Half German, half Russian, Hel was raised by a Japanese general and survived Hiroshima to become a mystic, a master of the senses, and the most deadly assassin in the world. Nicholai has left his past behind him to live a life of isolation in a remote mountain fortress, determined to attain a state of effortless perfection known as shibumi. Then Hannah Stern arrives at his door. Hannah needs protection from a sinister organization known as the Mother Company. But, as Hel knows all too well, they are not easy to escape. And now they're coming after him too. The battle lines are drawn: ruthless power and corruption on one side, and on the other...shibumi.
AN ACCLAIMED, EMMY-NOMINATED TV SERIES ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO WINNER OF THE HUGO, LOCUS AND BRAM STOKER AWARDS ''To give him his full title: Neil Gaiman, Architect of Worlds, Svengali of Plot, Shaman of Character, Exploder of Cliche, Master Craftsman of Style, Dreamer Laureate of the Republic of Letters'' DAVID MITCHELL ''Original, engrossing, and endlessly inventive'' GEORGE R.R. MARTIN ''Brilliant and unique'' GUARDIAN --- ''This is about the soul of America, the idea that everyone came here from somewhere'' NEIL GAIMAN --- After three years in prison, Shadow Moon is free to go home. But hours before his release, his beloved wife is killed in a freak accident. Numbly, he boards a plane where he meets an enigmatic stranger who seems to know Shadow and claims to be an ancient god - and king of America. Together they embark on a profoundly strange road trip across the USA, encountering a kaleidoscopic cast of characters along the way. But all around them a storm of unnatural proportions is gathering. War is coming, an epic struggle for the very soul of America. And Shadow is standing squarely in its path. NEIL GAIMAN. W ITH STORIES COME POSSIBILITIES. --- **Includes a brand-new author preface, introduction to the author''s preferred text, The Monarch of the Glen novella, reading-group discussion questions, an interview with Neil Gaiman and ''How Dare You'', an essay on American Gods **
THE EXTRAORDINARY FIRST NOVEL BY THE MASTER OF STORYTELLING ACCLAIMED BBC RADIO 4 DRAMATISATION WITH ALL-STAR CAST INCLUDING JAMES MCAVOY, NATALIE DORMER, DAVID HAREWOOD, SOPHIE OKONEDO AND BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ''Prose that dances and dazzles . . . Gaiman describes the indescribable'' SUSANNA CLARKE ''It''s virtually impossible to read more than ten words by Neil Gaiman and not wish he would tell you the rest of the story'' OBSERVER ''Much too clever to be caught in the net of a single interpretation'' PHILIP PULLMAN --- ''I love doors. Anything that leads to possibilities'' NEIL GAIMAN --- Under the streets of London lies a world most people could never dream of. When Richard Mayhew stops to help a girl he finds bleeding in the street, his unremarkable life changes in an instant. This act of kindness leads him to a place filled with murderers and angels, pale girls in black velvet, a Beast in a labyrinth and an Earl who holds Court in a tube train. It is strangely familiar yet utterly bizarre. Here is London Below, the city of people who have fallen between the cracks. And for Richard Mayhew, it''s just the beginning. NEIL GAIMAN. W ITH STORIES COME POSSIBILITIES. --- **Includes an introduction to the author''s preferred text, How the Marquis Got His Coat Back short story, reading-group discussion questions, an ''Altogether Different Prologue'' and an interview with Neil Gaiman**
In Heartbreak Hotel by New York Times No.1 bestseller Jonathan Kellerman, criminal psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware i nvestigates the death of his most mysterious patient to date. Fans of Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben will revel in this knife- sharp storytelling from the master of psychological suspense. At nearly one hundred years old, Thalia Mars is a far cry from the patients child psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware normally treats. But the charming, witty woman convinces Alex to meet with her in a suite at The Aventura - a luxury hotel with a checkered history. What Thalia wants from Alex are answers to unsettling questions - about guilt, patterns of criminal behaviour, victim selection. When Alex asks the reason for her morbid fascination, Thalia promises to tell all during their next session. But when he returns the following morning, his question goes unanswered, and new ones arise... In their most puzzling investigation to date, Alex and homicide detective Milo Sturgis must peel back the layers of a fascinating but elusive woman's life. For Thalia Mars is a victim like no other, an enigma who harboured nearly a century of secrets and whose life and death draw those around her into a vortex of violence. FORTY BESTSELLERS. HUNDREDS OF CASES SOLVED.
