The Impossible Country

The Impossible Country PDF Author: Brian Hall
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0140249230
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
“A tragic portrait . . . presented with sympathy and frequently with humor . . . [of] a disparate people who were never united except by their resentment of a foreign conqueror.” – Atlantic Monthly In The Impossible Country, Brian Hall relates his encounters with Serbs, Croats, and Muslims— “real people, likeable people” who are now overcome with suspicion and anxiety about one another. Hall takes the standard explanations, the pundits’ predictions, and the evening news footage and inverts our perceptions of the country, its politics, its history, and its seemingly insoluble animosities.

Impossible Country

Impossible Country PDF Author: Brian Hall
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446467341
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
'Here is art which conceals art, and intellect which conceals intellect, so that by the end of the book one feels that one understands something one had not understood before. Mr Hall is witty and amusing, but not snide; he has a lightness of touch which allows him to write of extremely serious matters without solemnity; he knows how to convey a great deal in a few words' Sunday Telegraph 'He is an observant and witty writer...you believe implicitly that he has met the people he writes about, and that they said what he quotes them as saying' Sunday Times

A Country Between

A Country Between PDF Author: Stephanie Saldaña
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1492609757
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
"A Country Between reminds us that grief is as indispensable to joy as light is to shadow. Beautifully written, ardent and wise." —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Secret Chord, People of the Book, and March Moving her family to a war zone was not a simple choice, but she's determined to find hope, love, and peace amid the conflict in the Middle East. When young mother Stephanie Saldana finds herself in an empty house at the beginning of Nablus road—the dividing line between East and West Jerusalem—she sees more than a Middle Eastern flash point. She sees what could be home. Before her eyes, the fragile community of Jerusalem opens, and she starts to build her family to outlast the chaos. But as her son grows, so do the military checkpoints and bomb sirens, and Stephanie must learn to bridge the gap between safety and home, always questioning her choice to start her family and raise her child in a country at war. A Country Between is a celebration of faith, language, and family—and a mother's discovery of how love can fill the spaces between what was once shattered, leaving us whole once more.

The Impossible Country

The Impossible Country PDF Author: Brian Hall
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0140249230
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
“A tragic portrait . . . presented with sympathy and frequently with humor . . . [of] a disparate people who were never united except by their resentment of a foreign conqueror.” – Atlantic Monthly In The Impossible Country, Brian Hall relates his encounters with Serbs, Croats, and Muslims— “real people, likeable people” who are now overcome with suspicion and anxiety about one another. Hall takes the standard explanations, the pundits’ predictions, and the evening news footage and inverts our perceptions of the country, its politics, its history, and its seemingly insoluble animosities.

A Terrible Country

A Terrible Country PDF Author: Keith Gessen
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735221324
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
“Hilarious. . . . To understand Russia, read A Terrible Country.” —Time "This artful and autumnal novel, published in high summer, is a gift to those who wish to receive it." —Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Hilarious, heartbreaking . . . A Terrible Country may be one of the best books you'll read this year." —Ann Levin, Associated Press A New York Times Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of 2018 by Bookforum, Nylon, Esquire, and Vulture A literary triumph about Russia, family, love, and loyalty—from a founding editor of n+1 and the author of Raising Raffi When Andrei Kaplan’s older brother Dima insists that Andrei return to Moscow to care for their ailing grandmother, Andrei must take stock of his life in New York. His girlfriend has stopped returning his text messages. His dissertation adviser is dubious about his job prospects. It’s the summer of 2008, and his bank account is running dangerously low. Perhaps a few months in Moscow are just what he needs. So Andrei sublets his room in Brooklyn, packs up his hockey stuff, and moves into the apartment that Stalin himself had given his grandmother, a woman who has outlived her husband and most of her friends. She survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia’s violent capitalist transformation, during which she lost her beloved dacha. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can’t always remember who he is. Andrei learns to navigate Putin’s Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly—but surprisingly sharp!—grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a café to send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia. Over the course of the year, his grandmother’s health declines and his feelings of dislocation from both Russia and America deepen. Andrei knows he must reckon with his future and make choices that will determine his life and fate. When he becomes entangled with a group of leftists, Andrei’s politics and his allegiances are tested, and he is forced to come to terms with the Russian society he was born into and the American one he has enjoyed since he was a kid. A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible County asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation.

