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Macmillan Publishers
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This is the story of a man who loved two women, and one of them killed him. Some people have dreams that are so outrageous that if they were to achieve them, their place in history would be guaranteed. Francis Drake, Robert Scott, Percy Fawcett, Charles Lindbergh, Amy Johnson, Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong are among such individuals. But what if one man had such a dream, and when he'd fulfilled it, there was no proof that he had achieved his ambition? Paths of Glory is the story of such a man. But not until you've turned the last page of this extraordinary novel, will you be able to decide if George Mallory should be added to this list of legends, because if he were, another name would have to be removed. 'Archer at the peak of his imaginative powers' — The Times. ' Paths of Glory will lead Archer to fans he has never before conquered' — The Independent. 'The plain storytelling is unimprovable. Few literary writers could do his job better' — Sunday Times. |
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Lottie Biggs is recovering from her mental disorder of a reasonably significant nature with the help of her counsellor, who rather helpfully looks like Johnny Depp. Things are looking up — her hair is an excellent shade of black, she has a saturday job in a hairdresser and Gareth Stingecombe and his manly thighs are still the love of her life. When Gareth undoes his trousers to show Lottie a fetching bruise on one of the aforementioned thighs, she comes to the realization that, unlike everyone else she knows, she is a total, utter virgin. But how can she get any sort of experience when her boyfriend is doggedly, stubbornly and infuriatingly determined to preserve his energies for the rugby field? |
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«'Fiennes has exceptional gifts, and he has written a small masterpiece, a tribute to the power of place, family and memory' — «Sunday Telegraph». William Fiennes' childhood was one of imagination and curiosity, bounded only by the horizon he saw from the roof-tiles of his ancient family home. His older brother Richard, known for his towering presence, his inventiveness, his great passion for Leeds United, and his suffering due to severe epilepsy, was an adored and charismatic figure in his life. Years later, eager to understand his brother's mind as fully as the ancient trees and secret haunts of his own journey towards adulthood, William Fiennes has written a profoundly moving account of his home, his family's care, and above all, of Richard. «The Music Room» is a luminous testament to the miracle of consciousness and to the permanence of love. 'On putting the book down I felt as if I had been hypnotised. It held me entranced, afraid and awed. All human grief and glory shimmers off the page' — Libby Purves, «The Times».» |
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The past is always there, shaping the future... Fen works in a bookshop and is devoted to her young son, Connor, but she keeps herself to herself. Haunted by guilt and a terrible secret, Fen lives a compromised life, isolated from her family, far from home and too afraid of the past to risk becoming close to anyone. She is constantly looking over her shoulder, waiting, watching, knowing that one day the truth will catch up with her. Sean, on the other hand, is enjoying a seemingly perfect life. He has a successful career, lives in his dream home and adores his beautiful wife, Belle, and their six-year-old daughter, Amy. That is until the day Belle announces she has found someone else and wants Sean to move out. As he realizes that everything he believed in was a lie, his life comes crashing down around him; he is losing everything that's important to him and he can see no way forward. Circumstance throws Fen and Sean together. Slowly their quiet friendship turns into something much deeper and the joy they find in one another eventually gives them the confidence to trust and love again. But will the past tear them apart just as they find happiness? Full of pathos, Missing You is a novel which perfectly encapsulates the nature of human frailty and is also a moving portrayal of the power of love. |
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Set in the darkest heart of Africa, in deepest Slovenia, in the melting pot of Chicago and in Hemon's native Sarajevo, this collection of linked stories crackles with humour, pathos and irrepressible energy. Recalling the surreal and salient experiences of a life — not least in the narrator's ill-fated expedition across Yugoslavia by night train to acquire a freezer chest and dispose of his virginity — each story confronts pain without blanching but finds delicious absurdity in experience. Hemon made his name writing stories, and this collection surpasses anything he has written to date. 'Hemon is a world-class writer or seismic depth, riptide humour, wine-dark language and unflinching candour' — Booklist. 'An original who owes no debts to anyone' — Patrick McGrath. |
