A forbidden love. A vow of revenge. And an empire on the brink of war.Set at the end of the nineteenth century, this sweeping, epic love story traces the doomed relationship of two young people against the backdrop of a British Empire bracing itself against political opposition.As a boy, Frank had to leave his beloved India when his mother was assaulted by a British officer and accidentally shot when Frank tried to intervene. After his father dies of shame ...

A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, Big Magic, and City of GirlsIn The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extra...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “mercilessly entertaining” (Vanity Fair) instant classic “about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships” (Lev Grossman, Time “One of the Best Books of the Decade”)—now featuring never-before-published deleted scenesTHE NEW YORK TIMES’S BEST THRILLER OF THE CENTURY • ONE OF TIME'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally sn...

Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize 'Best of the Best' as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. Possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation, it was selected by the BBC as one of its '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'.'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' Guardian

Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world.Celebrated Victorian bounder, cad, and lecher, Sir Harry Flashman, V.C., returns to play his (reluctant) part in the charge of the Light Brigade in this of the critically acclaimed Flashman Papers.As the British cavalry prepared to launch themselves against the Rus...

'A comfortable chair and a Mary Stewart: total heaven. I'd rather read her than most other authors.' Harriet EvansLegend has it that when the Gabriel Hounds run howling over the crumbling palace of Dar Ibrahim, high in the Adonis Valley of Lebanon, death will follow on their heels. When rich, spoilt Christie Mansel arrives at the decaying palace to look after her eccentric Aunt Harriet, she arrives to the sound of howling dogs. The palace is riddled with hidden pas...

A New York Times Notable Book from the author of The Golden Age. "A remarkable study of a young woman's most literal rite of passage" ( The Baltimore Sun).Gilgamesh is a rich, spare, and evocative novel of encounters and escapes, of friendship and love, of loss and acceptance, a debut that marked the emergence of a world-class talent.It is 1937, and the modern world is waiting to erupt. On a farm in rural Australia, seventeen-year...

Her husband was killed in the Great War. His wife is dead. Why not journey to the other side of the world and start again from scratch? What does it matter if they don't know each other, they will in time, after all? Norah thinks it is the most stupid idea she has ever heard. But Andrew needs no persuading. His kids are without a mother, he lives in a Lancashire town with no prospects: he can't wait to build a new life for himself in Australia. The government will even give ex-servicemen a...

1912-1940A generation fallen.A country that will never be the same again.Nowhere in England avoids the searing loss of young men during the First World War and the remote Devon village of Shallowford is no exception. Many never return and the lives of those who do come back are changed forever.Paul Craddock must try to rebuild the estate and, with more difficulty, the bonds broken between the people who belong there. It is a time of huge soc...

It’s 1924, and Bandy is making a solo flight across the Atlantic in the Gander, a seaplane of his own design. Not for fame though – he’s fleeing from arrest for train robbery, from his job as Minister of Defence, and from his would-be assassin and friend George Garanine. From Iceland, to Iraq, to St Pancreas Hospital in London, Bandy’s career has never been more complicated, or his luck more of a roller coaster. When he finds new employment as Deputy Supreme Being of a mercenary air force,...

Life didn't stop in the Avenue because the war had started . . . Berni Carver joins up with the Commandos with his twin brother hoping they will serve out the war together. Archie Carver is determined to end the war richer than when it started. Elaine Fraser seizes her opportunity to live a little now her husband is out of the way. War has broken out and the blitz will soon change everything in the Avenue. Many men have gone off to fight but others stay behind with less honourable intentio...