EVEN ANGELS HAVE THEIR DEMONS . . .
PARIS, CHRISTMAS 2021. After a heart attack, Mathias Taillefer wakes up in hospital with a stranger at his bedside. The mysterious girl reveals herself to be Louise Collange, a volunteer who has come to play the cello for patients. When she finds out Mathias is a cop, she asks him to take charge of a very special case.
Her mother, a former ballerina at the Paris Opera Ballet, died last year after falling from her balcony, and Louise has a hunch she was pushed. Though hesitant at first, Mathias agrees to help her, sending them both headfirst into a deadly chain of events. And at the centre of it all, a woman named Angélique, whose angelic intentions may not be all they seem . . .
Feverous, surprising and uplifting, Musso's newest novel is a labyrinth of emotions where nothing is certain from one page to the next.
PRAISE FOR THE ICONIC BESTSELLER GUILLAUME MUSSO:
'THE FRENCH SUSPENSE KING' NEW YORK TIMES
'ONE OF THE GREAT THRILLER WRITERS OF OUR AGE' DAILY EXPRESS
'THE KING OF EUROPEAN NOIR' LA REPUBBLICA, ITALY
'IT'S NO WONDER THAT GUILLAUME MUSSO IS ONE OF FRANCE'S MOST LOVED, BESTSELLING AUTHORS' HARLAN COBEN
Moby Dick in half the time
Moby Dick is the tale of one man's fatal obsession and his willingness to sacrifice his life and that of his crew to achieve his goal. The story follows the fortunes of Captain Ahab and the eccentric crew of a whaling ship, The Pequod. The ship is on its last voyage in pursuit of Moby Dick - the great white whale which wounded Ahab in the past is his quarry now. The battle with the elements, the sea, the dangerous confrontations of the whale hunts are embodied in the thrilling narration of the survivor Ishmael.
'A brilliant contemporary novel' Colm Tóibín
'I am fully in awe of Dolan's talent' Douglas Stuart
'I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it' Marian Keyes
'Dazzling. Not a word is out of place' Katherine Heiny
Meet Celine and Luke. To all intents and purposes, the happy couple.
But Celine's more interested in playing the piano, and Luke's a serial cheater.
And as their big day approaches, the complicated lives of the wedding party begin to unravel. A fed-up bridesmaid, a lovesick best man, guests and family members all find themselves searching for their own happily ever afters.
From the author of Exciting Times, this is a sparkling ensemble novel about love and marriage, fidelity and betrayal.
Orphaned at an early age, Jane Eyre survives an unhappy childhood at the grim Lowood School. Despite Jane's deprived background, her intelligence and courage earn her a position as a governess at the imposing home of Mr Rochester. Overcoming her sense that all at Thornfield Hall is not as it seems, Jane finds herself becoming fond of her new life. But she finds it increasingly hard to maintain her composure. As her cautious friendship with her often moody master deepens, Jane opens herself up to the possibility of happiness at last. But Thornfield Hall conceals secrets that are conspiring against their happiness.
Subtitled “A Study of Provincial Life,” George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch is a chronicle of the titular nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of political and social change. Eliot explores the upheaval and transformation brought about by these changes through their impact on the lives of a richly varied cast of characters that includes the pious young Dorothea Brooke, her suitor the Reverend Edward Casaubon, the ambitious doctor Tertius Lydgate, and the mysterious schemer John Raffles. Middlemarch is one of Barnes & Noble's Collectible Editions classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world's greatest authors in an exquisitely designed bonded-leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging and a ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for every home library.
Compact editions - David Copperfield in half the time.
David Copperfield's happy childhood is abruptly ended by his mother's remarriage to Mr Murdstone. After enduring the misery of Salem House Academy and a life of drudgery in his step father's business, he runs away to his eccentric aunt, Betsey Trotwood, in Dover, and transforms his life a second time - finding friendship with the ever optimistic Mr Micawber and falling in love with the adorable but spoilt Dora. But David has to face tragedy, and outface the scheming Uriah Heep before he finds ultimate happiness.
'Fifteen years on, the remembrance of that day has returned to me. I have seen that boy wandering through the mist of the railway station, and the name of Marina has flared up again like a fresh wound. We all have a secret buried under lock and key in the attic of our soul. This is mine...'
