Jessie Whelan has always been a good liar, trying to protect her independence and her career as a teacher. But she risks everything when, after years of discreet loneliness, she embarks on a love affair. In the meantime, her...

These fictional short stories capture the true experiences of the hardships of coming to America. With great sensitivity, Robert Olen Butler introduces us to the colorful lives of Vietnamese immigrants in Louisiana.

A mesmerising historical novel about a notorious true crime case A Granite Silence is an exploration – a journey through time to a particular house, in a particular street, Urquhart Road, Aberdeen in 1934, where eight-year-old Helen Priestly lives...

No., 17 in the Dordogne Mysteries The long arm of history reaches into the present in Bruno’s latest case when three sets of bones are discovered, buried deep in the woods outside the Dordogne town of St Denis. It...

“Hey you!” he wanted to shout, but he could not: you had to get in the habit of it first, he thought, and you didn’t acquire the habit until you were on the up-and-up, not down and out like...

As a young American composer, Colin McPhee quite by accident heard some recordings of Balinese gamelan music. Changed forever by this experience, he “wanted to hear every Gamelan in the countryside.” This book recounts the details of his stay...

When Suzanna Clarke and her husband bought a dilapidated house in the Moroccan town of Fez, their friends thought they were mad. Located in a maze of donkey-trod alleyways, the house – a traditional riad – was beautiful but...

Over three years since the charismatic composer, violinist, and singer Alessandro Stradella sought refuge in the palaces and twisted alleys of Genoa, royally welcomed despite the alleged scandals and even crimes that forced him to flee from Rome, Venice,...

Gabriel has returned to the island of Jersey after ten years abroad to help his aging showbiz parents revive their failing Art Deco hotel. This proves to be something of a challenge, especially as his singer father and actress...

Ailsa has just left school and should be living it up on a summer trip, but her plans are scuppered by her needy and secretive mother. In desperation she takes up with local fishmonger Ian. He’s good for her...