The year is 1357. The Inquisition rages throughout medieval France, searching ruthlessly for heretics. In an epic tale of passion, mystery, and unspeakable danger, one woman faces the flames...and triumphs.

Mother Marie Francoise, born Sybille, is a midwife with a precocious gift for magic—a gift that makes her a prime target for persecution at the hands of the Church. She flees her village and takes refuge in a Franciscan sisterhood. Before long, Sybille's unusual powers bring her under the scrutiny of the Inquisition. Michel, a pious and compassionate monk sent to hear her confession, finds himself drawn more intimately into Sybille's life and destiny than either of them could have imagined.

Like a magician herself, Jeanne Kalogridis weaves a tale of star-crossed love, of faith and heresy, of mysticism and witchcraft, against a fascinating historical backdrop—the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the catastrophic defeat of France at the hands of the English. The result is a page-turning novel about one of the most intriguing periods in history.

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.

After surviving several horrifying years in the inferno of the Western Front, a young German soldier and his cohorts return home at the end of WW1. Their road back to life in the civilian world is made arduous by their bitterness about what they find in post-war society.

A captivating story, one of Remarque's best.

Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war - the War to End All Wars. He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare; of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.

The Wars is quite simply one of the best novels ever written about the First World War.

Naguib Mahfouz’s magnificent epic trilogy of colonial Egypt appears here in one volume for the first time. The Nobel Prize-winning writer's masterwork is the engrossing story of a Muslim family in Cairo during Britain's occupation of Egypt in the early decades of the twentieth century.

The novels of The Cairo Trilogy trace three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. Palace Walk introduces us to his gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons–the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal.

Al-Sayyid Ahmad’s rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination in Palace of Desire, as the world around them opens to the currents of modernity and political and domestic turmoil brought by the 1920s. Sugar Street brings Mahfouz’s vivid tapestry of an evolving Egypt to a dramatic climax as the aging patriarch sees one grandson become a Communist, one a Muslim fundamentalist, and one the lover of a powerful politician.

Throughout the trilogy, the family's trials mirror those of their turbulent country during the years spanning the two World Wars, as change comes to a society that has resisted it for centuries. Filled with compelling drama, earthy humor, and remarkable insight, The Cairo Trilogy is the achievement of a master storyteller.

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 inhabitants of a Greek village, ruled by the Turks, plan to enact the life of Christ in a mystery play but are overwhelmed by their task. A group of refugees, fleeing from the ruins of their plundered homes, arrive asking for protection - and suddenly the drama of the Passion becomes reality.

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.

Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark transmuted into a universal story about good and evil, individual and community, justice and human nature.

As Wallace Stegner writes, Clark's theme was civilization, and he recorded, indelibly, its first steps in a new country.

No one is safe...

In 1936, Nazi darkness descends upon Europe. Every person is only one step away from being swept into the nightmarish tide of evil. Blond Elisa Lindheim, a violinist with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, adopts an Aryan stage name for protection. But her closest friend, Leah, a talented Jewish cellist, is in perilous position.

There are those who choose to fight Hitler's madness: Elisa's father Theo, a courageous American reporter named John Murphy, Winston Churchill the British statesman, a farm family in the Tyrolean Alps, and the Jewish Underground. But will all their efforts be enough to stop the coming Holocaust?

And now Elisa must decide. If she becomes part of the Underground, she will risk everything... and put everyone she loves in danger.

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.

The Raging Quiet is a compelling and romantic story set in the tiny village of Tocurra. The plot revolves around a newcomer, Marnie, who befriends a young man named Raver, whose deafness has left him isolated from his fellow villagers. Marnie and Raver learn to communicate through a series of hand gestures, forming a special, silent bond.

However, when a death shakes the village, their unique connection causes suspicion of witchcraft. The story unfolds in a medieval setting, where God is cherished and witches are feared. Marnie's journey from a widow to a friend and protector of Raver is both heartwarming and revealing.

This novel is perfect for young readers, offering a mix of romance, drama, and adventure. It highlights the power of friendship and communication beyond words, making it an ideal feature for a month of romance.

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.

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo I is a gripping adventure that takes readers through the tumultuous journey of Edmond Dantès. In this first volume, Dantès experiences a dramatic fall, both literally and figuratively, as he is unjustly imprisoned and later makes his daring escape.

