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A TRUE STORY THAT HAS TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF THOUSANDS

'Unmitigated delight from cover to cover' DAILY TELEGRAPH

'A real-life love story . . . A timeless period piece. Do read it' WALL STREET JOURNAL

'Beguile an hour of your time and put you in tune with mankind' NEW YORK TIMES

This charming classic, first published in 1970, brings together twenty years of correspondence between Helene Hanff, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London. Through the years, though never meeting and separated both geographically and culturally, they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Their relationship, captured so acutely in these letters, is one that will grab your heart and not let go.

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The national bestseller, Phosphorescence is a beautiful, intimate and inspiring investigation into how we can find and nurture within ourselves that essential quality of internal happiness - the 'light within' - which will sustain us even through the darkest times.

Over the last decade, we have become better at knowing what brings us contentment, well-being and joy. We know, for example, that there are a few core truths to the science of happiness. We know that being kind and altruistic makes us happy, that turning off devices, talking to people, forging relationships, living with meaning and delving into the concerns of others offer our best chance of achieving happiness. But how do we retain happiness? It often slips out of our hands as quickly as we find it. So, when we are exposed to, or learn, good things, how do we continue to burn with them?

And more than that, when our world goes dark, when we're overwhelmed by illness or heartbreak, loss or pain, how do we survive, stay alive or even bloom? In the muck and grit of a daily existence full of disappointments and a disturbing lack of control over many of the things that matter most - finite relationships, fragile health, fraying economies, a planet in peril - how do we find, nurture and carry our own inner, living light - a light to ward off the darkness?

An intimate, achingly beautiful and inspiring exploration of the ways we can pursue awe, wonder and purpose, from one of our best, most perceptive writers.

'Like spending an evening with a wonderful friend, with unlimited time and a glass of good wine in hand ... A beautiful and rallying read' The Australian

'Julia Baird's new, beautiful consideration of the things that glow through the murk ... a book such as this one - one that aims to provoke delight and wonder and comfort, that is at its heart trying to find answers or modes of connection, or light - is of the moment in the best possible way' The Guardian

'Intelligent and emotionally astute ... Many will find sustenance in reading it' Sydney Morning Herald

'That is the beauty of this profound book. It transports you into all the deep, inner yearnings you've had for a long time, and then articulates them for you ... I could rave about this gem of a book forever. We need this book. You need this book. It is the perfect gift for us all right now. It is perfect' Better Reading

'Julia Baird is an alchemist, turning the dross of her life's harshest blows into shimmering prose. Both timeless and timely, this is a book of wisdom and wonder.' Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and Caleb's Crossing

'This book is a love letter to the world by a brilliant writer who nearly left it. Julia Baird has gone into the depths of human experience-her own, and others'-and come back with this luminous and profound celebration of people and the planet. Phosphorescence is a treasure to read and re-read your whole life.' Anna Funder, author of All That I Am and Stasiland

'I loved this book. A cupped hand full of light in a darkened world. A collection of glittering curios. I'll hold it close in trying times.' Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment

",{"_811":827,"_813":1063,"_784":1064},{"_811":827,"_813":840,"_784":1152},"HarperCollins Publishers Australia",{"_811":827,"_813":818,"_784":843},{"_811":827,"_813":845,"_784":846},{"_811":827,"_813":848,"_784":849},{"_811":827,"_813":1071,"_784":1157},"MEMOIRS; ASSERTIVENESS, MOTIVATION & SELF-ESTEEM; POPULAR MEDICINE & HEALTH",{"_811":827,"_813":851,"_784":1159},"2023-04-05",{"_811":827,"_813":854,"_784":1161},"336",{"_811":827,"_813":821,"_784":1163},"Fourth Estate",{"_811":857,"_813":724,"_784":858},{"_811":857,"_813":1166,"_784":861},"onorder_wellington",{"_811":857,"_813":863,"_784":861},{"_811":857,"_813":1169,"_784":1170},"last_received_wellington","30/12/2025",{"_811":857,"_813":1172,"_784":1173},"price_wellington","33.0",{"_811":857,"_813":1175,"_784":1005},"stock_wellington",{"_811":873,"_813":874,"_784":1177},"Biography,Essays",{"_811":873,"_813":724,"_784":1179},"Biography;Essays",{"_811":873,"_813":878,"_784":1181},"BIOGRA,ESSAYS",{"_811":873,"_813":1183,"_784":1184},"codes_wellington","BIOGRA;ESSAYS",{"_811":873,"_813":882,"_784":1096},{"_811":873,"_813":1187,"_784":1098},"sub_wellington",{"_811":873,"_813":887,"_784":1100},{"_811":873,"_813":1190,"_784":1102},"main_wellington",{"_811":873,"_813":891,"_784":892},{"_811":873,"_813":1193,"_784":1194},"web_departments_wellington","NON FICTION;NON FICTION",{"_811":873,"_813":894,"_784":1196},"BIO,HAP",{"_811":873,"_813":1198,"_784":895},"department_wellington",{"_761":1200},[1201],{"_764":109,"_765":-5,"_123":1202,"_203":1203,"_775":1207,"_781":1208,"_17":1128,"_785":1210,"_787":1211},"gid://shopify/ProductVariant/45514707402949",{"_768":1204,"_770":771,"_123":1205,"_757":1131,"_773":1206},"Phosphorescence Cover Image","gid://shopify/ProductImage/40457196306629",1491,{"_777":778,"_779":1173},[1209],{"_744":745,"_784":1128},"9781460757161",{"_789":1212},[1213],{"_792":1214},{"_794":109,"_126":1215},{"_744":722},{"_123":1217,"_17":1218,"_735":1219,"_755":1220,"_808":1222,"_759":1289},"gid://shopify/Product/8304048242885","Daughters of the Bamboo Grove","daughters-of-the-bamboo-grove-from-china-to-america-a-true-story-of-abduction-adoption-separated-twins",{"_757":1221},"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0625/6679/3413/files/978-1-923058-52-1.jpg?v=1748222061",[1223,1224,1226,1228,1230,1232,1234,1235,1236,1238,1240,1242,1243,1245,1247,1248,-5,-5,1249,1251,-5,1253,1254,1255,1256,1257,1258,1260,1262,1264,1265,1266,1268,1269,1270,1272,1273,1274,1276,1277,1278,1280,1281,1282,1284,-5,1285,1286,1287,1288],{"_811":812,"_813":17,"_784":1218},{"_811":812,"_813":815,"_784":1225},"DEMICK BARBARA",{"_811":812,"_813":818,"_784":1227},"TP",{"_811":812,"_813":821,"_784":1229},"TEXTPU",{"_811":812,"_813":824,"_784":1231},"UBD",{"_811":812,"_813":1139,"_784":1233},"PRH",{"_811":827,"_813":828,"_784":829},{"_811":827,"_813":17,"_784":1218},{"_811":827,"_813":833,"_784":1237},"From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins",{"_811":827,"_813":815,"_784":1239},"Barbara Demick",{"_811":827,"_813":838,"_784":1241},"

In 2000, a Chinese woman gave birth to twins in a bamboo grove, trying to avoid detection by the government because she already had two daughters. Two years later, an American couple travelled to Shaoyang to adopt a Chinese toddler they thought had been abandoned.

Their understanding had been that China's brutal one-child policy was leading to hundreds of abandoned girls, desperate for the care of adopted parents. What they didn't know - and what award-winning journalist Barbara Demick uncovered in 2007, while working as a correspondent in Beijing - was that their daughter had been snatched from her beloved family and her identical twin.

Under China's one-child policy hundreds of poor Chinese were giving up their children due to soaring fines and threats of violence. More sinister still, international demand for adoptees was sky-rocketing, and local officials were forcibly seizing children and trafficking them to orphanages, who were selling them abroad.

Daughters of the Bamboo Grovetells the gripping story of separated twins, their respective fates in China and the USA, and Barbara Demick's role in reuniting them against huge odds. Painting a rich portrait of China's history and culture, it asks questions about the roots, impact and consequences of China's one-child policy, the ethics of international adoption, and, ultimately, the assumptions and narratives we hold about the quality of lives lived in the East and the West.

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Gertrude Stein

An Afterlife

by Francesca Wade