Daedalus Books

Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov, 1995

Brilliant stories that show the growth of a novelist's mind, and the raw material that fed the wild surrealism of Bulgakov's later fiction. With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr. Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice — on the eve of Revolution — is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance. Подробнее

The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire

Himelstein Linda, 2009

In this sweeping history of vodka scion Pyotr Smirnov and his family, distinguished journalist Linda Himelstein plumbs a great riddle of Russian history through the story of a humble serf who rose to create one of the most celebrated business empires the world has ever known. At the center of this vivid narrative, Pyotr Smirnov comes to life as a hero of wonderful complexity — a man of intense ambition and uncanny business sense, a patriarch of a family that would help define Russian society and suffer from the Revolution's aftermath, and a loyalist to a nation that would one day honor him as a treasure of the state. Born in a small village in 1831, Smirnov relied on vodka — a commodity that in many ways defines Russia — to turn a life of scarcity and anonymity into one of immense wealth and international recognition. Starting from the backrooms and side streets of 19th century Moscow, Smirnov exploited a golden age of emancipation and brilliant grassroots marketing strategies to popularize his products and ensconce his brand within the thirsts and imaginations of drinkers around the world. His vodka would be gulped in the taverns of Russia and Europe, praised with accolades at World Fairs, and become a staple on the tables of Tsars. His improbable ascent — set against a sobriety crusade supported by Chekhov and Tolstoy, mounting political uprisings and labor strikes, the eventual monopolization of the vodka trade by the state — would crumble amidst the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution. Only a set of bizarre coincidences — including an incredible prison escape by one of Smirnov's sons in 1919 — would prevent Smirnov's legacy from fading into oblivion. Set against a backdrop of political and ideological currents that would determine the course of global history — from the fall of the Tsars to the rise of Communism, from vodka's popularization by none other than James Bond to Smirnoff's emergence as a multi-billion dollar brand — Smirnov's story of triumph and tragedy is a captivating historical touchstone. The King of Vodka is much more than a biography of an extraordinary man. It is a work of narrative history on an epic scale. Подробнее

Leningrad: Hero City

Cornish Nik, 2012

The 900-day siege of the Soviet city of Leningrad by the combined forces of the Germans and the Finns is one of the most remarkable, and terrible, events of the Second World War, yet until recently it has not received the attention it deserves it has been overshadowed by other massive confrontations on the Eastern Front, at Stalingrad and Kursk. And rarely has the compelling story of the siege been told through graphic wartime photographs like those that author Nik Cornish has collected for this book. Many of these images have not been published before, and they give an unflinching insight into the reality of the conditions of the siege as it was experienced by the soldiers on each side and by the civilians trapped in the city who were threatened by starvation, disease, shelling and assault. The entire course of the siege is covered, from the encirclement of September 1941, through the successive attempts by the Wehrmacht to break in and the dogged, sometimes desperate defense put up by the Red Army, to the withdrawal of the Germans and the lifting of the siege in January 1944. Nik Cornishs portrait of the ruthless struggle of Hitlers armies to capture the second city of the Soviet Union and the determination and suffering of the defenders will be fascinating reading for everyone who is interested in the war on the Eastern Front. Подробнее

Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944

Reid Anna, 2011

On September 8, 1941, eleven weeks after Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, his brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union, Leningrad was surrounded. The siege was not lifted for two and a half years, by which time some three quarters of a million Leningraders had died of starvation. Anna Reid's «Leningrad» is a gripping, authoritative narrative history of this dramatic moment in the twentieth century, interwoven with indelible personal accounts of daily siege life drawn from diarists on both sides. They reveal the Nazis' deliberate decision to starve Leningrad into surrender and Hitler's messianic miscalculation, the incompetence and cruelty of the Soviet war leadership, the horrors experienced by soldiers on the front lines, and, above all, the terrible details of life in the blockaded city: the relentless search for food and water; the withering of emotions and family ties; looting, murder, and cannibalism- and at the same time, extraordinary bravery and self-sacrifice. Stripping away decades of Soviet propaganda, and drawing on newly available diaries and government records, «Leningrad» also tackles a raft of unanswered questions: Was the size of the death toll as much the fault of Stalin as of Hitler? Why didn't the Germans capture the city? Why didn't it collapse into anarchy? What decided who lived and who died? Impressive in its originality and literary style, «Leningrad» gives voice to the dead and will rival Anthony Beevor's classic Stalingrad in its impact. Подробнее

