In his signature style of grand storytelling, James Michener sweeps us back through time to the Holy Land, thousands of years ago. By exploring the lives and discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor, Michener vividly re-creates life in and around an ancient city during critical periods of its existence, and traces the profound history of the Jews, including that of the early Hebrews and their persecution, the impact of Christianity on the Jewish world, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition. Michener weaves his epic tale of love, strength, and faith until at last he arrives at the founding of Israel and the modern conflict in the Middle East. The Source is not only a compelling history of the Holy Land and its people but a richly written saga that encompasses the development of Western civilization and the great religious and cultural ideas that have shaped our world.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.' Adventurous and spirited in tone, The Three Musketeers is considered one of the greatest historical French novels. When Athos, Porthos and Aramis befriend a young and determined country boy d'Artagnan, together they confront the scheming King's Minister, Cardinal Richelieu and the female spy Milady who threaten to undermine the King. Swashbuckling, romantic and often humourous, Dumas' novel is a timeless tale of friendship and intrigue.

One of a series of fiction titles for schools. Scout, the keen-eyed narrator, and her brother Jem interrupt their games to champion their lawyer father when, in a hostile, racist town in the American South, he battles to defend Tom, who is black and accused of murder.

Greig Coetzee's latest play Happy Natives is a triumphant confirmation of this writer's ability to comment satirically and powerfully on South African society. The play is extremely gripping, very funny and yet keeps surprising the audience with its insight into the complexities of cross-cultural relationships, ten years on from the start of the rainbow nation. The play shows how little we still know each other and how South Africans still make assumptions about each other based on racial grouping rather than on individual reality. This is rich material for comedy, and Coetzee excels in using such theatrical techniques as the reversal of expectation and the revelation of the unexpected and the contradictory. Happy Natives is very contemporary, looking at the way in which South Africans struggle to define their present identity. Coetzee's play points out just what an interesting and richly human world we inhabit. He shows that no human being in fact fits into the images that the media w

A white South African boy becomes aware of the meaning of racialism. Set in a tearoom in Port Elizabeth in the 1950s.

This novel is set in the Free State town of Excelsior from the 1970s to the time of political liberation in the 1990s. In the 1970s Excelsior was notorious for a series of across-the-colour-bar sex scandals involving white men - many of them pillars of the conservative Afrikaner establishment - and black women, some of whom bore mixed-race children as a result. Mda roots his story in this period and carries it through to the social and political revolution of the 1990s. Often lyrical and sensual, and sometimes bleak and shocking, the novel is always an acute and authentic reflector of small-town South Africa and its extraordinary mix of people in the years of high apartheid and in its untidy aftermath.

Discover Toni Morrison's most iconic work in this Pulitzer-prize winning novel that exemplifies her powerful and important place in contemporary American literature. 'An American masterpiece' AS Byatt It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to an end, Sethe is haunted by the violent trauma it wrought on her former enslaved life at Sweet Home, Kentucky. Her dead baby daughter, whose tombstone bears the single word, Beloved, returns as a spectre to punish her mother, but also to elicit her love. Told with heart-stopping clarity, melding horror and beauty, Beloved is Toni Morrison's enduring masterpiece. 'Toni Morrison was a giant of her times and ours..."Beloved," is a heartbreaking testimony to the ongoing ravages of slavery, and should be read by all' Margaret Atwood, New York Times 'The literary titan we must never stop learning from' Metro Winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow award for achievement in American fiction **One of the BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**

A masterly story of myth, rebellion, love, friendship and betrayal from one of Africa's great writers, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat includes an introduction by Abdulrazak Gurnah, author of By the Sea, in Penguin Modern Classics. It is 1963 and Kenya is on the verge of Uhuru - Independence Day. The mighty british government has been toppled, and in the lull between the fighting and the new world, colonized and colonizer alike reflect on what they have gained and lost. In the village of Thabai, the men and women who live there have been transformed irrevocably by the uprising. Kihika, legendary rebel leader, was fatally betrayed to the whiteman. Gikonyo's marriage to the beautiful Mumbi was destroyed when he was imprisoned, while her life has been shattered in other ways. And Mugo, brave survivor of the camps and now a village hero, harbours a terrible secret. As events unfold, compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed and loves are tested. Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o is the author of Weep Not Child (1964), The River Between (1965), and Petals of Blood (1977). Ngugi was chair of the Department of Literature at the University of Nairobi from 1972 to 1977. He left Kenya in 1982 and taught at various universities in the United States before he became professor of comparative literature and performance studies at New York University in 1992. If you enjoyed A Grain of Wheat, you might like Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'With Ngugi history is a living tissue ... this book adds cubits to his already considerable stature' Guardian

Written by Mariama Ba and translated from the French by Modupe Bode-Thomas, So Long a Letter won the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, and was recognised as one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century in an initiative organised by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. This edition includes an introduction by Professor Kenneth W. Harrow of Michigan State University.

