Computer Technology and Computer Programming

A sweeping history of and meditation on humanity's relationship with machines, showing how we got here and what happens nextFaith in technological fixes for our problems is waning. Automation, which promised relief from toil, has reactivated the long-standing fear of job redundancy. Information technology, meant to liberate us from traditional authority, is placing unprecedented powers of surveillance and control in the hands of a purely secular Big Brother.And for the first time, artificial intelligence threatens anthropogenic disaster – disaster caused by our own activities. Scientists join imaginative writers in warning us of the fate of Icarus, whose wings melted because he flew too close to the sun. This book tells the story of our fractured relationship with machines from humanity’s first tools down to the present and into the future.It raises the crucial question of why some parts of the world developed a ‘machine civilisation’ and not others, and traces the interactions between

On the first day of monsoon the old ramshackle building appears – this is The Rainfall Market. Inside: magical bookstores, hairdressers, perfumeries – anything your heart desires. But to enter you need a Ticket.And to get one you must write a letter telling of your misfortune. Lonely schoolgirl Serin dreams of a bigger, better life. And she can’t believe her luck when her letter of woe is answered with a Ticket.Accompanied by Isha the cat, Serin enters Rainfall Market. She has just two weeks to choose a perfect life in exchange for her misfortunes. But there is a catch.If she doesn’t find the dream life she seeks, she’ll be trapped here forever . . .

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to betheMargaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glo

Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement.It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season…In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.

This rich and enjoyable book recounts the tangled, dynamic encounters through which Asia has influenced Europe and North America over centuries'A rich history… Harding writes with energy and insight, wearing a tremendous amount of learning lightly' - Rana Mitter, Financial TimesThis rich and enjoyable book by the acclaimed author of Japan Story explores the many ways in which Asia has influenced Europe and North America over centuries of tangled, dynamic encountersFrom the time of the ancient Greeks onwards the West's relationship with Asia consisted for the most part of outrageous tales of strange beasts and monsters, of silk and spices shipped over vast distances and an uneasy sense of unknowable empires fantastically far away. By the twentieth century much of Asia might have come under Western rule after centuries of warfare, but its intellectual, artistic and spiritual influence was fighting back.The Light of Asia is a wonderfully varied and entertaining history of the many ways in

Winner of the Women's Prize For Fiction 2024'A masterpiece of historical fiction' MONICA ALI, chair of judges for the Women's Prize for FictionSixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war tears through her hometown of Jaffna, her dream takes her on a different path as she sees those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. Desperate to act, she must ask herself: is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?'An unforgettable account of a country and a family coming undone… Brotherless Night is a spectacular work of historical fiction' Guardian'A heartbreaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war' BRIT BENNETT, bestselling author of THE VANISHING HALF'Blazingly brilliant' CELESTE NG, bestselling author of LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE'Stunningly great' Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of ROMANTIC COMEDY, via Twitt

THERE'S A NEW COOK IN THE CASTLE. AND HE'S GOT A MAGIC TOUCH . . .A heartwarming blend of cosy fantasy and romance in this tale of a wayward house witch and his magical adventures in and out of the royal kitchen.When Finlay Ashowan joins the kitchen of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. Which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly scrumptious meals.But Fin has secret, one that may not stay hidden for long . . .As his past begins to catch up with him, Fin must negotiate court politics and stay out of trouble, together with his familiar, Kraken his fluffy black kitten.But things become even more complicated when he catches the eye of a certain lady who just so happens to be part of the royal court.Can Fin successfully hide his secret and protect his heart? Or will the chaos of the castle and its good-hearted people get the best of him?Filled with fascinating characters, courtly