The Lives of Things

Saramago Jose, 2012

The Lives of Things collects Jose Saramago's early experiments with the short story form, attesting to the young novelist's imaginative power and incomparable skill in elaborating the most extravagant fantasies. Combining bitter satire, outrageous parody and Kafkaesque hallucinations, these stories explore the horror and repression that paralyzed Portugal during the harsh regime of Salazar and pay tribute to human resilience in the face of injustice and institutionalized tyranny. Beautifully written and deeply unsettling, The Lives of Things illuminates the development of Saramago's prose and records the genesis of those themes that resound throughout his novels. Подробнее

The Lovely Bones

Sebold Alice, 2004

Now in paperback: Alice Sebold's luminous first novel — one of the most celebrated literary debuts of recent seasons — that builds out of a family's grief the most hopeful and joyful of stories. Подробнее

Moonlight Mile

Lehane Dennis, 2010

New York Times — bestselling author Lehane delivers an explosive tale of vengeance and redemption in this brilliant sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone — heralding the long-awaited return of beloved private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Подробнее

Rumpelstiltskin and Other Grimm Tales

Grimm Jacob, 1999

A retelling of classic children's tales by The Brothers Grimm, including Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Ashputtel (Cinderella) and Little Red-cap. This interpretation by Carol Ann Duffy seeks to remove the sugariness of contemporary versions and return to the orginal, darker mould. Подробнее

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

Simon Sebag Montefiore, 2012

There have been many biographies of Stalin, but the court that surrounded him is untravelled ground. Simon Sebag Montefiore, acclaimed biographer of Catherine the Great's lover, prime minister and general Potemkin, has unearthed the vast underpinning that sustained Stalin. Not only ministers such as Molotov or secret service chiefs such as Beria, but men and women whose loyalty he trusted only until the next purge. Подробнее

Tales from Earthsea

Ursula K Le Guin, 2012

The tales of this book, as Ursula K. Le Guin writes in her introduction, explore or extend the world established by her first four Earthsea novels. Yet each stands on its own. The Finder, a novella set a few hundred years before A Wizard of Earthsea, presents a dark and troubled Archipelago and shows how some of its customs and institutions came to be. The Bones of the Earth features the wizards who taught the wizard who first taught Ged and demonstrates how humility, if great enough, can contend with an earthquake. Darkrose and Diamond is a delightful story of young courtship showing that wizards sometimes pursue alternative careers. On the High Marsh tells of the love of power-and of the power of love. Dragonfly shows how a determined woman can break the glass ceiling of male magedom. Concluding with an account of Earthsea's history, people, languages, literature, and magic, this collection also features two new maps of Earthsea. Подробнее

A Week in December

Faulks Sebastian, 2010

Powerful contemporary novel set in London from a master of literary fiction Structured like a thriller, A Week in December takes place over the course of a single week at the end of 2008. Set in London, it brings together an intriguing cast of characters whose lives apparently run on parallel lines but — as it gradually becomes clear — are intricately related. The central anti-hero, John Veals, is a shadily successful and boundlessly ambitious Dickensian character who is trading billions. The tentacles of Veals' influence encompass newspaper columnists, MPs, businessmen, footballers, a female tube driver, a Scottish convert to Islam, a disaffected teenager, and a care worker, whose different perspectives build up a tale of love, family and money as the story builds to its powerful climax. Подробнее

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K Le Guin, 2012

In the first volume of this legendary fantasy series originally published in 1968, a boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard. Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance. Подробнее

