Seven uplifting tales of warm, wise and sarcastic cats set in modern Japan through the changing seasons.

Against changing seasons in Japan, seven cats weave their way through their owners' lives.

A needy kitten rescued from the recycling bin teaches a new father how to parent his own human baby. An elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be together for ever. A colony of wild cats on a holiday island shows a young boy not to stand in nature's way. A family is perplexed by their cat's devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father. A woman curses how her cat constantly visits her at night.

Bursting with empathy and love, THE GOODBYE CAT explores the unstoppable cycle of life as we see how the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down.

A huge bestseller in Japan, every page is a joyous celebration of cats and how we cannot resist sharing our lives with them.

Twisted Mountains is a collection of short stories set among the summits of England, Scotland and Wales, from Ben Hope to the South Downs. Each tells the story of someone who has their own reasons to be in the mountains. From a vengeful student to obsessive hostel owner, the wannabe biker to the Wainwright expert with a secret. While the stories are varied in their subjects, all have mountains at their heart and a dark humour running through them. Authored by Tim Woods, Twisted Mountains provides a different take on the characters you find in and around the mountains. Tim tells their stories in the characters' varied voices, in ways that are shocking, dark, funny and sad, sometimes all at once.

A meditation on the nature of life and time, Agua Viva (1973) shows Lispector discovering a new means of writing about herself, more deeply transforming her individual experience into a universal poetry. In a body of work as emotionally powerful, formally innovative, and philosophically profound as Clarice Lispector s, Agua Viva stands out as a particular triumph."

Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, thirteen-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings, and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale, and a powerful exploration of cultural imperialism, Nervous Conditions charts Tambu's journey to personhood in a nation that is also emerging.

An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America. "Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes..." Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It's 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California's first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world's first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes. Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it's too late.

Ester Labuschagne en Nonthando Majolo het saam groot geword op 'n afgeleë plaas in die Oos-Kaap. Boesemvriendinne gewees – tot een dag van verraad. Nou, soveel jare later, met Nonthando se dogter Mila self al 'n volwasse vrou, kom spook die verlede by Ester. Sy besef sy kan nie langer hul geheime met haar haar saamdra nie. Met Somtotaal vestig Troskie haar opnuut as meevoerende skrywer. Dit is 'n storie wat geen leser onaangeraak sal laat nie. 

The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

"There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine."

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer", Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

“Ek wil ’n enkelkaartjie bespreek,” fluister Selma aan die man agter die toonbank in Flight Centre.

“Waarnatoe?” vra hy en kyk op.

“Geen idee nie,” sê Selma en lek oor haar droë lippe. “Solank dit baie ver van Johannesburg is.”

Selma Barnard se hele lewe het soos ’n kaartehuis inmekaargetuimel. Eers verloor sy haar man, toe haar kinders, en nou is haar hart van nuuts af gebreek deur ’n sogenaamde ridder op ’n wit perd. Hoe kon sy haar so misgis het? En waar was Louise, haar hartsvriendin van veertig jaar? Hoekom het sý haar nie gewaarsku nie. Indië toe, dis waarheen sy sal vlug, besluit Selma. Sy sal al haar durf en moed bymekaarskraap, vrou-alleen op die vliegtuig klim Mumbai toe, en ’n nuwe mens terugkom. À la Eat Pray Love.

'You will look after them for me, my poor orphan children.' Domenica could not hold back the tears. 'I will Mamma, I promise, do not worry about us. We will be alright.' Picinisco, Italy 1945: the war may be over, but for Domenica and her family the struggle for survival carries on. Dealing with the cruel legacy of the battle of Monte Cassino, a now parentless seventeen-year-old Domenica finds herself bound by a promise to care for her 5 younger siblings. Will she be able to provide for them as food grows scarce? Will she hold the family together? Will this promise cost Domenica her own future with the man she loves? A fictionalised account of real events, Domenica weaves a rural tale full of home truths in the idyllic Abruzzo Apennines. Through a single shepherding family and its strong-willed eldest daughter, Serafina Crolla exposes the human cost of war beyond the battlefield in a poignant depiction of love and grief, pain and union.

