«Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker, abandons his wife and children for Paris and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. Whilst his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications. Inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin, «The Moon and Sixpence» is at once a satiric caricature of Edwardian conventions and a vivid portrayal of the mentality of a genius.»

Seize this wonderful chance to embark on a Wodehousian voyage on the luxurious liner S.S. Atlantic – in the company of Monty Bodkin, whose passion for Gertrude Butterwick knows no bounds (except those set by the wild-at-heart Hollywood starlet Lotus Blossom and her pet alligator). Also aboard are a movie mogul, the centre-forward for the All-England ladies hockey team and the two Tennyson brothers (one of whom has been mistaken for the late poet laureate and given a fat movie contract…). Also a chatty steward, and a mouse doll in which all manner of things can be hidden. This is Wodehouse afloat – a voyage of pure delight.

With his groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Sword of Shannara and its acclaimed sequels, Terry Brooks brought a new audience to epic fantasy. Then he gave the genre a darkly compelling contemporary twist in his trilogy of the Word and the Void. Last year, in Armageddon’s Children, Brooks undertook the stunning chronicle that united two unique worlds. Now that story of clashing forces of darkness and light, of Shannara’s beginnings and the human race’s possible end, marches forward into an unforgettable second volume full of mystery, magic, and momentous events. Across the ruined landscape that is America–hopelessly poisoned, plague-ridden, burned, and besieged by demon armies bent on exterminating all mortal life – two pilgrims have been summoned to serve the embattled cause of good. Logan Tom has journeyed to desolate Seattle to protect a ragged band of street urchins and the being known as “the gypsy morph”, who is both mortal and magical, and destined to save mankind unless he is destroyed. Likewise, Angel Perez has her own quest, one that will take her from the wreckage of Los Angeles to a distant, secret place untouched by the horrors of the nationwide blight–a place where the race of Elves has dwelled since before man existed. But close behind these lone Knights of the Word swarm the ravening forces of the Void. As the menacing thunder of war drums heralds the arrival of the demons and their brutal minions in Seattle, the young survivors who call themselves the Ghosts are forced to brave the dangerous world of gangs, mutants, and worse to escape the invasion. And Logan Tom must infiltrate a refugee compound to rescue Hawk, the leader of the street urchins, who has yet to learn the truth about who and what he is. Meanwhile, Angel Perez has joined an equally urgent mission: to find the Ellcrys, a fabled talisman crucial to protecting the Elven realm against an influx of unspeakable evil from the dread dimension known as the Forbidding. But Angel and her Elf allies must beware–for a demon spy, with a monstrous creature at its command, walks among them. As the legions of darkness draw the noose tighter, and the time of confrontation draws near, those chosen to defend the soul of the world must draw their battle lines and prepare to fight with, and for, their lives. If they fail, humanity falls.

Against the seductive backdrop of Regency England, New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh sweeps us into the sensual, enthralling world of four teachers at an elite academy for young ladies. As headmistress of Miss Martin’s School for Girls in Bath, Claudia Martin long ago resigned herself to a life without love. Until Joseph, Marquess of Attingsborough, arrives unannounced and tempts her to toss away a lifetime of propriety for an affair that can only lead to ruin, embarking on a plan of seduction that leaves them both yearning for more. But Claudia knows she has no place in Joseph’s aristocratic world. And now that world is about to be rocked by scanda.…An arranged marriage, a secret that will shock the ton, and a man from Claudia’s past conspire to drive the lovers apart. But Joseph is determined to make Claudia his at any cost—even if that means breaking every rule for a love that is everything he has ever wanted.…

«Transparent Things revolves around the four visits of the hero — sullen, gawky Hugh Person — to Switzerland... As a young publisher, Hugh is sent to interview R., falls in love with Armande on the way, wrests her, after multiple humiliations, from a grinning Scandinavian and returns to NY with his bride... Eight years later — following a murder, a period of madness and a brief imprisonment — Hugh makes a lone sentimental journey to wheedle out his past... The several strands of dream, memory, and time [are] set off against the literary theorizing of R. and, more centrally, against the world of observable objects» — Martin Amis»

Medea Georgievna Sinoply Mendez is an iconic figure in her Crimean village, the last remaining pure-blooded Greek in a family that has lived on that coast for centuries. Childless Medea is the touchstone of a large family, which gathers each spring and summer at her home. There are her nieces (sexy Nike and shy Masha), her nephew Georgii (who shares Medea’s devotion to the Crimea), and their friends. In this single summer, the languor of love will permeate the Crimean air, hearts will be broken, and old memories will float to consciousness, allowing us to experience not only the shifting currents of erotic attraction and competition, but also the dramatic saga of this family amid the forces of dislocation, war, and upheaval of twentieth-century Russian life.

Emmi Rothner möchte per E-Mail ihr Abo der Zeitschrift „Like“ kündigen, doch durch einen Tippfehler landen ihre Nachrichten bei Leo Leike. Als Emmi wieder und wieder E-Mails an die falsche Adresse schickt, klärt Leo sie über den Fehler auf. Es beginnt ein außergewöhnlicher Briefwechsel, wie man ihn nur mit einem Unbekannten führen kann. Auf einem schmalen Grat zwischen totaler Fremdheit und unverbindlicher Intimität kommen sich die beiden immer näher – bis sie sich der unausweichlichen Frage stellen müssen: Werden die gesendeten, empfangenen und gespeicherten Liebesgefühle einer Begegnung standhalten? Und was, wenn ja?

