90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books‘Why should I bother to invent things? My life has been far more exciting and wonderful than any fairy-tale’In the heart of the English countryside, surrounded by irritatingly polite relatives and hopeless sycophants, Lady L. is celebrating her eightieth birthday. But as the guests disperse, she feels the undeniable pull of a mysterious pavilion in the lush grounds, and the terrible secret she ...

Romain Gary’s bittersweet final masterpiece is “epic and empathetic” (BBC) and “one of his best” (The New York Times)The Kites begins with a young boy, Ludo, coming of age on a small farm in Normandy under the care of his eccentric kite-making Uncle Ambrose. Ludo’s life changes the day he meets Lila, a girl from the aristocratic Polish family that owns the estate next door. In a single glance, Ludo falls in love forever; Lila, on the other hand, disappears...

A classic of modern French literature, the thrilling real-life story of the military hero, ambassador, ladies man, writer, and loving son"I grew up in the certitude that one day I should help give back the earth to those who ennoble it with their courage and warm it with their love."Promise at Dawn begins as the story of a mother’s sacrifice: alone and poor, she fiercely battles to give her son the very best. Romain Gary chronicles his childhood in Russia, ...

Now back in print, this heartbreaking novel by Romain Gary has inspired two movies, including the Netflix feature The Life AheadMomo has been one of the ever-changing ragbag of whores’ children at Madame Rosa’s boarding house in Paris ever since he can remember. But when the check that pays for his keep no longer arrives and as Madame Rosa becomes too ill to climb the stairs to their apartment, he determines to support her any way he can. This sensitive, s...