With an original, captivating new voice in American literature, Michael Golding brings us a narrative iridescent with the colors and textures of medieval Italy. Steeped in mystical lore and magical realism, Simple Prayers creates a world we know all too well...a world where nature has been thrown off balance and where the passions and pleasures of daily life may prove fatal. Enter the fourteenth century on an Italian island in the Venice lagoon, a world where superstition reigns, where life and death are created by magical equations, where the land holds simple truths. A corpse with black welts washes up on this rustic island's quiet shores, foreshadowing great change among the villagers who are at once larger than life and more real than the neighbors next door. Here is Albertino, a simple fruit and vegetable vendor whose only luxuries are the cherished ornate boxes he collects. Here is Ermenegilda, the spoiled, obese daughter of the island's only wealthy family, who makes Albertino the unlikely object of her love. Here is Miriam, the exquisite stranger with a secret, who steals hearts of two young men. Here, too, is the ethereal young girl with the power to heal everything but the cruel heart of her own mother. These and the other villagers of Riva di Pignoli create a mesmerizing world of hope and desire even as the specter of the corpse looms from the shadows on the shore. As no one is immune to the change that suddenly permeates the island, no reader will be immune to the transcendent beauty of this magnificent novel.

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With the publication of his first novel, Simple Prayers, Michael Golding was hailed as one of the most captivating new voices of his generation. Now he triumphs again with the enchanted tale of an eccentric connoisseur of beauty whose life is transformed when he meets a most unusual boy. Through wild adventures and wondrous discoveries, their relationship will lead them to a world of mind and heart, fear and grace, startling reality and transcendent magic.

His European-North Dakota-Jewish origins were humble, but New York tycoon Jean Pierre Michel Chernovsky eventually towered over a gilded era. To money itself he was indifferent. All that mattered was that he was able to surround himself with things of beauty, not the least of which was his exotic companion Cassandra Nutt, whose thirst for life was exceeded only by Jean Pierre's own fabulous hunger for cars, clocks, cloaks, pianos, horses, houses, swimming pools, airplanes, and lovers.

Then, at the age of seventy-one, Jean Pierre Michel finally acquires the one possession that has always eluded him: a son. Benjamin is an astonishingly beautiful orphan of the Depression, marred by only a single, striking imperfection: a strawberry birthmark that spreads, like the Russian steppes, across his right cheek and throat. Generous and selfish, prodigy and fool, he will grow to be the betrayed son, the spurned lover, the escaped Jew. And he will be blessed by a disturbing yet wondrous gift.

From New York to Amsterdam, from the Jazz Age to the Age of the Computer, Benjamin's Gift is a richly comic, deeply moving tour de force filled with vivid incident and incandescent characters. It is, in short, the story of our century.

The European Company Statute (ECS) is one of the most important pieces of company legislation adopted so far by the European Union. Its aim is to regulate, on a voluntary basis, the internal functions of a business operating in more than two European countries at the same time. However, its implementation by companies requires the negotiation of agreements between employers and employees principally on the choice between a one-tier or two-tier system of board structure. While the ECS thereby promotes flexible solutions tailor-made to company requirements, it has failed to achieve full harmonisation of EU company law. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the history, structure, legal basis and likely impact of the ECS, examining its evolution over some 30 years of development and its chances for integrating diverse models of corporate governance across the European Economic Area. The book explores the implications of the ECS for employee participation at various levels in the European company, with country case studies drawn from Greece, Slovenia and the UK. It also analyses certain legal issues, including taxation and the position of companies located in countries without existing systems of employee board-level participation.

Growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has focused attention on the relationship between businesses and key stakeholders, such as NGOs and local communities. Curiously, however, commentators on CSR rarely discuss the role of trade unions, while commentators on employment relations seldom engage with CSR. This situation is all the more remarkable since unions are a critically important social actor and have traditionally played a prominent role in defending the interests of one key stakeholder in the company, the employee. Written by dedicated experts in their field, this book addresses a key gap in the literature on both CSR and employment relations, namely trade union policies towards CSR, as well as union engagement with particular CSR initiatives and the challenges they face in doing so. The research covers eleven European countries which, when taken together, constitute a representative sample of industrial relations structures across the continent. This book will be essential reading for scholars, students and practitioners of international business, employment relations, public policy and CSR. Its foreword is written by Philippe Pochet and Maria Jepsen, Directors of the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels.

