Rafi and Todd are two polar opposites at an elite high school where they bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game. It sets them up for life: Rafi will get lost in literature, while Todd’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

Elsewhere, Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs; Ina Aroita grows up in naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home.

All of these people meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, marked for humanity’s next great adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out into the open sea. As the seasteaders close in, how will Evie play the ever-unfolding oceanic game? Will Ina engage in acts of destruction? Todd and Rafi, now estranged, still find themselves in competition: Todd unravels while working on an idea to redraw the boundaries of human immortality, while Rafi and the residents must decide if they will greenlight the new project on their shores and change their home forever.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, Playground explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize and interweaves profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.

An exhilarating, addictive take on obsession, race, gender and power dynamics through the lens of a corrosive relationship.

I'M A FAN tells the story of an unnamed narrator's involvement in a seemingly unequal romantic relationship.

With a clear and unforgiving eye, Sheena Patel makes startling connections between power struggles at the heart of human relationships to those in the wider world, offering a devastating critique of social media, access and patriarchal systems.

Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

This poetic and subtle novel, first published in 1926, deals with the eternal human problems of guilt and remorse, of love and sorrow.

It explores the simplicity of the lonely life in an isolated Boer community among the stark Karoo mountains.

In this beautiful, urgent, and ultimately uplifting novel by a rising Irish literary star comes a heart-pounding, life-affirming story about one woman trying to leave her marriage and start over.

On a bright spring afternoon, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes off the clothesline, she straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe—and that this time, when she leaves, she must stay away.

On the surface, she has a perfect life: her husband, Ryan, is a good provider, sometimes even kind and attentive, from a nice Irish family, and they have another baby on the way. But he also monitors Ciara's every move, flies into unpredictable rages where he convinces her she can do nothing right, and has isolated her from work, friends, and her beloved family.

Was fleeing the right thing to do? With no job and no support, Ciara struggles to provide a sense of normalcy for her little girls. Facing a broken housing system, they move into a hotel room on a floor reserved for women like her, eating takeout, washing their clothes in the bathroom sink, and building a community with the other residents. Ryan, meanwhile, wages a relentless campaign to win her back, and Ciara wavers. He never hit her, after all, and don't the girls need a stable home?

For fans of Claire Keegan and Louise Kennedy, Roisín O'Donnell’s extraordinary debut creates a devastating and suspenseful portrait of gaslighting and emotional abuse—and even better, a triumphant story about family, love, and finding a new place to nest.

When a soldier with a troubled past and a struggling songwriter agree to a marriage of convenience for the military benefits, neither expects much after saying “I do.” Then tragedy strikes, and the line between what’s real and what’s pretend begins to blur in this smart and surprising romance perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks and Jojo Moyes.

Cassie Salazar and Luke Morrow couldn’t be more different. Sharp-witted Cassie works nights at a bar in Austin, Texas to make ends meet while pursuing her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. Luke is an Army trainee, about to ship out for duty, who finds comfort in the unswerving discipline of service. But a chance encounter at Cassie’s bar changes the course of both their lives.

Cassie is drowning in medical bills after being diagnosed with diabetes. When she runs into her old friend Frankie, now enlisted in the Army, she proposes a deal: she’ll marry him in exchange for better medical insurance and they can split the increased paycheck that comes with having a “family.” When Frankie declines, his attractive but frustratingly intense friend Luke volunteers to marry Cassie instead. What she doesn’t know is that he has desperate reasons of his own to get married.

In this unforgettable love story, Cassie and Luke must set aside their differences to make it look like a real marriage...unless, somewhere along the way, it becomes one...

One minute Lou is happily employed, with a perfect flat. The next, her home and job have gone. Suddenly she has to start over.

The last thing Lou wants is to move to a tiny Cotswolds village. She certainly doesn't intend to work for curmudgeonly eighty-year-old Edgar Allsopp. But Edgar is about to make her the kind of promise nobody could ignore. In return, she secretly vows to help him fall in love with life again.

Foxwell is also home to Remy, whose charm and charisma are proving hard to ignore. But Lou hasn't recovered from the last time she fell for a charmer. She needs a distraction - and luckily one's about to turn up.

Secrets never stay hidden for long in Foxwell, nor are promises always kept. And no one could guess what lies ahead...

A moving tale of second chances and creating a life worth living from the Number One bestselling author, Danielle Steel.

