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Memories of My Melancholy Whores is a powerful novel about a man who so far has never felt love from Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of the One Hundred Years of Solitude. 'The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.' On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a newspaper columnist in Colombia decides to give himself 'a night of mad love with a virgin adolescent'. But on seeing this beautiful girl he falls deeply under her spell. His love for his 'Delgadina' causes him to recall all the women he has paid to perform acts of love. And so the columnist realises he must chronicle the life of his heart, to offer it freely to the world...

The Infatuations is a critically acclaimed novel by the great Spanish writer Javier Marias. Every day, Maria Dolz stops for breakfast at the same cafe. And every day she enjoys watching a handsome couple who follow the same routine. Then one day they aren't there, and she feels obscurely bereft. It is only later, when she comes across a newspaper photograph of the man, lying stabbed in the street, his shirt half off, that she discovers who the couple are. Some time afterwards, when the woman returns to the cafe with her children, who are then collected by a different man, and Maria approaches her to offer her condolences, an entanglement begins which sheds new light on this apparently random, pointless death. With The Infatuations, Javier Marias brilliantly reimagines the murder novel as a metaphysical enquiry, addressing existential questions of life, death, love and morality.

Innocent Erendira and Other Stories is a collection of short stories from the Nobel Prize winner and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 'Erendira was bathing her grandmother when the wind of misfortune began to blow.' While her grotesque and demanding grandmother retires to bed, Erendira still has floors to wash, sheets to iron, and a peacock to feed. The never-ending chores leave the young girl so exhausted that's he collapses into bed with the candle still glowing on a nearby table - and is fast asleep when it topples over...Eight hundred and seventy-two thousand, three hundred and fifteen pesos, her grandmother calculates, is the amount that Erendira must repay for the loss of the house. As she is dragged by her grandmother from town to town and hawked to soldiers, smugglers and traders, Erendira feels herself dying. Can the love of a virgin save the young whore from her hell?

The Striker is the sixth novel in Clive Cussler's Isaac Bell series. It is 1902, and Isaac Bell is investigating sabotage in a West Virginia coal mine. But when he stops a runaway train, saving countless lives, Bell discovers that it is part of a conspiracy to frame striking miners. From West Virginia to Pittsburgh, New York City and Cincinnati, Bell is now on the hunt for clues to discover who is behind this murderous scheme. It puts him up against a ruthless agent provocateur allied to a cabal of staggering ambition and cold-bloodedness. Bell must prevent them starting a war which could bring the nation to its knees. Introducing us to Isaac Bell early in his career, The Striker is a pulse-pounding adventure from the world's favourite writer of non-stop thrillers.

"The Tombs" is the thrilling fourth "Fargo" adventure by Clive Cussler. It's a prize beyond imagination. When an archaeologist excavating a top secret historical site realizes the magnitude of his discovery he requests help from treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo. And in rushing to join him, the husband and wife team are thrown into their most daring quest to date. The clues point to the hidden tomb of Attila the Hun, the High King who was reportedly buried with a vast fortune of gold and jewels and plunder, a bounty that has never been found. But as Sam and Remi piece together the puzzle, the trail takes them through Hungary, Italy, France, Russia, and Kazakhstan and not to a single tomb, but five. And into the path of deadly danger. They are not the only ones hunting for the High King's riches. The Fargos will find themselves pitted against a thieving group of amateur treasure hunters, a cunning Russian businessman, and a ruthless Hungarian who claims direct descent from Attila himself ...and will stop at nothing to claim the tombs' riches as his own. Packed with heart-pounding action and boundless invention, "The Tombs" is an exceptional thriller from the grand master of adventure. "The Tombs" is the fourth of Clive Cussler's "Fargo Adventures", and follows "Lost Empire" and "The Kingdom". Praise for Clive Cussler: "The guy I read". (Tom Clancy). The bestselling grandmaster of adventure, Clive Cussler, has thrilled millions of readers with his gripping, fast-paced stories of treasure-hunting, action and conspiracy.As well as the "Fargo" series there are also the "NUMA" and "Oregon Files" series, the "Dirk Pitt" stories (which started it all) and the "Isaac Bell" adventures series. The previous titles in the "Fargo Adventures" series are "Spartan Gold", "Lost Empire" and "The Kingdom".

The celebrated popular music scholar presents an intimate portrait of The Boss and his legendary band Bruce Springsteen fans know that the band makes the man, which is why millions of people have jammed stadiums and arenas to see The Boss play countless shows with his incredible E Street Band. In this revelatory and unapologetic biography, respected music scholar Clinton Heylin turns a critical eye towards Springsteen's early days, capturing this classic phase of his career and his rise from Asbury Park hood rat to global rock star. Using long-buried archival recordings and bootlegs, Heylin expertly traces Springsteen's creative process as a songwriter and performer and illuminates the roles of the E Street Band members in creating their distinctive sound. Highly nuanced and as fiery as Springsteen himself, "E Street Shuffle" offers the most revealing portrait yet written on this American icon.

