When a passenger check-in desk at London's Heathrow Airport disappears in a ball of orange flame, the explosion is deemed an act of God. But which god, wonders holistic detective Dirk Gently? What god would be hanging around Heathrow trying to catch the 3:37 to Oslo? And what has this to do with Dirk's latest--and late-- client, found only this morning with his head revolving atop the hit record "Hot Potato"? Amid the hostile attentions of a stray eagle and the trauma of a very dirty refrigerator, super-sleuth Dirk Gently will once again solve the mysteries of the universe...

Life: A User's Manual is an unclassified masterpiece, a sprawling compendium as encyclopedic as Dante's Commedia and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and, in its break with tradition, as inspiring as Joyce's Ulysses. Perec's spellbinding puzzle begins in an apartment block in the XVIIth arrondissement of Paris where, chapter by chapter, room by room, like an onion being peeled, an extraordinary rich cast of characters is revealed in a series of tales that are bizarre, unlikely, moving, funny, or (sometimes) quite ordinary. From the confessions of a racing cyclist to the plans of an avenging murderer, from a young ethnographer obsessed with a Sumatran tribe to the death of a trapeze artist, from the fears of an ex-croupier to the dreams of a sex-change pop star to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate pastime, Life is a manual of human irony, portraying the mixed marriages of fortunes, passions and despairs, betrayals and bereavements, of hundreds of lives in Paris and around the world.

But the novel in more than an extraordinary range of fictions; it is a closely observed account of life and experience. The apartment block's one hundred rooms are arranged in a magic square, and the book as a whole is peppered with a staggering range of literary puzzles and allusions, acrostics, problems of chess and logic, crosswords, and mathematical formulae. All are there for the reader to solve in the best tradition of the detective novel.

Set in seventeenth-century Poland, The Slave tells the poignant story of Jacob, a young Talmudic scholar sold into slavery after the Chmielnicki massacres. Jacob, a slave and cowherd in a Polish village high in the mountains, falls in love with Wanda, his master's daughter.

Even after he is ransomed, he finds he can't live without her, and the two escape together to a distant Jewish community. Racked by his consciousness of sin in taking a Gentile wife and by the difficulties of concealing her identity, Jacob nonetheless stands firm as the violence of the era threatens to destroy the ill-fated couple.

A MASS MURDER. A DISAPPEARANCE. A CEMETERY RANSACKED.

It looked like another ordinary day in Los Angeles. Then night came... Evil as old as the centuries has descended upon the City of Angels—it comes as a kiss from the terrifying but seductive immortals. Slowly at first, then by the legions, the ravenous undead choke Los Angeles with bloodthirsty determination—and the hordes of monstrous victims steadily mount each night.

High above glitter city, a deadly contest begins. In the decaying castle of a long-dead screen idol, the few remaining human survivors prepare to face the Prince of Evil and his satanic disciples. Whilst the very forces of nature are called into play, isolating the city from the rest of the world and leaving it at the mercy of the blood-hungry vultures of the night...

THEY THIRST

Theirs is a lust that can never be satisfied...

The internationally renowned novel about the life and death of Jesus Christ. Hailed as a masterpiece by critics worldwide, The Last Temptation of Christ is a monumental reinterpretation of the Gospels that brilliantly fleshes out Christ’s Passion. This literary rendering of the life of Jesus Christ has courted controversy since its publication by depicting a Christ far more human than the one seen in the Bible. He is a figure who is gloriously divine but earthy and human, a man like any other—subject to fear, doubt, and pain.

In elegant, thoughtful prose Nikos Kazantzakis, one of the greats of modern literature, follows this Jesus as he struggles to live out God’s will for him, powerfully suggesting that it was Christ’s ultimate triumph over his flawed humanity, when he gave up the temptation to run from the cross and willingly laid down his life for mankind, that truly made him the venerable redeemer of men.

The long awaited sequel to Gene Wolfe’s four-volume classic, The Book of the New Sun. We return to the world of Severian, now the Autarch of Urth, as he leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien Hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test: to become the legendary New Sun or die.

The strange, rich, original spaceship scenes give way to travels in time, wherein Severian revisits times and places which fill in parts of the background of the four-volume work. This will thrill and intrigue particularly all readers of the earlier books.

But The Urth of the New Sun is an independent structure all of a piece, an integral masterpiece to shelve beside the classics, one itself.

Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.

Orphaned siblings create a macabre secret world for themselves in this “irresistibly readable” novel by the New York Times-bestselling author (The New York Review of Books).

