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        February 2014

        Safa

        Die Rettung der kleinen Wüstenblume

        by Dirie, Waris

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        October 2020

        Tropical Deception

        by David Robinson

        With some $200 million sunk into a real estate development on Kauai, the investment partners have a lot to lose if Peter Roosevelt succeeds in stopping the project for the sake of preserving Hawaii's rich and exotic environment. When Roosevelt is found dead in his home, his neighbor, Wayne Takei, is quickly arrested―and becomes the latest, and possibly the most difficult, challenge for Honolulu's top criminal defense attorney, Pancho McMartin.The obstacles to proving Takei's innocence are daunting. His gun was the murder weapon. He has no alibi. And his affair with Roosevelt's wife provides ample motive. Lies and deception quickly plague the proceedings as Pancho and his team wade through a slew of suspicious characters, all of whom have alibis. Suspense is high as time is running out for Pancho to save his client from a lifetime in prison.This is David Myles Robinson's fourth novel in the increasingly popular Pancho McMartin legal thriller series.

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        Children's & YA

        The Detention Pros

        by Kirsten John/Miryam Specht

        Clara, Julian, Felix and Fee must have done something bad, because they are waiting for a severe punishment: detention. “Detention” is actually the wrong word. In fact their task is to get the school garden into shape, which includes the fountain with non-stop snapping turtles. But oh, shock horror! First of all, Felix digs up a skull. Then several suspicious looking men turn up, alleging that they are sports teachers. Could this be the cover-up of a murder? And what is the grumpy housemaster Kratzek hiding? In order to find out just what is going on at the closed school, the four detainees must stick together at all costs – and that is the biggest adventure of them all.

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        December 2025

        The Demise of Emperor Guangxu

        by XU LINLING

        The book revolves around the suspicious case of Emperor Guangxu's death, and presents the complicated and multifaceted life of Emperor Guangxu in three-dimensional and true manner. The book also relies on the original materials such as memorials, diaries, letters, and the emperor’s Zhu Bi. Based on a detailed analysis of historical facts, it restores the various grievances and disputes between Emperor Guangxu and Cixi. Emperor Guangxu’s true attitude towards the Hundred Days Reform and the The mystery of the dead presents new insights and has strong academic and cultural value.

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        February 2021

        The Siege of Qikou

        by Zhu Xiuhai

        The Siege of Qikou has mainly narrated that Cheng Jinyuan, president of Northwestern Shanxi Chamber of Commerce, had been led to the cusp of historical changes to fight bravely together with local people during 1936 to 1949. Cheng Qianzhi, the oldest son of Cheng Jinyuan, was sent by Yan Xishan there to serve as a battalion commander of the Shanxi and Suiyuan Army, while Cheng Chongzhi, his second son, was assigned by The Communist Party of China to build the primary-level organizations of the Party in his hometown. Qikou had been under the siege of Japanese invaders for three times which had made Qikou the scene of fierce fighting. After suffering tremendous sacrifice, Cheng Jinyuan, who had been mistrustful of CPC before, had gradually realized that CPC had and would always unite closely with the masses and march forward with no fear of sacrifice which might be the reason that CPC was far stronger than Yan Xishan or Chiang Kai-shek. Together with his fellow citizens, he had firmly supported CPC and devoted all himself to the cause of national liberation through arduous struggle and sacrifice, displaying an epic of heroism to a large extent. The novel is full of twists and turns and quite readable by successively demonstrating the front-line battlefield and the espionage war. Set in the anti-Japanese war period, the novel has vividly discussed the three effective weapons of CPC to fight against the enemies: the united front, the armed struggle and the building of the Party, and stressed the formation and historical importance of the united front.

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        Children's & YA
        June 2019

        Die Unausstehlichen & ich - Das Leben ist ein Rechenfehler (Band 1)

        by Walder, Vanessa / Korthues, Barbara

        The Unbearables & Me – Life‘s an Error in Calculation (Vol. 1)   A rebellious young girl who has seen it allAn isolated boarding school in the mountains with a dark secret5 particular friends One shared plan to escape …   - A defense apology, written as a report using swear words (crossed out) - absolutely authentic and touching, yet funny! - A first-person narrative in report style about an unusual topic that will get under your skin! - Illustrated in b/w (20%)     Together, we’re unbearable… Eleven-year-old foster kid Enni gets transferred to a secluded, damn boring boarding school and soon stumbles across secrets, involving the entire staff and somehow revolving around twelve-year-old Dante and a long forgotten accident.

