After an assassination attempt and in waning health, Naguib Mahfouz became more cautious in his twilight years. At the same time, in nightly dreams, his imagination began to roam his beloved city, Cairo, with a rare freedom.

In this collection of vivid vignettes linked together by the author’s precisely rendered nocturnal wanderings through Cairo, figures from Mahfouz’s personal life blend with his anxieties about Egypt’s political past and future. Each dream is layered with philosophical and spiritual musings, hopes and disappointments. Over the course of the book, they build to a rich and complex picture of Mahfouz’s subconscious.

Plucky fourteen-year-old Adunni is in Lagos, excited to finally enrol in school.

But it's not so simple to run away from your past.

On the night before she is due to join her new classmates , a terrible knocking at the front gate summons Adunni back to her home village, Ikati, where her dramatic story of resilience first began.

There, Adunni must try to not only save herself, but also transform Ikati into a place where girls are allowed to claim the bright futures they deserve - and roar their stories to the world.

See what readers are saying about And So I Roar . . .

He’s the perfect man.

He says he loves you.

You think he might even be made for you.

Before long he’s moved into your house – and into your heart.

And then he leaves for days at a time. You don’t know where he’s gone or who he’s with.

And you realise - if you looked back - you’d say to yourself:

DON’T LET HIM IN.

Don’t miss the new read-in-one-sitting Lisa Jewell novel; a cautionary story that could happen to you…

The gripping and exciting first book in a brand new crime thriller series from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author.

Welcome to North Falls. A small town where everyone knows everyone. But nobody knows the truth.

Emmy Clifton has lived here all her life. She thinks she knows her neighbours. She's wrong.

She thinks it’s just another hot summer night: a night like any other. She's wrong.

When her best friend's daughter asks for help, she thinks it’s just some teenage drama. She thinks it can wait. She’s never been more wrong in her life.

As the town ignites in the wake of the girls' disappearance, Emmy throws herself into the search. But then she realises: You never really know a town until you know its secrets.

Is Emmy ready for the truth?

In New York’s high-end restaurant scene one chef will do anything, and cook anything, to come out on top.

Kash owes a lot of money. His restaurant, specialising in exotic meats and catering to New York’s elite, was doing well. Then business dried up, and now Boris the loan shark wants his investment back. But Kash has a plan.

There’s a rumour of a dinner club, hosted in turns by billionaires. Lots of ego, and lots of money. If Kash can get the gig, it would pay off Boris and then some. He will need to offer something new, something that five of the richest men on the planet will have never tasted before. Something entirely unprecedented …

But Boris is done waiting. He kidnaps Kash, takes him to a warehouse and cuts off his finger.

And this gives Kash an idea.

A stray cat brings together five strangers over the course of one fateful summer in this heartwarming novel about love, found family, and the power of connection.

Núria, a single-by-choice barista with a little resentment for the “crazy cat lady” label, is a member of The Meow-Yorkers, a group in Brooklyn who takes care of the neighborhood’s stray cats. On her volunteering days, she starts finding Post-it notes left by a secret admirer in an area where her feeds her favorite stray—a black cat named Cat. Like most felines, he is both curious and observant, so of course he knows who the notes are from. Núria, however, is clueless.

Are the notes from Collin, a bestselling author and self-professed hermit with a weakness for good coffee? Are they from Lily, a fresh-out-of-high school Georgia native searching for her long-lost half sister? Are they from Omar, the beloved neighborhood mailman going through an early midlife crisis? Or are they from Bong, the grieving widower who owns Núria’s favorite bodega?

When Cat suddenly falls ill, these five strangers find themselves bonding together in their desire to care for him, and discover that chance encounters can lead to the meaningful connections they’ve all been searching for.

From the shadows. A new evil will rise. Faceless. Nameless.

