‘Exquisite in its honesty and truth and resilience, and a necessary chronicle from one of the greatest writers of our time’ Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieSelected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the GuardianWhen Ngugi wa Thiong’o arrives at the prestigious Makerere University, it embodies all the potential and excitement of the early 1960s. Campus is a haven of opportunity for the brightest African students, a meeting place for thinkers and writers from all over the world, and its alumni are filling Africa’s emerging political and cultural positions.Despite the challenges he faces as a young black man in a British colony, it is here that Ngugi begins to find his voice as a playwright, journalist and novelist, writing his first, pivotal works just as the countries of East Africa enter the final stages of their independence struggles.

"First published in Japan in 2003 and never before published in the United States, Dead-End Memories collects the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, quietly discover their ways back to recovery. Among the women we meet in Dead-End Memories is one betrayed by her fiancé who finds a perfect refuge in an apartment above her uncle's bar while seeking the real meaning of happiness. In "House of Ghosts," the daughter of a yoshoku restaurant owner encounters the ghosts of a sweet elderly couple who haven't yet realized that they've been dead for years. In "Tomo-chan's Happiness," an office worker who is a victim of sexual assault finally catches sight of the hope of romance. Yoshimoto's gentle, effortless prose reminds us that one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and that happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to pause and reflect. Discover this collection of what Yoshimoto herself calls the "most precious work of my writing career.""--

A jewel-bright place of change, with sumptuous new palaces and lavish wealth on display. A city where women are seen but not heard.Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters -- men and boys. She knows she is more talented than her brothers, but she cannot choose her own future. She wants to experience the world, but she belongs to her father and will belong to a husband.As Artemisia patiently goes from lesson to lesson, perfecting her craft, she also paints in private, recreating the women who inspire her, away from her father's eyes.Until a mysterious tutor enters her life. Tassi is a dashing figure, handsome and worldly, and for a moment he represents everything that a life of freedom might offer. But then the unthinkable happens.In the eyes of her family, Artemisia should accept her fate. In the eyes of the law, she is the villain.But Artemisia is a survivor. And this is her story to tell.

Has creative cursing developed because we can't just slug people when they make us angry? Throughout the twentieth century there seems to have been a dramatic escalation in the use and acceptance of offensive language in English, both verbally and in print. Just how have we become such a bunch of cursers and what does it tell us about our language and ourselves? A look at the power of words to shock, offend, insult, amuse, exaggerate, let off steam, establish relationships, and communicate deep-felt emotions, this book seeka to discover how what was once considered unfit-for-company argot has become standard fare. Wajnryb steps outside the confines of English in her search for answers, exploring whether offensive words in English are mirrored in other languages and examining cultural differences in the usage of dirty words.--From publisher description

The narrative of My Friend Maya centres on the complex friendship between two young women, Maya and Sehar, who crossed paths in their twenties. Maya is adventurous and feisty with a rebellious approach to life, while Sehar is calm and pragmatic, living her life according to an austere moral and ethical code. Their close bond, rooted in trauma, evolves into a tumultuous relationship marked by emotional turmoil and startling revelations. Sehar soon realises that there is more to Maya than her charming exterior. Their relationship gradually spirals into an abyss of deceit, manipulation and guilt.The story explores themes of narcissism, mental illness and substance abuse set in the 1990s Karachi, highlighting societal taboos and challenges faced by women. It addresses the stigma surrounding mental health and its impact on personal relationships

"Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children, Winnie and Joe. But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past."--

A perennial bestseller in the wizarding world and one of the most popular books in the Hogwarts School library, Quidditch Through the Ages contains all you will ever need to know about the history, the rules – and the breaking of the rules – of the noble sport of Quidditch. Packed with fascinating facts, this definitive guide by the esteemed Quidditch writer Kennilworthy Whisp charts the game's history from its early origins in the medieval mists on Queerditch Marsh, through to the modern-day sport loved by so many wizard and Muggle families around the world. With comprehensive coverage of famous Quidditch teams, the commonest fouls, the development of racing brooms, and much more, this is a must-have sporting bible for all Harry Potter fans, Quidditch lovers and players, whether the weekend amateur or the seasoned Chudley Cannons season-ticket holder.This brand new edition of the most famous sports book in the wizarding world pairs J.K. Rowling's original text, with gorgeous jacket art by Jonny Duddle and line illustrations throughout by Tomislav Tomic. A contribution from the sale of each book will go to Comic Relief.