The House Witch #1-3A heartwarming and humorous blend of fantasy, romance, and mystery featuring a witch with domestic powers and the royal household he serves . . . dinner.When Finlay Ashowan joins the staff of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. No one knows where he comes from or how he came to be where he is, which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly uncanny meals.But Fin’s secret identity doesn’t stay hidden for long. After all, it’s not every day a house witch and his kitten familiar, Kraken, take to meddling in imperial affairs. As his powers are gradually discovered by the court, Fin finds himself involved in a slew of intrigues: going head-to-head with knights with less-than-chivalrous intentions, helping to protect the pregnant queen, fending off the ire of the royal mage, and uncovering a spy in the castle. And that’s only the beginning—because Fin’s past is catc

WHOLESOME, HEARTHWARMING, HOMELY.THE HOUSE WITCH AND THE CHARMING OF AUSTICEIS A CUP OF COCOA IN A BOOK AND WILL BE PERFECT FOR FANS OFLEGENDS AND LATTESAND TJ KLUNEA heart-warming cosy fantasy that sees house witch Finlay Ashowan quickly go from cook to spy in order to protect his Kingdom, and his love...---THERE'S A NEW SPY IN THE KITCHEN - AND IT TURNS OUT TO BE THE COOK . . .Between his work for the King and Queen of Daxaria and a new (secret) relationship with Lady Annika Jenoure, Fin the cook's life is anything but tidy.Annika is being forced from the castle after there are threats to her safety. All the while tension is brewing with the kingdom of Troivack and war seems to draw ever closer.As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, Fin is soon promoted from cook to spy and sent into the city of Austice where he must sleuth out the plans of the Troivackian troops allegedly hidden there.However, an unwelcome visitor is about to knock on his door, and Fin’s world starts to unravel

IT'S TIME FOR THE COOK TO PUT DOWN HIS FRYING PAN - AND LEAP INTO THE FIRE . . .House witch Finlay Ashowan is pulled out of the kitchen—and into the fire—as war, family, and love collide in the third book of this fantasy romance series.Having somehow convinced Lady Annika Jenoure to marry him, all Finlay Ashowan wants to do is settle down, cook some good meals, and enjoy a quiet life in Daxaria.But fate has different plans . . .Fin’s father, Aidan Helmer – servant of King Matthias of Troivack – has arrived in the kingdom with devastating news: Annika’s brother Charles has been taken prisoner, and the only way his life will be spared is if she or Fin pleads his case.Now it’s up to Fin, with the help of his wily kitten, Kraken, to attempt a daring mission of rescue and espionage.But he’ll need to move quickly before his kingdom, and life, goes up in flames.There will be twists and turns aplenty in the third instalment in the spellbinding House Witch series.WHOLESOME, HEARTHWARMING, HOMEL

It is an ordinary Thursday and things should finally be returning to normal.Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club is concerned. A decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill...or be killed.As the cold case turns white hot, Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), while Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

A major career-spanning collection from the inimitable Nobel Prize-winning poetA major career-spanning collection from the inimitable Nobel Prize-winning poetFor the past fifty years, Louise Glück has been a major force in modern poetry, distinguished as much for the restless intelligence, wit and intimacy of her poetic voice as for her development of a particular form: the book-length sequence of poems. This volume brings together the twelve collections Glück has published to date, offering readers the opportunity to become immersed in the artistry and vision of one of the world's greatest poets.From the allegories ofThe Wild Iristo the myth-making ofAverno; the oneiric landscapes ofThe House on Marshlandto the questing ofFaithful and Virtuous Night- each of Glück's collections looks upon the events of an ordinary life and finds within them scope for the transcendent; each wields its archetypes to puncture the illusions of the self. Across her work, elements are reiterated but endless

當生活的碎浪拍上繭居女子拒絕踏出的家門。 For anyone who has lost hope, Meredith will help you find it . . .Pre-order the most uplifting and unforgettable debut of the summerNAMED 'ONE TO WATCH' IN GRAZIA, CULTUREFLY, THE BOOKSELLER AND BY THE BBC'Gorgeous. I shed tears. Very, very touching, sweet and hopeful' MARIAN KEYES'Beautiful, moving and unexpectedly timely.It's such a pleasure to spend time in Meredith's world' DAISY BUCHANAN'Touching and funny and sad and hopeful. I loved Meredith, Alone so much!' JANE FALLON________Meredith Maggs hasn't left her house in 1,214 days. But she insists she isn't alone.She has her cat, Fred.Her friend Sadie visits when she can. There's her online support group, StrengthInNumbers. She has her jigsaws, favourite recipes, her beloved Emily Dickinson, the internet, the Tesco delivery man and her treacherous memories for company.But something's about to change.First, new friends Tom and Celeste burst into her life, followed by an estranged sister she hasn't spoken to

