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Black Powder War (The Temeraire Series, Book 3)
Black Powder War (The Temeraire Series, Book 3)
Naomi Novik
¥42.58
Naomi Novik’s stunning series of novels follow the adventures of Cpt Laurence and his dragon Temeraire as they travel from the shores of Britain to China and Africa. Before Captain Will Laurence can prepare his crew for the slow voyage home from China, new orders arrive for him and his dragon, Temeraire: they must fly home immediately, stopping only in Istanbul to collect three priceless dragon eggs, purchased by the British government from the Ottoman Empire. But the cross-continental journey is fraught with danger; not only will they have to scale mountains and traverse vast hostile deserts, but a Machiavellian herald precedes them, spreading political menace in her wake. Holding Temeraire responsible for the death of her princely companion, Lien has absconded from China consumed by vengeance. If she can, she will destroy everything and everyone Temeraire loves.
Election
Election
Tom Perrotta
¥57.09
A brilliantly funny novel from the author of ‘The Abstinence Teacher’ and ‘Little Children’, made into an acclaimed film starring Reece Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. Tracy Flick wants to be president of Winwood High. She’s one of those ambitious girls who finds time to do it all: edit the yearbook, star in the school musical, sleep with her English teacher. Staunch idealist, Jim McAllister (aka ‘Mr M’) thinks the students deserve better. So he persuades Paul Warren – a well-liked, good-hearted jock – to run as well. But that puts Paul’s sister, Tammy, in a snit. So she runs too, on an apathy platform – before starting a real campaign…to get herself kicked out of school. The idea was to educate the students of this suburban New Jersey school in the democratic process and the American way. But with all the sex scandals, smear campaigns and behind-the-scenes powerbrokers at Winwood High, it doesn’t look as if they need any lessons…
The Wishbones
The Wishbones
Tom Perrotta
¥45.62
The second novel from Tom Perrotta, author of ‘Little Children’, ‘Election’ and ‘The Abstinence Teacher’. Everything is going pretty well for Dave Raymond. He's 31, but he still feels young. He's playing guitar with the Wishbones, a New Jersey wedding band, and while it isn't exactly the Big Time, it is music. He has a roof over his head…well, it's his parents' roof, but they don't hassle him much. Life isn't perfect. But it isn't bad. Not bad at all. But then he has to blow it all by proposing to his girlfriend… One man's treasure is another man's millstone. To Dave, the treasure in question is Gretchen; a sexy, bohemian poet Dave meets when playing at a wedding with his band. While Gretchen the poet plays 'the bridesmaid', Dave plays 'the rock-star'. And suddenly, the comfortable trajectory of his reality seems far less appealing.
The Art of Losing
The Art of Losing
Rebecca Connell
¥66.22
An exceptionally mature and tautly written first novel reminiscent of Josephine Hart's ‘Damage’. Haunted by childhood loss, 23-year-old Louise takes on her late mother’s name and sets out to find Nicholas, the man she has always held responsible for her mother’s death. Now a middle-aged lecturer, husband and father, Nicholas has nevertheless been unable to shake off the events of his past, when he and Louise’s mother, Lydia, had a clandestine, destructive and ultimately tragic affair. As Louise infiltrates his life and the lives of his family, she forms close and intimate relationships with both his son and his wife, but her true identity remains unknown to Nicholas himself. Tensions grow and outward appearances begin to crack, as Louise and Nicholas both discover painful truths about their own lives, each other and the woman they both loved.
