As they look to the stars, what are they missing back home? ` Phenomenal. A transcendent journey into the mysteries of space & self. Howrey`s expansive vision left me awestruck` RUTH OZEKI, author of A Tale for the Time Being The best of Helen Kane exists in space. If she doesn`t go back up, she`ll be consigned to a lesser version of herself on a planet that has also seen better days. Helen is an experienced astronaut with a NASA position & a struggling grown-up daughter who needs her but when, at fifty-three, she is offered a place on the training programme for the first mission to Mars, the most realistic simulation ever, she cannot refuse a last chance to walk among the stars. Her fellow astronauts are Sergei, a gruff Russian whose teenage sons are less mysterious to him than they`d like to think; & Yoshi, who wants to prove himself worthy of the wife he has drifted apart from. The three will be enclosed for months in a tiny craft, while outside their loved ones negotiate everyday life on Earth. How far will the wanderers travel in the pursuit of endeavour, & what will it be like to come home? Station Eleven meets We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in this brilliantly inventive & sharply observed novel of science, ambition, endeavour & family. ` An astounding, insightful, exhilarating ride` HELEN SEDGWICK, author of The Comet Seekers `A stealthily brilliant novel. A distinct, shimmering vision of who we are.. . at once simple, gorgeous & profoundly moving` PETER NICHOLS, author of The Rocks ...

As they look to the stars, what are they missing back home? ` Phenomenal. A transcendent journey into the mysteries of space & self. Howrey`s expansive vision left me awestruck` RUTH OZEKI, author of A Tale for the Time Being Helen Kane may not be the best mother in the world, but she is one of the world`s best astronauts & when, at fifty-three, she`s offered a chance to train for the first crewed mission to Mars, she doesn`t hesitate. She & her fellow astronauts Sergei & Yoshihiro will be confined in a desert facility, striving to prove themselves, while outside their loved ones
- Helen`s actress daughter, Sergei`s teenage son, & Yoshi`s lonely businesswoman wife Madoka
- pursue complex explorations of their own. All six will find themselves confronting the bonds of love & loyalty, sacrifice & desire. Station Eleven meets We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in this brilliantly witty & inventive novel of ambition, endeavour & family. ` An astounding, insightful, exhilarating ride` HELEN SEDGWICK, author of The Comet Seekers `A stealthily brilliant novel. A distinct, shimmering vision of who we are.. . at once simple, gorgeous & profoundly moving` PETER NICHOLS, author of The Rocks

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The beautiful, questing second novel in Tim Pears` acclaimed West Country trilogy. Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in pre-First World War Devon & Cornwall Lonely & grieving for her exiled best friend, thirteen-year-old Lottie feels a prisoner. Her only solace is her study of the natural world around her father`s estate: the strange profusion of its plants, the beauty & brutality of its predators, its mysterious dances of life, death & survival. Grazing on berries & sleeping in copses, Leo travels alone through the wild, strange tapestry of the West Country towards Penzance. But a wanderer is never alone for long
- & when the gypsy waggons rattle into view, Leo is drawn into a colourful & dangerous world far beyond his imagination. Author Biography: Tim Pears is the author of nine novels, including In the Place of Fallen Leaves (winner of the Hawthornden Prize & the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award), In a Land of Plenty (made into a ten part BBC series), Landed (shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2012 & the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize 2011, winner of the MJA Open Book Awards 2011) &, most recently, The Horseman, the first book in this trilogy. He has been Writer in Residence at Cheltenham Festival of Literature & Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. He lives in Oxford with his wife & children. timpears.com
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The lake of Lop-nor, the `heart of the heart of Asia`, is one of the world`s strangest phenomena. Situated in the wild Chinese province of Xinjiang, Lop-nor
- `the wandering lake`- has for millennia been in a perpetual state of flux, drifting north to south, often tens of kilometres in as many years. It was once the lifeblood of the great Silk Road kingdom of Lou-lan, which flourished in this otherwise barren region 2, 000 years ago & its peculiar movements confused even Ptolemy, who marked the lake twice on his map of Asia. Following `the pulse-beats of Lop-nor as a doctor examines a patient`s heart`, Sven Hedin became captivated by its peripatetic movements & for forty years his destiny was inextricably linked with that of this mysterious lake & the region surrounding it. His last journey to Lop-nor was in 1934, just days after he was released as a prisoner of General Ma Chung-yin (the rebel leader of Xinjiang). Travelling the length of the Konche-daria & Kum-daria rivers by canoe, Hedin embarked on his last Central Asian expedition & proved what he had always suspected
- that Lop-nor did indeed shift position
- & why. When he camped on its vast banks at night, Lop-nor was deep & full. Today, this once great lake
- a mighty reservoir in the desert
- is nothing but windblown sand & salty marsh. The third in Sven Hedin`s ” Central Asia” trilogy, ” The Wandering Lake” is arguably his most famous work. It is, typically, a gripping story of adventure & discovery but it is also a rare account of a now-vanished world; a masterpiece by one of history`s last great explorers.




