FOR A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS SHAHERAZADE TOLD STORIES. THIS IS HERS. A spellbinding reimagining of the Arabian Nights and the fearless woman at the heart of it all: Shaherazade.

Before she was the legendary Persian queen who spun a thousand tales, Shaherazade was a girl who saw something she shouldn't have.

She told the king. She thought she was doing what was right. She couldn't have imagined what was to come.

The Seljuk Empire is on fire and the king is on a rampage after learning of his wife's infidelity. Unsated by her execution, he has gone on to wed and behead a new wife night after night. Fear spreads through the city and Shaherazade must do something, anything, to halt the horror she has set in motion. When the king starts searching for his next bride, Shaherazade steps forward.

As the sun sets on her wedding night, she begins to weave a tale that will go down in history.

If you had to tell one story to save your life, what would it be?

Belle Acres is a dairy farm in the district of Somabhula in Southern Rhodesia. The year is 1977, and the farm has been in the hands of the Williams family since the turn of the century. The farm is managed by Paul Williams, a seemingly harsh and bigoted man, who holds the livelihood of many black labourers in his hands.

Maria, the daughter of one of the workers, joins the liberation movement, leaving behind her daughter, Angel in the care of her mother and grandmother who have been in service to the Williams family for years. Angel grows up on the farm during two and a half momentous decades that see a complicated history and legacy unfold into an equally complicated present.

An Angel’s Demise deals with a woman’s quest to unearth her identity and assert her independence. In the process of self-discovery, she loses herself completely and realises that sometimes you need to be totally uprooted before you can establish yourself.

An unputdownable debut charting the thrilling life and heroism of Hannie Schaft, a young-woman-turned-Dutch-Resistance-fighter in Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

Hannie Schaft didn't train to be a soldier: she had dreams of her own. But dreams die in wartime, and her friends are no longer safe.

Hiding them is not enough. Hannie is young but she won't stand aside as the menace of Nazi evil tightens its grip on her country. Recruited into the Resistance, she learns to shoot and is notorious for not missing her targets. As she draws deeper into a web of plots, disguises and assassinations, whispers spread like wildfire amongst enemies and friends alike. They know her name. She's "the Girl with Red Hair." A match for any Nazi soldier, a true threat, a target.

Buzzy Jackson's debut is an unputdownable novel of love, loyalty, and the limits we confront when our deepest values are tested.

She took another woman’s place. Now she must live with the consequences...

London, 1941. When Mary meets a glamorous stranger named Elizabeth she realises their lives couldn’t be more different. Elizbeth is beautiful and charming, about to set off on a dazzling adventure to Ireland where she’s inherited a grand house. Mary, shy and meek, has nothing to look forward to but the dreary life of a maid in Hampstead.

But when an air raid forces them to take shelter underground Mary’s life is suddenly changed forever. After waking up in hospital, injured but alive, the nurse mistakes her for Elizabeth and hands over her suitcase with Elizabeth’s money and tickets to Ireland inside.

This is Mary’s chance to escape the hardship of her life and start afresh.

Will she take it and what could go wrong?

Two lovers caught at the crossroads of history. A daughter’s search for the truth.

Germany, 1929. When Max, a Jewish architect, and Bettina, a beautiful and celebrated German avant-garde artist, meet at a party their attraction is instant. In love with each other and the art they create, their talent transports them to the dazzling lights of Berlin. But Germany is on the brink of terrible change, and their bright beginning is soon dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism.

When Max is arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp, it is only his talent at making the exquisite porcelain figures so beloved by the Nazis that stands between him and certain death. At first, Bettina has no idea where Max has been taken but when she learns of his fate, she is determined to rescue him whatever the cost.

Now, a lifetime later, Bettina’s daughter, Clara, sets out on a journey to uncover the truth about her identity. As she weaves together the fabric of her past, she discovers the terrible secret her mother wanted hidden forever.

