Random House Inc.

In 100, carefully selected places, «BBC History Magazine» editor Dave Musgrove takes us on an unforgettable historical tour through British history, from the Roman invasion to 1960s Liverpool. Musgrove has asked foremost British historians such as Dominic Sandbrook, to nominate the sites they believe to be the most important in our history, and has travelled to each place to provide a visitor's point of view alongside the captivating stories that make each one great. Covering the length and breadth of the British mainland and two thousand of years of history, «100 Places that Made Britain» visits renowned sites such as the Tower of London and Runnymede, as well as less well-known places like Rushton Triangular Lodge in Northamptonshire — a three-sided, three-themed house built during the Reformation and designed to represent the Holy Trinity — and Jarrow, home of the first chronicler of Anglo-Saxon Britain, The Venerable Bede. Each essay adds another layer to our understanding of Britain's story, whether it be an advance in politics, religion, law or culture. Bringing the vast history of this small island to life, «100 Places that Made Britain» is a captivating historical compendium that will have every reader criss-crossing the country to explore its myriad treasures.

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, it is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers.

In 'the stifling heat of equatorial Newark', a terrifying epidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey city with maiming, paralysis, life-long disability, even death. This is the startling and surprising theme of Roth's wrenching new book: a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect it has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children. At the centre of Nemesis is a vigorous, dutiful, twenty-three-year old playground director, Bucky Cantor, a javelin thrower and a weightlifter, who is devoted to his charges and disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. Focusing on Cantor's dilemmas as polio begins to ravage his playground — and on the everyday realities he faces — Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: the fear, the panic, the anger, the bewilderment, the suffering, and the pain. Moving between the smouldering, malodorous streets of besieged Newark and Indian Hill, a pristine children's summer camp high in the Poconos — whose 'mountain air was purified of all contaminants' — Roth depicts a decent, energetic man with the best intentions struggling in his own private war against the epidemic. Roth is tenderly exact at every point about Cantor's passage into personal disaster and no less exact about the condition of childhood. Through this story runs the dark question that haunts all four of Roth's late short novels, Everyman, Indignation, The Humbling, and now, Nemesis: what choices fatally shape a life? How powerless is each of us up against the force of circumstances?

'For most of us the Arctic is, above all, an idea. It cannot be mapped, it can only be described. Cold, isolation, emptiness, white, pristine — these are the words it evokes; these are the preconceptions through which we filter all subsequent information about it. Yet many of those preconceptions — the same ones which, as a child, drew me towards the Arctic — are wrong'. Always lingering at the margins of global affairs and at the edge of our mental map, the Arctic has now found its way to the centre of the issues which will challenge and define our world in the twenty-first century: energy security and the struggle for natural resources, climate change and its uncertain speed and consequences, the return of great power competition and the remaking of global trade patterns. In The Future History of the Arctic, geopolitics expert Charles Emmerson weaves together the history of the region with reportage and reflection, revealing a vast and complex area of the globe, loaded with opportunity and rich in challenges. We travel with him from the oil-fields of Prudhoe Bay to the shores of Greenland, from the northernmost settlement on earth to the militarised borderlands of northern Norway. And along the way we meet diplomats, spies, businessmen, oil-workers, fishermen, politicians and scientists. The Arctic is coming of age. This engrossing book tells the story of how that is happening and how it might happen — through the stories of those who live there, those who study it, and those who will determine its destiny.

In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy boards a huge liner bound for England — a 'castle that was to cross the sea'. At mealtimes, he is placed at the lowly 'Cat's Table' with an eccentric group of grown-ups and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys become involved in the worlds and stories of the adults around them, tumbling from one adventure and delicious discovery to another, 'bursting all over the place like freed mercury'. And at night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner — his crime and fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever. As the narrative moves from the decks and holds of the ship and the boy's adult years, it tells a spellbinding story about the difference between the magical openness of childhood and the burdens of earned understanding — about a life-long journey that began unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage, when all on board were 'free of the realities of the earth'. With the ocean liner a brilliant microcosm for the floating dream of childhood, The Cat's Table is a vivid, poignant and thrilling book, full of Ondaatje's trademark set-pieces and breathtaking images: a story told with a child's sense of wonder by a novelist at the very height of his powers.

