واحة الغروب هي رواية تأخذنا إلى نهايات القرن التاسع عشر، وبداية الاحتلال البريطاني لمصر. يعود بهاء طاهر في روايته الجديدة والبديعة إلى هذه الفترة الزمنية المليئة بالأحداث.

تدور أحداث الرواية حول ضابط البوليس المصري محمود عبدالظاهر، الذي كان يعيش حياة لاهية بين الحانات وبنات الليل، ويُرسل إلى واحة سيوة لشك السلطات في تعاطفه مع الأفكار الثورية لجمال الدين الأفغاني وأحمد عرابي. يصطحب معه زوجته الأيرلندية كاثرين، الشغوفة بالآثار، والتي تبحث عن مقبرة الإسكندر الأكبر.

ينغمس كلاهما في عالم جديد شديد الثراء والخصوصية يجبرهما وأهل الواحة على مواجهة أنفسهم في زمن اختلطت فيه الانتهازية والخيانة والرغبة بالحب والبطولة.

تعكس الرواية مزجًا إبداعيًا بين الماضي والحاضر، والموضوعي والتاريخ والواقع، حيث تعبر عن هموم الوطن وتقدم تجربة العلاقة بين الشرق والغرب على المستويين الإنساني والحضاري بما فيها من صراع وتوافق.

The war of Troy is looming, and all the kings of the Great Green are gathering, friends and enemies, each with their own dark plans of conquest and plunder.

Into this maelstrom of treachery and deceit come three travelers: Piria, a runaway priestess nursing a terrible secret, Kalliades, a warrior with a legendary sword, and Banokles, who will carve his own legend in the battles to come.

Shield of Thunder takes the reader back into the glories and tragedies of Bronze Age Greece, reuniting the characters from Lord of the Silver Bow: the dread Helikaon and his great love, the fiery Andromache, the mighty Hektor, and the fabled storyteller, Odysseus.

Shirley is set in the industrializing England of the Napoleonic wars and the Luddite revolts of 1811-12. It tells the story of two contrasting heroines.

Caroline Helstone is a shy young woman trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory. Her life symbolizes the plight of single women in the nineteenth century.

Shirley Keeldar, on the other hand, is vivacious and inherits a local estate. Her wealth liberates her from societal conventions.

This novel combines social commentary with the private preoccupations seen in Jane Eyre. It demonstrates the full range of Brontë's literary talent and is considered her most feminist novel.

Shirley is a revolutionary tale that imagines a new form of power for women—equal to that of men—through a confident young woman accustomed to thinking for herself.

When Tiro, the confidential secretary (and slave) of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events that will eventually propel his master into one of the most suspenseful courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is a Sicilian, a victim of the island's corrupt Roman governor, Verres. The senator is Marcus Cicero—an ambitious young lawyer and spellbinding orator, who at the age of twenty-seven is determined to attain imperium—supreme power in the state.

Of all the great figures of the Roman world, none was more fascinating or charismatic than Cicero. And Tiro—the inventor of shorthand and author of numerous books, including a celebrated biography of his master (which was lost in the Dark Ages)—was always by his side. Compellingly written in Tiro's voice, Imperium is the re-creation of his vanished masterpiece, recounting in vivid detail the story of Cicero's quest for glory, competing with some of the most powerful and intimidating figures of his—or any other—age: Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, and the many other powerful Romans who changed history.

Robert Harris, the world's master of innovative historical fiction, lures us into a violent, treacherous world of Roman politics at once exotically different from and yet startlingly similar to our own—a world of Senate intrigue and electoral corruption, special prosecutors and political adventurism—to describe how one clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable man fought to reach the top.

The prizewinning writer Luis Alberto Urrea's long-awaited novel is an epic mystical drama of a young woman's sudden sainthood in late 19th-century Mexico. It is 1889, and the civil war is brewing in Mexico. Sixteen-year-old Teresita, illegitimate but beloved daughter of the wealthy and powerful rancher Don Tomas Urrea, wakes from the strangest dream - a dream that she has died.

