Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980) was one of the major Latin American writers of the twentieth century, as well as a classically trained pianist and musicologist. His best-known novels are The Lost Steps, Explosion in a Cathedral, and The Kingdom of This World. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and raised in Havana, Cuba, Carpentier lived for many years in France and Venezuela before returning to Cuba after the 1959 revolution. A few years later he returned to France, where he lived until his death.

Alejo Carpentier

Dr Aleks Krotoski is an award-winning international broadcaster, author and academic. She has topped the ratings for the BBC and Channel 4, winning Emmy, BAFTA, Radio Academy and Royal Society awards, and has written and presented landmark technology and social science series for both radio (with BBC Radio 4’s The Artificial Human and The Digital Human) and international television (with BBC World’s The Virtual Revolution). Krotoski has held fellowships at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and received an honorary doctorate from the Open University. She currently teaches at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Aleks Krotoski

Aleksandar Ciric

Aleksandar Sotirovski

Aleksandar Zolotic

Aleksandr Orlov

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918 and grew up in Rostov-on-Don. He graduated in Physics and Mathematics from Rostov University and studied Literature by correspondence course at Moscow University. In World War II he fought as an artillery officer, attaining the rank of captain. In 1945, however, after making derogatory remarks about Stalin in a letter, he was arrested and summarily sentenced to eight years in forced labour camps, followed by internal exile. In 1957 he formally rehabilitated, and settled down to teaching and writing, in Ryazan and Moscow. The publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in Novy Mir in 1962 was followed by publication, in the West, of his novels Cancer Ward and The First Circle. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and in 1974 his citizenship was revoked and he was expelled from the Soviet Union. He settled in Vermont and worked on his great historical cycle The Red Wheel. In 1990, with the fall of Soviet Communism, his citizenship was restored and four years later he returned to settle in Russia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died in August 2008.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksei Bitskoff

Aleksei Evdokimo

Aleksi Hoffman

Alena Tkach is an award-winning Ukrainian freelance illustrator who studied Graphic Arts at Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. She works mostly as children’s book illustrator and 2D artist. Alena loves llamas because they are cute and sweet, and when they jump it's really funny. Follow Alena on Instagram @alena.tkach.

Alena Tkach

Alessandra Peters

Alessandro Manzoni

Alex Bellos

Alex Bellos is a journalist, broadcaster and puzzle master. He read Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford University before becoming a journalist and writer. Alex was born in Oxford and grew up in Edinburgh and Southampton and lived in Brazil for five years as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian before returning to the UK He is the author of 8 books about puzzles and mathematics and currently writes weekly puzzle column for the Guardian.

Alex Berenson

Alex Boardman

Alex Brummer

Alex Bulmer

Alex Butterworth

Alex Caine

Alex Carter

Alex Chance

Alex Cliff

Alex Danchev

Alex Dekker served as a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces 'Green Berets' for nearly 20 years, first with 5th Special Forces Group and then as a special operations team member assigned to the United States Army Special Operations Command. He has deployed multiple times to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations worldwide, and has attended multiple advanced tactical and technical schools within the U.S. Special Operations community and interagency. Alex has traveled to dozens of countries for work and personal adventures and has spent years living abroad. He is an avid student of history who has participated as a volunteer in numerous archaeological digs, is an Arabic speaker, and holds a Masters in Applied Intelligence from Georgetown University. When not traveling, Alex lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Savannah, a former CIA Operations Officer, their children, and their German Shepherd Donovan.

Alex Dekker

Alex Dimitrov is the recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Prize from the American Poetry Review and a Pushcart Prize and is the author of Begging For It (2013), Together And By Yourselves (2017), and Love and Other Poems (2021). His work has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Poetry, and more. Formerly, he was the Senior Content Editor at the Academy of American Poets where he edited the popular online series Poem-a-Day and American Poets magazine. From 2009-2013, he founded and ran Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York. Currently, he teaches creative writing at NYU where he is Writer in Residence.

