The sweeping and compelling new novel from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring. `Dark, brutal, moving, powerful’ Jane Harris `A wonderful book; rich, evocative, original. I loved it’ Joanne Harris What happens when you can’t run any further from your past? Ohio, 1838. James and Sadie Goodenough have settled in the Black Swamp, planting apple trees to claim the land as t...
Minerva Lane is buzzing with gossip. Widow Lizzie Gallimore has married her handsome lodger Jack McShane. And Lizzie's daughter Ruby is delighted to have a father figure in her life, even though her affection for him upsters her childhood sweetheart, and her brother Joe. Then a traumatic event reveals Jack in his true colours. Determined to save her family from corruption and humiliation, Ruby seeks independence. She suffers the harsh realities of a working life as she tries to protect her brot...
The Burnsides' move from Glasgow's tenement slums to the sunny new suburbs of Flannery Park brings hope to all members of the family. But heartbreak awaits among the tidy gardens and green lawns and soon seventeen-year-old Alison is forced to take on responsibility for her out-of-work father and brothers and put her own ambitions aside.Love as well as loss threatens Alison's future, however, and leads her into a relationship with teacher Jim Abbott, an affair which her brothers, even the broodin...
All Rhianna Drake has ever really wanted is a handsome husband - and when charming Lawson Maddox offers to rescue her family from disaster and maybe even destitution, she jumps at the chance to become his wife. But marriage to Lawson comes as a rude awakening. Her once-devoted new husband ignores his young wife and instead seeks out the company of cockfighters, whores and criminals. When the sensitive, idealistic painter John Mallory Gibson offers her the chance of real happiness Rhianna cannot...
In World War II Ivan Demidov won the Red Army's highest award for bravery, that of Hero of the Soviet Union. But the decades following the War have brought him a life of hardship, alleviated only by his pride in this achievement and the modest privileges granted to War veterans. His daughter, Olya, on the other hand, born in 1961 and trained as a linguist, takes up a post as an interpreter at Moscow's International Business Center with access to a metropolitan lifestyle beyond the dreams of her...
Mary Vine believes her luck has changed. After surviving her first nineteen years fiercely defending her chaotic family against anyone who dares criticise them she has found happiness at last with her fiance, submariner Michael Miller. But can she survive the demands of the Vine family as she tries to build a new life? And can she and Michael overcome their differences? Cissie Nugent has lost her position as housemaid and is surviving on the streets by selling her body to passing sailors. But sh...
It is 1990. The Argyll villages of Seileachan and Eisdalsa are threatened with a takeover by developers. Will the promised influx of overseas investment bring prosperity to the islands, or destroy their unique character forever? Initially, the proposals create division between friends, neighbours and even within families, but when the full extent of the plan is revealed, old adversaries band together to undermine the plans of their scheming landlord. Temporary residents Dr Alan Beaton and the Au...
Ciara has never needed to stand on her own two feet. Since she married handsome pilot Jake Lunny nearly twenty years ago she's devoted her life to running their attractive home, cooking, socialising and playing golf to further Jake's career. She spends Jake's money on keeping herself as beautiful as the day he met her: endless gym classes, diets and beauty products. After all her most important role is to look the part. And if beauty is only skin deep, then Ciara is the perfect wife. But her sec...
In 1998, Freya travels to the rugged north-west of the Scotland, seeking emotional healing after a stressful volunteering mission in famine-affected southern Sudan. As her health and energy is restored she is guided into unexpected journeys by a prophecy that reveals family history and family secrets, and the story of betrayal that culminated in the loss of her first love.
On a sunny day in Hollywood, a gleaming Rolls-Royce convertible pulls through the gates of the magnificent estate known as The Cottage. Modeled after the "cottages" of Newport, Rhode Island, the spacious, elegant property, sitting on fourteen acres of lush Bel Air, fits its owner to a T. For the man behind the wheel of the Rolls is Hollywood's ageless wonder, Cooper Winslow. A star of the silver screen for decades, a man whose allure to women is the stuff of legend, Coop exudes grace, charm and...
