Søgeresultater: 80

Summary: For lovers of Downton Abbey. In this dazzling stand-alone sequel to The Fairbairn Girls, a new generation of the Fairbairn family must confront – and overcome – life's difficulties as war looms. 1913: The aristocratic Fairbairns are reunited for Christmas when Lady Rothbury's daughter Diana invites the whole family to her estate. Laura, now a successful dressmaker, is the first to arrive with her daughter, Caroline, followed by Lady Rothbury, her five other daughters and their families. But as the New Year approaches, the family's happy reunion is about to be shattered. Affairs, war and tragedy are all on the horizon for the Fairbairn girls, who must negotiate new heartbreak and hardship. Will Caroline, who shows great talent as a ballet dancer, find her moment to shine? Are separations as irrevocable as they appear? Love, loss, forgiveness and joy thread through the lives of the Fairbairn family – but who will get their happy ending?

Summary: Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Herman Charles Bosman Prize Published on the centenary of the death of literary master, Henry James. 'Live all you can; it's a mistake not to.' This is the maxim of celebrated author Henry James and one which his typist Frieda Wroth tries to live up to. Despite her admiration for the great author, Frieda is marginalised and under-valued, lost between the faceless servants and the chattering guests. The arrival of the hypnotic Morton Fullerton brings Frieda into sudden focus. As she is drawn into his confidence she finds herself at the centre of an intrigue every bit as engrossing as the novels she types. Her loyalties tested, Frieda must choose between anonymity in the presence of a literary master and an uncertain love with a man she barely knows. Praise for The Typewriter's Tale '...a hugely refreshing South African novel... Heyns has a knack for building clear, expressive prose like a watchmaker fitting together the workings of a timepiece.' Sunday Times 'Heyns' first novel, The Children's Day, was impressive for its poignant lyricism; by contrast, his second novel, The Reluctant Passenger, was an acerbic romp. In The Typewriter's Tale he has fashioned an elegant combination of these apparently divergent styles.' Sunday Independent '...beams a brilliant light onto the world of Henry James, illuminating the language, manners and social mores of the early twentieth century. This exquisite account of the master and his amanuensis is a tour de force; her story, for all the confines of a typist's life in Rye, a triumph. Heyns is an important figure in South African letters; here he is profound and humourous. The Typewriter's Tale is a breathtaking work and, above all, a pleasure to read.' Zoe Witcomb author of Playing in the Light and October 'The Typewriter's Tale is admirable for its Jamesian inwardness and delicacy. It's a brilliant idea to explore the typewriter's view of the great writer she serves and to imagine so plausibly how she is drawn into his world.' Lyndall Gordon, author of Henry James: His Women and His Art 'What a great idea! The master-observer is observed by his stenographer. A delicious treat for Henry James aficionados, and also for those who may never have read a word. Sly, sympathetic, high-minded, involving, moving, funny. I loved it, and was very sorry to reach the last page. But Freida Wroth and Mr James and the other characters will live on in my mind.' Ronald Frame, author of The Lantern Bearers and Havisham

Summary: It is late summer in East Sussex, 1914. Amidst the season's splendour, fiercely independent Beatrice Nash arrives in the coastal town of Rye to fill a teaching position at the local grammar school. There she is taken under the wing of formidable matriarch Agatha Kent, who, along with her charming nephews, tries her best to welcome Beatrice to a place that remains stubbornly resistant to the idea of female teachers. But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape, and the colourful characters that populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For the unimaginable is coming – and soon the limits of progress, and the old ways, will be tested as this small town goes to war

Summary: On a delayed train, deep in the English countryside, two strangers meet. It is 1942 and they are both men of fighting age. As strangers do, they pass the time by sharing their stories. But walls have ears and careless talk costs lives...At Bletchley Park, Honey Deschamps spends her days transcribing decrypted signals from the German Army. One night, as she walks home in the blackout, she meets a stranger who has a package for her. The parcel, containing a small piece of amber, postmarked from Russia and branded with two censor's stamps, is the first of several. Someone is trying to get a message to her. Can Honey uncover who is sending these mysterious packages and why before it's too late?

Summary: Only weeks into their marriage a young couple embark on a six-month period of separation. Tom Cavendish goes to Japan to build lighthouses and his wife Ally, a doctor, begins her work at the Truro asylum. As the couple navigate their separate professional trials, the foundations of their marriage begin to slip. An exquisite novel of the 1880s, told in alternating parts: two maps of absence—two distinct but conjoined portraits of loneliness and determination

Summary: A novel of love, death and aristocracy in twenties London. Consider Vivien in November 1922. She is twenty-four, and a spinster. She wears fashionably droopy clothes, but she is plain and – worse – intelligent. Fortunately, Vivien is rich, so she can bribe a man to marry her. What nobody knows is that Vivien is pregnant, and will die in childbirth in just a few months...

Summary: 'A wonderful book; rich, evocative, original. I loved it' Joanne Harris "One in ten trees comes up sweet..." In the inhospitable Black Swamp of Ohio, the Goodenough family are barely scratching out a living. Life there is harsh, tempered only by the apples they grow for eating and for the cider that dulls their pain. Hot-headed Sadie and buttoned-up James are a poor match, and Robert and his sister Martha can only watch helplessly as their parents tear each other apart. One particularly vicious fight sends Robert out alone across America, far from his sister, to seek his fortune among the mighty redwoods and sequoias of Gold Rush California. But even across a continent, he can feel the pull of family loyalties...

Summary: San Francisco, 1968: Jeannie and Kip are lost and half-orphaned, their mother dead under mysterious circumstances, and their father - a decorated WWII veteran - consumed by guilt and losing sight of his teenage children. Kip, a dreamer and swaggerer prone to small-time trouble, enlists to fight in Vietnam; Jeannie finds a seemingly safe haven in early marriage and motherhood. But when Kip is accused of a terrible military crime, Jeannie is seduced - sexually, emotionally, politically - into joining an ambiguous anti-war organization. As Jeannie attempts to save her brother, her search for the truth leads her into two dangerous relationships, with a troubled young woman, and a grievously-wounded veteran, that might threaten her marriage, her child, and perhaps her life

Summary: Jerusalem, 1920: in an already fractured city, eleven-year-old Prudence feels the tension rising as her architect father launches an ambitious – and wildly eccentric – plan to redesign the Holy City by importing English parks to the desert. Prue, known as the 'little witness', eavesdrops underneath the tables of tearooms and behind the curtains of the dance-halls of the city's elite, watching everything but rarely being watched herself. Around her, British colonials, exiled Armenians and German officials rub shoulders as they line up the pieces in a political game: a game destined to lead to disaster. When Prue's father employs a British pilot, William Harrington, to take aerial photographs of the city, Prue is uncomfortably aware of the attraction that sparks between him and Eleanora, the English wife of a famous Jerusalem photographer. And, after Harrington learns that Eleanora's husband is a nationalist, intent on removing the British, those sparks are fanned dangerously into a flame. Years later, in 1937, Prue is an artist living a reclusive life by the sea with her young son, when Harrington pays her a surprise visit. What he reveals unravels her world, and she must follow the threads that lead her back to secrets long-ago buried in Jerusalem. The Photographer's Wife is a powerful story of betrayal: between father and daughter, between husband and wife, and between nations and people, set in the complex period between the two world wars

Summary: Scattered Bones is a story of the complicated, fragile and sometimes fatal relations between Indigenous people and settlers in Northern Saskatchewan in the 1920s. Aboriginal spiritual traditions are beginning to cross paths with the construction of a residential school, and ancient acts of violent vengeance are shaping the trajectory of events in the town 200 years later. Based on historical events, Siggins creates a fictional version of the real-life Pelican Narrows, weaving a colorful tale resplendent with its own cavalcade of dynamic, diverse characters - from greedy merchants to the well-meaning but ineffectual clergy - whose stories play out against the backdrop of a visit from a condescending celebrity writer.The conflicts between Aboriginals and settlers, Protestants and Catholics, young and old, traditional and progressive, material and spiritual, all shape life in the little Northern community. Ever eloquent, Siggins proves herself more than capable of creating compelling, thought-provoking fiction with Scattered Bones

Summary: In this stunning novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas one of the realm's most powerful men meets his match-in his lovely, innocent new wife. A ruthless tycoon Savage ambition has brought common-born Rhys Winterborne vast wealth and success. In business and beyond, Rhys gets exactly what he wants. And from the moment he meets the shy, aristocratic Lady Helen Ravenel, he is determined to possess her. If he must take her virtue to ensure she marries him, so much the better . . . A sheltered beauty Helen has had little contact with the glittering, cynical world of London society. Yet Rhys's determined seduction awakens an intense mutual passion. Helen's gentle upbringing belies a stubborn conviction that only she can tame her unruly husband. As Rhys's enemies conspire against them, Helen must trust him with her darkest secret. The risks are unthinkable . . . the reward, a lifetime of incomparable bliss. And it all begins with... Marrying Mr. Winterborne

Summary: Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of A Fever of the Blood by Oscar De Muriel, read by Andy Secombe. New Year's Day, 1889. In Edinburgh's lunatic asylum, a patient escapes as a nurse lays dying. Leading the manhunt are legendary local Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and Londoner-in-exile Inspector Ian Frey. Before the murder, the suspect was heard in whispered conversation with a fellow patient - a girl who had been mute for years. What made her suddenly break her silence? And why won't she talk again? Could the rumours about black magic be more than superstition? McGray and Frey track a devious psychopath far beyond their jurisdiction, through the worst blizzard in living memory, into the shadow of Pendle Hill - home of the Lancashire witches - where unimaginable danger awaits... A Fever of the Blood includes an exclusive interview with the author which is only available to audiobook listeners. * * * Praise for The Strings of Murder : 'This is wonderful . A brilliant , moving , clever , lyrical book - I loved it . Oscar de Muriel is going to be a name to watch .' Manda Scott ' One of the best debuts so far this year - a brilliant mix of horror, history, and humour. Genuinely riveting with plenty of twists, this will keep you turning the pages. It's clever , occasionally frightening and superbly written - The Strings Of Murder is everything you need in a mystery thriller .' Crime Review