Alex Dimitrov

Alex Dingwall-Main

Alex Duval

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Judy Astley

Certain to raise a smile and warm your heart; escape for an afternoon with this gem from Judy Astley. Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Milly Johnson and Trisha Ashley... 
 
'Warm, funny and unerringly true to life' - Katie Fforde 
'Frothy fun from an author worth noting' - DAILY EXPRESS 
'A real page-turner' -- ***** Reader review 
'An excellent read, worth indulging' -- ***** Reader review 
'Highly entertaining with dry humour and hilarious situations' -- ***** Reader review 
************************************************************************************* 
 
AGE IS JUST A NUMBER, RIGHT? 
 
Sara's mother told her that she shouldn't marry Conrad - that the twenty-five-year age gap between them would tell in the end. The end is now (apparently) approaching fast. 
 
Conrad, a famous painter, has decided that it would be good to die before he gets seriously old and so spends his time sorting out his chaotic life. Sara, teaching art at a local college, finds that she has plenty of male company - other people's husbands, ones she tells Conrad all about, who are just good friends to her. 
 
But there's one she, somehow, doesn't get round to mentioning...

Other People's Husbands

an uplifting and hilarious novel from the ever astute bestselling author Judy Astley

Catherine Ryan Hyde

A story of love, growth, fight and hope from Richard &amp; Judy bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold, this is a moving novel that packs a hefty punch. 
 
'A heroic, superbly crafted novel worth reading again and again and again' -- The Denver Post 
'Ryan Hyde spins her tale so effortlessly that the reader closes the book with a 
quiet sense of elation' -- San Francisco Chronicle 
'Very moving, and long after I finished it I couldn't stop thinking about it' -- ***** Reader review 
'Lovely story and wonderful characters. Can't get enough of this author' -- ***** Reader review 
'This lady is amazing. The stories she tells, weaving your emotions into the plot. I've yet to find a book of hers that, once started, I could bear to put down' -- ***** Reader review 
'One word....fantastic' -- ***** Reader review 
 
*********************************************************************** 
 
THE MAGICAL STORY OF A YOUNG BOY'S SEARCH FOR BELONGING... 
 
When Nathan McCann discovers a newborn baby boy half buried in the woods, he assumes he's found a tiny dead body. But then the baby moves and in one remarkable moment, Nathan's life is changed forever. 
 
The baby is sent to grow up with his grandmother, but Nathan can't forget him and is compelled to pay her a visit. He asks for one simple promise - that one day she will introduce the boy to Nathan and tell him, 'This is the man who found you in the woods.' 
 
Years pass and Nathan assumes that the old lady has not kept her promise, until one day an angry, troubled boy arrives on his doorstep with a suitcase . . .

When I Found You

a wonderful novel that is both heart-breaking and heart-warming from Richard & Judy bestseller Catherine Ryan Hyde

Julia Widdows

Carol has always resented her family - her mother, endlessly knitting, her father and his obsession with next door's encroaching garden hedge, and her brother, ever silent and scheming. 
 
So when she is invited to meet the vibrant, bohemian family next door in their messy house full of books and paintings and empty of rules, Carol soon begins a secret double life over the much-hated garden hedge. Here Carol voices her greatest fantasy and tells her first major lie...that she is adopted. 
 
But on her 16th birthday Carol receives the shock of her life when her wish comes true. And as, years later, Carol frenetically narrates her story from a psychiatric unit, we realise how it affected her and those around her in the darkest of ways...

Living In Perhaps

Robert Edric

It is December 1922 and the aftershocks of the First World War continue to make themselves felt. Ex-soldier, poet and composer Ivor Gurney, suffering from increasingly frequent and deepening bouts of paranoid schizophrenia, is transferred to the City of London Mental Hospital, Dartford. 
 