Since his appointment as Nomarch of Memphis, by the God-Pharaoh Rameses, Piay has thrown himself into pulling the city back from the brink. The famous white city walls have been rebuilt, the once starving inhabitants fed and every day caravans have arrived from the desert wastes, filled with the many riches looted and hidden by the Hyksos. But when the body of a murdered scribe is found sealed inside the newly constructed city vault - the mark of Anubis, god of death, scrawled next to him in his own blood - panic sweeps the city. Only the wisest man in all Egypt can solve this mystery - Piay's mentor, the great sage Taita.

Called from his place at the God-Pharaoh Rameses' side, Taita's arrival in Memphis calms the populace, but it isn't long before the mark of Anubis appears again, and again. Taita and Piay are drawn into a battle of wits against a criminal mastermind turned warlord, his aim - with the demise of the Hyksos - to see the kingdom of the Red Pretender restored and the forces of Rameses crushed.

Will everything that Taita has fought for be torn asunder? Or will he and Piay finally reunite the two kingdoms? Only time will tell. And time is running out.

Book 4 in The New Kingdom Sequence and book 10 in the Ancient Egyptian series from the master historical adventure writer, Wilbur Smith.

REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie” or “Stop that.”

Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.

Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire?or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.

Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.

An exhilarating thriller set against a 250-mile foot race in the Sahara Desert, where at least one ultramarathoner is running for her life

Adrienne Wendell was once an exceptional ultramarathoner, a runner whose times were within striking distance of setting records. Years ago, she gave it all up when her son Ethan was hit by a car while she was in a race and unable to come to his help. He survived, but it horrified her that she had not been around to help. There was another reason she put running behind her: she had leveled a career-ending accusation at one of the world’s most celebrated coaches—just before he mysteriously died. She instantly became a pariah in the running community.

Now seven years have passed, and Adri is back on her feet. She’s headed to Morocco for a staggering 250-mile race through the Sahara Desert organized by none other than Boones—a race director so mysterious and elusive he goes by only one name. Boones’s races are famously sadistic. Routes can change moments before the starting gun fires, and inevitably there are bizarre challenges that test the runners’ will and stamina. Adri is here to prove that, despite everything that has happened, she can still do it. But she’s also here for answers to the mysteries that cloud her past, and she’s as determined to find them as she is to finish the race. The only question is who is trying to stop her.

There are secrets swirling in the hot desert sands, and as Adri gets closer to the explosive truth, the danger climbs with every step she takes.

"The Hunger Games meets vampires in the third installment of the BookTok fave Crowns of Nyaxia series, a heart-wrenching, epic fantasy romance of love and treachery between mortals and gods . . . truly a vampire-lover’s dream!’ – Cosmopolitan

In the descent to the underworld, a bride of the sun must choose between the light of her redemption . . . or a dark love that defies the gods themselves.
Mische lost everything when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire – her home, her humanity and, most devastating of all, the love of the sun god to whom she had devoted her life. Now, sentenced to death for murdering the vampire prince who Turned her, redemption feels impossible.

When Mische is saved by Asar, the bastard prince of the House of Shadow with a brutal past, she is forced into a mission worse than execution: a journey to the underworld to resurrect the god of death himself. But Mische is offered a chance at salvation by her sun god. All she has to do is betray Asar – and kill the god of death.

In the underworld, Mische and Asar must face treacherous trials, colossal beasts and the vengeful ghosts of their pasts. But most dangerous of all is the alluring call of the darkness, and Mische’s forbidden attraction to Asar. As the moment of her betrayal looms, Mische is forced to choose between faith and love – a decision that could lead to her redemption or her ruin . . .

The Songbird and the Heart of Stone is the third book of the New York Times bestselling Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent, and the first book in the stunning Shadowborn Duet.

In 1933, Bella Stuart leaves her quiet London life to move to Italy to tutor the child of a beautiful Jewish heiress and an elderly Italian aristocrat. Living at the family's summer home, Bella's reserve softens as she comes to love her young charge, and find friendshipwith Maestro Edward, his enigmatic music teacher.

But as the decade draws to an end and fascism tightens its grip on Europe, the fact that Alec is Jewish places his life in grave danger. Bella and Edward take the boy on a terrifying train journey out of Italy - one they have no reason to believe any of them will survive...

