When Malika loses her longed-for daughter at birth, it is not the only loss in the family: the surviving twin -a boy – loses the love of his mother. He grows up needing to be the daughter his mother...

Carlotta O’Keefe is happily engaged, and the wedding plans are coming together. She’s clear about her future path, both personally and in her busy career. Maybe Chris doesn’t make her heart race every time she sees him, but you...

It begins with a body. One anonymous winter day, the corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River. Gone is the controversial giant of Asian literature. And missing is the only manuscript of his final book, an...

Anna Quindlen has visited London on numerous occasions and has written this account of London, based on her own literary map, tracing the footsteps of her favourite literary characters – where, for example, the bright young things of Evelyn...

Nora hasn’t seen Clare for ten years. Not since the day Nora walked out of her old life and never looked back. Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen party arrives. A weekend in a remote...

Jiangxi Province, China, 1941. Atop the fabled mountain of Lushan, celebrated for its temples, capricious mists and plunging ravines, perches a boarding school for the children of British missionaries. As her parents pursue their calling to bring the gospel...

Bryson travels around Australia, seeking the key to the uniquely Australian character. Bryson on form he comes upon critters, local characters, the history of the “discovery” … areal incentive to pack your bags and explore this beautiful part of...

Shortly after the 2005 London bombings, Tahir Shah was thrown into a Pakistani prison on suspicion of spying for Al-Qaeda. What sustained him during his terrifying, weeks-long ordeal were the stories his father told him as a child in...

Francis Wootton’s first memory is of Kurt Cobain’s death, and there have since been other hardships much closer to home. At fifteen years old he already knows all about loss and rejection – and to top it all off...