Moderní

A seductive and evocative epic on an intimate scale, that tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan's most dramatic history, it uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. She tells her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York; it exquisitely evokes another culture, a different time and the details of an extraordinary way of life. It conjures up the perfection and the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of geisha - dancing and singing, how

A story of passion and idealism, which describes a group of men and women in the Middle Ages whose destinies are fatefully linked with the building of a cathedral. In a country torn by civil war, two generations struggle to rise above their primitive circumstances and create something beautiful.

Stricken with grief after the death of Queen Lostris, Taita becomes a hermit, devoting himself to the Occult, gradually transforming himself into a Warlock. He sees a divine purpose in his suffering when he is called upon to save the dynasty of Queen Lostris from the evil that looms over Egypt.

A novel in which a passionate affair between a French aristocrat and Michael Courtney forces her to set out and seek a future for their unborn child in Africa, but first she must brave the terrors of war, shipwreck, fever and the vastness of Namibia before finding a home.

It is 1667 and Sir Francis Courteney and his son Henry "Hal" Courteney are on patrol in their fighting caravel off the Agulhas Cape of Southern Africa. They have a letter from Charles II sanctioning them to hunt down and capture enemy ships "beyond the line".

'I asked you how long,' she said. 'How long am I going to live?' Francis looked back. Their eyes held for a moment, then his dropped. He studied his hands intently for few seconds, then looked up again.'I estimate your expectation of life, my dear, at approximately two hundred and twenty years.' It came from a lichen, a simple rock-loving plant made of fungi and algae. When biochemist Francis Saxover discovered its remarkable properties, the implications terrified him. But Diana Brackley, who also knew what it could do, envisaged a different outcome. She foresaw the coming of a new evolutionary order and with it, a revolution. A revolution with women at its heart, women who previously had not had the time to make the most of their lives and abilities. For the lichen contained the most

Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching thinks her Granny Aching - a wise shepherd - might have been a witch, but now Granny Aching is dead and it's up to Tiffany to work it all out when strange things begin happening: a fairy-tale monster in the stream, a headless horseman and, strangest of all, the tiny blue men in kilts, the Wee Free Men, who have come looking for the new 'hag'. These are the Nac Mac Feegles, the pictsies, who like nothing better than thievin', fightin' and drinkin'. Then Tiffany's young brother goes missing and Tiffany and the Wee Free Men must join forces to save him from the Queen of the Fairies.

First published in 1988 and now reissued in paperback, a contemporary novel about religion, from the author of MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN. Two Indian actors fall to Earth after their aeroplane is blown-up by terrorists, and they become involved in the battle between Good and Evil, as a great prophet wrestles with his faith and duty to God.

Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously 'handcuffed to history' by the coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent - and whose privilege and curse it is to be both master and victims of their times. Through Saleem's gifts - inner ear and wildly sensitive sense of smell - we are drawn into a fascinating family saga set against the vast, colourful background of the India of the 20th century.

Lemuel Gulliver, ship` s surgeon and castaway, has awoken in Lilliput, where the size of the tiny inhabitants makes their concerns and quarrels seem ridiculous. A second journey takes him to the kingdom of giants, where again his size gives him new insights into human behaviour. Then, after he is cast adrift by pirates, Gulliver visits a series of islands where learning is misdirected and immortality is only misery. Gulliver`s final voyage brings him to the land of the Houyhnhms, horses with reason, who share their domain with the brutish Yahoos. He returns to England a changed man.