The Investigator is set in the mid 20th century USSR. With Joseph Stalin at the helm the post-war Soviet society struggles to rebuild and heal the nation of its multiple wounds. Nothing comes easy. The authorities are being confronted with new and quite creative criminal structures that shatter socialist ideals.A young woman is murdered in a typical Soviet town somewhere in Ukraine. In the spirit of the era everyone is a suspect. Many theories of the crime emerge and to solve the mystery an i...

The book Behind the Silk Curtain is about multiculturalism, adapting to new environments, socializing with people of different cultures, about linguistic integration, gaining experience, and facing challenges, about friends and family, about some of the Kazakh traditions and the country's mentality, about charity and weddings and many other fascinating contexts she was involved in.

Updated edition with 6 diagrams per page

Chess is 99% tactics. This celebrated observation is not only true for beginners, but also for club players (Elo 1500 – 2000). If you want to win more games, nothing works better than training your combination skills.

There are two types of books on tactics: those that introduce the concepts followed by some examples, and workbooks that contain lots of exercises. FIDE Master Frank Erwich has done both: he explains all the key tactical ideas AND provi...

Figuratief schilderes Juane Xue (1962) komt oorspronkelijk uit China en was als kind al een klein tekenwonder. Zij kreeg van haar vader de bijnaam "Hui", wat "zonneschijn" betekent.

Xue woont sinds 2001 in Nederland. Haar unieke stijl is in tegenspraak met de beroemde uitspraak van Rudyard Kipling "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet". Haar werk combineert de subtiele tonaliteit van het Oosten met het uitgesproken gevoel voor kleur, dat zo typerend is voor de Frans...

Zinaida Tulub's novel The Exile is one of the most brilliant works in the canon of fiction about Taras Shevchenko, the outstanding Ukrainian poet and artist.The idea of writing about Taras Shevchenko first occurred to her when she was in her thirties, during a period spent living in exile in Kazakhstan (1947-1956). Initially, Tulub worked on the screenplay for a film called Kobzar and Yakin, which can be seen as an early prototype for the novel. She was only able to start work on the latter a...

Afraid of being found out! The Impostor Syndrome.Do you ever feel as if you are pretending to be bigger or better than you are in reality? That everyone has expectations of you that you may not be able to live up to? That you are afraid of being found out, while you do know that, actually, that is not correct? Or perhaps there is nothing wrong at all with your self-confidence, and you really know what you are capable of. You exude confidence as well. And yet, sometimes there is that little vo...

Warm, sweet, fun and tasty. The pride of Holland, and a real all-rounder. Stroopwafels, so familiar yet so exciting. Making them yourself is easier than you'd think, with our recipes for syrup, stroopwafels and syrup biscuits. If you want to, you can even prepare a complete stroopwafel menu. From appetisers to soups, and from main courses to desserts. Don't feel like cooking? Why not try one of the sweet and sticky craft ideas, for a child's party or even your own? Or follow us on our syrup j...

On 30 April 2023, in Astana, Kazakhstan, Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren sensationally defeated Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in a dramatic battle for the chess crown. Ding Liren not only became the 17th World Chess Champion, but he also won the hearts of chess fans across the globe with his incredible fighting spirit and disarming interviews. At the final press conference, the new champion said the match ‘reflected the deepest of his soul’.

Humble and almost vulnerable in his demeanour, D...

Sergei Tiviakov was unbeaten in a streak of more than a hundred chess games as a professional player. Who better to share the secrets of Rock Solid Chess and the activity and value of pieces than Tiviakov?

The highly acclaimed first volume of his chess strategy trilogy dealt with pawn structures. In this second volume, Sergei moves on to discuss piece play and unique chessboard situations. Topics covered include the bishop pair, opposite-coloured bishops, centralization and the almost-ignored...

Empire of Corruption is Vladimir Soloviev's attempt to share his opinions on Russia's ways of dealing with corruption. With a certain irony, Soloviev calls the issue 'the Russian national pastime', explaining why in the country where everyone is supposedly fighting corruption, corruption still rules.The author's detailed research into the corruption structure in Russia, with concrete examples and historical references, is now available to the reader in the English language. Soloviev goes furt...