Visar resultat för..."auel"

Ayla har vuxit upp till en vacker och modig kvinna när hon drivs bort från den neandertalklan som en gång adopterade henne. Utstött och följd av neandertalarnas förbannelser ger hon sig ut på en vandring som tar henne till en dal där stäpphästarna betar. Med en stäpphäst och ett grottlejon som anförvanter stannar Ayla i Hästarnas dal. Hon lär sig eldens hemligheter och naturens nyckfullhet och blir en skicklig jägare och medicinkvinna. Men ensamheten förmörkar hennes liv. Som genom en ödets nyck träffar hon den starke och vackre Jondalar som blir den förste man som väcker hennes vänskap och kärlek.

Ayla har drivits bort från den neanderthalklan som adopterade henne när hon som liten skildes från sitt cromagnonfolk efter en jordbävning. Utstött, följd av neanderthalarnas förbannelser, vandrar hon över den ändlösa vindpinade stäppen för att söka efter sitt eget folk. På sin ödsliga vandring kommer hon till en grönskande dal där en hjord stäpphästar betar det böljande gräset. Ayla stannar i denna dal: år av hård kamp för att överleva sjukdom, kyla och anfallande rovdjur. Hon blir allt skickligare som jägare, medicinkvinna och flintknackare - hon uppfinner också metoder som ingen annan människa någonsin använt före henne. Ayla har sällskap av en ung stäpphäst och ett grottlejon, men till slut blir henne ensamheten olidlig. Hon vill vandra vidare, vill återfinna sitt folk, men samtidigt är hon rädd för vad som ska hända när hon möter dem. Den som slutligen bryter hennes isolering blir en man av cromagnonfolket - en av hennes egna. Han blir den förste man som kommer att väcka både hennes vänskap och hennes kärlek.

This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An exclusive preview chapter from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover March 29, 2011 • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series • A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear. A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly--she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.

The triumphant finale in the Earth's Children series, Jean M. Auel's internationally bestselling reconstruction of pre-historic life, when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the earth.Ayla, Jondalar, and their little daughter, Jonayla are home. Yet Ayla struggles to find a balance between her duties as a new mother and her training to become a Zelandoni - one of the Ninth Cave community's spiritual leaders and healers.Once again, Jean M. Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived thousands of years ago, rendering the terrain, dwelling places, longings, beliefs, creativity and daily lives of Ice Age Europeans as real to the reader as today's news.Set 25,000 years in the past, yet utterly relatable today, The Land of Painted Caves is an epic tale of love, identity and the struggle to survive, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual.Praise for Jean M. Auel'Beautiful, exciting, imaginative' New York Times'A major bestseller . . . A remarkable work of imagination' Daily Express

"Hästarnas dal" - en fristående fortsättning på succéromanen "Grottbjörnens folk" - utspelar sig under den senaste istiden för drygt 35 000 år sedan. I centrum står cromagnongflickan Ayla. Ayla har drivits bort från den neanderthalklan som adopterade henne när hon som liten skildes från sitt cromagnonfolk efter en jordbävning. Utstött, följd av neanderthalarnas förbannelser, vandrar hon över den ändlösa vindpinade stäppen för att söka efter sitt eget folk. På sin ödsliga vandring kommer hon till en grönskande dal där en hjord stäpphästar betar det böljande gräset. Ayla stannar i denna dal: år av hård kamp för att överleva sjukdom, kyla och anfallande rovdjur. Hon blir allt skickligare som jägare, medicinkvinna och flintknackare - hon uppfinner också metoder som ingen annan människa någonsin använt före henne. Ayla har sällskap av en ung stäpphäst och ett grottlejon, men till slut blir henne ensamheten olidlig. Hon vill vandra vidare, vill återfinna sitt folk, men samtidigt är hon rädd för vad som ska hända när hon möter dem. Den som slutligen bryter hennes isolering blir en man av cromagnonfolket - en av hennes egna. Han blir den förste man som kommer att väcka både hennes vänskap och hennes kärlek. Serien består av böckerna: Grottbjörnens folk - Hästarnas dal - Mammutjägarna - Stäppvandringen - Nionde grottan - De målade grottornas land

