Odessa was the Russian Empires gateway to the Middle East its greatest commercial seaport & home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in all of Europe. Created as a model of enlightenment by Catherine the Great & developed by colourful adventurers such as Grigory Potemkin Jose de Ribas & Armand de Richelieu Odessa became a magnet for the artistic & the ambitious
- from Alexander Pushkin & Isaac Babel to Zionist activist Vladimir Jabotinsky & immunologist Ilya Mechnikov. Odessas reputation for nurturing feisty dissenters artful raconteurs & good-natured crooks cemented its place among Europes great cities. But in the twentieth century pogroms devastated the Jewish community; the Russian civil war brought refugees & new rulers the Bolsheviks; & during the Second World War Romanian occupiers killed tens of thousands of Jews in one of the untold episodes of the Holocaust. Drawing on a wealth of original source material historian Charles King paints a rich portrait of Odessa through the lives of its geniuses & villains revealing how a diverse cosmopolitan city turned against itself during the Holocaust
- but also how Odessas dream has survived in a diaspora reaching all the way to Brighton Beach Brooklyn.

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Can you forgive the past? It's 1963 & a young German reporter has been assigned the suicide of a holocaust survivor. The news story seems straightforward this is a tragic insight into one man's suffering. But a long hidden secret is discovered in the pages of the dead man's diary. What follows is life-&-death hunt for a notorious former concentration camp-commander a man responsible for the deaths of thousands a man as yet unpunished. ...

Odette Brailly entered the nations consciousness in the 1950s when her remarkable
- & romantic
- exploits as an SOE agent first

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I am a very ordinary woman to whom a chance was given to see human beings at their best & at their worst...I completely believe in the potential nobility of the human spirit. During some of the darkest days of the Second World War a young Frenchwoman living as a mother & housewife in England left her ordinary life to become a British agent working covertly in France to aid the Resistance. Entering a murky & deadly world of espionage & double-dealing she was betrayed to the Germans only to endure torture by the Gestapo & the hell of the infamous concentration camp of Ravensbruck. Yet she retained a compassion grace & spiritedness that mystified her captors; & living to see the liberation of Europe she kept in the direst circumstances her fundamental trust in goodness. ODETTE tells the moving & inspirational story of a woman who in her courage & her ability to hold on to hope was far from ordinary. ...

It is April 1940. Nazi Germany has invaded neutral Norway. Fleeing north from their brutal Blitzkrieg advance are three officers of the King's Guard
- men who have been entrusted by the Norwegian King with a vitally important mission. The only military force which stands between the Nazi forces & total victory are the poorly equipped undertrained squaddies of the British 148th Brigade. Among them is Sergeant Jack Tanner recently returned from the Middle East. As the British are pushed back from Lillehammer Sergeant Tanner & his patrol are left stranded in the mountains in the chaos of retreat. Trying to rejoin their unit they stumble first across Sandvold & his protectors & then a French patrol of alpine troops. Trekking through snow-clad mountains with the Germans dogging their every move Tanner is forced to try & out-fox & out-fight not only their pursuers but the best efforts of his own side. & as the Allies resistance collapses it quickly becomes clear that the small band of fugitives can rely on no-one but themselves.
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Homer's The Odyssey" is an epic that has endured for thousands of years & this " Penguin Classics" edition is translated by E.V. Rieu revised by D.C.H. Rieu & contains an introduction by Peter Jones. The epic tale of Odysseus & his ten-year journey home after the Trojan war forms one of the earliest & greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural & supernatural threats
- from the witch Circe who turns his men into pigs to the twin terrors of Scylla & Charybdis; from the stupefied Lotus-Eaters to the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon himself
- Odysseus must test his bravery & native cunning to the full if he is to reach his homeland safely. But the danger is no less severe in his native Ithaca as Odysseus finds himself contending with the suitors who in his absence have begun to surround his wife Penelope...E.V. Rieu's translation of " The Odyssey" was the first " Penguin Classic" to be published & has itself achieved classic status. For this edition Rieu's text has been sensitively revised & a new introduction added to complement his original introduction. Seven greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC) the poet to whom the composition of the Iliad & Odyssey are attributed. The " Iliad" is the oldest surviving work of Western literature but the identity
- or even the existence
- of Homer himself is a complete mystery with no reliable biographical information having survived. If you enjoyed " The Odyssey" you might like Homer's " The Iliad" also available in " Penguin Classics". " One of the world's most vital tales..." The Odyssey" remains central to literature". (Malcolm Bradbury)."



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Literatures grandest evocation of lifes journey at once an ageless human story & an individual test of moral endurance Homers ancient Greek epic The Odyssey" is translated by Robert Fagles with an introduction & notes by Bernard Knox in " Penguin Classics". When Robert Fagles translation of " The Iliad" was published in 1990 critics & scholars alike hailed it as a masterpiece. Here one of the great modern translators presents us with " The Odyssey" Homers best-loved poem recounting Odysseus wanderings after the Trojan War. With wit & wile the man of twists & turns meets the challenges of the sea-god Poseidon & monsters ranging from the many-headed Scylla to the cannibalistic Cyclops Polyphemus
- only to return after twenty years to a home besieged by his wife Penelopes suitors. In the myths & legends retold in this immortal poem Fagles has captured the energy of Homers original in a bold contemporary idiom. Seven greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC) the poet to whom the composition of the " Iliad" & " Odyssey" are attributed. " The Iliad" is the oldest surviving work of Western literature but the identity
- or even the existence
- of Homer himself is a complete mystery with no reliable biographical information having survived. If you enjoyed " The Odyssey" you might like Robert Fagles translation of " The Iliad" also available in " Penguin Classics". " Wonderfully readable.. . Just the right blend of roughness & sophistication." (" Ted Hughes"). "A memorable achievement.. . Mr Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time & yet timeless." (Richard Jenkyns " The New York Times Book Review"). " His translation of " The Odyssey" is his best work yet." (Garry Wills " New Yorker")."


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Shewring's superb prose translation comes as close to the spirit of the original Greek as our language will allow. ABOUT THE ...

Part of Penguins" beautiful hardback " Clothbound Classics" series designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith these delectable & collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. The epic tale of Odysseus & his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest & greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural & supernatural threats
- shipwrecks battles monsters & the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon
- Odysseus must use his wit & native cunning if he is to reach his homeland safely & overcome the obstacles that even there await him."

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This book describes the epic journey of Odysseus the hero of Ancient Greece... After ten years of war Odysseus turns his back on Troy & sets sail for home. But his voyage takes another ten years & he must face many dangers
- Polyphemus the greedy one-eyed giant Scylla the six-headed sea monster & even the wrath of the gods themselves
- before he is reunited with his wife & son.

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