Bloomsbury Publishing strana 17 z 113

Grace is woken in the middle of the night to the sound of an armoured horse in her back garden. The next thing she knows, a dying Grace doppelganger bursts through her bedroom door and insists that she is the fifteenth and final Grace, and it is her destiny to win the Worthy War. Grace's quest takes her to the county of Brokenshire, where she must work with her trusty steed (who has a sharp tongue and a habit of reminding Grace of all the ghastly ends her predecessors have met!) to battle magical creatures and save the world. A vegan T. rex, a distinguished dodo, bomber geese and the fearsome trigger wolf are amongst the cast of memorable characters Grace meets on her adventure.

Winner of the Jhalak Prize & Plutarch Award | A New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, Newsweek, TIME Book of the Year 2023 The astounding, never-before-told story of how an ingenious Ghanaian con artist ran one of the 20th century's longest and most audacious frauds. When Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957, it immediately became a target for opportunists determined to lay hold of whatever assets colonialism hadn't already stripped. The military ousted the new nation's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of stealing the country's gold and hiding it overseas. Into this story stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, John Ackah Blay-Miezah – a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty, Blay-Miezah declared himself the custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece, if only you would help him rescue it – with a small investment. Over the 1970s and '80s, he grew his scam to epic proportions, amassing hundreds of millions of pounds from thousands of marks all over the world. He baffled Henry Kissinger, scandalised Shirley Temple-Black, and had Nixon's former attorney-general at his beck and call. Many tried to stop him, but Blay-Miezah continued to live in luxury, protected by ex-SAS soldiers while he deceived lawyers, businessmen and investigators around the globe. In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases the ever-wilder trail of Blay-Miezah – and unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements and African dreams – revealing the untold story of the grifter who beat the West at its own thieving game.

Lebanon and the wider Middle East is in crisis. For this extraordinary book, journalist Dalal Mawad conducted a series of searing interviews with women in Lebanon - weaving an extraordinary story of survival, corruption and impunity. On August 4 2020, a huge explosion in the heart of Beirut killed hundreds of people – it was the apocalypse of a sequence of events that have led to Lebanon's unprecedented collapse. Award-winning journalist Dalal Mawad was in Lebanon when the blast happened, and was one of the first journalists to report on the mysterious and devastating explosion. During her reporting, she discovered something else – that it is the women who stay behind, and it is through their stories that the history of the Middle East must be re-constructed. She set out to record the stories of those she met, the women long discriminated against, and those whose stories are untold. She spoke to mothers who lost their children, spouses who lost their partners, refugee women who have fled from the war in Syria – and who now find themselves in another failing state. We hear from the Lebanese grandmother, bankrupted by the small nation's collapse, who remembers Beirut's glory days of the 1960s – when the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Miles Davis came to Beirut. And then the women like Dalal herself, who have left their home behind. The women in this book all experienced the explosion and suffered unimaginable loss and tragedy, but it is not just this one event that brings them together. Their personal stories converged to tell the story of a nation whose glory days are long gone, now riven by protracted violence, lurching from crisis to crisis, and fighting to survive. It tells not only of what these women have lost, but also what Lebanon has lost, and a part of the Middle East that is no more.

The most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story. A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow - for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike. Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant. This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.

Now available in paperback – an extraordinary story about friendship and betrayal, revenge and retribution, but also redemption. Ideal for 11+ readers who enjoy Stranger Things. Shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration in 2023. Hex never meant for the girl to follow him and his best friend Tommo into the woods. He certainly never meant for her to fall off the rope swing and break her arm. When he gets blamed for the accident, Hex runs deep into the woods, ending up in a strange clearing that he has never come across before. There he meets an old woman who offers him a deal. She'll rid the world of those who wronged him and Hex can carry on his life with them all forgotten and as if nothing ever happened. But what Hex doesn't know is someone else has been offered the same deal. When Tommo wakes up the next day, he is in a completely different world, with only the vaguest memories of the world before. Can Tommo put the world right again? Back to how it was? Or can he even find a way to make a new world that could be better for them all? This is a gripping and surreal contemporary fairytale that fans of David Almond will love.

