Oracle Of Stamboul

Author : Michael David Lukas
Publisher : HarperCollins Canada
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2011-02-08
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781443405089

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Oracle Of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas Pdf

Late in the summer of 1877, as the tsar’s royal cavalry descends on the defenseless Ottoman outpost of Constanta, and a flock of purple and white hoopoes suddenly appears over the town, Eleonora Cohen is brought into the world by a mysterious pair of Tartar midwives who arrive only minutes before the birth. Eleonora, whose mother dies during labour, is raised by her father, Yakob, a carpet merchant, and her stern and resentful stepmother. From the moment Eleonora learns to read, her father recognizes that she is an extraordinarily gifted child, a prodigy. When Yakob sets off by boat for Stamboul on business, his eight-year-old daughter, unable to bear the separation, stows away in one of his trunks crammed with carpets. On the shores of the Bosporus, in the house of her father’s business partner, Moncef Bey, a new life awaits Eleonora. Books, backgammon, sumptuous new dresses, markets, cafés and some mysterious events she cannot yet decipher. For in Stamboul in 1886, people are not always what they seem. Marvellously evocative and magical, Michael David Lukas’s bestselling historical novel will transport readers to another time and place—romantic, exotic, yet perhaps not so different from our own.

Author : Michael David Lukas
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2020-05-19
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780399181184

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The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas Pdf

In this “wonderfully rich” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel from the author of the internationally bestselling The Oracle of Stamboul, a young man journeys from California to Cairo to unravel centuries-old family secrets. “This book is a joy.”—Rabih Alameddine, author of the National Book Award finalist An Unnecessary Woman WINNER OF: THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S SOPHIE BRODY AWARD • THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • THE SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE • Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the BBC • Longlisted for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize • A Penguin Random House International One World, One Book Selection • Honorable Mention for the Middle East Book Award Joseph, a literature student at Berkeley, is the son of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. One day, a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep, pulling him into a mesmerizing adventure to uncover the centuries-old history that binds the two sides of his family. From the storied Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, where generations of his family served as watchmen, to the lives of British twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 leave Cambridge on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue, this tightly woven multigenerational tale illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces that attempt to bridge that divide. Moving and richly textured, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a poignant portrait of the intricate relationship between fathers and sons, and an unforgettable testament to the stories we inherit and the places we are from. Praise for The Last Watchman of Old Cairo “A beautiful, richly textured novel, ambitious and delicately crafted, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is both a coming-of-age story and a family history, a wide-ranging book about fathers and sons, religion, magic, love, and the essence of storytelling. This book is a joy.”—Rabih Alameddine, author of the National Book Award finalist An Unnecessary Woman “Lyrical, compassionate and illuminating.”—BBC “Michael David Lukas has given us an elegiac novel of Cairo—Old Cairo and modern Cairo. Lukas’s greatest flair is in capturing the essence of that beautiful, haunted, shabby, beleaguered yet still utterly sublime Middle Eastern city.”—Lucette Lagnado, author of The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit and The Arrogant Years “Brilliant.”—The Jerusalem Post

Author : Siobhan Fallon
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2011-01-20
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101486146

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You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon Pdf

“Gripping, straight-up, no-nonsense stories about American soldiers and their families. . . simple, tough, and true.”—The New York Times “Prose that's brave and honest.”—People “Terrific. . . and terrifically illuminating.”—The Washington Post An award-winning story collection from the author of The Confusion of Languages. Through fiction of dazzling skill and astonishing emotional force, Siobhan Fallon welcomes readers into the American army base at Fort Hood, Texas, where U.S. soldiers prepare to fight, and where their families are left to cope after the men are gone. They’ll meet a wife who discovers unsettling secrets when she hacks into her husband’s email, and a teenager who disappears as her mother fights cancer. There is the foreign born wife who has tongues wagging over her late hours, and the military intelligence officer who plans a covert mission against his own home. Powerful, singular, and unforgettable, these stories will resonate deeply with readers and mark the debut of a talent of tremendous note.

Author : Manil Suri
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2009-08-17
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781408806784

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The Age of Shiva by Manil Suri Pdf

India, 1955. As the scars of Partition are beginning to heal, seventeen-year-old Meera sits enraptured: in the spotlight is Dev, singing a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. But when Meera's reverie comes true, it does not lead to the fairy-tale marriage she imagined. Meera has no choice but to obey her in-laws, tolerate Dev's drunken night-time fumblings, even observe the most arduous of Hindu fasts for his longevity. A move to Bombay seems at first like a fresh start, but soon that dream turns to ashes. It is only when their son is born that things change and Meera is ready to unleash the passion she has suppressed for so long.

