Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes.

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to hide: what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers’ lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.

’n Nuwe lewe wag op hom

In 1939 bars die oorlogbom in Europa. Drie miljoen kinders word uit London ontruim na veiliger gebiede. Een van hulle is die sesjarige Charles Smith, op pad na ’n onbekende tante van sy pa in ’n klein dorpie in Skotland. By aunty Grace wag ’n nuwe lewe op hom.

Aan die anderkant van Europa ruk die Duitse Sesde Leër op teen Rusland. Tussen die manskappe is die vurige majoor Oswald von Stein, Hildegard se stiefseun. Voor hulle wag die Russiese winter, Stalingrad en die krygsgevangenekampe van Siberië. 90 000 word gevange geneem, net sesduisend oorleef.

Charles en Oswald beleef teenoorgestelde kante van die oorlog. Beide bevind hulself egter op pad na ’n plaas in Afrika waar hul paaie sal kruis met dié van Seretse Khama en Mentje de Vries.

Tijs Velaat is gebore op die plaas Grootgeluk in die distrik Oudtshoorn. As dit nie was vir die ongeluk met die treppie toe hy sestien word nie, het sy lewenslot dalk gelyk soos dié van die ander werksmense op die plaas. Maar ’n mens wat weet hoe om stom te wees, kry soms die hef in die hand. Tot baas Anneries weet nie aldag hoe hy dit het met Hessie se klong nie.

Tijs en sy mame woon naby die Schoemans se opstal, so naby dat hy snags die honde kan hoor snork. Hy is getuie van als wat reg én verkeerd loop op die werf: Nooi Hendrien se jaloesie wanneer Maria haar pa se guns wen, die dag toe Maria die Skotse beeldhouer ontmoet, en al die verkeerde paaie daarna. Miskien as Tijs nooit die skilpad op sy dop gekeer het nie, kon daar minder kronkels op die pad gewees het: op syne, én Maria en die Skot, én nooi Hendrien s’n.

Hierdie historiese roman speel af in ’n onstuimige era: die 1850’s tot 1914. Twee vertellers is aan die woord: Tijs Velaat en Hendrien, Andries Schoeman se vrou.

Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate her appears before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author writes a sweeping World War II love story about a young woman torn between two brothers.

In 1941, beautiful Irvel Holland is too focused on her secret to take much notice of the war raging overseas. She’s dating Sam but in love with his younger brother, Hank—her longtime best friend—and Irvel has no idea how to break the news. Then the unthinkable happens—Pearl Harbor is attacked. With their lives turned upside down overnight, Sam is drafted and convinces Hank to remain in Indiana, where he and Irvel take up the battle on the home front.

While Sam fights in Europe, an undeniable chemistry builds between Irvel and Hank but neither would dare cross that line. Then, two military leaders pay Irvel a visit at the classroom where she teaches. The men have plans for her, a proposition to join a new spy network. One catch: She can tell no one.

With Irvel caught between two brothers thousands of miles apart, can love find a way, even from the ashes of the greatest heartbreak?

In 1900 reis die Britse dokter Oliver Glenville na Deelfontein in die Karoo om by ’n Britse veldhospitaal vir offisiere aan te sluit. Daar beland beseerde Britse soldate én Boerekrygers op sy operasietafel.

Klara Grootboom, ’n skoonmaker, rig ’n versoek aan hom wat teen sy beginsels indruis, maar dis asof sy hom in ’n vangnet van haar eie het.

Meer as ’n honderd jaar later skep ’n opkomende Kaapse kunstenaar ’n uitstalling uit Deelfontein se gegewens en ontdek ’n onverwagse familieband . . .

The captivating new novel from the internationally-bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words.

'Your job is to bind the books, not read them.'

When the men of Oxford University Press leave for the Western Front, Peggy, her twin sister Maude and their friends in the bookbindery must shoulder the burden at home. As Peggy moves between her narrowboat full of memories and the demands of the Press, her dreams of studying feel ever more remote. She must know her place, fold her pages and never stop to savour the precious words in front of her.