Neglected by the military and by his own family, and abandoned by all but a notable handful of his friends, Gurney begins a descent into the madness and oblivion which he believes has long been waiting to claim him. 
 
Yet following his arrival at Dartford, there are still those who continue to believe in Gurney's capabilities - in his 'wayward genius'. For a brief period, it seems that he might find some calm and ease in his life, and thus achieve the status so many consider him capable of.

In Zodiac Light

Johan Theorin

'An impressive debut novel' The Times 
 
'Fantastic' Guardian 
 
Can you ever come to terms with a missing child? Julia Davidsson has not. Her five-year-old son disappeared twenty years previously on the Swedish island of Oland. No trace of him has ever been found. 
 
Until his shoe arrives in the post. It has been sent to Julia's father, a retired sea-captain still living on the island. Soon he and Julia are piecing together fragments of the past: fragments that point inexorably to a local man called Nils Kant, known to delight in the pain of others. But Nils Kant died during the 1960s. So who is the stranger seen wandering across the fields as darkness falls? 
 
It soon becomes clear that someone wants to stop Julia's search for the truth. And that he's much, much closer than she thinks . . .

Echoes from the Dead

Oland Quartet series 1

Mikkel Birkegaard

Imagine that some people have the power to affect your thoughts and feelings when you read, or they read a book to you. They can seduce you with amazing stories, conjure up vividly imagined worlds, but also manipulate you into thinking exactly what they want you to. 
 
When Luca Campelli dies a sudden and violent death, his son Jon inherits his second-hand bookshop, Libri di Luca, in Copenhagen. Jon has not seen his father for twenty years since the mysterious death of his mother. 
 
When Luca's death is followed by an arson attempt on the shop, Jon is forced to explore his family's past. Unbeknown to Jon, the bookshop has for years been hiding a remarkable secret. It is the meeting place of a society of booklovers and readers, who have maintained a tradition of immense power passed down from the days of the great library of ancient Alexandria. Now someone is trying to destroy them, and Jon finds himself in a fight for his life and those of his new friends.

The Library of Shadows

Jim Cartwright

Sitting among the rows of tills in Supersafe supermarket in the North of England, the fortunes of a young checkout girl are on the brink of change ... 
 
 
Linda works the tills at Safeshop. It's what everyone does. The grammar school girls get the careers; the comp girls get the two-bit college courses and the low wage jobs. But when model agent Rafe brings his disposable razors to Linda's till, he recognises the raw talent that could transform both their lives. Almost overnight, Linda becomes Crystalline, a supermodel catapulted onto the international stage. But in the blur of first class flights and flashy restaurants, will she begin to forget where Crysatline ends and Linda begins? 
 
 
 
The bittersweet story of a young checkout girl's rise to fame, this is prize-wining playwright Jim Cartwright's first novel. Bearing the hallmarks of his best-loved play, THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE and ROAD, this rollicking debut takes the reader on a journey from which there is no going back.

Supermarket Supermodel

John Boyne

Pickpocket John Jacob Turnstile is on his way to be detained at His Majesty's Pleasure when he is offered a lifeline, what seems like a freedom of sorts - the job of personal valet to a departing naval captain. Little does he realise that it is anything but - and by accepting the devil's bargain he will put his life in perilous danger. For the ship is HMS Bounty, his new captain William Bligh and their destination Tahiti. 
 
From the moment the ship leaves port, Turnstile's life is turned upside down, for not only must he put his own demons to rest, but he must also confront the many adversaries he will encounter on the Bounty's extraordinary last voyage. Walking a dangerous line between an unhappy crew and a captain he comes to admire, he finds himself in a no-man's land where the distinction between friend and foe is increasingly difficult to determine...

Mutiny On The Bounty

Andrea Busfield

For fans of THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hossein and Yasmin Khadra's THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL, a devastating tale of forbidden love between an Englishwoman and a Kabul warlord. 
 
