The locals in the southern Italian town where he lives call him Signor Farfalla — Mr. Butterfly: for he is a discreet gentleman who paints rare butterflies. His life is inconspicuous — mornings spent brushing at a canvas, afternoons idling in the cafes, and evening talks with his friend the town priest over a glass of brandy. Yet there are other sides to this gentleman's life. Clara — the young student who moonlights in the town bordello. And another woman who arrives with $100,000 and a commission, but not for a painting of butterflies. With this assignment returns the dark fear that has dogged Signor Farfalla's mysterious life. Almost instantly, he senses a deadly circle closing in on him, one which he may or may not elude. Part thriller, part character study, part drama of deceit and self-betrayal, A Very Private Gentleman shows Martin Booth at the very height of his powers.

In the early hours of New Year's 1994, Russian troops invaded the Republic of Chechnya, plunging the country into a prolonged and bloody conflict that continues to this day. A foreign correspondent in Moscow at the time, Asne Seierstad traveled regularly to Chechnya to report on the war, describing its affects on those trying to live their daily lives amidst violence. In the following decade, Seierstad became an internationally renowned reporter and author, traveling to the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other war-torn regions. But she never lost sight of this conflict that had initially inspired her career. Over the course of a decade, she watched as Russia ruthlessly suppressed an Islamic rebellion in two bloody wars and as Chechnya evolved into one of the flashpoints in a world now focused on the threat of international terrorism. In 2006, Seierstad finally returned to Chechnya, traveling in secret and under the constant threat of danger. In a broken and devastated society she lived with orphans, the wounded, the lost. And she lived with the children of Grozny, those who will shape the country's future. She asks the question: What happens to a child who grows up surrounded by war and accustomed to violence? A compelling, intimate, and often heartbreaking portrait of Chechnya today, The Angel of Grozny is a vivid account of a land's violent history and its ongoing battle for freedom.

For the first time in his life, Jacob Reckless is afraid. For years he's stolen across to another world. A dark enchanted place he's loved for its treasure, secrets and dangers. Until now. Will, his younger brother, has followed him with terrible consequences: the boy will turn to beast; the girl he loves will break her heart and chaos will rule forever, unless Jacob can spin a fairytale to save them..

In these five tales of intellectual derring-do, Sherlock Holmes is shown at the height of his powers: he cooperates with a young Winston Churchill in the famed siege of Sydney Street; helps defeat a plan for a German invasion outlined in the Zimmerman Telegram; establishes a link between two missing light-house keepers and the royal treasures of King John; contends with a supernatural curse placed upon an eccentric aristocrat and discovers a lost epic of Lord Byron. But it is all in a day's work for the great detective, who continues to defy the odds and lives to ratiocinate another day.

Georgie Sinclair's life is coming unstuck. Her husband's left her. Her son's obsessed with the End of the World. And now her elderly neighbour Mrs Shapiro has decided they are related. Or so the hospital informs her when Mrs Shapiro has an accident and names Georgie next of kin. This, however, is not a case of a quick ward visit: Mrs Shapiro has a large rickety house full of stinky cats that needs looking after that a pair of estate agents seem intent on swindling from her. Plus there are the 'Uselesses' trying to repair it (uselessly). Then there's the social worker who wants to put her in a nursing home. Not to mention some letters that point to a mysterious, painful past. As Georgie tries her best to put Mrs Shapiro's life back together somehow she must stop her own from falling apart...

Donald Sturrock's Storyteller is the authorized biography of Roald Dahl, one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

Music is Andrew Zuckerman's latest masterpiece, an extraordinary sequel to the highly acclaimed Wisdom. For this new, ambitious project, he now turns his unique perspective to music. Sixty eminent individuals — artists, composers, producers and performers from rock, rap, dance, soul, R&B, country, classical, reggae, pop, jazz, world and more — have all been subjected to Zuckerman's democratic interview technique and hyperreal photographic style to create an inspiring, illuminating and brilliant glimpse into the world of music and musicians. A full list of participants is still to be finalized, but confirmed participants include Tori Amos, Billy Corgan, Peter Gabriel, Yoko Ono, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Tom Waits, Philip Glass, Burt Bacharach, Danny Elfman, Quincy Jones, John Williams, Willie Nelson, Dave Brubek, Cindi Lauper, Ziggy Marley, Mary J. Blige, Ravi Shankar and Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens).

Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze, come smell your way among the trees, come touch rough bark and leathered leaves: Welcome to the night. Welcome to the night, where mice stir and furry moths flutter. Where snails spiral into shells as orb spiders circle in silk. Where the roots of oak trees recover and repair from their time in the light. Where the porcupette eats delicacies — raspberry leaves — and coos and sings. Come out to the cool, night wood, and buzz and hoot and howl — but do beware of the great horned owl — for it's wild and it's windy way out in the woods!