It was a story that Cassie Bowman couldn't resist:Lore Rivera loved two men - until one of them shot the other...'A special novel' CHRIS WHITAKER'One of the summer's buzziest debut novels' GOODREADS'A fantastic debut' WASHINGTON POST'I absolutely loved it' ASHLEY AUDRAIN'A masterful work of suspense' POPSUGAR*****Lore Rivera was married to two men at once, until on a baking hot day in 1986, one of them found out and shot the other. A secret double life, a tragic murder. That's the story the world knows.It's not the story that fascinates Cassie Bowman.Carrying the weight of her own family tragedy, true-crime writer Cassie wants to know more about the mysterious woman at the heart of it all, Lore.How did one woman fall in love with two different men? How did she balance the love and the lies?To her surprise, Cassie finds that Lore is willing to talk. To finally tell her heartbreaking story - about how a dance became an affair; how a marriage became a murder.As the two women grow closer,

THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted, bestselling author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in lifeLucy Barton is a successful writer living in New York, navigating the second half of her life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. A surprise encounter leads her to reconnect with William, her first husband - and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of theirdaughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a tender, complex, decades-long partnership.Oh William! captures the joy and sorrow of watching children grow up and start families of their own; of discovering family secrets, late in life, that alter everything we think we know about those closest to us; and

Daisy's back, and getting into more trouble than ever - this time as a detective! Cheeky, extremely readable and funny young fiction from the bestselling author behind the hilarious OI FROG series. Wh

Enter the crazy world of rap poet Benjamin Zephaniah!A reissue of the wonderfully irreverent collection of poetry for young people, touching on anything from vegetables to the Queen and from sewage to

From two former military officers and award-winning authors, a chillingly authentic geopolitical thriller that imagines a naval clash between the US and China in the South China Sea in 2034 – and the path from there to a nightmarish global conflagrationA chilling geopolitical thriller and real-world cautionary tale presenting a dark yet very possible future of war between the US and China – from two former military officers and award-winning authorsTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ‘A rippingly good read’ Wired______________12 March 2034.In the South China Sea, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is conducting routine freedom of navigation patrol while US Marine aviator Major Chris ‘Wedge’ Mitchell tests a new stealth technology near Iranian airspace.By the end of the day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Hunt’s destroyer will lie at the bottom of the ocean.And a new, terrifying era will be at hand.So begins a disturbingly plausible novel, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and deco

A window onto the past, full of fire and life: two immortal traditions as the English language has never seen them beforeA Penguin ClassicThe poets in this book are philosophers and statesmen; priestesses and warriors; teenage girls, concerned for their birthday celebrations; drunkards and brawlers; grumpy old men and chic young things. They speak of hopes, fears, loves, losses, triumphs and humiliations. Every one of them lived and died between 1,900 and 2,800 years ago.The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verseis a volume without precedent. It brings together the best of two traditions normally treated in isolation, and in doing so tells a captivating story about how literary book-culture emerged out of a society structured by song. The classical vision of lyric poetry as practised by the greatest ancient poets - Sappho and Horace, Bacchylides and Catullus - mingles and interacts with our expansive modern understanding of the lyric as the brief, personal, emotional poetry of a h

