Despite his untimely death in 1667 at the age of thirty-seven, Gabriel Metsu left a substantial oeuvre of history paintings, portraits, still lifes, and a large number of exquisite genre scenes. These charming depictions of kitchen maids, elegant you...

In the first major book devoted to the trumpet in more than two decades, John Wallace and Alexander McGrattan trace the surprising evolution and colourful performance history of one of the world's oldest instruments. They chart the introduction of th...

Djibouti, a hot, impoverished little country on the Horn of Africa, is a place of great strategic importance, for off its coast lies a crucial passage for the world's oil. In this novel by Abdourahman A. Waberi, Djibril, a young Djiboutian voluntaril...

In this companion to Urs Widmer's novel "My Mother's Lover", the narrator is again the son who pieces together the fragments of his parents' stories. Since the age of twelve, Karl, the father, has observed the family tradition of recording his life i...

It's Switzerland in the 1920s when the two lovers first meet. She is young, beautiful, and rich. In contrast, he can barely support himself and is interested only in music. By the end of their lives, he is a famous conductor and the richest man in th...

Universally recognised as a brilliant and gifted eighteenth-century artist, Zoffany was regarded by Horace Walpole as one of the three greatest painters in England, along with his friends Reynolds and Gainsborough. He has remained without a detailed...

Tradition has it that King Solomon knew everything there was to know – the mysteries of nature, of love, of God himself – but what do we know of him? Esteemed biblical scholar Steven Weitzman reintroduces readers to Solomon's story and its surprising...

In this intriguing book, young readers will be introduced to the unsolved mysteries behind some of the world's greatest art and artists. For as long as people have been viewing the masterpieces in this book, they've been asking the same questions: W...

Now available in a flexi format, this book is a magnificent survey of watercolour masterpieces from artists such as Turner, Blake, Constable, and Whistler. This beautiful volume documents an important moment in the history of the watercolour, as its...

A winged, headless goddess from the third century; a gigantic tube of toothpaste; a tribal mask; a monumental bronze statue of Buddha – these creations and more are featured in this book of sculptures that are fun to explore and important in the hist...