Our Composition Books are a modern statement on a writing tradition. Its durable construction and lined pages are great for academic assignments, notes or daily journal entries. Conversion tables and other helpful information can be found on the inside covers. It also features a removable no-residue label that let's you decide whether or not to keep the classic-look.

Our Composition Books are a modern statement on a writing tradition. Its durable construction and lined pages are great for academic assignments, notes or daily journal entries. Conversion tables and other helpful information can be found on the inside covers. It also features a removable no-residue label that let's you decide whether or not to keep the classic-look.

The team behind the New York Times bestseller The Book of General Ignorance turns conventional biography on its head — and shakes out the good stuff. Following their Herculean -or is it Sisyphean? — efforts to save the living from ignorance, the two wittiest Johns in the English language turn their attention to the dead. As the authors themselves say, The first thing that strikes you about the Dead is just how many of them there are. Helpfully, Lloyd and Mitchinson have employed a simple — but ruthless — criterion for inclusion: the dead person has to be interesting. Here, then, is a dictionary of the dead, an encyclopedia of the embalmed. Ludicrous in scope, whimsical in its arrangement, this wildly entertaining tome presents pithy and provocative biographies of the no-longer-living from the famous to the undeservedly and — until now — permanently obscure. Spades in hand, Lloyd and Mitchinson have dug up everything embarrassing, fascinating, and downright weird about their subjects' lives and added their own uniquely irreverent observations. Organized by capricious categories — such as dead people who died virgins, who kept pet monkeys, who lost limbs, whose corpses refused to stay put — the dearly departed, from the inventor of the stove to a cross-dressing, bear-baiting female gangster finally receive the epitaphs they truly deserve.

What was life in the Red Army like for the ordinary soldier during the Great Patriotic War, the fight between the Soviet Union and Germany on the Eastern Front? How far is the common perception of Red Army heroism and sacrifice borne out by historical reality? And what was the daily experience of the individual soldier caught up in this immense and ruthless conflict? The 160 contemporary photographs from the Russian archives that have been selected for this book give a striking insight into all sides of wartime service for the Soviet soldier. The whole range of military experience is portrayed here, from recruitment and the rigors of training to transport, marching and the ordeal of combat.

A leading historian re-creates the final hours of peace in Europe. On August 24, 1939, the world held its collective breath as Hitler and Stalin signed the now infamous nonaggression pact, signaling an imminent invasion of Poland and daring Western Europe to respond. In this dramatic account of the final days before the outbreak of World War II, award-winning historian Richard Overy vividly chronicles the unraveling of peace, hour by grim hour, as politicians and ordinary citizens brace themselves for a war that could spell the end of European civilization. Nothing was entirely predictable or inevitable. The West hoped that Hitler would see sense if they stood firm. Hitler was convinced the West would back down. Moments of uncertainty alternated with those of confrontation; secret intelligence was used by both sides to support their hopes. The one constant feature was the determination of Poland, a country created only in 1919, to protect its newfound independence against a vastly superior enemy. 1939 documents a defining moment in the violent history of the twentieth century.

After the extraordinary success of Water for Elephants, with 3 million copies shipped, Sara Gruen returns with another immensely charming, endlessly surprising, and engaging novel in which a family of apes teaches us what it means to be human. Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants has become one of the most beloved and bestselling novels of our time. Now Gruen has moved from a circus elephant to family of bonobo apes. When the apes are kidnapped from a language laboratory, their mysterious appearance on a reality TV show calls into question our assumptions about these animals who share 99.4% of our DNA. A devoted animal lover, Gruen has had a life-long fascination with human-ape discourse, and a particular interest in Bonobo apes, who share 99.4% of our DNA. She has studied linguistics and a system of lexigrams in order to communicate with apes, and is one of the few visitors who has been allowed access to the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, where the apes have come to love her. In bringing her experience and research to bear on this novel, she opens the animal world to us as few novelists have done. Ape House is a riveting, funny, compassionate, and, finally, deeply moving new novel that secures Sara Gruen's place as a master storyteller who allows us to see ourselves as we never have before.

In this latest, felicitous addition to the Isabel Dalhousie series, our inquisitive heroine comes to see that there are very few of us who are not flawed... herself included. A couple who are old friends of Isabel's ask for her help in a rather tricky situation: A successor is being sought for the headmaster position at their alma mater. The board has four final candidates but has received an anonymous letter alleging that one of them has a very serious skeleton in the closet. Could Isabel discreetly look into it? And so she does. What she discovers about all the candidates is surprising, but what she discovers in herself turns out to be equally revealing — and she finds that she has also unwittingly upset Jamie, the father of her young son. Isabel's investigation will have her exploring issues of charity, forgiveness, and humility as she moves nearer and nearer to some of the most hidden precincts of the heart.

