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A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Susan Choi

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned. 
 
The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother Anne return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels.

Flashlight

Rachel Louise Driscoll

‘Brilliant… I loved it.’ Santa Montefiore 
 
A FORGOTTEN EGYPTIAN GODDESS. A FAMILY IN DANGER. 
 
Victorian Egyptologist Clemmie’s dark talents have torn her family apart. Now she has one chance to atone for the past. 
 
Clemmie’s gift for reading hieroglyphs shines at the Egyptian relic parties which have made her father the toast of Victorian society. But at one party, the words she interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. The childhood game she used to play about the immortal sisters, Isis and Nephthys, takes on a devastating resonance and it is only by following Nephthys' story back to Egypt that she can undo the mistakes of the past. 
 
‘An irresistible page-turner’ Susan Stokes-Chapman, author Pandora 
‘An intoxicating tale of adventure and obsession’ Emilia Hart, author of Weyward 
‘A joy of a book’ Fiza Saeed McLynn, author of The Midnight Carousel 
 
Readers ADORE Nephthys: 
 
‘A total page-turner! ... Wow! What darkness this book holds!’ 
‘Unique and gripping.... this tale of Egypt and England was full of twists and turns.’ 
‘A captivating blend of Victorian society, ancient Egypt, and dark secrets.’

Nephthys

Joseph O'Connor

In a city under siege, no one can be trusted. The acclaimed wartime thriller from the internationally bestselling author of My Father's House. 
 
'Thrilling, terrifying and entertaining in equal measure' Liz Nugent, Number One Bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond 
 
February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome. 
 
Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as ‘The Choir’. Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann. 
 
During a ferocious morning air raid a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk. 
 
Meanwhile, Hauptmann’s attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him – one where the consequences could be lethal. 
 
 
'As thrilling, beautiful and sensational a novel as you'll read this year or any year' Donal Ryan, Sunday Times 
 
'Vivid and moving' Guardian 
 
‘A stellar piece of storytelling’ Daily Mail 
 
'Not just a wartime thriller, but a meditation on how we remember, how we resist and how, even in the darkest times, humanity endures' New York Times 
 
'Excellent...rings so emotionally true and clear... The writing has the energy and tension of a thriller, yet the language is rich, visual and beautiful' Sunday Independent

The Ghosts Of Rome

Laurent Binet

'There is no living writer whose new books I fall on with greater delight than Laurent Binet. . . Perspectives is a proper treat' Naomi Alderman 
 
'A dazzling romp' Guardian 
 
Florence,1557. As dawn breaks, a painter is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart. 
 
Above him, the paintings he laboured over for more than a decade. At his home, a hidden portrait scandalously depicting Maria de Medici, daughter of the Duke of Florence, as a naked Venus. Who is the murderer? Who made the painting? As the city erupts in chaos, Giorgio Vasari, the great art historian, is picked to lead the investigation. 
 
Letters fly back and forth carrying news of plots and speculation about the killer’s identity – between Maria and her aunt Catherine de’ Medici, the queen of France; between Catherine and her secret agents; and between Vasari and his friend Michelangelo. And the truth, when it comes to light, is as shocking as the bold new artworks that have made Florence the red-hot centre of Europe. 
 
Bursting with characters and colour, Perspectives is a mystery like no other that shows us Renaissance Florence as we’ve never seen it before – a dazzling, hugely entertaining novel of court machinations, murder and art. 
 
'Doesn’t get much better than this' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'A racy and enjoyable detective story' The Times 
 
'A dazzling romp' Guardian 
 
'Funny and very gripping' Financial Times

Perspectives

Samantha Harvey

FROM THE AUTHOR OF 2024 BOOKER PRIZE WINNING ORBITAL 
 
15th century Oakham, in Somerset; when a man is swept away by the village's river, an explanation has to be found: accident, suicide or murder? 
 
The village priest, John Reve, is privy to many secrets in his role as confessor. But will he be able to unravel what happened to the victim, Thomas Newman, the wealthiest, most capable and industrious man in the village? And what will happen if he can’t? 
 
Moving back in time towards the moment of Thomas Newman’s death, the story is related by Reve – an extraordinary creation, a patient shepherd to his wayward flock, and a man with secrets of his own to keep. Through his eyes, and his indelible voice, Harvey creates a medieval world entirely tangible in its immediacy. 
 