'One of the very best English comic novelists of the post-war era' — Time Out. Three brilliantly comic novels revolving around the University of Rummidge and the eventful lives of its role-swapping academics.

In 1886 a mysterious travelling circus becomes an international sensation. Open only at night, constructed entirely in black and white, the Cirque des Reves delights all who wander its circular paths and warm themselves at its bonfire. There are contortionists, performing cats, carousels and illusionists — all the trappings of an ordinary circus. But this is no conventional spectacle. Some tents contain clouds, some ice. The circus seems almost to cast a spell over its aficionados, who call themselves the reveurs — the dreamers. And who is the sinister man in the grey suit who watches over it all? Behind the scenes a dangerous game is being played out by two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who, at the behest of their masters, are forced to test the very limits of the imagination — and of love. A feast for the senses, a fin-de-siecle fantasia of magic and mischief, and the most original love story since «The Time Traveller's Wife», «The Night Circus» is an extraordinary blend of fantasy and reality. It will dazzle readers young and old with its virtuoso performance, and who knows, they might not want to leave the world it creates.

In February 2011, in scenes that evoked the chilliest moments of the Cold War, journalist Luke Harding was expelled from Moscow. His offence? To have reported on aspects of contemporary Russia that the authorities would have preferred to remain hidden from view. Moscow Ghosts is a clear-eyed and unflinching chronicle of Luke's often terrifying experiences in Russia in the months leading up to his expulsion. It describes his encounters with Russia's sinister FSB security service, the leather-jacketed agents who tailed him, and his summons to Lefortovo, formerly the KGB's notorious Moscow prison. It also details the secret psychological war the FSB waged against the journalist and his family. Emails were intercepted. Break-ins at his flat were routine and calculated. Luke might well return home to find that the smoke alarm had been tampered with, or a sex manual left by his bed, or a teddy bear left in his young son's room. But then, as Harding shows, intimidation of anyone who asks awkward questions is commonplace in today's Russia, and he goes on to explore the climate of fear that currently prevails. He talks to journalists who have been harassed and bullied. He includes accounts of interviews with human rights workers — among them Natalia Estemirova, who was brutally murdered in 2009. He reports from Chechnya and Dagestan, in Russia's troubled Caucasus region, and from the frontline on Moscow's 2008 war with Georgia. And he looks at news stories that the Kremlin would prefer journalists not to cover, including allegations made in the WikiLeaks cables that under the rule of Vladimir Putin Russia has become a 'virtual mafia state'. This is a frank and deeply disturbing portrait of contemporary Russia, written by someone who knows what it is like to be on the wrong side of those in power.

The President's son and daughter are abducted, and Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene. But someone very high up is using the FBI, Secret Service, and CIA to keep him off the case and in the dark. A deadly contagion in the water supply cripples half of the capital, and Cross discovers that someone may be about to unleash the most devastating attack the United States has ever experienced. As his window for solving both crimes narrows, Alex makes a desperate decision that goes against everything he believes — one that may alter the fate of the entire country. Kill Alex Cross is faster, more exciting, and more tightly wound than any Alex Cross thriller James Patterson has ever written!

Arguably the greatest horror novel ever written by the greatest horror novelist, this is a true Modern Classic that was first published in 1978, and then re-published in 1990, complete and unabridged, with 150,000 words cut from the first edition restored, and now accompanied by unusual and imaginative line art. The total copies for both editions, in hardcover and paperback, exceeds 4 million worldwide. The Stand is a truly terrifying reading experience, and became a four-part mini-series that memorably brought to life the cast of characters and layers of story from the novel. It is an apocalyptic vision of the world, when a deadly virus runs amok around the globe. But that lethal virus is almost benign compared to the satanic force gathering minions from those still alive to destroy humanity and create a world populated by evil. Stephen King is a brilliant storyteller who has the uncanny gift of putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, giving readers an experience that chills and thrills on every page.

