A colorful and enthralling tour through the beautiful, historic world of oriental carpets that is also an exquisite meditation on their powerful allure. One day, prize-winning poet George Bradley took notice of a carpet that had been beneath his feet for decades. Carefully studying its weave and pattern, he was startled by the artistry behind it—a fascination and curiosity that unexpectedly sent him on a thrilling adventure and introduced him to a little-known realm in which beauty, artistry, business, and history collide. Carpet Diem chronicles Bradley's captivating journey through a land of oriental carpets where he fell in love—not only with a collection of magnificent rugs but their histories—including the dealers, collectors, scroungers, restorers, and connoisseurs connected to them. As he brings together his own story with that of these artworks, he recalls the compelling history of Central Asia itself. Like Scheherazade, Bradley spins story after story about the rich beauty found on the floors of mansions across Europe and America, identifying what’s draped in the portraits of Titian and Vermeer, unearthing hidden treasures in the faraway caves of Persia and Afghanistan, and revealing secrets lying under piles in bespoke shops in the wealthy enclaves of Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Westport, Connecticut. Weaving the mesmerizing storytelling of The Arabian Nights with the fascinating pilgrimage of history that unfolds in The Silk Road and the dramatic compulsion to possess rare elegance that propels The Orchid Thief, Carpet Diem is an unusual and gorgeous memoir of understanding and relishing the warp and woof of the world. Carpet Diem features eleven full-color photographs throughout.

A colorful and enthralling tour through the beautiful, historic world of oriental carpets that is also an exquisite meditation on their powerful allure. One day, prize-winning poet George Bradley took notice of a carpet that had been beneath his feet for decades. Carefully studying its weave and pattern, he was startled by the artistry behind it—a fascination and curiosity that unexpectedly sent him on a thrilling adventure and introduced him to a little-known realm in which beauty, artistry, business, and history collide. Carpet Diem chronicles Bradley's captivating journey through a land of oriental carpets where he fell in love—not only with a collection of magnificent rugs but their histories—including the dealers, collectors, scroungers, restorers, and connoisseurs connected to them. As he brings together his own story with that of these artworks, he recalls the compelling history of Central Asia itself. Like Scheherazade, Bradley spins story after story about the rich beauty found on the floors of mansions across Europe and America, identifying what’s draped in the portraits of Titian and Vermeer, unearthing hidden treasures in the faraway caves of Persia and Afghanistan, and revealing secrets lying under piles in bespoke shops in the wealthy enclaves of Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Westport, Connecticut. Weaving the mesmerizing storytelling of The Arabian Nights with the fascinating pilgrimage of history that unfolds in The Silk Road and the dramatic compulsion to possess rare elegance that propels The Orchid Thief, Carpet Diem is an unusual and gorgeous memoir of understanding and relishing the warp and woof of the world. Carpet Diem features eleven full-color photographs throughout.

J.M. Roberts's renowned History of the World is widely considered the finest available one-volume survey of the major events, developments, and personalities of the known past, offering generations of readers a tour of the vast landscape of human history. In this new edition, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Odd Arne Westad has completely revised this landmark work to bring the narrative up to the twenty-first century, including the 9/11 attacks and the wars in the Middle East. Westad utilizes the remarkable gains in scholarship in recent decades to enhance the book's coverage of early human life and vastly improve the treatment of India and China, Central Eurasia, early Islam, and the late Byzantine Empire, as well as the history of science, technology, and economics. The result is a truly remarkable work of compression and synthesis, sweeping through thousands of years of history, weaving the stories of empires, art, religion, economics, and science into a lucid and engaging narrative. Ranging from the early hominids and the emergence of Mesopotamian civilizations and ancient Egypt, the book illuminates such topics as the Roman Empire, the explosive arrival of Islam, the rise and fall of samurai rule in Japan, the medieval kingdoms of sub-Saharan Africa, the Mongol conquests, and the early modern expansion of Europe across the globe; also covered are the struggle for American independence, the French Revolution, the colonial empires, Japan's startling modernization, and the World Wars. With over 90 informative maps, The History of the World remains the finest, most readable survey in print.

Anguille is a 17-year-old girl who leaves her rock on the archipelago of Comoros to lose herself at sea. She drifts between two states of mind and between two islands 'in a hollow maze', evoking her memories so as to forget nothing and so as to delay the inevitable outcome. Confronted with the pressing immediacy of imminent death, Anguille recounts the story of her whole life in one long, sustained breath, in a series of brief couplets. But what Anguille recounts, in an assured voice which heralds a shipwreck, is also something other than her life something much deeper below the ground, or rather the sea, which has to do with the species and what is immemorial. It is the story of a fight for survival in which everyone becomes a predator. A story told in a single sentence, A Girl Called Eel is a memorial, a reckoning, and a powerful narrative imbued with a prevailing sense of urgency. "It is rare to say about a book that you have never read anything like it, and this is one such case." - Elle "A pure diamond, a magnificent event. A mind-blowing debut novel." --Le Point Ali Zamir was born on Anjouan in the Comoros. He studied French Literature at the University of Cairo and attained his Master s degree from there in 2010. He has since returned to Anjouan where he has been the Director of Culture and Cooperative Activities for the island since 2014. First published in French as Anguille sous roche by Le Tripode in 2016, A Girl Called Eel is his first novel.