'A rich and sumptuous delight' DAILY TELEGRAPH 
 
'Astonishing… A rollicking mystery and a profound meditation on faith and existence’ OBSERVER

The Western Wind

Tessa Hadley

On a winter Saturday night in post-war Bristol, sisters Moira and Evelyn, on the cusp of adulthood, go to an art students’ party in a dockside pub; there they meet two men, Paul and Sinden, whose air of worldliness and sophistication both intrigues and repels them. Sinden calls a few days later to invite them over to the grand suburban mansion Paul shares with his brother and sister, and Moira accepts despite Evelyn’s misgivings. 
 
As the night unfolds in this unfamiliar, glamorous new setting, the sisters learn things about themselves and each other that shock them, and release them into a new phase of their lives. 
 
In this delightful novella of two young women coming of age, Tessa Hadley explores the ever-changing desires, the sudden revelations and the lasting mysteries that are bound up with who we are, and who we might become.

The Party

Douglas Westerbeke

PARIS, 1885. On an otherwise ordinary night, Aubry Tourvel – spoiled, stubborn and nine years old – is suddenly struck down by a mysterious illness at the family dinner table. 
 
When a visit to a doctor only makes her worse, Aubry flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realises that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. 
 
She has no choice: she must run from this curse. And so begins her incredible lifelong journey across the world. 
 
But with risk at every turn, what will it take for Aubry to survive?

A Short Walk Through a Wide World

Anne Enright

‘Wonderfully written...a fascinating episode...which never loses its momentum or its sharpness of focus’ The Times 
 
Beautiful Irishwoman Eliza Lynch became briefly, in the 1860s, the richest woman in the world. We first encounter her in Paris, in bed with Francisco Solano Lopez - heir to the untold wealth of Paraguay. The fruit of their congress will be extraordinary, and will send her across the Atlantic on a regal voyage to claim her glorious future in Asunción. 
 
The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch is a bold and brilliantly achieved novel about sex, beauty and corruption at the end of the old world.

The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch

Abir Mukherjee

**A historical mystery from one of Britain's BEST crime writer's, COMING OUT in Quick Reads Format** 
 
India, 1919. A man is found dead. A note has been left in the dead man’s mouth. It warns the English to leave India. If they don’t, more blood will be spilled. 
 
Two police officers, Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee must solve the crime quickly. But there are some people who will do anything to stop them. 
 
You won’t be able to put down A Rising Man, the first mystery in the Wyndham and Banerjee series by award-winning crime writer Abir Mukherjee.

A Rising Man

Quick Reads 2025

10th Anniversary Edition

Susan Stokes-Chapman

A remote village, a mysterious death, a secret cult – a gripping gothic mystery from the author of number one bestseller Pandora 
 
‘A gripping, beautifully executed historical thriller, full of magic and mythology’ Rosie Andrews 
 
After a grave mistake, Henry Talbot has been forced to take a position as village doctor in remote Wales where he can't speak the language and belief in myth and magic is rife. When Henry discovers his predecessor died in mysterious circumstances, and starts to notice a cryptic symbol appearing in odd places, he sets out to find answers. 
 
The lady of the manor, Linette Tresilian, is vexingly unhelpful at first. She seems to know little about the shelves of occult books Henry notices in her family’s library. But Linette has suspicions of her own about what’s happened in the village and, together, their investigations will bind their destinies in ways neither thought possible. 
 
‘An alluring, immersive Gothic mystery’ Jennifer Saint 
 
'A haunting, transporting mystery…kept me completely enthralled' Elodie Harper 
 
‘I was gripped… the story was so dark and clever’ Stacey Thomas 
 
 
Readers love The Shadow Key 
 
'Deliciously dark, atmospheric, and brimful of folklore, magic and myth, this Gothic thriller held me spellbound from start to finish' 
 
'Devoured this book over two days' 
 
'What begins as a murder mystery turns into a gothic classic which is not to be missed. Highly recommend' 
 
'I loved the feel of this book and I was hooked from the first chapter' 
 
'A breathtaking gothic fiction with an unforgettable finale, Stokes-Chapman is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors'

The Shadow Key

Tania James

'Loot held me spellbound from the first page...an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel ' Maggie O’Farrell 
 
Young toy maker and dreamer Abbas is whisked away to Tipu Sultan's glorious palace in Mysore and ordered to create a musical tiger to delight Tipu's sons. 
 
