Maurice is heartbroken over unrequited love, which opened his heart and mind to his own sexual identity. In order to be true to himself, he goes against the grain of society’s often unspoken rules of class, wealth, and politics.

Forster understood that his homage to same-sex love, if published when he completed it in 1914, would probably end his career. Thus, Maurice languished in a drawer for fifty-seven years, the author requesting it be published only after his death (along with his stories about homosexuality later collected in The Life to Come).

Since its release in 1971, Maurice has been widely read and praised. It has been, and continues to be, adapted for major stage productions, including the 1987 Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Hugh Grant and James Wilby.

From the Children's Laureate of England, a stunning novel of the First World War, a boy who is on its front lines, and a childhood remembered. "They've gone now, and I'm alone at last. I have the whole night ahead of me, and I won't waste a single moment of it . . . I want tonight to be long, as long as my life . . ." For young Private Peaceful, looking back over his childhood while he is on night watch in the battlefields of the First World War, his memories are full of family life deep in the countryside: his mother, Charlie, Big Joe, and Molly, the love of his life. Too young to be enlisted, Thomas has followed his brother to war and now, every moment he spends thinking about his life, means another moment closer to danger.

روايةيجلس الجبلاوي في بيته الكبير المحاط بالحدائق واﻷسوار العالية ومن حوله أحفاده الذين يتنازعون للحصول على وقفه، ويقوم الفتوات بابعاد هؤلاء عن جنته اﻷرضية، حيث استقرت ذريته خارج أسوار البيت الكبير، وبالرغم من فقرهم الا انهم لم يكفو عن الدعاء بأن ينزل الجبلاوي اليهم ويترك عزلته ويوزع تركته ويخلصهم من بطش الفتوات فيسود الخير على الجميع، ويظهر في كل جيل هذا المخلص والذي يتعلق به الناس وينتفضو معه ضد الفتوات، ولكن الجشع والجهل يرجعهم في اخر المطاف الى ما كانت عليه الاوضاع ويبقى الفقر والمعاناة مصيرهم الذي لا مفر منه.

يصف محفوظ في هذه الرواية الرائعة القهر وشوق الناس إلى الخلاص من أنفسهم، وكيف ان المبادئ يمكن أن تتغير بتأرجح النفوس البشرية، وكيف ان الاعمال الخيرة تقع تحت يد الفساد والمفسدين.

تعد هذه الرواية من أشهر روايات اﻷديب الراحل وأكثرها إشكالية وقد نوهت اﻷكاديمية السويدية بها عندما منحت نجيب محفوظ جائزة نوبل للآداب.

Denis Johnson's Train Dreams is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions. It is the story of Robert Grainier, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century---an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.

Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West, this novella captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.

The summer that Patty Bergen turns twelve is a summer that will haunt her forever. When her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of a camp housing German prisoners during World War II, Patty learns what it means to open her heart. Even though she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi, but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own. In Anton, Patty finds someone who softens the pain of her own father's rejection and who appreciates her in a way her mother never will. While patriotic feelings run high, Patty risks losing family, friends — even her freedom — for this dangerous friendship. It is a risk she has to take and one she will have to pay a price to keep.

Devil in Winter unfolds the captivating story of Evangeline Jenner, the shyest member of a group of young ladies who have entered London society with the aim to find husbands. Evangeline, who stands to inherit a vast fortune, finds herself in a precarious situation due to her unscrupulous relatives. In a bold move, she proposes marriage to the notorious rake, Viscount St. Vincent, to escape their clutches.

Sebastian, Viscount St. Vincent, is known for his dangerous reputation, one that could ruin any maiden's good name within seconds. Yet, Evangeline, unchaperoned and bewitching, appears on his doorstep offering her hand in marriage. This proposal, however, comes with a condition: their marriage would be devoid of lovemaking after their wedding night. Evangeline is determined not to become just another broken heart discarded by the dashing libertine. This sets the stage for a tale of seduction, where Sebastian must either work harder at his seductions or, for the first time, surrender his own heart in the name of true love.

