Martin Goodman

Tron på en styrande, övergripande, himmelsk princip har följt människan genom historien. Mer än 80 procent av världens befolkning har idag en religiös tillhörighet och även i sekulära stater fortsätter religionen att spela en viktig roll. Det går inte att förstå politik och internationella relationer idag utan att inkludera religionen som en aspekt av det kulturella sammanhanget. Essäerna i denna antologi, som härrör från Engelsbergsseminariet 2014, spänner över en mångfald ämnen i dagens såväl som gårdagens samhällen. De utforskar religionen i relation till människans villkor och skildrar hur den manifesterar sig i individens egna upplevelser. För att förstå oss själva behöver vi också förstå religionen.

Mellanöstern har alltid varit en central plats för handel och erövringar. Läget har medfört enorma rikedomar, kulturellt utbyte och intellektuell vitalitet – men också konflikter, instabilitet och ihållande geopolitiska spänningar. Att förstå regionens förflutna är avgörande för att förstå dess nutid. Antologin Empires of Faith utforskar Mellanösterns långa historia – från Mesopotamien, de persiska kungarikena och Alexander den store till kristendomens och islams uppkomst, det bysantinska och ottomanska riket, och 1900-talets dramatiska omvandling av regionen. Hur har religion, civilisation och imperialistiska ambitioner format regionen? Vilka arv lämnade de stora imperierna efter sig och hur påverkade de lagstiftning, kultur, styre och undersåtarnas vardagsliv? Och i vilken utsträckning är historiens efterverkningar fortfarande synliga i dagens politiska och religiösa landskap? Boken utkommer även på svenska våren 2027.

A darkly satirical literary thriller that will captivate readers of transgressive fiction and social critique. When Faisal emerges from the English Channel after his record-breaking swim from France, Brian and Eileen Pratchett expect gratitude—after all, they rescued him from the refugee pool, fed him, trained him, transformed him. But Cameron, a young Scottish drifter, has come searching for his brother Malcolm, one of the Pratchetts' earlier 'projects.' Malcolm was going to be a tennis champion. Instead, he disappeared. As Cameron's questions grow more pointed and Faisal's gratitude turns ambiguous, the Pratchetts' carefully maintained facade begins to crack. Behind their respectable seafront home with its immaculate rose garden lies a darker story—one of control, obsession, and the terrible price of failing to meet expectations. Swimming for England is a masterful psychological portrait that operates simultaneously as thriller, social satire, and searing indictment. Goodman's prose is both beautiful and brutal, his imagery visceral, his characters rendered with uncomfortable intimacy. This is fiction that disturbs, provokes, and lingers—perfect for book clubs seeking compact, challenging material and readers who appreciate the intersection of literary ambition and page-turning suspense.

'Sensitive and engaging ... I hope everybody reads it' Brian Eno A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 With a foreword by Peter Wohlleben How much can one love a tree? Rajasthan, in northern India, is home to the Bishnoi, a community renowned for the extreme lengths they go to in order to protect nature: Bishnoi men and women have died to defend trees from loggers and wildlife from poachers. Writer and conservationist Martin Goodman, one of few trusted outsiders, relates the history of the Bishnoi, and asks what a world facing climate change and natural disaster can learn from a 600-year-old sustainable community leading an existence in delicate balance with nature and under threat from rapacious modernity. My Head for a Tree offers a timely reflection on indigenous, community-based activism and how we might adjust our lives to fight for the natural world.

Silently, digitally, a boy takes apart your family Tom's a regular teenager – sullen, anxious, super-smart, feeling safe within his bedroom and wedded to his screen. On a packed train, a London commodities trader gets under his skin. The trader's got a fine wife, two kids, a yappy dog, big house, annual bonus. Tom hacks him. The trader's hardware becomes stuffed with dangerous, damaging images. Call it collateral damage. Hacking is what Tom does. He's got control of the keyboards of key players in the fossil fuel industry. If he doesn't bring down the grid, who will? Roads and trainlines lead the main players to a violent confrontation in the brutalist surrounds of London's Barbican Centre. Government agents work to prevent a global blackout. Tom's set to save the planet. Who will win?