Family life is enough of a juggle without ... The In-Laws

Amanda. Katie. Melanie.

Three wildly different women with one big problem – their impossible mother-in-law, Nancy.

When an unexpected crisis hits the family business, the sisters-in-law find themselves navigating stormy waters. Amanda is back in town and ready to reclaim her spot at the top. Katie, the feisty outsider, knows she'll never earn Nancy’s approval – and has stopped caring. Melanie, ambitious and savvy, is more than capable of running the business, if only Nancy would loosen her iron grip.

Forced to confront messy truths about marriage, motherhood, succession and family loyalty, the three women soon realize their greatest strength might just be each other.

The In-Laws is a sharp, funny, and relatable novel about surviving the family you didn’t choose.

In the game of second chances, can they follow the rules?

When Ellis Ainsley runs into her ex, Liam Ruinsky, ten years after they split, she remembers why she fell for him all those years ago. A tall, strong, charming ice hockey player - he really was a dream man. But their lifestyles are now worlds apart, and surely wouldn't work in reality. But the temptation is too much, and they agree to one last night together.

They thought nothing could go wrong. That was, until Ellis saw the positive result on the pregnancy test.

Already a chronically ill woman struggling to juggle her health and career, Ellis needs to figure out how to tell her NHL-playing ex-boyfriend he is going to be a dad. And despite their decision to coparent, their chemistry is still undeniable.

With turbulent families, over-bearing coaches, and the media wanting a slice of Liam's life: will he be able to step up? Most of all: will they risk falling in love for a second time?

In order to save her family’s future, Stella Penhallam is forced to uncover the secrets of their past…

With her family’s perfumery in dire straits, Stella Penhallam needs a miracle. So, when her great-aunt’s journal from 1940s Paris lands on her desk, Stella realises that the missing pages could hold the answers she seeks.

In 1939, as war breaks out across Europe, Iris Penhallam is forced into an impossible situation, one that will cause her world to come crashing down.

Paris is no longer safe, and when her mentor’s family in Italy is at risk from Mussolini’s fascist thugs, Iris must find a way to save them. Using her role as a perfumer, she travels to Venice on the Orient Express under the guise of creating five intoxicating scents with her fellow apprentice, Alessandro.

Five scents that are lost to the war along with the man she loves.

As Stella delves deeper into the past, the two lives of these women intertwine in the present and the five lost scents will forge the start of their future...

‘No, I don’t hate being black. I’m just tired of saying it’s beautiful. No, I don’t hate myself. I’m just tired of people bruising their knuckles on my jaw.’

A novella with the force of a screaming trumpet flare, Dambudzo Marechera’s seminal literary debut explores a body and spirit exiled from the land and the self. An inimitable and internationally admired writer, his profound ambivalence and wry, existential sensibility was forged in this iconic book.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

They knew they were changing history.
They didn’t know they would change each other.

Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.

Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way – and her own friends – for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they won’t be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone – even The Eights – if she is to succeed.

But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.

The Eights is a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that is forever changed.

Thea Fox is just twelve years old when her parents are brutally slain. With Thea's help the police are able to put their murderer - a psychotic serial killer called Ray Riggs - behind bars for life. Changed forever, Thea slowly learns to come to terms with the events of that terrible night and builds a new life in a small country town where she can breathe in the smells of pine, fresh bread and her grandmother's homemade candles.

But the connection that helped Thea put her parents' killer behind bars will come to haunt her. Though her Grandmother calls it a gift, to Thea it feels more like a curse because Ray feels the connection too and though Thea may try to move on, Ray isn't willing to let her go quite so easily...

When four influential members of London’s most exclusive private club are poisoned, a young waitress is charged with their murder. Now her personal life and upbringing are under the microscope, and the people closest to Katie start to question what they know about her.

Her father remembers the sweet schoolgirl.

Her childhood friend misses her kindness and protection.

Her lover regrets ever falling for her.

