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Bloomsbury Publishing
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«Peking, 1914. Eight-year-old Eastern Jewel peers from behind a screen as her father, Prince Su makes love to a servant girl. Caught spying by her thirteenth sister, Eastern Jewel’s sexual curiosity sees her banished to live with distant relatives in Tokyo, then forced into a passionless marriage in freezing Mongolia. Increasingly isolated, at night she is plagued by disturbing fantasies and unsettling dreams. But she refuses to be pinned down by anyone – least of all a man – and in the dazzling city of Shanghai she puts her thrill-seeking nature to work spying for the Japanese, spurning everything she once held dear… Based on the real-life story of Yoshiko Kawashima, Chinese princess turned ruthless Japanese spy, «The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel» is an intoxicating tale of sexual manipulation and self-discovery that spans three countries and a world war.» |
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Enter the world of Gossip Girl – a world where espadrille sandals are flown in from Spain, crisp cotton sundresses are made to order, and jealousy and betrayal are the ultimate summer accessories... Serena and Blair are now co-muses to a super-famous designer, who just happens to live next door to Nate’s Hamptons estate... But how neighbourly are these new neighbours going to get? And what’s this about Vanessa venturing surfside? Who’s next, Dan? Never say never... |
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Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where Gossip Girl and her friends are the biggest stars ...whether or not the cameras are rolling. Lights, camera, scandal! Hollywood is invading New York and Serena is set for her big screen debut. She's already having an off-screen romance with her onscreen lover, Thaddeus. What will that mean for Hamptons-bound Nate? And if Nate is free, what about Blair? Sure, she's off to London to spend time with her royal boytoy, but Nate will always be Prince Charming in her eyes... |
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It's 1946. Juliet Ashton, a 32-year-old writer, has found a certain recognition through her light-hearted column for the Spectator which lifted the spirits of her readers during WW2, but she can't think what to write next. But then Dawsey Adams writes to her from Guernsey — by chance he's acquired a book Juliet once owned — and, emboldened by their mutual love of books, they begin a correspondence. Dawsey belongs to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and as Juliet investigates the strange-named reading group, soon she stumbles upon a whole number of islanders eager to write and tell her of their experiences of the German occupation of Guernsey. Entranced by her new friends, Juliet decides to visit the island to meet them properly. A moving tale of friendship, tolerance and forgiveness in the wake of a period of unthinkable hardship and horror, this is set to become a classic. |
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«As featured in the first year set texts reading list in «Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone», «Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them» is an extensive introduction to the magical beasts that exist in the magical, non-Muggle world. Some of the animals featured in the A–Z you will have already met in the existing Harry Potter books: for example Hippogriff, Flobberworm, Kappa – others you certainly won’t: read on to find out exactly what a Chizpurfle is, or why one should always beware of the sinister Lethifold... As Albus Dumbledore says in his introduction, this set text book by Newt Scamander has given the perfect grounding to many a Hogwarts student. It will be helpful to all Muggles out there too... On reading the book you will also find that Harry, Ron and (in one instance) Hermione – couldn’t resist graffitiing the book, and adding their own hand-written opinions.» |
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Did you know that: there are 700 ways of committing a foul in Quidditch? The game first began to evolve on Queerditch Marsh? What Bumphing is? That Puddlemere United is oldest team in the Britain and Ireland league? (Founded 1163.) All this information and much more could be yours once you have read this book: this is all you could ever need to know about the history, the rules – and the breaking of the rules – of the noble wizarding sport of Quidditch. |