The Naqib’s Daughter
The Naqib’s Daughter
Samia Serageldin
¥110.46
A passionate tale, woven from personal stories of heroic betrayal and love, The Naqib’s Daughter is based on historical characters, and set during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. Lady Nafisa, aristocrat, philanthropist and wife of Mamluke leader Murad Bey wakes one morning to find her worst fears confirmed. Cairo is under threat from the French, whose mission is to liberate the most ancient civilisation in the world from what they see as superstition and darkness. For Nafisa it means that her husband will go to war and she will be widowed a second time. She will have a new role as an intermediary with the French and as a refuge for vulnerable civilians form both sides. For fourteen year-old Zeinab, daughter of a respected Naqib, it is the end of her childhood. To save her family she is married to Napoleon. Life in the French court in Egypt is a game to her, one with many pleasures, including the love of one of Napoleon's trusted entourage. When the occupation fails, and the French begin to withdraw, only Nafisa can protect her from the wrath of the mob. Elfi Bey, the ambitious new Mamluke leader who is also in love with Lady Nafisa, has to risk being an outcast, for the land he so dearly loves, and loosing all the wealth and status he has worked for because he fears the only way to save Egypt from the occupiers is to seek support from the court of King George III. Samia Serageldin brings to life the vanished world of the exotic Mamluke warrior-slaves and so doing, explores the complex, often dangerous relationship between occupier and occupied. The Naqib's Daughter reveals the high price paid by Egyptians for their occupation.
The Doomsday Prophecy (Ben Hope, Book 3)
The Doomsday Prophecy (Ben Hope, Book 3)
Scott Mariani
¥56.11
FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR When ex-SAS operative Ben Hope decided to give up rescuing kidnap victims in favour of the Theology studies he abandoned years before, he should have known that fate would decide differently. Searching for missing biblical archaeologist Zo? Bradbury, Ben finds himself embroiled in his riskiest mission yet. What is the ancient secret that Zo? uncovered? And just who is willing to do anything to protect it? The investigation leads Ben from Greece to the American Deep South and the holy city of Jerusalem, and he soon discovers that it's not just his and Zo?'s lives on the line, but those of millions, threatened by a fundamentalist plot to gain ultimate power. The stakes are terrifyingly high as Ben races to prevent a disaster that could kick-start apocalyptic events as foretold by the Book of Revelation… BEN HOPE is one of the most celebrated action adventure heroes in British fiction and Scott Mariani is the author of numerous bestsellers. Join the ever-growing legion of readers who get breathless with anticipation when the countdown to the new Ben Hope thriller begins…
Little Miracles
Little Miracles
Giselle Green
¥51.50
When a routine trip to the beach turns to tragedy, Julia Fearon’s life becomes a heartbreaking search for the truth. When she arrives in Spain with fiancé Charlie and their toddler Hadyn, Julia is excited at the prospect of meeting his family. But Julia’s happiness is short-lived as she becomes increasingly isolated from the strict and deeply religious clan, and lies from her past threaten to destroy her future happiness. Then tragedy strikes and Haydn disappears on a day out at the beach. Whilst the authorities presume him drowned, Julia is tortured by the thought that her child is alive – and has been snatched. Grief-stricken, Julia searches desperately for the truth, whilst Charlie throws himself into his work. Consumed by the fact that they may never know what happened that day, can Julia find the strength to let Haydn go? Or will her faith be rewarded with the truth? Heart wrenching and morally complex, if you love Dorothy Koomson and Jodi Picoult, you’ll love Giselle Green.
