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Penguin Group
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Set in the 1930s, the classic novel from bestselling author Lesley Pearse tells the story of one girl's struggle against cruelty and, her quest for love. Twelve-year-old Adele Talbot's unhappy mother Rose succumbs to madness after a family tragedy and Adele is placed in a bleak children's home. But when her trust is betrayed she runs away — hoping to find her grandmother in Sussex. By the time she does so, Adele is desperately ill and has to be nursed back to health among the beautiful Rye Marshes. And then she meets the wonderful Michael Bailey. As friendship blossoms into love and they come of age together — Adele becoming a nurse and Michael joining the RAF — she believes she can put her troubled past behind her. But with the outbreak of war and the sudden appearance of Rose, bearing shocking family secrets, suddenly all of Adele's hopes appear impossibly fragile... |
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«Let It Come Down», with its title from Macbeth, tells the story of Dyar, a New York bank clerk who throws up his secure, humdrum job to find a reality abroad with which to identify himself, and his macabre experiences in the inferno of Tangiers as he gives in to his darkest impulses. Rich in descriptions of the corruption and decadence of the International Zone in the last days before Moroccan independence, Bowles' second novel is an alternately comic and horrific account of a descent into nihilism.» |
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Fez, 1954, and American ex-pat Stenham reluctantly accepts a guide for his night-time walk home through the streets of the Medina. A nationalist uprising is transforming the country, much to the annoyance of Stenham, who enjoys the trappings of the old city. His path soon crosses with the young, illiterate son of a healer, another outsider to the newly politicised life of Morocco, in this brutally honest novel of life in the midst of terrorism, violence and the ugly opportunism that accompanies both. Bowles' most masterly novel combines his classic themes: the conflict of Eastern and Western cultures and the trials of otherness. |
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A hero will have his day. It is a task that no man has ever completed: to bring back a magical ram's fleece that lies hidden in a far-off land, guarded by an all-seeing serpent. But one man, Jason, must try. His life depends on it. Upon the orders of the King, Jason must cross deadly seas with the crew of his ship, the Argo, negotiate treacherous clashing rocks, fight fire-breathing bulls and confront the terror of the harpies before claiming his prize and winning the heart of the witch-princess Medea. |
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«Pozdnyshev and his wife have a turbulent relationship. When her beauty blossoms after the birth of their children, men begin to flock around her, and he becomes increasingly jealous. Convinced his wife is betraying him with a young musician, his overpowering suspicion drives him to ever more dangerous lengths. United by the theme of love, the writings in the «Great Loves» series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love's endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love...» |
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«Mary» was Nabokov's first novel, begun in the spring of 1925, and in its heroine lie the shadowy presences of all his heroines to come.» |
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«Penguin Decades» bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling. Kingsley Amis' «Lucky Jim» was published in 1954, and is a hilarious satire of British university life. Jim Dixon is bored by his job as a medieval history lecturer. His days are only improved by pulling faces behind the backs of his superiors as he tries desperately to survive provincial bourgeois society, an unbearable 'girlfriend' and petty humiliation at the hands of Professor Welch. «Lucky Jim» is one of the most famous and influential of all British post-War novels.» |
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Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires — the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them. After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger... and the Strigoi are always close by. Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever... |
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«A «Library Journal» Best Book of the Year What would you do with a second chance at life? Having survived a life-threatening illness, Kate celebrates by gathering with six close friends. At an intimate outdoor dinner on a warm September evening, the women challenge Kate to start her new lease on life by going white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon with her daughter. But Kate is reluctant to take the risk. That is, until her friend Marion proposes a pact: if Kate will face the rapids, each woman will do one thing in the next year that scares her. Kate agrees, with one provision — she didn't get to choose her challenge, so she gets to choose theirs. Whether it's learning to let go of the past or getting a tattoo, each woman's story interweaves with the others, forming a seamless portrait of the power of female friendships. From the author of The School of Essential Ingredients comes a beautifully crafted novel about daring to experience true joy, starting one small step at a time.» |
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«From «New York Times» bestselling author Luanne Rice, a moving family story that «will strike a chord in every mother, daughter, or sister» («Marie Claire») In «The Silver Boat,» «New York Times» bestselling author Luanne Rice has written a heart-wrenching yet heartwarming portrait of a family in all its flawed complexity. The McCarthy sisters have come to Martha's Vineyard to say good-bye to their family's beach house — the place they were happiest together. Each has her own complicated issues and is struggling with the difficult process of letting go, but when a cache of old letters spurs them to visit Ireland, each woman comes to see herself in a new light. True-to-life sisters, the beach, laughter, and passionate love — «The Silver Boat» is Luanne Rice at her very best.» |
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One of the great masters of the short story, Tolstoy called Chekhov an incomparable artist of life, who wrote about the everyday world with humor, insight, and honesty. |
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Wedding florist Emma Grant gets to play with flowers every day and work with her three best friends in the process. She couldn’t ask for a better job. And her love life seems to be thriving. Though men swarm around her, she still hasn’t found Mr. Right. And the last place she’s looking is right under her nose. |
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«From #1 «New York Times» — bestselling author Roberts comes the first book in a new series: a novel of love, friendship, and family — and the unpredictable moments that turn a pretty picture into a true work of art.» |
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«His code name: «The Sphinx». His mission: to send Rommel's advancing army the secrets that would unlock the doors to Cairo... and the ultimate Nazi triumph in the war. And in all of Cairo, only two people could stop this brilliant and ruthless Nazi master agent. One was a down-on-his-luck English officer no one would listen to. The other was a young Jewish girl...» |
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Claire Tomalin brings her extraordinary gifts of scholarship, fluent writing and empathy for her subjects to bear on one of our greatest, and most elusive, novelists. Widely acclaimed as the finest of Austen biographies, the book offers us a brave, sharp-tongued character who fairly bounces off the page. (Val Hennesy). And along the way it gives us an authoratative, graceful,succinct account of a wide swathe of English society which brilliantly illuminates' the novelist. (Victoria Glendinning). |
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Since childhood, Kusama has been afflicted with a condition that makes her see spots, which means she sees the world in a surreal, almost hallucinogenic way that sits very well with the Wonderland of Alice. She is fascinated by childhood and the way adults have the ability, at their most creative, to see things the way children do, a central concern of the Alice books. The classic book will be colour illustrated with a clothbound jacket, and produced to very high specification. Kusama's images will be interspersed throughout the text. |
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Pursuing art and adventure across Europe, Katherine Mansfield lived and wrote with the Furies at her heels. Dying at the age of only 34, she became posthumously one of the most influential writers of the last century. Sexually ambiguous, craving love yet quarrelsome and capricious, she glittered in the brilliant circles of DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, her beauty and recklessness inspiring admiration, jealousy, rage and devotion. Claire Tomalin's biography brings her nearer than we have ever been to this haunted and haunting writer. |
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'I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me... Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day — mock me horribly!' Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. |
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When her boyfriend John dies in a dreadful accident, his girlfriend Emma is plunged into despair. Emma loved John more than life itself and now she has lost everything that matters. Or so she thinks. For Emma has good friends who rally around. But the memory of that night returns to haunt each of them and they struggle to pick up the pieces. |
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