The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection
Reading Group Collection October 2019
NEW – New to reading group list, not a new release. *All page numbers are approximate
Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Set in Nigeria during the 1960s, this novel contains three main characters who get swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. It is about Africa, about the end of colonialism, about class and race, and the ways in which love can complicate these things. 448 pages*
Purple Hibiscus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father, involved in mysterious ways with the unfolding political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to their aunt's. Here she discovers love and a life - dangerous and heathen - beyond the confines of her father's authority. 358 pages
Fighting on the Home Front: the Legacy of Women in World War One Kate Adie Bestselling author and award-winning former BBC Chief News Correspondent Kate Adie reveals the ways in which women's lives changed during World War One and what the impact has been for women in its centenary year. 328 pages
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection
Poppy Shakespeare Clare Allan When Poppy Shakespeare walks into the Dorothy Fish Day Hospital in her six- inch skirt & 12-inch heels, she is certain she isn't mentally ill & is desperate to return to her life outside. Together with another patient, Poppy plots to gain freedom. But in a world where everything's upside-down, is she crazy enough to upset the system? 341 pages
Somewhere Towards the End Diana Athill This book tells the story of what it means to be old: how the pleasure of sex ebbs, how the joy of gardening grows, how much there is to remember, to forget, to regret, to forgive - and how one faces the inevitable fact of death. 182 pages
Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility. 433 pages
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood The Republic of Gilead allows Offred only one function - to breed. If she deviates, she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on whom her future hangs. 324 pages
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The Heart Goes Last Margaret Atwood Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of economic and social collapse. Living in their car, surviving on tips from Charmaine's job at a dive bar, they're increasingly vulnerable to roving gangs and in a rather desperate state. So when they see an advertisement for the Positron Project in the town of Consilience - a 'social experiment' offering stable jobs and a home of their own - they sign up immediately. All they have to do in return for this suburban paradise is give up their freedom every second month, swapping their home for a prison cell. 416 pages
Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen A work of romantic fiction, better known as a comedy of manners, Sense and Sensibility is set in southwest England, London and Kent between 1792 and 1797, and portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. 353 pages
Longbourn Jo Baker It is wash-day for the housemaids at Longbourn House, and Sarah's hands are chapped and bleeding. Domestic life below stairs, ruled tenderly and forcefully by Mrs Hill the housekeeper, is about to be disturbed by the arrival of a new footman smelling of the sea, and bearing secrets. For in Georgian England, there is a world the young ladies in the drawing room will never know, a world of poverty, love, and brutal war. 447 pages
Penguin’s Poems for Life Laura Barber (Ed.) Ranging from Chaucer to Carol Ann Duffy, via Shakespeare, Keats, and Lemn Sissay, this book offers something for each of those moments in life - whether falling in love, finding your first grey hair or saying your final goodbyes - when only a poem will do. 416 pages
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The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. They all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age and he is finding that memory is imperfect. 150 pages
On Canaan’s Side Sebastian Barry Narrated by Lilly Bere, 'On Canaan's Side' opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. The story then goes back to the moment she was forced to flee Sligo, at the end of the First World War. 340 pages
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Aimee Bender When 9-year-old Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's home-made lemon chocolate cake, to her horror, she discovers she can taste her mother's emotions in the slice. And her mother - her cheerful, can-do mother - tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly food becomes perilous. 325 pages
Turn Again Home Carol Birch A story of ambition and opportunity, providence and survival that explores a family's bond of unspoken love and loyalty. Beginning in Manchester in 1930, it follows Nell, who grows up to work in a factory, and her younger brother, Bobby, who finds himself fighting in the jungles of Malaya. 405 pages
Jamrach’s Menagerie Carol Birch Jaffy Brown is running through the London backstreets when he comes face to face with an escaped circus animal. His life is transformed by the encounter. Plucked from the jaws of death by Mr Jamrach, the two strike up a friendship. Before he knows it, Jaffy finds himself on board a ship bound for the South Seas. 348 pages
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A Street Cat Named Bob James Bowen The moving, uplifting true story of an unlikely friendship between a man on the streets and the ginger cat who adopts him and helps him heal his life. 279 pages
Any Human Heart William Boyd This is the story of Logan Mountstuart, told through his journals. His travels take the reader from Uruguay to Oxford, Paris, the Bahamas, New York and Africa. This is the story of a life lived to the full - and a journey deep into a very human heart. 503 pages
Restless William Boyd What happens to your life when everything you thought you knew about your mother turns out to be an elaborate lie? Ruth Gilmartin discovers the strange and haunting truth about her mother, Sally, during the long hot summer of 1976. 325 pages
The Sixth Lamentation William Brodrick A man arrives at Larkwood Monastery claiming sanctuary. Eduard Schwermann is accused of Nazi war crimes: the chances are he is stained with blood, but politics demand that Larkwood shelter him. Father Anselm is given the task of finding out more about Shwermann's crimes. 433 pages
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Bronte This is the story of a woman's struggle for independence. Helen Huntingdon has returned to Wildfell Hall in flight from a disastrous marriage. Exiled to the desolate moorland mansion, she adopts an assumed name and earns her living as the painter, Mrs Graham. 432 pages
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection
Milkman - NEW Anna Burns In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous. 348 pages
The Miniaturist Jessie Burton On an autumn day in 1686, Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin. Nella is at first mystified by the closed world of the Brandt household, but as she uncovers its secrets she realizes the escalating dangers that await them all. 424 pages
The Children’s Book A.S. Byatt A panoramic novel of family secrets, set against a backdrop of a bohemian, artistic late Victorian and Edwardian world, and with real commercial as well as literary potential, about the damage wrought by writers of children's books on their children - about predators and innocents, war and peace, art and society. 617 pages
Perdita Paula Byrne A portrait of one of the most flamboyant women of the late 18th century. Mary Robinson was married, at age 14, to Thomas Robinson. His lifestyle soon landed the couple and their baby in debtor's prison, where Mary wrote her first book of poetry. On her release, she became one of the most popular actresses of her day. 477 pages
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Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson In Notes from a Small Island, Bryson, who moved to England from the USA seventeen years ago and settled in North Yorkshire with his family, turns an affectionate but ironic eye on his adopted country. 351 pages
The Family Tree Carole Cadwalladr This is the story of a woman who looks back at her family history, from 1940s Yorkshire, to 1970s suburbia, to her present-day marriage to a geneticist, and comes to terms with her own mother's breakdown and the hereditary dysfunctional gene she might be carrying. 480 pages
Truman Capote In Cold Blood - new Agent Al Dewey of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation has a horrific murder to solve - and precious few clues. Capote's reconstruction of the slaughter of an entire family shows a gripping mix of journalistic skills and imaginative power. 335 pages.
