Literature

Twenty years after the events of Treasure Island, Lady Vivian Hastings knocks on Dr Livesey's door. Her hated husband has sent word from the Amazon: He has found the fabled city of Guiana-Capac, and his brother is to sell the entire domain to pay for an expedition, dispossessing Vivian in the process. So the lady has come to seek the one man who can help her: Long John Silver…

In 1982, conflict erupts between Great Britain and Argentina, putting important forces into play. Argentina decides to seize the Falkland Islands, which had been occupied by the United Kingdom since the beginning of the 19th century. On April 2, an island landing of Argentine forces succeeds, taking the government of Margaret Thatcher by surprise. Argentina asserts its sovereignty over the Islands. While hoping for a diplomatic solution, No. 10 Downing Street prepares a large-scale operation to regain control of the Falkland Islands. Along with the use of traditional combat techniques, these operations also provide an extraordinary test of modern electronic weaponry.

A strange eagle has wounded a brave from Yakari's tribe and stolen his talisman. To recover it and allow the man to wake from his unnatural slumber, young Yakari will have to climb a mountain to find the eagle's nest. Forced to go alone when Little Thunder can't follow anymore, he will have to make new friends-with sure feet and warm coats-and brave the majestic bird's proud anger.

2012 - Britain is gripped by Olympic Games fever, the world has a climate crisis, and his twin sister is an Olympic swimming sensation, but 13-year-old Jack Donovan has something much more worrying on his mind. A sinister face from Jack's nightmare has appeared as a game icon on his computer and he is convinced a superior intelligence is responsible. The supposedly simple computer game becomes hypnotic and draws him in, totally. Someone or something is playing mind games. Hiding out in the safest place in the UK - London's Olympic Village - Jack is fighting a force committed to global destruction. When the survival of the planet is at stake and there's only one person in the world you can trust, would you be able to stay in the game?

An Imitation of Life takes the reader into a bizarre world where the extraordinary characters are lively distortions of people we may know. Aside from cockroach-eating Celia, Uncle Ed can "disappear" himself as well as objects in his magic show. Her adoptive parents Barry and Lettie together run the Butchette, a building created from the remains of Barry's Butchery and Lettie's Laundrette after the earthquake.

In Man's Last Song, the human race faces imminent extinction. The year is 2090. The global population has shrunk to less than half a million; median age about 60. After 40 years of near-universal sterility, humanity is vanishing while the rest of the planet makes a healthy comeback. A few survivors in Hong Kong face the challenge of adjusting to life as post-modern savages, rediscovering instincts that have long been suppressed by civilisation. To these post-modern cavemen and cavewomen dwelling in the concrete remains of an empty metropolis, life has become a lonely journey of self-discovery in which they reassess also mankind.

To Eastern Lands features prose, photographs and verse from the 1960s onwards about a Melbourne boy who became increasingly involved in Asia. The prose passage sets out the social, cultural and intellectual context in which this young Melbournian matured and developed from grammar school student to diplomat and author. The focus expands from personal and romantic relationships through to diplomatic incidents and international politics, including satirical views of the often cliché-laced language of politicians and academics.

this room is not still is a monograph of works by Ivy Ma. With essays and interviews by colleagues and cultural writers, generously illustrated with documentations of her installation, photographic works to palimpsest drawings, this catalogue explores Ma's art in six different themes over a decade.

Bishop Robert Solomon’s book offers a concise and highly readable introduction to the nature and theology of revival. Bishop Solomon is keenly aware of the concerns of ordinary church-goers over the baffling aspects of revivals. He anticipates some of their frequently asked questions and addresses them with pastoral sensitivity. I recommend it especially to anyone seeking spiritual guidance in discerning between genuine and questionable revivals.

The three essays in this volume by Vishal Mangalwadi, Takamitsu Muraoka and Carver T. Yu were presented originally as the 2008 Annual Lectures of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in Asia (CSCA), the mission research arm of Trinity Theological College, Singapore.

Lisbon, 1898: philandering surgeon Antonio Maria discovers his father is dying of syphilis, scourge of both rich and poor. Desperate to find a cure, he sets sail for Peking. But Antonio encounters the alluring Fumi, and finds a woman he cannot leave behind. As he wrestles with his disbelief in irrational Chinese views about illness, and helplessly falls into an erotic obsession with Fumi, violence breaks out across China. Antonio must decide whether to flee - or stay in China and discover for himself if the cure he has been chasing is merely a myth.

A teenager in pre-revolutionary Tehran, Massoumeh is an ordinary girl, passionate about learning. Hamid, Massoumeh's husband, is a political dissident and a threat to the Shah's oppressive regime and when the secret service arrive to arrest him, it is the start of a terrifying period for Massoumeh. Her fate, so long dictated by family loyalty and tradition, is now tied to the changing fortunes of her country. Spanning five turbulent decades of Iranian history, from before the 1979 revolution, through the Islamic Republic and up to the present, The Book of Fate is a powerful story of friendship and passion, fear and hope - and a rare insider's view of Iranian society.

