Photo: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images (2014)
Sample of authors
Qiu Xiaolong
Qiu Xiaolong is a Chinese author, poet, translator and scholar. He was born in Shanghai and grew up in post-revolution China. During the Cultural Revolution, when students were forced into the countryside to "learn from the peasants", Qiu remained in the city as he was often bedridden due to a respiratory problem. With nothing to do during long, tedious days he began to practice tai chi in the...
Sample of authors
Childers, Erskine
The British author Robert Erskine Childers (not to be confused with his son Erskine Hamilton Childers, the fourth president of Ireland) was a famous and feared advocate of Irish independence in the early 20th century who was executed for being in possession of illegal arms. Apart from several non-fiction books, he was the author of The Riddle of the Sands (1903), considered as one of the best...