Profile Books

Over Iran, the sky is falling in. The US-Israeli bombardment has begun: there are bodies beneath the rubble. The Ayatollah is dead. The guards have abandoned the prisons. The rain is black with fuel; it burns the skin and the streets. In this searing and contemplative work, writer, academic and Tehran resident Raha Nik-Andish documents life in the Islamic Republic in the days and months leading up to "Operation Epic Fury." In a rarely-seen portrait of a regime in freefall, this is Tehran on the brink; the crushed protests over the collapse of the currency; the taxicabs circling the city for work; the burned out garbage cans and the taped-up windows. What does it mean to exist under siege? Or repression, blackout and total fear? How do you get the message out? Piercing, poignant and delicately observed, this is the vital story of a city at the end of the world - and an act of witness against darkness.

For almost five million years, humans have been locked in a relationship with morality, inventing and reinventing the concepts of 'Good' and 'Evil', and weaving them into our cities, laws and customs. Morality is a concept that can feel joyless and claustrophobic, associated with restraint and coercion, restriction and sacrifice, inquisition, confession and a guilty conscience. For many, it is a device used to shame us into compliance. This impression is not necessarily incorrect, but it is most certainly incomplete. Hanno Sauer traces humanity's fundamental moral transformations from our earliest ancestors through to the present day, when it can often seem that we have never disagreed more over what it means to be good, and what it means to be right. But we can use our past as a basis for a new understanding of our future. Our current political disagreements may feel like the end of the world, but where will the evolution of morality take us next?

The answer is murder. The question is whodunnit? A quiet country pub stands empty, its windows boarded up. And its kindly landlords, Mal and Sue Eastwood, are missing. What could have happened? A lot of strange events occurred in the days before the Eastwoods disappeared. A murdered man pulled from the nearby river. An eccentric couple on a houseboat who claimed to be led by a spirit guide. And a mysterious new team who suddenly appeared and began winning every round at the weekly pub quiz - much to the anger of the locals. They must have been cheating, but no one could figure out how... Can you crack the case of the missing landlords? Someone's not been playing fair, so get the drinks in and see if you can get a perfect score.

Pulitzer finalist Suzy Hansen chronicles the age of authoritarianism in Turkey - through an intimate portrait of its people In the midst of a world in upheaval, Erdogan has remade Turkey in his own image. Once a shining portal that straddled East and West, Istanbul's streets now teem with nationalistic fervour, political repression and rampant corruption. And it's here, in the old Ottoman neighbourhood of Karagumruk, that Suzy Hansen goes looking for the truth about modern Turkey. Through the lives of its inhabitants, Hansen shows how local conflicts are spiralling into regional crises, deepening the fault lines now fracturing Europe and the Middle East. A dazzling account of a nation on the frontlines of history, From Life Itself chronicles the rise of an autocrat, the resurrection of an empire - and the human stories unfolding in its shadow.

What's exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption at Pompeii? Why should we be bothered with the distant past anyway? What's the point? The life, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome have something to offer everyone. They are not the property of wealthy white men only. They make us wonder how to make sense of people who lived long ago (from angry landlords to giggling senators) - and to think harder about our own world, to look at it differently. In Talking Classics, Mary Beard points to the surprising connections between antiquity and the present. From revolutionaries to dictators, Bob Dylan to Beyoncé, she joins forces with the varied modern characters who have been transfixed by the ancient world. It's not compulsory, she argues, to be excited by antiquity, but it's a shame not to be. After half a century teaching and studying classics, she fills the book with lively stories, curious facts and some good gossip. Talking Classics explains why the deep past does really affect us all.

In 2010, two decades after the Cold War had ended, ten Russian spies were arrested in America, having hidden their true identities from their friends, neighbours and even their children. They were part of a spy programme that had begun nearly a century earlier. These deep-cover missions - some remarkable feats of espionage, others high-profile failures - could last for decades. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, and newly-discovered archival material, The Illegals is a page-turning tour de force, that shines new light on the long arc of the Soviet experiment and its messy aftermath - and on how that hidden history shaped Russia and the West.

Cybercrime is everywhere. A multibillion-pound industry run by wily hackers and fraudsters. Bankrupting business, stalling governments, stealing sensitive data. Your turn could come any day now. Are you ready? You've heard the stories. Frozen IT systems, error codes everywhere, a pulsating pop-up threat: pay up, or lose everything. With new attacks hitting the headlines every day, ransomware is recognised as a serious threat to global security and the economy, yet it remains a slippery and little understood phenomenon. From a leading expert in illicit trading, We Know You Can Pay a Million spotlights the criminal underworld where organised groups trade stolen information and cryptocurrencies, and reveals the fascinating hidden histories of the superhackers whose activities have potentially catastrophic consequences for us all.

The threat to liberal democracy isn't just autocrats - it's a lack of effective action by so-called progressives. We have the means to build an equitable world without hunger, fuelled by clean energy. Instead, we have a politics driven by scarcity, lives defined by unaffordability and public institutions that no longer deliver on big ideas. It's time for change. Bestselling authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson have spent decades analysing the political, economic and cultural forces that have led us here. In this once-in-a-generation intervention, they unpick the barriers to progress and show how we can, and must, shift the political agenda to one that not only protects and preserves, but also builds. From healthcare to housing, infrastructure to innovation, they lay out a path to a future defined not by fear, but by abundance.

