"The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness." "So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use," says Victor Hugo in the preface of his famous novel. Certainly, Les Miserables is French history recounted through the personal stories of its main characters. The tale offers philosophical insight on the good deeds that can happen even amidst ignorance and poverty. This handsome leather-bound volume is a beautiful addition to any classic literature library with specially designed endpapers, gilded edges, and a ribbon bookmark so you will never lose your place.

The heart-rending story of survival and endurance in Japanese-occupied Singapore Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked, leaving only three survivors, one of them a tiny child. In a neighbouring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is bundled into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military brothel. After sixty years of silence, what she saw and experienced there still haunts her. And in the year 2000, twelve-year-old Kevin is sitting beside his ailing grandmother when he overhears a mumbled confession. He sets out to discover the truth, wherever it might lead, setting in motion a chain of events he could never have foreseen. Weaving together two timelines and two very big secrets, this evocative, profoundly moving and utterly dazzling debut opens a window on a little-known period of history, and heralds the arrival of a thrilling new literary star.

John Pearce is going home. But he has to avoid capture by an Algerine warship, having his Pelicans pressed into a British frigate and that's before they are at risk of being hanged for desertion once home. Then there is the problem of Emily Barclay and their son Adam. By cunning and bluff he protects his friends, but not his troubled love life. In a whirlwind of action, there are forged wills, devious trades, contrived murders and dangerous spy missions, with so much deceit that Pearce does not know who to trust. All he can hope to do is survive.

The Rules of Engagement begins on 28th June 1914 when the two protagonists will be enjoying an idyllic, warm weekend, unaware that events in the underbelly of Europe will have an impact on the entire world and their own lives within forty days. For the next three years, they are fighting on the Western Front, living each twenty-four hours as if it could be their last. The two protagonists are Alex and Daniel (the Viscount Swiffen) - two young men from polar opposites of the social spectrum. They portray how World War One impacted all men of fighting age, whether they volunteered in the glorious summer of August in a flush of hyperbole or bided their time and hoped they could escape the call to arms...

In 1918 the Great War has taken so much from so many and it threatens to take even more still from the Hunters, their friends and their servants. Edward, in a bid to run away from problems at home, decides not to resist conscription and ends up at the Front. Sadie's hopes for love are unrequited, and Laura has to flee Artemis House when it is shelled and she finds herself in London driving an ambulance. Ethel, the nursery maid, masks her own pain by caring for other people's children but she must take care not to get too attached. The government has to bring in rationing, and manpower shortages means the conscription age is extended. The Russians have fallen out of the war and a series of terrifying all-out attacks drive the Allies back almost to the Channel, and for the first time England faces the real prospect of defeat. No one can see an end to the war and yet, a small glimmer of hope remains . . . When the Boys Come Home is the fifth book in the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, author of the much-loved Morland Dynasty novels. Set against the real events of 1918, at home and on the front, this is a vivid and rich family drama featuring the Hunter family and their servants.

A soldier falls asleep on duty and is threatened with being court-martialled. An officer lies in mud, fighting for his life and the life of his men. A young man walks across Waterloo Bridge, explosives in his rucksack, heart pounding. In this powerfully moving book, Faulks shows us the true face of war. These are stories of death and survival, of hope and despair, and of ordinary people whose lives will never be the same again. Selected from the books Birdsong, A Possible Life and A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. A series of short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human Also in the Vintage Minis series: Home by Salman Rushdie Fatherhood by Karl Ove Knausgaard Work by Joseph Heller Dreams by Sigmund Freud

April 1945. The Third Reich is collapsing. In Berlin, surrounded by Soviet troops, a small aircraft lands under enemy fire. Daring pilot Hanna Reitsch escorts an important officer to Hitler's bunker - and is granted an audience with the Fuhrer, from which she emerges visibly upset. Meanwhile, in a German hospital in the countryside, Max comes to after a long coma. His task remains the same: to kill Hanna. But what new mission has she been given?

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2018

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION

'Extraordinary... A devastating but essential read.' Kevin Powers, bestselling author and National Book Award finalist for The Yellow Birds

'Gripping, darkly humorous...profound.' Phil Klay, bestselling author and National Book Award winner for Redeployment

From the rubble-strewn streets of US-occupied Baghdad, the scavenger Hadi collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and give them a proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realises he has created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive – first from the guilty, and then from anyone who crosses its path.

An extraordinary achievement, Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humour the surreal reality of a city at war.

Third volume in the bestselling Starbuck Chronicles. The battle for control of Richmond, the Confederate capital, continues through the hot summer of 1862. Captain Nate Starbuck, yankee fighting for the Southern cause, has to survive and win in the bitter struggle not only against the formidable Northern army but equally in opposition to his own superiors who would like nothing better than to see Nate Starbuck dead and dishonoured. Starbuck's courage is tested to the limit in his desperate manoeuvres to retrieve his own and the Legion's honour in this the thrid narrative of Bernard Cornwell's sweeping epic of the American Civil War.

