** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER **
**A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ**
Discover the cultural phenomenon behind the award-winning TV series that feels all the more powerful and prescient in a post-Roe vs. Wade world.
‘As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it’ Guardian
I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light.
Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.
Masterfully conceived and executed, this haunting vision of the future places Margaret Atwood at the forefront of dystopian fiction.
‘A fantastic, chilling story. And so powerfully feminist’, Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other.
‘Interesting and provocative… It gives you a sense of how briefly we’ve been on this Earth’ Barack Obama
What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens?
One of the world’s preeminent historians and thinkers, Yuval Noah Harari challenges everything we know about being human.
Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it: us.
In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we’re going.
**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**
PRAISE FOR SAPIENS:
‘Jaw-dropping from the first word to the last… It may be the best book I’ve ever read’ Chris Evans
‘Startling… It changes the way you look at the world’ Simon Mayo
‘I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species’ Bill Gates
Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father’s dark prophesy.
The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down.
As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle – one of many which combine to create an elegant and dreamlike masterpiece.
*Murakami’s new book Novelist as a Vocation is available now*
‘Wonderful… Magical and outlandish’ Daily Mail
‘Hypnotic, spellbinding’ The Times
‘Cool, fluent and addictive’ Daily Telegraph
‘A masterly novel’ New York Times
‘Such is the exquisite, gossamer construction of Murakami’s writing that everything he chooses to describe trembles with symbolic possibility’ Guardian
Read the haunting love story that turned Murakami into a literary superstar.
When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire – to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.
*Murakami’s new book Novelist as a Vocation is available now*
‘Evocative, entertaining, sexy and funny; but then Murakami is one of the best writers around’ Time Out
‘Poignant, romantic and hopeless, it beautifully encapsulates the heartbreak and loss of faith’ Sunday Times
‘This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it’s also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows’ Independent on Sunday
The subject of the liberation of Goa in 1961 and its integration into the Indian Union in 1962 is sparsely understood at best and misunderstood at worst. What were the events that led to the thirty-six-hour military operation-possibly the first since Independence that occurred entirely at India’s initiative? What was the political climate within Goa? What role did Goans themselves play?
In this gripping account, former journalist Valmiki Faleiro covers a wide canvas in detail, including the entire story of Operation Vijay, the events that preceded it and those that followed. The diplomatic efforts, the arguments, the run-up, the build-up, the actual ops and their aftermath in Goa, within India and internationally-all of it is vividly related in this nuanced telling. Faleiro lucidly outlines the prevailing political atmosphere and its changing character, the part played by indigenous independence movements and freedom fighters leading to the liberation of Goa, and the impact of its consequent assimilation into India.
Extensively researched and extremely well-written, Goa, 1961 is a seminal book on an important subject and a must-read for anyone interested in Indian history.
Impactful Communication is a highly practical and useful book based on the author’s first-hand experience in the field of communication. In today’s world of artificial intelligence and social media, where organizations demand sharp communication skills, this book carries tools to effectively deal with the conventional and nonconventional aspects of verbal and nonverbal communication in varied situations and with different stakeholders. It discusses the art of communication by evaluating its barriers and the seven vital Cs of communication. While highlighting the importance of listening, the book explores the challenges of communication in the era of artificial intelligence and shares insights into how one can maintain the personal touch of communication in a highly non-personalized world. Impactful Communication is a user-friendly guide with numerous enlightening illustrations for new professionals and managers entering the corporate world.
The Indian Supreme Court was established nearly seventy-five years ago as a core part of India’s constitutional project. Does the Court live up to the ideals of justice imagined by the framers of the Indian Constitution? Critics of the Supreme Court point out that it takes too long to adjudicate cases, a select group of senior advocates exercise disproportionate influence on the outcome of cases, the Chief Justice of India strategically assigns cases with an eye to outcome, and the self-appointments process-known as the collegium-is just another ‘old boy’s network’. Building on nearly a decade of original empirical research, this book examines these and other controversies plaguing the Supreme Court today. The authors provide an overview of the Supreme Court and its processes which are often shrouded in mystery, and present data-driven suggestions for improving the effectiveness and integrity of the Court.
Dare to Lead is the fascinating story of how Anil K. Khandelwal transformed Bank of Baroda (BOB) from being just another public sector bank into one of the most valuable brands in Indian banking.
This is the story of the leadership challenges, management solutions and personal and professional excitement the author experienced in transforming the 97 year old bank into a modern, tech-savvy, customer-centric bank.
This book is an excellent blueprint for undertaking transformation in large, geographically dispersed public sector enterprises. It describes how a large-sized bank was transformed on all parameters with clear vision, execution discipline, customer centricity and people engagement. The author emphasizes that large-scale transformation can be undertaken successfully only if the CEO shows courage to change the status quo and mobilize the human effort within the organization.
The story of BOB’s transformation has captured international attention and finds its mention in Harvard Business Review, Human Resources Development International and the book The India Way by the Wharton School faculty.
Shagun knows he will never be the kind of son his father demands. After the agonizing deaths of his beloved twin sisters, he flees his own guilt, his mother’s grief, and his father’s violent disapproval by enrolling at an all-boys boarding school. He forms tumultuous and eye-opening relationships there, but doesn’t find true belonging till he encounters a traveling theater troupe performing the myths of his childhood.
Welcomed by other storytellers, Shagun thrives-easily embodying mortals and gods, men and women-and embraces a life on the move, far from his father’s clutches. When Shagun meets Marc, a charming photographer, he seems to have found the love he always longed for. But not even Marc can save him from his lingering shame, nor his father’s ever-present threat to send him to a conversion center. As Shagun’s past begins to engulf him once again, he must decide if he is strong enough to face what he fears most, and to boldly claim his own happiness.
Set in 1990s India, The Sea Elephants is an utterly immersive and spellbinding novel, both dark and beautiful, harrowing and triumphant. An ode to the redemptive joys of storytelling, Shastri Akella’s soulful debut is a celebration of hard-won love-of others and for ourselves.
Change is hard but does it need to be painful? What if there was a more intrinsically motivating and nourishing way to drive change?
Play to Transform is a book that challenges the traditional mindset of business leaders and encourages them to tap into their inner child to accelerate transformation with purpose. The book argues that we are all born creative geniuses with an innate ability to empathize deeply with others, but somewhere along the way, we have lost touch with these qualities. In the post-pandemic world, leaders need to be more empathetic and agile than ever before, and a conscious shift in mindset is required to achieve this.
Drawing on real-life examples, contemporary shift strategies and key implications for organizations, the book demonstrates how play can be used as a catalyst for transformation and innovation. By providing a psychologically safe and co-creative environment that normalizes failure, the book shows how organizations can encourage their employees to express themselves more freely and make the necessary shifts to embrace change and find harmony in chaos. The book challenges the myth that play is frivolous and cannot be used for serious work, offering a fresh perspective on how to conduct business with more heart and soul.