When he is apprenticed to eccentric clockmaker Monsieur Du Leze, Abbas finds an unexpected friend who encourages his skill and hunger for learning. Through Du Leze, he also meets the unforgettable Jehanne, who has questions and ambitions of her own. 
 
But when British soldiers attack and loot Mysore, Abbas's world is turned upside down and his prized tiger is shipped off to a country estate in England. In order to carve out his place in the world, he must follow. 
 
A hero's quest, a love story, an exuberant heist novel that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across the world, Loot is a dazzling, wildly inventive and irresistible feat of storytelling. 
 
'A thrilling, absorbing and immersive tale of artistry, adventure and romance' Claire Fuller 
 
'A cinematic novel of empire, colonialism and romance...Loot asks who gets written out of history and why' Guardian 
 
'Immersive and beautifully written...a clever and absorbing novel about empire and belonging’ Sunday Times

Loot

Álvaro Enrigue

'An Aztec West Wing' GUARDIAN 
'I was so impressed that I'm on my second read' TORREY PETERS 
'A triumph' FINANCIAL TIMES 
'Glorious' i-D 
 
A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF 2024 
A GUARDIAN TOP FIVE TRANSLATED FICTION OF 2024 
 
In 1519, Conquistador Hernán Cortés and his troops ride into the floating city of Tenoxtitlan – today’s Mexico City – in this hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story. 
 
Invited to a ceremonial meal with the steely princess Atotoxtli, sister and wife of the emperor Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance into the city and its labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire. 
 
Moctezuma himself is at a political, spiritual and physical crossroads, relying on hallucinogens in a quest for any kind of answer from the gods. When Cortés and Moctezuma meet, two worlds, empires, languages, and possible futures collide. 
 
You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenoxtitlan at its height – and reimagines its destiny. 
It sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream. 
 
Translated by Natasha Wimmer 
 
'A mischievous fantasy' TLS 
 
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY TOP TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

You Dreamed of Empires

Adam Thirlwell

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 GOLDSMITHS PRIZE* 
 
It's the eighteenth-century and Celine is in trouble 
 
'A terrific novel' 
FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'A radically beautiful new novel' 
SHEILA HETI, author of Pure Colour 
 
Paris, 1775: Celine's husband is mostly absent. Her parents are elsewhere. Meanwhile men are inventing stories about her - about her affairs, her sexuality, and addictions... 
 
All these stories are lies, but the public loves them - spreading them like a virus. Celine can only watch as her name becomes a symbol for everything rotten in this society ruled by men high on colonial genocide, natural destruction, and crimes against women. To survive, Celine and her friends must band together in search of justice, truth and beauty. 
 
Fantastical, funny and blindingly bright, The Future Future follows one woman on an urgently contemporary quest to clear her name and change the world.

The Future Future

‘Unlike anything else’ Salman Rushdie

Ismail Kadare

**LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024** 
 
'Comrade Stalin wishes to speak with you.' 
 
A fascinating exploration of the relationship between writers and tyranny, from the winner of the first Man Booker International Prize. 
 
In June 1934, Joseph Stalin allegedly telephoned the famous novelist and poet Boris Pasternak to discuss the arrest of fellow Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam. In a fascinating combination of dreams and dossier facts, Ismail Kadare reconstructs the three minutes they spoke and the aftershocks of this tense, mysterious moment in modern history. 
 
Weaving together the accounts of witnesses, reporters and writers such as Isaiah Berlin and Anna Akhmatova, Kadare tells a gripping story of power and political structures, of the relationship between writers and tyranny. The telling brings to light uncanny parallels with Kadare's experience writing under dictatorship, when he received an unexpected phone call of his own. 
 
Translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson 
 
‘One of Europe's most decorated authors... Seasoned fans [of Kadare] will be enthralled’ Sunday Times

A Dictator Calls

‘Written with all the ingenuity and twisty tautness of a thriller’ The Times 
 
From the Booker-winning Irish author, a brilliant and moving novel about fame, sexual power, and a daughter’s search to understand her mother’s hidden truths. 
 
 This is the story of Irish theatre legend Katherine O’Dell, as told by her daughter Norah. It tells of early stardom in Hollywood, of highs and lows on the stages of Dublin and London’s West End. Katherine’s life is a grand performance, with young Norah watching from the wings. 
 
 But this romance between mother and daughter cannot survive Katherine’s past, or the world’s damage. As Norah uncovers her mother’s secrets, she acquires a few of her own. Then, fame turns to infamy when Katherine decides to commit a bizarre crime. 
 
