Shmuel, a young, idealistic student, is drawn to a mysterious handwritten note on a campus noticeboard. This takes him to a strange house, where an elderly invalid man requires a paid companion, to ar
‘What you do to children matters. And they might never forget’ Sweetness wants to love her child, Bride, but she struggles to love her as a mother should. Bride, now glamorous, grown up, ebony-black a
‘Djinns aren’t real, but if they were, they would only steal children because we have the most delicious souls’Nine-year-old Jai watches too many reality cop shows, thinks he’s smarter than his friend
California. The summer of 1969. In the dying days of a floundering counter-culture a young girl is unwittingly caught up in unthinkable violence, and a decision made at this moment, on the cusp of adu
California. The summer of 1969. In the dying days of a floundering counter-culture a young girl is unwittingly caught up in unthinkable violence, and a decision made at this moment, on the cusp of adu
Rose Tremain grew up in post-war London, a city of grey austerity, still partly in ruins, where both food and affection were fiercely rationed. The girl known then as ‘Rosie’ and her sister Jo spent t
** The New York Times Bestseller ** 'The wit, intelligence and deep feeling of Wolitzer's writing are extraordinary' Jeffrey Eugenides ‘Greer didn’t really know why Faith took an interest. But what sh
"In my dreams, I saw a city fall into the sea. I heard the cries of thousands. I saw flames that outshone the lamps of heaven. And all the world was shaken..." At the novel's centre: the vampire Lesta
The wait is over And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light. When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay
In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction. Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velazquez, he bought the picture
What do we mean when we talk about 'taste'? 'Taste' takes countless forms. There is the exclusive taste of highbrow critics such as T.S. Eliot and F.R. Leavis. There is the taste of ordinary book love
"Will it come like a change in the weather? Will its greeting be courteous or rough? Will it alter my life altogether? O tell me the truth about love."( W.H. Auden). Many of the most popular works in the English language celebrate love in all its forms: that heady first flush, the agony of heartbreak, joyful reunions, the love of a parent for a child...And what better way to share these beautiful pieces than to read them aloud, to someone you love? Research has shown that being read to makes us healthier and happier, it enriches our hearts and minds.Put together by The Reader Organisation, whose read-aloud book groups help thousands all across the UK each week, this anthology gathers together favourite poems and prose as well as some surprises. Read 'Our places by the fire place' to a parent, 'My love is come to me' to a partner, 'Most near, most dear' to a child, or even 'A need to reach out sometimes' to a friend. Discover Haruki Murakami's quirky take on love at first sight and, alo
Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are neighbours. One is black, one white. Both are successful women with impressive careers. Both have recently been widowed. And both are sworn enemies, sharing hed
'It was a game of love and death. Neither of us will ever speak about it. It's locked inside us.' Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem d
** BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK ** ‘It has always seemed to me that what I write about is humanity in extremis, pushed to the unendurable, and that it is important to tell people what really happens i
**BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK**'A modern masterpiece' GuardianUncovering the mystery of her mother’s disappearance as a child: Laura Cumming, prize-winning author and art critic, takes a closer look
What happens when one attempts to exchange the life one is given for something better? Can we transform the possibilities we are born into? A State of Freedom prises open the central, defining events
What happens when one attempts to exchange the life one is given for something better? Can we transform the possibilities we are born into? A State of Freedom prises open the central, defining events
