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Small Pleasures: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
By Clare Chambers. 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021'A WORD-OF-MOUTH HIT' Evening Standard 'A very fine book... It's witty and sharp…
and reads like something by Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner, without ever feeling like a pastiche'David Nicholls'Perfect'India Knight 'Beautiful' Jessie Burton'Wonderful'Richard Osman 'Miraculous'Tracy Chevalier 'A wonderful novel. I loved it'Nina Stibbe 'Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind' Lissa Evans 'This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I honestly don't want you to be without it'Lucy Mangan'Gorgeous... If you're looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I could not recommend more' Pandora Sykes'Remarkable... Small Pleasures is no small pleasure'The Times'An irresistible novel - wry, perceptive and quietly devastating'Mail on Sunday'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian'An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish' The Sunday Times 1957, the suburbs of South East London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and - possibly - happiness. But there will, inevitably, be a price to pay.Book of the Year for: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Metro, Spectator, Red Magazine and Good HousekeepingLast Flag Flying: A Novel
By Darryl Ponicsán. 2017
Now a major movie starring Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne, directed by Richard Linklater!Darryl Ponicsan's debut novel The…
Last Detail was named one of the best of the year and widely acclaimed, catapulting him to fame when it was first published. The story of two career sailors assigned to escort a young seaman from Norfolk to the naval prison in Portsmouth, New Hampshire—and of the mayhem that ensues—was made into an award-winning movie starring Jack Nicholson. Last Flag Flying, set thirty-four years after the events of The Last Detail, brings together the same beloved characters—Billy Bad-Ass Buddusky, Mule Mulhall, and Meadows—to reprise the same journey but under very different circumstances. Now middle-aged, Meadows seeks out his former captors in their civilian lives to help him bury his son, a Marine killed in Iraq, in Arlington National Cemetery. When he learns that the authorities have told him a lie about the circumstances of his son's death, he decides, with the help of the two others, to transport him home to Portsmouth. And so begins the journey, centered around a solemn mission but, as in the first book, a protest against injustice and celebration of life too, at once irreverent, funny, profane, and deeply moving.Last Flag Flying is now a major movie from Amazon Studios, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, and Laurence Fishburne.Dark Music: The gripping new thriller from the author of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB
By David Lagercrantz. 2022
A gripping new thriller from the bestselling author of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEBThe launch of a new series…
inspired by Sherlock Holmes. A murder investigation brings together two unlikely allies in a race to uncover a shadowy international conspiracy.Professor Hans Rekke: born into a wealthy Stockholm family, world authority on interrogation techniques, capable of vertiginous feats of logic and observation . . . But he might just fall apart when the going gets tough, leading to substance abuse and despair.Micaela Vargas: community police officer, born to Chilean political refugees in a tough suburb, with two brothers on the shady side of the law.Vargas feels she has something to prove. She's tenacious and uncompromising, but she needs Rekke's unique mind to help her solve the case. Rekke has it all - wealth, reputation - but also a tendency to throw it all away. He needs Vargas to help him get back on an even keel so he can focus his mind on finding the killer before they're both silenced for good.Translated from the Swedish by Ian Giles(P) 2022 Quercus Editions LimitedThe battle of Arnhem, the greatest airborne operation of World War II, was the master-stroke by which Field Marshal Montgomery…
proposed to end the war in 1944. The strategy of "dropping the combined forces of the American and British armies behind German lines" to capture the crucial bridge across the Rhone, ended in defeat for the Allies. 1974.Set in darkness: an Inspector Rebus novel
By Ian Rankin, Sherry Conway Appel. 2000
Inspector John Rebus is assigned to a bogus task force for the new Scottish parliament. He contends with inexperienced--but noble…
class darling--Inspector Derek Linford, while determining whether a newly discovered corpse, a homeless man's suicide, and a murdered politician are connected. Some violence and some strong language. 2000Dark Music: The gripping new thriller from the author of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB
By David Lagercrantz. 2022
A gripping new thriller from the bestselling author of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB"A classic murder mystery . .…
. one Holmes himself would have loved to solve" Independent"A nerve-racking political thriller with the most exciting detective duo in a long time. Bring on their next case" Romy Hausmann, author of Dear Child"A rich, engrossing novel" Literary ReviewThe launch of a new series inspired by Sherlock Holmes. A murder investigation brings together two unlikely allies in a race to uncover a shadowy international conspiracy.Professor Hans Rekke: born into a wealthy Stockholm family, world authority on interrogation techniques, capable of vertiginous feats of logic and observation . . . But he might just fall apart when the going gets tough, leading to substance abuse and despair.Micaela Vargas: community police officer, born to Chilean political refugees in a tough suburb, with two brothers on the shady side of the law.Vargas feels she has something to prove. She's tenacious and uncompromising, but she needs Rekke's unique mind to help her solve the case. Rekke has it all - wealth, reputation - but also a tendency to throw it all away. He needs Vargas to help him get back on an even keel so he can focus his mind on finding the killer before they're both silenced for good.Translated from the Swedish by Ian GilesAmerican Prometheus: the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
By Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin. 2005
Biography of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)--"the father of the atomic bomb." Chronicles his New York City upbringing, marriage to…
Kitty Puening, work on the Manhattan Project, and life after the 1954 Atomic Energy Commission hearings which denied Oppenheimer his security clearance for questioning the ethics of nuclear weapons. Pulitzer Prize winner 2006. 2005The Wrong Goodbye
By Toshihiko Yahagi. 2004
A classic slice of Japanese hard-boiled noir paying homage to the master of the genre: Raymond ChandlerThe Wrong Goodbye pits…
homicide detective Eiji Futamura against a shady Chinese business empire and U.S. military intelligence in the docklands of recession Japan. After the frozen corpse of immigrant barman Tran Binh Long washes up in midsummer near Yokosuka U.S. Navy Base, Futamura meets a strange customer from Tran's bar. Vietnam vet pilot Billy Lou Bonney talks Futamura into hauling three suitcases of "goods" to Yokota US Air Base late at night and flies off leaving a dead woman behind. Thereby implicated in a murder suspect's escape and relieved from active duty, Futamura takes on hack work for the beautiful concert violinist Aileen Hsu, a "boat people" orphan whose Japanese adoption mother has mysteriously gone missing. And now a phone call from a bestselling yakuza author, a one-time black marketeer in Saigon, hints at inside information on "former Vietcong mole" Tran and his "old sidekick" Billy Lou, both of whom crossed a triad tycoon who is buying up huge tracts of Mekong Delta marshland for a massive development scheme. As the loose strands flashback to Vietnam, the string of official lies and mysterious allegiances build into a dark picture of the U.S.-Japan postwar alliance. Translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum(P)2021 Quercus Editions LimitedBlood Hunt: From the Iconic #1 Bestselling Writer of Channel 4’s MURDER ISLAND
By Ian Rankin. 1995
It begins with a phone call. Gordon Reeve's brother has been found dead in his car in San Diego. The…
car was locked from the inside, a gun was in his hand. In the US to identify the body Gordon realises that his brother has been murdered. What's more, it's soon obvious that his own life is in danger.Once back in Scotland he finds out his home has been bugged by professionals. But Reeve is a professional too. Ex-SAS, he was half of a two-man unit with someone he came to fear, then to hate. It looks like his nemesis is back...Read by James Frain(p) 2002 Orion Publishing GroupThe Wrong Goodbye
By Toshihiko Yahagi. 2004
A classic slice of Japanese hard-boiled noir paying homage to the master of the genre: Raymond ChandlerThe Wrong Goodbye pits…
homicide detective Eiji Futamura against a shady Chinese business empire and U.S. military intelligence in the docklands of recession Japan. After the frozen corpse of immigrant barman Tran Binh Long washes up in midsummer near Yokosuka U.S. Navy Base, Futamura meets a strange customer from Tran's bar. Vietnam vet pilot Billy Lou Bonney talks Futamura into hauling three suitcases of "goods" to Yokota US Air Base late at night and flies off leaving a dead woman behind. Thereby implicated in a murder suspect's escape and relieved from active duty, Futamura takes on hack work for the beautiful concert violinist Aileen Hsu, a "boat people" orphan whose Japanese adoption mother has mysteriously gone missing. And now a phone call from a bestselling yakuza author, a one-time black marketeer in Saigon, hints at inside information on "former Vietcong mole" Tran and his "old sidekick" Billy Lou, both of whom crossed a triad tycoon who is buying up huge tracts of Mekong Delta marshland for a massive development scheme. As the loose strands flashback to Vietnam, the string of official lies and mysterious allegiances build into a dark picture of the U.S.-Japan postwar alliance. Translated from the Japanese by Alfred BirnbaumBlood Hunt
By Ian Rankin. 1995
The horror has just begun... A brilliant thriller from the No.1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES.'No…
one writes more gripping stories than Rankin' TLSIt begins with a phone call. Gordon Reeve's brother has been found dead in his car in San Diego. The car was locked from the inside, a gun was in his hand. In the US to identify the body Gordon realises that his brother has been murdered. What's more, it's soon obvious that his own life is in danger.Once back in Scotland he finds out his home has been bugged by professionals. But Reeve is a professional too. Ex-SAS, he was half of a two-man unit with someone he came to fear, then to hate. It looks like his nemesis is back...The zookeeper's wife
By Diane Ackerman. 2007
When Germany invaded Poland, bombers devastated Warsaw--and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers…
Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into the empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants and refusing to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, even as Europe crumbled around her. Bestseller. 2007.Monuments Men: Allied heroes, Nazi thieves, and the greatest treasure hunt in history
