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 2008Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master. The White Tiger presents a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking - from the desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming Wild South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The first-person confession of a murderer, The White Tiger is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator - amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.

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.

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.

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Abundance, Bold, and The Future Is Faster Than You Think comes a bold exploration of what it means to stay human in a world where technology has granted us godlike power.'Timely and important' Eric Schmidt'A manual for optimizing our destiny' Ray Kurzweil'An extraordinary blueprint for hope' Mo GawdatIn 1968, Stewart Brand declared: 'We are as gods - and we might as well get good at it.' Half a century later, that prophecy has come true.We can rewrite genes, edit embryos, build artificial minds, extend life, and terraform worlds. The old miracles - omniscience, omnipresence, even resurrection - are becoming standard operating procedure. But the real question isn't whether humanity can play god. It's whether we can do it wisely.In this book, the bestselling authors of Abundance and Bold return with a sweeping exploration of our species' next great transformation. Blending hard science with vivid storytelling, Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler chart humanity's ascent from scarcity to superabundance - and the psychological, ethical, and existential challenges that come with it.Across breakthroughs in AI, robotics, genetics, longevity, and consciousness research, they reveal a paradox at the heart of progress: as our external power expands, our inner resilience must evolve to match. Abundance without meaning leads to collapse. Intelligence without wisdom leads to extinction. To thrive in a world of everything, everywhere, all the time, we must learn to wield our godlike powers with humility, creativity, and flow.Equal parts warning and invitation, We Are As Gods is a map for flourishing in the exponential century. Because the future won't be built by those who fear what's coming, but by those who know how to turn chaos into creation.Abundance is here. Are you ready?

***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.

Night Train to Lisbon follows Raimund Gregorius, a 57-year-old Classics scholar, on a journey that takes him across Europe. Abandoning his job and his life and travelling with a dusty old book as his talisman, he heads for Lisbon in search of clues to the life of the book's Portuguese author, Amadeu de Prado. As he gets swept up in his quest, he finds that the journey is also one of self-discovery, as he reencounters all the decisions he has made - and not made - in his life, and faces the roads not travelled.

'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.

'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.

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 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.

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.

A provocative and shocking look at how western society is misunderstanding and mistreating mental illness. Perfect for fans of Empire of Pain and Dope Sick.In Britain alone, more than 20% of the adult population take a psychiatric drug in any one year. This is an increase of over 500% since 1980 and the numbers continue to grow. Yet, despite this prescription epidemic, levels of mental illness of all types have actually increased in number and severity.Using a wealth of studies, interviews with experts, and detailed analysis, Dr James Davies argues that this is because we have fundamentally mischaracterised the problem. Rather than viewing most mental distress as an understandable reaction to wider societal problems, we have embraced a medical model which situates the problem solely within the sufferer and their brain. Urgent and persuasive, Sedated systematically examines why this individualistic view of mental illness has been promoted by successive governments and big business - and why it is so misplaced and dangerous.

READ THE BESTSELLING BOOK SOON TO BE ADAPTED BY NETFLIX AND THE CREATOR OF HEATED RIVALRY!_________________________'One of the most convincing historical novels I have ever read' HILARY MANTEL'Thrilling' GUARDIAN'Gripping' THE TIMES_________________________This gripping historical novel plunges into the ancient world of Aristotle and his pupil, later the virtual psychopath and world conqueror, Alexander the Great.Macedon. 367 BC. Philip II is bringing war to Persia. Forged in the warrior culture of Macedonia, the time has come for his young son Alexander to take up his inheritance of blood and obedience to the sword. It is a training that has made the boy sadistic; fiercely brilliant, but unstable. A dangerous trait in a king fated to rule the vastest empire of the ancient world.Compelled to teach this startling, precocious, sometimes horrifying child, Aristotle soon realises that what the boy needs most to learn - thrown before his time onto his father's battlefields - is the lesson of the golden mean, the elusive balance between extremes that Aristotle hopes will mitigate the boy's will to conquer in this age of fighting heroes..._________________________Readers love The Golden Mean'Reminds me very much of The Song of Achilles''Totally absorbing''A page turner''It's always a pleasure when an ambitious book succeeds''I loved this'

***LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION******A 2026 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING FINALIST******LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 MOORE PRIZE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WRITING***IN SEPTEMBER 2022, in response to the death of Mahsa Jîna Amini in police custody, after being arrested and beaten for not wearing her hijab properly, thousands of Iranians - mostly women - took to the streets in one of the country's largest uprisings in decades: the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.Despite the threat of imprisonment or death for her work as a journalist, Fatemeh Jamalpour joined the throngs of people fighting to topple Iran's religious extremist regime. Meanwhile, Nilo Tabrizy was covering the protests from New York, knowing that spotlighting the brutality of the Iranian government meant she would not be able to safely return to her birth country.Though they had only met once, united by sisterhood and shared purpose, Nilo and Fatemeh corresponded constantly as they worked to shed light on what was happening on the ground. For the Sun After Long Nights is their extraordinary and deeply moving chronicle of the spirit and legacy of this historic movement, as well as the history, geopolitics and influences that led to this pivotal moment.

'Delightful... The Hidden Horticulturists pulsates with the extraordinary energy and excitement of the time.' Daily MailChosen as one of the Sunday Telegraph's 'Top Ten Gardening Books of the Year' _____________________The untold story of the remarkable young men who played a central role in the history of British horticulture and helped to shape the way we garden today.In 2012, whilst working at the Royal Horticultural Society's library, Fiona Davison unearthed a book of handwritten notes that dated back to 1822. The notes, each carefully set out in neat copperplate writing, had been written by young gardeners in support of their application to be received into the Society's Garden.Amongst them was an entry from the young Joseph Paxton, who would go on to become one of Britain's best-known gardeners and architects. But he was far from alone in shaping the way we garden today and now, for the first time, the stories of the young, working-class men who also played a central role in the history of British horticulture can be told.Using their notes, Fiona Davison traces the stories of a selection of these forgotten gardeners whose lives would take divergent paths to create a unique history of gardening. The trail took her from Chiswick to Bolivia and uncovered tales of fraud, scandal and madness - and, of course, a large number of fabulous plants and gardens. This is a celebration of the unsung heroes of horticulture whose achievements reflect a golden moment in British gardening, and continue to influence how we garden today.

The Times' Best History Books of 2017Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military HistoryWinner of the 2017 Caroline Bancroft History PrizeShortlisted for the Military History Magazine Book of the Year AwardNominated for the 2017 PEN Hessell-Tiltman'Extraordinary... Cozzens has stripped the myth from these stories, but he is such a superb writer that what remains is exquisite' The TimesAt the end of the Civil War, the American nation continued its expansion onto tribal lands, setting off a struggle that would last nearly three decades. Peter Cozzens chronicles the conflict from both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail, bringing together a pageant of fascinating characters, including Custer, Sherman and Grant, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Red Cloud. This is the tale of how the West was won... and lost.

A charming murder mystery from the internationally bestselling author for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz, as well as classic tales by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie_______________'The perfect murder mystery' JANICE HALLETT'A true delight right up to its clever final reveal' PETER SWANSON'One of the best crime novels I've read in years!' KELLY MULLEN_______________To catch a killer, one must act the part.Arriving on the Greek island of Utakos, ageing actor Ormond Basil hopes only for a holiday and perhaps finally to shed the mantle of his most famous role: world-renowned sleuth, Sherlock Holmes.But when a body turns up in his hotel, the other guests, accustomed to seeing Ormond as the greatest detective of all time on the silver screen, pressure him to solve the mystery.Yet even with Ormond's encyclopaedic knowledge of plots and killers, this case turns out to be anything but elementary...___________________Readers love The Final Problem!'Brilliant''Will delight and intrigue''Wonderfully clever''A master storyteller''Ingenious'___________________Praise for Arturo Pérez-Reverte'Gives murder a touch of class' Observer'Spain's most popular, inventive writer of historical fiction' The Sunday Times'A sophisticated and exciting intellectual game' Daily Telegraph'To read him is to rediscover the delights of Dumas and Conan Doyle' The Times'It's rare a novelist who can create a literary page turner. Pérez-Reverte is one of those rarities' Denver Post

