I tore through East West Street–it may be the most gripping book I’ve ever read, not just in the past year
but in my entire life.
Although it deals with events and concepts of the biggest,
most disturbing kind–the Holocaust and the struggle for legal recognition of
the crime of genocide–it does so by exploring the most minute details of the
lives of several people during the extraordinary, terrifying period of Nazi
rule over much of Eastern Europe.
We follow the author through his absorbing
search for the past of his own grandfather, and this profoundly personal detective
story unfolds to illuminate aspects of history and the human condition that
range from horrifying to immensely inspiring.
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017
SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER
When he receives an invitation to deliver a lecture in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, international lawyer Philippe Sands begins a journey on the trail of his family's secret history. In doing so, he uncovers an astonishing series of coincidences that lead him halfway across the world, to the origins of international law at the Nuremberg trial. Interweaving the stories of the two Nuremberg prosecutors (Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin) who invented the crimes or genocide and crimes against humanity, the Nazi governor responsible for…
Having readOnce in a House on Fire about
twenty years ago, I was recently drawn back to the book by the memory of a beautifully
told story of trauma and quiet triumph, and it was no less compelling the
second time around.
As the author’s memoir of growing up in a poor family
in Manchester in the 1970s and 80s—dominated by not one but two violently abusive stepfathers—it
is powerfully and disconcertingly raw and honest, leaving the reader aghast and
willing the youthful author to make her escape.
Set in 1970s Manchester, ONCE IN A HOUSE ON FIRE tells the harrowing true story of three sisters and their mother, from the point of view of the eldest sister Andrea. They are a close-knit, loving family but are forced to battle with poverty, depression, and terrifying abuse at the hands of two stepfathers. Andrea, a sensitive and highly observant child, witnesses and suffers unbearable cruelty yet refuses to give into despair. Ultimately this is an empowering account of survival and hope, as Andrea forges a future beyond the violent world of home.
I
finally did myself the favour of reading The
Black Jacobins. This landmark work tells the neglected, remarkable
story of the Haitian Revolution of 1791, the most successful slave revolt in
history.
Perhaps a book can have no greater compliment than the fact that, as a
reader, I now devoutly wish that I had read it many years ago.
Authoritative and
beautifully written, it is an essential corrective to the nefarious efforts by
many outsiders over the century following the revolution to suppress the tale
of a black republic triumphing over European enemies. This is a captivating
story of a past still too often sidelined.
In 1791, inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, the slaves of San Domingo rose in revolt. Despite invasion by a series of British, Spanish and Napoleonic armies, their twelve-year struggle led to the creation of Haiti, the first independent black republic outside Africa. Only three years later, the British and Americans ended the Atlantic slave trade.
In this outstanding example of vivid, committed and empathetic historical analysis, C. L. R. James illuminates these epoch-making events. He explores the appalling economic realities of the Caribbean economy, the roots of the world's only successful slave revolt and the utterly extraordinary…
An incisive history revealing Britain's conquest of the Kingdom of Benin and the plunder of its fabled Bronzes.
The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum's most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth, and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin. Little has been written about the brutal violence with which they were plundered. Docherty's searing new history tells that story: the 1897 British invasion of Benin.
Armed with shocking details discovered in the archives, Blood and Bronze sets this assault in its late Victorian context. As British power faced new commercial and strategic pressures, it ruthlessly expanded in West Africa. Docherty demolishes any moral argument for Britain retaining the Bronzes, making a passionate case for their immediate repatriation to Nigeria.