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        Children's & YA

        Seawalkers (2). Rescuing Shari

        by Katja Brandis/ Claudia Carls

        For the attention of all Seawalker fans: the marine shapeshifters are back, with Volume 2 of this bestselling, shapeshifter series about Tiago, the young tiger shark, and his friends! Tiago is happy because he’s not only been admitted to Blue Reef High School, but also because at last he’s found a friend in Shari, a dolphin shapeshifter. The young tiger shark really needs a friend, because not everyone is happy to have him around. He is constantly clashing with the shady lawyer Lydia Lennox, and he has made himself unpopular by trying to track down the rubbish gangsters who are poisoning the nature reserve near the school. The situation reaches a climax during an anthropological research trip to Miami. When Shari gets into serious difficulties, Tiago as both human and shark takes a huge gamble in order to save her and her dolphin friends. The Seawalker books are published every six months. Previous publication: Seawalkers (1). Dangerous Shapes.

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        Children's & YA
        2016

        Pluto

        by Valentyna Vzdulska (Author), Inna Chernyak (Illustrator)

        This is the sweet sweet story of Mark, a little boy who shared a special bond with his dog Pluto. Unfortunately, one day Mark lost his best friend. Mark missed Pluto very much and came up with the idea that the dog was now residing on the small planet of the same name, Pluto... Until one day mom came home with a little fluffy present: a new puppy friend, and the beginning of a new story.   From 3 to 5 years, 2034 words Rightsholders: info@vivat.factor.ua or miroshnik@vivat.factor.ua

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        Children's & YA
        February 2021

        One Human Community

        by Amelina Jones

        Soothing words and fascinating illustrations of Amelina Jones touches readers of all ages. One Human Community introduces the concept of community and explores our differences and similarities as individuals. The story makes us reconsider our relationship with each other as a community, ourselves, and our planet.

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        January 2013

        The Madmen of Bethlehem

        by Osama Alaysa

        Adopting the story-within-a-story structure of Arabian Nights, author Osama Alaysa weaves together a collection of stories portraying centuries of oppression endured by the Palestinian people.   This remarkable novel eloquently brings together fictional characters alongside real-life historical figures in a complex portrayal of Bethlehem and the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. The common thread connecting each tale is madness, in all its manifestations.   Psychological madness, in the sense of clinical mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, finds expression alongside acts of social and political madness. Together, these accounts of individuals and communities provide a gateway into the histories of the city of Bethlehem and Palestine. They paint a picture of the centuries of political oppression that the Palestinian people have endured, from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the years following the Oslo Accords, and all the way to 2012 (when the novel was written).   The novel is divided into three sections, each containing multiple narratives. The first section, “The Book of a Genesis,” describes the physical spaces and origins of Bethlehem and Dheisheh Refugee Camp. These stories span the 19th and 20th centuries, transitioning smoothly from one tale to another to offer an intricate interpretation of the identity of these places.   The second section, “The Book of the People Without a Book”, follows parallel narratives of the lives of the patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem, the mad men and women roaming the streets of the city, and those imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. All suffer abuse, but they also reaffirm their humanity through the relationships, romantic and otherwise, that they form.   The third and final section, “An Ephemeral Book,” follows individuals—Palestinian and non-Palestinian—who are afflicted by madness following the Oslo Accords in 1993. These stories give voice to the perspectives of the long-marginalized Palestinian population, narrating the loss of land and the accompanying loss of sanity in the decades of despair and violence that followed the Nakba, the 1948 eviction of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes.   The novel’s mad characters—politicians, presidents, doctors, intellectuals, ordinary people and, yes, Dheisheh and Bethlehem themselves—burst out of their narrative threads, flowing from one story into the next. Alaysa’s crisp, lucid prose and deft storytelling chart a clear path through the chaos with dark humor and wit. The result is an important contribution to fiction on the Palestinian crisis that approaches the Palestinians, madness, and Palestinian spaces with compassion and depth.

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        Children's & YA
        January 2015

