English books
ANDREW NORMAN – AGATHA CHRISTIE THE DISAPPEARING NOVELIST
Agatha Christie was the most famous female crime writers of all time, and yet in December 1926 when she was 35 years old, became the subject of a mystery: her disappearance for a period of eleven days. Questions arose such as why did she abandon her motorcar on such a bitterly cold winter’s night with her fur coat inside it? Why did Christie adopt a false name and claim that she originated from Cape Town, South Africa? Why did she not recognize either a photograph of her own daughter or husband when she was finally reunited with him? He accused her of playing a deliberate hoax on the police in an attempt to generate publicity as a crime writer. Others declared that this was an attempt to embarrass her unfaithful husband Archie (whom she knew was about to leave her) and gain sympathy at the same time. But was there another far more profound reason for her behavior whereby she became the innocent victim of circumstances completely beyond her control? Norman agrees with the "Fugue state" theory, suggesting that she had no conscious knowledge of her actions. All this and more can be revealed for the first time in Andrew Norman’s gripping Agatha Christie: The Disappearing Novelist.
ANDREW PYPER – THE GUARDIANS
There's no such thing as an empty house...
Don't all kids think there's a haunted house in their neighbourhood?
Can you remember yours?
What if, as a child, you knew something bad really had happened in that house?
What if you actually saw it? Then you tried to forget it for the next thirty years?
And then, one day, you had to go back inside that house?
Andrew Pyper's THE GUARDIANS is a ghost story for grown-ups. Prepare to enter the Thurman House on Caledonia Street.
You have been warned...
ANDY REMIC – THE IRON WOLVES
Thirty years ago, the Iron Wolves held back mud-orc hordes at the Pass of Splintered Bones, and led a brutal charge that saw the sorcerer Morkagoth slain. This ended the War of Zakora, and made the Iron Wolves heroes.
Now, a new terror stalks the realm. In hushed whispers, it is claimed the Horse Lady, Orlana the Changer, has escaped from the Chaos Halls and is building an army, twisting horses, lions and bears into terrible, bloody hunters, summoning mud-orcs from then slime and heading north to Vagandrak where, it said, the noble King Yoon has gone insane...
After hearing a prophecy from a blind seer, aged General Dalgoran searches to reunite the heroes of old for what he believes will be the final battle. But as mud-orcs and twisted beasts tear through the land, Dalgoran discovers the Iron Wolves are no longer heroes of legend... Narnok is a violent whoremaster, Kiki a honey-leaf drug peddler, and Prince Zastarte a drinker, a gambler, amoral and decadent: now he likes to hear people scream as they burn...
United in hate, the Iron Wolves travel to the Pass of Splintered Bones; and as half a million mud-orcs gather, General Dalgoran realises his grave error. Together, the Iron Wolves hold a terrible secret which has tortured them for three decades. Now, they only wish to be human again...
ANDY REMIC – THE WHITE TOWERS
Vagandrak is broken, and a new threat has arisen that threatens to defeat even the mighty Iron Wolves.
The twisted, deviant Elf Rats have gathered in the toxic realm beyond the White Lion Mountains… swiftly they invade the troubled land of Vagandrak, killing for profit and pleasure.
The now-disgraced Iron Wolves are the realm’s only hope, but there’s a problem: they’ve been sentenced to death by the insane King Yoon for the dark sorcery in their blood.
In the mountains of Zalazar lie the White Towers, pillars of legend said to contain the Heart of the Elves. The Iron Wolves must journey north to steal the Heart, and purify the evil in the land, but the land belongs to the Elves – and they won’t give it up without a fight!
Angels And Demons – Dan Brown
In a breathtaking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible - the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.
ANN BRASHARES – SISTERHOOD EVERLASTING: THE NOVEL
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Four friends
One sisterhood
Ten years later, the story continues
On the cusp of turning thirty, Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget are now living separate lives, out on their own. Yet despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness. Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.
ANN CLEEVES – DEAD WATER
Dead Water is the fifth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series – a major BBC1 drama starring Douglas Henshall.
When the body of journalist Jerry Markham is found in a traditional Shetland boat, outside the house of the local public prosecutor, down at the Marina, young Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation.
Since the death of his fiancée, Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his interest in this new case is stirred and he decides to help the inquiry. Markham – originally a Shetlander but who had made a name for himself in London – had left the islands years before. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl, Evie Watt, who is now engaged to a seaman. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back?
Willow and Jimmy are led to Sullum Voe, the heart of Shetland's North Sea oil and gas industry. It soon emerges from their investigation that Markham was chasing a story in his final days. One that must have been significant enough to warrant his death . . .
Also available in the Shetland series are Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning and Thin Air.
ANNA CAREY – RISE
How far will you go when you have nothing left to lose?
When she lost her soul mate, Caleb, Eve felt like her world had ended. Trapped in the palace, forced to play the part of the happy, patriotic princess of The New America—and the blushing bride of her father's top adviser—Eve's whole life is a lie. The only thing that keeps her going is Caleb's memory, and the revolution he started.