Modern fictionAn imaginative and eagerly anticipated new novel from this highly acclaimed and award-winning author. Fat Charlie Nancy is angry, confused and a little scared. He has just found out that his estranged father was a god, as is his brother who is attempted, and doing very well at, taking over Fat Charlie's life.
Titus Crowne is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County. A former FBI agent and security expert, Titus came home to take care of his father and look out for his troubled younger brother. He ran for Sheriff to make a difference, especially in the Black community which has so often been treated unfairly by the police.
But a year to the day after his election, a school shooting rocks the town. A beloved teacher is killed by a former student, and as Titus attempts to deescalate and get the boy to surrender, his deputies fire a fatal shot.
In the investigation, it becomes clear that the student they shot had been abused by the dead teacher, as well as by unidentified perpetrators. The trail leads to buried bodies - and dark secrets.
As Titus tries to track down a killer hiding in plain sight, while balancing daily duties like protecting Confederate pride marchers, he must face what it means to be a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South.
From Lukov with Love is the sensational TikTok hit that is captivating readers all over the world! No one writes slow burn like Mariana Zapata and her millions of fans agree! ''The slow-burn queen'' reader review ''This book was EVERYTHING!'' reader review ''I will forever read everything Mariana writes she is amazing'' reader review ''I freakin'' love this author'' reader review ''A perfect enemies-to-lovers, with a delicious slow burn'' reader review ''This book, just smacked me right in the feels'' reader review ''This book means the world to me. I''ll never get over this'' reader review ''There hasn''t been a book of Mariana''s that I didn''t love'' reader review ''Wow, this is one of the best romances I''ve read in a LOOOOONG time'' reader review ......................................... They''re the coldest of enemies off the ice . . . But could their shared passion on the ice turn to unexpected heat? If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one. After seventeen years of figure skating - and countless broken bones and broken promises - she knows her window to compete is coming to a close. But when the offer of a lifetime comes from the arrogant idiot she''s spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in front of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything. Including Ivan Lukov . ......................................... Want more of Mariana''s delicious slow burn? Why not read Ruby''s story in Dear Aaron next, and don''t miss any of her romances beloved by millions of readers! Lingus Rhythm, Chord & Malykhin The Best Thing Under Locke Kulti The Wall of Winnipeg and Me Wait for It Luna and the Lie Hands Down All Rhodes Lead Here
This first Earthseed novel by ground-breaking writer Octavia E. Butler feel like a prophetic nod to our current world. If you were glued to T he Handmaid's Tale , you'll love this beautiful new edition of a seminal American classic. 'If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it's one written in the past that has already begun to come true. This is what makes Parable of the Sower even more impressive than it was when first published' Gloria Steinem We are coming apart. We're a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time. America is a place of chaos, where violence rules and only the rich and powerful are safe. Lauren Olamina, a young woman with the extraordinary power to feel the pain of others as her own, records everything she sees of this broken world in her journal. Then, one terrible night, everything alters beyond recognition, and Lauren must make her voice heard for the sake of those she loves. Soon, her vision becomes reality and her dreams of a better way to live gain the power to change humanity forever. All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. What readers are saying about Octavia Butler: ' Kindred was written in 1979 but could have been written last year. Incredible. I couldn't put it down ' ' Emotionally and viscerally alive and challenging . I don't know how I missed it before now' 'A masterpiece by a matchless artist . Butler is simply sublime ' ' Reading these books will change your life ' 'A finely crafted work , rife with emotional power, horrifying in its believability , with a message that cannot be ignored '