        Hatless

        by Lateefa Buti / Illustrated by Doha Al Khteeb

        Kuwaiti children’s book author Lateefa Buti’s well-crafted and beautifully illustrated children’s book, Hatless, encourages children (ages 6-9) to think independently and challenge rigid traditions and fixed rituals with innovation and creativity.   The main character is a young girl named Hatless who lives in the City of Hats. Here, all of the people are born with hats that cover their heads and faces. The world inside of their hats is dark, silent, and odorless.   Hatless feels trapped underneath her own hat. She wants to take off her hat, but she is afraid, until she realizes that whatever frightening things exist in the world around her are there whether or not she takes off her hat to see them.   So Hatless removes her hat.    As Hatless takes in the beauty of her surroundings, she cannot help but talk about what she sees, hears, and smells. The other inhabitants of the city ostracize her because she has become different from them. It is not long before they ask her to leave the City of Hats.   Rather than giving up or getting angry, Hatless feels sad for her friends and neighbors who are afraid to experience the world outside of their hats. She comes up with an ingenious solution: if given another chance, she will wear a hat as long it is one she makes herself. The people of the City of Hats agree, so Hatless weaves a hat that covers her head and face but does not prevent her from seeing the outside world. She offers to loan the hat to the other inhabitants of the city. One by one, they try it on and are enchanted by the beautiful world around them. Since then, no child has been born wearing a hat. The people celebrate by tossing their old hats in the air.   By bravely embracing these values, Hatless improves her own life and the lives of her fellow citizens.     Buti’s language is eloquent and clear. She strikes a skilled narrative balance between revealing Hatless’s inner thoughts and letting the story unfold through her interactions with other characters. Careful descriptions are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that reward multiple readings of the book.

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        In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat

        by Iman Mersal

        ‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives.   The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy.   The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.

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        Children's & YA
        January 2011

        The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air

        by Abdo Wazen

        In his first YA novel, cultural journalist and author Abdo Wazen writes about a blind teenager in Lebanon who finds strength and friendship among an unlikely group.   Growing up in a small Lebanese village, Bassim’s blindness limits his engagement with the materials taught in his schools. Despite his family’s love and support, his opportunities seem limited.   So at thirteen years old, Bassim leaves his village to join the Institute for the Blind in a Beirut suburb. There, he comes alive. He learns Braille and discovers talents he didn’t know he had. Bassim is empowered by his newfound abilities to read and write.   Thanks to his newly developed self-confidence, Bassim decides to take a risk and submit a short story to a competition sponsored by the Ministry of Education. After winning the competition, he is hired to work at the Institute for the Blind.   At the Institute, Bassim, a Sunni Muslim, forms a strong friendship with George, a Christian. Cooperation and collective support are central to the success of each student at the Institute, a principle that overcomes religious differences. In the book, the Institute comes to symbolize the positive changes that tolerance can bring to the country and society at large.   The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is also a book about Lebanon and its treatment of people with disabilities. It offers insight into the vital role of strong family support in individual success, the internal functioning of institutions like the Institute, as well as the unique religious and cultural environment of Beirut.   Wazen’s lucid language and the linear structure he employs result in a coherent and easy-to-read narrative. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is an important contribution to a literature in which people with disabilities are underrepresented. In addition to offering a story of empowerment and friendship, this book also aims to educate readers about people with disabilities and shed light on the indispensable roles played by institutions like the Institute.

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        Picture books

        The Lilac Girl

        by Ibtisam Barakat (author), Sinan Hallak (illustrator)

        Inspired by the life story of Palestinian artist, Tamam Al-Akhal, The Lilac Girl is the sixth book for younger readers by award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat.   The Lilac Girl is a beautifully illustrated short story relating the departure of Palestinian artist and educator, Tamam Al-Akhal, from her homeland, Jaffa. It portrays Tamam as a young girl who dreams about returning to her home, which she has been away from for 70 years, since the Palestinian exodus. Tamam discovers that she is talented in drawing, so she uses her imagination to draw her house in her mind. She decides one night to visit it, only to find another girl there, who won’t allow her inside and shuts the door in her face. Engulfed in sadness, Tamam sits outside and starts drawing her house on a piece of paper. As she does so, she notices that the colors of her house have escaped and followed her; the girl attempts to return the colors but in vain. Soon the house becomes pale and dull, like the nondescript hues of bare trees in the winter. Upon Tamam’s departure, she leaves the entire place drenched in the color of lilac.   As a children’s story, The Lilac Girl works on multiple levels, educating with its heart-rending narrative but without preaching, accurately expressing the way Palestinians must have felt by not being allowed to return to their homeland. As the story’s central character, Tamam succeeds on certain levels in defeating the occupying forces and intruders through her yearning, which is made manifest through the power of imaginary artistic expression. In her mind she draws and paints a picture of hope, with colors escaping the physical realm of her former family abode, showing that they belong, not to the invaders, but the rightful occupiers of that dwelling. Far from being the only person to have lost their home and endured tremendous suffering, Tamam’s plight is representative of millions of people both then and now, emphasizing the notion that memories of our homeland live with us for eternity, no matter how far we are from them in a physical sense. The yearning to return home never subsides, never lessens with the passing of time but, with artistic expression, it is possible to find freedom and create beauty out of pain.

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