Most Popular Books by David Roberts

A novel of high adventure, great storytelling and moral purpose, based on an extraordinary true story of eight years in the Bombay underworld ''A literary masterpiece... at once erudite and intimate, reflective and funny... it has the grit and pace of a thriller'' Daily Telegraph ''A publishing phenomenon'' Sunday Times ''A gigantic, jaw-dropping, grittily authentic saga'' Daily Mail ''In the early 80s, Gregory David Roberts, an armed robber and heroin addict, escaped from an Australian prison to India, where he lived in a Bombay slum. There, he established a free health clinic and also joined the mafia, working as a money launderer, forger and street soldier. He found time to learn Hindi and Marathi, fall in love, and spend time being worked over in an Indian jail. Then, in case anyone thought he was slacking, he acted in Bollywood and fought with the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan... Amazingly, Roberts wrote Shantaram three times after prison guards trashed the first two versions. It''s a profound tribute to his willpower... At once a high-kicking, eye-gouging adventure, a love saga and a savage yet tenderly lyrical fugitive vision.'' Time Out

A thrilling chronicle of the tragedy-ridden history of climbing the world''s most difficult and unpredictable mountain, by the bestselling authors of The Mountain and No Shortcuts to the Top “Gripping . . . reveals a good deal about the rarefied noble-gonzo world of high-altitude mountaineering.”—The New York Times Ed Viesturs, one of the world''s premier high-altitude mountaineers, explores the remarkable history of K2 and of those who have attempted to conquer it. At the same time, he probes the mountain''s most memorable sagas in order to illustrate lessons about the fundamental questions mountaineering raises—questions of risk, ambition, loyalty to one''s teammates, self-sacrifice, and the price of glory. Viesturs knows the mountain firsthand. He and renowned alpinist Scott Fischer climbed it in 1992 and got caught in an avalanche that sent them sliding to almost certain death before Ed managed to get into a self-arrest position with his ice ax and stop both his fall and Scott''s. Focusing on seven of the mountain''s most dramatic campaigns, from his own troubled ascent to the 2008 tragedy, Viesturs crafts an edge-of-your-seat narrative that climbers and armchair travelers alike will find unforgettably compelling. With photographs from Viesturs''s personal collection and from historical sources, this is the definitive account of the world''s ultimate mountain, and of the lessons that can be gleaned from struggling toward its elusive summit.

The eighth murder mystery featuring Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne.

All About Plants (Ada Twist, Scientist: The Why Files) is the second book in a nonfiction early reader series based on the Netflix show from New York Times bestselling creator of the Questioneers, Andrea Beaty, and author Theanne Griffith. What do plants eat? Why do some plants have flowers and others don’t? And what’s the tallest plant out there? Ada Twist, Scientist: The Why Files is the perfect nonfiction resource for all these questions and more. Based on the bestselling series and the Netflix show, this nonfiction series is perfect for the youngest scientists of tomorrow as they learn along with Ada. Designed in a scrapbook format, these books combine art from the show, illustrations, and photography to bring simple science concepts to life. Check out all the books in the Questioneers Series: The Questioneers Picture Book Series: Iggy Peck, Architect | Rosie Revere, Engineer | Ada Twist, Scientist | Sofia Valdez, Future Prez | Aaron Slater, Illustrator | Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year The Questioneers Chapter Book Series: Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters | Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants | Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion | Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote | Ada Twist and the Disappearing Dogs | Aaron Slater and the Sneaky Snake Questioneers: The Why Files Series: Exploring Flight! | All About Plants! | The Science of Baking | Bug Bonanza! | Rockin’ Robots! Questioneers: Ada Twist, Scientist Series: Ghost Busted | Show Me the Bunny | Ada Twist, Scientist: Brainstorm Book | 5-Minute Ada Twist, Scientist Stories The Questioneers Big Project Book Series: Iggy Peck’s Big Project Book for Amazing Architects | Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers | Ada Twist’s Big Project Book for Stellar Scientists | Sofia Valdez’s Big Project Book for Awesome Activists | Aaron Slater’s Big Project Book for Astonishing Artists

A new addition to the Questioneers series, a full-color nonfiction early reader series based on the new Ada Twist, Scientist Netflix series! Why do airplanes look the way they do? Why can’t birds fly when they’re first born? And why do some paper planes fly farther than others? Ada Twist, Scientist: The Why Files is the perfect nonfiction resource for all these questions and more. Discover everything there is to know about flight from Ada Twist, Scientist—from information about creatures that fly, to the history of aircrafts, to modern technology that allows us to soar through the air faster than ever! Based on the bestselling series and the new Netflix show, this nonfiction series is perfect for the youngest scientists of tomorrow!

The Mormon handcart tragedy of 1856 is the worst disaster in the history of the Western migrations, and yet it remains virtually unknown today outside Mormon circles. Following the death of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, its second Prophet and new leader, Brigham Young, determined to move the faithful out of the Midwest, where they had been constantly persecuted by their neighbors, to found a new Zion in the wilderness. In 1846-47, the Mormons made their way west, generally following the Oregon Trail, arriving in July 1847 in what is today Utah, where they established Salt Lake City. Nine years later, fearing a federal invasion, Young and other Mormon leaders wrestled with the question of how to bring thousands of impoverished European converts, mostly British and Scandinavian, from the Old World to Zion. Young conceived of a plan in which the European Mormons would travel by ship to New York City and by train to Iowa City. From there, instead of crossing the plains by covered wagon, they would push and pull wooden handcarts all the way to Salt Lake. But the handcart plan was badly flawed. The carts, made of green wood, constantly broke down; the baggage allowance of seventeen pounds per adult was far too small; and the food provisions were woefully inadequate, especially considering the demanding physical labor of pushing and pulling the handcarts 1,300 miles across plains and mountains. Five companies of handcart pioneers left Iowa for Zion that spring and summer, but the last two of them left late. As a consequence, some 900 Mormons in these two companies were caught in early snowstorms in Wyoming. When the church leadership in Salt Lake became aware of the dire circumstances of these pioneers, Younglaunched a heroic rescue effort. But for more than 200 of the immigrants, the rescue came too late. The story of the Mormon handcart tragedy has never before been told in full despite its stunning human drama: At least five times as many people died in the Mormon tragedy as died in the more famous Donner Party disaster. David Roberts has researched this story in Mormon archives and elsewhere, and has traveled along the route where the handcart pioneers came to grief. Based on his research, he concludes that the tragedy was entirely preventable. Brigham Young and others in the Mormon leadership failed to heed the abundant signs of impending catastrophe, including warnings from other Mormon elders in the East and Midwest, where the journey began. Devil''s Gate is a powerful indictment of the Mormon leadership and a gripping story of survival and suffering that is superbly told by one of our finest writers of Western history.

Famed adventure writer David Roberts retraces the route of the legendary Domínguez-Escalante expedition. In July 1776, Franciscan friars Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante set out from Santa Fe to blaze a pathway to the new Spanish missions in California, across the huge expanse of what would become the American Southwest. In October, in western Utah, ravaged by hunger and cold, the twelve-man team had to turn back. Stymied by the raging Colorado River, killing their horses for food, the men saw an exploring expedition transformed into a fight for survival. In this chronicle of adventure and history, David Roberts retraces the Spaniards’ forgotten route, using Escalante’s diary as his guide. Blending personal narrative with critical analysis, Roberts relives the glories, catastrophes, and courage of this desperate journey.

This book traces the development of modern Syria focusing on the contribution of the Ba’th party and Ba’thist ideology. It examines the roots of the Ba’th in the intellectual ferment of the 1940s and charts its growing influence on Syrian politics. Special attention is devoted to the crucial Sixth Congress of the Ba’th Party in 1963 and the key ideological document, the Muntalaqat, produced by Michel Aflaq. After 1963 the military became increasingly dominant until Hafiz al-Asad came to power in 1970. Since then the Party has been less dominant internally but Syria itself has established a pivotal position in regional affairs. The book concludes by reviewing the prospects for Syria after Asad and the potential for a Ba’thist revival.

An award-winning author and veteran mountain climber takes us deep into the Southwest backcountry to uncover secrets of its ancient inhabitants. In this thrilling story of intellectual and archaeological discovery, David Roberts recounts his last twenty years of far-flung exploits in search of spectacular prehistoric ruins and rock art panels known to very few modern travelers. His adventures range across Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado, and illuminate the mysteries of the Ancestral Puebloans and their contemporary neighbors the Mogollon and Fremont, as well as of the more recent Navajo and Comanche.

This book recounts the eventful history of conquests of the mountain-a story of tragedy and triumph told and pictured by the two men perhaps best qualified in all the world to do so.

In this groundbreaking book David Roberts sets out to demonstrate the centrality of the total work of art to European modernism since the French Revolution. The total work of art is usually understood as the intention to reunite the arts into the one integrated whole, but it is also tied from the beginning to the desire to recover and renew the public function of art. The synthesis of the arts in the service of social and cultural regeneration was a particularly German dream, which made Wagner and Nietzsche the other center of aesthetic modernism alongside Baudelaire and Mallarmé. The history and theory of the total work of art pose a whole series of questions not only to aesthetic modernism and its utopias but also to the whole epoch from the French Revolution to the totalitarian revolutions of the twentieth century. The total work of art indicates the need to revisit key assumptions of modernism, such as the foregrounding of the autonomy and separation of the arts at the expense of the countertendencies to the reunion of the arts, and cuts across the neat equation of avant-gardism with progress and deconstructs the familiar left-right divide between revolution and reaction, the modern and the antimodern. Situated at the interface between art, religion, and politics, the total work of art invites us to rethink the relationship between art and religion and art and politics in European modernism. In a major departure from the existing literature David Roberts argues for twin lineages of the total work, a French revolutionary and a German aesthetic, which interrelate across the whole epoch of European modernism, culminating in the aesthetic and political radicalism of the avant-garde movements in response to the crisis of autonomous art and the accelerating political crisis of European societies from the 1890s forward.