From volunteer nurses to refugees fleeing the horrors of occupation, the war brings women together from all walks of life, and with them some difficult choices for Peggy. New friends and lovers offer new opportunities, but they also make new demands - and Peggy must write her own story.

Dirk Aruseb was seventeen years old when Abraham Morris fetched him from the Pella orphanage to join the Bondelswarts. Dirk couldn’t wait to conquer the accursed Schutztruppe alongside legendary Kaptein Jakob Marengo, successor to Hendrik Witbooi and Jonker Afrikaner. But when he arrived at Schansvlakte deep in Namaland, Dirk was warned that he first had to master many life skills before he could join the war: be humble, be patient, be merciful. Find your eland, tame your butcherbird.

But for Dirk war was an adventure – as long as he could kill the German enemy, he was content. It didn’t matter what commander Nana Kruiper, or Klara Morris, her second in command, tried to teach him: that the liberation struggle of the Bondelswarts meant more than protecting Namaland – their promised land – at all costs.

Crimson Sands is set in Namaland – from German-South-West Africa to the Cape Colony – from 1904 to 1922, when thousands of Bondelswarts were shot down by Jan Smuts’s fighter planes. It is an epic, panoramic war novel, traversing southern Africa from Tsumeb to Upington, from internment camps in Windhuk to the dry riverbeds of the Fish River Canyon. Jeremy Vearey conjures a mesmerising tale across an arid landscape of sand, shrub and dune, evoking voices and stories long gone.

Based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York, Learned by Heart is a heartbreakingly gorgeous novel from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.

Drawing on years of investigation and Anne Lister’s five-million-word secret journal, Learned by Heart is the long-buried love story of Eliza Raine, an orphan heiress banished from India to England at age six, and Anne Lister, a brilliant, troublesome tomboy, who meet at the Manor School for young ladies in York in 1805 when they are both fourteen.

Emotionally intense, psychologically compelling, and deeply researched, Learned by Heart is an extraordinary work of fiction by one of the world’s greatest storytellers. Full of passion and heartbreak, the tangled lives of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine form a love story for the ages.

Oorlog verswelg die Boererepubliek. Huise word verwoes, landery word verbrand, en vroue en kinders in konsentrasiekampe aangehou.

Pieter Nel lei ’n kommando bittereinders in ’n desperate opstand teen die Britse ryk. Hulle offer alles op vir ’n vrede wat dalk nooit gaan kom nie, vir ’n huis wat hulle dalk nooit weer gaan sien nie.

Intussen moet Katrina Nel baklei om haarself en hul kinders aan die lewe te hou namate die toestande in die konsentrasiekampe al hoe hagliker word. Hier word haar lewe onlosmaaklik vervleg met dié van die ander vroue, die hanskakies wat die vyand help om die kampe te bestuur, en die Engelse offisier wat haar hart wil wen.

Wag daar lewe of liefde anderkant die oorlog?

Spring 1935. Two girls meet by chance on Hampstead Heath. To an outsider, they could not appear more different. Verity is well-mannered and smartly dressed, living with her parents in a beautiful house close to the heath. Ruby is dishevelled and grubby, used to a life of squalor where she is forced to steal to survive. Yet there's an instant affinity between them, and when their fortunes are shockingly reversed, it is the strength of their friendship that keeps them resilient to the challenges and hardships they face.

As Britain prepares for war, Ruby finds herself in Devon with the world at her feet and enjoying her first taste of romance. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Verity is forced to leave behind everything she has ever known and a shadow from the past threatens her chances of a new beginning. But through it all, the girls are always there for each other. Until the day Verity does the one thing that will break Ruby's heart.

In a country torn apart by fighting, will Verity and Ruby survive long enough to find a way back to each other? Or do some betrayals go with you to the grave ...?

From a brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls.

Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poe's detective Dupin, Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious.

Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive, but to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West - a bewitching combination of beauty and danger - as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon.

As Mrs. Parks says, 'Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise . . .'