Charlie Vincent feels trapped in his treadmill of a life. He's wealthy and successful doing a job he doesn't want to do, in a marriage to a woman where the romance died many years ago. All that interests Isabelle is his money to fund her extravagant lifestyle. The children have left home and there is nothing for him to look forward to. One Friday evening he leaves work in Paris after yet another row with his CEO, to head to their Normandy chateau where Isabelle has invited guests for the weekend. He's been working late every night, he's tired and he's not concentrating. Just an hour away from the chateau, his car veers off the road, down a cliff and into the sea.

The accident should've killed him and he almost felt ready to die. However, he does escape the vehicle and he somehow finds the strength to climb to safety. The area is remote but in the growing darkness he sees a light on in a cottage in the woods. He knocks on the door and is greeted by Aude, an artist who is escaping her own demons.

This fateful meeting will change Charlie's and Aude's lives forever.

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences…

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena's a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn't even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Life of Pi is a contemporary novel about one boy's story of endurance after a disaster at sea leaves him the sole survivor in a lifeboat for 227 days with a fierce Bengal tiger. The story charts the life and death experiences of the protagonist, Pi, as he is forced to draw on his spiritual and mental strengths to survive every part of his adventure. The layers of vivid story-telling reveal the many complexities of Pi's extraordinary journey.

Features:

- Includes introductory notes about the author, and background information about the novel, themes and characters

- Annotations in the margins highlight literary concepts to guide learners' thinking as the novel progresses

- Footnotes throughout the novel provides learners with explanations of new words and key concepts

- Short questions, contextual questions and essay questions address all cognitive levels, prepare learners for their exams and promote critical thinking

- Includes answers to all questions

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel comes a powerful novel about a woman running her family’s luxury department store and the wealthy investor who threatens to take it over.

Spencer Brooke always knew she was destined to be CEO of her grandfather’s business—the most respected and luxurious department store in New York City. Brooke’s has been at the center of every happy memory she has, but it hasn’t been an easy journey. Seven years after her father’s death, her life is very different from the days when she walked through the store with her grandfather as a young girl. She may be the owner of Brooke’s, but she’s also now a divorced single mother of twin boys. And with the ever-evolving landscape of the fashion industry comes new challenges for Spencer and the legacy she’s inherited.

Mike Weston is known for making enormous profits by transforming small businesses into bigger, more successful ones. With his marriage at a breaking point and his children grown up, investing is where he thrives—where he can build something greater. And Brooke’s feels like the perfect opportunity. Yet the firm’s beautiful and savvy CEO turns down the offer before they even meet.

Spencer has no interest in outside investors meddling in her family business; her grandfather never saw the need for them, and neither does she. She refuses to be tempted by Mike’s offer, despite her big dreams of expanding the store. But when bad luck strikes, suddenly she is backed into a corner.

In Worthy Opponents, Danielle Steel crafts a thrilling story about a powerful woman—and her equally formidable opponent.

Banished for centuries, as punishment for trying to measure time, the inventor of the world's first clock is finally granted his freedom, along with a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two people the true meaning of time.

He embarks on a journey with two unlikely partners: a teenage girl who is about to give up on life and a wealthy, ageing businessman who wants to live for ever. To save himself, he must save them both.

Gripping, and filled with deep human truth, this unforgettable story will inspire readers everywhere to reconsider their own notions of time and just how precious it truly is.

Your fate arrives in a box on your doorstep. Do you open it?

It seems like just another morning. You make a cup of tea. Check the news. Open the front door.

On your doorstep is a box.

Inside the box is the exact number of years you have left to live. The same box appears on every doorstep across the world. Do you open yours?

The Booker Prize–winning author of The Luminaries brings us Birnam Wood, a gripping thriller of high drama and kaleidoscopic insight into what drives us to survive.

Birnam Wood is on the move . . .

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last.

But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam’s founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He’s intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood; although they’re poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize–winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. A brilliantly constructed study of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is a mesmerizing, unflinching consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

Ella Olivia is ’n kranige lysiemaker wat haar hele lewe fyn probeer beplan, want sy glo alle slegte dinge gebeur op Vrydae.

Na ’n belaglike insident waarin sy ’n meme geword het (natuurlik op ’n Vrydag), is haar laaste minuut aanvaarding by Kovsies om medies te studeer ’n nuwe begin vir haar. Maar na nóg ’n belaglike verwarring, bevind sy haarself in die laaste situasie waarin sy wil wees: die kollig. Sy moet Con Trubleau, gewilde kitaarspeler en hoofsanger van die boyband Vuurvreter, se fake meisie wees.

Hierdie is só nie deel van haar plan nie.

