Alamut is set in 11th Century Persia, within the fortress of Alamut. Here, the self-proclaimed prophet Hasan ibn Sabbah orchestrates a mad and brilliant plan to dominate the region using a select group of elite fighters, known as his "living daggers." By crafting a virtual paradise at Alamut, replete with beautiful women, lush gardens, wine, and hashish, Sabbah persuades his young warriors that they can attain paradise by adhering to his commands.

Drawing parallels to modern figures like Osama bin Laden, Alamut narrates how Sabbah instilled fear in the ruling class by assembling a small, devoted army ready to kill, and be killed, to reach paradise. Embracing the supreme Ismaili motto, “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” Sabbah sought to manipulate religious devotion for his political gain, exploiting the stupidity and gullibility of people and their penchant for pleasure and selfish desires.

The novel chronicles Sabbah as he reveals his plan to his inner circle and focuses on two young followers: the beautiful slave girl Halima, who arrives at Alamut to join Sabbah's earthly paradise, and young ibn Tahir, Sabbah's most talented fighter. As both Halima and ibn Tahir grow disillusioned with Sabbah's vision, their lives take unforeseen turns.

Originally penned in 1938 as an allegory to Mussolini's fascist state, Alamut became a cult favorite in Tito's Yugoslavia during the 1960s and was later read as an allegory of the Balkan's War strife in the 1990s, achieving bestseller status in Germany, France, and Spain.

Franz Biberkopf has sworn to be decent, and you have seen how he is decent for weeks, but that was, in a way, only a grace period. Life finds this too delicate in the long run and cunningly trips him up.

The story of the transport worker Franz Biberkopf, who, released from Berlin-Tegel prison, wants to find his way back into life as an honest man, is the first German metropolitan novel of literary rank. The Berlin of the twenties is the setting for the events. In the process, the metropolis itself becomes the antagonist of the good-natured and quick-tempered Franz Biberkopf, who tries to defy this enticing but also relentless world.

With Berlin Alexanderplatz, Döblin made a radical departure from the bourgeois psychological novel. No individual fate was analyzed here. The collective events, the generality of a human situation, experienced a valid poetic design here. The novel is one of the great epics of our time.

Kristin Harmel, the New York Times bestselling author, returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder.

Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.

But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.

Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.

New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

JANUARY 1942. The Avallon Hotel and Spa offers elegance and sophistication in an increasingly ugly world. Run with precision by June Hudson, the hotel’s West Virginia born-and-bred general manager, the Avallon is where high society goes to see and be seen, and where the mountain sweetwater in the fountains and spas can wash away all your troubles.

June was trained by the Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, and she has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. Now, though, the Gilfoyle family heir has made a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats. June must convince her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the frontlines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

She also must reckon with Tucker Minnick, the FBI agent whose coal tattoo hints at their shared past in the mountains, and whose search for the diplomats’ secrets disrupts the peace June is fighting so hard to maintain. Hers is a balancing act with dangerous consequences; the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal, and only June can manage the springs.

As dark alliances and an elusive spy crack the polished veneer of the Avallon, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents—a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer, and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.

The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.

From the New York Times–bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones, comes an unforgettable novel of remarkable bravery and perseverance, about a Jewish woman navigating through war-torn Italy during the Holocaust.

1941, Italy. Lili and Esti have been best friends since meeting at the university in Ferrara. When Esti gives birth to the adorable Theo, they become as close as sisters. But when Germany invades northern Italy, they soon find themselves in occupied territory.

Esti, always the fiercer of the two, convinces Lili to flee to a convent in Florence, where they’ll be responsible for guarding war orphans and forging identification papers with the Resistance in the dead of night. When a brutal gang descends on the convent, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: Go on the run with Theo. Protect him while Esti can’t. Terrified to travel without her brave friend, Lili sets out on a harrowing journey through the bombed-out villages and cities of Italy, doing everything she can to keep Theo safe.

A tale of friendship, motherhood, survival, and unexpected romance, in One Good Thing, Lili will learn how love for another person can be a reason to stay alive.

From the acclaimed author of The Kindest Lie, comes a propulsive novel about a mother and daughter each seeking justice and following their dreams during moments of social reckoning—1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago—perfect for readers of Brit Bennett and Tayari Jones.

Two women. Two pivotal moments. One dream for justice and equality.

