In Cities of the Plain, two men marked by the boyhood adventures of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing now stand together, between their vivid pasts and uncertain futures, to confront a country changing beyond recognition. In the fall of 1952, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are cowboys on a New Mexico ranch encroached upon from the north by the military. On the southern horizon are the mountains of Mexico, where one of the men is drawn again and again, in this story of friendships and passion, to a love as dangerous as it is inevitable. 'In a lovely and terrible landscape of natural beauty and impending loss we find John Grady; a young cowboy of the old school, trusted by men and horses, and a fragile young woman, whose salvation becomes his obsession . . . McCarthy makes the sweeping plains a miracle' Scotsman 'This haunting, deeply felt novel completes one of the literary masterworks of the 1990s' Daily Telegraph 'The completed trilogy emerges as a landmark in American literature' Guardian This edition is part of the Picador Collection, a series of the best in contemporary literature, inaugurated in Picador's 50th Anniversary year.

Money may not be able to buy you love but without it an Earldom is an empty title as black sheep of the family, Michael Belmont, could discover to his cost. Heir to a huge country estate, filled with antiques and the finest furniture, Michael's gambling debts and dissolute lifestyle result in a desperate quarrel with his father, who threatens to disinherit him. When his father dies suddenly, Michael has sunk so low that he does not even have enough money for his fare home. With his allowance gambled and his fine clothes pawned Michael is a man in despair. But all that changes when he meets the beautiful Lady Verna, who is seeking a chauffeur to drive her car home to England. Not knowing that her willing volunteer is actually an Earl, they strike up an unlikely friendship and before the journey ends he has fallen under her spell. Captivated by her independent spirit and positive outlook Michael knows that their love will reform him, and suddenly there is brilliant new hope in his life. All he has to do is win the trust of her father, wealthy Lord Challoner, and convince him of his suitability as a husband -- but the shadow of the late Earl's threat looms large. With so much uncertainly the only thing they can be sure of is their love. As Michael tries to turn his life around and win the hand of the woman he adores can Lady Verna convince her father that love is enough to live on? Meanwhile Michael's cunning younger brother, Anthony, has his eye on the estate. Their father's favourite, he may not carry the title but he is determined to take everything else from his brother including the bride.

The "marvelous" British governess-turned-sleuth helps a new bride who fears her husband intends to murder her (Daily Mail). Former schoolteacher Miss Maud Silver is on her way back to London when, with a violent shudder of the train, a young woman is thrust into her compartment. She's beautiful, well dressed, newly married, and wealthy--a lethal combination. In a state of shock, Lisle Jerningham explains that she fled her home in a hurry after overhearing a sinister conversation. Her new husband's first wife died in an apparent accident, and the resultant infusion of cash saved his family home. Now, he's broke again--and attempting to engineer a second convenient mishap. Miss Silver is unsure whether the drama is real or a figment of Lisle's imagination--but if this frightened young lady is a target for murder, the killer will have to deal with the governess-turned-sleuth first. Starring a mature sleuth who "has her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot", In the Balance is a classic British mystery (Manchester Evening News).

A crackling portrayal of everyday American heroines...A triumph. -- Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue A group of young women from Smith College risk their lives in France at the height of World War I in this sweeping novel based on a true story--a skillful blend of Call the Midwife and The Alice Network--from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig. A scholarship girl from Brooklyn, Kate Moran thought she found a place among Smith's Mayflower descendants, only to have her illusions dashed the summer after graduation. When charismatic alumna Betsy Rutherford delivers a rousing speech at the Smith College Club in April of 1917, looking for volunteers to help French civilians decimated by the German war machine, Kate is too busy earning her living to even think of taking up the call. But when her former best friend Emmeline Van Alden reaches out and begs her to take the place of a girl who had to drop out, Kate reluctantly agrees to join the new Smith College Relief Unit. Four months later, Kate and seventeen other Smithies, including two trailblazing female doctors, set sail for France. The volunteers are armed with money, supplies, and good intentions--all of which immediately go astray. The chateau that was to be their headquarters is a half-burnt ruin. The villagers they meet are in desperate straits: women and children huddling in damp cellars, their crops destroyed and their wells poisoned. Despite constant shelling from the Germans, French bureaucracy, and the threat of being ousted by the British army, the Smith volunteers bring welcome aid--and hope--to the region. But can they survive their own differences? As they cope with the hardships and terrors of the war, Kate and her colleagues find themselves navigating old rivalries and new betrayals which threaten the very existence of the Unit. With the Germans threatening to break through the lines, can the Smith Unit pull together and be truly a band of sisters?