The world lies in ruins...humanity's last stand is underway...the dead have overtaken the living as the new dominant species. Day By Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglassexpands upon the critically acclaimed series of the zombie apocalypse, and alternates between the handwritten journal depicting a military personnel's struggle for survival and the survivors he has met along the way-mankind's final hope in its darkest hours. Trapped in the midst of global disaster, they must individually and collectively make the agonizing decisions that could mean either living for yet another day, or the eternal curse of forever walking among the undead horde....

"Relying on a rich cache of previously classified notes, transcripts, cables, policy briefs, and memoranda, Andrew Cooper explains how oil drove, even corrupted, American foreign policy during a time when Cold War imperatives still applied,"* and tells why in the 1970s the U.S. switched its Middle East allegiance from the Shah of Iran to the Saudi royal family. While America struggles with a recess ion, oil prices soar, revolution rocks the Middle East, European nations risk defaulting on their loans, and the world teeters on the brink of a possible global financial crisis. This is not a description of the present, however, but the 1970s. In The Oil Kings, Andrew Cooper tells the story of how oil came to dominate U.S. domestic and foreign policy. Drawing on newly declassified documents and interviews with some of the key figures of the time, Cooper follows the political posturing and backroom maneuvering that led the U.S. to switch to OPEC as its main supplier of oil from the Shah of Iran, a loyal ally and leading customer for American weapons. The subsequent loss of U.S. income destabilized the Iranian economy, while the U.S. embarked on a long relationship with the autocratic Saudi kingdom that continues to this day. Brilliantly reported and filled with astonishing revelations--including how close the U.S. came to sending troops into the Persian Gulf to break the Arab oil embargo and how U.S. officials offered to sell nuclear power and nuclear fuel to the Shah--The Oil Kings is the history of an era that we thought we knew, an era whose momentous reverberations still influence events at home and abroad today.

The final book of the smash-hit Wayward Pines trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade What's inside was a nightmare. What's outside is a thousand times worse. Welcome to Wayward Pines, the last town. Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed. But Ethan has discovered the astonishing secret of what lies beyond the electrified fence that surrounds Wayward Pines and protects it from the terrifying world beyond. And now that secret is about to come storming through the fence to wipe out this last, fragile remnant of humanity. The Last Town at last pitches Ethan Burke and his fellow residents into all-out war against the forces outside the town's gates - and in doing so delivers every bit the riotously horrific, breathlessly action-packed conclusion that the Wayward Pines trilogy deserves.

Zoologist Charlotte Walker has taken up a year-long fellowship on the tiny, remote island of Tuga de Oro to study the endangered gold coin tortoises in the jungle interior.

She is warmly embraced by the tight-knit community of islanders – and their animals – who are keen to adopt Charlotte as Tuga’s first vet.

But Charlotte has a family secret that connects her to the island. She is determined to solve the mystery: she just needs to make sure she stays focused on her research, and absolutely does not fall in love with the first man she meets…

"Which one of you bitches is my mother?"
Four elegant, successful, and sophisticated women in their forties are called to New York's Pierre Hotel to meet Lili -- a beautiful, young, and notoriously temperamental Hollywood movie star. None of the women knows exactly why she is there; each has a reason to hate Lili and each of them is astonished to see the others. They are old friends who share a guilty secret and who have for years been doing their best to keep that secret quiet. Their lives are changed forever, however, when Lili suddenly confronts them. When the women refuse to answer her, Lili proceeds to travel around the world through the playgrounds of the rich and famous, seeking to answer the question that has obsessed and almost destroyed her.
From Paris to London, from the boardroom to the bedroom, "Lace" takes the reader into the rarified world of five unforgettable women who are as beautiful, as complex and as strong as...lace.