Six thousand years ago, evil stalks the land. Only twelve-year-old Torak and his wolf-cub companion can defeat it. Their journey together takes them through deep forests, across giant glaciers, and into dangers they never imagined.

In this page-turning, original, and spectacularly told adventure story, Torak and Wolf are joined by an incredible cast of characters as they battle to save their world. This is the first book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.

The 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and a New York Times Top-Ten Book of 2004, Gilead is an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century. This story about fathers and sons, and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart, returns Marilynne Robinson nearly 25 years after Housekeeping. The novel, described as "as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer," is matchless and towering, telling the story of America in a way that will break your heart.

March takes us into the world of the absent father from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, bringing to life the story of this enigmatic figure. Geraldine Brooks presents a historical novel and love story set during the tumultuous times of the American Civil War. Through the character of March, an idealistic abolitionist and chaplain serving the Union cause, Brooks explores a world of brutality, stubborn courage, and transcendent love.

March's faith in the Union, as well as in himself, is put to the test by the war's harsh realities, including its barbarism and racism. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness, March must face the daunting task of reassembling and reconnecting with his family, who are unaware of the ordeals he has endured. This narrative not only delves into the passions between a man and a woman but also captures the tender moments of parent and child, and the impact of ardently held beliefs.

With pitch-perfect writing, March is a lushly written tale that secures Geraldine Brooks's place as a renowned author of historical fiction, offering a unique perspective on the details of another time.

The second installment of Bernard Cornwell’s New York Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, like Game of Thrones, but real (The Observer, London)—the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit television series.

This is the exciting—yet little known—story of the making of England in the 9th and 10th centuries, the years in which King Alfred the Great, his son and grandson defeated the Danish Vikings who had invaded and occupied three of England’s four kingdoms.

At the end of The Last Kingdom, The Danes had been defeated at Cynuit, but the triumph of the English is not fated to last long. The Danish Vikings quickly invade and occupy three of England’s four kingdoms—and all that remains of the once proud country is a small piece of marshland, where Alfred and his family live with a few soldiers and retainers, including Uhtred, the dispossessed English nobleman who was raised by the Danes. Uhtred has always been a Dane at heart, and has always believed that given the chance, he would fight for the men who raised him and taught him the Viking ways. But when Iseult, a powerful sorceress, enters Uhtred’s life, he is forced to consider feelings he’s never confronted before—and Uhtred discovers, in his moment of greatest peril, a new-found loyalty and love for his native country and ruler.

In Edinburgh in the 1930s, the Lennox family is having trouble with their youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional, and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Something will have to be done.

Years later, a young woman named Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great-aunt in a psychiatric unit who is about to be released. Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox. What could Esme have done to warrant a lifetime in an institution? And how is it possible for a person to be so completely erased from a family's history?

Maggie O’Farrell’s intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth will haunt readers long past its final page.

In The Good Soldier Švejk, celebrated Czech writer and anarchist Jaroslav Hašek combined dazzling wordplay and piercing satire in a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war. Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of World War I -- although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards and getting drunk, he uses all his cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the police, clergy, and officers who chivy him toward battle.

Cecil Parrott's vibrant translation conveys the brilliant irreverence of this classic about a hapless Everyman caught in a vast bureaucratic machine.

Nothing goes right for Eloise. The one day she wears her new suede boots, it rains cats and dogs. When the subway stops short, she’s always the one thrown into some stranger’s lap. Plus, she’s had more than her share of misfortune in the way of love. In fact, ever since she realized romantic heroes are a thing of the past, she’s decided it’s time for a fresh start.

Setting off for England, Eloise is determined to finish her dissertation on that dashing pair of spies, the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. But what she discovers is something the finest historians have missed: the secret history of the Pink Carnation—the most elusive spy of all time. As she works to unmask this obscure spy, Eloise stumbles across answers to all kinds of questions. Like how did the Pink Carnation save England from Napoleon? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly escape her bad luck and find a living, breathing hero all her own?

Sodom and Gomorrah explores the complex themes of homosexual love, both male and female, and the destructive nature of sexual jealousy. Within its pages, Proust offers an unforgiving analysis of the decadent high society of Paris and the rise of a philistine bourgeoisie poised to supplant it.