For fans of Heather Morris and Kristin Hannah, The Porcelain Maker is a sweeping, epic story of love, betrayal and art, set across Europe from the 1920s Weimar Republic, to dark and glittering 1930s Berlin.

Maggie Flynn isn't your typical 1960s mum. She's a spy, an unsuspecting operative for MI5, stalking London's streets in myriad disguises.

Widowed and balancing her clandestine career with raising a Beatles-mad teenage daughter, Maggie finds comfort and purpose in her profession – providing a connection to her late husband, whose own covert past only surfaced after his death.

But Maggie's world spins out of control when a chance encounter with a mysterious Russian agent triggers a chilling revelation: he knew her husband. And what's worse, the agent suspects someone on home soil betrayed him.

As Maggie searches for answers, she'll question everyone – and everything – she thought she could trust. In the murky and perilous world of espionage, can she outsmart those determined to keep her silenced?

Translated into English for the first time, Claire Berest's award-winning novel is a striking fictional imagining of the vibrant life of one of the world's most enigmatic and beloved artists: Frida Kahlo.

This is the story of Diego and Frida, who couldn't live without each other.

They meet at a party. She knows everything about him, about his mythology, and he knows nothing of her, she is nobody.

He is Mexico's greatest artist. She drinks like a sailor, wears flowers in her hair, talks openly about sex, loves attending protests and parties to wake the dead. She is from Coyoacan, twenty years his junior and with a broken spine to boot.

Even when her body is wracked with pain, she paints.

There were two great accidents in her life. The first was when that streetcar hit her . . . but by far the worst was meeting him.

Kanaän ​is die verhaal van twaalf families wat na 'n woestyntrek op die drumpel van hulle bestemming huiwer. Lê die land wat aan hulle belowe is dan nie oorkant hierdie laaste rivier nie?

Dit is die aangrypende verhaal van die universele verlange na 'n ander lewe. Van die bykans onnaspeurbare onderskeid tussen geloof, bygeloof en brutale ongeloof.

Dit word vertel deur die oë van Itamar, die onwillige hoëpriester, Ragab die prostituut en Josua die leier wat altyd wag op die Wolk.

In Athens, crowds flock to witness the most shocking trial of the ancient world. The royal family is mired in scandal. Phaedra, young bride of King Theseus, has accused her stepson, Hippolytus of rape.

He’s a prince, a talented horseman, a promising noble with his whole life ahead of him. She’s a young and neglected wife, the youngest in a long line of Cretan women with less than savoury reputations.

The men of Athens must determine the truth. Who is guilty, and who is innocent?

But the women know truth is a slippery thing. After all, this is the age of heroes and the age of monsters. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard.

Until now.

England, 1685. Decades after the end of the civil war, the country is once again divided when Charles II's illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle.

Armed only with pitchforks, Monmouth's army is quickly defeated by King James II's superior forces and charged with high treason. Those found guilty will be hanged, drawn and quartered.

As Dorset braces for carnage, the redoubtable Lady Jayne Harrier and her enigmatic son, assisted by the reclusive daughter of a local magistrate, contrive ways to save men from the gallows.

Compelling and powerful, The Players is a story of guile, deceit and compassion during the dark days of The Bloody Assizes. Secrets are kept and surprising friendships formed in a dangerous gamble to thwart a brutal king's thirst for vengeance...

Two sisters, separated by oceans and global conflict, are bonded through music and love in this gripping novel based on true events from World War II.

The year is 1941, and in the Philippines, Caramina Grassi dreams of training in Italy to become an opera singer like her older sister, Rosa. But as war erupts, her world is shattered, forcing her to cling to the music that has always been her refuge. When her family’s lives are threatened and they are forced to flee to the jungle, she comes to understand that music is more than comfort. It becomes a muse that fuels her courage, sacrifice, and unwavering focus on the light.