Author : Jacquelyn Benson
Publisher : Vaughan Woods Publishing
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021-09-13
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781734559958

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The Smoke Hunter by Jacquelyn Benson Pdf

This book is rereleasing later in 2023 as The Empire of Shadows, Book 1 of the Raiders of the Arcana series. Nice Victorian ladies shouldn't run off to find lost Central American cities. One trifling little arrest shouldn’t have cost Ellie Mallory her job. It’s just the latest in a long line of injustices facing any brilliant female with archaeological ambitions in Victorian England. When Ellie stumbles across the map to a mysterious ancient city, she knows she's holding her chance to show the world what she's capable of—but she’s not the only one after the prize. A disgraced professor and his ruthless handler are hot on her heels, willing to go to any extreme to acquire the map for themselves. To race them through the uncharted jungles of British Honduras, Ellie needs a guide. The only one who knows the territory is maverick surveyor Adam Bates—and his determination to nose his way into Ellie's secrets makes him a dangerous partner. As Ellie and Adam navigate mysterious ruins, deadly cataracts and one seriously angry boar, she realizes more than just her ambition is at stake. There’s a deadly force lurking at the heart of the city—and if it falls into the wrong hands, it could shake the fate of the world. The Smoke Hunter is the first book in a high-stakes, rip-roaring historical adventure series perfect for fans of The Mummy and Romancing the Stone.

Author : Julie Otsuka
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2011-08-23
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780307700469

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The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka Pdf

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEN/FAULKER AWARD WINNER • The acclaimed author of The Swimmers and When the Emperor Was Divine tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” a century ago in this "understated masterpiece ... that unfolds with great emotional power" (San Francisco Chronicle). In eight unforgettable sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the extraordinary lives of these women, from their arduous journeys by boat, to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; from their experiences raising children who would later reject their culture and language, to the deracinating arrival of war. Julie Otsuka has written a spellbinding novel about identity and loyalty, and what it means to be an American in uncertain times.

Author : Ian Johnson
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 335 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2010-05-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9780547488684

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A Mosque in Munich by Ian Johnson Pdf

In the wake of the news that the 9/11 hijackers had lived in Europe, journalist Ian Johnson wondered how such a radical group could sink roots into Western soil. Most accounts reached back twenty years, to U.S. support of Islamist fighters in Afghanistan. But Johnson dug deeper, to the start of the Cold War, uncovering the untold story of a group of ex-Soviet Muslims who had defected to Germany during World War II. There, they had been fashioned into a well-oiled anti-Soviet propaganda machine. As that war ended and the Cold War began, West German and U.S. intelligence agents vied for control of this influential group, and at the center of the covert tug of war was a quiet mosque in Munich—radical Islam’s first beachhead in the West. Culled from an array of sources, including newly declassified documents, A Mosque in Munich interweaves the stories of several key players: a Nazi scholar turned postwar spymaster; key Muslim leaders across the globe, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood; and naïve CIA men eager to fight communism with a new weapon, Islam. A rare ground-level look at Cold War spying and a revelatory account of the West’s first, disastrous encounter with radical Islam, A Mosque in Munich is as captivating as it is crucial to our understanding the mistakes we are still making in our relationship with Islamists today

Author : David Grossman
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 661 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2010-09-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780307594341

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To the End of the Land by David Grossman Pdf

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A stunning novel that tells the powerful story of Ora, an Israli mother, and her extraordinary love for her son, Ofer, in a haunting meditation on war and family. “One of the few novels that feel as though they have made a difference to the world.” —The New York Times Book Review Just before his release from service in the Israeli army, Ora’s son Ofer is sent back to the front for a major offensive. In a fit of preemptive grief and magical thinking, so that no bad news can reach her, Ora sets out on an epic hike in the Galilee. She is joined by an unlikely companion—Avram, a former friend and lover with a troubled past—and as they sleep out in the hills, Ora begins to conjure her son. Ofer’s story, as told by Ora, becomes a surprising balm both for her and for Avram.

Author : Bo Forbes
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2011-03-08
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9780834823242

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Yoga for Emotional Balance by Bo Forbes Pdf

An integrative approach to healing anxiety, depression, and chronic stress through yoga and breathing exercises Emotional balance is within your reach—when you cultivate the intelligence of both your body and mind. Bo Forbes, a psychologist and yoga teacher, offers some of her most important teachings and practices, including: • Restorative yoga sequences designed to balance anxiety and lift depression • Breath and body-centered exercises to calm your mind and energize your body • Simple ways to understand your emotional patterns • 3 main obstacles to emotional well-being • 5 tools for building emotional balance Rooted in classical yoga yet supported by psychology and science, the techniques in this book will help you create progressive and lasting change.

