Atlantic Books – serie

**THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER**A New Statesman Book of the YearA Le Monde Best Book of 2025'Amazing ... My book of the year' Alastair Campbell, The Rest Is Politics'So compelling ... So plausible' New Statesman'Chilling' Financial Times'Blistering' Economist'A cracking book ... Reads like a thriller' Matt Frei, LBC March 2028: Russian troops capture the small Estonian town of Narva and the island of Hiiumaa in the Baltic Sea. After victory in Ukraine, Putin's long-mooted encroachment into the Baltic states has begun. Europe's slow rearmament and its compromised military and intelligence capabilities is now clear for its enemies to exploit. Does Article 5 of NATO apply? What will the alliance decide? Will they risk nuclear war?In If Russia Wins, military expert and Professor of International Relations at the University of Munich, Carlo Masala explores these questions and underlines what is at stake in Ukraine in the starkest possible terms.For those of us who have only ever known peace, we are accustomed to everything turning out well in the end. But what if it doesn't?Translated from the German by Olena Ebel and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp.

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2008WINNER OF THE GALAXY BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 'AUTHOR OF THE YEAR' 2009Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer. Balram was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape. When he learns that a rich village landlord needs a chauffeur, he takes his opportunity, and is soon on his way to Delhi at the wheel of a Honda. Amid today's India's cockroaches and call-centres, its 36,000,004 gods, slums, shopping malls, and crippling traffic jams, Balram learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India. Driven by desire to better himself, he comes to see how the Tiger might escape his cage ... through murder.'[An] extraordinary and brilliant first novel... Adiga is a real writer - that is to say, someone who forges an original voice and vision.' Sunday Times

'Vital' OMAR EL-AKKAD'Superb' RAJA SHEHADEH'Poignant' YANIS VAROUFAKISIf you're not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you're culpable in them.Activist and Middle East scholar Assal Rad is known online as the 'headline fixer' - with a special focus on exposing double standards in Western media, especially about Palestine. Israelis are described as 'children' and 'civilians', while Palestinians are 'people under 18' and 'collateral damage'; Israelis are killed; Palestinians die. Even in the wake of the ceasefire, major Western media continually obfuscates Israeli violence in Palestine.This pattern of dehumanizing language, Don't Say Palestine reveals, has been so consistent throughout the Palestinian genocide that it amounts to a policy. Over the past three years, headlines in outlets from CNN to Reuters to the New York Times have consistently downplayed Israeli responsibility, 'othered' Palestinians, and called into question inviolable tenets of international law like the sanctity of hospitals and journalists in warzones. Highlighting the linguistic moves and framing devices at play and surfacing stories Western media decided not to report, Rad maps with devastating clarity mainstream media's instrumental role in sanitizing, white-washing, and downplaying a human rights crisis. Don't Say Palestine offers both a moral reckoning and an urgent call to action. When these years are studied, this will be the book people read to understand how 'this' was allowed to happen, and the one people turn to when looking to rebuild their faith in the media.

'Lili Anolik calls these letters the author's "most consequential work", and it's hard to disagree while enjoying the bountiful energy that fizzes off every page' TLSIn between the partying, the drugs, the love affairs, the 'squalid overboogie' of it all, Eve Babitz made time to chronicle the world as she saw it in works like Eve's Hollywood; Slow Days, Fast Company and Sex and Rage. But Babitz considered her letters 'the kind of writing I do best,' calling them 'practically a diary,' and rarely depositing them into a mailbox. Her missives to friends like Joseph Heller, Annie Leibovitz, Paul Ruscha and Steve Martin - fresh and frank, dashing and droll - are irresistible, as highly spirited as they are acutely perceptive.In Too L.A., Babitz's biographer, Lili Anolik, has performed a remarkable feat, not only raising these letters from the tomb but accompanying them with informative and irreverent commentary, guiding the reader through the uproarious lifelong party that was Eve Babitz's real masterpiece.

