Books published by Oneworld Publications

To escape his troubled past, Norman heads to the desert to lose himself in his work. He has just received a research grant to study the ghost towns and abandoned mines that litter the landscape. But when he comes across a group of desert-dwelling outcasts and is taken captive by their charismatic leader Jacoby, he is introduced to an alternative way of life: one that both repulses and mesmerizes. As he struggles to make sense of this strange new world with its perverse and unorthodox practices Norman begins to realize he must either yield to the ever-watchful Jacoby, or take his chances and run. Ireland's refined and sparse style cuts through to the dark heart of the American dream in this chilling novel about the thin lines that separate the civilized from the primitive, and the living from the dead.

Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (18551902) was one of the most articulate and original proponents of reformist ideas in the Arab world, as well as a precursor of Arab nationalism. A journalist, political thinker and social activist from Aleppo, Syria, he was a sharp critic of both the scholarly and Sufi religious traditions, and of the autocratic Ottoman government of the day. Undeterred by persecution and arrest, he advocated returning to the model of the forefathers of Islam and was an overt supporter of liberty, an Arab Caliphate, and the separation of religion and state. The first full-scale biography of Kawakibi in any European language, this work combines an account of his life with a fresh look at his writings, from the newspapers he founded in Aleppo to the books he published in Cairo. Drawing on memoirs of relatives and colleagues and on archival material, Itzchak Weismann demonstrates Kawakibi's originality and assesses his impact on the evolution of Islamic political thought and the course of Arab nationalism during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

'If you're going to talk about women in the 21st century, you MUST read Peggy Orenstein's Girls & Sex.' - CAITLIN MORAN, author of How to Be a Woman *TIME Top 10 non-fiction books of 2016* *Amazon Best Non-fiction of 2016* A generation gap has emerged between parents and their daughters. Mothers and fathers have little idea about the pressures and expectations they face or how they feel about them. Drawing on in-depth interviews with young women and a wide range of psychologists and experts, renowned journalist and bestselling author Peggy Orenstein goes where most others fear to tread, pulling back the curtain on the hidden truths and hard lessons of girls' sex lives in the modern world.

In June 2014 Islamic State launched an astonishing blitzkrieg which saw them seize control of an area in the Middle East the size of Britain. The news was soon filled with their relentless acts of savagery, yet nobody seemed to know who they were or where they'd come from. Now BBC reporter Andrew Hosken delivers the inside story on Islamic State. Through extensive first-hand reporting, Hosken builds a comprehensive picture of IS, their brutal ideology and exterminationist methods. Equally compelling and horrifying, Empire of Fear reveals how Islamic State came to be, explores how they might be defeated and asks a frightening question if they were brought down, could we stop another group emerging to replace them?

In this lucid and carefully constructed volume, feminist academic Kecia Ali examines classical Muslim texts and tries to evaluate whether a just system of sexual ethics is possible within an Islamic framework.

';The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance' John Rawls, A Theory of Justice What is justice? How can we know it? How can we make our society more just? The most significant political philosopher since John Stuart Mill, John Rawls (1921 2002) grappled with such dilemmas. His work has been the source not only of academic argument, but also of political debate and legislative reform, arguing that we have a moral duty to organise society so as to rectify undeserved inequality. In the first introduction to Rawls's work which encompasses his entire career, Dr Paul Graham combines lucid exposition with thought-provoking criticism. Locating Rawls in the rich history of political thought, Graham explores a theory that remains fiercely relevant as the developed world sees unprecedented levels of inequality. For anyone concerned with how society works, this is a vital introduction to one of the great modern philosophers and to a subject that is crucial to how we live.

A Book of the Decade, 2010-2020 (Independent) ';Outrageous, hilarious and profound.' Simon Schama, Financial Times ';The longer you stare at Beatty's pages, the smarter you'll get.' Guardian ';The most badass first 100 pages of an American novel I've read.' New York Times A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. Born in Dickens on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles, the narrator of The Sellout spent his childhood as the subject in his father's racially charged psychological studies. He is told that his father's work will lead to a memoir that will solve their financial woes. But when his father is killed in a drive-by shooting, he discovers there never was a memoir. All that's left is a bill for a drive-through funeral. What's more, Dickens has literally been wiped off the map to save California from further embarrassment. Fuelled by despair, the narrator sets out to right this wrong with the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court. In his trademark absurdist style, which has the uncanny ability to make readers want to both laugh and cry, The Sellout is an outrageous and outrageously entertaining indictment of our time.

