ravaryn will require all their strategy and strength, with devastating and bloody attacks on one side and cut-throat diplomacy for alliances on the other. But Elowen and Cayden must find a way to stand strong within the power they've gained, or risk losing everything. PRAISE FOR FEAR THE FLAMES: 'Exactly the kind of story that makes my romantasy-loving heart flutter' NISHA J. TULI 'If you're seeking a fantasy book with dragon-bonds, revenge quests, a Daenerys Targaryen-esque heroine and reluctant allies-to-lovers romance, then Olivia Rose Darling's debut will give you all that and more' CULTUREFLY Wrath of the Dragons was a New York Times bestseller August 2025

THE GRIPPING FIRST ADULT FANTASY NOVEL FROM A.F. STEADMAN, AUTHOR OF THE AWARD-WINNING AND INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING SKANDAR SERIES! Wherever you go, whenever you are... They will find you. At twenty, Artemis has just graduated top of her Cambridge class of assassins, the most respected discipline in the Faculty's army. As a timeless soldier, she will travel in and out of linear time, protecting the fragile future with her lethal hands. Along with her crew - a navigator, an armourer, a historian and a physician - she will do whatever it takes to stop the destruction of history by dangerous time vandals. Although Artemis might look like she's got everything she ever wanted, growing up in Cambridge hasn't been easy. Assassins must be ruthless to survive and she's made enemies, discarded a fair few lovers and has a secret that could lose her everything she's worked for. And things don't get any simpler once she and her crew start to travel. On assignment, all timeless soldiers must obey four fundamental rules: Never betray the Faculty Never let a time vandal live Never fall in love with a target Never die in linear time But Artemis is going to meet a time vandal who has been waiting for her. And despite knowing this man is devastation distilled - that he is the very war she is fighting - she is going to break all the rules and let him live. As he follows her through time and space, Art is going to become obsessed with two questions: why is he so determined to be everywhere she is? And why can't she bring herself to kill him? Timeless enemies. Timecrossed lovers. A future in freefall...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Harlem Shuffle continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory. A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, BookPage “Dazzling” –Walter Mosley, The New York Times Book Review. It’s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated – and deadly. 1973. The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney’s endearingly violent partner in crime. It’s getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hit men. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook – to their regret. 1976. Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole country is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. ("Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!"), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney’s tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo have to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted. CROOK MANIFESTO is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family. Colson Whitehead’s kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem is sure to stand as one of the all-time great evocations of a place and a time.

In the explosive instant New York Times bestselling romantasy, two fated lovers must unite against warring kingdoms to defend their home and crowns from those who wish to destroy them. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Yarros, Victoria Aveyard and Jennifer L. Armentrout. 'THE KIND OF BOOK THAT STEALS A PART OF YOUR SOUL ... I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' Imani Erriu, author of Heavenly Bodies She will claim her throne. He will ignite the realms. Cayden Veles, renowned Demon Commander turned King of Vareveth, overthrew the throne to save Elowen Atarah, the woman he searched for since childhood. Now he's determined to fulfil his quest for revenge against her father, even if it means forcing the only person he's ever wanted into a marriage of political convenience. Elowen Atarah has everything she thought she'd ever want. Finally reunited with her dragons, she now has an army to enact vengeance, but as events transpire, she begins contemplating if she wants more. As her father's only living heir, the Imirath throne is her right and destiny. But fighting and winning a war will require trusting Cayden Veles, her partner in crime and now king to her queen; the man she both longs for and doubts, especially after opening her heart only to become a pawn in his game. Navigating the shifting allegiances among all the kingdoms of Ravaryn will require all their strategy and strength, with devastating and bloody attacks on one side and cut-throat diplomacy for alliances on the other. But Elowen and Cayden must find a way to stand strong within the power they've gained, or risk losing everything. PRAISE FOR FEAR THE FLAMES: 'Exactly the kind of story that makes my romantasy-loving heart flutter' NISHA J. TULI 'If you're seeking a fantasy book with dragon-bonds, revenge quests, a Daenerys Targaryen-esque heroine and reluctant allies-to-lovers romance, then Olivia Rose Darling's debut will give you all that and more' CULTUREFLY Wrath of the Dragons was a New York Times bestseller August 2025