This “powerful and disconcerting” novel by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Children Act and Atonement (The Daily Telegraph) tells the story of a dying family who live in a dying part of the city.

A father of four children decides, in an effort to make his garden easier to control, to pave it over. In the process, he has a heart attack and dies, leaving the cement garden unfinished and the children to the care of their mother. Soon after, the mother too dies and the children, fearful of being separated by social services, decide to cover up their parents’ deaths: they bury their mother in the cement garden.

The story is told from the point of view of Jack, one of the sons, who is entering adolescence with all of its attendant curiosity and appetites. Julie, the eldest, is almost a grown woman. Sue is rather bookish and observes all that goes on around her. And Tom is the youngest and the baby of the lot. The children seem to manage in this perverse setting rather well—until Julie brings home a boyfriend who threatens their secret by asking too many questions.

“[A] beautiful but disturbing novel.”—The AV Club
“McEwan’s evocative detail and perfect British prose lend a genteel decorum to the death and decay that surround the family.”—The New Yorker

A Fan's Notes is a fictional memoir, the first of an autobiographical trilogy. It traces a self-professed failure's nightmarish descent into the underside of American life and his resurrection to the wisdom that emerges from despair.

This journey is one of intense personal struggle, exploring the depths of failure and the redemptive power of gaining wisdom through adversity. With vivid storytelling, Exley takes the reader on a compelling ride through the darker sides of life, only to emerge with newfound insight and understanding.

Maggie and Ira Moran have been married for twenty-eight years—and it shows: in their quarrels, in their routines, in their ability to tolerate with affection each other’s eccentricities. Maggie, a kooky, lovable meddler and an irrepressible optimist, wants nothing more than to fix her son’s broken marriage. Ira is infuriatingly practical, a man “who should have married Ann Landers.”

What begins as a day trip to a funeral becomes an adventure in the unexpected. As Maggie and Ira navigate the riotous twists and turns, they intersect with an assorted cast of eccentrics—and rediscover the magic of the road called life and the joy of having somebody next to you to share the ride . . . bumps and all.

The Lady in the Lake is a thrilling novel by the master of hardboiled crime fiction, Raymond Chandler. It features the iconic private detective Philip Marlowe in his fourth novel appearance.

Marlowe is hired to investigate the case of two missing wives—one belonging to a wealthy man and the other to a man of modest means. As he delves deeper into the mystery, he uncovers a web of deceit, Mexican divorces, gigolos, and possibly a murder.

Throughout the investigation, Marlowe remains characteristically detached, realizing that he is not paid to care, yet drawn into the intrigue and danger that surrounds him. The narrative is peppered with Chandler's signature witty dialogue and vivid descriptions, making it a captivating read.

This novel is a staple of the noir genre, filled with suspense and twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats. A true classic that explores the depths of human nature and the complexities of truth and deception.

Firefly Summer is a captivating tale set in a small, sleepy Irish town, exploring the lives of the Ryan family who run the local pub.

Every summer, the four Ryan children play in the ruins of Fernscourt, the once-grand house on the bank of the river. But when the estate is bought by Patrick O’Neill, a wealthy Irish American, his grand plans for its development threaten to shatter the peace.

A new luxury hotel promises to breathe new life into the village, yet it could also spell disaster for the Ryan family. As old values and traditions begin to crumble away, no-one – not even Patrick – can predict what his big dreams will do to the heart of their quiet village.

Loyalties are challenged, jealousies ignited, and tragedy strikes before the foundation is laid. Suddenly, Kate and John Ryan's lives and family are bound up with the newcomer in ways they could never imagine. Patrick O'Neill faces his own crisis of conscience and heart as the events he sets in motion take on a life of their own in a town that will never be the same again.

In a rolling sea off the coast of South America, a target disappears in a puff of green light. In the Soviet hills of Dushanbe near the Afghanistan border, an otherworldly array of pillars and domes rises into the night. To the two greatest nations on earth, no contest is more urgent than the race to build the first Star Wars missile defense system.

No one knows this more than the two men charged with assessing the Soviets' capabilities: Colonel Mikhail Filitov of the Soviet Union, an old-line warrior distrusted by the army's new inner circle of technocrats, and CIA analyst Jack Ryan, hero of the Red October affair.

Each must use all his craft to arrive at the truth, but Filitov gets there first — and that's when all hell breaks loose. Because Filitov, code-named Cardinal, is America's highest agent in the Kremlin, and he is about to be betrayed to the KGB. His rescue could spell the difference between peace and war, and it is up to Jack Ryan to accomplish it — if he can.