In May 1980, 15-year-old Óscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in the old quarter of Barcelona. For seven days and nights no one knows his whereabouts...
His story begins in the heart of old Barcelona, when he meets Marina and her father German Blau, a portrait painter. Marina takes Óscar to a cemetery to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the fourth Sunday of each month. At 10 a.m. precisely a coach pulled by black horses appears. From it descends a woman dressed in black, her face shrouded, wearing gloves, holding a single rose. She walks over to a gravestone that bears no name, only the mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings.
When Óscar and Marina decide to follow her they begin a journey that will take them to the heights of a forgotten, post-war Barcelona, a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons; and a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona and is the author of seven novels including THE SHADOW OF THE WIND. He is one of the world's most read and best-loved writers. His work has been translated into more than 40 languages and published around the world, garnering numerous international prizes and reaching millions of readers. He divides his time between Barcelona and Los Angeles.
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
'Bernhard Schlink speaks straight to the heart' New York Times
'Brilliant... A tale of love and loss in 20th century Germany' Evening Standard
'A cleverly-constructed tale of cross-class romance' Mail on Sunday
'A poignant portrait of a woman out of step with her time' Observer
Olga is an orphan raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village around the turn of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, she fights against the prejudices of the time to find her place in a world that sees her as second-best.
When she falls in love with Herbert, a local aristocrat obsessed with the era's dreams of power, glory and greatness, her life is irremediably changed.
Theirs is a love against all odds, entwined with the twisting paths of German history, leading us from the late 19th to the early 21st century, from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west.
This is the story of that love, of Olga's devotion to a restless man - told in thought, letters and in a fateful moment of great rebellion.
Bleak House in half the time
Esther Summerson finds herself caught up in the frustrations of a seemingly unending law-case involving her generous guardian Mr Jarndyce and her wards Ada and Richard.Brought into contact with poverty and disease, Esther suffers a serious illness.
Meanwhile the unscrupulous lawyer Tulkinghorn seeks to expose the past of the wife of a rich aristocrat, and the secret of Esther's birth is revealed. But in the midst of tumultuous events, will she ever find love?
Six women - mothers, daughters, sisters - gone missing.
Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this is the story of two sisters, both of whom could be the next victims.
Arcade and Daffodil are twin sisters born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for an escape, they form an unbreakable bond nurtured by their grandmother's stories. Together they disappear into their imagination and forge a world where a patch of grass reveals an archaeologist's dig, the smoke emerging from the local paper mill becomes the dust rising from wild horses galloping deep beneath the earth, and an abandoned 1950s convertible transforms into a time machine that can take them anywhere.
But no matter how hard they try, Arc and Daffy can't escape the generational ghosts that haunt their family. And so, left to fend for themselves in the shadow of their rural Ohio town, the two sisters cling tight to one another.
Years later, as the sisters wrestle with the memories of their early life, a local woman is discovered dead in the river. Soon, more bodies are left floating in the water, and as the killer circles ever closer, Arc's promise to keep herself and her sister safe becomes increasingly desperate - and the powerful riptide of the savage side more difficult to survive.
Drawing from the true story of women killed in Chillicothe, Ohio, acclaimed novelist and poet Tiffany McDaniel has written a moving literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere.
PRAISE FOR TIFFANY McDANIEL'S BETTY
'A coming-of-age story filled with magic in language and plot' Observer
'Breahtaking' Vogue
'I felt consumed by this book. I loved it, you will love it' Daisy Johnson
'A page-turning Appalachian coming-of-age story told in undulating prose that settles right into you' Naoise Dolan
'Vivid and lucid, Betty has stayed with me' Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Once-in-a-generation memoir of a rock legend - the No. 1 SUNDAY TIMES bestseller.
'Electrifying' New York Times
'A masterpiece' The Word
'Funny, poignant, brutally honest' Sunday Telegraph
With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life: taking the chances he wanted, speaking his mind, and making it all work in a way that no one before him had ever done.
Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane. And what a life. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records as a child in post-war Kent. Learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones' first fame and success as a bad-boy band. The notorious Redlands drug bust and subsequent series of confrontations with a nervous establishment that led to his enduring image as outlaw and folk hero.
