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Bloomsbury Publishing
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Beautiful, flaxen-haired Buttercup has fallen for Westley, the farm boy, and when he departs to make his fortune, she vows never to love another. So, when she hears that his ship has been captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts (no survivors) her heart is broken. But her charms draw the attention of the relentless Prince Humperdinck who wants a wife and will go to any lengths to have Buttercup. So starts a fairy tale like no other, of fencing, poison, true love, hate, revenge, giants, bad men, good men, snakes, spiders, chases, escapes, lies, truths, passion and miracles, and a damn fine story. |
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When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him — after all, he is the last remaining member of the family. A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters, featuring every second year of Bod's life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man? |
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Beginning in America, and spilling back over memories and generations to India, Unaccustomed Earth follows new lives forged in the wake of loss.These are stories in which deeply sympathetic characters reach pivotal moments in their frayed relationships and are forced to navigate their way in unfamiliar landscapes. In the title story the death of a mother leaves a space neither daughter nor husband knows how to fill. In 'Only Goodness' a younger brother's spiralling alcoholism threatens to destroy his loyal sister's family. And in a trio of linked stories we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one memorable winter, share a house in suburban Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until they are brought together years later in a chance meeting in Rome. With moving compassion Lahiri traces a series of transformations: weariness into hope, secrets into sacrifices, and grief into unforeseen love. Eight luminous stories — longer and richer than any she has yet written — explore the heart of family life and the immigrant experience, taking us from America to Europe, India and Thailand.Infused with eloquent warmth and lyrical simplicity, Unaccustomed Earth confirms Jhumpa Lahiri's status as a storyteller of unrivalled empathy. |
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Lou Bertignac has an IQ of 160 and a good friend called Lucas who gets her through the school day. At home her father cries in secret in the bathroom and her mother hasn't been out of the house properly for years. But Lou is about to change her life — and that of her parents — for good, all because of a school project she decides to do about the homeless. Through the project Lou meets No, a teenage girl living on the streets. As their friendship grows, Lou cannot bear that No is still on the streets when she goes back home — even if it is to a home that is saddened and desolate. So she asks her parents if No can come to live with them. To her astonishment, her parents — eventually — agree. No's presence forces Lou and her parents to finally face the sadness that has enveloped them. But No has disruptive as well as positive effects. Can this shaky, newfound family continue to live together? A tense, brilliant novel tackling the true meanings of home and homelessness. |
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In May 1940, Britain was at war with Germany and Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister, struggling with a poorly prepared defence against Hitler. But waiting in the wings was a group of Tory rebels who would change the course of history. They were doing the unthinkable: trying to topple their leader from power. This is Lynne Olson's fascinating account of how these troublesome young men risked political suicide and vilification as traitors to their class, party and government, and paved the way for Winston Churchill to step in as Britain's saviour. |
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Ovid and Lorelli Thornthwaite had been trying to kill each other for so long that neither twin could remember which act of attempted murder came first. But whoever had struck first, trying to take each other's lives was simply what they did. Until one day a lawyer arrives at their house to take stock of its contents, and his accompanying son attracts their attention. Soon a new battle evolves — one in which the twins have to work together to solve the mystery of their parents' deaths. Can Lorelli and Ovid overcome their old animosities, and will they ever get to finish that game of chess? |
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Hunter Wild just wants to get through her last year at the secret Helios-Ra Academy. To do so, she'll have to betray her grandfather, date a vampire and possibly take down the entire League — all before the end of term. |
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Anna Covey is a 'Surplus'. She should not have been born. In a society in which ageing is no longer feared, and death is no longer an inevitability, children are an abomination. Like all Surpluses, Anna is living in a Surplus Hall and learning how to make amends for the selfish act her parents committed in having her. She is quietly accepting of her fate until, one day, a new inmate arrives. Anna's life is thrown into chaos. But is she brave enough to believe this mysterious boy? This is a tense and utterly compelling story about a society behind a wall, and the way in which two young people seize the chance to break free. |
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At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe — a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government, who — after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing — gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving completely into this topic, trying with all her might to discover (through historical research, interviews and much personal reflection) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. The result is Committed — a witty and intelligent contemplation of marriage that debunks myths, unthreads fears and suggests that sometimes even the most romantic of souls must trade in her amorous fantasies for the humbling responsibility of adulthood. Gilbert's memoir — destined to become a cherished handbook for any thinking person hovering on the verge of marriage — is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love, with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails. |
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There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies, Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers. Tom Chaney shoots him down in the street for a horse, $150 cash, and two Californian gold pieces. Ross's unusually mature and single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattie travels to claim his body, and finds that the authorities are doing nothing to find Chaney. Then she hears of Rooster — a man, she's told, who has grit — and convinces him to join her in a quest into dark, dangerous Indian territory to hunt Chaney down and avenge her father's murder. |
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No matter how hard Annie tries, she just cannot do even the simplest sums. It's so embarrassing! When she goes to the shops, she can't work out how much money to hand the shopkeeper, and she always gets 0 for her maths homework. That is, until Annie goes to sleep with a calculator under her pillow, and something very strange happens. Overnight, Annie becomes a maths maestro capable of solving problems so fast it takes people's breath away. It impresses one world-renowned maths genius so much that he decides to put Annie's powers to the ultimate test. Will Annie be up to the mathematical challenge, or will she be at sixes and sevens and end up back at square one? Prepare yourself for this brain-teasing adventure. |
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Jim and his friends are upset to hear that their school janitor's car has been stolen, and just before he's due to retire too. So Jim comes up with a bright idea for a way to help raise money to buy a new car: selling doughnuts. They start by making their own very delicious doughnuts to sell, but run into problems when demand exceeds supply. That's when Jim has another brainwave and decides the only way to make enough is to write a chain letter asking people to make more doughnuts. The doughnuts start rolling in and rolling in and soon Jim is up to his ears in them. It takes another inspired business idea to rescue a situation which is rapidly getting out of hand. This is the inspiring story of a boy with a big heart and big business ideas, from bestselling author, Alexander McCall Smith. |
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