The Nowhere Children are expecting you... High in the mountains sits Nowhere, a verdant valley surrounded by walls of rock. People have lived at Nowhere for centuries, though never for long, and rarely happily. Its last owner was its most famous: movie star Leaf Winham, who built Nowhere House as a refuge to hide from his fame... and to hide his crimes. Only when Nowhere House went up in flames were the graves discovered, the last resting places of lost young men who would never go home. Years later, Nowhere valley has become a sanctuary for runaway children, a place where adults cannot enter. Drawn by this promise, fourteen-year-old Riley pulls her brother Oliver from his bed in the middle of the night, hoping to find a new family. But the Nowhere Children are fierce in defending their valley and their secrets. For something dark lives in the ruins of Nowhere House, something that asks a terrible price for sanctuary...

Forgotten is a search for hidden or neglected memorials and places in historic Palestine - now Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories - and what they might tell us about the land and the people who live on our small slip of earth between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. From ancient city ruins to the Nabi 'Ukkasha mosque and tomb, acclaimed writers and researchers Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson ask: what has been memorialised, and what lies unseen, abandoned or erased - and why? Whether standing on a high cliff overlooking Lebanon or at the lowest land-based elevation on earth at the Dead Sea, they explore lost connections in a fragmented land. In elegiac, elegant prose, Shehadeh and Johnson grapple not only with questions of Israeli resistance to acknowledging the Nakba - the 1948 catastrophe for Palestinians - but also with the complicated history of Palestinian commemoration today.

What if everything you wanted is no longer enough? Meeting for an autumnal swim in an idyllic pond, Caroline's friend Ruth tells her about a family secret that has recently been exposed. Caroline was looking forward to a celebration they'd been planning together with her sister-in-law, Tobi, but suddenly everything seems complicated. Tensions that have long been buried are bubbling to the surface. These three couples, who have so much to enjoy in their lives - growing children, affectionate marriages, work they love - must confront the truths they've never shared. More than that, they will have to reconcile the lives they've built with the ones they desire: the old dreams both fulfilled and denied, and the new ones that appeared right when they thought they had all they'd ever hoped for. Weaving an exquisite portrait of parenthood, partnership, love and loyalty, Erin White captures what it really means for friends to become Like Family.

The birth of new nations, independent democracies, the unprecedented growth of cities from Lagos to Cairo; the African continent is booming. So why do myths about underdevelopment, unproductive land and overpopulation remain? In a groundbreaking new study of Africa's developmental history, economist Joe Studwell debunks long-held views about the continent's presumed resistance to growth, charting monumental changes in government, demography and asset management. Considering everything from settler colonialism to soil conditions, mineral extractivism to disease development and eradication, Studwell persuasively argues that the seizing back of land, people and states across Africa, has also been the seizure of mass economic development. From slavery to independence and beyond, this is the definitive account of the world's second largest continent - and an optimistic look to its future.

Start each day with intention and find your purpose with a year of creative living. Offering wisdom we can turn to any day of the year, this pocket-book of guidance from the bestselling author of The Artist's Way is the perfect addition for anyone seeking meaning and direction in their life. A beautiful companion to Cameron's life-changing creative process, The Daily Artist's Way features 366 page-a-day quotations, minute meditations and journal prompts to follow throughout the year. Helping us start each page anew, Julia's sage wisdom will inspire and guide readers from all walks of life in finding the possibility that each day brings.

Wisdom depends on curiosity. It demands humility. It requires a willingness to learn from the past in order to overcome the obstacles of the present - and we need it more than ever. In this fourth and final instalment of his bestselling Stoic Virtues series, Ryan Holiday reveals a method of self-education that can be honed throughout our lives. Drawing on stories of the Stoics, the Buddha, and modern greats from Abraham Lincoln to Joan Didion, he shows how to cultivate wisdom through reading, contemplation and discernment. He teaches us how to think critically, listen intently and escape the traps of tribalism, certainty and self-righteousness. As the Stoics knew, all other virtues depend on wisdom. It takes work. But it's worth it.

Swamp or bog? Guilt or shame? Clementine gold tangerine? We like to think that we choose our words with care, but are we using them with any degree of accuracy - or should that be precision? For hair-splitters and language lovers, Dictionary of Fine Distinctions explores the world of the vanishingly small, teasing apart the terms that we tend to collapse, conflate, or confuse. An illustrated odyssey into minute differences in meaning, Eli Burnstein's unputdownable guide will hone your wits, tickle your brain, and deepen your appreciation for the infinite (and infinitesimal) nuances all around us.

Jérémie Gallon paints an intriguing portrait of the 'master of Realpolitik', drawing lessons from Henry Kissinger's life and actions to explore the creation of a more coherent and resilient foreign policy, particularly in Europe. Chapters address themes, moments, and characters that shaped Kissinger's career, such as the Harvard years, the centrality of Realpolitik, Jewishness, even football, and his relationships with figures such as Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, and Zhou Enlai - not to mention his mother Paula. This new English edition includes an additional chapter detailing the author's meeting with Kissinger in Connecticut ten days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Gallon is as interested in the statesman as he is in the man himself, delving into the more glamorous and intimate aspects of his life, yet making no secret of Kissinger's contradictions and the moral accusations levelled against him.