The Winter Crown Elizabeth Chadwick It is the winter of 1154 and Eleanor, Queen of England, is biding her time. While her husband King Henry II battles for land across the channel, Eleanor fulfils her duty as acting ruler and bearer of royal children. But she wants to be more than this - if only Henry would let her. Instead, Henry belittles and excludes her. Frustrated at Henry's hoarding of power, Eleanor is forced into a rebellion of devastating consequences. 483 pages
The Good Father Diane Chamberlain Four years ago, 19-year-old Travis made a choice: to raise his newborn daughter on his own. While his friends were partying, Travis was at home, worrying about keeping food on the table. So far he's kept her safe and never regretted his decision for a second. But now he's lost his job, his home and the money in his wallet is all he has. 380 pages
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Remarkable Creatures Tracy Chevalier In the year of the 150th anniversary of 'Origin of the Species', set in a town where Jane Austen was a frequent visitor, Tracy Chevalier once again shows her uncanny sense for the topical. 352 pages
The Last Runaway Tracy Chevalier When Quaker Honor Bright sails from Bristol with her sister, she is fleeing heartache for a new life in America, far from home. But tragedy leaves her alone and vulnerable, torn between two worlds and dependent on the kindness of strangers, and life in 1850s Ohio is precarious and unsentimental. 386 pages
Gold Chris Cleave "Gold" is about the limits of human endurance, both physical and emotional. It will make you cry. It is about what drives us to succeed - and what we choose to sacrifice for success. It will make you feel glad to be alive. It is about the struggles we all face every day. 366 pages
The Rain Before it Falls Jonathan Coe Rosamund lies dying in her remote Shropshire home. But before she does so, she has one last task: to put on tape not just her own story but the story of a young blind girl, her cousin's granddaughter, who turned up mysteriously at a party many years ago. This is a story of generations, & of the relationships within a family. 277 pages
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho This is an adventure story about a young shepherd boy who learns how to live his dreams. This is a story which has been compared to the works of Richard Bach, and is aimed at the young and old alike. 161 pages
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The Memory Book Rowan Coleman The name of your first-born. The face of your lover. Your age. Your address. What would happen if your memory of these began to fade? Is it possible to rebuild your life? Raise a family? Fall in love? When Claire starts to write her memory book, she already knows that this scrapbook of mementoes will soon be all her daughters and husband have of her. But how can she hold onto the past when her future is slipping through her fingers? 375 pages
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness is about a voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State, in the heart of Africa, by the story's narrator Charles Marlow. Marlow tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames, London, England. This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between London and Africa as places of darkness. Central to Conrad's work is the idea that there is little difference between so-called civilised people and those described as savages; Heart of Darkness raises questions about imperialism and racism. 122 pages
Fools and Mortals Bernard Cornwell 'Fools and Mortals' follows the young Richard Shakespeare, an actor struggling to make his way in a company dominated by his estranged older brother, William. As the growth of theatre blooms, their rivalry - and that of the playhouses, playwrights and actors vying for acclaim and glory - propels a high-stakes story of conflict and betrayal. 369 pages
Quarantine Jim Crace From the author of Continent, Arcadia and The Gift of Stones, Quarantine is the story of Christ and his five companions fasting in the wilderness. Jim Crace's novel provides a modern account of the birth - and death - of faith itself. 242 pages
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Are you Watching Me? Sinead Crowley Liz Cafferky is on the up. Rescued from her dark past by the owner of a drop-in centre for older men, she soon finds herself as the charity's face - and the unwilling darling of the Dublin media. Amidst her claustrophobic fame, she barely notices a letter from a new fan. But then one of the centre's clients is brutally murdered, and another, more sinister note arrives. Running from her own ghosts, Liz is too scared to go to the police. And with no leads, there is little Sergeant Claire Boyle can do to protect her… 340 pages
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Sijie Dai Without betraying the truth of what happened, Dai Sijie transforms the bleak events of China's Cultural Revolution into an enchanting and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit and the magical power of great storytelling. 184 pages
The Welsh Girl Peter Ho Davies This novel traces a perilous wartime romance as it explores the bonds of love and duty that hold us to family, country, and ultimately, our fellow man. 343 pages
The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj Anne de Courcy From the late 19th century, when the Raj was at its height, many of Britain's best and brightest young men went out to India to work. Countless young women, suffering at the lack of eligible men, followed in their wake. The women were known as 'the fishing fleet', and this text is their story. 335 pages
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe This adventure story begins as Crusoe leaves the English coast for Africa and finds himself the sole survivor of a shipwreck. On a desert island, he finds another human footprint on the shore, encounters cannibals, and befriends a native. 258 pages
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The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai At the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered old judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. With the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, and his cook's son hopscotching from one New York restaurant to another, trying to stay ahead of the US immigration services, this is far from easy. 324 pages
Wait For Me Deborah Devonshire Deborah Devonshire is a natural writer with a knack for the telling phrase and for hitting the nail on the head. She tells the story of her upbringing, lovingly and wittily describing her parents, she talks candidly about her brother and sisters, finally setting the record straight. 370 pages
Hard Times Charles Dickens Unusually for Dickens, the novel is set in the imaginary industrial town of Coketown, the soulless domain of the strict Gradgind and the heartless factory owner Bounderby. Human joy is seen as the open-hearted and affectionate people act as an antidote to the ruthless behaviour Dickens presents. 229 pages
Great Expectations Charles Dickens Dickens' story of Pip's progress from rags to riches deals with the pervasive themes of greed, desire, money and the nature of capitalism. 476 pages
All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father's life, until he discovers a knack for
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engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering. At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. 531 pages
Room Emma Donoghue It's Jack's birthday and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real. Until the day Ma admits that there's a world outside. 321 pages