An extraordinary, evocative investigation into the legacy of the controversial one-child policy across all of Chinese society

After a tragic accident leaves Tamara alone on the most westerly tip of Ireland, she begins an affair with a charismatic meteorologist named Niall. It's the 1950s, and Tamara has settled into civilian life after working as an auxiliary pilot in World War II. At first her romance is filled with passionate secrecy, but when Niall's younger brother, Kieran, disappears after a bicycle race, Niall, unable to shake the idea that he may be to blame, slowly falls into despondency. Distraught and abandoned after their decade-long relationship, Tamara decides she has no option but to leave. Jane Urquhart's mesmerizing novel opens as Tamara makes her way from Ireland to New York. During a layover in Gander, Newfoundland, a fog moves in, grounding her plane and stranding her in front of the airport's mural. As she gazes at the nutcracker-like children, missile-shaped birds, and fruit blossoms, she revisits the circumstances that brought her to Ireland and the family entanglement that has forced her into exile. Slowly she interweaves her life story with Kieran's as she searches for the truth about Niall.

On Easter Sunday, 23 April 1916, the seven members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's military council met to proclaim an Irish Republic with themselves as the provisional government. After a week of fighting with the British army on the streets of Dublin, the Seven were arrested, court-martialled and executed. Cutting through the layers of veneration that have seen them regarded unquestioningly as heroes and martyrs by many, Ruth Dudley Edwards provides shrewd yet sensitive portraits of Ireland's founding fathers. She explores how an incongruous group, which included a communist, visionary Catholic poets and a tobacconist, joined together to initiate an armed rebellion that changed the course of Irish history. Brilliant, thought-provoking and captivatingly told, The Seven challenges us to see past the myths and consider the true character and legacy of the Easter Rising.

Albert Honig's most constant companions have always been his bees. A never-married octogenarian, he makes a modest living as a beekeeper, as his father and his father's father did before him. Deeply acquainted with the workings of his hives, Albert is less versed in the ways of people, especially his neighbour Claire, whose beauty and vivaciousness transformed his young life. Yet years passed by, feelings were repressed, and chances missed. Until one day Albert, led by a trail of bees, discovers Claire's body. Through the quiet minutiae of life, he begins to examine the truths that lay hidden under the secrets and silence that hovered between them for so long. With echoes of The Remains of the Day, Telling the Bees is a haunting novel about lies of omission and commission, the persistence of regret, and the sweet anguish of re-opening wounds in order to finally heal them.

Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest about the past. Frances is a survivor however and with the help of the only other crash survivor she sees that the future is worth fighting for.A gripping and thoughtful story about a girl who didnt ask to be the person she is but is also determined to make herself the person she wants to be.

We are hard-wired to believe that the world is more predictable than it is. We chase ';winning streaks' that are often just illusions, and we are all too predictable exactly when we try hardest not to be. In the 1970s, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky coined the phrase ';representativeness' to describe the psychology of this behaviour. Since then representativeness has been used by auditors to catch people fiddling their tax returns and by hedge fund managers to reap billions from the emotions of small investors. Now Poundstone for the first time makes these techniques fun, easy, and profitable for everyone, in the everyday situations that matter. You'll learn how to tackle multiple choice tests, what internet passwords to avoid, how to up your odds of winning the office Premier League sweepstakes, and the best ways to invest your money.

Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Books 2016 Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2015 When Anne-Marie Slaughter's Atlantic article, "e;Why Women Still Can't Have it All"e; first appeared, it immediately went viral, sparking a firestorm of debate across countries and continents. Within four days, it had become the most-read article in the history of the magazine. In the following months, Slaughter became a leading voice in the discussion on work-life balance and on women's changing role in the workplace. Now, Slaughter is here with her eagerly anticipated take on the problems we still face, and how we can finally get past them. In her pragmatic, down-to-earth style, Slaughter bursts the bubble on all the "e;half-truths"e; we tell young women about "e;having it all"e;, and explains what is really necessary to get true gender equality, both in the workplace and at home. Deeply researched, and filled with all the warm, wise and funny anecdotes that first made her the most trusted and admired voice on the issue, Anne-Marie Slaughter's book is sure to change minds, ignite debate and be the topic of conversation.

Welcome to the age of Data-ism, where every little piece of information about you is worth something to somebody

In the wake of the phenomenal success of such shows as CSI, forensic science has never been so popular. The obsessive attention to detail that Grissom and his crew afford seemingly insignificant details, such as particles of dirt in a bullet wound and the presence of pollen in tyre tracks, have had audiences eager to know more. Siegel's study follows the course of evidence all the way from the crime scene right through to the court judgement, investigating the many types of evidence, how they occur in crimes, how they are collected and analyzed by scientists, and how the results are presented in court. Packed with real examples, the book covers all the major areas of forensic science including drugs, trace evidence, pathology, entomology, odontology, anthropology, crime scene investigation, and law.