"On fit encore quatre ou cinq pas en montant toujours, puis Dantès sentit qu'on le prenait par la tête et par les pieds et qu'on le balançait." These words mark the beginning of Dantès' descent into despair, as he is cast into the sea, bound to a heavy weight.

With a heart-stopping narrative, Dumas weaves a tale of revenge, hope, and the relentless pursuit of justice. This classic piece of French literature is a testament to the enduring power of determination and resilience.

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.

After years of hiding and surviving near-death in a concentration camp, Ross is finally safe. Now living in New York City among old friends, far from Europe’s chilling atrocities, Ross soon meets Natasha, a beautiful model and fellow émigré, a warm heart to help him forget his cold memories.

Yet even as the war draws to its violent close, Ross cannot find peace. Demons still pursue him. Whether they are ghosts from the past or the guilt of surviving, he does not know. For he is only beginning to understand that freedom is far from easy—and that paradise, however perfect, has a price.

A Woman of Independent Means is a captivating novel that takes readers on a journey through the life of Bess Steed Garner at the turn of the century, a time when women had few choices. Bess inherits a legacy—not only of wealth but of determination and desire, making her truly a woman of independent means.

From the early 1900s through the 1960s, we accompany Bess as she endures life's trials and triumphs with unfailing courage and indomitable spirit: the sacrifices love sometimes requires of the heart, the flaws and rewards of marriage, the often-tested bond between mother and child, and the will to defy a society that demands conformity.

This richly woven story, told in letters, follows Bess from her childhood in 1899 to her death in 1977. It's an inspirational tale of a woman who stands firm against the pressures of her time, offering a unique perspective on the evolution of women's roles throughout the 20th century.

Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has survived the war years on the German front and the postwar years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps.

His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners - each an unforgettable human being - from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men.

A landmark of Soviet literature, The First Circle is as powerful today as it was when it was first published.

In The Winter King and Enemy of God, Bernard Cornwell demonstrated his astonishing ability to make the oft-told legend of King Arthur fresh and new for our time. Now, in this riveting final volume of The Warlord Chronicles, Cornwell tells the unforgettable tale of Arthur's final struggles against the Saxons and his last attempts to triumph over a ruined marriage and ravaged dreams.

This is the tale not only of a broken love remade, but also of forces both earthly and unearthly that threaten everything Arthur stands for. Peopled by princesses and bards, by warriors and magicians, Excalibur is the story of love, war, loyalty, and betrayal—the work of a magnificent storyteller at the height of his powers.

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.

New York Times bestselling author Colleen McCullough re-creates an extraordinary epoch before the mighty Republic belonged to Julius Caesar—when Rome's noblewomen were his greatest conquest.

His victories were legend—in battle and bedchamber alike. Love was a political weapon he wielded cunningly and ruthlessly in his private war against enemies in the forum. Genius, general, patrician, Gaius Julius Caesar was history. His wives bought him influence. He sacrificed his beloved daughter on the altar of ambition. He burned for the cold-hearted mistress he could never dare trust. Caesar's women all knew—and feared—his power. He adored them, used them, destroyed them on his irresistible rise to prominence. And one of them would seal his fate.

Warsaw under Russian rule in the late 1870s is the setting for Prus’s grand panorama of social conflict, political tension, and personal suffering. The middle-aged hero, Wokulski, successful in business, is being destroyed by his obsessive love for a frigid society doll, Izabela. Embattled aristocrats, the new men of finance, Dickensian tradesmen, and the urban poor all come vividly to life on the vast, superbly detailed canvas against which Wokulski’s personal tragedy is played out.

Unlike his Western European counterparts, Prus had to work under official censorship. In this edition, most of the smaller cuts made by the Tsarist censor have been restored, and one longer fragment is included as an appendix.

Flesh and Blood takes readers on a masterful journey through four generations of the Stassos family, exploring the dynamics of a family striving to "come of age" in the 20th century.

In 1950, Constantine Stassos, a Greek immigrant laborer, marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian-American girl. Together, they have three children: Susan, an ambitious beauty; Billy, a brilliant homosexual; and Zoe, a wild child. Over the years, a web of tangled longings, love, inadequacies, and unfulfilled dreams unfolds as Mary and Constantine's marriage fails, and Susan, Billy, and Zoe leave to create families of their own.