The Secrets Between Us Louise Douglas When Sarah meets dark, brooding Alex, she grasps his offer of a new life miles away from her own. They've both recently escaped broken relationships, and need to start again. Why not do it together? But something doesn't add up about the disappearance of Alex's beautiful wife, Genevieve. Does he know more than he's letting on. 457 pages
Jamaica Inn Daphne Du Maurier Her mother's dying request takes Mary Yellan on a sad journey across the bleak moorland of Cornwall to reach Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience. With the coachman's warning echoing in her memory, Mary arrives to find Patience a changed woman, cowering from her overbearing husband, Joss Merlyn. future path. 320 pages
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The Greatcoat Helen Dunmore In the winter of 1952, newly wed Isabel Carey arrives in a Yorkshire town with her husband Philip. As a GP he spends much of his time working, while Isabel tries hard to adjust to the realities of married life. One cold night, Isabel finds an old RAF greatcoat in the back of a cupboard. She puts it on her bed for warmth - and is startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young man. A pilot. And he wants to come in. 255 pages
The Lie Helen Dunmore Cornwall, 1920, early spring. A young man stands on a headland, looking out to sea. He is back from the war, homeless and without family. Behind him lie the mud, barbed-wire entanglements and terror of the trenches. Behind him is also the most intense relationship of his life. Daniel has survived, but the horror and passion of the past seem more real than the quiet fields around him. He is about to step into the unknown. But will he ever be able to escape the terrible, unforeseen consequences of a lie? 294 pages
You Shall Know Our Velocity Dave Eggers Two young Americans decide to travel around the world handing over large amounts of money to those who need it. This trip will, they hope, be an answer to the overwhelming grief they feel after their friend's death. But, as they soon find out, nothing is quite so simple. 350 pages
Daniel Deronda George Eliot Gwendolene Harleth marries for money and power rather than love, but finds marriage a trap and her husband's sadistic use of power constricting. The upper-class Victorian society in which she moves is juxtaposed with that of the hero, Daniel Deronda, whose influence is a redemptive force. 675 pages
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Engleby Sebastian Faulks Mike Engleby says things that others dare not even think. When the novel opens in the 1970's, he is a university student, having survived a 'traditional' school. A man devoid of scruple or self-pity, Engleby provides a witheringly frank account of English education. 342 pages
Agincourt Ranulph Fiennes 25 October 2015 is the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt - a hugely resonant event in English (and French) history. Sir Ranulph Fiennes casts new light on this epic event, revealing that three of his own ancestors fought in the battle for Henry V, and at least one for the French. 336 pages
I Do Not Sleep Judy Finnigan Five years ago, Molly Gabriel lost her Joey, to a terrible sailing accident. His empty boat was found washed ashore on the rocks - but his body was never found. Now, Molly has returned to Cornwall haunted by his disappearance, unable to accept he is gone. Joey was an experienced sailor and died on a calm sea - things just don't add up. Desperate for answers she turns to Joey's best friend, Ben, to go back to what really happened that day. 368 pages
Tender is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald 'Tender is the Night' is based upon the author's unhappy marriage, and was written as he was experiencing the tragedies of his wife's nervous breakdown and his own decline. 320 pages
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald A social satire and a milestone in 20th century literature, 'The Great Gatsby' peels away the layers of the glamorous twenties in the U.S. to display the coldness and cruelty at its heart. 148 pages
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Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Nick Dunne's wife Amy suddenly disappears on the morning of their 5th anniversary. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. Then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. 466 pages
A Room with a View - new E.M. Forster Forster's social comedy is a witty observation of the English middle classes as they holiday abroad in Florence. One of these tourists is Lucy Honeychurch, a young girl whose heart is awakened by her experiences in Italy. 221 pages
Keeping the World Away Margaret Forster Following the fictional adventures of an early 20th century painting, this novel also looks at the women whose lives it touches, and what it means to be a woman and an artist. 338 pages
Over Margaret Forster Don and Louise's eighteen-year-old daughter Miranda has died in a sailing accident. While Louise takes steps to move on with her life, Don cannot come to terms with the chain of events that led to her death. The surviving children handle the loss of their sister better than their parents, but what they can't handle is their family being torn apart... 200 pages
The Jane Austen Book Club Karen Joy Fowler Six people meet once a month to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they meet marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and under the guiding eye of Jane Austen, some of them even fall in love. 288 pages
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Must You Go Antonia Fraser A unique testimony to modern literature's most celebrated and enduring marriage. 328 pages
Spies Michael Frayn There is very little evidence of the war where Keith and Stephen live. But the friends suspect the inhabitants of the close aren't what they seem. As Keith informs his trusting friend, the district is riddled with secret passages. They find themselves engulfed in mysteries deeper than they had imagined. 240 pages
Skios Michael Frayn On the Greek island of Skios, the Fred Toppler Foundation's annual lecture is to be given by the young and charming Dr Norman Wilfred, an authority on science. The Foundation's guests are soon eating out of his hand. Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island is a balding old gent called Dr Norman Wilfred. 278 pages
The Dissident Nell Freudenberger Set in Los Angeles and Beijing, 'The Dissident' tells the story of a life in flux and a family near breaking point - and what happens when the two collide. 427 pages
Mythos - NEW Stephen Fry The Greek myths are the greatest stories ever told, passed down through millennia and inspiring writers and artists as varied as Shakespeare, Michelangelo, James Joyce and Walt Disney. They are embedded deeply in the traditions, tales and cultural DNA of the West. In Stephen Fry's hands the stories of the titans and gods become a brilliantly entertaining account of ribaldry and revelry, warfare and worship, debauchery, love affairs and life lessons, slayings and suicides, triumphs and tragedies. You'll fall in love with Zeus, marvel at the birth of Athena, wince at Cronus and Gaia's revenge on Ouranos, weep with King Midas and hunt with the beautiful and ferocious
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Artemis. Thoroughly spellbinding, informative and moving, Stephen Fry's 'Mythos' perfectly captures these stories for the modern age - in all their rich and deeply human relevance. 441 pages
Notes from an Exhibition Patrick Gale When troubled artist Rachel Kelly dies she leaves behind an extraordinary body of work - but for her family there is a legacy of secrets and painful revelations. Rachel exerts a power that outlives her. To her children she is both curse and blessing, as they cope with the inheritance of her passions - and demons. Only their father's gift of stillness can withstand Rachel's destructive influence and the suspicion that they all came a poor second to her art.