Korea: The Impossible Country

Korea: The Impossible Country PDF Author: Daniel Tudor
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 146291022X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
"Daniel Tudor covers all the important issues, yet does not simply tell the more familiar stories, but looks deeper and wider to give the full story of Korea today." —Martin Uden, Former British Ambassador to South Korea In just fifty years, South Korea has transformed itself from a failed state, ruined and partitioned by war and decades of colonial rule, into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. How was it able to achieve this with no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule? Who are the Koreans and how did they accomplish this second Asian miracle? Through a comprehensive exploration of Korean history, culture and society, and interviews with dozens of experts, celebrated journalist Daniel Tudor seeks answers to these and many other fascinating questions. In Korea: The Impossible Country, Tudor touches on topics as diverse as shamanism, clan-ism, the dilemma posed by North Korea, and the growing international appeal of South Korean pop culture. This new edition has been updated with additional materials on recent events, including the impeachment of Park Geun-hye and the sinking of the Sewol Ferry. Although South Korea has long been overshadowed by Japan and China, Korea: The Impossible Country illuminates how this small country is one of the great success stories of the postwar period.

An Atlas of Extinct Countries

An Atlas of Extinct Countries PDF Author: Gideon Defoe
Publisher: Europa Editions
ISBN: 1609456815
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
"Prisoners of Geography meets Bill Bryson: a funny, fascinating, beautifully illustrated—and timely—history of countries that, for myriad and often ludicrous reasons, no longer exist. “Countries are just daft stories we tell each other. They’re all equally implausible once you get up close.” Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. Occasionally they explode violently. A few slip away almost unnoticed. Often the cause of death is either “got too greedy” or “Napoleon turned up.” Now and then they just hold a referendum and vote themselves out of existence. This is an atlas of 48 nations that fell off the map. The polite way of writing an obituary is: dwell on the good bits, gloss over the embarrassing stuff. This book refuses to do so, because these dead nations are so full of schemers, racists, and con men that it’s impossible to skip the embarrassing stuff. Because of this – and because treating nation-states with too much reverence is the entire problem with pretty much everything – these accounts are not concerned with adding to the earnest flag saluting in the world, however nice some of the flags might be."

Professional Journal of the United States Army

Professional Journal of the United States Army PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description


Koreana - Summer 2013 (English)

Koreana - Summer 2013 (English) PDF Author: The Korea Foundation
Publisher: 한국국제교류재단
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Koreana is a full-color quarterly on Korean culture and arts, including traditional heritage as well as modern and contemporary activities. Each issue includes in-depth coverage of a selected theme, followed by an array of articles on artists and artisans, historic and cultural landmarks, natural attractions, reviews of stage performances and exhibitions, literary pieces, and today’s lifestyles. Published since 1987, the magazine can also be accessed at (www.koreana.or.kr).

The Balkans

The Balkans PDF Author: Misha Glenny
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0142422568
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 802

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Book Description
A newly revised and updated edition of an award-winning BBC correspondent's magisterial history of the Balkan region This unique and lively history of Balkan geopolitics since the early nineteenth century gives readers the essential historical background to more than one hundred years of events in this war-torn area. No other book covers the entire region, or offers such profound insights into the roots of Balkan violence, or explains so vividly the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania. Now updated to include the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, the capture of all indicted war criminals from the Yugoslav wars, and each state's quest for legitimacy in the European Union, The Balkans explores the often catastrophic relationship between the Balkans and the Great Powers, raising some disturbing questions about Western intervention.

A History of East Asia

A History of East Asia PDF Author: Charles Holcombe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110810777X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
Charles Holcombe begins by asking the question 'what is East Asia?' In the modern age, many of the features that made the region - now defined as including China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam - distinct have been submerged by the effects of revolution, politics or globalization. Yet, as an ancient civilization, the region had both an historical and cultural coherence. This shared past is at the heart of this ambitious book, which traces the story of East Asia from the dawn of history to the twenty-first century. The second edition has been imaginatively revised and expanded to place emphasis on cross-cultural interactions and connections, both within East Asia and beyond, with new material on Vietnam and modern pop culture. The second edition also features a Chinese character list, additional maps and new illustrations.