Only it was not a dream. This passionate and rebellious young woman has arisen from the dead with the power to heal - but it will take all her faith to endure the trials that await her and her family now that she has become the Saint of Cabora.

The Hummingbird's Daughter is a vast, hugely satisfying novel of love and loss, joy and pain. Two decades in the writing, this is the masterpiece that Luis Alberto Urrea has been building up to.

The Constant Princess is a splendid and sumptuous historical novel from Philippa Gregory, telling of the early life of Katherine of Aragon. Born Catalina, the Spanish Infanta, to parents who are both rulers and warriors, she is betrothed at age four to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and raised to be Queen of England. She never doubts her destiny to rule that far-off, wet, cold land.

Her faith is tested when she arrives in her new country to a great insult from her prospective father-in-law; Arthur seems little better than a boy; the food is strange and the customs coarse. However, she slowly adapts to the first Tudor court, and life as Arthur's wife grows ever more bearable.

But when Arthur dies, Katherine is left to make her own future. How can she now be queen and found a dynasty? Only by marrying Arthur's young brother, the sunny but spoilt Henry. Despite opposition from his father and grandmother, and her powerful parents proving little use, Katherine's fighting spirit is strong. She will do anything to achieve her aim, even if it means telling the greatest lie, and holding to it.

Philippa Gregory proves again that behind the apparently familiar face of history lies an astonishing story: of women warriors influencing the future of Europe, of revered heroes making deep mistakes, and of an untold love story which changes the fate of a nation.

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence - when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King's men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.

At the center of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books - Nathaniel Green, a Quaker who was made a general at thirty-three, and Henry Knox, a twenty-five-year-old bookseller who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the dead of Winter.

But it is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost - Washington, who had never before led an army in battle. Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.

Empress Orchid sweeps readers into the heart of the Forbidden City to tell the fascinating story of a young concubine who becomes China’s last empress. The novel introduces the beautiful Tzu Hsi, known as Orchid, and weaves an epic of a country girl who seizes power through seduction, murder, and endless intrigue.

When China is threatened by enemies, she alone seems capable of holding the country together. This is a novel of high drama and lyricism, providing an extraordinary look inside the Forbidden City during its last days of imperial glory. It breathes life into one of the most important women in history.

Richly detailed and completely gripping, this story portrays a flawed yet utterly compelling woman who survived, and ultimately dominated, a male world. Through her life, readers are introduced to the world of the Chinese court and the sexual and political lives of the royal concubines.

Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.

Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of the immigrant's life.

In the summer of 1856, three companies of handcarts were outfitted and sent west from Iowa to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. All went well, and they arrived without undue incident. But two additional companies - one captained by James G. Willie, and the other by Edward Martin - left England late in the season. When they arrived at Iowa City, they were long past the time for safe departure across the plains. By the time they left Florence, Nebraska, with still more than a thousand miles to go, it was near the end of August. As if that were not serious enough, President Brigham Young thought that the arrival of the third company ended the migration for that season and ordered the resupply wagons back to Salt Lake.

Fire of the Covenant is the story of those handcart pioneers and their exodus to the Salt Lake Valley. Author Gerald N. Lund has used the same techniques present in The Work and the Glory series to blend fictional characters into the tapestry of actual historical events, making this a story filled with all the elements of great drama - tragedy, triumph, pathos, courage, sacrifice, surrender and faith.

The Fixer (1966) is Bernard Malamud's best-known and most acclaimed novel—one that makes manifest his roots in Russian fiction, especially that of Isaac Babel. Set in Kiev in 1911 during a period of heightened anti-Semitism, the novel tells the story of Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman blamed for the brutal murder of a young Russian boy. Bok leaves his village to try his luck in Kiev, and after denying his Jewish identity, finds himself working for a member of the anti-Semitic Black Hundreds Society. When the boy is found nearly drained of blood in a cave, the Black Hundreds accuse the Jews of ritual murder. Arrested and imprisoned, Bok refuses to confess to a crime that he did not commit.

What becomes of this man under pressure, for whom acquittal is made to seem as hopeless as conviction, is the subject of a terrifying masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction.

