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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2011

        Servants of the empire

        The Irish in Punjab 1881–1921

        by Patrick O'Leary, Andrew Thompson, John Mackenzie

        Punjab, 'the pride of British India', attracted the cream of the Indian Civil Service, many of the most influential of whom were Irish. Some of these men, along with Irish viceroys, were inspired by their Irish backgrounds to ensure security of tenure for the Punjabi peasant, besides developing vast irrigation schemes which resulted in the province becoming India's most affluent. But similar inspiration contributed to the severity of measures taken against Indian nationalist dissent, culminating in the Amritsar massacre which so catastrophically transformed politics on the sub-continent. Setting the experiences of Irish public servants in Punjab in the context of the Irish diaspora and of linked agrarian problems in Ireland and India, this book descrides the beneficial effects the Irish had on the prosperity of India's most volatile province. Alongside the baleful contribution of some towards a growing Indian antipathy towards British rule. Links are established between policies pursued by Irishmen of the Victorian era and current happenings on the Pakistan-Afghan border and in Punjab. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2017

        Servants of the empire

        The Irish in Punjab 1881–1921

        by Patrick O'Leary, Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie

        Punjab, 'the pride of British India', attracted the cream of the Indian Civil Service, many of the most influential of whom were Irish. Some of these men, along with Irish viceroys, were inspired by their Irish backgrounds to ensure security of tenure for the Punjabi peasant, besides developing vast irrigation schemes which resulted in the province becoming India's most affluent. But similar inspiration contributed to the severity of measures taken against Indian nationalist dissent, culminating in the Amritsar massacre which so catastrophically transformed politics on the sub-continent. Setting the experiences of Irish public servants in Punjab in the context of the Irish diaspora and of linked agrarian problems in Ireland and India, this book descrides the beneficial effects the Irish had on the prosperity of India's most volatile province. Alongside the baleful contribution of some towards a growing Indian antipathy towards British rule. Links are established between policies pursued by Irishmen of the Victorian era and current happenings on the Pakistan-Afghan border and in Punjab.

      • Fiction

        A Good Name

        by Yejide Kilanko

        Twelve years in America and Eziafa Okereke has nothing to show for it. Desperate to re-write his story, Eziafa returns to Nigeria to find a woman he can mold to his taste. Eighteen-year-old Zina has big dreams. An arranged marriage to a much older man isn't one of them. Trapped by family expectations, Zina marries Eziafa, moves to Houston, and trains as a nurse. Buffeted by a series of disillusions, the couple stagger through a turbulent marriage until Zina decides to change the rules of engagement.

      • Fiction

        La donna che visse nelle città di mare

        by Marosella di Francia & Daniela Mastrocinque

        This intense and spellbinding family saga begins in Messina, in 1904, at the Andaloro house. On the day of her engagement Costanza discovers that her father has committed suicide. Destroyed by her pain, she is sent by her family to New York where she works in a tailor shop in Little Italy, and where the ambitious musician Pietro Malara courts her without success. Four years later, in 1908, the news of the Messina earthquake reaches New York, and Costanza learns that no one in her family has survived. Oppressed by a sense of guilt that drives her to deny herself any form of happiness, she agrees to marry Pietro and follows him to Naples. The final phase of the novel takes place in Naples, in 2012. Lucilla arrives at the Rione Sanità on the trail of her great-grandmother, Costanza Andaloro, whose existence she discovered via an old letter recently come to light. By reading Costanza’s diary and through the stories of the elderly Zina, Lucilla will be able to reconstruct the complex figure of her great-grandmother who was forced to make painful yet vital choices in span of her Neapolitan life. It was there that she singlehandedly raised her daughter, Rosa, the future grandmother of Lucilla. It was there that Costanza became the woman who lived in cities by the sea. Lucilla will complete the circle of her life in music as well, as the ribbons of creativity that weave through her family are revealed.

      • Autobiography: general
        October 2021

        Teheran im Bauch

        Wie meines Vaters Land mich fand

        by Mathias Kopetzki

        Der Berliner Schauspieler Mathias Kopetzki, aufgewachsen bei deutschen Adoptiveltern, entschließt sich mit über dreißig Jahren, nach Teheran zu reisen, um seinen leiblichen Vater und dessen streng muslimische Großfamilie kennenzulernen. Durch deren leidvolle Vergangenheit auch mit der eigenen konfrontiert, erlebt er den islamischen Gottesstaat als ein faszinierendes Land voller Gegensätze und verliebt sich im Schatten iranischer Moscheen in eine Kusine, die trotz Todesgefahr ein Verhältnis mit ihm beginnt. Kopetzki zeichnet in seiner spannenden, humorvollen und berührenden Geschichte das ungewöhnliche Bild einer Metropole, in der Restriktionen Alltag sind, Familie sich stützt, Glauben Halt verspricht – aber auch das einer Gesellschaft, in der nichts so ist, wie es scheint. Und er entdeckt, dass diese Reise zu seiner Herkunft auch eine Reise zu ihm selbst bedeutet …

