A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

Hiroko steps out onto the veranda. Her body from neck down a silk column, white with three black cranes swooping across her back. She looks out towards the mountains, and everything is more beautiful to her than it was early this morning. Nagasaki is more beautiful to her than ever before. She turns her head and sees the spires of Urakami Cathedral, which Konrad is looking up at when he notices a gap open between the clouds. Sunlight streams through, pushing the clouds apart even further.   Hiroko.   And then the world goes white.   —From Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie --   The morning of August 9, 1945 breaks dreary and unspectacular in the city of Nagasaki. Nonetheless, twenty-one year-old Hiroko Tanaka is she is in love. Her emerging romance with the displaced German Konrad Weiss offers release from the greyness of wartime deprivation. In this time of heightened xenophobia, their affair must be kept secret, particularly as Hiroko’s father has recently been outcast for questioning the patriotism of sending children on kamikaze missions. As Hiroko and Konrad furtively plan for a future after the war, there is no way they can comprehend the unspeakable devastation bearing down upon them.   Two years later, Hiroko arrives in Delhi at the home of Konrad’s sister Ilse and his brother-in-law James Burton. Upon Hiroko’s back are crane-shaped scars, seared into her skin when her kimono was incinerated by the bomb. She is on the run from unbearable memories, as well as from the stigma of being branded a hibakusha , a survivor of the bomb. Ilse, in an uncharacteristically impulsive move, welcomes Hiroko into her home, seeing in the brave young woman a possibility of release from her own conscripted existence. Hiroko quickly destabilizes the frigid hierarchy of the household, much to the relief of Sajjad Ashraf, James’s bored servant.   Tensions are running high in the Mohalla with the looming partition of India and Pakistan. Will Sajjad remain in his beloved Dilli/Delhi, or depart with so many others for the promise of Pakistan? Sajjad’s family has secured for him a wife, and he yearns for a legal career, still half-clinging to the hope that James will assist him. But James’s only use for him is as a chess opponent, an idle distraction as the Raj winds to a close. The Burtons are preparing to decamp for England, having already dispatched their son Harry to boarding school. But what James does not know is that Ilse is making other plans.   A romance blooms between Hiroko and Sajjad, much to the incredulity of the Burtons, whose own emotional lives have become entwined in the futures of their charismatic young charges. Despite outbursts of jealousies and a terrible act of betrayal, the Burtons nevertheless assist Hiroko and Sajjad in their flight to married life in Istanbul. Later the Ashrafs will move to Karachi to raise their son, Raza.   The lives of the Ashrafs and the Burtons will remain entwined for decades, though in ways they cannot anticipate. Across continents and through geopolitical flux, each family will continue to act as a catalytic force upon the other, sometimes in life-saving ways, and sometimes causing great peril. Why is it that some bonds flourish in times of crisis, and why do some fail? What defines the character that survives the cruelest of circumstances? And how is it that entire populations can support unspeakable acts en masse, while relating as individuals with compassion?   Longlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows is an enthralling meta-cultural epic, the panoramic tale of two families tangled together in some of the most devastating conflicts of modern history. From the Hardcover edition.

A chemist and member of a family renowned for its learning in several disciplines, Michael Polanyi experienced first-hand the horrors of totalitarian government and worldwide war. He argued that centrally planned organizations―or governments―based solely on the methods of science threaten to foreclose a full human knowledge of the mysteries of existence and therefore pose a direct threat not only to academic freedom but also to social and political liberty. Michael Polanyi (1891–1976) was an internationally renowned scientist, philosopher, and professor whose other works include Personal Knowledge and The Tacit Dimension . Stuart D. Warner is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois.

