The Gardener of Baghdad

A God in Ruins

Kate Atkinson · 468 pages

Ursula Todd's brother Teddy is an old man trying to come to grips with his post-War life and with a modern world and family. Switching back and forth in time between memories of his childhood and his present, Teddy is an oblivious husband, a rueful father. He never quite got over the War and part of him never adjusted to having a future. Would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father, and grandfathe

The Piano Teacher

Janice Y.K. Lee · 328 pages

In the sweeping tradition of The English Patient, a gripping tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong. In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world

Birdsong

Sebastian Faulks · 483 pages

Set before and during the great war, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale.Set before and during the great war, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. His life goes through a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love aff

The Japanese Lover

Isabel Allende · 336 pages

La novela se desarrolla en la ciudad de San Francisco, en una residencia de ancianos, en el año 2010, aunque gran parte de la historia evoca años anteriores y países distintos. Aborda temas como el amor, el desarraigo, los prejuicios raciales, la familia y la eutanasia. ---------- "From New York Times and internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende, an exquisitely crafted love story an

The Song of Hartgrove Hall

Natasha Solomons · 400 pages

"A captivating novel that evokes the author's New York Times bestseller The House at Tyneford Natasha Solomons's breathtaking new novel has it all: a love triangle, family obligations, and rediscovering joy in the face of grief, all set against the alluring backdrop of an English country estate perfect for fans of Downton Abbey It's a terrible thing to covet your brother's girl New Year's Eve, Dor

The Song Before it is Sung

Justin Cartwright · 288 pages

A stunning new novel from the author of The Promise of Happiness On 20 July 1944, Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped an assassin's bomb. Axel von Gottberg and his conspirators were hunted down and hanged from meat-hooks, and the executions filmed. Sixty years later, Conrad Senior is left a legacy of papers by von Gottberg's close friend, the legendary Oxford professor Elya Mendel, and becomes obsessed

Snow Falling on Cedars

David Guterson · 424 pages

On San Piedro, an island of rugged, spectacular beauty in Puget Sound, home to salmon fishermen and strawberry farmers, a Japanese-American fisherman stands trial, charged with murder. The year is 1954, and the shadow of World War II, with its brutality abroad and internment of Japanese Americans at home, hangs over the courtroom. Ishmael Cambers, who lost an arm in the Pacific war and now runs th

The Lost Wife

Alyson Richman · 344 pages

During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, and Josef, who is studying medicine, fall in love. With the promise of a better future, they marry--only to have their dreams shattered by the imminent Nazi invasion. Like so many others, they are torn apart by the currents of war.

A Pigeon and a Boy

Meir Shalev · 311 pages

During the 1948 War of Independence--a time when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages--a gifted young pigeon handler is mortally wounded. In the moments before his death, he dispatches one last pigeon, carrying his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence. Intertwined with this story is the contemporary tale of Yair Mendelsohn, who has his own legacy from the

Twice Born

Margaret Mazzantini, Ann S. Gagliardi · 464 pages

An internationally bestselling, acutely moving story set amidst the atrocities of the Bosnian war, *Twice Born* masterfully plumbs the depths of love, grief, and the all-consuming power of motherhood. Gemma hasn’t been back to Sarajevo in sixteen years. She returns to teach her son Pietro about the city of his birth and the father he never knew. But the visit brings with it impassioned memories of

Crabwalk

Gunter Grass · 234 pages

"A German cruise ship turned refugee carrier, it was attacked by a Soviet submarine in January 1945. Some 9,000 people went down in the Baltic Sea, making it the deadliest maritime disaster of all time.". "Born to an unwed mother on a lifeboat the night of the attack, Paul Pokriefke is a middle-aged journalist trying to piece together the tragic events. While his mother sees her whole existence i

The Frozen Heart

Almudena Grandes · 783 pages

Girl at War

Sara Novic · 320 pages

When her happy life in 1991 Croatia is shattered by civil war, ten-year-old Ana Juric is embroiled in a world of guerilla warfare and child soldiers before making a daring escape to America, where years later she struggles to hide her past.

The Book of Speculation

Erika Swyler · 376 pages

"Simon Watson, a young librarian on the verge of losing his job, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home--a house, perched on the edge of a bluff, that is slowly crumbling toward the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, works for a traveling carnival reading tarot cards, and seldom calls. On a day in

All the Broken Places

John Boyne · 400 pages

TransAtlantic

Colum McCann · 328 pages

A tale spanning 150 years and two continents reimagines the peace efforts of democracy champion Frederick Douglass, Senator George Mitchell and World War I airmen John Alcock and Teddy Brown through the experiences of four generations of women from a matriarchal clan. Newfoundland, 1919. Two aviators, Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown, set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight ac

The Girl You Left Behind

Jojo Moyes · 537 pages

In 1916, French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life - in the hope of seeing her true love one last time. Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly

The Missing Sister

Lucinda Riley · 805 pages

The Kitchen God's Wife

Amy Tan · 532 pages

Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past--including the terrible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie's story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s,

Homeseeking

Karissa Chen · 512 pages

A Long Walk To Water

Linda Sue Park

The Twins

Tessa de Loo · 378 pages

The Secret Scripture

Sebastian Barry · 300 pages

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges

The Nightingale

Kristin Hannah · 460 pages

Despite their differences, sisters Vianne and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Vianne is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off to fight and Vianne finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by their father to help her. As the war progresses