Her lawyer believes she is hiding something.

A journalist is convinced she is a cold-blooded killer.

FIVE MEN. FIVE STORIES. BUT ARE THEY READY FOR HERS?

'He left you some money.'

Mickey felt her mouth drop open. The first half of that sentence had rung clear and true. The second half had not. Her father was one to take, not give.

After he left them for his new family, Mickey resolved never to think of her father again. She's fine without him; yes, she drinks, but only sometimes and, really, she can’t not.

But with only $181 to her name, she’s not above attending some mandated therapy to access her inheritance. She’ll kneel at the Kleenex alter and soon be bingeing Bridgerton with a bottle of Russian Standard, five million dollars richer.

Arlo has more issues than most of her clients. Being a therapist has not prepared her for grief. She adored her father – his laughter, his charm, the smell of his cologne. She thought he adored her, too, but now he’s given his inheritance to a daughter no one knows, and Arlo is at a loss.

Two sisters are unknowingly thrown together for the first time.

It’s crazy, it's unethical.

It's perfect.

The exhilarating follow-up to Pat Barker's "The Women of Troy" and "The Silence of the Girls". After ten blood-filled years, the war is over. Troy lies in smoking ruins as the victorious Greeks fill their ships with the spoils of battle.

Everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together – everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

Slow Dance follows these star-crossed best friends from their inseparable teen years on the wrong side of the tracks to their far-flung adulthoods – through her marriage and motherhood and his time in the Navy – as they try to work out what they’re actually supposed to be to each other.

Told with Rowell’s trademark sensitivity and abundant wit, Slow Dance is a big, beaming power ballad of a novel about a love so true, it refuses to be forgotten.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, is dead. As the ‘father of modern technology,’ he leaves an incredible legacy. But which of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children could inherit the Wrenfare throne?

Meredith, head of her own profitable company, has recently cured mental illness. If only her journalist ex-boyfriend wasn’t set on exposing what she really is: a total fraud. Arthur, second-youngest congressman ever, wants to do everything right. Except his wife might be leaving, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. Heading Wrenfare could relaunch his sinking ship. Eilidh was a world-famous ballerina, until a life-altering injury. Gaining the company might finally validate her worth.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins. Yet as they gather to read his final words, which Wren will come out on top?

This is a compulsive contemporary fantasy of family, twisted love and dangerous secrets from a writer at the height of her powers.

1461. Through blood and battle Edward has gained England’s throne – king by right and conquest – eighteen years old and unstoppable. Cecily has piloted his rise to power and stands at his shoulder now, first to claim the title King’s Mother.

But to win a throne is not to keep it and war is come again. As brother betrays brother, and trusted cousins turn treacherous, other mothers rise up to fight for other sons. Cecily must focus her will to defeat every challenge. Wherever they come from. Whatever the cost.

For there can be only one King, and only one King’s Mother.

From the Wars of the Roses to the dawn of the Tudor age, this is a story of mothers and sons; of maternal ferocity and female ambition - of all they can build and all they can destroy.

Two parents and their recently-bitten-werewolf daughter try to fit into a privileged New England society of magic aristocracy. But deadly terrors await them – ancient prophecies, remorseless magical trials, hidden conspiracies and the PTA bake sale.

When Vivian’s kindergartner, Aria, gets bitten by a werewolf, she is rapidly inducted into the hidden community of magical schools. Reeling from their sudden move, Vivian finds herself having to pick the right sacrificial dagger for Aria, keep stocked up on chew toys, and play PTA politics with sirens and chthonic nymphs and people who literally can set her hair on fire.

As Vivian careens from hellhounds in the school corridors to demons at the talent show, she races to keep up with all the arcane secrets of her new society—shops only accessible by magic portal, the brutal Trials to enter high school, and the eternal inferno that is the parents’ WhatsApp group.

And looming over everything is a prophecy of doom that sounds suspiciously like it’s about Aria. Vivian might be facing the end of days, just as soon as she can get her daughter dressed and out of the door…