Atlantic Books – serie

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.

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, author of The Appeal'A true delight right up to its clever final reveal' PETER SWANSON, author of Kill Your Darlings'One of the best crime novels I've read in years!' KELLY MULLEN, author of This is Not a Game_______________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...___________________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

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'

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.

'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.

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.

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.

The Kelleher's beachfront holiday house creaks under a weight of secrets. A place where cocktails follow morning mass and children eavesdrop, it is home to matriarch Alice, who would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, decades before. As summer arrives and the women in Alice's family descend on the shore, it soon becomes clear that these mothers and daughters have been deeply hurt by the people they love the most. But as this fierce, irrational love burns ever brighter, anger builds and painful secrets are unearthed.

In the early 1850s, during the twilight of the Qing dynasty, word spread of a major revolution brewing in the provinces. The leader of this movement - who called themselves the Taiping - was Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil servant who claimed to be the son of God and the brother of Jesus Christ. As the revolt grew and battles raged across the empire, all signs pointed to a Taiping victory and to the inauguration of a modern, industrialized and pro-Western China. Soon, however, Britain and the United States threw their support behind the Qing, rapidly quashing the Taiping and rendering futile years of bloodshed. In Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, Stephen Platt recounts the events of the rebellion and its brutal suppression in spellbinding detail. It is an essential and enthralling history of the rise and fall of a movement that, a century and a half ago, might have launched China into the modern world.

Longlisted for the Orwell Prize, 2019 ____________The Times Round-up of the Best Non-fiction Paperbacks, 2019The Times Best Current Affairs and Big Ideas Book of the Year, 2018For many in modern Britain, careers are low-paid and high-risk, a series of short-term jobs with no security and little future. In this essential exposé, James Bloodworth goes undercover to investigate how working life has become a waking nightmare. From the Orwellian reach of an Amazon warehouse to the trials of a care worker, Hired is a clear-eyed analysis of a divided nation and a riveting dispatch from the very frontline of low-wage Britain.'An extraordinary and unsettling journey into the way modern Britons work. It is George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London for the gig-economy age' MATTHEW D'ANCONA, author of Post-Truth

Since it arrived on the airwaves in 1961, RTÉ has been buffeted in different directions, eventually slipping into a steady decline which accelerated over the past decade into a catastrophe.The 2023 revelations regarding secret payments to star presenter Ryan Tubridy weren't the first time Ireland's national broadcaster has found itself caught up in scandal.Shane Ross, author of #1 bestsellers The Bankers and Mary Lou McDonald, winds back the clock to examine RTÉ's history of broadcasting excellence alongside the accusations of corruption, waste and ineptitude it has faced along the way.With clarity and wit, Ross rakes over RTÉ's colourful past while also considering what the future might hold for this once beloved institution.

'A ray of sunshine' Start the Week, Radio 4'Read this book as an antidote to fatalism and gloom' Robert Peston'Closely reported, surprising and, above all, hopeful' Jonathan FreedlandAt 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

THE BOOK THAT NEEDS TO BE READ TO BE BELIEVED 'Utterly brilliant, a genre-defying masterpiece''I've never read anything like this before''Singular, unsettling and unforgettable''A modern classic in the making''Monumental... One of those novels that reminds me why I read fiction in the first place''I'm just sad that I won't be able to read it for the first time again'IN THE SUMMER OF 1993, broke student Alex Lane joins a team clearing out Solace House, a Victorian mansion bequeathed to the university by a reclusive hoarder called Flayne. The other students are a mixed bunch, but Alex quickly falls into a close friendship with the lively, redheaded Ella.When the crew begins sorting through piles of junk, they stumble upon Flayne's journals, in which he details his obsession with his missing mother, his discovery of a place called Bewise, and - most mysteriously - his belief inanother realm lying parallel to ours, along with coded instructions as to how it might be reached.As the students delve deeper into the house's secrets, one of them becomes obsessed with deciphering Flayne'sstrange opus and its promise of another world... and they may be willing to sacrifice everything, and everyone, to get there.

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?

