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The Mars House: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick
By Natasha Pulley. 2024
'Pure Pulley' STUART TURTON'Joyful and profound' CATRIONA WARD'Simply unputdownable' THOMAS D. LEE'A work of staggering genius' IMRAN MAHMOOD'Charming and funny…
and perfectly paced' TEMI OH'A spiritual heir to Terry Pratchett' ROBIN STEVENS 'Book of the year for me' LAUREN JAMESJanuary Stirling was one of the principal dancers of London's Royal Ballet. Now he's a climate refugee bound for Tharsis, the notorious terraformed colony on Mars. It's a utopia for the naturalised population. For January, as a dangerous Earthstronger whose body is unadjusted to the weaker Martian gravity, it's a life sentence to hard labour and ferocious discrimination. But he will live.Aubrey Gale, energy trillionaire and hereditary senator, is running for election on a hardline platform to protect the native population from dangerous immigrants. The path to equality is simple, requiring all Earthstrongers who choose to come to Mars to undergo the disabling and sometimes fatal process of surgical naturalisation.Which is no life at all.When a disastrous media encounter plunges Aubrey and January's lives into chaos, the solution is a five-year made-for-reality-TV marriage that could secure January's future and ensure Aubrey's political success . . . but it soon becomes clear that thousands of lives hang in the balance, and nothing is as it seems.Timely and utterly unputdownable, The Mars House is an exceptional genre-blending story about privilege, strength, life, and love across class divisions - perfect for fans of Babel by R.F. Kuang, The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, and This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.'I was blown away by this dark, enchanting story of witchcraft, power and injustice. ..nothing short of brilliant' Mary ChamberlainErzsébet…
Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the 'Blood Countess', was accused of the murder of over 600 peasant girls in Hungary, 1610. The Nightingale's Castle tells the story of a woman fighting for her survival and the complicated, often cruel, household over which she presides.Praise for The Nightingale's Castle'Moving, fascinating and haunting.. A mesmerising combination of gothic horror and elegant restraint' Francesca De Tores, author of Saltblood'Gripping... a fascinating exploration of women's struggle to have their truth heard' Louise O'NeillIn 1573, Countess Erzsébet Báthory gave birth to an illegitimate child. The infant, a girl, was swiftly bundled up and handed to a local peasant family to be brought up in one of the hamlets surrounding the Castle. Many years later, 15-year-old Boróka reluctantly leaves the safety of the only home she has ever known in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Trusted members of the countess's household have been sent out to gather new serving girls, and the kindly old man who has taken care of Boróka for almost all her life knows that it is dangerous to turn them away.Boróka struggles to find her place at Cachtice Castle: she is frightened of the countess's reputation as an alleged murderer of young girls, and the women who run the castle are terrifyingly cruel. When plague comes into the heart of the castle, a tentative bond begins to form between Boróka and the Countess Báthory. But powerful forces are moving against a woman whose wealth poses such a threat to the king: can the countess really trust the women who are so close to her? And when the show trial begins against the infamous 'Blood Countess' where will Boróka's loyalties lie?The Book of Words
By Jenny Erpenbeck. 2007
A searing novella about coming of age in a land of tyranny, by one of Germany's most brilliant young authors.…
In The Book of Words, Jenny Erpenbeck captures with amazing virtuosity the inner life of a young girl who survives the totalitarian regime of a curiously unnamed South American country (most likely Argentina during its "dirty war"). Raised by parents whose real identity ends up shocking her, the girl comes of age in a country where gunshots are mistaken for blown tires, innocent citizens are dragged off buses, and tortured and disappeared friends and family return to visit her from the dead.The Brass Age
By Slobodan Šnajder. 2024
'Like Olga Tokarczuk, Šnajder has written a novel about a Europe that has lost its diversity and has beendestroyed by…