From one of our most distinctive literary voices -- the eagerly anticipated companion novel to the phenomenal "New York Times" bestseller, "Stones from the River." At the heart of this multigenerational novel by critically acclaimed author Ursula Hegi is an intriguing question: If you knew that you could experience a significant love once in your life, would you want these years at the beginning or at the end? "The Vision of Emma Blau" is the luminous epic of a bicultural family filled with pa...
It's 1900, but Anna and Dorrie Furlong, young daughters of a strict Liverpool ship's captain, are expected to stay at home in Everton until they marry. Dorrie, beautiful and popular, with numerous admirers, is content to do this, but Anna longs for freedom and independence. James Hargreaves, the only son of a sadistic, domineering mother, has adored Dorrie since first seeing her at church, but lacks the confidence to approach her. Instead, Dorrie marries Michael, a soldier, and moves to Lond...
Rachel West's husband, walks out one day in 1964 on his wife and sons, leaving them nothing but pain and heartache. Struggling in a poorly-paid job, Rachel wonders if her luck will ever change. Then she discovers that her Uncle Chip has left his Hammersmith boat-building business to her. Why would Chip have chosen her when he has a son himself The business is only just afloat - thanks to Chip's charismatic assistant, Ben - but Rachel is determined to restore the business to its former glory....
For ten-year-old Sylvie Sambuck, Singapore seems a long way from the fighting of the Second World War. However the advancing Japanese army soon leads to a mass evacuation of the island but, as Sylvie's family begins to board their ship, there is no sign of Sylvie. Somehow, in the confusion, Sylvie finds refuge with her governess, Virginia Chen. But neither Virginia nor her family believe they will escape the Japanese internment camps, where Virginia may have to pay the ultimate price for Sylvie'...
Newcastle, 1905. Nineteen-year-old Thea Richardson is intelligent, beautiful and furious that her father has forbidden her to attend university. When Thea's best friend, Ellie, persuades her to enter a local Beauty Contest, Thea meets handsome Vernon Gray - a charming, successful photographer and a complete contrast to the men she has met until now. But as Thea becomes more interested in Vernon's work, she realises that he is not quite as respectable as she had once believed...
In the small town of Eden, Virginia, 16-year-old Tallie is sweeping up cut hair at the Klip 'N' Kurl, plotting ways to get the attention of the local heart throb, taking care of her daddy, and considering how things might have been different if her mother, Dinah Mae, hadn't died four years before. Focused on the secrets, dreams and love that bind a mother and a daughter even after death, the novel alternates between the summer of 1992, when the Glamour Company comes to Eden, seducing the townsw...
Dan Hodges is devastated when his wife Nora dies during the early days of the war. Working long hours in a Portsmouth shipyard, how is he to look after his two sons, Gordon and Sammy? Then Gordon, something of a tearaway, is sent to an approved school, which leaves young Sammy alone in the house until neighbours in April Grove intervene and Sammy is evacuated to Bridge End, a village near Southampton. Ruth Purslow, a young childless widow, takes him in, her compassion aroused by his plight. Slo...
Opal is a single mother with a five-year-old son, Zack. Unhappy with her partner Billy, who takes no responsibility for Zack, and her parents, who side with Billy, she packs the car and, with Zack, throws a dice. Landing a three she vows to stop the car when three tanks of fuel are empty. And so she ends up in a small town in Massachusetts called Normal and rents a house next door to Rose. But Rose is still locked in grief for her son who was killed in a car accident five years ago. The two wome...
THE BRAND-NEW WARTIME SAGA SERIES BY MAGGIE MASON, MUCH-LOVED AUTHOR OF THE HALFPENNY GIRLSTroubles lie ahead - will friendship see them through? BLACKPOOL, 1918.Martha is seventeen and alone in the world. Of Irish descent, her flashing green eyes see into your soul. Foretelling the future is a gift passed down by her late grandmother and is how she earns her living on Blackpool Promenade. Though she spends hours in a little tent, waiting and hoping for a customer.Trisha is Martha's neighbour an...
On the Track of the Sun - The Red Warriors from Chorasmia
by Leonard Elersek and Rado Zic Mikulin