Kirjahaku

Set in Changi, the most notorious prisoner of war camp in Asia, King Rat is an heroic story of survival told by a master story-teller who lived through those years as a young soldier. Only one man in fifteen had the strength, the luck, and the cleverness simply to survive Changi. And then there was King.

'Intensely readable and exciting' Sunday TelegraphSet in the turbulent days of the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Tai-Pan is the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler - the Tai-Pan - of the most powerful trading company in the Far East. He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, and a master manipulator of men. This is the story of his fight to establish himself and his dynasty as the undisputed masters of the Orient.'Packed with action . . . gaudy and flamboyant with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder . . . grand entertainment' New York Times

'Breathtaking. Only terms like colossal, gigantic, titanic, unbelievable, gargantuan are properly descriptive' Chicago TribuneOver one hundred years have passed since Dirk Struan founded Hong Kong's oldest trading company. But now, the Noble House is in danger. As Hong Kong itself becomes the deadly playground of the CIA, the KGB and the People's Republic of China, rival tai-pans, seeking revenge for blood feuds over a century old, gather for the kill.'Fiction for addicts . . . A book that you can get lost in for weeks. Not only is it as long as life, it's also as rich with possibilities' New York Times

James Clavell's most famous and best-loved novel repackaged for a new generation

'A herculean achievement . . . strong plot and strong characterisation' The TimesIt is 1862 and Japan is a land in chaos as the power of the Shogun wanes and the rival factions plan to restore the Emperor. In Yokohama, the gai-jin, the hated foreigners, seek to profit from the chaos. At the head of the Noble House - and heir to the title of Tai-Pan - stands Malcolm Struan, who is determined to become his own man and marry the woman he loves. At the head of the Shogunate party is the Lord Yoshi, a direct descendant of Shogun Toranaga, who shares all of his ancestor's cunning and ambition.'A passionate portrait of suffering . . . a strange and gripping tale of a nation's deflowerment' Mail on Sunday

'James Clavell does more than entertain. He transports us into worlds we've not known, stimulating, educating, questioning . . . a wonder of detail' Washington Post'The author handles the plot with all the confident authority of a ring-master, keeping a half-dozen themes and a formidable cast of characters moving along at a cracking pace. By the end I was breathless and lost in admiration at the sheer professionalism of it all' Sunday TelegraphWhirlwind is the story of three weeks in Tehran in February 1979: three weeks of fanaticism, passion, self-sacrifice and heartbreak. Caught between the revolutionaries and the forces of international intrigue is a team of professional pilots. They are ordered to flee to safety with their helicopters. Two of them, both Europeans, have Iranian wives whom they love beyond safety and politics.'So abundant in sub-plots, characters, intrigue and atmosphere that its 1,000-plus pages seem barely adequate. Some of the most enjoyable reading around' Daily Mail

The Shah is thrown out of Iran and the nation's turmoil becomes world headlines. Caught in this shifting world of fanaticism, ambition, duplicity, heartbreak and violent death are the foreign helicopter pilots who have been servicing the oilfields up and down the country. Their one objective now is to make a bold concerted escape, with their helicopters, to safety across the Gulf. But one of the pilots, Erikki, the blond Finnish pilot, is married to a beautiful high-born Iranian wife, Azadeh, and this story is about what happens to them.

This epic novel by master writer James Clavell, loosely based on the Namamugi Incident and Anglo-Satsuma War that took place in the late 1800s, is a richly researched, panoramic view of Japan's budding relationship with the Western powers, its sweeping societal changes, and the political upheaval that followed.As Malcolm Struan, the son of Culum and Tess Struan, and a small band of Westerners travel down the Tōkaidō road, they are attacked by two Satsuma samurai, who mortally wound John Canterbury and seriously injure Malcolm, who then finds reprieve in the merchant village of Yokohama after a narrow escape facilitated by the unscathed Angelique.Angelique Richaud, Malcolm's penniless but beautiful French companion, is thrown into a world of political intrigue, fierce devotion, unstable family dynamics, blackmail, and secrets as the trading houses battle for supremacy.With a cast of dynamic and fully recognized characters, Gai-Jin spins a tale of passionate love affairs, devastating loss, intense power struggles, and the fight to survive and thrive in a hostile new land that will leave readers longing for another foray into Clavell's extraordinary Asian Saga.