It’s 1959, and Freda Gilroy has just arrived at Nashville’s Fisk University, eager to begin her studies and uphold the tradition of Black Excellence instilled in her by her parents back home in Chicago. Coming from an upper-middle-class lifestyle where Black and white people lived together in relative harmony, Freda is surprised to discover the menace of racism down South. When a chance encounter with an intriguing young man draws her into the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, Freda finds herself caught between two worlds, and two loves, and must decide how much she's willing to sacrifice in the name of justice, equality, and the advancement of her people.

In 1992 Chicago, Freda’s daughter Tulip is an ambitious PR professional on track for a big promotion, if workplace politics and racial microaggressions don’t get in her way. With the ruling in the Rodney King trial weighing heavily on her, Tulip feels increasingly agitated and decides she can no longer stay quiet. Called to action by a series of glaring injustices, Tulip makes an irreversible professional misstep as she seeks to uplift her community. Will she find the courage to veer off the “safe” path and follow her heart, just as her mother had three decades prior?

Insightful, evocative, and richly imagined with stories of hidden history, People of Means is an emotional tour de force that offers a glimpse into the quest for racial equality, the pursuit of personal and communal success, and the power of love and family ties.

An unforgettable epic saga of a French noblewoman deserted on an island where her survival will depend on the power of her faith and love.

Heir to a chateau with its own village and lands, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval—an enigmatic and volatile older man Marguerite has never met—becomes her guardian, controlling her future. He sells her property to pay his debts, leaving her destitute, and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France.

Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends Roberval’s servant and the two begin meeting secretly aboard the ship, drawn together by an intense attraction. But when Roberval discovers Marguerite’s deception, his rage is all-consuming. As punishment, he maroons her and her lover on a small island, condemning them to certain death.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite is now at the mercy of the elements. Without food or shelter, she must learn to hunt and live in a cave. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, survival becomes nearly impossible. Marguerite despairs; has everyone and everything she once held dear abandoned her?

A riveting portrait inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, and a gorgeous celebration of the power of the natural world, Isola is the timeless story of a woman realizing her true strength.

A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?

From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Nazi Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes a true, little-known story about the first assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, right before his inauguration.

Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, is often ranked among Americans’ most well-liked presidents. Yet what most Americans don’t know is that JFK’s historic presidency almost ended before it began—at the hands of a disgruntled sociopathic loner armed with dynamite.

On December 11, 1960, shortly after Kennedy’s election and before his inauguration, a retired postal worker named Richard Pavlick waited in his car—a parked Buick—on a quiet street in Palm Beach, Florida. Pavlick knew the president-elect’s schedule. He knew when Kennedy would leave his house. He knew where Kennedy was going. From there, Pavlick had a simple plan—one that could’ve changed the course of history.

Written in the gripping, page-turning style that is the hallmark of Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch’s bestselling series, this is a slice of history vividly brought to life. Meltzer and Mensch are at the top of their game with this brilliant exploration of what could’ve been for one of the most compelling leaders of the 20th century.

Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid's Tale—during World War II.

In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling.

One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.

The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel that uncovers the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure” blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care.

A tale of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, The Sunflower House is also a love story. When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other—and how much they can stand to risk as they join forces to save as many children as they can. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.

Two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.

In 1581, Emilia Bassano—like most young women of her day—is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, she has access to all theater in England, and finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history.

In the present, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Although the challenges are different four hundred years later, the playing field is still not level for women in theater. Would Melina—like Emilia—be willing to forfeit her credit as author, just for a chance to see her work performed?

Told in intertwining narratives, this sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire asks what price each woman is willing to pay to see their work live on—even if it means they will be forgotten.

A young woman wins the role of a lifetime in a film about a legendary heroine — but the real drama is behind the scenes in this sumptuous historical epic from the author of Mexican Gothic.

1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.

So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.

But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.

Before the curtain comes down, there will be tears and tragedy aplenty in this sexy Technicolor saga.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a sweeping novel inspired by the untold history of women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

Oklahoma, 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn’t have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the rugged Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them... or worse.

Oklahoma, 1990. Law Enforcement Ranger Valerie Boren O’dell arrives at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she’s faced with local controversy over the park’s opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children deep in a cave. Val’s quest to uncover the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself.

In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the wild and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.

A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia.

The rebel . . . the socialite . . . and the fugitive. Together, they will risk everything for one another in this beguiling story of friendship, deception, and women crossing boundaries in the name of freedom.

Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.

Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.

When a rich Black debutante enlists the help of a low-level speakeasy manager to identify the head of an underground crime syndicate, the two are thrust into the dangerous world of Prohibition-era Chicago.

The year is 1921, and America is burning. A fire of vice and virtue rages on every shore with Chicago at its beating heart.

Twenty-year-old Nelly Sawyer is the daughter of the alleged “wealthiest Negro in America,” a Kentucky horse breeder whose wealth and prestige catapults his family to the heights of the exclusive, elite Black society. After the unexpected death of her brother—the family’s presumed heir—Nelly goes from being virtually unknown to a premier debutante overnight. But Nelly has aspirations beyond society influence and marriage. For the past year, she has worked undercover as an investigative journalist for the Chicago Defender, sharing the achievements and tribulations of everyday Black people living in the shadow of Jim Crow. Now, her latest assignment thrusts her into the den of a dangerous vice, the so-called Mayor of Maxwell Street.

Charming and mysterious, Jay Shorey strives to balance his connection to the Chicago underworld with his desperate yearning for the refinement and protection of high society. Born to a murdered bi-racial couple in rural Alabama, he knows firsthand what it means to be denied a chance at the American dream. When a tragic turn of fate gave Jay a rare path out, he took it without question. He washed up on Chicago’s storied shores and never looked back, until now.

When Nelly’s and Jay’s paths cross, she recruits him to help expose the Mayor and bring about a lasting change in a corrupted city. Trapped between the monolith of Jim Crow, the inflexible world of the Black upper class, and the violence of Prohibition-era Chicago, Jay and Nelly work together and stoke the flames of a love worth fighting for. And yet, as with all things in America, there is a price to be paid. What risk is Nelly willing to take for a young man willing to risk it all?

Imperial Woman is the fictionalized biography of the last Empress in China, Ci-xi, who began as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and on his death became the de facto head of the Qing Dynasty until her death in 1908.

Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rulers during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort.

Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power (even during her husband's life) parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to the modern way.

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.

Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family's pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who's made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment - Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married - Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites.

Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.

Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love and irreconcilable loyalties, in a place where what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish.

Mutiny on the Bounty is the thrilling account of the strange, eventful, and tragic voyage of His Majesty's Ship Bounty in 1788-1789. This epic tale culminates in the infamous mutiny led by Fletcher Christian against the notorious Captain Bligh.

Experience the high seas adventure as a British crew rebels against their cruel commander in this classic tale of courage and betrayal. Set against the backdrop of the vast ocean, this story explores themes of power, justice, and survival.

Amor de Perdição é uma obra-prima de Camilo Castelo Branco, retratando uma das mais arrebatadoras histórias de amor da literatura portuguesa. Ambientado no século XIX, este romance narra o trágico amor entre Simão Botelho e Teresa de Albuquerque, jovens provenientes de famílias inimigas que enfrentam todos os obstáculos para viver sua paixão.

Através de uma narrativa intensa e emocionante, Castelo Branco explora temas universais como o amor proibido, o destino e o sacrifício, tecendo um drama que é ao mesmo tempo pessoal e profundamente enraizado nas convenções sociais da época.

Amor de Perdição é mais do que um simples romance; é um estudo sobre a natureza humana, a luta contra as convenções sociais e a força indomável do amor. Com personagens memoráveis e uma trama que captura a essência do romantismo, Camilo Castelo Branco cria uma obra que transcende seu tempo, oferecendo reflexões sobre o amor, a honra e a tragédia que continuam a ressoar com os leitores contemporâneos.

Descubra este clássico eterno, um convite a refletir sobre o poder transformador do amor e as escolhas que definem nosso destino.

This magnificent novel—which secured for its author the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature—is at last available to contemporary American readers. Although it is set in the early twentieth century, it recalls both Iceland's medieval epics and such classics as Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.

Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. But Bjartur's spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, elemental in its emotional intensity and intimate in its homely detail. Vast in scope and deeply rewarding, Independent People is simply a masterpiece.

The beautiful and willful medieval doctor, Vesta, bears the unbearable. Her sufferings are innumerable: intimidation, humiliation, gang-rapes, loss of loved ones, enforced miscarriage, psychological and emotional abuse, multiple surgeries, purificatory baths, self-quarantine, and isolation – this Kurdish woman has seen it all.

