Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

From the day he was crowned, Henry V was determined to prove the legitimacy of his house. His father's usurpation weighed heavily on his mind, and he needed a grand gesture to capture the respect of his own countrymen and the rest of Europe. What better way than to follow in his great-grandfather Edward III's footsteps, and recover the territory lost in France over the previous fifty years? Better yet, why not go for the crown? Poor, deranged Charles VI couldn't manage his own barons.

It’s 1947 when Sister Mary Agnes arrives in New Mexico. Her mission is to establish a monastery in the town of Roswell, where weeks before rumors of the crash landing of an unidentified craft have triggered a crisis of faith. Residents are drifting away from the divine, awed no longer by the heavens but rather the stars.

Brought to you by Penguin. An Immediate Bestseller | A Bloomberg Best Book of 2025 When the Ritz becomes the Nazis’ favourite spot, its Jewish bartender has no choice but to keep working. Paris, 1940. Despite the Occupation, the prestigious Ritz Hotel has managed to remain open. Its bar...

Bo ha ottantanove anni ed è arrabbiato con il suo corpo che non obbedisce più, con le sue braccia un tempo forti che ora non riescono a fare più nulla. Ma, soprattutto, Bo è arrabbiato con Hans che vuole portargli via Sixten, il suo cane, perché si è convinto che un quasi novantenne non sia in grado di prendersene cura. Delicato e potente, questo ritratto dell'ultima età della vita, protagonista invisibile della ma nostra epoca, è un romanzo sovversivo che ci riguarda tutti.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Touch of Love by Jonathan Coe, read by Peter Caulfield. Robin, a postgrad student in Coventry, has spent four and a half years not writing his thesis. He and his academic colleagues, united by pallor, social ineptitude and sexual inexperience, once...

One of the foremost writers of her generation explores the strength and pain of being young As winter approaches in Norway and the daylight dwindles, a chance encounter prompts a novelist to reexamine her past. The seismic events following her sixteenth birthday return with haunting vividness...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK “Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded.”—The New York Times Book Review “A marvelous fiction about the power of...

Nach dem Tod ihrer Mutter verliert die Schauspielerin Nina ihre Stimme. Das Schweigen ihrer Mutter schnürt ihr die Luft ab. Zu viele Fragen sind noch offengeblieben: Was hat Irma so erschüttert, dass sie der ältesten Tochter nie die ersehnte Wärme geben konnte? Was geschah damals, in jenem...

In a small modern day little village of Ingleton, the family of Wilsons have always had a reputation. Living in a huge manor overlooking the town full of history, they are also well known for being a family of witches, reaching back to the 1600s. When a thick fog lays over the village and begins to spread across the neighbouring towns and cities, bringing the undead and spirits of the underworlds with it, it is up to the Wilson witches.

'Inventive, intimate, often devastating . . . packs a heavy emotional punch, producing a deeply affecting account of power and connection and its ability to entrap us, even in love' Irish Times 'Smart, formally playful, and psychologically astute, Rousseau's Lost Children is a novel of ideas...

2,300 years ago an unbeaten army of the West invaded the homeland of a fierce Eastern tribal foe. This is one soldier’s story . . . The bestselling novelist of ancient warfare returns with a riveting historical novel that re-creates Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in...

Brought to you by Penguin. The heartbreaking Japanese classic telling the story of two orphans fighting for survival at the end of World War Two, published in English for the first time In the dying days of the War, Seita and Setsuko must fend for themselves. Firebombs have obliterated their...

Alle meine Mütter erzählt von dieser besonderen, oft lebenslang komplexen Beziehung und ihren Facetten, erzählt davon, welche Mütter wir selbst zu sein versuchen, wie wir scheitern, zweifeln, stolpern, welche Ängste uns begleiten, was uns bindet und prägt, aber auch, was uns abhält, was es heißt, ungewollt Mutter oder nicht Mutter zu sein, ein Kind anzunehmen, zu verlieren oder nicht loslassen zu können. Eine feinfühlige Erkundung der wohl prägendsten Beziehung unseres Lebens, der zu unseren Müttern. Ein bewegend aufrichtiger Roman. Dieses Hörbuch geht alle an.

Una de las mas amargas creaciones de Dostoyevsky, El Jugador es una novela autobiografica que describe tristes experiencias que tuvo el gran escritor. Los protagonistas son todos fanaticos del juego, en este ganan, pierden y ponen todas sus esperanzas, no tanto por la ganancia economica sino por la emocion.

Brought to you by Penguin. 'Linn Ullmann has written something of beauty and solace and truth. I don't know how she managed to sail across such dangerous waters' RACHEL CUSK He is a renowned Swedish filmmaker and has a plan for everything. She is his daughter, by the actress he directed and once...

18th century, Scotland. Jacobite sympathies stir powerful emotions, especially in a titled young man with little to occupy him. But strong-willed Lady Winifred Nithsdale has already seen her mother, father, and brother imprisoned for their support of England's Catholic king. While she wants to be loyal, Winifred tries to protect her husband from imprisonment, or worse, the scaffold. But will she escape with her own life intact?

This is a story of philosophy, identity, and the powerful grip of travel, written by an iconic American author at the height of his fame, after spending ten days in France searching for his French heritage. Was the satori handed to him by a taxi driver, a waiter, a monsieur with a dazzlingly beautiful secretary, or while feeling fearful in the foggy streets at 3:00 a.m.?  Or was it when hearing a requiem by Mozart in an old church, seeing trees in the Tuileries Garden, or while walking on a bridge over the River Seine?

In time for the 250th Anniversary of the birth of the United States comes a sweeping, intimate portrayal of Abigail Adams—wife of one president and mother to another—whose wit, willpower, and wisdom helped shape the fledgling republic. A stunning historical novel with modern-day implications...

It is 1948, and post-war Britain is on her knees. The call has gone out to the British Empire for volunteers to help rebuild the Mother Country, and young men and women from across the Caribbean have been quick to respond, paying the considerable sum of £28.10s to board HMT Empire Windrush. As five hundred disparate passengers begin the two-week voyage, it becomes clear that their lives will never be the same again.

Exploring themes of ownership and abandonment, Eleanor Anstruther’s debut is a fictionalised account of the true story of Enid Campbell (1892-1964), granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll, who sold her son to her sister for £500. Interweaving one significant day in 1964 with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition, to fight, to lose, to fight again. In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains, only people misunderstood.