Exciting, thrilling, and full of surprises as any detective story, but with the depth and colour of human beings as in a classic novel.
It was impossible to put down the book once I started. When finished, it left a strong urge to visit all the places mentioned in the book in the hope of finding something of the unbending spirit from the characters described so vividly by this brilliant author.
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF SUMMER 2021 A 2020 INDIES INTRODUCE & INDIE NEXT LIST PICK
A #1 international best-seller, Fresh Water for Flowers is an intimately told story about a woman who defiantly believes in happiness, despite it all.
Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her life is lived to the predictable rhythms of the often funny, always moving confidences that casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues share with her. Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of Julien Sole—local police chief—who has come to scatter…
Amid the devastation and brutality of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Ben Steil’s book about the Marshal Plan was inspiring. It showed how a few brave individuals set out to reconstruct Western Europe as a bulwark against communist authoritarianism, an effort that helped rebuild Europe after the devastation of the Second World War.
Once again, we will need such brave individuals to help rebuild Europe confronted by multiple crises.
With Britain's empire collapsing and Stalin's ascendant, U.S. officials under new Secretary of State George C. Marshall set out to reconstruct western Europe as a bulwark against communist authoritarianism. Their massive, costly, and ambitious undertaking would confront Europeans and Americans alike with a vision at odds with their history and self-conceptions. In the process, they would drive the creation of NATO, the European Union, and a Western identity that continues to shape world events.
This is the story behind the birth of the Cold War, and the U.S.-led liberal global order, told with verve, insight, and resonance for today. Bringing…
Pantucci has travelled in the footsteps of the great explorers and the players in the ‘Great Game.’
He explains the linkages between Xinjiang and Central Asia, which stand at the heart of Chinese efforts in the region. He shares his views on the implications of China’s involvement in Eurasia and what that means to the rest of the world. Pantucci understands and can explain this vast and rich hinterland in the Eurasian heartland.
An area replete with opportunities, ancient civilisations, and culture. A part of the world that is increasingly becoming a core interest to China and Russia. And if historical British geographer Halford Mackinder is to be believed, the key to take control of the “world island.”
Based on more than a decade's writing, research, and travel, this book offers a rare glimpse into China's expanding economic, cultural, and political power in the Eurasian heartland.
China's rise is changing the world. Much attention has been given to how China's geo-economic vision is playing out in the global economy, or how its technology is reshaping the planet, yet it is over its western borders, in Central Asia, that China's influence has been quietly expanding in a more pervasive way. It is here that you can find the first strand of Xi Jinping's grand Belt and Road Initiative, China's…
Governments worldwide require every sizeable organisation to publish financial statements, which are the basis for financial decision-making. The one exception to this rule? Governments themselves. This is a problem. Today, most governments focus solely on how much they have borrowed and how their revenues compare with their expenditure. They ignore whether money is going on investment or consumption, what assets or (non-debt) liabilities they have and how to manage them.
Ageing populations and rising healthcare costs – not to mention the costs of combating climate change – will place a much greater strain on government finances. Today’s politicians are postponing hard decisions that will only be tougher for their successors and even less fair to future citizens. This puts democratic institutions and the global economic system at risk.
