Timed to coincide with the release of the third and final series of the award-winning Downton Abbey, which has attracted audiences of more than 10 million viewers. This Brief Guidecelebrates the Victorian and Edwardian eras that marked the golden age of the English countryhouse: a time when opulence and formality attained a level that would never be matched again. Author Michael Paterson skillfully and entertainingly explores the myths and realities of thisvanished world, both upstairs and down.

«New York Times Bestseller * Los Angeles Times Bestseller * Washington Post Bestseller * San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller * Chicago Tribune Bestseller «A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction.»—Los Angeles Times Book Review After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound royal bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and beloved works of fiction in recent years. Universally acclaimed upon publication, Life of Pi is a modern classic.»

«In his second novel, from 1959, Kurt Vonnegut revealed his true gifts as a science fiction writer. «The spareness hits you first,» wrote William Deresiewicz in a 2012 retrospective on Vonnegut. «The first page contains 14 paragraphs, none of them longer than two sentences, some of them as short as five words. It's like he's placing pieces on a game board-so, and so, and so.» Vonnegut gives us the bizarre, entangled lives of Malachi Constant, the richest man in 22nd-century America; Winston Niles Rumfoord, a now-disembodied human who knows everything that has happened or will happen; and a robot from Trafalmadore, millions of years old, who needs a spare part for his flying saucer.»

«From the bestselling author of Labyrinth and Sepulchre comes an absorbing new adventure, steeped in the haunting secrets of the Languedoc. Summer, 1942. A spirited and courageous young woman, Sandrine, finds herself drawn into the world of the Resistance in Carcassonne under German occupation. Her network — code named Citadel' is made up of ordinary women who risk everything to fight the sinister battles raging the the shadows around them. As the war reaches its violent and bloody conclusion, Sandrine's fate is tied up with that of three very different men. But who is the real enemy? Who is the real threat. And who is the true guardian of the ancient secrets that for generation have drawn people to the foothills of the Pyrenean mountain. This is the story of Citadel — an epic of passion, loyalty, courage and betrayal. Kate Mosse is the author of three works of non-fiction, three plays and five previous novels, including the number one bestsellers, Labyrinth, Sepulchre and the Winter Ghosts. Her novels have been translated into thirty-seven languages.»

Rendering the horror of a zombie apocalypse in the restrained language of Pride and Prejudice — as well as in the gruesome paintings of Robert Parada — this wall calendar carries forth the humor of Seth Grahame-Smith's dead-on sendup of Jane Austen's comedy of manners. A different calamity is depicted for each month.

A passenger train hurtling through the night. An unwed teenage mother headed to Moscow to seek a new life. A cruel-hearted soldier looking furtively, forcibly, for sex. An infant disappearing without a trace. So begins Martin Cruz Smith's masterful Three Stations, a suspenseful, intricately constructed novel featuring Investigator Arkady Renko. For the last three decades, beginning with the trailblazing Gorky Park, Renko (and Smith) have captivated readers with detective tales set in Russia. Renko is the ironic, brilliantly observant cop who finds solutions to heinous crimes when other lawmen refuse to even acknowledge that crimes have occurred. He uses his biting humor and intuitive leaps to fight not only wrongdoers but the corrupt state apparatus as well. In Three Stations, Renko's skills are put to their most severe test. Though he has been technically suspended from the prosecutor's office for once again turning up unpleasant truths, he strives to solve a last case: the death of an elegant young woman whose body is found in a construction trailer on the perimeter of Moscow's main rail hub. It looks like a simple drug overdose to everyone — except to Renko, whose examination of the crime scene turns up some inexplicable clues, most notably an invitation to Russia's premier charity ball, the billionaires' Nijinksy Fair. Thus a sordid death becomes interwoven with the lifestyles of Moscow's rich and famous, many of whom are clinging to their cash in the face of Putin's crackdown on the very oligarchs who placed him in power. Renko uncovers a web of death, money, madness and a kidnapping that threatens the woman he is coming to love and the lives of children he is desperate to protect. In Three Stations, Smith produces a complex and haunting vision of an emergent Russia's secret underclass of street urchins, greedy thugs and a bureaucracy still paralyzed by power and fear.

This bountiful collection of more than fifty tales by one of Ireland s liveliest and most popular writers offers holiday charm and Gaelic humor by the Christmas stockingful. Drawing on the rich folk culture of County Kerry, John B. Keane brings new life to old customs in his portrayals of not-so-ordinary country people during the Christmas season. Keane revisits the Christmases celebrated by characters like Dotie Tupper and Johnny Naile, the doughty Canon Doyle and deaf Canon Cornelius Coodle, the amiable spendthrift Aenias Mackson, and Hiccups O Reilly, who disappears one Christmas Eve for seven years. Keane bears delightful witness to the trials and triumphs of the inhabitants of County Kerry, Ireland.

