Dancing on Knives is a gripping story about family and growing up from award-winning author Jenny Pausacker. When Rochelle Parfitt?s parents split up her mother coped brilliantly, topping a perfect marriage with the perfect divorce. But now Mrs Parfitt has whisked Rochelle off to Melbourne, where neither of them knows anybody. Isolated and miserable, Rochelle starts to skip school and ends up secretly taking a job at the World Tree, an inner city bookshop that specialises in fairytales. When things get tough she finds herself using the fairytale collections as a guide to the adult world around her ? and, in the process, she discovers she has learnt how to tell her own stories.

At twenty, Sara is tormented by terror so profound she hasn't left her home in five years. Like the mermaid in the fairytale her Spanish grandmother once told her, Sara imagines she is dancing on knives. She feels suffocated by her family, especially her father, the famous artist Augusto Sanchez, whose volcanic passions dominate their lives. Then one stormy night, her father does not come home. His body is found dangling from a cliff face. Astonishingly, he is still alive, but the mystery of his fall can only be solved by the revelation of long-held family secrets. At once a suspenseful murder mystery and a lyrical love story, this novel is about how family can constrict and liberate us, how art can be both joyous and destructive, and how strength can be found in the unlikeliest places.

The book expresses the history of the Samoan fire knife dance (Samoan Ailao), from the time it was a victory ceremony of war to its modern day form. The explanation of the weapon nifooti (the deadly tooth or cutting tooth) is defined. The book elaborates the various stages of the dance from traditional to creative or a modern style, it also define how to build the actual knife itself. It also expresses how to formulate a dancing routine from its simplest stages to become a professional, to prepare the knife and body to take on the challenge to compete against the worlds best. The steps of dancing with one, two, three and four knives are mentioned. It elaborate of how to perform with safety for the performer and spectators, it expresses the rules and criteria and how to build champions from broom sticks to the real nioti. The fire knife dance book I hope will satisfy all about the dance ailao, its origin and the story behind the flames.

The icon and legend at last tells his story his way -- without the boring bits Paul Hogan first appeared on Australia's screens in 1971 as a 'tap-dancing knife thrower' on TV talent show New Faces. The then father of four and Sydney Harbour Bridge rigger from Granville did it as a dare, but when the network's switchboard lit up, he was invited back. So popular was he with viewers, Hogan became a regular on Mike Willesee's A Current Affair. The rest, as they say, is history. In collaboration with his business partner and best friend, John Cornell (who played his sidekick, Strop), 'Hoges' went on to become Australia's favourite TV comedian. His hugely popular comedy shows and appearances in unforgettable and ground-breaking ads for cigarettes, beer and tourism, came to personify Australia and Australians here and overseas, helping to change the perception of who we are as people and as a nation. Then, in 1986, Crocodile Dundee, the movie he conceived, co-wrote and starred in, became an international smash hit and earned its star a Golden Globe Award, as well as Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Despite the fact that Hoges claimed to have retired, many more successful movies followed. Yet even as his star rose ever higher, he always expected someone to grab him by the arm and say, 'What are you doing here? You're just a bloody rigger!' The Tap-Dancing Knife Thrower is a funny and candid account of the astonishing life of this 'lucky bastard', as Hoges describes himself. Full of stories never previously shared, and recounted in the comedian's inimitable, funny and self-deprecating style, The Tap-Dancing Knife Thrower is Paul Hogan's story told his way - 'without the boring bits'.

'I have no name for the thing which is in my head. It is not envy. It is more than envy. It does not scare me. I must look close enough to look at what it is.' A ploughman and his wife live a simple existence in a pre-industrial time until they, along with the hated local miller, are drawn into a struggle of knowledge, power and attraction. David Harrower's haunting play established him as one of the UK's leading contemporary playwrights. This new edition is published to coincide with the new production of this tense modern classic at the Donmar Warehouse in August 2017, directed by Yaël Farber.

Drawing on events touched on in the prologue of Steven Erikson's landmark fantasy Gardens of the Moon: A Malazan Book of the Fallen, Night of Knives is the first in Ian C. Esslemont's Novels of the Malazn Empire series--a momentous chapter in the unfolding story of the extraordinarily imagined world of Malaz. The small island of Malaz and its city gave the great empire its name, but now it is little more than a sleepy, backwater port. Tonight, however, things are different. Tonight the city is on edge, a hive of hurried, sometimes violent activity; its citizens bustle about, barring doors, shuttering windows, avoiding any stranger's stare. Because tonight there is to be a convergence, the once-in-a-generation appearance of a Shadow Moon--an occasion that threatens the good people of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker things... It was also prophesied that this night would witness the return of Emperor Kellanved, and there are those prepared to do anything to prevent this happening. As factions within the greater Empire draw up battle lines over the imperial throne, the Shadow Moon summons a far more ancient and potent presence for an all-out assault upon the island. Witnessing these cataclysmic events are Kiska, a young girl who yearns to flee the constraints of the city, and Temper, a grizzled, battle-weary veteran who seeks simply to escape his past. Each is to play a part in a conflict that will not only determine the fate of Malaz City, but also of the world beyond... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

With characters ranging from the desperate to the obsessive and wildly comic, Mark Anthony Jarman's 19 Knives employs dazzling linguistic verve and staggering metaphoric powers in every sentence. Jarman doesn't just write about people. He puts us in their skin so that we feel their frailty and courage. No other contemporary Canadian short story writer slices up the imaginative excitement, cultural hybridity, and Joycean play of language we see in 19 Knives. Including one story shortlisted for the U.S.'s prestigious O. Henry Prize, and several other prize-winners, this collection brings a major emerging fiction writer to the fore.

The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

A "meticulously researched and comprehensive" (Financial Times​) history of the devastating war in the heart of Africa's Congo, with first-hand accounts of the continent's worst conflict in modern times. At the heart of Africa is the Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal war in which millions have died. In Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, renowned political activist and researcher Jason K. Stearns has written a compelling and deeply-reported narrative of how Congo became a failed state that collapsed into a war of retaliatory massacres. Stearns brilliantly describes the key perpetrators, many of whom he met personally, and highlights the nature of the political system that brought these people to power, as well as the moral decisions with which the war confronted them. Now updated with a new introduction, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters tells the full story of Africa's Great War.

From New York Times bestselling illustrator Wendy MacNaughton and bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald--the stories behind the tattoos that chefs proudly wear, with their signature recipes. Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals [IACP] Cookbook Design Award. Chefs take their tattoos almost as seriously as their knives. From gritty grill cooks in backwoods diners to the executive chefs at the world's most popular restaurants, it's hard to find a cook who doesn't sport some ink. Knives & Ink features the tattoos of more than sixty-five chefs from all walks of life and every kind of kitchen, including 2014 James Beard Award-winner Jamie Bissonnette, Alaska-fishing-boat cook Mandy Lamb, Toro Bravo's John Gorham, and many more. Each tattoo has a rich, personal story behind it: Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food remembers his mother with fiery angel wings on his forearms, and Dominique Crenn of Michelin two-starred Atelier Crenn bears ink that reminds her to do “anything in life that you put your heart into.” Like the dishes these chefs have crafted over the years, these tattoos are beautiful works of art. Knives & Ink delves into the wide and wonderful world of chef tattoos and shares their fascinating backstories, along with personal recipes from many of the chefs.