Hannah thinks tonight's Passover Seder will be the same as always. But this year, she will be mysteriously transported into the past, where only she knows the unspeakable horrors that await.

Hannah resents the stories of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland. As she experiences the horrors of a concentration camp, she learns why she—and we—need to remember the past.

This critically acclaimed novel from the multi-award-winning author Jane Yolen adds much to understanding the effects of the Holocaust, which will reverberate throughout history, today and tomorrow. Readers will come away with a sense of tragic history that both disturbs and compels.

Winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee with her father from their home in Spain. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee; she has the gift of “Sight,” the ability to foresee the future, priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court.

Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward’s protector, who brings her to court as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up with her own yearnings and desires.

Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen’s Fool is a rich and emotionally resonant gem from a masterful storyteller.

The Great Fire is a sweeping story of men and women struggling to reclaim their lives in the aftermath of world conflict. This is Shirley Hazzard's first novel since The Transit of Venus. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War.

In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women, still young but veterans of harsh experience, must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again. Some will fulfill their destinies, others will falter. At the center of the story, Aldred Leith, a brave and brilliant soldier, finds that survival and worldly achievement are not enough. Helen Driscoll, a young girl living in occupied Japan and tending her dying brother, falls in love, and in the process discovers herself.

In the looming shadow of world enmities resumed, and of Asia's coming centrality in world affairs, a man and a woman seek to recover self-reliance, balance, and tenderness, struggling to reclaim their humanity.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory comes the stunning first novel of a thrilling trilogy about the Lacey family, and the captivating woman at the heart of a power-hungry estate willing to go to any means to protect her family name.

Beatrice Lacey, as strong-minded as she is beautiful, refuses to conform to the social customs of her time. Destined to lose her heritage and beloved Wideacre estate once she is wed, Beatrice will use any means necessary to protect her ancestral name. Seduction, betrayal, even murder—Beatrice's passion is without apology or conscience. "She is a Lacey of Wideacre," her father warns, "and whatever she does, however she behaves, will always be fitting."

Yet even as Beatrice's scheming seems about to yield her dream, she is haunted by the one living person who knows the extent of her plans...and her capacity for evil.

Sumptuously set in Georgian England, Wideacre is intensely gripping, rich in texture, and full of color and authenticity. It is a saga as irresistible in its singular magic as its heroine.

The Tea Rose is a towering old-fashioned story, imbued with a modern sensibility, of a family's destruction, of murder and revenge, of love lost and won again, and of one determined woman's quest to survive and triumph. East London, 1888-a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, a bright and defiant young woman dares to dream of a life beyond tumbledown wharves, gaslit alleys, and the grim and crumbling dwellings of the poor. Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams. But Fiona's dreams are shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man take from her nearly everything-and everyone-she holds dear. Fearing her own death at the dark man's hands, she is forced to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit-and the ghosts of her past-propel her rise from a modest west side shopfront to the top of Manhattan's tea trade. Authentic and moving, Jennifer Donnelly's The Tea Rose is an unforgettable novel.

Ikääntynyt Aliide Truu asuu yksin taloaan Viron maaseudulla. Maa on itsenäistynyt edellisenä vuonna ja maareformi on alkanut. Vanhan naisen arjen katkaisee pihalle pyörtynyt parikymppinen Zara. Tultuaan tajuihinsa Zara kertoo pakenevansa väkivaltaista miestään. Kohtaaminen nostaa Aliiden mieleen repivät muistot nuoruuden traagisesta rakkaudesta ja valinnoista, jotka sinetöivät hänen lähimpiensä kohtalon. Omiin epätoivoisiin ratkaisuihinsa pakotetun Zaran tilanne puolestaan osoittaa, että vaikka aika on toinen, vaino ei ole loppunut, muuttanut vain muotoaan.

