|
|
Books > Promotion > New Reads > Fiction
Ocean Vuong returns with an achingly beautiful novel about chosen
family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in
order to survive
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness,
Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in
pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the
river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to
dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of
options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year,
the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy,
spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s
relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of
Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness
form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about
what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the
wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing –
formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit
with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of
loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most
fleeting mercies: a second chance.
A cunning killer. A race around the world.
An iconic new detective team is born.
Solving murders. It's a family business.
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of
investigation work, but he prefers the pub quiz and afternoons at home
with his cat Trouble. His days of adventure are over – that’s his
daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul, which makes being a
private security officer to billionaires the perfect job. She’s
currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie
D’Antonio alive. Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with
their sights on Amy have her sending Steve an SOS...
As a breakneck race around the world begins, can they stay one step
ahead of a deadly enemy?
Annabel is in the thick of sandwich generation territory.
Widowed for nearly a decade and bringing up two teenagers alone, she
now faces the dilemma of what is best for her ageing mother.
Her strong-willed sisters, Ginnie and Clarissa, have already mentally
sold her mother’s London house, mentally spent the proceeds, but
Annabel isn't sure what her mother will think of their plan. . .
After a decade on her own, Annabel's children have also decided now is
the time to act as match makers. Before she knows it, Annabel has two
romantic prospects; the charming, ex-army builder currently doing the
loft extension in her home and, even more unexpectedly, the vicar from
her local church.
But when family secrets come to light which threaten the entire fabric
of Annabel’s childhood and family, what what — or who — she needs in
her life comes becomes suddenly crystal clear to her, in the most
surprising of ways. . .
 |
The Academy
(Hardcover)
Elin Hilderbrand, Shelby Cunningham
|
R613
R542
Discovery Miles 5 420
Save R71 (12%)
|
Ships in 18 - 22 working days
|
|
|
It’s move-in day at Tiffin Academy and amidst the happy chaos of
friends reuniting, selfies uploading, and cars unloading, shocking news
arrives: America Today just ranked Tiffin the number two boarding
school in the country. It’s a seventeen-spot jump – was there a typo?
The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last
place, and let’s just say Tiffin students are known for being more
social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, class
sizes are small, and the dining hall is run by an acclaimed New York
chef. And they do have fun—lots of parties and school dances, and a
piano man plays in the student lounge every Monday night.
But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with
self-congratulation, the wheels begin to turn – and then they fall off
the bus. One by one, scandalous blind items begin to appear on phones
across Tiffin’s campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap, and nobody
is safe. From Davi Banerjee, international influencer and resident
queen bee, to Simone Bergeron, the new and surprisingly young history
teacher, to Charley Hicks, a transfer student who seems determined not
to fit in, to Cordelia Spooner, Admissions Director with a somewhat
idiosyncratic methodology – everyone has something to hide.
As if high school wasn’t dramatic enough...As the year unfolds, bonds
are forged and broken, secrets are shared and exposed, and the lives of
Tiffin’s students and staff are changed forever. The Academy is Elin
Hilderbrand’s fresh, buzzy take on boarding school life, and a
thrilling new direction from one of America’s most satisfying and
popular storytellers.
Eight students walk into an exclusive writers’ retreat, but only one
will walk out with a life-changing opportunity to realize their
creative dreams.
Effy is piecing together a story about the tragic betrayal that led to
her mother’s death. Arlo hopes to publish a novel – but he’s also
trying to start a new chapter with Effy after he broke her heart and
ghosted her three years earlier.
Their mentor is Meredith Graffam, enigmatic writer, director and
actress, whose compelling accounts of her own near-death experience on
the same retreat decades before continue to spark controversy.
But this celebrated teacher is not all she seems, and her students
gradually realize they are fighting for something much more primal than
academic advantage. As Graffam’s unorthodox teaching methods push them
past breaking point, they reveal their darkest secrets, take
unthinkable risks and slowly start to turn on one another. But Graffam
never expected they would turn on her . . .
On New Year's Eve in 1987, lightning kills Nate's and Danny's mother. To deal with the loss and make sense of a world seemingly governed by chance, their distant and eccentric father creates the Nicotine Gospel.
