Knelman's five-year exploration into art theft reveals a complex network of deceit, violence, and corruption spanning from Egypt to major cities like Los Angeles, New York, and London. His journey uncovers the dark underbelly of the art world, exposing the lengths to which individuals will go for valuable pieces. The narrative intertwines thrilling elements of crime with a deep dive into the cultural significance of art, making for a captivating investigation into a hidden realm.
Whatever happened to the love letter? Has the written word lost its charm in our digitally obsessed, speed-dating age?In this inspired and unique collection of new fiction, Joshua Knelman and Rosalind Porter have asked over forty celebrated writers to explore the potency and power of a classic, yet neglected, genre- the love letter. Four Letter Word brings us work - published here for the first time - from a dazzling array of contemporary writers, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Michel Faber, Geoff Dyer, Neil Gaiman, A.L. Kennedy, Audrey Niffenegger and Lionel Shriver, to name just a few.These innovative pieces remind us of how enticing words can be and allow us a glimpse of what love looks like in the twenty-first century. Each 'letter' is radically different from the others, each is a testimony to the creative powers of our leading writers today, and each is guaranteed to seduce.
"Mad Men meets Bad Blood in this addictive, behind-the-scenes globe-trotting narrative of moral ambiguity, law, public policy, and big tobacco. "Given everything the lawyer knew up to that point about smoking, as far as he could tell, cigarettes shouldn't even have been available as a mass market product..."It's the start of the new millennium and a young lawyer is recruited to work for an unnamed multinational company. It isn't until his second interview that the product the company produces is revealed to him: cigarettes. Possibly the most controversial consumer product in human history: seductive, addictive, and deadly--yet completely legal. Over the next decade, he travels the world as he works as legal counsel to successfully market cigarettes in dozens of countries. Firebrand ventures into the heart of the tobacco industry and the icy paradoxes of capitalism, each chapter a counterintuitive lesson on how cigarette companies, the target of anti-smoking campaigns by health authorities, pivoted and recovered after the seismic 1964 Surgeon General's Report and 200-billion-dollar debt of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement--and are now thriving, drenched in profits from their one billion smokers worldwide. As Mad Men did for the alcohol-fuelled, oversexed, corrupt world of New York advertising, Firebrand does for the even more despised world of big tobacco, in an addictive piece of storytelling that spans the globe. The lawyer's work takes him from manufacturing factories to hocking "sticks" at UK corner store counters; from tacky resorts in Spain and pirate city-states to luxury hotels and Grand Prix events across European and Asian cities. A contemporary tale of our ambiguous times, told through the eyes of an anti-hero created by our corporate age. Written with the character-based gusto and narrative flare akin to Michael Lewis, and the behind-the-scenes intrigue of Bad Blood and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Firebrand is a compelling paradox of corporate responsibility, public health, and an engrossing tale of a morally dubious yet completely legal enterprise."-- Provided by publisher