The fifth novel in the Earth's Children series, Jean M. Auel's internationally bestselling reconstruction of pre-historic life, when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the earth.Ayla and Jondalar have reached home: the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, the old stone age settlement in the region known today as south-west France. Ayla has much to learn from the Zelandonii as well as much to teach them. Jondalar's family are initially wary of the beautiful young woman he has brought back, with her strange accent and her tame wolf and horses. She is delighted when she meets Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of her people, a fellow healer with whom she can share her medicinal skills.After the rigours and dangers that have characterised her extraordinary life, Ayla yearns for peace and tranquility; to be Jondalar's mate and to have children. But her unique spiritual gifts cannot be ignored, and even as she gives birth to their eagerly-awaited child, she is coming to accept that she has a greater role to play in the destiny of the Zelandonii.Set 25,000 years in the past, yet utterly relatable today, The Shelters of Stone is an epic tale of love, identity and the struggle to survive, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual.Praise for Jean M. Auel'Beautiful, exciting, imaginative' New York Times'A major bestseller . . . A remarkable work of imagination' Daily Express

Leave 21st century London and go back to Ice Age Europe. Follow Ayla, a Cro-Magnon child who loses her parents in an earthquake and is adopted by a tribe of Neanderthal, the Clan. See how the Clan's wary suspicion is gradually transformed into acceptance of this girl, so different from them, under the guidance of its medicine woman Iza and its wise holy man Creb. Immerse yourself in a world dictated by the demands of survival in a hostile environment, and be swept away in an epic tale of love, identity and struggle.

Grottbjörnens folk, en neanderthalklan, har levt på samma sätt i generation efter generation: bott i grottor, samlat växter, tillbett sina skyddsandar, jagat bisonoxar och andra djur. En dag beslutar sig klanen för att adoptera Ayla, en cromagnonflicka som skilts från sitt folk efter en jordbävning. Ayla växer upp hos klanen. Hon får lära sig dess levnadssätt av medicinkvinnan Iza, och snart känner hon sig som en av klanens medlemmar. Men hennes annorlunda sätt att tänka, hennes förmåga att handla snabbt i kritiska situationer, gör att hon skiljer sig från dem och råkar i konflikter. Hon kommer att upplevas som ett hot mot klanens traditionsbundna levnadssätt, mot hela dess existens.

Cromagnonflickan Ayla lämnar sin dal tillsammans med Jondalar, den man hon älskat sedan hon hittat honom svårt sårad nära sin dal. De möter Mamutoifolket - Mammutjägarna, och Ayla närmar sig dem med både rädsla och nyfikenhet. Hon fascineras av deras musikinstrument, av deras bostäder med väggar av mammutben och draperier av mammuthud. Och Mammutjägarna fascineras av henne, av hennes läkekonst, av hennes skicklighet som jägare och av hennes förmåga att tämja vilda djur. Mamut, Mamutoifolkets gamle schaman, adopterar Ayla och gör henne till medlem av Mammut-härden. Den som beundrar henne mest är Ranec, en gladlynt och självsäker elfenbenssnidare. Ayla dras till Ranec mot sin vilja. Hon slits mellan sina känslor för honom och sin kärlek till Jondalar.

A literary phenomenon, Jean M. Auel’s prehistoric odyssey is one of the best-loved sagas of our time. Employing meticulous research and the consummate artistry of a master storyteller, Auel paints a vivid panorama of the dawn of modern humans. Through Ayla, an orphaned girl who grows into a beautiful and courageous young woman, we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world, home to the Clan of the Cave Bear. Now, for the first time, all six novels in the Earth’s Children® series are available in one convenient eBook bundle:   THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR THE VALLEY OF HORSES THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE THE SHELTERS OF STONE THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES   A natural disaster leaves a young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become the Clan’s next leader sees Ayla’s differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.   Praise for the Earth’s Children® series   “Auel is a highly imaginative writer. She humanizes prehistory and gives it immediacy and clarity.”—The New York Times Book Review   “Storytelling in the grand tradition . . . From the violent panorama of spring on the steppes to musicians jamming on a mammoth-bone marimba, Auel’s books are a stunning example of world building. They join the short list of books, like James Clavell’s Shogun and Frank Herbert’s Dune, that depict exotic societies so vividly that readers almost regard them as ‘survival manuals.’ ”—Vogue   “Jean Auel has established herself as one of our premier storytellers. . . . Her narrative skill is supreme.”—Chicago Tribune   “Pure entertainment at its sublime, wholly exhilarating best.”—Los Angeles Times   “Readers who fell in love with little Ayla will no doubt revel in her prehistoric womanhood.”—People   “Lively and interesting, enhanced greatly by the vividly colored backdrop of early humanity . . . Auel is a prodigious researcher.”—The Washington Post Book World   “Among modern epic spinners, Auel has few peers. . . . She deftly creates a whole world, giving a sense of the origins of class, ethnic, and cultural differences that alternately divide and fascinate us today.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An exclusive preview chapter from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover March 29, 2011 • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series • A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® seriesThe Valley of Horses is the second in the great Earth''s Children® series. In The Valley of Horses, Jean Auel uses her thorough understanding of human nature and her powerful gift of storytelling to continue the saga of Ayla and to once again, with exquisite and accurate detail, re-create the world as it truly might have been.