Meanwhile, in Florence, just as Rosa Grassi’s long-awaited opera debut arrives, Mussolini tightens his grip on Italy. Drawn into la Resistenza, the underground resistance, Rosa feels lost in a fog of deception that clouds everything she thought to be true. In a time when family or friend could be foe, Rosa will learn that performing isn’t just for the stage. Facing a devastating betrayal, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the one she loves.

Inspired by true events, In the Light of the Sun is an unforgettable story of sisterhood, hope, and the enduring power of music to uplift the human spirit—even in the darkest of times.

From the bestselling author of SIX TUDOR QUEENS, a captivating new novel about two Boleyn cousins, close as sisters - and the truth that will change everything.

At twelve years old, Kate Carey attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold. Horrified by what she witnesses, Kate is convinced that King Henry VIII has sent an innocent woman to a terrible death.

As the Boleyns fall from favour, Kate serves her now motherless cousin, the young Lady Elizabeth. Bound by Boleyn blood, the two girls are like sisters, until Kate marries for love - and leaves a jealous Elizabeth behind.

At court, Kate cannot ignore the sly looks thrown her way, nor the whispers behind her back. Only when her mother, Mary, lies dying, does she learn the life-shattering truth that the Boleyns have been hiding for years.

It is a secret that will haunt Kate throughout her life, as her family flee into exile, only returning home when Elizabeth becomes queen. But the bond between the Boleyn cousins will never be the same again...

Oprah’s Book Club Pick for 2024.

The follow-up to the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling modern classic The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Familiaris is the stirring origin story of the Sawtelle family and the remarkable dogs that carry the Sawtelle name.

It is spring 1919, and John Sawtelle's imagination has gotten him into trouble ... again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin's north woods, where they hope to make a fresh start--and, with a little luck, discover what it takes to live a life of meaning, purpose, and adventure. But the place they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends--human, animal, and otherworldly--to realize their dreams.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, mysterious and enchanting, Familiaris takes readers on an unforgettable journey from the halls of a small-town automobile factory, through an epic midwestern firestorm and an ambitious WWII dog training program, and far back into mankind's ancient past, examining the dynamics of love and friendship, the vexing nature of families, the universal desire to create something lasting and beautiful, and of course, the species-long partnership between Homo sapiens and Canis familiaris.

New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with the next Hell’s Belles novel about a chaotic bluestocking and the buttoned-up detective enlisted to keep her out of trouble (spoiler: She is the trouble).

With her headful of wild curls and wilder ideas and an unabashed love of experiments and explosives, society has labeled Lady Imogen Loveless peculiar…and doesn’t know she’s one of the Hell’s Belles—a group of vigilantes operating outside the notice of most of London.

Thomas Peck is not most of London. The brilliant detective fought his way off the streets and into a promising career through sheer force of will and a keen ability to see things others miss, like the fact that Imogen isn’t peculiar…she’s pandemonium. If you ask him, she requires a keeper. When her powerful family discovers her late-night activities, they couldn’t agree more…and they know just the man for the task.

Thomas wants nothing to do with guarding Imogen. He is a grown man with a proper job and no time for the lady’s incendiary chaos, no matter how lushly it is packaged. But some assignments are too explosive to pass up, and the gruff detective is soon caught up in Imogen’s world, full of her bold smiles and burning secrets…and a fiery passion that threatens to consume them both.

Washington DC, 1917. When the President sends Isaac Bell to Europe as a fact-finding observer, it seems a safer mission than most.

But when his plane is shot down behind enemy lines, Bell is captured and thrown into a medieval fortress.

Escaping with fellow prisoners will take every ounce of cunning - and the latest battlefield technology.

Yet freedom reveals an even greater danger: a secret anarchist plot to unleash the horrors of war on American soil.

Now Bell must race across the Atlantic to stop a ruthless enemy before the fight reaches home.

A familiar foe. A battle for the heart of a country at war with itself.