Zoe raises a child with the help of a transvestite, Billy makes a life with another man, and Susan raises a son conceived in secret, each extending the meaning of family and love. With the power of a Greek tragedy, the story builds to a heartbreaking crescendo, offering a glimpse into contemporary life that will echo in one's heart for years to come.

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 Osaka, in the years immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women strive to preserve a way of life that is vanishing. The Makioka Sisters, as told by Junichiro Tanizaki, is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century. It's a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family—and an entire society—sliding into the abyss of modernity.

Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances.

Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonists, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature, offering keen social insight and unabashed sensuality that distinguish Tanizaki as a master novelist.

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.

Heinrich Böll's well-known, vehement opposition to fascism and war informs this moving story of Robert Faehmel. After being drawn into the Second World War to command retreating German forces despite his anti-Nazi feelings, Faehmel struggles to re-establish a normal life at the end of the war. He adheres to a rigorous schedule, including a daily game of billiards.

When his routine is breached by an old friend from his past, now a power in German reconstruction, Faehmel is forced to confront both public and private memories. This encounter with a war-time nemesis, who has become influential in post-war Germany, compels Faehmel to face the lingering wounds of Germany's defeat in the two World Wars.

"Fortune's Favorites" is a captivating historical fiction novel set in the tumultuous times of ancient Rome. Blessed by the gods at birth with wealth and privilege, a new generation of Romans vies for greatness amidst the disintegrating remnants of their beloved Republic.

Amidst this backdrop, one figure towers above them all—a brilliant and beautiful boy whose ambition is unequaled, whose love is legendary, and whose glory is Rome's. This is the story of a boy who would one day be called Caesar.

Join the journey through a cataclysmic upheaval, where the chosen and the cursed are entangled in a savage struggle for power. Experience the ambition, love, and destiny that shape the course of history in this epic tale of ancient Rome.

Galileo, considered by many to be one of Brecht's masterpieces, explores the question of a scientist's social and ethical responsibility. The brilliant Galileo must choose between his life and his life's work when confronted with the demands of the Inquisition.

Through the dramatic characterization of the famous physicist, Brecht examines the issues of scientific morality and the difficult relationship between the intellectual and authority.

This version of the play is the famous one completed by Brecht himself, working with Charles Laughton, who played Galileo in the first two American productions in Hollywood and New York (1947). Since then, the play has become a classic in the world repertoire.

Sacred Hunger is a stunning and engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed. Filled with the "sacred hunger" to expand its empire and its profits, England entered fully into the slave trade and spread the trade throughout its colonies. In this work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew, who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved.

The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny. Joining together, the sailors and the slaves set up a secret, utopian society in the wilderness of Florida, only to await the vengeance of the single-minded, young Kemp.

Caligula is a fascinating exploration of the complexities of human nature, penned by the illustrious Albert Camus. Originally conceived before the war, Caligula is portrayed as an angel in search of the absolute, as well as a bloodthirsty monster. This duality makes him one of the most intriguing figures in theater.

In 1945, the play was received as a fable reflecting the horrors of Nazism. Over time, different versions and stagings, along with the evolving sensibilities of audiences, have contributed to making Caligula a deeply unsettling character. His image is forever intertwined with the faces of Gérard Philipe, who originated the role, and Albert Camus himself, who combined a need for tenderness and purity with a peculiar obsession with murder and an "inner violence" that animates his Roman emperor.

Andersonville is a gripping tale of the notorious Georgia prison, where over 50,000 Union soldiers were held captive during the American Civil War. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel captures the glory and shame of America's most tragic conflict.

Based on extensive research and nearly twenty-five years in the making, MacKinlay Kantor's masterwork delves into the lives of those inside and outside the prison's barricades. The novel tells the heartbreaking story of the infamous camp where the best and worst of the Civil War came together, portraying the savagery of the camp commandant, the compassion of a nearby planter and his gentle daughter, and the daily fight for survival among the prisoners.

A moving portrait of bravery, cowardice, and the human spirit, Andersonville is an inspiring American classic about an unforgettable period in history.

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.

The Grass Crown is an epic tale of ambition, power, and betrayal set in the heart of ancient Rome. This gripping drama follows the life of Marius, the legendary general who saved Rome from barbarian invasion and achieved the unprecedented feat of becoming consul six times. However, as his influence wanes, a deadly enmity brews between him and his former ally, Sulla, who is now plotting his own rise to power.

