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Transworld Publishers
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Jack Reacher has no place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, so a remote railroad stop with the curious name of Mother's Rest seems perfect for an aimless one-day stopover. He expects to find a lonely tombstone in a sea of nearly-ripe wheat... but instead there is a woman waiting for a missing private investigator, a cryptic note about two hundred deaths, and a small town full of silent, watchful people. Reacher's one-day stopover turns into an open-ended stay... Fasten your seatbelt for another nailbiting ride from the kick ass master of the thriller genre! |
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In 1993, before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire to move back to the States for a few years with his family, Bill Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation's public face and private parts (as it were), and to analyse what precisely it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite; a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy; place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey and Shellow Bowells; people who said Mustn't grumble, and Ooh lovely at the sight of a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits; and Gardeners' Question Time. Notes from a Small Island was a huge number-one bestseller when it was first published, and has become the nation's most loved book about Britain, going on to sell over two million copies. |
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Three confessions. Two liars. One killer. Three friends have had their lives ripped apart. Their pasts haunt them. They are consumed by guilt. And they don't trust anyone. Not even themselves. But in their small, isolated, island community, trust is the only way to survive. Now a child has gone missing. And no one knows who to believe... |
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Unseen University are proud to present the most comprehensive map and guide to the Disc yet produced. In this noble endeavour, drawing upon the hard won knowledge of many great and, inevitably, late explorers, one may locate on a detailed plan of our world such fabled realms as the Condiment Isles, trace the course of the River Kneck as it deposits silt and border disputes in equal abundance on the lands either side, and contemplate the vast deserts of Klatch and Howondaland — a salutary lesson in the perils of allowing ones goats to graze unchecked. This stunning work brings to life the lands and locations of the Discworld stories in a way never seen before. Accompanied by lavish full-colour illustrations and a detailed world map, this is a must-have for any Discworld fan. |
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What if you realized the book you were reading was all about you? Disclaimer stealthily steals your attention and by the end holds you prisoner — a searing story that resonates long after the final page. The best thriller I've read this year. (Rosamund Lupton, bestselling author of Sister). When an intriguing novel appears on Catherine's bedside table, she curls up in bed and begins to read. But as she turns the pages she is sickened to realize the story will reveal her darkest secret. A secret she thought no one else knew... |
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This is the winner of the costa novel award. What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to? Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in life's bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves. |
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Kate Atkinson's dazzling Life After Life, one of the top selling adult books of 2014, explored the possibility of infinite chances, as Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula's beloved younger brother Teddy — would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father — as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have. A God in Ruins is a masterful companion to Life After Life, and will prove once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the finest novelists of our age. |
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In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and — perhaps most alarming of all — people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack. Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition — not to die outdoors. |
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When Vavara, a young Polish orphan, arrives at the glittering, dangerous court of the Empress Elizabeth in St Petersburg, she is schooled in skills ranging from lock-picking to love-making, learning above all else to stay silent — and listen. Then Sophie, a vulnerable young princess, arrives from Prussia as a prospective bride for the Empress's heir. Set to spy on her, Vavara soon becomes her friend and confidante, and helps her navigate the illicit liaisons and the treacherous shifting allegiances of the court. But Sophie's destiny is to become the notorious Catherine the Great. Are her ambitions more lofty and far-reaching than anyone suspected, and will she stop at nothing to achieve absolute power? |
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Time is of the essence in Terry Pratchett’s twenty-sixth Discworld novel. Time is a resource. Everyone knows it has to be managed. And on the Discworld that is the job of the Monks of History, who store it and pump it from the places where it’s wasted (like underwater — how much time does a codfish need?) to places like cities, where there’s never enough time. But the construction of the world’s first truly accurate clock starts a race against, well, time for Lu Tze and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd. Because it will stop time. And that will only be the start of everyone’s problems. Thief of Time comes complete with a full supporting cast of heroes, villains, yetis, martial artists and Ronnie, the fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse (who left before they became famous). |
