` Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different reasons than I`d disposed of Blyth, & then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That`s my score to date. Three. I haven`t killed anybody for years, & don`t intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.` Enter
- if you can bear it
- the extraordinary private world of Frank, just sixteen, & unconventional, to say the least.

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A Russian woman named Lara arrives in Afghanistan at the house of Marcus Caldwell, an Englishman & widower living in the shadow of the Tora Bora mountains. Marcus` daughter, Zameen, may have known Lara`s brother, a Soviet soldier who disappeared in the area many years previously. But like Marcus` wife, Zameen is dead; a victim of the age in which she was born. In the days that follow, further people arrive at the house: two Americans who have spent much of their adult lives in the area; a young Afghan teacher; & a radicalized young man intent on his own path. & Nadeem Aslam paints a moving, beautiful & powerful portrait of a land & a people torn apart through love & war. ...

Acclaimed naturalist Alex Shoumatoff issues a worldwide call to protect the drastically endangered rainforests of Borneo In his eleventh book, but his first in almost two decades, seasoned travel writer Alex Shoumatoff takes readers on a journey from the woods of rural New York to the rain forests of the Amazon & Borneo, documenting both the abundance of life & the threats to these vanishing Edens in a wide-ranging narrative. Alex & his best friend, Davie, spent their formative years in the forest of Bedford, New York. As adults they grew apart, but bonded by the ”imaginary jungle” of their childhood, Alex & Davie reunited fifty years later for a trip to a real jungle, in the heart of Borneo. During the intervening years, Alex had become an author & literary journalist, traveling the world to bring to light places, animals, & indigenous cultures in peril. The two reconnect & spend three weeks together on Borneo, one of the most imperiled ecosystems on earth. Insatiable demand for the palm oil ubiquitous in consumer goods is wiping out the world`s most ancient & species-rich rain forest, home to the orangutan & countless other life-forms, including the Penan people, with whom Alex & Davie camp. The Penan have been living in Borneo`s rain forest for millennia, but 90 percent of the lowland rain forest has already been logged & burned to make way for vast oil-palm plantations. Among the most endangered tribal people on earth, the Penan are fighting for their right to exist. Shoumatoff condenses a lifetime of learning about what binds humans to animals, nature, & each other, culminating in a celebration of the Penan & a call for Westerners to address the palm-oil crisis & protect the biodiversity that sustains us all. ...

Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced with a lone woman demanding the return of her brother's body. Is she a spy, a black widow, a lunatic or what she claims to be: a grieving sister intent on burying her brother according to local rites? As she persists, single-minded in her mission, the camp's tense, claustrophobic atmosphere comes to a boil as the men argue about what to do next. The Watch takes an age-old story
- the myth of Antigone
- & hurls it into present-day Afghanistan. The result is an unputdownable, deeply affecting book that brilliantly exposes the realities of war. It is also our most powerful expression to date of the nature & futility of this very contemporary conflict.

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A mysterious toymaker who lives as a recluse in an old mansion, surrounded by the magical beings he has created...A sickly wife locked away in a hidden room... An enigma involving strange lights that shine out from the small island on which an old, disused lighthouse stands...A shadowy creature that hides deep in the woods... These are the elements of a mystery will bind 14-year-old Irene to Ismael during one magical summer spent in Blue Bay when her mother takes a job as a housekeeper for the enigmatic toymaker, Lazarus Jann. A novel of mystery, intrigue & romance from the author of THE PRINCE OF MIST & THE SHADOW OF THE WIND. ...