Taking place over the course of an eventful week in 1963 Hong Kong, James Clavell's Noble House is a masterfully woven novel of true suspense.Ian Dunross, the current tai-pan of the illustrious yet financially troubled Struan empire, is racing to undo the damage his predecessor left behind and to once again stand on stable ground. And he'll do whatever it takes--including striking a hard-fought deal with an American millionaire. But his rival, Quillan Gornt, has other plans. Suddenly caught in a dubious plot involving Soviet spies, Hong Kong's criminal underground, and the hostile takeover of his company, Dunross holds nothing back in the fight for the Noble House.Espionage, mayhem, and high-stakes betrayals make Noble House Clavell's most prolific and imaginatively crafted narrative in the Asian Saga.

From the bestselling author of Shōgun and King Rat comes a richly illustrated children's story that takes the reader on a fantastic journey through a magical worldThrump-O-Moto is a little wizard and apprentice hero who, though sometimes puzzled and afraid, knows that the mightiest forces in the universe always bow before the brave and good. By chance (and a bungled spell) he finds himself traveling not to the shores of Japan to visit his grandmother, but to the Australian outback where he stumbles upon Patricia sitting in the shade. Discovering that Patricia has been caught in the clutches of Nurk-u the Bad, the two of them set out on a noble quest to rescue her and defeat the evil wizard, finding the gifts of healing and courage in the process.As we follow their magical journey through what seems to be many years (or is it just the length of Patricia's afternoon nap?), Thrump-O-Moto explores a world found only in dreams--a realm of wonder, enchantment, delight, and ever-lurking danger; a place where magic spells are a very serious matter indeed ...

"There can only be one Tai-Pan." Dirk Struan rose from humble beginnings to build Struan & Company, also known as the Noble House, into the world's largest Far East trading company. He is now the Tai-Pan--Supreme Leader--of all Tai-Pans in China. Along the way, however, he made a powerful enemy. Tyler Brock, Struan's rival from their early opium-smuggling days, also heads a large trading fleet, second in size only to Struan's. But it is not only silks and spices that drive their mutual companies' wealth--the opium trade is still booming. War between England and China might be over, but the hostilities remain. Struan and Brock come to control much of England's trade with China yet neither can control their desires or their hatred of each other. Over the years, their two families will cross paths, threatening to rip both apart, with reverberations that will echo across the generations.Struan must fight to save his company and his family, or risk seeing everything he has created destroyed at the hands of his sworn enemy. Ambition, political intrigue, and love and lust weave their way throughout the novel the New York Times called, "grand entertainment...packed with action...with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder." East and West come together in an opulent and intricately plotted narrative. A tour-de-force of historical fiction, rich in detail yet eminently readable, Tai-Pan will stay with you long after the final page.

The epic novel of war, savagery, and survival in a Japanese POW camp by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James ClavellJapanese POW camp Changi, Singapore: hell on earth for the soldiers contained within its barbed wire walls. Officers and enlisted men, all prisoners together, yet the old hierarchies and rivalries survive. An American corporal, known as the King, has used his personality and wiles to facilitate trading with guards and locals to get needed food, supplies, even information into the camp. The imprisoned upper-class officers have never had to do things for themselves, and now they are reduced to wearing rags while the King's clean shirt, gained through guts and moxie, seems like luxury in comparison. In the camp, everything has its price and everything is for sale. But trading is illegal--and the King has made a formidable enemy. Robin Grey, the provost marshal, hates the King and all he represents. Grey, though he grew up modestly, fervently believes in the British class system: everyone should know their place, and he knows the King's place is at the bottom.The King does have a friend in Peter Marlowe, who, though wary of the King and himself a product of the British system, finds himself drawn to the charismatic man who just might be the only one who can save them from both the inhumanity of the prison camp but also from themselves. Powerful and engrossing, King Rat artfully weaves the author's own World War II prison camp experiences into a compelling narrative of survival amidst the grim realities of war and what men can do when pushed to the edge. A taut masterwork of World War II historical fiction by bestselling author James Clavell.

