On March 2nd, 2000, the technology company 3Com spun off its insanely profitable hand-held computer subsidiary, Palm. It was one of the most fascinatingly high profile and complex and bungled trades in history, but All The Evil Of This World isn't about the millions and millions of dollars that instantly came into play, it's about seven separate voices from seven separate individuals (an ambitious low-level clerk fresh out of school, a drug-addicted, party-throwing broker with bad taste and gross amounts of money, a seemingly infallible hedge fund manager tortured by his own good luck, to name a few) and the 3Com/Palm trade is what weaves their stories together. They all collide into it and out of it, and it sometimes unites them, implodes them, saves them, or destroys them.This book is not for the faint of heart--these characters are just as troubled and intense and volatile as their surroundings, and the writing pulls not a single punch--but it's an unrelenting examination into a cast of characters that we rarely examine fairly or patiently, and who we often find it easy to dehumanize. The people who inhabit this world aren't cartoon heroes or villains--as it turns out, people who happen to handle large amounts of money for a living--are just people, with shortcomings, just like us.

    Part comedy of manners, part social commentary, love story, mystic narration and thriller, it is a sort of Indian version of Oliver Goldsmith's THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.

    In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose.“Immortality,” winner of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for new writers, tells the story of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to a dictator and so finds a calling to immortality. In “The Princess of Nebraska,” a man and a woman who were both in love with a young actor in China meet again in America and try to reconcile the lost love with their new lives. “After a Life” illuminates the vagaries of marriage, parenthood, and gender, unfolding the story of a couple who keep a daughter hidden from the world. And in “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,” in which a man visits America for the first time to see his recently divorced daughter, only to discover that all is not as it seems, Li boldly explores the effects of communism on language, faith, and an entire people, underlining transformation in its many meanings and incarnations.These and other daring stories form a mesmerizing tapestry of revelatory fiction by an unforgettable writer.From the Hardcover edition.

    There is the 'wind-listener', a blind surveillance officer who can hear sounds from miles away; the beautiful, unstable maths genius who meets a violent end; the old man who deciphers codes in his dreams; the spy who recounts a dangerous mission from beyond the grave.In this story of conspiracies, geniuses, revolutionaries and terrible moral choices, people sacrifice everything for a world of secrets - until, ultimately, it destroys them.

    

    A cycle of thirteen tenderly evocative stories written while Mu Xin was living in exile, this collection is reminiscent of the structural beauty of Hemingway’s In Our Time and the imagistic power of Kawabata’s palm-of-the-hand stories. From the ordinary (a bus accident) to the unusual (Buddhist halos) to the wise (Goethe, Lao Zi), Mu Xin’s wandering “I” interweaves plots with philosophical grace and spiritual profundity. A small blue bowl becomes a symbol of vanishing childhood; a painter in a race against fading memory scribblesnotes in an underground prison during the Cultural Revolution; an abandoned temple room holds a dark mystery. An Empty Room is a soul-stirring page turner, a Sebaldian reverie of passing time, loss, and humanity regained.

    The story is wryly narrated by the chieftain's son, a self-professed "idiot" who reveals the bloody feuds, seductions, secrets, and scheming behind his family's struggles for power. When the chieftain agrees to grow opium poppies with seeds supplied by the Chinese Nationalists in exchange for modern weapons, he draws Tibet into the opium trade -- and unwittingly plants the seeds for a downfall. Red Poppies is at once a political parable and a moving elegy to the lost kingdom of Tibet in all its cruelty, beauty, and romance.

    

    It is the story of Skeeter, a young boy growing up in a family poor in material goods but rich in the appreciation of their natural surroundings. The river they live on is the source of life—and death.

    

    Turned out of their home by the ruthless pit owner, Fern and her mother Wynne are forced to seek a new life in Cardiff. Whilst Wynne finds work in a factory, Fern attends the local school. But here she is bullied and is soon selling flowers outside Cardiff Central station to help make ends meet. When her mother is taken from her in an influenza epidemic, Fern has no one to protect her from her violent and possessive uncle. She longs to escape from the brutality and squalor around her and make something of herself. But with no money and her only friend away at sea, there seems little hope of her ever leaving her life of poverty behind, let alone finding the love she so yearns for.

    Originally published in 1934 by author Shen Congwen, this beautifully written novel tells the story of Cuicui, a young country girl who is coming of age in rural China in the tumultuous time before the communist revolution.

    

     But when the launch of the new A2e rocket goes terribly wrong, panic grips the entire world - because this rocket has a nuclear reactor on board. From the moment the A2e crashes, that nuclear reactor is on a countdown to meltdown. It will reach a supercritical state within a matter of days. And so, even as the A2e plummets to the very depths of the ocean, the desperate race to retrieve it begins. Failure will result in catastrophic damage to Earth and all life upon it. Yet the rocket has plunged so deep into the ocean that it seems almost impossible to find, let alone salvage. Enter Dane Brande, maverick but world-leading oceanographer who, with his highly-skilled, international team of experts and cutting edge equipment, may be the world’s best, possibly only, hope of salvation. But will Brande take on the job and if he does, will he survive it? Against a background of riots and international rage, interested parties converge on the sea above the crash site. A rogue environmentalist, whose ambitions are unclear even to himself, threatens to derail the operation. Newspaper reporters circle and protesters gather as the world looks on. Soon after the end of the Soviet era, the Russians and the Americans are once more racing each other to an achievement - that of raising the rocket - but in this new world order and time of threat, do they actually need to co-operate? To what extent are they willing and able to do that? Meanwhile, Brande must keep his own demons at bay and hold his nerve long enough to find and retrieve the rocket. If he succeeds he will save the world from catastrophe and secure the future of his ground-breaking research and diving salvage company… But will Brande succeed or will he, like others, lose his life in the search for the lost rocket and its terrifying cargo? Praise for William H Lovejoy ʻDelta Green is an exciting aerial thriller. Buckle your seat belts!ʼ - Joe Weber, author of Defcon One ‘Lovejoy writes in afterburner!… action that leaves you dry-lipped, moist-palmed and hungry for more. An excellent read.’ - M.E. Morris William H Lovejoy has publications in English, Spanish, Hebrew and Japanese. He is the author of twenty-five thriller, suspense, and mystery novels, including Delta Blue, Delta Green, Alpha Kat, Phantom Strike and Ultra Deep. A Vietnam veteran, he resides in Colorado and is Vice Chancellor Emeritus from Mohave Community College.

    She leaned against the glass front of the parlor, one leg bent like a crane's. Luring in the clients with sweet and oily words consumed a surprising amount of energy"Reserved, at times defiant, Lotus is different from the other streetwalkers. Her striking eyes glow under Shenzhen’s neon lights, capturing the attention of Funny Eye, Family Treasure, and a slew of other demanding clients determined to make Lotus their property. Choosing between wealthy, powerful, and dangerous men is no easy feat, but it is a surprising offer from Binbing, a soft-spoken and humble photojournalist, that presents the biggest challenge. Is Lotus willing to fall in love? Is she capable of it?Inspired by the deathbed revelation that the author’s grandmother had been sold to a brothel in her youth,Lotus offers compelling insight into China’s bustling underground world and reveals the surprising strength found in those confronted with impossible choices. Written with compassion and vivid prose, and packed with characters you won’t soon forget, Lijia Zhang's Lotus examines what it means to be an individual in a society that praises restraint in and obedience from its women.