Rebellion
Rebellion
James McGee
¥63.18
Rebellion is brewing in Napoleonic Paris, in the new action-packed novel from the author of the bestselling Ratcatcher October 1812: Britain and France are still at war. France is engaged on two battle fronts - Spain and Russia - and her civilians are growing weary of the fight. Rebellion is brewing. Since Napoleon Bonaparte appointed himself as First Consul, there have been several attempts to either kill or overthrow him. All have failed, so far… Meanwhile in London, Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood has been seconded to the foreign arm of the Secret Service. There, he meets the urbane Henry Brooke, who tells him he’s to join a colleague in Paris on a special mission. Brooke's agent has come up with a daring plan and he needs Hawkwood's help to put it into action. If the plan is successful it could lead to a negotiated peace treaty between France and the allies. Failure would mean prison, torture and a meeting with the guillotine…
Rapscallion
Rapscallion
James McGee
¥63.18
Matthew Hawkwood, ex-soldier turned Bow Street Runner, goes undercover to hunt down smugglers and traitors at the height of the Napoleonic Wars in this thrilling follow-up to Ratcatcher. For a French prisoner of war, there is only one fate worse than the gallows: the hulks. Former man-o'-wars, now converted to prison ships, their fearsome reputation guarantees a sentence served in the most dreadful conditions. Few survive. Escape, it's said, is impossible. Yet reports persist of a sinister smuggling operation within this brutal world – and the Royal Navy is worried enough to send two of its officers to investigate. But when they disappear without trace, the Navy turns in desperation to Bow Street for help. It's time to send in a man as dangerous as the prey. It's time to send in Hawkwood…
A Corpse in Shining Armour
A Corpse in Shining Armour
Caro Peacock
¥63.18
Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a day’s work for Liberty Lane: the plucky heroine for fans of Georgette Heyer and Sarah Waters’s Victorian novels. London. Summer 1839. And the temperature is rising as Liberty Lane takes on her strangest case yet. Deranged aristocrat Lord Brinkburn is nearing death and his elder son, Stephen, is expecting to inherit the title. But Lady Brinkburn's sudden announcement that Stephen is illegitimate throws the family into turmoil. Tensions reach boiling point between the two brothers, one of whom stands to gain everything, and they come to blows in public - much to the amusement of London Society. Liberty is engaged privately to get to the truth of the matter, but a macabre murder raises the stakes considerably…added to which she finds her own judgement being undermined by the beguiling Lady Brinkburn. She is only too aware that time is running out - one of the brothers may be next, but which will it be…?
The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal
The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal
Sean Dixon
¥72.99
An original, mischievous rites of passage novel which will delight fans of offbeat fiction such as ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ and ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’. The Lacuna Cabal Montreal Young Women's Book Club is THE foremost book club in Canada, no, in the world. Priding themselves on their good taste, intelligent discussions and impeccable opinions, they are a group of misfits and oddballs, living on the edge of normality. There are only two rules: what Missy says goes (ok, there is a nod to democracy but let's be honest here) and NO BOYS. EVER. Of course, the premier book club in the world must read the first book ever written: 'The Epic of Gilgamesh'. But this monumental book leads them to break all their rules, shed members who end up missing out on EVERYTHING, and travel across the open seas to Bahrain in search of a wise man who'll hopefully have all the answers. Original, funny, quixotic and ultimately very moving,The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal is set in a time of upheaval: the Iraq war is exploding and people across the world are marching in protest. It's the story of a group of friends who find a family of sorts within their book group, who learn to cope with love, and the lack of it, loss, and the lack of that, and with growing up in a world that is falling apart.
Chicago
Chicago
Alaa al Aswany
¥81.03
Sex, money and politics are the driving forces of society in this new novel from bestselling author Alaa al Aswany. A medley of Egyptian and American lives collides on the campus of the University of Illinois Medical Center in a post-9/11 Chicago, and crises of identity abound. Among the players are an atheistic anti-establishment American professor of the sixties generation, whose relationship with a younger African-American woman becomes a moving target for intolerance; a veiled PhD candidate whose conviction in the code of her traditional upbringing is shaken by her exposure to American society; an emigre who has fervently embraced his new American identity, but who cannot escape his Egyptian roots when faced with the issue of his daughter's 'honour'; an Egyptian State Security informant who spouts religious doctrines while hankering after money and power; and a dissident student poet who comes to America with the sole aim of financing his literary aspirations, but whose experience in Chicago turns out to be more than he bargained for. This tightly plotted page-turner is set far from the downtown Cairo of al Aswany's ‘The Yacoubian Building’, but is no less unflinching an examination of contemporary Egyptian lives.
