When Patience Ibrahim's husband died, she feared that her life was over. She had prayed every night for a baby to complete her family, and suddenly she found herself a nineteen-year-old widow, alone in the world. But when she fell in love again, a happy future seemed possible. Patience married once more , and was overjoyed to discover that she was pregnant.A few days later, everything fell apart. Men from Boko Haram arrived at her door, killing Patience's new husband and kidnapping...

Major-General Farhan Al-Balawi is a loyal soldier in the Saudi Arabian army who dotes on his beloved daughter, Maryam, his pride in her learning and independent spirit sharpened by the death of his elder son and his estrangement from the younger who has opted to pursue a hedonistic western lifestyle in the USA. Despite the love she shares with her family, her respect for her father, the pride she takes in her Arabian heritage and her loyalty to Islam, Maryam yearns for travel and the opportun...

An ancient secret threatens to unleash a modern war in this international-bestselling "thriller on par with the best literature out there" (James Rollins).Jerusalem, 70 AD: As the invading Romans destroy the Holy Temple, a young Jewish boy is hidden away—chosen as the guardian of a great secret. And for seventy generations, the secret is kept safe . . .But now, in order to ignite a new conflict between Israel and the Arab world, a Jewish radical is prepared...

'A fascinating account of life as Bedouin in the late twentieth century' Mary S. Lovell'This sparkling memoir is a refreshing antidote and a rare window into the legendary hospitality and mysterious customs of the Bedouin Arabs' Publishing News'"Where you staying?" the Bedouin asked. "Why you not stay with me tonight - in my cave?"'Thus begins Marguerite van Geldermalsen's story of how a New Zealand-born nurse came...

A SPECTATOR AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK'Timely and beautifully written' Sunday Times'Phenomenal. An extraordinary insight into a country barely known - and often feared - by the West' VogueWelcome to Tehran, a city where survival depends on a network of subterfuge. Here is a place where mullahs visit prostitutes, drug kin...

It took seven days to create the world ... now they have seven days to save it. 'A superlative political thriller' Rob Minshull, ABC It took seven days to create the world ... now they have seven days to save it. Extremists hijack the conference centre where heads of state have gathered in an attempt to bring society back from the brink of global environmental catastrophe, and the clock starts ticking: seven days until certain death for presidents and prime ministers alike, unless the terr...

Shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award 2018Five runaways ride the bus from Bayelsa to a better life in a megacity.They are unlikely allies -- a private, a housewife, an officer, a militant and a young girl. They share a need for escape and a dream for the future.Soon, they will also share a burden none of them expected, but for now, the five sit quietly with their hopes, as the billboards fly past and shout: W...

As a child, all Aatish Taseer ever had of his father was his photograph in a browning silver frame. Raised by his Sikh mother in Delhi, his father, a Pakistani Muslim, remained a distant figure. It was a fractured upbringing which left Aatish with many questions about his own identity.Stranger to History is the story of the journey Aatish made to try to understand what it means to be Muslim in the twenty-first century. Starting from Istanbul, Islam's once greatest city, he travels t...

How do people and goods get in and out of Gaza? Do Gazans ever have fun? Is the Strip beautiful? And do TV reports actually reflect ordinary life inside the world's largest open-air prison? Meet Me in Gaza reveals the pleasures and pains, hopes and frustrations of Gazans going about their daily lives, witnessed and recounted by award-winning writer Louisa Waugh. Interspersed with fascinating historical, cultural and geographical detail, this is an evocative portrait of a Mediterranean land...

A moving story of one child's life in a conflict zone: Shahana, a young girl living in war-torn Kashmir.*'Open your eyes. We will not hurt you.'The boy quietens; his eyes open.'Where are you from?'The boy stares at them both; then says, 'Who will you tell?'*Shahana lives alone with her young brother in the shadow of the Line of Control, the border patrolled by Pakistani and Indian soldiers that divides Kashmir in two. Life is hard, b...

At the age of twenty, an Iranian student named Zarah Ghahramani was swept off the streets of Tehran and taken to the notorious Evin prison, where criminals and political dissidents were held side by side in conditions of legendary brutality. Her crime, she asserts, was in wanting to slide back her headscarf to feel the sun on a few inches of her hair.That modest desire led her to a political activism fueled by the fearless idealism of the young. Her parents begged her to be prudent,...

A personal, moving, and vibrant picture of one of the most beautiful and troubled places in the world, described through the experiences of one family, whose fortunes have changed dramatically with those of the region.If there is a paradise on earth, it is definitely here, here and only here," said the early seventeenth-century Mughal Emperor Jehangir when describing the Kashmir Valley. But for nearly twenty years this delicate mountain region has been torn by a brutal conflict tha...