The bloodthirsty fanatics who ruthlessly attacked her home seem to disappear without a trace or sufficient evidence to aid in her search for justice. Reality is too painful for her husband, Ivar, to handle. He drowns himself in infidelity and alcohol, which alters his physical and mental state.

In the midst of personal and national tragedies, Vesta is desperate to save her marriage, leave the past behind, and give her brutally murdered children a legacy beyond her grief. But in the city of Miafarqin, the potential for disaster is constantly present, and females often get trampled underfoot.

Told in a poetic narrative, "The Viking’s Kurdish Love" is a compelling love story with captivating characters, stunning plot twists, and thought-provoking themes, such as love, hate, pleasure, pain, identity, family, loyalty, betrayal, survival, guilt, revenge, and forgiveness.

The Last Train to London is a gripping tale by the New York Times bestselling author, Meg Waite Clayton. This pre-World War II-era story is imbued with the emotional resonance of Orphan Train and All the Light We Cannot See, centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

In 1936, the Nazis are little more than loud, brutish bores to fifteen-year-old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and a budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna’s streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan’s best friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But their carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis take control.

There is hope in the darkness. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. This mission becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss—Hitler’s annexation of Austria—as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape.

Tante Truus, as she is affectionately known, is determined to save as many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann in a race against time to bring children like Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Žofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.

Parade's End is an acclaimed masterpiece by Ford Madox Ford, who endeavored to capture the essence of his era as a historian of his own time. The novel's subject is the world as it culminated in war, a backdrop that frames the story of Christopher Tietjens, an officer and gentleman often described as the last English Tory.

Ford intricately follows Tietjens from the secure, orderly world of Edwardian England into the chaotic madness of the First World War. Amidst the backdrop of war, Ford explores the complex sexual warfare between Tietjens and his faithless wife, Sylvia. This narrative is a work of truly amazing subtlety and profundity.

Parade's End stands as a testament to Ford's literary prowess, offering a gripping study of character and a vivid portrayal of a world at war.

Een monumentaal, Tolstojesk familie-epos dat zes generaties omspant tussen 1900 en nu. Acht levens van één Georgische familie, beginnend in een kleine stad tussen Georgië en Azerbaidzjan, waar een getalenteerde chocolatier zijn dochters grootbrengt en en passant een recept bedenkt voor een verrukkelijke chocoladedrank met gevaarlijke krachten.

Het brengt hem rijkdom en aanzien, maar dat betekent in die tijd ook al spoedig een gevaar. Niza is de achterkleindochter van Stasia, een van de dochters van de chocolatier. Zij woont in Berlijn en vertelt op meeslepende wijze, maar ook met veel ironie en humor, de dramatische geschiedenis van haar familie en die van de ‘rode’ twintigste eeuw – een cruciale periode in de Europese geschiedenis – met de opkomst en ondergang van de Sovjet-Unie, het wegvallen van het IJzeren Gordijn en de perestrojka.

The Old Wives' Tale is a superb novel by Arnold Bennett, first published in 1908. It tells the story of the Baines sisters—shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia—over the course of nearly half a century.

Bennett traces the lives of the sisters from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women.

The setting moves from the Five Towns of the Staffordshire Potteries to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris. The narrative beautifully captures the transition from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the dramatic events of the modern age, such as the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

This novel was inspired by Bennett's observation of an old lady in a café, sparking a reflection on how her life might have been lived. The Old Wives' Tale is a testament to the integrity of ordinary lives, making it as readable and enjoyable today as it was over a century ago.

In nineteenth-century Vienna, a drama of love, fate, and will is played out amid the intellectual ferment that defined the era. Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, is at the height of his career. Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest philosopher, is on the brink of suicidal despair, unable to find a cure for the headaches and other ailments that plague him. When he agrees to treat Nietzsche with his experimental “talking cure,” Breuer never expects that he too will find solace in their sessions. Only through facing his own inner demons can the gifted healer begin to help his patient.

In When Nietzsche Wept, Irvin Yalom blends fact and fiction, atmosphere and suspense, to unfold an unforgettable story about the redemptive power of friendship.

The Ragged Edge of Night is an emotionally gripping and beautifully written historical novel set during the darkest times of World War II. It tells the story of extraordinary hope and redemption through the journey of Anton Starzmann, a Franciscan friar in Germany, 1942.