From Manhattan to Paris and all the way to Tehran, #1 «New York Times» — bestselling author Steel weaves a powerfully compelling story that reminds readers how challenging and unpredictable life can be — and how the bonds of family hold them together.

This rediscovered gem by a major, yet neglected, writer — here presented in a dazzling new translation — is an absorbing account of the final days of Czarist Russia. An absorbing saga about the brutalities of military life upon its own soldiers. Stranded at a distant outpost, young Romashov finds himself obliged to fight a duel — over something he realizes is meaningless. As the novel hurtles toward a startling conclusion, it reveals itself to be a luminous depiction of the end of an era.

Conan the Barbarian is one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created — a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, annihilating powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and whole armies of ruthless foes. Today his name is synonymous with the epic battles of ancient times, but Conan originated in the early decades of the twentieth century with one of the founding fathers of fantasy, the visionary Robert E. Howard. The unforgettable stories collected here form a thrilling adventure, following Conan from his mercenary youth to his bloody conquests on the frontier and even the high seas. Bold and enduring, the legend of Conan the Barbarian continues to grow in popularity and influence.

King's #1 bestseller about a shy teenage girl who's bullied at school — but whose secret power allows her to exact revenge on her tormentors at prom.

Brooks, author of the straight-faced parody «The Zombie Survival Guide», tells the story of the world's desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts by various characters around the world.

The restrictions of a wartime childhood in London and subsequent post-war shortages have done little to enrich Timothy's early youth. But everything changes when his glamorous older sister, Kath, invites him to spend the summer at Heidelberg. Kath, who left home long ago to work for the American army, introduces her sixteen-year-old brother to a lifestyle that is deliriously fast, furious and extravagant. Dazzled by the indulgent habits of the American forces, but at the same time sensitive to the broken spirits of the German community beneath this sparkling surface, Timothy will find that his summer holiday is in more ways than one an unforgettable rite of passage.

An innocent man is days from execution. Only a guilty man can save him. Travis Boyette is a murderer. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high-school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched and waited as police and prosecutors arrested Donte Drumm, a local football star with no connection to the crime. Tried, convicted and sentenced, Drumm was sent to death row: his fate had been decided. Nine years later, Donte Drumm is four days from execution. Over 400 miles away in Kansas, Travis faces a fate of his own: an inoperable brain tumour will soon deliver the end. Reflecting on his miserable life, he decides to do what's right. After years of silence he is ready to confess. But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges and politicians that they're about to execute an innocent man?

If I had one wish in all the world, I wouldn't wish to win the lottery. Nor would I wish for true love. No, if I had one wish I would wish to have a model's figure, probably Cindy Crawford's, and I would extend that wish into having and keeping a model's figure, no matter what I eat. Jemima Jones is overweight. About 98 pounds overweight. Treated like a maid by her thin social-climbing roommates, and lorded over by the beautiful Geraldine (less talented but better paid) at the Kilburn Herald, Jemima's only consolation is food. Add to this her passion for her charming, sexy, and unobtainable colleague Ben, and Jemima knows her life is in need of a serious change. When she meets Brad, an eligible California hunk, over the Internet, Jemima has the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself — as JJ, the slim, beautiful, gym-obsessed glamour girl of her dreams. But when her long-distance Romeo demands that they meet, she must conquer her food addiction to become the bone-thin model of her e-mails — no small feat. This is just the beginning of Jemima's transformation, a process that takes her through enormous physical and emotional change and halfway around the globe. First published in the UK to great fanfare, Jemima J spent nine weeks on the bestseller lists. Jane Green's brilliant wit, warm sense of humor and honesty ensure that her success will continue--on both sides of the Atlantic. Jemima J is a heroine who'll work her way into your heart, making you laugh through foible and folly as she sets out to reinvent her life and along the way learns a host of lessons about attraction, addiction, the meaning of true love, and, ultimately, who she really is. With a fast-paced plot and a surprise ending no reader will see coming, Jemima J is the chronicle of one woman's quest to become the woman she's always wanted to be.