Den Richtigen back ich mir. Sie ist jung, sie ist reich, schön – und Witwe. Auch wenn ihr Mann sie kurz vor seinem Tod wegen einer anderen verlassen hat, trauert sie ausgiebig mit ihren Freundinnen um ihn, bei Champagner und Mandarinensaft. Zu dumm, dass sie plötzlich die verrückte Idee hatte, den Mörder ihres Mannes ausfindig zu machen. Denn statt auf der teuersten Einkaufsstraße Moskaus zu flanieren, ist sie jetzt auf der Flucht vor Verbrechern …

When Maxudov's bid to take his own life fails, he dramatises the novel whose failure provoked the suicide attempt. To the resentment of literary Moscow, his play is accepted by the legendary Independent Theatre and Maxudov plunges into a vortex of inflated egos. With each rehearsal more sparks fly and the chances of the play being ready to perform recede. Black Snow is the ultimate back-stage novel and a brilliant satire by the author of The Master and Margarita on his ten-year love-hate relationship with Stanislavsky, Method-acting and the Moscow Arts Theatre.

Eric Clapton is far more than a rock star. Like Dylan and McCartney he is an icon and a living legend. He has sold tens of millions of records, played sell-out concerts all over the world and been central to the significant musical developments of his era. His guitar playing has seen him hailed as 'God'. Now for the first time, Eric tells the story of his personal and professional journeys in this pungent, witty and painfully honest autobiography. These are the memoirs of a survivor, someone who has reached the pinnacle of success, who has had it all, but whose demons have never left him. Eric tells his story as it is, hiding nothing, with a directness and searing honesty that will make this book one of the most compelling memoirs of our time.

A Jeeves and Wooster collection. A classic collection of stories featuring some of the funniest episodes in the life of Bertie Wooster, gentleman, and Jeeves, his gentleman's gentleman — in which Bertie's terrifying Aunt Agatha stalks the pages, seeking whom she may devour, while Bertie's friend Bingo Little falls in love with seven different girls in succession (including the bestselling romantic novelist Rosie M. Banks). And Bertie, with Jeeves's help, hopes to evade the clutches of the terrifying Honoria Glossop...At its heart is one of Wodehouse's most delicious stories, 'The Great Sermon Handicap.'

This is a Blandings novel. This is the first Blandings novel, in which P.G. Wodehouse introduces us to the delightfully dotty Lord Emsworth, his bone-headed younger son, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, his long-suffering secretary, the Efficient Baxter, and Beach the Blandings butler. As Wodehouse wrote, 'without at least one impostor on the premises, Blandings Castle is never itself'. In Something Fresh there are two, each with an eye on a valuable scarab which Lord Emsworth has acquired without quite realizing how it came into his pocket. But of course things get a lot more complicated than this...

Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are the Others. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light. Night Watch Agent Anton Gorodetsky's holiday is abruptly shortened when an urgent call from Gesar — his boss and Night Watch head — forces him to return to work. Gesar has received an anonymous note, stating that an Other has revealed the full truth about their kind to a human, and intends to convert the human in an Other. The note has also been sent to the Day Watch, and to the Inquisition — but only the very highest-level Others know the addresses. So the Inquisition orders the cooperation of Night and Day Watch in an effort to unmask the culprit...

Merlin the Magician will not eat or sleep or speak to anyone in Camelot. What can be done? The enchantress Morgan knows who to ask for help: young Jack and Annie of Frog Creek, Pennsylvania The brother-and-sister team quickly head off in the magic tree house on another magical and historical adventure. Their mission: discover one of the four secrets of happiness. Their journey to a land of fierce samurai and great beauty, the capital city of Edo (now the city of Tokyo), in ancient Japan in the 1600s. Their tools: a research book to guide them and a magic wand with three special rules. In Dragon of the Red Dawn, Mary Pope Osborne transports readers back to the splendor, rich culture, and magic of traditional Japan.

The reader is held captive, and, ultimately, seduced. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Ramses the Great has awakened in Edwardian London. Having drunk the elixir of life, he is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied. Although he pursues voluptuous aristocrat Julie Stratford, the woman for whom he desperately longs is Cleopatra. And his intense longing for her, undiminished over the centuries, will force him to commit an act that will place everyone around him in the gravest danger....

Patty Bigelow thought she'd finally figured life out. Then her wayward sister Leila abandons her child, Tanya, on her doorstep. The aunt and troubled niece slowly learn to live together, with the help of Dr Alex Delaware's counselling. Now, fifteen years later, Tanya is back in Alex's office, a self-possessed Harvard student, about to enter graduate school in clinical psychology. Patty — the only real mother she's ever known — has died and left Tanya with a chilling legacy: a deathbed confession that her aunt murdered a man years earlier. Tanya has tried to let go of the confession. But it soon becomes clear that nothing short of finding out the truth will do. And she needs Alex's help...

This is a P.G. Wodehouse novel. Lord Biskerton, son and heir of the sixth Earl of Hoddesdon, and known to his friends as Biscuit, had red hair, a preliminary scenario for a moustache and a noble determination to escape the disgrace of work. His friend Berry Conway, however, had succumbed to economic pressure and become the secretary to T. Paterson Frisby, a dyspeptic American who had twenty million and loved every cent of it. When Biscuit and Berry pooled ideas for their mutual betterment, and one idea concerned Ann Moon, Frisby's beautiful niece and heiress, they had to lean heavily on Aunt Vera, an old campaigner in the field of love. Frisking Frisby wasn't going to be easy.

«The story of «The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas» is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence.»