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Lifeless
Armies of Hanuman THE original Ramayana was written three thousand years ago. Now, Ashok K. Banker has created this epic tale for modern readers. Rama finally achieves victory against the rakshasas in the bloody battle of Janasthana. He now looks forward to a time of harmony in the lush environs of his retreat at Panchvati. But, as Rama soon realises, the war is yet to be won.… Tormented by insatiate lust, in a hellish fury, Supanakha, the demoness scorned, makes a desperate journey to the island-kingdom of Lanka. There she succeeds in reviving her comatose cousin Ravana, supreme lord of the asuras, as ruthlessly determined to seek revenge against Rama as she is. There diabolic mission test the very limits of Rama’s courage, skill and endurance....
EVEN in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build because of its enormous size. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age, when finally completed in 1436, was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world. This book tells the extraordinary story of how the cupola was raised and of the dome’s architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleschi. Denounced as a madman at the start of his labours, his life was one of ambition, ingenuity, rivalry and intrigue. |
TO friends and enemies alike, it looks as though Tom
Thorne’s career is on the skids. Depressed by the recent loss of his
father and berated for seriously overstepping the mark on his last case,
he’s been encouraged to take ‘gardening’ leave. For an ambitious
detective — especially one without so much as a window box — it’s
a fairly dire situation. But not as dire as the situation for London’s
homeless. Three men, sleeping rough on streets paved with anything but
gold, have been murdered — each victim kicked to death and found with
a £ 20 note pinned to his chest. Were these men just random alcoholics,
junkies and jetsam? Or were they targeted for a reason? In a harsh and
harrowing netherworld, with its own rules and moral code, Thorne
discovers the horrifying link between the homeless victims and the
perpetrators of a 15-year-old atrocity.
Brunelleschi’s Dome: The Story of the Great
Cathedral in Florence