The Taliban have disappeared from Kabul's streets, but the long shadows of their brutal regime remain. In his short life eleven-year-old Fawad has known more grief than most: his father and brother have been killed, his sister has been abducted, and Fawad and his mother, Mariya, must rely on the charity of family to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence. 
Then Mariya finds a position as housekeeper for a charismatic western woman, Georgie, and Fawad dares to hope for an end to their struggle. He soon discovers that his beloved Georgie is caught up in a dangerous love affair with the powerful Afghan warlord Haji Khan, a legendary name on the streets of Kabul. At first resentful of Haji Khan's presence, Fawad learns that love can move a man to act in surprising ways, and an overwhelming act of generosity persuades him of the warlord's good intentions. 
But even a man as influential as Haji Khan can't protect Fawad from the next tragedy to blight his young life, a tragedy so devastating that it threatens to destroy the one thing Fawad thought he could never lose: his love for his country.

Born Under a Million Shadows

Stephen Clarke

Paul West has just received an offer he can't refuse: 
_________________ 
 
Two weeks in the sun. 
 
All expenses paid. 
 
With a beautiful blonde called Gloria Monday. 
 
But it soon becomes obvious that Gloria, or M as she likes to be known, has bigger fish to fry. 
 
Meanwhile Paul is asked to cater his best friend’s wedding. Cooking for the French is a risky assignment at the best of times, but Paul assures the bride that nothing can go wrong. 
 
Or can it? 
 
When Paul discovers that M's real target is the French president, and that he's coming to Elodie's wedding, he realises that the merde is about to hit the fan...

Dial M For Merde

How to cook for the French president

Lawrence Goldstone

Philadelphia, 1889 
 
In the morgue of the city hospital, physicians uncover the corpse of a beautiful young woman. What they see takes their breath away. 
 
Within days, one of the surgeons, Ephraim Carroll, strongly suspects that he knows the woman's identity. His investigations take him from the bloody and brutal medical world in which he practices and into the drawing rooms of Philadelphia's high society where he soon learns that nothing - and no one - is what they seem. 
 
Plunged into a maze of deception and deadly secrets, Carroll is forced to choose between exposing a killer, undoing a terrible wrong, and, quite possibly, protecting the future of medicine itself. 
 
Set in a world in which aspirin had not been invented, abortion was illegal, and pregnancy could result in agonising death, The Anatomy of Deception is an intriguing and richly atmospheric blend of history, early forensic science and knife-edge suspense.

The Anatomy Of Deception

Susan Barker

BY THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE INCARNATIONS AND SAYONARA BAR 
 
Malaya 1951, a jungle resettlement camp: young colonial adventurer Christopher Milnar falls passionately in love with a Chinese nurse Evangeline - a fierce flame that ends in tragedy when their camp is attacked by Communist guerrillas and Christopher is violently beaten up. 
 
London: half a century later the ghosts of that time return to haunt Christopher, triggering vivid memories of colonial misconduct and lost love. Forced to confront his past, Christopher agonises over the fate of his beloved Evangeline and the disappearance of their daughter. 
 
Moving from present day London to the heart of the Malayan jungle in colonial times, THE ORIENTALIST AND THE GHOST is a stunning portrayal of human frailty and lost love.

The Orientalist And The Ghost

Mogue Doyle

Rural Ireland in the 1960s: if you were a boy, you listened to Luxembourg on the wireless, went to the pictures, went hurling up the fields with your best friend, thought about what the big boys got up to with the girls, and in particular what your brother did with his girlfriend, Minnie. Your mam ruled the house and you watched out for your father - the old lad - who was liable to fly into rages and give you a right ringer when you weren't expecting it. Most of all, you knew everything about the village where you lived, and everyone there. And Tony did; he was one smart boy, ready for anything - at least he thought he was until the day he saw his father with Mrs Rourke and was involved in an accident that changed everything. 
 