From twice Booker-shortlisted author Deborah Levy, a moving and revelatory collection exploring the muses that have shaped her life and work as a writerIn The Position of Spoons, Deborah Levy invites the reader into the interiors of her world, sharing her most intimate thoughts and experiences, as she traces and measures her life against the backdrop of the literary and artistic muses that have shaped her.From Marguerite Duras to Colette and Ballard, and from Lee Miller to Francesca Woodman and Paula Rego, we can relish here the richness of their work and, in turn the richness of the author’s own.Each page draws upon Levy’s life in exalting ways, encapsulating the wonderful precision and astonishing depth of her writing, as she seamlessly shifts between and meditates on questions of mortality, language, suburbia, gender, consumerism and the poetics of every day living. From the child born in South Africa, to her teenage years in Britain, to her travels across the world as a young woman

The fourteenth century was a time of fabled crusades and chivalry, glittering cathedrals and grand castles. It was also a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague. Here, Barbara Tuchman masterfully reveals the two contradictory images of the age, examining the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes and war dominated the lives of serf, noble and clergy alike.Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries and guilty passions, Tuchman recreates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, above all, knights. The result is an astonishing reflection of medieval Europe, a historical tour de force.

★ 《查令十字路84號》✕《明天別再來敲門》感動交會★ 《紐約時報》No.1 暢銷小說，超過9萬則五星好評★ 以「書信」寫成的人生故事，溫柔、幽默又動人★ 一位古怪老太太的信件人生，寫出最深刻的原諒與和解七十三歲的席比爾每天寫信給世界。她寫給朋友、寫給作家、寫給校長，也寫給一段始終無法放下的過去。那些機智又犀利的信件，看似日常，卻慢慢拼湊出一個人一生的遺憾與愛。《The Correspondent》是一部溫暖又動人的小說，關於原諒、失去與人生永遠不嫌晚的第二次機會。84 Charing Cross RoadmeetsA Man Called Ovein this Radio 2 Book Club pick: a heartwarming, witty story about the life of an extraordinary woman, told through her letters.Discover the word-of-mouth bestselling phenomenon that thousands of readers are calling their favourite book of the year!THE #1NEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLERATIMESBOOK OF THE YEARA BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICKSHORTLISTED FOR THE GOODREADS READERS' CHOICE AWARDS'A warm, funny gem of a novel'LAURA HACKETT,THE TIMES'Masterful . . . I was delighted and moved'NEW YORK TIMES'I can't praise it enough. It's an absolute triumph'CLARE CHAMBERS'Tremendous'FREDRIK BACKMAN'Shows us what a glorious thing growing older can be'FLORENCE KNAPP'The year's breakout novel no one saw coming'WALL STREET JOURNAL–Every mo

PRE ORDER NOW! From the New York Times bestselling author of A Million Kisses In Your Lifetime comes a grumpy x sunshine summer romance that sizzles. After a very public breakup, a summer at her family’s lake house is exactly what heiress Rachel Henderson needs. But after setting her mother’s expensive curtains on fire, Rachel is saved by a very handsome fireman.Too bad he’s also the grumpiest guy she’s ever met. Rachel keeps running into the fireman around the lake, and when she breaks through his tetchy façade, she finds herself totally falling for him. And it seems he feels the same.But as summer draws to a close, Rachel must decide: Will she head back to the city, or stay by the lake forever.

Albionshakes the country house novel to its foundations, in a story of family, inheritance and accountabilityTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OFEXPECTATION'Hope breathes fresh thinking into the dusty corners and overgrown hedges of the English country house dilemma'The Times'Superb … Anna Hope engages, head-on, with some of the most urgent and challenging issues facing the world today, and transforms them into spellbinding family drama' Jonathan Coe‘Beautiful . . . As provocative as it is tender’ Miranda Cowley Heller, author ofThe Paper PalaceThe Brooke family are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home – at the heart of a thousand acres of English countryside – to bury Philip: husband, father and the blinding sun around which they have all orbited for as long as they can remember.They must grapple with their shared grief as well as their shared inheritance. Each of his children is adamant that their father has given them his blessing, and none are willing to