Puhdistuksen syvintä ydintä on petos, johon epätoivoiset tunteet ajavat. Romaani avaa myös Viron vaiettua lähihistoriaa yhden suvun kokemusten kautta. Kirja antaa äänen sodan, kommunismin ja sorron uhreille. 1940-luvulla koettujen nöyryytysten ohella teoksessa nousee esiin nykynaisiin epävakaissa yhteiskunnallisissa olosuhteissa kohdistuva hyväksikäyttö.

Sugar, 19, a prostitute in Victorian London, yearns for a better life. From the brutal brothel-keeper Mrs. Castaway, she ascends in society. The affections of self-involved perfume magnate William Rackham soon smell like love. Her social rise attracts preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthy servants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all kinds.

The Story of Lucy Gault is a brilliant, subtle, and moving story of love, guilt, and forgiveness by the highly acclaimed author William Trevor.

The Gault family leads a life of privilege in early 1920s Ireland. However, the threat of violence forces the parents of nine-year-old Lucy to decide to leave for England, her mother's home. Lucy cannot bear the thought of leaving Lahardane, their country house with its beautiful land and nearby beach, and a dog she has befriended.

On the day before they are to leave, Lucy runs away, hoping to convince her parents to stay. Instead, she sets off a series of tragic misunderstandings that affect all of Lahardane's inhabitants for the rest of their lives.

Originally published in 1942 and now rediscovered to international acclaim, this taut and exquisitely structured novel by the Hungarian master Sándor Márai conjures the melancholy glamour of a decaying empire and the disillusioned wisdom of its last heirs.

In a secluded woodland castle, an old General prepares to receive a rare visitor, a man who was once his closest friend but whom he has not seen in forty-one years. Over the ensuing hours, host and guest will fight a duel of words and silences, accusations and evasions. They will exhume the memory of their friendship and that of the General’s beautiful, long-dead wife. And they will return to the time the three of them last sat together following a hunt in the nearby forest—a hunt in which no game was taken but during which something was lost forever.

Embers is a classic of modern European literature, a work whose poignant evocation of the past also seems like a prophetic glimpse into the moral abyss of the present.

Mary Saunders, a lower-class London schoolgirl, was born into rough cloth but hungered for lace and the trappings of a higher station than her family would ever know. In 18th-century England, Mary's shrewd instincts will get her only so far, and she despairs of the plans made for her to carve out a trade as a seamstress or a maid. Unwilling to bend to such a destiny, Mary strikes out on a painful, fateful journey all her own.

Inspired by the obscure historical figure Mary Saunders, Slammerkin is a provocative, graphic tale and a rich feast of a historical novel. Author Emma Donoghue probes the gap between a young girl's quest for freedom and a better life and the shackles that society imposes on her.

From the author of the masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, The Black Obelisk is a classic novel of the troubling aftermath of World War I in Germany. A hardened young veteran from the First World War, Ludwig now works for a monument company, selling stone markers to the survivors of deceased loved ones. Though ambivalent about his job, he suspects there’s more to life than earning a living off other people’s misfortunes.

A self-professed poet, Ludwig soon senses a growing change in his fatherland, a brutality brought upon it by inflation. When he falls in love with the beautiful but troubled Isabelle, Ludwig hopes he has found a soul who will offer him salvation—who will free him from his obsession to find meaning in a war-torn world. But there comes a time in every man’s life when he must choose to live—despite the prevailing thread of history horrifically repeating itself.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is an epic saga of brotherhood and rivalry, of loyalty and treachery, of victory and death, forming part of the indelible core of classical Chinese culture and continues to fascinate modern-day readers.

In 220 EC, the 400-year-old rule of the mighty Han dynasty came to an end and three kingdoms contested for control of China. Liu Pei, the legitimate heir to the Han throne, elects to fight for his birthright and enlists the aid of his sworn brothers, the impulsive giant Chang Fei and the invincible knight Kuan Yu. The brave band faces a formidable array of enemies, foremost among them the treacherous and bloodthirsty Ts'ao Ts'ao.

The bold struggle of the three heroes seems doomed until the reclusive wizard Chuko Liang offers his counsel, and the tide begins to turn.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is China's oldest novel and the first of a great tradition of historical fiction. Believed to have been compiled by the playwright Lo Kuan-chung in the late fourteenth century, it is indebted to the great San-kuo chi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms) completed by the historian Ch'en Shou just before his death in 297 CE. The novel first appeared in print in 1522.