'A haunting and thrilling read' Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat 'Original and unsettling - and just a little bit heartbreaking' Rachel Rhys, author of Dangerous Crossing In a sleepy English village in 1944, Annabel and her son Daniel live in the shadow of war. With her husband away, an increasingly isolated Annabel begins to lose her grip on reality. When mother and son befriend Hans, a German PoW consigned to a nearby farm, their lives are suddenly filled with thrilling secrets. To Annabel, Hans is an awakening from the darkness that has engulfed her since Daniel's birth. To her son, a solitary boy caught up in the magical world of fairy tales, he is perhaps a prince in disguise. But Hans has plans of his own and will soon set them into motion with devastating consequences.

The fourth volume of Bernard Cornwell's bestselling series on the American Civil War and featuring rebel Nathaniel Starbuck - a yankee fighting for the Southern cause. It is late summer 1862 and the Confederacy is invading the United States of America. Nate Starbuck, a northern preacher's son fighting for the rebel South, is given command of a punishment battalion - a despised unit of shirkers and cowards. His enemies expect it to be his downfall, as Starbuck must lead this ramshackle unit into a battle that will prove to be the bloodiest of the Civil War.

Who Pays the Piper is a terrifically enjoyable SAS thriller. It takes as its starting point Operation Barras, the famous raid in 2000 by the SAS to liberate a group of Irish Rangers captured by a militia group known as the West Side Boys. The raid has been the subject of two non-fiction books and a TV documentary. What none of those dared mention is that while the raid was officially a great success, there was a crucial period at the height of the raid when a number of the SAS, completely against orders, risked the entire mission to go off in search of the huge stash of blood diamonds that the leader of the West Side Boys, Foday Kallay was supposed to have hidden somewhere in the village. This is where the novel departs from the facts. Christi McKie is wounded and left behind to be captured by the remnants of the West Side Boys who sell him on to Al Qaeda; he must go through hell before he can escape and wreak a terrible revenge on the colleague who left him for dead. This is first rate boys adventure, chock full of great action scenes, strong characters and fantastic moments of insider knowledge: the whole novel is shot through with a compelling sense of authenticity.

A lost child, a family divided, the bitter backdrop of war - the ingredients of a classic Diney Costeloe story, set in 19th-century France. After the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of 1870-71, the St Clair family return to Paris, seeking refuge and security, only to be swept up into the terrible cruelties and violence of the Commune. Here their young daughter, Helene, falls ill and in an unlucky twist of fate, becomes separated from her family. Alone and frightened, she has to fend for herself on the war-torn streets. Meanwhile, her two brothers face each other as mortal enemies across the barricades. Heart-stopping and gripping, this classic Diney Costeloe story shows the courage of one family in the face of ugly violence and great danger.

Winner of the New Zealand Book Awards Fiction prize Germany, 1939. Two children watch as their parents become immersed in the puzzling mechanisms of power. Siggi lives in the affluent ignorance of middle-class Berlin, her father a censor who excises prohibited words (`promise', `love', `mercy'). Erich is an only child living a lush rural life, aware that he is shadowed by strange, unanswered questions. Drawn together as Germany's hope for a glorious future begins to collapse, the children find temporary refuge in an abandoned theatre amidst the rubble of Berlin. Outside, white bedsheets hang from windows; all over the city people are talking of surrender. The days Siggi and Erich spend together will shape the rest of their lives. Watching over Siggi and Erich is the wish child, the mysterious narrator of their story. He sees what they see, he feels what they feel, yet his is a voice that comes from deep inside the wreckage of a nation's dream.

Penguin presents the audiobook CD of The Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden, read by Michael Fox. In the Ancient World, one army was feared above all others. 401 BC. The Persian king Artaxerxes rules an empire stretching from the Aegean to northern India. As many as fifty million people are his subjects. His rule is absolute. The sons of Sparta, those whose fathers and grandfathers fell at Thermopylae and perished in the Peloponnesian Wars, work as mercenaries for Persian princes eager to play the game of thrones. When Cyrus the younger, brother to the Great King, lays claim to his father's crown, he does so with an elite army of Spartans at his side. Yet battles can be won - or lost - with a single blow. Princes fall. And when the dust of civil war settles, the Spartans are left stranded in the heart of an enemy's empire, without support, without food and without water. Far from home, surrounded by foes, it falls to the young soldier Xenophon to lead the survivors against Artaxerxes' legendary Persian warriors. Drawing on one of history's most epic stories of adventure, The Falcon of Sparta masterfully depicts the ferocity, heroism, and savage bloodshed that was the ancient World.