Ayla försöker finna en balans mellan sina uppgifter som nybliven mamma till Jonayla och sin utbildning till andlig ledare och helare. Tillsammans med Jondalar och Zelandoni ger sig Ayla ut på en lång resa för att besöka andra grottor inom Zelandonii. Längs vägen möter de många faror som de övervinner tack vare Jondalars spjutslunga och Aylas speciella förmåga att kommunicera med sina hästar och sin tama varg. När Ayla till sist blir kallad för att bli en riktig Zelandoni kräver Stora Modern ett omänskligt stort offer av Ayla, ett pris hon måste betala för att få Kunskapens Gåva.Jean M. Auels romaner om Ayla och hennes levnadsöde för 35 000 år sedan är en av vår tids största boksuccéer med mer än 45 miljoner sålda böcker runt om i världen. Böckerna om stenåldersmänniskorna är omtalade för sitt erotiska innehåll, men en av anledningarna till de otroliga framgångarna är Auels grundliga research och trovärdiga miljöbeskrivningar som lockat läsare i alla kategorier. Auel är otroligt älskad av sina läsare, hon har miljontals fans över hela världen och lockar ständigt ny publik.

Den historiska underhållningsromanen har så länge den har funnits fängslat läsare världen över. Med hjälp av en egenartad kombination av fakta och fiktion lyckas den i sina bästa stunder med konststycket att förklara sin egen samtid genom att blicka tillbaka. Med ingående kunskap och djup insikt erbjuder Jan Broberg läsaren en guidad tur som sträcker sig hela vägen tillbaka till stenåldern och som fortsätter fram till idag. Jan Broberg har skrivit en lättillgänglig och spännande bok om en av världens mest populära litterära genrer. -

The fourth novel in the Earth's Children series, Jean M. Auel's internationally bestselling epic of life 25,000 years ago when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the earth.Ayla and Jondalar have left the safety of the lands of the Mammoth Hunters and embarked on a seemingly impossible journey across an entire continent. Their goal is the Cro-Magnon settlement in what is now southern France where Jondalar lived as a young man. Accompanied by the half-tame Wolf, the stallion, Racer, and the mare, Whinney, they are forced to brave both savage enemies and the elemental dangers of weather and terrain in their search for the place that will become Home.Set 25,000 years in the past, yet utterly relatable today, The Mammoth Hunters is an epic tale of love, identity and the struggle to survive, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual.Praise for Jean M. Auel'Beautiful, exciting, imaginative' New York Times'A major bestseller . . . A remarkable work of imagination' Daily Express

'Beautiful, exciting, imaginative' New York Times'A major bestseller . . . A remarkable work of imagination' Daily ExpressThe third novel in the Earth's Children series, Jean M. Auel's internationally bestselling epic of life 25,000 years ago when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the earth.Leaving the valley of horses with Jondalar, the handsome man she has nursed back to health and come to love, Ayla embarks on a journey that will lead her to the Mamutoi, the Mammoth Hunters, who are Others like her.As she settles into this new life among a people at first strange and disturbingly different, soon Ayla begins to feel at home, finally leaving her painful memories of the Clan behind and finding female friends. Yet Ayla is also drawn to Ranec, the dark-skinned, magnetic master-carver of ivory.Ayla must choose: remain with Ranec and the Mamutoi, or follow Jondalar into the unknown . . .Set 25,000 years in the past, yet utterly relatable today, The Mammoth Hunters is an epic tale of love, identity and the struggle to survive, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual.READERS LOVE THE SERIES'Fabulous story telling' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'You just don't want it to end! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'The fascinating journey continues' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'I just can't get enough of these books' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Jean m Ariel encapsulates this period so emphatically' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The second novel in the Earth's Children series, Jean M. Auel's internationally bestselling reconstruction of pre-historic life, when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the earth.Forced to leave the Clan and her young son, Ayla sets out alone to travel the frigid steppes until she comes across the valley of horses. Unable to find people like herself, the Cro-Magnons, she settles there and seeks friendship elsewhere. First she adopts a young filly, then a wounded lion cub.But far to the west, two young Cro-Magnon brothers have begun a journey. One of them is Jondalar, whose destiny is bound inextricably with Ayla's.Set 25,000 years in the past, yet utterly relatable today, The Valley of Horses is an epic tale of love, identity and the struggle to survive, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual.Praise for Jean M. Auel'Beautiful, exciting, imaginative' New York Times'A major bestseller . . . A remarkable work of imagination' Daily Express