The Passion of Artemisia is a captivating novel that brings to life one of the few female post-Renaissance painters to achieve fame during her own era, despite facing immense struggles. Artemisia Gentileschi led a remarkably "modern" life, filled with both extraordinary highs and challenging lows.

From her public humiliation in a rape trial at the age of eighteen to her father's betrayal, Artemisia's life was a testament to her resilience and talent. Her marriage of convenience, motherhood, and growing fame as an artist are depicted with rich details, set against the glorious backdrops of Rome, Florence, Genoa, and Naples.

Inhabited by historical characters such as Galileo and Cosimo de' Medici II, this novel paints a vivid picture of life as a seventeenth-century painter. Susan Vreeland crafts an inspiring story about one woman's lifelong struggle to reconcile career and family, passion and genius.

Join Artemisia on her journey as she navigates the world of art and society, living as a bold and brilliant woman who paid a high price for her independence.

The Tragedy of Man is a remarkable literary work by the Hungarian author Imre Madách, first published in 1861. This play, composed in verse, has become a staple of Hungarian theater and has been translated and adapted into many languages and media.

The play follows Adam and Eve as they appear in various guises in episodes throughout history, growing in self-awareness and wisdom as they navigate the complexities of human existence.

Ambition and jealousy all set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards?

This play features a full cast with performances by:

• Steven Brand as Baron van Swieten
• James Callis as Mozart
• Michael Emerson as Salieri
• Darren Richardson as Venticello 2
• Alan Shearman as Count Orsini-Rosenberg
• Mark Jude Sullivan as Venticello 1
• Simon Templeman as Joseph II
• Brian Tichnell as Count Johann Kilian Von Strack
• Jocelyn Towne as Constanze

Directed by Rosalind Ayres. Recorded in Los Angeles before a live audience at The James Bridges Theater, UCLA in September of 2016.

The Last of the Wine takes you on a captivating journey through ancient Greece. Follow the lives of two young Athenians, Alexias and Lysis, as they compete in the palaestra, embark on a quest to the Olympic games, and fight in the wars against Sparta. Their path also leads them to the teachings of the great philosopher, Socrates.

As their relationship deepens, Mary Renault masterfully conveys Greek culture and illustrates the profound impact of Socratic philosophy, whose influence has transcended epochs.

In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez is a compelling exploration of the mother-daughter relationship, set against the backdrop of Caribbean history. This masterful novel alternates between the lives of Salomé Ureña, a revered Dominican poet, and her daughter Camila Henriquez Urena.

Salomé, known for her passionate poetry and political influence, becomes a national icon at a young age. Her life is marked by the tension between her public persona and her private desires, particularly her love for a man named Papancho.

Camila, in contrast, grows up in the shadow of her mother's legacy, dedicating her life to teaching rather than revolution. Yet, as she approaches retirement, she is drawn back to her roots, uncovering the truths of her mother's sacrifices and finding her own place in the world.

This beautifully written story spans over a century, highlighting the shifting political landscape of the Dominican Republic and the personal struggles of its characters. Alvarez's prose is rich with metaphor and emotion, capturing the essence of love, sacrifice, and the quest for identity.

Ultimately, In the Name of Salome is a tale of love and idealism, where the personal and political intertwine, leaving a lasting impact on both the characters and the readers.

The Fortress is a captivating novel set in 18th century Sarajevo under Ottoman rule. The story follows a soldier named Ahmet Shabo who returns from the wars in Russia, carrying the heavy burden of losing nearly his entire unit, either to battle or suicide.

A Muslim by faith, he marries a Christian girl whose love and support become his anchor as he navigates a society steeped in political intrigue and cultural tension. His journey through personal and societal challenges leads him to dabble in politics, culminating in a daring raid to rescue a friend from jail.

This novel offers a profound reflection on the human condition and the resilience of the spirit amidst adversity.

