Moderní

The plate-glass, concrete jungle of Euphoria State University, USA, and the damp red-brick University of Rummidge have an annual exchange scheme. Normally the exchange passes without comment. But when Philip Swallow swaps with Professor Zapp the fates play a hand.

This novel looks at life in the dark underside of Edinburgh, the AIDS capital of Europe, through the jaded eyes and harsh vernacular of heroin addict Mark Renton, who is sick of his friends, sick with the city and its deserted docklands, and above all sick with himself.

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

The Matrix is a world "within" the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . . Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction. Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, Neuromancer ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the century's most potent visions of the future.

By the bestselling author of The Godfather. Alexander moved over to his favourite chair in the corner of the large chamber. 'Sit, my children, sit with me,' he gently ordered them... 'We are a family,' he told his children. 'And the loyalty of the family must come before everything and everyone else. We must learn from each other, protect each other, and be bound first and foremost to each other. For if we honour that commitment, we will never be vanquished - but if we falter in that loyalty, we will all be condemned...' What is a family? Mario Puzo first answered that question, unforgettably, in his landmark bestseller The Godfather; with the creation of the Corleones he forever redefined the concept of blood loyalty. Now, thirty years later, Puzo enriches us all with his ultimate vis

This book is from the number 1 bestselling author of "PS, I Love You" and "Where Rainbows End" comes a love story with heart - and just a little bit of magic! Everything in Elizabeth Egan's life has its place, from the espresso cups in her gleaming kitchen to the swatches and paint pots of her interior design business. Order and precision keep life under control - and Elizabeth's heart from the pain and hurt she has suffered in the past. The only cloud on the horizon is her sister Saoirse, a red-haired whirlwind always leaving behind pieces, which Elizabeth struggles to pick up - including her six-year-old son Luke. Being a reluctant mother while trying to keep her business on track is a full-time job, one which leaves little room for error - or fun. Until, one day, a stranger unexpect

In his, highly acclaimed debut, A PALE VIEW OF HILLS, Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. Retreating into the past, she finds herself reliving one particular hot summer in Nagasaki, when she and her friends struggled to rebuild their lives after the war. But then as she recalls her strange friendship with Sachiko - a wealthy woman reduced to vagrancy - the memories take on a disturbing cast.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS will haunt your imagination and move you to the very depths of your soul. An elderly widow finds the Holy Grail beneath an old fur coat. A stray cat fights and refights a terrible nightly battle to protect his unwary adoptive family from unimaginable evil. A young couple receives a wedding gift that reveals a chilling alternative history of their marriage. These tales and much more await in this extraordinary book, revealing one of our most gifted storytellers at the height of his powers.

A collection of down-to-earth essays includes reflections on life, love, and growing old.

When a man's favourite elephant vanishes, the balance of his whole life is subtly upset; a couple's midnight hunger pangs drive them to hold up a McDonald's; a woman finds she is irresistible to a small green monster that burrows through her front garden; an insomniac wife wakes up to a twilight world of semi-consciousness in which anything seems possible - even death. In every one of the stories that make up The Elephant Vanishes, Murakami makes a determined assault on the normal. He has a deadpan genius for dislocating realities to uncover the surreal in the everday, the extraordinary in the ordinary.

There's more than one side to every story. 'Another chart-topping blockbuster from publishing goddess Marian Keyes - packed with sound writing, wit and common-sense.' Guardian The agent: Jojo, a highflying literary agent on the up, has just made a very bad career move: she's jumped into bed with her married boss Mark ... The bestseller: Jojo's sweet-natured client Lily's first novel is a roaring success. She and lover Anton celebrate by spending the advance for her second book. Then she gets writer's block ... The unknown: Gemma used to be Lily's best friend - until Lily 'stole' Anton. Now she's writing her own story - painfully and hilariously - when supershark agent Jojo stumbles across it ... When their fortunes become entangled, it seems too much to hope that they'll all find a hap

Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer and Pen/Faulkner prizes, THE HOURS is a daring and deeply affecting novel inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf. Now a major motion picture, directed by Stephen Daldry (BILLY ELLIOT) and starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Clare Danes and Ed Harris. In 1920's London, Virginia Woolf is fighting against her rebellious spirit as she attempts to make a start on her new novel. A young wife and mother, broiling in a suburb of 1940's Los Angeles, yearns to escape and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway. And Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich village apartment in 1990's New York to buy flowers for a party she is hosting for a dying friend. Moving effortlessly across the decades and between England and America, this exqui