"According to him, an eight by five cardboard box containing somewhere near twenty machine-made cigarettes would tell you all you needed to know about a man."
The boys throw themselves into the lessons to be close to their dad, but as nate grows up and begins to understand how strange the family gospel (and their father) truly is, he starts to worry. While Nate excels at school and finds ways to escape their father's neglect and the increasingly ramshackle house in Durban, Danny seems to revel in courting danger and death.
Decades later, upon learning of their father's death, Nate and Danny, long estranged, decide to drive from Durban to Cape Town to attend the funeral. On the journey, they must confront each other and their troubled past to find a way forward.
In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir successfully smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls wounded from the sky, The Choir is plunged into danger and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened.
The Escape Line’s collapse would leave thousands stranded. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, its architect and the acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, paralyzed by the perils of keeping his Roman underground railroad functioning. Meanwhile, SS Commander Paul Hauptmann has been tasked with destroying the entire operation, and the price of failure is high—his wife and children are under Gestapo lock-and-key in Berlin. Into this deliriously thrilling melee steps Contessa Giovanna Landini, a reckless, audacious, and magnetic member of the Italian Resistance who has the nerve to challenge Hauptmann’s authority.
Beautifully written and expertly crafted, The Ghosts of Rome is a historical suspense novel bursting with action, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters by one of contemporary fiction’s most acclaimed and beloved writers.
 |
Never Say Die
(Paperback)
James Patterson, Mike Lupica
|
R375
R319
Discovery Miles 3 190
Save R56 (15%)
|
Ships in 5 - 10 working days
|
|
|
Since taking on a famous celebrity client, defence attorney Jane Smith
has been chased down, shot at, and threatened with contempt of court.
She’s a survivor. For now.
Jane Smith represents a Hamptons real estate mogul with more enemies
than clients.
When Jane’s own life is threatened, mounting a legal defence turns into
self-defence.
Knowing every day in court could be her last, she’s armed and ready:
with brilliant arguments, hard evidence - and two Glocks.
Until she hears the words “not guilty,” Jane Smith will Never Say Die.
It would take a perfect plan to collect a billion-dollar ransom.
So here’s the plan.
Five innocent people. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same
moment in time.
Two children taken from a private school bus. A film producer and a
movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off
the streets of Beverly Hills.
A billionaire wants his family back.
The cash, gold, jewels, crypto are all ready.
There’s only one problem: Stubborn and brilliant FBI agent Nicky Gordon
also has a plan. And she doesn’t want to pay the kidnappers. Not a dime.
Frankie Elkin usually prefers her cases cold. Until she finds herself
in the broiling streets of Tucson, Arizona, where an Afghan refugee has
been missing for three weeks.
The woman she is looking for, Sabera Ahmadi, is a wife and young
mother, haunted by war, scarred by her past.
The police and Sabera’s husband seem indifferent to her disappearance.
But Frankie knows trauma. She knows it can fuel or destroy you.
And when she sees the distress in Sabera’s daughter’s eyes, she makes a
decision she soon regrets: find Sabera.
But in order to solve the mystery of Sabera’s present, Frankie must
revisit her past in order to uncover the dark secret she is hiding.
A secret so dangerous it might kill them both …
She’s meant to be catching flights, not catching feelings…
Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the
holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight.
Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and
that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent
seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last
flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible
airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all
the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition
neither of them has ever wanted to give up.
Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re
total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and
she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of
doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in
America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to
get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.
The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the
highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run
on time—it can’t possibly go wrong.
What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over
the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together,
the universe might just have a plan of its own…
IN A DEN OF VIPERS, REVENGE IS THE DEADLIEST WEAPON.
After my sister was attacked and hospitalised, my world was shattered.
Now, all I have left is vengeance.
The problem? I have no idea who did this to her.
My only lead is The Vipers, an elite college hockey team that rules the
ice―and the shadows beyond it.
To infiltrate their secret society, I set my sights on their weakest
link: Kane Davenport, the Viper’s charismatic captain.
