Sikh. Pashtun. Thuggee. Fraud. Movie Star. This is the story of Zoravar Cheema. 1945, Lahore, India. Zoravar Cheema, sixteen and in love with the magic of the big screen, dreams of becoming a movie star. By the time the turbulent events of 1947 roll out, he has made the most important decision of his life. He will leave his family and go to Bombay - even if it means moonlighting as a member of one of the most feared crime gangs in the country. Zoravar begins his journey without a roadmap, spends his nights sleeping on the streets and struggles in the day as the junior-most apprentice to actors and directors, till a freak encounter makes his dream come true. This is the captivating story of the rise and fall of a superstar, set against the heady, glittering world of Hindi cinema.

This volume commemorating the late Armenian scholar Karen Yuzbashyan comprises studies of mediaeval Armenian culture, including the reception of biblical and parabiblical texts, theological literature, liturgy, hagiography, manuscript studies, Church history and secular history, and Christian art and material culture. Special attention is paid to early Christian and late Jewish texts and traditions preserved in documents written in Armenian. Several contributions focus on the interactions of Armenia with other cultures both within and outside the Byzantine Commonwealth: Greek, Georgian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Iranian. Select contributions may serve as initial reference works for their respective topics (the catalogue of Armenian khachkars in the diaspora and the list of Armenian Catholicoi in Tzovk’).

Warrant for Genocide provides a unique, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the underlying causes of the World War I Armenian genocide. It traces genocide to the origin and history of the long-standing Turko-Armenian discord with the massacres treated as a means to resolve the conflict between a powerful, dominant group and a weak, vulnerable minority. The World War I destruction of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire was neither an accident nor an aberration. The seeds of the large-scale deportations and massacres of Armenians can be found in the 1919u1920 Turkish Courts Martial documents of leaders of the Young Turk Ittihadist regime. These were replete with xenophobic nationalism, calls for the use of arms to achieve that end, and references to Islam to incite the masses against Armenians. The utmost secrecy, camouflage, and deflection with respect to their plans were evident in what was not said. This was a drastic departure by the regime from its publicly proclaimed posture of egalitarianism, heralding the dawn of a new era of multiethnic harmony and accord in the decaying empire. Dadrian carefully details these calculated deliberations and the concomitant shift from Ottomanism to Turkism in the radical wing of the regime. He illustrates how this rekindled enmities between dominant Turks and subject minorities. The desire to neutralize or eliminate the opposition helped pave the way to a new and radical nationality policy. To Dadrian, the act of genocide was a draconian method of resolving a lingering conflict. No analysis of the Armenian genocide can be adequate without understanding the origin, elements, evolution, and escalation of the Turko-Armenian conflict. Dadrian details this admirably, showing that in the final analysis, the Armenian genocide was a cataclysmic by-product of this conflict. Genocide and Holocaust scholars, Armenian area specialists, and human rights activists will consider this an essential addition to the literature.