fascism, communism and, in recent times, nationalism ... a modern epic' Le Monde'A masterpiece' La RepubblicaThe very next day processions of young men, some still children, began to move around the little town of Nuštar, with drums providing a steady rhythm ... These young men came from German families, Germans living outside the Reich, Volksdeutsche. Some stayed in their houses, some were shut up in the storeroom by their mothers, but as time went on more and more of them followed the drumming ...1769. A hungry year in Germany. Kempf the ancestor departs his homeland with his compatriots in search of a brighter future. Years pass and generations of Germans make Slavonia their home. But in 1940, when Europe is at war once more, this minority, the Volksdeutsch, are called to fight for the Reich, for a land now foreign to them.Among their ranks is Georg Kempf, the narrator's father. Forcibly conscripted into the Waffen SS, he deserts, aware of the danger that this involves. At the end of the war, he falls in love with a committed partisan called Vera despite the unimaginable: if they had met earlier, each one would have had to kill the other.The Brass Age, Slobodan Šnajder's masterpiece, is both a family saga and a powerful historical novel about the destiny of those shackled by history, and the generations doomed to inherit the contradictory fates of their forebears. Šnajder looks to his own biography to capture two hundred years of conflict and dividing ideology. In the process, he reconstructs a world that fell apart.The Brass Age
By Slobodan Šnajder. 2024
'Like Olga Tokarczuk, Šnajder has written a novel about a Europe that has lost its diversity and has beendestroyed by…
fascism, communism and, in recent times, nationalism ... a modern epic' Le Monde'A masterpiece' La RepubblicaThe very next day processions of young men, some still children, began to move around the little town of Nuštar, with drums providing a steady rhythm ... These young men came from German families, Germans living outside the Reich, Volksdeutsche. Some stayed in their houses, some were shut up in the storeroom by their mothers, but as time went on more and more of them followed the drumming ...1769. A hungry year in Germany. Kempf the ancestor departs his homeland with his compatriots in search of a brighter future. Years pass and generations of Germans make Slavonia their home. But in 1940, when Europe is at war once more, this minority, the Volksdeutsch, are called to fight for the Reich, for a land now foreign to them.Among their ranks is Georg Kempf, the narrator's father. Forcibly conscripted into the Waffen SS, he deserts, aware of the danger that this involves. At the end of the war, he falls in love with a committed partisan called Vera despite the unimaginable: if they had met earlier, each one would have had to kill the other.The Brass Age, Slobodan Šnajder's masterpiece, is both a family saga and a powerful historical novel about the destiny of those shackled by history, and the generations doomed to inherit the contradictory fates of their forebears. Šnajder looks to his own biography to capture two hundred years of conflict and dividing ideology. In the process, he reconstructs a world that fell apart.'I was blown away by this dark, enchanting story of witchcraft, power and injustice. ..nothing short of brilliant' Mary ChamberlainErzsébet…
Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the 'Blood Countess', was accused of the murder of over 600 peasant girls in Hungary, 1610. The Nightingale's Castle tells the story of a woman fighting for her survival and the complicated, often cruel, household over which she presides.Praise for The Nightingale's Castle'Moving, fascinating and haunting.. A mesmerising combination of gothic horror and elegant restraint' Francesca De Tores, author of Saltblood'Gripping... a fascinating exploration of women's struggle to have their truth heard' Louise O'NeillIn 1573, Countess Erzsébet Báthory gave birth to an illegitimate child. The infant, a girl, was swiftly bundled up and handed to a local peasant family to be brought up in one of the hamlets surrounding the Castle. Many years later, 15-year-old Boróka reluctantly leaves the safety of the only home she has ever known in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Trusted members of the countess's household have been sent out to gather new serving girls, and the kindly old man who has taken care of Boróka for almost all her life knows that it is dangerous to turn them away.Boróka struggles to find her place at Cachtice Castle: she is frightened of the countess's reputation as an alleged murderer of young girls, and the women who run the castle are terrifyingly cruel. When plague comes into the heart of the castle, a tentative bond begins to form between Boróka and the Countess Báthory. But powerful forces are moving against a woman whose wealth poses such a threat to the king: can the countess really trust the women who are so close to her? And when the show trial begins against the infamous 'Blood Countess' where will Boróka's loyalties lie?The Dead Husband: A brand new gripping crime suspense full of mystery
By Gillian Jackson. 2024
A mysterious disappearance escalates into a murder case, in this riveting new thriller by the author of The Accident. Not…