This edition of the Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary offers essential coverage of Latin words and grammar, as well as extra information on Roman history and culture. It takes account of the latest research into Latin, and is designed specifically to fit the needs of today's student. It covers over 45,000 words and phrases, including additions from the writings of Plautus and Terence, and from the study of Silver Latin. Common irregular verb parts are given as headwords for greater clarity, and boxed notes provide help with language usage, and with difficult words and constructions. There are appendices on historical, mythological, and geographical names; money, dates, times, weights and measures; plus poetic metre and medieval Latin. With a timeline of important dates, and biographies on Roman writers, this edition is packed with interesting and essential information on Roman history and culture. Also with pronunciation help and a guide to Latin grammar, this compact and affordable dictionary is a necessity for all students and adult learners of Latin.

The literary phenomenon of the year. More magical than Mistry, more of a rollicking good read than Rushdie, more nerve-tinglingly imagined than Naipaul, here, perhaps, is the greatest Indian novel by a woman. Arundhati Roy has written an astonishingly rich, fertile novel, teeming with life, colour, heart-stopping language, wry comedy and a hint of magical realism. Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, Southern India, The God of Small Things tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory, they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family - their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist and bottom-pincher) and their avowed enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt).

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Macbeth provides a thorough reconsideration of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. In his introduction, A. R. Braunmuller explores Macbeth's immediate theatrical and political contexts, particularly the Gunpowder Plot, and addresses such celebrated questions as: do the Witches compel Macbeth to murder; is Lady Macbeth herself in some sense a witch; is Macduff morally culpable? A new and well-illustrated account of the play in performance examines several cinematic versions, such as those by Kurosawa and Roman Polanski, as well as other dramatic adaptations. Several possible new sources are suggested and the presence of Thomas Middleton's writing in the play is also proposed.

Southern Africa is without equal in terms of geology, a treasure trove of valuable minerals with a geological history dating back some 3 600 million years. In addition, the evolution of plants and animals, especially mammals and dinosaurs, is well preserved in the region, which also has among the best records of the origin of modern man.

The story of earth and life provides an insight into this remarkable history – how southern Africa's mineral deposits were formed, how its life evolved and how its landscape was shaped. Along the way readers will be enthralled by accounts of the Big Bang that marked the beginning of time and matter, by drifting and colliding continents, folding and fracturing rocks, meteors colliding with the Earth, volcanic eruptions, and the start of life. Other topics include why South Africa is so rich in minerals, how glacial deposits came to be found in the Karoo, why dinosaurs became extinct, how mammals developed from reptiles, and how closely humans are related to the apes.

The answers to many such questions can be found in this title. Anyone interested in the landscape and ecosystems in which we live will be intrigued by this title.

Hierdie roman speel af in 'n spoorwegkampgemeenskap in Durban in die sestigerjare. Die verteller is jong Timus, en saam met hom beleef ons sy inisiasie-prosesse in 'n grootmenswereld, en sy waarnemings van die mense en lewe rondom hom. Timus is deel van 'n groot gesin wat dit nie breed het nie en waar die pa se beheptheid met die kerk ontstellende gevolge het. As jongste in die gesin is hy toegespin in sy eie droomwereld en ook agter by sy portuurs oor die soet en duister dinge van die lewe. Hy het 'n sterk verbeelding en sy weergawe van insidente verleen 'n magies-realistiese gevoel aan die gebeure in die roman. Die fyn waarneming van menswees, die patos en humor wat mekaar afwissel, die menslikheid van hierdie roman – by tye brutaal-realisties, maar ook hartverwarmend – sal geen leser onaangeraak laat nie.

"Prepare to fall in love with Binti." --Neil Gaiman

Winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novella!

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself -- but first she has to make it there, alive.

In the heart of rural Botswana, the poverty stricken village of Golema Mmidi is a haven to exiles from far and wide. A South African political refugee and an Englishman join forces to revolutionise the villagers' traditional farming methods, but their task is fraught with hazards as the pressures of tradition, opposition from the local chief and the unrelenting climate threaten to divide and devastate the fragile community.