In this stunning graphic novel by two-time Ignatz award–winning graphic novelist Ariel Slamet Ries, Oberon must choose between fantasy and reality when he develops the ability to conjure his dreams in real life—including the facsimile of the boy who got away. In the not-too-distant future, most of humanity resides on its last-ditch effort at Meridian, a remote alien planet where you’re more likely to be born superhuman than left-handed.  None of that is important to Oberon Afolayan. Since his mildly public breakdown, his whole life seems to be spiraling out of control—from dropping out of university to breaking up with his boyfriend, it seems like only a karmic inevitability when he wakes up one day with the ability to conjure his dreams in the real world.  Oberon’s newfound powers come with a facsimile of his high school crush, Kon, who mysteriously dropped off the face of the planet almost three years ago and who is a little more infuriating (if not also infuriatingly hot) than Oberon remembers.  Kon makes it his mission to turn Oberon’s life around, and while they struggle to get a handle on his powers and his disastrous personal life (not to mention the appearance of strange nightmare creatures), it turns out this dream version of Kon has secrets of his own—dangerous ones.  Oberon might have more on his plate than he originally thought, but is giving up his dreams—even the one he might have accidentally fallen in love with—the only way to find happiness in reality? 

Take a close-up look into a world you’ve never noticed.Bugs are usually so small that we hardly notice them, let alone think of them as living beings. But call upon the magnifying glass, and a shapeless jumble of legs, wings, and antennae suddenly start staring back at us.About 80 percent of the Earth’s animals are insects. While there are millions of different species, we rarely see many of them . . . until now. Thanks to the photography of John Hallmén, who took a camera and magnified these magnificent creatures one hundred times, we can see what we’ve never been able to see before.Bugs Up Close takes readers on a journey into a world rarely seen, with incredible photographs of such insects as:Crane fliesYellow meadow antsBlack fungus beetlesTreehoppersAnd many more!The diversity of this insect civilization is striking and unknown to most. An insect we may never have thought twice about now looks like a creature from outer space. Fascinating and somewhat monstrous details such as compound eyes, antennae, and sharp mouth parts are visible, and with text by Lars-Åke Janzon, Bugs Up Close is an amazing close look into the strange and beautiful world of insects.

A millennial turned magical girl must combat climate change and credit card debt in this delightful, witty, and wildly imaginative ode to magical girl manga. Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seoul’s Mapo Bridge. But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed all in white—her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical girl on a mission to find the greatest magical girl of all time. And our protagonist just may be that special someone. But the young woman’s initial excitement turns to frustration when she learns being a magical girl in real life is much different than how it’s portrayed in stories. It isn’t just destiny—it’s work. Magical girls go to job fairs, join trade unions, attend classes. And for this magical girl there are no special powers and no great perks, and despite being magical, she still battles with low self-esteem. Her magic wand . . . is a credit card—which she must use to defeat a terrifying threat that isn’t a monster or an intergalactic war. It’s global climate change. Because magical girls need to think about sustainability, too. Park Seolyeon reimagines classic fantasy tropes in a novel that explores real-world challenges that are both deeply personal and universal: the search for meaning and the desire to do good in a world that feels like it’s ending. A fun, fast-paced, and enchanting narrative that sparkles thanks to award-nominated translator Anton Hur, A Magical Girl Retires reminds us that we are all magical girls—that fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight can be anyone's game. Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur.

On an October morning in 1970, phones began ringing all over Karachi. The charismatic young poet and former civil servant Mustafa Zaidi had been found dead in his bedroom. He wasn’t alone: Shahnaz Gul, a stunningly beautiful, married socialite, with whom Zaidi had been having an affair, was lying unconscious in the next room, seemingly drugged.

How ought we to live? What really exists? How do we know? This Very Short Introduction discusses some of the key questions philosophy engages with. Edward Craig explores important themes in ethics, and the nature of knowledge and the self, through readings from Plato, Hume, Descartes, Hegel, Darwin, and Buddhist writers. Throughout, he emphasizes why we do phiilosophy, explains how different areas of philosophy are related, and explores the contexts in whichphilosophy was and is done.This new edition includes a new chapter on free will, discussing determinism and indeterminism in the context of Descartes and Hegel's work. Craig also covers the Problem of Evil, and Kant's argument on the source of moral obligation.ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