Leading clinical psychologist Lisa Damour identifies the seven key phases marking the journey from girlhood to womanhood, and offers practical advice for those raising teenage girls.We expect an enormous amount from our teenage girls in a world where they are bombarded with messages about how they should look, behave, succeed. Yet we also speak as though adolescence is a nightmare rollercoaster ride for both parent and child, to be endured rather than enjoyed. In Untangled, world authority and clinical psychologist Lisa Damour provides an accessible, detailed, comprehensive guide to parenting teenage girls. She believes there is a predictable blueprint for how girls grow; seven easily recognisable 'strands' of transition from childhood through adolescence and on to adulthood. Girls naturally develop at different rates, typically on more than one front, and the transition will be unique to every girl. Each chapter describes a phase, such as 'contending with adult authority' and 'entering the romantic world', with hints and tips for parents and daughters, and a 'when to worry' section. Damour writes sympathetically and clearly, providing a practical and helpful guide for any parent, and for teenage girls as well.

Our brains were designed for tribal life, for getting along with a select group of others (Us), and for fighting off everyone else (Them). But modern life has thrust the world's tribes into a shared space, creating conflicts of interest and clashes of values, along with unprecedented opportunities. As the world shrinks, the moral lines that divide us become more salient and more puzzling. We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming, and we wonder where, if at all, we can find our common ground.A grand synthesis of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, Moral Tribes reveals the underlying causes of modern conflict and lights a way forward. Our emotions make us social animals, turning Me into Us. But they also make us tribal animals, turning Us against Them. Our tribal emotions make us fight, sometimes with bombs, sometimes with words, and often with life-and-death stakes. Drawing inspiration from moral philosophy and cutting-edge science, Moral Tribes shows when we should trust our instincts, when we should reason, and how the right kind of reasoning can move us forward.Joshua Greene is the director of Harvard University's Moral Cognition Lab, a pioneering scientist, a philosopher, and an acclaimed teacher. The great challenge of Moral Tribes is this: How can we get along with Them when what they want feels so wrong? Finally, Greene offers a surprisingly simple set of maxims for navigating the modern moral terrain, a practical road map for solving problems and living better lives.

The Sunday Times bestselling author of Truss at 10 returns with the definitive account of the Conservative Party's collapse and what this means for the future of British politics.'Riveting... This extremely well-sourced account is thorough, judicious and fair-minded' Andrew Rawnsley, Observer'A valuable and insightful account of a period that remains relevant' David Gauke, Financial Times'The leading authority on our contemporary prime ministers' Dominic Grieve, GuardianThe 2024 General Election was the Conservatives' worst ever defeat: their lowest vote share in modern history and smallest parliamentary contingent since 1832. As Boris Johnson's crumbling majority turned to rubble and Nigel Farage's Reform marched into the vacuum, a question hung over British politics that would once have seemedabsurd: is this the end of the Tories as an independent force?From inheriting Liz Truss's collapsed premiership - the pound in freefall, the bond markets and Conservative Partyin revolt - through the domestic battles over the Rwanda Asylum Plan and the agenda-dominating wars in Ukraine and Gaza, to the crushing 2023 local elections, Sunak's time in Downing Street was one of unrelenting turbulence and hard choices. Could a more naturally political or commanding leader have steadied the ship? Was Sunak ultimately sunk by the chaos he inherited, or by his own ill-fated indecision? And as Kemi Badenoch attempts to rebuild and Keir Starmer is already out the door, does any path back to power remain?Drawing on unparalleled access to Sunak's inner circle, and exclusive interviews with Cabinet ministers and senior officials, Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton offer the definitive account of a premiership that began in crisis, and was never able to fully escape it.

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR'A compelling and timely study of what drove history's most influential civilisations... the book comes with impeccable timing... An entertaining and informative read for anyone interested in the forces that shape how civilisations progress' Financial Times'Deftly punctures popular misconceptions... Could a history book be more timely?' The Economist'Engaging and persuasive' New Statesman'The best book I have read this year' Jeremy HuntGolden ages are marked by periods of spectacular cultural flourishing, scientific exploration, technological achievement and economic growth: Ancient Greece gave us democracy and the rule of the law; out of Abbasid Baghdad came algebra and modern medicine, and the Dutch Republic furnished us with Europe's greatest artistic movements. As such, each has unique lessons to teach us about the world we live in today. But, all previous golden ages have proven finite, whether through external pressures or internal fracturing.In Peak Human, acclaimed historian Johan Norberg examines seven of humanity's greatest civilizations - ancient Athens, the Roman Republic, Abbasid Baghdad, Song China, Renaissance Italy, the Dutch Republic and the Anglosphere - and asks: how do we ensure that our current golden age doesn't end?