Million-copy bestselling psychologist Dr Julie is back with the book that will carry you through life's difficult momentsPRE-ORDER THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM BESTSELLING CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST AND TIKTOK SENSATION DR JULIE, AUTHOR OFWHY HAS NOBODY TOLD ME THIS BEFORE?NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK'Absolutely extraordinary...I needed this book 30 years ago.'MEL ROBBINS, #1 bestselling author ofTHE LET THEM THEORY-------------------------------------------------------------------Feeling overwhelmed?Open when…stress takes over.Facing self-doubt?Open when…imposter syndrome strikes.Lost your direction?Open when…you need fresh motivation.--This is the book for life's twists and turns, when being human starts to get complicated.Amust-have companionto Dr Julie's international bestsellerWhy Has Nobody Told Me This Before?, which taught us the skills to strengthen our future mental health,Open When...is the book to turn to when youfind yourself in the eye of the storm.Within this book a

A dazzling and sweeping new novel from #1Sunday Timesbestselling author Emily Henry!The dazzling new love story and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick from the TikTok sensation andSunday Timesbestselling author ofBeach ReadandFunny Story.AN INSTANT NUMBER ONESUNDAY TIMESBESTSELLER!‘Emily knows how to craft a love story like the all-time greats’-- Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo‘A new Emily Henry novel is an event, ushering in longer days and promises of summer’The Skinny-----When Margaret Ives, the famously reclusive heiress, invites eternal optimist Alice Scott to the balmy Little Crescent Island, Alice knows this is it: her big break. And even more rare: a chance to impress her family with a Serious Publication.The catch? Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud, Hayden Anderson, is sure of the same thing.The proposal? A one-month trial period to unearth the truth behind one of the most scandalous families of the 20th Century, after which s

From 'a master crime writer' (Financial Times), a chilling story where Japanese tradition and Western crime collide – now available in English for the first timeMusashino, 1959. A young Japanese flight attendant is found strangled on the icy banks of the river. The police suspect foul play – but the deeper they dig, the more they collide with a wall of silence.At the centre of it all stands a foreign priest and the Guglielmo Church, a charitable Christian mission. The dead woman’s connection to the church is undeniable. But what begins as a routine investigation quickly turns into something far more treacherous, entangling together narcotics, post-war relief schemes and the delicate web of international diplomacy.As the story moves from back alleys to diplomatic sanctuaries, following the twists and turns of Detective Fujisawa's investigation, Seicho Matsumoto masterfully constructs a slow-burning procedural where truth is clear but justice is not permitted.Translated from Japanese by

The unmissable new mystery in the bestselling, record-breaking Thursday Murder Club series by Richard OsmanIt’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who fears for their life, the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into their most explosive investigation yet, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?The unmissable new mystery in the bestselling, record-breaking Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman-----Praise for Richard Osman and the Thursday Murder Club series‘Brilliantly suspenseful’ JEFFERY DEAVER‘Deplorably good’ IAN RANKIN‘I smiled a million times’ MARIAN KEYES‘Warm, wise and witty’ VAL MCDERMID‘Osman just gets better’ SHARI LAPENA'The thing

The global phenomenon from the bestselling author ofA Good Girl's Guide to MurderGet ready for the unmissable new thriller from the #1 internationally bestselling author ofA Good Girl's Guide to Murder'This truly unique premise snowballs intoa roller coaster ride of page-turning suspenseandknock-out twists!'Freida McFadden'Athrilling, twisting, heartbreaker. Holly Jackson’s adult debut is fresh, fun andimpossible to put down'Chris Whitaker'An original and unique thriller that I’ll be thinking about for a long time'Claire Douglas******In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin.She’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.Until, on the night of Halloween, Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.She suffers a catastrophic brain injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, she’ll suffer a deadly aneurysm.Jet never thought of herself as h

