Putting the cult back in cult fiction, this is a darkly witty and sharply questioning debut A chilling vision of a contemporary USA where the sinister Church of America is destroying lives. Our cynical protagonist, sixteen-year-old Vivian Apple, is awaiting the fated 'Rapture' - or rather the lack of it. Her evangelical parents have been in the Church's thrall for too long, and she's looking forward to getting them back. Except that when Vivian arrives home the day after the supposed 'Rapture', her parents are gone. All that is left are two holes in the ceiling... Viv is determined to carry on as normal, but when she starts to suspect that her parents might still be alive, she realises she must uncover the truth. Joined by Peter, a boy claiming to know the real whereabouts of the Church, and Edie, a heavily pregnant Believer who has been 'left behind', they embark on a road trip across America. Encountering freak weather, roving 'Believer' gangs and a strange teenage group calling themselves the 'New Orphans', Viv soon begins to realise that the Rapture was just the beginning.

This is not an uplifting tale of heroes and heroines. Get that out of your head now. It's a tale of survival. It's a tale of dried blood beneath your nails, of new pain, of gnawing hunger and unrelenting loneliness, of fear and hatred, and yes, of courage. In The Apocalypse, the great majority of the men and women who fought with honor, with a sense of duty and loyalty, gave their lives for others, leaving those without honor to flourish and rule. Their rule is not marked by decency or civility, but by wicked brutality. Yet, in some very rare cases, the kind and the noble survived. These hardened survivors learned to live among the undead, but now they must learn how to stay alive among creatures that are far more monstrous: their fellow man.

The theatre of early modern England was a disastrous affair. What we tend to remember of the Shakespearean stage and its history are landmark moments of dissolution. This title is a study of these catastrophes and the theory of performance they convey.

From the creators of Homeland and American Horror Story comes Fugitive X, the chilling sequel to Revolution 19. After the robot revolution, anyone who escaped capture by the bots made their homes in secret freeposts in the wilderness outside the bot-controlled Cities. Siblings Nick, Kevin, and Cass never would have dreamed of venturing into the Cities, but when their parents are kidnapped, they have no choice but to follow them. Not everything goes as planned, though, and the siblings find themselves fleeing the city without their parents. And then the three are separated, and for the first time, they are on their own. Cass is brought in for reprogramming by the bots; Nick joins up with rebel soldiers; and Kevin meets the man who is responsible for the robot technology—and their only chance at defeating the robots once and for all. As the three fight to take down the bots, they must prepare for a looming war between bots and humans that will decide the fate of the human world forever.

As the world's thousands of believers gather in Jerusalem for a stadium rally, the Tribulation Force struggles with their own personal crises. Newspaper reporter Buck Williams and his wife, Chloe, question whether or not they should have a child when the future of the world is so uncertain. Meanwhile, Rayford Steele discovers the shocking truth about his wife, Amanda. Nicolae Carpathia continues his rise to power, forcing believers underground. But Nicolae isn't prepared for a plague of scorpion-like locusts tormenting his followers—with a pain so horrible that men try to kill themselves but aren't allowed to die. A repackage of the fifth book in the New York Times best-selling Left Behind series.

On May 20, 1347, Cola di Rienzo overthrew without violence the turbulent rule of Rome’s barons and the absentee popes. A young visionary and the best political speaker of his time, Cola promised Rome a return to its former greatness. Ronald G. Musto’s vivid biography of this charismatic leader—whose exploits have enlivened the work of poets, composers, and dramatists, as well as historians—peels away centuries of interpretation to reveal the realities of fourteenth-century Italy and to offer a comprehensive account of Cola’s rise and fall. A man of modest origins, Cola gained a reputation as a talented professional with an unparalleled knowledge of Rome’s classical remains. After earning the respect and friendship of Petrarch and the sponsorship of Pope Clement VI, Cola won the affections and loyalties of all classes of Romans. His buono stato established the reputation of Rome as the heralded New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse and quickly made the city a potent diplomatic and religious center that challenged the authority—and power—of both pope and emperor. At the height of Cola’s rule, a conspiracy of pope and barons forced him to flee the city and live for years as a fugitive until he was betrayed and taken to Avignon to stand trial as a heretic. Musto relates the dramatic story of Cola’s subsequent exoneration and return to central Italy as an agent of the new pope. But only weeks after he reestablished his government, he was slain by the Romans atop the Capitoline hill. In his exploration, Musto examines every known document pertaining to Cola’s life, including papal, private, and diplomatic correspondence rarely used by earlier historians. With his intimate knowledge of historical Rome—its streets and ruins, its churches and palaces, from the busy Tiber riverfront to the lost splendor of the Capitoline—he brings a cinematic flair to this fascinating historical narrative.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

Abortion has remained one of the most volatile and polarizing issues in the United States for over four decades. Americans are more divided today than ever over abortion, and this debate colors the political, economic, and social dynamics of the country. This book provides a balanced, clear-eyed overview of the abortion debate, including the perspectives of both the pro-life and pro-choice movements. It covers the history of the debate from colonial times to the present, the mobilization of mass movements around the issue, the ways it is understood by ordinary Americans, the impact it has had on US political development, and the differences between the abortion conflict in the US and the rest of the world. Throughout these discussions, Ziad Munson demonstrates how the meaning of abortion has shifted to reflect the changing anxieties and cultural divides which it has come to represent. Abortion Politics is an invaluable companion for exploring the abortion issue and what it has to say about American society, as well as the dramatic changes in public understanding of women’s rights, medicine, religion, and partisanship.