"The remarkable Bishnoi of India, whose unique religion 'has environmental protection at its very core, ' recruited Goodman to tell their dramatic story..."--Booklist, STARRED review Perfect for nature enthusiasts, My Head for a Tree is a timely and remarkable book about India's Bishnoi people, passionate defenders of nature whose ecological wisdom carries a powerful message. Meet the Bishnoi, followers of a religion with nature conservation at its heart. Today, Bishnois remain fierce defenders of trees and animals, living by principles set by their guru Jambhoji in the fifteenth century. They chase down armed poachers, rescue and care for injured animals, save endangered species, and lead heroic reforestation efforts in the Rajasthani desert. In a time of biodiversity loss and climate change, what lessons do they have to teach us? The story of the Bishnoi is true, though it reads like a fable. In 1730, the Maharajah of Jodhpur sent his troops to chop down a forest in northwest India. When 363 local villagers, led by Amrita Devi, hugged the trees to protect them, the Maharajah's men chopped off their heads. Who are these people who love trees so much that they would give their lives to save them? My Head for a Tree takes us from temples, homes, and schoolrooms to animal sanctuaries, farms, and desert forests, revealing a thriving community of eco-warriors. Their stories inspire and challenge readers to live more kindly and defend nature with a passion. While you can only be born a Bishnoi, we can all follow their example.

'Sensitive and engaging ... I hope everybody reads it' Brian Eno A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 With a foreword by Peter Wohlleben How much can one love a tree? Rajasthan, in northern India, is home to the Bishnoi, a community renowned for the extreme lengths they go to in order to protect nature: Bishnoi men and women have died to defend trees from loggers and wildlife from poachers. Writer and conservationist Martin Goodman, one of few trusted outsiders, relates the history of the Bishnoi, and asks what a world facing climate change and natural disaster can learn from a 600-year-old sustainable community leading an existence in delicate balance with nature and under threat from rapacious modernity. My Head for a Tree offers a timely reflection on indigenous, community-based activism and how we might adjust our lives to fight for the natural world.

Joyful, wild, gay stories from award winning Martin Goodman. Meet his cast of characters: New York designer Arnold, whose lovely life blossoms from age 7. We watch him grow famous then learn from the bumps of life. A young priest who leaves uptight England to lose and find himself in Turkey. Queenie, scarred from her time as a beautiful boy, meets young Tom, who loves the fact that she's a wreck. A young Indian teacher meets an older London billionaire who’s not yet out. And the stunning finale is a gay version of Melville's classic Billy Budd, the tale of a beautiful doomed sailor. "A ravishing collection, remarkably wide-ranging in subject, mood and tone, each story exquisitely crafted."– Paul Russell, author of Immaculate Blue

A vivid account of the political triumphs and domestic tragedies of the Jewish king Herod the Great during the turmoil of the Roman revolution “Herod the Great is typical of Yale’s Jewish Lives series: short, clear, deeply knowledgeable, deeply illuminating.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal “Entertaining, outrageous and lurid as well as scholarly, authoritative and relevant.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Times (UK) Herod the Great (73–4 BCE) was a phenomenally energetic ruler who took advantage of the chaos of the Roman revolution to establish himself as a major figure in a changing Roman world and transform the landscape of Judaea. Both Jews and Christians developed myths about his cruelty and rashness: in Christian tradition he was cast as the tyrant who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents; in the Talmud, despite fond memories of his glorious Temple in Jerusalem, he was recalled as a persecutor of rabbis. The life of Herod is better documented than that of any other Jew from antiquity, and Martin Goodman examines the extensive literary and archaeological evidence to provide a vivid portrait of Herod in his sociopolitical context: his Idumaean origins, his installation by Rome as king of Judaea and cultivation of leading Romans, his massive architectural projects, and his presentation of himself as a Jew, most strikingly through the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. Goodman argues that later stories depicting Herod as a monster derived from public interest in his execution of three of his sons after dramatic public trials foisted on him by a dynastic policy imposed by the Roman emperor.