Dean Spanley: The Novel
Dean Spanley: The Novel
Lord Dunsany,Alan Sharp
¥66.22
The classic humorous novel about an alcohol-loving clergyman who thinks he is the reincarnation of a dog. Complete with the award-winning film screenplay that expands upon the tale. Dean Spanley is affable, conventional and prudent – the very archetype of a bland churchman. Only his keen interest in the transmigration of souls and his obsession with dogs betray any shadow of eccentricity. But then, richly primed with a few glasses of Imperial Tokay, he begins to speak vividly of the joys of rabbiting, of rolling in fresh dung and of baying at the moon. Are these canine memories a drunken fancy? Or can it be that Dean Spanley must once have been a dog? This special edition includes Lord Dunsany’s witty and inventive novel, My Talks With Dean Spanley, together with Alan Sharp’s award-winning screenplay for the film starring Peter O’Toole and Sam Neill, which faithfully adapts and expands upon the events in the story.
Capricornia
Capricornia
Xavier Herbert
¥91.43
A saga of life in the Northern Territories and the clash of white and Aborigine cultures – one of Australia’s all-time best-selling novels and an inspiration for Baz Luhrmann’s lavish film ‘AUSTRALIA’. Capricornia has been described as one of Australia's 'great novels', a sharply observed chronicle about life in the Northern Territory of Australia and the inhumane treatment suffered by Aborigines at the hands of white men. The story is immense and rambling, laced with humour that is often as bitter and as harsh as the terrain in which it is set, and follows with irony the fortunes (and otherwise) of a range of Outback characters over a span of generations. Through their story is reflected the story of Australia, the clash of personalities and cultures that provide the substance on which today's society is founded. Above all, however, this is a novel of protest and of compassion - for the Aborigines and half-bloods of Australia's 'last frontier'. Sprawling, explosive, thronged with characters, plots and sub-plots, Capricornia is without doubt one of the best known and widely read Australian novels of the last 70 years. When it was first published it was acclaimed as 'a turning point', an 'outstanding work of social protest'. Its message is as penetrating today as it was in the 1930s when Herbert himself was official 'Protector of Aborigines' at Darwin.
Lovers and Newcomers
Lovers and Newcomers
Rosie Thomas
¥72.99
From the bestselling author of Iris and Ruby comes a novel in which a group of old friends reunite to start a new stage of their lives. Miranda Meadowe decides a lonely widowhood in her crumbling country house is not for her. Reviving a university dream, she invites five of her oldest friends to come and join her to live, and to stave off the prospect of old age. All have their own reasons for accepting. To begin with, omens are good. They laugh, dance, drink and behave badly, as they cling to the heritage they thought was theirs for ever: power, health, stability. They are the baby boomers; the world is theirs to change. But as old attractions resurface alongside new tensions, they discover that the clock can’t be put back. When building work reveals an Iron Age burial site of a tribal queen, the outside world descends on their idyllic retreat, and the isolation of the group is breached. Now the past is revealed; and the future that beckons is very different from the one they imagined.
Jimmy Coates: Sabotage
Jimmy Coates: Sabotage
Joe Craig
¥51.50
Jimmy Coates embarks on his fourth adventure in his ongoing mission to out-think / out-manouevre and outwit NJ7. If you think it’s over, think again… “Jimmy closed his eyes, searching for that power inside him. He had to forget that he was terrified – that was only the human part of him, the 38 per cent that was a normal, frightened boy. He willed the assassin to take him over. He knew that somewhere within him was enough strength, resilience and expert knowledge to survive this crisis.” The cold and calculating Miss Bennett has had enough of Jimmy Coates. NJ7’s greatest invention has turned into it’s greatest enemy, and it’s time someone put an end to him. But Jimmy’s next mission is to foil a secret plan – and who could be better at this than someone who officially doesn’t exist!