In a breathtaking sequence of hunter and hunted, Filitov's life, and Ryan's, and that of the world itself, literally hang in the balance.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid....He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. This is the Code of the Private Eye as defined by Raymond Chandler in his 1944 essay 'The Simple Act of Murder.' Such a man was Philip Marlowe, private eye, an educated, heroic, streetwise, rugged individualist and the hero of Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep. This work established Chandler as the master of the 'hard-boiled' detective novel, and his articulate and literary style of writing won him a large audience, which ranged from the man in the street to the most sophisticated intellectual.

A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

Hard Times is the name of a town in the barren hills of the Dakota Territory. One day, a reckless sociopath arrives, intent on destruction. By the time he has ridden off, Hard Times is left a smoking ruin.

The de facto mayor, Blue, takes in two survivors of the carnage—a boy named Jimmy and a prostitute, Molly, who has suffered unspeakably—and makes them his provisional family. Blue begins to rebuild Hard Times, welcoming new settlers, while Molly waits with vengeance in her heart for the return of the outlaw.

This is E. L. Doctorow’s debut novel, a searing allegory of frontier life that sets the stage for his subsequent classics.

The Prince of the Forest

Bambi's life in the woods begins happily. There are forest animals to play with -- Friend Hare, the chattery squirrel, the noisy screech owl, and Bambi's twin cousins, frail Gobo and beautiful Faline.

But winter comes, and Bambi learns that the woods hold danger -- and things he doesn't understand. The first snowfall makes food hard to find. Bambi's father, a handsome stag, roams the forest, but leaves Bambi and his mother alone.

Then there is Man. He comes to the forest with weapons that can wound an animal. He does terrible things to Gobo, to Bambi's mother, and even to Bambi. But He can't keep Bambi from growing into a handsome stag himself, and becoming...the Prince of the Forest.

Magic and murder engulf the realm of Kelewan. Fierce warlords ignite a bitter blood feud to enslave the empire of Tsuranuanni. Meanwhile, in the opulent Imperial courts, assassins and spy-masters plot cunning and devious intrigues against the rightful heir.

Now, Mara, a young, untested Ruling lady, is called upon to lead her people in a heroic struggle for survival. But first, she must rally an army of rebel warriors, form a pact with the alien cho-ja, and marry the son of a hated enemy. Only then can Mara face her most dangerous foe of all—in his own impregnable stronghold.

An epic tale of adventure and intrigue, Daughter of the Empire is fantasy of the highest order by two of the most talented writers in the field today.

By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the greatest practitioners of the American short story, a writer who had not only found his own voice but imprinted it in the imaginations of thousands of readers. Where I'm Calling From, his last collection, encompasses classic stories from Cathedral, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and earlier Carver volumes, along with seven new works previously unpublished in book form. Together, these 37 stories give us a superb overview of Carver's life work and show us why he was so widely imitated but never equaled.

In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A. Michener guides us through Alaska’s fierce terrain and history, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling present. As his characters struggle for survival, Michener weaves together the exciting high points of Alaska’s story: its brutal origins, the American acquisition, the gold rush, the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry, and the arduous construction of the Alcan Highway, undertaken to defend the territory during World War II.

A spellbinding portrait of a human community fighting to establish its place in the world, Alaska traces a bold and majestic saga of the enduring spirit of a land and its people.

In the Country of Last Things is a gripping dystopian epistolary novel by Paul Auster. The story unfolds through a letter written by a young woman named Anna Blume to a childhood friend. Anna ventures into an unnamed city that has descended into chaos and disorder.

In this bleak environment, no industry thrives, and most of the population survives by collecting garbage or scavenging for objects to resell. The city governments are unstable, focusing only on collecting human waste and corpses for fuel. Amidst this turmoil, Anna searches for her brother William, a journalist, suggesting that the Blumes hail from an eastern world that has not yet collapsed.

Auster explores themes of the modern city, the mysteries of storytelling, and the elusive and unstable nature of truth. This novel is a tense, psychological take on the dystopian genre, echoing some of our darker societal legacies.

Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym's richest and most amusing high comedies. At its center is Mildred Lathbury, a clergyman’s daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those "excellent women," the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted.

As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors—anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next door—the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.

This hilarious comedy of manners by the shrewdly observant British novelist is often compared to Jane Austen, offering a poignant and witty exploration of post-war England.

It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall—those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.

Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire...the man who holds the key to the future—an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.

The conclusion of the Phantom Blood Arc! Jonathan Joestar and his mentor Zeppelli continue their pursuit of the villainous vampire, Dio! But to get to him, they must first face down his murderous henchmen! In battle after bloody battle, JoJo and Zeppelli are pushed to their limits and beyond!

Lady of Hay is a masterfully crafted first novel that tells the spellbinding story of a contemporary woman who discovers her past life as a 12th-century Welsh noblewoman. This extraordinary romance by Barbara Erskine has been translated into 17 languages and has sold well over a million copies worldwide.

With a narrative that spans centuries, the novel intricately weaves themes of love, betrayal, and revenge, taking readers on a journey through time and emotions.

Deep in the heart of Russia, a group of casually dressed young men are learning a different kind of lesson. The undergraduates sprawled around a game board aren't chilling out on campus: the young KGB agents attending the Charm School are brushing up on their American.

When a young tourist goes to the aid of a stranger on a dark Russian road, he is astonished to find a fellow American on the run. The man has been missing for over a decade, plucked from the jungles of Vietnam to become an unwilling tutor at the institution. Now his former students are poised to strike at the heart of America.

The vanished way of life of Eastern European Jews in the early part of the twentieth century is the subject of this extraordinary novel. All the strata of this complex society were populated by powerfully individual personalities, and the whole community pulsated with life and vitality.

The affairs of the patriarchal Meshulam Moskat and the unworldly Asa Heshel Bannet provide the center of the book, but its real focus is the civilization that was destroyed forever in the gas chambers of the Second World War.

The White Hotel is a dream of electrifying eroticism and inexplicable violence, recounted by a young woman to her analyst, Sigmund Freud. It presents a horrifying yet restrained narrative of the Holocaust, offering a searing vision of the wounds of our century, and an attempt to heal them.

Interweaving poetry and case history, fantasy and historical truth-telling, The White Hotel is a modern classic of enduring emotional power that attempts nothing less than to reconcile the notion of individual destiny with that of historical fate.

For the first time the Joker's origin is revealed in this tale of insanity and human perseverance. Looking to prove that any man can be pushed past his breaking point and go mad, the Joker attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon insane. After shooting and permanently paralyzing his daughter Barbara (a.k.a. Batgirl), the Joker kidnaps the commissioner and attacks his mind in hopes of breaking the man. But refusing to give up, Gordon maintains his sanity with the help of Batman in an effort to beset the madman.

A NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller! Presented for the first time with stark, stunning new coloring by Brian Bolland, BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE is Alan Moore's unforgettable meditation on the razor-thin line between sanity and insanity, heroism and villainy, comedy and tragedy. According to the grinning engine of madness and mayhem known as the Joker, that's all that separates the sane from the psychotic. Freed once again from the confines of Arkham Asylum, he's out to prove his deranged point. And he's going to use Gotham City's top cop, Commissioner Jim Gordon, and the Commissioner’s brilliant and beautiful daughter Barbara to do it.

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs is a masterpiece by Marcel Pagnol, capturing a Provencal legend of vengeance exacted by a mysterious sheperdess. This powerful story is rich with twists and ramifications, setting an idealistic city man against two secretive and deceitful Provencal countrymen.

Pagnol brings to life the Provencal countryside with a dramatist's sense of place, ambience, and character. It's a superbly realized story of struggle for life, crime and punishment, betrayal and revenge, and judgment and forgiveness. This edition, illustrated with images from the acclaimed film adaptation by Claude Berri, presents Pagnol's enduring story in W.E. van Heyningen's exact and sensitive translation.

Biblical in its cadences, epic in its sweep to destiny, and old-fashioned in development of character and plot, this saga charts the destruction of a Provencal family.

Darkness isn't the opposite of light, it is simply its absence . . . what was radiating from the book was the light that lies on the far side of darkness, the light fantastic. The Discworld is in danger, heading towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, its magic fading. It needs a hero, and fast. What it doesn't need is Rincewind, an inept and cowardly wizard who is still recovering from the trauma of falling off the edge of the world. Or Twoflower, the well-meaning tourist whose luggage has a mind (and legs) of its own. Which is a shame, because that's all there is.

'His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction' Mail on Sunday

'Incredibly funny, compulsively readable' The Times

The Light Fantastic is the second book in the Wizards series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is an unflinching and deeply sympathetic portrait of a woman destroyed by self and circumstance. First published in 1955, it marked Brian Moore as a major figure in English literature and established him as an astute chronicler of the human soul.