Dancing with Minnie the Twig is Tony's story. It is a haunting and very special novel as, on the day of his funeral, he watches his family, friends and the rest of the community arrive at the church and prepare for the service to mark the end of his short life. In terms of its rural setting and its focus on a small community that, even in Ireland, has long since ceased to exist, the book has real echoes of Dancing at Lughnasa. It's Irish in the best sense of the word; the characters step out of the pages to meet you, and although Tony is dead, his narrative voice blazes with life. Very funny in parts, the novel is overlaid with a melancholy for times past that lingers long after the final page has been turned.

Dancing With Minnie The Twig

Jane Davis

When Tom Fellows proclaims that a Venn diagram is a far better way of illustrating modern family ties than a traditional tree, his young daughter Andrea has no idea that he is referring to their own situation.It is only when she loses both parents in a shocking car accident that she takes an interest in her own genealogy and begins to realize that her perfect upbringing was not all that it seemed... 
 
Half-truths &amp; White Lies is a beautifully crafted, thought-provoking novel that questions the influence of the people who are missing from our lives. It examines the thin line between love and friendship, looking at our complex emotional needs. It also explores how one woman's life is dictated by her desire for children, whilst another's is shaped by her decision not to have them.

Half-truths & White Lies

Debbie Carbin

Beth Sheridan likes her life the way it is. OK, so her job's a little dull and her social life leaves a lot to be desired. But none of that really matters because Beth is in love with Richard. And one day they will be together. Yes, there are a few teeny obstacles, like the fact that Richard has been Beth's boss for eight years and that he is currently living in Portugal with another woman. But these are just minor details because Beth just knows that one day, the scales will fall from Richard's eyes and he will realise that it is Beth that he has always wanted. 
 
Beth's feisty flatmate Vini doesn't harbour any such illusions and decides that Beth needs to give up on Richard and find love elsewhere. Reluctantly Beth agrees to Vini's (at times extreme) plan of action. Following a puppeteers convention, a speed dating event, a chance encounter in a shopping mall and some pretty flirtatious email banter, Beth is suddenly dealing with three new men. There's the lovely down-to-earth Brad, who she just can't quite pin down, and the charming, millionaire Rupert. She's never actually met Rupert but judging from his emails, he seems to just get her. What's more, there's also sleazy Sean from the office who's suddenly seeming not-so-sleazy ... 
 
And just when things couldn't get more complicated, the gorgeous Richard waltzes back into her life. What's a girl to do?

Three Men and a Maybe

Afsaneh Knight

What makes a father violent? It takes a brave man to find out . . . 
 
As a volunteer at St Margaret's Hospice, eager and helpful Meryl is looking for a role in life. The arrival of Jamie, the son of a patient, may be just what she is after. He is good-looking, young and, above all, troubled. 
 
Jamie's father has only a few days to live, but between father and son is a lifetime of misunderstanding and unhappiness. Could the most powerful legacy Jamie faces be an inability to love? With well-meaning Meryl hovering in the background, Jamie embarks on his long dark night of the soul, facing the secrets, lies and heartbreaks behind his father's life. 
 
Meanwhile his dying father, seemingly unconscious to it all, relives his extraordinary history, from the triumphs of his life as a boxer, to the onset of a crippling illness he doesn't understand. And in the quiet of the night, he receives strange visitors of his own....

Slaughterhouse Heart

Mary Doria Russell

Dreamers Of The Day

Matt Beaumont

Friends, family, workmates. The woman you see at the bus stop every morning; the man who reaches for the last newspaper just before you get to it. Everyone you meet, and some you nearly meet, will have an impact on the way your day goes. 
 
Small World is the story of a group of men and women, living and working in a city, who are connected through love, work, friendship, or simply by virtue of proximity. We connect with the hearts and minds of characters including an all-coping housewife, a stressed out working mother, a put-upon nanny, a long-suffering journalist, an Indian waiter who dreams of stardom, a grieving shop assistant, a stand-up comic and a psychotic policeman - all of whom speak directly to us about their innermost thoughts, fears and desires in a series of interwoven first-person narratives.