Creating immortal riffs such as the ones in 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Street Fighting Man' and 'Honky Tonk Women'. Falling in love with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the US, 'Exile on Main Street' and 'Some Girls'. Ever increasing fame, isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen. Estrangement from Mick Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Solo albums and performances with his band the Xpensive Winos. Marriage, family and the road that goes on for ever.
In a voice that is uniquely and intimately his own, with the disarming honesty that has always been his trademark, Keith Richards brings us the essential life story of our times.
'One of the most marvellous books I've read in years'
Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances
'A bacchanal of familial entanglements, as beautiful as it is brutal'
Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
Daniel Cunha has a lot on his mind. He got dumped by his pregnant girlfriend, his grandfather just dropped dead, and on the anniversary of the raid that doomed his drug-dealing aunt and uncle, his mother makes her unwanted return to Brazil.
Misfortune, however, is a Cunha family affair, and no generation is spared. As New Year's Eve nears, old secrets are brought to light and the Cunha family hurtles toward an irrevocable breaking point: a fire, a knife, and a death on the sands of Copacabana Beach.
'The Iliad meets Friday Night Lights in this muscular, captivating debut'
Oprah Magazine
'A gorgeous debut that conjures one small town and the big emotions of its wealthiest family, the Briscoes, whose saga plays out over six days of pain, rage and love'
People, Best of Summer
'I read without breathing - OK, maybe I gasped - and I experienced the characters' grief and regret as if they were my own'
New York Times
'The novel is based on Greek myths but you don't need to know your Zeus from your Apollo to enjoy this saga full of deceit and drama'
Good Housekeeping
'Beautifully written and filled with atmosphere... a hugely accomplished debut'
Prima
'Secrets, lies and deceptions with Greek myth-like undertones... A literary family saga that spans one week and packs in everything from infidelity to a shooting'
High Life
'A total page-turner'
Kirkus (starred review)
'The most wildly entertaining novel I've read in a long time'
Richard Russo winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
When March Briscoe returns to East Texas two years after he was caught having an affair with his brother's wife, the Briscoe family becomes once again the talk of the small town of Olympus. His mother, June, hardly welcomes him back with open arms: her husband's own past affairs have made her tired of being the long-suffering spouse. Is it, perhaps, time for a change?
But within days of March's arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended, and even the strongest of alliances are shattered. In the end, the ties that hold the Briscoes together might be exactly what drag them all down.
An expansive tour de force, Olympus, Texas combines the archetypes of Greek and Roman mythology with the psychological complexity of a messy family. After all, at some point, we all wonder: what good is this destructive force we call love?
Hera is in her mid-twenties, which seems young to everyone except people in their mid-twenties.
Since leaving school, she has been trying to kick and scream into existence a life she cares about, but with little success so far.
Until she meets Arthur.
He works with her, he is older than her, he is also married. But in her soulless office - the large cold room she feels destined to spend her life in - he is a source of much-needed sustenance.
And though Hera has previously dated women, she soon falls headlong into a workplace romance that will quickly consume her life.
Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving and whip smart, Green Dot is a story about the terrible allure of wanting something that promises nothing and the winding, torturous, often hilarious journey we take in deciding who we are and who we want to be.
WATERSTONES FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER 2024
THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER
BARACK OBAMA'S BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK
AMAZON.COM NO.1 BOOK OF THE YEAR
'I loved this book' BONNIE GARMUS
'A generous, compassionate book about the power of love and community' LOUISE KENNEDY
'I can't recommend this one highly enough ' HARLAN COBEN
'THIS is his best book' ANN PATCHETT
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where Jewish immigrants and African Americans lived side by side through the 1920s and '30s.
In this novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them, James McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community - heaven and earth - that sustain us.