**'The marker you should judge all other time-travelling narratives by' Guardian** Octavia E. Butler's masterpiece and ground-breaking exploration of power and responsibility, for fans of The Handmaid's Tale, The Power and Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing . With an original foreword by AyO²bàmi AdebàyO². '[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human' New York Times ' No novel I've read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential' The Pool In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer. In 1815, she is assumed a slave. When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he's drowning. She saves his life - and it will happen again and again. Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them. And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it's even begun. Octavia E. Butler's ground-breaking masterpiece is the extraordinary story of two people bound by blood, separated by so much more than time. What readers are saying about KINDRED: ' It was written in 1979 but could have been written last year. Incredible. I couldn't put it down ' ' The narrator is us - we see the abomination and humiliation of slavery not through a slave's eyes, but our modern-day eyes , and it makes it all the more powerful ' 'A must-read for everyone' ' Emotionally and viscerally alive and challenging . I don't know how I missed it before now'
INQUISITION is the latest thrilling novel from Sunday Times bestselling author David Gibbins. Jack Howard will be tested to his limits on the trail of the fabled Holy Grail. '[The] Da Vinci Code of the deep sea' Daily Express 258 As the blood of martyred Christians runs through Rome's catacombs, Pope Sixtus entrusts their most sacred object to a devoted follower. Soon after, the Holy Grail disappears into the darkness of time. 1684 While overseeing the evacuation of the English colony of Tangier, Samuel Pepys attempts to retrieve a treasure which has resurfaced after more than a thousand years. Meanwhile, a Jewish merchant is tortured by the Altamanus , a secret group determined to locate the Grail. PRESENT DAY A wreck off the Cornish coast reveals clues to a mystery that marine archaeologist Jack Howard had thought beyond solving. He embarks on an epic quest that takes him to the sunken ruins of the pirate city of Port Royal in Jamaica. But the spectre of the deadly Inquisition dogs his every step, and Jack must face a descent into hell itself if he is to uncover the greatest reward in Christendom.
This sequel to Parable of the Sower by ground-breaking writer Octavia E. Butler feel like a prophetic nod to our current world. If you were glued to T he Handmaid's Tale or couldn't put down The Power , you'll love this beautiful new edition of a seminal American classic. 'In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time... for sheer peculiar prescience, Butler's novel may be unmatched' New Yorker In order for me to understand who I am, I must begin to understand who she was. Asha was born into a broken world. There are many things she needs to know: how her country could embrace a violent, far-right President promising to make America great again, why they turned a blind eye to the suffering - and the truth about her mother. In her journals, Lauren Olamina tells of a great love divided between her young daughter, her community and the revelation that led her to found a new faith that teaches 'God Is Change'. But under a tyrannical religious regime who consider the mere existence of a black female leader a threat, Lauren knows she must soon either sacrifice her daughter and her followers - or forsake the beliefs that could transform human destiny. Octavia E. Butler's award-winning novel is an almost-prophetic take on a shockingly familiar and deeply relevant world. What readers are saying about Octavia Butler: ' Kindred was written in 1979 but could have been written last year. Incredible. I couldn't put it down ' ' Emotionally and viscerally alive and challenging . I don't know how I missed it before now' 'A masterpiece by a matchless artist . Butler is simply sublime ' ' Reading these books will change your life ' 'A finely crafted work , rife with emotional power, horrifying in its believability , with a message that cannot be ignored '
There are few shows in our lifetime that have garnered over a billion views, that have reached a global audience of 220 countries, that elicits an emotional reaction from a theme song, or that defined a period of time more for its viewers. That is simply because there is no show that is more iconic or beloved than Friends . It didn''t matter that their apartment was unrealistic by New York City''s standards or that they always had enough free time to hang out in a coffee shop, they were our friends, they were us. And over the last twenty-seven years, it has yet to lose its title of the greatest sitcom of all time. Yet, the nostalgia and the truth about their relationships is a story that only Matthew Perry could tell?especially as his addiction soared faster than his career. Heartbreaking and funny, Matthew''s honesty is explosive and unrivaled. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that shares the most intimate details of the love he lost, his darkest days, and his greatest friends.
