The epic of William the Conqueror explained to children. We’re ready my lord.— Good, let us raise the anchor! I am eager to regain Norman soil.— You left as a duke and return as a king, dear William…— I am honoured by your compliments, Edgar… But, more so, I left as a ‘bastard’… and return as a ‘conqueror’!William the Conqueror’s epic tale is one of the most incredible adventures in history. Heir to the Duchy of Normandy upon his father’s death, he who was referred to as ‘the Bastard’ by his enemies was to become King of England!From fortified castles to abbeys, this comic strip lets you follow in the footsteps of William and Matilda, via a fascinating discovery of William the Conqueror’s life.

Queerness, labels, and allyship are central themes in this moving collection of stories set in Turkey, where Middle Eastern and Euro-American expressions of identity collide and naming one's orientation is a fraught endeavor. An eleven-year-old undergoes hand surgery that will allow him to wear a wedding ring in adulthood. Two college roommates reach an erotic understanding as they indulge in dessert. A sex worker meets an American same-sex marriage activist in the Aegean countryside. A passionate hookup during Istanbul Pride ends in teargas. Two friends' tempers flare over cold red wine on a hot summer night by the Dardanelles. A father, his son, and the son's drag queen boyfriend bond over classic Turkish cinema on the Mediterranean coast. In Sweet Tooth and Other Stories, Serkan Görkemli weaves together interconnected narratives of four Turkish characters—Hasan, Gökhan, Nazlý, and Cenk—who search for clarity, love, and acceptance amid social change. Set in a rich mixture of urban and rural locales, the stories take place from the 1980s through the 2010s against the backdrop of Turkey's transition from military-backed secularism to the rise of the religious right, local and global media representations, and the emergence of LGBTQ+ identities. Görkemli creates a complex and engaging network of plots about his characters' struggles and triumphs in navigating families, communities, and themselves. Braving discrimination, they strive to embrace their identities and find joy, solace, and approval within a society that marginalizes who they are and how they love.

This closely woven Chinese, Irish and Australian story begins in Canton during the Opium Wars and expands in the Australian Gold Rush of the 19th century. The Chinese miners are entwined in adversity with the rural Irish poor and notorious Kelly Gang.

Private Henrik Hahnemann is an eighteen-year-old Missouri farm boy growing up in the hard scrabble times of the Great Depression. Known for his hunting skills, his close-knit family often depend on him to bring home dinner. Shaken and bitter by the attack on Pearl Harbor, he is fixated on revenge and chooses the Marine Corps as the means for his personal retribution. Granted an early high school graduation, "Handyman" Henrik struggled with the change from a peaceful famer's son, but his platoon come to recognize his shooting and hunting skills. When the chips were down he summons the determination necessary to survive against hopeless odds. Superior Private Obatia Yoshiro is an average twenty-year-old student expected to eventually take over his father's glassworks. To most an unassuming economics student, he has another side – a side shaped by long hours crewing an uncle's fishing boat where he is exposed to the physical and mental demands of the elements. His school plans suddenly undermined by a draft notice, he makes the best of a dismal and brutal life of absolute obligation and unquestioning obedience. Both will end up on a rugged and brutal South Pacific island called Guadalcanal, where, two determined nations pit all they could spare; committing every airplane, ship, and soldier they could funnel into the cauldron. Values and beliefs, discipline and obedience, massed firepower or skill at arms – what will prevail in this nightmare?

A contemporary artist is out to win a portrait prize by sketching a Che Guevara rebel from the old Australian colony in Paraguay. The artist’s brother is troubled by doubts about the rebel’s heroic identity and feels obliged to investigate.Set largely in South America, the novel explores divergent approaches to the truth in the wilds of Bolivia where Che sought to ignite a widespread revolution. The investigation ends in Sydney where Che’s ambitious dreams are still revered and the prize will soon be awarded. The counter-factual mysteries to be unravelled mirror South America’s own ingenious literary form, magic realism, a form reflecting the post-modern world’s richly-imagined but often bizarre perceptions.