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«The international bestseller, reissued with a new introduction and all the stories from «M is for Magic». Part of The Bloomsbury Phantastics series — three books tracing the tradition of fantasy from Edgar Allan Poe to Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke. When Coraline explores her new home, she steps through a door and into another house just like her own – except that things aren’t quite as they seem. There’s another mother and another father in this house and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. Coraline must use all of her wits and every ounce of courage in order to save herself and return home… but will she escape and will life ever be the same again? Elsewhere in this collection, a sinister jack-in-the-box haunts the lives of the children who ever owned it, a stray cat does nightly battle to protect his adopted family, and a boy raised in a graveyard confronts the much more troubled world of the living. From the scary to the whimsical, the fantastical to the humorous, «Coraline & Other Stories» is a journey into the dark, magical world of Neil Gaiman.» |
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«Published by the Children's High Level Group in association with Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, «The Tales of Beedle the Bard» is the first new book from J. K. Rowling since the publication of «Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows». «The Tales of Beedle the Bard» played a crucial role in assisting Harry, with his friends Ron and Hermione, to finally defeat Lord Voldemort. Fans will be thrilled to have this opportunity to read the tales in full. An exciting addition to the canon of Harry Potter, the tales reveal the wonderful versatility of the author, as she tackles with relish the structure and varying tones of a classic fairy tale. There are five tales: «The Tale of the Three Brothers», recounted in «Deathly Hallows», plus «The Fountain of Fair Fortune», «The Warlock's Hairy Heart», «The Wizard and the Hopping Pot», and «Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump». Each has its own magical character and will bring delight, laughter and the thrill of mortal peril. Translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, the tales are introduced and illustrated by J. K. Rowling. Also included are notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by kind permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive.» |
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While Mrs North, Marvin's teacher, is on holiday she asks him to look after Waldo — her dog. Suddenly, Marvin has become the luckiest boy in school. He'll get to sniff about Mrs North's house, look in her wardrobe, check out her bathroom and rummage in her fridge... Well that's what Stuart and Nick, his best friends, would like to do. But Marvin takes things a little more seriously. After all, he gets paid $3 a day and he will get a bonus on top if everything goes smoothly. What could possibly go wrong? Just how long can Marvin hold on to his luck... Louis Sachar tells this tale with a refreshing and bold frankness and again the characters are vividly portrayed in this the fourth of the series. |
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It is Moscow, in 1939. The great author Isaac Babel is spending his last days in the infamous Lubyanka prison, forbidden to write. His final works have been consigned to the young archivist Pavel Dubrov, who must destroy them. But Pavel makes a reckless decision in the face of a vast bureaucracy of evil: he will save the stories of the writer he so admires, whatever the cost. |
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Elizabeth Stavely sits in the Bodlean library with trembling hands. Before her is a fragment of parchment which has about it a dusty fragrance of roses, of sadness and great age. Here is the clue she has been looking for, to a story that has been untold for four hundred years. It is as though a voice is whispering softly to her across the centuries. Constantinople, 1599: merchants from all over Europe are vying with each other to gain trading rights in the Ottoman empire. Paul Pindar, a wealthy merchant, has been entrusted with the mission to deliver an extraordinary musical clock to the Sultan. But a disaster has befallen it on its journey from England, and the organ-maker Thomas Dallam must attempt to repair the effects of the seawater on the precious artifact. Pindar is troubled too by a secret sadness: the woman he once loved is now lost to him, drowned in a shipwreck. But there have been rumours of a new young slave with golden hair and skin like milk, sighted behind the gates of the Sultan's harem. Could this be his Celia? Deep inside the most private quarters of the Sultan's palace, a different drama unfolds: Hassan Aga, the Chief Black Eunuch, lies spreadeagled and helpless, his life slowly ebbing away. Beside him is an intricate ship made of spun sugar, perhaps carrying the poison that is about to take his life. A veiled figure stands over him, and as she moves away the light catches the huge emerald on her finger, causing it to glow like a cat's eye.The Aviary Gate is a tale of ancient alliances and intrigues, of forbidden love and dangerous secrets. Lush, magical and utterly absorbing, it is a masterful novel from one of our most acclaimed authors. |
