Showing results by narrator "Peter Noble" in All Categories

Jeremiah Salinger blames himself. The crash was his fault. He was the only survivor. Now only his daughter, Clara, can put a smile on his face. The depression and the nightmares are closing in. But when he takes Clara to the Bletterbach - a canyon in the Dolomites rich in fossil remains - he overhears by chance a conversation that gives his life renewed focus.

One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Kite-Runner in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. On the third day of Ramadan, the village wakes to find the severed heads of nine of its sons stacked in banana crates by the bus stop. One of them belonged to one of the most wanted men in Iraq, known to his friends as Ibrahim the Fated. How did this good and humble man earn the enmity of so many? What did he do to deserve such a death?

Why do we keep sheep? Alex Lindén ruminates as he watches his sheep ruminating. Naive and inexperienced, he has ditched his doctoral studies in order to move to a fully working farm in the country with his family, where he is tasked with the responsibility of caring for a herd of sheep. Lindén records his new life in his diary as he tries to manage life on the farm, the ever-escaping sheep and the trials and tribulations that come with being a shepherd - shearing, lambing and confronting the slaughterhouse. 

In the 17th century, a wall is built around the deer park of a great house. Wychwood is a world in itself, its ornamental lakes and majestic avenues planned by Mr Norris, a master of the new art of landscaping. A world where, after decades of civil war, everyone has something to hide or something to fear, where dissidents hide in the forest and Londoners fleeing the plague are at the gate.

Brian Aldiss has announced that this book, Finches of Mars, will be his final science fiction novel. And what a way to end one of the most illustrious careers in the genre. Set on the Red Planet, it follows a group of colonists and the problems they have in setting up a new society. Life can be sustained, but new life will not prosper - the women on the planet only ever give birth to stillborn children. Exploring many of the author’s classic themes, this is a landmark novel in any genre.

It's a few days before Christmas in Versailles. Olivier has come to bury his mother, but the impending holidays and icy conditions have delayed the funeral. While trapped in limbo at his mother's flat, a chance encounter brings Olivier back in touch with childhood friend Jeanne and her blind brother, Rodolphe. Rodolphe suggests they have dinner together, along with a homeless man he's taken in. As the wine flows, dark secrets are spilled, and there's more than just hangovers to deal with the next morning...

Chris Burwell charts one man's career in aviation from joining the RAF in 1969 aged eighteen, to having responsibility for training pilots for the world's major airlines nearly fifty years later. After training at RAF Cranwell and RAF Valley and a tour as a flying instructor on Jet Provosts, he joined the Harrier Force, flying on front-line squadrons in the United Kingdom and Germany during the Cold War and as an instructor on the Harrier Conversion Unit.

After that summer in Kabul province, the young freelancer became a staff reporter for The Times of London, covering conflicts in Northern Ireland, the Gulf, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Balkans, but Afghanistan never let him go. Death of a Translator is a searingly honest description of a mind haunted and eventually paralysed by the terror of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Who does Andrew Clayton turn to when his wife has been murdered, his child is in danger, and the police think he is responsible? Despite his mistrust of Clayton, Joe Hunter accepts the job of protecting young Cole. But who is he protecting the boy from? And why? It's clear Clayton knows more about his wife's killer, but he isn't saying. And when his silence places Cole in the killer's sights, there's...No Safe Place.

South Africa, 1987. Apartheid. When Leon, a white 19-year-old prison guard working on death row, commits an inexplicable act of violence, killing seven black men in a hail of bullets, the outcome of the trial - and the court's sentence - seems a foregone conclusion. Hotshot lawyer John Weber reluctantly takes on the seemingly unwinnable case. A passionate opponent of the death penalty, John discovers that young Leon worked on death row in the nation's most notorious prison, under traumatic conditions....

Father and son Landyn and Vale Midwinter are men of the land: Suffolk farmers. Times are hard as they struggle to sustain their property, livelihood and heritage in the face of competition from big business. But an even bigger, more brutal fight is brewing: a fight between each other about the horrible death of Cecelia, beloved wife and mother, in Zambia 10 years earlier. A past they have both refused to confront - until now.

A chilling psychological thriller about family - the ties that bind us and the lies that destroy us. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl. You find your neighbour dead in his bath. Your son is with you. He sees everything. You discover your wife has been in the man's house. It seems she knew him. Now the police need to speak to you. One night turns Alex Mercer's life upside down. He loves his family, and he wants to protect them, but there is too much he doesn't know.

I’m lying here in a bed, my head full of regret, with only a little bird flitting through a tree to comfort me. Friends want to visit, but I refuse them. So my carer, Sheila, has given me a task to keep me occupied. An A to Z list. Think of a part of my body for each letter. Tell a little tale about it. When I reach H for heart, what will I say? How we loved to string crocheted hearts in trees? How our hearts steadily unravelled? So I begin with A. Adam’s apple. Will you be there to catch me when I fall?

In 2012 Lenerd Louw is living the high life on Millionaires' Row in Clifton beach, Cape Town. The successful CEO of an insurance company and part-time playboy, he appears to have it all - gorgeous women, threesomes, ecstasy and cocaine on demand. But something doesn't feel right. He tries to drown a deep inner voice urging him to change his career, life - everything - by partying harder. By the end of December 2012, a massive shift occurs. He resigns as CEO, sells all his worldly possessions, and books a one-way ticket to Lima, Peru.

April 1865. Having been an eyewitness to the assassination of President Lincoln, Matthew Grand, a former captain of the 3rd Cavalry of the Potomac, has come to London on an undercover assignment to hunt down the assassin's coconspirators. Ambitious young journalist Jim Batchelor has been charged with writing a feature article on the visiting American. Both men are distracted from their missions by the discovery of a body in London's Soho district.

India is in transition. Since the publication of Culture Smart's first guide to India in 2003, the nation has been transformed from a developing third-world country into the world's fastest growing economy. This completely new and up-to-date volume by American author Becky Stephen is unrivalled.

Australia is different - a vast island continent with distances so great that the capital of Western Australia is closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney. The landscape embraces magnificent tropical rainforests and deserts the size of several European states; temperate areas that sustain a flourishing wine industry, making Australia the world's fourth largest wine exporter; and a 16,000-mile coastline of breathtaking beaches. Plus its unique fauna is testament to the country's down-underness.

When Vince Treadwell spots a famous jewel thief in Soho one night, and the next day reads about a daring robbery at the Ritz, he takes it upon himself to investigate the case, as the missing jewels belong to the beautiful French movie star Capucine, with whom Vince is smitten. But it soon leads to murder - and he is the chief suspect...

Former MP Francis Morahan swore never to return to politics. But when he’s asked to chair a government inquiry into the intelligence agencies’ record against terror, it’s clear that it’s an order from the top - not a request. Sara Shah once teetered on the edge of a dangerous circle. Now a lawyer in a prestigious London firm, she’s put her past behind her. Until a letter delivered by hand summons her to join the Morahan Inquiry. Duty-bound, Sara accepts.

Charlie, a curious boy with a dangerous Dictaphone habit, eavesdrops on the eccentric guests of the Mirage Hotel as the African nation of Bwalo prepares for the annual appearance of its Glorious Leader Tafumo. Sean, an Irishman who's given his heart (and the best part of his liver) to Bwalo, struggles to write the great African novel - if only his crazed fiancée and fierce thirst would stop distracting him.