The first months of London’s Great Plague of 1665 give no hope of any improvement, only an ominous warning of worse to come. Those who can are fleeing the city. Those who can’t – the poor, the old, and a dedicated few – must stay to face the growing danger. The ancient women of the parish of St Cyneswide and St Tibba, the Searchers, Viewers and Keepers, who have weathered the disappearance of one of their own, face further calls on their courage and resilience. The plot against the King simmers, supported by folk of fire and faith, dismissed by others as the work of fanatics. There are those who will stop at nothing and threaten the whole city. But … the parish still finds solace in singing; small children play their joyous, sometimes fractious, street games; and young people find each other. Volume 2 of Plague Searchers – Flee quick, go far – continues this gripping tale with its friendships and feuds, songs and psalms, plots and betrayals.

It is 1665 and London faces two deadly threats – the devastating plague, and dangerous rumblings of a rebellion against the King, Charles II. In the frontline of the plague, the ‘first responders’, are the ancient women of the parish: the Viewers, Keepers and Searchers, who must deal with the sick, the dying and the dead. Political and religious differences split the city. Some yearn for the days of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Commonwealth, others rejoice in the pleasure loving King’s return. A tale of friendships and feuds, songs and psalms, plots and betrayals, this exciting and original novel paints a rich picture of life – and death – in the perilous streets of plague-struck London.

Small in Real Life invokes the myth and melancholy of Southern California glamor, of starry-eyed women and men striving for their own Hollywood shimmer and the seamy undersides and luxurious mystique of the Golden State. Exiled to a Malibu rehab, an alcoholic paparazzo spies on his celebrity friend for an online tabloid. Down to her last dollar, a Hollywood hanger-on steals designer handbags from her dying friend’s bungalow. Blinded by grief, an LA judge atones after condescending to a failed actress on a date. When hunger for power, fame, and love betrays the senses, the characters in these nine stories must reckon with false choices and their search for belonging with the wrong people. Small in Real Life offers an insider’s view of California and the golden promises of possibility and redemption that have long made the West glitter.

Two events tie together the nine stories in Monic Ductan's gorgeous debut: the 1920s lynching of Ida Pearl Crawley and the 1980s drowning of a high school basketball player, Lucy Boudreaux. Both forever shape the people and the place of Muscadine, Georgia, in the foothills of Appalachia. The daughters of Muscadine are Black Southern women who are, at times, outcasts due to their race and also estranged from those they love. A remorseful woman tries to connect with the child she gave up for adoption; another, immersed in loneliness, attempts to connect with a violent felon. Two sisters love each other deeply even when they cannot understand one another. A little girl witnessing her father's slow death realizes her own power and lack thereof. A single woman weathers the excitement - and rigors - of online dating.Covering the last one hundred years, these are stories of people whose voices have been suppressed and erased for too long: Black women, rural women, Appalachian women, and working-class women. Ductan presents the extraordinary nature of everyday lives in the tradition of Alice Walker, Deesha Philyaw, James McBride, and Dorothy Allison in an engaging, engrossing, and exciting new voice.

PRINCESS RAINE IS A BRIGHT KID—a very bright kid. And that’s her problem. No one likes smart kids, especially when they’re unaware of the effect they have on other people. Even her Dad (that’s the king) finds her too much. To make things worse, she has two funny, silly, younger brothers—twins—both as dumb as a bar of soap—whom everyone loves. It’s not fair.So when the kingdom of Rainland is threatened by a massive and abnormal heatwave, the reason has to be a natural phenomenon, like global warming—right? It couldn’t be the arrival of some magical, mythical, firebreathing monster. Could it?The king wants Raine to go and investigate but she refuses; let him send his younger son, if he’s so sure there’s a monster: it’s always the youngest who slays the dragon in fairytales. And then something totally unexpected happens to her and everything changes. But how? Read on.

At the end of his last adventure (Belle Nash and the Bath Soufflé), Belle Nash was banished for four years to the island of Grenada. It is now 1835, and Belle has returned to Bath, glad to be back but pained by the absence of his most recent Caribbean love. His heartache leads to confusions when he meets Pablo Fanque, the Black equestrian acrobat from Norfolk who longs to set up his own circus. As a well-loved figure in Bath, Belle uses his influence to try and help, but has to run the gauntlet of Lord Servitude, the most hated man in England and a die-hard supporter of slavery. As ever, William Keeling's whimsical tale brings Belle, his gay hero, into a situation where comedy does not obscure stark moral issues to do with prejudice and bigotry that are as alive today as they were in Regency times.