But too late, I realise I’ve enticed the most venomous snake.
Behind Kane’s perfect mask lies something far more dangerous than I
ever imagined.
AND NOW I’M TRAPPED IN A LETHAL GAME WITH NO ESCAPE.
The gripping and brilliant debut crime novel from the universally acclaimed creator of TV series BROADCHURCH.
When Detective Nicola Bridge moves back to Dorset from the big city, the last thing she expects is for the picturesque village of Fleetcombe to become a grisly crime scene.
Jim Tiernan, pub landlord, is dead, the body staged with macabre relish on an isolated country road. Nicola soon realises everyone in the village has something to hide. The hairdresser. The delivery driver. The farmer. And even the little girl, hidden at the top of the playground slide.
Whispers. Rumours. Lies. And somewhere among them, a killer hiding in plain sight.
Because sometimes the smallest villages hide the darkest secrets...
Sarah het geen begeerte om met grasie oud te word nie. Sy dra onpaar
oorbelle, ’n groot sonbril en haar hare is bloedrooi gekleur. Wat sy
wel nie op haar ouderdom verwag het nie, is om na haar 55ste
martriekreünie genooi te word. En boonop vereis die uitnodiging dat sy
’n metgesel saambring – wat sy, ’n weduwee, wáár moet kry? Sy is
nuuskierig oor die affêre, maar om na haar grootworddorp terug te keer
gaan ou wonde oopkrap. En sy gaan vir Franco, die hartevertrapper, weer
in die oë moet kyk!
Cara is ná twee wêreldoorloë eindelik op pad terug na haar
geboorteland. Sy is destyds wettig deur die Du Toits aangeneem en sy en
Clarabelle het saam grootgeword. Na haar weggaan het die twee
gereeld gekorrespondeer, maar later het die oorlog tussenbeide gekom.
Sy word goed ontvang en almal is begaan oor haar welstand, maar sy bly
verward en eensaam. Vir haar voel dit soms of sy vir die res van haar
lewe op reis sal wees. Het sy eindelik haar bestemming bereik? Tyd sal
wel leer.
’n Groep jong Suid-Afrikaanse Jode, die teiken van ’n terreuraanval in
Kairo, is die vlam in ’n kruitvat vir grootskaalse oorlog in die
Midde-Ooste. In die middel daarvan, die joernalis Ruby Heyns, in
besit van verdoemende inligting wat die skaal in dié konflik kan swaai.
Wanneer Ruby Heyns oornag verdwyn, moet Staatsekuriteit se Reuben
Kruger al sy tegniese kennis inspan om haar spoor op te tel. Spanning
en aksie uit die boonste rakke!
Natasja bevind haar vroegoggend op die snelweg, tien ure noord van
Kaapstad. Al haar besittings is agter in die kar en sy sweer sy sit
haar voete nooit weer naby Johnny nie. Eers nadat sy op die N18
afgedraai het, onthou Natasja: George, haar pa se boesemvriend, woon
nog op Lelievlei. Miskien moet sy gaan aanklop?
In dié aangrypende roman herinner die skrywer ons hoe die liefde ons
almal raak. En soms skenk die heelal vir jou ’n beskermengel
wanneer jy dit die nodigste het.
Ná drie jaar op ’n passasierskip smag Jean Botha na ’n plek wat syne is
en waar hy gewoon net mens kan wees. Tans verkeer hy elders: iewers en
tegelykertyd nêrens.
Die oomblik toe hy terug op eie bodem vir Renette Brink op Stellenbosch
ontmoet, weet Jean een ding vir seker: Hy sal haar nooit weer kan
vergeet nie. Maar Renette is verloof aan Martin Hoogendyk, ’n gesiene
boer van die Oos-Vrystaat.
Toe sy vriend Duncan Weston aanbied dat Jean op sy plaas naby Bethlehem
gaan toesig hou oor die bedrywighede daar, gryp hy die die geleentheid
dadelik aan. Op Heuningkrans slyp hy sy nuutgevonde kunstalent en begin
sy eie skilderye te verkoop. Hy besoek selde die dorp en vermy so enige
onverwagse herontmoeting met Renette.
