A "New York Times" Notable Book for 2011 Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West's rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the devel[...]

Toward the end of the thirteenth century, at about the time Marco Polo was being received by the great Khubilai Khan, a Nestorian Christian monk from China called Rabban Sauma was making the reverse journey from the Mongol capital (what is now Beijing) to Jerusalem. Upon reaching Baghdad - the first[...]

Investigated, tortured and imprisoned by the Inquisition, Dominican monk Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy on 17 February 1600. Now, four hundred years later, Morris West brings Bruno's story to life. Once considered his family, the Dominican monks and Catholic Church are now Bruno's[...]

From the moment she saw him, she knew the bear had come for her. How many times had she dreamt of the bear...Now, here he was, as if spelled from her dreams. "I will come with you, Bear," she said. It is the beginning of an extraordinary journey for the girl. First to the bear's secret palace in far[...]

"A superior novel, intricately worked out at several levels of human and spiritual quest . . . beautiful and impassioned."--"Commonweal"
"A reading experience of real emotional intensity."--"The New York Times"
"A unique cloak-and-dagger drama of the human soul."--"Saturday Review"
"The De[...]

The Pope has died, and the corridors of the Vatican hum with intrigue as cardinals from all over the world gather to choose his successor. Suddenly, the election is concluded with a surprise result. The new Pope is the youngest cardinal of all-and a Russian. Shoes of the Fisherman slowly unravels th[...]