Vintage

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first century America gives full rei...

Did you know that the Japanese have a word to express the way sunlight filters through the leaves of trees? Or that there's a Swedish word that means a traveller's particular sense of anticipation before a trip?

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus shows us where we're going. War is obsolete. You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict. Famine is disappearing. You are at more risk of obesity than starvation. Death is just a technical problem. Equality is out - but immortality is in. What does our future hold? Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling p...

In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and on his writing. Equal parts travelogue, training log, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005...

The Worldwide Bestseller If you're lost, they'll find you...Evie Boyd is fourteen and desperate to be noticed. It's the summer of 1969 and restless, empty days stretch ahead of her. Until she sees them.

Norwegian Wood stands with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as one of Haruki Muarakami’s best and most popular works. As usual, it deals with the world around us with a sense of melancholy, charm, loss- all weaved through with his irrepressible wit, managing to make the more whimsical aspects of his work seems normal.

Flying out of India, a light aircraft is hijacked and flown into the high Tibetan Himalayas. The few passengers on board anxiously await their fate, among them Conway, a talented British consul. But on landing they are unexpectedly conducted to a remote valley, a legendary paradise of peace and beauty, known as Shangri-La. Have they been kidnapped? Can they leave? And do they even want to? From the author o...

The Danes are the happiest people in the world, and pay the highest taxes. 'Neutral' Sweden is one of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world. Finns have the largest per capita gun ownership after the US and Yemen. 54% of Icelanders believe in elves. Norway is the richest country on earth. 5 % of Danish men have had sex with an animal.

"Bill Bryson on two wheels". (Independent). Scaling a new peak of rash over-ambition, Tim Moore tackles the 9,000km route of the old Iron Curtain on a tiny-wheeled, two-geared East German shopping bike. Asking for trouble and getting it, he sets off at the Arctic winter's brutal height, bullying his plucky MIFA 900 through the endless and massively sub-zero desolation of snowbound Finland. Haunted throughou...

Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home – a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse – but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb.

From the bestselling author of Italian Neighbours, An Italian Education and A Season with Verona In Italian Ways, bestselling writer Tim Parks brings us a fresh portrait of Italy today through a wry account of his train journeys around the country.

Tony Anderson set out in the summer of 1998 to walk through Georgia. He wanted particularly to visit the Georgian mountain tribes - Tush, Khevsurs, Ratchuelians and Svans - to discover if they shared a common mountain culture, and to test the old idea of the Caucasus as an impenetrable barrier from sea to sea.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Thwaites Wainwright Prize - Richard Askwith wanted more. Not convinced running had to be all about pounding pavements, buying fancy kit and racking up extreme challenges, he looked for ways to liberate himself. His solution: running through muddy fields and up rocky fells, running with his dog at dawn, running because he's being (voluntarily) chased by a pack of bloodhounds, running...

"I find writing novels a challenge, writing stories a joy. If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden."

When powerful real-estate tycoon Nero Golden immigrates to the States under mysterious circumstances, he and his three adult children assume new identities, taking 'Roman' names, and move into a grand mansion in downtown Manhattan. Arriving shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama, he and his sons, each extraordinary in his own right, quickly establish themselves at the apex of New York society.

This book includes a quirkily illustrated, brilliantly risque, but thoroughly practical, guide to the peculiarities of one of the trickiest languages on earth, for (strictly adult) students of English as a foreign language and native speakers alike.

The author considers the possibility that the Basques may be one of the oldest people in Europe. Whether or not this is so there is no doubt that the region has always been strongly independent. In this book Mark Kurlansky uses and interesting mixture of reportage, photographs, anecdote and recipes to examines the history of the Basque region and the role of the Basque people in European and World history.

Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it. Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived.

A book of unabashedly British baking by London's foremost bakers The Fluffy Vanilla Fairy Cakes with Chocolate Fudge Icing take you straight back to childhood. Retro throwbacks like Fig Rolls and Jammy Dodgers are perfect for elevenses. And traditional teatime treats like Victoria Sponge and Treacle Tarts are given a mouth-watering modern makeover. With over 120 recipes, British Baking is a must-have.

Think back to when you first flew. When you first left the Earth, and travelled high and fast above its turning arc. When you looked down on a new world, captured simply and perfectly through a window fringed with ice.