A FAST-PACED THRILLER WHOSE CHARACTERS REPRESENT THE COURAGE, HONOR, AND COMMITMENT OF A GREAT NATION The marines have landed (finally) in the genre...stand by for action!"--Captain Dale Dye, USMC (Ret) Marine, Author, Actor and Filmmaker When a small town terrorist invasion results in a tragic death, retired Marine Master Sergeant James "Johnny" Johansen agonizes over questions whose answers threaten his loved ones, his career, and his company. The most serious question of all--is Johnny's family linked to Islamic extremists in the United States? Johnny turns to his former brothers-in-arms, Willie, Corey, and Josh. Relying on their skills as highly trained marines, the team uncovers a treacherous plot involving renegade defense contractor and co-conspirators at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence. Risking their lives to reveal the shocking details of the operation, Johnny and his friends discover that hundreds of terrorists are poised to launch a coast-to-cast attack on American soil. Time is running out! Who can Johnny trust? No one, except...the Secret Corps.

Make sure this HEARTWARMING NEW NOVEL from SUNDAY TIMES Number One Bestselling author KATIE FLYNN is on your Christmas list. Liverpool, 1939: As winter descends on Tuppenny Corner and rumours of war float across the canals, fifteen-year-old Rosie O'Leary must come to terms with her own dramatic upheaval. Forced to say goodbye to all she holds dear and embark on a new life aboard The Kingfisher, her world is suddenly full of uncertainty. But new beginnings open up new possibilities... When fellow bargee - the handsome Tim Bradley - offers to show Rosie the sights of Liverpool, she jumps at the chance and it's not long before their friendship grows into something more. But when Tim is called up to join the RAF, Rosie's dream of a future together must be put on hold. If Rosie can find the strength to embrace her new life on the canals, there might still be the chance of a miracle this Christmas... ******** Praise for Katie Flynn 'One of the country's most popular storytellers' Scottish Daily Record 'A poignant war-time romance' Daily Express `A heartwarming story of love and loss' Woman's Weekly `One of the best Liverpool writers' Liverpool Echo 'If you pick up a Katie Flynn book it's going to be a wrench to put it down again' Holyhead and Anglesey Mail

Blossom of War is an unforgettable tale of romance and mystery, lies and deceit, set against the horrors of the Crimean War. Following the story of Clemence, a young debutante flung into the horrors of war, Blossom of War is a romance which features the Somerlee family, the Baronets of Eardingstowe and the Consett family, the Dukes of Ardenne. `So! You have no recollection of leaving the battlefield at Balaclava?' Sir Berkeley Mountjoy Q.C. boomed into a hushed courtroom in Westminster Hall. `No, sir,' mumbled the man on the witness-stand. `There is much, still, I don't remember.' `And yet you claim you are Aubrey Somerlee of Eardingstowe, Cornet 7460 of the Eleventh Hussars, last seen during the Charge of the Light Brigade on October the twenty-fifth, 1854! Remarkable memory, really, wouldn't you say? Could the stranger really be the vanished cavalryman, returned from the Valley of Death after sixteen years? Or was his brother Sir Richard right and he was an impostor?

As war rages across Europe, one young woman is torn between love and loyalty. Set in wartime London and occupied France, this is a thrilling story of love, danger and sacrifice from bestselling novelist Alan Titchmarsh.It is the late 1930s when seventeen-year-old Rosamund Hanbury leaves behind the endless summers of her coastal Devonshire home for the fast pace of high society London. Under the expert guidance of her formidable aunt, the country mouse learns how to act like a lady, hosting dinner parties and rubbing shoulders with Britain's most influential. And when the enigmatic Harry Napier sweeps her off her feet at London's famous Cafe de Paris she could almost forget that Britain has declared war. But the Phoney War ends. Harry is posted, London reels from the first bombings of the Blitz and Rosamund suffers a devastating personal loss that leaves her all the more determined to do her bit for the war effort. Joining the Special Forces she is sent to work alongside the Resistance on a top secret mission in France. It is here that her courage and loyalty are truly put to the test. And where she learns that no one is what they seem: at home or abroad ...

The gripping new Cato and Macro adventure in Simon Scarrow's bestselling Eagles of the Empire series, not to be missed by readers of Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell. It is AD 55. As trouble brews on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, Tribune Cato and Centurion Macro must prepare for war . . . The wily Parthian Empire has invaded Armenia, a frontier territory claimed by Rome, ousting King Rhadamistus. The king is ambitious and ruthless, but he is vital to Rome's strategic interests. General Corbulo must restore him to power, while also readying the troops for war with the powerful Parthian Empire. Corbulo orders new arrivals Cato and Macro, and their elite cohort of Praetorian Guards, to carry out the task. Marching into unmapped and unfamiliar terrain to restore an unpopular king is a perilous mission. Allies cannot be trusted and foes lurk on all sides. The bravery and skill of the Roman army will be tested to the limit . . . Praise for Scarrow's bestselling novels: 'Blood, gore, political intrigue...A historical fiction thriller that'll have you reaching for your gladius' Daily Sport