Author: Jaan Kross
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565841116
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Professor Martens is an elder statesman who has dutifully served the czarist regime. Near the end of his career and of his life, Martens is once again summoned to St. Petersberg. Traveling by train from his home in Parn?, he recalls his life of public service only to realize the terrible personal price he has paid and that he has helped perpetuate a brutal regime in his Baltic homeland.
Professor Martens' Departure
Author: Jaan Kross
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565841116
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Professor Martens is an elder statesman who has dutifully served the czarist regime. Near the end of his career and of his life, Martens is once again summoned to St. Petersberg. Traveling by train from his home in Parn?, he recalls his life of public service only to realize the terrible personal price he has paid and that he has helped perpetuate a brutal regime in his Baltic homeland.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565841116
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Professor Martens is an elder statesman who has dutifully served the czarist regime. Near the end of his career and of his life, Martens is once again summoned to St. Petersberg. Traveling by train from his home in Parn?, he recalls his life of public service only to realize the terrible personal price he has paid and that he has helped perpetuate a brutal regime in his Baltic homeland.
Professor Martens' Departure
Author: Jaan Kross
Publisher: Harvill Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
A "witty and poignant" novel (Guardian) by Estonia's leading novelist.
Publisher: Harvill Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
A "witty and poignant" novel (Guardian) by Estonia's leading novelist.
Our Martens:F.F. Martens, International Lawyer and Architecht of Peace
Author: Vladimir Vasil?evich Pustogarov
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9041196021
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
The rule of law, peace, disarmament, human rights: these are no longer empty words, but legal concepts steadily gaining force among nations. If the slow but sure codification of international law that began with the first Geneva Convention of 1864 has put down roots, against all odds, it is because of the passionate determination of a few visionary but practical actors on the world's stage. Pre-eminent among these `workers in the dawn' was the Russian jurist, diplomat and arbitrator F.F. Martens (1845-1909). Although Marten's reputation suffered during the Soviet era and on both sides of the Cold War, the lasting effect of his ideas and initiatives can be traced all the way from his early years as a Law Professor at Petersburg University (when his writing attracted the attention of the Czar), through his direct participation in the great Peace Conferences at Brussels and The Hague, to the legal underpinnings of the human rights regime embodied in today's international conventions and tribunals. His sense of community and the individual in a global context andndash; a difficult notion for lawyers to grasp in a world of competing nation-states andndash; has now become a widely-accepted norm with increasingly effective enforcement mechanisms. And even his contributions to procedural theory, in areas such as extradition of political criminals and transnational enforcement of administrative law, persist in coming to the forefront of today's international legal practice. This English translation of the first major biography of Martens is in fact the most complete text in any language, as the Russian author, at the translator's request, took the opportunity to revise his original work and even supplied two whole chapters missing from the original Russian edition of 1993 and subsequent editions and translations. Pustogarov was among the first scholars to gain access to the near-legendary Archive of the Foreign Policy of Russia, and his biography of Martens contains a wealth of hitherto unavailable information on the more-or-less secret political maneuvers of the `Great Powers' in Martens' time. This is an important book for all international lawyers to read and study, exposing as it does the deepest currents of the mainstream of international law in our time.
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9041196021
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
The rule of law, peace, disarmament, human rights: these are no longer empty words, but legal concepts steadily gaining force among nations. If the slow but sure codification of international law that began with the first Geneva Convention of 1864 has put down roots, against all odds, it is because of the passionate determination of a few visionary but practical actors on the world's stage. Pre-eminent among these `workers in the dawn' was the Russian jurist, diplomat and arbitrator F.F. Martens (1845-1909). Although Marten's reputation suffered during the Soviet era and on both sides of the Cold War, the lasting effect of his ideas and initiatives can be traced all the way from his early years as a Law Professor at Petersburg University (when his writing attracted the attention of the Czar), through his direct participation in the great Peace Conferences at Brussels and The Hague, to the legal underpinnings of the human rights regime embodied in today's international conventions and tribunals. His sense of community and the individual in a global context andndash; a difficult notion for lawyers to grasp in a world of competing nation-states andndash; has now become a widely-accepted norm with increasingly effective enforcement mechanisms. And even his contributions to procedural theory, in areas such as extradition of political criminals and transnational enforcement of administrative law, persist in coming to the forefront of today's international legal practice. This English translation of the first major biography of Martens is in fact the most complete text in any language, as the Russian author, at the translator's request, took the opportunity to revise his original work and even supplied two whole chapters missing from the original Russian edition of 1993 and subsequent editions and translations. Pustogarov was among the first scholars to gain access to the near-legendary Archive of the Foreign Policy of Russia, and his biography of Martens contains a wealth of hitherto unavailable information on the more-or-less secret political maneuvers of the `Great Powers' in Martens' time. This is an important book for all international lawyers to read and study, exposing as it does the deepest currents of the mainstream of international law in our time.
