Along with the power comes a stigma and suspicion that Gifted Inspector Isabel Reis with the Lisbon Police Force knows only too well.When Isabel is called to investigate a mysterious and violent death which hints at Gifted involvement, she knows it's more than just her personal reputation on the line. In a society where Gifted individuals are already viewed with mistrust, Isabel is hiding her own secret and knows she has to tread carefully as a conspiracy emerges and the body count rises.

    Years pass, and Iris, her ambition of a grand marriage dashed, becomes a nurse in a London hospital, surprising herself, and her family, at her ability to deal with the injuries and needs of her patients. When Eva falls in love with the Bohemian, Gabriel Bellamy, her hopes of becoming an artist falter, for though he admires her work, he expects attention in return for his tutelage. Caring for her invalid mother, Clemency remains tied to the family home, stifling her dreams of a life elsewhere. And Marianne's desire for happiness turns to nightmare when she finds herself trapped in an isolated outpost of the Empire with a cruel and dangerous man. Only her love for her son and her memory of her sisters, thousands of miles away in England, give her the strength to survive.As the clouds darken and war changes the lives all the sisters have known, Iris, Marianne, Eva and Clemency fight to free themselves of the bonds that confine them and discover love at last.

    But his life is turned upside down when King Dom Carlos invites him to become governor of Portugal’s smallest colony, the island of São Tomé e Principe. Luis Bernardo is ill-prepared for the challenges of plantation life – used to a softer urban existence, he is shocked by the conditions under which the workers labour.But with the English closing in on São Tomé’s cocoa plantations, the island’s main means of survival, Luis Bernardo must endeavour to protect the island and its community.

    The son of a weaver, he was born on a pallet of straw at the back of the mill and two days later his mother was back at work. Life was extrememly tough for the family in 1920's Blackburn - a treat was sheep's head or cow-heel soup - and got worse when his father lost his job when the cotton industry started its terminal decline. Woodruff had to find his childhood fun in the little free time he had available between his delivery job and school, but he never writes self-pityingly, leaving the reader to shed the tears on his behalf.

    In seductive settings from a brothel in a Parisian backstreet to the rooftops of 70s Rome, Vidal assembles his characters, real & imagined: Cocteau & Tennessee Williams, Gide & Mailer rub shoulders with creations as unforgettable as the ageing femme fatale Marietta Donegal & Hollywood hustler & flagellant Murray Morris. All are bound together in a mesmerising fiction that builds to an extraordinary conclusion.

    This is the UK of the summer of 1977 - in the midst of the Silver Jubilee celebrations, a generation are trying to grow up and discovering the limits of freedom. It is 16th August 1977 - the night Elvis died - and for the heroes of STORIES WE COULD TELL, this night is where their adult lives begin. Terry has returned from Berlin glowing in the light of his friendship with ageing rock star Dag Wood, the only man to be booed off stage at Woodstock. But when Dag turns up in London, he sets his sights on a photographer called Misty, the young woman who Terry plans to have children with. Will Terry's relationship survive the night? Ray is the only writer on The Paper who refuses to cut his hair and stop wearing flares. He still believes in peace, love and the Beatles. But John Lennon is in town for one night, en route to Yoko and Japan, and Ray believes that if he can interview the reclusive Beatle, he can save his job. Can John Lennon really change a young man's life? And Leon has annoyed the group of fans you do not want to annoy - the Dagenham Dogs, a bunch of hooligans who follow a group called the Sewer Rats, who have just been given a right royal slagging by young Leon. Hiding out in a disco called the Goldmine, Leon meets the girl of his dreams. Will true love find Leon before the Dagenham Dogs?

    With razor sharp wit and great comic invention, Leap Year charts the uneasy paths people take around the physical and emotional land mines of city life. The score of quirky characters ricochet back and forth between downtown lofts, art galleries, health clubs, restaurants -- even a sperm bank -- in the attempt to discover fame, fortune, and true love.In this leap year, however, everything seems slightly awry, as unexpected affairs, an accidental kidnapping, catering disasters, murder, and a regrettable amount of bad publicity turns everyone's lives upside down.Peter Cameron's Leap Year is a comic valentine to a frenzied era, serving up the lusts and laments of an entire generation with great wit and affection.