The first weapon I ever held was my mother's hand. On a slave plantation in the Carolinas, Annis has survived in the light of her mother's resilience, comforted by stories of her African warrior grandmother. Everything she knows, she learned from her mother – how to fight, how to be strong, how to grow up in a world shrouded in darkness. When she is sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, Annis must venture onward through the rich but unforgiving landscapes of the American South alone: from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans, and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Searching for relief in memories of her mother, she opens herself to a world beyond her own, teeming with spirits of earth, water, history and myth. A reimagining of American slavery as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching, Let Us Descend offers a magnificent portrait of the strength of the human spirit and its ability to emerge from darkness into light. This is a story of beauty, love, rebirth and reclamation – a masterwork for the ages.

An empowering and authentic football story by Junior Premier League footballer Rico Hinson-King, illustrated by the beloved Nick Sharratt about bravery, teamwork and making sure EVERYONE is included. Charlie LOVES football. In fact, it is his life. He practises morning, noon and night and all of his dreams come true when he gets a spot on a pro football team. However, at Charlie's school things aren't going so well as one of his friends starts leaving him out during football. Charlie notices that other children are being left out too - just because they are different. But Charlie knows that football is for EVERYONE so he starts a team where ALL are welcome, no matter who you are or what you look like. A heart-warming tale about the importance of including everyone.

Welcome to the life of Taylor Blake: complicated crushes, awkward encounters and hoping for a first kiss! A hilarious and heartfelt new teen series that fans of Geek Girl and Jacqueline Wilson will love. Taylor is determined to be in control of her own life story - and it's going to be a romance! So far her entire social life consists of her two best friends Star and Lucy, who are also a couple and always together, plus her sometimes embarrassing but always hilarious Grandma and Grandad. But Taylor writes for the school newspaper, she creates fan-fiction and she's even been asked to enter a competition by her English teacher – surely she can script the perfect love story for herself? Her school is about to play host to some French exchange students. They'll be experts on this topic, Taylor reckons. After all, it must be called French kissing for a reason! The perfect first kiss is surely on the horizon. And Taylor can make it happen – can't she? This is Taylor's moment to LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE!

Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster, and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju - they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

'Living with him was like living at the centre of the universe. It was electrifying and humbling, blissful and destructive, all at the same time.' Paris, 1936. When Dora Maar, a talented French photographer, painter and poet, is introduced to Pablo Picasso, she is mesmerized by his dark and intense stare. Drawn to his volcanic creativity, it isn't long before she embarks on a passionate relationship with the Spanish artist that sometimes includes sadism and masochism, and ultimately pushes her to the edge. The Paris Muse is the fictionalized retelling of this disturbing love story, as we follow Dora on her journey of self-discovery and expression. Set in Paris and the French Riviera, where Dora and Pablo spent their holidays with their glamorous artist friends, it provides a fascinating insight into how Picasso was a genius who side-stepped the rules in his human relationships as he did in his art. Much to Dora's torment, he refused to divorce his wife and conducted affairs with Dora's friends. The Spanish Civil War made him depressed and violent, an angst that culminated in his acclaimed painting 'Guernica', which Dora documented as he painted. As the encroaching darkness suffocates their relationship - a darkness that escalates once the Second World War begins and the Nazis invade the country - Dora has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized. Atmospheric, intense and moving, The Paris Muse is an astonishing read that ensures that this talented, often overlooked woman who gave her life to Picasso is no longer a footnote.

Get ready to meet Perla – the feisty, magical rescue dog who will steal your heart! From #1 international bestselling author Isabel Allende and award winning illustrator Sandy Rodriguez comes the first in a series of picture books about a dog called Perla and the family who love her! Meet Perla. She's a small dog with a BIG personality and a very impressive roar. When she's adopted by the Ricos, a Mexican-American family in search of a guard dog, Perla quickly makes friends with seven-year old Nico Rico – who needs someone to help him deal with the school bullies. Soon, Perla has changed the lives of everyone in the Rico family … and found a place in their hearts forever.

