Past winners and shortlisted authors have included the Pulitzer winners Junot Díaz, Anthony Doerr and Adam Johnson, plus Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith, Yiyun Li, CK Stead and Elizabeth Strout.Six Shorts 2017 brings together the six stories shortlisted for this year's award: ‘Reputation Management’ by Kathleen Alcott; ‘Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows about Horses’ by Bret Anthony Johnston; ‘The Hazel Twig and the Olive Tree’ by Richard Lambert; ‘The Tenant’ by Victor Lodato; ‘Every Little Thing’ by Celeste Ng; and ‘Mr Salary’ by Sally Rooney.Chosen by a hugely experienced and prestigious judging panel that included Booker-winner Anne Enright, Orange- and Whitbread-winner Rose Tremain, Booker-shortlistee Neel Mukherjee and critic and novelist Mark Lawson, the six stories represent the very best in contemporary English-language short fiction.

    Anna Meridian—an archaeologist and woman of faith—uncovers the find of a lifetime: ancient documents dating to the time of the apostles, confessions that the early Christians are perpetrating a falsehood. She decides she must keep the documents' existence a secret, but word eventually leaks out. Many turn from their faith as another earth shattering discovery sheds more light on the validity of the manuscripts. The archaeologist searches for meaning in it all—why did these manuscripts come to light and what is her part in God's plan?

    In spite of her death being blamed on a disturbed drifter known as Slim Jim, Tucker has always wondered if the real killer is still out there. With new clues arriving through anonymous letters left at the graveyard, Tucker is certain that Katie's death is truly unsolved. While coming to terms with the loss of his son, Tucker also seeks truth. But the real killer may still be out there, willing to kill again to protect a dark secret.Where The Broken Lie shines a spotlight on small-town secrets, faith, fear, love and loss in this enigmatic journey into the scarred hearts left behind.

    There are 17 classic stories, reprinted in black and white. Contains the complete stories “The Portier Fortune,” “Saree,” “The School For Girls,” “Saree Falls In Love,” “Il Fuce’s Locket,” “Black Gold (The Lands of Ben Adim),” “Competition,” “Money,” “Assignment Paris (The Spanish Jewels),” “Teachers Pet,” “The Seventh Husband,” “A Ticket Home,” “The Loot Of Robinson Crusoe (The Island Of Pearls),” “Staple Springs,” “L’Spirit,” “The Incident of the Sitting Duck,” and “The Capistrano Jewels.”

    Now published for the first time in one volume.In Fire From Heaven a young Alexander unravels the mysteries of a violent adult world and discovers the divinity deep within him. Later, as he conquers ever eastwards, the love between him and Bagoas is immortalised in The Persian Boy. Then, as death comes to Alexander in Funeral Games, the human vultures gather round.

    Dickens and His Carol, a beautiful, engrossing novel based on the life of proto-feminist icon Mary Wollstonecraft, narrated to her newborn daughter, Mary Shelley …

    . .Rome, 1520. The Eternal City is in mourning. Raphael Sanzio, beloved painter and national hero, has died suddenly at the height of his fame. His body lies in state at the splendid marble Pantheon. At the nearby convent of Sant'Apollonia, a young woman comes to the Mother Superior, seeking refuge. She is Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter from a humble neighborhood on the Tiber, now an outcast from Roman society, persecuted by powerful enemies within the Vatican. Margherita was Raphael's beloved and appeared as the Madonna in many of his paintings. Theirs was a love for the ages. But now that Raphael is gone, the convent is her only hope of finding an honest and peaceful life.The Mother Superior agrees to admit Margherita to their order. But first, she must give up the ruby ring she wears on her left hand, the ring she had worn in Raphael's scandalous nude "engagement portrait." The ring has a storied past, and it must be returned to the Church or Margherita will be cast out into the streets. Behind the quiet walls of the convent, Margherita makes her decision . . . and remembers her life with Raphael--and the love and torment--embodied in that one precious jewel.In The Ruby Ring, Diane Haeger brings to life a love affair so passionate that it remains undimmed by time. Set in the sumptuous world of the Italian Renaissance, it's the story of the clergymen, artists, rakes, and noblemen who made Raphael and Margherita's world the most dynamic and decadent era in European history.

    He was older, married, more “establishment,” a celebrated foreign correspondent and editor. She, who entered Harvard at age sixteen, was a brilliant wild child of the sixties. She lived life in the present tense, where every affair was an adventure. Then Darling fell in love and everything changed.This is a story of the many lessons love can teach us, of a marriage turned upside down and inside out, and all the tenderness, thrills, comfort, and yes, even disappointment, that comes with the territory. Lynn Darling thought she knew the narrative of her own life, until it really began with her “one true north,” and now, ten years after his death, her story is still unfolding.From the Hardcover edition.

    Right...

    Alliances are forged, friendships strengthened, and all the while, the new residents of the old Ferguson Farm receive fresh reminders that nothing in the fall of civilization is more dangerous than their fellow man. Bryan finds himself in a difficult position as he is thrust toward the approaching darkness, and he must choose a dangerous path forward. A storm is coming, but will the small homestead outside New Albany find itself consumed in the maelstrom?

    Speaking out against the unjust French government, he takes refuge with a nomadic band of actors and assumes the role of the clown Scaramouche—a comic figure with a very serious message...Set during the French Revolution, this novel of swashbuckling romance is also a thought-provoking commentary on class, inequality, and the individual’s role in society—a story that has become Rafael Sabatini’s enduring legacy.With an Introduction by Gary Hoppenstand