{"title":"Jr Thornton","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"beautiful-country-book-jr-thornton-9780062411914","title":"Beautiful Country","description":"A coming-of-age story set in modern day China centering on the friendship between an American and a Chinese boy who meet while training with Beijing's Junior National Tennis Team.  Chase Robertson arrives in Beijing as a fourteen-year-old boy still troubled by the recent death of his older brother. He discovers a country in transition; a society in which the dual systems of Communist Era state control and an emerging entrepreneurial culture exist in paradox.  A top ranked junior tennis player in the U.S., Chase joins the practices of the Beijing National Junior Tennis Team and is immersed in the brutal, cut-throat world of Chinese sport. It is a world in which gifted children are selected at the ages of six or seven for specialized sport schools where they devote their entire youth to the pursuit of athletic excellence and are paid as professionals by the state. Athletes find themselves compelled to do anything possible to succeed-right or wrong. Those who fail to reach the pinnacle are cast aside and are left facing a desperate future without hope.  In China, Chase gains access to a culture rarely open to Westerners, and soon finds himself caught up in secrets.\nWhen his closest friend and teammate turns to him for help, Chase is faced with the dilemma of what to do when friendship, rules, and morals are in conflict.  A big-hearted debut, Beautiful Country explores a friendship against the backdrop of a quickly changing country.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49601592623377,"sku":"GOR008523722","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49728989397265,"sku":"CIN0062411918VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50469386453265,"sku":"CIN0062411918G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50983104512273,"sku":"NIN9780062411914","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52539105870097,"sku":"NLS9780062411914","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53682405409041,"sku":"CIN0062411918A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":54470887604497,"sku":"GOR008104415","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062411918.jpg?v=1751424865"},{"product_id":"believed-to-be-alive-book-jr-thornton-9781591148647","title":"Believed to be Alive","description":"• Uncompromising account of life as a POW during the Korean War\n•Written by the first Navy helicopter pilot to be shot down and taken\n  prisoner in the history of aviation\n\nOn 31 March 1951 a young Navy helicopter pilot, Lt. John W. Thornton, volunteered for a dangerous mission to rescue a key intelligence unit trapped on a high ridge behind enemy lines in Korea. Although he wrecked his craft in the operation, he immediately directed other helicopters to the scene to evacuate the marooned personnel. His resourcefulness and bravery– he gallantly refused to be rescued himself, despite rapidly advancing enemy forces – won him the Navy Cross. \n\nThis first-hand account of his exploits that day and during the following three years he spent in captivity tell of courage, cruelty and compassion. His descriptions of combat are chilling, and his account of brainwashing is revealing and not without humour.\n\nThe book earned high acclaim on first publication in 1981; now back in print after twenty-three years it promises to attract new generations wanting to learn about the Korean War and its often overlooked heroes.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50245025038609,"sku":"CIN1591148642G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51888751870225,"sku":"CIN1591148642A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53333591556369,"sku":"CIN1591148642VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1591148642.jpg?v=1751245624"},{"product_id":"lucien-book-jr-thornton-9780063458437","title":"Lucien","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA gifted yet financially disadvantaged artist falls victim to the manipulative control of his wealthy, enigmatic Harvard roommate in this incendiary novel from the author of \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Country—\u003c\/em\u003ea piercing\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eexploration of class, ambition, identity, and the perilous cost of reinvention in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Donna Tartt.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe son of working-class Czech immigrants, Christopher “Atlas” Novotny is a talented painter who arrives at Harvard on a full scholarship. Raised amid hardship, he is unprepared for the privileged world introduced to him by his freshman roommate, Lucien Orsini-Conti.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn to wealthy European diplomats, Lucien plays the part of the confident, sophisticated bon vivant. Where Lucien is bold and brash, Atlas is timid and introverted. Growing up a lonely outsider, Atlas is insecure, impressionable, and in awe of his brilliant roommate. But is Lucien all that he seems?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSensing a willing disciple, Lucien introduces Atlas to a glittering new world of lavish parties and elite social clubs. When Atlas struggles to afford his new lifestyle, Lucien offers a solution, convincing the naïve artist to become a forger, passing off fakes to galleries and dealers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut Lucien’s charismatic facade conceals something darker and more sinister. 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