A heartwarming new WWII saga series that sees a young woman swap a Welsh mining town to work at Buckingham PalaceAvailable for pre-order - a heartwarming new WWII saga of friendship, bravery and scandal that sees a young woman swap a Welsh mining town for Buckingham Palace'A heartwarming tale of true friendship!' Rosie Goodwin'A gripping and heart warming read set in the royal palace' Daisy StylesAs bombs rain down on London, the palace gates open for a young royal maid . . .The year is 1944, and in South Wales, seventeen-year-old pit miner’s daughter Rosa Edwards has just secured a coveted new position at Buckingham Palace.Setting off for the Big Smoke with only a small suitcase to her name, she is determined to seize this unexpected opportunity while her sweetheart is away fighting in Europe. And it also brings her closer to the mystery of where Alice, her best friend who moved to London and disappeared without trace, is.But within Rosa’s first few weeks in post, a grave accusation l

A heartbreaking novel of love, courage and strength. Based on a real pioneering hospital.PRE-ORDER THE BRAND NEW EMOTIONAL, HEARTBREAKING YET COURAGEOUS STORY FROM LOUISE MORRISH.As the war rages on outside, it is the battle within that must be won, through the quiet strength of words.Josie Everley may have survived the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, but she lost the man she loves most to the sea.Broken-hearted and destitute, Josie must start afresh as a library assistant at a groundbreaking, all-female-run military hospital in Endell Street.As she focuses on her work, she never expected to meet Theo, a wounded soldier suffering his own trauma who finds solace amongst the books.As Josie steps up to the role of librarian and loses her heart to Theo, the war around them continues to be a cruel companion and Josie must muster all her strength and courage to make it through.Will Josie find her happy-ever-after amongst the heartbreak?For fans of THE MYSTERIOUS BAKERY ON RUE DE PARIS, THE FOR

An essential exploration of Polish literature, with a foreword by Olga TokarczukA revelatory and richly varied collection of Poland's greatest short stories, with a foreword by Nobel Prize-winner Olga TokarczukWitty, surprising and sparkling, this anthology is an essential exploration of Polish literature. Its thirty-nine superb stories run the length of the literal and imaginative creation of Poland, from 1918 (when Poland regained its independence after 123 years of colonization by the neighbouring empires) to the present.The stories include ‘Miss Winczewska’, by the acclaimed twentieth-century writer Maria Dabrowska (1889—1965), based on her experience of helping to establish a library for soldiers at the Citadel military base in Warsaw in the interwar period; and 'In the Shadow of Brooklyn' by Stanislaw Dygat (1914—1978), the comical tale of a young man's envy of what he imagines to be his father's success with women. At the contemporary end, it includes a story by Nobel Prize winn

A powerful and essential tale of female freedomLonglisted for the International Booker Prize 2026The internationally acclaimed masterpiece from one of Iran's most influential writers - a powerful and essential tale of female freedom'The best feminist novel I know. It's thrilling, beautiful and hilarious' Johanne Lykke Holm'A courageous, talented woman, and above all, a great writer' Marjane Satrapi, author of PersepolisWomen Without Men traces the interwoven destinies of five women – including a wealthy middle-aged housewife, a sex worker and a schoolteacher – as they arrive by different paths to live together in an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.Drawing on elements of Islamic mysticism and recent Iranian history, this unforgettable novel depicts women escaping the narrow confines of family and society, and imagines their future living in a world without men.Translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh

From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book – which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title.SHORTLISTED FOR BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION WRITING 2025From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book – which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title.At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining.Then, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, where a desperate battle to save the lives of these waterbodies is under way.And fi

Like a long winter’s dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful historyWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 2024SHORTLISTED FOR FOYLES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025Like a long winter’s dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history‘One of the most profound and skilled writers working on the contemporary world stage’ Deborah LevyBeginning one morning in December, We Do Not Part traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to the home of her old friend Inseon. Hospitalized following an accident, Inseon has begged Kyungha to hasten there to feed her beloved pet bird, who will otherwise die.Kyungha takes the first plane to Jeju, but a snowstorm hits the island the moment she arrives, plunging her into a world of white. Beset