long after receiving a devastating medical diagnosis, Amy Cooper is at the police station—reporting the disappearance of her husband, Callum. A few miles away, a mother and her children are outdoors enjoying a day in the snow when they discover a dead man in a ditch nearby. The mother calls the police, whose initial investigation indicates the body belongs to the missing husband, killed in a hit-and-run. But the autopsy results reveal to DI Samantha Freeman and DS Jenny Newcombe that the man didn&’t die in a car accident. And a murder investigation is inititated. Now they must work their way through a web of secrets and lies to learn what really happened—and to whom . . .Rhythms: A Novel
By Donna Hill. 2001
It all began in 1927, in the small town of Rudell, Mississippi, after the sudden and tragic death of Cora…
Harvey's parents. She has nothing left except her burning desire to become a singer. But her dream will never come true in Rudell, especially if she marries the man she adores, Dr. David Mackey. So when she sets out for Chicago, everyone in the close knit community, including David believes that the next time they see Cora, her name will be in lights. However, it's not long before Cora finds herself back in Rudell and back in David's arms harboring a secret she dare not reveal. . .A secret that will cause her daughter, Emma to flee Rudell with no intention of ever looking back. And even when Emma finds the perfect man and happiness at last, she is determined to do whatever it takes to keep her family's shameful past at bay. Then the dream that began with Cora comes full circle with her beloved granddaughter Parris whose melodic voice fills the dimly lit nightclubs of New York City. Yet, when tragedy strikes, opening a door to the past, Parris discovers the hidden truths that have ripped the family apart---but which may ultimately bind them together at last.From the dusty roads of the Delta to the pulsing metropolis of New York City, Rhythms is a rich, unforgettable tale about loss and healing, redemption and love.God's Kingdom: A Novel
By Howard Frank Mosher. 2015
Howard Frank Mosher is one of America's most acclaimed writers. His fiction, set in the world of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom,…
chronicles the intertwining family histories of the natives, wanderers, outcasts, and fugitives-white, Native American, escaped slaves fleeing north, French Canadians, and others-who settled in this remote and beautiful place. God's Kingdom explores the Kinneson family through the coming of age of the heir, Jim, and its rich and complicated history. Earnest and innocent, a bright high school student, Jim grows curious about the unspoken "trouble in the family" that haunts his father, a small-town newspaper editor, and his grandfather, a raconteur who keeps the Kinnesons' secrets to himself. Layer by layer, tale by tale, sorting out fact from deliberately obscured legend, Jim explores the Kinnesons' long relationship with others in the Kingdom, culminating in a discovery that forever changes his life and place in that world. Beginning with a magical Thanksgiving Day hunting trip in the autumn mountains, and ending with Jim on the brink of leaving home to find life-and perhaps love-on the other side of the ridge, God's Kingdom unfolds with the patient delight of a master storyteller.A Curtain Falls: A Novel (Detective Simon Ziele #2)
By Stefanie Pintoff. 2010
Following on the heels of Stefanie Pintoff's acclaimed and award-winning debut, A Curtain Falls is a moody and evocative tale…
that follows Ziele and his partners as they scour the dark streets of early-twentieth-century New York in search of a true fiend.The careers of New York City detective Simon Ziele and his former partner Captain Declan Mulvaney went in remarkably different directions after the tragic death of Ziele's fiancée in the 1904 General Slocum ferry disaster. Although both men were earmarked for much bigger things, Ziele moved to Dobson, a small town north of the city, to escape the violence, and Mulvaney buried himself even deeper, agreeing to head up the precinct in the most crime-ridden area in the city.Yet with all of the detectives and resources at Mulvaney's disposal, a particularly puzzling crime compels him to look for someone he can trust absolutely. When a chorus girl is found dead on a Broadway stage dressed in the leading lady's costume, there are no signs of violence, no cuts, no bruises—no marks at all. If pressed, the coroner would call it a suicide, but then that would make her the second girl to turn up dead in such a manner in the last few weeks. And the news of a possible serial killer would be potentially disastrous to the burgeoning theater world, not to mention the citizens of New York.The Real Mrs. Price: A Novel (Blink, Texas Trilogy #1)
By J. D. Mason. 2016
Lucy Price is living the American dream. She has been married to her successful husband and businessman, Edward Price for…
