In Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon`s first novel in the Commissario Brunetti series, readers were introduced to the glamorous & cut-throat world of opera & to one of Italy`s finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli
- then a suspect in the poisoning of a renowned German conductor. Now, many years after Brunetti cleared her name, Flavia has returned to the illustrious La Fenice to sing the lead in Tosca. As an opera superstar, Flavia is well acquainted with attention from adoring fans & aspiring singers. But when one anonymous admirer inundates her with bouquets of yellow roses
- on stage, in her dressing room & even inside her locked apartment
- it becomes clear that this fan has become a potentially dangerous stalker. Distraught, Flavia turns to an old friend for help. Familiar with Flavia`s melodramatic temperament, Commissario Brunetti is at first unperturbed by her story, but when another young opera singer is attacked he begins to think Flavia`s fears may be justified. In order to keep his friend out of danger, Brunetti must enter the psyche of an obsessive fan & find the culprit before anyone comes to harm.


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In Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon`s first novel in the Commissario Brunetti series, readers were introduced to the glamorous & cut-throat world of opera & to one of Italy`s finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli
- then a suspect in the poisoning of a renowned German conductor. Now, many years after Brunetti cleared her name, Flavia has returned to the illustrious La Fenice to sing the lead in Tosca. As an opera superstar, Flavia is well acquainted with attention from adoring fans & aspiring singers. But when one anonymous admirer inundates her with bouquets of yellow roses
- on stage, in her dressing room & even inside her locked apartment
- it becomes clear that this fan has become a potentially dangerous stalker. Distraught, Flavia turns to an old friend for help. Familiar with Flavia`s melodramatic temperament, Commissario Brunetti is at first unperturbed by her story, but when another young opera singer is attacked he begins to think Flavia`s fears may be justified. In order to keep his friend out of danger, Brunetti must enter the psyche of an obsessive fan & find the culprit before anyone comes to harm.


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Falling Leaves is the story of an unwanted Chinese daughter growing up during the Communist Revolution, blamed for her mother`s death, ignored by her millionaire father & unwanted by her Eurasian step mother. A story of greed, hatred & jealousy; a domestic drama is played against the extraordinary political events in China & Hong Kong. Written with the emotional force of a novel but with a vividness drawn from a personal & political background, ” Falling Leaves” has been an enduring bestseller all over the world. ...

There is September 11 & then there are the days after, & finally the years. Falling Manbegins in the smoke & ash of the burning towers & traces the aftermath of this global tremor in the intimate lives of a few individuals. Theirs are lives choreographed by loss, grief & the enormous force of history. ...

` She hoped one day to find the image she unconsciously sought, without knowing why she sought it, something to lift the spirits, to transport her on an imaginary journey, to give a hint of the transcendence which was so blatantly lacking in her everyday life of words & paper` Sisters Beatrice & Miriam have each other, but they were never close. Beatrice is a pianist, a romantic, while Miriam is disillusioned after a failed marriage. Living together yet failing to confide in one another, each is haunted by the mistakes they have made & the opportunities squandered. Both know that one day they will be forced to part, that they will each fall alone. So when Beatrice contemplates a future with Max, Miriam wonders whether the time has come sooner than she believed.. . ...

In the first volume of ` Unreliable Memoirs`, we said farewell to our hero as he set sail from Sydney Harbour, bound for London, fame & fortune. Finding the first of these proved relatively simple; the second two less so. Undaunted, Clive moved into a bed & breakfast in a Swiss Cottage where he practised the Twist, anticipated poetical masterpieces & worried about his wardrobe.. .`A comic triumph, full of terrific jokes & brilliantly sustained setpieces` Ian Hamilton, London Review of Books ` James` wickedly funny jokes & jibes make you laugh out loud & feel warm to the man. No wonder women wanted to feed him greens, & men lend him money` The Times ...

Falling Upwards tells the story of the enigmatic group of men & women who first risked their lives to take to the air, & so discovered a new dimension of human experience. Why they did it, what their contemporaries thought of them, & how their flights revealed the secrets of our planet in wholly unexpected ways is its subject. In this heart-lifting book, the Romantic biographer Richard Holmes floats across the world following the pioneer generation of balloon aeronauts, from the first heroic experiments of the Montgolfiers in 1780s to the tragic attempt to fly a balloon to the North Pole in the 1890s. It is a compelling adventure story of the kind that only Holmes could tell. Dramatic sequences move from the early Anglo-French balloon rivalries, the crazy firework flights of beautiful Sophie Blanchard; the revelatory ascents over the great Victorian cities & sprawling industrial towns of Northern Europe; & the astonishing long-distance voyages of the American entrepreneur John Wise, & the French photographer Felix Nadar. Later we find balloons used to observe the horrors of modern battle during the American Civil War (including a memorable flight by General Custer); the legendary tale of sixty balloons that escaped Paris during the Prussian siege of 1870; & the terrifying high-altitude flights of James Glaisher FRS who rose above seven miles without oxygen, helping to establish the new science of meteorology as well as the environmental notion
- so important to us today
- of a `fragile` planet. Besides the aeronauts themselves, readers will also discover the many writers & dreamers
- from Mary Shelley to Edgar Alan Poe, from Charles Dickens to Jules Verne
- who felt the imaginative impact of flight & allowed it to soar in their work. Through all these adventures, the narrative continually lifts off in unexpected literary & scientific directions, exploring the interplay between technology & science fiction, the understanding of the biosphere, & the metaphysics of flight itself. Most of all, through the strange allure of the great balloonists, Holmes offers another of his subtle portraits of human endeavour, recklessness & vision.



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` Nominally a history of the hot air balloon, ` Falling Upwards` is really a history of hope & fantasy
- & the quixotic characters
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This is the intoxicating new novel from the number one bestselling author of The Outcast London 1972. Luke is dazzled by the city. It seems a world away from the provincial town he has fled along with his own troubled past, & his new life is unrecognisable
- one of friendships forged in pubs, candlelit power cuts, & smoky late-night parties. When Nina, a fragile & damaged actress, strays into his path, Luke is immediately drawn to her & the delicate balance of his new life is threatened. Unable to stay away from her, Luke is torn between loyalty, desire & his own painful past, until everything he values, even the promise of the future, is in danger...
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Fallow is a tense, thrilling literary novel combining elements of dark comedy & surrealism. At its heart is the relationship between two brothers bound by a terrible crime. Paul & Mikey are on the run, apparently from the press surrounding their house after Mikey`s release from prison. His crime, child murder, committed when he was a boy. As they travel, moving from one disturbing scenario to the next, they encounter a group of dishonest archaeologists, an unhinged born-again Christian, two American tourists researching their genealogy, the inhabitants of a peace camp & a religious cult headed by the powerful Brother Terry. Gradually, the brothers` relationship begins to change & we realise there is more to their history than Paul has allowed us to know. ...