Spy, adventurer, charismatic seductress and mistress of two of the centurys greatest writers, the Russian aristocrat Baroness Moura Budberg was born in 1892 to indulgence, pleasure and selfishness. But after she met the British diplomat and secret agent Robert Bruce Lockhart, she sacrificed everything for love, only to be betrayed.When Lockhart arrived in Revolutionary Russia in 1918, his official mission was Britains envoy to the new Bolshevik government, yet his real assignment was to create a network of agents and plot the downfall of Lenin. Lockhart soon got to know Moura and they began a passionate affair, even though Moura was spying on him for the Bolsheviks. But when Lockharts plot unravelled, she would forsake everything in an attempt to protect him from Lenins secret police. Fleeing to a life of exile in England and taking a string of new lovers, including Maxim Gorky and H. G. Wells, Moura later spied for Stalin and for Britain amidst the web of scandal surrounding the Cambridge spies. Through all this she clung to the hope that Lockhart would finally return to her.Grippingly narrated, this is the first biography of Moura Budberg to use the full range of previously unexamined letters, diaries and documents. An incredible true story of passion, espionage and double crossing that encircled the globe, A Very Dangerous Woman brings her extraordinary world vividly to life with dramatic resonances to rival the most sensational novel.

';I liked The Unit very much... I know you will be riveted, as I was.' Margaret Atwood ';Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood, The Unit is as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable.' Jessica Crispin, NPR.org Ninni Holmqvist's eerie dystopian novel envisions a society in the not-so-distant future where men and women deemed economically worthless are sent to a retirement community called the Unit. With lavish apartments set amongst beautiful gardens and state-of-the-art facilities, elaborate gourmet meals, and wonderful music and art, they are free of financial worries and want for nothing. It's an idyllic place, but there's a catch: the residents known as dispensables must donate their organs, one by one, until the final donation. When Dorrit Weger arrives at the Unit, she resigns herself to this fate, seeking only peace in her final days. But she soon falls in love, and this unexpected, improbable happiness throws the future into doubt. Clinical and haunting, The Unit is a modern-day classic and a spine-chilling cautionary tale about the value of human life.

In frontier America, a man lives with a pregnant woman who is not his wife. When a stranger appears and advises him to register the baby as his own at a fabled military outpost, the man sets out on a lonely journey across an arid and hostile terrain. Soon after he departs, the stranger kills the woman before setting off in pursuit of the man. As their parallel journeys unfold, we learn of the man's childhood working with his father on a ship rife with cannibalism and their subsequent life in a port town; we watch the stranger as he assumes many guises to shape-shift his way through history in pursuit of the man, a pawn in his brutal game of rewriting the founding myths of the American West. Menacing, visceral and lyrical, Beyond the Horizon is an audacious debut: an astonishing sojourn into the darkest parts of Western lore that showcases a bold and enormous new talent in contemporary fiction.

Shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt Winner of the Goncourt du Premier Roman Winner of the Prix des Cinq Continents Winner of the Prix Franois Mauriac THE NOVEL THAT HAS TAKEN THE INTERNATIONAL LITERARY WORLD BY STORM He was the brother of ';the Arab' killed by the infamous Meursault, the antihero of Camus's classic novel. Angry at the world and his own unending solitude, he resolves to bring his brother out of obscurity by giving him a name Musa and a voice, and by describing the events that led to his senseless murder on a dazzling Algerian beach. A worthy complement to its great predecessor, The Meursault Investigation is not only a profound meditation on Arab identity and the disastrous effects of colonialism in Algeria, but also a stunning work of literature in its own right, told in a unique and affecting voice.

Hatshepsut, the daughter of a general who had usurped the throne of Egypt, was born into a privileged position within the royal household. Married off to her own brother, she was expected to bear sons who would legitimize the reign of her father's family. But she failed to produce a male heir. Such was the twist of fate that paved the way for her own scarcely believable rule: she ascended to the throne as a ';king'. Over a spectacular twenty-two-year reign, Hatshepsut proved herself a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with a veil of piety and sexual reinvention. Just as women today face obstacles from a society that equates authority with masculinity, Hatshepsut had to operate the levers of a patriarchal system to emerge as Egypt's second female pharaoh. Scholars have long speculated as to why her images were violently destroyed within a few decades of her death, all but erasing evidence of her rule. Constructing a rich narrative history using the sources that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated powerand why she fell from public favour just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of a female pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.

