Global Literature

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.

What happens when a tortoise challenges a hare to a race? Listen to this popular West African tale to find out. There's more than one way to teach a boastful hare a lesson!

When a fox keeps eating a farmer’s animals, he and his wife come up with a plan to get rid of him. But the clever fox has other ideas....

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.

When a wolf comes to the valley, the animals get scared. How can they escape being the wolf’s next meal? One clever rabbit has an idea.

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.

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.

After a fierce storm hits Scotland, a mysterious cargo ship is discovered in the Orkney Isles. Boarding the vessel uncovers three bodies, recently deceased and in violent circumstances. Forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod’s study of the crime scene suggests that a sinister game was being played on board, but who were the hunters? And who the hunted? Meanwhile in Glasgow DS Michael McNab is called to a horrific incident where a young woman has been set on fire. Or did she spark the flames herself?

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.

A Vermeer painting shows a military officer in a Dutch sitting room, talking to a laughing girl. In another canvas, fruit spills from a blue-and-white porcelain bowl. Familiar images that captivate us with their beauty--but as Timothy Brook shows us, these intimate pictures actually give us a remarkable view of an expanding world.

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: To cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Tracy Kidder’s magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and disease.

When Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala investigate a mass stranding of aquatic life in the Indian Ocean, they accidentally uncover a much deeper mystery. A strange figure soon steals NUMA’s findings, forcing a high-speed chase—someone really didn’t want them examining those dead whales. But who, and why? A cryptic text through the NUMA satellite network makes things still stranger: these odd phrases and numbers look like NUMA codes. But who could be tantalizing the crew with such specific knowledge of their tech?

Rubi Whiting is a member of the Bounceback Generation. The first to be raised free of the troubles of the late 21st century. Now she works as a public defender to help troubled individuals with anti-social behavior. That’s how she met Luciano Pox. Luce is a firebrand and has made a name for himself as a naysayer. But there’s more to him than being a lightning rod for controversy. Rubi has to find out why the governments of the world want to bring Luce into custody, and why Luce is hell bent on stopping the recovery of the planet.

It has been over a year since the war began. A year since China launched its surprise attack on America. EMP and cyber weapons plunging much of the nation into a dark chaos. Thousands of anti-ship missiles gutting the US Pacific fleet. A Chinese-allied North Korea launching an all-out attack on South Korea. Chinese information warfare campaigns triggering America to launch a nuclear strike on China's own nuclear stockpile. And the international political consequences that followed.

Charles Street was once a highly respected agent working for MI6, until a terrible mistake cost him his job. Now he's a desperate man, living on past glories and struggling to make ends meet. Until he makes a discovery that has the power to bring down the new President of the United States. But when Street tries to cash in on this discovery, he finds himself pursued by a Russian snatch squad.

Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, and a communications revolution: These forces shaped Joseph Conrad's destiny at the dawn of the 20th century. In this brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature, Maya Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization. As an immigrant from Poland to England, and in travels from Malaya to Congo to the Caribbean, Conrad navigated an interconnected world and captured it in a literary oeuvre of extraordinary depth.