The acclaimed & enthralling story of the dark side of Elizabethan rule, from Stephen Alford Elizabeth I`s reign is known as a golden age, yet to much of Europe she was a ` Jezebel` & heretic who had to be destroyed. The Watchers is a thrilling portrayal of the secret state that sought to protect the Queen; a shadow world of spies, codebreakers, agent provocateurs & confidence-men who would stop at nothing to defend the realm. Reviews: ” Forget Le Carre, Deighton & the rest
- this is more enthralling than any modern spy fiction”. (Daily Telegraph). ” Absorbing & closely documented... Alford vividly evokes this murky world of codes, ciphers, invisible ink, intercepted letters, aliases, disguises, forgeries & instructions to burn after reading.. .flowing narrative [and] crisp judments.. .engrossing”. (Guardian). ”[ Alford] has brought a dash of le Carre to the 16th century”. (The Times (Book of the Week)). ”A vivid & staggeringly well-researched portrait of the sinister side of Elizabethan Engl&... This is a spectacular book. It sheds new light on plots that most historians have ceased to explore & brings less famous conspiracies to the attention of the general reading public”. (Herald). ” Fascinating... If you want to know the inside story of this struggle, the dark heart of calculation & the fight for survival, then this is the book to read. I know no better”. (Spectator). About the author: Stephen Alford is the author of the acclaimed biography Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I & a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He taught for fifteen years at Cambridge University, where he was a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of History & a Fellow of King`s College. He is now Professor of Early Modern British History in the University of Leeds.
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS` CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2016 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2016 FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2016 An International Bestseller
- A Guardian Summer Read
- An Amazon Best Book of the Month
- A Goodreads Best Book of the Month
- A Buzzfeed Summer Read
- A Foyles Book of the Month
- A Huffington Post Summer Read
- A Yorkshire Post Book of the Week In 1883, Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find a gold pocketwatch on his pillow. But he has worse fears than generous burglars; he is a telegraphist at the Home Office, which has just received a threat for what could be the largest-scale Fenian bombing in history. When the watch saves Thaniel`s life in a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori
- a kind, lonely immigrant who sweeps him into a new world of clockwork & music. Although Mori seems harmless at first, a chain of unexpected slips soon proves that he must be hiding something. Meanwhile, Grace Carrow is sneaking into an Oxford library dressed as a man.A theoretical physicist, she is desperate to prove the existence of the luminiferous ether before her mother can force her to marry. As the lives of these three characters become entwined, events spiral out of control until Thaniel is torn between loyalties, futures & opposing geniuses. Utterly beguiling, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street blends historical events with dazzling flights of fancy to plunge readers into a strange & magical past, where time, destiny, genius
- & a clockwork octopus
- collide.









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Water is the most every day of substances. It pours from our taps & falls from the sky. We drink it, wash with it, & couldn`t live without it. Yet, on closer examination it is also a very strange substance (it is one of only a very small number of molecules which expand when cooled). Look closer again & water reveals itself as a key to a scientific story on the biggest of canvases. Water is crucial to our survival
- life depends on it
- but it was also fundamental in the origins of life on Earth. The millions of gallons of water which make up our rivers, lakes & oceans, originated in outer space. How it arrived here & how those molecules of water were formed, is a story which takes us back to the beginning of the universe. Indeed, we know more about the depths of space than we do about the furthest reaches of the oceans. Water has also shaped the world we live in. Whether it is by gently carving the Grand Canyon over millennia, or in shaping how civilisations were built; we have settled our cities along rivers & coasts. Scientific studies show how we feel calmer & more relaxed when next to water. We holiday by the seas & lakes. Yet one day soon wars may be fought over access to water. The Water Book will change the way you look at water. After reading it you will be able to hold a glass of water up to the light & see within it a strange molecule that connects you to the origins of life, the birth (and death) of the universe, & to everyone who ever lived.

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Water is the most every day of substances. It pours from our taps & falls from the sky. We drink it, wash with it, & couldn`t live without it. Yet, on closer examination it is also a very strange substance (it is one of only a very small number of molecules which expand when cooled). Look closer again & water reveals itself as a key to a scientific story on the biggest of canvases. ...

Four lives. Four defining moments which will bring them together. Owen Abingdon is haunted by nightmares of the Merfolk. He believes they have stolen his little sister who vanished while he was meant to be minding her on the beach, but he was only a child himself. Is it fair for his mother to blame him? Catherine Hoyle`s perfect Christmas with her cousin from America was blighted when they went skating on thin ice & Rosalyn nearly died. Somehow, instead of being praised for raising the alarm, Catherine gets blamed. Sean Madigan grew up on a farm in Irel&. Learning to swim in the Shannon was his way of escaping the bitter poverty of his childhood, but it also incurred his father`s wrath. He flees to Engl&, but his heart belongs to the Shannon & her pulling power is evernear... Unlike the other three, Naomi Seddon didn`t fear the sea. She`d been orphaned & placed in a children`s home in Sheffield & cruelly abused. The sea offered her a way out & she revelled in its cruel power. The ”water children” meet in London in the searing hot summer of 1976 & Naomi uses her siren`s charm to lure Owen, Catherine & Sean into her tangled web of sexual charm & dangerous passion.A holiday in the Tuscan mountains with a flooded reservoir & its legend of the beautiful Teodora who drowned there brings this emotional drama to a powerful climax. Will the power of family, love & redemption finally help the water children conquer their fears & triumph over their childhood traumas? ...