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE PROMISESHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE, 2003A year ago Patrick Winter was in Namibia completing his military service. Now, during the first free elections, Patrick has returned to the country he defended; the place where he fell in love for the first and only time. With the country poised to change forever, Patrick is forced to revisit his past and scale the wall that he has built around his painful memories of love, war and loss.'An astonishingly sensitive writer.' Irish Times'Engaging and enduring... devastating in the lucidity and austere assurance of its prose.' TLS'A work whose psychological observation is as subtle as its political analysis.' The Times'A beautifully written and thoughtful meditation on love, loss and longing.' Attitude

The centuries between 800 and 300 BC saw an explosion of new religious concepts. Their emergence is second only to man's harnessing of fire in fundamentally transforming our understanding of what it is to be human. But why did Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jeremiah, Lao Tzu and others all emerge in this five-hundred-year span? And why do they have such similar ideas about humanity?In The Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong examines this phenomenal period and the connections between this disparate group of philosophers, mystics and theologians.

***THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER ***'Refreshing... A rare example of a Broken Britain book with answers' New Statesman'Engaging and informative, imploring us not to lose hope' Observer'A ray of sunshine' Start the Week, Radio 4'Rattlingly readable... Inspiring' Financial TimesAt a time when democracies seem paralyzed by fear and populations are turning inward, award-winning journalist John Kampfner travels to ten countries confronting our shared challenges with bravery and imagination.- Taiwan's health system achieves 90% patient satisfaction at a fraction of the cost of the NHS. - Moroccan solar panels in the Sahara produce enough clean energy to power two million homes. - Estonia has transformed itself into a digital pioneer in a single generation - becoming the world's first fully digital government where 97.6% of citizens access state services online.- Costa Rica has tripled its economy while doubling its forest cover, proving that green policies can pay direct dividends.What unites these countries, and more, is a refusal to accept that difficult problems are unsolvable. The places showing true innovation are often those with their backs against the wall - not wealthy nations assuming they have all the answers. Braver New World is an urgent reminder that solutions exist. The question is whether we have the courage to learn.'A persuasive and imaginative argument against the gloom of our times' Bronwen Maddox'Solutions-focused authorship at its best' Andrew Roberts'A how-to book with inspired answers to our urgent questions' Lyse Doucet'Read this book as an antidote to fatalism and gloom' Robert Peston'Closely reported, surprising and, above all, hopeful' Jonathan Freedland

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZEA Financial Times Book of the YearA Sunday Times Book of the Year ________________________________________'Entertaining and well-paced... Platt's compelling book is a sobering read that should focus the minds of those who like to talk of the achievements of the Victorian age without thinking about how those were achieved, or how they were funded.' Peter Frankopan, Spectator________________________________________In 1839 Britain embarked on the first of its wars with China, sealing the fate of the most prosperous and powerful empire in Asia, if not the world. Motivated by drug profiteering and free-trade interests, the Opium War helped shaped the China we know today, sparking the eventual fall of the Qing dynasty and the rise of nationalism and communism in the twentieth century.Imperial Twilight is a riveting and revealing account of the end of China's Golden Age and the origins of one of the most unjust wars in history.

Many books have been written, and continue to be written, about the Second World War: military histories, histories of the Holocaust, the war in Asia, or collaboration and resistance in Europe. Few books have taken a close look at the immediate aftermath of the worldwide catastrophe.Drawing on hundreds of eye-witness accounts and personal stories, this sweeping book examines the seven months (in Europe) and four months (in Asia) that followed the surrender of the Axis powers, from the fate of Holocaust survivors liberated from the concentration camps, and the formation of the state of Israel, to the incipient civil war in China, and the allied occupation of Japan. It was a time when terrible revenge was taken on collaborators and their former masters; of ubiquitous black markets, war crime tribunals; and the servicing of millions of occupation troops, former foes in some places, liberators in others. But Year Zero is not just a story of vengeance. It was also a new beginning, of democratic restorations in Japan and West Germany, of social democracy in Britain and of a new world order under the United Nations. If construction follows destruction, Year Zero describes that extraordinary moment in between, when people faced the wreckage, full of despair, as well as great hope. An old world had been destroyed; a new one was yet to be built.

