Liora word groot op ’n volstruisplaas in Algerië, naby die Sahara. Sy is omring deur mense wat lief is vir haar, Maman en haar tante, oom Moshe, en haar pa, wanneer hy in die rondte is. Van kleins af bring sy tyd deur in haar tante se pluimery, ’n magiese omgewing waar volstruisvere omskep word in kostuums vir die filmbedryf en die verhoë van Parys.

Maar Liora loop haar telkens in grense vas wat sy moet oor. En in Algerië broei onrus. Eers verhuis sy na die oorloggeteisterde Algiers waar sy leer om dokter te word, maar dan word sy gedwing om inderhaas landuit te vlug, Parys toe.

Jare later kom Liora, steeds verwonderd oor die skoonheid van volstruisvere, in die Klein-Karoo aan om oom Moshe te besoek. Hier ontmoet sy Candice, ook behep met volstruisvere, ’n priester, ’n kunstenares en ander Kannalanders. Haar lewe word opnuut omgedop, en weer eens lê daar ’n grens voor haar – en sy moet besluit of sy dit sal oorsteek.

In November 1905 beskryf ’n Windhoekse koerant Siegfried Bock as ’n nuwe soort held. Maar die moordenaar wat hy voor die hof gebring het se advokaat stel Siegfried in ’n heel ander lig. Boonop is oberleutnant Berghammer en die Namakryger Jager Orlam albei daarop uit om Siegfried te laat boet. En dan is daar die burokraat Stauffacher met sy ondraaglike planne. Siegfried sien nie uitkomkans nie. Maar daar móét een wees, veral noudat liefde vir hom wink . . .

Based on a true story.

The Girdlestone’s yacht is stolen by desperate thieves in Cape Town, and sailed off to… who knew where? A worldwide search by Nelson and Maureen leads to a miraculous discovery halfway across the globe.

Fetching the yacht and then, taking advantage of circumstances, Nelson and Maureen start enjoying a nomadic cruising life in the magical Caribbean and Mediterranean waters before returning home and setting up operations in a newly established V&A.

Pakistan, 1974: The secret-wreathed trees of Harikaya have always called to Hassan. He knows if he doesn’t find the last beekeeper and salvage a precious jar of his mythical black honey before the floods come, his mother will lose her sight. But then he wins a scholarship to study with the state governor in Karachi amidst a brewing storm of political turmoil and simmering espionage.

His entire world is turned upside down when he meets Maryam, the governor’s niece visiting from London. All the while the fate of his mother and his promise to the bees calls him back to the forest, and so he must decide: Maryam or the beekeeper, England or Pakistan, his head or his heart.

One of the most exciting debuts of recent years, this is a lyrical historical novel of family, friendship, and self-discovery exploring the power of choice in a changing world and love in communion with nature. Perfect for fans of Christy Lefteri, Yann Martel, and Monique Roffey.

It is 1895, and turn-of-the-century Paris is as chaotic as it is glamorous. Industry and invention have created ever greater wealth and terrible poverty. One autumn morning, an anarchist boards the Granville to Paris express train, determined to make her mark on history.

Aboard the train are others from across the globe: the railway crew who have built a life together away from their wives, a little boy travelling alone for the first time, an artist far from home, a wealthy statesman and his invalid wife, and a young woman with a secret hidden under her dress.

All their fates are bound together as the train speeds towards the City of Light . . .

Inspired by a famous rail disaster, The Paris Express is a thrilling ride and a literary masterpiece that evokes an era not so different from our own.

The Arabian Nights is your magic carpet ride to exotic lands full of wonders and marvels. First collected nearly a thousand years ago, these folktales are presented as stories that crafty Scheherazade tells her husband, King Shahryar, over a thousand-and-one consecutive nights, to pique his interest for the next evening's entertainment and thereby save her life. Among them are some of the best-known legends of eastern storytelling, including the "Sinbad the Sailor," "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp," and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." This collection features more than twenty stories, in the classic translation of Sir Richard Burton, published between 1884 and 1886, and full-colour illustrations by Renata Fucikova and Jindra Capek. The Arabian Nights is one of Barnes & Noble's Leatherbound classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world's greatest authors in an exquisitely designed bonded-leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging and a silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for every home library.

June 1572: for ten, violent years the Wars of Religion have raged across France. Neighbours have become enemies, countless lives have been lost, and the country has been torn apart over matters of religion, citizenship and sovereignty. But now a precarious peace is in the balance: a royal wedding has been negotiated by Catherine de’ Medici and Jeanne d’Albret, an alliance between the Catholic Crown and Henri, the Huguenot king of Navarre. It is a marriage that could see France reunited at last.

Meanwhile in Puivert, an invitation has arrived for Minou Joubert and her family to attend this historic wedding in Paris in August. But what Minou does not know is that the Joubert family’s oldest enemy, Vidal, will also be there. Nor that, within days of the marriage, on the eve of the Feast Day of St Bartholomew, Minou’s family will be scattered to the four winds and one of her beloved children will have disappeared without trace . . .

A breath-taking novel of revenge, persecution and loss, sweeping from Paris and Chartres to the City of Tears itself – the great refugee city of Amsterdam – this is a story of one family’s fight to stay together, to survive and to find each other, against the devastating tides of history . . .

Following on from the Sunday Times number one bestseller, The Burning Chambers, Kate Mosse’s The City of Tears is the second thrilling historical epic in The Burning Chambers series, for fans of Ken Follett and Dan Brown.