The debut novel from the global superstar actress Millie Bobby Brown, best known for playing Eleven in Netflix hit series Stranger Things.

London, 1942.

Despite the raging war, spirited 18-year-old Nellie Morris lives a quiet life in the tight-knit East End community of Bethnal Green. Her family and friends all tease that she will marry air raid warden Billy, the boy next door who’s always been sweet on her.

The arrival of Ray, a handsome American airman stationed nearby, causes Nellie to question everything she thought she knew about her future.

Nellie’s newfound happiness is short-lived when a tragic accident occurs during an air raid. Even the closest family can’t escape the devastation of war, and as the secrets and truth about that fateful night become clear, they threaten to tear Nellie – and those dearest to her – apart.

Inspired by the true events of her family history, Millie Bobby Brown’s dazzling debut novel is a moving tale of longing, loss and secrets, and the lengths that we will go to fight for love.

Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2024

Enthralling and ferociously funny, James by Percival Everett is a profound meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love. It is also a bold reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as the enslaved Jim emerges to reclaim his voice and defy the conventions that have consigned him to the margins.

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan.

Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.

With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he carries: the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most dangerous, and life-changing, odyssey of them all . . .

From bestselling South African author Penny Haw comes a new historical fiction tale inspired by the story of groundbreaking paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, in a sweeping, dual-timeline story of intergenerational friendship, a meditation on the beauty of the natural world, and a celebration of the women who pave the way for those to come.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey commissions her to illustrate a book, she's not at all expecting to fall in love with the older married man. Mary then follows Louis to East Africa, where she falls in love for a second time, this time with the Olduvai Gorge, where her work defines her as a great scientist and allows her to step out of Louis's shadow.

In time, Mary and Grace learn they are more alike than they thought, which eventually leads them to the secret that connects them. They also discover a mutual deep love for animals, and when Lisa, an injured cheetah, appears at camp, Mary and Grace work together to save her. On the morning Grace is due to leave, the girl―and the cheetah―are nowhere to be found, and it becomes a race against time to rescue Grace before the African bush claims her.

From the acclaimed author of The Invincible Miss Cust and The Woman at Wheel comes an adventurous, dual timeline tale that explores the consequences of our choices, wisdom that comes with retrospection, and relationships that make us who we are, based on the extraordinary real life of Mary Leakey.

Op Broedersdraai tree vier susters aan vir ’n stille skermutseling. Dit is 1945. In Europa woed die Tweede Wêreldoorlog; in Suid-Afrika die stryd tussen Sap en Nat, tussen die Rooilissies en die Ossewabrandwag.

Ivy, die jongste, smag na ʼn onbevange lewe, ʼn ander werklikheid waarin haar liefde vir ʼn vrou aanvaarbaar sal wees. Sy skaar haar by die Stormjaers wat Smuts en sy oorlog in die wiele probeer ry.

Sophié staan by die regering; haar eggenoot se ambisie en loopbaan hang daarvan af.

Beatrice hunker na haar man, al het sy hom doodgewens.

Terwyl elkeen die struwinge van die tyd aan eie lyf ervaar, is dit Kietie wat verder as haar drie susters sien.

Maar dit is die koms van Domenico Valente, ’n Italiaanse krygsgevangene, wat die spanning op die spits dryf.

Gerda Taljaard se Vier susters is ’n priemende roman wat die tradisies van beide die historiese en die plaasroman omkeer.

Every book tells a story. Every heart hides a secret.

When Evelyn Seaton answers an advertisement for an assistant at a forgotten bookshop in York, she is not the only one with something to hide.

There she meets the enigmatic and prickly William Morton, an aspiring writer keeping secrets of his own. But when the walls that Evelyn has built around herself start to crumble, there is only one person she can turn to.

As the layers are brushed away, can Evelyn and William find the courage to write the next chapter of their story?