The Cuckoo’s Calling Robert Galbraith A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London. A war veteran wounded both physically and psychologically, Cormoran Strike's life is in disarray. The case gives him a lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost. The more he delves into the model's complex world, the darker things get. 449 pages
The Other Boleyn Girl Philippa Gregory This historical novel is set in the court of King Henry VIII. Mary Boleyn attracts the attention of the young king and becomes his mistress. When he tires of her, she sets out to school her sister, Anne, as a replacement. 531 pages
The White Princess Philippa Gregory The beautiful eldest daughter of Edward IV, the young princess Elizabeth faces a conflict of loyalties between the red rose and the white. Forced into marriage with Henry VII, she must reconcile her slowly growing love for him with her loyalty to the House of York, and choose between her mother's rebellion and her husband's tyranny. 527 pages
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Tempting Fate Jane Green When Gabby first met Elliott she knew he was the man for her. In twenty years of marriage she has never doubted her love for him - even when he refused to give her the one thing she still wants most of all. But now their two daughters are growing up Gabby feels that time and her youth are slipping away. For the first time in her life she is restless. And then she meets Matt. Intoxicated by the way this young, handsome and successful man makes her feel, Gabby is momentarily blind to what she stands to lose on this dangerous path. And in one reckless moment she destroys all that she holds dear. 395 pages
Brighton Rock Graham Greene A gang war is raging in Brighton. Pinkie is 17 and fighting for leadership. He has already proved his ruthlessness by killing Hale, a journalist. But he isn't prepared for the courageous Ida Arnold who is determined to avenge Hale's death. 269 pages
The Secret River Kate Grenville Following a childhood marked by poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced in 1806 to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife and children, he arrives in a harsh land to a life that feels like a death sentence. 349 pages
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon A murder mystery like no other, this novel features Christopher Boone, a 15 year-old who suffers from Asperger's syndrome. When he finds a neighbour's dog murdered, he sets out on a journey which will turn his whole world upside down. 271 pages
How to Stop Time Matt Haig Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year- old history teacher, but he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen
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it all. As long as he keeps changing his identity he can keep one step ahead of his past - and stay alive. The only thing he must not do is fall in love. 325 pages
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Moshin Hamid At a café table in Lahore, a Pakistani man converses with a stranger. As dusk deepens to dark, he begins the tale that has brought him to this fateful meeting. 209 pages
An Officer and a Spy Robert Harris Paris, January 1895. Army officer Georges Picquart witnesses a convicted spy, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, being humiliated in front of 20,000 spectators baying 'Death to the Jew!' The officer is promoted and put in command of shadowy intelligence unit, the Statistical Section. The spy is shipped off to a lifetime of solitary confinement on Devil's Island and his case seems closed forever. But gradually Picquart comes to believe there is something rotten at the heart of the Statistical Section. 483 pages
Elizabeth is Missing Emma Healey 'Elizabeth is missing', reads the note in Maud's pocket in her own handwriting. Lately, Maud's been getting forgetful. She keeps buying peach slices when she has a cupboard full, forgets to drink the cups of tea she's made and writes notes to remind herself of things. But Maud is determined to discover what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, and what it has to do with the unsolved disappearance of her sister Sukey, years back, just after the war. 274 pages
A Long Lunch: My Stories & I’m Sticking to Them Simon Hoggart This title presents a host of memories from Simon Hoggart's 40-plus years in journalism. Simon reveals what Alan Clark said about Melvyn Bragg, what really happened at the Lady Chatterley trial, what Cherie Blair said to him and how he riposted, as well as the time John Sergeant drove a flight attendant to a fury. 312 pages
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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - NEW Gail Honeyman Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted - while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she's avoided all her life. 385 pages
A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is a chronicle of Afghan history, and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, and the salvation to be found in love. 372 pages
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini Winter, 1975: Afghanistan, a country on the verge of an internal coup. 12-year- old Amir is desperate to win the approval of his father, one of the richest merchants in Kabul. He's failed to do so through academia or brawn but the one area they connect is the annual kite fighting tournament. 324 pages
And The Mountains Echoed Khaled Hosseini A multi-generational family story revolving around brothers and sisters, 'And the Mountains Echoed' explores the ways in which they love, wound, betray, honour and sacrifice for each other. 404 pages
Brave New World Aldous Huxley The World Controllers have created the ideal society. Genetic science has brought the human race to perfection. From the Alpha-Plus mandarin class to the Epsilon Semi-Morons, man is bred and educated to be content with his pre- destined role. 229 pages
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A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying. 636 pages
An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro The year is 1948. Japan is rebuilding her cities after the calamity of WW2. Masuji Ono, the celebrated painter, reflects on a life and career touched by the rise of Japanese militarism. 206 pages
A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James Set against the backdrop of 1970s reggae culture, disco, sex and excess comes this remarkable re-imagining of the attempted assassination of Bob Marley. 704 pages
The Separation Dinah Jeffries 1953, the eve of the Cartwright's departure from Malaya. 11-year-old Emma can't understand why they're leaving without their mother; why her taciturn father is refusing to answer questions. Lydia arrives home to an empty house - there's no sign of her husband Alec or her daughters. Panic stricken, she embarks on a dangerous journey to find them through the hot and civil-war-torn Malayan jungle - one that only the power of a mother's love can help her survive. 400 pages
Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome Harris, George and J. are three Victorian idlers. They decide a change of scene is called for from their usual lethargic routine. And why not a trip up the Thames in an open boat? They soon realise their idyll isn't quite what they bargained for. 248 pages
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The Hundred Year Old Man Who Jumped Out of the Window and Disappeared Jonas Jonasson Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he doesn't want to begin. His 100th birthday party to be precise. The Mayor will be there. The press will be there. But, as it turns out, Allan will not. Escaping (in his slippers) through his bedroom window, into the flowerbed, Allan makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, & incompetent police. 387 pages
Mudbound Hillary Jordan City-bred Laura, having turned 30, gives up all hope of ever getting married, until Henry McAllan enters her life. After a brief courtship they marry & start building a life together. They are blessed with two children & live a comfortable life, but Henry dreams of land & the family farm that was lost by his father. 328 pages
