The cosmic cycle described in the surviving fragments of Empedocles' poem is the alternation, in endless succession, of Love and Strife. Love is the cause of happiness and unity; Strife the cause of separation and misery. These forces rule in turn as they cause the One and the Many. Love makes the elements into a blissful whole, the Sphere; Strife breaks into the Sphere and causes movement and division - the condition of the world, according to Empedocles, in which we now live. Dr O'Brien's book is primarily an analysis of this elaborate system. It seeks to determine the positions which Love and Strife occupy in the world at different times, the processes involved in becoming one and becoming many and the duration of being one and being many. It examines such associated themes as Empedocles' view of the nature of the soul and his use of the traditional motif 'like to like'. Finally, Dr O'Brien considers Empedocles; place in the subsequent development of Greek philosophy. He sees Empedocles' work as a primitive anticipation of Plato, a significant union of spiritual other-worldliness with the philosophical and scientific traditions of the Presocratics.

1955: in a seedy hotel in Alexandria, Egypt a sinister ex-Foreign Legionnaire shoots dead the impoverished son of an American billionaire then turns the gun on himself. Only many years later is the story behind this fatal encounter teased out of several ambiguous and unreliable sources. Reaching back to the mid-1930s it relates the odyssey of a strangely-matched quartet of travellers across a Europe descending into darkness. Whether pursuing their own, separate agendas or being stealthily manipulated by others, they leave in their wake a trail of violence and death. And the events of this chaotic journey cast long, lethal shadows - and some light - onto an uncertain future.

In the spring of 1914 the ominous but barely visible shadow of war is falling on Europe. Inadvertently wandering into Greece's febrile subterranean atmosphere of intrigue and espionage, Alex Cronin finds himself involved in a lethal political plot; and is presented with the chance to deflect the continent from its catastrophic course. Here finally is an opportunity to pursue his long-held ambition to emulate the achievements of his father and brother, and to make his own mark on the world. But he is set on resolving a disconcerting family enigma; and is preoccupied with his fervent love for a mysterious French countess. It soon becomes clear that however he orders these competing concerns the consequences are likely to be fatal.

The story of how the Irish team sport of Hurling is spreading like wildfire across the United States. The book examines how to play. It explores hurling's ancient legacy, early American years and what Irish America has been missing for generations. And, why today, from Orlando to Seattle, Americans are getting ?hooked? on hurling.