From the author of the adult bestsellers Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game comes an atmospheric, adventurous YA ghost story about a mysterious house that harbors an unimaginable secret.

The remarkable renaissance of Patricia Highsmith continues with the publication of The Highsmith Reader, featuring two groundbreaking novels as well as a trove of penetrating short stories. With a critical introduction by Joan Schenkar, situating Highsmith's classic works within her own tumultuous life, this book provides a useful guide to some of her most dazzlingly seductive writing. Strangers on a Train (1950), transformed into a legendary film by Alfred Hitchcock, displays Highsmith's genius for psychological characterization and tortuous suspense, while The Price of Salt (1952), with its lesbian lovers and a creepy PI, provides a thrilling and highly controversial depiction of the love that dare not speak its name. The Highsmith Reader firmly establishes Highsmith's centrality to American culture by presenting key works that went on to influence a half-century of literature and film. Abandoned by the wider reading public in her lifetime, Highsmith finally gets the canonical recognition that is her due.

A major new history of the eight days in February 1945 when FDR, Churchill, and Stalin decided the fate of the world Imagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the most fascinating historical figures of all time. In this landmark book, a gifted Harvard historian puts you in the room with Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt as they meet at a climactic turning point in the war to hash out the terms of the peace. The ink wasn't dry when the recriminations began. The conservatives who hated Roosevelt's New Deal accused him of selling out. Was he too sick? Did he give too much in exchange for Stalin's promise to join the war against Japan? Could he have done better in Eastern Europe? Both Left and Right would blame Yalta for beginning the Cold War. Plokhy's conclusions, based on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against conventional wisdom-cemented during the Cold War — and argues that an ailing Roosevelt did better than we think. Much has been made of FDR's handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Yalta is authoritative, original, vividly — written narrative history, and is sure to appeal to fans of Margaret MacMillan's bestseller Paris 1919.

This fantastic new collection picks up where Dorothy L. Sayers' landmark 1929 anthology The Omnibus of Crime left off, bringing together monumental, important, and entertaining works of short crime fiction published over eight decades from the era of the Great Depression to the first years of the twenty-first century. In lively introductory essays, celebrated crime writer Tony Hillerman and critic Rosemary Herbert place each story in the context of the author's work and the genre's literary history. Their extraordinary collection is international in scope and emphasizes the most exciting styles and voices, rather than taking a typical decade-by-decade approach. As a result A New Omnibus of Crime is packed with page-turning, engaging, and spine-tingling selections. Stories in this collection include Patricia Highsmith's Woodrow Wilson's Necktie, Sue Grafton's A Poison That Leaves No Trace, and many more, including never-before-published works from Jefferey Deaver, Catherine Aird, and Alexander McCall Smith. A New Omnibus of Crime is a marvelous achievement that brings together some of the greatest crime and mystery short fiction ever collected. Showcasing the work of such revered authors as Dashiell Hammett, P.D James, Ross Macdonald, Sara Paretsky, Ruth Rendell, and Elmore Leonard, it is a definitive volume that will be treasured by all fans of the genre. Essential for anyone with more than a passing interest in detective fiction. Brilliantly assembled, and beautifully edited by people who know what they're doing. Robert B. Parker, author of Cold Service and Resolution. This recent anthology boldly evokes the title of Dorothy Sayers's classic anthology of 1920. The editors aim to showcase the work of the four-score-and-seven years since. Here you'll find the whole gamut, from the tough-guy patter of hard-boiled Raymond Chandler to the more decorous detection practiced by Miss Sayers. David Lehman, Wall Street Journal. The best and most satisfying mystery bargain to come along in years. It will give readers countless hours of pleasure and surprise in one volume. Cleveland Plain Dealer Not a clunker in the bunch... There have been numerous collections since Dorothy L. Sayers', but until now, none has had the depth, intelligence and chutzpah to call itself A New Omnibus of Crime.

By overwhelming popular demand, Stoo Hample's 1961 classic now features a reissue of the recording that inspired a generation of gigglers. I am silly, You are silly, All of us are silly, Willy. And everything in THE SILLY BOOK and THE SILLY RECORD is the silly-willynilliest! There are songy sills (oops!) — silly songs, silly stories, silly poems, silly secrets, silly things to do, a silly good-night, and even silly nothings. Anyone who reads this book — and hears this CD — will laugh like anything, or else turn into a bathtub. First published almost fifty years ago, when it became an uproariously silly success, THE SILLY BOOK and its companion, THE SILLY RECORD, are guaranteed to cause children (and nostalgic adults) to giggle like gigglecopters, roll on the floor, and cheer Boodleheimer, Boodleheimer (CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!).