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Zahra, aged 3, and Hawra, just a few months old were the only survivors of a missile strike in Baghdad in 2003. Their parents and their five siblings all died. Unable to have children herself, Hala Jaber, an award-winning foreign correspondent, was determined to do all she could to help them. Sent to Iraq by The Sunday Times to cover the war, the last thing she expected was to find herself trying to save two little girls who had lost everything. But what happened next tells us far more about that conflict than any news bulletin ever could. Being a Lebanese Muslim, as well as the employee of a London paper, Hala is in the privileged position of being able to straddle two very different worlds and explain one to the other, and her beautifully written and deeply moving account affords a genuinely fresh insight into the Iraq war and its terrible human cost. The praise for The Flying Carpet to Baghdad include: 'I read the book in one sitting and confess I cried more than once. Jaber's story doesn't tie it all up with a neat pink ribbon, but it is all the more telling and universal for that' — The Sunday Times. 'Nothing I have read compares to Hala Jaber's mesmerizing account of how her longing for a baby drew her into an intense, often agonizing, involvement with two little Iraqi sisters orphaned by a U.S missile strike' — The Daily Mail. 'Far from the usual gung-ho memoirs by war correspondents, this is a heart-rending and highly personal story by an incredibly brave woman' — Christina Lamb, author of The Africa House and The Sewing Circles of Herat. |
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Jimmy Luntz owes money to a man called Juarez. Trouble is, Juarez isn`t the most patient of men. And when he gets bored of waiting, he sends someone round to collect. Luntz doesn`t actually plan to shoot the guy, but the way he sees it, it`s shoot or be shot. Either way, though, Luntz is out of his league, and he knows it. |
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Lynda Graham has been fortunate in life. She is happily married, with two wonderful children, Ciaran and Katie. She has a beautiful home and garden in one of the most affluent suburbs of Dublin. Her world feels safe and uncomplicated, one she now takes for granted. That is until Jon, a friend of Ciaran's from university — handsome, charming and clever — inveigles his way into their lives. There's something about Jon that Lynda finds unnerving — he is almost too perfect. And her instinct is right: Jon's arrival sets in motion a spiral of events that contributes to the gradual disintegration of all she holds dear. When Jon leaves, his disappearance is even more destructive than his presence. Lynda's quest to track him down reveals unpalatable truths about his past and the reason for his existence in their lives. Lynda knows that Jon is out there somewhere — watching, waiting, malevolent. And she also knows that she must do whatever it takes to protect the most precious thing she has — her family. 'Dunne has a clever knack of turning ordinary lives into compelling fiction' — Irish Post. |
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The Day of the Dead. El Dia de los Muertos. That time of the year when Mexico celebrates its lost loved ones. But two people aren't celebrating. Nick Vargas, a disgraced newspaper reporter, now true crime writer, seeks the truth behind the slaughter of nuns in a house near the Texas border. And Hannah Freeman, a beautiful prosecuting attorney on holiday from Southern California has lost someone very precious to her — her younger sister, Jen, has disappeared without trace in Ensenada, Mexico. The realization that a sinister cult is at work and that they are behind Jen's disappearance leads them to a small town in Mexico full of dark secrets and deadly rituals, and a series of haunted caves, where something or someone lurks. Watching them. Waiting for the right moment to strike. |
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'It made me laugh so hard that I woke up my wife and had to give up reading the book in bed. If Bill Bryson had collaborated with W. G. Sebald to write a book about Germany, they might have wound up with something like this' Sunday Times. Germania is a very personal guide to the Germany that Simon Winder loves. Equally passionate about the region's history, folklore, cuisine, architecture and landscape, Winder describes Germany's past afresh — and in doing so sees a country much like our own: Protestant, aggressive and committed to eating some very strange food! This accessible, enthusiastic and startlingly vivid account is a brilliant introduction to the hidden wonders of Germany. 'A splendid offering' — Financial Times. 'Entertaining and informative... Delightful' — Philip Hensher, Independent. 'Beautifully written and insightful' — Irish Times. |
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The Political Gene is a fascinating examination of the way that many scientists and politicians have sought to use Charles Darwin's ideas to solve social problems, or to bolster political ideologies. Sewell's beautifully crafted narrative shows us what drove people to put a black man on display in a zoo, forcibly sterilize a pair of innocent teenage sisters, lock up a British girl for eighteen years for a petty theft, murder disabled people in Nazi Germany, and slam shut America's 'Golden Door'. In a world where the gene becomes ever more central, the fresh and stimulating arguments in The Political Gene make this an explosive, essential, and utterly intriguing book. 'An accessible, thought-provoking book that refuses to adopt pre-determined battle lines in an argument that looks set to continue raging' — Metro, Non-Fiction of the Week. ' The Political Gene by Dennis Sewell is the only one of the Darwin books that actually explains what really matters — the consequences of the adoption of his theory for the conduct of human affairs' — Evening Standard, Books of the Year. '[This] chilling study reveals how Darwinism became a justification for hateful ideologies' — Sunday Times. 'Scholarly and shocking' — GQ. 'The best book to have come out of the Darwin centenary' — Word Magazine. |
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I'll not ask you to be mine I will never seek to blunt the fury in you, never, and will honour your will as my own. What say you? Can you be a soldier's wife? New England, 1673. Martha Allen, a young woman reviled by her family because of her refusal to marry, is packed off to be a servant in her cousin's home. She takes charge of the neglected household and annoys everyone around her including a mysterious Welshman who works for the family, a man whose forceful nature matches her own. As they both gradually let their guard down, a fragile, uneasy friendship grows between the pair. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, a band of assassins, driven by the will of Charles II, charter a ship to the New World. They have a single aim: to capture Thomas Morgan, the killer of Charles I, and bring him back to London where he will face an excruciating death. The Royalists want to see his head on a spike outside the Tower of London. As Martha begins to fall for the tall Welshman, he reveals a little of his past. It soon becomes clear that his life is in grave danger. As the threat of the assassins grows closer, can Martha find it in herself to be a traitor's wife? Praise for The Heretic's Daughter 'Absolutely compelling' Daily Mail 'A very fine novel a remarkably accomplished telling of a truly shocking tale' Daily Express. |
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Notorious party-loving, 'It Girl' Lyric Charlton has it all — the lineage, the looks and the lifestyle. A moneyed upbringing at the heart of one of the upper class' most well-connected families, a finishing school education and an address book bursting with the world's most powerful and high-profile people has crowned her the glamorous poster girl for the aristocratic glitterati. But when her doomed relationship with suave boy-about-town, Ralph Conway means she takes the good times too far, she is packed off to rehab by her worried parents, and the public shame and private humiliation that follow means Lyric's only option seems to be to retreat into sober obscurity. But what no one can predict is the dramatic chain of events her exile sets in motion. For Lyric's treatment is the start of much more than a life as an ex-addict. It's the catalyst that exposes a complex web of deceit and betrayal — and leads Lyric on an increasingly dangerous quest to find the final missing piece of the jigsaw of her life. |
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Clyde Tombaugh, the boy who will discover Pluto, is out in the farmyard grinding the lens for his own telescope under the immense Kansas sky. A thousand miles away in Flagstaff, Arizona, the staff of Lowell Observatory is preparing to resume its long-interrupted search for Planet X — if everyone can straighten out their romantic and financial tangles long enough to concentrate on their work. Meanwhile, the immensely rich heir to a chemical fortune has decided to come west to hunt for dinosaurs — and for God. And in Cambridge, the most beautiful girl in America is going slowly insane while her heavyweight champion boyfriend stands by helplessly, certain he is about to lose her, and desperate to do anything to keep her. Utterly mesmerising. This is a breathtaking, triumphant book. (The Times). The Unfixed Stars is ambitious in its scope, but to read it is to entrust yourself to a writer in seemingly complete control. (TLS). Think of the gin-and-jazz era of Scott Fitzgerald sent through the prism of a fine modern imagination. (Readers Digest). |
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Henry Graves has dedicated his life to the prison service, but he is unprepared for the challenge his new and secret assignment brings. Tasked with managing a government facility hidden deep in the countryside, Henry finds himself tested as never before: by the confused and frightened prisoners, by the sinister Dr Silk and, above all, by his conscience. Tom Clarke, a precocious but naive journalist, has his own problems meanwhile. His career — and his life — is turned upside down by the arrival of Julia Priestley, who seeks his help in finding her estranged husband, Arthur, an innocent dentist who has been arrested under severe new anti-terrorism legislation. The authorities admit they have taken him but will not say where he is being held — or why. Discovering a trail that implicates those at the very top of government, Tom and Julia begin a quest to find Arthur, and the truth about his incarceration. But some people will stop at nothing to keep the facility's secret hidden, and soon the couple find themselves fighting for their lives... |
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Terror From The Deep... When a plane crashes into the Antarctic ice in a violent storm, exposing a massive cave beneath, a rescue and research team is dispatched. Twenty-four hours later, all contact is lost. Captain Alex Hunter and his crack team of highly trained commandos are fast-tracked there to find out what went wrong, accompanied by an assortment of researchers, including petrobiologist Aimee Weir. Within the caves lies an unidentified — and unnatural seeming — substance. If it proves to be an energy source, every country in the world will want to know about it — some even kill for it. |
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This is the new Quirke novel from John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black. It's 1950's Ireland. As a deep, bewildering fog cloaks Dublin, a young woman is found to have vanished. When Phoebe Griffin, still haunted by the horrors of her past, is unable to discover news of her friend; Quirke, fresh from drying out in an institution, responds to his daughter's request for help. But as Phoebe, Quirke and Inspector Hackett speak with those who knew April, they begin to realise that there may have been more behind the young woman's discretion and secrecy than they could have imagined. And while Quirke finds himself distracted from his sobriety by a beautiful young actress, Phoebe watches helplessly as April's family hush up her disappearance, terrified of a scandal; and all possible leads seem to dry up, bar one she cannot bear to contemplate... When Quirke eventually makes a disturbing discovery, he is finally able to begin unravelling the great, complex web of love, lies, jealousy and dark secrets that April spun her life from... |
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Amos, Mississippi, is a quiet town. Silas Jones is its sole law enforcement officer. The last excitement here was nearly twenty years ago, when a teenage girl disappeared on a date with Larry Ott, Silas' one-time boyhood friend. The law couldn't prove Larry guilty, but the whole town has shunned him ever since. Then the town's peace is shattered when someone tries to kill the reclusive Ott, another young woman goes missing, and the town's drug dealer is murdered. Woven through the tautly written murder story is the unspoken secret that hangs over the lives of two men — one black, one white. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a masterful crime novel, sizzling with deep Southern menace, and distinguished by brilliant plotting and unforgettable characters. |
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A rich tapestry of romance, illusory science, criminal trickery and human intrigue. Let the show begin. (Kirkus). In the late 1860s, as America was recovering from Lincoln's assassination, a man named P. T. Barnum opened a museum in New York City. Filled with oddities from around the world, it also hosted a number of sideshow freaks — including The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno's narrator, the Human Skeleton. This atmospheric and utterly original story of how he fell in love with the Bearded Lady is a moving novel about human appetites and longings, exploring what it means to be profoundly unique — and demonstrating love's power to transcend even the greatest divisions. Bryson is bedazzling, a real writer of extraordinary bravado. (Keith Donohue, author of Angels of Destruction and The Stolen Child). |
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The year is 1740. George II is on the throne but England's remoter provinces remain largely a law unto themselves. In Lancashire a grim discovery has been made: a Squire's wife, Dolores Brockletower, lies in the woods above her home, Garlick Hall, her throat brutally slashed. Called to the scene, Coroner Titus Cragg finds the Brockletower household awash with rumour and suspicion. He enlists the help of his astute young friend, doctor Luke Fidelis, to throw light on the case. But this is a world in which forensic science is in its infancy, and policing hardly exists. Embarking on their first gripping investigation, Cragg and Fidelis are faced with the superstition of witnesses, obstruction by local officials, and denunciations from the Squire himself. 'This is rollicking stuff. Cragg and Fidelis are an engaging duo' Financial Times 'Cragg and Fidelis make a fine pair of detectives' Literary Review. |
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