This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An exclusive preview chapter from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover March 29, 2011 • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series • A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series Ayla, the independent heroine of The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of Horses, sets out from the valley on Whinney, the horse she tamed. With her is Jondalar, the tall, handsome, yellow-haired man she nursed back to health and came to love. Together they meet the Mamutoi--the Mammoth Hunters--people like Ayla. But to Ayla, who was raised by the Clan of the Cave Bear, they are “the Others.” She approaches them with mixed feelings of fear and curiosity. Talut, a powerful bear of a man with bright red hair, a booming laugh, and a gentle heart, and his tall, dark-haired sister, Tulie, are the leaders of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi. It is here that Ayla finds her first women friends, but some among the Mamutoi dislike Ayla because she was raised by “flatheads,” their name for the people of the Clan. Ayla is haunted by her memories of the Clan because Rydag, a child of mixed parentage living with the Mamutoi, bears so strong a resemblance to her own son, Durc. It is the Mamutoi master carver of ivory--dark-skinned Ranec, flirtatious, artistic, magnetic--who fascinates Ayla. She finds herself drawn to him. Because of her uncanny control over animals, her healing skills, and the magic firestone she discovered, Ayla is adopted into the Mammoth Hearth by Mamut, the ancient shaman of the Great Earth Mother. Ayla finds herself torn between her strong feelings for Ranec and her powerful love for the wildly jealous and unsure Jondalar. It is not until after the great mammoth hunt, when Ayla’s life is threatened, that a fateful decision is made. Set in the challenging terrain of Ice Age Europe that millions of Jean Auel’s readers have come to treasure, The Mammoth Hunters is an epic novel of love, knowledge, jealousy, and hard choices--a novel certain to garner Jean Auel even greater acclaim as a master storyteller of the dawn of humanity.

This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An exclusive preview chapter from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover March 29, 2011 • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series • A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series The Shelters of Stone opens as Ayla and Jondalar, along with their animal friends, Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, complete their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar’s people: the Zelandonii. The people of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii fascinate Ayla. Their clothes, customs, artifacts, even their homes—formed in great cliffs of vertical limestone—are a source of wonder to her. And in the woman Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of the Ninth Cave (and the one who initiated Jondalar into the Gift of Pleasure), she meets a fellow healer with whom to share her knowledge and skills. But as Ayla and Jondalar prepare for the formal mating at the Summer Meeting, there are difficulties. Not all the Zelandonii are welcoming. Some fear Ayla’s unfamiliar ways and abhor her relationship with those they call flatheads and she calls Clan. Some even oppose her mating with Jondalar, and make their displeasure known. Ayla has to call on all her skills, intelligence, knowledge, and instincts to find her way in this complicated society, to prepare for the birth of her child, and to decide whether she will accept new challenges and play a significant role in the destiny of the Zelandonii. Jean Auel is at her very best in this superbly textured creation of a prehistoric society. The Shelters of Stone is a sweeping story of love and danger, with all the wonderful detail—based on meticulous research— that makes her novels unique. It is a triumphant continuation of the Earth’s Children® saga that began with The Clan of the Cave Bear. And it includes an amazing rhythmic poem that describes the birth of Earth’s Children and plays its own role in the narrative of The Shelters of Stone.

