Fiction

Explores ideas of love, music and the passing of time. From the piazzas of Italy to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the 'hush-hush floor' of an exclusive Hollywood hotel, this book features characters that range from young dreamers to cafe musicians to faded stars, all of them at some moment of reckoning.

In Wally Lamb's pitch perfect new novel, it is 1964. LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, "Meet the Beatles" is on everyone's turntable, and ten-year-old Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade--easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy. But there are several things young Felix can depend on: the birds and bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he's... read more

Gemma Sinclair is grieving the death of her husband, Adam, in a horrific plane crash. She has inherited the 10,000-hectare station his family has worked for generations. Despite huge scepticism from surrounding landowners, Gemma decides not to sell Billbinya, disregarding Adam's dying words that he's in trouble and she must sell the station. As if the job of keeping the station going isn't enough, a wave of innuendo sweeps through the local community about Adam's involvement in cattle and sheep duffing. There are whispers that the ... read more

In 1941, Ansel Adams was commissioned by the United States Interior Department to take photographs of the National Parks to be printed as murals for the walls of the new Interior Department building. The majority of pictures in this book are from the National Parks Mural Project, but work from other projects are also included. The Kings Canyon photographs featured in the book, which were taken in 1936, were successfully used to lobby for Kings Canyon to be designated a National Park.

Opening pages provide background information about the events which have attributed to the existence of a mysterious stretch of ocean bordered by Puerto Rico, Miami and Bermuda. The speech bubbles and strip cartoon-style illustrations create a dynamic format that encourages readers to engage with the characters and get involved in the story. Detailed maps provide a geographical context for these occurrences. It includes three well-known accounts of encounters within The Bermuda Triangle, including the case of Flight 19. Closing pag... read more

Drawing on a wealth of documentary evidence, this title takes the story of an abortive plot against the emperor in 18th-century China as its subject. It works outwards to create a portrait of Imperial China, and inwards to reveal a true-life political thriller.

In Sparta, a city that masks age-old secrets and private enmities, a close-knit group are excavating. They are a potent and seductive mix: Natsuko, beautiful and mysterious; Jason, restless and menacing; Eberhard, commanding, aloof and fiercely intelligent. When Ben, lost and aimless, comes to Greece to escape private failures, he is inevitably drawn to them, thrilled by the idea of acceptance and excited by the dangerous games they play. But there is more to the group than Ben understands and he finds out too late that some things... read more

This title contains speech bubbles and strip cartoon-style illustrations, which create a dynamic format that encourages readers to engage with the characters and get involved in the story. "Fact or Fiction?" looks at different interpretations of these tales and what may be the reality behind the mythology that has inspired artists and writers throughout the centuries. It also features maps and photographs of the rumoured locations of each lost city, and includes a glossary, an index and recommended further reading. It helps achieve... read more

For those of us who have always been fascinated by the unexplained - or inadequately explained-secrets and mysteries of this world, Sylvia Browne now comes to our rescue. Using a combination of information from her spirit guide Francine as well as her own incredible psychic powers, Sylvia augments current scientific research to provide us with detailed explanations about seeming inexplicable concepts. Chapters cover: Mysterious Places; Strange creatures; Unexplained objects; Mystic Phenomena; Christian controversies; From the Great... read more

One girl: Vida is nineteen, very sick, and has spent her short life preparing for death. But a new chance brings its own story, because for Vida to live, someone had to die. One man: Richard has just lost his beloved wife in a car accident. He hasn't even begun to address his grief, but feels compelled to meet the girl who inherited his wife's heart. Someone else's heart: In hospital Vida sees Richard and immediately falls in love. Of course he dismisses her as a foolish child. But is she? Can two people be bound by a second hand heart?

A feral boy is captured and 'civilised' in the Languedoc region. A young woman is hired to look after a cloned dog that cost its owners $250,000. A widower in a self-satisfied suburb engulfs his loneliness in a sea of rats. A weary city GP is baffled by a Mexican boy, the son of a taco-seller, who can feel no pain. A junior film editor invents the death of his own daughter because he can't face going in to work. A vindictive teenager with a gasoline fixation runs into trouble with his Japanese neighbour. Two washed-up crooners in 1... read more

It is the time of the Great Terror. Inspector Pekkala - known as the Emerald Eye - was the most famous detective in all Russia. He was the favourite of the Tsar. Now he is the prisoner of the men he once hunted. Like millions of others, he has been sent to the gulags in Siberia and, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, he is as good as dead. But a reprieve comes when he is summoned by Stalin himself to investigate a crime. His mission - to uncover the men who really killed the Tsar and his family, and to locate the Tsar's ... read more

Boone Daniels, the most laid-back of private investigators, gathers with his surfing buddies on Pacific Beach, California as per usual. Having no work at the moment, Boone sticks around for the second shift on the daily surfing clock and ends up taking on a hated matrimonial case. But that soon becomes the least of his worries.

Love means never having to say you're sorry. No, love is in the air. No, love is the sweetest thing. No, it's soft as an easy chair. No, it's a stranger in an open car. No, it's a many-splendoured thing. No, it's the drug. No, it's like a butterfly. Oh, let's call the whole thing off. Love stories don't always involve hearts and flowers and walks in the park. This sparkling collection of the world's greatest love quarrels, from Chekhov to Colette, from D. H. Lawrence to Jhumpa Lahiri, features love stories for every mood and occasi... read more

This title contains speech bubbles and strip cartoon-style illustrations, which create a dynamic format that encourages readers to engage with the characters and get involved with the story. Opening pages provide background information about the different perceptions and theories surrounding the existence of ghosts as well as famous sites of hauntings, and different types of ghosts. Three infamous cases of bizarre and unexplained events are retold, including that of the most famous haunted house in the world; Amityville. Closing pa... read more

Drawings and writings by Archimedes, previously thought to have been destroyed, have been uncovered beneath the pages of a 13th-century monk's prayer book. These hidden texts, slowly being retrieved and deciphered by scientists, show that Archimedes' thinking (2,200 years ago) was even ahead of Isaac Newton in the 17th century. Archimedes discovered the value of Pi, he developed the theory of specific gravity and made steps towards the development of calculus. Everything we know about him comes from three manuscripts, two of which ... read more

The

In 1812, Napoleon enters Russia at the head of 500,000 men. An ocean of fire destroys Moscow. A chaos of ice and snow engulfs the Grand Army. For the first time, the Eagle bows its head. From now on, conquered Europe awakes and takes its revenge. The powerful betray him, his old Guard weep at Fontainebleau. Does the return from the isle of Elba herald a new "song of departure"? The final act is nigh. The sun of Austerlitz will not rise over the muddy plain of Waterloo. Chained by the English to his rock of St. Helena, the Emperor c... read more

An extraordinary and deeply moving work of shorter fiction from international bestseller John Grisham