Tehran, Iran 1979: Simmering religious tensions explode and the Shah is forced to flee Iran. A British helicopter company--secretly owned by the Noble House of Hong Kong--with a fleet of helicopters registered in Iran faces bankruptcy if their copters are claimed or destroyed by the uprising. The pilots need to escape, but they've built lives in Iran, some even have families. Finnish pilot Erikki Yokkonen has married Azadeh, an Iranian woman of noble birth, whose family is caught up in the political situation exploding around them. Tasked with saving as many of the helicopters as he can and desperate to save his love, Erikki and Azadeh become caught up in the events around them.Threaded throughout master storyteller James Clavell's novel Whirlwind much like a shimmering strand of silk woven through an elaborate Persian carpet, is the love story of two people from different backgrounds. They have been brought together by a love stronger than either one, a love stronger than the revolutionary fires that burn all around them. A moving story, expertly told, unthreaded from the original masterwork, and allowed to stand on its own, brilliantly.

Tehran, Iran 1979: Simmering religious tensions finally explode, and the Iranian people rise up against the Shah. The country, once secular, is now thrown back into an orthodoxy that threatens to tear it apart. The United States and Russia go on high alert, with warships heading to the Middle East. The region becomes a powder keg, waiting to explode. Caught up in the revolution are a British helicopter company and its pilots. The oil fields of Iran need helicopters to ferry workers and administrators, and when the main US aviation company pulls out of Iran fearing what might come next, S-G Helicopters steps in to fill the void. Soon they realize that they, too, must leave or risk losing all their machines to whomever takes control of the country. The company risks bankruptcy if that happens--which would ruin Andrew Gallavan and reveal that the company is actually owned by a secret Hong Kong-based consortium: Noble House, controlled by the Struan family. Caught in between is his son, Scot, a pilot in Iran who must help save his father's company, but also the other pilots and their families. In a risky move, the pilots concoct a plan to get their choppers out of Iran. But will they be able to escape a country crumbling around them before it's too late?A rich panoply of characters brings to life the events of forty years ago, events that even now have ramifications throughout the Middle East and beyond. Fast-paced and full of action and intrigue, Whirlwind is an intricately plotted and detailed tale of war, love, and the ingenuity of the human spirit, told by James Clavell, the unparalleled master of historical fiction.

Orig.nazvanie ShogunNachalo XVII veka. Gollandskoe sudno terpit krushenie u beregov Japonii. Vyzhivshikh chlenov ekipazha berut v plen i obvinjajut v piratstve. Sredi popavshikh v plen byl i anglichanin Dzhon Blektorn, prekrasno znajuschij geografiju, voennoe delo i matematiku i obladajuschij silnym kharakterom. Ikh sudbu dolzhen reshit mestnyj pravitel, pribytie kotorogo ozhidaet vsja derevnja. Slukhi o talantlivom kapitane dokhodjat do knjazja Toranagino Minovary, odnogo iz samykh moguschestvennykh ljudej Japonii. Toranaga beret Blektorna pod svoju zaschitu, leleja kovarnye plany ispolzovat ego znanija v borbe za vlast. Chtoby vyzhit v chuzhoj strane, anglichanin izuchaet ee jazyk i obychai, stanovitsja samuraem, no ego ne pokidaet mysl, chto kogda-nibud emu vse-taki udastsja vernutsja na rodinu...Perevodchiki N. Eremin, Nikolaj Eremin

