Penguin The Rain Before it Falls Coe Jonathan

'Happiness - was it right to name it without knowing it? It sounded shameless in my mouth, like when someone shows off about knowing a celebrity and just uses their first name, saying Marcello when they really mean Mastroianni ...' • A young orphan boy grows up in Naples, playing football, roaming the city's streets and hidden places. The older boys call him 'monkey' because he can climb anywhere. He is alone, apart from Don Gaetano, the apartment caretaker, who feeds him, teaches him to play scopa, and tells him stories about women, history and the dark secrets of Naples' past. Then one day the boy sees a young girl standing at a window. It is an encounter that will haunt his life for years and, eventually, shape his destiny • Lyrical and exuberant, told with the simplicity of a fairy tale and the intensity of a memory, The Day Before Happiness is the story of friendship, a city and what makes us who we are

50,000 years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham • In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements - in radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA, for example - that allowed each of these discoveries to be made, enabling us to be more accurate in our predictions about not just how long ago these other humans lived, but how they lived, interacted and live on in our genes today. This is the story of us, told for the first time with its full cast of characters

Charlotte Pettifer belongs to a secret society skilled in witchcraft • When rumours of the Amulet of Black Beryl start to circulate, Charlotte is determined to find the jewel before it falls into the wrong hands • Which is what happens when the evil Lady Armitage reaches it first • Demanding the help of rakish pirate, Alex O'Riley, Charlotte sets off to find the jewel • There's just one problem: pirates and witches are sworn enemies • But little do they know, sparks are about to fly

Private Detective Isaac Bell crosses some of America's harshest terrain in pursuit of the most twisted killer yet, in the latest action-packed historical blockbuster from Sunday Times bestseller Clive Cussler • Women are being brutally murdered all over America . . . it's going to take an extraordinary mind to uncover the truth before it's too late • The year is 1911. Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before. But none quite like this • Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt which leads him into increasingly more alarming territory

The country is changing and, up and down the land, cracks are appearing - within families and between generations • In the Midlands Benjamin Trotter is trying to help his aged father navigate a Britain that seems to have forgotten he exists, whilst in London his friend Doug doesn't understand why his teenage daughter is eternally enraged. Meanwhile, newlyweds Sophie and Ian can find nothing to agree on except the fact that their marriage is on the rocks • A hilarious follow-up to The Rotters' Club and Closed Circle, Jonathan Coe captures the state of our nation once again!

It is 1940 and the bombs are falling thick and fast on London. The royal family must do all they can to assure the British public of their solidarity. But what of the two young princesses - Elizabeth and Margaret? How can they be kept safe without jeopardizing morale in the capital? • Meanwhile Celia Nashe is delighted when she finally gets her long-awaited transfer to MI5. But whatever she was expecting of her mission for the war effort, it wasn't this. A crumbling castle in remote, rural Ireland, playing nursemaid to two pampered young girls • But her posting soon turns out to be very far from tame. Questions are being asked by the locals about the identities of Celia's secret charges. And when a dead body turns up at the castle gates, it will take every effort to uncover the truth, and to stop it from coming to light

The director of the Design Museum defines the greatest artefact of all time: the city • We live in a world that is now predominantly urban. So how do we define the city as it evolves in the twenty-first century? Drawing examples from across the globe, Deyan Sudjic decodes the underlying forces that shape our cities, such as resources and land, to the ideas that shape conscious elements of design, whether of buildings or of space. Erudite and entertaining, he considers the differences between capital cities and the rest to understand why it is that we often feel more comfortable in our identities as Londoners, Muscovites, or Mumbaikars than in our national identities

The Salpetriere asylum, 1885. All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot and his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical, outcasts from society. But the truth is much more complicated - for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women's Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope • Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugenie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family

There's a war on against the BBC. It is under threat as never before. And if we lose it, we won't get it back • The BBC is our most important cultural institution, our best-value entertainment provider, and the global face of Britain. It's our most trusted news source in a world of divisive disinformation. But it is facing relentless attacks by powerful commercial and political enemies, including deep funding cuts - much deeper than most people realise - with imminent further cuts threatened. This book busts the myths about the BBC and shows us how we can save it, before it's too late

Clive Cussler continues his thrilling NUMA Files with The Navigator • Iraq, 2003: in the post-war looting of the treasures from Baghdad's antiquities museum, a legendary Phoenicean statue is stolen • Known as the Navigator, the statue points back to the days of King Solomon and is the vital clue to a secret of unimaginable power. Lucky then that UN investigator Carina Mechadi recovers it quickly. But a daring raid by helicopter in Iceberg Alley off Newfoundland and the statue is gone again - while Carina is only saved by the timely intervention of Kurt Austin of NUMA • Now Austin and Carina are scouring the globe. Firstly, to track down the statue as it leaves a trail of murder and mayhem in its wake. And, secondly, to beat the thieves to the secret of the Navigator - for if it falls into the wrong hands, the world could be changed for ever

Watch. The. Ball • It's just you. Standing at the crease. Waiting. The bowler is running. His arm swinging. The ball - 155 grams of cork, string and leather - is hurled at you. At 90 mph it travels 22 yards in under half a second. You can barely see it and you've got to be swinging your bat before it's halfway towards you. Because you are in its path • Alastair Cook, one of England's most decorated players and highest test run scorer, knows what it is like to be your best under pressure. Yet at 33 he called time on his England career • Come with him as he relives the fraught hours on the pitch, the desperate lows and astonishing highs, the paralysing anxiety that can send the best back home and the extraordinary battle of wills with yourself, the opposing players and even those supposedly on your own side

'There's a trick to time. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or make it longer . . .' • Some moments you want to last forever. Some moments shape a life • For Mona, it's the joy of playing on a Wexford beach as a young girl, next to her family's cottage overlooking the Irish sea. The thrill of moving to Birmingham with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding-house. Meeting the love of her life; a whirlwind marriage; a sudden, tragic loss • But now, decades later, Mona is determined to find happiness before it's too late. She knows that every moment is precious. But can we ever let go of the past that shaped us?