The poignant -- and at times very funny -- new novel from the author of 'The Magician's Assistant', shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

This isn't real life. It's opera. Where the music matters and where an opera house is being terrorised by a man in an evening dress with a white mask, lurking in the shadows, occasionally killing people, and most worryingly, sending little notes, writing maniacal laughter with five exclamation marks. Opera can do that to a man.

A series of hardback books, each with two EMI compact discs. A marriage of music and words: each of these books provides the history of a famous opera and its composer, plus the complete libretto in its original language and an English translation with annotated commentary. This is a multi-media guide to understanding and appreciating opera.

This is a boxed set of libretto translations of the four operas of Der Ring: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung; accompanied by a volume of essays on Wagner's life and performance histories of the opera cycle. A running commentary on the drama and Wagner's musical leitmotifs are presented next to the translation.

In eighteenth-century Italy, the Castrati recreated heaven on earth. Their exquisite voices soared above the glittering world of courtiers and nobility. Tonio, of noble birth, is the victim of a vengeful brother. Disinherited and forced to join the ranks of the Castrati, he plans his revenge while striving to become the greatest of all singers.

A handbook on art forms, spanning four hundred years of music drama. It features biographical sketches of some 150 composers from Claudio Monteverdi to Poul Ruders, animating the main events of their careers and revealing their social and musical context.

Offering insights into understanding what makes opera sound and look the way it does, this guide features simple information on the evolution of opera from the Baroque to the Romantic and all the way to the 20th century. The greatest composers and most beloved operas are covered in detail.

A series of hardback books, each with two EMI compact discs. A marriage of music and words: each of these books provides the history of a famous opera and its composer, plus the complete libretto in its original language and an English translation with annotated commentary. This is a multi-media guide to understanding and appreciating opera.

Written for a general audience rather than for experts, these essays invite readers to expand their appreciation of how music works.

Peony has neither seen nor spoken to any man other than her father, a wealthy Chinese nobleman. Nor has she ever ventured outside the cloistered women's quarters of the family villa. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, she finds herself betrothed to a man she does not know, but Peony has dreams of her own.

Turning the sky round.