What leads a top-secret war-policy insider to desert during the Vietnam War? In the case of Bruce Proctor, it was reconnaissance photos: images which showed the bombing of civilian villages in Southeast Asia, despite the administration's claims otherwise. Appalled by his discovery, Bruce suddenly quit his job at the Defense Intelligence Agency. To avoid the draft, he joined the Air National Guard, but his unit was activated for service in Vietnam. Rather than fight in an immoral war, Bruce...

NATIONAL BESTSELLERFinalist for the Toronto Books AwardsFinalist for the Governor General's Award for Non-FictionFinalist for the Hilary Weston-Writers' Trust Prize for Non-FictionAn inventive memoir about one family’s escape from Vietnam and the father’s mysterious disappearance along the way. This book is an intricate exploration of a searching mind, shedding light on the psyche of...

Dao's debut novel blends memoir, fiction, family history and philosophy in a saga of the Vietnamese diasporaDescribed by the Guardian as "a work of unusual power and beauty," André Dao’s award-winning novel Anam transforms fragments of childhood memories, audio recordings, government documents and family lore into a moving inquiry into what can and cannot be imagined about another person’s life. The unnamed narrator, a former lawyer who embarks on...

What begins as a road trip through America soon becomes a journey of discovery into themselves and into the heart of the next-door neighbour they thought they knew. For Wayne Grady, the thrill of landscape and history is tempered by memories of racism and his own family roots. Merilyn Simonds, her ear tuned for the offbeat, finds curious echoes of the ex-pat promised land she grew up with. Together they travel against the tide of American history, followin...

The year’s best travel writing, as chosen by series editor Jason Wilson and guest editor Robert Macfarlane.Writing, reading, and dreaming about travel have surged, writes Robert MacFarlane in his introduction to the Best American Travel Writing 2020. From an existential reckoning in avalanche school, to an act of kindness at the Mexican-American border, to a moral dilemma at a Kenyan orphanage, the journeys showcased in this collection are as spiritual as ...

When the struggle to save oil-soaked birds and restore blackened beaches left him feeling frustrated and helpless, John Francis decided to take a more fundamental and personal stand—he stopped using all forms of motorized transportation. Soon after embarking on this quest that would span two decades and two continents, the young man took a vow of silence that endured for 17 years. It began as a silent environmental protest, but as a young African-American man, walking across the country in...

The Best Travel Writing 2011 is the eighth volume in the annual Travelers' Tales series launched in 2004 to celebrate the world's best travel writing - from Nobel Prize winners to emerging new writers. The points of view and perspectives are global, and themes encompass high adventure, spiritual growth, romance, hilarity and misadventure, service to humanity, and encounters with exotic cuisine. Sweat, suffer, and fall in love in Guyana, meet a traveler who conducts his ow...

Beside me, on the stone steps of this quiet courtyard, there is a lame man – the sweeper. He is so thin that the end of his belt comes back around to its buckle. He’s trying to feed a puppy the rest of his lunch. He reminds me that we all need something to need us, and that maybe that’s why we Westerners, who are so independent, mostly fail to understand family in this way, and need to come up with things like ‘quality time’ to justify such a base need. Everyone here asks if my family ...

****SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023**'Full of delightful anecdotes and interviews and fascinating historical tales' Mail on Sunday**A panoramic portrait of the wonderous vehicle whose passenger is also its engine.A toy, a tool, a liberator, or complete nuisance: the bicycle has been many things to many people over the decades, yet it endures as the most popular form of transport in the world. How has such a simple m...

Do you want to be a truck driver?Would you like to be profitable?Do you drive and just love what you do?Are you training others to become truck drivers?The Art of Truck Driving will give you all you need to know but did not get at truck-driving school, provided by one who has 2.5 million miles under his belt, who always drove with safety in mind and was presented with the Driver of ...

Arthur Black’s best lines are like a shot of whisky-sharp, invigorating and with a good kick. Following the success of his many previous titles, the multiple-award-winning humorist once again delivers black-to-black” laughs with his latest collection, Paint the Town Black.With his usual off-kilter perspective, Black tackles many of the pressing topics of the day, including some positive PR for the swastika, the sometimes fatal effects of poor penmanship and the burning qu...

The sequel to the award-winning From Our Side of the Fence—personal stories of life after the WWII internment camps from twelve Japanese Americans.Many books have chronicled the experience of Japanese Americans in the early days of World War II, when over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were taken from their homes along the West Coast and imprisoned in concentration camps. When they were finally allowed to l...