It is a freezing December night & Christmas shoppers have gathered to listen to a carol concert. Then a shot rings out & one of the singers falls to the floor, dead. Detective Harry Hole & his team are called in to investigate but have little to work with
- there is no immediate suspect, no weapon & no motive. But when the assassin discovers he`s shot the wrong man, Harry finds his troubles have only just begun.
...

What makes India a nation? What has held its many disparate societies with their diverse, sometimes conflicting, narratives together for more than sixty years? What has allowed India to sustain its commitment to the democratic process, given its location in a region that is largely undemocratic? In this magisterial analysis of the last five hundred years of Indian history, Meghnad Desai looks at India`s colonial past, its struggle for independence & its many contemporary conundrums, to discover answers to the questions that have confronted India-watchers for decades. Meghnad Desai draws on a wealth of sources to illuminate India`s journey to the twenty-first century. Whether it is an examination of British parliamentary debates on the question of India`s independence, or the liberalization of the economy after decades of licence-permit Raj, or the state`s complicity in the Gujarat riots, Meghnad Desai`s original, occasionally iconoclastic, approach to seemingly settled arguments makes The Rediscovery of India a ground-breaking & comprehensive account of India`s past & present. ...

Iain Mc Calman`s brilliant history of the Great Barrier Reef, told in 12 extraordinary tales, charts its shifting status from labyrinth of terror to global treasure. Equal parts gifted storyteller & acclaimed historian, Mc Calman brings to life the people who`ve shaped our knowledge & perception of this World Heritage
- listed site. He describes encounters between peoples & places, ideas & environments, over the past two centuries & more. Where today the Reef is known for its astonishing underwater beauty & diversity, once it was notorious for the shipwrecks in its treacherous waters. Scientists theorised about the creation of this massive structure, & the fiery debate between Darwinists & creationists caught the world`s attention. Then came successive waves of resource hunters & exploiters, followed by beachcombers & artists who fought to stop them, & the marine specialists who first became aware of the threats to the Reef`s survival. In between, the Indigenous peoples of the Reef gave succour to castaways such as Eliza Fraser, & were then vilified for it. The first social, cultural, & environmental history to be written of the Great Barrier Reef, * The Reef* is an effortlessly readable & often moving story of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
...

From the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction ` Nguyen`s eight heart-wrenching & hopeful stories ought to be required reading for every politician in this era of wall-building & xenophobia` the Guardian In The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland & the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia & starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams & hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice, The Refugees is a beautifully written & sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, & the relationships & desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.` With anger but not despair, with reconciliation but not unrealistic hope, & with genuine humour that is not used to diminish anyone, Nguyen has breathed life into many unforgettable characters, & given us a timely book focusing, in the words of Willa Cather, on ”the slow working out of fate in people of allied sentiment & allied blood”` the Guardian ...

In The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland & the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia & starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams & hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice, The Refugees is a beautifully written & sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, & the relationships & desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives. ...

The Regeneration Trilogy is Pat Barker`s sweeping masterpiece of British historical fiction. 1917, Scotl&. At Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotl&, army psychiatrist William Rivers treats shell-shocked soldiers before sending them back to the front. In his care are poets Siegfried Sassoon & Wilfred Owen, & Billy Prior, who is only able to communicate by means of pencil & paper... Regeneration, The Eye in the Door & The Ghost Road follow the stories of these men until the last months of the war. Widely acclaimed & admired, Pat Barker`s Regeneration trilogy paints with moving detail the far-reaching consequences of a conflict which decimated a generation. ” Harrowing, original, delicate & unforgettable”. (Independent). ”A new vision of what the First World War did to human beings, male & female, soldiers & civilians. Constantly surprising & formally superb”. (A. S. Byatt, Daily Telegraph). ” One of the few real masterpieces of late twentieth-century British fiction”. (Jonathan Coe). Pat Barker was born in 1943. Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy, comprising Regeneration (1991); which was made into a film of the same name; The Eye in the Door (1993), which won the Guardian Fiction Prize; & The Ghost Road (1995), which won the Booker Prize, as well as the more recent novels Another World, Border Crossing, Double Vision, Life Class & Toby`s Room. She lives in Durham. ...

From the bestselling author of The Real Bravo Two Zero comes the definitive history of the world`s most elite fighting force
-
...

The Regional Office & its band of super-powered female assassins protects the world from annihilation. But a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. & now the Regional Office is under attack... Rose is a young assassin leading the assault, eager to stretch into her powers & prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah
- who may or may not have a mechanical arm
- fiercely devoted to the organisation that took her in as a troubled young woman. On the day that the Office is attacked, Rose`s & Sarah`s stories will overlap, their lives will collide, & the world as we know it just might come to an end...

...

Swimming for his life towards traffickers on the Italian shore, Selim enters a world where Kurdish refugees disguise themselves as tomatoes, dates of birth are a matter of opinion, & a residency permit is a ticket to paradise. When he ends up in a small town in Germany, Selim believes he is finally safe, until the law catches up with him & the clock starts ticking. Selim realises there is only one way to avoid deportation, if he dare try.. . Fifteen years later, in a town hall in Paris, a Registrar receives an unsettling book in the post. The Registrar`s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages only fuels her suspicions surrounding an impending Kurdish wedding. Unsure how to intervene, she embarks on an investigation that brings her uncomfortably close to an old acquaintance: Selim. ...

This title is based on the true story of Charles Sainte-Beuve, his lover Adele & her husb&, Victor Hugo. When Charles Saint-Beuve, a French literary journalist met Victor Hugo, an ambitious young writer who intended to become famous, he was swept into a world of grand emotions, a world where words can become swords. But it is not Victor he is really attracted to
- it is his wife Adele. Soon the two lovers are on the edge of a great scandale & a wounded Victor must exact his price for betrayal, a price that will change the lives of many, including his own children. As Saint-Beuve
- a man like no other man
- struggles to hold on to what is left of his great love, he finds that only words can rekindle the flame. Set during the tumultuous reign of Napoleon III, this mesmerising novel draws a rich portrait of old Paris, where duels were fought & cholera-ridden bodies float in the Seine. Towering over all is the genius of Victor Hugo, already the voice of France, eventually banished to the island of Guernsey for his opposition to the regime. In contrast come the quieter voices of two women destroyed by Hugo's ferocious literary ambition as well as the unique, acerbic & heart-breaking voice of the critic & essayist, Saint-Beuve, first Hugo's friend & then his unlikely competitor in love. An atmospheric story of delicacy & emotion, of the experience of professional jealousy & personal passion, The Reinvention of Love is an outstanding piece of fiction writing, in part about writing itself.


...