So what's so significant about the Byzantine Empire? It is now recognized as having had a considerable influence on the Renaissance and a significant impact in the shaping modern Europe. Modern historians are increasingly acknowledging the role the Byzantine Empire played in the development of both Islam and Christianity, and the relationship between the two. The term 'Byzantine' derives from the ancient Greek city of Byzantium founded in 667 BC by colonists from Megara. It was named in ho...

At the heart of the myths and legends surrounding St. George lies the story of an early Christian martyr persecuted by the Roman Empire around the third century AD. But England is only one country to have adopted this soldier saint as their patron. Others, including Germany, Hungary, and Portugal, claim him as their own,and there are churches dedicated to him in Ethiopia, Egypt, and Greece. His victory against the dragon can be interpreted as representing the bravery of an individual Chris...

**WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATUREA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEARA surreal, devastating story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations.**Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck...

**WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATUREA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEARA surreal, devastating story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations.**Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck...

From the National Book Award winning author, an extraordinary, ground-breaking, epic multi-generational novel about a Korean family living under Japanese occupation.In 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea, Lee Woo-cheol was a running prodigy and a contender for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. But he would have had to run under the Japanese flag.Nearly a century later, his granddaughter is living in Japan and training to run a marathon herself. She summons Korean sham...

An Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominee!From Edgar Award nominee and WNDB cofounder Lamar Giles, this middle grade adventure stars the Epic Ellison twins as they race to solve the mystery of Cosmos Camp for young geniuses in a stand-alone companion to the Legendary Alston Boys series.School’s out, and Wiki and Leen Ellison are facing a new challenge…their first summer apart. Genius inventor Leen has been accepted to Petey Thunkle’s world-famous summer training pro...

The world of Freemasonry exerts a powerful influence on the modern imagination. In an age when perceived notions of history are being increasingly questioned and re-examined it is perhaps inevitable that secretive societies such as the Freemasons find themselves at the center of considerable speculation and conjecture. To some they represent a powerful and shadowy elite who have manipulated world history throughout the ages, whilst to others they are an altogether more mundane and benign f...

But who were the Anglo-Saxons, and where did they come from? A Short History of the Anglo-Saxons traces the fascinating history of this era and its people, from the early European migrants from tribes such as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who traveled mainly to Britain after the end of Roman rule in 410, to the dramatic end of the Anglo-Saxon period following the victory of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. It covers their various kingdoms, such as Wessex and Mercia, as...

From the National Book Award winning author, an extraordinary, ground-breaking, epic multi-generational novel about a Korean family living under Japanese occupation.In 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea, Lee Woo-cheol was a running prodigy and a contender for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. But he would have had to run under the Japanese flag.Nearly a century later, his granddaughter is living in Japan and training to run a marathon herself. She summons Korean sham...

**Brought to you by Penguin.WINNER OF THE 2022 AKUTAGAWA PRIZE**The power dynamics of the office are never more obvious than when it comes to food: mandatory lunches with the boss, the colleague who tries to curry favour with home-baked goods, discovering the discarded remnants of someone else's late-night binge . . .In their Saitama office, Ashikawa is the kind of woman Nitani knows he will likely marry: sweet, obl...

Then My Living Shall Not Be in VainBy: Eunice Giles Morgan WalkerThen My Living Shall Not Be in Vain is the memoir that covers the life-learnings and personal experiences of Orlean Wilson Dubuclet over a period of ninety-six years. It tells of how a simple mantra of “Where there is a will, there is a way” coupled with God’s favor can make dreams come true. The book is filled with “pearls of wisdom” as she relates what she learned at pivotal points in her life. She shares he...

Spies, Sadists and Sorcerers unveils the history you were never taught at school. With a breath-taking sweep spanning Rome to the modern day, popular historian and author Dominic Selwood challenges the traditional version of some of the best-known events of the past. From ancient Christianity to the voyages of Columbus, and from the medieval Crusades to ISIS and the modern Middle East, this book debunks dozens of historical myths.You will learn that:– Magna Carta was an inf...