The temples and teahouses of Kyoto are the scene of a Frenchwoman’s emotional awakening in the stunning new novel by international bestseller Muriel Barbery. Rose has turned 40, but has barely begun to live. When the Japanese father she...

It is 1932, and the’ losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fianc’ and her brother and regarded by society as a’ surplus woman’ unlikely to marry, resolves to escape...

Two sisters. Bound by blood. Torn apart by love. My sister – the glue that held our family together and the gatekeeper to the memories of our shared childhood. The girl I made a pact with – to protect...

Amy, Linda, Kate and Jane were best friends at school. Now, years later, they have grown apart. When Amy discovers her husband has been stealing from her successful interiors business, and with a milestone birthday looming, she decides it...

Belgium has had its share of defining moments: the treaty of Vienna after Napoleon, two world wars and, rounding out the 20th century, contaminated Coke come to mind. In A Tall Man in a Low Land the curmudgeonly comic...

1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and...

What do the Greek myths mean to us today? It’s now a golden age for these tales – they crop up in novels, films and popular culture. But what’s the modern relevance of Theseus, Hera and Pandora? Were these...

In 1933, aged eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on his ‘great trudge’, a year-long journey by foot from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Three decades later he wrote A Time of Gifts, the sparklingly original account of...

This is a New York classic about a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, evocative of this area of New York (Williamsburg) and describes the experience of people immigrating into the city. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a...

For all those who imagine escaping to a château and living the dream . . . to find that even dreams can have their complications. Steph, Jo and Meredith have been friends since school. Their lives have all taken...