From Purgatory to ParadiseHan Meilin is a titan of contemporary Chinese art, from Olympic mascots to the tails of planes, his works have drawn worldwide recognition. But behind the fame, he was forged in the crucible of Chinas Cultural Revolution. In an uncertain political landscape where suspicion itself was as good as proof, the very thing that gave him purpose his passion for art doomed him to an indefinite Purgatory behind bars in No. 100 Dongshan detention centre. Branded

is an entertaining meta-story about an ordinary woman in the late Soviet Union

will include devastating droughts

J P Donleavy

In The White Trail

these ten stories are the latest and best of Robin McLean’s reports from the eternal battlefront that is the United States

and the University of Ulster

stateless and homeless

a warm cocoon around the icy experience of exile

Owen Gallagher’s third collection of poems is a book about the warring tribes to which we all belong

Juli Delgado Lopera

how language has the power to conceal even as it reveals

and her generous remembrance of them makes her readers feel alive in ways they haven’t felt before