Intussen is onheil besig om in die pasgetroude Hoogendyks se
huishouding te ontvou. Gaan Renette betyds die regte besluit maak?
’n Meesleurende roman oor twee mense wat hulself vir die keuses van die
verlede moet vergewe voor hulle ’n ware tuiskoms en liefde kan vind.
A rare masterpiece by Picasso is about to go to auction, and the whole
world is watching.
But bright art student Halston Graham sees an opportunity. One that
could secure millions for her future – and freedom for her wrongly
imprisoned father…
To pull off the crime of the century, she must assemble an unlikely
crack team: an expert in forgery, a ruthless mob boss, and an eccentric
fashion designer.
In a game where trust is a luxury and failure is not an option, will
Halston’s brilliance be enough to outsmart her enemies?
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
The brilliant and chilling first novel Stephen King ever wrote tells
the tale of the contestants of a diabolically cruel competition where
100 boys start the “long walk” and there is only one winner—the one
that survives.
In a dystopian near-future, America has fallen on hard times.
Sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling
match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys must
keep a steady pace of four miles per hour day and night, without ever
stopping. The winner gets “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of
his life. But the rules of the Long Walk are harsh and the stakes could
not be higher. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man
standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow
down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings
and you’re out of the game—forever.
Written by King when he was a college student and published in 1979
under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk is an unforgettable
and timeless masterpiece that showcases King’s genius for character
building and his visionary storytelling.
 |
Final Orbit
(Hardcover)
Chris Hadfield
|
R711
R635
Discovery Miles 6 350
Save R76 (11%)
|
Ships in 18 - 22 working days
|
|
|
Houston, 1975. A new Apollo mission launches into orbit, on course to
dock with a Russian Soyuz craft: three NASA astronauts and three
cosmonauts, joining to celebrate a new dawn of Soviet-American
cooperation. But as NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens in from
Earth, a deadly accident onboard the orbiting spacecraft changes
everything.
Meanwhile, from a remote location in east Asia, the first Chinese
spacecraft secretly launches. On board is China’s first astronaut, Fang
Kuo-chun, whose mission puts him on a collision course with the Apollo
crew.
As Kaz races against an enemy on the ground and for answers beyond the
sky, the safety of the remaining crew hangs in the balance…
Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate.
In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't
do for a glass of water.
Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one
knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has
been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs
for as long as she can remember.
But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come
undone.
When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently
reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice
and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of
nightmares...but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed
herself right in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might
just get her killed.
The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a
thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a
handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own.
He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what
it costs him . . . or her.
Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky.
His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it
home.
Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the
details . . .
Seventeen-year-old June Scott has always dreamt of becoming a novelist.
To write the greatest love story ever told. One that would fill hearts
and souls with happiness and joy.
However, June has never been in love and when she receives some
devastating news, there doesn’t feel as if there’s much time left for
her own beautiful love story.
That’s until she meets Jesse Taylor who treats every day as if it could
be his last. Which could be true. For them both.
Together their worlds light up and a love so strong grows between them.
With days slipping away like sand in an hourglass June begins to write
their love story. June is determined to give the boy she loves the
story of them. And the world a reminder of who they might have been if
their stars were written differently.
Because even when your heartbeat stops, a true love story never dies.
Dr Sara Buhle, a troubled obstetrician, is thrust into a frantic search
for a missing newborn in Durban. Sara is pulled into the search by
rising SAPS star Vuyi Vilakazi. But with time working against them, and
rumours of muthi murders hounding the investigation, the pair find
themselves in a race from the city centre and an informal settlement in
the Hammarsdale Hills. Mere minutes will make the difference between
success and failure.
Sexy, swoony and very spicy, the international bestselling sensation,
Monica Murphy, is back with an emotionally charged novel bound to set
pulses racing . . .
The tables turne when the girl August Lancaster couldn’t stand at
Lancaster Prep shows up at the same university he attends.
She is suddenly everywhere.
And is determined to remind him exactly who she is . . .
|
You may like...
Boytjie
Johnny Davids
Paperback
R295
R264
Discovery Miles 2 640
|