Rehana Rossouw’s unique voice gives life and drama to this family saga. It is the story of the Fourie family, residents of Hanover Park in the Cape Flats during the height of the struggle era. The main characters include Magda, the churchgoing mother, who doesn’t see what’s going on in front of her; Neville, the concerned and loving but not always effectual father; Suzette, the oldest daughter, who is bound and determined to get away and make a better life for herself via a career in modelling; Nicky, the smart and sensitive middle child, who proves herself capable of making unselfish choices; and Anthony, the naive and doomed son, who gets caught up with a gang and meets a sad end. In What Will People Say the setting is everything, and the author doesn’t stint on the details of the world her characters inhabit. Readers who have never set foot in Hanover Park will feel they are there, and those who know the place will nod in recognition of the sensory details the author loads into her writing. Nor does the author shy away from the difficult issues faced by those living in this marginalised and disadvantaged community, which came into being as a result of the forced removals from Cape Town. How these issues affect the members of a particular family and their relationships with one another are the focus of the author’s close-up lens. Generously spiced with Cape Flats slang; lots of vivid and gritty description that give an authentic feel to the story; plenty of plot – the writer draws us in and makes us curious about what will happen next; and very human characters we come to care about.

From Ronald H. Balson, author of Once We Were Brothers, Saving Sophie is the powerful story of the lengths a father will go through to protect his daughter and an action-packed thriller that will take you on an unforgettable journey of murder and deception, testing the bonds of family and love.

Jack Sommers was just an ordinary accountant from Chicago - that is, until his wife passed away, his young daughter was kidnapped, and he became the main suspect in an $88 million dollar embezzlement case. Now Jack is on the run, hoping to avoid the feds long enough to rescue his daughter, Sophie, from her maternal grandfather, a suspected terrorist in Palestine.

With the help of investigative team Liam and Catherine, and a new CIA operative, a secret mission is launched to not only rescue Sophie but also to thwart a major terrorist attack in Hebron. But will being caught in the crossfires of the Palestine-Israeli conflict keep their team from accomplishing the task at hand, or can they overcome the odds and save countless lives, including their own?

Ná ’n jagongeluk is niks op die familieplaas Soetkloof ooit weer dieselfde nie. Die 15-jarige De Viljee is dood en sy broer en suster, die 18-jarige tweeling Cornél en Ragel, se lewe is verwoes. Cornél slaan op die vlug, want hy kan nie sy gebroke ouers in die oë kyk nie. Die koeël het immers uit sy jaggeweer gekom.

In die nasleep van die tragedie moet Ragel meisie-alleen red wat te redde is op Soetkloof. Dan kom daar ’n groot droogte en die Opkomsrivier, hul laaste oorblywende reddingsboei, verdor. Boonop is hul grond in die gedrang, want ’n yslike bewaringsgroep wil al die plase in die distrik op koop.

Gaan Ragel aanhou om vir haar erfgrond te baklei of gaan die noodlot die oorhand kry? Kan die luiperdman die jong, taai vrou weer ’n proesel van lewensvreugde gee? En gaan Cornél ooit lewend na Soetkloof terugkeer?

Solank as die aarde, Lucia Prinsloo se derde roman, is uiteindelik ’n verhaal van oorwinning en hoop. Want solank as die aarde bly staan, sal saaityd en oestyd nie ophou nie, sal koue weer warm word, winter weer somer en nag weer dag.

Kan jy vlug van wie jy regtig is?

Lula Prins wil oor begin op Heydendal. ’n Nuwe lewe, ’n nuwe dorp, ’n nuwe naam. Anoniem. Dan stap ’n nuwe man ongenooid by haar lewe in en haar verlede begin haar inhaal.

Kriek Kruger wil uitvind wat met sy laatlambroer, Dian, gebeur het. Het hy werklik na sy dood gespring of wil iemand dit na selfdood laat lyk? En wie het daardie verdoemende verslag geskryf wat hom finaal laat knak het?

Terwyl Kriek na antwoorde soek en Lula van die spoke in haar verlede vlug, gooi die noodlot hulle saam in ’n opwindende, gevaarlike wentelbaan. Gaan Kriek uitvind wie sy regtig is? En kan ’n mens ooit werklik van jou jouself weg vlug?

Ronke, Simi and Boo are inseparable mixed-race friends living in London. They have the gift of two cultures, Nigerian and English, though not all of them choose to see it that way.

Everyday racism has never held them back, but now in their thirties, they question their future. Ronke wants a husband (he must be Nigerian); Boo enjoys (correction: endures) stay-at-home motherhood; while Simi, full of fashion career dreams, rolls her eyes as her boss refers to her urban vibe yet again.