Plane hijackings. Spy swaps. The Berlin Wall still standing. In other words, business as usual for spies.

Rescued in the Pacific after his utility tug is sunk north of Guadalcanal, a 20-day convalescent leave in Urbana, Illinois, first throws Ensign Hal Goff into a binding relationship with Bea Colombo before the war once again sends him to serve as executive officer aboard a U.S. Navy Rescue Tug, the ATR-3X, not long after the German surrender in North Africa. Aboard the 3X, serving with four other officers, the war swiftly draws the ship into the Allied invasion of Sicily and then, with the capture of Palermo, into General Patton’s drive toward Messina, the 3X fighting off air and U-boat attacks while towing stricken ships from the invasion beaches. Within weeks of capturing Sicily, Hal and his brother officers next participate in the invasion of the Italian mainland, shepherding navy ships to and from the bitter fighting for Salerno as the Allies drive toward Naples. With the Allied advance finally stopped cold along the German Winter Line beneath Monte Cassino, Hal and his ship become part of the grueling invasion of Anzio and the seemingly endless stalemate which takes place across Anzio’s bloody beaches. There, after months of dangerous convoy duty, escorting supply ships to and from Anzio while fighting off the continual air attacks that threaten them, a trio of Focke-Wulfs finally succeed in strafing the ship, Hal’s wounds in battle sending him back to the States for recovery and honorable discharge before he reunites with the woman whose love has kept him going. Phillip Parotti’s new novel treats his readers to gripping World War II naval action in the Mediterranean Sea.

After decades of poising on the brink, the United States and China finally go to war when China invades the island of Taiwan. Deploying their most futuristic technologies in this grand strategic competition of the 21st century, the stakes could not be higher. Not only the future of the Taiwanese people but the fate of the world lies in the balance. In an era when humans no longer just use machines, but partner with them in all aspects of military operations, this fictional account views this future war through the eyes of the American, Chinese, and Taiwanese caught up in the maelstrom, revealing the heartbreak, courage, leadership, and despair of high-tech warfare played out on land, at sea, in space, and in cyberspace. White Sun War asks readers to ponder anew an essential question for the future of security in western Pacific and the entire Indo-Pacific region: is a war for Taiwan winnable?

A collection of 12 short stories, mostly focused on the distinct character of life in Lagos - the commercial capital of Nigeria. In writing this book, the author says he has tried to teleport the reader to Lagos, to experience what an average Nigerian in the south of the country does to keep his or her dreams, hopes and aspirations alive. He also shows the tensions that exist between the generations, between the sexes and between different social classes and ethnicities. The book shows why every Lagosian is expected to live by the popular local saying, "Shine Your Eyes", referring to the need to keep vigilant. Two stories are dedicated to the very different plight of people living in northern Nigeria. Northern Nigerians are mostly Hausa and Muslim; those in the south are mostly Christian and Yoruba or Igbo. Lagos is a land of opportunity and Lagosians are one of the most successful people in the world by virtue of their perseverance. As the author says (in Pidgin), “I dey live and work for Lagos and I love am - as I hope say you go see.”

Phillip Parotti’s new novel chronicles the fast-paced action of a collection of American submarine chasers as they battle to reduce the German U-Boat menace in the English Channel during the last year of World War I. Lieutenant (junior grade) Ben Snow takes a commission in the United States Naval Reserve, and whips a dissolute crew into fighting shape. They then take their little submarine chaser, SC 65X, out into the English Channel to hunt for German U-boats in the midst of the worst winter in more than fifty years. Their achievements climax with the sinking of a German submarine and taking sixteen of her crew prisoner. When the war ends on 11 November 1918, the chaser crews expect to return home, but their exposure to danger is by no means concluded. Instead, the chasers are tasked with exploding the 70,000 dangerous mines planted in the North Sea Mine Barrage. Having survived the war, will Ben and his crew survive the peace?