` Soaringly beautiful, urgent & disturbing... A masterpiece.` Colm Toibin, from the introduction Death in Spring is a dark & dream-like tale of a teenage boy`s coming of age in a remote village in the Catalan mountains; a place cut off from the outside world, where cruel customs are blindly followed, & attempts at rebellion swiftly crushed. When his father dies, he must navigate this oppressive society alone, & learn how to live in a place of crippling conformity. Often seen as an allegory for life under a dictatorship, Death in Spring is a bewitching & unsettling novel about power, exile, & the hope that comes from even the smallest gestures of independence. ` Rodoreda has bedazzled me` Gabriel Garcia Marquez` Rodoreda`s artistry is of the highest order` Diana Athill ` Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise & subvert your desires, & as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality & willful inhumanity.` Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing ...

Five years after Charles II`s triumphant return to London there is growing mistrust of his extravagant court & of corruption among his officials
- & when a cart laden with gunpowder explodes outside the General Letter Office, it is immediately clear that such an act is more than an expression of outrage at the inefficiency of the postal service. As intelligencer to the Lord Chamberlain, Thomas Chaloner cannot understand why a man of known incompetence is put in charge of investigating the attack while he is diverted to make enquiries about the poisoning of birds in the King`s aviary in St James`s Park. He becomes even more suspicious of his employer`s motives when he discovers that the witnesses he needs to interview have close links to the business conducted in the General Letter Office, activities more firmly centred on intercepting people`s mail than delivering it. Then human rather than avian victims are poisoned, & Chaloner knows he has to ignore his master`s instructions & use his own considerable wits to defeat an enemy whose deadly tentacles reach into the very heart of the government: an enemy who has the power & expertise to destroy anyone who stands in the way.. .
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` Fierce, fresh & feminist, Fern Riddell tells the story of Suffragette Kitty Marion in a way that fizzes & shocks. Exciting, twisty & very very timely.` Lucy Worsley` History with no dust.` Matt Haig In Death in Ten Minutes Fern Riddell uncovers the story of radical suffragette Kitty Marion, told through never before seen personal diaries in Kitty`s own h&. Kitty Marion was sent across the country by the Pankhurst family to carry out a nationwide campaign of bombings & arson attacks, as women fought for the vote using any means necessary. But in the aftermath of World War One, the dangerous & revolutionary actions of Kitty & other militant suffragettes were quickly hushed up & disowned by the previously proud movement, & the women who carried out these attacks were erased from our history. Now, for the first time, their untold story will be brought back to life. Telling a new history of the women`s movement in the light of new & often shocking revelations, this book will ask the question: Why has the life of this incredible woman, & the violence of the suffragettes been forgotten? &, one hundred years later, why are women suddenly finding themselves under threat again? ...

Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon shares the sights, the sounds, the excitement, & above all, the knowledge which fuelled his passion for Spain & the bullfight. This remarkable book contains some of his finest writing, inspired by the intense life, as well as the inevitable death, of those hot, violent afternoons. ...

Set in an isolated, run down community in the Peruvian Andes, Vargas Llosa`s riveting novel tells the story of a series of mysterious disappearances involving the Shining Path guerrillas & a local couple performing cannibalistic sacrifices with strange similarities to the Dionysian rituals of ancient Greece. Part-detective novel & part-political allegory, it offers a panoramic view of Peruvian society; not only of the current political violence & social upheaval, but also of the country`s past, & its connection to Indian culture & to pre-Hispanic mysticism. As in his other novels, Vargas Llosa breathes into this work a magical assemblage of narrators, time frames & subplots. We meet Senderista guerrillas, disenfranchised Indians, jaded army officers, eccentric townspeople & cult worshippers, among many unforgettable characters. The result is a work of broad sweep, powerful narrative drive, & keen insight into one of Latin America`s most fascinating & complex countries. No other book conveys so much about Peru so vividly
- the magic, the desolation of the Altiplano, the Sendero Luminoso, the mentality. Fabulous & essential for anybody who is planning a visit to the country.
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EU inspectors are causing havoc in St Denis & local tempers are running high, but is it really cause for murder? The first acclaimed & internationally bestselling case for Bruno, Chief of Police.` Hugely enjoyable & absolutely gripping. Martin Walker has got off to a flying start in what promises to be a great series. Bruno will be the Maigret of the Dordogne` Antony Beevor Market day in the ancient town of St Denis in south-west France. EU hygiene inspectors have been swooping on France`s markets, while the locals hide contraband cheese in their houses & call the Brussels bureaucrats ` Gestapo`. Police Captain Bruno Courreges supports their resistance. Although, here in what was once Vichy France, words like ` Gestapo` & `resistance` still carry a profound resonance. When an old man, head of an immigrant North African family, is found murdered, suspicion falls on the son of the local doctor, found in flagrante playing sex games surrounded by Nazi paraphernalia. But Bruno isn`t convinced, & suspects this crime may have its roots in that most tortured period of recent French history
- the Second World War, a time of terror & betrayal that set brother against brother. Now it`s up to him to find the killer
- but will the people of St Denis allow him to go digging through the past in order to do it?

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On a dark November evening, Sir Wilfred Saxonby is travelling alone in the 5 o`clock train from Cannon Street, in a locked compartment. The train slows & stops inside a tunnel; & by the time it emerges again minutes later, Sir Wilfred has been shot dead, his heart pierced by a single bullet. Suicide seems to be the answer, even though no motive can be found. Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard thinks again when he learns that a mysterious red light in the tunnel caused the train to slow down. Finding himself stumped by the puzzle, Arnold consults his friend Desmond Merrion, a wealthy amateur expert in criminology. Merrion quickly comes up with an `essential brainwave` & helps to establish how Sir Wilfred met his end, but although it seems that the dead man fell victim to a complex conspiracy, the investigators are puzzled about the conspirators` motives, as well as their identities. Can there be a connection with Sir Wilfred`s seemingly untroubled family life, his highly successful business, or his high-handed & unforgiving personality? & what is the significance of the wallet found on the corpse, & the bank notes that it contained? ...

Longlisted for the CWA International Dagger 2017. Spring, 1967. The trail of tragedy & destruction that followed the previous winter`s flood seems to have died down; Florence is beginning to recover. But Inspector Bordelli does not feel the same sense of relief
- he has not had a moment`s peace since his investigation of a young boy`s murder went disastrously wrong. Unsettled & embittered, Bordelli resigns from the force & leaves the city. He could not continue to work as a policeman while the perpetrators of such a terrible crime were still at large. Now, in the solitude of his new home in the Tuscan hills, he spends his days cooking, going for long walks & learning to grow his own vegetables. But the thought of that case
- of justice not served
- is constantly with him. Until fate, in which he has never believed, unexpectedly offers him the chance of retribution.. .


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TRANSLATED & INTRODUCED BY DAVID LUKE. Death in Venice is a story of obsession. Gustave von Aschenbach is a successful but ageing writer who travels to Venice for a holiday. One day, at dinner, Aschenbach notices an exceptionally beautiful young boy who is staying with his family in the same hotel. Soon his days begin to revolve around seeing this boy & he is too distracted to pay attention to the ominous rumours that have begun to circulate about disease spreading through the city. ...

The Vintage Classics Europeans series
- with covers provided by textile design firm Wallace Sewell, these are must-have editions
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