In die somer van 1838 vertrek die Voortrekkerleier Piet Retief en sowat 100 man na die Zoeloekoning Dingaan om oor grond vir die trekkers te onderhandel. In die laer by Doornkop wag sy vrou Magdalena op hulle terugkeer. Die afloop van hierdie sending na Dingaan is wyd opgeteken as die Slag van Bloedrivier.

Byna 180 jaar later is Hanna op soek na wat ook al Magdalena nagelaat het. Vroeg in hierdie soektog loop Hanna haar vas in ’n plaasmoord waarvoor sy nie antwoorde het nie. Bitter min is bekend oor Magdalena en haar lewe ná 1838, buiten haar brief in 1841 aan haar skoonfamilie. In Pietermaritzburg staan haar huisie vandag nog, nou ’n klerewinkel.

Kort voor haar dood in 1854 besoek ’n handelaar haar in Potchefstroom en staan in sy boek ’n paragraaf aan haar af.

Al wat ons het, is vandag en elke mens vertel ’n storie anders. Van ver af is niks soos dit vir ons lyk nie.

“Bloedlelie is ’n merkwaardige en belangrike roman uit die pen van ’n vaardige, gesoute skrywer. Verskriklike en weersinwekkende gebeure sowel as hedendaagse politieke kompleksiteite en strydpunte word met ’n seker hand uitgebeeld. Tegelykertyd is hierdie roman die verhaal van Magdalena Retief, die grootliks onbesonge vrou van Pieter Mauritz Retief.” - Helene de Kock

A beautiful house boat on the Thames. The chance to fulfil her dreams. A life adventure awaits…

It’s 1968 and it’s cold when Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother, improve her English, do a secretarial course - and meet a suitable man. She is already missing her home in Provence and her father and his new wife and their extended family. But it’s only for a year she tells herself - and then she can go back to France and do what she really wants and become a painter.

And then she bumps into Oliver who is quite the most interesting young man she has ever met. He lives on a barge for one thing and has a selection of jobs including looking for hidden treasures along the shores of the river Thames.

In a word he’s a mudlarker - and before long Felicity is mudlarking too. She is also pursuing her dreams and painting scenery for Oliver’s actor friends.

But is Oliver a Suitable Man of whom her mother will approve? Felicity knows she will not …

Love, tangled relationships, and a real life adventure lie at the heart of Katie’s Fforde’s heart-warming new novel.

Die nuutste roman van topverkoperskrywer Helena Hugo. Caroline is maar dertig jaar oud toe sy haar agtste kind in die wêreld bring. Al waarop sy gehoop het was om te sterf. Die kloof tussen haar en Willem is so wyd dit lyk asof hulle mekaar nooit weer sal vind nie. Intussen dan pak die onweerwolke van oorlog op die horison saam. Maar die hoop beskaam nie: Genesing begin by 'n weggooikind en 'n gekneusde veldblom.

Theodore "Teddy" Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family who place him into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat's career. In 1938, as Hitler's inexorable rise continues, Teddy is re-assigned to the US Consulate in Amsterdam to replace fleeing staff.

Teddy's job is to process visa applications, and by 1939, refugees from Nazi-conquered Poland, Austria, and other countries are desperate to secure safe passage to America. As Hitler sweeps through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Holland, the screws tighten and law after virulent law is passed to threaten the lives, indeed the very existence of the Jewish people. When Teddy and his girlfriend Sara are introduced to an orphaned young girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. Teddy comes to realize that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, fifty, or five hundred--and makes the dangerous and selfless decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape.

Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ronald H. Balson's A Place to Hide explores the deeply-moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.

