A feminist polemic that looks at women's resistance to male domination, both historically and now, and the consequences of independence, education, knowledge and power.
Three stories of family life - especially mothers and sons - from early in Tanizaki's career - 'Longing', 'Sorrows of a Heretic' and 'The Story of an Unhappy Mother'. (It would be interestin... read more
The discovery in 1799 of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations and romance. Atmospheric historical fiction with a delightful heroine.
A powerful novel set in the closing stages of WW2, in which a 12-year-old girl escapes to the German countryside with her mother and older sister. Translated from the German.
Set in 1742, this is a rollicking reworking of Moonfleet in which a wild, cross-dressing teenage girl joins a bloodthirsty gang of smugglers to avenge her father's murder.
Philby's granddaughter has drawn on unpublished letters for this tense novel about Edith Tudor-Hart, the woman who introduced Philby to his Soviet handler.
Betrayal and loss of innocence: this distinguished debut, already highly praised by Hilary Mantel and others, moves between Guernsey, London & California.
Incredible though it seems, in the closing years of the GDR the Stasi trained operatives to become poets in order to infiltrate literary circles. Years of sleuthing has yielded this remarkab... read more
A memoir by the Egytian woman who set up an independent book shop with a friend and her sister in 2002 - ten years later it had grown to include ten shops and 150 employees. Full of the nois... read more
Slim but far-reaching memoir of the author's brush with suicide, framed as the consequence of familial trauma and isolation. Superbly written, this bears honourable comparison with William S... read more
Born in 1799, Atkins was the first person to illustrate a book with photographs. Her cyanotypes - of ferns, algae, parrot feathers, seaweed - are exquisite.
A strange and magical memoir of growing up in prosaic England with Anglo-Burmese parentage. Teak trees interweave oaks; myth and imagery chase each other through the author's odyssey through... read more
A traditional rock climber for a decade or more, Fleming describes the dance between the self and the rock and its electrifying charge. It's also, for her, the ultimate way to connect with n... read more