Hamdi Abu Golayyel offers a striking portrait of a marginalized Egyptian community, bringing to life the absurd and tragic characters who occupy the margins of society while paying tribute to a historical Cairene neighborhood. By turns comic, reverential, beautiful, and tawdry, the novel reveals a social climate where ruthlessness and goodness seem almost indistinguishable and humanity is on display in all its rich variety. The novelist’s distinctive vision of Egypt’s various postmonarchy political regimes and ideologies shapes this dark comedy of human relations and underground pursuits in late twentieth-century Egypt. Through intricate levels of allegory, puns, and double meanings, Abu Golayyel effectively plays on the rhetoric associated with the nationalist government of Gamal Abdel Nasser, including the post-Nasser turn toward international capitalism with its a consumer-oriented economy-and movement away from the workers’ rights orientation of the 1960s. This novel represents a new voice and a new stage in contemporary Arabic literature, as it criticizes official ideologies, whether socialist, capitalist, or Islamist. Abu Golayyel’s cast of memorable characters embodies the arbitrariness of life and the search for purpose and dignity in a social milieu that offers little of either. Marilyn Booth’s translation fluently renders the novel’s delicate levels of diction and rhythm, making this brilliant Egyptian novel available to a much-deserved wider audience.

What does a woman in her fifties do when her husband walks off with a younger model? A valuable string of pearls provides the ready-made answer -she sets about stealing jewellery as a declaration of independence. Theft provides more adventure than profit until a golden retriever, a craftsman joiner and a young man threatened with violence provide unexpected interests of a different kind for Martha Plasky. A diversity of crime, chaotic river cruising, some skilled wood-work and a hopeful apprenticeship disturb orderly domestic life in the riverside suburbs of London. The planned career of an ambitious thief is amiably thwarted by other kinds of adventure. Please be warned, this book contains a modicum of sex and violence but far more about the triumphs of some agreeable people. David Stewart-David is a retired lecturer who has turned to fiction to escape from footnotes.

Winner of the 2012 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism Hundreds of companies have slashed pensions and health coverage for millions of retirees, claiming that a “perfect storm” of stock market losses, aging workers, and spiraling costs have forced them to take drastic measures. But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Ellen E. Schultz, an award-winning investigative reporter formerly of The Wall Street Journal, reveals how large employers and the retirement industry have all played a huge and hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits. A little over a decade ago, pension plans were fat. But companies used slick accounting and dubious loopholes to turn their pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters, and profit centers. As pensions weakened, companies slashed benefits for workers while doling out gargantuan pensions to their top executives. Drawing on original analysis of company data, government filings, and confidential memos, Schultz uncovers decades of widespread deception during which employers exaggerated their retiree burdens while tricking employees, misleading shareholders, and lobbying for taxpayer handouts.

Thieves and scammers are on the prowl for easy targets who have significant exposed assets—and if you're a senior citizen who saved for retirement, you may be the perfect mark. Fran Tarkenton, the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback who became a succesful entrepreneur, has partnered with certified public accountant and financial executive Rick Gossett to present this practical, up-to-date guide to scam-proofing your savings during your golden years. Safe & Secure will give you ten specific actions steps that will turn you from an “easy” target into a “hard” target. A well-prepared senior who understands the potential for financial abuse and has taken the precautions recommended in this book is more than likely to remain safe and secure through a long and comfortable retirement. “As our country gracefully ages, we need to make sure to do all we can to protect the elderly—from their health, to their mind, to their finances. Once again, a man we all trust and respect has stepped forward and answered the call. With his simple and effective ways of explaining important concepts, legend Fran Tarkenton is doing his part to keep the elderly safe, drawing on his successful career both on and off the football field.” —SANJAY GUPTA, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Emory University and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent “From helping us all recognize that we’re potential targets to providing easily comprehensible and implementable solutions, Fran Tarkenton and Rick Gossett have provided an extremely invaluable and indispensable resource. Elder nancial abuse will remain a major concern as our population ages. The tools presented here can help everyone be prepared and less likely to be a victim.” —THOMAS E. PRICE, MD, former Secretary of Health and Human Services and former member of US House of Representatives

In elegant, sensual prose, Michael Crummey crafts a haunting tale set in Newfoundland at the turn of the 19th century. A richly imagined story about love, loss and the heartbreaking compromises—both personal and political—that undermine lives, River Thieves is a masterful debut novel. Published in Canada and the United States, it joins a wave of classic literature from eastern Canada, including the works of Alistair MacLeod, Wayne Johnston and David Adams Richards, while resonating at times with the spirit of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain and Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. An enthralling story of passion and suspense, River Thieves captures both the vast sweep of history and the intimate lives of a deeply emotional and complex cast of characters caught in its wake.

John and Martha Herring's assumed success was apparent in their lavish lifestyle - a mansion, a penchant for luxury automobiles, travel, fine dining, and expensive art and jewelry. Not a bad life - if they had earned it. Though in the twisted minds of the couple, they had. The husband-and-wife crime team knew how the Medicare and pension systems worked, and they knew how to work the systems. Through intricate schemes, bogus account statements, fraudulent accounting, and counterfeit investments, the couple bilked millions from Medicare and from their employees' pension plans. The first installment in the Unjust Enrichment true-crime series by federal investigator Wayne Thurber, Thieves of Highland Road is a picture of what white-collar crime looks like from the inside. The result is an informative read that will appeal to any individual's sense of justice.

Join the author on his year-long quest to uncover all that retirement has to offer. Along the way, you'll discover: * The scary side of fishing;* Why it's wrong when board games become blood sports;* The unexpected connection between cooking classes and true romance;* How the author's cat convinced him to take up yoga (and why that was a terrible idea);* The thrill of jumping out of an airplane without risking your life;* Golfing for the ball challenged;* The eternal appeal of Elly May Clampett; and,* How to do nothing and feel good about it.

Grutman gives readers a rollicking behind-the-scenes tour of American law--and a scathing indictment of its frequent excesses.

#1 International Bestseller The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel meets The Italian Job in internationally-bestselling author Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg’s witty and insightful comedy of errors about a group of delinquent seniors whose desire for a better quality of life leads them to rob and ransom priceless artwork. Martha Andersson may be seventy-nine-years-old and live in a retirement home, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to stop enjoying life. So when the new management of Diamond House starts cutting corners to save money, Martha and her four closest friends—The Genius, The Rake, Christina and Anna-Gretta (a.k.a. The League of Pensioners)—won’t stand for it. Fed up with early bedtimes and overcooked veggies, this group of feisty seniors sets about to regain their independence, improve their lot, and stand up for seniors everywhere. Their solution? White collar crime. What begins as a relatively straightforward robbery of a nearby luxury hotel quickly escalates into an unsolvable heist at the National Museum. With police baffled and the Mafia hot on their trail, the League of Pensioners has to stay one walker’s length ahead if it’s going to succeed…. Told with all the insight and humor of A Man Called Ove or Where’d You Go Bernadette?, The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules is a delightful and heartwarming novel that goes to prove the adage that it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.

There's a new thief of thieves in town and they're using the Redmond name to pull heists. Will stealing Conrad's legacy be enough to pull the master thief out of retirement? Collects THIEF OF THIEVES #26-31.