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Rachel Joyce When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life. 296 pages
A Boy at the Hogarth Press Richard Kennedy In 1928, after a rather unsuccessful education at Marlborough College, 16- year-old Richard Kennedy was put firmly under the wing of Leonard Woolf as his new protégé at the Woolfs' publishing house. Some 40 years later, he wrote his recollections of his time with Virginia and Leonard Woolf. 84 pa
On the Road Jack Kerouac On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. 280 pages
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English Passengers Matthew Kneale Determined to prove the literal truth of the Bible, the Reverend Wilson sets out from England to find the Garden of Eden, convinced it lies on the island of Tasmania. Unknown to him, others in his party have very different agendas. 480 pages
The Dinner Herman Koch A summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food, the conversation remains a gentle hum. Yet behind the empty words terrible things need to be said and with every forced smile the knives are being sharpened. 309 pages
The President’s Hat Antoine Laurain Dining alone in an elegant Parisian brasserie, accountant Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterand sits down to eat at the table next to him. But the leader of the French forgets his hat when he leaves. Daniel decides to keep it, and suddenly feels ... different. 200 pages
The Constant Gardener John Le Carré The young and beautiful Tessa Quayle has been horribly murdered on the shores of Lake Turkana. Her African lover has vanished, and her husband, Justin, a career diplomat and amateur gardener, sets out in pursuit of the killers and their motive. 570 pages
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold John Le Carré An agent, desperate to end his career as a spy during the Cold War, is caught up in a breathlessly perilous assignment to come in from the cold and re-enter the West. 229 pages
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A Legacy of Spies John le Carré Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley, and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinised under disturbing criteria by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications. 264 pages
Small Island Andrea Levy Returning to England after the war Gilbert Joseph is treated very differently now that he is no longer in an RAF uniform. Joined by his wife Hortense, he rekindles a friendship with Queenie who takes in Jamaican lodgers. Can their dreams of a better life in England overcome the prejudice they face? 533 pages
The Long Song Andrea Levy Set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed, this novel follows the life of July, a slave girl, who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity. 312 pages
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Marina Lewycka For years, Nadezhda and Vera have had as little as possible to do with each other. But now they find they'd better learn how to get along, because since their mother's death their ageing father has been sliding into his second childhood, and an alarming new woman has just entered his life. 325 pages
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Sister Rosamund Lupton What would you do if your sister disappeared without a trace? This is an emotionally fraught and at sometimes terrifying story about two sisters and the strength that binds them. 359 pages
Beyond Black Hilary Mantel Alison is a medium. But what she hears is sometimes just too dark to pass on. She mostly tells her clients what they want to hear. Colette, her manager and side-kick, makes the bookings and gets Alison on stage. And then there's Morris, Alison's foul-mouthed and obscene Spirit Guide. 384 pages
Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. 650 Pages
Nutshell Ian McEwan Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home – a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse – but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb. 199 Pages
Atonement Ian McEwan Atonement is the novel for which Ian McEwan will always be remembered. Enthralling in its depiction of childhood, love and war, class and England, at
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its centre is a profound and profoundly moving exploration of shame and forgiveness. 371 pages
Snowdrops Andrew Miller 'Snowdrops' is a chilling story of love and moral freefall - of the corruption, by a corrupt society, of a corruptible young man. It is taut, intense and has a momentum as irresistible to the reader as the moral danger that first enchants, then threatens to overwhelm, its narrator. 273 pages
The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller This is a breathtakingly original rendering of the Trojan War - a devastating love story and a tale of gods and kings, immortal fame and the human heart. 352 pages
A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry In the tiny flat of the widowed Dina Dalal, Ishvar and Omprakesh Darji, tailors who have been forced from the country into the city, and young student Maneck Kohlah are painfully putting together a new life, and making a family of sorts amidst crisis. 614 pages
Black Swan Green David Mitchell Jason Taylor is 13, doomed to be growing up in the most boring family in the deadest village in the dullest county in the most tedious nation on earth. This book follows 13 months in his life as he negotiates the pitfalls of school and home and contends with bullies, girls and politics. 294 pages
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Cloud Atlas David Mitchell A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850, and a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization - these and the other narrators of 'Cloud Atlas' hear each other's echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small. 529 pages
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Deborah Moggach Enticed by advertisements for a newly restored palatial hotel and filled with visions of a life of leisure, good weather and mango juice in their gin, a group of very different people leave England to begin a new life in India. 336 pages
Beloved Toni Morrison Terrible, unspeakable things happened to Sethe at Sweet Home, the farm where she lived as a slave for so many years until she escaped to Ohio. Her new life is full of hope but 18 years later she is still not free. Sethe's new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless. 321 pages
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - NEW Heather Morris This novel is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews, who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia. In that terrible place, Lale was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - literally scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. 270 pages
Me Before You JoJo Moyes Lou Clark knows lots of things but she doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor
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knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. 480 pages
The View from Castle Rock Alice Munro On a clear day, you could see 'America' from Edinburgh's Castle Rock - or so said Alice Munro's great-great-great-grandfather, James Laidlaw, when he had taken drink. This is the story of those Ettrick shepherds and their descendants, among them the author herself. 436 pages
Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past. 389 Pages
Macbeth - NEW Jo Nesbo He's the best cop they've got. When a drug bust turns into a bloodbath it's up to Inspector Macbeth and his team to clean up the mess. He's also an ex- drug addict with a troubled past. He's rewarded for his success. Power. Money. Respect. They're all within reach. But a man like him won't get to the top. Plagued by hallucinations and paranoia, Macbeth starts to unravel. He's convinced he won't get what is rightfully his. Unless he kills for it.
