British Literary Fiction

‘This moment will never come again, Jason. You know that.’ -Vincent When his brother leaves to enlist as a midshipman, Jason is resigned to an unremarkable life in the small coastal town of Fairhope. But his world is upended when he is persuaded to embark on a perilous journey by Vincent, a promethean orphan with the ability to shape fire, who has glimpsed in dreams a terrifying battle at sea and who believes he is fated to die on his eighteenth birthday unless he finds the mythical Phoenix. Accompanied by Sarah, Jason's childhood friend lately awakened to a secret power, and Marco ...

Winner of the 2007 Audie Award for Literary Fiction and Finalist for Multi-Voiced Performance Instant #1 New York Times bestseller “Readers will feel the magnetic pull of this paean to words, books and the magical power of story.”—People “Eerie and fascinating.”—USA TODAY Sometimes...

Longlisted for the Booker Prize, this “cinematically plotted...radiant” (The New York Times) novel follows shanker Thomas Flett as his quiet life in a small English coastal town is forever changed over the course of one fateful day. Twenty-year-old Thomas Flett lives a slow, deliberate life...

Winner of the 2007 Audie Award for Literary Fiction and Finalist for Multi-Voiced Performance Instant #1 New York Times bestseller “Readers will feel the magnetic pull of this paean to words, books and the magical power of story.”—People “Eerie and fascinating.”—USA TODAY Sometimes...

Written some 40 years after Moby Dick, Melville's Billy Budd is a moving tale of good versus evil. Set aboard a British navy ship at the end of the eighteenth century, a young, innocent sailor's charm and good nature put the men around him at ease. Ship life agreed with Billy. He made friends quickly and was well liked, which infuriated John Claggart, the ship's cold-blooded superior officer.

‘If the legends of Sapphir are to be believed, the mighty anunnaki once strode the earth like gods yet squabbled like infants. And still we pay the price.’ -Telemachus Four thousand years ago the immortal anunnaki warred among themselves. They created the Phoenix and the monster Osiris and set the world on a dangerous new course. In the present, the travelers at last reach the desert kingdom of Sapphir, a nation at war and on the brink of complete annihilation. Here they encounter Korrin, a talented war leader and the last free member of the Royal Family, who has rallied what remains of...

A beautifully evocative historical novel about the perils of all-consuming love, inspired by a real-life eighteenth-century love affair, from the bestselling author of The Other Bennet Sister “When I love at all, it is with my whole soul—my heart must be torn to pieces before it can forget...

An intriguing Victorian mystery… The first case for Inspector Abbs. A wealthy spinster has been poisoned in the Devonshire town of Seaborough. Inspector Abbs and Sergeant Reeve are sent to investigate. With no apparent motive, they must uncover the secrets of the close-knit community. Untangling the past may provide the answer… but not before a second body is found. Their visit to Seaborough will change everything for the two detectives. Discovering the truth may even prove deadly…

At the opening of his third novel in an ongoing adventure series by Patrick O'Brian, Jack Aubrey is cruising off Cape Sicie when his friend Stephen Maturin (more serenely situated in Sussex) is informed of the Board's decision regarding Aubrey's prize money, taken after victorious engagement with a Spanish squadron at Cape Santa Maria. The money, five million pieces of eight, is not, as is the custom of war, to be divided among the crews of the four victorious vessels.

What really happened in the Marabar caves? Adela Quested arrives in Chandrapore, India, prepared to marry a British magistrate who exemplifies the narrow-minded, anti-Indian projudices of the imperial bureaucracy. But she soon meets the charming and mercurial Dr. Aziz, who offers to show her the "real" India. An expedition to the famed Marabar caves ends in explosive accusations and a schism that foreshadows the eventual end of British rule in India.

Victorian London 1874… In public halls and darkened parlours, the fever for spiritualism is at its height… A stranger in the great Metropolis, Josiah Abbs must solve his first case at Scotland Yard. A grieving architect has been murdered. Seemingly, he disturbed an intruder. Only Inspector Abbs believes the truth is darker and more complicated. London is seeping over its green borders like a blot of dark ink… Some thrive here among the teeming, heart of Empire. Others are silently sinking, caught in a mystery of lies and loss. When two cases tangle, Abbs will risk everything to ...

'I will show thee. There is in England, situated on a bank of the River Ouse, not far from the city of York called Selebaie. I have chosen and appointed you as the founder of this place 'The year is 1068 and in Saint-German of Auxerre the monk , Benedict is charged with guarding the body of the saint. However, after he is plagued by blinding visions of Saint Germanus, Benedict has little choice but to steal the finger of the saint and flee his home a criminal and in shame.With the help of his older brother, Caden and a young squire, Brener, Benedict must cross the channel to England and ...

With the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels - in preparation for a grand society ball. And it is up to Richard Sharpe to convince the Prince of Orange to act before it is too late. In this, the culmination of Sharpe's long and arduous career, Bernard Cornwell brings to life all the horror and all the exhilaration of one of the greatest military triumphs of all time.

When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop? No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were. For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On...

Brought to you by Penguin. Read the seminal bestselling novel that changed the face of British fiction and inspired Danny Boyle's film. 'The best book ever written by man or woman... Deserves to sell more copies than the Bible' Rebel Inc Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose...

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the...

Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.

As complex, turbulent and spectacular as the gas giant on which it is set, this novel from Iain M. Banks is space opera on a truly epic scale. “An enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events.” –Publishers Weekly...

London's Great Plague of 1665 devastated the city, as Europe's final bubonic outbreak killed thousands of helpless citizens. Daniel Defoe, author of the classic Robinson Crusoe, was five years old when the Plague swept through London, and grew up hearing many stories - some truthful, others exaggerated - of its deadly effects. Blending those anecdotes with his childhood recollections and factual data from government registers, Defoe wrote this comprehensive account of what happened to London in 1665.

From New York Times bestselling and modern master of science fiction, Iain M. Banks, The State of the Art is the acclaimed collection of Banks's short fiction. “Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.” –William Gibson This is a...