      • Graphic novels

        FOR A FISTFUL OF DRACHMAS

        by IVÁN GARCIA / RUTH O'LEARY

        for a fistful of drachmas TONS OF ACTION IN THE ANCIENT GREECE HISTORIC ADVENTURE In a remote village on the Epirus region, the people lock themselves after dark. A huge lion have them terrorized. The Governor offers a generous reward to anyone who hunts it down.  An Athenian mercenary and a Spartan renegade/soldier will join forces and overcome their differences to kill the beast. But once the hunting begins new doubts arise. Is the lion a real creature or, as some pretend, a terrible and mysterious curse? Is it worth to provoke the anger of the gods for a fistful of drachmas? Perfect combination of action, humour and history The history in the service of the adventure Exquisite drawing and thorough research

      • Fiction

        Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

        by Satoshi Yagisawa

        25-year-old Takako has lived a relatively easy life. Born and raised on the southern island of Kyushu, she went to a good university and got a graduate job at a company in Tokyo where she met her charming boyfriend, Kashikoi. However, when Kashikoi casually announces that he’s been cheating on her and is planning to marry somebody else, Takako’s life is suddenly in freefall. She loses her job and with it all of her friends and acquaintances. She ends up in a deep depression but just as her despair seems to have reached a new low, she receives a call from her distant uncle.         Her uncle, who she refers to as Ojisan, is in his forties and has always lived something of an unconventional life, especially since his wife Momoko left him out of the blue five years ago. He runs a second-hand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s famous book district which is home to hundreds of used bookshops, publishing houses and literary societies. Takako used to turn her nose up at Ojisan’s way of life but when he offers her the tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping out at the store, she reluctantly agrees. In the months that follow, Takako surprises herself by discovering a passion for Japanese literature from the “Modern” period (1868–1945), partly thanks to recommendations from Ojisan and the bookshop’s loyal customers. She becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she befriends a graduate student who is waitressing there part-time, and she also meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who’s going through his own messy breakup.         Just as Takako is learning how to enjoy life again, Kashikoi gets back in touch which unearths all the negative emotions associated with their relationship. Ojisan notices the decline in Takako’s mood and when she finally tells him the whole story he is horrified at Kashikoi’s behaviour. Ojisan convinces Takako to take a cab to Kashikoi’s apartment at 11pm. They confront him and this gives Takako the closure she needs. Takako is infinitely grateful to Ojisan and her life starts to come back together again: she’s offered a job at a design company and she finds a new apartment.         A year and a half later, Takako has the chance to return the favour and help Ojisan get closure on the mystery that has plagued him for the last five years: why his loving wife Momoko suddenly left him. When Momoko reappears and refuses to explain her absence, Takako senses that Momoko might not be comfortable sharing her reasoning with Ojisan but that she may open up to Takako. Momoko moves into the room above the bookshop and Takako visits often. They form a bond and go on a two-day trip to the Okutama Mountains in far western Tokyo. There, Momoko confesses that she left because Ojisan got so wrapped up in the bookshop that he was oblivious to the emotional turmoil she went through after the birth of their stillborn child. She always wanted children but had to have a hysterectomy. For her, it is all tied up in the guilt surrounding an abortion she had in her twenties.         Takako tells Ojisan. He runs after Momoko, who is leaving again. She says she’ll return one day but he needs to get his own feelings in order before she comes back. When Momoko returns a year later, she and Ojisan enthusiastically embark on the next chapter of running the Morisaki Bookshop together, and Takako has begun to date the editor she met at the coffee shop.

      • October 2022

        Daniel Ghost and the Wandering Souls

        by Nicola Lucchi

        Daniel is an introverted boy who struggles to find friends in the village where he went to live after the disappearance of his parents. Finally one day, a new classmate seems to notice him. The problem, however, is that apparently he is the only one who can see her, thus making him look like a weirdo - more than usual.The girl is a ghost called Diana and she is quite grumpy. In fact, it looks like it annoys her a lot that Daniel can see her. She has a job to do, and he can only get in the way. In those same days, an even stranger event -if possible- happens in the school. In the new-year-of-school photo of a class in their own corridor, 13 children appear, but they were only 12 in front of the photographer! They are all shocked, and Professor Trevis most of them all. There is another ghost in the school, but not like Diana. He is different. He is a wandering soul, a dangerous spirit. Diana was sent to investigate, to find out why he reappeared, to help him get back to where he came from. Unfortunately, Daniel will have to help her… First book in Daniel Ghost Series.

      • The Chagall Atlas

        by NIENKE DENEKAMP

        The Chagall Atlas follows Jewish artist Marc Chagall, whose personal and artistic life collided with world history more than once. Born in the 19th Century in anti-Semitist Czarist Russia, Chagall travelled to 20th Century Paris, where Cubism and Fauvism were about to change art forever. During World War I, he was ‘stuck’ in his hometown Vitebsk, right at the Eastern Front of a war that seamlessly merged into the Russian Revolution. Chagall could literally see the Revolution unfold from the window of his office in St. Petersburg. Chagall spent the twenties and thirties in Berlin and Paris, trying not to think about World War II that loomed over Europe. His spectacular escape from Vichy France to the US, where Chagall and his family spent the war along with other exiled artists, is a fantastic story in its own right. After the War, Chagall settled in the South of France, where he lived next door to Picasso and Matisse. But it wasn’t until later in life, against the backdrop of the Cold War and the foundation of the State of Israel, that he fully came into his own as an artist.

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