HUMPHREY HAWKSLEY

Presents an analysis of our devotion to democracy. This book takes the reader from Latin America, where it looks at collapse, then resurrection of the Argentine economy and China's influence in the region, to Africa, where it examines abusive child labour in the chocolate industry.

Berlin's hip present comes up against the city's dark past in these seven supernatural tales by the son of the great filmmaker who "shares his father's curious and mordant wit" (The Financial Times). In these hair-raising stories from the celebrated filmmaker and author Rudolph Herzog, millennial Berliners discover that the city is still the home of many unsettled—and deeply unsettling—ghosts. And those ghosts are not very happy about the newcomers. Thus the coddled daughter of a rich tech executive finds herself slowly tormented by the poltergeist of a Weimer-era laborer, and a German intelligence officer confronts a troll wrecking havoc upon the city's unbuilt airport. An undead Nazi sympathizer romances a Greek emigre, while Turkish migrants curse the gentrifiers that have evicted them. Herzog's keen observational eye and acid wit turn modern city stories into deliciously dark satires that ride the knife-edge of suspenseful and terrifying.

After Iraq there is a lull, and then the opening stages of the Third World War. Hundreds die in the Indian parliament in Delhi, the president of Pakistan is assassinated, and a U.S. military base is hit by a North Korean missile. America and Britain discover chilling links between the attacks, but U.S. President Jim West wants to avoid another war. No one is yet aware that the war is already unstoppable. Detail by authentic detail, Humphrey Hawksley chillingly captures the unthinkable--a world speeding towards its own destruction.

At 0500 on Tuesday 3 May 2005, a lone Antonov-32 transport flies through the dawn light over the Himalayas and approaches the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. Its destination is the notorious Drapchi Prison, where some of the most revered Tibetan leaders are being held. The aircraft's loading bay is lowered. The sky is filled with mushroom grey parachutes. In a few minutes, troops of the People's Republic of China are fighting invaders. Far to the West, Paskistani FCI multi-role combat aircraft roar across the Line of Control and pound the strategic outpost of Kargil. Heliborne troops follow to raise the national green crescent flag on Indian territory. Suddenly, the three-sided war so dreaded in Asia - India versus China and Pakistan - is happening. Nuclear arsenals are being readied in all three countries. "Dragonfire" is a totally gripping thriller with a horrifying and wholly believable conclusion. Humphrey Hawksley's tense prose bristles with knowledge and insight into the most explosive political area in the world. But what makes it all the more terrifying is that it's all based on fact. '...takes the thriller in an important new direction' - Craig Thomas.