"To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming"--

"This is the story of a few strange hours in the life of a troubled teenage boy. He is wandering into the night listening to the voices in his head: his teachers, his parents, the people he has hurt and the people who are trying to love him. He is escaping Last Chance, a home for "very disturbed young men," and walking into the haunted space between his night terrors, his past, and the heavy question of his future. Shy is a music-besotted literary performance that has had critics in awe of Porter's "bravura, extended-mix of a novel that skitters, pulses, fractures and coalesces again with all the exhilaration and doom of broken beats and heavy bass lines" (Hermione Hoby, The New York Times Book Review)"--

"A woman moves from the place of her birth to a remote northern country to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has just left him. The youngest child of many siblings--more than she cares to remember --from earliest childhood she has attended to their every desire, smoothed away the slightest discomfort with perfect obedience, with the highest degree of devotion. Soon after she arrives, a series of unfortunate events occurs--collective bovine hysteria; the demise of a ewe and her nearly-born lamb; a local dog's phantom pregnancy; a potato blight. She notices that the local suspicion about incomers in general seems to be directed particularly in her case. What is clear is that she is being accused of wrongdoing, but in a language she cannot understand and so cannot address. And however diligently and silently she toils in service of the community, still she feels their hostility growing, pressing at the edges of her brother's property. And inside the house, although she tends to her brother and his home with the utmost care and attention, he too begins to fall ill..."--

"Pakistan is the sixth most populus country of the world. Unexpectedly the education system in Pakistan is quite orthodox in teaching and learning. There are numerous educational institutes in Pakistan but they are rigorously following traditions. There are problems with infrastructure and in some areas the basic facilities are also not there. Sometime the classrooms are overpopulated and sometimes there are places where no teacher is available to teach the students. All these factors are causing a lot of problems with learners to compete in the modern world. English enjoys the status of official language in the country but surprisingly learning of English is a troublesome area. There are problems not only in basic English language learning but many of the second language learners face problem when they appear in international tests and competitive examination. English language classrooms are usually boring and uninteresting. Therefore, this book is written with an aim to provide alternative solutions to the conventional methods by integrating modern technology tools in Pakistani classrooms. The scope of this book is widened for language researchers, policy makers, readers and administrators of the government to analyse some of the problems and issues mentioned in this book and develop a roadmap for better education"--

"Meet Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company's outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants--boys like himself, men from Africa, a mad woman from London--must work the tobacco plantations. Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. Set during the early days of English colonization in Jamestown, before servitude calcified into racialized slavery, The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historic figure and brings the world he would have encountered to vivid life"--

"The Coin's narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal self, the ideal life, remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start. In New York, she strives to put down roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, where her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless swindler, and the two participate in an intercontinental scheme reselling Birkin bags. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness, and the narrator unravels spectacularly"--

1798, France. Nuns move along the dark corridors of a Versailles hospital where the young Sister Perpetué has been tasked with sitting with the patient who must always be watched. The man, gaunt, with his sallow skin and distended belly, is dying: they say he ate a golden fork, and that it's killing him from the inside. But that's not all--he is rumored to have done monstrous things in his attempts to sate an insatiable appetite... an appetite they say tortures him still. Born in an impoverished village to a widowed young mother, Tarare was once overflowing with quiet affection: for the Baby Jesus and the many Saints, for his mother, for the plants and little creatures in the woods and fields around their house. He spends his days alone, observing the delicate charms of the countryside. But his world is not a gentle one--and soon, life as he knew it is violently upended. Tarare is pitched down a chaotic path through revolutionary France, left to the mercy of strangers, and increasingly, bottomlessly, ravenous.