The power of Darwin's theory of natural selection is beyond doubt, it explains how useful adaptations are preserved over generations. But evolution's biggest mystery eluded Darwin: how those adaptations arise in the first place. Can random mutations over a 3.8 billion years be solely responsible for wings, eyeballs, knees, photosynthesis, and the rest of nature's creative marvels? And by calling these mutations ';random', are we not just admitting our own ignorance? What if we could now uncover the wellspring of all biological innovation? Renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner presents the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using cutting-edge experimental and computational technologies, he has found that adaptations are in fact driven by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take. Consider the Arctic cod, a fish that lives in waters cold enough to turn the internal fluids of most organisms into ice crystals. And yet the Arctic cod survives by producing ';natural anti-freeze', proteins that lower the freezing temperature of its body fluids. The invention of those proteins is an archetypal example of nature's enormous powers of creativity. Meticulously researched, carefully argued, and full of fascinating examples from the animal kingdom, Arrival of the Fittest offers up the final puzzle piece in the mystery of life's rich diversity.

Eminent historian Patricia Crone defines the common features of a wide range of pre-industrial societies, from locations as seemingly disparate as the Mongol Empire and pre-Columbian America, to cultures as diverse as the Ming Dynasty and seventeenth-century France. In a lucid exploration of the characteristics shared by these societies, the author examines such key elements as economic organization, politics, culture, and the role of religion. An essential introductory text for all students of history, Pre-Industrial Societies provides readers with all the necessary tools for gaining a substantial understanding of life in pre-modern times. In addition, as a perceptive insight into a lost world, italso acts as a starting point for anyone interested in the present possibilities and future challenges faced by our own global society.

Buddhisms: An Introduction represents a novel way of presenting the whole of the Buddhist tradition in its unity and multiplicity. Clear in its explanations, replete with tables and suggestions for further reading, it should appeal to students, yet also be of interest to scholars for some of its ways of viewing the Buddha, his teachings, and the Buddhist community through the ages.The volume begins with an overview-introduction to the many aspects of Buddhism by surveying the modern-day temples that exist in Lumbini, the Buddhas birthplace. It then recounts not only the story of the Buddhas life, but the ways in which subsequent Buddhist traditions sought to overcome the absence of the Buddha, after his death. Turning to Buddhist Doctrine, it expands the notion of the Middle Way to depict the manner in which Buddhism both avoided or incorporated the extreme teachings extant in India in its time. It then goes on to show how the theme of the Middle Way also helps us understand the transition to later schools of Buddhist thought. Finally, it examines the establishment and nature of Buddhist community life before going on to show its development in the very different environments of Thailand, Japan, and Tibet.Throughout, the author does not hesitate to lace his explanations with personal anecdotes and insights gathered during over forty years of studying Buddhism and travelling and living in Buddhist countries.

AN INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS ON RELIGION 2014 PICK Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based on fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion's founding moments. They were developed, like in other world religions, over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars. Misquoting Muhammad takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi's great mosques to the trade routes of the Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.

By pairing a scholar of Islamic law with a scholar of Jewish law, a unique dynamic is created, and new perspectives are made possible. These new perspectives not only enable an understanding of the other's legal tradition, but most saliently, they offer new insights into one's own legal tradition, shedding light on what had previously been assumed to be outside the scope of analytic vision. In the course of this volume, scholars come together to examine such issues as judicial authority, the legal policing of female sexuality, and the status of those who stand outside one's own tradition. Whether for the pursuit of advanced scholarship, pedagogic innovation in the classroom, or simply a greater appreciation of how to live in a multi-faith, post-secular world, these encounters are richly-stimulating, demonstrating how legal tradition can be used as a common site for developing discussions and opening up diverse approaches to questions about law, politics, and community. Islamic and Jewish Legal Reasoning offers a truly incisive model for considering the good, the right and the legal in our societies today.

The debut novel of the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2015 Jamaica, 1957 On a day beginning with a bad omen black vultures, known locally as John Crows, crash through the local church windows a handsome and charismatic stranger drags the village preacher from his pulpit and takes over both church and congregation. Promising vengeance and damnation, he wastes no time delivering both, and in doing so starts a power struggle that sets the village of Gibbeah on a path to destruction. With language as taut as classic works by Cormac McCarthy, and a richness reminiscent of early Toni Morrison, John Crow's Devil is a terrifying and moving novel about religious mania, redemption, sexual obsession and the eternal struggle between the righteous and the wicked.