Novel

A receiver of stolen goods informs on his chief supplier, setting in motion an increasingly absurd turn of events. This satirical 1728 play was to become the prototype for Threepenny Opera.

The best-selling and award-winning Jennifer Egan guest edits this year's "The Best American Short Stories, " the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction.

'The best Norwegian novel ever' Karl Ove KnausgaardMattis doesn't understand much about the world. He doesn't understand why others call him simple. Or why his sister Hege, who has cared for him in their peaceful lakeside cottage since they were young, gets so frustrated. But he knows that the woodcock which starts to fly over their house every day is a sign something is about to change. And when Hege falls in love, disrupting their familiar existence and unbalancing his thoughts, he decides he must face his fate. Translated by Torbjorn Stoverud and Michael Barnes 'A masterpiece' Literary Review'Mattis, absurd and boastful, but also sweet, pathetic and even funny, is shown with great insight' Sunday Times

Set at the height of the "tulipomania" that gripped Holland in 17th century, this is the story of Cornelius van Baerle, a humble grower whose sole desire is to grow the perfect specimen of the tulip negra. When his godfather is murdered, Cornelius finds himself caught up in the deadly politics of the time, imprisoned and facing a death sentence. His jailor's daughter Rosa, holds both the key to his survival and his chance to produce the ultimate tulip.

Set in 17th-century Holland, this historical novel forms a timeless political allegory in which the cultivation of a rare flower represents the triumph of justice, tolerance, and love over greed and jealousy.

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. NowCollins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These readers have been carefully adapted using the Collins COBUILD grading scheme to ensure that the language is at the correct level for an intermediate learner. This book is Level 3 in the Collins ELT Readers series. Level 3 is equivalent to CEF level B1 with a word count of 11,000 - 20,000 words. Each book includes:* Full reading of the adapted version available for free online* Helpful notes on characters* Cultural and historical notes relevant to the plot* A glossary of the more difficult words* Free online resources for students and teachers atwww.collinselt.com/readers The plot:Colonel Bantry and his wife Dolly live in a grand old house outside a small village. Nothing ever happens there. Imagine their surprise when one morning they are woken by their maid who tells them that the body of a girl has been found in their study. Who is she? And how did she end up on their rug?Dolly asks her friend Miss Marple to help discover the truth - can she help explain this mystery and clear Colonel Bantry's name? About Collins ELT Readers Collins ELT Readers are divided into 7 levels:Level 1 - elementary (A2)Level 2 - pre-intermediate (A2-B1)Level 3 - intermediate (B1)Level 4 - upper- intermediate (B2)Level 5 - upper-intermediate+(B2+)Level 6 - advanced (C1)Level 7 - advanced + (C2) Each level is carefully graded to ensure that the learner both enjoys and benefits from their reading experience.

When Marcel Schwob published The Book of Monelle in French in 1894, it immediately became the unofficial bible of the French Symbolist movement, admired by such contemporaries as Stéphane Mallarmé, Alfred Jarry and André Gide. A carefully woven assemblage of legends, aphorisms, fairy tales and nihilistic philosophy, it remains a deeply enigmatic and haunting work more than a century later, a gathering of literary and personal ruins written in a style that evokes both the Brothers Grimm and Friedrich Nietzsche. The Book of Monelle was the result of Schwob's intense emotional suffering over the loss of his love, a "girl of the streets" named Louise, whom he had befriended in 1891 and who succumbed to tuberculosis two years later. Transforming her into the innocent prophet of destruction, Monelle, Schwob tells the stories of her various sisters: girls succumbing to disillusionment, caught between the misleading world of childlike fantasy and the bitter world of reality. This new translation reintroduces a true fin-de-siècle masterpiece into English. A secret influence on generations of writers, from Guillaume Apollinaire and Jorge Luis Borges to Roberto Bolaño, Marcel Schwob (1867-1905) was as versed in the street slang of medieval thieves as he was in the poetry of Walt Whitman (whom he translated into French). Paul Valéry and Alfred Jarry both dedicated their first books to him, and he was the uncle of Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop. Hardborough becomes a battleground. Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done, and as a result, she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important, but natural and even supernatural forces too. Her fate will strike a chord with anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice.

The plot of this novel revolves around the feminist movement in Boston in the 1870s. F.R. Leavis called it one of "the two most brilliant novels in the language.