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Inglorious Royal Marriages
by Leslie CarrollIt's no secret that the marriages of monarchs are often made in hell. Here are some of the most spectacular mismatches in five hundred years of royal history.... In a world where many kings, queens, and princes lacked nothing but true love, marital mismatches could bring out the baddest, boldest behavior in the bluest of bloodlines. Margaret Tudor, her niece Mary I, and Catherine of Braganza were desperately in love with chronically unfaithful husbands, but at least they weren't murdered by them, as were two of the Medici princesses were. King Charles II's beautiful, high-spirited sister "Minette" wed Louis XIV's younger brother, who wore more makeup and perfume than she did. Forced to wed her boring, jug-eared cousin Ferdinand, Marie of Roumania--a granddaughter of Queen Victoria--proved herself one of the heroines of World War I by using her prodigious personal charm to regain massive amounts of land during the peace talks at Versailles. Brimming with outrageous real-life stories of royal marriages gone wrong, this is an entertaining, unforgettable book of dubious matches doomed from the start.
Inglourious Basterds: A Screenplay
by Quentin TarantinoFrom the most original and beloved screenwriter of his generation, the complete Oscar-nominated screenplay of Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic Inglorious Basterds. From the brilliant writer/director behind the iconic films Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, comes Tarantino's most ambitious movie: a World War II epic starring Brad Pitt and filmed on location in Germany and France. The action tale follows the parallel story of a guerrilla-like squad of American soldiers called "The Basterds" and the French Jewish teenage girl Shosanna who find themselves behind enemy Nazi lines during the German occupation. When the Inglourious Basterds encounter Shosanna at a propaganda screening at the movie house she runs, they conspire to launch an unexpected plot to end the war. Pitt plays Lieutenant Aldo Raine -- the leader of the Basterds. Raine is an illiterate hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee who puts together a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers to hunt down the Nazis. Filled with Tarantino's trademark electric dialogue and thrilling action sequences, Inglourious Basterds is one of the most celebrated films of the twenty-first century.
Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face (Treasury Of The Indic Sciences Ser.)
by Michael TapperThe 1976 premiere of Face to Face came at the height of director-screenwriter Ingmar Bergman's career. Prestigious awards and critical acclaim had made him into a leading name in European art cinema, yet today Face to Face is a largely overlooked and dismissed work.This book tells the story of its rise and fall. It presents a new portrait of Bergman as a political artist exploring a new medium with huge public impact: television. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen, feminism, and alternative psychotherapy, he made a series of portraits of the modern bourgeois family focusing on the plight of women; Face to Face followed in the tracks of The Lie (1970) and Scenes from a Marriage (1973). By his workbooks, engagement planners, and other archival material, we can trace his investigation into the heart of repressive family structures to eventually glimpse a way out. This volume culminates in an extensive study of the two-year process from the first outlines of the screenplay to the reception and aftermath of Face to Face. It thus offers a unique insight into Bergman's world, his ideas and artistry during a turbulent time in cinema history.
Ingram
by Ingram Historical SocietyFounded in 1902, the history of Ingram borough goes back to 1752, when the land was part of Chartiers Township. A grand jury granted a petition to incorporate Ingram as a borough in 1902, and it was named after Thomas Ingram who owned much of the land. The new borough was promoted as a peaceful community located away from the smoke and noise of Pittsburgh's heavy industry. Efficient transportation came to the area in 1865 when the Pittsburgh and Steubenville Railroad completed a line west of Pittsburgh known as the Panhandle. At its peak, a total of 98 trains operated along this route each day. With the coming of electric trolley cars and the formation of Pittsburgh Railways Company, Ingram had two reliable modes of travel.Through vintage photographs, Ingram showcases how this dedicated and friendly community has forged into the 21st century while remaining committed to its many fond traditions.
Ingredients of Change: The History and Culture of Food in Modern Bulgaria
by Mary C. NeuburgerIngredients of Change explores modern Bulgaria's foodways from the Ottoman era to the present, outlining how Bulgarians domesticated and adapted diverse local, regional, and global foods and techniques, and how the nation's culinary topography has been continually reshaped by the imperial legacies of the Ottomans, Habsburgs, Russians, and Soviets, as well as by the ingenuity of its own people. Changes in Bulgarian cooking and cuisine, Mary C. Neuburger shows, were driven less by nationalism than by the circulation of powerful food narratives—scientific, religious, and ethical—along with peoples, goods, technologies, and politics. Ingredients of Change tells this complex story through thematic chapters focused on bread, meat, milk and yogurt, wine, and the foundational vegetables of Bulgarian cuisine—tomatoes and peppers. Neuburger traces the ways in which these ingredients were introduced and transformed in the Bulgarian diet over time, often in the context of Bulgaria's tumultuous political history. She shows how the country's modern dietary and culinary transformations accelerated under a communist dictatorship that had the resources and will to fundamentally reshape what and how people ate and drank.