A GUARDIAN AND FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
'The most exquisite kind of literature... I've put it on a special shelf in my library that I reserve for books that demand to be revisited every now and then. '
OLGA TOKARCZUK, author of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
'Could not be more timely... It's funny and absurd, but it's also frightening, because even as Gospodinov plays with the idea as fiction, the reader begins to recognise something rather closer to home... A writer of great warmth as well as skill'
GUARDIAN
'In equal measure playful and profound, Time Shelter renders the philosophical mesmerizing, and the everyday extraordinary. I loved it'
CLAIRE MESSUD, author of The Woman Upstairs
'A genrebusting novel of ideas... Gospodinov's vision of tomorrow is the nightmare from which Europe knows it must awake. And accident, in combination with the book's own merits, may just have created a classic'
THE TIMES
'Gospodinov is one of Europe's most fascinating and irreplaceable novelists, and this his most expansive, soulful and mind-bending book'
DAVE EGGERS, author of The Circle
'Touching and intelligent'
NEW YORK TIMES
'A powerful and brilliant novel: clear-sighted, foreboding, enigmatic'
SANDRO VERONESI, author of The Hummingbird
'An immensely enjoyable book which achieves depth with an affable narrative voice'
IRISH TIMES
In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a 'clinic for the past' that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.
As Gaustine's assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a 'time shelter', hoping to escape from the horrors of our present - a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.
Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov's reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, a major voice in international literature.
Georgi Gospodinov is one of Europe's most acclaimed writers. Originally from Bulgaria, his novels have won his country's most prestigious literary prize twice and have been shortlisted for more than a dozen international prizes - including the 2015 PEN Literary Award for Translation, the Premio Gregor von Rezzori, the Premio Strega Europeo, the Bruecke Berlin Preis, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Literaturpreis. He has won the 2016 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, the 2019 Angelus Literature Central Europe Prize and the 2021 Premio Strega Europeo, among others.
How to live a better life. One of the most important books on Western philosophy - a powerful and inspirational guide for the complicated world of today
'Refreshing and restorative' GUARDIAN
'An ancient work of spiritual reflection which remains a powerful reminder of how we could live a more dignified life by avoiding deceit, vanity and greed' OK MAGAZINE
Few ancient works have been as influential as the MEDITATIONS of Marcus Aurelius. Filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behaviour, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus's insights and advice - on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others - have made the MEDITATIONS required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style.
In Gregory Hays's translation Marcus's thoughts speak with a new immediacy. Never before have Marcus's insights been so directly and powerfully presented.
We all keep secrets. Even from ourselves.
'A thrilling, heart-in-throat ride' STEPHEN FRY
'An absolute jaw-dropper' LUCY FOLEY
'Elegant, sinister, stylish' CHRIS WHITAKER
'Grips from start to finish' HARRIET TYCE
* * * * *
YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE MAIDENS.
The Maidens are Cambridge University's most exclusive society, whose members are selected by the charismatic professor of Greek tragedy, Edward Fosca.
A SECRETIVE SET OF THE BRIGHTEST, MOST CAPTIVATING STUDENTS.
When one of the Maidens is murdered, grieving young therapist Mariana Andros is drawn back to the idyllic campus where she was once herself a student.
THE GROUP FROM WHICH EACH VICTIM WILL BE CHOSEN.
Because beneath the university's ancient traditions and beauty is a web of secrets, jealousy and lies. And when the killer threatens the person she loves most, Mariana will give anything to stop them - even her own life...
From the #1 global bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense, weaving together Greek mythology, murder, and obsession...
* * * * *
'There's definitely a flavour of The Secret History to Alex Michaelides's second novel ... The Maidens is a compelling read, and delivers its Hellenic thrills in style.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'A book which screams 'make me into a TV series' ... his writing, especially his characterisation, possesses a unique sparkle and more promise than most other writers.' DAILY MAIL
'Nothing short of genius.' WOMAN & HOME
'How do you go about following one of the biggest thrillers of the past decade? You write something even better.' CHRIS WHITAKER, bestselling author of WE BEGIN AT THE END
'Grips from intriguing start to horrifying finish ... A brilliant achievement.'
HARRIET TYCE
'A page-turner of the first order'
DAVID BALDACCI
'The greatest campus novel since The Secret History by Donna Tartt ... with a climatic twist that you will NEVER see coming.'
TONY PARSONS
'A stunning psychological thriller ... Michaelides is on a roll.'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
American poet Emily Dickinson is revered around the world, and influenced many feminist artists and writers. Her work is some of the best known and most quoted or adapted:
'Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all' Emily Dickinson
Dickinson received a very good education, but chose to return home to Amherst, Massachusetts, where she spent the rest of her life, writing more than a poem a day until her death. Her refusal to compromise her highly condensed expression meant that only a tiny fraction of her work was published in her lifetime. Even today, her work feels startlingly modern:
'Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell' Emily Dickinson
'The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul - BOOKS'
This is a superb collection from a truly iconic poet.
