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International authors this time...
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
Paperback 348 pages
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan - and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.
The New Life
by Orhan Pamuk
Paperback 290 pages
A parable about love, literature and fanaticism. A young university student becomes obsessed with a magical book that delves into the dangerous natures of love and self. Abandoning his studies and his family, he goes with the beautiful Janan on a search for the meaning of the book's darker secrets.
Village of Stone
by Xiaolu Guo
Paperback 192 pages
Coral and her frisbee-obsessed boyfriend, Red live on the ground floor of a cramped tower block in the megalopolis that is Beijing. The very epitome of disaffected, unfulfilled youth, their already fragile existence is shattered by the arrival of a mysterious fishy package - as the smells of the sea flood her home, Coral is transported back to a traumatic childhood dominated by solitude, fear and shame. Born on a boat during a storm, and orphaned soon after, Coral was raised by silent grandparents amongst the stern and superstitious fishermen of the remote Village of Stone. Shunned from birth as a bringer of ill fortune, and exposed to the malevolent, threatening forces of a closed-off-society. Coral immersed herself in the minutiae of the landscape around her. At fifteen, she escaped to the big city and shut the door on the darkness of her past. As the narrative darts between the manic sprawl of Beijing and the hypnotic rhymes of a tiny coastal village, our narrator struggles to navigate a path through painful and hidden memories of a time of shame, and a loss of innocence. But when an old, sick man appears on Coral's doorstep, the past and present shockingly converge, and she is forced to confront the secrets of her history in order to realise her dreams for the future. Beautifully poetic and lyrical, haunting yet infused with a quiet and gentle humour, "Village of Stone" is a startling and bewitching novel about memory, loss and the search for redemption, from one of contemporary China's freshes voices.
Purple Hibiscus
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Paperback 336 pages
A haunting tale of an Africa and an adolescence undergoing tremendous changes from the talented bestseller and award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer. When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love -- and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family. Centring on the promise of freedom and the pain and exhilaration of adolescence, 'Purple Hibiscus' is the extraordinary debut of a remarkable new talent.
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
by Paulo Coelho
Paperback 208 pages
This is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world in search of a worldly treasure as fabulous as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers, and from there into the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him. With Paulo Coelho's visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, 'The Alchemist' is a story with the power to inspire nations and change people's lives.
Pictures and synopsis from waterstones.com
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
Paperback 348 pages
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan - and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.
The New Life
by Orhan Pamuk
Paperback 290 pages
A parable about love, literature and fanaticism. A young university student becomes obsessed with a magical book that delves into the dangerous natures of love and self. Abandoning his studies and his family, he goes with the beautiful Janan on a search for the meaning of the book's darker secrets.
Village of Stone
by Xiaolu Guo
Paperback 192 pages
Coral and her frisbee-obsessed boyfriend, Red live on the ground floor of a cramped tower block in the megalopolis that is Beijing. The very epitome of disaffected, unfulfilled youth, their already fragile existence is shattered by the arrival of a mysterious fishy package - as the smells of the sea flood her home, Coral is transported back to a traumatic childhood dominated by solitude, fear and shame. Born on a boat during a storm, and orphaned soon after, Coral was raised by silent grandparents amongst the stern and superstitious fishermen of the remote Village of Stone. Shunned from birth as a bringer of ill fortune, and exposed to the malevolent, threatening forces of a closed-off-society. Coral immersed herself in the minutiae of the landscape around her. At fifteen, she escaped to the big city and shut the door on the darkness of her past. As the narrative darts between the manic sprawl of Beijing and the hypnotic rhymes of a tiny coastal village, our narrator struggles to navigate a path through painful and hidden memories of a time of shame, and a loss of innocence. But when an old, sick man appears on Coral's doorstep, the past and present shockingly converge, and she is forced to confront the secrets of her history in order to realise her dreams for the future. Beautifully poetic and lyrical, haunting yet infused with a quiet and gentle humour, "Village of Stone" is a startling and bewitching novel about memory, loss and the search for redemption, from one of contemporary China's freshes voices.
Purple Hibiscus
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Paperback 336 pages
A haunting tale of an Africa and an adolescence undergoing tremendous changes from the talented bestseller and award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer. When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love -- and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family. Centring on the promise of freedom and the pain and exhilaration of adolescence, 'Purple Hibiscus' is the extraordinary debut of a remarkable new talent.
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
by Paulo Coelho
Paperback 208 pages
This is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world in search of a worldly treasure as fabulous as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers, and from there into the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him. With Paulo Coelho's visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, 'The Alchemist' is a story with the power to inspire nations and change people's lives.
Pictures and synopsis from waterstones.com