    There's Tara, who's arrived with the man she wants to marry only to find that a rejected lover is planning to get in the way; Grainne, who's been sent with her husband by their children to celebrate their anniversary, and who thinks the time has come to move on. Rudy's on an idyllic break with his young son which is set for an unexpected ending; and Isobel discovers her ex-lover Nico might be staying just next door. Romance is very much alive in the hot Caribbean nights...

    Directly in their path was Lisbon, then one of the wealthiest cities in the world and the capital of a vast global empire. Within minutes, much of the city lay in ruins. But this was only the beginning. A half hour later, a giant tsunami unleashed by the quake smashed into Portugal’s coastline and barreled up the Tagus River, carrying countless thousands out to sea. By day’s end, the great wave chain would claim victims on four separate continents. To complete Lisbon’s destruction, a hellacious firestorm then engulfed the city’s shattered remains. Subjecting survivors to temperatures exceeding 1,832°F (1,000°C), it burned for several weeks, killing thousands and incinerating much of what the earthquake and tsunami had spared.Drawing on a wealth of new sources, the latest scientific research, and a sophisticated grasp of European history, Mark Molesky gives us the authoritative account of the Great Lisbon Disaster and its impact on the Western world—including descriptions of the world’s first international relief effort; the rise of a brutal, yet modernizing, dictatorship in Portugal; and the effect of the disaster on the spirit and direction of the European Enlightenment. Much more than a chronicle of destruction, This Gulf of Fire is, at its heart, a gripping human drama, involving an array of unforgettable characters—such as the Marquês de Pombal, the once-slighted striver who sees in the chaos his path to supreme power, and Gabriel Malagrida, the charismatic Jesuit whose view that the earthquake was a punishment sent by God leads inexorably to his demise. There is Dom José, the unremarkable king of Portugal, who stands by his people in their moment of greatest need but ultimately abandons them to the tyranny of his first minister. There is Kitty Witham, the plucky English nun who helps her fellow sisters escape from their collapsing convent, and Manoel Portal, the Oratorian priest who flees the burning capital on his broken leg and goes on to write one of the definitive accounts of the disaster. Philosophers, kings, poets, emperors, scientists, scoundrels, journalists, and monkeys all make their appearance in this remarkable narrative of the mid-eighteenth century.

    In the midst of this isolated bastion of democratic values, Miguel finds more than a new life— he finds someone to live for. Miren Ansotegui is a charismatic and graceful dancer who has her pick of the bachelors in Guernica, but focuses only on the charming and mysterious Miguel. The two discover a love that war and tragedy can not destroy.History and fiction merge seamlessly in this beautiful novel about the resilience of family, love, and tradition in the face of hardship. The bombing of Guernica was a devastating experiment in total warfare by the German Luftwaffe in the run-up to World War II. For Basques, it was an attack on the soul of their ancient nation; for the world, it was an unprecedented crime against humanity. In his first novel, Boling reintroduces the event and paints his own picture of a people so strong, vibrant, and proud that they are willing to do whatever it takes to protect their values, their country, and their loved ones.

    Alan Woodhull ("Woody"), a classics professor at a small Midwestern college, finds himself convinced that life has taught him all the lessons he has to learn: After the tragic death of his beloved oldest daughter during a terrorist bombing in Italy seven years ago, his wife has left him and his two remaining daughters have grown up and moved away. Yet his decision to attend the trial of the terrorists and to return to the scene of the tragedy marks the beginning of a new life and the awakening of a new love.

      With the world slowly sliding into war, it is crucial that enemies of the Reich flee Europe at once. But so many routes are closed, and so much money is needed. Then one night in Lisbon, as a poor young refugee gazes hungrily at a boat bound for America, a stranger approaches him with two tickets and a story to tell.   It is a harrowing tale of bravery and butchery, daring and death, in which the price of love is beyond measure and the legacy of evil is infinite. As the refugee listens spellbound to the desperate teller, in a matter of hours the two form a unique and unshakable bond—one that will last all their lives.

    . .But what happens when you open the door and they won’t stop tumbling out?For Adam and Beth the first secret wasn’t the last, it was just the beginning. You think you can imagine the worst thing that could happen to your family, but there are some secrets that change everything. And then the question is, how can you piece together a future when your past is being rewritten?For fans of Liane Moriarty, Jojo Moyes and David Nicholls.