In THE WHISPERING MOUNTAIN by Joan Aiken, the small town of Pennygaff, the legendary Harp of Teirtu is found
- & lost again.
...

The year is 1949 & Valdimar Haraldsson, an eccentric Icelander with elevated ideas about the influence of fish consumption on Nordic civilisation, has had the singular good fortune to be invited to join a Danish merchant ship on its way to the Black Sea. Among the crew is the mythical hero Caeneus, disguised as the second mate. Every evening after dinner he entrances his fellow travellers with the tale of how he sailed with the fabled vessel the Argo on the Argonauts` legendary quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. En route the heroes happened upon the island of Lemnos & discovered to their astonishment, & considerable delight, that it was inhabited solely by women. An ode to storytelling, The Whispering Muse evokes a time gone by with wit & verve, from the rogues & oddities among sea-faring types, to the long-lost romance & mystique of ancient mythology. ...

It is winter in the mountains of Greece & as the snow falls in the tiny village of Vrisi a coffin is unearthed & broken open, revealing some unexpected remains to the astonished mourners gathered at the graveside. In a village where gossip flows like ouzo, the discovery in the grave sets tongues wagging & heads shaking. But when a body is found buried beneath the fallen snow in the shadow of the shrine of St Fanourios (the patron saint of lost things), it seems the truth, behind both the body & the coffin may be far stranger than the villagers` wildest imaginings. Hermes Diaktoros, drawn to the mountains on an affair of the heart, finds himself embroiled in the mysteries of Vrisi, as well as the enigmatic last will & testament of Greece`s most admired modern poet. The Whispers of Nemesis is a story of desperate measures & dark secrets, of murder & immortality, & of pride coming before the steepest of falls. ...

When orphans Ben & Jennet arrive in the seaside town of Whitby to stay with Alice Boston, they have no idea what to expect. A lively 92-year-old, Miss Boston is unlike any other foster mother they’ve known. Ben is gifted with ‘the sight’, which gives him the power to see things invisible to other mortals. He soon encounters the mysterious fisher folk who live under the cliffs & discovers that Alice & her friends are not quite what they seem. But a darkness is stalking the streets of Whitby, bringing with it fear & death. Could it be a ghost from the Abbey? Or a beast from hell? Unless the truth is uncovered, the town & all its inhabitants is doomed. Robin Jarvis started writing in 1988 & quickly became a bestselling author with his Deptford Mice & Whitby Witches series. The Whitby Witches is the book that inspired his latest series, which begins with The Power of Dark. You can find out more at www.robinjarvis.com or follow him on Twitter @robinjarvis 1963 ...

From the author of The Vegetarian & Human Acts comes a book like no other. The White Book is a meditation on colour, beginning with a list of white things. It is a book about mourning, rebirth & the tenacity of the human spirit. It is as stunning investigation of the fragility, beauty & strangeness of life. Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith. ...

`A thous&-miles-an-hour hoot.` Esquire ` Hilarious...and immensely moving.` The New Yorker `A blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of black American life.` New York Times White Boy Shuffle is Man Booker-winner Paul Beatty`s electrifying debut novel about teenage-surf-bum Gunnar Kaufman who is forced to wise up when his mother moves from suburban Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighbourhood outcast to basketball superstar, & eventually to reluctant messiah of a `divided, downtrodden people`. A bombastic coming-of-age novel that has the uncanny ability to make readers want to laugh & cry at the same time, Beatty mingles horrific reality with wild fancy in this outlandish, laugh-out-loud funny & poignant vision of contemporary America. ...

The White Castle, Orhan Pamuk's celebrated first novel, is the tale of a young Italian scholar captured by pirates & put up for auction at the Istanbul slave market. Acquired by a brilliant Turkish inventor, he is set to work on projects to entertain the jaded Sultan. ...

The White Castle, Orhan Pamuk`s celebrated first novel, is the tale of a young Italian scholar captured by pirates & put up for auction at the Istanbul slave market. Acquired by a brilliant Turkish inventor, he is set to work on projects to entertain the jaded Sultan. ...

Joseph Roth, the greatest European newspaper correspondent of his age, left the splintering Weimar Republic for Paris in 1925 &, as an Austrian Jew, was exiled there for the rest of his life. Collected together here for the first time in English, these exhilarating pieces evoke a world of suppleness, beauty & promise. From the port town of Marseilles to the Riviera of Nice & Monte Carlo, to the erotic hill country around Avignon; from the socialist workers & cattlemen with whom Roth ate breakfast, to prostitutes & Sunday bullfighters, White Cities is not only a swan song to a European order that could no longer hold but also a beautifully crafted & revelatory work. Joseph Roth died of an alcohol-related illness in a Paris hospital in 1939. ...

Joseph Roth, the greatest European newspaper correspondent of his age, left the splintering Weimar Republic for Paris in 1925 &, as an Austrian Jew, was exiled there for the rest of his life. Collected together here for the first time in English, these exhilarating pieces evoke a world of suppleness, beauty & promise. From the port town of Marseilles to the Riviera of Nice & Monte Carlo, to the exotic hill country around Avignon, from the socialist workers & cattlemen with whom Roth ate breakfast, to prostitutes & Sunday bullfighters, The White Cities is not only a swan song to a European order that could no longer hold but also a beautifully crafted & revelatory work. ...