Judith Hearne is an unmarried woman of a certain age who has come down in society. She has few skills and is full of the prejudices and pieties of her genteel Belfast upbringing. But Judith has a secret life. And she is just one heartbreak away from revealing it to the world.

Set in the vast, windswept Central Asian steppes and the infinite reaches of galactic space, this powerful novel offers a vivid view of the culture and values of the Soviet Union's Central Asian peoples.

Garion has slain the evil God Torak and been crowned King of Riva. The Prophecy was fulfilled—or so it seemed. While the strange child Errand was growing up in the Vale of Aldur with Polgara and Durnik, showing only occasional flashes of inexplicable knowledge and power, Garion was learning to rule and to be the husband of his fiery little Queen Ce’Nedra.

Eleven years passed. Then suddenly the Voice of Prophecy cried out a warning: “Beware Zandramas!” Not even Belgarath the Sorcerer knew who or what Zandramas was. But Garion discovered hints in a previously obscured part of the Mrin Codex. Worse, he learned that the Dark Prophecy was still waging its ancient struggle against the Prophecy of Light.

Again, great evil was brewing in the East. And again, Garion found himself a pawn, caught between the two ancient Prophecies, with the fate of the world somehow resting on him.

The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander the Great's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedonian army conquered his homeland.

Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

Welcome to Noisy Village! Go crayfishing in the summer at Nocken, dipping in the pot at Christmastime with Lisa and Karl, and join Britta and Anna who know the best way to go about "nutting" for the New Year. In this gently humorous tale, master storyteller Astrid Lindgren takes us through a year in the lives and customs of six Swedish children living on a group of three farms in the countryside.

As if Dio wasn't diabolical enough, now he's an immortal vampire with incredible strength! But Jonathan Joestar's not one to back down, even when it seems like victory is impossible! It's a classic battle! Good versus evil! Grit and determination against power and arrogance! Who will win?!

With Elspeth, the heir to the throne of Valdemar, come of marriageable age, Talia, the Queen's Own Herald, returns to court to find Queen and heir beset by diplomatic intrigue as various forces vie for control of Elspeth's future.

But just as Talia is about to uncover the traitor behind all these intrigues, she is sent off on a mission to the neighboring kingdom, chosen by the Queen to investigate the worth of a marriage proposal from Prince Ancar.

To her horror, Talia soon discovers there is far more going on at Prince Ancar’s court than just preparation for a hoped-for royal wedding. For a different magic than that of the Heralds is loose in Ancar’s realm—an evil and ancient sorcery that may destroy all of Valdemar unless Talia can send warning to her Queen in time!

Calvin is a rambunctious six-year-old whose manic antics threaten world peace. Hobbes is his stuffed tiger who comes alive when adults aren't around. Together, they embark on daily adventures that are both hilarious and heartwarming.

Something Under the Bed Is Drooling is a collection of their delightful escapades, showcasing the brilliant humor and creativity of Bill Watterson. Dive into the world of Calvin and Hobbes and discover the magic that lies beneath the surface.

The Course of Love is a playful, wise, and profoundly moving novel from the internationally bestselling author Alain de Botton. This story tracks the beautifully complicated arc of a romantic partnership.

We all know the headiness and excitement of the early days of love. But what comes after? In Edinburgh, a couple, Rabih and Kirsten, fall in love. They get married, they have children—but no long-term relationship is as simple as "happily ever after." The Course of Love explores what happens after the birth of love, what it takes to maintain love, and what happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence.

Experience, along with Rabih and Kirsten, the first flush of infatuation, the effortlessness of falling into romantic love, and the course of life thereafter. Interwoven with their story and its challenges is an overlay of philosophy—an annotation and a guide to what we are reading. This is a romantic novel in the true sense, one interested in exploring how love can survive and thrive in the long term.

The result is a sensory experience—fictional, philosophical, psychological—that urges us to identify deeply with these characters and to reflect on our own experiences in love. Fresh, visceral, and utterly compelling, The Course of Love is a provocative and life-affirming novel for everyone who believes in love.

New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore, and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.

In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70-year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey, Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.

This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings," which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death.

Includes issues 1-8 of the original series.

The plot of Washington Square has the simplicity of old-fashioned melodrama: a plain-looking, good-hearted young woman, the only child of a rich widower, is pursued by a charming but unscrupulous man who seeks the wealth she will presumably inherit. On this premise, Henry James constructed one of his most memorable novels, a story in which love is answered with betrayal and loyalty leads inexorably to despair.

