Category Archives: Travel Guides
A Different Sky
Singapore – a trading post where different lives jostle and mix. It is 1927, and three young people are starting to question whether this in between island can ever truly be their home. Mei Lan comes from a famous Chinese dynasty but yearns to free herself from its stifling traditions; ten-year-old Howard seethes at the
Sisters of Sinai
Sisters of Sinai is the story of how Scottish twin sisters made one of the most important manuscript finds of the nineteenth century – an early copy of the gospels which lay hidden in the Sinai desert. We trace the footsteps of the intrepid pair from the Ayrshire of their childhood, as they voyage to
Amexica
Amexica provides a full account of the war along the US-Mexico border. An area of land more than 2,000 miles long and 100 miles wide, it has become a battleground where drugs, guns and killings are the currency of everyday existence. Journalist Ed Vulliamy went on a four month road trip along the entire border
Voices
Voices” sees Arnaldur Indridasun’s Detective Erlendur encounter memories of his troubled past in this tense continuation of his Reykjavรญk murder mysteries.At a grand Reykjavรญk hotel the doorman has been repeatedly stabbed in the dingy basement room he called home. It is only a few days before Christmas and he was preparing to appear as Santa
In-Flight Entertainment
Poignant, funny and perceptive, Helen Simpson`s fifth collection of short stories deals with the full stretch, from birth to death and everything in between. A young woman`s diary records a blackly farcical escape attempt involving flamenco, murder and wild picnics; two students fall in love then almost talk themselves out of it in an argument
Savage Lands
It is 1704 and, in the swamps of Louisiana, France is clinging on to its new colony with less than two hundred men. Into this hostile land comes Elisabeth Savaret, one of twenty-three women sent from Paris to marry men they have never met. With little expectation of happiness, Elisabeth is stunned to find herself
To the End of the Land
Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is about to celebrate her son Ofer`s release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensive. Instead of waiting at home for the `notifiers` who could arrive at any moment to tell her of her son`s fate, she sets off for a hike in Galilee,
The Redbreast
In Jo Nesbo’s The Redbreast, a report of a rare and unusual gun ‘“ the type favoured by assassins – being smuggled into the country sparks the interest of Oslo based detective Harry Hole. Soon after, a former Nazi sympathizer is found with his throat cut and Harry’s former partner is found murdered. Why had
An Island In Time
In this book Geert Mak returns to the small Frisian village of his childhood, Jorwert (pop. 330 and falling). It`s a typical European village where the shops are closing down, the few children left will escape to a less arduous life in the city and it`s becoming increasingly isolated. Jowert has more in common with
Dear Zari: Hidden Stories from Women of Afghanistan
“Dear Zari” gives voice to the secret lives of women across Afghanistan and allows them to tell their stories in their own words: from the child bride given as payment to end a family feud; to a life spent in a dark, dusty room weaving carpets; to a young girl brought up as a boy;
You Are Awful (But I Like You)
Would you cheer if they sent you to Coventry? Could you stick up for Stoke or big-up Bracknell? Can you handle the thrill of Rhyl, the heaven of Hull or the mirth of Tydfil? In “You are Awful”, Tim Moore drives his Austin Maestro round all the places on our beloved island that nobody wants
Depths
October 1914: the destroyer Svea emerged from the Stockholm archipelago bearing south-south-east. On board was Lars Tobiasson-Svartman, a naval engineer charged with making depth soundings for the Swedish navy. He is obsessed with measurement and precision, instincts reflected in his comfortable but cold relationship with his wife. Close to where soundings are taken, Lars rows
The Draining Lake
The Draining Lake” is another rewarding chapter in Arnaldur Indridasun’s Reykjavik murder mystery series. In the wake of an earthquake, the water level of an Icelandic lake drops suddenly, revealing the skeleton of a man half-buried in its sandy bed. It is clear immediately that it has been there for many years. There is a
Jar City
Jar City” is Arnaldur Indridason’s mystery that is at once taught, nail-biting, and strangely moving. It’s also wonderful to see such a contemporary piece of crime fiction be so truly chilling. This prizewinning international bestseller is the first in a new series of crime novels set in IcelandA man is found murdered in his Reykjavik
I Served the King of England
This book contains an introduction by Adam Thirlwell. Sparkling with comic genius and narrative exuberance, “I Served the King of England” is a story of how the unbelievable came true. Its remarkable hero, Ditie, is a hotel waiter who rises to become a millionaire and then loses it all again against the backdrop of events
Sanctuary
Spolit, feckless Temple Drake, the daughter of a judge, runs away from school with an unsuitable man. Abandoned by him with a gang of moonshiners, Temple falls into the clutches of the psychotic Popeye, one of the most grotesque characters of Faulkner`s imagination. A compelling, shocking tale of perverted justice in the Deep South, “Sanctuary”
Death of Ivan Ilyich, The
The title story of this collection is about a man battling a mysterious illness. His family visit his bedside, their faces masks of concern. His colleagues pay their respects but only think of the advantages created by his death. This intensely moving story of Ivan Ilyich`s lonely end is one of the masterpieces of Tolstoy`s
A Single Man
Celebrated as a masterpiece from its first publication, A Single Man is the story of George Falconer, an English professor in suburban California left heartbroken after the death of his lover, Jim. With devastating clarity and humour, Christopher Isherwood shows George`s determination to carry on, evoking the unexpected pleasures of life as well as the
O My America!: Second Acts in a New World
After reckoning with the ends of the earth in acclaimed books such as `Terra Incognita` and `The Magnetic North`, Sara Wheeler rediscovered America thirty-five years after her first Greyhound trip across the country. She returns in turbulent midlife to trace the steps of six women who fled various sorts of trouble in nineteenth-century England and
Four Fields
In his first book since the acclaimed The Running Sky Tim Dee tells the story of four green fields. Four fields spread around the world: their grasses, their hedges, their birds, their skies, and their natural and human histories. Four real fields – walkable, mappable, man-made, mowable and knowable, but also secretive, mysterious, wild, contested