"Music transcends war trauma in this important, aching, artful Holocaust novel." - The Toronto StarOtto, a young cello student in Vienna, is snatched from his home and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau.Marched from the camp to the Nazi Adjutant’s house, he is forced to play a Stradivarius cello, eyes closed, for the Adjutant’s wife. Move forward many decades, and Otto is world famous but in retreat on the coast of Big Sur. A young woman, Rosa, turns up with questions. And her own troubled story. "Secrets connect the two strangers, ones that will change their lives."Is it ever too late to step forward from the horrors of the Holocaust, and dare to trust again?

Though Tomas is half-German, he is taught by English war veterans. He walks the ruins of Coventry with his English Gran, still crumbling from the blitz. Later, when Tomas nears adulthood, he goes to Germany to stay with his enigmatic uncle, Herr Poppel. The blind, elderly man was once a German soldier. Tomas has more family out in Dresden, a city still maimed by Allied firebombs. What does a young man make of all this atrocity, guilt and his own disgust at the past? What might we inherit from the wars of our elders, and how might we move on? 'The novel's blunt, no-frills economy is part of its charm. Goodman writes with flare and panache, and the narrative fizzes along. Goodman's novel soars.' - The Times 'A perceptive, moving novel. Martin Goodman takes fierce delight in cutting through the easy cliches about the "new" Europe.' - Christopher Hope 'This excellent first novel's central character is so completely realised he could have walked out of one of those enigmatic Bruce Chatwin pieces about old mysterious European types.' - Time Out 'Heralds a new dawn for British writing.' - Daily Post AUTHOR: Born in Leicester, Martin's career in writing, teaching and publishing has taken him around the globe. 'All we can do is rattle the bars and look after him as he runs into the hills. We wait for his letters home.' The Los Angeles Times. He's published eleven books, including non-fiction. He is an Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Hull. SELLING POINTS: . Critically acclaimed, Whitbread Shortlisted novel from Martin Goodman . A story about the inheritance of war guilt in a post-war Europe. Perfect for history enthusiasts fascinated by legacy, society and WW2 . It explores how the next generation reconcile the sins of the last; On Bended Knees remains relevant to the young generations of today

«A fascinating and unique insight into the phenomenon of workplace bullying through the prism of contemporary French fiction. The book captures the individual suffering and power dynamics that characterise bullying in the workplace, while situating this within wider debates in the social sciences, psychology and cultural studies.» (Sarah Waters, Professor of French Studies, University of Leeds) «Drawing on a rich range of examples, Goodman deftly probes the stories told about workplace bullying not simply as a vital topic in its own right but as an important way to explore the effects of neoliberalism on working lives. Tremendously well informed, the book will be of interest to students of both French culture and contemporary labour practices.» (Martin O’Shaughnessy, Professor, School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University) «As an academic plunge into the murky depths of French corporate life, Goodman’s book is both intrepid and intimate. It is also singular. To date, no other Anglophone commentator has got to grips with the breadth of French fictional accounts of work to this extent. Building on the foundations laid by the studies of Sarah Waters, Martin O’Shaughnessy, and Jeremy Lane, Bastards at Work captures the miseries of twenty-first-century work, but also - best of all - the joys of writing about it.» (Anne M. Mulhall, H-France Review Vol. 23 (March 2023), No. 40) Bullying is a social phenomenon that defines the contemporary workplace with much of the emphasis on psychosocial rather than physical suffering. In France, workplace bullying has emerged as a subject of intense interest and controversy among scholars, policy makers and cultural producers – notably novelists, playwrights and film directors. It has a high public profile as reflected in specific legislation, a wealth of critical literature on workplace suffering, and an extensive range of novels, plays and films. This study contextualises and analyses this wave of fictional storytelling that has emerged in France since the year 2000. It critically analyses more than a dozen such stories with a view to determining how they reflect the lived experiences of workers. Each story is considered from the perspectives of critical commentaries and research from France and elsewhere, focusing on the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, medicine, anthropology, sociology, literary analysis, economics, law and business management. This study also examines how fiction reflects changes in the nature of the French economy, organisations and work itself since the advent of neoliberalism in the 1980s.