Title first published in 2003. Contributors from a wide range of European countries illustrate the validity of four propositions about employee participation: that different forms of employee participation mutually reinforce each other; that major shifts in employment relations require innovative approaches to participation; that appropriate conditions (including the provision of training and support) are required for the spread of participation; and that trade unions remain a crucial foundation for the promotion of participation.

Title first published in 2003. Contributors from a wide range of European countries illustrate the validity of four propositions about employee participation: that different forms of employee participation mutually reinforce each other; that major shifts in employment relations require innovative approaches to participation; that appropriate conditions (including the provision of training and support) are required for the spread of participation; and that trade unions remain a crucial foundation for the promotion of participation.

Growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has focused attention on the relationship between businesses and key stakeholders, such as NGOs and local communities. Curiously, however, commentators on CSR rarely discuss the role of trade unions, while commentators on employment relations seldom engage with CSR. This situation is all the more remarkable since unions are a critically important social actor and have traditionally played a prominent role in defending the interests of one key stakeholder in the company, the employee.

Written by dedicated experts in their field, this book addresses a key gap in the literature on both CSR and employment relations, namely trade union policies towards CSR, as well as union engagement with particular CSR initiatives and the challenges they face in doing so. The research covers eleven European countries which, when taken together, constitute a representative sample of industrial relations structures across the continent.

This book will be essential reading for scholars, students and practitioners of international business, employment relations, public policy and CSR. Its foreword is written by Philippe Pochet and Maria Jepsen, Directors of the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels.

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From the acclaimed author of Simple Prayers, hailed by Thomas Keneally as "a work of magic (and) a journey of wonder, " comes the rich and captivating tale of an extraordinary father and son. Jean Pierre Michel Chernovsky is a paragon of the Gilded Age, a product of both Old World and New, and a collector of all things beautiful. Benjamin Chernovsky is his adopted orphan of the Depression, a boy whose remarkable beauty is flawed by a strawberry birthmark on his right cheek and throat and whose mind is blessed with a disturbing and miraculous gift. United by something more binding than blood, rivals for the affections of one indomitable and exotic woman, they will embark upon an odyssey filled with wild adventures and startling discoveries, a journey that will alter them -- and their century -- forever.

As a writer and political activist in early-twentieth-century America, Michael Gold was an important presence on the American cultural scene for more than three decades. Beginning in the 1920s his was a powerful journalistic voice for social change and human rights, and Jews Without Money -- the author's only novel -- is a passionate record of the times. First published in 1930, this fictionalized autobiography offered an unusually candid look at the thieves, gangsters, and ordinary citizens who struggled against brutal odds in lower East Side Manhattan. Like Henry Roth's Call It Sleep and Abraham Cahan's The Rise and Fall of David Levinsky, Jews Without Money is a literary landmark of the Jewish experience. Michael Gold (1893-1967) was born in New York City, where later he wrote for radical journals and newspapers such as New Masses and The Liberator. Jews Without Money has been translated in more than fourteen countries, including Germany, where the novel was employed against Nazi propaganda.

Blackmail, sexual harassment, murder . . . and a missing dog: eccentric, eco-obsessed L.A. private eye Charlie Waldo is on the case in this quirky, fast-paced mystery. Paying a harsh self-imposed penance for a terrible misstep on a case, former LAPD superstar detective Charlie Waldo lives a life of punishing minimalism deep within the woods, making a near religion of his commitment to owning no more than One Hundred Things. At least, he's trying to. His PI girlfriend Lorena keeps drawing him back to civilization - even though every time he compromises on his principles, something goes wrong. And unfortunately for Waldo, all roads lead straight back to L.A. When old adversary Don Q strongarms him into investigating the seemingly mundane death of a vagrant, Lorena agrees he can work under her PI license on one condition: he help with a high-maintenance celebrity client, wildly popular courtroom TV star Judge Ida Mudge, whose new mega-deal makes her a perfect target for blackmail. Reopening the coldest of cases, a decades-old fraternity death, Waldo begins to wonder if the judge is, in fact, a murderer - and if he'll stay alive long enough to find out. Pay or Play is the third in the Charlie Waldo series, following Last Looks and Below the Line. Last Looks was turned into a major motion picture, starring Charlie Hunnam as the offbeat private investigator.

