Three stories on the nature of identity. In the first a detective writer is drawn into a curious and baffling investigation, in the second a man is set up in an apartment to spy on someone, and the third concerns the disappearance of a man whose childhood friend is left as his literary executor.

How does a man addicted to routine - a man who flosses his teeth before love-making - cope with the chaos of everyday life? Here, with the loss of his son, the departure of his wife and the arrival of Muriel, a dog trainer from the Meow-Bow dog clinic, Macon's attempts at ordinary life are tragically and comically undone.

A hilarious work that evokes the terrible beauty of youth like a young Bob Dylan, frothing with furious anger.

Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and Lucille, orphans growing up in the small desolate town of Fingerbone in the vast northwest of America. Abandoned by a succession of relatives, the sisters find themselves in the care of Sylvie, the remote and enigmatic sister of their dead mother. Steeped in imagery of the bleak wintry landscape around them, the sisters' struggle towards adulthood is ...

'The Alchemist' is a global phenomenon, selling over 30 million copies worldwide. This exciting new edition includes exclusive content, such as a new forward to the book by the author, an interview with Paulo Coelho, and much more, providing an in-depth look at this much-loved title.

In foothills of Himalayas sits a house - home to three people and a dog. There is retired judge dreaming of colonial yesterdays; his orphaned granddaughter Sai who has fallen for her tutor; the cook, whose son writes untruthful letters; and judge's dog. This book shows how new world is clashing with old, and future offers both hope and betrayal.

The brilliantly original new novel from Michael Chabon, author of 'The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' and 'The Final Solution'.

Six people five women and a man meet once a month in California's Central Valley to discuss Jane Austen's novels. They are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but each of them is wounded in different ways, they are all mixed up about their lives and relationships. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable under the ...

From the author of Housekeeping, Gilead is the long-hoped- for second novel by one of America's finest writers. Chosen by the New York Times Book Review as one of the top 6 novels of 2004. 'A beautiful novel: wise, tender and perfectly measured' Sarah Wate

The film of Steve Martin's hugely successful novel stars Steve Martin in the lead role with Claire Danes (TERMINATOR 3, THE HOURS, LITTLE WOMEN) and Bridgette Wilson (THE WEDDING PLANNER, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER).

When a long-lost diary surfaces, it seems Tom and Paul have found the key to the labyrinth - but when a fellow researcher is murdered, they suddenly find themselves in great danger. And what they discover embedded in the text stuns them: a narrative detailing the passion of a Renaissance prince, a hidden crypt, and a secret worth dying to protect.

This is the story of Macon Milkman Dead, heir to the richest black family in a Midwestern town, as he makes a voyage of rediscovery, travelling southwards geographically and inwards spiritually. Through the enlightenment of one man, the novel recapitulates the history of slavery and liberation.

This novel by the author of The Name of the Rose follows that book's format of a complex intellectual thriller. The plot ranges back and forth through the centuries, full of arcane knowledge, secret societies, love, death, passion and perversion.

In this title, readers can enter the dazzling world of 19th century magicians fighting Napoleon's advancing army - and fighting between themselves

A fashion model with everything is disfigured in a road accident and goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being a monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. She then has to learn that reinventing herself means erasing her past and making up something better.

Opens at the Shea Stadium at the World Series Game of 1951, where the ball is caught by a young, black man in the crowd, and continues to change hands throughout the book. The various recipients of the ball tell the story of post-war US history giving a panorama of America from the 50s to the 90s.

Two old friends, Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence. In the days that follow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact that will have consequences neither has foreseen.

In the Polish village where he was born, Leo Gursky fell in love with a young girl called Alma and wrote a book in her honour. These days he is just about surving life in America. Meanwhile, a young girl, hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, stumbles across a book that changed her mother's life and she goes in search of the author.

Set in 1998, with the backdrop of the impeachment of a president, this book shows us an America where conflicting moralities and ideological divisions result in public denunciations and houndings, and where innocence is not always a good enough excuse.

* A highly original 'detective' novel with unique setting and characters, this is the first of four 'Botswana' titles are both beautiful and charming.