A sweeping history of Judaism over more than three millenniaJudaism has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied through the centuries. Martin Goodman provides a comprehensive look at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other. He takes readers from Judaism's origins in the polytheistic world of antiquity to the many varieties of Judaism today. He explains the institutions and ideas on which all forms of Judaism are based, and masterfully weaves together the different threads of doctrinal and philosophical debate that run throughout its history. A History of Judaism is a spellbinding chronicle of a vibrant religious tradition that has shaped the spiritual heritage of humankind like no other.

An essential introduction to Josephus’s momentous war narrativeThe Jewish War is Josephus's superbly evocative account of the Jewish revolt against Rome, which was crushed in 70 CE with the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Martin Goodman describes the life of this book, from its composition in Greek for a Roman readership to the myriad ways it touched the lives of Jews and Christians over the span of two millennia.The scion of a priestly Jewish family, Josephus became a rebel general at the start of the war. Captured by the enemy general Vespasian, Josephus predicted correctly that Vespasian would be the future emperor of Rome and thus witnessed the final stages of the siege of Jerusalem from the safety of the Roman camp and wrote his history of these cataclysmic events from a comfortable exile in Rome. His history enjoyed enormous popularity among Christians, who saw it as a testimony to the world that gave rise to their faith and a record of the suffering of the Jews due to their rejection of Christ. Jews were hardly aware of the book until the Renaissance. In the nineteenth century, Josephus's history became an important source for recovering Jewish history, yet Jewish enthusiasm for his stories of heroism—such as the doomed defense of Masada—has been tempered by suspicion of a writer who betrayed his own people.Goodman provides a concise biography of one of the greatest war narratives ever written, explaining why Josephus's book continues to hold such fascination today.

'An absolute godsend ... Goodman has done both Jews and non-Jews a great service with this book, encapsulating most of Jewish thought over four millennia into one extraordinarily readable volume' Julia Neuberger, Literary ReviewA panoramic history of Judaism from its origins to the presentJudaism is by some distance the oldest of the three Abrahamic religions. Despite the extraordinarily diverse forms it has taken, the Jewish people have believed themselves bound to God by the same covenant for more than three thousand years. This book explains how Judaism came to be and how it has developed from one age to the next, as well as the ways in which its varieties have related to each other.'A one-volume tour de force. Goodman meets the substantial challenge of charting the twists and turns, tributaries and backwaters of Judaism's many streams over 2,000 years - and succeeds' Harry Freedman, Jewish Chronicle'Learned and illuminating ... this magnificently lucid account will become the standard reference for a generation' Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

Ecological disaster across the globe is being averted by the skillful, strategic deployment of idealistic and dogged environmental lawyers enforcing existing laws (and working to improve them).Environmental lawyer James Thornton sees the Earth as his client. The organisation he founded in 2007, ClientEarth, uses advocacy, litigation, and research to address the greatest challenges of our time - including biodiversity loss, climate change, and toxic chemicals. It now has sixty lawyers working full-time - finding, taking on, and winning cases across a broad spectrum. They are, for instance, blocking Scandinavian attempts to recommence whaling, winning against the UK government for breach of the Air Quality laws, reforming the European Fisheries Policy, stopping new coal-fired stations being built in Poland, and shutting down illegal forestry in central Africa.Client Earth draws on a wide range of interviews with leading lawyers, scholars, European Commissioners, government ministers, business leaders, fisheries specialists, environmental activists, philanthropists, and many regular stakeholders who have learned to use the law to protect their own environments. It provides inspiration from the chain of victories already won in what may be the most compelling legal drama ever played out in the courts: the Earth and its people versus the major polluters and fossil-fuel giants.

A dystopian novel set around London’s disused Heathrow Airport. For sixteen years the Earth has baked and no girls have been born. Karen’s the last girl. Steven’s her gay twin. Dad turns their home into a fortress as women take their chance to rule the world. Their eyes are on Steven. Perhaps, with a little medical interference, he could be the saviour of the world. The boys of teensquad run the streets, insects clog the skies, the last chance to save the world is handed to a council of women, and scientists are cooking up a brand new Eden.