A coming-of-age story by a master of storytelling on the need to love and cherish life and grab it by the drosky's reins. This is Kops at his most irrepressible and irreverent, vibrant and lyrical and connected - to the present and the past. Seventeen-year-old Sam Glass is depressed. Since his father died suddenly, he sees no point in life especially not among the cosy middle class environs where his love of quoting from classical literature falls on deaf ears. Then a strange figure appears who claims to be a rabbi from the Middle Ages, who takes Sam back in time to the Russia of 1881. He meets a panoply of characters including his own forebears and some familiar figures from Jewish history. Then he discovers the secret purpose for which he has been chosen -- to assassinate Tsar Alexander II ..

Forced to protect him. Determined to bring him down... Previously published as Her Hidden Life 'An absorbing, well-researched story that brings to life an extraordinary period in history' GILL PAUL, bestselling author of The Secret Wife Germany, 1943 Magda Ritter longs for a peaceful life. But war is drawing closer, and soon she is forced to serve the one man she hoped never to encounter - Hitler. Taken to his mountain retreat, she is assigned the most dangerous job of all. She is to be the Fuhrer's 'Taster' and check his food for poison. Desperate to escape, Magda joins an underground resistance group intent on ending Nazi rule. To stop the atrocities around her, Madga must risk everything - her position, her family, and even her life. A poignant tale of hope, danger and betrayal from the heart of history's darkest moments.

The Black Mountain is a Quick Read short story from bestselling author Kate Mosse. It is May, 1706. Ana, a young Spanish woman, lives in a small town on the north-west coast of Tenerife with her mother and twin younger brothers. The town is in the shadow of a mighty volcano, which legend says has the devil living inside it. However, there has been no eruption for thousands of years and no one believes it is a threat. One day, Ana notices that the air feels strange and heavy, that the birds have stopped singing. Tending the family vineyard, a sudden strange tremor in the earth frightens her. Very soon it will be a race against time for Ana to help persuade the town that they are in danger and should flee before the volcano erupts and destroys their world. Will they listen? And Ana herself faces another danger . . .

Set 300 years before the events in A Song of Ice and Fire, Fire and Blood is the definitive history of the Targaryens in Westeros as told by Archmaester Gyldayn, and chronicles the conquest that united the Seven Kingdoms under Targaryen rule through the Dance of the Dragons: the Targaryen civil war that nearly ended their dynasty forever.

Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen – the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria – took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.

With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.

Squadron Leader Leonard is an enthusiastic Arabic student eager to win the hearts and minds of the Arabs in the wake of the disastrous Anglo French foray on the Suez Canal during the 1956 confrontations with Egypt. The mountains of Lebanon and the indomitable wit of its heterogeneous people provide a spirited refuge for his advance Arabic studies. Iraq leads a false trail creating an elusive immutability as a dependable British Ally. Aden is the prelude to his work in the field but also the portent of an ominous future. His final destination further East presents soul searching challenges when he finds his core values tested to the limit in a peasant rebellion against their depraved ruler. It is in this setting that he is tripped up in an ambush where his dramatic riposte leads him to the relentless sequel of trial by Court Martial.

This New York Times bestseller from “one of the great storytellers of our time” (San Francisco Book Review) turns from the glamour of the royal courts to tell the story of an ordinary woman, Alinor, living in a dangerous time for a woman to be different.

On Midsummer’s Eve, Alinor waits in the church graveyard, hoping to encounter the ghost of her missing husband and thus confirm his death. Until she can, she is neither maiden nor wife nor widow, living in a perilous limbo. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run. She shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marshy landscape of the Tidelands, not knowing she is leading a spy and an enemy into her life.

England is in the grip of a bloody civil war that reaches into the most remote parts of the kingdom. Alinor’s suspicious neighbors are watching each other for any sign that someone might be disloyal to the new parliament, and Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her as a woman who doesn’t follow the rules. They have always whispered about the sinister power of Alinor’s beauty, but the secrets they don’t know about her and James are far more damning. This is the time of witch-mania, and if the villagers discover the truth, they could take matters into their own hands.

“This is Gregory par excellence” (Kirkus Reviews). “Fans of Gregory’s works and of historicals in general will delight in this page-turning tale” (Library Journal, starred review) that is “superb… A searing portrait of a woman that resonates across the ages” (People).

'The Thirteen Gun Salute' opens with Jack Aubrey reinstated to his command and sailing on a secret mission with a hand-picked crew, most of them shipmates from the adventures and lucrative voyages of earlier years. Patrick O'Brian's resourcefulness is a sure warrant that things will not turn out as his readers or his characters expect. Twists and turns, sub-plots, echoes from the past, these are the only certainties in this astonishing 'roman fleuve'. Distant waters, exotic scenes, flora and fauna to satisfy Aubrey's old friend Stephen Maturin's innocent curiosity, as well as the scope for his cloak and dagger work, enrich its flow. The ending of the book leaves the reader more than usually impatient for its successor.

'Patrick O'Brian is one of the most compelling and brilliant novelists of his time with a huge band of admirers in all manner of places. Beyond his superbly elegant writing, wit and originality, he showed an understanding of the nature of a floating world at the mercy of the wind and the sea which has never been surpassed.

'Jane Austen, 'sur mer''
Bob Doe, 'Times Educational Supplement'

The turmoil of the Anglo - Scots border continues, thieving and murder, the standard order of the day, as the cleaver sings its song of death. Once again Fyreback is on the vengeance trail.

The adventure continues . . . At the time of his death, Patrick O'Brian had begun to write the twenty-first book in his famous and much-loved Aubrey-Maturin series. The chapters he left behind are presented here, both in printed version and a facsimile of his manuscript, which goes several pages beyond the end of the typescript and includes O'Brian's own marginal notes. The story picks up from the end of Blue at the Mizzen when Jack Aubrey receives the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station. 'This fragment is both delightful and tantalising, with hints of a plot that might have involved Jack and Stephen with St Helena or Napoleon himself.' Literary Review