Small World

Anne Fine

Guilt is in the eye of the beholder ... 
 
When her cold and indifferent husband vanishes, so does Lois's old life. Now she is ready to take her chances again. There's only one fly in the ointment: Janie-Gay, ex-partner of the son Lois lost to drugs, and spiteful mother of the small, neglected child she can't get out of her mind. 
 
Caring's not something one can lay aside, and Lois is soon tangled in webs of deceit. Worse, she is on a collision course with a remorseless society that claims to support and protect. Now, more than ever, she could use the skills of her once frozen heart...

Fly in the Ointment

John Dickinson

There was once no greater advocate for revolution than Michel Wéry. No voice spoke louder, was more impassioned, on the need for a new order, for an end to disparity and injustice - not just in France but throughout the continent. Strange, then, that such a man should find himself in the employ of the Prince Bishop of Erzberg, as scout and spymaster for a regime at absolute odds with his ideals. 
 
But time has taught Wéry harsh lessons: the Terror, the endless wrangling, the petty motivations of France's new ruling class, and the atrocities carried out in freedom's name - all have left their mark. Revolution has spawned a monster, and Wéry has vowed to thwart its march. 
 
And with Paris' scheming now focused on the Prince Bishoprics, her armies poised to strike, it seems fate has thrown Wéry his chance. But just what is he prepared to sacrifice? Himself? surely. A city state? Perhaps. The life of the sister of his one true friend? The beautiful Maria Adelsheim who dances the Lightstep in mourning for a brother, and for a man whom might yet be saved... 
 
Set against a backdrop of political thrust and counter-thrust, of lavish balls and shadowy cults, and to the rhythm of incessant canon-fire, The Lightstep is an epic story of love and honour, and a stunningly realised account of one of the defining moments in modern European history.

The Lightstep

David Ebershoff

Jordan returns from California to Utah to visit his mother in jail. As a teenager he was expelled from his family and religious community, a secretive Mormon offshoot sect. Now his father has been found shot dead in front of his computer, and one of his many wives - Jordan's mother - is accused of the crime. 
Over a century earlier, Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brigham Young, Prophet and Leader of the Mormon Church, tells the sensational story of how her own parents were drawn into plural marriage, and how she herself battled for her freedom and escaped her powerful husband, to lead a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. 
Bold, shocking and gripping, The 19th Wife expertly weaves together these two narratives: a pageturning literary mystery and an enthralling epic of love and faith.

The 19th Wife

The gripping Richard and Judy bookclub page turner

Joanna Trollope

Fans of Erica James, Elizabeth Noble and Amanda Prowse will love this enthralling novel from the pen of multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope. With her customary acute observation and expert characterisation, Trollope makes her readers not only identify with her characters but also become deeply attached to them. You will not be able to put this book down! 
 
'Trollope, as ever, can be relied upon to deliver a good read' -- Mail on Sunday 
'An entertaining novel' -- Independent on Sunday 
'Hits a right and ringing note and keeps hitting it' -- Independent 
'Excellent gripping to the end' -- ***** Reader review 
'This, for me, was a "can't put down" type of book!!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Best Trollope book I have read so far!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Pure pleasure' -- ***** Reader review 
 
****************************************************************************************************** 
 
THEY WOULDN'T LET ANYTHING - OR ANYONE - GET IN THE WAY OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP, WOULD THEY? 
 
Friday nights, the best night of the week, the night they all looked forward to more than they cared to admit - talking, drinking, laughing and crying together. 
 
 They were six female friends, different in age and circumstances, but with one common need: the warmth and support of their Friday nights. It was a time to share secrets and fears, triumphs and tragedies and, above all, to feel safe in the company of women friends. 
 
But things never stay the same forever, especially when a man is introduced into the mix...