Stripped of his place when his school is seized by the Nazis, Anton relocates to a small German hamlet to enter a marriage of convenience with Elisabeth Herter, a widow seeking help to raise her three children. Anton, seeking atonement for failing to protect his young students from the Nazis, finds his life intertwined with Elisabeth's in unexpected ways.

As Anton struggles with his new roles as husband and father, he learns about the Red Orchestra, an underground network plotting to assassinate Hitler. Despite Elisabeth’s reservations, Anton joins this army of shadows. When the SS discovers his schemes, Anton embarks on a final act of defiance, risking everything for the family he has come to love.

From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream.

Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past.

Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation.

Through her courageous grandmother’s arrestingly romantic and heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a strength that, until now, she never knew was possible.

Haunted by the sacrifices he made in Constantinople, Radu is called back to the new capital. Mehmed is building an empire, becoming the sultan his people need. But Mehmed has a secret: as emperor, he is more powerful than ever... and desperately lonely. Does this mean Radu can finally have more with Mehmed... and would he even want it?

Lada's rule of absolute justice has created a Wallachia free of crime. But Lada won't rest until everyone knows that her country's borders are inviolable. Determined to send a message of defiance, she has the bodies of Mehmed's peace envoy delivered to him, leaving Radu and Mehmed with no choice. If Lada is allowed to continue, only death will prosper. They must go to war against the girl prince. But Mehmed knows that he loves her. He understands her. She must lose to him so he can keep her safe.

Radu alone fears that they are underestimating his sister's indomitable will. Only by destroying everything that came before—including her relationships—can Lada truly build the country she wants. Claim the throne. Demand the crown. Rule the world.

Siglo XIV. La ciudad de Barcelona se encuentra en su momento de mayor prosperidad; ha crecido hacia la Ribera, el humilde barrio de los pescadores, cuyos habitantes deciden construir, con el dinero de unos y el esfuerzo de otros, el mayor templo mariano jamás conocido: Santa María de la Mar.

Una construcción que es paralela a la azarosa historia de Arnau, un siervo de la tierra que huye de los abusos de su señor feudal y se refugia en Barcelona, donde se convierte en ciudadano y, con ello, en hombre libre.

El joven Arnau trabaja como palafrenero, estibador, soldado y cambista. Una vida extenuante, siempre al amparo de la catedral de la mar, que le iba a llevar de la miseria del fugitivo a la nobleza y la riqueza. Pero con esta posición privilegiada también le llega la envidia de sus pares, que urden una sórdida conjura que pone su vida en manos de la Inquisición...

La catedral del mar es una trama en la que se entrecruzan lealtad y venganza, traición y amor, guerra y peste, en un mundo marcado por la intolerancia religiosa, la ambición material y la segregación social. Todo ello convierte esta obra no sólo en una novela absorbente, sino también en la más fascinante y ambiciosa recreación de las luces y sombras de la época feudal.

Bakersfield, Georgia, 1958: Thirteen-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn is the sixth of ten fatherless siblings. She is the darkest-skinned among them and therefore considered the ugliest in her mother, Rozelle's, estimation, but she's also the brightest. Rozelle—beautiful, charismatic, and light-skinned—exercises a violent hold over her children.

Fearing abandonment, Rozelle pulls them from school at the age of twelve and sends them to earn their keep for the household, whether in domestic service, in the fields, or at "the farmhouse" on the edge of town, where Rozelle beds local men for money.

But Tangy Mae has been selected to be part of the first integrated class at a nearby white high school. She has a chance to change her life, but can she break from Rozelle's grasp without ruinous—even fatal—consequences?

The Chronicles of Neffie is the first of a six-novel series centered around Neffie, a fifteen-year-old slave girl growing up in the Deep South. Loosely based on true life events, Neffie takes readers on a tumultuous journey as she navigates her day-to-day life as a slave in Colbert County, Alabama.

Told from the perspective of a fifteen-year-old slave girl, Neffie’s experiences are heart-wrenching and riveting. The Chronicles of Neffie is a harrowing account full of twists and turns that will have readers anxiously waiting to see what will happen next. What will come of Neffie? Only time will tell. This is only the beginning. Let the journey begin.

En la tempestuosa Roma del siglo I d.C., los atemorizados ciudadanos intentan sobrevivir al reinado de Domiciano, un emperador dispuesto siempre a condenar a muerte a cualquiera que pudiera hacerle sombra. En este ambiente turbulento se fragua una conspiración para asesinarlo.

