**A blackly comic literary gem in which a broken man confronts a broken world on an uninhabited Pacific island, where a conservation assignment becomes a moral reckoning.“An instant classic.” —The Washington Post • “Excellent ” —The New York Times • “Urgent and lyrical.” —NPR“Beautifully weird, eerie, unexpected — a story for our times.”—Kevin Barry, author of The Heart in Winter**Reeling from tragedy, former jazz musician–turned–schooltea...

'Excellent' New York Times'An instant classic. . . Hamlet but with goats everywhere' Washington Post'Beautifully weird, eerie, unexpected - a story for our times' Kevin Barry'A work of genius. Eradication is a beautiful and devastating novel' Luke Kennard**'**A deft, unsettling exploration of what it means to play God'...

This commentary sets the ancient Jewish story of Tobit within a broad tradition-historical context, analyzing the conceptions of angels and demons it contains, as well as its notions of ancient medicine, together with its understanding of the Torah. Presented along with this is a synchronically oriented interpretation of the whole text, which shows that the narrative should ultimately be understood in terms of historical theology. It reveals how, in the days of Hellenistic rule, ancient Ju...

**“Funny, bighearted...Miles specializes in giving fully rounded humanity to characters who might elsewhere be treated as stock figures...pitch-perfect.”— New York Times Book Review"Miles is a writer so virtuosic that readers will feel themselves becoming better, more observant people from reading him."— Los Angeles Review of BooksA profound new novel about a paralyzed young man’s unexplainable recovery—a stunning exploration of faith, scienc...

'Phenomenal... Utterly absorbing' Sunday Times, 'Book of the Week''[A] fabulous romp of a book' ***** Mail on SundayA Financial Times 'Book to Read in 2023'In 1835, Lord Brougham founded Cannes, introducing bathing and the manicured lawn to the wilds of the Mediterranean coast. Today, much of that shore has become a concrete mass from which escape is an e...

A " shrewd, funny, and sometimes devastating" novel about the things we desire and the things we throw away ( Entertainment Weekly).A New York Times Notable BookA highly inventive, corrosively funny story of our times, Want Not exposes three different worlds in various states of disrepair—a young freegan couple living off the grid in New York City; a once-prominent linguist, sacked at midlife by the dissolution of his marr...

A "thrilling . . . captivating" account of the most famous shipwreck before the Titanic—a tragedy that inspired an unforgettable masterpiece of Western art ( The Boston Globe).In June 1816, the Medusa set sail. Commanded by an incompetent captain, the frigate ran aground off the desolate West African coast. During the chaotic evacuation a privileged few claimed the lifeboats, while 147 men and one woman were herded aboard a makeshift raft...

In June 1816, the Medusa, flagship of a French expedition to repossess the colony of Senegal from the British, set sail but ran aground off the desolate West African coast. The evacuation of the frigate was chaotic and cowardly - 146 men and one woman were herded aboard a makeshift raft which was then abandoned in mid-ocean, cut loose by the convoy of lifeboats which had pledged to tow it to safety. The drifting raft carried those who survived to the very frontiers of human experi...

'This extraordinary book brings to life an astonishing place. Beautiful prose renders brutality vivid' The Times - BOOK OF THE WEEKFrom Peter the Great to Putin, this is the unforgettable story of St Petersburg – one of the most magical, menacing and influential cities in the world.St Petersburg has always felt like an impossible metropolis, risen from the freezing mists and flooded marshland of the River Neva on the western edge o...

What is myth? Why do myths exist? What do myths do? Where are myths going?This reader is organized into 4 parts which explore these questions. Drawing on over 10 years of experience teaching myth in religious studies and anthropology departments in the UK, USA and Continental Europe the editors have brought together key works in the theory of myth. Key features include:- a general introduction to the reader that outlines a comparative and interpretative framework

'Spies should be glamorous - James Bond in a Savile Row suit rather than Harry Palmer in a grubby mac . . . In those terms, Otto Katz was perfect. He was a Hollywood playboy who hobnobbed with Fritz Lang, he inspired the character of Victor Laszlo in Casablanca, he was a drinking buddy of Bertolt Brecht and among his lovers he claimed Marlene Dietrich. He was even known to Nöel Coward' The TimesIf you were to imagine the perfect spy, you may well be picturing Otto...

This book explores the material religion of contemporary Shimla, a vibrant postcolonial city, famed for its colonial heritage, set against the backdrop of the North-Western Himalayas. Jonathan Miles-Watson demonstrates that this landscape is able to peacefully reconcile the apparent tensions of faith, heritage and identity in a way that unseats traditional theories of religion, politics and heritage. It presents a mystery that is written in space through time; the key to unlocking this mys...