Political genre books (182)



152.

The Shell : Memoirs of a Hidden Observer by Moustafa Khalifa EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Asia / Syria flag Syria
Description:
The work of a moder-day Sozhenitsyn that exposes acts of violence and brutality committed by the Syrian regime. This compelling first novel is the astonishing story of a Syrian political prisoner of conscience—an atheist mistaken for a radical Islamist—who was locked up for 13 years without trial in one of the most notorious prisons in the Middle East. The novel takes the form of a diary which Musa keeps in his head and then writes down upon his release. In Tadmur prison, the mood is naturally bleak and yet often very beautifully captured. The narrator, a young graduate, is defiant and stoical... continue

153.

The Shortest History of Germany by James Hawes EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
This fresh, concise and entertaining new history, with more than 100 maps and images, makes sense of Europe's most admired and feared country.

154.

The Shortest History Of War by Gwynne Dyer EN

0 Ratings
Description:
‘An incisive and well-informed overview of how warfare has evolved’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ‘From the first armies to clashes of drones and dirty bombs, this is eye-opening, big-picture stuff’ BBC HISTORY ‘Readable and sharp ... does what it says on the tin’ INDEPENDENT ‘Dyer writes with eloquence and authority’ IRISH EXAMINER War has changed, but we have not. From our hunter-gatherer ancestors to the rival nuclear powers of today, whenever resources have been contested, we’ve gone to battle. In this brisk and gripping account, acclaimed military historian Gwynne Dyer traces the evolution of martial... continue

155.

The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Syria flag Syria
Description:
With The Silence and the Roar, Nihad Sirees writes a powerful, life-affirming and Kafkaesque novel about a censored writer trying to live a normal life under a Middle Eastern dictatorship, Syria. Fathi, a writer no longer permitted to write, makes his way through a city churned by parades for an unnamed dictator. It is a day stifled by heat and the noise of the chants, a day of people trampled, and of the brutality and bullying of the party faithful. But Fathi presses treacherously against the crowd, attempting just to visit his mother and his girlfriend. The Silence and the Roar (Al Samt wa A... continue

156.

The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau EN

Rating: 3.5 (16 votes)
Country: Europe / Switzerland flag Switzerland
Description:
"Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains" These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for t... continue

157.

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Poland flag Poland
Description:
ONE OF TWELVE TITLES IN VINTAGE'S A FORMAT WAR PROMOTION The publication of The Tin Drum in 1959 launched Gunther Grass as an author of international repute. Bitter and impassioned, it delivers a scathing dissection of the years from 1925 to 1955 through the eyes of Oskar Matzerath, the dwarf whose manic beating on the toy of his retarded childhood fantastically counterpoints the accumulating horrors of Germany and Poland under the Nazis.

158.

The Twilight Zone : A Novel by Nona Fernández EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
* Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature * An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández’s mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man’s face on the magazine’s cover with the words “I Tortured People.” His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime ... continue

159.

The Voice of Hope by Aung San Suu Kyi, Alan Clements EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Myanmar flag Myanmar
Description:
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of Burma's struggle for democracy discusses her political and Buddhist pursuits

160.

The White Boy Shuffle : A Novel by Paul Beatty EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
A slapstick satire on race relations featuring Gunnar Kaufman, a black writer from Santa Monica who becomes famous by saying all the right things whites want to hear. The novel pokes fun at both blacks and whites. A first novel.