Us David Nicholls Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home. He just thought they'd be doing their rediscovering together. So when Connie announces that she will be leaving, too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again. The hotels are
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booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed. What could possibly go wrong? 396 pages
The Tiger’s Wife Tea Obreht Remembering stories her grandfather told her, Natalia becomes convinced he spent his last days searching for 'the deathless man', a vagabond who claimed to be immortal. As she struggles to understand why her grandfather would go on such a farfetched journey, she stumbles across a clue that leads her to the story of the Tiger's wife. 335 pages
Master and Commander Patrick O’Brian Master and Commander is the first of Patrick O'Brian's now famous Aubrey/Maturin novels, regarded by many as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship's surgeon and an intelligence agent. 403 pages
Instructions for a Heatwave Maggie O’Farrell London, July 1976. It hasn't rained for months, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta's children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back home, each with different ideas as to where their father might have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share. 338 pages
Lullabies for Little Criminals Heather O’Neill 'Lullabies for Little Criminals' is Heather O'Neill's first novel about one girl's struggle for survival on the mean streets of Montréal. 359 pages
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Animal Farm George Orwell Animal Farm is the story of how different farm yard animals unite following enlightenment about their fate and oppression. The animals agree to an egalitarian constitution by which to govern their new arrangements while defending themselves from the expelled farmer's attempts to re-establish the old ways of doing business. Slowly the farm yards pigs rise to assume the position of leaders and abandon the constitution, radically revising them to justify a return to the old ways of doing business. 102 Pages
Foreign Bodies Cynthia Ozick The collapse of her brief marriage has stalled Bea Nightingale's life. Leaving her impoverished borough in 1950s New York, Bea escapes from the stigma of her divorce when she answers a plea from her estranged brother. Now she has left for Paris, to retrieve a nephew she barely knew. 255 Pages
David Palin This Changed Everything - new David is a local author who shows great support to our library service. In his novel, ‘This Changed Everything’, he has crafted a dark psychological thriller which contains more twists and turns than a wild Cornish road.
Bel Canto Ann Patchett By the author of 'The Magician's Assistant', the Orange Prize runner-up, this novel features the combination of opera and terrorism. Latin terrorists storm an international gathering, only to find that their intended target has failed to show up. 442 pages
The Sunne in Splendour Sharon Penman Richard, last-born son of the Duke of York, was seven months short of his nineteenth birthday when he bloodied himself at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, earning his legendary reputation as a battle commander and ending the Lancastrian line of succession. But Richard was far more than a warrior schooled in combat. Above all, he was a man of fierce loyalties, great
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courage and firm principles, who was ill at ease among the intrigues of Edward's court. 1239 pages
The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. She leaves town for Essex, in the hope that fresh air and open space will provide refuge. On arrival, rumours reach her that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for superstition, is enthralled, convinced that what the local people think is a magical beast may be a yet-undiscovered species. 418 Pages
The House on Half Moon Street - NEW Simon Reeve Leo Stanhope. Avid chess player; assistant to a London coroner; in love with Maria; and hiding a very big secret. For Leo was born Charlotte, the daughter of a respectable reverend. But knowing he was meant to be a man - despite the evidence of his body - and unable to cope with living a lie any longer, he fled his family home at just 15 and has been living as Leo: his secret known to only a few trusted people. But then Maria is found dead and Leo is accused of her murder. Desperate to find her killer and under suspicion from all those around him, he stands to lose not just the woman he loves, but his freedom and, ultimately, his life. 368 pages
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque This World War I novel is a German author's attempt to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war. It is narrated through the eyes of an "unknown soldier" in the trenches of Flanders. 216 pages
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Sarah’s Key Tatiana D Rosnay Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten-year-old girl, is arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. 293 pages
The Casual Vacancy J K Rowling When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early 40s, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. The empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has ever seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? 503 pages
The Catcher in The Rye J.D. Salinger A 16-year-old American boy relates in his own words the experiences he goes through at school and after, and reveals with unusual candour the workings of his own mind. What does a boy in his teens think and feel about his teachers, parents, friends and acquaintances? 208 pages
Dominion C J Sansom At once a startling, sinister reimagining of 1950s Britain and a gripping, humane spy thriller, with 'Dominion' C.J. Sansom once again asserts himself as the master of the historical thriller. 592 pages
That Woman Anne Sebba Historian Anne Sebba has written the first full biography by a woman of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, which attempts to understand this fascinating and enigmatic American divorcee who nearly became Queen of England. 344 pages
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Where’d You Go, Bernadette? Maria Semple Bernadette Fox is notorious. To Elgie Branch, a Microsoft wunderkind, she's his hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled wife. To fellow mothers at the school gate, she's a menace. To design experts, she's a revolutionary architect. And to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, quite simply, mum. Then Bernadette disappears. And Bee must take a trip to the end of the earth to find her. 321 pages
Leviathan David Scott David Scott's 'Leviathan' is a fully comprehensive study covering this significant period in British history that challenges many of the long-held beliefs and ideas about our ancestry, and appeals to the scholarly and general audience alike. 530 pages
The Lives of Stella Bain Anita Shreve Hauled in a cart to a field hospital in northern France in March 1916, an American woman wakes from unconsciousness to the smell of gas gangrene, the sounds of men in pain, and an almost complete loss of memory: she knows only that she can drive an ambulance, she can draw, and her name is Stella Bain. A stateless woman in a lawless country, Stella embarks on a journey to reconstruct her life. Suffering an agonising and inexplicable array of symptoms, she finds her way to London. There, Dr August Bridge, a cranial surgeon turned psychologist, is drawn to tracking her amnesia to its source. What brutality was she fleeing when she left the tranquil seclusion of a New England college campus to serve on the Front; for what crime did she need to atone - and whom did she leave behind? 264 pages