Jessica is based on the inspiring true story of a young girl's fight for justice against tremendous odds. A tomboy, Jessica is the pride of her father, as they work together on the struggling family farm. One quiet day, the peace of the bush is devastated by a terrible murder. Only Jessica is able to save the killer from the lynch mob – but will justice prevail in the courts?

Nine months later, a baby is born... with Jessica determined to guard the secret of the father's identity. The rivalry of Jessica and her beautiful sister for the love of the same man will echo throughout their lives – until finally the truth must be told.

Set in the harsh Australian bush against the outbreak of World War I, this novel is heartbreaking in its innocence, and shattering in its brutality.

All that matters for Cadi Forbes is finding the one man who can set her free from the sin that plagues her, the sin that has stolen her mother's love from her and made her wish she could flee life and its terrible injustice. But Cadi doesn't know that the “sin eater” is seeking as well.

Before their journeys are over, Cadi and the sin eater must face themselves, each other, and the One who will demand everything from them in exchange for the answers they seek. A captivating tale of suffering, seeking, and redemption.

While Eisenstein documented the forces of totalitarianism and Stalinism upon the faces of the Russian peoples, DeLillo offers a stunning, at times overwhelming, document of the twin forces of the Cold War and American culture, compelling that "swerve from evenness" in which he finds events and people both wondrous and horrifying.

Underworld opens with a breathlessly graceful prologue set during the final game of the Giants-Dodgers pennant race in 1951. Written in what DeLillo calls "super-omniscience" the sentences sweep from young Cotter Martin as he jumps the gate to the press box, soars over the radio waves, runs out to the diamond, slides in on a fast ball, pops into the stands where J. Edgar Hoover is sitting with a drunken Jackie Gleason and a splenetic Frank Sinatra, and learns of the Soviet Union's second detonation of a nuclear bomb. It's an absolutely thrilling literary moment. When Bobby Thomson hits Branca's pitch into the outstretched hand of Cotter—the "shot heard around the world"—and Jackie Gleason pukes on Sinatra's shoes, the events of the next few decades are set in motion, all threaded together by the baseball as it passes from hand to hand.

"It's all falling indelibly into the past," writes DeLillo, a past that he carefully recalls and reconstructs with acute grace. Jump from Giants Stadium to the Nevada desert in 1992, where Nick Shay, who now owns the baseball, reunites with the artist Kara Sax. They had been brief and unlikely lovers 40 years before, and it is largely through the events, spinoffs, and coincidental encounters of their pasts that DeLillo filters the Cold War experience. He believes that "global events may alter how we live in the smallest ways," and as the book steps back in time to 1951, over the following 800-odd pages, we see just how those events alter lives. This reverse narrative allows the author to strip away the detritus of history and pop culture until we get to the story's pure elements: the bomb, the baseball, and the Bronx. In an epilogue as breathless and stunning as the prologue, DeLillo fast-forwards to a near future in which ruthless capitalism, the Internet, and a new, hushed faith have replaced the Cold War's blend of dread and euphoria.

Through fragments and interlaced stories—including those of highway killers, artists, celebrities, conspiracists, gangsters, nuns, and sundry others—DeLillo creates a fragile web of connected experience, a communal Zeitgeist that encompasses the messy whole of five decades of American life, wonderfully distilled.

Child of All Nations sweeps the reader into a profoundly feminist and devastatingly anticolonialist narrative, rich with heartbreak, suspense, love, and fury. Pramoedya Ananta Toer immerses you in the astonishingly vivid world of the Dutch East Indies during the 1890s.

This story of awakening follows Minke, the main character from This Earth of Mankind, as he navigates the injustices surrounding him. Pramoedya's literary genius is evident through the brilliant characters that populate this world, including Minke's fragile Mixed-Race wife, a young Chinese revolutionary, an embattled Javanese peasant and his impoverished family, and the French painter Jean Marais.

In January 1917, five wounded French soldiers, their hands bound behind them, are brought to the front at Picardy by their own troops. They are forced into the no-man's land between the French and German armies and left to die in the crossfire.