Ingres Then, and Now (Re Visions Ser.)
by Adrian RifkinIngres Then, and Now is an innovative study of one of the best-known French artists of the nineteenth century, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Adrian Rifkin re-evaluates Ingres' work in the context of a variety of literary, musical and visual cultures which are normally seen as alien to him. Re-viewing Ingres' paintings as a series of fragmentary symptoms of the commodity cultures of nineteenth-century Paris, Adrian Rifkin draws the artist away from his familiar association with the Academy and the Salon.Rifkin sets out to show how, by thinking of the historical archive as a form of the unconscious, we can renew our understanding of nineteenth-century conservative or academic cultures by reading them against their 'other'. He situates Ingres in the world of the Parisian Arcades, as represented by Walter Benjamin, and examines the effect of this juxtaposition on how we think of Benjamin himself, following Ingres' image in popular cultures of the twentieth century. Rifkin then returns to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to find traces of the emergence of bizarre symptoms in Ingres' early work, symptoms which open him to a variety of conflicting readings and appropriations. It concludes by examining his importance for the great French art critic Jean Cassou on the one hand, and in making a bold, contemporary gay appropriation on the other.Ingres Then, and Now transforms the popular image we have of Ingres. It argues that the figure of the artist is neither fixed in time or place - there is neither an essential man named Ingres, nor a singular body of his work - but is an effect of many, complex and overlapping historical effects.
The Inhabited Ruins Of Central Europe
by Dariusz Gafijczuk Derek SayerFocusing on Central Europe, the volume proposes a new paradigm of how culture works, based on a model of "inhabited ruins" as a space where contradictory elements come together into continually renewed and frequently paradoxical configurations. Examines art, architecture, literature and music.
Inhabited Spaces: Anglo-Saxon Constructions of Place
by Nicole DiscenzaWe tend to think of early medieval people as unsophisticated about geography because their understandings of space and place often differed from ours, yet theirs were no less complex. Anglo-Saxons conceived of themselves as living at the centre of a cosmos that combined order and plenitude, two principles in a constant state of tension. In Inhabited Spaces, Nicole Guenther Discenza examines a variety of Anglo-Latin and Old English texts to shed light on Anglo-Saxon understandings of space. Anglo-Saxon models of the universe featured a spherical earth at the centre of a spherical universe ordered by God. They sought to shape the universe into knowable places, from where the earth stood in the cosmos, to the kingdoms of different peoples, and to the intimacy of the hall. Discenza argues that Anglo-Saxon works both construct orderly place and illuminate the limits of human spatial control.
Inhabiting the Impossible: Dance and Experimentation in Puerto Rico (Studies in Dance: Theories and Practices)
by Susan Homar and nibia pastrana santiagoThis first-of-its-kind book brings together writing by artists and scholars to survey the lively field of Puerto Rican experimental dance across four decades. Originally published as Habitar lo Imposible, the translation in English features essays, artist statements, and interviews plus more than 100 photos of productions, programs, posters, and scores. Throughout, Inhabiting the Impossible provides fresh, invaluable perspectives on experimentation in dance as a sustained practice that has from the start deeply engaged issues of race, gender, sexuality, and politics. The book is also enhanced by a bibliographic section with detailed resources for further study.
Inherit the Alamo: Myth and Ritual at an American Shrine
by Holly Beachley BrearLong overshadowed by the towering buildings of downtown San Antonio, the modest little Alamo still evokes tremendous feeling among Texans and, indeed, many other Americans. For Anglo Texans, the Alamo is the "Cradle of Texas Liberty" and a symbolic confirmation of Manifest Destiny. For Hispanic Texans, however, the Alamo has increasingly become a stolen symbol, its origin as a Spanish mission forgotten, its famous defeat used to exclude Hispanics from an honorable place in Texas history. In this important new book, Holly Beachley Brear explores in fascinating detail what the Alamo means to the numerous groups that lay claim to its heritage. She shows how Alamo myths often diverge from the historical facts—and why. She decodes the agendas of various groups, including the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (who maintain the Alamo buildings and grounds), the Order of the Alamo, the Texas Cavaliers, and LULAC. And she probes attempts by individuals and groups to rewrite the Alamo myth to include more positive roles for themselves, as she explains the value in laying claim to the Alamo’s past. With new perspectives on all the sacred icons of the Alamo and the Fiesta that celebrates (one version of) its history each year, Inherit the Alamo is guaranteed to challenge stereotypes and offer new understanding of the Alamo’s ongoing role in shaping Texas and American history and mythology.It will be of interest to a wide popular and scholarly audience.
Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will
by Gene StoweIn the early twentieth century, two wealthy white sisters, cousins to a North Carolina governor, wrote identical wills that left their substantial homeplace to a black man and his daughter. Maggie Ross, whose sister Sallie died in 1909, was the richest woman in Union County, North Carolina. Upon Maggie's death in 1920, her will bequeathed her estate to Bob Ross—who had grown up in the sisters' household—and his daughter Mittie Bell Houston. Mittie had also grown up with the well-to-do women, who had shown their affection for her by building a house for her and her husband. This house, along with eight hundred acres, hundreds of dollars in cash, and two of the white family's three gold watches went to Bob Ross and Houston. As soon as the contents of the will became known, more than one hundred of Maggie Ross's scandalized cousins sued to break the will, claiming that its bequest to black people proved that Maggie Ross was mentally incompetent. Revealing the details of this case and of the lives of the people involved in it, Gene Stowe presents a story that sheds light on and complicates our understanding of the Jim Crow South. Stowe's account of this famous court battle shows how specific individuals, both white and black, labored against the status quo of white superiority and ultimately won. An evocative portrait of an entire generation's sins, Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will hints at the possibility for color-blind justice in small-town North Carolina.
The Inheritance
by Katie AgnewWhat are the secrets we pass on?A sweeping story bringing together three women from across generations - perfect for fans of Lucy Foley's The Book of Lost and Found "I can still recall how cold the pearls felt on my bare neck as Mr Fitzroy secured the clasp and how heavy they were. I also remember that they were far, far too long for me. But, oh how mesmerising I found those pearls..."Tilly Beaumont was a legend in Hollywood's golden era, her days were full of glamour and adventure but now her health is failing and she's ready to tell her story. From her hospital bed, Tilly sends her granddaughter, Sophia, letters with stories about her life, about old family secrets and a beautiful necklace made of incredible pearls. If Sophia will listen, she could unlock the story of generations of remarkable women and find that this necklace has changed the lives of all who have worn it. The only problem? No one knows where it is.Sophia must decide if she's ready to take on the search for something so perfect it can change a life. Wouldn't a girl do anything to hold that in her hands?
The Inheritance
by Katie Agnew"I can still recall how cold the pearls felt on my bare neck as Mr Fitzroy secured the clasp, and how heavy they were. I also remember that they were far, far too long for me. But, oh how mesmerising I found those pearls..."Sophia Beaumont-Brown was an IT girl. But now she's in the papers for all the wrong reasons. Single, sofa-surfing and not speaking to her family, only her grandmother has any faith left in her. From her hospital bed, Tilly Beaumont sends Sophia letters about her life: dispatches about wartime England, about family secrets and finally, about the most beautiful thing she ever owned - a necklace of the most incredible pearls.If Sophia's prepared to listen, she'll unlock the secret story of generations of incredible women, from the pearl divers of Japan, to high society in pre-war England, and find that the necklace has changed the lives of all who have worn it. The only problem? No one knows where it is.Sophia must find out if she's ready to take on the search for something so perfect it can change a life. Wouldn't a girl do anything to hold that in her hands?(p) 2016 Orion Publishing Group
The Inheritance
by Louisa May AlcottInfluenced by the melodrama of the contemporary theater and the popular gothic novels of the time, Louisa May Alcott weaves a tale far removed from the reality of her everyday life in Boston. With a charm reminiscent of Jane Austen's novels, "The Inheritance" sets love and courtesy against depravity and dishonor -- and with the help of a secret inheritance, allows virtue to prevail.
