Global Literature

In this Chinese folktale, an old woman spends years weaving, day and night, until one day she reveals a magical cloth. But moments later, the cloth mysteriously disappears! Now, her three young sons must set out on a long, mystical journey to find it.

What happens to a fox that won't stop teasing the others animals? Listen to this Peruvian tale to find out. Some lessons can change everything.

In this Swedish folktale, a young boy longs for all the nice things other children have. An old woman tells the boy a secret for granting his wishes: sprinkling salt on a magpie’s tail. But, before the magpie will grant the boy’s wish, the bird has some strange requests of his own.

In this Irish folktale, a young and powerful king has an embarrassing secret: he has horse’s ears! Then one day, the royal barber discovers this unusual trait. Can he keep the king’s long-held secret, or will the barber be banished from the kingdom for good?

In this Indian folktale, a young turtle shares a shallow lake with unlikely friends—two geese. But when the lake starts drying up, the stubborn turtle must follow his winged friends’ advice, or he’ll be left out to dry.

When the weather changes suddenly, the animals in a jungle find shelter in the mountains. When they return to the forest, one snake has changed forever. And it’s a good thing he does.

In this ancient Mexican folktale, the Aztec Sky god and Wind god attempt to fix silence on Earth by bringing music to the world. They set out to the Sun palace, where legions of musicians play for the almighty Sun. Unfortunately, this hot-headed ruler won’t give up his musicians without a fight!

If the world as we know it ended tomorrow, would you survive? When the United States suffers a major socioeconomic collapse, a power vacuum sweeps the globe. A newly radicalized Islamic government rises to power in Indonesia, invading the Philippines, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, and finally Northern Australia. No longer protected by American military interests, Australia must repel this invasion alone.

Her life by the sea in ruins, Pen has lost everything in the Earth Shaker that all but destroyed the city of Los Angeles. She sets out into the wasteland to search for her family, her journey guided by a tattered copy of Homer’s Odyssey. Soon she begins to realize her own abilities and strength as she faces false promises of safety, the cloned giants who feast on humans, and a madman who wishes her dead. On her voyage, Pen learns to tell stories that reflect her strange visions, while she and her fellow survivors navigate the dangers that lie in wait. In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely.

When looting and rioting overwhelm all the major US cities, Afghanistan War vet Ray McGregor makes his way from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to his parents' cattle ranch in Bella Coola, British Columbia, in remote western Canada. Joining him is his old friend Phil Adams, a Defense Intelligence Agency counterintelligence case officer based in Washington State.

In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked.

Team up with Max Axiom to learn all about global warming and its effects on the Earth. From melting glaciers to wacky weather patterns, heating up our planet wreaks havoc on its resources and inhabitants.

Explore history without the confines of time or distance. Dr. Isabel Soto is an archaeologist and world explorer with the skills to go wherever and whenever she needs to research history, solve a mystery, or rescue colleagues in trouble. Listeners join Izzy on her journeys and gain knowledge about historical places, eras, and cultures on the way.

This gripping, deeply thoughtful book considers the future of civilization in the light of what we know about climate change and related threats. David Orr, an award-winning, internationally recognized leader in the field of sustainability and environmental education, pulls no punches: Even with the Paris Agreement of 2015, Earth systems will not reach a new equilibrium for centuries.

As the host of Radio Free Vermont - "underground, underpowered, and underfoot" - 72-year-old Vern Barclay is currently broadcasting from an "undisclosed and double-secret location". With the help of a young computer prodigy named Perry Alterson, Vern uses his radio show to advocate for a simple yet radical idea: an independent Vermont, one where the state secedes from the United States and operates under a free local economy.

With the natural world exhausted and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single fragment of the wild. One night, he hears voices in the valley—poachers, come to hunt his bear. A heart-pounding chase begins, crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey—Ben must choose the bear’s fate and his own.

2080: At a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers, and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment. Their goal: to make a tiny alteration to the past, averting a global catastrophe while at the same time leaving recorded history intact. To make the experiment work, they just need one last recruit: an ageing schoolteacher whose late mother was the foremost expert on the mathematics of paradox. 2028: A young woman goes into surgery for routine brain surgery.

What do you buy and sell when the global markets reach saturation point? The markets themselves. Thirty years from now the big players in global capitalism have moved on from commodities. The big money is in conflict investment. The corporations keep a careful watch on the wars of liberation and revolution that burn constantly around the world. They guage who the winners will be and sell them arms, intelligence, and power. In return for a slice of the action when the war is won.

En route to the National Prayer Breakfast, the US vice president’s motorcade is hit in a vicious, expertly planned attack that throws Washington, DC, into chaos. Everyone assumes it’s terrorists - everyone but young FBI agent Jennifer Lin. She is certain that the easy answers here are not the likely ones. Half a world away, former military contractor Tom Locke has his own doubts about what happened - and who did it. He suspects his former employer, Apollo Outcomes. But why would the global private military corporation orchestrate such a brutal strike on US soil?

Jolly Copper is one of the few people who know the world is on the brink of cataclysmic destruction.... not because he had any scientific knowledge or prophetic dreams, but because he is nosey and read what was on a fellow bus passenger's phone one day. He learns there will be an unprecedented series of natural disasters, and the expected grand finale disaster is predicted to be a tidal wave massive enough to swallow half the globe.