In the great disorder of wartime Berlin, Lucia Muller-Rossi was an unofficial star: mistress to an Ambassador, the whole world to her young son, and guardian of all the lovely things her Jewish friends were forced to leave behind as they took the trains tothe death camps. Sixty years later, one of those fine pieces sits for sale in the window of Lucia's antiques shop-- and its true owner happens to pass by. In that moment, a whole lifetime of silence cracks open and Lucia's family face the...

A revelatory history of Antwerp—from its rise to a world city to its fall in the Spanish Fury—by the New York Times Notable author of *The Edge of the World.***Before Amsterdam, there was a dazzling North Sea port at the hub of the known world: the city of Antwerp.In the Age of Exploration, Antwerp was sensational like nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York. It was somewhere anything could happen or at least be believed: killer bank...

A collection of original essays exploring controversial archaeological theories, alternative history, and ancient mysteries.Were Atlantis and Lemuria factual places? Who built the pyramids and for what purpose? How advanced was the technology of ancient cultures?All this and more is covered in Exposed, Uncovered, & Declassified: Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past.Erich von Däniken, best-selling author of Chariots of the Gods,...

What are ghosts, spirits, and other apparitions?Why do they visit, and what do they want from us?Are OBEs, NDEs, and PDEs real?Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified: Ghosts, Spirits, & Hauntings tackles these questions and more, as some of the world's best-known paranormal experts come together in a tour de force of investigative journalism. Ghosts have been an integral part of the folklore of almost every culture; indeed, extant references to them stretch as far back as the ancient civiliz...

Martin Arkenhout found his true calling on a lonely Florida highway -- with a sharp rock to the skull of an injured friend. He didn't just take the boy's life; he went on to live it. When that life became too risky, he found another, and another, changing his name, papers and style at will, until he chose the wrong life -- a scholarly thief on the run from the determined and troubled John Costa. The two men will meet, and there will be murder. But there is something much worse: the sweet s...

Saints and spies, pirates and philosophers, artists and intellectuals: they all criss-crossed the grey North Sea in the so-called “dark ages,” the years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of Europe’s mastery over the oceans. Now the critically acclaimed Michael Pye reveals the cultural transformation sparked by those men and women: the ideas, technology, science, law, and moral codes that helped create our modern world. This is the magnificent lost history of a thousand...

Are there 10,000-year-old secret societies that still exist today?Was there a race of giants that once inhabited the Americas?Did ancient Egypt and ancient China have heretofore undiscovered ties?Lost Secrets of the Gods delves into these ancient mysteries and many more in articles by some of the world's most intrepid and knowledgeable researchers. The old paradigms of history are being radically transformed as we discover more evidence of little-known cultures and what they achieved.Many ...

'Skilful Means' is the key principle of Mahayana, one of the great Buddhist traditions. First described in the Lotus Sutra, it originates in myths of the Buddha's compassionate plans for raising life from the ceaseless round of birth and death. His strategies or interventions are 'skilful means' - morally wholesome tricks devised for the purpose of enabling nirvana or enlightenment. Michael Pye's clear and engaging introductory guide investigates the meaning and context of skilful means in...

What are UFOs?Why are they here?What is the Government not telling us?Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified: UFOs & Aliens strives to address all of these questions--and more--by covering new evidence of famous sightings and contact with aliens, and uncovering classified files from world-class collections and archives--all courtesy of the world's leading experts on modern ufology.Nuclear physicist and world-renowned UFO expert Stanton T. Friedman discu...

An epic adventure ranging from the terror of the Vikings to the golden age of cities: Michael Pye tells the amazing story of how modernity emerged on the shores of the North Sea.Saints and spies, pirates and philosophers, artists and intellectuals: they all criss-crossed the grey North Sea in the so-called “dark ages,” the years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of Europe’s mastery over the oceans. Now the critically acclaimed Michael Pye reveals the cultural t...

Before Amsterdam, there was a dazzling North Sea port at the hub of the known world: the city of Antwerp.In the Age of Exploration, Antwerp was sensational like nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York. It was somewhere anything could happen or at least be believed: killer bankers, easy kisses, a market in secrets and every kind of heresy. For half the sixteenth century, it was the place for breaking rules—religious, sexual, intellectual.And it was a place of ...