The ​Silk Merchant's Daughter

Noël Barber - Tanamera ​(angol)
The ​story of two lovers and two great dynasties - one British, the other Chinese - of the society that separated them and the passion that bound them.

Graham Greene - The ​Quiet American
While ​the French Army in Indo-China is grappling with the Vietminh, back in Saigon a young and high-minded American named Pyle begins to channel economic aid to a "Third Force." Caught between French colonialists and the Vietminh, Fowler, the narrator and seasoned foreign correspondent, observes: "I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused." As young Pyle's policies blunder on into bloodshed, the older man finds it impossible to stand aside as an observer. But Fowler's motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and to himself: for Pyle has robbed him of his Vietnamese mistress.

Kate Furnivall - Kate Furnivall - The ​Liberation
The ​Liberation is set in Italy in 1945 as British and American troops attempt to bring order to the devastated country and Italy’s population fights to survive. Caterina Lombardi is desperate – her father is dead, her mother has disappeared and her brother is being drawn towards danger. One morning, among the ruins of the bombed Naples streets, Caterina is forced to go to extreme lengths to protect her own life and in doing so forges a future in which she must clear her father's name. An Allied Army officer accuses him of treason and Caterina discovers a plot against her family. Who can she trust and who is the real enemy now? And will the secrets of the past be her downfall? This epic novel is an unforgettably powerful story of love, loss and the long shadow of war.

Elizabeth Gaskell - North ​and South
When ​her father leaves the Church, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the North of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. In North and South Gaskell skillfully fused individual feeling with social concern and in Margaret Hale created one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

Philippa Gregory - Wideacre
Wideacre ​Hall, set in the heart of the English countryside, is the ancestral home that Beatrice Lacey loves. But as a woman of the eighteenth century she has no right of inheritance. Corrupted by a world that mistreats women, she sets out to corrupt others. Sexual and wilful, she believes that the only way to achieve control over Wideacre is through a series of horrible crimes, and no-one escapes the consequences of her need to possess the land. Sweeping, passionate, unique: 'Wideacre' is the novel which brought Philippa Gregory to bestselling fame and is the first of the trilogy which continued with 'The Favoured Child' and concluded with 'Meridon'.

Jane Austen - Sense ​and Sensibility
"I ​could hardly keep my seat." Spirited and impulsive, Marianne Dashwood is the complete opposite to her controlled and sensible sister, Elinor. When it comes to matters of the heart, Marianne is passionate and romantic and soon falls for the charming, but unreliable Mr Willoughby. Elinor, in contrast, copes stoically with the news that her love, Edward Ferrars is promised to another. It is through their shared experiences of love that both sisters come to learn that the key to a successful match comes from finding the perfect mixture of rationality and feeling.

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Keep ​the Home Fires Burning
The ​war was not 'over by Christmas' after all and as 1915 begins, the Hunters begin to settle into wartime life. Diana, the eldest Hunter daughter, sees her fiance off to the Front but doesn't expect such coldness from her future mother-in-law. David's battalion is almost ready to be sent to the Front, but how will Beattie's fragile peace of mind endure? Below stairs, Ethel, the under housemaid, is tired of having her beaux go off to war so she deliberately sets her sights on a man who works on the railway, believing he won't be allowed to volunteer. Eric turns out to be decent, honest and he genuinely cares about Ethel - is this the man who could give her a new life? The Hunters, their servants and their neighbours soon realise that war is not just for the soldiers, but it's for everyone to win, and every new atrocity that is reported bolsters British determination: this is a war that must be won at all costs. Keep the Home Fires Burning is the second book in the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, author of the much-loved Morland Dynasty novels. Set against the real events of 1915, this is an evocative, authentic and wonderfully depicted drama featuring the Hunter family and their servants.

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Goodbye ​Piccadilly (angol)
In ​1914, Britain faces a new kind of war. For Edward and Beatrice Hunter, their children, servants and neighbours, life will never be the same again. For David, the eldest, war means a chance to do something noble; but enlisting will break his mother's heart. His sister Diana, nineteen and beautiful, longs for marriage. She has her heart set on Charles Wroughton, son of Earl Wroughton, but Charles will never be allowed to marry a banker's daughter. Below stairs, Cook and Ada, the head housemaid, grow more terrified of German invasion with every newspaper atrocity story. Ethel, under housemaid, can't help herself when it comes to men and now soldiers add to the temptation; yet there's more to this flighty girl than meets the eye. The once-tranquil village of Northcote reels under an influx of khaki volunteers, wounded soldiers and Belgian refugees. The war is becoming more dangerous and everyone must find a way to adapt to this rapidly changing world. Goodnight, Piccadilly is the first book in the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, author of the much-loved Morland Dynasty novels. Set against the real events of 1914, 'Goodnight, Piccadilly' is extraordinary in scope and imagination and is a compelling introduction to the Hunter family.