This is the powerful, beautiful and chilling sequel to the bestselling Straw Dogs. 'By nature volatile and discordant, the human animal looks to silence for relief from being itself while other creatures enjoy silence as their birthright'. Why do humans seek meaning to life? How do our imaginations leap into worlds so far beyond our actual reality? In this chilling and beautiful sequel to Straw Dogs, John Gray explores how we decorate our existence with countless fictions, twisting and turning to avoid acknowledging that we too are animals. Drawing on an extraordinary array of writers who are mesmerized by extremity, from Ballard to Conrad, Gray makes us re-imagine our place in the world.

"Will I really - I mean, really - actually take an axe, start bashing her on the head, smash her skull to pieces?...Will I really slip in sticky, warm blood, force the lock, steal, tremble, hide, all soaked in blood ...axe in hand?...Lord, will I really?' This new translation of Dostoevsky's 'psychological record of a crime' gives his dark masterpiece of murder and pursuit a renewed vitality, expressing its jagged, staccato urgency and fevered atmosphere as never before. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. His debut, the epistolary novella Poor Folk (1846), made his name. In 1849 he was arrested for involvement with the politically subversive 'Petrashevsky circle' and until 1854 he lived in a convict prison in Omsk, Siberia. From this experience came The House of the Dead (1860-2). In 1860 he began the journal Vremya (Time). Already married, he fell in love with one of his contributors, Appollinaria Suslova, eighteen years his junior, and developed a ruinous passion for roulette. After the death of his first wife, Maria, in 1864, Dostoyevsky completed Notes from Underground and began work towards Crime and Punishment (1866). The major novels of his late period are The Idiot (1868), Demons (1871-2) and The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80). He died in 1881. Oliver Ready is Research Fellow in Russian Society and Culture at St Antony's College, Oxford. He is general editor of the anthology, The Ties of Blood: Russian Literature from the 21st Century (2008), and Consultant Editor for Russia, Central and Eastern Europe at the Times Literary Supplement. As Director of the Russkiy Mir Programme at St Antony's, he runs events and conferences devoted to Russian culture.

Lesley Pearse, No.1 bestselling author of The Promise and Belle is back with Survivor, the story of Mariette, a born fighter. It is 1938 and Mariette Carrera is a defiant, strong-willed and selfish eighteen-year-old. And sooner or later, if she stays in the small, gossipy town of Russell, New Zealand, she'll get herself into some serious trouble. Her doting parents, Belle and Etienne, fear for her reputation. So, with the world on the brink of war, Mari leaves home on the SS Rimutaka, bound for her aunt and uncle's house in London. Armed with the freedom she's longed for since childhood, Mari quickly falls for Morgan, the handsome cockney steward on board ship. But once she reaches London, there are other temptations. Mari loves her new life - caught up in a whirl of dances and parties in the glittering West End, relishing her freedom as she earns her own money as a typist. Finally, she feels she is mistress of her own future. Until it is all snatched away by the war. As London endures the Blitz, Mari's new life is cruelly blown apart. Forced from her loving new home, she ends up alone in the East End, and it's worlds away from the London she knows. But there, even in the face of so much despair, she finds the chance to make a difference. Amidst the destruction, Mari learns that the only way to survive this war is to fight, with all the strength, selflessness and compassion within her...and only then will she find true happiness. Because Mari is a survivor... From internationally bestselling author, Lesley Pearse, Survivor is a story of bravery and love.

A truly brilliant thriller by Tom Clancy, The Bear and the Dragon is a Jack Ryan novel. Newly elected in his own right, Jack Ryan has found that being President has gotten no easier: domestic pitfalls await him at every turn; the Asian economy is going down the tubes; and now, in Moscow, someone may have tried to take out the chairman of the SVR - the former KGB - with a rocket-propelled grenade. Things are unstable enough in Russia without high-level assassination, but even more disturbing may be the identities of the potential assassins. Were they political enemies, the Russian Mafia, disaffected former KGB? Or, Ryan wonders, is something far more dangerous at work here? Ryan is right to wonder. For even while Russian investigators pursue the case, and some of his most trusted eyes and ears, including antiterrorism specialist John Clark, head to Moscow, forces in China are moving forward with a plan of truly audacious proportions. Tired of what they view as the presumption of the West, eager to fulfill their destiny, they are taking matters into their own hands. If they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same. If they fail...the consequences may be unspeakable. The Bear and the Dragon is Tom Clancy at his best - and there is none better. This is the third Jack Ryan thriller, following Without Remorse and Rainbow Six. Praise for Tom Clancy: 'A brilliantly constructed thriller' Daily Mail 'Truly riveting, a dazzling read' Sunday Express

