წიგნების კატალოგი

It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades–all before his suicide at age forty-one. This acclaimed biography of the founder of computer science, with a new preface by the author that addresses Turing’s royal pardon in 2013, is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life. Capturing both the inner and outer drama of Turing’s life, Andrew Hodges tells how Turing’s revolutionary idea of 1936–the concept of a universal machine–laid the foundation for the modern computer and how Turing brought the idea to practical realization in 1945 with his electronic design. The book also tells how this work was directly related to Turing’s leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph that was critical to Allied victory in the Atlantic. At the same time, this is the tragic account of a man who, despite his wartime service, was eventually arrested, stripped of his security clearance, and forced to undergo a humiliating treatment program–all for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime. The inspiration for a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, Alan Turing: The Enigma is a gripping story of mathematics, computers, cryptography, and homosexual persecution.

For many, Ernest Hemingway remains more a compilation of myths than a person: soldier, sportsman, lover, expat and, of course, writer.

But the actual life beneath these various legends remains elusive; what did he look like as a laughing child or young soldier? What was his handwriting like and what did he say in his most personal letters? How did the train tickets he held on his way from France to Spain or across the American Midwest feel, and what kind of notes did he take on his journeys? This remarkable book answers these questions.

Featuring a foreword by Hemingway’s son Patrick and an afterword by his grandson Sean, the book has the intimate feel of being a member of the family. It tells the story of a major American icon through the objects he touched, the moments he saw, the thoughts he had every day.

Beautifully designed, including over 400 dazzling images of him at every stage of his life along with the letters, notes and miscellany that made his life so rich, it is an intimate, illuminating portrait like no other.

It is a one-of-a-kind, stunning tribute to one of the most titanic figures in literature.

They say the Rooster House is the tallest building in Ukraine: even from its basement, you can see all the way to Siberia. Decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the cries of tortured prisoners had long faded, little Victoria watched her great-grandmother take the longest route around the city to avoid walking past its gates, with the giant red sirens – called roosters in Ukrainian – atop its walls.As an adult, Victoria visited her grandmother in 2014, and while the Russian state annexed Crimea, she came across her great-grandfather’s diary, one page scored deep with the single line: ‘Brother Nikodim, vanished in the 1930s fighting for a free Ukraine.’ She had never heard of this uncle and no one – especially her grandmother – could bear to tell her about him. It took years of searching Ukraine’s post-Soviet bureaucracy, travelling to tiny, ruined villages and speaking to survivors of that era, but in the end,Victoria had to face the terrifying Rooster House. It was there she finally found out what happened to her family and how they bore its imprints to this day. The Rooster House is a Ukrainian family history, embroidering its tragic and little understood past with the true colours of human experience: the families torn apart, the traditions that endure and the complex relationship with a Soviet past and children making new lives in the West. Profound, compassionate and threaded with unexpected joy, it is a love letter to a family and their country.