Throughout his distinguished career as a journalist and film-maker, John Pilger has looked behind the 'official' versions of events to report the real stories of our time. The centrepiece of this new, expanded edition of his bestselling Distant Voices is Pilger's reporting from East Timor, which he entered secretly in 1993 and where a third of the population has died as a result of Indonesia's genocidal policies. This edition also contains more new material as well as all the original essays - from the myth-making of the Gulf War to the surreal pleasures of Disneyland. Breaking through the consensual silence, Pilger pays tribute to those dissenting voices we are seldom permitted to hear.

Distant Voice, Distant Rooms is loosely based on my partner's many years spent behind the walls of mental institutions. It is factual in the humor that Megan, the main character, holds dear, and in the perseverance of strong women everywhere. The book talks of a woman's discovery of life outside of mental institutions. At forty, Megan begins to find that her disability can be her greatest ally, given the right direction. During Megan's journey through schizophrenia, she will open up to the voices held behind the walls of therapy. Her strong passion for life delves deep into the humor that saves her in the end. Megan is based on my spouse of eleven years. She has spent twenty-plus years in institutions and thirty-plus years in therapy. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, she deals with multiple voices in her head every second of every hour of every day of her life. She has inspired many to understand that being disabled does not mean you are not whole, and that being incarcerated by mental illness does not mean you cannot overcome.

"Distant voices drawing near is a tribute to the scholarly career of Antoinette Clark Wire, the Robert S. Dollar Professor of New Testament at the San Francisco Theological Seminary. In recognition of her work, the contributors to the volume have critically engaged the areas of Christian origins and the role of women in the biblical world, hermeneutics and feminist perspectives in biblical interpretation, and cross-cultural study of the Bible."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A woman is trying to contact Kasama Tsuneo at a crisis point in his life. But she won't reveal her identity. Kasama is an immigration officer in Tokyo, struggling to live a 'normal' life after an event that happened eight years previously, when he lived in the USA. His arranged marriage is looming, and he's seized by a strange emotional fit. And then the disembodied voice begins. All Tsuneo can do is desperately chase this woman, and the mystery behind what happened eight years earlier over the sea.

The resonating metallic tone of the voice is a constant nuisance to Michael Tyler. As a boy, every time he hears it, he lashes out violently. By the age of ten, he's taking regular doses of medication, and it isn't long before he's institutionalized. But now, he's all grown up, out on his own and the phantom voice has returned. This time, it won't go away. It tells Michael it's an alien entity that is able to communicate with him through a portal in his own mind. Not everyone has these portals; he's one of a select few. Michael is happy for the first time in a long while, knowing that perhaps he isn't crazy after all. And with the help of the voice, he develops psychic abilities and uses them to win back control of a private trust that gains him access to a fortune. But now, the voice wants Michael to begin communicating with others who have portals as well. By linking with them, he can share his psychic abilities and they all can become powerful. Join Michael on a fantastic journey filled with adventure, unanswered questions and false appearances in The Distant Voices.

In her second volume of short stories, which follows the hugely successful 'Encounters', Barbara Erskine has created a compelling world of love, betrayal, suspense and grief.