In Mesopotamia is the graphic account of Martin Swayne’s experiences as a medical officer during the First World War while on active service in Iraq and Kuwait. Swayne’s beautifully crisp prose draws a compelling and unflinching portrait of modern warfare. First published in 1917, In Mesopotamia speaks directly of the harrowing consequences of the West’s obsessive quest for influence over the Middle East. BUY NOW
Eothen (“From the East”) recaptures a bold young Englishman’s exploits in the Middle East during the 1830s. Alexander William Kinglake recounts his rambles through the Balkans, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt in a style radically different from other travel books of his era. Rather than dwelling on art or monuments, Kinglake’s captivating narrative focuses on the natives and their cities. His adventures ― populated by Bedouins, pashas, slave-traders, monks, pilgrims, and other colorfully drawn personalities ― include crossing the desolate Sinai with a four-camel caravan and a sojourn in plague-ridden Cairo. Victorian readers were captivated by Kinglake’s chatty tone and his uncompromising honesty, and two centuries later this remarkable travelogue remains funny, fresh, and original. Presented here in a modern, up-to-date font, with an informative introduction by Simon C Drew. “My favorite travel book. Sparkling, ironic, and terrific fun.” — Jan Morris BUY NOW
First published in Norwegian in 1894, Pan tells the story of Lieutenant Thomas Glahn’s life and adventures in a remote township in northern Norway, a scene described by Richard Eccles in his poignant introduction as ‘that remote, exotic, romantic, difficult landscape of extreme and epic beauty at the top of the world…’ This stunning new edition restores translator W. Worster’s powerful recreation of Hamsun’s enigmatic original and includes an informative introduction and notes by Richard Eccles. ‘The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun.’ Isaac Bashevis Singer BUY NOW
Knut Hamsun’s 1904 classic, Mothwise, is set in the remote northern Norwegian trading post of Rosengaard. Ove Rolandsen, telegraph operator, eccentric scientist, and local Casanova, trades wits, fists, and kisses with a host of quirky neighbours. He serenades the curate’s wife and fights a drunken giant, but taking on Trader Mack, the town’s fish-glue magnate, is a more difficult matter. Fishglue. This most neglected of products is one of the key elements of Mothwise and you may never have read a piece of literature in which it figures so prominently. If you have read any Hamsun before then some of the other constituents may be more familiar: the setting in the far North of Norway where the sun never sets for two or three months that makes people act in such peculiar ways, the tales of love in all its many forms that bind and break across tiny isolated fishing communities and the characters that amuse and irritate and shine and disappoint that live and breathe from beginning to all-too-soon an end. Hamsun himself might have felt more affinity with fishglue than might be obvious: his marriage of six years to Bergljot is falling apart, he has no home and…