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The dazzling new science fiction adventure from the extraordinary imaginations of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter — the fourth novel in a collaborative series that has been hailed as 'sense-of-wonder SF at its best.' (Independent on Sunday). 2045-2059. In spite of the world-changing upheavals of Step Day and the Yellowstone eruption — humanity is spreading further into the Long Earth, and society, both on a battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve. Lobsang, now an elderly and somewhat over-complex AI, seems to have suffered a breakdown of sorts. With Agnes, he now lives, in disguise, in an exotic High-Meggers world — 'New Springfield' — determined to lead a 'normal' life as a human colonist. They even adopt a child, a son. But it seems that Sally Linsay guided them there for a reason. For it's at New Springfield that the Long Earth chain of worlds has become 'entangled' with another Long world — an alien planet. Strange haunted-house sightings in a cellar reveal this alien world to be inhabited by voracious colonising cyborgs — 'silver beetles' — who seem to be modifying this world for their own terrifying purposes. Elsewhere Joshua, now in his fifties, tries to track down the father he's never known. In so doing, he unravels a deeper history — of natural steppers who banded together in Victorian London. At first they offered their services to the crown, but were eventually hunted down and their secret covered up. But their story didn't end there, and it would seem that an ancestor of Joshua's became embroiled in a clandestine 'Darwinian' programme involving these 19th century steppers. Free from human control, the super-intelligent Next are growing up. As they debate how to 'manage' the vast herd of humans they live amongst, one of the brightest of them all begins to preach about the unity of all human kinds and in so doing stirs up both human and Next communities — but then, still only young, he faces a new duty. Meanwhile, on New Springfield, Lobsang has been joined by Joshua and they've discovered the ominous ultimate goal of the cyborg silver beetles and the vast machines they have created. The threat they pose to the Long Earth -- and other Long worlds — convinces Lobsang and the others that the beetles' world has to be 'cauterised', taken out of the Long Earth chain, to prevent the spread of their kind. To achieve this will require super-stepping abilities — and for some it will mean making the ultimate sacrifice. |
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In a matter of days, Peter McDowell loses everything he has worked so hard for — including his marriage. Stripped of everything, he has only one place he can retreat to: the home he left twenty years ago. There, he comes face to face with his brother for the first time in years. At first, Peter dreads seeing Michael again — but to his surprise their reunion is tender and real. Only later, as Peter mulls over his late mother's journals, does he begin to question what lies beneath Michael's perfect surface. In a race for time, Peter throws caution to the wind to find the truth. What he discovers will change their lives, the lives of their children and an entire town for ever. A riveting novel of secrets, salvation, and redemption from master storyteller Danielle Steel. |
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«Sleep, Pale Sister», a powerful, atmospheric and blackly gothic evocation of Victorian artistic life, was originally published before Joanne Harris achieved worldwide recognition with «Chocolat». Henry Chester, a domineering and puritanical Victorian artist, is in search of the perfect model. In nine-year-old Effie he finds her. Ten years later, lovely, childlike and sedated, Effie seems the ideal wife. But something inside her is about to awaken. Drawn into a dangerous underworld of prostitution, murder and blackmail, she must finally plan her revenge.» |
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From her perch at the top of the stairs, seven-year-old Gabriella watches the guests arrive at her parents lavish Manhattan home. The click, click, click of her mother`s high heels strikes terror into her heart. Her word is a confusing blend of terror, betrayal and pain, and she knows that there is no safe place for her to hide. |
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«Michael Adams shares a flat with three other men in their late twenties. Days are spent lying in bed, playing computer games and occasionally doing a bit of work. And then, when he feels like it, he crosses the river and goes back to his unsuspecting wife and children. For Michael is living a double life — he escapes from the exhausting misery of babies by telling his wife he has to work through the night or travel up north. And while she is valiantly coping on her own, he is just a few miles away in a secret flat, doing all the things that most men with small children can only dream about. He thinks he can have it all, until is deception is inevitably exposed...»The Best a Man Can Get» is written with the hilarious eye for detail that sent John O'Farrell's first book, «Things Can Only Get Better», to the top of the bestseller lists. It is a darkly comic confessional that is at once compelling, revealing and very, very funny.» |
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«A Brief History of Time», published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity, with more than 9 million copies in print globally. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the ensuing years have seen extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro and the macrocosmic world — observations that have confirmed many of Hawking's theoretical predictions in the first edition of his book. Now a decade later, this edition updates the chapters throughout to document those advances, and also includes an entirely new chapter on Wormholes and Time Travel and a new introduction. It make vividly clear why «A Brief History of Time» has transformed our view of the universe.» |
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Emma is sitting on a turbulent plane. She's always been a very nervous flyer. She really thinks that this could be her last moment. So, naturally enough, she starts telling the man sitting next to her — quite a dishy American, but she's too frightened to notice — all her innermost secrets. How she scans the backs of intellectual books and pretends she's read them. How she does her hair up like Princess Leia in her bedroom. How she's not sure if she has a G-spot, and whether her boyfriend could find it anyway. How she feels like a fraus at work — everyone uses the word 'operational' all the time but she hasn't a clue what it means. How the coffee at work is horrible. How she once threw a troublesome client file in the bin. If ever there was a bare soul, it's hers. |
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«Mightily Oats has not picked a good time to be priest. He thought he'd come to Lancre for a simple ceremony. Now he's caught up in a war between vampires and witches. There's Young Agnes, who is really in two minds about everything — Magrat, who is trying to combine witchcraft and nappies, Nanny Ogg...and Granny Weatherwax, who is big trouble. And the vampires are intelligent. They've got style and fancy waistcoats. They're out of the casket and want a bite of the future. Mightily Oats knows he has a prayer, but he wishes he had an axe. «Carpe Jugulum» is Terry Pratchett's twenty-third «Discworld» novel — but the first to star vampires.» |
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