We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver Who is to blame for teenage atrocity? Narrator Eva Khatchadourian's son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and the much-loved teacher who tried to befriend him. This novel is an examination of the effect tragedy has on a town, a marriage and a family. 482 pages
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On the Beach Nevil Shute Australia is one of the last places where life still exists after nuclear war starts. Commander Dwight Towers and his Australian liaison officer is sent to the coast of North America to discover whether a stray radio signal is a sign of life. 312 pages
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Sparks Miss Brodie is a teacher who exerts a powerful influence over the group of 'special girls' at the Marcia Blaine School. Each is famous for something & are initiated into a world of adult games & extra-curricular activities they will never forget. 127 pages
On Beauty Zadie Smith When Howard Belsey's oldest son Jerome falls for Victoria, the stunning daughter of the right-wing Monty Kipps, both families find themselves thrown together, enacting a cultural and personal war against each other. 446 pages
Child 44 Tom Robb Smith Set in the Soviet Union in 1953, Tom Rob Smith's debut novel is both a thriller and a harrowing portrayal of the terror inflicted upon people by their own governments. An officer of the Ministry of State Security risks everything - even becoming an enemy of the state - to find a killer. 473 pages
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic remains his undisputed masterpiece. It tells of the Joad family who travel West in search of the promised-land, and find only broken dreams. 578 pages
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Bram Stoker - new Dracula Bram Stoker's novel became one of the masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a world of vampires and vampire hunters whilst simultaneously exposing the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and frustrated desire.
The Kitchen God’s Wife Amy Tan Focusing on the life of one woman, this book spans the years from pre- Revolutionary China to present day America. It covers the themes of cultural differences, the problems of exile, the generation gap and above all the special relationship between mothers and daughters. 415 pages
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel, where she will spend the rest of her days. She encounters the handsome young writer, Ludo, and learns that even the old can fall in love. 205 pages
Mosquito Roma Tearne 'Mosquito' is an epic tale about tender love shattered by the destructive forces of civil war. 256 pages
The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey This work is Josephine Tey's search for the truth about the murder of the Princes in the Tower. Was Richard III the monster the history books have portrayed? The search takes the form of a crime novel featuring Inspector Alan Grant. 224 pages
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Bring Me Home Alan Titchmarsh 'You really are the perfect family, aren't you?' Charlie Stuart, the owner of a Scottish castle and disappointed father of a brood of grown-up children, took in the full irony of his guest's comment at a Sunday house party. His family - and his life - were far from perfect. He had longed since childhood to inherit the Castle on the loch. He had fallen in love with the landscape and the wildlife that surrounded it and looked forward to the responsibilities that came with it, but his mother's devastating death while he was away at school and his father's remarriage to an unwelcome stepmother had swept away any easy path to fulfilling his destiny. Charlie has to grow up quickly, but along with his inheritance and the discovery of the love of his life come unexpected complications that involve espionage, deceit and a mysterious death. 308 pages
Brooklyn Colm Toibin In a small town in the south-east of Ireland in the 1950s, Eilis Lacey is among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. So when she is offered a job in America, she leaves her family to start a new life in Brooklyn, New York. 251 pages
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Paul Torday An extraordinary, beguiling tale of fly-fishing and political spinning, of unexpected heroism and late-blooming love, and of an attempt to prove the impossible, possible. 323 pages
The Woman Who Went To Bed for A Year Sue Townsend The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year' is a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone refuses to be the person everyone expects them to be. 436 pages
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Frankie and Stankie Barbara Trapido Dinah and her sister Lisa are growing up in South Africa in the fifties. It is at school that Dinah first learns about racism. As we follow Dinah from childhood, through adolescence and marriage, to voluntary exile in London, we get a vivid glimpse of one of the darker passages of 20th century history. 307 pages
Restoration Rose Tremain Robert Merivel abandons his studies to revel in gluttony, indolence and buffoonery at the Court of King Charles II. He is banished from Court after falling in love with the youngest royal mistress. 382 pages
The Colour Rose Tremain 'The Colour' is a sweeping saga of sacrifice and greed set during the mid- nineteenth century gold rush in New Zealand. 384 pages
The Road Home Rose Tremain Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to Eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter. He struggles with the mysterious rituals of 'Englishness', and the fashions and fads of the London scene. We see the road Lev travels through his eyes, and we share his dilemmas. 365 pages
The Warden Anthony Trollope When John Bold decides to challenge corruption in the Church of England he sets the whole town of Barchester ablaze with the consequences. This book is the study of conflicting loyalties and principles in a cathedral city where the gentle warden becomes an unwilling focus of national controversy. 201 pages
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The Slap Christos Tsiolkas Christos Tsiolkas presents an apparently harmless domestic incident as seen from eight very different perspectives. The result is an unflinching interrogation of our lives today; of the modern family and domestic life in the 21st century, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits. 485 pages
Digging to America Anne Tyler Dealing with themes such as belonging, pride, prejudice and love, this is the story of two extended families who are brought together thanks to the arrival of two tiny adopted Korean babies on the same night. 288 pages
A Spool of Blue Thread Anne Tyler 'It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon'. This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that day in July 1959. The whole family on the porch, relaxed, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before. And yet this gathering is different. Abby and Red are getting older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them and their beloved family home. From that porch we spool back through three generations of the Whitshanks, witnessing the events, secrets and unguarded moments that have come to define who and what they are. And while all families like to believe they are special, round that kitchen table over all those years we see played out the hopes and fears, the rivalries and tensions of families everywhere - the essential nature of family life. 357 pages
