National Bestseller

"A tour de force. . . . A remarkable achievement." —New York Times Book Review

"A marvelous book. . . . This is history: richly textured, provocative and wise." —Plain Dealer

From acclaimed historian Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times and A History of American People, this brilliant 4000 year survey covers not

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Young Peony is sold into a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid -- an awkward role in which she is more than a servant, but less than a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provocative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family's only son; however, tradition forbids them to wed. How she resolves her love for him and her dovation to her adoptive family unfolds in this profound tale, based on true events in China over a century ago." -- Cover....

A young girl enjoys the blessings, foods, and gifts of Hanukkah spent with her family, but on the last night there is no present for her to unwrap.

"Winner of the National Scholarly Jewish Book Award, Jewish Book Council" Seth Schwartz is the Gerson D. Cohen Professor of History at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He is the author of Josephus and Judaean Politics and coauthor, with Roger Bagnall, Alan Cameron, and Klaas Worp, of Consuls of the Later Roman Empire. This provocative new history of Palestinian Jewish society in antiquity marks the first comprehensive effort to gauge...

"The incredible story of the Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist and the woman he loved. Lale Sokolov is well-dressed, a charmer, a ladies' man. He is also a Jew. On the first transport from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out to his fellow prisoners. In the camp, he is looked up to, looked out for, and put to work in the privileged position of Tätowierer- the tattooist - to mark his fellow prisoners, forever. One of them is a young...

Gwendolen Harleth gambles her happiness when she marries a sadistic aristocrat for his money. Beautiful, neurotic, and self-centered, Gwendolen is trapped in an increasingly destructive relationship, and only her chance encounter with the idealistic Deronda seems to offer the hope of a brighter future. Deronda is searching for a vocation, and in embracing the Jewish cause he finds one that is both visionary and life-changing. Damaged by their pasts,...

"In 1936, the Nazis are little more than loud, brutish bores to fifteen-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna's streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan's best friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents' carefree innocence is shattered...

When the Romans brutally kill Daniel bar Jamin's father, the young Palestinian searches for a leader to drive them out, but comes to realize that love may be a more powerful weapon than hate.

"This haunting novel takes place in the days following the Six-Day War. A Holocaust survivor visits the newly reunited city of Jerusalem. At the Western Wall he encounters the beggars and madmen who congregate there every evening, and who force him to confront the ghosts of his past and his ties to the present. Weaving together myth and mystery, parable and paradox, Wiesel bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey back and forth in time,...

"A young flower girl with a cold gets advice on how to avoid sneezing during her aunt's wedding ceremony."--