"Anne Berest's The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. Luminous and gripping to the very last page, it is an enthralling investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life. January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest's maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques--all killed at Auschwitz. Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling that shatters long-held certainties about Anne's family, her country, and herself." --

"The most comprehensive collection of postcolonial writing theory and criticism, this third edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to include 124 from key works in the field. Leading, as well as lesser-known figures in the fields of writing, theory and criticism contribute to this inspiring body of work that includes sections on nationalism, hybridity, diaspora and globalization. As in the first two editions, this new edition of The Postcolonial Studies Reader ranges as widely as possible to reflect the remarkable diversity of work in the discipline and the vibrancy of anti-imperialist and decolonizing writing both within and without the metropolitan centres. This volume includes new work in the field over the decade and a half since the second edition was published. Covering more debates, topics and critics than any comparable book in its field The Postcolonial Studies Reader provides the ideal starting point for students and issues a potent challenge to the ways in which we think and write about literature and culture"--

"If you could swap your life for a better one, which would you choose? On the outskirts of Rainbow Town, there is an old, abandoned house. They say that if you send a letter detailing your misfortunes there, you could receive a ticket. If you bring this ticket to the house on the first day of the rainy season, you'll be granted entrance into the mysterious Rainfall Market-where you can choose to completely change your life. No one is more surprised than Serin when she receives a ticket. Lonely and with no real prospects for a future, Serin ventures to the market, determined to create a better life for herself. There, she meets a magical cat companion named Issha and they search through bookstores, perfumeries, and magical realms while Serin tries to determine what her perfect life will look like. The catch? Serin only has one week to find her happiness or be doomed to vanish into the market forever. And all the while, a shadow follows quietly behind them..."--

"In the wake of her parents' death, Aretha, a habitually single Black lawyer, has had only one obsession in life-success-until she falls for Aaron, a coffee entrepreneur. Moving into his Brooklyn brownstone to live along with his Hurricane Sandy-traumatized, illegal-gun-stockpiling, optimized-soy-protein-eating, bunker-building roommates, Aretha finds that her dreams of making partner are slipping away, replaced by an underground world, one of selling guns and training for a doomsday that's maybe just around the corner"--

"Gale Study Guides to Great Literature" is a reference line composed of three series: "Literary Masters", "Literary Masterpieces" and "Literary Topics". Convenient, comprehensive and targeted toward current coursework, these guides place authors, titles and topics into context for high school and college students as well as general researchers. Each "Literary Masters" volume introduces a significant author, covering basic biographical information. The related "Literary Masterpieces" volume explores a major title from this author's works in detail. Finally, the "Literary Topics" volume places the author and work within a relevant literary movement or genre.

"A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speak out from a pulsing metropolis. Tunde, the man at the center of this novel, reflects on the places and times of his life, from his West African upbringing to his current work as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories: stories from history and epic; stories of friends, family, and strangers; stories found in books and films. Together these stories make up his days. In aggregate these days comprise a life"--

"A boldly imagined debut novel about three Vietnamese siblings who seek refuge in the UK, expanding into a luminous meditation on ancestry and love. After the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh, and Minh begin a perilous journey to Hong Kong with the promise that their parents and younger siblings will soon follow. But when tragedy strikes, the three children are left orphaned, and sixteen-year-old Anh becomes the caretaker for her two younger brothers overnight. In the years that follow, Anh and her brothers resettle in the UK and confront their new identities as refugees, first in overcrowded camps and resettlement centers and then, later, in a modernizing London plagued by social inequality and raging anti-immigrant sentiment. Anh works in a clothing factory to pay their bills. Minh loiters about with fellow unemployed high school dropouts. Thanh, the youngest, plays soccer with his British friends after class. As they mature, each sibling reckons with survivor's guilt, unmoored by their parents' absence. With every choice they make, their paths diverge further, until it's unclear if love alone can keep them together. Told through lyrical narrative threads, historical research, voices from lost family, and notes by an unnamed narrator determined to chart their fate, Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family marked by war and loss yet relentless in the pursuit of a better future. With urgency and precision, it affirms that the most important stories are those we claim for ourselves, establishing Cecile Pin as a masterful new literary voice"--

Informed by traditional African storytelling, discover Ngugi wa Thiong'o's masterpiece.To honour the Ruler's birthday, the Free Republic of Aburiria set out to build a tower; a modern wonder of the world that will reach the gates of Heaven. But behind this pillar of unity a battle for control of the Aburirian people rages. Among the contenders: the eponymous Wizard, an avatar of folklore and wisdom; the corrupt Christian Ministry; and the nefarious Global Bank.'Mythological but also cheerfully disenchanted; political and playful; cartoonish but also epical... the African novel may well have delivered its greatest masterpiece' Sunday Herald