Friday Nights

an engrossing novel about female friendship – and its limits – from one of Britain’s best loved authors, Joanna Trollope

This thought-provoking, compulsive novel shows how a simple story has the power to move you in the most extraordinary ways. From Richard & Judy bestselling Catherine Ryan Hyde, perfect for fans of Mark Haddon, Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold. 
 
'This gritty love story is compelling reading' -- Sun 
'Surprisingly wonderful' -- Mirror 
'Couldn't put it down' -- ***** Reader review 
'Riveting' -- ***** Reader review 
'Engrossing page turner' -- ***** Reader review 
'Pure escapism from beginning to end' -- ***** Reader review 
'A wonderful, wonderful read' -- ***** Reader review 
************************************************************************** 
A CHANCE MEETING ON A TRAIN, AND TWO LIVES CHANGED FOREVER... 
 
Sebastian, at 17, has never eaten pizza, never been to school, never even hung out with other kids. He rides the subway at night to escape his father's strict, possessive parenting. 
 
Maria, 22 and mother to two young children, has just lost her job. Afraid to confess to her violent boyfriend, Maria resorts to riding the subway when he thinks she's at work. 
 
And then one night, on an empty train, Sebastian and Maria make eye contact . . .

Chasing Windmills

a compelling and deeply moving novel from bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde

Jenny Downham

Tessa has just a few months to live. 
 
Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It's her Ten Things To Do Before I Die list. And Number One is sex. 
 
Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. 
 
Tessa's feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa's time finally runs out. 
 
BEFORE I DIE is a brilliantly-crafted novel, heartbreaking yet astonishingly life-affirming. It will take you to the very edge.

Before I Die

Ivo Stourton

James, a first-year student at Cambridge, is overwhelmed by the thrill of opportunity and startled by his own hunger for friendship. He finds himself seduced by a covert and exclusive circle of friends - the 'Tudor Night Climbers' - who scale the university's turrets after dark, transforming it into a dangerous playground of spiralling heights. 
When still only a novice member of his tribe, James begins to fall for the only female in the group, the enigmatic and beautiful Jessica, and is soon at the heart of a fatal love triangle with the reckless and charismatic leader of the group, Francis. When a volatile relationship finally explodes, the Night Climbers' funding suddenly dries up, until Francis dreams up a heist that will secure them millions, but will also test their very souls. 
 
Partly inspired by the original 'Night Climbers' of the Sixties who famously made dare-devil leaps from college roofs, this passionate exploration of youth at its most vital and unstable marks the debut of a strikingly gifted new writer.

The Night Climbers

Germany, spring 1946. The Nuremberg Trials are underway. Three hundred miles north, in the Rehstadt Institute, a British "Assessment and Evaluation" centre, Alex Foster interrogates a succession of lesser war criminals, exploring their pasts and their crimes, and deciding their futures in the soon-to-be-reborn Germany. 
 
But Rehstadt, a town largely untouched by the war, is a place of old hostilities and burnished hatreds; a place still not entirely at peace; a place where the certainties of the past are still weighed favourably against the deprivations of the present and the vague, uncertain promises of the future. 
 
As spring progresses, and as events in the wider world quicken to their own closely observed conclusion, Alex Foster finds himself at the centre of a conflict involving British, American and German interests; and for the first time in his career he also finds himself compromised - forced into subterfuge and deceit as he struggles to weigh personal convictions and loyalties against the greater political and military good...

The Kingdom of Ashes

Elsie Burch Donald

In early 1970 a small plane, en route to Angkor Wat, mysteriously disappears over the Cambodian jungle. Piloted by an American hippie, the passengers are Bill Bolton, a US businessman, his wife Marjorie, their guide a young Englishwoman, and a Cambodian 'old hand', a Frenchman. 
Stranded helplessly in the jungle, the westerners are found by local peasants, and taken to the relative safety of their own veritable Shangri La. Here, cut off from the outside world, they find an enchanting Buddhist world, full of laughter and festivals; a gentle, sensitive people without greed, violence, or too much work. 
As the party adjust to the lotus-eating culture, life presents excitement,pleasure - even love. And an opportunity to bring modern methods to a backward way of life. But a darker, brutal presence threatens to destroy their paradise. The Vietnam war is spilling across Cambodia's borders, and an insurgency is on the rise that will become the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia must change, but in whose image? 
Gripping and beautifully written, A Model American is a multi-dimensional parable showing the American character abroad and its effects when used to 'improve' an ancient, alien culture. For many, it will greatly resonate with what is happening in the world today.

