- Location(s): Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, United States (USA)
- Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
- Era(s): Second half of the 20th Century
My brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954. We took our first breaths in the thick air of Addis Ababa, capital city of...
- Location(s): World
- Genre(s): Travelogue
- Era(s): Modern
The epic journey, 35,000 miles from Siberia to London on a bike. Beautifully and thoughtfully written.
Czechmate: The Spy Who Played Jazz
- Location(s): Prague
- Genre(s): Thriller
- Era(s): 1960s
The year is 1968. The liberal reforms of Czechoslovakia’s new leader, Alexander Dubcek, have outraged the Kremlin and now, 250,000 Warsaw Pact forces are amassed on the borders. For American intelligence, the situation is worsened when their prime source,...
Da Vinci’s Ghost: The untold story of Vitruvian Man
- Location(s): Italy
- Genre(s): Historical
- Era(s): Various, late 1400s
In the richly rewarding history “Da Vinci’s Ghost,” Toby Lester, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, shows that Leonardo had long been fascinated by the concept of man as a microcosm of the universe. Before the Pacioli collaboration, the...
- Location(s): Cape Town
- Genre(s): Crime, Thriller
- Era(s): Modern
Friday evening. A deserted street below Table Mountain. A six-year-old ballerina waits alone for her mother to fetch her. Then an unmarked car approaches, and she is gone. With no trace of where, or why she’s been abducted, suspicion...
- Location(s): New York City (NYC), The Atlantic Ocean
- Genre(s): Fiction
- Era(s): 1960s, Modern
Violet Hetherington has taken the rash step of joining a transatlantic cruise ship to New York to visit Edwin, an old friend. As she makes the six day crossing, she relives the traumatic events that led to her losing...
- Location(s): London
- Genre(s): Romance
- Era(s): Modern
It briefly starts out in Paris but the main location is London. Ballet and theatre – even if you are not a great fan – this is a terrific book, with a tremendous cast of characters.
- Location(s): India
- Genre(s): Fiction
- Era(s): Modern
Abandoned as a young child, the street urchin Kalu has, against all odds, carved out a life for himself in rural India. One day, a travelling healer overhears Kalu playing a melody through a rolled-up banyan leaf and encourages...
- Location(s): Dubrovnik
- Genre(s): Fiction
- Era(s): Late 20th Century
Caroline Daley, escaping from a messy divorce, and her friend Brian Napier are on a ferry going down the Adriatic when the engines pack up. Somebody has put seawater in the fuel. The nearest port which they can put...
Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains
- Location(s): Edinburgh
- Genre(s): Crime
- Era(s): 1920s
No 5 in the Dandy Gilver series. Set against the back drop of the general strike in the 1920`s,Catriona McPerson has used her impeccaable research of the period detail in the world of below stairs. Dandy gets a letter...