a year and couldn’t be happier until she learns that Eddie is a dangerously ruthless man, heavily involved in illegal activities that threaten not only her marriage, but her life. Eddie abruptly disappears, but not before warning Lucy that if she wants to keep breathing she'd better keep her mouth shut. Six months later, word of her husband surfaces when she learns that he is presumed murdered in a small Texas town, apparently killed by his “wife”, Marlowe Price.Marlowe is no stranger to trouble. An outcast in her own community for being one of those "hoodoo women," who can curse you or cast you under her beguiling spell, Marlowe is shunned at every turn. Six months ago, a whirlwind romance in Mexico led Marlowe to marry the man she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with. For Marlowe and Eddie, there is no such thing as trouble in paradise. But late one night, when Marlowe witnesses her husband putting the body of a dead man in the trunk of his car, the illusion comes crashing down around her and she knows she has to move fast before the devil comes calling once again.Now, Lucy and Marlowe must come together to find out where and who Eddie really is, and help each other through the threat he poses. There's nothing more dangerous than a woman scorned...except for two women scorned who are willing to put their pasts behind them and band together to take one bad man down...Small Blessings: A Novel
By Martha Woodroof. 2014
From debut novelist Martha Woodroof comes an inspiring tale of a small-town college professor, a remarkable new woman at the…
bookshop, and the ten-year old son he never knew he had. Tom Putnam has resigned himself to a quiet and half-fulfilled life. An English professor in a sleepy college town, he spends his days browsing the Shakespeare shelves at the campus bookstore, managing the oddball faculty in his department and caring, alongside his formidable mother-in-law, for his wife Marjory, a fragile shut-in with unrelenting neuroses, a condition exacerbated by her discovery of Tom's brief and misguided affair with a visiting poetess a decade earlier.Then, one evening at the bookstore, Tom and Marjory meet Rose Callahan, the shop's charming new hire, and Marjory invites Rose to their home for dinner, out of the blue, her first social interaction since her breakdown. Tom wonders if it's a sign that change is on the horizon, a feeling confirmed upon his return home, where he opens a letter from his former paramour, informing him he'd fathered a son who is heading Tom's way on a train. His mind races at the possibility of having a family after so many years of loneliness. And it becomes clear change is coming whether Tom's ready or not.A heartwarming story with a charmingly imperfect cast of characters to cheer for, Small Blessings's wonderfully optimistic heart that reminds us that sometimes, when it feels like life has veered irrevocably off track, the track shifts in ways we never can have imagined.Breathless in Bombay: Stories
By Murzban F. Shroff. 2008
Shortlisted for the 2009 Commomwealth Writers' Prize Shroff's vibrant narratives in this concept collection of 14 stories set in contemporary…
Bombay feature a range of beautifully drawn characters in fascinating situations: from the laundrywallas' water shortage problems, to the doomed love affair of a schizophrenic painter and his Bollywood girlfriend, to the wandering thoughts of a massagewalla at Chowpatty Beach, to the heart-warming relationship of a carriage driver and his beloved horse. Each of these stories is richly crafted and arranged against the grand chaotic backdrop of life that is Bombay. Shroff's love for his hometown shines through, but so does his deep understanding of its challenges and problems. The reader is afforded an insider's view of this pulsating city, and through an unforgettable emotional and cultural journey comes to care for the characters presented in these stories.The Autobiography of God: A Novel
By Julius Lester. 2004
Rebecca Nachman is a Rabbi without a synagogue. Having resigned from her dwindling congregation, she now works as a college…
counselor at a small Vermont college advising students about private matters and offering the "Jewish perspective" on issues raised at faculty dinner parties.Deeply lonely and on the edge of losing her faith, she comes into possession of a Torah, the last relic of Czechowa, a village of Polish Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. With the Torah, the unquiet spirits of the village dead begin to visit Rebecca. On one visit they leave a manuscript written in Hebrew and titled My Life, an autobiography by God who, like any eager author, is seeking a sympathetic reader. No one has ever finished reading the manuscript, including Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Maimonides, and Augustine. God thinks Rebecca will. Rebecca's life is further complicated when one of her advisees-a troubled young woman who seemed on the verge of confessing something-is found murdered. As the college struggles to comprehend the tragedy and a police investigation is launched, Rebecca begins reading, and so comes to confront the central challenge to her faith in His most troubling and unlikely incarnation.Julius Lester's first adult novel in more than a decade, The Autobiography of God marks the return of an utterly original and provocative voice in American letters, addressing religion with wicked humor and profound reverence.Emerald Magic: Great Tales of Irish Fantasy
