Over the years, I have had many times when I thought that I was drinking too much or that I should really take a break from drinking. I tried several times to stop drinking. I have even gone for a couple weeks or months without drinking (although, even during those times of “not drinking,” I would sneak in a glass of wine here and there and feel super proud of myself that I had such restraint). But sure enough, while on my self-imposed drinking hiatus, I’d think, “Why am I being so restrictive? I don’t need to be so all-or-nothing about alcohol. I can have a glass of wine with dinner.” Or I’d rationalize my drinking with, “In Europe they have a glass of wine with lunch and dinner. If I were in Europe I wouldn’t even be second guessing how much wine I drink. Our views on alcohol are so uptight in North American.” So I’d start drinking again.

"A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace" John Boyne, author of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS A contemporary Berlin fairy tale that bristles with urban truths - the first novel of Germany's best-known contemporary playwright One clear, ice-cold January morning shortly after dawn, a wolf crosses the border between Poland and Germany. His trail leads all the way to Berlin, connecting the lives of disparate individuals whose paths intersect and diverge. On an icy motorway eighty kilometres outside the city, a fuel tanker jack-knifes and explodes. The lone wolf is glimpsed on the hard shoulder and photographed by Tomasz, a Polish construction worker who cannot survive in Germany without his girlfriend. Elisabeth and Micha run away through the snow from their home village, crossing the wolf's tracks on their way to the city. A woman burns her mother's diaries on a Berlin balcony. And Elisabeth's father, a famous sculptor, observes the vast skeleton of a whale in his studio and asks: What am I doing here? And why? Experiences and encounters flicker past with a raw, visual power, like frames in a black and white film. Those who catch sight of the wolf see their own lives reflected, and find themselves searching for a different path in a cold time. This first novel of Germany's most celebrated contemporary playwright is written in prose of tremendous power and precision. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize: A “rich, Chekhovian novel” about family and forgiveness from the acclaimed author of Fire on the Mountain (The New Yorker). At the heart of this “wonderful” novel are the moving relationships between the estranged members of the Das family (The Washington Post Book World). Bimla is a dissatisfied but ambitious teacher at a women’s college who lives in her childhood home, where she cares for her mentally challenged brother, Baba. Tara is her younger, unambitious sister, married and with children of her own. Raja is their popular, brilliant, and successful brother. When Tara returns for a visit with Bimla and Baba, old memories and tensions resurface, blending into a domestic drama that leads to beautiful and profound moments of self-understanding. Set in the vividly portrayed environs of Old Delhi, “Clear Light of Day does what only the very best novels can do: it totally submerges us. It also takes us so deeply into another world that we almost fear we won’t be able to climb out again” (The New York Times Book Review). “Passages must be read and reread so that you savor their imagery, their language, and their wisdom.” —The Washington Post Book World “[A] thoroughly universal tale of unhealable family hurts . . . Distinctively shaded with enticing glimpses of India’s Hindu middle-class in shabby decline.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Over two millenniums ago, the end of the World was prophesied and written by John in his Bible Revelation Book. Inspired by God, his story tells the Earth destruction on a non-precise future date, starting by the opening of a book locked with seven seals. How and when would it happen? The literally imagination of the events of John ́s book is described in this fictional action-adventure story. Petrorius, the futuristic largest city of USA, centralizes the dispute between good and evil; where an impossible love story can save the world. Mix of action, adventure, hope, science-fiction, religious and fantastic old-and-future features, our story will take the readers ́ imagination to an unforgettable journey.

Think a newspaper can’t be responsible for mass murder? Think again. As flagship of the American news media, the New York Times is the world’s most powerful news outlet. With thousands of reporters covering events from all corners of the globe, the Times has the power to influence wars, foment revolution, shape economies and change the very nature of our culture. It doesn’t just cover the news: it creates it. The Gray Lady Winked pulls back the curtain on this illustrious institution to reveal a quintessentially human organization where ideology, ego, power and politics compete with the more humble need to present the facts. In its 10 gripping chapters, The Gray Lady Winked offers readers an eye-opening, often shocking, look at the New York Times’s greatest journalistic failures, so devastating they changed the course of history. How its World War II Berlin bureau chief, a known Nazi collaborator, skewed coverage in favor of the Third Reich for over a decade. Its notorious coverup of the Ukraine Famine, a genocide committed by Stalin, showing that it was the newspaper's owners who directed the coverup in order to advance their own financial and ideological interests. The “1619 Project," a cynical, ideologically driven attempt to revise American history by rooting the nation's birth in slavery instead of liberty. The result is an essential look at the tangled relationship between media, power and politics in a post-truth world told with novelistic flair to reveal a uniquely powerful institution’s tortured relationship with the truth. Most importantly of all, The Gray Lady Winked presents a cautionary tale that shows what happens when the guardians of the truth abandon that sacred value in favor of self-interest and ideology—and what this means for our future as much as for our past.

Lady Jane Grey, is one of the most elusive and tragic characters in English history. In July 1553 the death of the childless Edward VI threw the Tudor dynasty into crisis. On Edward's instructions his cousin Jane Grey was proclaimed queen, only to be ousted 13 days later by his illegitimate half sister Mary and later beheaded. In this radical reassessment, Eric Ives rejects traditional portraits of Jane both as hapless victim of political intrigue or Protestant martyr. Instead he presents her as an accomplished young woman with a fierce personal integrity. The result is a compelling dissection by a master historian and storyteller of one of history’s most shocking injustices.

The acclaimed Mongolian author of The Blue Sky continues his autobiographical trilogy as a young shepherd leaves his ancestral home for boarding school. This powerful, sweeping novel continues the saga of Dshurukawaa, the Tuvan shepherd boy introduced in The Blue Sky. Torn between the onset of visions and pressure from his family to attend a state boarding school, the adolescent attempts to mediate the pull of spirituality and pragmatism, old ways and new. Taken from his ancestral home, he reunites with his siblings at a boarding school, where his brother also serves as principal. Soon he comes to understand that the main purpose of the school is to strip the Tuvans of their language and traditions, and to make them conform to party ideals. When tragedy strikes, Dshurukawaa begins to sense the larger import of his visions, and with it a possible escape. Tschinag’s lyrical language, his striking characterizations, and his evocation of a singular way of life make The Gray Earth an unforgettable read and a worthy follow-up to The Blue Sky.

The Cradle to Cradle ("C2C") concept is a biomimetic approach that models human industry on nature's processes, viewing materials as nutrients circulating in healthy and safe metabolisms. It seeks to create systems that are not only efficient but also essentially waste free. A growing number of building owners and developers are looking to implement it in their buildings, be it to increase the productivity of their workforce, or to provide a differentiator. The C2C concept is reasonably covered in building construction; however, it is a rather uncharted area in building services, making it difficult for MEP engineers to develop C2C-inspired designs. Arup set out to bridge this gap, establishing how C2C-inspired design would look like in the different MEP disciplines, and researching which systems, products and materials are available in the market to meet the corresponding criteria. The result is a comprehensive guideline that enables MEP engineers to develop a C2C-inspired design. It covers design criteria, system selection, system sizing, design for deconstruction, as well as material and product selection for the main MEP disciplines, and sets out a number of criteria by which the aptness of a design for C2C can be measured.