November New Arrivals
THE LATEST NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS: chosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, and Express.
Dusk is gathering as a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, rides across a silent land. It’s a crime to be out after dark, and Fairfax knows he must arrive at his destination – a remote village in the wilds of Exmoor – before night falls and curfew is imposed. He’s lost and he’s becoming anxious as he slowly picks his way across a countryside strewn with the ancient artefacts of a civilisation that seems to have ended in cataclysm. What Fairfax cannot know is that, in the days and weeks to come, everything he believes in will be tested to destruction, as he uncovers a secret that is as dangerous as it is terrifying … [Harris] takes us on a thrilling ride while serving up serious food for thought.’ SUNDAY EXPRESS ‘ |
|
ENGLAND 1648. A DANGEROUS TIME FOR A WOMAN TO BE DIFFERENT
Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast. Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life. Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbours. This is the time of witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands. |
|
ONE WAR. TWO WOMEN. WILL THEY BE ABLE TO SAVE THE ONES THEY LOVE?
Contessa Sofia de’ Corsi’s peaceful Tuscan villa among the olive groves is upturned by the sudden arrival of German soldiers. Desperate to fight back, she agrees to shelter a wounded British radio engineer in her home, keeping him hidden from her husband Lorenzo – knowing that she is putting all of their lives at risk. When Maxine, an Italian-American working for the resistance, arrives on Sofia’s doorstep, the pair forge an uneasy alliance. Feisty, independent Maxine promised herself never to fall in love. But when she meets a handsome partisan named Marco, she realizes it’s a promise she can’t keep… Before long, the two women find themselves entangled in a dangerous game with the Nazis. Will they be discovered? And will they both be able to save the ones they love? |
|
FROM VENICE WITH LOVE – ROSANNA LEY
With her marriage in danger of falling apart, Joanna returns home to the beautiful but dilapidated Mulberry Farm Cottage in rural Dorset, where her sister Harriet is struggling to keep the farm afloat and cope with their eccentric mother. When Joanna discovers a bundle of love letters in the attic, written by a watercolourist named Emmy, she is intrigued and sets out to discover Emmy’s true story. The letters take her to the picturesque alleyways and bridges of Lisbon, Prague, and the most romantic place of all: Venice – where a whole new magical world seems to unfold in front of her. |
|
GREEK ISLAND ESCAPE – PATRICIA WILSON
On the beautiful beaches of Crete, an old woman is handing out this handwritten note. Sofia, eighty-five year’s old and unable to speak, is desperate to find a daughter she has never known. Following a tragic childhood in Athens and a soaring career as a singer, the man she loved was tortured by a tyrannical regime, forcing her to give up her newborn daughter. Now she longs to be reunited with her child before time runs out. Meanwhile in London, Zoe is searching too. In the months since the disappearance of her teenage daughter, Megan, Zoe’s life has fallen apart. Her husband has left her, her son feels forgotten, and every day is a struggle. But Zoe is desperate to track down her daughter, even if Megan is determined not to be found. |
|
PARIS, 1940. With the city occupied by the Nazis, three young seamstresses go about their normal lives as best they can. But all three are hiding secrets. War-scarred Mireille is fighting with the Resistance; Claire has been seduced by a German officer; and Vivienne’s involvement is something she can’t reveal to either of them. Two generations later, Claire’s English granddaughter Harriet arrives in Paris, rootless and adrift, desperate to find a connection with her past. Living and working in the same building on the Rue Cardinale, she learns the truth about her grandmother – and herself – and unravels a family history that is darker and more painful than she ever imagined. In wartime, the three seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger. Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal, can they survive history’s darkest era without being torn apart? | |
THE SECRET HOURS – SANTA MONTEFIORE
Faye Langton’s mother grew up in a poor family in Ireland and left to start a new life in America. Upon her death, Faye finds unexpected instructions to return her mother’s ashes to Ireland, to the hills of a remote village overlooking the sea. What is more surprising is that a mysterious beneficiary is set to inherit a significant share of her mother’s estate… In searching for answers about the past will Faye’s own future become clear? |