EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book The Last Watch

    Book Details:
  • Author : J. S. Dewes
  • Publisher : Tor Books
  • Release : 2021-04-20
  • ISBN : 1250236339
  • Pages : 304 pages

Download or read book The Last Watch written by J. S. Dewes and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes's fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, the first book in the Divide series, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation. Space.com—Best Sci-fi Books 2022 New York Public Library—Best Science Fiction 2021 Business Insider—Best Science Fiction 2021 Polygon—Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021 Amazon—Best Science Fiction 2021 FanFiAddict—Lord TBR's Best of 2021 Best SciFi Books—Best of 2021 P. S. Hoffman—Best of 2021 10 Best Books Like Foundation—ScreenRant 20 Must Read Space Fantasy Books for 2021—Bookriot Most Anticipated Book for April 2021: Bookish Nerd Daily Geek Tyrant SFF 180 Amazon Best of the Month April 2021 The Divide. It’s the edge of the universe. Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it. The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military. At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer--genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.” She knows they’re humanity's last chance. The Divide series The Last Watch The Exiled Fleet At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Book Last Watch

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sergei Lukyanenko
  • Publisher : Hachette Books
  • Release : 2009-01-27
  • ISBN : 140139552X
  • Pages : 467 pages

Download or read book Last Watch written by Sergei Lukyanenko and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2009-01-27 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth novel in the blockbuster series from one of Russia's most popular authors, Last Watch returns us to the hyper-imaginative world of Sergei Lukyanenko, where the endless battle between good and evil is about to reach its climax. Anton Gorodetsky is just getting a feel for his new powers when his boss, Gesar, sends him to assist the Scottish Night Watch in Edinburgh in a murder investigation. A young Russian man has been murdered -- apparently by a vampire. But the mystery is more than it seems, and soon Anton is himself in danger. The murderer appears to be someone with intimate knowledge of the Night Watch. Before long, Anton realizes that a plot is being hatched by the forces of both darkness and light that -- unless he can intervene -- may mean nothing less than Armageddon.

Book The Exiled Fleet

    Book Details:
  • Author : J. S. Dewes
  • Publisher : Tor Books
  • Release : 2021-08-17
  • ISBN : 1250236355
  • Pages : 304 pages

Download or read book The Exiled Fleet written by J. S. Dewes and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J. S. Dewes continues her fast paced, science fiction action adventure series, the Divide, with The Exiled Fleet, where The Expanse meets The Black Company—the survivors of The Last Watch refuse to die. The Sentinels narrowly escaped the collapsing edge of the Divide. They have mustered a few other surviving Sentinels, but with no engines they have no way to leave the edge of the universe before they starve. Adequin Rake has gathered a team to find the materials they'll need to get everyone out. To do that they're going to need new allies and evade a ruthless enemy. Some of them will not survive. The Divide series The Last Watch The Exiled Fleet At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Book Watch Me

    Book Details:
  • Author : Brenda Novak
  • Publisher : MIRA
  • Release : 2017-02-13
  • ISBN : 1488029946
  • Pages : 299 pages

Download or read book Watch Me written by Brenda Novak and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2017-02-13 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teenagers Sheridan Kohl and Jason Wyatt were parked at the lake in Whiterock, Tennessee, when a stranger wearing a ski mask shot them both. Sheridan lived but Jason died—and the stranger was never caught. Even though Sheridan's family moved away right afterward, she's never been able to put the crime behind her. And now that someone doesn't want her to come home Because of a new development in the case, Sheridan returns to Whiterock. But when she's attacked a second time, it's only because of Jason's stepbrother, Cain Granger, that she survives—and Cain's the last person she wants to face. If not for their history, if not for her, Jason wouldn't have been in that parked car. Cain knows that whoever killed his brother probably isn't a stranger at all. But figuring out that person's identity is easier said than done—especially since the killer seems to be taunting them both: watch me.

Book The Last Arrow

    Book Details:
  • Author : Erwin Raphael McManus
  • Publisher : WaterBrook
  • Release : 2017-09-05
  • ISBN : 1601429541
  • Pages : 226 pages

Download or read book The Last Arrow written by Erwin Raphael McManus and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before You Die, Live the Life You Were Born To Live. When you come to the end of your days, you will not measure your life based on success and failures. All of those will eventually blur together into a single memory called “life.” What will give you solace is a life with nothing left undone. One that’s been lived with relentless ambition, a heart on fire, and with no regrets. On the other hand, what will haunt you until your final breath is who you could have been but never became and what you could have done but never did. The Last Arrow is your roadmap to a life that defies odds and alters destinies. Discover the attributes of those who break the gravitational pull of mediocrity as cultural pioneer and thought leader Erwin McManus examines the characteristics of individuals who risked everything for a life they could only imagine. Imagine living the life you were convinced was only a dream. We all begin this life with a quiver full of arrows. Now the choice is yours. Will you cling to your arrows or risk them all, opting to live until you have nothing left to give? Time is short. Pick up The Last Arrow and begin the greatest quest of your life.

