Asian History

The Maisky Diaries: Red Ambassador to the Court of St James’s, 1932-1943

The terror and purges of Stalin’s Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records let alone keeping personal diaries. A remarkable exception is the unique diary assiduously kept by Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to London between 1932 and 1943. This selection from Maisky’s diary, never before published in English, grippingly documents Britain’s drift to war …

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Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War

Winner of the Nobel Prize: “For her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” ―Swedish Academy, Nobel Prize citation From 1979 to 1989 a million Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan that claimed 50,000 casualties―and the youth and humanity of many tens of thousands more. Creating controversy and outrage when it …

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No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden

The #1 New York Times bestselling first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy SEAL who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments.From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of …

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In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom

Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape. Park’s family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea …

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The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

A New York Times Bestseller for 12 weeks! “Helen Rappaport paints a compelling portrait of the doomed grand duchesses.” ―People magazine”The public spoke of the sisters in a gentile, superficial manner, but Rappaport captures sections of letters and diary entries to showcase the sisters’ thoughtfulness and intelligence.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)They were the Princess Dianas of their day―perhaps …

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Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalistWinner of the 2014 National Book Award in nonfiction. An Economist Best Book of 2014.A vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformationFrom abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy-or an …

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A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

Master storyteller Ben Macintyre’s most ambitious work to date brings to life the twentieth century’s greatest spy story.Kim Philby was the greatest spy in history, a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War—while he was secretly working for the enemy. And nobody thought he knew …

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