 Actress is about a daughter’s search for the truth: the dark secret in the bright star, and what drove Katherine finally mad . . .

Actress

Rose Tremain

‘Gorgeous’ Observer * ‘Profoundly moving’ Financial Times * ‘Electrifying’ Daily Mail 
 
How do you find the courage to make your own life? An electrifying novel about first love set in 1960s London from the bestselling Rose Tremain 
 
Marianne is fifteen when she falls helplessly and absolutely in love with Simon. Simon owns a Morris Minor, is in his final year at school and has a dazzling future ahead of him. Desperate to escape the stifling 1950s suburbs she has been raised in, Marianne feels sure she will be able to find true happiness with him. 
 
However a twist of fate sees Simon’s glittering future dashed and with it Marianne’s dreams. He flees the country and Marianne, realising she will now have to make a life of her own, moves to London determined to reinvent herself. But Marianne cannot let go of that first all-encompassing love and all the while Simon is in Paris, nursing a secret that will alter everything. 
 
‘A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… Remarkable… Tremain shows us the things that make every human life extraordinary’ The Times 
 
‘A complex tale of becoming that’s moving, evocative and mesmerising in its acuity’ Mail on Sunday 
 
A Sunday Times Book of the Year * Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction * 
 
READERS LOVE ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER: 
 
'Heartrending, funny, unputdownable' 5***** 
 
'An undoubted modern classic' 5***** 
 
'Marianne will remain with me as a friend' 5***** 
 
'A masterclass in character and world building ... the writing is just sublime' 5*****

Absolutely and Forever

Janika Oza

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
A SARAH JESSICA PARKER BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 
Four generations. Three sisters. One impossible choice. 
 
Tricked aboard a boat to East Africa, Pirbhai is only thirteen when he is forced by the British into labouring on the railway. Under sweltering heat, hungry and frightened, he commits a terrible act just to survive. 
 
He will never tell a soul, even when he meets Sonal, a fierce, loving woman with whom he starts a family in Uganda, in hope of a better life. But their granddaughters come of age in a divided nation. 
 
Finally forced to flee, the family scatters across the world. They take with them a steel pot, a handful of photos, and a secret &ndash; that one day, will help them find each other again. 
 
A History of Burning is a gorgeous family portrait of love, survival, inheritance - and the eternal search for home. 
 
One family's search for a better life, for fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, Homegoing and Pachinko 
 
'A remarkable debut . . . haunting, symphonic' New York Times 
 
'Vast and intricate, alight with love and contained fury . . . A book I want to press into readers' hands and discuss for hours' Megha Majumdar, author of A BURNING 
 
Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award

A History of Burning

Billy O'Callaghan

**A BOOK OF 2023 IN IRISH TIMES, RTÉ GUIDE AND SUNDAY INDEPENDENT** 
 
An unforgettable and sweeping interwar love story, from the Costa-shortlisted and bestselling Irish author of Life Sentences 
 
'Gorgeous' SARA BAUME 
'His most ambitious work to date' JOHN BANVILLE 
'A beautiful, layered novel' ELAINE FEENEY 
 
1980s Cork. Jack Shine discovers a shoe box full of love letters in his mother's belongings. Rebekah came to Cork alone as a young Jewish refugee from Vienna when the Second World War broke out. She died soon after, and Jack never learned of his father's identity. Why did she keep newspaper clippings about a famous footballer player? Who was 'The Paper Man'? 
 
As Jack uncovers his mother's life, he is transported to 1930s Vienna, a bustling city on the brink of war. At the heart of the action is Matthias Sindelar, one of the most famous footballers in the world, known as 'The Paper Man' because of his effortless weave across the pitch. When Sindelar unexpectedly meets Rebekah, both of their lives are changed forever. As war looms, they must accept that their survival will tear them apart. 
 
Based on true events, The Paper Man is the story of twentieth-century Europe and love against the odds. It is a story that will take Jack far from Cork and all the way back to Vienna, and towards The Paper Man.

The Paper Man

Pip Williams

As World War One brings women unexpected new freedoms, bookbinder Peggy has the chance at a new future. 
 
'Vivid and moving ... I absolutely loved it!' Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things 
'Charming, original and beautifully researched' Rachel Hore, author of A Beautiful Spy 
 
'When the men leave for the Western Front, Peggy and her friends must shoulder the burden at home. 
 