Author : Franz Liszt
Publisher : Library of Alexandria
Page : 191 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2020-09-28
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781613105467

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Life of Chopin by Franz Liszt Pdf

Author : Karl Shaw
Publisher : Crown
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2002-05-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9780767909396

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Royal Babylon by Karl Shaw Pdf

An uproarious, eye-opening history of Europe's notorious royal houses that leaves no throne unturned and will make you glad you live in a democracy. Do you want to know which queen has the unique distinction of being the only known royal kleptomaniac? Or which empress kept her dirty underwear under lock and key? Or which czar, upon discovering his wife's infidelity, had her lover decapitated and the head, pickled in a jar, placed at her bedside? Royally dishing on hundreds of years of dubious behavior, Royal Babylon chronicles the manifold appalling antics of Europe's famous families, behavior that rivals the characters in an Aaron Spelling television series. Here, then, are the insane kings of Spain, one of whom liked to wear sixteen pairs of gloves at one time; the psychopathic Prussian soverigns who included Frederick William and his 102-inch waist; sex-fixated French rulers such as Philip Duke D'Oreleans cavorting with more than a hundred mistresses; and, of course, the delightfully drunken and debauched Russian czars - Czar Paul, for example, who to make his soldiers goose-step without bending their legs had steel plates strapped to their knees. But whether Romanov or Windsor, Habsburg or Hanover, these extravagant lifestyles, financed as they were by the royals' badgered subjects, bred the most wonderfully offbeat and disturbingly unbelievable tales - and Karl Shaw has collected them all in this hysterically funny and compulsively readable book. Royal Babylon is history, but not as they teach it in school, and it underlines in side-splitting fashion Queen Victoria's famous warning that it is unwise to look too deeply into the royal houses of Europe.

Author : James Heneage
Publisher : Heron Books
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2013-07-04
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781782061137

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The Walls of Byzantium by James Heneage Pdf

'One hell of a fine book' Conn Iggulden IN AN AGE OF CLASHING EMPIRES, DARK FORCES FROM THE EAST ENDANGER THE FIRST LIGHT OF THE WESTERN RENAISSANCE... It is an age of ruthless rulers, divided churches, fractured dynasties and intrepid traders. It is an age of great cities like Venice and Constantinople; an age of conquerors like Tamerlane who will drown the world in blood; an age when only a hero of exceptional gifts can make a difference. Luke Magoris is that hero. A hero who will find himself committed to a long journey to discover - and try to avoid - his destiny. He will travel from battle to trading fortune, from horse dealing to captivity, and to the love of three very different women and the unrelenting enmity of two remarkable men.

Author : Michael Zadoorian
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2009-01-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780061984518

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The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian Pdf

The unforgettable cross country journey of a runaway couple in their twilight years determined to meet the end of all roads on their own terms—a major motion picture from Sony Pictures Classics starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. The Robinas have shared a wonderful life for more than sixty years. Now in their eighties, Ella suffers from cancer and John has Alzheimer's. Yearning for one last adventure, the self-proclaimed "down-on-their-luck geezers" kidnap themselves from the adult children and doctors who seem to run their lives and steal away from their home in suburban Detroit on a forbidden vacation of rediscovery. With Ella as his vigilant copilot, John steers their '78 Leisure Seeker RV along the forgotten roads of Route 66 toward Disneyland in search of a past they're having a damned hard time remembering. Yet Ella is determined to prove that, when it comes to life, you can go back for seconds—even when everyone says you can't. “The Leisure Seeker is pretty much like life itself: joyous, painful, moving, tragic, mysterious, and not to be missed.”—Booklist, starred review

Author : Bess Kalb
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2020-03-17
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780525654728

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Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb Pdf

NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: VOGUE • FORBES • BOOKPAGE • NEW YORK POST • WIRED “I have not been as profoundly moved by a book in years.” —Jodi Picoult Even after she left home for Hollywood, Emmy-nominated TV writer Bess Kalb saved every voicemail her grandmother Bobby Bell ever left her. Bobby was a force—irrepressible, glamorous, unapologetically opinionated. Bobby doted on Bess; Bess adored Bobby. Then, at ninety, Bobby died. But in this debut memoir, Bobby is speaking to Bess once more, in a voice as passionate as it ever was in life. Recounting both family lore and family secrets, Bobby brings us four generations of indomitable women and the men who loved them. There’s Bobby’s mother, who traveled solo from Belarus to America in the 1880s to escape the pogroms, and Bess’s mother, a 1970s rebel who always fought against convention. But it was Bobby and Bess who always had the most powerful bond: Bobby her granddaughter’s fiercest supporter, giving Bess unequivocal love, even if sometimes of the toughest kind. Nobody Will Tell You This But Me marks the creation of a totally new, virtuosic form of memoir: a reconstruction of a beloved grandmother’s words and wisdom to tell her family’s story with equal parts poignancy and hilarity.

Author : Michael A. Flower
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107050068

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The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon by Michael A. Flower Pdf

Introduces Xenophon's writings and their importance for Western culture, while explaining the main scholarly controversies.