Vintage books The Infinite Book Barrow John D

As a child, Luke’s mother often tells him the story of the Dumb House, an experiment on newborn babies raised in silence, designed to test the innateness of language. As Luke grows up, his interest in language and the delicate balance of life and death leads to amateur dissections of small animals – tiny hearts revealed still pumping, as life trickles away. But as an adult, following the death of his mother, Luke’s obsession deepens, resulting in a haunting and bizarre experiment on Luke’s own children

The first book in Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles is a moving, insightful exploration of moral dilemmas fought in public and private • Mr Harding is a good man, the warden to an alms house which provides a peaceful home to twelve old men. The young and zealous John Bold is also a good man, but he believes he sees in Harding's comfortable existence an injustice which must be exposed. The law, the church and the self-righteous national press all have their say in the scandal that ensues, causing a crisis in the hearts and minds of many in the quiet country town of Barchester • ‘An affecting and delicate short novel’ Guardian

‘The funniest book in the world’ Evelyn Waugh • Mr Charles Pooter is a respectable man. He has just moved into a very desirable home in Holloway with his dear wife Carrie, from where he commutes to his job of valued clerk at a reputable bank in the City. Unfortunately neither his dear friends Mr Cummings and Mr Gowing, nor the butcher, the greengrocer's boy and the Lord Mayor seem to recognise Mr Pooter's innate gentility, and his disappointing son Lupin has gone and got himself involved with a most unsuitable fiancee • George and Weedon Grossmith's comic novel, perfectly illustrated by Weedon, is a glorious, affectionate caricature of the English middle-class at the end of nineteenth century

Reissued in electric new backlist style for October 2016, The Counterlife was lauded by the likes of John Updike, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, John Banville and James Wood, as well as winning the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction • Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction • The Counterlife is about people living their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter their destinies. Wherever they find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted by the prospect of an alternative existence • Illuminating these lives in free-fall and transformation is the acrobat mind of novelist Nathan Zuckerman. His is the sceptical, enveloping intelligence that calculates the price that's paid in the struggle to change personal fortune and reshape history, whether in a dentist's office in suburban New Jersey; a tradition-bound English Village in Gloucestershire; a church in London's West End; or in a tiny desert settlement in Israel's occupied West Bank

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award • A youthful tale of geriatric amateur theatrics and one of the most powerful and affecting comedies of modern times • In the Emma Lazarus retirement home in uptown Manhattan, the Jewish inmates embark on a chaotic, bitchy production of Hamlet. But for our hero, Otto Korner more is at stake than simply directing his quirky, libidinous fellow residents in the play. Somebody knows Otto's secret, and as comedy and tragedy combine he is transported back to his pre-American past in Germany, Zurich, and finally, Auschwitz • Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Prince of West End Avenue was a critical sensation on its first publication in 1994

This major and long-awaited work is the definitive history of the American Civil War by our greatest military historian • The American Civil War was one of the longest and bloodiest of modern wars. It is also one of the most mysterious. It has captured the imagination of writers, artists and film-makers for decades but the reality of it confuses and divides historians even today • In this magisterial history of the first modern war, the distinguished military historian John Keegan unpicks the geography, leadership and strategic logic of the war and takes us to the heart of the conflict. His captivating work promises to be the definitive history of the American Civil War

Two lives. One night sky • Roisin and Francois first meet in the snowy white expanse of Antarctica, searching for a comet overhead • While Roisin grew up in a tiny village in Ireland, ablaze with a passion for science and the skies, Francois was raised by his restless young mother, who dreamt of new worlds but was unable to turn her back on her past • As we loop back through their lives we see their paths cross as they come closer and closer to this moment, brought together by the infinite possibilities of the night sky

A strikingly powerful novel exploring the motivations of a suicide bomber in Israel, told through the eyes of her husband • Now an award-winning film, winner of the Frankfurt Book Fair prize for best literary film adaptation • Tel Aviv. A suicide bomber has killed 19 in a packed city centre restaurant. Dr Amin Jaafie, an Israeli Arab, is a surgeon at a nearby hospital. Respected and admired by his colleagues, the doctor represents integration at its most successful. But this night of turmoil and death takes a horrifyingly personal turn as his beloved wife's body is found among the dead... could she have caused the devestation? • From the graphic, shocking description of the bombing that opens the novel to its searing conclusion, The Attack portrays the reality of terrorism and its costs

Barrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about • The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul. Ably managed by Jimmy Rabbitte, brilliantly coached by Joey 'The Lips' Fagan, their twin assault on Motown and Barrytown takes them by leaps and bounds from the parish hall to the steps of the studio door • But can The Commitments live up to their name? • The bestselling book behind the long-running West End stage show

'Barrow explains nothing with great clarity, a lovely lightness of touch and enormous erudition' Spectator • How do you begin to understand the concept of nothing? • Where does it begin and where does it end? • From the zeros of the mathematician to the void of the philosophers, from Shakespeare to the empty set, from the ether to the quantum vacuum, from being and nothingness to creatio ex nihilo, there is much ado about nothing at the heart of things • Recent exciting discoveries in astronomy are shown to shed new light on the nature of the vacuum and its dramatic effect upon the explanation of the Universe. This remarkable book ranges over every nook and cranny of nothingness to reveal how the human mind has had to make something of nothing in every field of human enquiry

'The Anatomy Lesson is a ferocious, heartfelt book - lavish with laughs and flamboyant inventions' John Updike • With his fortieth birthday receding into the distance, along with his hairline and his most successful novel, the writer Nathan Zuckerman comes down with a mysterious affliction – pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso, and taking possession of his spirit. Zuckerman, whose work was his life, finds himself physically unable to write a line • He treks from one doctor to another, but none can find a cause for the pain and nobody can assuage it. Could it be, he wonders to himself, that the cause of the pain is nothing less than the books he has written? • As he grapples with this possibility, he tries an onslaught of painkillers, then vodka, and finally marijuana

The first modern spy novel and a must-read for espionage junkies and fans of James Bond and John Le Carre • When Carruthers receives a letter from his friend Davies suggesting a Baltic sailing trip, the vision of a manned yacht, A1 scenery and excellent duck shooting quickly works its charm. But Carruthers hopes for a holiday are quickly dashed. There has been suspicious German activity along the coast. The Medusa, manned by the sinister Dollman, has already tried to destroy Davies. What are the Germans up to? Nothing less than a plot to invade Britain. And only these two courageous Englishmen can stop them • Published in 1903, The Riddle of the Sands is considered the first modern spy novel