''One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century'' JUNOT DIAZ ''Octavia Butler was playing out our very real possibilities as humans. I think she can help each of us to do the same'' GLORIA STEINEM One woman is called upon to reconstruct humanity in this hopeful, thought-provoking novel by the bestselling, award-winning author. For readers of Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison and Ursula K. Le Guin. When Lilith lyapo wakes in a small white room with no doors or windows, she remembers a devastating war, and a husband and child long lost to her. She finds herself living among the Oankali, a strange race who intervened in the fate of humanity hundreds of years before. They spared those they could from the ruined Earth, and suspended them in a long, deep sleep. Over centuries, the Oankali learned from the past, cured disease and healed the world. Now they want Lilith to lead her people back home. But salvation comes at a price - to restore humanity, it must be changed forever... PRAISE FOR OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR ''In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time... for sheer peculiar prescience, Butler''s novel may be unmatched'' NEW YORKER ''Butler''s prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision'' GUARDIAN ''Octavia Butler was a visionary'' VIOLA DAVIS ''Her evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human'' NEW YORK TIMES ''An icon of the Afrofuturism world, envisioning literary realms that placed black characters front and center'' VANITY FAIR ''Butler writes with such a familiarity that the alien is welcome and intriguing. She really artfully exposes our human impulse to self-destruct'' LUPITA NYONG''O
I''ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me. Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumperstickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life''s challenges-how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call ''catching greenlights.'' So I took a one way ticket to the desert and wrote what you hold now: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops. Hopefully, it''s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot''s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears. It''s a love letter. To life. It''s also a guide to catching more greenlights-and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too. Good luck.
The global bestseller that inspired the hit musical phenomenon
Major, much-anticipated movie starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande coming to the big screen this November
In this classic tale of good and evil, what if we weren''t told the whole story?
Long before Dorothy follows the yellow brick road and triumphs over the Wicked Witch of the West, a little girl with emerald-green skin is born in the land of Oz.
Elphaba grows up to be smart and prickly, a lonely outsider with an extraordinary talent for magic. Arriving at university, she dares to believe she might finally fit in.
But Oz isn''t the haven she''d dreamed of. Some of its citizens are in grave danger, and Elphaba is determined to protect them from the Wizard''s power.
And when the world declares her a wicked witch, Elphaba takes matters into her own hands...
WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2013 BOOK OF THE YEAR The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the bestselling magical novel from Neil Gaiman, one of the most brilliant storytellers of our generation and author of the epic novel American Gods , and the much-loved Sandman series. 'Possibly Gaiman's most lyrical, scary and beautiful work yet. It's a tale of childhood for grown-ups, a fantasy rooted in the darkest corners of reality' ( Independent on Sunday). If you loved the mesmerising world of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus or were drawn into J.K. Rowling's magical universe, this book is for you. It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond this world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defence is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac - as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly's wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark.
''A book that shifted my life... Epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant'' VIOLA DAVIS ''Will rewire the mind of whoever reads it... you don''t emerge from the journey unaffected'' NNEDI OKORAFOR A PATTERNIST NOVEL: BOOK ONE It begins when two immortals meet in an African forest. Doro is an ancient spirit who, for thousands of years, has cultivated a small village of people in search of perfection. He steals from their bodies to sustain his own life. Doro fears no one - until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is like Doro and yet different. She uses her wisdom to help others, healing injuries, birthing tribes and shifting the shapes of her own body. Anyanwu feels no threat - until she meets Doro. In an epic story of love and hate, Doro and Anyanwu chase each other across continents and centuries - a power struggle that echoes through generations. Together they will change the world.
A spellbinding prequel to Wicked, the internationally bestselling novel that inspired the hit stage show phenomenon.
Elphie: A Wicked Childhood tells the story of Elphaba in her formative years, long before her witchy powers take hold and she meets the girl who will change her life forever.
A green child in a green green world, Elphie is a thirteen-year-old girl like any other, and like no other...
A much-anticipated movie of Wicked will premiere in 2024.
A compelling tale of family ties, with vivid characters and an authentic Cretan background. Through dramatic storytelling, Victoria Hislop charts the fate of four generations rent by war, illicit love, passion and leprosy, from the thirties through to the present day. It is certain to capture the hearts and imaginations of the nation.
he enthralling tale of a powerful Greek goddess maligned in both myth and ancient history, as told by Sunday Times bestselling author Jennifer Saint.
