Category Archives: Travel Guides
Gargling with Tar
Czechoslovakia, 1968. The Soviet troops have just invaded the country and, for the young orphan Ilya, life is suddenly turned on its head. At first there is relief that the mean-spirited nuns who run the orphanage have been driven out by the Communists, but as the children are left to fend for themselves, order and
The Tea Lords
Rudolf leaves his comfortable origins in Delft by ship for Java to help run the family`s estates there. He moves from plantation to plantation, attempting to understand the ways of the local peoples, their version of Islam and their relationship to their land. On a visit to the capital, Jakarta, he falls in love with
One More Year
The protagonists of Sana Krasikov`s indelible stories are mostly women – some of them are new to America; some still live in the former Soviet Union, in Georgia or Russia; and, some have returned to Russia to find a country they barely recognize and people they no longer understand. Mothers leave children behind; children abandon
Something Fierce
One minute, 11-year-old Carmen is watching her hippy mum put curlers in for the first time, the next she is being dragged with her sister through LA airport with her mother muttering about `the patriarchy` under her breath. The three of them board a plane that takes them to Peru, next door to the Chile
Learning to Lose
It is the day of Sylvia`s 16th birthday and her life as an adult is about to begin – not with the party she had been planning, but with a car-crash. At the wheel is a talented young footballer, just arrived from Buenos Aires, and set for stardom on and off the pitch.As their destinies
My Friend Jesus Christ
When Nick is 13, he loses his parents in a car-crash. His sister, seven years his elder, is left to look after him. As he grows up, she longs to lose this brotherly millstone around her neck, but he cannot bear the thought of losing her protection. So Nick goes to extremes to retain her
The Falafel King is Dead
Raw, lyrical, shocking and moving, “The Falafel King is Dead” is Sara Shilo`s powerful debut novel recounting the life of an ordinary Israeli family over the course of a single, extraordinary day in prose that we have never been encountered in contemporary Hebrew literature.The town has lost its famed falafel king, but the Dadon family
The Baby of Belleville
Jane de la Rochefoucault has just brought home her firstborn and her world is in chaos.As well as the nappies, the night-time gurgling, and the constant feeding, she can barely move for packing cases and the cumbersome musical instruments that her aristocratic French composer husband keeps inventing. And then one evening, a knock on the
The Still Point
At the turn of the twentieth century, Arctic explorer Edward Mackley sets out to reach the North Pole and vanishes into the icy landscape without a trace. He leaves behind a young wife, Emily, who awaits his return for decades, her dreams and devotion gradually freezing into rigid widowhood. A hundred years later, on a
The Rest is Silence
As the adults sit down to gossip over a long wedding lunch and the rest of the children rush off to play, a young boy slips out of sight beneath the table. At twelve years old, Tommy`s weak heart prevents him from joining his cousins` games, so he sets his MP3 player to record the
Circus Bulgaria
A boxer-turned-hitman faces an impossible mission to kill his brother; an old lady sets up a gang of her own teenage vigilantes after being mugged herself; a village boy faces the gruesome end of his beloved pet piglet; a retired geography teacher dreams of places he`s never been; a clown on the make talks an
Rainbow Pie: A Memoir Of Redneck America
While Obama`s triumphant `Yes we can` continued to reverberate, it was tempting to believe that a new era of opportunity had dawned. But for several million dirt-poor, disgruntled Americans the possibility of change is as far away as ever. These are the gun-owning, donut dunkin`, uninsured, underemployed rednecks who occupy America`s heartland: the ones who
The Secret Lives of Buildings
The plans are drawn up, a site is chosen, foundations are dug: a building comes into being with the expectation that it will stay put and stay for ever. But a building is a capricious thing: it is inhabited and changed, and its existence is a tale of constant and curious transformation. In this radical
Dreaming in Hindi
`I took up with Hindi at a time when it seemed my life had buckled out from under me – I no longer had the language to describe my own life. So I decided I`d borrow someone else`s.` Having survived a serious illness and now at an impasse in her career, Rich spontaneously accepts a
A Short Border Handbook
After spending his childhood and school years in Albania, imagining that the mini-skirts and quiz-shows of Italian state TV were the reality of life in the West, and fantasizing accordingly about living on the other side of the border, the death of Hoxha at last enables Gazmend Kapllani to make his escape. However, on arriving
White Fever
This is the story of a journey like no other, as Jacek Hugo-Bader makes his way across Siberia, from Moscow to Vladivostok, in the middle of winter. Travelling alone in a modified Russian jeep, he traverses a continent that is two-and-a-half times bigger than America, awash with bandits and not always fully equipped with roads.
Y6 Suffolk and Essex Coasts
On this 2018 edition the latest available depth surveys have been applied. The chart specification has been improved to show coloured light flashes. There has been general updating throughout.
C1 Thames Estuary
Imray’s series of charts of Northwest Europe are comprehensive and easy-to-use sailing charts published on rip-proof, waterproof paper- ideal for use on small tables or in cockpits. They show detailed coastline and depth information, and are constantly corrected to reflect latest information. The C Charts offer coverage for cruising on larger-size sheets; they are suitable
The Russian Dream Book Of Colour And Flight
In her very dusty provincial museum of fake exhibits lovingly crafted from cardboard, wire and glue, Tanya dreams of Russian art`s long colors and wonders when Yuri will stop fishing long enough to notice how she adores him, while she tries the zero-one-zero diet in order to meet Aeroflot`s maximum waist requirements for trainee cabin-crew.
