A dramatic and moving story set in the same world as the international bestseller The Island from the celebrated novelist Victoria Hislop. The absorbing story of the Cretan village of Plaka and the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony - is told to us by Maria Petrakis, one of the children in the original version of The Island. She tells us of the ancient and misunderstood disease of leprosy, exploring the themes of stigma, shame and the treatment of those who are different, which are as relevant for children as adults. Gill Smith's rich, full-colour illustrations will transport the reader to the timeless and beautiful Greek landscape and Mediterranean seascape.
Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply. More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.
Anna Maria Island: The Book captures the beauty and nature of the popular barrier island on Florida's Gulf Coast. It contains more than 100 photos of the beach, dolphins, manatee, turtles, local landmarks and much more. Discover the modern wonder of this island that preserves the Florida beach vacations of the past.
FOREWORD BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA AND LUIS A. MIRANDA, JR. The true story of how José Andrés and World Central Kitchen’s chefs fed hundreds of thousands of hungry Americans after Hurricane Maria and touched the hearts of many more Chef José Andrés arrived in Puerto Rico four days after Hurricane Maria ripped through the island. The economy was destroyed and for most people there was no clean water, no food, no power, no gas, and no way to communicate with the outside world. Andrés addressed the humanitarian crisis the only way he knew how: by feeding people, one hot meal at a time. From serving sancocho with his friend José Enrique at Enrique’s ravaged restaurant in San Juan to eventually cooking 100,000 meals a day at more than a dozen kitchens across the island, Andrés and his team fed hundreds of thousands of people, including with massive paellas made to serve thousands of people alone. At the same time, they also confronted a crisis with deep roots, as well as the broken and wasteful system that helps keep some of the biggest charities and NGOs in business. Based on Andrés’s insider’s take as well as on meetings, messages, and conversations he had while in Puerto Rico, We Fed an Island movingly describes how a network of community kitchens activated real change and tells an extraordinary story of hope in the face of disasters both natural and man-made, offering suggestions for how to address a crisis like this in the future. Beyond that, a portion of the proceeds from the book will be donated to the Chef Relief Network of World Central Kitchen for efforts in Puerto Rico and beyond.
*THE FIGURINE, the brand-new novel from Victoria Hislop, is available to order now.* 'A moving and absorbing holiday read that pulls at the heartstrings' Evening Standard The acclaimed million-copy number one bestseller and winner of Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2006. Victoria Hislop tells a dramatic tale of four generations, illicit love, violence and leprosy, from the thirties, through the war, to the present day. On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip... Praise for The Island. . . 'A vivid, moving and absorbing tale' Observer 'Victoria Hislop . . . brings dignity and tenderness to her novel about lives blighted by leprosy' Telegraph 'Wonderful descriptions, strong characters and an intimate portrait of island existence' Woman & Home 'War, tragedy and passion unfurl against a Mediterranean backdrop in this engrossing debut novel' You magazine 'Hislop's deep research, imagination and patent love of Crete creates a convincing portrait of times on the island' Evening Standard 'A page-turning tale that reminds us that love and life continue in even the most extraordinary of circumstances' Sunday Express 'A beautiful tale of enduring love and unthinking prejudice' Express In 2018, The Island was awarded a Nielsen Platinum Bestseller Award in recognition of selling over one million copies in the United Kingdom.
Maria Lawton, known as the "Azorean Green Bean," is proud to announce the arrival of her debut cookbook, "Azorean Cooking: From My Family Table to Yours," a collection of more than 50 recipes that celebrates the traditions of Azorean cooking, culture, and family. "For more than four years, I have made it my mission to preserve my family recipes," said Lawton. "At first, I just wanted to make sure they would be passed down to my children and future generations - but now, I want to share them with everyone who might miss their Azorean mother or grandmother's cooking, or whoever wants to know how to recreate the tastes and smells of the past. This has been a wonderful journey home for me, and I hope this helps others on their journey, too." In the book, Lawton shares powerful memories of her family and cooking experiences as she walks readers through an array of recipes, ranging from popular Azorean dishes - including Arroz Doce (Sweet Rice Pudding), Massa Sovada (Sweet Bread) and Sopa de Couve (Kale Soup) - to classics like Cozido (Boiled Dinner), Cacoila (Marinated Pork), and Camarao Mozambique (Shrimp Mozambique). Throughout the collection, Lawton makes the cooking process simple, educational, and enjoyable, with a constant focus on a delicious end result. Lawton was born on the semi-tropical island of Sao Miguel, the largest of nine islands that make up the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal located nearly a thousand miles off its coast in the Atlantic Ocean. At age six, Lawton moved to the United States with her family and settled in a Portuguese community in southeastern Massachusetts. Growing up, Lawton was teased with a number of names like "Portagee," "Fava Bean" and "Greenhorn," but would always answer with, "Thank you - I'm proud of it!" Her nickname today of "Azorean Green Bean" is an embrace of these cultural elements and a reflection of pride.
WINNER OF SPAIN'S NATIONAL CRITICS AWARD • From the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of The Infatuations comes a gripping novel of intrigue and missed chances—at once a spy story and a profound examination of a marriage founded on concealment. • "A masterly premise ... worthy of a Hitchcock adaptation." —The New York Times Book Review When Berta Isla was a schoolgirl, she decided she would marry Tomás Nevinson—the dashing half-Spanish, half-English boy in her class with an extraordinary gift for languages. But when Tomás returns to Madrid from his studies at Oxford, he is a changed man. Unbeknownst to her, he has been approached by an agent from the British intelligence services, and he has unwittingly set in motion events that will derail forever the life they had planned. With peerless insight into the most shadowed corners of the human soul, Marías plunges the reader into the growing chasm between Berta and Tomás and the decisions that irreversibly change the course of the couple's fate. Berta Isla is a novel of love and truth, fear and secrecy, buried identities, and the destinies we bring upon ourselves.
New York City, 1929. A sanatorium, a deadly disease, and a dire nursing shortage. In the pre-antibiotic days when tuberculosis stirred people’s darkest fears, killing one in seven, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, began quitting en masse. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed sanatorium, dubbed “the pest house,” where it was said that “no one left alive.” Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this remarkable true story follows the intrepid young women known by their patients as the “Black Angels.” For twenty years, they risked their lives working under appalling conditions while caring for New York’s poorest residents, who languished in wards, waiting to die, or became guinea pigs for experimental surgeries and often deadly drugs. But despite their major role in desegregating the New York City hospital system—and their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View—these nurses were completely erased from history. The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the center of this riveting story, celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival.
Set between Holland and a remote Indonesian island, this intimate magical realism novel offers “an offbeat narrative that has the timeless tone of a legend” (Time). “Dermoût’s sentences came at me like a soft knowing dagger, depicting a far-off land that felt to me like the blood of all the places I used to love.” —Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild The Ten Thousand Things is at once novel of shimmering strangeness—and familiarity. It is the story of Felicia, who returns with her baby son from Holland to the Spice Islands of Indonesia, to the house and garden that were her birthplace, over which her powerful grandmother still presides. There Felicia finds herself wedded to an uncanny and dangerous world, full of mystery and violence, where objects tell tales, the dead come and go, and the past is as potent as the present. First published in Holland in 1955, Maria Dermoût's novel was immediately recognized as a magical work, like nothing else Dutch—or European—literature had seen before. The Ten Thousand Things is an entranced vision of a far-off place that is as convincingly real and intimate as it is exotic, a book that is at once a lament and an ecstatic ode to nature and life.