Amidst this personal conflict, Rome faces existential threats both from within and from neighboring Italian states, as well as from the ferocious Asian conqueror. Births, deaths, prophecies, and rivalries intertwine to create a whirlwind of drama, offering readers a remarkable insight into the passion and torment of one of history’s greatest civilizations.

In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, a middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse.

This passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life. In a dazzling act of jazz-like improvisation, moving seamlessly in and out of past, present, and future, a mysterious voice weaves this brilliant fiction, capturing the ineffable mood and complex humanity of black urban life at a moment in our century we assumed we understood.

Tandia sat waiting anxiously for the fight to begin between the man she loved the most in the world and the man she hated the most in the world.

Tandia is a child of Africa: half Indian, half African, beautiful and intelligent. She is only sixteen when she is first brutalized by the police. Her fear of the white man leads her to join the black resistance movement, where she trains as a terrorist.

With her in the fight for justice is the one white man Tandia can trust, the welterweight champion of the world, Peekay. Now he must fight their common enemy in order to save both their lives.

The Ladies' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store serves as a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family. It is emblematic of changes in consumer culture, as well as shifts in sexual attitudes and class relations at the end of the century.

This new translation of the eleventh novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of his greatest works. Octave Mouret, the store's owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life, as much as in business, he is the great seducer. However, when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu, he discovers she is the only salesgirl who refuses to be commodified.

No Greater Love is a compelling and deeply moving novel that explores the themes of tragedy, loss, and the strength of the human spirit. In the wake of the disastrous sinking of the Titanic, twenty-year-old Edwina Winfield is thrust into a role of immense responsibility. With her parents and beloved fiancé lost to the sea, Edwina becomes both mother and father to her five younger siblings.

Determined never to marry, Edwina takes the helm of the family newspaper, guiding her family through the trials of life. Her journey is filled with challenges, from her brother Phillip's tragic fate during World War I to her siblings' adventures in Hollywood and beyond.

As Edwina tends to the youngest, Fannie and Teddy, she must also navigate the turbulent waters of her own heart, coming to terms with her loss and learning to let love in once more.

This novel, with its unforgettable climax, questions a woman's choices and the price she must pay for making them, ultimately offering hope and inspiration.

The General of the Dead Army is a moving and timely meditation on war and its consequences. Twenty years after World War II, an Italian general—armed with maps, measurements, and dental records—is sent to Albania to recover the remains of his country’s fallen soldiers. A quarrelsome priest joins him, and in rain and sleet, they dig up the Albanian countryside—once a battlefield, now a graveyard—checking teeth and dog tags, assembling a dead army in pine-box uniforms.

In addition to the brutal weather, they also battle the hostility of the Albanians working for them. This may be an errand of mercy for the general, but the chance to humiliate their one-time conquerors offers the Albanians a welcome vengeance. Fighting the hopelessness of his undertaking, the general finds his movements shadowed by a German general on the same gruesome mission for his own country.

In a terrible crescendo at a wedding, the Italian general must answer for the crimes of his country and all countries that have invaded this land of eagles, seeking to destroy its people. Enthralling and poignant, The General of the Dead Army is an elegy for the young people of every country who are sent abroad to die in battle.

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.

"Под игото" е първият български роман. Подзаглавие - „Из живота на българина в навечерието на Освобождението“. Написан е от Иван Вазов по време на изгнание в Одеса, пренесен е в България с руската дипломатическа поща.

Композиционно романът се състои от три части и 88 глави, които обхващат подготовката, избухването и потушаването на Априлското въстание. Сюжетното действие започва с идването на Бойчо Огнянов в Бяла Черква през май 1875 г. и завършва с неговата смърт през май 1876 г. Но фабулата на творбата не се изчерпва с личните драми на героите, нито с действията и противодействията им през тази година, защото не личните, а историческите събития са в основата на сюжетното действие и определят неговия епически характер.

Своеобразна кулминация и развръзка на романа са главите "Пиянството на един народ" и "Пробуждане", в които Вазов постига редки за българската литература прозрения по философия на българската история с резките й преходи от опиянение към отрезвяване и страх, от подем към покруса, разочарование и предателство.

Романът "Под игото" е първата книга, която носи литературна слава на Вазов и на България. Въпреки някои слабости и противоречия, това е най-мащабната и недостигната още "енциклопедия на българския национален живот".

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

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

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