Topics of Our Time

From the Booker-shortlisted author of The Overstory and Bewilderment'There is no contemporary American writer quite like Richard Powers ... It is rare to find a novel as intellectually and emotionally engaging as this' GUARDIANJonah, Ruth, and Joseph are the children of mixed-race parents who aspire to raise them beyond the constraints of time and identity, immersing them in a world of song. However, they cannot shield them from the realities of the outside world forever.Jonah, a talented young tenor, finds that the opera world remains preoccupied with his race. Ruth, rejecting classical music, disappears instead into a life dedicated to activism and a new relationship. Over the years, Joseph - the middle child, a pianist, and our narrator - struggles not only to stay connected to his siblings but also to carve out a future on his own.A powerful story of a tragedy of race in America, The Time of Our Singing is an enthralling, harrowing novel about the lives of choices of one family at

A definitive portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the seventieth anniversary of her reign by a renowned royal biographer.Shy but with a steely self-confidence; inscrutable despite ten decades in the public eye; unflappable; devout; indulgent; outwardly reserved, inwardly passionate; unsentimental; inquisitive; young at heart. All of these describe Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned through more seismic social change than any monarch since 1066 (Charles I included). From the Abdication to the Sussexes, she has witnessed family crises on a scale not seen since the days of George III. Yet she is not merely hanging on. She is a 21st Century global phenomenon commanding unrivalled respect and affection. Sealed off during the greatest peacetime emergency of modern times, she has stuck to her own maxim: ';I must be seen to be believed.' And now she is preparing for an event without parallel since the reign of Louis XIV: her Platinum Jubilee. On February 6th, 2022 ,she mark