For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer's pretty simple: he has, in his own words, 'pissed his life away'. And on New Year's Eve he's going to end it all . . . but not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin's private party. They've stolen his idea - but brought their own reasons. Yet it's hard to jump when you've got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices if cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living? Shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, A Long Way Down is a darkly hilarious and moving novel by bestselling author Nick Hornby. If you like Jonathan Coe, David Sedaris and David Nicholls, you will love this book. 'A page-turning plot and rich, funny characters with several big laughs on every page. . . Hornby's best yet' Literary Review 'Hornby's best novel to date, impossible to put down. . . how can an examination of four people's anguish be so enthralling?' Ruth Rendell, Guardian 'Masterful. . . some of the finest writing, and some of the most outstanding characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading' Johnny Depp Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved widespread critical acclaim for his comic, well-observed novels About a Boy, How to be Good, Juliet, Naked, Slam and High Fidelity. His three works of non-fiction, 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), Fever Pitch (winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award) andThe Complete Polysyllabic Spree are also available from Penguin.

Why do people kill? Are some criminals born, not made? What causes violence and how can we treat it? In An Anatomy of Violence Adrian Raine draws on his own scientific research into the brains of murderers, psychopaths and serial killers to give a new perspective on these perennial questions. He reveals that, while anti-social behaviour is based on the complex interaction of genetics and environment, we can no longer ignore the evidence of strong links between biology and behaviour. Exploring how this could change the way we treat criminals in future, this revelatory book alters our understanding of our minds. 'A masterpiece. He has the research at his fingertips - not surprising, since he carried out much of it - and makes a compelling case that society needs to grapple with the biological underpinnings of violent crime.' Bob Holmes, New Scientist

The Universe Within is a thrilling journey from today all the way back to the Big Bang, which shows the deep connections between the human body and the universe, from Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish. What links the birth of the moon to our body clocks? How did the creation of the Atlantic Ocean affect how we have children? What does the water inside us and on Earth have to do with the deepest stretches of space? Humanity's status in the cosmos can seem insignificant. Yet, as Neil Shubin shows, the one place where the universe, solar system and planet merge is inside your body. Exploring the smallest atomic structures and vastest reaches of space, Shubin uncovers a sublime truth: that in every one of us lies the most profound story of all - how we and our world came to be. Neil Shubin is a palaeontologist in the great tradition of his mentors, Ernst Mayr and Stephen Jay Gould. He has discovered fossils around the world that have changed the way we think about many of the key transitions in evolution and has pioneered a new synthesis of expeditionary palaeontology, developmental genetics and genomics. He trained at Columbia, Harvard and Berkeley and is currently a Professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago.

The Story of My Purity is the uproariously funny novel by Francesco Pacifico. Thirty years old and already trapped in a sexless marriage, Piero Rosini has decided to dedicate his life to Jesus. Novels and music were filling his head with bullshit; his bourgeois life in a fancy neighborhood had taken him far away from spiritual purity and the Lord's truth. So he's moved to an unfinished housing development on the outskirts of Rome and thrown himself into his work at an ultraconservative Catholic publishing house, editing books that highlight the decadence and degradation of modern society: among them, a book claiming that Pope John Paul II was secretly Jewish. Witty, irreverent and timely, The Story of My Purity is an unmissable new novel from a brand new voice in European fiction. Praise for The Story of My Purity: "And so Pacifico's book falls deliciously into our laps. One of the most talented writers of his generation, one of the few who takes words seriously. This is what one calls style".

"The Spark describes in glowing terms the profound intensity with which a mother can love her child". (Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree). "Extraordinary. A story of triumph against the odds and it's one that [Kristine] Barnett insists other parents can learn from". (Sunday Times). Kristine Barnett's son Jacob has an IQ higher than Einstein and a photographic memory. At nine he developed an original theory in astrophysics that may earn a Nobel Prize. But Jake's story is all the more remarkable because his extraordinary mind was almost lost to autism. When the experts wanted to restrict his behaviour - staring at shadows on the wall, stars, patterns - Jake withdrew into his own world. But against all the advice, Kristine decided to follow Jacob's passions - his 'spark'. The results were beyond anything anyone could have imagined. Dramatic and inspiring, The Spark is about the power of love and what can happen when we tap the true potential that lies within every child. "If you have a child who's 'different' - and who doesn't? - you won't be able to put it down". (Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind). "Every parent and teacher should read this fabulous book!" (Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures and co-author of The Autistic Brain). "Astonishing, remarkable". (Mail on Sunday). "Amazing, compulsive reading. Barnett not only fights heroically on Jake's behalf, she also beats down every other obstacle that life hurls at her and her family". (Washington Post).

A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity. It crystallized the ideas that would be found in Orwell's later works and novels, and remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice and class divisions in Britain.