Philippa Gregory - Michael Jones - David Baldwin - The ​Women of the Cousins' War
Elizabeth ​Woodville, The White Queen(2009), Margaret Beaufort, The Red Queen(2010), and Jacquetta, Lady Rivers, The Lady of the Rivers (2011) are the subjects of the first three novels in Philippa Gregory's Cousins' War series, and of the three biographical essays in this book. Philippa Gregory and two historians, leading experts in their field who helped Philippa to research the novels, tell the extraordinary 'true' stories of the life of these women who until now have been largely forgotten by history, their background and times, highlighting questions which are raised in the fiction and illuminating the novels. With a foreword by Philippa Gregory - in which Philippa writes revealingly about the differences between history and fiction and examines the gaps in the historical record - and beautifully illustrated with rare portraits, The Women of the Cousins' Waris an exciting addition to the Philippa Gregory oeuvre.

Philippa Gregory - The ​Taming of the Queen
Why ​would a woman marry a serial killer? Because she cannot refuse... Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives - King Henry VIII - commands her to marry him. Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn's trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent. But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry's dangerous gaze turns on her.The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy - the punishment is death by fire and the king's name is on the warrant... From an author who has described all of Henry's queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last: a woman who longed for passion, power and education at the court of a medieval killer.

Kate Furnivall - The ​Far Side of the Sun
Bahamas, ​1943. Twenty-two-year-old Dodie Wyatt has escaped her turbulent past and now lives in a shack on a beach near downtown Nassau, where she works in a hotel. But one night her peace is shattered when she tries to help a man she finds stabbed in an alleyway. On the other side of town, wealthy diplomat's wife Ella Stanford is content keeping her husband out of Britain and away from his Nazi friends in Germany while she throws herself into charitable work for the town's poverty-stricken community and entertainment for the military troops. But when one of the richest men in the world is found killed in his Nassau mansion, these two very different women - Dodie, a shy introvert, and Ella, a confident socialite - are drawn together. The gruesome death spirals the already unstable island into violence, deceit, greed and death, and Dodie and Ella have only each other to rely on as their ordered lives are blown apart...

Jojo Moyes - The ​Ship of Brides
The ​year is 1946, and all over the world, young women are crossing the seas in the thousands en route to the men they married in wartime - and an unknown future. In Sydney, Australia, four women join 650 other brides on an extraordinary voyage to England, aboard the HMS Victoria, which also carries not just arms and aircraft but 1,000 naval officers and men. Rules of honour, duty, and separation are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier's captain down to the lowliest young stoker. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined in ways the Navy could never have imagined.

Virginia Henley - The ​Hawk and the Dove
The ​Dove... She'd been bought for a strip of land, then abandoned: a bartered bride, married by proxy, determined to wreak revenge. As innocent Sara Bishop she'd paid dearly for freedom from her cruel, mocking family. As flame-haired, jade-eyed Sabre Wilde, she would scandalize Queen Elizabeth's court as she set out to seduce her unknown husband, become his mistress--and make him her slave. The Hawk... The Queen's favorite, called The Sea God, his white teeth flashed in his bronze face as his deep, virile voice boomed orders to his men. He branded Sabre with his searing kiss and his masterful touch, not even aware she was already his wife. Captain Shane Hawkhurst knew how to command, how to subdue and ravage an enemy, but was he prepared to be caught in passion's merciless snare by a fiery beauty who ruled his heart and inflamed his senses?

Virginia Henley - Enslaved
WHERE ​ARE ALL THE REAL MEN? SHE WONDERED.... For Lady Diana Davenport, they existed only in her books and dreams. There she could lose herself, becoming the licentious Diana, goddess of the hunt -- far from the rigid restraints of eighteenth-century London, where she was courted by fops and fools. That is, until she tried on an authentic Roman helmet in an antiques store and was catapulted back in time, landing in Marcus Magnus's arms. This was no dream! She was lost in Aquae Sulis, the city she knew as Bath, prisoner of a Roman general who accused the violet-eyed beauty of being a Druid spy -- and then made her his slave! "COME TO ME." His words were soft, imperious, charged with danger and desire. Marcus Magnus was powerful, arrogant, and infuriating. A real man. And now Lady Diana was his slave, hostage to his will, vowing to fight him to the end -- with every seductive weapon she possessed....