For more than two years, this brutal punishment is hushed up. Mathilde Donnay, unable to walk since childhood, begins a relentless quest to find out whether her fiancé, officially "killed in the line of duty," might still be alive. Tipped off by a letter from a dying soldier, the shrewd, sardonic, and wonderfully imaginative Mathilde scours the country for information about the men.

As she carries her search to its end, an elaborate web of deception and coincidence emerges, and Mathilde comes to an understanding of the horrors and the acts of kindness brought about by war.

A Very Long Engagement is many things at once: an absorbing mystery, a playful study of the different ways one story can be told, a moving and incisive portrait of life in France during and after the First World War, and a love story of transforming power and beauty.

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales--and Llewelyn--Joanna must decide to which of these powerful men she owes her loyalty and love.

A sweeping novel of power and passion, loyalty and lives, this is the book that began the trilogy that includes FALLS THE SHADOW and THE RECKONING.

Palace Walk is the first volume of the masterful Cairo Trilogy by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz. This engrossing saga unfolds in the early 20th century, during Egypt's occupation by British forces.

The story intricately portrays a traditional Muslim family in Cairo, led by a domineering patriarch who demands strict adherence to Islamic principles from his wife and children. Yet, he indulges in the pleasures of music, wine, and courtesans, unbeknownst to him, his eldest son shares similar tastes.

Set against the backdrop of a turn-of-the-century Cairo, the novel vividly recreates an era of both discipline and sensuality, offering readers a captivating glimpse into the life and culture of a bygone time.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past...

A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House, of lost causes and lost love.

Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spends a day on a country drive and embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's greatness and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.

Precious Bane is a compelling story of passion, with an enduring air of enchantment throughout. This novel haunts us with its beauty and its timeless truths about our deepest hopes. Set in Shropshire in the 1800s, it is alive with the many moods of Nature, both benevolent and violent, and the equally varied moods of the people making lives there.

Prue Sarn is an unlikely heroine, born with a facial disfiguration which the Fates have dictated will deny her love. But Prue has strength far beyond her handicap, and this woman, suspected of witchcraft by her fellow townspeople, rises above them all through an all-encompassing sweetness of spirit.

Precious Bane is also the story of Gideon, Prue's doomed brother, equally strong-willed but with different motives. Determined to defeat the poverty of their farm, he devotes all his energies to making money. His only diversion from this ambition is abandoned for the stronger drive of his money lust.

Finally, it is the story of Kester Woodseaves, whose steady love for all created things leads him to resist people's cruelty toward nature and each other. His love for Prue Sarn enables him to discern her natural loveliness beneath her blighted appearance.

Mary Webb's narrative is one of beauty and resonance, capturing the reader with its lyrical prose and profound insights into human nature.

As a journalist, Paxton Andrews would experience Vietnam firsthand. We follow her from high school in Savannah to college in Berkeley and then to work in Saigon.

For the soldiers she knew and met there, Viet Nam would change their lives in ways they could never have imagined. For the men in her life, Viet Nam would change their lives in ways they could not escape or deny. Peter Wilson, fresh from law school, was a new recruit who would confront his fate in Da Nang. Ralph Johnson, a seasoned AP correspondent, had been in Saigon since the beginning. He knew Vietnam and the war inside out. Bill Quinn, captain of the Cu Chi tunnel rats, was on his fourth tour of duty and it seemed nothing could touch him. Sergeant Tony Campobello had come to Vietnam from the streets of New York to vent a rage that had followed him all the way to Saigon.

For seven years, Paxton Andrews would write an acclaimed newspaper column from the front before finally returning to the States and then attending the Paris peace talks. But for her and the men who fought in Viet Nam, life would never be the same again.

This is Simon de Montfort's story—and the story of King Henry III, as weak and changeable as Montfort was brash and unbending. It is a saga of two opposing wills that would later clash in a storm of violence and betrayal. A story straight from the pages of history that brings the world of the thirteenth century completely, provocatively, and magnificently alive.