***A Waterstones Best Books of 2022 pick***'A unique, funny picture of Britain... A love letter to bookshops and the vagaries of public transport.' Richard Osman'Ince's love of books is infectious.' 'Books of the Year', IndependentWhy play to 12,000 people when you can play to 12? In Autumn 2021, Robin Ince's stadium tour with Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to the pandemic. Rather than do nothing, he decided instead to go on a tour of over a hundred bookshops in the UK, from Wigtown to Penzance; from Swansea to Margate.Packed with witty anecdotes and tall tales, Bibliomaniac takes the reader on a journey across Britain as Robin explores his lifelong love of bookshops and books - and also tries to find out just why he can never have enough of them. It is the story of an addiction and a romance, and also of an occasional points failure just outside Oxenholme.

Pat Tillman was well-known to American sports fans: a chisel-jawed and talented young professional football star, he was on the brink of signing a million dollar contract when, in 2001, al-Qaeda launched terrorist attacks against his country. Driven by deeply felt moral patriotism, he walked away from fame and money to enlist in the United States Special Operations Forces. A year later he was killed - apparently in the line of fire - on a desolate hillside near the Pakistan border in Afghanistan.News of Tillman's death shocked America. But even as the public mourned his loss, the US Army aggressively maneuvered to conceal the truth: that it was a ranger in Tillman's own platoon who had fired the fatal shots. In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer reveals how an entire country was deliberately deceived by those at the very highest levels of the US army and government. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer's storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war.

A Guardian Best Science Book of the YearThe first biography - 'a stunning achievement' (Kai Bird, American Prometheus) - of the dazzling and painful life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger PenroseWhen he was six years old, Roger Penrose discovered a sundial in a clearing near his house. Through that machine made of light, shadow, and time, Roger glimpsed a "world behind the world" of transcendently beautiful geometry. It spurred him on a journey to become one of the world's most influential mathematicians, philosophers, and physicists. Penrose would prove the limitations of general relativity, set a new agenda for theoretical physics, and astound colleagues and admirers with the elegance and beauty of his discoveries. However, as Patchen Barss documents in The Impossible Man, success came at a price: He was attuned to the secrets of the universe, but struggled to connect with loved ones, especially the women who care for or worked with him.Both erudite and poetic, The Impossible Man draws on years of research and interviews, as well as previously unopened archives to present a moving portrait of Penrose the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Roger the human being. It reveals not just the extraordinary life of Roger Penrose, but asks who gets to be a genius, and who makes the sacrifices that allow one man to be one.

A huge international bestseller, with over 2 million copies sold worldwide, Night Train to Lisbon is an utterly compelling novel about one man's escape from a humdrum life in search of passion and spontaneity.____________________'One of the best books I have read' Isabel Allende'A rare reading pleasure' San Francisco Chronicle'Pascal Mercier now takes his rightful place among our finest European novelists' Sunday Telegraph____________________One afternoon, mild-mannered Classics scholar Raimund Gregorius walks out of his classroom with a dusty old book and one goal: he must find the book's author, Amadeu del Prado. He needs to meet the man whose words both haunt and compel him.Boarding the night train to Lisbon, his investigations take him all over the city. Making unexpected friends, he gradually builds a picture of the extraordinary man who wrote this beloved book.As Raimund discovers Amadeu, he begins to discover himself. Richly and beautifully told, this is a heart-rending story of all the paths not taken and lives not lived.____________________Readers love Night Train to Lisbon'Wow, what can I say that is going to do this book justice?''Utterly engrossing''Compelling''Mysterious and emotional''An amazing book that I know I will re-read'

'I beseech you to read this account' - Christopher HitchensA magnificent, harrowing testimony to the voiceless victims of North Korea.Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of a North Korean concentration camp to escape the 'hermit kingdom' and tell his story to the world. This memoir reveals the human suffering in his camp, with its forced labour, frequent public executions and near-starvation rations. Kang eventually escaped to South Korea via China to give testimony to the hardships and atrocities that constitute the lives of the thousands of people still detained in the gulags today. Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, this story of one young man's personal suffering finally gives eye-witness proof to this neglected chapter of modern history.

