Random House, Inc.

Upon an immense stretch of flat ground at the mouth of a river bathed in sunlight rises Hyperpolis. It stands there, surrounded by its four asphalt car-parks, to condemn us — a huge enveloping supermarket. Each of us will see ourselves reflected in the characters who move mindlessly about Hyperpolis, but The Giants is a call to rebellion. This bold and inventive novel is the work of a tremendously talented writer and both an intoxicating and exhilarating read.

War — in the mind of the fragile Bea B., in the infinite icy landscape she journeys through, in Vietnam, in 10,000 years of human history. The war of the title is not merely a war of arms but a generalised state of violence permeating every atom of Le Clezio's creation. Bea B. searches for clues for the origin of the evil. Under her searching gaze the most everyday objects — advertisements, cars, light bulbs — reveal extraordinary dimensions, as the earth trembles on the brink of cataclysmic explosion.

Discover a vivid landscape of imagination where the human body is collaged and refashioned with often disparate industrail elements. Is it a surreal world where the interplay between man and machine is beautiful, shocking, grotesque, captivating, and relevant to our times. Young, award-winning artist Jason Felix began sketching and drawing extensively at age eleven. Inspired to draw and create by watching the movie Alien with his father, Jason Felix's fascination with fantasy, science fiction, monsters, and creatures grew as he took in such classic sci-fi films as Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Star Wars, and Clash of the Titans, Largely self-taught, he published his own comic book at age seventeen (sold through Diamond Distribution), and his portfolio grew exponentially from there. Salvaged collects Felix's work for the first time, and contains many new and never-before-seen images. His style ranges from sci-fi and fantasy to increasingly grotesque, even disturbing images. Rick Berry, world-renowned pioneer in digital art, says, Human beings are becoming fabulous and strange... and it's happening very fast. Felix is there. That's where he's looking and for all the scary bits you can also see the excitement, the sense of stunning transformation, and beauty. I can't seem to take my eyes off the weird wonder of his visionary assumption. Known for his digital photographic manipulations, Felix's works have been showcased internationally and have directly inspired numerous Hollywood projects. He has been involved in visually establishing computer games such as StarCraft and the Prince of Persia series.

Virginia Woolf was right. Women-and men, it turns out-yearn for a room of their own. But instead of a little nook beneath the eaves, that room is now a shed. Today's sheds, however, are not dusty shelters for plants and tools. Lace curtains have replaced cobwebs, charming antiques stand where shovels and rakes once rusted, and instead of corrugated walls, you will find cedar shingles and window boxes. Sheds are stylish and elegant and offer a hassle-free and affordable way to create more space without undergoing a major renovation. They function as artists' studios, writers' retreats, yoga dens, entertaining pavilions, children's playhouses, garden rooms, or serene hideaways for any personal pursuit. In «Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways,» Debra Prinzing and William Wright showcase twenty-eight innovative and beautifully imagined spaces from New York City to East Hampton, from Seattle to San Diego, and from Atlanta to Austin to Santa Cruz. Some are elaborate and luxurious; others are delightfully modest. They are built in urban gardens and suburban backyards and tucked away on rural properties. Stunning, lush color photography graces «Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways,» bringing the reader into each space and face-to-face with all its nooks, crannies, and details; the text describes how the owners' needs and interests inspired the shed practically and aesthetically. With sample plans for building a shed, advice on the practicalities of designing and decorating it, and thoughts from backyard philosophers who celebrate the appeal and possibilities of simple structures, «Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways» is both an inspiration for creating your own backyard destination and an armchair journey to some of the country's most private and serene places.

No matter which shore they are near or how modern or traditional the decor, America's beach houses share the timeless appeal of bringing together friends and family, memories and desires.

