South Africa: The Structure of Things Then is the culmination of fifteen years of photography, research, and writing by acclaimed South African photographer David Goldblatt. In more than 130 evocative black-and-white photographs, Goldblatt probes the relationships between South African structures and the forces that shaped the society from 1652 to 1990, a period he calls the Era of Baasskap, or white domination. His seminal exploration compels a reexamination of South Africa's cultural heritage as manifested in its structures. The hopes and fears of the builders are captured alongside their buildings. In his introduction and in the extended captions to the photographs, Goldblatt gives fascinating insight into the meaning of the structures, and the context from which each photograph emerged. Goldblatt's more than thirty years of experience imbue his carefully composed images with meaningful cultural overtones. The work is complemented by Neville Dubow's illuminating critical appraisal, "Constructs: Reflections on a Thinking Eye."

When Frank Behr’s friend and mentor is murdered without any apparent motive, he thirsts for answers and retaliation. But before he can make headway in the dead-end investigation, a private firm approaches him with a delicate proposition: two of its detectives have gone missing, and the firm wants Behr to find out what happened to them. The search for the missing detectives takes Behr into the recesses of Indianapolis’s underworld, a place rife with brutality and vice where Behr uncovers a shocking thread connecting the missing detectives to his friend’s brutal murder, and, in the process, an ominous, deadly new breed of crime family.

When Zeke returns to space to go on a secret mission for the director of the Confederation of United Planets, chaos ensues.

James and Katherine are at a wedding in London. They spend a while watching and waiting. Speak. Exchange phone numbers. Meet up the following week... From then on not everything goes to plan. It is the 1990s, the end of the money-for-nothing years. James is a man with a varied past - entrepreneur, gambler, film producer, former dot com millionaire - now living alone in Bloomsbury. Katherine is married, but separated, working at an interim job in a city hotel. The relationship is beset with difficulties from the beginning, both external and of their own making. They are distracted- James with the latest in a long line of schemes, drawing him into the world of gambling and horse racing, Katherine by her husband, a photographer and paparazzo, who has suddenly reappeared. Narrated from different perspectives and at different times by both James and Katherine, and by a series of peripheral characters, March is a kaleidoscopic and complex portrait of a relationship, of contemporary England, and of the ebb and flow of money.Instantly recognisable and unbearably real, it is a love story unlike any you will have read.

From the author of Billy and Girl, this collection of stories explores the emptiness at the center of the characters' lives and their attempts to fill this lack. In "Cave Girl" Cass goes through a sex change, not to become a man, but rather to become "less of a real girl and more of a pretend woman." Her surgery transforms her into a woman desired by all men--including her brother. "Conversations with Famous Artists I Have Known" relates an afternoon discussion between two women, one who chose motherhood and a routine life at the expense of her creativity, the other a world famous, self-centered artist. In these stories about friendship, motherhood, and the search for enduring love, rules about decency and kindness are broken and repaired as men and women attempt to achieve an elusive sense of fulfillment.

Denise Levertov's poetry has moved ever more deeply into the realm of meditation. Oblique Prayers - published with her first UK Selected Poems - shows her poetry working towards a mature philosophy in harmony with public activism and private reflection. The book also includes her translations of Jean Joubert.

The filmmaker noted for Sebastiane and Edward II , among other works, discusses his life and art, detailing his sexual awakening, the libidinous excesses of the sixties, his experiences in gay culture, and more.

A film with no spoken dialogue, just follows the music and lyrics of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem", which include WWI soldier poet Wilfred Owen's poems reflecting the war's horrors.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HISTORICAL, POLITICAL & MILITARY. Alexander Selkirk was marooned on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez in 1704 after a row with the captain of his ship. He had been on a treasure seeking adventure to the South Seas. His abandonment meant he was alone for four years and four months, dependent for survival on what the island offered. When rescued he was clad in goat skins and had forgotten how to speak. His story inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, the first English novel. In this startlingly original book, which is as much a biography of the island as the man, award-winning author Diana Souhami draws on contemporary memoirs, letters and documents, as well as her own experience of the island to evoke one man's struggle with solitude, fate and his environment.

For two months in 1871, the workers of Paris took control of Europe's most celebrated capital city. When they established the world's first workers' democracy--the Paris Commune--they found no ready-made blueprints, and no precedents to study for how to run their city without princes, prison wardens, or professional politicians. All they had was the boundless revolutionary enthusiasm of Paris's socialists, communists, anarchists, and radical Jacobins, all of whom threw their energies into creating a new society. As the city's bakers, industrial workers, and other "ruffians" built new institutions of collective political power to overturn social and economic inequality, their former rulers sought to thwart their efforts by any means necessary--ultimately deciding to drown the Communards in blood. By paying particular attention to the historic problems of the Commune, critical debates over its implications, and the glimpse of a better world the Commune provided, Gluckstein reveals its enduring lessons and inspiration for today's struggles. Donny Gluckstein is author of The Nazis, Capitalism and the Working Class and The Tragedy of Bukharin . He is a lecturer in history in Edinburgh and is a member of the Socialist Workers Party.

