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 Jonas Johasson

The sequel to Jonas Jonasson’s international bestseller The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
It all begins with a hot air balloon trip and three bottles of champagne. Allan and Julius are ready for some spectacular views, but they’re not expecting to land in the sea and be rescued by a North Korean ship, and they could never have imagined that the captain of the ship would be harbouring a suitcase full of contraband uranium, on a nuclear weapons mission for Kim Jong-un …

Soon Allan and Julius are at the centre of a complex diplomatic crisis involving world figures from the Swedish foreign minister to Angela Merkel and President Trump. Things are about to get very complicated …

 Sebastian Falks

Here is Paris as you have never seen it before – a city in which every building seems to hold the echo of an unacknowledged past, the shadows of Vichy and Algeria.

American postdoctoral researcher Hannah and runaway Moroccan teenager Tariq have little in common, yet both are susceptible to the daylight ghosts of Paris. Hannah listens to the extraordinary witness of women who were present under the German Occupation; in her desire to understand their lives and through them her own, she finds a city bursting with clues and connections. Out in the migrant suburbs, Tariq is searching for a mother he barely knew. For him, in his innocence, each boulevard, Métro station and street corner is a source of surprise.

In this urgent and deeply moving novel, Faulks deals with questions of empire, grievance, and identity. With great originality and a dark humour, Paris Echo asks how much we really need to know if we are to live a valuable life.

Stephanie Powell Watts

The Great Gatsby brilliantly recast in the contemporary South: a powerful first novel about an extended African-American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream.

JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina to build his dream home and to woo his high school sweetheart, Ava. But he finds that the people he once knew and loved have changed, just as he has. Ava is now married, and wants a baby more than anything. The decline of the town’s once-thriving furniture industry has made Ava’s husband Henry grow distant and frustrated. Ava’s mother Sylvia has put her own life on hold as she caters to and meddles with those around her, trying to fill the void left by her absent son. And Don, Sylvia’s undeserving but charming husband, just won’t stop hanging around.

JJ’s newfound wealth forces everyone to consider what more they want and deserve from life than what they already have—and how they might go about getting it. Can they shape their lives to align with their wishes rather than their realities? Or are they resigned to the rhythms of the particular lives they lead? No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family.

David Baldacci

#1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci introduces a remarkable new character: Atlee Pine, an FBI special agent assigned to the remote wilds of the western United States.

Ever since her twin sister was abducted by a notorious serial killer at age five, Atlee has spent her life hunting down those who hurt others. And she’s the best at it. She could be one of the Bureau’s top criminal profilers, if she didn’t prefer catching criminals in the vast wilderness of the West to climbing the career ladder in the D.C. office. Her chosen mission is a lonesome one–but that suits her just fine.

Now, Atlee is called in to investigate the mutilated carcass of a mule found in the Grand Canyon–and hopefully, solve the disappearance of its rider. But this isn’t the only recent disappearance. In fact, it may be just the first clue, the key to unraveling a rash of other similar missing persons cases in the canyon. . .

James Pope-Hennessy

Queen Mary, the widow of George V, and grandmother of the Queen, died at Marlborough House on 24 March 1953, a few months before the Coronation. She was eighty-five years old. Unusually for a Queen consort, an official biography was commissioned.

The last similar exercise was the life of the Prince Consort, commissioned by Queen Victoria. The task was entrusted to James Pope- Hennessy.

Pope-Hennessy embarked on his three year quest for Queen Mary in 1955. It was to take him to many royal courts and to the lunch and tea tables of retired courtiers and Ladies-in-Waiting. He had access to a great number of private documents. He was shown royal residences both in England and in Europe. Part of the time he lived at a guesthouse in Bodensee, in Germany, where the cost of living was cheaper and he was able to write quietly.

As he went along, he kept notes about who he met and what he saw. Pope-Hennessy had not intended the notes of his royal interviews to be published for fifty years (i.e. until 2009). He described them as follows: To supplement the manuscript and printed sources I kept a private and confidential file recording in considerable detail the conversations I had both with Queen Mary s immediate descendants, related German, Danish and Norwegian royalty and with surviving members of the Court of King George V and Queen Mary.

None of these interviews have been published, nor could they be until a lapse of fifty years. They are strictly confidential and form, I believe, a not uninteresting study of royal psycholology as it was and as it largely remains today. In THE QUEST FOR QUEEN MARY Hugo Vickers tells the story of the book and places these figures in context.