By Ray Bradbury, Jacqueline Carey, Cecilia Dart-Thornton. 2004
Mythology and magic come alive in this collection of Irish fantasy stories by some of today's finest authors.Ireland is a…
nation that holds fast to its history and heritage, and nowhere is that more true than in its folktales and legends. From the great Celtic myths featuring the bard Taliesin, the terrible Morrigan, the heroic Cuchulain, or the noble and cunning Sidhe to strange and mysterious tales of today, the stories and traditions of the Emerald Isle hold a strong attraction for many. Stories are told in cottage hearths from Galway to Dublin, and from the windblown rocky Cliffs of Mohr to the seaside villages where fishing boats still roam the oceans. Tall tales and town stories are as much a way of life as a pint and good conversation at the local pub.Emerald Magic brings together today's best fantasy authors to explore the myths of the Irish, telling their own versions of these ancient tales of luck, love, and honor, or drawing upon centuries of Irish myths and folktales and updating them into brand-new stories. Edited and with an introduction by bestselling author Father Andrew M. Greeley, Emerald Magic contains fourteen wonderful stories of legend and lore, including:"A Woman Is a Fast Moving Picnic" by Ray Bradbury. A group of pub regulars set out to discover the truth behind a local song and answer that age-old question: Just how fast does a person sink in a bog?"The Isle of Women" by Jacqueline Carey. In an age long ago, a warrior sailing for vengeance happens upon an island ruled by a woman like no other. But if he is to continue his quest, he must choose between her and his duty. "Speir-Bhan" by Tanith Lee. A woman who finds and reads her grandfather's diary unleashes the specter of an old debt that, even in today's modern age, must be paid---one way or the other."A Drop of Something Special in the Blood" by Fred Saberhagen. In the late eighteenth century, an Irish author encounters a being that he will turn into his greatest literary creation."The Cat with No Name" by Morgan Llywelyn. A lonely girl neglected by her parents finds an unexpected friend in the alley behind her home---one that may be more than it first seems."The Butter-Spirit's Tithe" by Charles de Lint. Even in twenty-first-century America, it is still not wise to anger the spirits of the world, as a young musician discovers when a butter-spirit who had cursed him nine years earlier comes to claim his soul. "Land of Heart's Desire" by Elizabeth Haydon. A young man discovers the magical truth about his parents' marriage, and sets a chain of events in motion that will force him to choose between the life he has always known---and another life he could have."The Swan Pilot" by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. In the far future, spaceship pilots travel through interdimensional portals from planet to planet---and the only thing more important than knowing how to fly is knowing how to handle the strange hallucinations that appear during the journey.Filled with the spirit and magic of the stories of Ireland, Emerald Magic is a collection of fantasy stories that will delight and captivate from the first page to the last. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.Poor White (Belt Revivals)
By Sherwood Anderson. 2018
Hugh McVey moves from Missouri to the agrarian town of Bidwell, Ohio. He invents a mechanical cabbage planter to ease…
the burden of famers, but an investor in town exploits his product, which fails to succeed. His next invention, a corn cutter, makes him a millionaire and transforms Bidwell into a center of manufacturing. McVey, perennially lonely and ruminative, meets Clara Butterworth, who attends college at nearby Ohio State and is perennially harassed by her potential matches. Published one year after Winesburg, Ohio, in 1920, Poor White has a modernist style, an realist attention to every day life, and an eerily contemporary resonance.The Burning
By Jens Liljestrand. 2021
Life goes on in the face of a climate crisis in this astonishing and unforgettable debut novel that follows four…