The Bible is the most widely distributed book in the world. Translated into over two thousand languages, it is estimated that more than six billion copies have been sold in the last two hundred years alone. In this seminal account, Karen Armstrong traces the gestation of the Bible to reveal a complex and contradictory document created by scores of people over hundreds of years. Karen Armstrong begins her analysis with the origins of the very earliest books of the Hebrew Bible, in which God was called both 'Yahweh' and 'Elohim'. She then traces the development of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to reveal the disparate influences that helped to form these sacred texts. From the Jewish practice of Midrash and the Christian cult of Jesus; to the influence of Paul's letters on the Reformation and the manipulation of Revelations by Christian fundamentalism, Armstrong explores the contexts in which these sixty-six books were understood and explains the social needs they answered. In the process she reveals an unfamiliar and paradoxical work that will permanently alter our understanding of the Bible.

The extraordinary life of the man who founded Islam, and the world he inhabited - and remade.Muhammad's was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance; yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality.Hazleton's account follows the arc of Muhammad's rise from powerlessness to power, from anonymity to renown, from insignificance to lasting significance. How did a child shunted to the margins end up revolutionizing his world? How did a merchant come to challenge the established order with a new vision of social justice? How did the pariah hounded out of Mecca turn exile into a new and victorious beginning? How did the outsider become the ultimate insider?Impeccably researched and thrillingly readable, Hazleton's narrative creates vivid insight into a man navigating between idealism and pragmatism, faith and politics, non-violence and violence, rejection and acclaim. The First Muslim illuminates not only an immensely significant figure but his lastingly relevant legacy.

'Combines science with journalism to weave a captivating account of the most extraordinary objects in the universe: black holes. A superior account.' Marcus Chown'Facing Infinity is an especially attractive introduction to a wonderfully attractive subject.' Frank WilczekBlack holes aren't just cosmic mysteries - they're surprisingly essential to life on Earth.From GPS navigation to understanding climate change, these enigmatic objects shape our daily existence in ways you'd never imagine. They helped create the atoms in your body, mixed the chemical ingredients for life throughout the universe, and now help us measure our planet's changing surface with millimetre precision. Without supermassive black holes regulating star formation in galaxies, complex life might never have emerged anywhere.In Facing Infinity, astrophysicist Jonas Enander takes us on an extraordinary journey from eighteenth-century Britain to cutting-edge observatories around the world, revealing how the universe's darkest phenomena illuminate both our origins and future.

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWaterstone's Book of the Month, 2018Nominated for the 2017 Pen Hessell-TiltmanMail on Sunday's the Best Paperback, 2018A sweeping history of the city of Rome, seen through the eyes of its most significant sackings, from the Gauls to the Nazis and everything in between.No city on earth has preserved its past as Rome has. Visitors can cross bridges that were crossed by Julius Caesar and explore temples visited by Roman emperors. These architectural survivals are all the more remarkable considering the city has been repeatedly ravaged by roving armies.From the Gauls to the Nazis, Matthew Kneale tells the stories behind the seven most important of these attacks and reveals, with fascinating insight, how they transformed the city - and not always for the worse. A meticulously researched, magical blend of travelogue, social and cultural history, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings is a celebration of the fierce courage, panache and vitality of the Roman people. Most of all, it is a passionate love letter to this incomparable city.

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE PROMISEWinner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker, The Good Doctor is a powerful tale of a friendship overshadowed by betrayal, set against the tawdry hopes and disappointments of a post-apartheid South Africa'The Good Doctor will be seen as one of the great literary triumphs of South Africa's transition... by a novelist of great and growing power.' -- Rian Malan, author of My Traitor's HeartLaurence Waters arrives at his rural hospital postingfull of optimism. Frank, the disgruntled deputy, is forced to share his room with the new arrival but is determined to stay out of Laurence's ambitious schemes. When the dilapidated hospital is looted, the two men find themselves uneasy allies in a world where the past is demanding restitution from the present.

