Reflections On The Guillotine

Ezra Klein / Derek Thompson

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2025**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR'A must-read for progressives' BARACK OBAMA 'Downing Street's current hot read' ANDREW MARR 'Forceful, quick-moving, important' FINANCIAL TIMESThe threat to liberal democracy isn't just autocrats - it's a lack of effective act...

Manuel Varela

On the relationship between "things" and "ideas" — with a special emphasis on medical practice. Dualism has a long track in philosophy. Although often overlooked, it supports much of our worldview, and lies at the center of many frontline scientific issues. This dialectic has specific phrasings in different scientific areas, but it is arguably the expression of the same conflic...

Michael Pollan

When it comes to consciousness, there is one point scientists, philosophers and artists all agree on- that it feels like something to be ourselves. And yet, the fact that each and every one of us has a subjective experience of the world continues to be one of the greatest mysteries in nature. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts and a sense...

Carl Zimmer

'An extraordinary history of the perils and promise of every breath we take' James Nestor, New York Times bestselling author of Breath 'Another brilliant work from one of the very best science writers, Air-Borne will leave you agog at the incredible world that floats unseen around us' Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of An Immense World -----------------------------...

Gareth Russell

A BBC History magazine, Esquire, Historia magazine and Waterstones History Book of the Year 'James comes alive in full flamboyance ... Russell expertly weaves the bedchamber gossip into the tapestry of a tumultuous reign' SUNDAY TIMES 'Brings the backbiting and power struggles of the Jacobean court to life with wit and vigour' OBSERVER 'A warts and all story told with compass...

Raja. Johnson Shehadeh (Penny.) / Penny Johnson

"Shehadeh's books are like beacons held up against the darkness" Observer"A heartbreaking, hopeful look at how Palestinian culture endures" Irish Times Forgotten is a search for hidden or neglected memorials and places in historic Palestine - now Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories - and what they might tell us about the land and the people who live on our small sli...

Albert Camus

The Outsider is an enduring classic of existential writing by Albert Camus'Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know'Meursault is different. He will not lie. He will not pretend. He is true to himself.So when his mother dies and he is unmoved, he refuses to do the proper thing and grieve. Returning to Algiers after the funeral, he carries on life as usual until he bec...

Albert Camus

'My mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.'In The Outsider (1942), his classic existentialist novel, Camus explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms. Meursault, his anti-hero, will not lie. When his mother dies, he refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of vi...

Albert Camus

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ide...

Albert Camus

Is it possible to die a happy death?This is the central question of Camus's astonishing early novel, published posthumously and greeted as a major literary event. It tells the story of a young Algerian, Mersault, who defies society's rules by committing a murder and escaping punishment, then experimenting with different ways of life and finally dying a happy man. In many ways A...

Albert Camus

The unfinished manuscript of The First Man was discovered in the wreckage of car accident in which Camus died in 1960. Although it was not published for over thirty years, it was an instant bestseller when it finally appeared in 1994. The 'first man' is Jacques Cormery, whose poverty-stricken childhood in Algiers is made bearable by his love for his silent and illiterate mother...

Albert Camus