We love to imagine the future. But why are groundbreaking future technologies always just around the corner, and never a reality? For decades we've delighted in dreaming about a sci-fi utopia, from flying cars and bionic humans to hyperloops and smart cities. And why not? Building a better world - be it a free-flying commute or an automated urban lifestyle - is a worthy dream. Given the pace of technological change, nothing seems impossible anymore. But why are these innovations always out of reach? Delving into the remarkable history of technology, The Long History of the Future introduces us to the clever scientists, genius engineers and eccentric innovators who first brought these ideas to life and have struggled to make them work since. These stories reveal a more realistic picture of how these technologies may evolve - and how we'll eventually get to use them. You may never be able to buy a fully driverless car, but automated braking and steering could slash collision rates. Smart cities won't perfect city life, but they could help empty bins on time. Hyperloops may never arrive, but superfast trains are already here. We always believe current technology is the best it could be. By looking to the past and the future, Nicole Kobie shows how history always proves us wrong and how what lies ahead may not be what we imagine, but so much better.

A smart, savage and hilarious debut exploring love, sexuality, purpose – and the delicious absurdities of online life Elsa is struggling. Her formative, exhilarating relationship – with an older couple – has abruptly ended, leaving her depressed and directionless in her childhood bedroom. In the relationship's wake, Elsa scrolls aimlessly through the internet in search of meaning. Faithfully, her screen provides a new obsession: a charismatic young actor whose latest feature is a gay love story that illuminates Elsa's crisis. And then, as if she had conjured him, the actor arrives in her hometown, with an entourage of fellow actors, writers, and directors, for the annual theatre festival. When she is hired at the one upscale restaurant in town, Elsa finds herself thrown into in contact with the actor and his circle. But her obsession shifts from the actor to his frequent dinner companion – an alluring, androgynous person called Sam. As this confusing connection develops, Elsa is forced to grapple with her sexuality, the uncomfortable truths about the end of her last relationship, and the patterns that may be playing out once again. Unflinchingly sharp and funny, Misrecognition is an unforgettable debut novel about the internet, post-postmodern adulthood and queer identity.

It's time to race across the multiverse and save not just one world, but all of them! Kyan Green is getting the hang of racing through the multiverse in the Infinite Race. If he's driving a bubble-butt car through a giant's cereal bowl or riding on the back of a cosmic critter, he can't be beaten. But when the mysterious infinity racer Spider Ace charges Kyan and his friends with a mission that has them hurtling from one universe to the next, it couldn't be more dangerous. Together the gang must race from world to world, seeking out the multiverse doubles of Kyan's devious landlord Mr Stringer and facing off in battles that could tip the balance between good and evil. Lose a single battle, and every single parallel dimension could be in jeopardy …

Cinderella is dead, but Snow White fights on ... New York Times bestselling author and TikTok sensation Kalynn Bayron makes her highly anticipated return to the fairytale realm of Cinderella is Dead with this thrilling twist on the classic story of Snow White. Princess Eve was raised with one purpose: to destroy the Knight, an evil sorcerer who terrorises Queen's Bridge with his wicked magic. Far too many of her subjects have been devastated by the Knight's trickery but Eve's own unique magic - the ability to conjure weapons from nature - makes her a worthy adversary. As she approaches her seventeenth birthday, Eve is ready to battle. But her mother, Queen Regina, has been acting bizarrely, talking to a strange mirror alone every night. Then a young man claiming to be the Knight's messenger appears and shares a shocking truth about Eve's past. Unsure of who to trust or what to do next, Eve must find the courage to fight. But will it be enough to save her family and her queendom?

Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to the stunning desert solitude of Oman's Empty Quarter - and many places beyond. In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places - in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid. Additionally, each chapter includes illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook. Supplementing Bourdain's words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about a place, including sardonic accounts of traveling with Bourdain by his brother, Chris; a guide to Chicago's best cheap eats by legendary music producer Steve Albini, and more.