The Conspiracy and Other Stories
Author: Jaan Kross
Publisher: Harvill Secker
ISBN: 9781846555671
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
When these stories were written the Estonians were not masters of their own house: the Soviets had been the occupying Power since 1940, apart from the three years 1941-44 when the Nazis were in occupation. Young Estonians, conscripted into the armies of both belligerents, found themselves compelled to fight each other. This is the background of these six stories featuring Peeter Mirk, a young law student who is more often in than out of prison and labour camp during these years - like his creator Jaan Kross. Forever carrying a charge of guilt that he has only contributed to his friends' misfortunes, he describes two thwarted attempts at escape ("The Wound", "Lead Piping"), his own dilemma when he can save his life only by sacrificing a friend's ("The Stahl Grammar"), his hand in a practical joke perpetrated by prisoners on one of their number in Tallinn Central Jail, which goes badly wrong ("The Conspiracy"). The last two stories (" The Ashtray", "The Day Eyes Were Opened") involve train journeys, chance encounters, and the unavoidable necessity of giving Fate a run for its money.If the tone is necessarily sombre as Kross recalls the years when Hitler and Stalin determined his countrymen's destiny, a wry humour keeps slipping through at every turn, which will suggest to the reader that Peeter Mirk must be cousin to the Good Soldier Schweik.
Publisher: Harvill Secker
ISBN: 9781846555671
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
When these stories were written the Estonians were not masters of their own house: the Soviets had been the occupying Power since 1940, apart from the three years 1941-44 when the Nazis were in occupation. Young Estonians, conscripted into the armies of both belligerents, found themselves compelled to fight each other. This is the background of these six stories featuring Peeter Mirk, a young law student who is more often in than out of prison and labour camp during these years - like his creator Jaan Kross. Forever carrying a charge of guilt that he has only contributed to his friends' misfortunes, he describes two thwarted attempts at escape ("The Wound", "Lead Piping"), his own dilemma when he can save his life only by sacrificing a friend's ("The Stahl Grammar"), his hand in a practical joke perpetrated by prisoners on one of their number in Tallinn Central Jail, which goes badly wrong ("The Conspiracy"). The last two stories (" The Ashtray", "The Day Eyes Were Opened") involve train journeys, chance encounters, and the unavoidable necessity of giving Fate a run for its money.If the tone is necessarily sombre as Kross recalls the years when Hitler and Stalin determined his countrymen's destiny, a wry humour keeps slipping through at every turn, which will suggest to the reader that Peeter Mirk must be cousin to the Good Soldier Schweik.
The Czar's Madman
Author: Jaan Kross
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 186046579X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
Timo von Bock's release by the Czar from nine years' incarceration does not spell the end of the Baron's troubles: he is confined to his Livonian estate to live under the constant eye of police informers planted among his own household, and is subjected to endless humiliations. It is claimed that he is a madman and in need of "protection:" a man would need to be insane, after all, to have taken a Czar at his word when asked for a candid appraisal of the state's infirmities. From the year of his release from prison and return to his wife Eeva, a woman of peasant stock to whom, with her brother Jakob, he has given a solid education, the Baron's life is recorded in a secret journal by this same Jakob, a shrewd and observant house-guest. Reconstructing the events leading up to the Baron's incarceration in 1818 and subsequent to his release in 1827, Jakob little by little brings to light mysteries surrounding the "Czar's madman." Was his madness genuine? What was the secret understanding between him and his boon companion Czar Alexander I, who committed him to prison? In The Czar's Madman, Jaan Kross weaves together the elements of intrigue surrounding those historical characters who survived in post-Napoleonic Russia, and by a skillful shifting of chronology and viewpoints, creates a superbly rich and moving narrative.
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 186046579X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
Timo von Bock's release by the Czar from nine years' incarceration does not spell the end of the Baron's troubles: he is confined to his Livonian estate to live under the constant eye of police informers planted among his own household, and is subjected to endless humiliations. It is claimed that he is a madman and in need of "protection:" a man would need to be insane, after all, to have taken a Czar at his word when asked for a candid appraisal of the state's infirmities. From the year of his release from prison and return to his wife Eeva, a woman of peasant stock to whom, with her brother Jakob, he has given a solid education, the Baron's life is recorded in a secret journal by this same Jakob, a shrewd and observant house-guest. Reconstructing the events leading up to the Baron's incarceration in 1818 and subsequent to his release in 1827, Jakob little by little brings to light mysteries surrounding the "Czar's madman." Was his madness genuine? What was the secret understanding between him and his boon companion Czar Alexander I, who committed him to prison? In The Czar's Madman, Jaan Kross weaves together the elements of intrigue surrounding those historical characters who survived in post-Napoleonic Russia, and by a skillful shifting of chronology and viewpoints, creates a superbly rich and moving narrative.
The Perfect Nine
Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620975262
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
Longlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize A dazzling, genre-defying novel in verse from the author Delia Owens says “tackles the absurdities, injustices, and corruption of a continent” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's novels and memoirs have received glowing praise from the likes of President Barack Obama, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, and NPR; he has been a finalist for the Man International Booker Prize and is annually tipped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature; and his books have sold tens of thousands of copies around the world. In his first attempt at the epic form, Ngũgĩ tells the story of the founding of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya, from a strongly feminist perspective. A verse narrative, blending folklore, mythology, adventure, and allegory, The Perfect Nine chronicles the efforts the Gĩkũyũ founders make to find partners for their ten beautiful daughters—called “The Perfect Nine” —and the challenges they set for the 99 suitors who seek their hands in marriage. The epic has all the elements of adventure, with suspense, danger, humor, and sacrifice. Ngũgĩ's epic is a quest for the beautiful as an ideal of living, as the motive force behind migrations of African peoples. He notes, “The epic came to me one night as a revelation of ideals of quest, courage, perseverance, unity, family; and the sense of the divine, in human struggles with nature and nurture.”
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620975262
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
Longlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize A dazzling, genre-defying novel in verse from the author Delia Owens says “tackles the absurdities, injustices, and corruption of a continent” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's novels and memoirs have received glowing praise from the likes of President Barack Obama, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, and NPR; he has been a finalist for the Man International Booker Prize and is annually tipped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature; and his books have sold tens of thousands of copies around the world. In his first attempt at the epic form, Ngũgĩ tells the story of the founding of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya, from a strongly feminist perspective. A verse narrative, blending folklore, mythology, adventure, and allegory, The Perfect Nine chronicles the efforts the Gĩkũyũ founders make to find partners for their ten beautiful daughters—called “The Perfect Nine” —and the challenges they set for the 99 suitors who seek their hands in marriage. The epic has all the elements of adventure, with suspense, danger, humor, and sacrifice. Ngũgĩ's epic is a quest for the beautiful as an ideal of living, as the motive force behind migrations of African peoples. He notes, “The epic came to me one night as a revelation of ideals of quest, courage, perseverance, unity, family; and the sense of the divine, in human struggles with nature and nurture.”
Springtime in a Broken Mirror
Author: Mario Benedetti
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620974916
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 132
Book Description
"A wise, lonely novel . . . [and an] honest reflection of exile." —The New Yorker In the tradition of Roberto Bolaño's Savage Detectives, a celebrated classic and heart-wrenching story of a family torn apart by the forces of history, by one of Latin America's most celebrated writers The late Mario Benedetti’s work was often ranked with “such esteemed Latin American writers as Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortázar” (The Washington Post) and his novel The Truce has sold millions of copies around the world. His extraordinary novel Springtime in a Broken Mirror revolves around Santiago, a political prisoner in Uruguay, who was jailed after a brutal military coup that saw many of his comrades flee elsewhere. Santiago, feeling trapped, can do nothing but write letters to his family and try to stay sane. Far away, his nine-year-old daughter Beatrice wonders at the marvels of Buenos Aires, but her grandpa and mother—Santiago’s beautiful, careworn wife, Graciela—struggle to adjust to a life in exile. Published now for the first time in English, Springtime in a Broken Mirror tells with tenderness and fury of the indelible imprint politics leaves on individual lives. Generous and unflinching, it asks whether the broken bonds of family and history can ever truly be mended. Written by one of the masters of the Latin American novel, this is the story of a fractured continent, chronicled through the lives of a single family.
