In 1984, architect Scott Warren comes to China on a scholarship to study Daoist buildings, just at the time when the liberalisation policies of Deng Xiaoping are unfolding and Chinese people are experiencing new freedoms. Twenty-three years later he returns, to honour his dead wife's request to take her ashes back to China. He encounters a country that has been propelled into international commerce, culture and politics that has Western-style prosperity yet continued human rights restricti...

It is 1960s provincial New Zealand, and a set of upper middle-class families enjoy the good life together. But just under the surface of the conventionality, there are undercurrents. Adolescent Callum Gow's father is a bully, his mother is having an affair, and there are secrets about abuse, suicide and the past. In amongst this, Callum is trying to understand his growing identity and sexuality. His only refuge is his grandfather, but this is in danger as Callum's father has grandfather wr...

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, “one of those special writers capable of delivering both poetry and plot” (The New York Times Book Review), a moving novel about tradition, tea farming, and the bonds between mothers and daughters.In their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for gene...

The Girl with Ghost Eyes is a fun, fun read. Martial arts and Asian magic set in Old San Francisco make for a fresh take on urban fantasy, a wonderful story that kept me up late to finish.”-#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia BriggsIt’s the end of the nineteenth century in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and ghost hunters from the Maoshan traditions of Daoism keep malevolent spiritual forces at bay. Li-lin, the daughter of a renowned ...

A brilliantly dark and sinister novel of psychological suspense by Ruth Rendell, "unequivocally the most brilliant crime-writer of our time" (Patricia Cornwell).When Carl sells a box of slimming pills to his close friend Stacey, inadvertently causing her death, he sets in train a sequence of catastrophic events which begin with subterfuge, extend to lies, and culminate in murder.In Rendell's dark and atmospheric tale of psychological suspense, we encounter m...

In a sunny California apartment, a young woman and her fiancé arrive to record her great-grandmother's story. The story that unfolds of Precious Orchid's life in China, where she rises from a childhood of shame to become one of the most successful courtesans in the land, is unlike any they've heard before. . .When Precious Orchid's father is falsely accused of a crime and found guilty, he is executed, leaving his family a legacy of dishonor. Her mother's only option is to enter a B...

"An unlikely love story set against the events of the last half-century in China . . . a poetic evocation of the country and its people." — The New York TimesWhen the Kitchen God is challenged by the Jade Emperor to fathom the workings of the human heart, he chooses to trace the lives of Jinyi and his wife, Yuying, from their blossoming love until their old age, in hope of finding an answer. The Kitchen God watches as government strictures split their famil...

**A woman desperate to turn a new page heads to the Scottish coast and finds herself locked in a battle of wills with an infuriatingly aloof bookseller in this utterly heartwarming debut, perfect for readers of Evvie Drake Starts Over.“Humor and charm abound. . . . [This] love story hits the spot.”—Publishers Weekly**Thea Mottram is having a bad month. She’s been let go from her office job with no notice—and to make matters even worse, her husband of nearl...

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER AWARD FOR BEST TRAVEL BOOKSHORTLISTED FOR THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD'Monisha Rajesh has chosen one of the best ways of seeing the world. Never too fast, never too slow, her journey does what trains do best. Getting to the heart of things. Prepare for a very fine ride' Michael PalinFrom the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet's Qinghai railway to silk-shee...

Agatha Christie meets The Mitford Murders in this deliciously dark golden age mystery of wartime family secrets and lies in small town England.**DON'T MISS THE LASTEST JOSEPHINE FOX MYSTERY, A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS. OUT NOW!**April 1941, Romsey, England.Josephine 'Jo' Fox hasn't set foot in Romsey in over twenty years. As an illegitimate child, her family - headed by her controlling grandfather - f...

Author Kylie Chan has a boldly, brazenly unique take on urban fantasy—she combines it with Kung Fu. In Earth to Hell, Chan launches the characters from her Dark Heavens trilogy (White Tiger, Red Phoenix, Blue Dragon) on a new adventure that will take them from the teeming streets of Hong Kong through the portals of Hell to set free a friend—as demons and devils rise up to challenge them in life-or-death battle, forcing Emma Donahoe Chen, wife of God of t...

Michael Marshall Smith’s surreal, groundbreaking, and award-winning debut which resonates with wild humour interlaced with dark recollections of an emotional minefield. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.May we introduce you to Stark.Oh, and by the way — good luck.Stark is the private investigator who goes to work when Something Happens to you. And when a Something happens it’s no good chanting ‘go away go away go away’ and cowering in a corner, because a S...