The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his experiences locked inside his body. A masterpiece & a bestseller in France, it is now a major motion picture directed by Julian Schnabel. On 8 December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive stroke & slipped into a coma. When he regained consciousness three weeks later, the only muscle left functioning was in his left eyelid although his mind remained as active & alert as it had ever been. He spent most of 1996 writing this book, letter by letter, blinking as an alphabet was repeatedly read out to him. The Diving-Bell & the Butterfly was published in France on Thursday 6th March 1997. It was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. & then, three days later, he died. The Diving-Bell & the Butterfly, which records Bauby`s lonely existence, is probably the most remarkable book about the triumph of the human spirit, the ability to invent a life for oneself in the most appalling of circumstances, that you will ever read. It has now been made into a captivating film, directed by Julian Schnabel & starring Mathieu Amalric, which was the winner of the award for Best Director at Cannes & nominated for the Palm d` Or. ...

` Through the double clamour of Big Ben & the shrill sound of the bell rang a revolver shot.` A financier is found shot in the House of Commons. Suspecting foul play, Robert West, a parliamentary private secretary, takes on the role of amateur sleuth. Used to turning a blind eye to covert dealings, West must now uncover the shocking secret behind the man`s demise, amid distractions from the press & the dead man`s enigmatic daughter. Originally published in 1932, this was the only mystery novel to be written by Ellen Wilkinson, one of the first women to be elected to Parliament. Wilkinson offers a unique insider`s perspective of political scandal, replete with sharp satire. ...

Winner of the prestigious ` Best Emerging Illustrator Award` from Booktrust, Levi Pinfold has created a wonderfully moving story of a young boy dogged by the attentions of his imaginary friend ` Django` who keeps getting him into trouble. Finally, the young boy has to banish his friend, but he misses him terribly. When his father gives Jean a banjo, he rediscovers the infectious enthusiasm for music that was the Django`s special gift to him. ...

Envy, revenge & retribution in the thrilling new installment of the Mysteries of the Greek Detective series. A jilted bride weeps on an empty beach, a local doctor is attacked in an isolated churchyard
- trouble has come at a bad time to Morfi, just as the backwater village is making headlines with a visit from a government minister. Fortunately, where there's trouble there's Hermes Diaktoros, the mysterious fat man whose tennis shoes are always pristine & whose methods are always unorthodox. Hermes must solve a brutal crime, thwart the petty machinations of the town's ex-mayor & pour oil on the troubled waters of a sisters' relationship
- but how can he solve a mystery that not even the victim wants to be solved?

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ENVY, REVENGE & RETRIBUTION IN THE THRILLING NEW INSTALMENT OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE GREEK DETECTIVE SERIES My first question must be, why do you want no investigation? If some malicious person has robbed you
- as you believe
- of your precious sight, why do you not want that person caught, tried & punished for their crime? A jilted bride weeps on an empty beach, a local doctor is attacked in an isolated churchyard
- trouble has come at a bad time to Morfi, just as the backwater village is making headlines with a visit from a government minister. Fortunately, where there`s trouble there`s Hermes Diaktoros, the mysterious fat man whose tennis shoes are always pristine & whose methods are always unorthodox. Hermes must solve a brutal crime, thwart the petty machinations of the town`s ex-mayor & pour oil on the troubled waters of a sisters` relationship
- but how can he solve a mystery that not even the victim wants to be solved?...



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This book is the Winner of the 2015 PEN/ Robert W Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. Set in the shifting landscape of contemporary China, Jack Living`s debut story collection, The Dog, explodes the country`s cultural & social fault lines. In this riveting, richly imagined collection of stories, a wealthy factory owner
- once a rural peasant
- refuses to help the victims of an earthquake until his daughter starts a relief effort of her own; a powerful Uyghur gangster clashes with his homosexual grandson; & a man struggles to undertake a physically impossible task
- constructing a giant crystal sarcophagus for the dead leader. With spare, penetrating prose, Livings gives shape to the anonymous faces in the crowd & illuminates the tensions, ironies, & possibilities of life in modern China. As heartbreaking as it is hopeful, The Dog marks the debut of a startling & wildly imaginative new voice in fiction. ” An incisive
- & highly impressive
- debut. Livings demonstrates his virtuosity as a storyteller, his ability to immerse us instantly in the lives of his characters, to conjure the daily reality of the very different worlds they inhabit. He`s a sort of Chekhovian observer... The stories bristle with prickly details & barbed observations that make them stick in the reader`s mind.” (New York Times). ”A brilliant & promising debut. With its tales of volatile protagonists struggling to survive in contemporary China, The Dog should attract widespread attention & praise... Any unfamiliarity with the Chinese locales & culture is quickly eased by Livings` imaginative yet realistic scenarios & vividly drawn characters.” (Booklist). ” Livings writes so simply, & so well... These stories are sneaky, almost subliminal, in their ambitions & connections.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review)). ”A socially complex & pitch-perfect account of modernization`s grueling aftermath.” (Publishers Weekly). Jack Livings` stories have appeared in A Public Space, The Paris Review, Story Quarterly, Tin House, The New Delta Review, & The Best American Short Stories, & have been awarded two Pushcart Prizes. Livings received his MFA from the Iowa Writers` Workshop & was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. He lives in New York.




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A quietly powerful presence in American fiction in during the past two decades, these collected stories show the true scale of Hempel`s achievement. Her compact fictions, populated by smart neurotic somewhat damaged narrators, speak grandly to the longings & insecurities in all of us, & in a voice that is bracingly direct & sneakily profound. These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings & misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With her trademark compassion & wit, Hempel takes readers into the marriages, minor disasters & moments of revelation in an uneasy America. ...

These brain-teasing puzzlers containing 200 intriguing puzzles, ranging from Spot the Difference to code-breaking games, are just the thing for whiling away those evenings curled up by the fire with a furry companion. Which breed was named are a character in Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering? Dandie; Dinmont; Kelpie; Saluki; &, Shipperke. ...

Meet RORY BRANAGAN
- he eats bad guys for breakfast. Well, not ACTUALLY. But he IS the best detective in town. Second in a hilarious
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THE ROAD
- but with hope. Hig, bereaved & traumatised after global disaster, has three things to live for
- his dog Jasper,

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