By Bret Witter, Robert M Edsel. 2010
From 1943 to 1951, 350 or so men and women from 13 Allied nations served in the Monuments, Fine Arts…
and Archives section of the Allied armed forces. This was the most ambitious effort in history to preserve the world's cultural heritage in times of war. They were known simply as 'Monuments Men'. This is their story. 2010.La trêve (Le livre de poche #15438)
By Primo Levi. 2003
A la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, un groupe d'Italiens, rescapés des camps nazis, entame une marche de plusieurs…
mois : « accompagnés » par l'Armée Rouge, ils cherchent à rejoindre leur terre natale. Héros et traîtres, paysans et voleurs, savants et nomades se retrouvent pêle-mêle dans une réjouissante pagaille : autant d'hommes qui redécouvrent, émerveillés, la vie, le monde, la forêt, les filles, sans oublier l'art du trafic pour subsister... La Trêve est le récit picaresque et authentique de leurs tribulations extravagantes sur les routes d'Europe centrale. A travers la confrontation de deux peuples, Primo Levi révèle les ressources merveilleuses d'hommes qui se montrèrent à la hauteur de leur destin.Baghdad Central
By Elliott Colla. 2014
Baghdad Central is a noir debut novel set in Baghdad in September 2003 The US occupation of Iraq is…
a swamp of incompetence and self-delusion The CPA has disbanded the Iraqi army and police as a consequence of its paranoid policy of de-Ba athification of Iraqi society Tales of hubris and reality-denial abound culminating in Washington hailing the mess a glorious mission accomplished Inspector Muhsin al-Khafaji is a mid-level Iraqi cop who deserted his post back in April Khafaji has lived long enough in pre- and post-Saddam Iraq to know that clinging on to anything but poetry and his daughter Mrouj is asking for trouble Nabbed by the Americans and imprisoned in Abu Ghraib Khafaji is offered one way out-work for the CPA to rebuild the Iraqi Police Services But it s only after United States forces take Mrouj that he figures out a way to make his collaboration palatable and even rewarding Soon he is investigating the disappearance of young women translators working for the US Army The bloody trail leads Khafaji through battles bars and brothels then finally back to the Green Zone where it all began This is a first novel by Elliott Colla an American writer totally immersed in Middle Eastern affairs He is a professor of Arabic literature at Georgetown University and a well-known translator from the Arabic of local fiction and poetry He lives between Washington DC and the Middle EastLe Pacifique: de l'autre côté de l'océan,l'enfer
By Hugh Ambrose. 2011
Novembre 1941, les troupes américaines quittent la Chine. Août 1945, l'avion du général MacArthur se pose sur le territoire japonais.…
Entre ces deux événements, cinq recrues inexpérimentées, cinq soldats venant d'horizons différents sont plongés dans une guerre violente sur le front asiatique. Débâcle de Bataan, tumulte de Guadalcanal, implacables forteresses de corail de Peleliu, terribles charniers d'Okinawa ; puis retour au pays, triomphal mais douloureux. Chacun joue son rôle dans ce conflit, et tous doivent puiser dans leurs ultimes ressources physiques et mentales pour venir à bout d'un ennemi qui préfère mourir plutôt que de se rendre. Descriptions régulières de violence, beaucoup de langage grossier, et quelques descriptions de nature sexuelle. 2011. Titre uniforme: The Pacific.We were soldiers once -and young: Ia Drang, the battle that changed the war in Vietnam
By Harold G Moore, Joseph L Galloway. 1993
Lieutenant General Moore and Galloway, a journalist, focus on the first major ground battle of a war that lasted ten…
years. Drawing on their own experiences and that of other participants, they describe four days of combat waged by 450 men in the Ia Drang valley of Vietnam and provide their view of the impact of this war on a proud generation of soldiers. 1993.War
By Sebastian Junger. 2010
For one year, in 2007-2008, Sebastian Junger accompanied a single platoon of thirty men from the storied 2nd battalion of…
the U.S. Army, as they fought their way through a remote valley in Eastern Afghanistan. Over the course of five trips, Junger was in more firefights than he can count, men he knew were killed or wounded, and he himself was almost killed. War is a narrative about combat: the fear of dying, the trauma of killing and the love between platoon-mates who would rather die than let each other down. Violence and strong language. Bestseller. 2010.Defiance: the Bielski partisans
By Nechama Tec. 2008
The prevailing image of European Jews during the Holocaust is one of helpless victims, but many Jews struggled against the…
terrors of the Third Reich. This is the history of one such group, a forest community numbering more than 1,200 Jews, that carried out the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. These men and women of all ages - hungry, largely unarmed, and exposed to harsh winter weather - smuggled Jews out of heavily guarded ghettos, led retaliatory raids against Nazi collaborators, and offered protection to all Jewish fugitives who could find their way to them. Some descriptions of violence. 2008.The great escape
By Paul Brickhill. 2000
The Great Escape tells how more than six hundred men in a German prisoner of war camp worked together to…
achieve an extraordinary break-out. Every night for a year they dug tunnels, and those who weren't digging forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes to wear once they had escaped. All of this was conducted under the very noses of their prison guards. When the right night came, the actual escape itself was timed to the split second - but of course, not everything went according to plan... 2000.