FEATURED ON BARACK OBAMA'S 2019 READING LIST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SWANSEA UNIVERSITY DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
'SPECTACULAR' Guardian
'A WONDER' Daily Mail
'SPARKLING' The Times
'EXQUISITE' Observer
'MAGNIFICENT' TLS
'EPIC' Entertainment Weekly
'A TRIUMPH' LitHub
'INFECTIOUS' Financial Times
'A MASTERPIECE' Sunday Express
Nora is an unflinching frontierswoman awaiting the return of the men in her life, biding her time with her youngest son - who is convinced that a mysterious beast is stalking the land around their home - and her husband's seventeen-year-old cousin, who communes with spirits.
Lurie is a former outlaw and a man haunted by ghosts. He sees lost souls who want something from him, and he finds reprieve from their longing in an unexpected relationship that inspires a momentous expedition across the West.
Mythical, lyrical, and sweeping in scope, Inland is grounded in true but little-known history. It showcases all of Téa Obreht's talents as a writer, as she subverts and reimagines the myths of the American West, making them entirely - and unforgettably - her own.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Guardian, Time, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, The New York Public Library
'Should have been on the Booker longlist' Claire Lowdon, Sunday Times
'Magnificent... Brings to mind Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or Toni Morrison's Beloved' Times Literary Supplement
'Exquisite ... The historical detail is immaculate, the landscape exquisitely drawn; the prose is hard, muscular, more convincingly Cormac McCarthy than McCarthy himself' Alex Preston, Observer
*Winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize*
'Malala is an inspiration to girls and women all over the world' J K Rowling
'Inspirational and powerful' GRAZIA
'For sheer inspiration read I Am Malala' SUNDAY TIMES
'A tale of immense courage and conviction' INDEPENDENT
'She has the heart and courage of a lioness and is a true inspiration' Lorraine Kelly, THE SUN
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, 9 October 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price when she was shot in the head at point-blank range.
Malala Yousafzai's extraordinary journey has taken her from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations. She has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and is the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.
*****
'Malala is an inspiration to girls and women all over the world' JK Rowling
'Moving and illuminating' Observer
'Inspirational and powerful' Grazia
'Her story is astonishing' Spectator
'Glamorous, nostalgic and very sexy' Paula Hawkins
'Powerful and devastating... A heady cocktail' Mail on Sunday
'The new Gatsby' Stylist
'Thoroughly sexy and engrossing' Heat
'Nods to classics like The Great Gatsby and Revolutionary Road' Independent
September 1957
Henry and Effie, young newlyweds from Georgia, arrive in Cape May, New Jersey, for their honeymoon. It's the end of the season and the town is deserted.
As they tentatively discover each other, they begin to realize that everyday married life might be disappointingly different from their happily-ever-after fantasy.
Just as they get ready to cut the trip short, a decadent and glamorous set suddenly sweep them up into their drama - Clara, a beautiful socialite who feels her youth slipping away; Max, a wealthy playboy and Clara's lover; and Alma, Max's aloof and mysterious half-sister.
The empty beach town becomes their playground, and as they sneak into abandoned summer homes, go sailing, walk naked under the stars, make love, and drink a great deal of gin, Henry and Effie slip from innocence into betrayal, with irrevocable consequences that reverberate through the rest of their lives...
'Gorgeous, seductive storytelling, martini-dry prose reminiscent of James Salter's finest. I loved it' Lucy Foley, author of THE HUNTING PARTY
'An exquisitely crafted exploration of young love, the power of desire, and the lifelong ramifications of choices made in an instant... A modern classic' Whitney Scharer, author of THE AGE OF LIGHT
Vanity Fair in half the time
Becky Sharp is the most alluring yet ruthless heroine ever to climb the social ladder. From sordid bohemian beginnings she moves upwards through Regency society, betraying her husband, her friend Amelia and all who cross her in her determination to acquire power.
In post-war London after Waterloo, Becky continues her manipulative schemes but finds herself thwarted by personal and social forces.