La conjura es complicada de trazar y muy peligrosa para todos los implicados, entre los que se encuentran Trajano y Domicia, la emperatriz, pieza clave en esta conspiración. Las mayores dificultades estriban en burlar la guardia pretoriana. Pero un grupo de gladiadores sin nada que perder, serán los encargados de encontrar la fisura.

Trajano, primer emperador hispano de la Historia, es conocido sobre todo por conducir al Imperio romano a su máxima extensión. Lo que no se suele conocer tanto es su heroicidad más valiosa: la capacidad de Trajano para sobrevivir al reinado de Tito Flavio Domiciano, un emperador débil y paranoico siempre dispuesto a condenar a muerte a cualquiera que destacara en el ejército o en la política.

Pero ¿qué ocurrió para que Roma aceptara por emperador a alguien no nacido en la misma Roma, sino a alguien proveniente de las lejanas y agrestes tierras de Hispania? Modificar el curso de la Historia es prácticamente imposible. Sólo unos pocos se atreven a intentarlo y sólo uno entre millones, siempre de forma inesperada para todos, es capaz de conseguirlo.

Bienvenidos al mundo de Marco Ulpio Trajano.

Precocious Katy Thatcher always knew she wanted to be a doctor like her father. She joins him on his rounds and has a keen interest in the people around her. She's especially intrigued by Jacob, a gentle, silent boy who has a special sensitivity toward animals. While Jacob never speaks to or looks at Katy, they develop an unusual friendship and understanding.

The townspeople dismiss Jacob as an "imbecile." Katy just thinks of him as someone special who has a way of communicating with the animals through his sounds and movements. And only Katy comes to realize what the gentle, silent boy did for his family. He meant to help, not harm. It didn't turn out that way.

Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.

Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this debut novel reveals a story of love, redemption, and secrets that were hidden for decades.

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.

An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.

For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.

The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.

The Noise of Time is a compelling novel dedicated to the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, written by the bestselling and Booker Prize-winning author, Julian Barnes. The story begins in 1936, with Shostakovich, at the age of thirty, gripped by fear for his livelihood and life. His opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, has been denounced in Pravda, reflecting the opinion of Joseph Stalin himself.

Every night, Shostakovich waits on the landing outside his apartment, expecting the NKVD agents to come and take him away. He reflects on his predicament, personal history, his parents, his various relationships, and his children. Everyone connected to him hangs in the balance of his fate.

A stroke of luck prevents him from becoming another casualty of the Great Terror, yet the shadow of the government looms over him for decades. He is forced to weigh appeasing those in power against maintaining the integrity of his music. Barnes guides us through Shostakovich's life, from being oppressed under despotism to serving as a figurehead of Soviet values in New York, and eventually being coerced into joining the Party.

This novel is both a heartbreaking account of a fascinating man's experience and a brilliant meditation on the meaning of art and its place in society.

Pădurea spânzuraţilor is a profound exploration of the psychological and moral dilemmas faced by individuals during the tumultuous times of World War I. Authored by Liviu Rebreanu, this novel delves into the tragic condition of the Transylvanian intellectual forced to fight under a foreign flag against his own people.

The narrative is a realistic and objective portrayal of the war, emphasizing the internal conflicts and national identity crises experienced by the characters. The novel is often described as a "monograph of harrowing uncertainty", capturing the essence of the human psyche caught in the throes of war.

Rebreanu is celebrated as an analyst of consciousness, skillfully depicting the chaos of thoughts and tyrannical obsessions that plague individuals. The book is a testament to the enduring spirit of those who listen to the call of blood and choose to stand by their own.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian, Human Acts is a rare and astonishing portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice.

In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre.

From Dong-ho's best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.

This novel is a timeless, pointillist portrait of an historic event with reverberations still being felt today, tracing the harsh reality of oppression and the resounding, extraordinary poetry of humanity.

From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author Louise Erdrich, comes a profound and enchanting novel: a richly imagined world “where butchers sing like angels.”

Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious knife set, Fidelis sets out for America.

In Argus, North Dakota, he builds a business, a home for his family—which includes Eva and four sons—and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. When the Old World meets the New—in the person of Delphine Watzka—the great adventure of Fidelis's life begins. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis, and the ground trembles.

These momentous encounters will determine the course of Delphine's life, and the trajectory of this brilliant novel.

Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s.

A legend in China, where it inspired an Oscar-nominated film, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new and unforgettable.

Luis de Santángel, chancellor to the court and longtime friend of the lusty King Ferdinand, has had enough of the Spanish Inquisition. As the power of Inquisitor General Tomás de Torquemada grows, so does the brutality of the Spanish church and the suspicion and paranoia it inspires.

When a dear friend’s demise brings the violence close to home, Santángel is enraged and takes retribution into his own hands. But he is from a family of conversos, and his Jewish heritage makes him an easy target. As Santángel witnesses the horrific persecution of his loved ones, he begins slowly to reconnect with the Jewish faith his family left behind.

Feeding his curiosity about his past is his growing love for Judith Migdal, a clever and beautiful Jewish woman navigating the mounting tensions in Granada. While he struggles to decide what his reputation is worth and what he can sacrifice, one man offers him a chance he thought he’d lost… the chance to hope for a better world. Christopher Columbus has plans to discover a route to paradise, and only Luis de Santángel can help him.

Within the dramatic story lies a subtle, insightful examination of the crisis of faith at the heart of the Spanish Inquisition. Irresolvable conflict rages within the conversos in By Fire, By Water, torn between the religion they left behind and the conversion meant to ensure their safety. In this story of love, God, faith, and torture, fifteenth-century Spain comes to dazzling, engrossing life.

Gone to Soldiers is a sweeping New York Times bestseller that captures the most captivating and engrossing stories from World War II. This epic novel by Marge Piercy encompasses a wide range of people and places marked by the Second World War. Each of her ten narrators has a unique and compelling story that powerfully depicts their personality, desires, and fears.

Special attention is given to the women of the war effort, like Bernice, who rebels against her domineering father to become a fighter pilot, and Naomi, a Parisian Jew sent to live with relatives in Detroit, whose twin sister, Jacqueline—still in France—joins the resistance against Nazi rule.

The horrors of the concentration camps; the heroism of soldiers on the beaches of Okinawa, the skies above London, and the seas of the Mediterranean; the brilliance of code breakers; and the resilience of families waiting for the return of sons, brothers, and fathers are all conveyed through powerful, poignant prose that resonates beyond the page.

Gone to Soldiers is a testament to the ordinary people, with their flaws and inner strife, who rose to defend liberty during the most extraordinary times.

In September of the year 9 A.D., the young Germanic warrior known as Armin to his friends and Arminius to his Roman enemies, successfully took on and defeated three entire Roman legions. This resulted in the deaths of over twenty thousand Roman soldiers. This in turn resulted in the Roman emperor called Tiberius recalling all Roman military units from Germania. The Germanic tribes would associate for their common good, often meeting and forming up for offensive or defensive war, but they were always separate and very independent.

Armin knew that the best way to ensure that his country was not bothered by outside invaders again was to become a single country complete with it own army and navy. In this he crossed swords with the independent temper of his own people. They did not want any king from anywhere telling them what to do. In due course, this resulted in even the members of his own family taking up arms against him in order to make sure that the tribes of Germania remained independent and free. Such was the concern of the ancient Germanic tribesmen that this might not be the case, that Armin was murdered by the members of his own family.

After Mario Puzo wrote his internationally acclaimed The Godfather, he has often been imitated but never equaled. Puzo's classic novel, The Sicilian, stands as a cornerstone of his work—a lushly romantic, unforgettable tale of bloodshed, justice, and treachery.

The year is 1950. Michael Corleone is nearing the end of his exile in Sicily. The Godfather has commanded Michael to bring a young Sicilian bandit named Salvatore Giuliano back with him to America. But Giuliano is a man entwined in a bloody web of violence and vendettas. In Sicily, Giuliano is a modern-day Robin Hood who has defied corruption—and defied the Cosa Nostra.

Now, in the land of mist-shrouded mountains and ancient ruins, Michael Corleone's fate is entwined with the dangerous legend of Salvatore Giuliano: warrior, lover, and the ultimate Siciliano.

"In 1790, Lavinia, a seven-year-old Irish orphan with no memory of her past, arrives on a tobacco plantation where she is put to work as an indentured servant with the kitchen house slaves. Though she becomes deeply bonded to her new family, Lavinia is also slowly accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. As time passes she finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds and when loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare and lives are at risk."--Publisher's description.

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.

A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.