A gripping tale of betrayal, murder, and redemption. Detective Alisha Barba hadn't heard from her long lost friend Cate in years, but when she receives a frantic letter pleading for help, she knows she must see her. They want to take my baby. You have to stop them, Cate whispers to Alisha when they finally meet. Then, only hours later, Cate and her husband are fatally run down by a car. At the crime scene, Alisha discovers the first in a series of complex and mysterious deceptions that will send her on a perilous search for the truth, from the dangerous streets of London's East End to the decadent glow of Amsterdam's red-light district.

Born into generations of prosperity, the four royal children of the Akaran dynasty know little of the world outside their opulent island paradise. But when an assassin strikes at the heart of their power, their lives are changed forever. Forced to flee to distant corners and separated against their will, the children must navigate a web of hidden allegiances, ancient magic, foreign invaders, and illicit trade that will challenge their very notion of who they are. As they come to understand their true purpose in life, the fate of the world lies in their hands.

Peter Tyler appears to have it all — a loving wife, a powerful job on Wall Street, a sprawling house in the suburbs. But in a moment of weakness, Peter indulges in a one-night stand with a beautiful trader. A few weeks later, his house is broken into and his wife brutally murdered. When the police discover Peter's infidelity, he immediately goes from grieving husband to prime suspect. Suddenly, it's up to Peter to prove his own innocence and find his wife's killer. Written with ferocity and at a lightning pace, Restitution marks the debut of an intelligent and exciting new novelist.

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azar Nafisi, a bold and inspired teacher, secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; some had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they removed their veils and began to speak more freely-their stories intertwining with the novels they were reading by Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, as fundamentalists seized hold of the universities and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the women in Nafisi's living room spoke not only of the books they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Azar Nafisi's luminous masterwork gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women's lives in revolutionary Iran. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny, and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

London boasts a dense concentration of architectural talent, and recent projects by designers based there ingeniously contribute to the city's noble historic streetscapes in ways that respect and reference centuries past while simultaneously bolstering the metropolis's reputation as one of the world's most modern and progressive capitals. «London 2000»+ portrays twenty-eight projects completed since the millennium, representing a broad range of design styles and scales. Prominent structures such as Sir Norman Foster's iconic «Gherkin,» the London Eye by Marks Barfield, Daniel Libeskind's addition to the London Metropolitan University campus, and Herzog & de Meuron's Laban Dance Center are featured alongside lesser-known buildings of merit by innovative, emerging designers to provide a superb representation of the many lively firms active in the city today. Author Sam Lubell also features projects that illustrate creative examples of adaptive reuse and renovation in compact urban quarters — a library that incorporates outdoor gathering spaces to revitalize a formerly depressed neighborhood, a primary school that insulates students from street noise while providing rooftop play space, a Victorian-era train maintenance station reconfigured as a popular performing arts venue, a vibrant modern addition to an Edwardian townhouse, and elevated footbridges that facilitate pedestrian traffic in the city's congested center, among others. Prominent structures covered include: Sir Norman Foster's Swiss Re building, dubbed the «Gherkin» The London Eye by Marks BarfieldDaniel Libeskind's addition to London Metropolitan University Herzog & de Meuron's Laban Dance Center.

Oklahoma defense attorney Ben Kincaid has found himself smack in the middle of more than a few controversies and deadly predicaments-and the unexpected leap from his modest Tulsa law offices to Washington, D.C.'s Senate chamber hasn't taken the edge off Ben's knack for stepping into the line of fire. Now the idealistic junior senator is plunged into the thick of lethal intrigue when a shocking campaign of terror against key government officials rocks the nation's capital. The nightmare begins with the abduction and murder of the director of Homeland Security; escalates with the killing of the Senate minority leader, who is felled in his office by an envelope laced with weaponized poison; and comes to a shattering climax at the site of the Oklahoma City Memorial, where a fusillade of sniper fire meant for the president claims unintended victims. In all, twelve people perish in the melee, while Ben himself narrowly escapes a car-bomb blast that leaves his best friend, Tulsa cop Mike Morelli, comatose. But the smoke has barely cleared when the stunned nation is sent reeling yet again by the president's impassioned call to amend the U.S. Constitution with an antiterrorism law that would drastically curtail civil liberties. It's a hot-button issue guaranteed to bitterly divide the Beltway and the country. The chief executive has handpicked Ben to help harvest the support that will make the amendment a reality. Shaken by the carnage, Ben embraces the president's radical cause, and alongside unlikely new political allies he takes the battle for the controversial bill to the Senate floor. But he can't ignore his growing suspicion that what's haunting Capitol Hill isn't the specter of foreign terrorism but something much closer to home. Now, with his ever-resourceful chief of staff-his wife, Christina-and along with his support team backing his play, Ben sets squares off against what could be the most dangerous Goliath he's ever challenged. Capitol Conspiracy is a bravura William Bernhardt performance-bursting into action on the very first page, and crackling with breathless suspense, sharp wit, crafty twists, and timely thrills clear through to the last.