From the author of Untangled comes the essential guide to how we can help our girls manage anxiety and stress - and flourish along their journey to adulthood.Though anxiety has risen among young people overall, recent studies confirm that it has skyrocketed in girls since the turn of the century - so what's to blame? And how can we help our girls?In the same engaging, anecdotal style and reassuring tone that won over thousands of readers of her first book, Untangled, clinical psychologist Lisa Damour addresses the facts about psychological pressure before turning to the the many facets of girls' lives where stress hits them hard: the parental expectations they face at home, pressures at school, social anxiety among their peers, and on social media. Guiding us through these areas and more, Damour provides critical coping strategies and top tips that will help our daughters to face their fears and find out just how brave they can be.

OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD! Discover the story that has captivated readers around the world...__________________________________'Enjoyable and gripping' GUARDIAN'One of the best historical novels you are likely to read' Christine Dwyer Hickey'A sprawling fresco and star-crossed love story' NEW YORK TIMES'An inventive epic' ELLE'Timeless' DAILY MAIL__________________________________In an Italian monastery, an infamous sculptor lies on his death bed. During Mimo's final hours, he reveals his life story: his impoverished childhood, his unlikely rise to fame and most importantly, his meeting with Viola, the daughter of a powerful aristocratic family.Mimo and Viola are instantly drawn to one another. Together, they traverse the unrest of the twentieth century. While Mimo becomes a celebrated artist, Viola fights to claim her education and independence.Over the decades, they will lose and find each other, but never will they give up on the love they share._________________________Readers love Watching Over Her'Beautifully written''Something truly special''Reading this book is pure joy''An authentic masterpiece''Easy read, poignant'

Deep in an Estonian forest, two women, one young, one old, are hiding.Zara is a prostitute and a murderer, on the run from brutal captors - men who know how to punish a woman. Aliide offers refuge but not safety: she has her own criminal secrets - traitorous crimes of passion and revenge committed long ago, during the country's brutal Soviet years.Both women have survived lives of abuse. But this time their survival depends on revealing the one thing history has taught them to keep safely hidden: the truth.A haunting, intimate and gripping story of suspicion, betrayal and retribution against a backdrop of Soviet oppression and European war.

In this remarkable and groundbreaking book, Kenan Malik explores the history of moral thought as it has developed over three millennia, from Homer's Greece to Mao's China, from ancient India to modern America. It tells the stories of the great philosophers, and breathes life into their ideas, while also challenging many of our most cherished moral beliefs. Engaging and provocative, The Quest for a Moral Compass confronts some of humanity's deepest questions. Where do values come from? Is God necessary for moral guidance? Are there absolute moral truths? It also brings morality down to earth, showing how, throughout history, social needs and political desires have shaped moral thinking. It is a history of the world told through the history of moral thought, and a history of moral thought that casts new light on global history. At a time of great social turbulence and moral uncertainty, there will be few histories more important than this.

'My name is Oscar and I'm ten years old . . . They call me Egghead and I look about seven. I live in hospital because of my cancer and I've never written to you because I don't even know if you exist,' writes Oscar in a letter to God.Oscar is ill and no one, especially not his parents, will tell him what he already knows: that he is dying. Granny Rose, the oldest of the 'ladies in pink' who visit Oscar and his fellow patients, makes friends with him. She suggests that he play a game: to pretend that each of the following twelve days is a decade of his imagined future. One day equals ten years, and every night Oscar writes a letter to God telling him about his life.The ten letters that follow are sensitive, funny, heartbreaking and, ultimately, uplifting. Oscar and the Lady in Pink is a small fable with a big heart; it will change the way you feel about death, and life.

In the tradition of the best writing on human behaviour and moral choices in the face of disaster, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amidst chaos. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are for the impact of large-scale disasters - and how we can do better. A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms our understanding of human nature in crisis.