As she moves between her narrowboat full of memories and the demands of the bookbindery where she works, Peggy’s dreams of escaping for a new life feel ever more remote. 
 
But the war brings people together in unexpected ways. New friends and lovers offer new opportunities but also present difficult choices – and Peggy must write her own story. 
 
'A fresh, exciting new voice in historical fiction' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife 
'A compelling homage to the transformational power of books' Daisy Wood, author of The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris 
 
Dictionary of Lost Words, Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick, May 2022

The Bookbinder of Jericho

Stefan Hertmans

The dazzling new novel by Stefan Hertmans, author of the modern classic War and Turpentine. 
 
'Magnificent' Philippe Sands 
'Powerful and humane' Observer 
'An utterly masterly book' Jonathan Coe 
 
In 1979, Stefan Hertmans fell in love with a dilapidated old house in Ghent, Belgium, which he restored to become his peaceful sanctuary. Now, all these years later, he learns that a bust of Hitler once sat on the mantelpiece, and a war criminal and his family relaxed in its rooms. 
 
This shocking discovery sends Hertmans off to the archives, to uncover the secrets of the house and to reimagine this man's life and expose the atrocities he's responsible for. We see Willem Verhulst as a weak, narcissistic man who climbed high in the ranks of the SS; a fascinating case study for the cruel and perverse mentality of the Nazis. 
 
The Ascent portrays the deep tragedy of Flemish collaboration during the Second World War, as Hertmans masterfully brings history and the house to life, imagining individual lives to tell the greater European story. 
 
Translated from the Dutch by David McKay

The Ascent

A house can have many secrets

Martin Amis

THE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED THE OSCAR WINNING FILM 
 
Amidst the horrors of Auschwitz, German officer, Angelus Thomsen, has found love. 
 
But unfortunately for Thomsen, the object of his affection is already married to his camp commandant, Paul Doll. 
 
As Thomsen and Doll&rsquo;s wife pursue their passion &ndash; the gears of Nazi Germany&rsquo;s Final Solution grinding around them &ndash; Doll is riven by suspicion. With his dignity in disrepute and his reputation on the line, Doll must take matters into his own hands and bring order back to the chaos that reigns around him. 
 
&lsquo;It is exceptionally brave&hellip;. Shakespearean&hellip;. It&rsquo;s exciting; it&rsquo;s alive; it&rsquo;s more than slightly mad. As the title suggests, it is dreadfully interesting.&rsquo; Sunday Times

The Zone of Interest

**THE NUMBER ONE IRISH BESTSELLER** 
 
When the Nazis take Rome, thousands go into hiding. One priest will risk everything to save them. 
 
September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. 
 
An Irish priest, Hugh O'Flaherty, dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City, a neutral, independent country within Rome where the occupiers hold no sway. He gathers a team to set up an Escape Line. 
 
But Hauptmann's net begins closing in and the need for a terrifyingly audacious mission grows critical. By Christmas, it's too late to turn back. 
 
Based on a true story, My Father's House is a powerful thriller from a master of historical fiction. It is an unforgettable novel of love, sacrifice and what it means to be human in the most extreme circumstances. 
 
'A spectacular, thrilling novel' Sunday Times 
 
'So urgent, so incredibly alive... A searing and beautiful example of storytelling's infinite importance' Donal Ryan 
 
'Impressive and pleasurable...evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality' Financial Times 
 
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2024 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 
 
*The second book in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy, THE GHOSTS OF ROME, is available now.*

My Father's House

Salman Rushdie

She will breathe a new empire into life – but all worlds can escape their creator… 
 
‘Full of adventure… A celebration of the power of storytelling’ GUARDIAN 
 
In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga, ‘victory city’. 
 
Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s as she attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. 
 
‘Mesmerising’ ELIF SHAFAK, author of The Island of Missing Trees 
 
‘A total pleasure to read’ SUNDAY TIMES 
 
‘One of the planet’s greatest writers’ EVENING STANDARD 
 
‘A triumph… Enthralling’ I 
 
***A FINANCIAL TIMES AND THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*** 
***A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK***

Victory City

Tom Crewe

Discover Tom Crewe's magnificent debut novel about forbidden desire and the search for freedom in Victorian England... 
 
'Beautifully written' Graham Norton 
'Subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted' Sarah Waters 
'Lavishly imagined' Sunday Times 
______________ 
 
After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John has finally found a man who returns his feelings. Meanwhile, Henry is convinced that his new unconventional marriage will bring freedom. 
 