Above all, this is a story of conflict and treachery, of human frailty and broken legends, a tale of pageantry and grandeur that is as unforgettable as it is real.

John Merrick had lived for more than twenty years imprisoned in a body that condemned him to a miserable life in the workhouse and to humiliation as a circus sideshow freak. But beneath that tragic exterior, within that enormous and deformed head, thrived the soul of a poet, the heart of a dreamer, the longings of a man.

Merrick was doomed to suffer forever—until the kind Dr. Treves gave him the first real home in the London Hospital, and the town's most beautiful and esteemed actress made possible Merrick's cherished dream of human contact—and love.

Whirlwind presents the story of three intense weeks in Tehran during February 1979. These weeks are filled with fanaticism, passion, self-sacrifice, and heartbreak.

Caught between the revolutionaries and the forces of international intrigue is a team of professional pilots. They are ordered to flee to safety with their helicopters, navigating through a city on the brink of chaos.

In the days before the Civil War, there lived in New Orleans the gens de couleur libre - copper-skinned half-castes, liberated by their owners, but confined by their color to a life of political nonexistence and social subordination.

Still, an aristocracy would emerge in this society: artists, poets, and musicians, plantation owners, scientists, and craftsmen whose talents and reputations would extend far beyond the limits of their small world.

Mega-selling author Anne Rice's probing, lyrical style sweeps us into their midst as she introduces Marcel, the sensitive, blue-eyed scholar, Marie, his breathtakingly beautiful sister, whose curse is to pass for white; Christophe, novelist and teacher, the idol of all young gens and stunning Anna Bella, whose allure for the well-to-do white man would become legend.

Here is a compelling and richly textured tale of a people forever caught in the shadows between black and white.

Pressured by her unscrupulous family to marry a wealthy man she detests, the young Clarissa Harlowe is tricked into fleeing with the witty and debonair Robert Lovelace and places herself under his protection. Lovelace, however, proves himself to be an untrustworthy rake whose vague promises of marriage are accompanied by unwelcome and increasingly brutal sexual advances. And yet, Clarissa finds his charm alluring, her scrupulous sense of virtue tinged with unconfessed desire.

Told through a complex series of interweaving letters, Clarissa is a richly ambiguous study of a fatally attracted couple and a work of astonishing power and immediacy. A huge success when it first appeared in 1747, it remains one of the greatest of all European novels. Its rich ambiguities give the story extraordinary psychological momentum.

...And Ladies of the Club is a captivating novel that explores the lives of the members of a book club. Set against the backdrop of a tumultuous world, it delves into their personal struggles and relationships.

This groundbreaking bestseller, with over two and a half million copies in print, continues to enchant, enthrall, and intrigue readers. It's a true classic that offers a deep understanding of the characters and their journey through life.

A glorious novel of the controversial Richard III - a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history. In this beautifully rendered modern classic, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III - vilified as the bitter, twisted, scheming hunchback who murdered his nephews, the princes in the Tower - from his maligned place in history with a dazzling combination of research and storytelling.

Born into the treacherous courts of fifteenth-century England, in the midst of what history has called The War of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his charismatic brother, King Edward IV. Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning. This magnificent retelling of his life is filled with all of the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of the fifteenth century, the rigors of court politics, and the passions and prejudices of royalty.

Set in the bleak Fen Country of East Anglia, and spanning some 240 years in the lives of its haunted narrator and his ancestors, Waterland is a book that takes in eels and incest, ale-making and madness, the heartless sweep of history, and a family romance as tormented as any in Greek tragedy.

Waterland, like the Hardy novels, carries with all else a profound knowledge of a people, a place, and their interweaving. Swift tells his tale with wonderful contemporary verve and verbal felicity. A fine and original work.

In 1831, Nat Turner awaits death in a Virginia jail cell. He is a slave, a preacher, and the leader of the only effective slave revolt in the history of 'that peculiar institution'. William Styron's ambitious and stunningly accomplished novel is Turner's confession, made to his jailers under the duress of his God. Encompasses the betrayals, cruelties and humiliations that made up slavery - and that still sear the collective psyches of both races.