Now, Eve is taking over where Caleb left off. With the help of Moss, an undercover subversive in the King's court, she plots to take down The New America, beginning with the capital, the City of Sand. Will Eve be able to bring about a new, free world when she's called upon to perform the ultimate act of rebellion—killing her father?
In Rise, Eve must choose who to leave behind, who to save, and who to fight as Anna Carey's epic tale of romance and sacrifice in the chilling dystopia of The New America comes to a stunning conclusion.
ANNA JAQUIERY – THE LYING-DOWN ROOM
At night Armand lay in bed with a sadness in his heart that ballooned until there was room for nothing else.
He thought with horror of the lying-down room...
Paris; in the stifling August heat, Commandant Serge Morel is called to a disturbing crime scene. An elderly woman has been murdered to the soundtrack of Faure’s Requiem, her body then grotesquely displayed.
At first this strange case seems to offer few clues; and Morel has problems of his own. His father – always a great force in his life – is beginning to succumb to senility; and he is unsettled by the reappearance of the beautiful Mathilde, the woman he once loved. Only origami can help calm the detective and focus his thoughts on this troubling crime.
As the investigation progresses, the key suspects to emerge are a middle-aged man and a mute teenage boy who have been delivering religious pamphlets in the city’s suburbs. But as more elderly ladies are targeted, Morel will find his enquiries leading him back into the past, from the French countryside to Soviet Russia – and to two young boys with the most terrible of stories to tell...
ANNA KENDALL – A BRIGHT AND TERRIBLE SWORD
Roger has faced down Queens, barbarians, dangerous ghostly dogs and even armies. There is one challenge left: to stand against the mysterious Soulviners and their dangerous plans to dominate the Land of the Dead. His friends held captive, his true powers still undiscovered, it's possible only the legendary bright and terrible sword can save them now . ..
A fast-paced, character- and story-driven tale, this tale is packed with action, emotion and danger.
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES BOOKS
When Anne arrives at Green Gables, her adoptive parents get more than they bargained for. In place of the boy they were expecting, there is Anne instead. In this heart-warming and timeless novel, you will meet a host of characters, both young and old, and all of them forever changed by the arrival of the orphaned Anne.
Join this young protagonist as she embraces her new life, makes new friends and encounters both heartbreak and joy. A story that has gripped the hearts of all those who have read it, children will love this gorgeous edition which is brought to life by a range of colourful full-page illustrations.
ANNE TYLER – THE BEGINNER’S GOODBYE
When Dorothy came back from the dead, it seemed to Aaron that some people simply didn’t notice.
The accident that killed Dorothy – involving an oak tree, a sun porch and some elusive biscuits – leaves Aaron bereft and the house a wreck. As those around him fuss and flap and bring him casserole after casserole, Aaron ploughs on. But then Dorothy starts to materialize in the oddest places. At first, she only comes for a short while, leaving Aaron longing for more. Gradually she stays for longer, and as they talk, they also bicker and the cracks that were present in their perfectly ordinary marriage start to reappear...
ANNICK COJEAN – GADDAFI’S HAREM
Soraya was just fifteen, a schoolgirl in the coastal town of Sirte, when she was given the honor of presenting a bouquet of flowers to Colonel Gaddafi, the Guide,” on a visit he was making to her school the following week. This one meetinga presentation of flowers, a pat on the head from Gaddafichanged Soraya’s life forever. Soon afterwards, she was summoned to Bab al-Azizia, Gaddafi’s palatial compound near Tripoli, where she joined a number of young women who were violently abused, raped and degraded by Gaddafi. Heartwrenchingly tragic but ultimately redemptive, Soraya’s story is the first one of many that are just now beginning to be heard. But sex and rape remain the highest taboo in Libya, and women like Soraya (whose identity is protected by a pseudonym here) risk being disowned or even killed by their dishonored family members.
In Gaddafi’s Harem, an instant bestseller on publication in France, where it has already sold more than 100,000 copies in hardcover, Le Monde special correspondent Annick Cojean gives a voice to Soraya’s story, and supplements her investigation into Gaddafi’s abuses of power through interviews with people who knew Soraya, as well as with other women who were abused by Gaddafi.
ANTHONY AND NICHOLAS BIRD – VOICES FROM THE FRONT LINE
The inescapable irony of war is its ability to inspire the finest and most poignant literature. This book gathers together vivid and eloquent rose and poetry from those who, throughout history, have witnessed the intensity of war at first hand. Voices from the Front Line is an anthology of powerful and evocative writings about human conflict, including not only literary giants and charismatic leaders but also civilian journalists and the diaries, letters and songs of ordinary private soldiers.
• Lieutenant Kincaid on the violent final moments of Waterloo
• General Grant on the Civil War's end at Appomattox
• Wilfred Owen on the pity of war
• Winston Churchill prepares Britain for World War Two
• George Orwell on the shock of being hit by a fascist bullet in the Spanish Civil War
• Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Collins rouses his troops with a stirring address in the Kuwaiti desert in 2003