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Noah’s Compass Anne Tyler This is the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man in his 61st year. A classical pedant, he's just been 'let go' from his school teaching job and downsizes to a tiny out-of-town apartment. When he goes to bed early and alone on the first night, he wakes up in hospital unable to recall how he got there. 277 pages
The Amateur Marriage Anne Tyler Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple - young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment she walked into his mother's grocery store in Baltimore, he was smitten. And in the heat of World War 2 fervour, they were hastily wed. Anne Tyler captures the nuances of everyday life in this text. 306 pages
The Ruby in Her Navel Barry Unsworth Thurstan, a young Norman and would-be Knight at the Court of King Roger in Palermo, has been in love since boyhood with Lady Alicia, now returned a widow from the Holy Land. Thurstan soon finds himself caught in a tangle of plots, counter-plots and deceptions that threaten to destroy him. 327 pages
Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese The unforgettable story of twin brothers born in Ethiopia of the secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a British doctor, and the choices each of them must face as they grow to manhood. 512 pages
Miss Garnet’s Angel Sally Vickers Miss Garnet's Angel is a voyage of discovery, a novel of Venice but also a rich story of the explosive possibilities of change in all of us at any time. 342 pages
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Slaughterhouse 5 - new Kurt Vonnegut The destruction of Dresden by bombs and a fire storm was a catastrophe that Vonnegut himself witnessed as a prisoner of war and forms the basis of this modern classic. 177 pages
The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 264 wood and ivory carvings of animals, plants and people, none of them larger than a matchbox; apprentice potter Edmund de Waal was entranced by the collection when he first encountered it in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. When he inherited them, he discovered that they unlocked a story larger than he could have imagined. 354 pages
Fingersmith Sarah Waters Set in 1860s London, this is the story of Susan, a pickpocket who is persuaded to pose as a lady's maid and infiltrate the house of a young heiress. This novel explores the nature of identity and what people do with disguise. 416 pages
The Night Watch Sarah Waters Set in 1940s London, this story follows four characters - Kay, Helen, Viv and Duncan - as they deal with their everyday lives, set against the backdrop of World War Two. 506 pages
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away Christie Watson Set in the Niger Delta, 'Tiny Sunbirds Far Away' explores the world of 12- year-old Blessing and her family. Part comic, part tragic, it shows that some families can survive almost anything. 422 pages
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The Puppet Boy of Warsaw Eva Weaver This is the story of Mika, a Jewish boy who inherits a coat from his grandfather and discovers a puppet in one of its many secret pockets. He becomes a puppeteer in the Warsaw ghetto, but when his talent is discovered, Mika is forced to entertain the occupying German troops instead of his countrymen. It is also the story of Max, a German soldier stationed in Warsaw, whose experiences in Poland and later in Siberia's Gulag show a different side to the Second World War. As one of Mika's puppets is passed to the soldier, a war-torn legacy is handed from one generation to another. 324 pages
The Marriage Game Alison Weir The relationship between the young Elizabeth I and the dashing but married Lord Robert Dudley is the most extraordinary and controversial of royal love affairs. Whether the self-styled Virgin Queen and Robert, the son and grandson of traitors, slept together or not was a pre-occupation of the court and their open flirtation, whether or not it was consummated, very nearly cost Elizabeth the crown. 419 pages
The Island of Doctor Moreau H G Wells "The Island of Dr. Moreau" is the story of Edward Prendick, an Englishman who finds himself shipwrecked on an island in the South Seas. On the island he discovers the mad Doctor Moreau and a group of beastly creatures that are the result of the Doctor's experiments. "The Island of Dr. Moreau", which was meant as a commentary on Darwin's theory of evolution, is a most uncanny prediction of the ethical issues raised by the science of genetic engineering in modern times and a cautionary tale of the potential dangers of science when left unchecked. 141 Pages
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The War of the Worlds - new HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds' is Wells' classic science fiction tale of a Martian invasion of Earth. Having already destroyed London, it seems that no-one can stop the intellectually superior Martians from taking over the whole planet. 180 pages
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde Dorian is a good-natured young man until he falls in with the immoral Sir Henry and discovers the power of his exceptional beauty. As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamorous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt and decadent lifestyle and untouched by age. 203 pages
Stoner: A Novel John Williams The son of a midwestern farmer, William Stoner comes to the University of Missouri in 1910 to study agriculture. Stoner tells of love and conflict, passion and responsibility against the backdrop of academic life in the early 20th century. 288 pages
When God Was a Rabbit Sarah Winman This novel is a mesmerising portrait of childhood and growing up; the loss of innocence, eccentricity and familial bonds. Stripped down to its bare bones, it's the story of the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister. 325 pages
The Sisters Brothers Patrick de Witt From the author of 'Ablutions', 'The Sisters Brothers' is an offbeat Western about a reluctant assassin and his murderous brother who are on the trail of a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling and violent experiences in the Darwinian landscape of Gold Rush America. 328 pages
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Good News Bad News David Wolstencroft Who could have guessed that a bureaucratic error would send two secret agents to the same 'cover' job, working in a shabby photo-processing booth, where each must keep his identity secret from the other while awaiting orders. On discovering the mistake, the two men decide to go on the run together. 356 pages 3
Lottery Patricia Wood Perry's IQ is only 76, but he's not stupid. His grandmother taught him everything he needs to know to survive. When Gram dies, Perry is left orphaned and bereft at the age of 31. Then he wins 12 million dollars with his weekly Washington State Lottery ticket, and he finds he has more family than he knows what to do with. 310 pages
Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is a labyrinthine library of obscure & forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. A man brings his 10-year-old son to the library & allows him to choose one book to keep. But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. 403 pages
The Book Thief Markus Zusak Narrated in the all-knowing matter-of-fact voice of Death, witnessing the story of the citizens of Molching. By 1943, the Allied bombs are falling, and the sirens begin to wail. Liesel shares out her books in the air-raid shelters. But one day, the wail of the sirens comes too late. 553 pages