''An exceptional achievement'' ELODIE HARPER
''A very special novel'' COSTANZA CASATI
''The essential mythological book of the decade'' NIKITA GILL
When Hera, immortal goddess and daughter of the ancient Titan Cronus, helps her brother Zeus to overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side.
As they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera suspects that Zeus might be just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed.
She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?
Often portrayed as the jealous wife or the wicked stepmother, this retelling captures the many sides of Hera, vengeful when she needs to be but also compassionate and most importantly, an all-powerful queen to the gods.
More praise for HERA:
''A thrilling depiction'' ELIZABETH FREMANTLE
''Subtle, nuanced and utterly gorgeous'' SARAH UNDERWOOD
''Jennifer Saint''s best book yet'' ROSIE HEWLETT
''Vast in scope and thoroughly entertaining'' NIKKI MARMERY
''An absolutely triumph'' JASMINE ELMER
From the author of the bestselling ATLANTIS comes a thrilling novel of buried secrets, age-old mysteries and a conspiracy surrounding the fabled Ark of the Covenant.
A BLACK FATHER. A WHITE FATHER. TWO MURDERED SONS. A QUEST FOR VENGEANCE. '' Superb...Cuts right to the heart of the most important questions of our times.'' MICHAEL CONNELLY ''A voice as stark and distinctive as Elmore Leonard''s, and a humanity that touches the soul.'' DAILY MAIL ''Every once in a while a writer comes along with an incredible voice...add S. A. Cosby to that list.'' STEVE CAVANAGH Ike Randolph left jail fifteen years ago, with not so much as a speeding ticket since. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid. Ike is devastated to learn his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah''s white husband, Derek. Though he never fully accepted his son, Ike is broken by his death. Derek''s father Buddy Lee was as ashamed of Derek being gay as Derek was of his father''s criminal past. But Buddy Lee - with seedy contacts deep in the underworld - needs to know who killed his only child. Desperate to do better by them in death than they did in life, two hardened ex-cons must confront their own prejudices about their sons - and each other - as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys. A provocative revenge thriller and an achingly tender story of redemption, this novel is a ferocious portrait of grief; for those loved and lost, and for mistakes than can never truly be undone. Praise for S. A. Cosby: ''S. A. Cosby is a welcome, refreshing new voice in crime literature. '' DENNIS LEHANE ''Sensationally good'' LEE CHILD ''I loved BLACKTOP WASTELAND'' STEPHEN KING ''Pitch-perfect'' DENNIS LEHANE ''Stunning. Can''t remember the last time I read such a powerful crime novel'' MARK BILLINGHAM ''A superb character study wrapped up in a high-octane heist novel'' Guardian ''Fantastic'' Sunday Times ''Spectacular.'' Daily Mail '' A delicious slice of country gothic wrapped in smart, hard, contemporary neo noir.'' ADRIAN McKINTY
IT'S A CRIME THAT HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. 'Sensationally good - new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. ' LEE CHILD 'Every once in a while a writer comes along with an incredible voice. Think Elmore Leonard, or Chester Himes...add S. A. Cosby to that list ." STEVE CAVANAGH Beauregard "Bug" Montage: honest mechanic, loving husband, devoted parent. He's no longer the criminal he once was - the sharpest wheelman on the east coast, infamous from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida. But when his respectable life begins to crumble, a shady associate comes calling with a clean, one-time job: a diamond heist promising a get-rich payout. Inexorably drawn to the driver's seat - and haunted by the ghost of his outlaw father - Bug is yanked back into a savage world of bullets and betrayal, which soon endangers all he holds dear... Like Breaking Bad in a high-speed collision with Drive , this stunning novel holds up a cracked mirror to the woozy ideals of the American dream - a dazzling, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race and a scarred, self-destructive masculinity. ' Blacktop Wasteland is an urgent, timely, pitch-perfect jolt of American noir.' DENNIS LEHANE 'The book will leave you breathless, but also desperate to know where Cosby will take us next.' LAURA LIPPMAN '...S. A. Cosby reinvents the American crime novel. Blacktop Wasteland thrums and races - it's an intoxicating thrill of a ride' . WALTER MOSLEY The perfect page-turning read for fans of acclaimed writers such as Don Winslow, Attica Locke, Bill Beverley and Thomas Mullen.