Book The Last King of America

Download or read book The Last King of America written by Andrew Roberts and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 1033 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Churchill and Napoleon The last king of America, George III, has been ridiculed as a complete disaster who frittered away the colonies and went mad in his old age. The truth is much more nuanced and fascinating--and will completely change the way readers and historians view his reign and legacy. Most Americans dismiss George III as a buffoon--a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The best-known modern interpretation of him is Jonathan Groff's preening, spitting, and pompous take in Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway masterpiece. But this deeply unflattering characterization is rooted in the prejudiced and brilliantly persuasive opinions of eighteenth-century revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, who needed to make the king appear evil in order to achieve their own political aims. After combing through hundreds of thousands of pages of never-before-published correspondence, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts has uncovered the truth: George III was in fact a wise, humane, and even enlightened monarch who was beset by talented enemies, debilitating mental illness, incompetent ministers, and disastrous luck. In The Last King of America, Roberts paints a deft and nuanced portrait of the much-maligned monarch and outlines his accomplishments, which have been almost universally forgotten. Two hundred and forty-five years after the end of George III's American rule, it is time for Americans to look back on their last king with greater understanding: to see him as he was and to come to terms with the last time they were ruled by a monarch.

Book Last Shot  Mystery at the Final Four  The Sports Beat  1

Download or read book Last Shot Mystery at the Final Four The Sports Beat 1 written by John Feinstein and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2006-06-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein exposes the real “March Madness”—behind the scenes at the Final Four basketball tournament. When Stevie wins a writing contest for aspiring sports journalists, his prize is a press pass to the Final Four in New Orleans. While exploring the Superdome, he overhears a plot to throw the championship game. With the help of fellow contest winner Susan Carol, Stevie has just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of the star players . . . and why. John Feinstein has been praised as “the best writer of sports books in America today” (The Boston Globe), and he proves it again in this fast-paced novel. “A page-turning thriller and a basketball junkie’s bonanza.” —USA Today

Book The Last Last day of summer

Download or read book The Last Last day of summer written by Lamar Giles and published by Versify. This book was released on 2019 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer reminds me that all children deserve to exist in magical spaces where their imaginations and familial bonds will them into heroism. Every single child should have the freedom to be one of The Legendary Alstons. And I, for one, am grateful to Giles, and this brilliant story, for that reminder." --Jason Reynolds, author of Newbery Honoree Long Way Down "The legendary heroes of this legendary book are already legendary when the story begins From there things can only get legendary-er " --Tom Angleberger, author of the Origami Yoda series "Lamar Giles has written an instant classic--readers won't want their time with the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County to end." --Gwenda Bond, author of the Lois Lane series The Hardy Boys meets The Phantom Tollbooth, in the new century When two adventurous cousins accidentally extend the last day of summer by freezing time, they find the secrets hidden between the unmoving seconds, minutes, and hours are not the endless fun they expected. Otto and Sheed are the local sleuths in their zany Virginia town, masters of unraveling mischief using their unmatched powers of deduction. And as the summer winds down and the first day of school looms, the boys are craving just a little bit more time for fun, even as they bicker over what kind of fun they want to have. That is, until a mysterious man appears with a camera that literally freezes time. Now, with the help of some very strange people and even stranger creatures, Otto and Sheed will have to put aside their differences to save their town--and each other--before time stops for good.

Book The Last Trial

    Book Details:
  • Author : Scott Turow
  • Publisher : Grand Central Publishing
  • Release : 2020-05-12
  • ISBN : 1538748088
  • Pages : 393 pages

Download or read book The Last Trial written by Scott Turow and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two formidable men collide in this "first-class legal thriller" and New York Times bestseller about a celebrated criminal defense lawyer and the prosecution of his lifelong friend -- a doctor accused of murder (David Baldacci). At eighty-five years old, Alejandro "Sandy" Stern, a brilliant defense lawyer with his health failing but spirit intact, is on the brink of retirement. But when his old friend Dr. Kiril Pafko, a former Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, is faced with charges of insider trading, fraud, and murder, his entire life's work is put in jeopardy, and Stern decides to take on one last trial. In a case that will be the defining coda to both men's accomplished lives, Stern probes beneath the surface of his friend's dazzling veneer as a distinguished cancer researcher. As the trial progresses, he will question everything he thought he knew about his friend. Despite Pafko's many failings, is he innocent of the terrible charges laid against him? How far will Stern go to save his friend, and -- no matter the trial's outcome -- will he ever know the truth? Stern's duty to defend his client and his belief in the power of the judicial system both face a final, terrible test in the courtroom, where the evidence and reality are sometimes worlds apart. Full of the deep insights into the spaces where the fragility of human nature and the justice system collide, Scott Turow's The Last Trial is a masterful legal thriller that unfolds in page-turning suspense -- and questions how we measure a life.