Today everyone knows Mickey Mouse as the cheerful ambassador of all things Disney. But back in the 1930s, Mickey gained fame as a rough-and-tumble, two-fisted epic hero — an adventurous scrapper matching wits with mobsters, kidnappers, spies, and even (gulp!) city slickers! And Mickey's greatest feats of derring-do took place in his daily comic strip, written and drawn by one of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th century — Floyd Gottfredson. For its first quarter-century, Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse was a rip-roaring serial: the most popular cartoon-based comic of its time, a trendsetting adventure continuity aimed at both kids and grown-ups, and the foundation on which all later Disney comics grew — including the adventures of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge by Gottfredson's Disney colleague Carl Barks. Glimpses of Floyd Gottfredson's masterpiece have been reprinted over the years, most famously in Bill Blackbeard's classic Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. But the whole strip has never been comprehensively collected in English — until now! Fantagraphics Books is proud to bring this classic Disney creation to a 21st century audience in its entirety, starting from the strip's 1930 launch. Relive Mickey's race to a gold mine with Pegleg Pete hot on his heels; Mickey's life on the lam after being framed for bank robbery; even Mickey's ringside battle with a hulking heavyweight champ! The premiere volume features a dozen different adventures starring Mickey, his gal Minnie and her uncle Mortimer, his pals Horace Horsecollar and Butch, the villainous Pegleg Pete, and the mysterious and shrouded Fox. Gottfredson's vibrant visual storytelling has never been more beautifully reproduced; we promise the best reprinting the strip has ever seen, with each daily lovingly restored from Disney's original negatives and proof sheets. Death Valley also includes more than 50 pages of fascinating supplementary features, including rare behind-the-scenes art and vintage publicity material from the first two years of the strip. Critics, scholars, seasoned Disney archivists, and fellow cartoonists provide commentary and historical essays on the strip's creation and execution. Walt Disney often said that his studio's success all started with a Mouse — Walt himself wrote the Mickey Mouse strip before turning it over to the able hands of Gottfredson — and today Mickey is among the world's most recognizable icons. Now it's time to rediscover the wild, unforgettable personality behind the icon: Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse.

Today everyone knows Mickey Mouse as the cheerful ambassador of all things Disney. But back in the 1930s, Mickey gained fame as a rough-and-tumble, two-fisted epic hero an adventurous scrapper matching wits with mobsters, kidnappers, spies, and even (gulp!) city slickers! And Mickey s greatest feats of derring-do took place in his daily comic strip, written and drawn by one of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th century Floyd Gottfredson. For its first quarter-century, Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse was a rip-roaring serial: the most popular cartoon-based comic of its time, a trend setting adventure continuity aimed at both kids and grown-ups, and the foundation on whichall later Disney comics grew including the adventures of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge by Gottfredson's Disney colleague Carl Barks.Glimpses of Floyd Gottfredson's masterpiece have been reprinted over the years, most famously in Bill Blackbeard's classic Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. But the whole strip has never been comprehensively collected in English until now! Fantagraphics Books is proud to bring this classic Disney creation to a 21st century audience in its entirety, starting from the strip s 1930 launch. Relive Mickey's race to a gold mine with Pegleg Pete hot on his heels; Mickey's life on the lam after being framed for bank robbery; even Mickey's ringside battle with a hulking heavy weight champ! The premiere volume features a dozen different adventures starring Mickey, his gal Minnie and her uncle Mortimer, his pals Horace Horse collar and Butch, the villainous Pegleg Pete, and the mysterious and shrouded Fox. Gottfredson's vibrant visual storytelling has never been more beautifully reproduced; we promise the best reprinting the strip has ever seen, with each daily lovingly restored from Disney's original negatives and proof sheets. Death Valley also includes more than 50 pages of fascinating supplementary features, including rare behind-the-scenes art and vintage publicity material from the first two years of the strip. Critics, scholars, seasoned Disney archivists, and fellow cartoonists provide commentary and historical essays on the strip's creation and execution.Walt Disney often said that his studio s success all started with a Mouse Walt himself wrote the Mickey Mouses trip before turning it over to the able hands of Gottfredson and today Mickey is among the world s most recognizable icons. Now it s time to rediscover the wild, unforgettable personality behind the icon: Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse.

