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English Only. Translated by Harrison. ... Read more

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"a well constructed and informed textbook that covered the breadth of public health from globalisation to the hierarchies of evidence" healthmatters

This book explores the meaning of the ‘new’ public health within current debates, and the policy changes that are reshaping the context for public health. It moves away from public health medicine to a multi-disciplinary approach to public health concerns. This book asks:

· Why is a multidisciplinary approach to public health important and where is its future?
· What is the nature of the new multidisciplinary public health?
· How can multidisciplinary public health professionals move towards an evidence-informed public health practice?

With analysis and reflection upon public health history theories, research and practice, Public Health for the 21st Century engages advanced undergraduate and graduate students, trainees and professionals across a broad range of disciplines.

Contributors: Gill Barrett, Jack Dowie, David Evans, Colin Fudge, Alison Gilchrist, Melanie Grey, Tony Harrison, Stuart Hashagen, David J. Hunter, Stuart McClean, Chris Miller, Jennie Naidoo, Judy Orme, Stephen Peckham, Jon Pollock, Jane Powell, Joyshri Sarangi, Gabriel Scally, Murray Stewart, Pat Taylor. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Tony Smith (born 24 January, 1967 in Lismore, New South Wales) is a British-Australian former rugby league player. He is currently Head of Coaching at Warrington Wolves and is also the part-time head coach of the Great Britain national rugby league team. He is the younger brother of fellow rugby league coach, Brian Smith and uncle to Tongan national team coach, Rohan Smith. . In 2007, Smith was included in the Southstander.com Hall of Fame. Tony Smith played rugby league with the Illawarra Steelers, for whom he made 37 appearances and scored 9 tries, as well as the St. George Dragons for whom he played 28 games, including the 1992 Grand Final. Tony Smith's involvement with British Rugby League began by finishing his playing career in 1996 with a spell at Workington Town in the inaugural Super League season. His initial time at Workington was hampered by achilles injury suffered two seasons previous, made all the worse by Workington's poor form which saw them relegated to National League One. He also notoriously lived above a Workington fish 'n' chip shop with his wife, commentating "every morning I trudged to training and swore we'd never come back to this country." After returning home to Australia after finishing his playing career with Workington. Smith turned to coaching and applied for the job of Super League club Huddersfield Giants in 2001. He first season in charge saw Huddersfield relegated to National League One, which consequently followed their dreadful start to the season losing 13 games in a row. A record number of consecutive defeats for a coach who held on to his job in British Rugby League Conversely, Huddersfield returned to Super League the following year not losing a single game. This was culminated in th... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3662240 ... Read more

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Mysteries (1892) is the story of Johan Nilsen Nagel, a mysterious stranger who suddenly turns up in a small Norwegian town one summer-and just as suddenly disappears. Nagel is a complete outsider, a sort of modern Christ treated in a spirit of near parody. He condemns the politics and thought of the age, brings comfort to the insulted and injured and gains the love of two women suggestive of the biblical Mary and Martha. But there is a sinister side of him: in his vest he carries a vial of Prussic acid. The novel creates a powerful sense of Nagel's stream of thought, as he increasingly withdraws into the torture chamber of his own subconscious psyche.Amazon.com Review
The main character, like the title says, is a mysteriousguy. Nagel arrives in a Norwegian town with plenty of money andgoodwill, and though kind of an eccentric, seems to start to fit inwith the local crowd. But it's almost as if Nagel only just landed onEarth, and while he wishes to live correctly, has no idea how to doit. Published at the end of the last century, Mysteries is anexistentialist novel, very strange, often very funny, often sad andlargely asking the question, "Why live?" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Unforgettable, Nagel!
This book is Hamsun's masterpiece. A stranger suddenly appears in a small town and performed a number of extraordinary things. His name is Jon Nilsen Nagel. He is hopelessly different from other people and is an eternal-living contradiction. He contradicts everyone and everything under the sun; he does not understand why other people think as he does.
He falls in love with two women. Despite of his fervent efforts, he cannot have them. He seems to be able to read people's mind; he understands human beings' true nature more than anybody else. He is totally stranger to this earth and ultimately an outsider. Even Nagel is not his real name...
This is my favorite book and reread so many times. You cannot forget Nagel when you finish reading this book!

The mysteries of life
Mysteries tells the story Johan Nagel, a young man who mysteriously appears in a small coastal Norwegian town, unsettles it with his bizarre behavior, and then disappears just as abruptly.

Mysteries does not have a proper plot.Instead the narrative simply follows Nagel as he interacts with the townspeople.Hamsun believed fiction should delve into the intricacies of the human mind, and like the human mind, should move and change directions moment to moment.He didn't think a character should have one dominant trait, which was the fictional mode of his time, but should reflect real life by having many, shifting, and often conflicting traits.Thus we spend a lot of time on the roller coaster ride of Nagel's inner thoughts, which could be alternately reasonable and crazy, arrogant and humble, self-righteous and cruel.

As the title implies, there are many mysteries here.Nagel does not reveal a complete history of himself, and when he does reveal something, it's often in an obtuse way.Sometimes we catch Nagel in lies, and we feel as befuddled and intrigued by him as the townspeople who are also trying to figure him out.But Nagel also catches some of them out in their own lies, and this is where the novel gets interesting, as we learn that they are as unique and conflicted as Nagel.