The Inheritance
by Tamera AlexanderAn unexpected inheritance. An unknown future. An unending love. Determined to tame her younger brother's rebellious streak, McKenna Ashford accepts her cousin's invitation to move west, and to begin again. But she quickly discovers that life in Copper Creek, Colorado, is far from what she expected. Shouldering burdens beyond her years, McKenna tries to be the parent Robert needs, instead of the older sister he resents. But an "untimely inheritance" challenges her resolve at every turn, while also offering a second chance to restore her sense of trust--and perhaps even her heart. U.S. Marshal Wyatt Caradon is dedicated to bringing fugitives to justice, yet years of living on the trail have taken their toll. When his path intersects with that of McKenna, he comes face-to-face with a past he never wanted to relive--and the one woman who can help him find the future he's been longing for. As McKenna struggles to let go of her independence and Wyatt considers opening his heart again, they discover an inheritance beyond imagination. But it will come at a price.
The Inheritance (Charles Lenox Mysteries #10)
by Charles FinchA MYSTERIOUS BEQUEST OF MONEY LEADS TO A MURDER IN THIS NEW NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING SERIES WHOSE LAST INSTALLMENT THE New YORK Times called “a sterling addition to THIS WELL-POLISHED SERIES.” CHARLES LENOX has received a cryptic plea for help from an old Harrow schoolmate, Gerald Leigh, but when he looks into the matter, he finds that his friend has suddenly disappeared. As boys they had shared a secret: A bequest from a mysterious benefactor had smoothed Leigh’s way into the world after the death of his father. Lenox, already gripped by a passionate interest in detective work, made discovering the benefactor’s identity his first case—but was never able to solve it. Now, years later, Leigh has been the recipient of a second, even more generous bequest. Is it from the same anonymous sponsor? Or is the money poisoned by ulterior motives? Leigh’s disappearance suggests the latter, and as Lenox tries, desperately, to save his friend’s life, he’s forced into confrontations with both the most dangerous of London’s East End gangs and the far more genteel denizens of the illustrious Royal Society. When someone close to the bequest dies, Lenox must finally delve deep into the past to uncover at last the identity of the person who is either his friend’s savior—or his lethal enemy.
Inheritance: A Psychological History of the Royal Family
by Dennis FriedmanIn exploring Royal dynamics, Inheritance sheds light on problems found in any familyOn its first publication in the 1990s, Dennis Friedman's Inheritance caused a furor in England as he traced the many problems of the Royal family as it was then back to Queen Victoria's nursery, unveiling a host of psychodramas played out against a privileged background of English palaces and Scottish castles. In a post-Diana age, the arrival of a new Prince George to the seemingly stable and blissfully happy William and Kate seems to refute Fiedman's thesis--but what of the notoriously wayward Prince Harry? Many questions are raised in this book addressing the complex and turbulent royal relationships, perhaps the most fundamental being the rigid and traditional royal upbringing which still awaits the baby prince. As the royal line is followed down the generations no direct descendent is overlooked and no issue is sidestepped.
Inheritance: A Story of Property, Marriage and Madness
by Leo Hollis&‘Hollis expertly weaves together the human tragedy and high politics behind the explosion of one of the world&’s greatest cities.&’ Dan Snow In June 1701, a young widow, Mary Davies wakes up in a hotel room in Paris and finds a man in her bed. Within hours they are married. Yet three weeks later, Mary fled to London and swore that she had never agreed to the wedding. So begins one of the most intriguing stories of madness, tragic passions and the curse of inheritance. Inheritance charts the forgotten life of Mary Davies, born in London during the Great Plague of 1665, and the land that she inherited as a baby. This estate would determine the course of her tragic life. Hollis restores this history of child brides, mad heiresses, religious controversy and shady dealing. The drama culminated in a court case that determined not just the state of Mary&’s legacy, but the future of London itself. Today, Mary&’s inheritance is some of the most valuable real estate in the world.
The Inheritance: A Novel (Frontier Brides #1)
by Joan JohnstonDaisy knew that someday, somehow, she would pay for wanting what no proper woman wanted...The ravishing Duchess Daisy vowed to save Severn Manor by marrying Nicholas Calloway, a Texas bounty hunter come to claim his family's ancestral lands. But the moment they met, the slate eyed barbarian took Daisy's breath away. She proposed a marriage of convenience. But she hadn't reckoned on flash-fire passion with the savage new duke...Nicholas Calloway came to England to discover the truth about his bastard birth, then sell his inherited estate--with Duchess Daisy's help. Her price was marriage. He agreed, determined to have her on his own terms-only to find himself hostage to the fiery redhead he couldn't leave behind...The highly acclaimed bestselling author of Outlaw's Bride, Joan Johnston brings to life two extraordinary characters--an outrageous duchess and an unlikely duke--in a love story that enchants and enthralls to the very last page.From the Paperback edition.
