Literature

Dickens's final novel, left unfinished at his death, is a tale of mystery whose fast-paced action takes place in an ancient cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in nineteenth century London. Drugs, sexual obsession, colonial adventuring and puzzles about identity are among the novel's themes. At the centre of the plot lie the baffling disappearance of Edwin Drood and the many explanations of his whereabouts.

The daughter of an American millionaire dies on a train en route for Nice... When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again - for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing. The prime suspect is Ruth's estranged husband, Derek. Yet Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie re-enactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board...

When her grandmother learned of Ashima's pregnancy, she was particularly thrilled at the prospect of naming the family's first sahib. And so Ashima and Ashoke have agreed to put off the decision of what to name the baby until a letter comes...'

For now, the label on his hospital cot reads simply BABY BOY GANGULI. But as time passes and still no letter arrives from India, American bureaucracy takes over and demands that 'baby boy Ganguli' be given a name. In a panic, his father decides to nickname him 'Gogol' - after his favourite writer.

Brought up as an Indian in suburban America, Gogol Ganguli soon finds himself itching to cast off his awkward name, just as he longs to leave behind the inherited values of his Bengali parents. And so he sets off on his own path through life, a path strewn with conflicting loyalties, love and loss...

Spanning three decades and crossing continents, Jhumpa Lahiri's much-anticipated first novel is a triumph of humane story-telling. Elegant, subtle and moving, 'The Namesake' is for everyone who loved the clarity, sympathy and grace of Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winning debut story collection, 'Interpreter of Maladies'.

Alexanor is a man who has seen too much blood. He has left the sword behind him to become a healer in the greatest sanctuary in Greece, turning his back on war. But war has followed him to his refuge at Epidauros, and now a battle to end the freedom of Greece is all around him. The Mediterranean superpowers of Rome, Egypt and Macedon are waging their proxy wars on Hellenic soil, turning Greek farmers into slaves and mercenaries. When wounded soldier Philopoemen is carried into his temple, Alexanor believes the man's wounds are mortal but that he is not destined to die. Because he knows Philopoemen will become Greece's champion. Its last hero. The new Achilles.

'Brilliant. A Citizen Kane of a novel' Daily Telegraph__________________________________Meet John James Todd:Scotsman, auteur, Rousseau-fanatic - and 'subversive element'Born in 1899, John James Todd is one of the great, failed geniuses of the last century. His reminiscences, collected in The New Confessions, take us from Edinburgh to the Western Front, the Berlin film-world in the Twenties to Hollywood in the Thirties, Forties and beyond. Suffering imprisonment, shooting, marriage, fatherhood, divorce and McCarthyism, Todd is a hostage to good fortune, ill-judgement, bad luck, the vast sweep of history and the cruel, cruel hand of fate . . . __________________________________'A magnificent feat of storytelling and panoramic reconstruction' Observer'Paced and plotted with sinewy, unfailing skill . . . Boyd has given us a work of rich, ripe and immensely enjoyable entertainment' Sunday Times'Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation' Independent

Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The US Government calls it an 'emancipation' bill; but it isn't about freedom - it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal?Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Pixie - 'Patrice' - Paranteau has no desire to wear herself down on a husband and kids. She works at the factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother, let alone her alcoholic father who sometimes returns home to bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to get if she's ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister Vera. In The Night Watchman multi-award winning author Louise Erdrich weaves together a story of past and future generations, of preservation and progress. She grapples with the worst and best impulses of human nature, illuminating the loves and lives, desires and ambitions of her characters with compassion, wit and intelligence.

Sir Waldo Hawkridge -- wealthy, handsome, eligible, illustrious, and known as 'The Nonesuch' for his athletic prowess -- believes he is past the age of falling in love. But when he comes North to inspect his unusual inheritance at Broom Hall in the West Riding, his arrival leads to the most entertaining of ramifications ... Georgette Heyer won the hearts of a huge worldwide readership with her peerless novels of historical romance - a readership which continues to this day - and in The Nonesuch, all her storytelling skills are in eveidence.

Ο "Συμβολαιογράφος" (1855) είναι το καλύτερο αφήγημα του Αλέξανδρου Ρίζου Ραγκαβή: διαδραματίζεται στην Κεφαλονιά τη δεύτερη δεκαετία του 19ου αιώνα και αναβιώνει την κεφαλονίτικη κοινωνία της εποχής με μια ιστορία δολοπλοκίας, αγωνίας και ερωτικού πάθους, στην οποία οι ήρωες συγχέουν τα όρια ανάμεσα στο "καλό" και στο "κακό". Για τον νεοελληνιστή Roderick Beaton αυτή η "ρεαλιστική ιστορία δολοπλοκίας, αγωνίας και ρομάντζου", μπορεί άνετα να συμπεριληφθεί στην ομάδα εκείνη των μυθιστορημάτων των Collins και του Poe "και μεταξύ των πρώτων αστυνομικών μυθιστορημάτων που γράφτηκαν ποτέ".

Do you have the flair, order and method of Hercule Poirot, or the unassuming, shrewd intelligence of Miss Marple? You're going to need it... Brush off your moustache, collect your knitting needles and put your little grey cells to good use in the case of the missing librarian. With perplexing puzzles left scattered throughout the library to solve, can you complete them and follow the trail of the crime?Begin by unscrambling these anagrams of Agatha Christie classics you'll come across within... * DRUM ON THREE EXPERT SENIORS * FORUM FOR FINDING DAFT TYPO * RARE MUD INDUCES ANON * BAD SCRUM THERE * DAME DOLLY FANS *HE HATED NO INLET *Immerse yourself in the world of Agatha Christie with this new and official puzzling series of events.