United by a shared vision, they begin work on a revolutionary book arguing for the legalisation of homosexuality. 
 
Before it can be published however, Oscar Wilde is arrested and their daring book threatens to throw them, and all around them, into danger. How high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living? 
______________ 
 
'A very fine new writer' Kate Atkinson 
'I loved this book' Zadie Smith 
'Some of the best writing on desire I've read' Douglas Stuart 
'Extraordinary' Jonathan Bailey 
'Filled with nuance and tenderness . . . charting the lives of men and women who inspired not only political progress but an entire new way of living and loving' Colm Tóibín

The New Life

Susan Hill

A terrifying ghost story by the bestselling author of The Woman in Black. 
 
One dark and rainy night, Sir James Monmouth returns to London after years spent travelling alone. 
 
Intent on uncovering the secrets of his childhood hero, the mysterious Conrad Vane, he begins to investigate Vane’s life, but he finds himself warned off at every turn. 
 
Before long he realises he is being followed too. A pale, thin boy is haunting his every step but every time he tries to confront the boy he disappears. And what of the chilling scream and desperate sobbing only he can hear? 
 
His quest leads him eventually to the old lady of Kittiscar Hall, where he discovers something far more terrible at work than he could ever have imagined. 
 
‘Thoroughly frightening’ Daily Telegraph 
 
‘Chills the blood’ The Times

The Mist in the Mirror

Kirsty Logan

She dug her mother's grave in the poison garden so it would stay hidden... 
 
Lux has lost everything when Else finds her, alone in the woods. Her family, her lover, her home - all burned. The world is suspicious of women like her. But Lux is cunning; she knows how to exploit people's expectations, how to blend into the background. And she knows a lot about poisons. 
 
Else has not found Lux by accident. She needs her help to seek revenge against the man who wronged her, and together they pursue him north. But on their hunt they will uncover dark secrets that entangle them with dangerous adversaries. 
 
From the snowy winter woods to the bright midnight sun; from lost and powerless to finding your path, Now She is Witch conjures a world of violence and beauty - a world where women grasp at power through witchcraft, sexuality and performance, and most of all through throwing each other to the wolves. 
 
This is a witch story unlike any other. 
 
*NO & OTHER LOVE STORIES, KIRSTY LOGAN'S NEW BOOK IS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW*

Now She is Witch

Ian McEwan

Black Dogs is a dark and brooding masterpiece from Booker-prize winning Sunday Times bestselling author Ian McEwan. 
 
In 1946, June and Bernard set off on their honeymoon. Fired by their ideals and passion for one another, they had planned an idyllic holiday, but in France they witness an event that alters the course of their lives entirely. Forty years on, their son-in-law is trying to uncover the cause of their estrangement and is led back to this moment on honeymoon and an experience of such darkness it was to wrench the couple apart. 
 
‘Powerful... Unforgettable’ Sunday Telegraph 
 
‘Thoughtful and compassionate’ London Review of Books

Black Dogs

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE 
 
A warm treat of a read for the cold winter nights. 
 
It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come and, unbeknownst to them both, the events of the evening will haunt them for the rest of their lives. 
 
'McEwan brings Florence and Edward touchingly alive for us' Guardian

On Chesil Beach

The Innocent is a startlingly prescient novel from Booker prize-winning Sunday Times bestselling author Ian McEwan. 
 
Into a Berlin wrenched between East and West, comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team. Though only a pawn in an international plot, Leonard uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life. 
 
The promise of his new life begins to be fulfilled as Leonard becomes a crucial part of the surveillance team, while simultaneously being initiated into a new world of love and sex by Maria, a beautiful young German woman. It is a promise that turns to horror in the course of one terrible evening - a night when Leonard Marnham learns just how much of his innocence he's willing to shed. 
 
'The plot crackles like thin ice with dread and suspense' Mail on Sunday

The Innocent

While the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has descended, young Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Stranded at boarding school, his vulnerability attracts his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. 
 
Twenty-five years later Roland's wife mysteriously vanishes, and he is left alone with their baby son. Her disappearance sparks a journey of discovery that will continue for decades, as Roland confronts the reality of his rootless existence and attempts to embrace the uncertainty - and freedom - of his future.

Lessons

the Sunday Times bestselling new novel from the author of Atonement

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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