LitNet: Nuwe Boeke / New Books

New from Penguin

Why was a 200-tonne Ancient Egyptian obelisk raised in front of the Vatican in Rome and a cross placed on its top which, by design or strange coincidence, created the hieroglyph that denoted the name of Anu: Heliopolis, the Ancient Egyptian City of the Sun? Why did Benjamin Franklin become the Venerable of the elitist Freemasonic lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris? Who were the other mysterious 400 members? Why was Voltaire initiated there? Talisman is a roller-coaster intellectual journey through the back streets and rat runs of history to uncover the traces in architecture and monuments of a secret religion that has shaped the world. The story takes us from Heliopolis right through to New York and the global pandemonium following 9/11/2001. Pivotal historical events and processes, not least the Renaissance, the birth of scientific rationalism and the French and American revolutions, are radically re-evaluated in the light of new investigative evidence presented for the first time in Talisman. Even the belief that the United States has a global mission, so obvious today, may ultimately prove to be less the result of a short-term reaction to terrorism than the inevitable working-out of a cover plan originally set in motion almost 2 000 years ago. About the Authors: Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval are the co-authors of the bestselling Keeper of Genesis. Separately, they have written a number of bestsellers, including Heaven's Mirror, Fingerprints of the Gods and The Orion Mystery. *Click here or on the book cover to purchase your copy of Talisman* from kalahari.net**	Talisman G Hancock & R Bauval Viking R250 ISBN: 0718143159 Hardcover 576 pages
From the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency comes a medley of perverse couplings, casual dates and romantic encounters: hilarious tales that will sadden, inspire and surprise. McCall Smith, a master of the unexpected and a seamless storyteller, revels in offering us the quirky complications inherent in entanglements which human beings engineer for themselves - entanglements that can be shocking, unedifying, complex and, sometimes, completely disastrous. "Reminiscent of Roald Dahl in their dark ironies, these tales of the emotional unexpected are perceptive, deftly written and droll." Michael Faber, author of The Crimson Petal and the White About the Author: Alexander McCall Smith is the author of over fifty books, including The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels. These well-loved books have sold over four million copies in English throughout the world and the third book in the series, Tears of the Giraffe, is currently short-listed for the 2004 Boeke Prize. Alexander McCall Smith lives in Scotland. *Click here to purchase your copy of Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations* from kalahari.net**	Heavenly Date and other flirtations A McCall Smith R110 ISBN: 1841954276 Softcover 200 pages
"We are each the love of someone's life …" So begins The Confessions of Max Tivoli, a heartbreaking love story with a narrator like no other. Sitting in a sandbox, Max Tivoli is writing the story of his life. He is nearly seventy years old, but he looks as if he is only seven - for Max is ageing backwards. The tragedy of Max's life is that when he is seventeen he falls in love with Alice, a girl his own age - but to her he looks like a middle-aged man, and when he makes advances, he is rejected. But when he is thirty-five, he actually looks his age, so he has a second chance at love - but tragedy befalls the star-crossed couple and desperate measures are required. Set in San Francisco during the turbulent years at the turn of the twentieth century, this is a haunting tale of love lost, then found - in ways that are least expected. About the Author: Andrew Sean Greer is the author of the novel The Path of Minor Planets and a book of short stories, How It Was for Me. He lives in San Francisco. *Click here to purchase your copy of The Confessions of Max Tivoli* from kalahari.net**	The Confessions of Max Tivoli A S Greer R155 ISBN: 0571220215 Paperback 288 pages
There's a message in your in-box. Then, a few moments later, your computer crashes. Leela Zahir, Bollywood actress and temperamental star, is being catapulted from the fringes of fame into a million inboxes. Arjum Mehta, computer geek, looks up from his screen to find that he does, after all, have a role to play in the world. Guy Swift, marketing executive with his own agency, a beautiful girlfriend and a handle on modern life, is losing his grip. The message that has landed in a million inboxes has the power to destroy dreams and to make them, to hijack lives and to set them free. Hari Kanzru's new novel is a heady mix of London, Bollywood and Silicon Valley. Taking in three continents and following the lives of Guy, Arjun and Leela as they make their way in the real world, Transmission is a brilliant and funny take on life at the click of a mouse. About the Author: Hari Kunzru was born in 1969 and lives in South-east London. His first novel, the Impressionist, was the winner of the Betty Trask Prize 2002 and short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and the Whitbread First Novel Award. Hari Kunzru was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, 2003. *Click here to purchase your copy of Transmission* from kalahari.net**	Transmission H Kunzru R140 ISBN: 0241142687 Paperback 400 pages
Laura Patterson is an American exchange student in Rome who, fed-up with being inexpertly groped by her young Italian beaux, decides there's only one sure-fire way to find a sensual man: date a chef. Then she meets Tomasso, who's handsome, young - and cooks in the exclusive Templi restaurant. Perfect. Except, unbeknownst to Laura, Tomasso is in fact only a waiter at Templi - it's his shy friend Bruno who is the chef. But Tomasso is the one who knows how to get the girls, and when Laura comes to dinner he persuades Bruno to help him with the charade. It works: the meal is a sensual feast, Laura is utterly seduced and Tomasso falls in lust. But it is Bruno, the real chef who has secretly prepared every dish Laura has eaten, who falls deeply and unrequitedly in love. A delicious tale of Cyrano de Bergerac-style culinary seduction, but with sensual recipes instead of love poems. "The Food of Love is a splendid, linen suit, panama hat, distant lawnmower kind of a book; guaranteed to whisk you far from this drizzly island, soothe you, warm you and return you home again without losing any of your luggage" Hugh Laurie About the Author: Anthony Capella spends part of each year travelling in Italy. He is based in London and this is his first novel. *Click here to purchase your copy of The Food of Love* from kalahari.net**	The Food of Love A Capella R140 ISBN: 0316726737 Hardcover 320 pages

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LitNet: 19 July 2004

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