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Patty lives with her Aunt Bat on a banana plantation in Jamaica. Unfortunately, as it's such a small plantation, they're having trouble keeping up with the competition, and Aunt Bat is worried they'll have to sell up. Patty needs to think of an idea to turn things around, and fast! Inspiration comes to her as she's digging into a chocolate banana special at her local ice-cream parlour. All she needs to do is invent a machine — a banana machine. Will Patty's mechanical wizardry help the plantation out of its crisis? Or, like the bananas, are her ideas round the bend? |
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Cursed! David was only trying to be cool when he helped some other boys steal an old lady's cane. But when the plan backfires, he is the one whom she 'curses'. Now David can't seem to do anything right. The cool kids taunt him and his only friends are weirdos. He even walks into Spanish class with his fly unzipped! And when he finally gets his nerve up to ask out a cute girl, his trousers fall down midway! But is this the curse at work or is David turning into a total loser? This work is an another witty and very clever tale by the master storyteller Louis Sachar. Other titles in this series are There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom and Dogs Don't Tell Jokes. |
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Max and Maddy are on the trail of a criminal who'll stop at nothing to sabotage Mr Helium's trans-American hot-air balloon race. The prize is a gold balloon worth one million and one dollars, and all the money raised by the race is to go towards the Home for Children Whose Parents Have Disappeared in Balloons — so there's a lot at stake! They take to the skies on board Mr Helium's very own balloon in order to catch the cheat. But will the detectives become victim to the dastardly villain's dangerous schemes and dirty tricks, or will they blow his plot sky-high? |
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Zara and her friends knew they hadn't solved the pixie problem for good. Far from it. The king's needs grow deeper every day he's stuck in captivity, while his control over his people gets weaker. It's made him vulnerable. And now there's a new king in town. A turf war is imminent. The new pixie king is moving in quickly. He swears that he and Zara are destined to be together, that he's one of the good guys. Zara isn't so sure — despite herself, she wants to trust the new king. But there's a lot more than her relationship with boyfriend Nick at stake. It's her life — and his. |
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A father and child discover the joys of his crazy hair in this brilliant picture book. Bonnie tries to tame her father's hair, but to no avail, as birds and beasts of every type jostle for space amongst the curls and tresses of this hirsute book. A warm and funny conversational text combine beautifully with Dave McKean's edgy and dramatic illustrations to make this another, perfect picture book by Gaiman and McKean. |
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An alphabet book with a story about two children and their pet gazelle who head off, treasure map in hand, on an underground journey into a place where monsters and pirates roam. Will they find the treasure? Will they get out alive? Will the alphabet ever be the same again? |
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When Hitler invaded Vienna in the winter of 1938, Sigmund Freud, old and desperately ill, was among the city's 175,000 Jews dreading Nazi occupation. Here Mark Edmundson traces Hitler and Freud's oddly converging lives, then zeroes in on the last two years of Freud's life, during which he was rescued and brought to London. Edmundson probes Freud's ideas about secular death and the rise of fascism and fundamentalism, and grapples with the demise of psychoanalysis after Freud's death now that religious fundamentalism is once again shaping world events. |
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It is the 1970s in Northern California. A farmer and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, work the land with the help of Coop, the enigmatic young man who lives with them. Theirs is a makeshift family, until they are riven by an incident of violence — of both hand and heart. Written in the sensuous prose for which Michael Ondaatje's fiction is celebrated, Divisadero is the work of a master story-teller. |
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'Why did the guy eat two dead skunks for breakfast?' 'Because dead ones squeal when you stick the fork in.' Gary W. Boone knows he was born to be a stand-up comedian. It is the rest of the kids in the class who think he is a fool. Then the Floyd Hicks Junior High School Talent Show is announced, and he starts practising his routine non-stop to get it just right. Gary's sure that this will be his big break — he'll make everyone laugh and will win the $100 prize money. But when an outrageous surprise threatens to turn his debut into a disaster, it looks as if the biggest joke of all may be on Gary himself. |
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