Characters who had lesser roles in earlier volumes now reappear in a different light and take center stage, notably Albertine, with whom the narrator believes he is in love, and the insanely haughty Baron de Charlus.

This volume is a testament to Proust's ability to weave intricate narratives that delve deeply into the human psyche, making it a critical piece of his monumental series, À la recherche du temps perdu.

Jo's Boys is a delightful continuation of the beloved story that began in Little Women and Little Men. Set ten years after the events of Little Men, this novel takes us back to Plumfield, the New England school still under the loving guidance of Jo and her husband, Professor Bhaer.

In this final installment, Jo's boys have grown up. The tale revolves around the lives of these young men, including the rebellious Dan, the adventurous sailor Emil, and the promising musician Nat. The narrative is rich with adventure and drama, as the boys face challenges such as shipwrecks, storms, disappointment, and even murder.

Jo's Boys is a powerful and affectionate depiction of family, where the prodigal can always return, adversity is never faced alone, and dreams of being cherished, no matter the flaws, come true. This classic novel continues to capture the hearts of readers with its enduring themes of love, growth, and resilience.

Now that all the others have run out of air, it’s my turn to do a little story-making.

In Homer’s account in The Odyssey, Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids.

In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: “What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?”

In Atwood’s dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality—and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.

In an astonishing feat of narrative invention, Philip Roth imagines an alternate version of American history. In 1940, Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected President. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial understanding with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.

For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh's election is the first in a series of ruptures that threatens to destroy his small, safe corner of America - and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.

The sixteenth full-length Redwall novel sheds light on the Abbey's ancient origins in a thrilling adventure. Loamhedge, the deserted Abbey, has been forgotten for countless seasons. What secrets do its ruins hold?

When it becomes clear that wheelchair-bound Martha might be cured by a formula buried there, two old warriors are inspired by the spirit of Martin the Warrior himself to go on a quest for the ancient Abbey, and three young rebels are determined to go with them.

Meanwhile, the giant badger Lonna Bowstripe thirsts for vengeance as he relentlessly pursues Raga Bl and his murdering crew of Searats... who are on their way to attack Redwall itself. The valiant Abbeybeasts must defend their home, but how can they, when their boldest warriors are away on their quest?

Will Redwall fall to vermin invaders at last? A rare glimpse into Redwall's history makes this volume a memorable addition to Jacques' epic. Fans will not be disappointed, and new readers will be eager to jump on board.

The System of the World, the third and concluding volume of Neal Stephenson's shelf-bending Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver and The Confusion), brings the epic historical saga to its thrilling - and truly awe-inspiring - conclusion.

Set in the early 18th century and featuring a diverse cast of characters that includes alchemists, philosophers, mathematicians, spies, thieves, pirates, and royalty, The System of the World follows Daniel Waterhouse, an unassuming philosopher and confidant to some of the most brilliant minds of the age, as he returns to England to try and repair the rift between geniuses Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. After reluctantly leaving his family in Boston, Waterhouse arrives in England and is almost killed by a mysterious Infernal Device. Having been away from the war-decimated country for two decades, Waterhouse quickly learns that although many things have changed, there is still violent revolution simmering just beneath the surface of seemingly civilized society. With Queen Anne deathly ill and Tories and Whigs jostling for political supremacy, Waterhouse and Newton vow to figure out who is trying to kill certain scientists and decipher the riddle behind the legend of King Solomon's gold, a mythical hoard of precious metal with miraculous properties.

Arguably one of the most ambitious -- and most researched -- stories ever written, Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is set in one of the most turbulent and exciting times in human history. Filled with wild adventure, political intrigue, social upheaval, civilization-changing discoveries, cabalistic mysticism, and even a little romance, this massive saga is worth its weight in (Solomon's) gold.

Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy, spending time with her friends in the city, attending ritzy balls, and tending to her ailing father. As she prepares to ring in the New Year, 1896, a handsome young man, Lord Denby, has set his sights on Gemma, or so it seems. Yet amidst the distractions of London, Gemma's visions intensify—visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened, something only the realms can explain.