Book The Last Day

    Book Details:
  • Author : Andrew Hunter Murray
  • Publisher : Hutchinson
  • Release : 2020-02-06
  • ISBN : 9781786331915
  • Pages : 416 pages

Download or read book The Last Day written by Andrew Hunter Murray and published by Hutchinson. This book was released on 2020-02-06 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: _________________________________ 'A beautifully realised and thought-provoking thriller.' THE TIMES 'A taut, thrilling runaround' GUARDIAN 'Reminiscent of Robert Harris's high-concept conspiracy thrillers' FINANCIAL TIMES _________________________________ A WORLD HALF IN DARKNESS. A SECRET SHE MUST BRING TO LIGHT. 2059. The world has stopped turning. One half suffers an endless frozen night; the other, nothing but burning sun. Only in a slim twilit region between them can life survive. In an isolationist Britain, scientist Ellen Hopper receives a letter from a dying man. It contains a powerful and dangerous secret. One that those in power will kill to conceal... _________________________________ THE LAST DAY: an utterly original debut thriller, perfect for readers who loved Robert Harris' Fatherland, Emily St. John Mandel's Station 11, and The Wall by John Lanchester. _________________________________ 'Wonderful: boldly imagined and beautifully written - the best future-shock thriller for years.' LEE CHILD 'A tantalizing, suspenseful odyssey of frustration, deceit, treachery, torture, hope, despair and ingenious sleuthing... Murray has so thoroughly thought through the ramifications of his conceit and conjured up such a dramatic plot and stellar cast of characters that he might have set a new standard for such tales.' WASHINGTON POST 'A stunningly original thriller set in the world of tomorrow that will make you think about what's happening today.' HARLAN COBEN 'I read this hungrily ... Its intelligence and bravura characterisation will have you turning page after page. A fabulous achievement.' STEPHEN FRY 'A brilliant debut ... Fans of Robert Harris will love it' DAILY EXPRESS 'To say it's gripping is an understatement - I cancelled all my weekend plans to finish it' SARA PASCOE 'In his fascinating debut, Murray has crafted something original ... an interesting new twist on a post-apocalyptic tale.' KIRKUS 'Downright impossible to stop reading. The science is believable, the near-future world feels as real as our own, the characters are lively, and the plot is suspenseful. A near-perfect alternate-future thriller.' BOOKLIST 'Dark, believable and brilliantly written' JENNY COLGAN 'A thrilling page-turner, and a reminder to treasure our sunsets and sunrises while we still have them. I couldn't put this book down!' CHRISTINA DALCHER, author of VOX 'I loved the premise of this high-concept thriller ... a compelling read with some well-placed observations on the darkness of human nature and survival. The Last Day will keep you gripped to the very last page' C.J. TUDOR

Book The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

Download or read book The Last Painting of Sara de Vos written by Dominic Smith and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Written in prose so clear that we absorb its images as if by mind meld, “The Last Painting” is gorgeous storytelling: wry, playful, and utterly alive, with an almost tactile awareness of the emotional contours of the human heart. Vividly detailed, acutely sensitive to stratifications of gender and class, it’s fiction that keeps you up at night — first because you’re barreling through the book, then because you’ve slowed your pace to a crawl, savoring the suspense.” —Boston Globe A New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice A RARE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING LINKS THREE LIVES, ON THREE CONTINENTS, OVER THREE CENTURIES IN THE LAST PAINTING OF SARA DE VOS, AN EXHILARATING NEW NOVEL FROM DOMINIC SMITH. Amsterdam, 1631: Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the city’s Guild of St. Luke. Though women do not paint landscapes (they are generally restricted to indoor subjects), a wintry outdoor scene haunts Sara: She cannot shake the image of a young girl from a nearby village, standing alone beside a silver birch at dusk, staring out at a group of skaters on the frozen river below. Defying the expectations of her time, she decides to paint it. New York City, 1957: The only known surviving work of Sara de Vos, At the Edge of a Wood, hangs in the bedroom of a wealthy Manhattan lawyer, Marty de Groot, a descendant of the original owner. It is a beautiful but comfortless landscape. The lawyer’s marriage is prominent but comfortless, too. When a struggling art history grad student, Ellie Shipley, agrees to forge the painting for a dubious art dealer, she finds herself entangled with its owner in ways no one could predict. Sydney, 2000: Now a celebrated art historian and curator, Ellie Shipley is mounting an exhibition in her field of specialization: female painters of the Dutch Golden Age. When it becomes apparent that both the original At the Edge of a Wood and her forgery are en route to her museum, the life she has carefully constructed threatens to unravel entirely and irrevocably.