Watk. Raja. Jane (i). Shirvan. Cricket - the way it brings emotion and life and pain and memory and regret all hauntingly and combustively to light. John. Jane (iii). Shivalkar. Men and women whose destinies don't make sense, scattered across eras and continents, their stories a miraculous tapestry of near misses, strange turns and quiet, unglamorous devotion. Frank. RR. Vowles. Carmino.From the freakish minute that might have prevented the slow decline of West Indies cricket to the jazz trombonist blocked from the England side, Christian Ryan, award-winning author of Golden Boy, reconstructs forgotten, fragile moments with breathtaking care.The result is a wildly ambitious, compulsively readable exploration of the strange, luminous ways cricket shapes a life, sizzling with humour and verve and tragedy.

The global turmoil of the late 1980s and early 1990s severely tested every analyst and commentator. Few wrote with such insight as Christopher Hitchens about the large events - or with such discernment and wit about the small tell-tale signs of a disordered culture. First published in 1993, the writings in For the Sake of Argument range from the political squalor of Washington to the twilight of Stalinizm in Prague, from the Jewish quarter of Damascus in the aftermath of the Gulf War to the embattled barrios of Central America. Hitchens provides re-assessments of Graham Greene, P. G. Woodhouse and C. L. R. James, and his rogues' gallery gives us portraits of Henry Kissinger, Mother Theresa and P. J. O'Rouke. The addition of pieces on political assassination in America, as well as a devastating indictment of the evisceration of politics by pollsters and spin doctors, and an entertaining celebration of booze and fags, complete this outstanding collection from a writer of unequalled talent.

'Delicious... Wonderful' Guardian'Fascinating... Full of incident and food for thought' Mail on Sunday'Delightful... Vogler offers up a feast of tales about popular British foods' Financial TimesA SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA WATERSTONES BEST FOOD & DRINK BOOK OF 2023The fascinating history of the people, the ideas and the dishes that have fed - and starved - the nation, by the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Scoff.In times of plenty, we stuff ourselves. When the food runs out, we're stuffed too. How have people in the British Isles shared the riches from our fields, dairies, kitchens and seas, as well as those from around the world? And when the cupboard is bare, who steps up to the plate to feed the nation's hungry children, soldiers at war or families in crisis?Stuffed tells the stories of the food and drink at the centre of social upheavals from prehistory to the present: the medieval inns boosted by the plague; the Enclosures that finished off the celebratory roast goose; the Victorian chemist searching for unadulterated mustard; the post-war supermarkets luring customers with strawberries. Drawing on cookbooks, literature and social records, Pen Vogler reveals how these turning points have led to today's extremes of plenty and want: roast beef and food banks; allotment-fresh vegetables and ultra-processed fillers.It is a tale of feast and famine, and of the traditions, the ideas and the laws which have fed - or starved - the nation, but also of the yeasty magic of bread and ale, the thrill of sugary treats, the pies and puddings that punctuate the year, and why the British would give anything - even North America - for a nice cup of tea.

When Holly applies for a job at the Paradise - one of the city's oldest cinemas, squashed into the ground floor of a block of flats - she thinks it will be like any other shift work. She cleans toilets, sweeps popcorn, avoids the belligerent old owner, Iris, and is ignored by her aloof but tight-knit colleagues who seem as much a part of the building as its fraying carpets and endless dirt. Dreadful, lonely weeks pass while she longs for their approval, a silent voyeur. So when she finally gains the trust of this cryptic band of oddballs, Holly transforms from silent drudge to rebellious insider and gradually she too becomes part of the Paradise - unearthing its secrets, learning its history and haunting its corridors after hours with the other ushers. It is no surprise when violence strikes, tempers change and the group, eyes still affixed to the screen, starts to rapidly go awry...

'Fascinating' - Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways'Truly a thing of wonder' - Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places'Lyrical [and] thoughtful' - Cal Flyn, author of Islands of AbandonmentVisiting Iceland as an anthropologist and film-maker in 2008, Sarah Thomas is spellbound by its otherworldly landscape. An immediate love for this country and for Bjarni, a man she meets there, turns a week-long stay into a transformative half-decade, one which radically alters Sarah's understanding of herself and of the living world.She embarks on a relationship not only with Bjarni, but with the light, the language, and the old wooden house they make their home. She finds a place where the light of the midwinter full moon reflected by snow can be brighter than daylight, where the earth can tremor at any time, and where the word for echo - bergmál - translates as 'the language of the mountain'. In the midst of crisis both personal and planetary, as her marriage falls apart, Sarah finds inspiration in the artistry of a raven's nest: a home which persists through breaking and reweaving - over and over.Written in beautifully vivid prose The Raven's Nest is a profoundly moving meditation on place, identity and how we might live in an era of environmental disruption.