The Firstborn-the mysterious race of aliens who first became known to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey» — «have inhabited legendary master of science fiction Sir Arthur C. Clarke's writing for decades. With Time's Eye and Sunstorm, the first two books in their acclaimed Time Odyssey series, Clarke and his brilliant co-author Stephen Baxter imagined a near-future in which the Firstborn seek to stop the advance of human civilization by employing a technology indistinguishable from magic. Their first act was the Discontinuity, in which Earth was carved into sections from different eras of history, restitched into a patchwork world, and renamed Mir. Mir's inhabitants included such notables as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and United Nations peacekeeper Bisesa Dutt. For reasons unknown to her, Bisesa entered into communication with an alien artifact of inscrutable purpose and godlike power-a power that eventually returned her to Earth. There, she played an instrumental role in humanity's race against time to stop a doomsday event: a massive solar storm triggered by the alien Firstborn designed to eradicate all life from the planet. That fate was averted at an inconceivable price. Now, twenty-seven years later, the Firstborn are back. This time, they are pulling no punches: They have sent a «quantum bomb.» Speeding toward Earth, it is a device that human scientists can barely comprehend, that cannot be stopped or destroyed-and one that will obliterate Earth. Bisesa's desperate quest for answers sends her first to Mars and then to Mir, which is itself threatened with extinction. The end seems inevitable. But as shocking new insights emerge into the nature of the Firstborn and their chilling plans for mankind, an unexpected ally appears from light-years away. «From the Hardcover edition.»

Politics has always been a dirty game. Now justice is, too. In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town's water supply, causing the worst cancer cluster in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it. Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided? The chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau, and Mr. Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket for a billionaire like Mr. Trudeau. Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mold him into a potential Supreme Court justice. Their Supreme Court justice.

If you’ve ever dreamed of starting your own business, or if you’ve ever wondered about how to build up the business you already run, but worry because you don’t have an MBA or a couple of years of college business courses, this book is for you. Based on extensive interviews with more than eighty women entrepreneurs from around the country, There’s a Business in Every Woman offers inspiring success stories (and instructive missteps) in a wide range of businesses–from catering, landscaping, personal training, and wedding and events planning to interior and clothing design, staffing, manufacturing, and product design. What the trailblazing women in this book have in common is a good idea and the courage to turn a dream into a money-making reality through hard work, passion, and drive. Take, for instance, the woman who started an IT consulting company in her basement and now has more than a thousand employees in three states; two jogging buddies who commiserated about their uncomfortable bras and went on to design and produce a jog bra, creating a company that Playtex ultimately bought for millions; the mom whose hand-made birthday-party invitations made such a splash that she launched her own custom party invitation company, which she expanded to include holiday cards, gift tags, bags, and more; the sixty-five-year-old corporate wife and mother who applied her domestic talents to opening a profitable B&B; the twenty-three-year-old who bought a fledging real estate franchise and now earns a healthy six figures annually. These success stories highlight the practical: focusing on what you’re good at; setting up your business properly–even if you are starting out from your basement or garage; getting financial backing when you need it; marketing your products with sizzle; networking like the “good old boys”; understanding how and when to diversify your products or services; managing your growth; and, most important, knowing what your company is worth and when it might be lucrative to cash out. An accessible crash course in starting and running your own business, There’s a Business in Every Woman will teach you everything you need to know to turn your pipedream into serious profits.