Book The Last London

    Book Details:
  • Author : Iain Sinclair
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2017-09-07
  • ISBN : 1786071754
  • Pages : 262 pages

Download or read book The Last London written by Iain Sinclair and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Statesman Book of the Year London. A city apart. Inimitable. Or so it once seemed. Spiralling from the outer limits of the Overground to the pinnacle of the Shard, Iain Sinclair encounters a metropolis stretched beyond recognition. The vestiges of secret tunnels, the ghosts of saints and lost poets lie buried by developments, the cycling revolution and Brexit. An electrifying final odyssey, The Last London is an unforgettable vision of the Big Smoke before it disappears into the air of memory.

Book The Last Time I Lied

    Book Details:
  • Author : Riley Sager
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Release : 2023-08-01
  • ISBN : 0593473124
  • Pages : 401 pages

Download or read book The Last Time I Lied written by Riley Sager and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of Survive the Night and Final Girls comes a tense and twisty thriller about a summer camp that’s impossible to forget—no matter how hard you try. Two Truths and a Lie. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and Emma played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out into the darkness. The last she—or anyone—saw of the teenagers was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.... Fifteen years later, Emma is a rising star in the New York art scene, turning her past into paintings—massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches over ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to come back to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Despite her guilt and anxiety—or maybe because of them—Emma agrees to revisit her past. Nightingale looks the same as it did all those years ago, haunted by a midnight-dark lake and familiar faces. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, although the security camera pointed at her door is a disturbing new addition. As cryptic clues about the camp's origins begin to surface, Emma attempts to find out what really happened to her friends. But her closure could come at a deadly price.

Book The Last Days of Night

    Book Details:
  • Author : Graham Moore
  • Publisher : Random House
  • Release : 2016-08-16
  • ISBN : 0812988914
  • Pages : 384 pages

Download or read book The Last Days of Night written by Graham Moore and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A world of invention and skulduggery, populated by the likes of Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla.”—Erik Larson “A model of superior historical fiction . . . an exciting, sometimes astonishing story.”—The Washington Post From Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian, comes a thrilling novel—based on actual events—about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America. New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history—and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society—the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it? In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER “A satisfying romp . . . Takes place against a backdrop rich with period detail . . . Works wonderfully as an entertainment . . . As it charges forward, the novel leaves no dot unconnected.”—Noah Hawley, The New York Times Book Review

Book The Wrong Stars

    Book Details:
  • Author : Tim Pratt
  • Publisher : Watkins Media Limited
  • Release : 2017-11-07
  • ISBN : 0857667106
  • Pages : 425 pages

Download or read book The Wrong Stars written by Tim Pratt and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philip K. Dick Award Finalist A “ridiculously fun” series debut “with a well-thought-out space opera setting and lots of fancy reveals”—from a Hugo Award winner (Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky). A ragtag space crew discovers alien technology that could change the fate of humanity—or awaken an ancient evil that could destroy all life in the galaxy. The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew informs her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials—and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars.

Book First Overland

    Book Details:
  • Author : Tim Slessor
  • Publisher : Andrews UK Limited
  • Release : 2016-03-07
  • ISBN : 1908493208
  • Pages : 329 pages

Download or read book First Overland written by Tim Slessor and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2016-03-07 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Not? After all, no-one had ever done it before. It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys – half way round the world, from the English Channel to Singapore. They knew that several expeditions had already tried it. Some had got as far as the desrts of Persia; a few had even reached the plains of India. But no one had managed to go on from there: over the jungle clad mountains of Assam and across northern Burma to Thailand and Malaya. Over the last 3,000 miles it seemed there were ‘just too many rivers and too few roads'. But no-one really knew … In fact, their problems began much earlier than that. As mere undergraduates, they had no money, no cars, nothing. But with a cool audacity, which was to become characteristic, they set to work – wheedling and cajoling. First, they coaxed the BBC to come up with some film for a possible TV series. They then gently persuaded the manufacturers to lend them two factory-fresh Land Rovers. A publisher was even sweet-talked into giving them an advance on a book. By the time they were ready to go, their sponsors (more than 80 of them) ranged from whiskey distillers to the makers of collapsible buckets. In late 1955, they set off. Seven months and 12,000 miles later, two very weary Land Rovers, escorted by police outriders, rolled into Singapore – to flash bulbs and champagne. Now, fifty years on, their book, ‘First Overland', is republished – with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough. After all, it was he who gave them that film.

Book The Last Kings of Shanghai

Download or read book The Last Kings of Shanghai written by Jonathan Kaufman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties."--The Boston Globe "Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."--LA Review of Books An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist The Sassoons and the Kadoories stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred seventy-five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival.