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Penguin Group
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It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George Ill's England. A beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey, and the dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man — Sebastian St. Cyr. |
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The young wife of an aging marquis is found murdered and wearing a necklace said to have been worn by Druid priestesses — that is, until it was lost with its last owner, Sebastian St. Cyrs mother. Now Sebastian is lured into a dangerous investigation of the marchionesss death — and his mothers uncertain fate. |
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Hero Jarvis, reform-minded daughter of the Prince Regent's cousin, enlists Sebastian St. Cyr's help in investigating the brutal murders of eight prostitutes by a killer whose ominous plot threatens to shake the nation to its very core. |
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In 1811, murder has jarred London's elite. The sons of prominent families have been found at dawn in public places, their bodies mutilated and strange objects stuffed into their mouths. Although Sebastian St. Cyr is distracted by his seemingly doomed relationship with actress Kat Boleyn, the oddness of these murders nags at him — and he becomes determined to track down the assassin, even at the risk of his own life. |
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Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the harsh totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty he begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker, Julia, but soon discovers that the true price of freedom is betrayal. |
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The Smart family's lacklustre holiday in Norwich is turned upside down when a beguiling stranger called Amber appears, bringing with her love, joy, pain and upheaval. The Smarts try to make sense of their bewildering emotions as Amber tramples over family boundaries and forces them to think about their world and themselves in an entirely new way. |
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This is Bulgakov's surreal tale of a Moscow doctor who befriends a stray dog and performs on it a human transplant — with disastrous consequences. |
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«'As good as anything he has written... one of Self's grisliest creations. There is no contemporary writer of fiction more perceptive about psychosis' — «Financial Times». 'Self's enjoyable, intelligent collection of savage stories is splendidly satiric. The title story is a brilliant novella that tells of dueling psychiatrists who use mental patients as weapons. You laugh, but you also flinch' — «Scotsman». 'A destabilizing, funny, abundantly Gothic tour de force' — «Guardian».» |
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Niall Ferguson recreates the excitement, brutality and adventure of the British Empire, showing on a vast canvas how the British Empire in the 19th century spearheaded real globalization with steampower, telegraphs, guns, engineers, missionaries and millions of settlers. |
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Presents a story of endurance, as one man — plucked from his normal, everyday life — is forced to reach deep inside himself to survive life in one of the bleakest outposts in the world: Russia's vast and unforgiving 'forgotten zone'. |
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«Distinguished by Smith's trademark ability to unearth flashes of truth and depth in the everyday, «The First Person and Other Stories» sparkles with warmth and humanity. In one story, a middle-aged woman conducts a poignant conversation with her fourteen-year-old self. In another, an innocent supermarket shopper finds in her trolley a foul-mouthed, insulting, yet beautiful child. And in a third story that challenges the boundaries between fiction and reality, the narrator, 'Ali', drinks tea, phones a friend, and muses on the surprising similarities between a short story and a nymph... Fans of Ali Smith will be delighted, amused and moved by these stories from a writer at the very top of her game.» |
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«It was Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver. Some lines will never be crossed. Aibileen is a black maid: smart, regal, and raising her seventeenth white child. Yet something shifted inside Aibileen the day her own son died while his bosses looked the other way. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is by some way the sassiest woman in Mississippi. But even her extraordinary cooking won't protect Minny from the consequences of her tongue. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter returns home with a degree and a head full of hope, but her mother will not be happy until there's a ring on her finger. Seeking solace with Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, Skeeter finds she has gone. But why will no one tell her where? Seemingly as different as can be, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny's lives converge over a clandestine project that will not only put them all at risk but also change the town of Jackson for ever. But why? And for what? «The Help» is a deeply moving, timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we won't. It is about how women, whether mothers or daughters, the help or the boss, relate to each other — and that terrible feeling that those who look after your children may understand them, even love them, better than you.» |
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Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha weaves together the oral traditions of the American Indian into an epic poem. Susan Jeffers has illuminated some of the poem's most lyrical verses depicting Hiawatha's boyhood. |
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This story brings alive five characters, one of whom is dead, during one night in a hotel. The author traces their intersecting lives, examining the themes of time, chance, money and death. |
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«Jamie will try real American food and meet the most interesting cooks and producers that this vast country has to offer. His epic journey will take him to the heart of America: its people, culture, music and, most importantly, its food. Along the way Jamie will be getting his hands dirty — meeting hunters, cowboys, fishermen and local producers — as he finds out about the best (and strangest) ingredients on offer. He won't just be sampling, he'll be getting involved: entering a gumbo 'throw-down' in Louisiana, fishing in California and sampling bison in Montana as he joins life on a ranch. As well as being a visually stunning journey, «Jamie's America» is a practical cookbook, with each chapter focusing on the food and recipes of a different state. And the food will be as varied as the landscapes — from spicy Mexican in the desert to freshly caught Alaskan salmon. With 120 brand new recipes, and Jamie's diary narrative running alongside, this will be a celebratory cookbook of a country with a wide food heritage.» |
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Caught up in his own cynicism and vulnerability, Monroe Stahr inhabits a world dominated by business, alcohol and promiscuity. This is Fitzgerald's last novel, left unfinished. It bids farewll to the American dream, with a hero who doesn't believe in morality and fails to see love. |
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Love stories are not always about hearts and flowers. In this deliciously different celebration of love, romance is all about having a good row (and not always having to say you're sorry). From trivial everyday quarrels, such as a dispute over a bride's new hat in Dorothy Parker's 'Here We Are' and an argument about whether to close the screen door in Lydia Davis's 'Disagreement', to more serious arguments where the truth is in doubt, such in Raymond Carver's 'Intimacy', relationships of every kind — devoted, comfortable, passionate, intimate, bad-tempered — are here. |
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A portrayal of egos, appetites and addictions. It presents an examination of lives out of control and beyond saving by the pre-eminent chronicler of our neuroses and our times. |
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Standing on a train as it rushes past fields of cactus; witnessing his first bullfight in Mexico, high on opium; meditating in Tangiers; or falling in love with Montmartre — Kerouac's travels reveal both the endless diversity of human life and his own particular philosophy of self-fulfillment. |
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Fern is glaring thirty in the face and can't ignore the love lies any longer. Life with Adam was amazing once — although these days swinging from the chandeliers means DIY not SEX. She believes a romantic wedding should be the next step but Adam just won't go down on one knee. |
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