It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twenty-six collectible and hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the alphabet. The series features unique cover art by Hische, a superstar in the world of type design and illustration. I is for Ishiguro. Masuji Ono saw misery in his homeland and became unwilling to spend his skills solely in the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he envisioned a strong and powerful nation of the future, and he put his painting to work in the service of the movement that led Japan into World War II. Now, as the mature Masuji Ono struggles through the spiritual wreckage of that war, his memories of the "floating world" of his youth, full of pleasure and promise, serve as an escape from, a punishment for-and a justification of-his entire life. Drifting without honor in Japan's postwar society, which indicts him for its defeat and reviles him for his aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being. An Artist of the Floating World is a sensual and profoundly convincing portrait of the artist as an aging man. At once a multigenerational tale and a samurai death poem written in English, it is also a saga of the clash of the old and new orders, blending classical and contemporary iconography with compassion and wit.

It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twenty-six collectible and hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the alphabet. The series features unique cover art by Hische, a superstar in the world of type design and illustration. H is for Hesse. A young Brahmin named Siddhartha searches for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha. His quest takes him from a life of decadence to asceticism, from the illusory joys of sensual love with a beautiful courtesan, and of wealth and fame, to the painful struggles with his son and the ultimate wisdom of renunciation. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, written with a deep and moving empathy for humanity, Herman Hesse's strangely simple Siddhartha is perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory the troubled twentieth century ever produced.

It's 1941 and 17-year-old Victoria Khoo, daughter of a wealthy Straits Chinese family, lives in luxury in colonial Singapore. Her carefree days are spent fantasising about marrying Sebastian Boustead, scion of a great British merchant family, and becoming mistress of his imposing mansion on Amber Road. Not even Sebastian's arrival from London with his new fiancée, Elizabeth Nightingale, can dampen her dreams … Then the war reaches Asia. First Malaya falls to the Japanese then 'Fortress Singapore' abruptly surrenders. As the inhabitants are deserted by Britain, Victoria is forced to protect both her family and her rival, Elizabeth, from the cruelty of the occupation. Victoria's old life has vanished in a heartbeat - but nothing and no one will stand in the way of her destiny. Not the war. Not Elizabeth. And certainly not Joe Spencer, the charismatic Australian who both charms and infuriates her at every turn . . . With intrigue, romance and suspense, Amber Road tells an epic story of one woman's indomitable spirit against the backdrop of a world at war.

1980s Syria, our young narrator is living a secluded life behind the veil in the vast and perfumed house of her grandparents in Aleppo. On a backdrop of real-life events that occurred during the Syrian regime's ruthless suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s, "In Praise Of Hatred" is a stirring, sensual story. Its elegant use of traditional, layered storytelling is a powerful echo of the modern-day tragedy that is now taking place in the Middle East.

Set in the 5th century AD, Azazeel is the exquisitely crafted tale of a Coptic monk's journey from Upper Egypt to Alexandria and then Syria during a time of massive upheaval in the early Church. Winner of the Arab Booker Prize, Azazeel highlights how the history of our civilization has been warped by greed and avarice since its very beginnings and how one man's beliefs are challenged not only by the malice of the devil, but by the corruption with the early Church.

Perfect for book clubs, Mr Chen's Emporium is an enchanting historical love story, as East meets West in a sleepy NSW gold rush town. In 1872, seventeen-year-old Amy Duncan arrives in the Gold Rush town of Millbrooke, having spent the coach journey daydreaming about glittering pavilions and gilded steeples. What she finds is a dusty main street lined with ramshackle buildings. That is until she walks through the doors of Mr Chen's Emporium, a veritable Aladdin's cave, and her life changes forever. Though banned from the store by her dour clergyman father, Amy is entranced by its handsome owner, Charles Chen. This is a mesmerising story of forbidden love and following one's heart.

Meili, a young peasant woman is married to Kongzi, a village school teacher, and a distant descendant of the great sage Confucius. They have a daughter, but desperate to carry on his illustrious line, Kongzi gets Meili pregnant without waiting for official permission. When family planning officers storm into the village to arrest violators of the population control policy, mother, father and daughter are forced to make a fugitive life on the river. Meili dreams of reaching a place called Heaven, a vast stinking wilderness of toxic waste, where the men eventually turn infertile and the family planning officers don't dare to go. But as their troubled quest to give birth to a son continues, it becomes clear that Kongzi and Meili are not just raging against the state - they are at war with one another.

Within the pages of this book lies the diary of a girl called Nao. Riding the waves of a tsunami, it is making its way across the ocean. It will change the life of the person who finds it. It might just change yours, too.