Against a backdrop of international intrigue and intense spiritual warfare, architect Marga Jann takes us on a seat-gripping journey through a quartet of academic assignments -- with much more at stake than her professorial mission. Based at Cambridge, she unwittingly finds herself embroiled in a dangerous and diplomatically-sensitive battle between MI6/CIA operatives and Saudi Intelligence--a narrative she daringly recounts in this first part of a riveting trilogy. Most people are unaware of the interconnected real and spiritual wars around us and therefore lack the tools to attain true victory in seemingly random everyday battles. In this unusually constructed, engrossing semi-autobiographical novel, Jann highlights the power of prayer in exposing and conquering the workings of darkness while sharing important contemporary socio-cultural and geopolitical insights not typically revealed in mainstream media.

Westerners are flocking to China in increasing numbers to chase their dreams even as Chinese emigrants seek their own dreams abroad. Life as an outsider in China has many sides to it - weird, fascinating and appalling, or sometimes all together. We asked foreigners who live or have lived in China to tell us a story of their experiences and these 28 contributions resulted. It's all about living, learning and loving in a land unlike any other in the world. Original stories by Dan Washburn, Jonathan Watts, Simon Winchester, Nury Vittachi, Michael Meyer, Matt Muller, Alan Paul, Matthew Polly, Derek Sandhaus, Jonathan Campbell, Tom Carter, Mark Kitto, Pete Spurrier, Graham Earnshaw, Deborah Fallows, Susie Gordon and others.

What do I do in an earthquake? Is Tokyo Japanese? How exactly do I use chopsticks? Being exactly wrong rather than inexactly right and why is English so difficult? These and hundreds of other questions are explained in this fascinating approach to a foreigner's life in Japan. The Beginner's Guide to Japan is an invaluable companion for anyone on their journey through The Land of the Rising Sun whether directing a taxi, ordering pizza by telephone or trying to unravel the mysteries of kanji. And why exactly are all those people waving red batons at each and every construction site?

It was fifty-six days from the moment the earth sent its first warning of the catastrophe to come until the day it took a brief pause for breath. Fifty-six days that saw one of history's most violent earthquakes followed by a tsunami towering over an entire coastline and finally a nuclear disaster that threatened the forced evacuation of Tokyo. Fifty-six days of the world's first digital mega-disaster when Japan would shift closer to continental America sending shockwaves that would be heard in space and ultimately moving the earth on its axis. This is the story of how it unfurled around me. Fifty-six days.