The Geneva Deception
The Geneva Deception
James Twining
¥34.14
Mafia, a secret society and the world’s greatest treasures all converge in James Twining’s all new jaw–dropping thriller featuring reformed art thief Tom Kirk It begins with a young man hanging from the Ponte Sant' Angelo Rome, his pockets weighed down with lead whilst the current of the river below slowly tightens the noose around his neck. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, retired art thief Tom Kirk is asked by an old friend to investigate a case involving the theft of a long lost Caravaggio painting. When tragedy strikes Tom is left holding a blood-soaked body. Back in Rome Art Protection Squad officer Allegra Damico has been called to the Parthenon where a second body has been found, It begins with a young man hanging from the Ponte Sant' Angelo Rome, his pockets weighed down with lead whilst the current of the river below slowly tightens the noose around his neck. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, retired art thief Tom Kirk is asked by an old friend to investigate a case involving the theft of a long lost Caravaggio painting. When tragedy strikes Tom is left holding a blood-soaked body. Back in Rome police Lieutenant Allegra Damico has been called to the Parthenon where a second body has been found, but this time the body is surrounded by mannequins. When a third body is found crucified upside down in the middle of the ancient forum Allegra realises there is a sinister link between the murders. Someone is staging famous Caravaggio paintings. Suspecting the detective leading the case is corrupt Allegra begins her own investigation. Spurred on by grief and the desire to avenge the murder of his friend, Tom follows a trail to Rome where he finds Allegra piecing together a similar mystery. Before long they both find themselves submerged in a vast criminal conspiracy involving the police, politicians, the church and a secret society born of a pact between two Mafia families decades before.
The Good Divorce Guide
The Good Divorce Guide
Cristina Odone
¥58.86
‘I believe we can separate in a really civilised, non-traumatic way’ I say. ‘And I bet’ Jill says ‘ that you believe in Father Christmas too.’ When Rosie Martin discovers that Jonathan, her husband of 15 years, is having an affair, she feels that her world is falling apart. That is, until she realises that she's actually fallen out of love with him, too. So Rosie and Jonathan decide to go their separate ways, determined to be civilised about their divorce, for the sake of the children – in short, to have a 'good divorce'… But even the best of intentions and the most mature of objectives can be no match for external forces. Cue the rest of the world, where divorce is always a dirty word. Everyone and everything seems determined to conspire to make this divorce bitter – the lawyer, the estate agent, the botox man, the friends, not least their respective families… ‘The Good Divorce Guide’ is a touching, witty, funny story about starting afresh and learning to find your own way in life, no matter what anyone says.
Vintage Murder (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
Vintage Murder (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
Ngaio Marsh
¥59.15
A touring theatre company in New Zealand forms the basis of one of Marsh’s most ambitious and innovative novels. New Zealand theatrical manager Alfred Meyer wanted to celebrate his wife’s birthday in style. The piece de résistance would be the jeroboam of champagne which would descend gently into a nest of fern and coloured lights on the table, set up on stage after the performance. But something went horribly wrong. Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn witnessed it himself. Was Meyer’s death the product of Maori superstitions? Or something much more down to earth?
Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
Ngaio Marsh
¥48.07
A body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh’s 1930s novels. The season had begun. Débutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend Lord Robert Gospell at the scene. But someone else got there first…
A Surfeit of Lampreys (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
A Surfeit of Lampreys (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
Ngaio Marsh
¥38.36
Ngaio Marsh’s most popular novel begins when a young New Zealander’s first contact with the English gentry is the body of Lord Wutherford – with a meat skewer through the eye… The Lampreys had plenty of charm – but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar – and rather gloried in it. The double and triple charades, for instance, with which they would entertain their guests – like rich but awful Uncle Gabriel, who was always such a bore. The Lampreys thought if they jollied him up he would bail them out – yet again. Instead, Uncle Gabriel met a violent end. And Chief Inspector Alleyn had to work our which of them killed him…