In 1796 the promising young poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge came with his attractive wife Sara to live at nether Stowey in West Somerset, drawn by the beauty of the Quantock Hills and by his new friendship with Tom Poole, who owned a tannery business in Castle Street. Little did Tom realise then how closely he was to become involved, during the years 1796 to 1804, with Coleridge's brilliant, colourful and ultimately tragic life - with his fiercely democratic literary friends who descended on Stowey from time to time and shocked the locals: with his eccentric style of living, with his stormy marriage and hopeless love affair and with his agonised struggle to write great poetry. Overshadowing all, Tom had to watch Coleridge's gradual descent into the abyss of opium addiction

From the Consecration of the Shepherd of Bethlehem to the Rebellion of Prince Absalom. Being an Illustration of the Splendor, Power, and Dominion of the Reign of the Shepherd, Poet, Warrior, King, and Prophet, Ancestor and Type of Jesus; In a Series of Letters Addressed by an Assyrian Ambassador, Resident at the Court of Saul and David, to His Lord and King on the Throne of Nineveh; Wherein the Glory of Assyria, As Well As the Magnificence of Judea, Is Presented to the Reader as by an Eye-Witness.

An unforgettable vision of the 21st Century, "Metropolis" is an unforgettable science fiction classic originally penned in 1922, while she was married to German film director Fritz Lang. She collaborated with Lang on the screenplay for the film version.

Die vroue in Jesus se geslagsregister was dapper, het risiko’s geneem en die onverwagte gedoen. Hulle was nie perfek nie, en tog het God hulle in sy wonderlike plan gebruik om die Verlosser van die wêreld voort te bring.

Ons leef in moeilike tye en soek antwoorde op miljoene vrae. Die lesse wat ons by hierdie vroue kan leer, is vandag net so toepaslik as in die tyd toe hulle geleef het.

Die verhale van die vyf vroue in die geslagsregister van Jesus is nou in een boek beskikbaar. Tamar was ’n vrou van hoop. Ragab een van geloof. Rut was die vrou van liefde en Batseba het ongeëwenaarde genade ontvang. En dan is daar Maria, die vrou van gehoorsaamheid. Met die lees van hulle verhale sal jy beter begrip kry vir God se plan met die wêreld en tot die besef kom dat hierdie plan ook vir jóú insluit.

Jacob Hochstetler is a peace-loving Amish settler on the Pennsylvania frontier when Native American warriors, goaded on by the hostilities of the French and Indian War, attack his family one September night in 1757. Taken captive by the warriors and grieving for the family members just killed, Jacob finds his beliefs about love and nonresistance severely tested.

Jacob endures a hard winter as a prisoner in an Indian longhouse. Meanwhile, some members of his congregation the first Amish settlement in America move away for fear of further attacks.

Based on actual events, Jacob's Choice describes how one man's commitment to pacifism leads to a season of captivity, a complicated romance, an unrelenting search for missing family members, and an astounding act of forgiveness and reconciliation.

In this dazzling debut novel of love and secret histories, a young woman unearths the story of a lost Shanghai pencil company and a hidden family ability which will alter the path of her life forever.

Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-confessed recluse, she finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and she worries about them – especially her grandmother Yun whose memory has begun to fade.

Monica has become intent on tracking down her grandmother Yun’s long-lost cousin, Meng, before it’s too late. In her search, Monica connects with a young woman archivist who presents her with a single pencil that holds a clue to a hidden family history. Through this discovery Monica comes to learn of her grandmother’s years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company.

As WWII raged outside their door, Yun and Meng came into a power unique to the women in their family: the ability to reclaim stories from the pencils they were written with. But when government officials uncovered their secret ability, they were both forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive. These shocking revelations set Monica on a path that will change all their lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.

At once a sweeping family epic and a powerful love story with deep emotional resonance, Allison King’s brilliantly inventive debut novel pushes us to question how well we really know our own stories and the many beguiling ways they can connect our lives.

Included in this edition are "Nana," "The Miller's Daughter," "Captain Burle," "The Death of Olivier Becaille," "The inundation," "Nantas," "Nais Micoulin," and "Mme. Neigeon."

A People magazine Best Book of Fall!

Before she mastered the art of French cooking in midlife, Julia Child found herself working in the secrets trade in Asia during World War II, a journey that will delight both historical fiction fans and lovers of America's most beloved chef, revealing how the war made her into the icon we know now.

Single, 6 foot 2, and thirty years old, Julia McWilliams took a job working for America's first espionage agency, years before cooking or Paris entered the picture. The Secret War of Julia Child traces Julia's transformation from ambitious Pasadena blue blood to Washington, DC file clerk, to head of General "Wild Bill" Donovan's secret File Registry as part of the Office of Strategic Services.

The wartime journey takes her to South Asia's remote front lines of then-Ceylon, India, and China, where she finds purpose, adventure, self-knowledge – and love with mapmaker Paul Child. The spotlight has rarely shone on this fascinating period of time in the life of ("I'm not a spy") Julia Child, and this lyrical story allows us to explore the unlikely world of a woman in a World War II spy station who has no idea of the impact she'll eventually impart.

William Stearns Davis (1877-1930) penned this 1907 tale of the days of Xerxes, Leonidas, and Themistocles.

William Stearns Davis (1877-1930) penned this 1907 tale of the days of Xerxes, Leonidas, and Themistocles.

Included in this edition are "Nana," "The Miller's Daughter," "Captain Burle," "The Death of Olivier Becaille," "The inundation," "Nantas," "Nais Micoulin," and "Mme. Neigeon."

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, heir to the Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: Alfonso 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 he 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.

A beautifully evoked historical novel about the first all female circus act.

1910. With the disappearance of her mother and the sudden death of her father, Lena instantly loses any security she has within the circus she has known all her life. She is advised to sell the carousel her father cared for like a child and look for a husband, or a job in a factory.

Until flame-haired Violet, known to all in the fairgrounds as 'the greatest trapeze artist that ever lived', suggests they go it alone with their own, all-female act. With her outspoken ways and her refusal to marry, Violet is as much an outcast as Lena. What do they have to lose? Recruiting new performers including bareback horse-rider Rosie, on the run from her abusive father, and Carmen whose rainbow ribbons hide the darkness in her past, the four women form an unbreakable bond.

Thrust into a harsh and dangerous world that treats them with suspicion, disdain and even violence, they must forge their own path in search of freedom, security, and love.

Deeply rooted in the Edwardian era, THE SHOW WOMAN is brilliantly realised and expertly interlaces strong female characters, deeply-woven family secrets and heartfelt love stories.

At the end of Huckleberry Finn, on the eve of the Civil War, Huck and Tom Sawyer decide to escape "sivilization" and "light out for the Territory." In Robert Coover's vision of their Western adventures, Tom decides he'd rather own civilization than escape it, leaving Huck "dreadful lonely" in a country of bandits, war parties, and gold. In the course of his ventures, Huck reunites with old friends, facing hard truths and even harder choices.