The lure is strong, and before long, Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are turning flowers into butterflies in the enchanted world of the realms that Gemma alone can bring them to. To the girls' great joy, their beloved Pippa is there as well, eager to complete their circle of friendship. But all is not well in the realms—or out. The mysterious Kartik has reappeared, telling Gemma she must find the Temple and bind the magic, else great disaster will befall her. Gemma's willing to do his intrusive bidding, despite the dangers it brings, for it means she will meet up with her mother's greatest friend—and now her foe, Circe.

Until Circe is destroyed, Gemma cannot live out her destiny. But finding Circe proves a most perilous task.

A magnificent, vast, and enthralling saga, Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife is a remarkable epic spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick, it is the story of Una, exiled as a child to live in a lighthouse, removed from the physical and emotional abuse of a religion-mad father. It is the romantic adventure of a young woman setting sail in a cabin boy's disguise to encounter darkness, wonder, and catastrophe; the story of a devoted wife who witnesses her husband's destruction by obsession and madness. Ultimately it is the powerful and moving story of a woman's triumph over tragedy and loss through her courage, creativity, and intelligence.

The wild rush of action in this classic frontier adventure story has made The Last of the Mohicans the most popular of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. Deep in the forests of upper New York State, the brave woodsman Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War. The abduction of the beautiful Munro sisters by hostile savages, the treachery of the renegade brave Magua, the ambush of innocent settlers, and the thrilling events that lead to the final tragic confrontation between rival war parties create an unforgettable, spine-tingling picture of life on the frontier.

And as the idyllic wilderness gives way to the forces of civilization, the novel presents a moving portrayal of a vanishing race and the end of its way of life in the great American forests.

In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men.

As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

In Marvel 1602, award-winning writer Neil Gaiman presents a unique vision of the Marvel Universe set four hundred years in the past. Classic Marvel icons such as the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and Daredevil appear in this intriguing world of 17th-century science and sorcery, instantly familiar to readers, yet subtly different in this new time.

Marvel 1602 combines classic Marvel action and adventure with the historically accurate setting of Queen Elizabeth I's reign to create a unique series unlike any other published by Marvel Comics. This collection includes Marvel 1602 issues #1-8, penciled by Andy Kubert and digitally painted by Richard Isanove, with covers by Scott McKowen.

Su nombre despierta terror en el corazón de los hombres. A lo largo de siglos, se le ha considerado un mito. Ahora, alguien se atreve a buscarlo a través de los rincones más oscuros de Europa y Asia y buceando en lo más remotos pasajes de la historia.

Durante años, Paul fue incapaz de contarle a su hija la verdad sobre la obsesión que ha guiado su vida. Ahora, entre sus papeles, ella descubre una historia que comenzó con la extraña desaparición del mentor de Paul, el profesor Rossi. Tras las huellas de su querido maestro, Paul recorrió antiguas bibliotecas de Estambul, monasterios en ruinas en Rumania, remotas aldeas en Bulgaria... Cuanto más se acercaba a Rossi, más se aproximaba también a un misterio que había aterrorizado incluso a los poderosos sultanes otomanos, y que aún hace temblar a los campesinos de Europa del Este. Un misterio que ha dejado un rastro sangriento en manuscritos, viejos libros y canciones susurradas al oído. Para Paul y su hija llegar al final dela búsqueda puede significar un destino mucho peor que la muerte. Porque a cada paso que dan, se convencen más de que él les está esperando. Y en sus corazones, retumba una pregunta angustiosa... ¿Es posible que la tumba de Vlad el Emperador esconda algo más que el cuerpo de un asesino legendario?

This Nordic Prize-winning novel is a truly gripping epic that relates the lives of four generations of a unique and strange family with touching intimacy and surreal comedy.

It traces four generations of a family marked by the untimely birth of Fred, a misfit and boxer conceived during a devastating rape. Fred forges an unusual friendship with his younger half-brother, Barnum. The story unfolds as Barnum, now a screenwriter with a fondness for lies and alcohol, narrates his family’s saga. He chronicles generations of independent women and absent and flawed men whom he calls the Night Men.

Among these characters is his father, Arnold, who bequeaths to Barnum his circus name, his excessively small stature, and a con man’s belief in the power of illusion. Filled with a galaxy of finely etched characters, this novel is a tour de force and a literary masterpiece richly deserving of the accolades it has received.

From acclaimed novelist Mark Helprin, A Soldier of the Great War is a lush, literary epic about love, beauty, and the world at war. Alessandro Giuliani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, enjoys an idyllic life full of privilege: he races horses across the country to the sea, he climbs mountains in the Alps, and, while a student of painting at the ancient university in Bologna, he falls in love. Then the Great War intervenes.

Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, tall and proud, meets an illiterate young factory worker on the road. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers away, the old man—a soldier and a hero who became a prisoner and then a deserter, wandering in the hell that claimed Europe—tells him how he tragically lost one family and gained another. The boy, envying the richness and drama of Alessandro's experiences, realizes that this magnificent tale is not merely a story: it's a recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family.

When Billie Jo is just fourteen, she must endure heart-wrenching ordeals that no child should have to face. The quiet strength she displays while dealing with unspeakable loss is as surprising as it is inspiring.

Written in free verse, this story is set in the heart of the Great Depression. It chronicles Oklahoma's staggering dust storms, and the environmental--and emotional--turmoil they leave in their path. An unforgettable tribute to hope and inner strength.

The Guermantes Way is the third volume in Marcel Proust's monumental series, In Search of Lost Time. After the relative intimacy of the first two volumes, this installment opens up a vast, dazzling landscape of fashionable Parisian life in the late nineteenth century.

The narrator enters the brilliant, shallow world of the literary and aristocratic salons. Both a salute to, and a devastating satire of a time, place, and culture, this novel defines the great tradition of novels that follow the initiation of a young man into the ways of the world.

This elegantly packaged new translation introduces a new generation of readers to the literary richness of Marcel Proust.

Bobby Pendragon has visited the alternate dimension of Denduron and waded through the endangered underwater territory of Cloral. Now Bobby once again finds himself thrust beyond the boundaries of time and space into a place that seems somewhat familiar: First Earth.

Bobby and the Traveler from Cloral—Spader—have flumed to New York City, 1937, where they must uncover the evil Saint Dane’s newest plot. But is Bobby ready for the difficult choices ahead?

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.

Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.

Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

Dreaming of a city with flying horses was one thing... But coming face to face with someone she knew to be dead - that was something else again.

Georgia would love nothing more than to ride horses every day and avoid her annoying stepbrother at all costs. But she could never have guessed that a tiny, antique winged horse figurine would be the key to her escape to another world and another time.

When Georgia arrives in a sixteenth-century city called Remora, she is plunged into a dangerous and treacherous world of horse-racing, family honour and deadly rivalry. And there, as a new Stravagante, Georgia will have a dramatic and extraordinary role to play...

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy.

Raised like sisters, Mariamne and Salome are indulged with riches, position, and learning—a rare thing for females in Jerusalem. But Mariamne has a further gift: an illness has left her with visions; she has the power of prophecy. It is her prophesying that drives the two girls to flee to Egypt, where they study philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy in the Great Library of Alexandria.

After seven years, they return to a Judaea where many now believe John the Baptizer is the messiah. Salome too begins to believe, but Mariamne, now called Magdalene, is drawn to his cousin, Yeshu'a, a man touched by the divine in the same way she was during her days of illness. Together they speak of sharing their direct experience of God; but Yeshu'a unexpectedly gains a reputation as a healer, and as the ill and the troubled flock to him, he and Magdalene are forced to make a terrible decision.

This radical retelling of the greatest story ever told brings Mary Magdalene to life—not as a prostitute or demon-possessed—but as an educated woman who was truly the apostle to the apostles.