The mysterious Stig, «Top Gear's» resident tame racing driver, is back. And this time he's in miniature, so you'll have to work extra hard to find him. He's been cleverly concealed in a series of brilliantly drawn scenes. You might spot him getting down with the kids at a rock festival; or overseeing his workforce in his secret underground lair. He could be one of the spectators lining the route of Bonneville Salt Flats Speed Week; or soaking up the sun on the Costa del Stig. Filled with visual jokes and references to the TV series, and with extra credits for spotting his colleagues at «Top Gear» and a few other hidden gems, «Where's Stig?: The Glovebox Edition» will give «Top Gear» fans hours of fun.

Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he is not prepared for: telepathic powers connect him with 1,000 other 'midnight's children' all of whom are endowed with unusual gifts. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem's story is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious.

»The Soul of Leadership» decodes the mysterious qualities that have propelled history's greatest leaders to the top of the ranks and shrouded them in legend — Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Buddha — and provides a hands-on approach to understanding and mastering these qualities. The 10 Fundamental Principles, that Deepak Chopra believes all leaders should follow, include: a leader is the symbolic soul of the group; inner qualities determine the outcome of any situation; for every need, the right response can be found; great leaders can respond to all situations from the higher levels of spirit; and, a leader focused only on external goals (money, victory, power) will fail. Using well-known examples of great leaders and a clear, concise breakdown of the virtues that a great leader must possess, «The Soul of Leadership» demystifies leadership and empowers us all to become leaders in our own right — from managing a family crisis to starting our own business.

This title comes with an introduction by Johnny Depp. This is a screenplay based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson. It's 1960. In a highrise hotel not far from the beaches of San Juan, a man is recovering from an animal of a hangover. Paul Kemp is an alcoholic journalist who's barely seen better days, arriving at the only job he can get: writing horoscopes for failing rag «The Daily Star». His fellow hacks are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting, so Kemp fits in perfectly. But when he meets the impossibly gorgeous Chenault and her flashy boyfriend Sanderson, Kemp finds himself in way over his head — party to shady business deals, in hair-raising car chases with enraged Puerto Ricans, experimenting with a hitherto unknown hallucinogen — and finally discovers a mad, desperate devotion to the truth. Bruce Robinson brings Hunter S. Thompson's novel to the big screen with all the brilliance, wild humour and fierce energy associated with the acclaimed writer and director of «Withnail & I» and «The Killing Fields».

One of the world's most brilliant economists and the bestselling author of «The End of Poverty», Jeffrey Sachs has written a book that is essential reading for everyone — politicians, people in business and industry, and you. Setting out a bold and provocative, yet responsible and achievable, plan, «The Price of Civilization» reveals why we must — and how we can — change our entire economic culture in this time of crisis. The world economy remains in a precarious state after the recent global recession — where quick fixes were implemented instead of sustainable solutions to systemic problems. Jeffrey Sachs argues powerfully for a new co-operative, common-sense political economy, one that stresses practical partnership between government and the private sector, demands competence in both arenas and occasionally insists on carefully chosen public and private sacrifices. In this new era of global capitalism, Sachs believes that we have to forget partisanship and solve these enormous problems together, clinically and holistically, just as one would approach the eradication of a disease. «The Price of Civilization» explains how government can be made to reform corporate culture by fairly policing compensation but not stifling competition and forced to improve our energy infrastructure by both taxing emissions and providing market incentives for innovation. Sachs shows how government, business and citizens can find common ground — on bank accountability, the decentralising of social services and taxing the super-rich — as a way to achieve our shared goals of efficiency, equity and sustainability. Sparing no-one but potentially benefiting us all, «The Price of Civilization» is a masterful roadmap, a programme designed to bridge seemingly impossible divides in our society and a way forward that we — and our leaders — ignore at our peril.

Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a leather bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend Katherine fill his thoughts — until he realises that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won't stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted maximum revenge. Trailing him is the Ghost, the world's greatest assassin, who has just pulled off his most high-profile hit: killing Walter Zelvas, a top member of the international Diamond Syndicate. There's only one small problem: the diamonds he was supposed to retrieve from Zelvas are missing. Now, the Ghost is on Bannon's trail — but so is a rival assassin who would like nothing more than to make the Ghost disappear for ever.