Aurelio Zen of Rome's elite Criminalpol is back, but nobody's supposed to know it. After months in hospital recovering from a bomb attack on his car, he is lying low under a false name at a beach resort on the Tuscan coast, waiting to testify in an imminent anti-Mafia trial. Zen has clear instructions: to sit back and enjoy the classic Italian beach holiday — relaxing in the sun, eating seafood and engaging in a little mild flirtation with the attractive woman sitting under the next umbrella. But Zen is getting restless, and as an alarming number of people are dropping dead around him, it seems just a matter of time before the Mafia manages to finish the job it bungled months before on a lonely Sicilian road. Abruptly, the pleasant monotony of beach life is cut short as Zen finds himself transported to a remote and strange world far from home... and wherever he goes, trouble follows.

When the corpse of the shady industrialist who owns the local football team is found both shot and stabbed with a Parmesan knife, Italian police inspector Aurelio Zen is called to Bologna to oversee the investigation. Recovering slowly from surgery, and fleeing an equally painful crisis in his personal life, Zen is only too happy to take on what at first appears to be a routine and relatively undemanding assignment. But soon a world-famous university professor is shot with the same gun, immediately after publicly humiliating Italy's leading celebrity television chef, and the case — intertwined with the fates of an earnest student of semiotics and a mysterious young immigrant who claims to be from Ruritania — spins out of control, and Zen is in no condition to rise to the challenge. There's also a wild card in the pack, Tony Speranza, Bologna's most flamboyant private detective. Back to Bologna is dazzlingly plotted, features a cast of vivid and idiosyncratic characters, and along the way delivers both comic and serious insights into the realities of modern Italy.

In the seventh book of the acclaimed Aurelio Zen series, the Italian police detective finally receives the order he has been dreading all his professional life — his next posting is to Sicily. Indeed it soon turns out that he will need all his cunning and skill to survive in a milieu where unwritten rules are enforced with ruthless violence, one false step can prove fatal, and the truth must be paid for in blood. The gruesome discovery of an unidentified, decomposed corpse sealed in a railway wagon on a disused siding marks the beginning of Zen's most difficult and dangerous case. Set against the backdrop of the three thousand-year-old city of Catania, in the shadow of the smouldering volcano of Etna, Blood Rain reveals Aurelio Zen at his most desperate and driven.

Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.

After a shipwreck strands him far from home, ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver embarks on a series of remarkable adventures. From the tiny but fierce Lilliputians to the horselike Houyhnhnms and unruly Yahoos, the incredible things Gulliver encounters will spark children's imaginations.

Eleven of the best and most popular tales of the immortal sleuth include Silver Blaze, concerning the curious incident of the dog in the night-time; The Greek Interpreter, starring Holmes' even more formidable brother, Mycroft; and The Final Problem, the detective's notorious confrontation with arch-criminal Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.

Following on from the huge success of the 44 Scotland Street series, Alexander McCall Smith has 'moved house' to a crumbling four-storey mansion in Pimlico — Corduroy Mansions. It is inhabited by a glorious assortment of characters: among them, Oedipus Snark, the first ever nasty Lib Dem MP, who is so detestable his own mother, Berthea, is writing an unauthorised biography about him; and one small vegetarian dog, Freddie de la Hay, who has the ability to fasten his own seatbelt. Although Corduroy Mansions is a fictional name, the address is now registered by the Post Office.

'If you do not want to dwell with evil-doers', wrote Richard of Devizes in 1180, 'do not live in London'. In her third exploration of the city's history, Catharine Arnold focuses on the sex trade, from slave girls brought to service Roman troops in first century Londinium, through medieval stews, 18th century sex clubs and Victorian male brothels to infamous '60s call girls and the internet 'Belle de Jour'.

Take a round-the-world trip and bring back a timeless souvenir. Our Passport Journals will allow you to revisit your memories and fulfill that wanderlust long after your travels have been completed. The pocket-sized hardcover books contain designed pages which re-create the international feel of an actual passport.

What happens within us when we read a novel? And how does a novel create its unique effects, so distinct from those of a painting, a film, or a poem? In this inspired, thoughtful, deeply personal book, Orhan Pamuk takes us into the worlds of the writer and the reader, revealing their intimate connections. Pamuk draws on Friedrich Schiller's famous distinction between 'naive' poets — who write spontaneously, serenely, unselfconsciously — and 'sentimental' poets: those who are reflective, emotional, questioning, and alive to the artifice of the written word. Harking back to the beloved novels of his youth and ranging through the work of such writers as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Stendhal, Flaubert, Proust, Mann, and Naipaul, he explores the oscillation between the naive and the reflective, and the search for an equilibrium, that lie at the center of the novelist's craft. He ponders the novel's visual and sensual power — its ability to conjure landscapes so vivid they can make the here-and-now fade away. In the course of this exploration, he considers the elements of character, plot, time, and setting that compose the 'sweet illusion' of the fictional world. Anyone who has known the pleasure of becoming immersed in a novel will enjoy, and learn from, this perceptive book by one of the modern masters of the art.