Empire of the Sun is a poignant exploration of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China. Separated from his parents in a world at war, Jim must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him to survive. The setting is Shanghai, 1941, a city aflame from the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Amidst the chaos and corpses, Jim searches in vain for his parents. Eventually, he finds himself imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, witnessing the fierce white flash of Nagasaki as the bomb announces the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.

J.G. Ballard's enduring novel not only captures the horrors of war and deprivation, internment camps and death marches, starvation and survival, but also serves as an honest coming-of-age tale set in a world thrown utterly out of joint.

Armed with only his wits and his cunning, one man recklessly defies the French revolutionaries and rescues scores of innocent men, women, and children from the deadly guillotine. His friends and foes know him only as the Scarlet Pimpernel. But the ruthless French agent Chauvelin is sworn to discover his identity and to hunt him down.

A haunting tale of power, corruption, and the complex search for identity, Conversation in The Cathedral takes place in 1950s Peru during the dictatorship of Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti. Over beers and a sea of freely spoken words, the conversation flows between two individuals, Santiago and Ambrosia, who talk of their tormented lives and of the overall degradation and frustration that has slowly taken over their town.

Through a complicated web of secrets and historical references, Mario Vargas Llosa analyzes the mental and moral mechanisms that govern power and the people behind it. More than a historic analysis, Conversation in The Cathedral is a groundbreaking novel that tackles identity as well as the role of a citizen and how a lack of personal freedom can forever scar a people and a nation.

Titus Andronicus is the earliest tragedy and the earliest Roman play attributed to Shakespeare. Set during the latter days of the Roman Empire, it tells the fictional story of Titus, a general in the Roman army, who is engaged in a cycle of revenge with Tamora, Queen of the Goths.

Titus, a model Roman, has led twenty-one of his twenty-five sons to death in Rome’s wars; he stabs another son to death for what he views as disloyalty to Rome. Yet Rome has become “a wilderness of tigers.” After a death sentence is imposed on two of his three remaining sons, and his daughter is raped and mutilated, Titus turns his loyalty toward his family.

Aaron the Moor, a magnificent villain and the empress’s secret lover, makes a similar transition. After the empress bears him a child, Aaron devotes himself to preserving the baby. Retaining his thirst for evil, he shows great tenderness to his little family—a tenderness that also characterizes Titus before the terrifying conclusion.

This play is Shakespeare's bloodiest and most violent work and traditionally was one of his least respected plays. However, from around the middle of the twentieth century, its reputation began to improve.

Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant—and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model.

The Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, with precisely 35 canvases to his credit, represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries—and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title.

In a British colony in West Africa, Henry Scobie is a pious and righteous man of modest means enlisted with securing borders. But when he’s passed over for a promotion as commissioner of police, the humiliation hits hardest for his wife, Louise.

Already oppressed by the appalling climate, frustrated in a loveless marriage, and belittled by the wives of more privileged officers, Louise wants out. Feeling responsible for her unhappiness, Henry decides against his better judgment to accept a loan from a black marketeer to secure Louise’s passage. It’s just a single indiscretion, yet for Henry it precipitates a rapid fall from grace as one moral compromise after another leads him into a web of blackmail, adultery, and murder.

And for a devout man like Henry, there may be nothing left but damnation.

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a timeless work by Victor Hugo that transports readers to Medieval Paris, under the imposing twin towers of its most revered structure, the cathedral of Notre-Dame. At the heart of this historical novel is the poignant story of Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer, and his unrequited love for the beautiful Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer. Their lives intertwine with that of Claude Frollo, a priest battling his own inner demons.

Hugo's masterful storytelling weaves a tale of love, devotion, jealousy, and deception, set against the backdrop of a city teeming with life and the specter of social injustice. The author's remarkable powers of description bring the setting and characters vividly to life, making the novel not only an exploration of the human condition but also a critique of society and its treatment of those who are different.

Patrick O’Brian’s twenty-one-volume Aubrey/Maturin series has delighted generations of devoted fans, inspired a blockbuster film, and sold millions of copies in twenty-four languages.

These five omnibus volumes, beautifully produced and boxed, contain 7,000 pages of what has often been described as a single, continuous narrative. They are a perfect tribute for such a literary achievement, and a perfect gift for the O’Brian enthusiast.

