The bestselling novel of love and sacrifice under fascist rule, and "a treat for the mind. One of the best books I have read in a long time" (Isabel Allende).Raimund Gregorius, a professor of dead languages at a Swiss secondary school, lives a life governed by routine. Then, an enigmatic Portuguese woman stirs his interest in an obscure, and mind-expanding book of philosophy that opens the possibility of changing Raimund's existence. That same night, he takes the t...

From the internationally bestselling author of Night Train to Lisbon comes a compelling novel about one man's attempt to extricate himself from his featureless existence and find a life of passion and danger.LONGLISTED FOR THE 2013 IMPAC AWARDIn a quiet seaside town near Genoa, experts are gathering for a linguistics conference. One speaker, Philipp Perlmann is recently widowed and, struggling to contend with his ...

A huge international bestseller, with over 2 million copies sold worldwide, Night Train to Lisbon is an utterly compelling novel about one man's escape from a humdrum life in search of passion and spontaneity.Night Train to Lisbon tells the story of mild-mannered, middle-aged Classics scholar Raimund Gregorius. When, one afternoon, he walks out of his class while in the middle of giving a lesson, his uncharacteristic impulsiveness surprises him as...

An academic finds himself contemplating the unthinkable in a "tour de force" psychological thriller by the philosopher and author of Night Train to Lisbon ( De Volkskrant, Netherlands).Pascal Mercier's critically acclaimed debut novel, Night Train to Lisbon, became an international bestseller and the basis for a film starring Jeremy Irons. Now, in Perlmann's Silence, Mercier delivers a deft psychological portrait of a man striving...

From the author of the giant bestseller, Night Train to Lisbon, comes a finely calibrated heartbreaker of a novel about fathers and daughters, great rises and sudden falls.It all starts with the death of Martijn van Vliet's wife. His grief-stricken young daughter, Lea, cuts herself off from the world, right up until the day that she hears a snatch of Bach being played on a violin by a busker. Transfixed by the sweet melody, she emerges from her mourning, v...

Raimund Gregorious - Mundus, as his students affectionately call him - is a predictable character. A bookish Latin professor, well-respected but perhaps a little boring. One stormy morning, he encounters a beautiful, distraught Portuguese woman in a red leather coat... Later that day Raimund will realise: that moment changed everything. All of a sudden, nothing in his life feels right. His restlessness is further fuelled when he finds a book by a little-known Portuguese writer, Amadeo de P...

It all starts with the death of Martijn van Vliet's wife. His grief-stricken young daughter, Lea, cuts herself off from the world, lost in the darkness of grief. Then she hears the unfamiliar sound of a violin playing in the hall of a train station, and she is brought back to life. Transfixed by a busker playing Bach, Lea emerges from her mourning, vowing to learn the instrument. And her father, witnessing this delicate spark, promises to do everything and anything in his power to keep her...

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICESixty years after the publication of his first novel, Cat Man, Edward Hogland is publishing his twenty-fifth book at the age of eighty-three. This capstone novel, set in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, introduces Press, a stockbroker going blind. Press has lost his job and his wife and is trying to figure out his next move, holed up in his Vermont cabin surrounded by a hippy commune, drug runners, farmers-gone-bust, blood-thirsty aucti...

Simon Nye's TV series, The Durrells, is based loosely on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy and in particular his much-loved bestseller, My Family and Other Animals. These books in turn are based somewhat loosely on actual events. The real-life Durrells went to Corfu at the urging of Lawrence Durrell, who was already living on the island with his wife, Nancy Myers. Their intent was to keep the family together as his mother, Louisa, was drinking heavily and recovering from a breakdown; 'We can ...

The new book in the internationally bestselling Gamache series by 'one of the greatest crime writers of our time' (Denise Mina).The incredible new book in Louise Penny's #1 bestselling Chief Inspector Gamache series.When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is asked to provide crowd control at a statistics lecture given at the Université de l'Estrie in Quebec, he is dubious. Why ask the head of homicide to provide security for what sounds like a minor, even munda...

In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, a kind of last testament to his remarkable forebears.'It is a book of such meditative calm, such spiritual intensity that is seems miraculous that her silence was only for 23 years; such measure of wisdom is the fruit of a lifetime. Robinson's prose, aligned with the sublime simplicity of the language of the bible, is nothing short of a benediction. You might not share its faith, but it is di...

Book 18 in the acclaimed and number one-bestselling Three Pines series featuring the beloved Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Soon to be a major TV series.It's spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge.But something has.As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselv...