Nearly a century has passed since the assassination of Austria-Hungary's Archduke Ferdinand, yet the repercussions of the devastating global conflict that followed echo still. In this provocative book, historian Ian Beckett turns the spotlight on twelve...

John Updike’s memoirs consist of six chapters in which he writes of his home town, his psoriasis, his stuttering, his discomfort during the Vietnam war, his Updike ancestors, and his religion and sense of self. These essays together give the inner shape...

In contrast to the public image of Igor Stravinsky as a continually biting & witty figure, the author shows us at close range how the great composer pursued his beloved work while fulfilling the many obligations of both his public & private lives. From...

This extraordinary book explores that act of creation that engages us all--the compostition of our lives. Through the comparative biographies of herself and four of her close friends, Mary Catherine Bateson provides a fascinating framework for her...

Text: Spanish

From the author of the best-selling A Peace to End All Peace (“extraordinarily ambitious, provocative, and vividly written”–Washington Post Book World), a dramatic reassessment of the causes of the Great War.The early summer of 1914 was the most glorious...

In this, her fourteenth novel--and one of her most endearing--Anne Tyler tells the story of a lovable loser who's trying to get his life in order.Barnaby Gaitlin has been in trouble ever since adolescence. He had this habit of breaking into other...

The autobiography of Cuba's finest poet, whose condemnation by the Castro regime became a cause celebre.

On October 9, 1813, in the small town of Roncole, Italy, a baby by the name of Giuseppe Verdi was born. Little did his parents know that this child, born in the auspicious week of the Feast of San Donnino, would grow up to be not only a national hero of...

In this monumental new book, award-winning author Mark Kurlansky has written his most ambitious work to date: a singular and ultimately definitive look at a pivotal moment in history.With 1968, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and...

In the spring of 1994 the tiny African nation of Rwanda exploded onto the international media stage, as internal strife reached genocidal proportions. But the horror that unfolded before our eyes had been building steadily for years before it captured...

For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental europe. Twenty-five years ago a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people understand themselves?Neil MacGregor...

From one of our greatest historians and public intellectuals, reflections on a twentieth century that is turning into ancient history, when it's not being displaced by myth or forgotten entirely, with unprecedented speed and at great cost The...

A striking mosaic of memories, observations, and legends that together reveal the author's own story and a grand, compassionate vision of life itselfIn this kaleidoscope of reflections, renowned South American author Eduardo Galeano ranges widely, from...

Examines the work of international relief organizations, such as UNICEF, CARE, the Red Cross, OXFAM, and the World Council of Churches, in Cambodia