In the explosive instant New York Times bestselling romantasy, two fated lovers must unite against warring kingdoms to defend their home and crowns from those who wish to destroy them. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Yarros, Victoria Aveyard and Jennifer L. Armentrout. 'THE KIND OF BOOK THAT STEALS A PART OF YOUR SOUL ... I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' Imani Erriu, author of Heavenly Bodies She will claim her throne. He will ignite the realms. Cayden Veles, renowned Demon Commander turned King of Vareveth, overthrew the throne to save Elowen Atarah, the woman he searched for since childhood. Now he's determined to fulfil his quest for revenge against her father, even if it means forcing the only person he's ever wanted into a marriage of political convenience. Elowen Atarah has everything she thought she'd ever want. Finally reunited with her dragons, she now has an army to enact vengeance, but as events transpire, she begins contemplating if she wants more. As her father's only living heir, the Imirath throne is her right and destiny. But fighting and winning a war will require trusting Cayden Veles, her partner in crime and now king to her queen; the man she both longs for and doubts, especially after opening her heart only to become a pawn in his game. Navigating the shifting allegiances among all the kingdoms of Ravaryn will require all their strategy and strength, with devastating and bloody attacks on one side and cut-throat diplomacy for alliances on the other. But Elowen and Cayden must find a way to stand strong within the power they've gained, or risk losing everything. PRAISE FOR FEAR THE FLAMES: 'Exactly the kind of story that makes my romantasy-loving heart flutter' NISHA J. TULI 'If you're seeking a fantasy book with dragon-bonds, revenge quests, a Daenerys Targaryen-esque heroine and reluctant allies-to-lovers romance, then Olivia Rose Darling's debut will give you all that and more' CULTUREFLY Wrath of the Dragons was a New York Times bestseller August 2025

To Live (Alive, ¿¿), one of the writer Yu Hua's (¿¿) masterpieces (¿¿¿), narrates the sufferings of Xu Fugui (¿¿¿) in the context of an era that witnessed the civil war (¿¿), Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns (¿¿¿¿¿¿), the Great Leap Forward (¿¿¿), the Cultural Revolution (¿¿¿¿¿) and several other social changes. Xu Fugui and his family continued to suffer through to the end. In fact, all relative left him successively, leaving only the old man and an old cow to live together. As such, "To Live" tells the story of a person's life. This is a life testimony of an old man who has experienced the vicissitudes and sufferings of the world. It is a drama that interprets the sufferings of life. The novel's narrator "I" gained a leisurely career when he, at a young age, went to the countryside to discover folk songs. In that just arrived summer season, "I" met the old man named Fugui, and listened to him talk about his bumpy life experiences. Yu Hua won the French Order of Arts and Literature (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) award for this novel in March 2004. The book has 10 chapters in the following order:Chapter 1: Destroyed Family Property (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 2: Father's death, Mother's Illness (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 3: Arrested into the City (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 4: Two Years in the Army (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 5: Going Home (¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 6: Land Reforms (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 7: Fengxia was Sold (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 8: Chronic Illness (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ )Chapter 9: Youqing's Death (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 10: Fengxia's Family is Gone (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) The current book volume, China's Great Contemporary Literature 1, is a Level 5 Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to the famous Chinese novel To Live (¿¿). The new volume in China's Great Contemporary Literature (¿¿¿¿¿¿, ¿¿¿) includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With over 1000 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3/4/5/6) to understand China as well as practice Chinese reading fast.