The end of the world began with a library query…how will it conclude? What began as a chance discovery of an anomalous signal is now a multiverse war between humanity and its genetic ancestors over who controls the levers of life and death. Over who decides what life is and whether it will be allowed to exist. For the ruling Anaden Directorate, victory means immortality. For humanity, defeat means extinction. On the heels of a breakthrough in wormhole technology, AEGIS and the anarchs enjoy the upper hand in the war. But their escalation pushes the Directorate to the brink, and now it will stop at nothing to destroy its enemy. “Dangerous we can do. Nearly impossible we can do. All we need is the tiniest odds of success.” The Directorate has perfected the art of conquest through obliteration. But humanity has advantages the Anadens do not. They are led by a woman who’s made a career of meeting the devil at the crossroads and sending him home in defeat. Caleb Marano wields a power as ancient as the universe itself. Alex Solovy manipulates the fabric of space-time at her whim. Unlike the Directorate, they fight for something greater than themselves. And now, they have one more Solovy on the team. In the thrilling finale of Aurora Rhapsody, events rush headlong toward an explosive conclusion that will decide the fate of civilizations, and only the victor is making it out the other side. * Our universe is but a snowglobe—an experiment born of desperation and hope. The true universe is unfathomably vast, teeming with life and untold wonders. And it is enslaved. Created by ancient aliens in a daring gambit to understand the nature of the enemy, humanity is now asked to be the savior of a universe not their own. If they are to succeed, they must rise above not only their fractious past but the sins of their genetic ancestors to boldly embrace a future they never dared imagine possible. *** AMARANTHE UNIVERSE: --------------------------------------- ~ AURORA RHAPSODY ~ (should be read in order) AURORA RISING TRILOGY #1: STARSHINE (Aurora Rising Book One) #2: VERTIGO (Aurora Rising Book Two) #3: TRANSCENDENCE (Aurora Rising Book Three) AURORA RENEGADES TRILOGY #4: SIDESPACE (Aurora Renegades Book One) #5: DISSONANCE (Aurora Renegades Book Two) #6: ABYSM (Aurora Renegades Book Three) AURORA RESONANT TRILOGY #7: RELATIVITY (Aurora Resonant Book One) #8: RUBICON (Aurora Resonant Book Two) #9: REQUIEM (Aurora Resonant Book Three) #10: SHORT STORIES OF AURORA RHAPSODY (can be read at any time) ~ ASTERION NOIR TRILOGY ~ (a new entry point for the series - can be read before Aurora Rhapsody) #11: EXIN EX MACHINA (Asterion Noir Book 1) #12: OF A DARKER VOID (Asterion Noir Book 2) #13: THE STARS LIKE GODS (Asterion Noir Book 3) ~ RIVEN WORLDS ~ (should be read after Aurora Rhapsody and Asterion Noir) #14: CONTINUUM (Riven Worlds Book One) #15: INVERSION (Riven Worlds Book Two) #16: ECHO RIFT (Riven Worlds Book Three) #17: ALL OUR TOMORROWS (Riven Worlds Book Four) #18: CHAOTICA (Riven Worlds Book Five) #19: DUALITY (Riven Worlds Book Six) ~ COSMIC SHORES ~ (a new entry point for the series - each book can be read at any time and without reading any of the other books) #20: MEDUSA FALLING (A Cosmic Shores Novel) #21: THE THIEF (A Cosmic Shores Novel)

“For so long I imagined I was making some long journey which would make sense when I had reached the end, but now I realize there are no journeys, just imprints in other people’s dusty footsteps.” -- from Journey of Angels Recognized for his first collection of short fiction, The Interloper, with a nomination for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, Rabindranath Maharaj displays that distinct talent again in The Book of Ifs and Buts. Part of our new Vintage Tales series, these stories tell the experience of immigrants as they take up new lives, often alone, in strange lands. With passion and a discreet comic sensibility, Maharaj brings poignancy and enduring beauty to lives that prosper, suffer, endure heartbreak and realize dreams.

Before the 1857 Uprising of India, the old Delhi, or Shahjahanabad is sprawling with life—like an ode wavering towards its end. The inhabitants of Red Fort and the splendored world around it, all subjects of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, lived on the cusp of a change with the arrival of the British. Yet, people’s own stories continued against backdrop of this transition. At the centre of this sprawling narrative is a princess, Falak Ara, daughter of the Emperor. Beautiful and vivacious, Falak Ara is curious about the world outside the fort but never imagines being able to leave. Soon, she loses her heart to a salatin—a prince— and longs for a union with him. Her quest is made difficult by a changing Shahjahanabad, on whose horizon lurks a revolution. Author Rana Safvi unspools the aches of a young heart as she pays homage to Old Delhi—which, like a living, breathing being, has many moods and survives a lifetime in this novel A Firestorm in Paradise.

Bella is the story of heart and soul, the quest for joy and happiness