South Africa, 1899 - the smouldering hostility between the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal is about to burst into flame. War is coming and no one can prevent it. Colonel Penrod Ballantyne, hero of Abu Klea and Omdurman, is sent to Mafeking, 'the place of stones', to recruit and train men for the fighting ahead. Amber, his wife, the successful novelist, accompanies him - eager to see more of the country her husband is about to risk his life for. But when war is declared, Amber must flee with their baby son and pray for her husband's survival against impossible odds.

Eight hundred miles to the south, in Cape Town, Ryder Courtney - adventurer, maverick, industrialist - is using his wealth and connections to bankroll the British war effort. His artist wife Saffron, frustrated by stuffy Cairo society, has joined him with their three children. There is peace in the Courtney household, or so Saffron believes, until their eldest son, Leon, stows away on a train to the front line, determined to join his distinguished uncle, Penrod Ballantyne, in changing the course of history. Saffron and Ryder have no choice but to leave the safety of the Cape Colony and follow. Leon is convinced that his parents are without honour and courage. Little does he realise that he has no chance of escaping the people they used to be.

Two families torn apart, caught up in a battle for the heart of a country at war with itself.

The Courtneys and the Ballantynes come together once again in the sequel to the worldwide bestsellers The Triumph of the Sun and King of Kings.

An inspirational story of resilience, bravery and the strength to succeed from the billion copy bestselling author Danielle Steel.

It is 1912 and Lady Victoria Oldbrooke is not a conventional English aristocrat's daughter. Intelligent, beautiful, and fiercely independent, Victoria dreams of a world beyond the expectations of society. Eager to embrace education and adventure, she travels the globe with her beloved father, Lord Alfred Oldbrooke.

Her life takes an unforeseen turn aboard the ill-fated ship, Titanic. As tragedy strikes, Victoria's father entrusts her future to his friend, Bert Banning, a wealthy industrialist with a heart as generous as her own. Their unexpected union, born of necessity, blossoms into love and deep respect.

On the sudden death of her husband, Victoria inherits and assumes the running of the Manchester textile mills. As a female owner ahead of her time, she must defy convention as she encounters the threat of violence, strikes and rioting from a disgruntled workforce.

Lady Victoria must find the courage to stay strong in her self-belief, overcoming the prejudice of her peers and steer the mills through the tumultuous times of a changing world before her enemies destroy all she has fought for.

In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut— inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology—follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant.

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.

Lieutenant Jack Pembroke’s most dangerous mission yet.

It’s the summer of 1942 and the fate of the Mediterranean hangs in the balance. After evacuating South African troops from Tobruk, Jack and his small escort ship, HMSAS Gannet, join a vital and secret convoy from Egypt to relieve the island of Malta, which is under siege.

Powerful German and Italian forces have been assembled to make sure the ships don’t get through and the course of the war could well be determined by this mission, codenamed Operation Assegai.

However, reaching Malta is just the beginning. Gannet is chosen for a daring raid on an enemy-held island and the crew must join a commando in a lightning strike on a radar facility. It’s a dangerous – but crucial – sortie with the odds heavily stacked against Jack and his men. And while his love affair with the Spanish beauty Alana is taking on troubling overtones, Jack is haunted by flashbacks to the mayhem of Dunkirk.

Aleen Cust has big dreams and no one—not her family, society, or the law—will stop her.

Born in Ireland in 1868 to an aristocratic English family, Aleen knows she is destined to work with animals, even if her family is appalled by the idea of a woman pursuing a veterinary career. Going against their wishes but with the encouragement of the guardian assigned to her upon her father's death, Aleen attends the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, enrolling as A. I. Custance to spare her family the humiliation they fear. At last, she is on her way to becoming a veterinary surgeon! Little does she know her biggest obstacles lie ahead.

The Invincible Miss Cust is based on the real life of Aleen Isabel Cust, who defied her family and society to become Britain and Ireland's first woman veterinary surgeon. Through Penny Haw's meticulous research, riveting storytelling, and elegant prose, Aleen's story of ambition, determination, family, friendship, and passion comes to life. It is a story that, even today, women will recognize, of battling patriarchy and an unequal society to realize one's dreams and pave the way for other women in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

She ​survives four queens. Will she fall to a tyrant?