Winner of the 1966 Pulitzer Prize and National Book AwardKiev, 1911. When a twelve-year-old Russian boy is found stabbed to death, his body drained of blood, the accusation of ritual murder is levelled at the Jews. Yakov Bok - a handyman hiding his Jewish identity from his anti-Semitic employer - is first outed and blamed. Arrested and imprisoned, Bok refuses to confess to a crime that he did not commit. What becomes of this man under pressure, for whom acquittal is made to seem as hopeless as conviction, is the subject of a terrifying masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction.Acclaim for Malamud: 'Malamud is a rich original of the first rank' Saul Bellow 'Malamud has never produced a mediocre novel... He is always profoundly convincing' Anthony Burgess 'One of Malamud's extraordinary gifts has always been for lifting the realistic world up, into the realm of metaphysical fantasy. Another has been to take life, lives, seriously' Malcolm Bradbury 'One of those rare writers who makes other writers eat their hearts out' Melvyn Bragg Of Malamud's short stories: 'I have discovered a short-story writer who is better than any of them, including myself' Flannery O'Connor

From the international bestselling and Booker Prize nominated author of The Slap comes a blazingly brilliant new novel.Winner of the 2006 Age Fiction Prize Winner of the 2006 Melbourne Best Writing AwardPart long-forgotten myth, part meditation on the violence and tragedy of contemporary Europe, Dead Europe is an unsettling story about blood lust and blood revenge; a novel of blazing brilliance from the acclaimed author of The Slap.Isaac, a young Australian photographer, is travelling through Europe. His whole life he has longed for the sophistication and wealth of the Europe of his father's stories, the Europe at the centre of civilization and culture. But behind the facade of a unified and globalized contemporary society, he finds a history-blasted wasteland, a place forever condemned by the ghosts of its unspeakable past. In the mountain village in the Balkans where his mother was born, he unearths ancient terrors that have not been laid to rest, and perhaps never can be.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2015SHORTLISTED FOR RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2016In the summer of 2009, the leader of the dreaded Tamil Tiger guerrillas was killed, bringing to a bloody end the stubborn and complicated civil war in Sri Lanka. For nearly thirty years, the war's fingers had reached everywhere: into the bustle of Colombo, the Buddhist monasteries scattered across the island, the soft hills of central Sri Lanka, the curves of the eastern coast near Batticaloa and Trincomalee, and the stark, hot north. With its genius for brutality, the war left few places, and fewer people, untouched. What happens to the texture of life in a country that endures such bitter conflict? What happens to the country's soul? Samanth Subramanian gives us an extraordinary account of the Sri Lankan war and the lives it changed. Taking us to the ghosts of summers past, and to other battles from other times, he draws out the story of Sri Lanka today - an exhausted, disturbed society, still hot from the embers of the war. Through travels and conversations, he examines how people reconcile themselves to violence, how religion and state conspire, how the powerful become cruel, and how victory can be put to the task of reshaping memory and burying histories.This Divided Island is a harrowing and humane investigation of a country still inflamed.

HERE ARE MANY, MANY THINGS THAT NOBODY KNOWS . . .Why are so many giraffes gay?Has human evolution stopped?Where did our alphabet come from?Can robots become self-aware?Can lobsters recognize other lobsters by sight?What goes on inside a black hole?Are cell phones bad for us?Why can't we remember anything from our earliest years?Full of the mysteries of life, the universe and everything, The Things that Nobody Knows is a fascinating and unputdownable exploration of the limits of human knowledge of our planet, its history and culture, and the universe beyond.