Who can you trust if you found out that everything you've been taught is a lie? Keix wakes up in an underground prison--weak, emaciated, and battling partial memory loss. Her rescuers and long-time friends, Zej and Pod, tell her she's been put in a coma for two years. Her captor: Atros, the organization she had joined as a trainee soldier since she was fourteen. Keix doesn't want to believe them but the evidence just keeps stacking up. Vile beasts called Odats, engaged by Atros as mercenaries, attack her as she makes her escape from the prison. And she finds out that Atros is also keeping her best friend Vin locked up. Keix's ancestry (her father is a Kulcan, a fierce race of warriors) helps her regain her lost memories and strength quickly under her friends' care. Soon, she gets handed proof that Atros is building a ghost army--the very enemies the organization has been tasked to protect the people from. To make matters even more complicated, Ifarls, a race with mysterious magical powers, try to influence her to attempt a dangerous mission to break Vin out. They also tell Keix they want to close the portal between the living and the dead, to end decades of misery that the underworld has brought. Swept into the undercurrents of distrust and differing agendas between the races, will Keix, who considers herself as an outsider because of her mixed bloodline, be able to walk her own path?

The Civil War ended more than 150 years ago, yet our nation remains fiercely divided over its enduring legacies. In A Thousand May Fall, Pulitzer Prize finalist Brian Matthew Jordan returns us to the war itself, bringing us closer than perhaps any prior historian to the chaos of battle and the trials of military life. Creating an intimate, absorbing chronicle from the ordinary soldier's perspective, he allows us to see the Civil War anew-and through unexpected eyes. At the heart of Jordan's vital account is the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was at once representative and exceptional. Its ranks weathered the human ordeal of war in painstakingly routine ways, fighting in two defining battles, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, each time in the thick of the killing. But the men of the 107th were not lauded as heroes for their bravery and their suffering. Most of them were ethnic Germans, set apart by language and identity, and their loyalties were regularly questioned by a nativist Northern press. We so often assume that the Civil War was a uniquely American conflict, yet Jordan emphasizes the forgotten contributions made by immigrants to the Union cause. An incredible one quarter of the Union army was foreign born, he shows, with 200,000 native Germans alone fighting to save their adopted homeland and prove their patriotism. In the course of its service, the 107th Ohio was decimated five times over, and although one of its members earned the Medal of Honor for his daring performance in a skirmish in South Carolina, few others achieved any lasting distinction. Reclaiming these men for posterity, Jordan reveals that even as they endured the horrible extremes of war, the Ohioans contemplated the deeper meanings of the conflict at every turn-from personal questions of citizenship and belonging to the overriding matter of slavery and emancipation. Based on prodigious new research, including diaries, letters, and unpublished memoirs, A Thousand May Fall is a pioneering, revelatory history that restores the common man and the immigrant striver to the center of the Civil War. In our age of fractured politics and emboldened nativism, Jordan forces us to confront the wrenching human realities, and often-forgotten stakes, of the bloodiest episode in our nation's history.

*** WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 *** WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 2016 WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2016 'A fierce novel written in a refreshingly high style and charged with intelligent rage' Financial Times It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today. 'A bold, artful and globally minded reimagining of the Vietnam war . . . The Sympathizer is an excellent literary novel, and one that ends, with unsettling present-day resonance, in a refugee boat where opposing ideas about intentions, actions and their consequences take stark and resilient human form' the Guardian 'Beautifully written and meaty' Claire Messud '[A] remarkable debut novel . . . In its final chapters, The Sympathizer becomes an absurdist tour de force that might have been written by a Kafka or Genet' New York Times 'This debut is a page-turner (read: everybody will finish) that makes you reconsider the Vietnam War ... Nguyen's darkly comic novel offers a point of view about American culture that we've rarely seen' Oprah.com (Oprah's Book Club Suggestions)

