Black Swan The Whispering House Brooks Elizabeth

Одиссея Гомера Уэллса начинается среди яблоневых садов сельской местности штата Мэн. Будучи самым старшим неприспособленным ребенком в приюте Сент-Клауда, он завязывает глубокую и необычную дружбу с Уилбуром Ларчем, основателем приюта - человеком редкого сострадания и пристрастия к эфиру. То, чему он учится у Уилбура, переносит его от раннего ученичества в хирургии детского дома к взрослой жизни, к управлению фабрикой по производству сидра и странным отношениям с женой его самого близкого друга • Книга на английском языке • 'The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud's so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer's intention to make St Cloud's his home.' • Homer Wells' odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine

Does 'friends' ever really mean just 'friends'? • Gina and Laurence have been the best of friends ever since they were teenagers. Love has never been a factor • Now, Gina is married to the exquisitely tasteful Fergus and lives in stylish perfection in a huge house; Laurence is married to down-to-earth Hilary and lives in the Bee House, a home and hotel • When, with elegant disdain, Fergus announces that he is leaving Gina and their teenage daughter, Gina's misery ricochets through the two homes and she turns for emotional support to Laurence, her dearest friend • And as Laurence gives comfort, so his own marriage and the stability of his children edges towards destruction

The Wild Life is John Lewis-Stempel's account of twelve months eating only food shot, caught or foraged from the fields, hedges, and brooks of his forty-acre farm. Nothing from a shop and nothing raised from agriculture. Could it even be done? • We witness the season-by-season drama as the author survives on Nature's larder, trains Edith, a reluctant gundog, and conjures new recipes. And, above all, we see him get closer to Nature. Because, after all, you're never closer to Nature than when you're trying to kill it or pick it • Lyrical, observant and mordantly funny, The Wild Life is an extraordinary celebration of our natural heritage, and a testament to the importance of getting back to one's roots - spiritually and practically

The January Man is the story of a year of walks that was inspired by a song, Dave Goulder's 'The January Man'. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville walks the British Isles, following routes that continually bring his father to mind • As he travels the country - from the winter floodlands of the River Severn to the lambing pastures of Nidderdale, the towering seabird cliffs on the Shetland Isle of Foula in June and the ancient oaks of Sherwood Forest in autumn - he describes the history, wildlife, landscapes and people he encounters, down back lanes and old paths, in rain and fair weather • This exquisitely written account of the British countryside not only inspires us to don our boots and explore the 140,000 miles of footpaths across the British Isles, but also illustrates how, on long-distance walks, we can come to an understanding of ourselves and our fellow walkers

The Lollipop Shoes picks up the story of Vianne and her daughters and takes us on a magical and spellbinding journey to Paris. Exquisitely written with the fluid and beautiful prose we expect from Joanne Harris, it's a wonderful and captivating read, full of flavours, tastes and fragrances. You'll need to pace yourself to stop yourself from devouring it all at once! • 'Who died?' I said. 'Or is it a secret?' • 'My mother, Vianne Rocher.' • Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Yanne and her two daughters live peacefully, if not happily, above their little chocolate shop • Nothing unusual marks them out; no red sachets hang by the door. The wind has stopped - at least for a while • Then into their lives blows Zozie de l'Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes - ruthless, devious and seductive

The first memory I have of you is all knickers and legs. You had flipped yourself into a handstand and couldn’t get back down. We became best friends, racing slugs, pretending to be spies – all the things that children do • Ten years later, eighteen-year-old Ravine Roy spends every day in her room. Completing crosswords and scribbling in her journal, she keeps the outside world exactly where she wants it; outside • But as the real world begins to invade her carefully controlled space, she is forced to finally confront the questions she’s been avoiding. Who is her mother meeting in secret? Who has moved in next door? • And why, all those years ago, when two girls pulled on their raincoats and wellies and headed out into the woods did only one of them return?

The soldiers are coming home – after six months in Afghanistan. Surely being reunited with their wives and girlfriends and families will be heaven, after the hell they have been through • When Dan Riley returns to his adored wife, Alexa, and their children, his Army life still comes first. Alexa thought she was prepared to help him, and the whole family, to make the transition to normal life again – but no-one had told her how lonely and near impossible the task would be. Does marrying a soldier always have to mean that you are not marrying a man, but a regiment?

This novel from the Sunday Times bestselling Trisha Ashley will more than satisfy romantic comedy fans. And it also contains recipes! • When Carey Revell unexpectedly becomes the heir to Mossby, his family’s ancestral home, it’s rather a mixed blessing. The house is large but rundown and comes with a pair of resentful relatives who can’t be asked to leave • Still, newly dumped by his girlfriend and also from his job as a TV interior designer, Carey needs somewhere to lick his wounds. And Mossby would be perfect for a renovation show. He already knows someone who could restore the stained glass windows in the older part of the house… • Angel Arrowsmith has spent the last ten years happily working and living with her artist mentor and partner. But suddenly bereaved, she finds herself heartbroken, without a home or a livelihood

How Far Would You Go to Get the Life You Can't Have? • Shyama, aged forty-eight, has fallen for a younger man. They want a child together • Meanwhile, in a rural village in India, young Mala, trapped in an oppressive marriage, dreams of escape • When Shyama and Mala meet, they help each other realise their dreams. But will fate guarantee them both happiness? • Brimming with warmth, wit and indignation, Meera Syal immerses us in a devastating story of friendship, family and the lengths we will go to have a perfect life. THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN MOTHERS is her long-awaited third novel and shows Meera Syal at the height of her literary powers

Chrissie, in the twenty-three years she'd been together with Richie, had always believed that he loved her • He loved their three daughters and their house in Highgate and their happy, lively existence. But if she really was the love of his life, why had he never given her the one thing that would have made her life perfect? • Then suddenly Richie is no longer there, and without him Chrissie's carefully constructed life is in jeopardy.The one big fact she had always tried to keep from her daughters threatens to overwhelm them all. For Richie had still been married to his first wife, the one with a son that he had abandoned in Newcastle • And now, with Richie gone and the practicalities of wills and money to be sorted out, it is finally time for the two families to face each other

What do our possessions say about us? Why do we project such meaning onto them? What becomes of the things we leave behind? • Only after her mother's death does Susannah Walker discover how much of a hoarder she had become. Over the following months, Susannah has to sort through a dilapidated house filled to the brim with rubbish and treasures - filling bag after bag with possessions. But what she's really in search of is a woman she'd never really known or understood in life. This is her last chance to piece together her mother's story and make sense of their troubled relationship • What emerges from the mess of scattered papers, discarded photographs and an extraordinary amount of stuff is the history of a sad and fractured family, haunted by dead children, divorce and alcohol

‘He said he didn’t remember killing them…’ • As a series of rolling blackouts plunge the city into darkness, Detective Aidan Waits sits on an abandoned hospital ward, watching a mass murderer slowly die. Transferred from his usual night shift duties and onto protective custody, he has just one job… • To extract the location of Martin Wick’s final victim before the notorious mass murderer passes away • Wick has spent over a decade in prison, in near-total silence, having confessed to an unspeakable crime that shocked the nation and earned him the nickname of The Sleepwalker • But when a daring premeditated attack leaves one police officer dead and another one fighting for his life, Wick’s whispered last words will send Waits on a journey into the heart of darkness… • Manipulated by a reticent psychopath from his past, and under investigation from his new partner, Detective Constable Naomi Black, Waits realises too late that a remorseless contract killer is at work