During the 1920s and 1930s thousands of European and American writers, professionals, scientists, artists, and intellectuals made a pilgrimage to experience the "Soviet experiment" for themselves. Showcasing the Great Experiment explores the reception of these intellectuals and fellow-travelers and their cross-cultural and trans-ideological encounters in order to analyze Soviet attitudes towards the West. Many of the twentieth century's greatest writers...

This narrative history of China's nineteenth-century Taiping Rebellion (which cost some twenty million lives) brims with unforgettable characters and vivid re-creations of massive and sometimes gruesome battles--a riveting, both sweeping and intimate portrait of the largest civil war in history.

"Chronicling two-hundred years of glamour, intrigue, and hedonism, this rich and vivid history of the French Riviera features a vast cast of characters, from Pablo Picasso and Coco Chanel to Andre Matisse and James Baldwin. 1835, Lord Brougham founded Cannes, introducing bathing and the manicured lawn to the wilds of the Mediterranean coast. Today, much of that shore has become a concrete mass from which escape is an exclusive dream. In the 185 years...

"When a foreign exchange student comes to live with a typical suburban family, he brings with him a boundless sense of curiosity--and a stream of unexpected questions (which his hosts are never quite sure how to answer). But when the moment comes to say good-bye, a beautiful surprise awaits, and a gift the family will never forget."--Publisher's website.

A spare, powerful, timeless parable of two men, Western contractors sent to work far from home, tasked with paving a road to the capital in a dangerous and largely lawless country. "Four and Nine are partners, working for the same company, sent without passports to a nation recovering from ten years of civil war. Together, operating under pseudonyms and anonymous to potential kidnappers, they are given a new machine, the RS-90, and tasked with building...

Viktor is a simple man with a mission who finds himself entrapped in JKF airport after the accidental loss of his country to villainous coup. He becomes a man without a country and is stuck in at the airport's international terminal with no visa, and is instructed that he is not allowed to leave. Slowly he encounters airport workers who come to his aid by mutual coercion. Gupta the hilarious Indian custodian; Enrique who transports food; Torres the...