King Mansolain is a thousand years old and fading; his devoted attendant Hare ushers in a caravan of storytellers to keep him alive - a rabbit, a donkey, a mouse, a dwarf, a witch - while wa... read more
The rise of Suleyman the Magnificent is told with a clever balance of the close (viziers, lovers, military commanders) and the distant (Venice, popes, emperors, Christendom and its interneci... read more
After looking at the bleak trajectory of Erdogan's regime, DB argues that Turkey's democratic instincts and economic ties to Europe will win in the end.
This recent, fascinating Yale study of the 'lithic imagination' is already out of print in hardback but the paperback is a fine subsitute, and just as well illustrated.
Lucy Atkinson (1817-1893) was an English Atkinson was an English nanny working in Russia. In 1848 she set out with her new husband on a six-year exploration of Siberia and Central Asia, by f... read more
An elegant exploration of how British Prime Ministers, from Eden to Blair and beyond, have engaged in the Middle East under the misconception that they could help solve disputes because they... read more
A powerful coming-of-age story - and its consequences for others - by the French-Mauritian writer who won the Prix Femina des Lyceens for The Tropic of Violence.
Slim but far-reaching memoir of the author's brush with suicide, framed as the consequence of familial trauma and isolation. Superbly written, this bears honourable comparison with William S... read more
The life of Violeta, of her family, friends and lovers, told in letters to a beloved grandson. Born in 1920 and in her hundredth year, Violeta's story encompasses Chile's C20th struggles.
The author is a US journalist who, in 2016, accompanied an Afghan driver determined to leave his country for the West. It is an extraordinary account of how this ghastly odyssey works from t... read more