The story of the inimitable Maria Callas - conflicted, disappointed, ambitious and supremely gifted - and of her love affair with Aristotle Onassis - by the author of The Fortune Hunter, My ... read more
Drawing on the author's own experiences of WW2, the novel's protagonist rebels against the pressures of family and politics in Fascist Italy. First published in 1949. By the author of Forbid... read more
This excellent author has set his new novel in Roman Britain: a tribal princess given away as part of a peace treaty flees through Wales with her Roman lover.
Fleeing starvation in the Jameston settlement, a servant girl sets out alone into the wilderness. An historical novel set in early colonial America, by the author of Matrix.
Reminiscent of S?skind's Perfume or Andrew Miller's Ingenious Pain, this is set in C18th France and involves a physical prodigy. In this case, it is his ability to eat... By the author of Th... read more
A first historical novel, set in Willesden and Jamaica. Brilliant and funny, of course, not least for its opening in Harrison Ainsworth's collapsing library.
A clever counter-factual historical novel set in C16th Mexico; the Arabs still rule Spain and have discovered what they call New Maghreb. Hunt made his name with non-fiction; this is his fir... read more
A rich historical novel of Jacobean power games - politics and palaces, parliaments and surely poison too? A first novel by the biographer of Adam Smith and Edmund Burke.
Somerset Maugham appears as one of two narrators in this atmospheric novel of love, truth, secrecy and betrayal in 1920s' colonial Penang. Eng's airy storytelling is a rare gift: he gives hi... read more
A vulnerable young man travels to Rome in 1934 with his family for his sister's wedding. The car journey is full of mishaps and squabbles, with tempers fraying over divided attitudes towards... read more
This love story tacks between an English boarding school and the Western Front. A moving historical debut; compelling and unexpectedly funny (for the Somme).
The discovery of a corpse sends Cat Hakesby and James Marwood on a dangerous path that seems to lead to Charles II's favourite courtier... The sixth in this excellent series of historical th... read more
A dark tale of obsession and hysteria, set in a small French town in the aftermath of WW2. McIntosh is a clever writer already well known for The Water Cure.
In a remote Austrian valley during WW1, a woman tries to provide for her family after her husband is drafted into the army. Based on the author's own family history. Powerful, succinct.
A novel about the harrowing life of the great Russian poetess. She was involved with both Pasternak and Rilke; her daughter died in the Moscow famine; her husband was executed; and she herse... read more
In Regency England, a girl has the gift of predicting the weather. In order to move freely, she disguises herself as a man - which becomes problematic when she falls in love.
Reymont was a Polish novelist who won the Nobel prize in 1924; this is his magnum opus, an epic of nearly 1000 pages set in the C19th, about a small Polish village. At its centre are a weal... read more