The Inheritance: A Novel
by JoAnn Ross&“Moving… This engrossing and hopeful story will hold readers from start to finish.&”—Publishers Weekly&“Family secrets, complex characters and a glorious setting make The Inheritance a rich, compelling read...JoAnn Ross at her best!&” —Sherryl Woods, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sweet Magnolias seriesWith a dramatic wartime love story woven through, JoAnn Ross's brilliant new novel is a gorgeous generational saga about the rivalry, history and loyalty that bond sisters togetherWhen conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they&’re now responsible for the family&’s Oregon vineyard—and for a family they didn&’t ask for.After a successful career as a child TV star, Tess is, for the first time, suffering from a serious identity crisis, and grieving for the absent father she&’s resented all her life.Charlotte, brought up to be a proper Southern wife, gave up her own career to support her husband's political ambitions. On the worst day of her life, she discovers her beloved father has died, she has two sisters she never knew about and her husband has fallen in love with another woman.Natalie, daughter of Jack&’s longtime mistress, has always known about her half sisters, and has dreaded the day when Tess and Charlotte find out she&’s the daughter their father kept.As the sisters reluctantly gather at the vineyard, they&’re soon enchanted by the Swann family matriarch and namesake of Maison de Madeleine wines, whose stories of bravery in WWII France and love for a wounded American soldier will reveal the family legacy they've each inherited and change the course of all their lives.
The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power
by David E. SangerReaders of The New York Times know David Sanger as one of the most trusted correspondents in Washington, one to whom presidents, secretaries of state, and foreign leaders talk with unusual candor. Now, with a historian’s sweep and an insider’s eye for telling detail, Sanger delivers an urgent intelligence briefing on the world America faces. In a riveting narrative, The Inheritance describes the huge costs of distraction and lost opportunities at home and abroad as Iraq soaked up manpower, money, and intelligence capabilities. The 2008 market collapse further undermined American leadership, leaving the new president with a set of challenges unparalleled since Franklin D. Roosevelt entered the Oval Office.Sanger takes readers into the White House Situation Room to reveal how Washington penetrated Tehran’s nuclear secrets, leading President Bush, in his last year, to secretly step up covert actions in a desperate effort to delay an Iranian bomb. Meanwhile, his intelligence chiefs made repeated secret missions to Pakistan as they tried to stem a growing insurgency and cope with an ally who was also aiding the enemy–while receiving billions in American military aid. Now the new president faces critical choices: Is it better to learn to live with a nuclear Iran or risk overt or covert confrontation? Is it worth sending U.S. forces deep into Pakistani territory at the risk of undermining an unstable Pakistani government sitting on a nuclear arsenal? It is a race against time and against a new effort by Islamic extremists–never before disclosed–to quietly infiltrate Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program. “Bush wrote a lot of checks,” one senior intelligence official told Sanger, “that the next president is going to have to cash.”The Inheritance takes readers to Afghanistan, where Bush never delivered on his promises for a Marshall Plan to rebuild the country, paving the way for the Taliban’s return. It examines the chilling calculus of North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il, who built actual weapons of mass destruction in the same months that the Bush administration pursued phantoms in Iraq, then sold his nuclear technology in the Middle East in an operation the American intelligence apparatus missed. And it explores how China became one of the real winners of the Iraq war, using the past eight years to expand its influence in Asia, and lock up oil supplies in Africa while Washington was bogged down in the Middle East. Yet Sanger, a former foreign correspondent in Asia, sees enormous potential for the next administration to forge a partnership with Beijing on energy and the environment. At once a secret history of our foreign policy misadventures and a lucid explanation of the opportunities they create, The Inheritance is vital reading for anyone trying to understand the extraordinary challenges that lie ahead.
The Inheritance: A Novel (Inspector Trave #1)
by Simon TolkienAuthor Simon Tolkien received rave reviews for his first legal thriller, The Final Witness. Now, in The Inheritance, Tolkien sharpens his craft even more, deftly weaving psychological suspense and family drama to create a mystery steeped in memories, betrayal, and the long shadow of the past. Part courtroom drama and part historical thriller, The Inheritance is a dark, dynamic thriller that tests the strength of blood ties, loyalty, and revenge.When a famed Oxford historian is found dead in his study one night, all evidence points to his son, Stephen. About to be disinherited from the family fortune, Stephen returns to home after a long estrangement—and it happens to be the night his father is shot to death. When his fingerprints are found on the murder weapon, Stephen's guilt seems undeniable. But there were five other people in the manor house at the time, and as their stories slowly emerge—along with the revelation that the deceased man was involved in a deadly hunt for a priceless relic in Northern France at the end of World War II—the race is on to save Stephen from a death sentence. Everyone has a motive, and no one is telling the truth. Unwilling to sit by and watch the biased judge condemn Stephen to death, an aging police inspector decides to travel from England to France to find out what really happened in that small French village in 1945—and what artifact could be so valuable it would be worth killing for.
Inheritance Law and Political Theology in Shakespeare and Milton: Election and Grace as Constitutional in Early Modern Literature and Beyond
by Joseph S. JenkinsReading God's will and a man's Last Will as ideas that reinforce one another, this study shows the relevance of England's early modern crisis, regarding faith in the will of God, to current debates by legal academics on the theory of property and its succession. The increasing power of the dead under law in the US, the UK, and beyond-a concern of recent volumes in law and social sciences-is here addressed through a distinctive approach based on law and humanities. Vividly treating literary and biblical battles of will, the book suggests approaches to legal constitution informed by these dramas and by English legal history. This study investigates correlations between the will of God in Judeo-Christian traditions and the Last Wills of humans, especially dominant males, in cultures where these traditions have developed. It is interdisciplinary, in the sense that it engages with the limits of several fields: it is informed by humanities critical theory, especially Benjaminian historical materialism and Lacanian psychoanalysis, but refrains from detailed theoretical considerations. Dramatic narratives from the Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton are read as suggesting real possibilities for alternative inheritance (i.e., constitutional) regimes. As Jenkins shows, these texts propose ways to alleviate violence, violence both personal and political, through attention to inheritance law.
Inheritance of Loss: China, Japan, and the Political Economy of Redemption after Empire
by Yukiko KogaHow do contemporary generations come to terms with losses inflicted by imperialism, colonialism, and war that took place decades ago? How do descendants of perpetrators and victims establish new relations in today's globalized economy? With Inheritance of Loss, Yukiko Koga approaches these questions through the unique lens of inheritance, focusing on Northeast China, the former site of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo, where municipal governments now court Japanese as investors and tourists. As China transitions to a market-oriented society, this region is restoring long-neglected colonial-era structures to boost tourism and inviting former colonial industries to create special economic zones, all while inadvertently unearthing chemical weapons abandoned by the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II. Inheritance of Loss chronicles these sites of colonial inheritance--tourist destinations, corporate zones, and mustard gas exposure sites--to illustrate attempts by ordinary Chinese and Japanese to reckon with their shared yet contested pasts. In her explorations of everyday life, Koga directs us to see how the violence and injustice that occurred after the demise of the Japanese Empire compound the losses that later generations must account for, and inevitably inherit.
Inheritance of Power: A Novel (The House of Medici)
by Edward Charles&“Takes a novel angle on Cosimo [de Medici]&’s rise to power by telling the story of his mistress, the Circassian slave Maddalena . . . an incomparable cast.&” —Historical Novel Society Ever-loyal Maddalena, a diminutive, dark-skinned, blue-eyed slave, has borne Cosimo de Medici a son and seen him rise to a position in the Church. Now, late in life, she finds herself committed to a convent, as part of a scheme to prevent Cosimo&’s sons from sending the Medici bank into ruin by hiding a fortune in gold for Cosimo&’s grandson, Lorenzo, to inherit. But as the months go by, and the gold does not appear, her faith in Cosimo begins to wane and with it, her confidence in her own worth. Has she been duped? Approaching old age, she finds in the abbess a confessor, to whom she can confide her true story and perhaps, at the same time, convince herself that her life has been worthwhile. But the abbess has objectives of her own, and the two of them may not be on the same side. Edward Charles presents an enthralling evocation of fifteenth-century Florence in a novel of intrigue, wealth, deception, and high political drama. The largest and most respected financial institution in Europe in its prime, the Medici bank came to represent the might of a family of great influence and power, who scaled the very heights of human grandeur but were to suffer through one of the most catastrophic financial crashes of early banking as the survival of a dynasty hung in the balance. &“A vivid tapestry of Florentine history . . . Imaginatively structured.&” —Booklist (starred review)