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In spite of the perpetrators' intentions, the Tokyo gas attack left only twelve people dead, but thousands were injured and many suffered serious after-effects. The novelist Haruki Murakami interviews the victims to try and establish precisely what happened on the subway that day. He also interviews members and ex-members of the doomsdays cult responsible, in the hope that they might be able to explain the reason for the attack and how it was that their guru instilled such devotion in his followers.

Lost in space or a loser in love? Twenty-two year-old Sumire is in love for the first time - with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is a glamorous and successful older woman with a taste for classical music and fine wine, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Jack Kerouac novel. Surprised that she might, after all, be a lesbian, Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K. about the big questions in life; what is sexual desire and should she ever tell Miu how she feels about her? K., a primary school teacher, is used to answering questions, but what he most wants to say to Sumire is, "I love you." He consoles himself by having an affair with the mother of one of his pupils. But

With impeccable timing Hercule Poirot, the renowned Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance on to the English crime stage. Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about 'a lot of sharks'. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil. A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection.

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course. But why is the dead man wearing his son's overcoat? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse

At a Hallowe'en party, Joyce - a hostile thirteen-year-old - boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the 'evil presence'. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer ...

Winter, 1975: Afghanistan, a country hidden in the corner of Asia, ruled over by a fading monarchy on the verge of an internal coup. But in Kabul, twelve-year-old Amir has his own concerns. He is desperate to win the annual kite-fighting tournament to prove to his father that he has the makings of a man. Amir?s friend Hassan is a low-caste Muslim and the son of a crippled servant but nevertheless the two boys play together and defend each other against the neighbourhood?s bullies. However, during the tournament, Amir takes advantage of Hassan?s guileless devotion and commits a terrible act of betrayal which is to shatter their lives and define their future. Amir finds that he can never escape the far-reaching consequences of his actions. Unfolding against Afghanistan?s destructive hist

Henry Chinaski is a low-life loser with a hand-to-mouth existence. His menial Post Office day job supports a life of beer, one-night stands and race tracks. First published in 1971, this was Charles Bukowski's debut novel.

Low-life writer and alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. Now, at the age of 50, he is living the life of a rock star, running 300 hangovers a year and a sex life that would cripple Casanova. This follow-up to "Post Office" and "Factotum" is an uncompromising account of life on the edge.

Henry Perowne is a contented man - a succ essful neurosurgeon, the devoted husband of Rosalind, a newspaper lawy er, and proud father of two grown-up children, one a promising poet, t he other a talented blues musician. Unusually, he wakes before dawn, d rawn to the window of his bedroom and filled with a growing unease. Wh at troubles him as he looks out at the night sky is the state of the w orld - the impending war against Iraq, a gathering pessimism since 9/1 1, and a fear that his city, its openness and diversity, and his happy family life are under threat. Later, Perowne makes his way to his wee kly squash game through London streets filled with hundreds of thousan ds of anti-war protestors. A minor car accident brings him into a conf rontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive,

The terrifying tale of Joseph K, a respectable functionary in a bank, who is suddenly arrested and must defend his innocence against a charge about which he can get no information. A nightmare vision of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the mad agendas of twentieth-century totalitarian regimes.