Shapes

Pilkington Sally, 2012

Kids don t have to wait for geometry class to get the hang of shapes.With Doodles Shapes, they ll learn triangles, circles, rectangles, and squares as they doodle trucks, tents, pizza, balls, trains, and more. Kid swill also learn the meanings of bigger and smaller, thicker and thinner, taller and shorter. They won t even know they are learning as they get to doodle on spaceships, queens, and flowers to learn diamonds, stars, hearts, and shapes of all kinds. Kids don t need a video game to be entertained. They just need doodles. Подробнее

Time

Meyers Nancy, 2012

Time is all around us, and by using doodles as a learning tool, even small children can grasp the concepts of seasons, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds in a simple, step-by-step manner that is as fun as it is educational. It's all here for kids to discover: daytime and nighttime; the months of the year; and the days of the week. Kids can learn all about time by using birthdays, doodling games, and, of course, clock faces. What time is our picnic? What time can we go swimming? What time is dinner? «Doodles Time» provides hours and hours of fun, and helps to teach a complicated subject in a simple manner. Подробнее

The Dovekeepers

Hoffman Alice, 2012

Over five years in the writing, Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing novel ever, a triumph of imagination and research set in ancient Israel. The author of such iconic bestsellers as Illumination Night, Practical Magic, Fortune's Daughter, and Oprah's Book Club selection Here on Earth, Alice Hoffman is one of the most popular and memorable writers of her generation. Now, in The Dovekeepers, Hoffman delivers her most masterful work yet — one that draws on her passion for mythology, magic, and archaeology and her inimitable understanding of women. In 70 CE, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on a mountain in the Judean desert, Masada. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic historical event, Hoffman weaves a spellbinding tale of four extraordinary, bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker's wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her twin grandsons, rendered mute by their own witness. Aziza is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman, who finds passion with another soldier. Shirah is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege, as the Romans draw near. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets — about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love. Подробнее

How to Be Compassionate: A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World

Lama Dalai, 2011

Through practical exercises and personal anecdotes, the Dalai Lama shows how becoming compassionate as individuals can lead to global changes. Подробнее

Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag

Dr. Orlando Figes, 2012

Figes reconstructs a heroic and touching love story that occurred in the midst of one of Stalin's most notorious work camps, drawing on personal letters, KGB archives and recent interviews to brilliantly illustrate the broader world in which their story unfolded. Подробнее

The Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated

Morris Gerald, 2012

Many years ago, the storytellers say, the great King Arthur brought justice to England with the help of his gallant knights of the roundtable. While most of King Arthur's knights freely chose a life of duty, for Sir Balin the Ill-Fated, destiny was foretold in a prophecy. And seriously, ill-fated is right there in his title, so Balin's not surprised when things go sour. Still, no matter how dire the task, a loyal and gallant knight never refuses adventure! Will Sir Balin finally discover his true destiny? And which ill-fated path will he have to choose? Join Balin on this, the noblest quest of all. With black-and-white drawings from acclaimed artist Aaron Renier throughout. Подробнее

The Best American Mystery Stories

Crais Robert, 2012

Best-selling novelist Robert Crais, a master of crime fiction and creator of the critically acclaimed Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels, edits this year's must-read mystery stories with a keen eye for thrills and nail-biting suspense. Подробнее

Buddha

Carew-Miller Anna, 2002

In India, the sixth century B.C., there lived a great spiritual teacher. He was called Buddha, which means 'the enlightened one'. Born into a noble family, near the mountains of the Himalayas, he was named Siddhartha. Until he was 29 years old, he lived a life of undisturbed luxury. But his curiosity and compassion moved him to leave his palace. He wanted to understand the nature of human suffering. Siddhartha spent the next six years in prayer and fasting. Eventually, he experienced enlightenment. He understood how to let go of desire and the suffering that goes with it. As Buddha, he traveled widely and his followers spread his teachings throughout Asia. Today, Buddhism is one of the most widely practiced religions in the world. Подробнее

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