A thoroughly updated edition of this prize-winning, readable introduction to the main theories of first and second language acquisition.
This book introduces you to some of the language acquisition research that will help you not just to evaluate existing materials, but also to adapt and use them in a way that fits what we currently understand about how languages are learned.
-Content including new research and new areas in pedagogy to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of research in the field.
-Chapter Preview s and Summaries with round-up questions.
-Companion website with vodcasts, content updates, and shared user content.
-Also available as an e-book.

Karolina Ferreira, an entomologist, goes to a small Free State town to do research on the survival strategies of a rare moth species. The elusive moth is the story of a woman amongst men. Karolina stays in the local hotel where she meets up with some fascinating - mostly male - characters - the enigmatic lawyer, Pol Habermaut; the lecherous lieutenant Kieliemann; the inscrutable town magistrate; the destructive captain Gert Els; the wealthy but suicidal farmer, Tonnie de Melck. During the day Willie September, a natural healer, introduces Karolina to the mysteries of the drought-stricken veld. At night she is introduced and exposed to the town's political intrigue and power games while playing snooker, drinking whiskey in the ladies bar, and dancing the tango with a certain Mr Kolyn, who may or may not be a police informer.

Dit was nog nie behoorlik dag nie toe Kaatjie Danster, haastig op pad Halte toe, die kind van die weemoed in die voetpaadjie voor haar gewaar. Tjoepstil het hy gestaan en luister na die wind. Sy het dadelik geweet: Druppeltjie du Pisanie, kind van Waterwyser du Pisanie en KensTillie Moolman, het die lewe vir die dood verruil. Maar hoe Druppeltjie onder in die boorgat beland het, dit weet niemand nie. En die af-arm magistraat wat nou, veertien maande later, kom ondersoek instel na die oorsaak van sy dood, torring verniet aan dinge wat verby is. Want Toorberg se mense – die lewendes en die dooies – ken van geheime wegbere. Net oor een ding het magistraat van der Ligt dit reg: hoe meer getuies daar is, hoe verder wyk die waarheid.

For college students in courses with the same topic in communication disorders, psychology, and education. A best-selling, comprehensive, easy-to-understand introduction to language development. This best-selling introduction to language development text offers a cohesive, easy-to-understand overview of all aspects of the subject, from syntax, morphology, and semantics, to phonology and pragmatics. Each idea and concept is explained in a way that is clear to even beginning students and then reinforced with outstanding pedagogical aids such as discussion questions, chapter objectives, reflections, and main point boxed features. The book looks at how children learn to communicate in general and in English specifically, while emphasising individual patterns of communication development. The 9th Edition continues the distribution of bilingual and dialectal development throughout the text; expands the discussion of children from lower-SES families, including those living in homeless shelters; makes substantial improvements in the organisation and clarity of Chapter 4 on cognition and its relationship to speech and language; consolidates information on Theory of Mind in one chapter; improves readability throughout with more thorough explanations, simplification of terms, and increased use of headings and bullets; weeds out redundancies and asides to help streamline the reading; provides more child language examples throughout; and thoroughly updates the research, including the addition of several hundred new references.

The Inheritance of Loss is Kiran Desai's extraordinary Man Booker Prize winning novel. High in the Himalayas sits a dilapidated mansion, home to three people, each dreaming of another time. The judge, broken by a world too messy for justice, is haunted by his past. His orphan granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor, despite their different backgrounds and ideals. The cook's heart is with his son, who is working in a New York restaurant, mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home. Around the house swirl the forces of revolution and change. Civil unrest is making itself felt, stirring up inner conflicts as powerful as those dividing the community, pitting the past against the present, nationalism against love, a small place against the troubles of a big world. 'A Magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and political acuteness' Hermione Lee, chair of the Man Booker Prize judges 'Poised, elegant and assured . . . breaks out into extraordinary beauty' The Times 'Desai's bold, original voice, and her ability to deal in a grand narratives with a deft comic touch that affectionately recalls some of the masters of Indian fiction, makes hers a novel to reread and remembered' Independent

I can tell the difference between who I am and a side effect. The Effect is a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off-course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. This funny, moving and perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine, alongside ideas of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction. Following on from the critical and commercial success of Enron, The Effect offers a vibrant theatrical exploration into the human brain via the heart. It received its world premiere at the National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in November 2012, starring Billie Piper and Jonjo O'Neill. It is published here in the Modern Classics series alongside an introduction by Miriam Gillinson.