When Isobel, a lethally glamorous friend from their past arrives in town, she is determined to fix their futures for them. Cracks in their friendship begin to appear, and it is soon obvious Isobel is not sorting but wrecking. When she is driven to a terrible act, the women are forced to reckon with a crime in their past that may just have repeated itself.

A darkly comic and bitingly subversive take on love, race and family, Wahala will have you laughing, crying and gasping in horror. Boldly political about class, colorism and clothes, here is a truly inclusive tale that will speak to anyone who has ever cherished friendship, in all its form.

Co-authored by her son, Harry Whittaker, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt is the final book in Lucinda Riley’s multimillion-copy selling epic Seven Sisters series. Spanning a lifetime of love and loss, crossing borders and oceans, it draws the Seven Sisters series to its stunning, unforgettable conclusion.

1928, Paris. A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word, or reveal a single detail about who he is. As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has made. But in 1930s Europe, an evil is rising across the continent and no one’s safety is certain. In his heart, he knows the time will come where he must flee once more.

2008, the Aegean. All the seven sisters are gathered for the first time, on board the Titan to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly. To the surprise of everyone, it is the missing sister who Pa Salt has chosen to entrust with the clue to their pasts. But for every truth revealed, another question emerges.

The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew. And, even more shockingly, that the secrets of his past may still have consequences for them today.

Monique and Ben Klein have been married for twenty years. They both know that they didn’t get married for all the right reasons, but they’re happy with the decision they made. They have a good life in a beautiful house, with three children who they adore.

It all worked out in the end.

Or did it?

Monique has become obsessed with being the perfect wife and mother. Her sense of self is attached to the compliments she receives from friends and relatives. From her appearance to her home to her children, nobody is allowed to see the cracks. They might be normal for other people, but not for Monique. Ben knows that he gave up on a part of himself and his dreams when he married Monique. He’s an actuary, working for a corporate, and not the artist that he longed to be. He ignores as best he can the difference in their thinking. If anyone asks, he is happy.

Their daughter Rosie is struggling with her friendships and the daunting world of teenage parties. But with a strict mother like Monique, she knows that even if she gets frustrated, Monique’s rules will keep her safe.

Until Ben meets Daisy. And Rosie meets Margie. And everything starts to fall apart.

Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Hurting. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all? Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher.

Mr Korgy, with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films that she doesn’t? Or are they actually kindred spirits, sharing the same filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.

Journalist and public relations maven Lucy Khambule is flying high in her life and career. Her book on convicted serial killer Napoleon Dingiswayo is a bestseller, Lucy is in demand for talks and interviews, and her company is involved in early stage organising for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Then comes the terrifying news that Dingiswayo has escaped from C-Max – or has he, as shortly thereafter Detective Morapedi confirms to Lucy that the charred remains found in a prison pipe shaft, along with a suicide note, are those of Dingiswayo. An official statement from Correctional Services further confirms this.

But who is the person stalking her on Facebook? What should Lucy and Detective Morapedi make of the violent and disturbing ‘copycat’ killings happening in eSwatini and the hushed rumours that are swirling around the annual Reed Dance? As Lucy and her events management team work on the historical FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Durban International Convention Centre, events unfold at breakneck speed.

Is this the work of an exconvict on a deadly mission or are there other dangers lurking on Lucy’s path?

Who can she trust and how can she stay safe?

An artfully designed box set of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Cormac McCarthy’s final masterpiece, told in two volumes, each a New York Times bestseller.

The Passenger is a fast-paced and sprawling novel while Stella Maris is a tightly controlled coda, told entirely in dialogue. Together they relate the thrilling story of a brother and sister, haunted by loss, pursued by conspiracy, and longing for a death they cannot reconcile with God.

The Passenger
1980, PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI: It is three in the morning when Bobby Western, a salvage diver, zips the jacket of his wet suit and plunges from the boat deck into darkness. His dive light illuminates the sunken jet, nine bodies still buckled in their seats, hair floating, eyes devoid of speculation. Missing from the crash site are the pilot’s flight bag, the plane’s black box, and the tenth passenger. But how? A collateral witness to machinations that can only bring him harm, Western is shadowed in body and spirit—by men with badges; by the ghost of his father, inventor of the bomb that melted glass and flesh in Hiroshima; and by his sister, the love and ruin of his soul. Stella Maris
1972, BLACK RIVER FALLS, WISCONSIN: Alicia Western is twenty years old when she arrives at a psychiatric facility with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness, the human insistence on one common experience of the world; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. All the while, she grieves for Bobby, not quite dead, not quite hers.