The Prime Minister Of Paradise

As a student working in the dusty archives of the Sewanee Review, John Jeremiah Sullivan came across an article entitled âe~Lost Utopia of the American Frontierâe(tm) and was immediately hooked on the dramatic story of a lost book, an alternative history of the South, a white Indian. It was a story heâe(tm)d chase for the next two decades. In 1735, a charismatic German lawyer and accused atheist named Christian Gottlieb Priber fled Germany under threat of arrest, bound for colonial South Carolina. In the Cherokee village of Grand Tellico, he created a Utopian society that he named Paradise. For six years, Paradise was governed by a set of revolutionary ideas that included racial equality, sexual freedom, and a lack of private property, ideas which he chronicled in a mysterious manuscript he called Paradise. Priberâe(tm)s ideas were so subversive that he was hunted for half a decade and eventually captured by the British âe" making headlines across the world âe" and imprisoned until his death. The only copy of Paradise was apparently destroyed. Now, in a rare combination of ground-breaking research and stunning narrative skill, award-winning writer John Jeremiah Sullivan brings that lost history vividly to life.

The forgotten history of a colonial-era Utopia resonates to the present day in this epic of narrative nonfiction in the tradition of David Grann's The Lost City of Z and Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail In 1735, charismatic German lawyer and accused atheist Christian Gottlieb Priber fled Germany, under threat of arrest, bound for colonial South Carolina. When he arrived, he sold his possessions and hiked 400 miles west, into the woods of what is now Tennessee. There, in the Cherokee village of Grand Tellico, Priber created a utopian society that he named Paradise. For six years, Paradise was governed by a set of revolutionary ideas that included racial equality, sexual freedom, and a lack of private property. Most troublingly for the English, Priber spoke against colonialism itself. Many of his ideas - which he chronicled in a mysterious manuscript he called Paradise -- went on to inform the American and French Revolutions, as well socialist theory. Priber's ideas were so subversive that he was hunted for half a decade and eventually captured by the British - making headlines in London -- and was imprisoned until his death. At that point, the only copy of his book was apparently burned. John Jeremiah Sullivan brings this lost history to vivid life, immersing readers in the world of the colonies, 18th-century Native American life, and Enlightenment-era Europe with a vast body of research and his singular narrative gifts.

The political landscape of British Columbia has been characterized by divisiveness since Confederation. But why and how did it become Canada’s most fractious province? A Long Way to Paradise traces the evolution of political ideas in the province from 1871 to 1972, exploring British Columbia’s journey to socio-political maturity. Robert McDonald explains its classic left-right divide as a product of “common sense” liberalism that also shaped how British Columbians met the demands and challenges of a modernizing world. This lively, richly detailed overview provides fresh insight into the fascinating story of provincial politics in Canada’s lotus land.

A Cowherd in Paradise chronicles the remarkable lives of Wong Guey Dang (1902–1983) and Jiang Tew Thloo (1911–2002). Ah Dang was born into an impoverished family and sold as a child. In 1921, his adoptive father paid a five-hundred-dollar head tax to send Ah Dang to Canada. Eight years later, driven to create a family of his own, Ah Dang returned to China, where he chose Ah Thloo as his bride from a matchmaker’s photo. As a child, Ah Thloo worked as a cowherd and from the age of six was responsible for her family’s fortune—their water buffalo. Ah Thloo not only became a wife and mother, but also grew to be a courageous defender against invaders and a champion of the weak. Married for over half a century, the couple was forced to live apart for twenty-five years because of Canada’s exclusionary immigration laws. In Canada, Ah Dang became a successful Montreal restaurateur; while in China, Ah Thloo struggled to survive through natural disasters, wars, and revolutions. A Cowherd in Paradise is the moving tale of one couple’s search for love, family, and forgiveness.

Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction The drama that shaped today's Iran, from the Revolution to the present day In 1979, seemingly overnight, Iran became the first revolutionary theocracy in modern times. Since then, the country has been largely a black box to the West, a sinister presence on the world stage. But inside Iran, a breathtaking drama has unfolded as religious thinkers, political operatives, poets, journalists, and activists have imagined and reimagined what Iran should be. They have drawn as deeply on the traditions of the West as on the East and have acted upon their beliefs with urgency and passion, frequently staking their lives for them. With more than a decade of experience reporting on, researching, and writing about Iran, Laura Secor narrates this unprecedented history as a story of individuals caught up in the slipstream of their time, seizing and wielding ideas powerful enough to shift their country's course as they wrestle with Iran's apparatus of violent repression as well as its rich and often tragic history. Essential reading at this moment when the world has never been more entwined, Children of Paradise will stand as a classic of political reporting, an indelible portrait of a nation and its people striving for change.

Lucy Gladwell arrives in Mauritius from England to live with her aunt and uncle at their grand plantation house. Under the surface of this beautiful island paradise, poised between India and Africa, there is unease, and Lucy cannot help but feel discomfited by the restrictions she sees around her, and by the strangely attractive Don Lambodar, a young translator from Ceylon. It is 1825: the age of slavery is coming to its messy end, and word is lapping against the shores of the island of a charismatic new Indian leader who will shine the light of liberty. For Lucy, for Don, for everyone on the island, a devastating storm is coming...