Jane Boleyn watches from the shadows of the Tudor court. Where nothing is more powerful than a secret – or more deadly.

As the Boleyns rise, Jane rises with them. But the king’s love is a fickle thing. And when the royal gaze turns elsewhere, Jane uses the only weapon she has: her voice.

To survive in this dazzling, dangerous world she has mastered many masks: loving wife, devoted sister, and obedient spy. Now she must step out of the shadows.

She might outlive her rivals. She might know the court’s darkest secrets. But power rests on the edge of a tyrant king’s sword. Where will it fall next?

Philippa Gregory brings the Boleyn traitor into the light in an explosive story of one woman’s survival in the treacherous heart of the Tudor court.

The heartwarming, moving and uplifting new story of friendship, love and finding courage when all seems lost from AJ Pearce, The Sunday Times bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird and Yours Cheerfully.

London, April 1943. Emmy Lake is an agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine, doing all she can to help readers as they face the challenges of wartime life. With her column thriving and a team of women behind her, Emmy finally feels she is Doing Her Bit.

But when the glamourous new owner arrives, everything changes. Charming her way around editor Guy Collins, Emmy quickly realises the Honourable Mrs Cressida Porter plans to destroy everything readers love about the magazine.

With her best friends by her side, Emmy must work out how she can bring everyone together and save Woman’s Friend before it’s too late.

SLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER.

At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical.

Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, adventure, assumed identities and spying. Stories that take place in WWII Indonesia; in Busan during the Korean war; in cold-war Pyongyang; in China. The stories are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable, that they cannot surely all belong to the same woman. Can they?

As playful and thought-provoking as it is compelling, as brutal and harrowing as it is achingly poignant and tender, this is a novel about love and war, deceit and betrayal, about identity, storytelling and the trickery required for survival.

Auschwitz, 1943: "As I held the tiny baby in my arms, my fingers traced the black tattoo etched across her little thigh. And I prayed that one day this set of numbers, identical to her mother’s, would have the power to reunite a family torn apart by war…"

Ana Kaminski is pushed through the iron gates of Auschwitz beside her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak. As they reach the front of the line, Ana quietly declares herself a midwife – and Ester her assistant. Their arms are tattooed and they’re ordered to the maternity hut. Ana knows the fate of many are in her hands, and vows to do everything she can to save them.

When two guards in their chilling SS uniforms march in and snatch a blond-haired baby from its mother it’s almost too much for Ana to bear. Consoling the distraught woman, Ana realises that the guards are taking the healthiest babies and placing them with German families, so they will survive. And there are whispers the war is nearly over… Ana and Ester begin to secretly tattoo little ones with their mother’s numbers, praying one day they might be reunited.

Then, early one morning, Ana notices the small bump under Ester’s thin striped clothing…

An absolutely heart-breaking and page-turning WW2 novel of one woman’s bravery and determination to bring life and hope into a broken world. Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Alice Network and The Nightingale will be gripped.

A captivating tale of love and loss, set on the wild coast of Ireland and in glamorous 1960s London.

When Sorcha O’Donovan encounters struggling musician Con Daly – the strikingly handsome outcast in their small village on West Cork’s windswept coastline – her days will never be the same.

Con strikes gold with rock band The Fishermen in London, but their lives change beyond recognition as the dark side of fame rears its head and secrets from the past threaten to destroy everything he has worked for.

Twenty years later, The Fishermen agree to re-form for the Music for Life charity concert at Wembley Stadium. But Con has been missing for more than a decade. There’s only one person who can find out what happened; only one person who knows how vital it is to uncover the truth.

Because should Con Daly reappear before the facts emerge, then history could repeat itself with even more tragic consequences . . .

Lucinda Riley wrote The Last Love Song as Lucinda Edmonds in 1996, now reworked and revived by Harry Whittaker, Lucinda’s son and co-author of Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt.