FICTION

A gripping true crime investigation into the murder of the relatives of Albert Einstein, set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Florence during WWIIItaly, August 1944. A unit of German soldiers arrives at a villa near Florence. Villa Il Focardo is home to Robert Einstein, cousin to the most famous scientist in the world, Albert Einstein - a prominent enemy of the Nazi regime. Twelve hours after arriving, the soldiers have vanished - and a family is dead.This crime - and what happened next - still haunts those who survived. In The Einstein Vendetta, Thomas Harding recounts the story of an until-now untold true crime, one that unspools to reveal Italy's brutal wartime history - its fall to fascism, antisemitism and bitter partisanship - and a family's search for justice.

'Psykhe is the perfect winter read.'GUARDIAN'This romance is lush and forbidden, pushing and folding the peaks and troughs of the narrative to its final conclusion.'ARTSHUBKate Forsyth infuses the story of Psyche and Eros with new vigour as a life-affirming celebration of female strength, sexual desire, and empowerment.It is not wise to anger the gods ... or to fall in love with one. Fair as Venus, the goddess of love, and with the hard-won ability to save the lives of those of mortal blood, Psykhe is both shunned and revered.When she unwittingly provokes Venus, she and her sisters lose everything. Psykhe must find a way to make amends and support her family. Befriended by an old woman, Nokturna, Psykhe finds herself irresistibly drawn to her young friend, Ambrose. But neither is what they seem.For Psykhe has fallen in love with a man whose face she is forbidden to see. After disobeying this injunction, she must risk everything to try to save him, even if it means travelling down to the shadowy Underworld to face Proserpina, queen of the dead.

The Show Woman WHATEVER LIFE BRINGS, THE SHOW MUST GO ON ...1910. With the disappearance of her mother and the sudden death of her father, Lena instantly loses any security she has within the circus she has known all her life. She is advised to sell the carousel her father cared for like a child and look for a husband, or a job in a factory. Until flame-haired Violet, known to all in the fairgrounds as 'the greatest trapeze artist that ever lived', suggests they go it alone with their own, all-female act. With her outspoken ways and her refusal to marry, Violet is as much an outcast as Lena. What do they have to lose? Recruiting new performers including bareback horse-rider Rosie, on the run from her abusive father, and Carmen whose rainbow ribbons hide the darkness in her past, the four women form an unbreakable bond.Thrust into a harsh and dangerous world that treats them with suspicion, disdain and even violence, they must forge their own path in search of freedom, security, and love.Deeply rooted in the Edwardian era, THE SHOW WOMAN is brilliantly realised and expertly interlaces strong female characters, deeply-woven family secrets and heartfelt love stories.'Absolutely loved soaking up the atmosphere of the circus and fairground in The Show Woman. There's hardship and excitement and mystery and joy in this novel, and I couldn't stop turning the pages' Sarah L. Brooks, author of The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands.

The Midnight Carousel Water for Elephants meets Moulin Rouge in this spellbinding tale of a beautiful carousel that causes people to inexplicably vanish into thin air . . . Paris, 1900Carousel-maker Gilbert works tirelessly to finish his masterpiece in time for the city's Exposition Universelle. But Gilbert is struggling in the wake of his wife and son's tragic deaths, and as he finalises his creation, a dangerous idea forms in his mind . . .Chicago, 1920Having come to America for a new life, when Maisie unearths a neglected carousel, she seizes the chance for a new destiny. But twenty years ago, the carousel was linked to a number of people inexplicably disappearing - and now history has begun to repeat itself . . .

Based on the true story of Tasma Walton’s ancestor, a powerful, heart-wrenching novel about maternal love that endures against pitiless odds. Kidnapped by sealers and enslaved far from her homeland, Nannertgarrook has a spirit that refuses to bow … From her idyllic life in sea country in Nerrm (Port Phillip Bay, Victoria), Nannertgarrook is abducted and taken to a slave market, leaving behind a husband, daughter and son. Pregnant when seized, she soon gives birth to another son, whom she raises with the children of her fellow captives. Nannertgarrook is separated not only from her Boonwurrung family, but from her birthright – the ceremonies she once was so joyously part of, the majestic whales who are her totem, the land and sky and sea country and its creatures. All these things she loves as deeply as she does her blood kin. But now, as her reality becomes profoundly different, she must keep that family and her old life alive in her mind. Their rich, pulsating elements sing to us through her beautiful voice, even while Nannertgarrook herself is subjected to the worst of humanity. This sweeping novel asks us to consider who, in colonial history, were the real savages, and what it truly means to be civilised.

For fans of Burial Rites and Elmet, when the preserved body of a woman is discovered in a bog near an isolated village community, rumours begin to fly. To some, the body is an omen, heralding misfortune to come. To others, hers is a story waiting to be told.<p>'A striking debut, filled with folkloric mystery and yearning. Read it, then read it again' Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures'A muddy, pastoral fable written with an equal measure of beauty and morbidity. Completely enthralling.' Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb'An extraordinary sense of place and time, written by an exciting new voice' Radio Times (Best Books 2025)Who will cast the first stone?1915, the Cabrach, Aberdeenshire. An isolated Scottish community is disturbed by a strange discovery- a body in a peat bog, perfectly preserved. Two people haul the body from the ground- Lizzie, the wife of a wealthy local landowner, and Johnny, a nomadic singer and farm hand. At hearthside and inn, people whisper- what have we unearthed?</p><p>One unveiling brings others. For Lizzie, tenacious but trapped, the discovery reveals unanswered questions about her past while for Johnny, it threatens to uncover a history he's trying to outrun.</p><p>As their stories entwine, a series of unsettling events befalls the isolated community- ruinous weather, a damaged soldier, strange occurrences that cannot be explained. Against the echoes of distant war, and with the boundaries blurring between right and wrong, everyone is looking for someone to blame...</p>

The Whisperer's WarWhy does humanity cling to warfare when it destroys the land and people the armies try to claim?Claverton Castle, 1940.Eagles and Spitfires fly in the skies of England as Lady Deanna, the aristocratic granddaughter of the Duke of Claverton, spends her days shovelling manure and her evenings in blue satin, attending dinner parties to gather intelligence from the many Nazi sympathisers among Britain's powerful upper classes. She is an excellent spy: the information she gleans may prove vital in the months ahead. But when she becomes enmeshed in the German plot to restore the Duke of Windsor to the throne of England and ensure an alliance with Hitler, she must feign cooperation and risk her life for the sake of her country.As war devastates Europe, 'Lady Dee' must solve other mysteries, too. Why do the three orphaned children she has taken into her home and grown to love refuse to reveal their identity? What reason can British Intelligence have to warn her away from Sam Murray, a decorated Australian pilot and the only man she feels she could ever marry? Is the wounded soldier who stumbles along the secret caves below her home truly the missing Duke of Claverton?From bestselling author Jackie French comes a book about the conflicts between love and duty, and the royal betrayals kept secret from the public for so long.

An exceptional novel set in the 1930s Dust Bowl about magic, memory and land; above all, a reckoning with America's wilfully forgotten history'A pure dust storm of utter genius' DAISY JOHNSON'As profound as it is wonderfully strange' LAUREN GROFF'Russell has rendered with soul and urgency the vast inexpressible ache at the heart of American gratitude' KAVEH AKBARWhat do we choose to remember and what do we allow ourselves to forget?Visit the Antidote of Uz - a prairie witch who can keep your memories safe. Speak into her emerald-green earhorn, and your secrets, your shames, your private joys, will leave your mind and enter hers.Until the Black Sunday storm, which flattens wheatfields, buries houses and vaporizes every memory stored inside the Antidote. She wakes up empty - as bankrupt as America. If her customers ever discover the truth, her life will be in danger.To the Antidote's surprising defence comes Asphodel - young tearaway, girls' basketball captain and aspiring prairie witch - who won't take no for an answer. Along with her Polish wheat-farmer uncle and a New Deal photographer with an enchanted camera, they must confront what has cursed this town- its land on the brink of ruin and its people on the edge of starvation. Apart, they run from the memories that have brought them here. Together, they face down the storm coming their way.The Antidote is above all a reckoning with a nation's forgetting - the wilful omissions passed down from generation to generation. This gripping Dust Bowl epic echoes with urgent warnings for our own time, daring us to imagine what might have been - and what still could be.'Karen Russell is one in a million' New York Times'This novel swept me up and carried me away' TOMMY ORANGE