This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning. With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story" (mostlyfiction.com).

In his first novel since Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières creates a world and populates it with characters as real as our best friends, launching it into the maelstrom of twentieth-century history.

The setting is a small village in southwestern Anatolia in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Everyone there speaks Turkish, though they write it in Greek letters. It’s a place that has room for a professional blasphemer; where a brokenhearted aga finds solace in the arms of a Circassian courtesan who isn’t Circassian at all; where a beautiful Christian girl named Philothei is engaged to a Muslim boy named Ibrahim. But all of this will change when Turkey enters the modern world.

Epic in sweep, intoxicating in its sensual detail, Birds Without Wings is an enchantment.

Cloud Atlas, authored by David Mitchell, is a visionary novel that combines elements of adventure, mystery, and philosophical speculation. The narrative begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary traveling from the Chatham Isles to California. During his journey, he becomes acquainted with Dr. Goose, who treats him for a rare brain parasite.

The story then leaps to Belgium in 1931, where we meet Robert Frobisher, a disinherited composer who finds himself in the household of an ailing maestro. The narrative continues to shift, taking us to the West Coast in the 1970s with Luisa Rey, a reporter uncovering a conspiracy, and then to various other settings including a near-future Korean superstate and a post-apocalyptic Hawaii.

The unique structure of Cloud Atlas sees the narrative fold back on itself, with characters' fates intertwining across time and space. It's a novel that questions the nature of reality and identity, and how our actions reverberate through history. Mitchell's work is as playful as it is profound, earning it the status of a modern classic and a worldwide phenomenon.

Nothing in Lakshmi's childhood, running carefree and barefoot on the sun-baked earth amid the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon, could have prepared her for what life was to bring her. At fourteen, she finds herself traded in marriage to a stranger across the ocean in the fascinating land of Malaysia. Duped into thinking her new husband is wealthy, she instead finds herself struggling to raise a family with a man too impractical to face reality in a world that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful.

Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matriarch, determined to wrest from the world a better life for her daughters and sons and to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength. By sheer willpower, Lakshmi survives the nightmare of World War II and the Japanese occupation — but not unscathed. The family bears deep scars on its back and, in turn, inflicts those wounds on the next generation.

But it is not until Lakshmi's great-granddaughter, Nisha, pieces together the mosaic of her family history that the legacy of the Rice Mother bears fruit. Dreamy and lyrical, told in the alternating voices of the men and women of this amazing family, The Rice Mother gorgeously evokes a world where small pleasures offset unimaginable horrors, where ghosts and gods walk hand in hand.

Beloved, a profound piece of literature by Toni Morrison, delves into the harrowing journey of Sethe, an escaped slave who cannot escape the shadows of her past life at Sweet Home, a farm fraught with traumatic memories. Sethe's new life in Ohio is overshadowed by the haunting presence of her deceased baby, whose gravestone bears the single word, Beloved.

The arrival of a mysterious teenage girl, who calls herself Beloved, forces Sethe to confront her hidden secrets. Morrison's narrative seamlessly intertwines the stark realities of history with the spectral elements of legend, creating an unforgettable exploration of the American experience through the prism of slavery's enduring legacy.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal dives into the untold story of Jesus's early years, a time not documented in the scriptures. Narrated by Biff, Jesus's childhood best friend, this novel brings a unique and humorous perspective to the life of the Son of God, known here as Joshua.

Through the eyes of Biff, readers are taken on a journey filled with remarkable adventures, mystical encounters, and humorous escapades. From practicing kung fu to reviving the dead, Biff recounts the extraordinary experiences he shared with Joshua, showcasing a side of the Messiah that is both divine and relatably human.

As Joshua approaches his ultimate fate, Biff is determined to support his friend, joined by other familiar figures such as Mary Magdalene, affectionately referred to as "Maggie." In a tale that is both heartfelt and hilariously irreverent, Christopher Moore crafts a story that is as imaginative as it is compelling, offering a fresh take on a timeless narrative.