Gregory Smith

For ten years a man calling himself Will Power lived in near-total isolation in northern New South Wales, foraging for food, eating bats and occasionally trading for produce.

But who was this mysterious man who roamed the forest and knew all of its secrets and riddles? Some people thought he might be Jesus. Others feared he was a more sinister figure.

The truth was that he was neither miraculous nor malevolent, but he was, most certainly, gifted. And when he finally emerged from the forest, emaciated and close to death, he was determined to reclaim his real name and ‘give society another chance’.

Today, Dr Gregory Peel Smith, who left school at the age of fourteen, has a PhD and teaches in the Social Sciences at university. His profoundly touching and uplifting memoir is at once a unique insight into how far off track a life can go and powerful reminder that we can all find our way back if we pause for a moment in the heart of the forest.

Billy Connolly

All roads lead home.

‘After my knighthood was announced, a woman from the BBC came to Glasgow to interview me. We sat down in a lovely hotel in a nice part of town, and she hit me with her first question: “This must mean a lot to you, with you coming from nothing?” I looked at her, and I laughed.

“I did’nae come from nothing,” I told her. “I come from something.”

I grew up in the tenements of post-war Glasgow. I am very proud to be working class, and especially a working-class Glaswegian who has worked in the shipyards. I come from the working class. And, most of all, I come from Scotland.

Scotland is a unique and wonderful place. Its national motto says a lot about it: Nemo me impune lacessit. A decent translation might be: ‘By all means punch me in the nose but prepare yourself for a kick in the arse.’

I did’nae come from nothing: I come from Scotland. And this book is about why I will always be happy and proud that I do.’

Roland Perry

The extraordinary story of Stan Savige, from Gallipoli marksman to Pacific War General and the founder of Legacy ‘The first fingers of dawn crept over the Peninsula. Savige sat motionless, scanning the hills with binoculars, his rifle resting on the ledge in front of him. One careless enemy soldier peered over a parapet. Savige picked up his weapon, lined him up in his sights and fired …’

The son of a country butcher, Stan Savige left school at twelve to become a blacksmith’s striker. But in 1915, a passage in the bible inspired the devout scout leader and Sunday school teacher to enlist. Soon his abilities as a crack marksman attracted the attention of the officers and he was put in charge of Sniper Ridge, his job to eliminate the enemy assassins in Anzac Cove. Savige succeeded and survived Gallipoli, only to be sent to the Western Front then Iran as part of the crack squad Dunsterforce. It was the beginning of a long, dangerous and distinguished military career spanning both world wars, with Savige commanding and fighting in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific in World War II, initially as Major-General then Lieutenant General.

In this gripping biography, Roland Perry paints a fascinating and complex portrait of Lieutenant General Sir Stanley George Savige, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, ED, a man of character and compassion, a quiet outsider who founded the war veterans’ support charity Legacy, who still has few peers in courage, skill and achievement and whose record is second to none in Australian military history, in the scope of his combat over two world wars.

Eric Idle

We often think of celebrations as centering around special occasions, like Birthdays, Christmas, or other holidays. But there is no need to wait for those times. Everyday is a cause for celebration. The very fact that you are alive, the wondrous world around you, and the special people in your life are all reasons to rejoice. That’s what this book is all about.

Over 500 suggestions for living life to the fullest. A compendium of “glass half full” common sense, these witty and wise words from both the rich and famous, as well as the not-so-rich and the not-so-famous, will, I hope, inspire you to make every day a special day.

Pianist Artur Rubinstein once said, “To be alive, it’s all a miracle.” Yes indeed, it is all a miracle, and all a cause for celebration.

 Ian Rankin

IN A HOUSE OF LIES…

Everyone has something to hide

A missing private investigator is found, locked in a car hidden deep in the woods. Worse still – both for his family and the police – is that his body was in an area that had already been searched.

Everyone has secrets

Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is part of a new inquiry, combing through the mistakes of the original case. There were always suspicions over how the investigation was handled and now – after a decade without answers – it’s time for the truth.

Nobody is innocent

Every officer involved must be questioned, and it seems everyone on the case has something to hide, and everything to lose. But there is one man who knows where the trail may lead – and that it could be the end of him: John Rebus.