'Given bisexuality's all too frequent erasure, there is a need to represent [these] specific histories' Times Literary SupplementUneven tells the stories of nine pioneering bisexual artists, writers and musicians that will change our understanding of the world's largest sexual minority.Bisexuality is often seen as something temporary, in spite of increasing openness around it: a sign of immaturity or a waystation on the road to a different sexuality altogether, rather than its own distinct entity.In this beautifully written cultural history, Sam Mills reclaims bisexuality as its own identity, interweaving her experience of being bisexual with illuminating portraits of a clutch of artists, writers and musicians, including Colette, Bessie Smith, Marlene Dietrich, Anaïs Nin, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Madonna.Celebrating the resilience, diversity and spirit of the bisexual community through the ages, Uneven explores how each of these trailblazing figures have been misunderstood; how social attitudes affected their sexuality, their relationships and their work; how LGBTQ+ identities have been portrayed from the Victorian era to the present day; and how attitudes have progressed.Illuminating, personal and entertaining, Uneven paints a nuanced portrait of a sidelined community.

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE PROMISE'A masterly piece of fiction. Delicate and detailed' Daily Mail'It is a project to which Galgut, whose fiction has often covered the terrain of love, race and politics, seems perfectly suited as a writer... A remarkable, lyrical tribute' GuardianIn this literary tour de force, twice Booker shortlisted novelist Damon Galgut evokes the life and work of E. M. Forster, his travels to India, and the freedom and inspiration he found there.In 1912, the SS Birmingham approaches India. On board is Morgan Forster, novelist and man of letters, who is embarking on a journey of discovery. As Morgan stands on deck, the promise of a strange new future begins to take shape before his eyes. The seeds of a story start to gather at the corner of his mind: a sense of impending menace, lust in close confines, under a hot, empty sky. It will be another twelve years, and a second time spent in India, before A Passage to India, E. M. Forster's great work of literature, is published. During these years, Morgan will come to a profound understanding of himself as a man, and of the infinite subtleties and complexity of human nature, bringing these great insights to bear in his remarkable novel.At once a fictional exploration of the life and times of one of Britain's finest novelists, his struggle to find a way of living and being, and a stunningly vivid evocation of the mysterious alchemy of the creative process, Arctic Summer is a literary masterpiece, by one of the finest writers of his generation.

'A wonderful subject, beautifully written, evoking a world startlingly like and unlike our own' Rory Stewart'A brilliant portrait not just of a great and unjustly forgotten man, but of an entire age' William Dalrymple'Important reading at any time in history; essential in the world of today' Peter FrankopanIN THE EARLY 1960S, a peaceful world seemed possible. The still young United Nations was regarded as humankind's best hope for ending war. African and Asian nations, having recently won their freedom from colonial rule, sought influence on the world stage. At the helm of their international efforts was Secretary-General U Thant, a practising Buddhist and former schoolteacher from Burma.In Peacemaker, acclaimed historian Thant Myint-U traces his grandfather's integral yet forgotten roles in some of the twentieth century's most critical crises: from battling white supremacist mercenaries in the Congo and mediating an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis to desperately trying to prevent the 1967 Six Day War. Drawing on newly declassified documents, he traces U Thant's tireless efforts to bring peace to Vietnam, create a fairer international economy, safeguard the environment, and avoid a third world war.A testament to the power of hope and individual action in times of uncertainty, Peacemaker is an extraordinary chronicle of a golden age of diplomacy - and vital to a fresh understanding of our world today.

All disciplinea deception to hide the wildness, all symmetry an excuse for keeping count. Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You cements Meena Kandasamy as one of the most exciting, radical thinkers at work today. These poems chronicle wanting, art-making, and the practising of resistance and solidarity in the face of a hostile state. Here, the personal is political, and Kandasamy moves between sex, desire, family and wider societal issues of caste, the refugee crisis, and freedom of expression with grace and defiance. This is a bold, unforgettable collection by a poet who compels us to sit up and listen.

