My Native Land
James Cook
Publisher: Project Gutenberg
Summary
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Publisher: Project Gutenberg
Sorry, we have no synopsis for this book right now. Sign in to read it on 24symbols.com
Christopher and Alexandra's passion for each other raises eyebrows and invites envy. This beautiful, blinkered couple do the unthinkable and run away from home, abandoning their two teenage children. Their sudden departure is an act of glorious wilfulness. Life in the countries they visit is nothing more than a backdrop to their love affair. Fifteen years later Alexandra is in remote Bolivia with a lover young enough to be her son and Christopher is in Venice, desolate and alone but for the pigeons and prostitutes. Tormented by past mistakes, neither can accept that they may never meet again. The most exhilarating novel I've read all year.' Scotland on Sunday A rich story of the heart told through a harlequin pattern of alternating voices, each of which is a work of real imaginative insight.' Marie Claire Maggie Gee's immense talent catches passion on the wing a romance of a truth and depth that's never without humour.' Mail on Sunday A remarkable and ambitious book, a tribute to Maggie Gee's imaginative power.' Literary Review More erotic than a thousand blockbusters' Mail on Sunday So rich it is almost aromatic ... an impressive and important novel' Nigella Lawson, The Evening Standard Compulsive reading' The Sunday TimesShow book
A remarkable poetry collection from Clint Smith, the #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Critics Circle award-winning author of How the Word Is Passed. Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. There are poems that interrogate the ways our lives are shaped by both personal lineages and historical institutions. There are poems that revel in the wonder of discovering the world anew through the eyes of your children, as they discover it for the first time. There are poems that meditate on what it means to raise a family in a world filled with constant social and political tumult. Above Ground wrestles with how we hold wonder and despair in the same hands, how we carry intimate moments of joy and a collective sense of mourning in the same body. Smith’s lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not only through the early years of his children’s lives, but through the changing world in which they are growing up—through the changing world of which we are all a part.Above Ground is a breathtaking collection that follows Smith's first award-winning book of poetry, Counting Descent.Show book
The Republic is a Socratic dialogue, authored by Plato around 375 BCE, concerning justice, the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man.It is Plato's best-known work, and one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically. In the dialogue, Socrates discusses the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man with various Athenians and foreigners. He considers the natures of existing regimes and then proposes a series of hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis , a utopian city-state ruled by a philosopher-king. They also discuss ageing, love, theory of forms, the immortality of the soul, and the role of the philosopher and of poetry in society. The dialogue's setting seems to be the time of the Peloponnesian WarShow book
The scientific and social history surrounding the 1880 incident of a foul odor in Paris and the development of public health culture that followed. Late in the summer of 1880, a wave of odors enveloped large portions of Paris. As the stench lingered, outraged residents feared that the foul air would breed an epidemic. Fifteen years later—when the City of Light was in the grips of another Great Stink—the public conversation about health and disease had changed dramatically. Parisians held their noses and protested, but this time few feared that the odors would spread disease. Historian David S. Barnes examines the birth of a new microbe-centered science of public health during the 1880s and 1890s, when the germ theory of disease burst into public consciousness. Tracing a series of developments in French science, medicine, politics, and culture, Barnes reveals how the science and practice of public health changed during the heyday of the Bacteriological Revolution. Despite its many innovations, however, the new science of germs did not entirely sweep away the older “sanitarian” view of public health. The longstanding conviction that disease could be traced to filthy people, places, and substances remained strong, even as it was translated into the language of bacteriology. Ultimately, the attitudes of physicians and the French public were shaped by political struggles between republicans and the clergy, by aggressive efforts to educate and “civilize” the peasantry, and by long-term shifts in the public’s ability to tolerate the odor of bodily substances. “A well-developed study in medically related social history, it tells an intriguing tale and prompts us to ask how our own cultural contexts affect our views and actions regarding environmental and infectious scourges here and now.” —New England Journal of Medicine “Both a captivating story and a sophisticated historical study. Kudos to Barnes for this valuable and insightful book that both physicians and historians will enjoy.” —Journal of the American Medical AssociationShow book
The amazing, untold story of the Holocaust from a survivor turned Nazi hunter. No one expected the Nazis to arrive with such speed, and without a shot being fired. But when they entered Kraków in 1939, Josef Lewkowicz’s life was obliterated as he and his family were sent to concentration camps across the continent. Josef—after surviving the horrors of six separate concentration camps during World War II—became a relentless Nazi hunter in the aftermath of the war. The Survivor is a captivating record of one man’s survival against all odds—but it is also a unique and ultimately optimistic chronicle of such a pivotal moment in history, offering wisdom and hope despite the crushing darkness. Josef's pursuit of justice—which includes the capture of his greatest tormentor, the murderous SS kommandant Amon Goeth, made infamous through his chilling portrayal by Ralph Fiennes in Schinder’s List—takes readers on a riveting exploration of a story that spanned continents. In The Survivor, Josef Lewkowicz shares a poignant and gripping account of his remarkable life, capturing the indomitable spirit and enduring soul—the neshama—of the survivor. This is more than a story; it is a testament to human resilience, a chronicle of justice, and a tribute to those who defied the darkest moments of our history.Show book
A collection of surprising revelations and quirky stories about one of the most amazing people who ever lived. This engaging volume reveals Leonardo da Vinci’s phenomenal accomplishments: mathematical discoveries, investigations of the secrets of the human body, the invention of a robot . . . and even a plan to divert Italy’s Arno River. Packed with fascinating facts, the book also covers biographical details, modern reflections on da Vinci’s legacy, and historical insights—offering a new appreciation of just how remarkable this “Renaissance man” really was.Show book