The main storylines here are Nagel's love for the town's engaged beauty, Dagny, who Nagel harasses while her betrothed is away (he is a military man), and his interest in The Midget, who, as the nickname implies, is a much-maligned midget.Nagel's love is not so surprising given the young woman's charm and beauty. (as Nagel arrives in town, another man has just committed suicide over her just announced engagement) What is surprising is Dagny's response to him, which some might find conflicted enough to explain Nagel's madness for her by itself.In the Midget, Nagel seems to find a project.When he first sees the Midget, he's being picked on.Nagel tries to show The Midget respect to counter his treatment at the hands of the rest of the town, but The Midget resists.Why is this?In these two storylines, we see all the complexities of human relationships, the highs that human nature can attain as well as the lows, and the sometimes inhuman indifference we can sometimes feel for others, as well as ourselves.

Hamsun is not popular here in America for his style, which eschews plot for sometimes rambling emotional narrative.(Hamsun is one of those many cases in art where an influence of more popular artists is neglected in comparison to the influenced.Hamsun influenced many of the giants of early twentieth century literature, including Faulkner, Hemingway, Kafka and Joyce.)But, even if this style doesn't appeal to you, I think you'll find many redeeming qualities in his writing.His prose is lyrical, often lyrical enough to pull you through some of the longer voyages of thought.And he reaches for high goals, no less a one than to understand the human mind.This is a noble cause in itself, but what makes him genius is his accuracy in reflecting it.When one finishes reading Mysteries, some mysteries still remain, but we feel like we know more than we did before about human nature, and that's important.If you've never read Hamsun before, he's worth a look.

Mysteries, a Novel
I gave this as a gift to my mother who is very well read and also a critical reader.She said the book was fascinating and a great read. I look forward to reading it myself.

Marred by an unbelievable and pathetic protagonist
Based on my appreciation of other novels by Knut Hamsun and the near unanimity of favorable reviews of MYSTERIES here on the Amazon site, I fully expected to enjoy this novel.Alas, it didn't measure up to expectations.Were I writing this review and awarding Amazon stars a century ago, I might well have been more enthusaistic and perhaps even have awarded the book five stars.The novel certainly presents a memorable young protagonist, thoroughly disaffected with modern life. But unease with society and life itself has become a familiar theme in the 100+ years since MYSTERIES was published, and many more recent novels handle that theme better, less verbosely, and through a much more convincing protagonist.

And it is the protagonist, Johan Nilsen Nagel, that is the biggest problem with MYSTERIES.As in initial matter, he is so eccentric that, to me, he is not a believable character.Putting that aside and accepting him as he is presented, Nagel is extremely self-centered and arrogant, and he is irresponsible and unreliable.He is at odds with the world and as a result he ends up toying with his life (which, although not ennobling, is his prerogative) and with other people (which is not).I recently read another Scandinavian novel from roughly the same time, "The Serious Game" by Hjalmar Soderberg, and it is interesting to contrast the protagonist of that novel, Arvid Starjblom, with Nagel.The two experience some of the same existential dilemmas -- including the mysterious and destructive compulsion of romantic love -- yet Starjblom does not abjectly surrender and he retains some honor and dignity.Maybe it is that Starjblom has a conscience whereas Nagel is utterly self-absorbed and unscrupulous, even nihilistic.Nagel ultimately comes to a bad end, but he is such a pathetic character that I was not particularly bothered by his comeuppance.

Hamsun sprinkles MYSTERIES with a few noteworthy observations on the politics and society of his time, including the pithy critique of Marxism that it is based on "a false premise--namely, that all men are equal."But the quality of the writing is not of the first order. The novel is simply too long, too filled with Nagel's mental histrionics and his natterings.On the plus side, this edition includes an introduction by Sven Birkerts and an afterword by Isaac Bashevis Singer, both of which are worthwhile.

mystery of mysteries
Mysteries. I read it forty years ago. And have many times since. It is inexplicable, there is no summing it. Nothing you can say that isn't just words.

I look at my hand holding this book, and it looks different than the one that turned the first page so long ago. Older. And that's a surprise. This surprise of time and space, life, compressed, love, loss, youth, and the fundamental innocence of perception... self-destruction as life is, by being lived, self destruction ... all of this succumbs to a single singing moment of Nagel's bow on the violin string in Mysteries, and then disappears into the modesty of the final inevitable anonymity. No distinction between chaos and order.

Just the heart as it was.


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This is a full-length study of the work of Tony Harrison - a controversial figure in current British poetry. Spencer discusses Harrison's poetry, translations, verse drama and recent polemical writings, such as those on the Gulf War. While focusing on Harrison's politics, Spencer pays full attention to the poet's formal and technical achievements. Organized chronologically, the book explores the ways in which Harrison's working-class background and developing political concerns have shaped his work, from his first major collection, "The Loiners" (1970) through to more recent film-poems such as "Black Daisies for the Bride" (1993). Detailed readings of individual poems and analysis of common themes such as sexuality, class, language, violence and love are used to support Luke Spencer's estimate of Harrison as "one of the best political poets of the 20th century". At the same time, Spencer challenges some of Harrison's ideas, especially his position on gender. The result is a critical engagement with Harrison's work which should provoke lively reactions among readers. ... Read more