We all have to work to pay the bills – but what influence do we really have over our pay and working conditions? The emergence of the global economy, digital technologies, mass migration, gig work and zero hours contracts have thrust this question to the forefront of HRM. So how can we keep the ‘human’ in human resource management faced by these pressures? This book adopts a critical approach to today’s major workplace challenges. It turns traditional HRM on its head by placing workers’ perspectives towards the workplace alongside those of managers to create an HRM textbook for the 21st century. Written by two experienced and research-active authors, the book: • locates control of labour costs and productivity at the heart of HRM policy and practice; • covers key issues that are overlooked in many textbooks, including conflict and resistance, the ‘new’ unitarism, migration and the challenges of Artificial Intelligence; • adopts a critical approach that will appeal more to students who don’t wish to become traditional managers; • includes current examples and case studies from the international world of work and business that will bring the subject to life. This is a comprehensive one-stop resource for students and lecturers alike.

We all have to work to pay the bills - but what influence do we really have over our pay and working conditions? The emergence of the global economy, digital technologies, mass migration, gig work and zero hours contracts have thrust this question to the forefront of HRM. So how can we keep the 'human' in human resource management faced by these pressures? This book adopts a critical approach to today's major workplace challenges. It turns traditional HRM on its head by placing workers' perspectives towards the workplace alongside those of managers to create an HRM textbook for the 21st century. Written by two experienced and research-active authors, the book: * locates control of labour costs and productivity at the heart of HRM policy and practice; * covers key issues that are overlooked in many textbooks, including conflict and resistance, the 'new' unitarism, migration and the challenges of Artificial Intelligence; * adopts a critical approach that will appeal more to students who don't wish to become traditional managers; * includes current examples and case studies from the international world of work and business that will bring the subject to life. This is a comprehensive one-stop resource for students and lecturers alike.

Berklee GuideThe definitive text used for the time-honored Chord Scales course at Berklee College of Music, this book concentrates on scoring for every possible ensemble combination and teaches performers and arrangers how to add color, character and sophistication to chord voicings. Topics covered include: selecting appropriate harmonic tensions, understanding jazz harmony, overcoming harmonic ambiguity, experimenting with unusual combinations and non-traditional alignments, and many more. The accompanying CD includes performance examples of several different arranging techniques.A no-nonsense, meat and potatoes source of basic and not-so-basic information about everything relating to jazz writing covers several courses worth of information. Kenny WernerPianist, Composer and Author of Effortless Mastery

The Amazon Basin's rivers, estuaries and tributaries are home to as many as 1000 species of catfish. In this work, two scientists offer a natural history of the Amazon giant catfish and its central place as a source of food and income within the ecology and economy of the Amazon Basin. While focusing primarily on two species of giant catfish - known locally as Dourada and Piramutaba - the authors also present illustrated accounts of 13 distinct large fish. Their research yields strong statistical data and field observations that illustrate the catfishes' extensive migratory range and presents solid evidence of animal species requiring or using a large part of the basin for their ecological needs. This text also proposes techniques for the careful management of this resource to ensure its survival for future generations. This study should be a useful reference for marine and conservation biologists in the field, ecologists, resource management professionals and development workers.

Critical Connections examines how trade, investment, migration, and other linkages among countries are drivers of economic growth in the Europe and Central Asia region. The study breaks new ground by using a multidimensional approach that recognises how each connectivity channel for growth is likely to be affected by the strength of other channels. A multidimensional view makes it easier to see that diversity in country connections and balance in all channels of connectivity are critical for achieving the greatest impact on growth. Europe and Central Asia provides a great laboratory for observing the role of multidimensional connectivity in action. Its 30 countries vary widely in the openness of their economies. The region's collective experience shows how the various elements of cross-border connectivity work together to accelerate progrowth knowledge transfers, which boost productivity through participation in today's global value chains. A country's economic partner might be just as important as the type of connection. Being well connected to highly connected countries can provide benefits beyond being well connected to comparatively isolated countries. Although greater connectivity can expose countries to external shocks, this book presents fact-based arguments for policies that seek to build deeper and more diverse connections within the Europe and Central Asia region and globally. The message is timely. Europe's once-confident march toward economic integration has slowed over the past decade, with voices in many countries questioning the wisdom of opening to the global economy. Critical Connections serves as a reminder to citizens and policy makers that greater regional and global connectivity has been a tremendous "convergence machine," raising living standards of lower-income countries to those of wealthier middle- to high-income countries.