The break-out business parable that’s already sold more than 70,000 copies, The Angel Inside tells the story of a young man searching for meaning in his work and finding it in an unlikely place: the life and art of Michelangelo. There will come a time when you must decide to lead the life someone else has chosen for you…or the life you want. According to legend, when a young boy asked the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo why he was working so hard hitting the block of marble that would eventually become his greatest sculpture, David, the artist replied, “Young man, there is an angel inside this rock, and I am setting him free.” In The Angel Inside, the renowned consultant and career coach Chris Widener uses Michelangelo’s words to explore the hidden potential that exists within us all. In this unforgettable tale, Tom Cook, a disillusioned American businessman, has traveled to Italy looking for direction in his life. In Florence, the last city on his tour, Tom meets a mysterious old man who opens his eyes to the art and life of Michelangelo and reveals what the artist’s work can teach him—and all of us—about the power of following your passion. Among the lessons that Tom learns over the course of the next day: The beauty is in the details Your hand creates what your mind conceives All great accomplishments start with a single swift action No one begins by creating the Sistine Chapel Whether you’re looking for a way to reinvigorate your career or searching for the courage to begin a new one, THE ANGEL INSIDE is a must-read if you want to find true meaning in your life and work.

South Wales, 1968, and ten-year-old Liam is grappling with some big questions. Is he adopted? Is it true he'll live to be 108 if he drinks a glass of his own pee every day? Why does everyone laugh at his dad behind his back? The more he sees of the adult world, the less he understands. Until he makes friends with Marek. Marek, the son of Polish immigrants, reveals that the Russians are planning to stage a coup and take over Wales, just like they did in Poland. Liam and Marek form the resistance and begin a desperate campaign of sabotage. Meanwhile, at home, Liam finds no matter how hard he tries, he just can't make this parents love each other. And what are the strange noises coming from the cellar in the middle of the night?

Set mainly in Uzbekistan between 1900 and 1980, this compelling novel introduces to us the inhabitants of the small town of Gilas on the ancient Silk Route. Among those whose stories we hear are Mefody-Jurisprudence, the town's alcoholic intellectual; Father Ioann, a Russian priest; Kara-Musayev the Younger, the chief of police; and Umarali-Moneybags, the old moneylender. Their colorful lives offer a unique and comic picture of a little-known land populated by outgoing Mullahs, incoming Bolsheviks, and a plethora of Uzbeks, Russians, Persians, Jews, Koreans, Tatars, and Gypsies. At the heart of both the town and the novel stands the railway station—a source of income and influence, and a connection to the greater world beyond the town. Rich and picaresque, The Railway is highly sophisticated yet contains a naive delight in its storytelling, chronicling the dramatic changes felt throughout Central Asia in the early 20th century.

Set in Buenos Aires and Paris, Cozarinsky’s short novel about Jewish immigrants, and the related stories he has collected and retold in a fictional light, may be among the few records we have of a fascinating and little-known twilight society.

One night Jose Antonio Maria Vaz hears gunfire from the deserted theatre next door to his bakery. He races to the theatre's uppermost gallery, and there beneath him on a spotlit stage lies the wounded body of Nelio, a street urchin renowned for living on his wits. Gasping, the wounded boy asks to be taken to the roof to breathe the beautiful air fresh off the Indian Ocean. On that theatre roof, his life ebbing away, Nelio begins his story. At the age of five, Nelio watched helplessly as his village was burned to the ground and his people were massacred by bandits. He escaped by chance; a man handed him a gun and ordered him to shoot another boy, but instead he turned the gun on the bandit and ran. He made his way to the coast, encountering en route bizarre characters who gave him guidance. Upon arrival in the city, Nelio joined a rough street gang, and began a very different way of life. Henning Mankell's «Chronicler of the Winds» is a dazzling new venture from the master of crime; a beautifully told fable of the African continent.