In Washington Square (1880), Henry James reminisces about the New York he had known thirty years before as he tells the story of Catherine Sloper and her fortune-seeking suitor Morris Townsend. This perceptively drawn human drama is James' most accessible work and an enduring literary triumph.

On a day in April, just after three o'clock in the afternoon, Robert Maitland's car crashes over the concrete parapet of a high-speed highway onto the island below, where he is injured and, finally, trapped. What begins as an almost ludicrous predicament in Concrete Island soon turns into horror as Maitland - a wickedly modern Robinson Crusoe - realizes that, despite evidence of other inhabitants, this doomed terrain has become a mirror of his own mind. Seeking the dark outer rim of the everyday, Ballard weaves private catastrophe into an intensely specular allegory.

This classic historical romance from New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood follows a beautiful lady in need of rescue from a knight in shining armor—but gets an alpha warrior instead. In the feuding English court, gentle Lady Madelyne suffered the cruel whims of her ruthless brother, Baron Louddon. Then, in vengeance for a bitter crime, Baron Duncan of Wexton—the Wolf—unleashed his warriors against Louddon. Exquisite Madelyne was the prize he captured...but when he gazed upon the proud beauty, he pledged to protect her with his life.

In his rough-hewn castle, Duncan proved true to his honor. But when at last their noble passion conquered them both, she surrendered with all her soul. Now, for love, Madelyne would stand fast...as bravely as her Lord, the powerful Wolf who fought for...Honor’s Splendour.

Il bar sotto il mare is a whimsical and enchanting collection of tales set in the most peculiar of places—a bar beneath the sea. Imagine a night where anything could happen, and you'll find yourself in Sompazzo, the most deceitful town in the world.

Meet Gaspard Ouralphe, the greatest chef in France, and discover the tale of the word-eating worm and the incredible story of Captain Charlemont. Enter the world of the Sausage Duel, the repentant dictator, and Kraputnyk, the lovesick Martian.

Join Priscilla Mapple as she unravels the mystery of Class II C, and listen to the tales of the awkward sprite, the jealous devil, and the magical guitar. Dive into the stories of First Aid and Beauty Case, uncover the mystery of Oleron, and brace yourself for the Autogrill of Death.

Experience the Californian crawl, the Saturday porn cinema at Splendor, the whims of the god Amikinont'amanonamikit'ama, and ponder with Arturo Perplesso in front of the Abandoned House by the Sea. Conclude with the shortest story in the world, the fateful Nastassia, and the great Crossing of the Old Men.

In this bar, where we all wish to find ourselves one night, listen to the captivating stories of the bartender, the man with the hat, the man with the gardenia, the mermaid, the sailor, the invisible man, the vamp, and other mysterious patrons.

Detective John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders... and he's tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood.

Once John Rebus served in Britain's elite SAS. Now he's an Edinburgh cop who hides from his memories, misses promotions, and ignores a series of crank letters. But as the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Because he isn't just one cop trying to catch a killer, he's the man who's got all the pieces to the puzzle...

Knots and Crosses introduces a gifted mystery novelist, a fascinating locale, and the most compellingly complex detective hero at work today.

Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then, a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man’s careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves.

Intervention sets the scene for Julian May's new trilogy of the Galactic Milieu. This has been split into two books: The Surveillance (containing Prologue, The Surveillance, and The Disclosure) and The Metaconcert, containing The Intervention and Epilogue.

For 60,000 years, the five races of the Galactic Milieu have watched and waited for the time when human mental development on Earth is ready for the Intervention. As the twentieth century draws to its end, phenomenal mental powers are displayed by 'operants' all across our planet. They can 'farspeak' one another telepathically. They can build mental shields, and they are capable of coercion by power of mind.

One of them is Rogatien Remillard, a dealer in secondhand books, whose memories—written a century on—form the core of this chronicle. They tell of a world where the mind has become a weapon, and of two brothers, each possessed of extraordinary powers—one a peace-bringer, the other an advocate of evil.

Set in Paris and attracting comparisons with Franz Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe, The Pigeon is Patrick Süskind's tense, disturbing follow-up to the bestselling Perfume. The novella tells the story of a day in the meticulously ordered life of bank security guard Jonathan Noel, who has been hiding from life since his wife left him for her Tunisian lover.

When Jonathan opens his front door on a day he believes will be just like any other, he encounters not the desired empty hallway but an unwelcome, diabolical intruder...