Dit is die winter van 1795. Die Kaap is nog Hollands, maar nie meer vir lank nie. Kommissaris Sluysken, die VOC se hoofamptenaar aan die Kaap, het sy Politieke Raad vir 'n vergadering in die Kasteel byeengebring. Hier sit kolonel Robert Gordon, bevelvoerder van die garnisoen, avonturier en Oranje-man. Ook majoor William van Reede van Oudshoorn, lord Hunsdon, vir wie die land en die dorp sy lewe is; verloor hy dit, word hy niks. Hy is bevelvoerder van 'n korps klerke wat vir hierdie krisis hul penne vir gewere moet inruil. Sluysken lees 'n brief voor van die bevelvoerder van die Engelse vloot by Simonstad wat dreig om sy matrose op die land los te laat. William kyk strak voor hom uit. Hy en kameraad Louis Thibault het reeds 'n krygplan ter tafel gele. Sy hoop is op die binnelanders, eerder as op Gordon se garnisoen – die boere, wat so hard soos hierdie kontinent se klippe is. Tussen Gordon en Van Oudshoorn sal die stryd om die siel van hierdie droewe land besleg word. Of vir ewig bly voortwoed. Dan Sleigh se loopbaan as romansier het in Eilande met die pionierstyd aan die Kaap begin, en in 1795 word 'n sirkelgang van die geskiedenis voltrek, met die laaste Kaapse maande onder die Kompanjiesvlag. Sleigh skryf met 'n onfeilbare aanvoeling vir die konflikte en hartstogte wat die totstandkoming en verval van gemeenskappe onderle, en met 'n verstommende oog vir detail.

ANCIENT ROME, AD 37

It begins with a man’s hand curled around another’s throat.

Emperor Tiberius first dispatches a traitor.

Then his whole family.

Next all his friends. It is as if he never existed.

THIS IS ROMAN JUSTICE.

Into this fevered forum, a child is born.

His mother is Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. But their imperial blood is no protection. The closer you are to the heart of the empire, the closer you are to power, intrigue, and danger.

She faces soldiers, senators, rivals, silver-tongued pretenders, each vying for position. One mistake risks exile, incarceration, execution. Or, worst of all, the loss of her infant son.

For Agrippina knows that opportunity waits, even in your darkest moments. Her son is everything. She can make this boy, shape him into Rome itself – the one all must kneel before.

BUT FIRST, THEY MUST SURVIVE . . .

This then is the story of Nero's birth and raising under the watchful and scheming eye of his mother Agrippina – a woman every man crossed at his peril.

From No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn and television pioneer Shonda Rhimes comes a powerful and romantic novel of Bridgerton's Queen Charlotte and King George III's great love story and how it sparked a societal shift, inspired by the original series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, created by Shondaland for Netflix.

In 1761, on a sunny day in September, a King and Queen met for the very first time. They were married within hours. Born a German Princess, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was beautiful, headstrong, and fiercely intelligent . . . not precisely the attributes the British Court had been seeking in a spouse for the young King George III.

But her fire and independence were exactly what she needed, because George had secrets . . . secrets with the potential to shake the very foundations of the monarchy.

Thrust into her new role as a royal, Charlotte must learn to navigate the intricate politics of the court . . . all the while guarding her heart, because she is falling in love with the King, even as he pushes her away. Above all she must learn to rule, and to understand that she has been given the power to remake society. She must fight - for herself, for her husband, and for all her new subjects who look to her for guidance and grace. For she will never be just Charlotte again. She must instead fulfil her destiny . . . as Queen.

A heart-wrenching and unforgettable story of courage, friendship and resistance, inspired by the incredible true story of a Jewish ballroom dancer in Paris during WWII, perfect for fans of The Paris Library.

Paris, 1938. Annie Mayer arrives in France with dreams of becoming a ballerina. But when the war reaches Paris, she's forced to keep her Jewish heritage a secret. Then a fellow dancer offers her a lifeline: a ballroom partnership that gives her a new identity. Together, Annie and her partner captivate audiences across occupied Europe, using her newfound fame and alias to aid the Resistance.

New York, 2012. Miriam, haunted by her past, travels from London to New York to settle her great-aunt Esther's estate. Among Esther's belongings, she discovers notebooks detailing a secret family history and the story of a brave dancer who risked everything to help Jewish families during the war.

As Miriam uncovers Esther's life in Europe, she realises the story has been left for her to finish. Grappling with loss and the possibility of new love, Miriam must find the strength to reconcile her past and embrace her future.