An NYRB Classics Original The hero of The Invisibility Cloak lives in contemporary Beijing—where everyone is doing their best to hustle up the ladder of success while shouldering an ever-growing burden of consumer goods—and he’s a loser. Well into his forties, he’s divorced (and still doting on his ex), childless, and living with his sister (her husband wants him out) in an apartment at the edge of town with a crack in the wall the wind from the north blows through while he gets by, just, by making customized old-fashioned amplifiers for the occasional rich audio-obsessive. He has contempt for his clients and contempt for himself. The only things he really likes are Beethoven and vintage speakers. Then an old friend tips him off about a special job—a little risky but just don’t ask too many questions—and can it really be that this hopeless loser wins? This provocative and seriously funny exercise in the social fantastic by the brilliantly original Ge Fei, one of China’s finest living writers, is among the most original works of fiction to come out of China in recent years. It is sure to appeal to readers of Haruki Murakami and other fabulists of contemporary irreality.

This book gives the universally established principles of constitutional law. It analyses and discusses them in context to the judgments of the superior courts of the US, the UK, Pakistan and India as well the judgments rendered by the courts in Australia, Canada, and Germany. In Pakistan and India, the concepts of constitutional law are derived primarily from American and British jurisprudence and how they have been adopted, applied, extended, and developed by the superior courts in both countries. The book is divided into seven Part I discusses the definition and scope of the Constitutional Law and its interaction between the State and the Citizen. Part II relates to basic constitutional concepts like constitutional conventions, the rule of law, due process of law, and equality before law. Part III relates to certain basic constitutional structures like parliamentary and presidential forms of government and the concepts of separation of powers and federalism. Part IV relates to judiciary and includes subjects like independence of judiciary, judicial review, precedents, and theories of interpretations of the constitution. e fundamental rights under various constitutions are divided into two partsHuman Rights and Civil Liberties. Part V deals with human rights, the right to life, liberty, privacy and property, freedom of religion and safeguards against self-incrimination and double jeopardy. Part VI pertains to civil liberties like freedom of speech, press, association, assembly, and movement. Part VII gives certain evolving concepts like the doctrine of necessity and basic structure of constitution. The chapter on 'Independence of Judiciary' has been revised following the judicial reforms introduced in the United Kingdom by the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005. Subsequent laws and judgments have been included and discussed. e chapters on the 'doctrine of necessity' and 'precedents' have also been added.

Elric, master swordsman of Melnibone, must lay aside his sword and venture into the Realm of Dreams to stop the evil schemes of the Sorceror Emperors of Quarzhasaat

Elric of Melniboné is a requisite title in the hard fantasy canon, a book no fantasy fan should leave unread. Author Michael Moorcock, already a major player in science fiction, cemented his position in the fantasy pantheon with the five-book Elric saga, of which Elric of Melniboné is the first installment. The book's namesake, the brooding albino emperor of the dying nation of Melniboné, is a sort of Superman for Goths, truly an archetype of the genre. The youthful Elric is a cynical and melancholy king, heir to a nation whose 100,000-year rule of the world ended less than 500 years hence. More interested in brooding contemplation than holding the throne, Elric is a reluctant ruler, but he also realizes that no other worthy successor exists and the survival of his once-powerful, decadent nation depends on him alone. Elric's nefarious, brutish cousin Yrkoon has no patience for his physically weak kinsman, and he plots constantly to seize Elric's throne, usually over his dead body. Elric of Melniboné follows Yrkoon's scheming, reaching its climax in a battle between Elric and Yrkoon with the demonic runeblades Stormbringer and Mournblade. In this battle, Elric gains control of the soul-stealing Stormbringer, an event that proves pivotal to the Elric saga. --Paul Hughes

Elric of Melniboné, last of the emperors of a once mighty land, exiled bearer of the sword of deathpower called Stormbringer, found a ship waiting for him on a mist-wreathed alien seashore. When he boarded the mysterious vessel, he learned from its shadowy captain that he was to undertake a strange quest, side by side with other heroes from other times. For this ship sailed no earthly waters. These warriors and champions fought sorcerers and demons in a journey spanning seas that seemed to connect not continents and coastlines but other eras and different worlds. For they were, all of them, sailors on the seas of fate.