Graham Greene - A ​csendes amerikai
Graham ​Greene párját ritkító szűkszavúsága ellenére, vagy éppen azért, remek elbeszélő. A sűrítés mestere sokat tud a világ minden tájáról, minden tudományról, s ami tény, adat felmerül műveiben, az mind helytálló, mindnek értelme van, és történeteiben valódi szerepet kap. A 20. század egyik legolvasottabb szerzőjének írásaiban sajátosan keveredik kalandosság, lélektani hitelesség és társadalmi kritika. ___Az amerikaiak vietnami beavatkozását egy angol tudósító közönyös szemével rögzítő, de annál kíméletlenebbül leleplező regény főhőse egy fiatalember, Alden Pyle, a csendes amerikai. Otthon kellett volna maradnia, hogy olvassa az újságok vasárnapi mellékleteit meg a baseballhíreket. Nyugodt élet járt volna neki egy szabályszerű amerikai lány oldalán, aki tagja a Könyvbarátok Klubjának. De mert fiatal volt, hiszékeny és tudatlan, mindenfélébe belekeveredett. Saigonba ment, mert azt mondták neki, hogy vegye fel a harcot a militarista bajkeverőkkel, diktátorokkal, s nyerje meg a Távol-Keletet a demokráciának. Halálában magányos ellenálló maradt, de tisztasága, bátorsága, a szabadságot és a többi embert kereső személyisége példaként áll mindenféle elnyomással és háborús uszítással szemben.

Dinah Jefferies - The ​Sapphire Widow
A ​sweeping, breath-taking story of love and betrayal from the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of The Tea Planter's Wife Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child. While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation, overlooking the Indian ocean. After his sudden death, Louisa is left alone to solve the mystery he left behind. Revisiting the plantation at Cinnamon Hills, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn towards the owner Leo, a rugged outdoors man with a chequered past. The plantation casts a spell, but all is not as it seems. And when Elliot's shocking betrayal is revealed, Louisa has only Leo to turn to...

Dinah Jefferies - Il ​silenzio della pioggia d'estate / Il segreto del mercante di zaffiri / La sorella perduta
India, ​1930. Dopo la morte del marito, Eliza si sente persa. A tenerle compagnia c’è soltanto la sua macchina fotografica. La solitudine viene un giorno interrotta da una chiamata e da un incarico inaspettato: il Governo britannico ha deciso di inviarla in un ricchissimo stato indiano per fotografare la famiglia reale. Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve, figlia di un agiato mercante di gemme, ha tutto quello che una donna potrebbe desiderare. Ma non riesce a dare un erede al marito. Quel figlio che non arriva diventa un’ossessione e inizia a gettare ombre sul suo matrimonio, in cui niente è come sembra. Birmania, 1930. Belle Hatton si è imbarcata verso una nuova eccitante avventura lontano da casa. Si esibirà con la sua splendida voce in un hotel dove la attendono notti scintillanti e sofisticati ammiratori. La sua vita sarebbe perfetta, se l’ossessione per un mistero del passato non continuasse a tormentarla…

Philippa Gregory - The ​Other Boleyn Girl
Mary ​Boleyn catches the eye of Henry VIII when she is a girl of just fourteen. But her joy is cut short when she discovers that she is a pawn in her family's plots. When the capricious king's interest warnes, Mary is ordered to pass on her knowledge of how to please him to her friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Anne soon becomes irresistible to Henry, and Mary must resign herself to being the other Boleyn girl. But beyond the court is a man who dares to challenge the power of her family to offer Mary a life of freedom and passion. If only she has the courage to break away - before the Boleyn enemies turn on the Boleyn girls... (Harper, 2011)

Alison Weir - Anne ​Boleyn
Anne ​Boleyn: A King's Obsession by bestselling historian Alison Weir, author of Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen, is the second captivating novel in the Six Tudor Queens series. An unforgettable portrait of the ambitious woman whose fate we know all too well, but whose true motivations may surprise you. Essential reading for fans of Philippa Gregory and Elizabeth Chadwick. 'Weir is excellent on the little details that bring a world to life' Guardian The young woman who changed the course of history. Fresh from the palaces of Burgundy and France, Anne draws attention at the English court, embracing the play of courtly love. But when the King commands, nothing is ever a game. Anne has a spirit worthy of a crown - and the crown is what she seeks. At any price. ANNE BOLEYN. The second of Henry's Queens. Her story. History tells us why she died. This powerful novel shows her as she lived.

Sebastian Faulks - Where ​My Heart Used to Beat
On ​a small island off the south coast of France, Robert Hendricks – an English doctor who has seen the best and the worst the twentieth century had to offer – is forced to confront the events that made up his life. His host is Alexander Pereira, a man who seems to know more about his guest than Hendricks himself does. The search for the past takes us through the war in Italy in 1944, a passionate love that seems to hold out hope, the great days of idealistic work in the 1960s and finally – unforgettably – back into the trenches of the Western Front. This moving novel casts a long, baleful light over the century we have left behind but may never fully understand. Daring, ambitious and in the end profoundly moving, this is Faulks’s most remarkable book yet.