The world might be in the throes of a global recession but when an author on the brink of despair, an enigmatic musician, a supermodel and a Satanic sect meet with the cream of Italian high society at the home of a Roman property tycoon, the world outside the mansion's walls is soon forgotten.There's going to be one hell of a party. And you've got a VIP ticket.

From internationally best-selling author Niccolò Ammaniti, comes a funny, tragic, gut-punch of a novel, charting how an unlikely alliance between two outsiders blows open one family’s secrets. Lorenzo Cumi is a fourteen-year-old misfit. To quell the anxiety of his concerned, socially conscious parents, he tells them he’s been invited on an exclusive ski vacation with the popular kids. On the morning of the trip, Lorenzo demands that his mother drop him off before they arrive at the train s...

It's the night of the most decadent party of the century. A rags-to-riches real estate magnate has planned an over-the-top weekend safari for the who’s-who of celebrities at his sprawling residence in Villa Ada ‒ once a public park, now the largest private home in Rome. Starlets, politicians, soccer stars, and intellectuals all turn up to rub elbows. Among them is a neurotically charming author struggling to write his next literary tome and pining for renewed recognition. In an unexpected ...

Thousands of depressed little towns, villages and hamlets dot the vast plain where Cristiano Zena lives with his hard-drinking father Rino. Unfocused urban sprawl with no centre to look to and nothing to look forward to. Rino Zena and his cronies Danilo and Quattro Formaggi are planning a ram raid on an ATM using a converted tractor. The wary, adoring Cristiano sits in on their meetings, watching their half-baked plans unravel, and thinks about the unattainable Fabiana Ponticelli. He has n...

"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you 're bound to get yourself cooked "Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it -- to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess.Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place, Ruth grows up in the shadow of her brilliant brother, trying to hold her own in a world of poverty and hard edges. ...

Originally published in 1938, Graham Greene’s chilling exposé of violence and gang warfare is a masterpiece of psychological realism and often considered Graham Greene’s best novel. It is a fascinating study of evil, sin, and the “appalling strangeness of the mercy of God,” a classic of its kind.Set in Brighton, England, among the criminal rabble, the book depicts the tragic career of a seventeen-year-old boy named Pinkie whose primary ambition is to lead a gang to rival that of th...

The New York Times–bestselling series continues with the murder of an American soldier in Venice: "This is definitely an author to watch ( Kirkus Reviews).Early one morning, Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a fetid canal. All clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti the motive of robbery seems altogether too convenient. When something discovered in the ...

The twenty-fifth mystery in the New York Times–bestselling series "is cause for celebration. . . . Leon brilliantly exposes the corrupt world of Venice" ( Bay Area Reporter).At a fundraising dinner for a Venetian charity, a wealthy and aristocratic patroness asks Brunetti if he will investigate the fifteen-year-old attempted drowning of her granddaughter, which left the girl irreparably brain damaged. Brunetti's not sure what to do, but out of a m...

A moody mystery set in Italy from the New York Times–bestselling author: "One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever." — The Washington PostGuido Brunetti has to deal every day with crimes big and small, suffocating corruption, and a never-ending influx of tourists. But at least he gets to do it in Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In this mystery in the bestselling series, the police commissioner's endurance w...

The peace of a Venice library is shattered by the murder of a patron in the New York Times–bestselling series starring "a superb police detective" ( Library Journal).A Seattle Times Best Mystery and Crime Novel of the YearOne afternoon, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets a frantic call from the director of a prestigious Venetian library. Someone has stolen pages out of several rare books. After a round of questioning, the case seems clear: th...

Venice's Commissario Brunetti takes on his "most difficult and politically sensitive case to date" in the gripping New York Times–bestselling series ( Booklist ).In Death and Judgment, a truck crashes and spills its dangerous cargo on a treacherous road in the Italian Dolomite mountains. Meanwhile, in Santa Lucia, a prominent international lawyer is found dead aboard an intercity train. Suspecting a conne...

Two detectives go undercover in Venice, Italy, in the New York Times–bestselling series by "the undisputed crime fiction queen" ( The Baltimore Sun).A priest recently returned from years of missionary work has made a personal request of Commissario Guido Brunetti—but the police detective suspects the man's motives. A new, American-style Protestant sect has begun to meet in Venice, and it's possible the priest is merely apprehensive of the competit...