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'They kill us, they crucify us, they throw us to beasts in the arena, they sew our lips together and watch us starve. They bugger children in front of fathers and violate men before the eyes of their wives. The temple priests flay us openly in the streets and the Judeans stone us.... We are hunted everywhere and we are hunted by everyone. We are despised, yet we grow. We are tortured and crucified and yet we flourish. We are hated and still we multiply. Why is that? You must wonder, how is it we survive?' Christos Tsiolkas' stunning new novel Damascus is a work of soaring ambition and achievement, of immense power and epic scope, taking as its subject nothing less than events surrounding the birth and establishment of the Christian church. Based around the gospels and letters of St Paul, and focusing on characters one and two generations on from the death of Christ, as well as Paul (Saul) himself, Damascus nevertheless explores the themes that have always obsessed Tsiolkas as a writer: class, religion, masculinity, patriarchy, colonisation, refugees; the ways in which nations, societies, communities, families and individuals are united and divided - it's all here, the contemporary and urgent questions, perennial concerns made vivid and visceral. In Damascus, Tsiolkas has written a masterpiece of imagination and transformation: an historical novel of immense power and an unflinching dissection of doubt and faith, tyranny and revolution, and cruelty and sacrifice.
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By Kaa, Hirini
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- RRP: $59.99
- $47.99
- Save $12.00
- Pub Date
10 Apr 20
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This ground-breaking book explores the birth, growth, struggles and ongoing life of Te Hahi Mihinare - the Maori Anglican Church.
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If you thought you'd heard every fairy tale, then you thought wrong... In a faraway kingdom forgotten by time, two girls live happily. Their lives are completely different - in fact, they've never even met - but they have been bound together since birth. Danger, mystery and magic... await. Their story began once upon a time. But how will it end?
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Collected from around the UK, the prayers in this book are written mostly by young people for their contemporaries. The simple and direct language is chosen to remind readers of what real prayer is: open and honest conversation with God.
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With the unexpected death of Russian President Aleksandr Luganov, and Iran's efforts to acquire fully operational nuclear warheads successfully thwarted, American President Andrew Clarke decides the moment has come to unveil his comprehensive proposal to achieve peace between Isr...ael and the Palestinians. However, when a series of senior American officials involved in the peace process are assassinated, Clarke orders Marcus Ryker and a team of CIA operatives to hunt down those responsible and bring the killing spree to an end. What Ryker uncovers is a chilling plot to kill the American president himself, but at first, it's unclear who is the driving force behind the plot. Is it the Russians, seeking payback for the assassination of Luganov? Is it the Iranians, in retaliation for the American operation to keep Tehran from acquiring nukes? Or is it another conspirator altogether, someone plotting to strike a blow against American hegemony in the Middle East and seize the leadership of the entire Sunni Muslim world? By the time Ryker and his team fully understand the plot and who's behind it, they find they have less than 96 hours to disrupt a terrible evil that has been set in motion.
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On 28 February 2013, a 600-year-old tradition was shattered- Pope Benedict XVI made a startling announcement. He would resign. This story begins with the death of John Paul, through Benedict's election and reign - taking in the controversies that blighted the world's largest chur...ch - to his subsequent and shocking resignation. We see white smoke from the Sistine Chapel and a reluctant successor who breaks with tradition at once, declaring, I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner. Francis returns inside, invites the cardinals to join him, and serves them ice-cream. From the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour, The Pope is a poignant and often funny tale of an odd couple, of two very different men whose destinies converge and profoundly influence each other. What issues occupy the two men as they walk and talk in the Vatican gardens together, or later, when they share a light dinner, accompanied by Benedict's favorite drink, Fanta? This is both a biography of two popes and a story of the grace and extra wisdom that comes if a sinner can put their sins behind them.
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Illustrated by Racklyeft, Jess
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- RRP: $30.00
- $22.50
- Save $7.50
- In Stock At Publisher
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The First Christmas perfectly captures the wonder of the nativity and celebrates the Christmas spirit of giving and togetherness. Full of hope for the future and the joy of family, this is a classic picture book to share, year after year.
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An intimate, deeply reported account of the women who made a shocking decision- to leave their comfortable lives behind and join the Islamic State. In early 2014, the Islamic State clinched its control of Raqqa in Syria. Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, urged Muslims around the worl...d to come join the caliphate. Having witnessed the brutal oppression of the Assad regime in Syria, and moved to fight for justice, thousands of men and women heeded his call. At the heart of this story is a cast of unforgettable young women who responded. Emma, from Germany; Sharmeena from Bethnal Green, London; Nour from Tunis- these were women - some still in high school - from urban families, some with university degrees and bookshelves filled with novels by Jane Austen and Dan Brown; many with cosmopolitan dreams of travel and adventure. But instead of finding a land of justice and piety, they found themselves trapped within the most brutal terrorist regime of the twenty-first century, a world of chaos and upheaval and violence. What is the line between victim and collaborator? How do we judge these women who both suffered and inflicted intense pain? What role is there for Muslim women in the West? In what is bound to be a modern classic of narrative non-fiction, Moaveni takes us into the school hallways of London, kitchen tables in Germany, the coffee shops in Tunis, the caliphate's OB/GYN and its 'Guest House for Young Widows' - where wives of the fallen waited to be remarried - to demonstrate that the problem called terrorism is a far more complex, political, and deeply relatable one than we generally admit.
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Emily Ackerman has traveled the world, her constant compass and companion a book of letters her mother left for her when she died. With no father in the picture, her mom's advice has been her only true north. But when professional failure leads Emily back to Nantucket to renovate... and sell the family cottage she inherited, she wonders if her mom left advice to cover this . . . especially when her grandmother arrives to supervise. And especially when her heart becomes entangled with Hollis McGuire, the boy next door-turned-baseball star who's back on the island after a career-ending injury. As sparks fly between her and Hollis, Emily is drawn to island life, even as she uncovers shocking secrets about the tragic accident that led to her mother's death. With her world turned upside down, Emily must choose between allowing the voices from her past to guide her future or forging her own path forward.
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Do YOU believe in fairies . Crossing the boundaries between magic and reality, readers are shown our world - judgemental and cruel - and offered glimpses of another, dark and rather different place that is hidden to most of us.
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