Woman with a Secret
Sophie Hannah
Morrow (paperback), 2016
PRs 1395
The New York Times bestselling author of The Monogram Murders—in the ranks of Ruth Rendell, Deborah Crombie, Kimberly McCreight, and Tana French—makes her William Morrow debut with a dark and chilling psychological thriller in which a woman desperate to hide a devastating secret in her past is drawn into a murder investigation.
Traffic on Elmhirst Road has come to a halt. The police are stopping cars, searching for something. Nicki Clements waits patiently, until she glimpses a face she hoped she’d never see again. It’s him—and he’s the cop checking each car. Desperate to avoid him, she makes a panicky U-turn and escapes.
But Nicki’s peculiar behavior did not go unnoticed, and now the police have summoned her for questioning. A resident of Elmhirst Road has been murdered—a controversial newspaper columnist named Damon Blundy. The detectives begin peppering her with questions. Why was she seen fleeing the scene? What is her connection to the victim? Why was the knife that killed him used in such a peculiar way? Why were the words “HE IS NO LESS DEAD” painted on the wall of Blundy’s study—and what do they signify?
One simple answer could clear her. But she can’t explain why she fled Elmhirst Road that day without revealing the secret that could ruin her.
Nicki isn’t guilty of murder. But she’s far from innocent....
The Last Star Rick Yancey
Putnam (paperback), 2016
PRs 1395
The highly-anticipated finale to the New York Times bestselling 5th Wave series.
The enemy is Other. The enemy is us. They’re down here, they’re up there, they’re nowhere. They want the Earth, they want us to have it. They came to wipe us out, they came to save us.
But beneath these riddles lies one truth: Cassie has been betrayed. So has Ringer. Zombie. Nugget. And all 7.5 billion people who used to live on our planet. Betrayed first by the Others, and now by ourselves.
In these last days, Earth’s remaining survivors will need to decide what’s more important: saving themselves... or saving what makes us human.
Praise for The Last Star
“Yancey’s prose remains achingly precise, and this grows heavier, tighter, and more impossible to put down as the clock runs out…this blistering finale proves the truth of the first two volumes: it was never about the aliens.”—Booklist, starred review
“A haunting, unforgettable finale.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Yancey doesn’t hit the breaks for one moment, and the action is intense, but the language always stays lyrical and lovely. It’s a satisfying end to an impressive trilogy, true to the characters and the world Yancey created.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Yancey has capped off his riveting series with a perfect ending.”—TeenReads.com
“[T]he ending provides both satisfaction and heartbreak.”—Publishers Weekly
Accidental Superstar
Marianne Levy
Macmillan (paperback), 2016
PRs 695
Katie Cox is used to going unnoticed, by her mum, her dad, even her best friend. But when a video of her singing in her bedroom goes viral, she becomes a superstar overnight. As the views skyrocket and a recording contract beckons, the real world starts to feel very far away.
And now Katie’s riding high on her newfound fame. But the higher she goes, the further there is to fall...
Accidental Superstar by Marianne Levy is the first in a hilarious series about a girl who accidentally finds fame singing online.
About the Author
Marianne Levy spent her twenties as an actor. She was in various TV shows, did some comedy on Radio 4 and made a brief appearance in the film Ali G In Da House, where she managed to forget both her lines. She then worked as a continuity announcer for Living TV, introducing, and getting obsessed with America’s Next Top Model. She’s been the voice of a leading brand of makeup, a shopping centre and a yoghurt. Marianne is the author of the Ellie May young fiction series for Egmont, and a regular contributor to The Independent on Sunday. She lives in London with her husband, daughter and a bad-tempered cat. Accidental Superstar is her first novel for older readers and she is working on the sequel.
The Girl Who Beat ISIS: My Story
Farida Khalaf
Square Peg (paperback), 2016
PRs 1450
In August 2014, Farida Abbas was just a normal Yazidi girl, living in a village high in the mountains of northern Iraq. Then her village was attacked and swiftly taken by ISIS fighters, and her whole world changed. The jihadists murdered the men and the boys of her village, including her father and brothers, before taking Farida prisoner along with the rest of the women.
This is the story of what happened to Farida after she was captured: the beatings, the rapes, the markets where ISIS sold their female prisoners like cattle, and Farida’s realisation that the more difficult and resistant she became, the harder it was for her captors to continue their atrocities against her. So she struggled, she bit, she kicked, she accused her captors of going against their religion, and then, one day, the door to her room was left unlocked. She took her chance along with 5 other women, and set out across the Syrian desert.
This is a story of incredible courage in the face of unthinkable atrocity. As the battle against ISIS continues to ravage the Middle East, The Girl Who Beat Isis provides an astonishing perspective on this very terrifying global threat.
Review
“This powerful testimony is... as gripping as it is appalling” - Guardian
“Shattering, brave, angering account” - The Bookseller
“How much can a single person endure? Traumatised, uprooted, abused - Farida continues to deal with the consequences of ISIS. Nevertheless, this memoir is full of hope. She is a very strong individual, she has the heart of a lioness. An amazing story that encourages us never to keep quiet or to give in” - Frank Heinrich, German Parliamentary Speaker on Human Rights
Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell
Rabisankar Bal, translated by Arunava Sinha
Random House India (paperback), 2012
PRs 895
Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of Manto and Ghalib and a history of Indian culture rolled into one.
Exhumed from dust, Manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in Lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? In this dastan, Manto and Ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, ‘I discovered Rabisankar Bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country.’
Rabisankar Bal’s audacious novel, told by reflections in a mirror and forged in the fires of hell, is both an oral tale and a shield against oblivion. An echo of distant screams. Inscribed by the devil’s quill, Dozakhnama is an outstanding performance of subterranean memory.