Juzhnyj Kitaj v 1840-1841 godakh. Evropejskie torgovtsy i avantjuristy vpervye nachali pronikat v Kitaj, skazochno bogatuju, polnuju opasnostej i zagadok stranu. Zhiznju platili eti ljudi za slabost, nereshitelnost i neznanie obychaev Vostoka. I v eto vremja anglichanin Dirk Struan postavil sebe tselju prevratit pustynnyj ostrov Gonkong v nesokrushimyj oplot britanskogo moguschestva i podnjatsja na vershinu vlasti, stav verkhovnym povelitelem - Tajpanom. V seriju "Inostrannaja literatura. Bolshie knigi" voshli proizvedenija samykh znamenitykh v mire pisatelej, kotorye dolzhen prochitat kazhdyj. Knigi serii otmecheny bogatstvom tvorcheskogo voobrazhenija, sjuzhety ikh neverojatno interesny, razvjazki effektny, a chuvstva geroev silny i tragichny. Knigi izdajutsja v luchshikh perevodakh, nastojaschij podarok vsem tseniteljam uvlekatelnoj literatury. Knigi serii stanut zamechatelnym dopolneniem ljuboj domashnej biblioteki. Prekrasnoe oformlenie: udobnyj format, kachestvennaja bumaga, komfortnyj dlja chtenija shrift i jarkie zapominajuschiesja oblozhki.Perevodchik: Kuprin E. A.

Japonija. 1862 god. Naslednik velikolepnogo Blagorodnogo Doma, razvernuvshego svoju dejatelnost v Strane voskhodjaschego solntsa... Prjamoj potomok pervogo sjoguna Toranagi, srazhajuschegosja za to, chtoby ego strana preodolela srednevekovye traditsii i vstupila v sovremennuju epokhu... Krasivaja molodaja frantsuzhenka, kotoraja razryvaetsja mezhdu chestoljubiem i ljubovju... Ikh zhizni perepletajutsja na ekzoticheskoj zemle, vnov otkrytoj dlja inostrantsev - gajdzinov. Ikh strasti smeshivajutsja s zhelanijami monarkhov i diplomatov, ubijts, kurtizanok i shpionov. "Gajdzin" - odin iz romanov, rasskazyvajuschikh o proshlom Blagorodnogo Doma Struanov.

Nachalo XVII veka. Gollandskoe sudno terpit krushenie u beregov Japonii. Vyzhivshikh chlenov ekipazha berut v plen i obvinjajut v piratstve. Sredi popavshikh v plen byl i anglichanin Dzhon Blektorn, prekrasno znajuschij geografiju, voennoe delo i matematiku i obladajuschij silnym kharakterom. Ikh sudbu dolzhen reshit mestnyj pravitel, pribytie kotorogo ozhidaet vsja derevnja. Slukhi o talantlivom kapitane dokhodjat do knjazja Toranagi-no Minovary, odnogo iz samykh moguschestvennykh ljudej Japonii. Toranaga beret Blektorna pod svoju zaschitu, leleja kovarnye plany ispolzovat ego znanija v borbe za vlast. Chtoby vyzhit v chuzhoj strane, anglichanin izuchaet ee jazyk i obychai, stanovitsja samuraem, no ego ne pokidaet mysl, chto kogda-nibud emu vse-taki udastsja vernutsja na rodinu... Perevodchik: Eremin N. F.

Idet Vtoraja mirovaja vojna, no zdes, v japonskom lagere dlja voennoplennykh, ne slyshny zvuki bitvy. Zdes ofitsery i soldaty vedut sobstvennuju vojnu za vyzhivanie v nechelovecheskikh uslovijakh. King, amerikanskij kapral, stremitsja k dominirovaniju i nad plennikami, i nad zakhvatchikami. Ego oruzhie - eto besstrashie i velikolepnoe znanie chelovecheskikh slabostej. On gotov ispolzovat ljubuju vozmozhnost, chtoby rasshirit svoju vlast i razvratit ili unichtozhit ljubogo, kto stoit u nego na puti. King pereprodaet tsennye predmety plennikov okhrannikam lagerja za dengi, na kotorye mozhno kupit kontrabandnuju edu. Eto protivorechit japonskim pravilam i, takim obrazom, pravilam lagerja, no bolshinstvo ofitserov zakryvajut glaza na torgovlju. Robin Grej javljaetsja iskljucheniem, i on namerevaetsja pojmat Kinga. V 1965 godu po romanu "Korol krys" byl snjat odnoimennyj film, imevshij bolshoj uspekh. Rol Kinga ispolnil Dzhordzh Sigal (nominant na premiju "Oskar" i dvukratnyj laureat premii "Zolotoj globus"), a Robina Greja sygral Tom Kortni (dvazhdy nominant na premiju "Oskar").