Despite the heavy rain, the presiding officer at Polling Station 14 finds it odd that by midday on National Election day, only a handful of voters have turned out. Puzzlement swiftly escalates to shock when eventually, after an extension, the final count reveals seventy per cent of the votes are blank — not spoiled, simply blank. National law decrees the election should be repeated eight days later. The result is worse; eighty-three per cent of the votes are blank. The incumbent government receives eight per cent and the opposition even less. The authorities, seized with panic, decamp from the capital and place it under a state of emergency. Who are the insurgents? Why the desire to destabilise the country? The authorities leap from one possibility to the next, but achieve nothing. The lack of hostility exacerbates things, since how can justice be meted out when not a single law has been broken? To all intents and purposes the administration is blind. Similarities to the plague of blindness that struck the city four years ago become apparent. In his new novel, Jose Saramago has deftly created the politician's ultimate nightmare: disillusionment not with one party, but with all, thereby rendering the entire democratic system useless. «Seeing» explores how simply this could be achieved and how devastating the results might be.

There were conjugal visits in the slave camps of the USSR. Valiant women would travel continental distances, over weeks and months, in the hope of spending a night, with their particular enemy of the people, in the House of Meetings. The consequences of these liaisons were almost invariably tragic. «House of Meetings» is about one such liaison. It is a triangular romance: two brothers fall in love with the same girl, a nineteen-year-old Jewess, in Moscow, which is poised for pogrom in the gap between the war and the death of Stalin. Both brothers are arrested, and their rivalry slowly complicates itself over a decade in the slave camp above the Arctic Circle. As one brother, finally, writes to the other, 'You know what happened to us? It wasn't just a compendium of very bad experiences. That was general and standard-issue. That was off the rack. What I'm referring to is the destiny that is made to measure. Something was designed inside us, blending with what was already there. For each of us, in different ways and settings, the worst of all possible outcomes.' A short novel of great depth and richness, «House of Meetings» finds Martin Amis at the height of his powers, in new and remarkably fertile fictional territory.

The Fourth Way is the most comprehensive statement thus far published of the ideas taught by the late P.D. Ouspensky. Consisting of verbatim records of his oral teaching from 1921 to 1946, it gives a lucid explanation of the practical side of G. I. Gurdjieff's teachings, which Gurdjieff presented in the form of raw materials, Ouspensky's specific task having been to put them together as a systematic whole. Just as Tertium Organum deals with a new mode of thinking, so The Fourth Way is concerned with a new way of living. It shows a way of inner development to be followed under the ordinary conditions of life as distinct from the three traditional ways that call for retirement from the world: those of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. The Fourth Way is a guide for those who seek a true way of inner growth under conditions open to the men and women of today.

Studies man in view of what he may become. Describes how a man must work simultaneously on his knowledge and his being to find inner unity.

Michel is a civil-servant, an account manager at the Ministry of Culture. He is single, and likes his pleasures pre-packaged: game shows, TV movies, pornography and instant mash. When his father is murdered and he comes into some money, Michel takes leave of absence to go on a package tour to Thailand. Relieved to get away, he is nonetheless infuriated by the shallow hypocrisy and mediocrity of his fellow travellers. Only the awkward Valerie attracts his attention. Too bashful to pursue her, Michel prefers the uncomplicated pleasures of Thai massage parlours and sex with local women. Western society, he believes, has lost the sense of the other — the sensual, the exotic — that is necessary to pleasure. Back in Paris, he calls Valerie and they plunge into a passionate affair which strays far beyond the bounds of Michel's previous 'vanilla' existence, into S&M, partner-swapping and sex in public. Michel quits his job, and tries to help Valerie and her boss, Jean-Yves, in their ailing travel business, putting his philosophy into practice by offering consenting adults sexual tourism in the third world. The project is risky, but when the three return to Thailand, Michel discovers that sex is neither the most consuming nor the most dangerous of human passions...