This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An exclusive preview chapter from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover March 29, 2011 • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series • A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series Ayla, the heroine first introduced in The Clan of the Cave Bear, is known and loved by millions of readers. Now, in The Plains of Passage, Ayla’s story continues. Ayla and Jondalar set out on horseback across the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe. To the hunter-gatherers of their world--who have never seen tame animals--Ayla and Jondalar appear enigmatic and frightening. The mystery surrounding the woman, who speaks with a strange accent and talks to animals with their own sounds, is heightened by her uncanny control of a large, powerful wolf. The tall, yellow-haired man who rides by her side is also held in awe, not only for the magnificent stallion he commands, but also for his skill as a crafter of stone tools, and for the new weapon he devises, the spear-thrower. In the course of their cross-continental odyssey, Ayla and Jondalar encounter both savage enemies and brave friends. Together they learn that the vast and unknown world can be difficult and treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful and enlightening as well. All the pain and pleasure bring them closer to their ultimate destination, for the orphaned Ayla and the wandering Jondalar must reach that place on earth they can call home. As sweeping and spectacular as the land she creates, Jean M. Auel’s The Plains of Passage is an astonishing novel of discovery, danger, and love, a triumph for one of the world’s most original and popular authors.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERBONUS: This edition contains a reading guide and an interview with Jean M. Auel. In this, the extraordinary conclusion of the ice-age epic series, Earth’s Children®, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte to a spiritual leader and begins arduous training tasks.  Whatever obstacles she faces, Ayla finds inventive ways to lessen the difficulties of daily life, searching for wild edibles to make meals and experimenting with techniques to ease the long journeys the Zelandonii must take while honing her skills as a healer and a leader. And there are the Sacred Caves that Ayla’s mentor takes her to see. They are filled with remarkable paintings of mammoths, lions, and bears, and their mystical aura at times overwhelms Ayla.  But all the time Ayla has spent in training rituals has caused Jondalar to drift away from her. The rituals themselves bring her close to death, but through them Ayla gains A Gift of Knowledge so important that it will change her world. Sixth in the acclaimed Earth’s Children® series.

Over the last twenty years, the role of national parliaments in EU affairs has gained considerable academic attention. Much of the literature, however, has focused on parliamentary scrutiny and control in EU affairs. What tends to be generally overlooked is that the parliamentary communication function is at least as important in EU politics as the control function. Democratic legitimacy depends on a vibrant public debate on political solutions and alternatives to allow citizens to make informed political (electoral) choices and to exercise democratic control. Within the EU, it is precisely the opacity of policy-making processes and the lack of public discourse that have been defined as core problems of democratic legitimacy. Here, parliaments have the potential to provide an ideal arena for the deliberation of important European issues and thus to help overcome the much-lamented distance between European policy processes and the citizens. Yet, despite parliaments' central relevance for the legitimacy of European politics, the parliamentary communication function remains so far under researched. The volume aims at filling this gap by providing both qualitative and quantitative comparative data on various communication efforts by national parliaments. This book was originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Legislative Studies.

This groundbreaking new study shows how the process of creating an ever closer European Union affects not only the policy-making, but also the politics and polity of the Member States. Empirical studies on the domestic impact of Europe identified different forms of Europeanization due to alternative mechanisms of internalising the new norms and rules. Although many studies have since focused on the question of how, to what degree, in what direction, at what pace, and at what point of time "Europe matters", the Europeanization of one particular structural determinant of the Member States, namely the system of parliamentary democracy, is still under-researched. This is all the more astonishing as democracy in the EU depends to a large extent on the democratic legitimacy of procedures at the national level.This volume addresses the key issue of the Europeanisation of parliamentary systems and thus contributes to the ongoing debate on the parliamentary dimension of the European Union. It brings together theoretical concepts as well as cross-national empirical research on the Europeanization of the member states’ parliamentary systems, focussing on different elements such as structures, procedures and decision-making processes as well as on the question how parliamentarians as actors react to these changes and actively shape this Europeanization. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies.

Over the last twenty years, the role of national parliaments in EU affairs has gained considerable academic attention. Much of the literature, however, has focused on parliamentary scrutiny and control in EU affairs. What tends to be generally overlooked is that the parliamentary communication function is at least as important in EU politics as the control function. Democratic legitimacy depends on a vibrant public debate on political solutions and alternatives to allow citizens to make informed political (electoral) choices and to exercise democratic control. Within the EU, it is precisely the opacity of policy-making processes and the lack of public discourse that have been defined as core problems of democratic legitimacy. Here, parliaments have the potential to provide an ideal arena for the deliberation of important European issues and thus to help overcome the much-lamented distance between European policy processes and the citizens. Yet, despite parliaments' central relevance for the legitimacy of European politics, the parliamentary communication function remains so far under researched. The volume aims at filling this gap by providing both qualitative and quantitative comparative data on various communication efforts by national parliaments. This book was originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Legislative Studies.