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.

Shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Book Award 2003Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2002Fed up with working for Time magazine in London, Steavenson moved to Georgia on a whim. Stories I Stole relates her time there in twenty vodka-fuelled episodes drawn from all over the country - tales of love, friendship and power cuts, of duelling (Georgian style), of horse races in the mountains, wars and refugees, broken hearts, fixed elections, drinking sessions and a room containing a thousand roses.'A young Kapuscinski with a literary future ahead of her...an immensely talented writer' Neal Ascherson, Observer'A joyous, perceptive and haunting debut which fizzes - and sears - like rough new wine' Rory MacLean, Sunday Times'Lyrical, poetic and sassy by turns; when she retells Georgian people's stories, you hear real voices' Vanora Bennett, The Times'I couldn't possibly over praise the beautiful writing' Sunday Tribune'A sparkling, poetical hymn to the most romantic and dangerous land in the world.' Simon Sebag-Montefiore, author of Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin'Lively, atmospheric, honest, perceptive; a terrific account of Georgia's post-Soviet mess from a fresh and intelligent new writer' Anna Reid, author of Borderland

The #1 New York Times BestsellerAn Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Book of the YearNow a Major Motion PictureThis is the true story of a boy who wanted to grow up with the Brady Bunch, but ended up living with the Addams Family. Augusten Burroughs's mother gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa Claus and a certifiable lunatic into the bargain. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients and a sinister man living in the garden shed completed the tableau. The perfect squalor of their dilapidated Victorian house, there were no rules and there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer and Valium was chomped down like sweets. And when things got a bit slow, there was always the ancient electroshock therapy machine under the stairs...'This is the Brady Bunch on Viagra... it is impossible not to laugh at all the jokes; to admire the sardonic, fetid tone; to wonder, slack-jawed and agog, at the sheer looniness of the vista he conjures up' -- Rachel Cooke, Observer

It was an emblematic crime: on a November day in Amsterdam, an angry young Muslim man shot and killed the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, iconic European provocateur, for making a movie with the anti-Islam politician Ayaan Hersi Ali. After shooting van Gogh, Mohammed Bouyeri calmly stood over the body and cut his throat with a curved machete. The murder horrified quiet, complacent Holland - a country that prides itself on being a bastion of tolerance - and sent shock waves around the world. In Murder in Amsterdam, Ian Buruma describes what he found when he returned to his native country to try and make sense of van Gogh's death. The result is Buruma's masterpiece: a brave and rigorous study of conflict in our time, with the intimacy and control of a true-crime page-turner.

Teena Maguire should not have tried to shortcut her way home that Fourth of July. Not after midnight, not through Rocky Point Park. Not the way she was dressed in a tank top, denim cutoffs, and high-heeled sandals. Not with her twelve-year-old daughter Bethie. Not with packs of local guys running loose on hormones, rage and alcohol. A victim of gang rape, left for dead in the park boathouse, the once vivacious Teena can now only regret that she has survived. At a relentlessly compelling pace punctuated by lonely cries in the night and the whisper of terror in the afternoon, Joyce Carol Oates unfolds the story of Teena and Bethie, their assailants, and their unexpected, silent champion, a man who knows the meaning of justice. And love.

In the tradition of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential comes an insider's look into the cloistered world of classical music. Now a major Amazon.com TV series starring Gabriel Garcia Bernal.From her debut recital at Carnegie Hall to performing with the orchestras of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, oboist Blair Tindall has been playing classical music professionally for over twenty-five years. She's also lived the secret life of musicians who survive hand to mouth, trading sex and drugs for low-paying gigs and the promise of winning a rare symphony position or a lucrative solo recording contract. In Mozart in the Jungle, Tindall describes her graduation from the North Carolina School of the Arts to the backbiting New York classical music scene, a world where Tindall and her fellow classical musicians often play drunk, high, or hopelessly hung-over, live in decrepit apartments, and perform in hazardous conditions. (In the cramped confines of a Broadway pit, the decibel level of one instrument is equal to the sound of a chain saw.)Mozart in the Jungle offers a stark contrast between the rarefied experiences of overpaid classical musician superstars and those of the working-class musicians. For lovers of classical music, Mozart in the Jungle is the first true, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on backstage and in the Broadway pit.