characters as they struggle to survive in a burning world. Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out. Didrik is a forty-year-old media consultant whose misguided efforts to become the family hero render him a pathetic vision of masculine incompetence. Melissa is an influencer with a suitcase full of lost dreams after denying climate change for years. André is the nineteen-year-old loser son of an international sports star who uses the erupting violence around him to orchestrate his own personal vengeance on his negligent father. And Vilja is Didrik&’s teenaged daughter who steps into a leadership role in the face of adult ineptitude. &“Simultaneously nerve-wracking, astute, and consumedly entertaining&” (Sydsvenskan, Sweden) and through these four related stories, Even If Everything Ends eloquently illustrates a picture of a very near future that is at once extraordinary and entirely realistic.An Elegant Theory
By Noah Milligan. 2016
"A delightfully intelligent psychological thriller, Noah Milligan&’s debut novel is as ambitious and complex as its main character, Coulter Zahn,…
who aspires to nothing less than a complete understanding of the universe. An Elegant Theory intrigues the mind, thrills the senses, and keeps the reader engaged straight through to the surprising ending. An auspicious debut."—Rilla Askew, author, Kind of KinCoulter Zahn sees reality differently than others. Much like light can theoretically be in all places at once, Coulter sees multiple versions of his life. A promising PhD candidate at MIT, he and his young wife are nervously expecting their first child. When his dissertation comes under intense criticism, his estranged mother returns, and Sara tells him she's leaving him, Coulter&’s already delicate mental state becomes further fragmented.One evening, with his life and mental health unraveling, Coulter loses control, irreparably changing the course of the lives around him. But the very next morning, he catches a break in his research, discovering the true shape of the universe. Influenced by those around him and his own untrustworthy psyche, Coulter must decide whether to face the consequences of his actions or finish his research, perhaps making the greatest contribution to science since Einstein&’s theory of relativity.An existential psychological thriller, An Elegant Theory explores how the construction of memory and consciousness can shape motive, guilt, and identity through the lens of a modern-day mad-scientist motif."An Elegant Theory is a vibrant puzzle of a novel, an unstoppable force—full of twists, turns, and surprises while remaining fully grounded in real life to today. Surely, this is the start of a great literary career."—Jessica Anya Blau, author, The Trouble with Lexie"An excellent novel for discussion with a group or book club . . . . I believe Noah Milligan is an author to keep an eye on in the future."—booksandpals.blogspot.caNoah Milligan's other books:Five Hundred PoorInto Captivity They Will GoAmanda in Spain: The Girl in the Painting (An Amanda Travels Adventure #2)
By Darlene Foster. 2011
"Be prepared to learn a lot about the culture while you follow Amanda on her adventure.&”—Laura Best, author, Bitter, Sweet&“What…
a great way for a young person to learn about a culture and to be inspired to experience other countries themselves."—Irene Butler, author, Trekking the Globe with Mostly Gentle FootstepsAmanda Jane Ross is certainly becoming a world traveller; she's now in sunny Spain on vacation with her friend Leah. While there, she encounters a mysterious young girl who looks eerily like the girl in a famous painting she saw in a Madrid museum. Even weirder, the girl keeps showing up wherever Amanda finds herself - Madrid, the remote mountains of rural Spain, the beaches on the Mediterranean Sea, a lively fiesta and the busy streets of Barcelona. Amanda wants to help this sweet, young girl and her beloved pony escape the clutches of a mean horse-dealer.Come with Amanda on her next adventure as she attempts to unravel the mystery behind the Girl in the Painting while she treks across Spain - always one step ahead of danger! Be sure to read all the books in this exciting Amanda Travels series! 1. Amanda in Arabia: The Perfume Flask2. Amanda in Spain: The Girl in the Painting3. Amanda in England: The Missing Novel4. Amanda in Alberta: The Writing on the Stone5. Amanda on the Danube: The Sounds of Music6. Amanda in New Mexico: Ghosts in the Wind7. Amanda in Holland: Missing in Action8. Amanda in Malta: The Sleeping LadyThe Fantabulous Fens
By Gautam Sen. 2011
The Fens are a most unusual family. Father and Mother Fen are rather ordinary, but their children? First, there's Mumbo,…
an elephant; Baby Panda, a giant panda bear, Koala, a koala (of course), and Pinchu and Panchu who are very, very small. When the Fens move into their new house, a curious neighbor drops in, and while the visit starts well enough, on spotting Mumbo, she faints. When she finally leaves, she makes it her job to make this gentle family public enemies. What will become of the Fens? Find out in this wonderful tale of this fantastic and fabulous family.