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What was it about Hjoggbole, a farming village in the northernmost part of Sweden, that created so many idiots
- & writers? There
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Are you ready for the truth about World War Two? In the first of an extraordinary three-volume account of the war on l&, in the air & at sea, James Holland reveals not only the truth behind the familiar legends of the Second World War but he also unveils those lesser known events which were to have the greatest significance. The first book to consider the economic, political & social as well as the military aspects of World War Two, this is a unique retelling of a monumental event in all its terrible & majestic glory. Holland has spent over twelve years unearthing new research, visiting archives, battlefields & the very people who fought & lived through the conflict. He has, in his own accessible & inimitable style, written an account to redefine our understanding of the war. It is unlike anything else on the subject. ...

Wars come & go across the headlines & television screens, but for those who survive them, scarred & scattered, they never end. This is a book about post-conflict irresolution, about the lives of those who survived the gulag of concentration camps in north-western Bosnia & about seeking justice for Bosnia today. But justice is not Reckoning. The book finds that the survivors are lost not only geographically, but in history
- betrayed in war, & also in peace.
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Mountainous regions are home to only ten percent of the world`s population yet host a strikingly disproportionate share of the world`s conflicts. Mountains provide a natural refuge for those who want to elude authority, & their remoteness has allowed archaic practices to persist well into our globalized era. As Judith Matloff shows, the result is a combustible mix those in the lowlands cannot afford to ignore. Travelling to conflict zones across the world, she introduces us to Albanian teenagers involved in ancient blood feuds; Mexican peasants hunting down violent poppy growers; & Jihadists who have resisted the Russian military for decades. At every stop, Matloff reminds us that the drugs, terrorism, & instability cascading down the mountainside affect us all. A work of political travel writing in the vein of Ryszard Kapuscinski & Robert Kaplan, The War is in the Mountains is an indelible portrait of the conflicts that have unexpectedly shaped our world. ...

The third hilarious children`s novel from Demolition Dad & Superhero Street author Phil Earle, illustrated by Waterstones Children`s Book Prize shortlisted artist, Sara Ogilvie. Perfect for fans of Roald Dahl, Liz Pichon & David Walliams. Masher is the bully of Storey Street. No one ever dares stand up to him & that`s the way he likes it. But then Jemima & her family move into the plot of land next door. Jemima isn`t afraid of him at all, & she`s making him look like a bit of a wimp. To Masher, that just means one thing: war. (At least until teatime...) ...

When the spoilt & haughty Dona Constanza tries to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, she starts a running battle with the locals. The skirmishes are so severe that the Government dispatches a squadron of soldiers led by the fat, brutal & stupid Figueras to deal with them. Despite visiting plagues of laughing fits & giant cats upon the troops, the villagers know that to escape the cruel & unusual tortures planned for them, they must run. Thus they plan to head for the mountains & start a new & convivial civilisation. ...