A novel that establishes the author's reputation with a large audience tour-de-force of comic satire on sex and the American ways of life.

Begins on a windy summer's day in the Chilterns when the calm, organised life of Joe Rose is shattered by a ballooning accident. What happens is shocking and tragic, but strangely inco-sequential. The consequences come after, for that fatal accident brings Joe together briefly, with Jed Parry. Unknown to Rose, something passes between them.

Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. He is obsessed with a beautiful stranger, the art student Miranda. When he wins the pools he buys a remote Sussex house and calmly abducts Miranda, believing she will grow to love him in time.

Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human's. Yet there is one odor he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin.

After a car crash, writer Paul Sheldon is saved by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes. She brings him home, splints his mangled legs, and all he has to do in return is write a very special book, one all about her favourite character. Because if he doesn't, if he is bad, she will be cross - very cross.

The story of orchid thief and obsessive, John Laroche, and the bizarre world of the orchid fanciers of Florida. The world of the orchid hunters, breeders and showmen, their rivalries, vendettas and crimes, smuggling, thefts and worse provide the backdrop to an exploration of one of the byways of human nature, the obsessive world of the collector.

An account of growing up to be a fanatical football supporter.

An annotated edition of Lolita . It attempts to elaborate on the verbal textures and show how they contribute to the novel's overall meaning. It also provides observations on the novel's artifice, games and verbal patternings.

A successful doctor and politician arrives at middle ages, having pursued a dutiful and a passionless life. His life has been a 'good performance', until as chance meeting with Anna, his son's lover. This strange and secretive woman, emotionally crippled by her past, unlocks the violent reality behind his carefully created facade.

After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as would-be artist, Philip Carey settles in London to train as a doctor. And that is where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a formative, tortured and masochistic affair which very nearly ruins him.

'The Zahir', Paulo Coelho's new novel available in paperback for the first time, incorporates exclusive new content including an extra section containing interviews with Paulo and plenty of information for those for whom the book just wasn't enough.

As a psychiatrist in a top-security mental hospital in the 1950s, Peter Cleave has made a study of what he calls the catastrophic love affair characterized by sexual obsession. His experience is extensive, and is never surprised. Until, that is, he comes reluctantly to accept that the wife of one of his colleagues has embarked on such an affair.

The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who recall their shared adolescence.

Rob is good on music: he owns a small record shop and has strong views on what's decent and what isn't. But he's much less good on relationships. In fact, he's not at all sure that he wants to commit himself to anyone. So it's hardly surprising that his girlfriend decides that enough is enough.

A young would-be art historian suddenly sees the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to perform a great public service, and at the same time to make his professional reputation - perhaps even rather a lot of money as well...

What is a woman's price? A brilliant new novel about love, jealousy and loss by the internationally bestselling author of THE PILOT'S WIFE.

Explains how humans experience music and unravels the mystery of our perennial love affair with it. Using musical examples from Bach to the Beatles, this work reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born, and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience.

Presents a tale of a middle-aged man deeply in love with his younger wife. In spite of that love, they have grown physically apart, each unsure of the other's thoughts and desires - until the day Ikuko discovers the key to her husband's diary with its desperate hints of jealousy and voyeurism. The key, she realises, to his very soul.

Within the padded walls of a military hospital sits Birdy, utterly silent, doomed to endure the stupidity of a sub-standard army psychiatrist. Out of a young man's need for escape and his consuming obsession with birds and flight, comes a story of humour, wisdom, tenderness, tragedy and longing.