"This journal was once a gift to our young sons. It is now a gift to anyone who cares to read it." When Major Mark Hertling deployed to Iraq in 1990 as the operations officer of an armored cavalry squadron, his unit was told 50 percent of them would likely sustain casualties. To him, that meant he might not return home and may perhaps never see his family again. To prepare for that potential outcome, he began keeping a journal, hoping that one day, if he didn't return, his stories and wisdom would be passed to his young sons. In an army-issued green notebook, Mark began recording his thoughts and hopes for his boys. He wrote of character, leadership, camaraderie, battles, cultural differences, religion, love, fear, and the things he wanted his boys to know about him and his experiences. In unfiltered, handwritten entries, Hertling captured the reality of combat in Operation Desert Storm: the waiting and missions, the chaos and courage, the brotherhood and grief, and the lessons of duty and humanity forged in war. What began as a father's private messages became a rare chronicle of leadership and life in preparation for the crucible of battle. But he survived, returned home, and was able to watch his boys grow into men. Decades later, after both his sons became combat veterans themselves, one of them typed those original pages as a gift to his dad-to preserve the legacy for the family's next generation. In revisiting those original journal entries, Hertling-having been promoted, having served in various positions, and having returned to the battlefields of Iraq over the next two decades-added reflections drawn from his life. Reflecting on various military assignments, then his post-retirement jobs as a cable news analyst, health care executive, and professor of leadership, these journal entries now provide valuable lessons on character, leadership, and service. Part battlefield memoir, part father's journal, part meditation on the challenges of leadership, If I Don't Return is the story of a soldier who faced death, returned home, and continued to live a life of service.

Several factors delayed and greatly hampered the development of an Italian medium and heavy tank during Rommel's Desert War in World War II. The first was the strategic stance of the country, focused on a war against neighboring countries such as France and Yugoslavia, and ill-prepared for a war in the Western Desert. Since these European countries bordered with Italy in mountainous areas, light tanks were preferred as these were deemed much more suitable for the narrow roads and bridges of the Alps. The failure to develop an effective operational plan for North Africa was another factor behind the failed development of an Italian medium tank, along with the lack of communication between the War Department and the Ministry of the Colonies, which not only had actual command over the Italian forces deployed in the Italian colonies of Libya and in Italian East Africa, but was also responsible for developing their defense plans. Furthermore, the development of the medium tank was hampered by the limited number of Italian industries, whose production was also heavily fragmented - hence the SPA-developed engines, the Fiat and Ansaldo hulls and armor, the Breda and army ordnance guns. All these factors delayed the development of the first prototype of an Italian medium tank--the M 11--which would only appear in 1937 and did not enter production until 1939. Inspired by its British and French counterparts, the M 11 / 39 was a 11-ton medium tank chiefly intended for use as an infantry tank, with its main gun (a 37/40 gun) mounted in a casemate in the hull and its small turret armed only with two machine guns. Actual production was limited to only 100 samples, 76 of which were sent to Libya and the other 24 to Eastern Africa, as production of the turret-gun-armed M 13 had started in the meantime. In June 1940, when Italy entered the war, her armored inventory numbered fewer than 1,500 light tanks (including the obsolete Fiat 3000) and the 100 newly built M 11 medium tanks, divided among three armored divisions, three cavalry groups and several independent tank battalions. Unsurprisingly, without a tank school, the Italian armored force lacked the necessary training and experience in the use of tanks and AFVs, and with the tanks lacking radio equipment, there was a widespread absence of tactical and technical knowledge which, along with the limited effectiveness and numbers of the available tanks, made the perfect recipe for the defeats to come.

Alamut takes place in 11th Century Persia, in the fortress of Alamut, where self-proclaimed prophet Hasan ibn Sabbah is setting up his mad but brilliant plan to rule the region with a handful of elite fighters who are to become his "living daggers." By creating a virtual paradise at Alamut, filled with beautiful women, lush gardens, wine and hashish, Sabbah is able to convince his young fighters that they can reach paradise if they follow his commands. With parallels to Osama bin Laden, Alamut tells the story of how Sabbah was able to instill fear into the ruling class by creating a small army of devotees who were willing to kill, and be killed, in order to achieve paradise. Believing in the supreme Ismaili motto "Nothing is true, everything is permitted," Sabbah wanted to "experiment" with how far he could manipulate religious devotion for his own political gain through appealing to what he called the stupidity and gullibility of people and their passion for pleasure and selfish desires. The novel focuses on Sabbah as he unveils his plan to his inner circle, and on two of his young followers -- the beautiful slave girl Halima, who has come to Alamut to join Sabbah's paradise on earth, and young ibn Tahir, Sabbah's most gifted fighter. As both Halima and ibn Tahir become disillusioned with Sabbah's vision, their lives take unexpected turns. Alamut was originally written in 1938 as an allegory to Mussolini's fascist state. In the 1960's it became a cult favorite throughout Tito's Yugoslavia, and in the 1990s, during the Balkan's War, it was read as an allegory of the region's strife and became a bestseller in Germany, France and Spain. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the book once again took on a new life, selling more than 20,000 copies in a new Slovenian edition, and being translated around the world in more than 19 languages. This edition, translated by Michael Biggins, in the first-ever English translation.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "Exciting . . . hard to put down without reading one more page."—The Florida Times-UnionThe ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was—and its true nature could change the modern world. Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts—and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he'd left behind. It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton's former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who's far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she's not alone. Competing for the historic prize— and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses—is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command. Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world—and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.

**** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **** WINNER 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards Blackwell's Scottish Book of the Year 'Fascinating and illuminating, this book tempers the justifiable rage with sharp and funny pinpricks to the pompous.' VAL MCDERMID, author of Past Lying 'As well as highly entertaining read, How To Kill A Witch is a tour de force of research, understanding and compassion.' PROFESSOR SUE BLACK, author of All That Remains. 'Serious and angry, but so completely accessible, How To Kill A Witch is a work of real historical investigation and a fierce warning for our times.' MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin Of All Witches 'At a time when women's rights are once again being threatened across the globe, this book could not be a more timely read if it tried.' SHIRLEY MANSON, Garbage 'Two of Scotland's most vivid storytellers.' THE TIMES 'Fascinating, angering' THE MAIL ON SUNDAY As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and with many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning. Inspired to correct this historic injustice, campaigners and writers Claire Mitchell, KC, and Zoe Venditozzi, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree. In order to understand why it happened, they have broken down the entire horrifying process, step-by-step, from identification of individuals, to their accusation, 'pricking', torture, confessions, execution and beyond. With characteristically sharp wit and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the persecutors, often men, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women, and how this legally sanctioned victimisation proliferated in Scotland and around the world. With testimony from a small army of experts, pen portraits of the women accused, trial transcripts, witness accounts and the documents that set the legal grounds for the hunts, How to Kill A Witch builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping us comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raises the serious question - could it ever happen again?

**** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **** WINNER 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards Blackwell's Scottish Book of the Year 'Fascinating and illuminating, this book tempers the justifiable rage with sharp and funny pinpricks to the pompous.' VAL MCDERMID, author of Past Lying 'As well as highly entertaining read, How To Kill A Witch is a tour de force of research, understanding and compassion.' PROFESSOR SUE BLACK, author of All That Remains. 'Serious and angry, but so completely accessible, How To Kill A Witch is a work of real historical investigation and a fierce warning for our times.' MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin Of All Witches 'At a time when women's rights are once again being threatened across the globe, this book could not be a more timely read if it tried.' SHIRLEY MANSON, Garbage 'Two of Scotland's most vivid storytellers.' THE TIMES 'Fascinating, angering' THE MAIL ON SUNDAY As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and with many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning. Inspired to correct this historic injustice, campaigners and writers Claire Mitchell, KC, and Zoe Venditozzi, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree. In order to understand why it happened, they have broken down the entire horrifying process, step-by-step, from identification of individuals, to their accusation, 'pricking', torture, confessions, execution and beyond. With characteristically sharp wit and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the persecutors, often men, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women, and how this legally sanctioned victimisation proliferated in Scotland and around the world. With testimony from a small army of experts, pen portraits of the women accused, trial transcripts, witness accounts and the documents that set the legal grounds for the hunts, How to Kill A Witch builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping us comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raises the serious question - could it ever happen again?

**** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **** WINNER 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards Blackwell's Scottish Book of the Year 'Fascinating and illuminating, this book tempers the justifiable rage with sharp and funny pinpricks to the pompous.' VAL MCDERMID, author of Past Lying 'As well as highly entertaining read, How To Kill A Witch is a tour de force of research, understanding and compassion.' PROFESSOR SUE BLACK, author of All That Remains. 'Serious and angry, but so completely accessible, How To Kill A Witch is a work of real historical investigation and a fierce warning for our times.' MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin Of All Witches 'At a time when women's rights are once again being threatened across the globe, this book could not be a more timely read if it tried.' SHIRLEY MANSON, Garbage 'Two of Scotland's most vivid storytellers.' THE TIMES 'Fascinating, angering' THE MAIL ON SUNDAY As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and with many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning. Inspired to correct this historic injustice, campaigners and writers Claire Mitchell, KC, and Zoe Venditozzi, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree. In order to understand why it happened, they have broken down the entire horrifying process, step-by-step, from identification of individuals, to their accusation, 'pricking', torture, confessions, execution and beyond. With characteristically sharp wit and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the persecutors, often men, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women, and how this legally sanctioned victimisation proliferated in Scotland and around the world. With testimony from a small army of experts, pen portraits of the women accused, trial transcripts, witness accounts and the documents that set the legal grounds for the hunts, How to Kill A Witch builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping us comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raises the serious question - could it ever happen again?

Before there was The Lord of the Rings, there was China's Monkey King, one of the all-time great fantasy novels--which Neil Gaiman has said "is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people"--now published in a thrilling new one-volume translation with an illustrated foreword by the author of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel that is the basis for the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, starring Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu, as well as Daniel Wu as the Monkey King A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with flaps and deckle-edged paper A shape-shifting trickster on a kung-fu quest for eternal life, Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, is one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature, known to legions of fans of the most popular anime of all time, Dragon Ball, and the world's largest e-sport, the video game League of Legends. High-spirited and omni-talented, he amasses dazzling weapons and skills on his journey to immortality: a gold-hooped staff that can grow as tall as the sky and shrink to the size of a needle; the ability to travel 108,000 miles in a single somersault. A master of subterfuge, he can transform himself into whomever or whatever he chooses and turn each of his body's 84,000 hairs into an army of clones. But his penchant for mischief repeatedly gets him into trouble, and when he raids Heaven's Orchard of Immortal Peaches and gorges himself on the elixirs of the gods, the Buddha pins him beneath a mountain, freeing him only five hundred years later for a chance to redeem himself: He is to protect the pious monk Tripitaka on his fourteen-year journey to India in search of precious Buddhist sutras that will bring enlightenment to the Chinese empire. Joined by two other fallen immortals--Pigsy, a rice-loving pig able to fly with its ears, and Sandy, a depressive man-eating river-sand monster--Monkey King undergoes eighty-one trials, doing battle with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, the Monstress Dowager, and all manner of dragons, ogres, wizards, and femmes fatales, navigating the perils of Fire-Cloud Cave, the River of Flowing Sand, the Water-Crystal Palace, and Casserole Mountain, and being serially captured, lacquered, sautéed, steamed, and liquefied, but always hatching an ingenious plan to get himself and his fellow pilgrims out of their latest jam. Monkey King: Journey to the West is at once a rollicking adventure, a comic satire of Chinese bureaucracy, and a spring of spiritual insight. With this new translation, the irrepressible rogue hero of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature has the potential to vault, with his signature cloud-somersault and unerring sense for fun, into the hearts of millions of Americans.

*** WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 *** WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 2016 WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2016 'A fierce novel written in a refreshingly high style and charged with intelligent rage' Financial Times It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today. 'A bold, artful and globally minded reimagining of the Vietnam war . . . The Sympathizer is an excellent literary novel, and one that ends, with unsettling present-day resonance, in a refugee boat where opposing ideas about intentions, actions and their consequences take stark and resilient human form' the Guardian 'Beautifully written and meaty' Claire Messud '[A] remarkable debut novel . . . In its final chapters, The Sympathizer becomes an absurdist tour de force that might have been written by a Kafka or Genet' New York Times 'This debut is a page-turner (read: everybody will finish) that makes you reconsider the Vietnam War ... Nguyen's darkly comic novel offers a point of view about American culture that we've rarely seen' Oprah's Book Club Suggestions