The author of international bestseller, Shantaram, takes us on a gripping personal journey of wonder and insight into science, belief, faith and devotion. Drawing on common-sense logic, sacred traditions, inspirations from the natural world and the iconoclastic instruction of his spiritual teacher, Roberts describes the step by step path he followed in search of spiritual connection, one that anyone, of any belief or none, can apply in their own lives. This gripping personal account of the Leap of Faith is a compellingly fresh, new addition to such enduring, spiritually inspiring works as Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Road Less Travelled and The Celestine Prophecy. From the Author: "The Spiritual Path is for anyone searching for meaning and connection, for more answers than questions, and for practical help in resetting the spiritual compass." Gregory David Roberts

"Gripping and superb. This book will steal the night from you." —Laurence Gonzales, author of Deep Survival On January 17, 1913, alone and near starvation, Douglas Mawson, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, was hauling a sledge to get back to base camp. The dogs were gone. Now Mawson himself plunged through a snow bridge, dangling over an abyss by the sledge harness. A line of poetry gave him the will to haul himself back to the surface. Mawson was sometimes reduced to crawling, and one night he discovered that the soles of his feet had completely detached from the flesh beneath. On February 8, when he staggered back to base, his features unrecognizably skeletal, the first teammate to reach him blurted out, "Which one are you?" This thrilling and almost unbelievable account establishes Mawson in his rightful place as one of the greatest polar explorers and expedition leaders. It is illustrated by a trove of Frank Hurley’s famous Antarctic photographs, many never before published in the United States.

In 1937, 17,150-foot Mt. Lucania was the highest unclimbed peak in North America. But two men--Bradford Washburn and Bob Bates--set out to climb Lucania by flying to the base of the mountain. With the assistance of both men, Roberts, one of the finest writers on mountaineering, narrates this extraordinary journey of conquest and survival with all the richness it deserves. Illustrations & photos.

The seventh edition of this two-volume narrative of English history draws on the most up-to-date primary and secondary research, encouraging students to interpret the full range of England''s social, economic, cultural, and political past from its first inhabitants to the 2020s. A History of England, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1714 focuses on the key social, economic, cultural, environmental, intellectual, and political events and themes of English history up to the early eighteenth century. Topics include the Viking and Norman conquests of the eleventh century, the creation of the monarchy, the Reformation, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The text discusses events in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland as they affected developments in England. There is a new section dealing with the decline of belief in witchcraft. This book is essential introductory reading for students of the history of England and Britain.

The seventh edition of this two-volume narrative of English history draws on the most up-to-date primary and secondary research, encouraging students to interpret the full range of England''s social, economic, cultural, and political past from its first inhabitants to the 2020s. A History of England, Volume 2: 1688 to the Present focuses on the key social, economic, cultural, environmental, intellectual, and political events and themes of English history since 1688. Topics include Britain''s emergence as a great power in the eighteenth century, the American War for Independence, the Industrial Revolution, and the economic crisis of the 1970s. The text discusses events in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland as they affected developments in England. The second volume features an in-depth treatment of the origins and course of the First and Second World Wars and provides an updated analysis of developments since 2012, including an account of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union; the resignations of David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss as prime minister; the selection of Rishi Sunak as the nation’s first British Asian prime minister; and a discussion of the 2015, 2017, and 2019 elections. This book is essential introductory reading for students of the history of England and Britain.

The bestselling author of The Mountain and No Shortcuts to the Top chronicles his three attempts to climb the world’s tenth-highest and statistically deadliest peak while exploring the dramatic and tragic history of others who have made—or attempted—the ascent. “Viesturs and Roberts have written an exhaustively researched and wonderfully compelling history of the most fascinating and dangerous of the Himalayan giants.”—David Breashers, veteran mountaineer and documentary filmmaker, director of IMAX film Everest As a high school student, Ed Viesturs read and was captivated by the French climber Maurice Herzog’s famous and grisly account of the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950. When he began his own campaign to climb the world’s fourteen highest peaks in the late 1980s, Viesturs looked forward with trepidation to undertaking Annapurna himself. Two failures to summit in 2000 and 2002 made Annapurna his nemesis. His successful 2005 ascent was the triumphant capstone of his climbing quest. In The Will to Climb Viesturs and co-author David Roberts bring the extraordinary challenges of Annapurna to vivid life through edge-of-your-seat accounts of the greatest climbs in the mountain’s history, and of his own failed attempts and eventual success. In the process Viesturs ponders what Annapurna reveals about some of our most fundamental moral and spiritual questions—questions, he believes, that we need to answer to lead our lives well.

A murder mystery featuring Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne When the Nazis seize Austria in March 1938, Verity Browne is one of the first to be deported from Vienna as a well-known anti-Fascist. Before she leaves, she is able to arrange for a young Jew, George Dreiser, to escape to England. But where he expects to find safety, he finds danger and sudden death instead. Lord Edward Corinth also finds death where he least expects it: in the grounds of Lord Mountbatten''s country house. There his nephew Frank stumbles on a corpse. Although the police are satisfied that the man died of natural causes, Edward''s niece persuades Edward that all is not as it seems... In this classic investigation, Verity and Edward find that death comes more often than not to the innocent, and that many lives are left to the mercy of strangers. Praise for David Roberts: ''A gripping, richly satisfying whodunit with finely observed characters, sparkling with insouciance and stinging menace'' Peter James ''A really well-crafted and charming mystery story'' Daily Mail ''A perfect example of golden-age mystery traditions with the cobwebs swept away'' Guardian

By developing a long-term supranational perspective, this ambitious, multi-faceted work provides a new understanding of ‘totalitarianism’, the troubling common element linking Soviet communism, Italian fascism and German Nazism. The book’s original analysis of antecedent ideas on the subject sheds light on the common origins and practices of the regimes. Through this fresh appreciation of their initial frame of mind, Roberts demonstrates how the three political experiments yielded unprecedented collective mobilization but also a characteristic combination of radicalization, myth-making, and failure. Providing deep historical analysis, the book proves that ''totalitarianism'' best characterizes the common features in the originating aspirations, the mode of action and even the outcomes of Soviet communism, Italian fascism and German Nazism. By enhancing our knowledge of what ‘totalitarianism’ was and where it came from, Roberts affords important lessons about the ongoing challenges, possibilities, and dangers of the modern political experiment.

In 1743, four stranded Russian sailors survived the next six years in the Arctic with no provisions. Making a bow and arrows from driftwood--since there are no trees there--they survived on reindeer meat until another ship blown off course rescued them.

First published in 1979. This book studies the social outlook which historians today call paternalism. It was an ideology which informed social attitudes at all levels of society and expressed itself in countless ways. In this work, David Roberts provides a comprehensive examination of the revival, amplification, and transformation of the ideals of paternalism as a social remedy in the Early Victorian Period. This title will be of interest to students of history.

A murder mystery featuring Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne Returning from Prague with suspected tuberculosis, Verity Browne checks into a private clinic on Henley-on-Thames - the perfect place for her new fiancé, Lord Edward Corinth, to keep an eye on her. While Verity recuperates at the clinic, Edward is called to investigate a series of murders. Edward''s dentist, Dr Eric Silver has been found murdered, shortly after sharing with Edward his suspicions about the deaths of three of his elderly patients. Dr Silver thinks the three deaths have an entomological connection: General Lowther had had a heart attack drinking a wine called Clos des Mouches; Hermione Totteridge, a well-known gardener, had been poisoned by the new insecticide with which she had been experimenting; and James Herold had been stung to death by his bees. Edward''s investigation comes to a thrilling climax during what many believe will be the last Henley Royal Regatta before a new European war, and both Edward and Verity are threatened by someone, or something, wicked. Praise for David Roberts: ''A classic murder mystery [...] and a most engaging pair of amateur sleuths'' Charles Osborne, author of The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie ''A really well-crafted and charming mystery story'' Daily Mail ''A perfect example of golden-age mystery traditions with the cobwebs swept away'' Guardian

Jean Stafford burst on the literary scene in 1944, when, at the age of twenty-nine, she published her bestselling novel, Boston Adventure. Three years later, Life magazine hailed her as the "most brilliant of the new fiction writers." Bafflingly, for the rest of her life, Stafford would struggle--and fail--to capitalize on that early promise. David Roberts'' compelling biography examines Stafford''s disastrous marriages, including her first marriage to the volatile poet Robert Lowell, which culminated for her in a lengthy stay in a psychiatric hospital. Beautiful and gifted, Stafford squandered her health as well as her talent, ending her life embittered and alone.

In analyses of Auto da Fe, Crowds and Power, and the aphorisms, the authors elucidate key aspects of Canetti''s interrogation of human existence and human history across five thematic complexes: individual and social psychology, totalitarian politics, religion and politics, theories of society, and power and culture. They thus trace the movement of Canetti''s thought from an apocalyptic sense of crisis to his search for cultural resources to set against the holocaust of European civilization."--BOOK JACKET.