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620974916
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 132
Book Description
"A wise, lonely novel . . . [and an] honest reflection of exile." —The New Yorker In the tradition of Roberto Bolaño's Savage Detectives, a celebrated classic and heart-wrenching story of a family torn apart by the forces of history, by one of Latin America's most celebrated writers The late Mario Benedetti’s work was often ranked with “such esteemed Latin American writers as Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortázar” (The Washington Post) and his novel The Truce has sold millions of copies around the world. His extraordinary novel Springtime in a Broken Mirror revolves around Santiago, a political prisoner in Uruguay, who was jailed after a brutal military coup that saw many of his comrades flee elsewhere. Santiago, feeling trapped, can do nothing but write letters to his family and try to stay sane. Far away, his nine-year-old daughter Beatrice wonders at the marvels of Buenos Aires, but her grandpa and mother—Santiago’s beautiful, careworn wife, Graciela—struggle to adjust to a life in exile. Published now for the first time in English, Springtime in a Broken Mirror tells with tenderness and fury of the indelible imprint politics leaves on individual lives. Generous and unflinching, it asks whether the broken bonds of family and history can ever truly be mended. Written by one of the masters of the Latin American novel, this is the story of a fractured continent, chronicled through the lives of a single family.
Zero History
Author: William Gibson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101443316
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
Hollis Henry never intended to work for global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend again. But now she’s broke, and Bigend has just the thing to get her back in the game... Milgrim can disappear in almost any setting, and his Russian is perfectly idiomatic—so much so that he spoke it with his therapist in the secret Swiss clinic where Bigend paid for him to be cured of his addiction... Garreth doesn't owe Bigend a thing. But he does have friends from whom he can call in the kinds of favors powerful people need when things go sideways... They all have something Bigend wants as he finds himself outmaneuvered and adrift, after a Department of Defense contract for combat-wear turns out to be the gateway drug for arms dealers so shadowy they can out-Bigend Bigend himself. “Zero History is [Gibson’s] best yet, a triumph of science fiction as social criticism and adventure.”—BoingBoing.net
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101443316
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
Hollis Henry never intended to work for global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend again. But now she’s broke, and Bigend has just the thing to get her back in the game... Milgrim can disappear in almost any setting, and his Russian is perfectly idiomatic—so much so that he spoke it with his therapist in the secret Swiss clinic where Bigend paid for him to be cured of his addiction... Garreth doesn't owe Bigend a thing. But he does have friends from whom he can call in the kinds of favors powerful people need when things go sideways... They all have something Bigend wants as he finds himself outmaneuvered and adrift, after a Department of Defense contract for combat-wear turns out to be the gateway drug for arms dealers so shadowy they can out-Bigend Bigend himself. “Zero History is [Gibson’s] best yet, a triumph of science fiction as social criticism and adventure.”—BoingBoing.net
Sarajevo
Author: Zlatko Dizdarević
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Originally written as columns for a Croatian newspaper, Sarajevo vividly describes a life in which unspeakable horrors are daily occurrences. While witnessing the gradual destruction of his city, Dizdarevic emphasizes the heroism of Sarajevo's citizens as they try to survive. Recipient of the International Prize from Reporters Without Borders.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Originally written as columns for a Croatian newspaper, Sarajevo vividly describes a life in which unspeakable horrors are daily occurrences. While witnessing the gradual destruction of his city, Dizdarevic emphasizes the heroism of Sarajevo's citizens as they try to survive. Recipient of the International Prize from Reporters Without Borders.
Treading Air
Author: Jaan Kross
Publisher: Harvill Press
ISBN: 9781846559112
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Book Description
Translated by Eric Dickens Treading Air follows the life of Ullo Paerand through 30 years of violent political upheaval. Abandoned by his father as a child, he grows up to become an electoral assistant to the parliamentary office in Tallinn and it is in this position that Ullo witnesses first the Soviet and then the German occupation of Estonia. Forced out of his honest profession Ullo becomes involved with the Resistance but, when many Estonians flee the country, he chooses to remain. An interlude of a decade shows much has changed since the end of the War; Soviet influence is marked in the style of government and the manner of the people. The narrative unfolds in stories imparted to an unknown "author" by a 70-year-old Ullo. Just before the end, however, Kross introduces a teasing ambiguity: Ullo dies before he is able to answer the last question about his life.
Publisher: Harvill Press
ISBN: 9781846559112
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Book Description
Translated by Eric Dickens Treading Air follows the life of Ullo Paerand through 30 years of violent political upheaval. Abandoned by his father as a child, he grows up to become an electoral assistant to the parliamentary office in Tallinn and it is in this position that Ullo witnesses first the Soviet and then the German occupation of Estonia. Forced out of his honest profession Ullo becomes involved with the Resistance but, when many Estonians flee the country, he chooses to remain. An interlude of a decade shows much has changed since the end of the War; Soviet influence is marked in the style of government and the manner of the people. The narrative unfolds in stories imparted to an unknown "author" by a 70-year-old Ullo. Just before the end, however, Kross introduces a teasing ambiguity: Ullo dies before he is able to answer the last question about his life.