A seductive and intriguing journey from the humble Persian Jewish quarter to the fascinating world of shahs, soothsayers, eunuchs, and sultanas, "Harem" follows three generations of strong-willed and cunning women: Rebekah -- a poor girl married to the abusive blacksmith, Jacob the fatherless -- who emerges from her disastrous match with a mysterious brand between her breasts; Gold Dust, Rebekah's treasured daughter, who enters the opulent and perilous world of the harem and captivates the shah with her singing bones; and Gold Dust's daughter, the revered and feared albino princess Raven, who will one day rule the empire.Rich in visual imagery, "Harem" vividly depicts the exotic bazaars and dangerous alleys of the city and palace chambers brimming with conspiracy and betrayal -- as well as love and redemption. A skillfully crafted, intricately textured novel, "Harem" represents the beginning of a remarkable literary career.

In a thought-provoking, humorous, and engaging style, Dorion Sagan combines philosophy, science, and an understanding of illusion to probe the deep questions of existence. Operating on the precept that the universe is far weirder than we might imagine, Sagan-- son of acclaimed scientists Carl Sagan and Lynn Margulis--uses his knowledge of philosophy, science, sleight-of-hand magic, and the fantastical writings of Philip K. Dick to explore some of the deepest questions we face on Earth. He provides fresh insights as to why we are here, the nature of technology, the prognosis for humanity, the living nature of our planet, and a reasoned explanation to why our universe is probably just one of an infinite number. Sagan also provides answers to twelve pressing questions: Why does life exist? Why do we drink water? Can we save the Earth from global warming? Are human beings central and special? Is it possible that we've arisen by pure chance? Is the Earth an organism? Are we part of its exo-brain? If it is alive, can it reproduce? Can the universe? What does the future hold in store for us? Does God exist? What is the nature of ultimate reality? Notes from the Holocene is a prime example of the writing coming from a new generation of scientific writers. It will inspire readers to think for themselves while leaving them chuckling with tongue-in-cheek anecdotes--a rare combination that Sagan delivers with ease. And yes, as geneticist J.B.S. Haldane says, "the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine."

Roma Ben-Atar resisted until late in life the urging of her family to share the memories of her Nazi-era experiences. The Holocaust exerted a dark pressure on all of their lives but was never openly discussed. It was only when her granddaughter insisted on hearing the whole truth, with a directness partly generational, that Mrs. Ben-Atar agreed to tell her story. What Time and Sadness Spared is a journey of both loss and endurance, moving with shocking speed from a carefree adolescence in upper-middle-class Warsaw to the horrors of the Final Solution. The young girl sees her neighborhood transformed into a ghetto populated by skeletal figures both alive and dead. Unbelievably, things only grow worse as this ruin gives way to the death factories of Majdanek and Auschwitz and the death marches of 1945. Life in the camps changes her in less than a day, as if "the person in my body was a stranger I had never met." Her only consolation is to lie on her wooden bunk, no mattress, and speak to the soul of her mother, who, like virtually her entire family, had already been swept away. Roma must summon astonishing powers of adaptation simply to survive, bringing her finally through the wreckage of postwar Europe and to an entirely new life in Israel. In this unique family collaboration Roma Ben-Atar's son Doron, a historian who brings with him fluency in psychoanalysis, contributes through his commentary an awareness of the difficulties presented by historical narrative and memory. A visitor to the much-changed sites in which his mother grew up and was interned by the Nazis, he also voices the perspective of the survivors' children and their ambivalence over being "protected" from this past. As the generation that endured the camps passes from this world, What Time and Sadness Spared illustrates with particular urgency the historical responsibilities of the survivors' descendants, who must become the new vessels for a story that will not remain alive on its own but demands our courage and curiosity.

A young child who nearly died on the operating room table says he's received supernatural messages from heaven. A woman who claims to have been reincarnated is able to give precise detail about places she's never been and people she's never met. A man who drowned in a freezing river but was resuscitated says he experienced a terrifying 30 minutes in hell. You've heard amazing stories like these in the news and on reality TV shows, tales that have captured the imaginations of millions while shaping their views about the afterlife. but are they true? Billions believe they are, but what if, however fascinating and genuine these experiences might sound, they contradict the plain teaching of the scriptures? Wouldn't you want to know? Trusted Bibles teacher Doug Batchelor invites you on an extraordinary new journey that goes far beyond the grave. He opens the pages of the Bible to reveal crucial forgotten truths about what lies ahead for every person after death, the very same truths about life and death that Jesus taught, and exposes who is behind this massive campaign of misinformation. What you'll discover will not only help you understand this great final mystery, it will give you a new sense of hope and security and a reason to face the future with confidence.