A Model American

Natasha Farrant

Every summer throughout her childhood, Florence would return to her family home on the west coast of France, where she would be joined by her exotic, hopelessly glamorous cousins and life as she knew it would begin under the benevolent eye of her grandmother Mimi.It was a heady existence of illicit drinking, stolen kisses and the bittersweet pains of first love. 
 
But now Florence is living completely alone with her new baby.Haunted by nightmares, she cannot open the letters from her grandmother accumulating on her mantelpiece.What devastating truth do these letters hold?Why has Florence turned her back on her past? And will she and Mimi ever be able to escape the guilt that is tearing them apart and has shaken their family to its very core?

Diving Into Light

Su Tong

Set during the fall-out of the Cultural Revolution, these bizarre and delicate stories capture the collision of the old China of vanished dynasties, with communism and today's tiger economy. 
The mad woman on the bridge wears a historical gown which she refuses to take off. In the height of summer she stands madly on the bridge. Until a young female doctor, bewitched by the beauty of the mad woman's dress, plots to take it from her, with tragic consequences.

Madwoman On The Bridge And Other Stories

Ben Elton

Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where 'sharing' is valued above all, and privacy is considered a dangerous perversion. 
 
Trafford wouldn't call himself a rebel, but he's daring to be different, to stand out from the crowd. In his own small ways, he wants to push against the system. But in this world, uniformity is everything. And even tiny defiances won't go unnoticed. 
 
Ben Elton's dark, savagely comic novel imagines a post-apocalyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a sex-obsessed, utterly egocentric culture. In this world, nakedness is modesty, independent thought subversive, and ignorance is wisdom. 
 
A chilling vision of what's to come? Or something rather closer to home?

Blind Faith

Intellectually brilliant, cultured and sophisticated, with refined tastes in art, music and cuisine. And a pure sociopath. This is the series that launched the world’s number one villain – Hannibal Lecter.

Hannibal Lecter

Happy Families

Harlem Renaissance Series

Harold Fry

Harry Hole

Harry and the Dinosaurs

Hatchimals

Hattie B, Magical Vet

Hawk series

Hawthorne

Heart Hassle

Heartland Trilogy

Heaven Official's Blessing

Heavenly Bodies

Henry Pratt is the epitomy of the great British underdog. Nothing is ever simple in his world, just when it seems things are going right, life throws him another unwanted curve-ball. Join Pratt as he traverses the highs and lows of everyday life in this comic masterpiece.

Henry Pratt

Her Hidden Fire

To some a brilliant warrior, to others a devil in human form; Hereward is as adept in the art of slaughter as the enemies that gather to claim England's throne. With King Edward heirless and ailing, Hereward has been declared an outlaw. What is he willing to risk in order to save the land he loves? 
 
Hereward's tales are of heroism, treachery, rebellion and bloody battles, with William the Bastard never too far away.

Hereward

Heroes of Olympus

Heroes of Olympus Graphic Novels

Hetty Feather was left at a foundling hospital when she was a tiny baby. Having grown up in a loving foster family until she was five, and then finding herself returned to the hospital, she begins to question who her actual family are, and is determined to stop at nothing to find out where she came from. Jacqueline Wilson’s acclaimed series follows Hetty and her friend Diamond as they work their way up from their lowly backgrounds to become stars, overcoming loss, unkind bosses and flirtatious boys.

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