Penguin Group

Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured man on a psychiatric prison ward. The patient has specifically asked for her, and when he begins to talk, his story turns out to be one of most bizarre she has ever heard. Cornwell is the author of fifteen Scarpetta novels, four non-Scarpettas, and PORTRAIT OF A KILLER.

The most curious, funny, insightful, and expressive invectives from more than forty languages — fully illustrated, you miserable misokakku.

Hero Jarvis, reform-minded daughter of the Prince Regent's cousin, enlists Sebastian St. Cyr's help in investigating the brutal murders of eight prostitutes by a killer whose ominous plot threatens to shake the nation to its very core.

This is Bulgakov's surreal tale of a Moscow doctor who befriends a stray dog and performs on it a human transplant — with disastrous consequences.

'As good as anything he has written... one of Self's grisliest creations. There is no contemporary writer of fiction more perceptive about psychosis' — «Financial Times». 'Self's enjoyable, intelligent collection of savage stories is splendidly satiric. The title story is a brilliant novella that tells of dueling psychiatrists who use mental patients as weapons. You laugh, but you also flinch' — «Scotsman». 'A destabilizing, funny, abundantly Gothic tour de force' — «Guardian».

Leonard Mlodinow reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting, winning the lottery to road safety, and reveals the truth about the success of sporting heroes and film stars, and even how to make sense of a blood test. «The Drunkard's Walk» is an exhilarating, eye-opening guide to understanding our random world — read it, so you won't be left a victim of chance.

Presents a story of endurance, as one man — plucked from his normal, everyday life — is forced to reach deep inside himself to survive life in one of the bleakest outposts in the world: Russia's vast and unforgiving 'forgotten zone'.

The English Roses are in a tizzy over the gift exchange at school, especially Charlotte. Certain she'll get something fabulous, she can't hide her dismay at ending up with a dumpy pot holder. And after receiving her Secret Santa, the nerdy Jeanette Jones runs off in tears — can the English Roses help Charlotte grasp the true meaning of Christmas?

Distinguished by Smith's trademark ability to unearth flashes of truth and depth in the everyday, «The First Person and Other Stories» sparkles with warmth and humanity. In one story, a middle-aged woman conducts a poignant conversation with her fourteen-year-old self. In another, an innocent supermarket shopper finds in her trolley a foul-mouthed, insulting, yet beautiful child. And in a third story that challenges the boundaries between fiction and reality, the narrator, 'Ali', drinks tea, phones a friend, and muses on the surprising similarities between a short story and a nymph... Fans of Ali Smith will be delighted, amused and moved by these stories from a writer at the very top of her game.

This book is very close to my heart. It's about no-nonsense, simple cooking with great flavours all year round. When I began writing it, I didn't really know what recipes I would come up with, but something began to inspire me very quickly... my vegetable patch! I came to realise last year that it's not always about looking out at the wider world for inspiration. Being at home, feeling relaxed and open, can also offer this. I love to spend time at home in the village where I grew up, working with the boss, Mother Nature, in my garden and seeing all my beautiful veggies coming out of the ground. Inside, you'll find over 100 new recipes, plus some basic planting information and tips if you fancy having a go at getting your hands dirty as well!

Jamie will try real American food and meet the most interesting cooks and producers that this vast country has to offer. His epic journey will take him to the heart of America: its people, culture, music and, most importantly, its food. Along the way Jamie will be getting his hands dirty — meeting hunters, cowboys, fishermen and local producers — as he finds out about the best (and strangest) ingredients on offer. He won't just be sampling, he'll be getting involved: entering a gumbo 'throw-down' in Louisiana, fishing in California and sampling bison in Montana as he joins life on a ranch. As well as being a visually stunning journey, «Jamie's America» is a practical cookbook, with each chapter focusing on the food and recipes of a different state. And the food will be as varied as the landscapes — from spicy Mexican in the desert to freshly caught Alaskan salmon. With 120 brand new recipes, and Jamie's diary narrative running alongside, this will be a celebratory cookbook of a country with a wide food heritage.

Love stories are not always about hearts and flowers. In this deliciously different celebration of love, romance is all about having a good row (and not always having to say you're sorry). From trivial everyday quarrels, such as a dispute over a bride's new hat in Dorothy Parker's 'Here We Are' and an argument about whether to close the screen door in Lydia Davis's 'Disagreement', to more serious arguments where the truth is in doubt, such in Raymond Carver's 'Intimacy', relationships of every kind — devoted, comfortable, passionate, intimate, bad-tempered — are here.

A portrayal of egos, appetites and addictions. It presents an examination of lives out of control and beyond saving by the pre-eminent chronicler of our neuroses and our times.

Fern is glaring thirty in the face and can't ignore the love lies any longer. Life with Adam was amazing once — although these days swinging from the chandeliers means DIY not SEX. She believes a romantic wedding should be the next step but Adam just won't go down on one knee.

When the author of The Hayseed Chronicles, Arthur Hayman, is mown down by a concrete truck in Soho, his legacy passes to his widow, Martha, and her children — the fragile Rachel, and Luke, reluctantly immortalised as Luke Hayseed, the central character of his father's books. But others want their share, particularly Laurie.

Professor Timofey Pnin, previously of Tsarist Russia, is now precariously positioned at the heart of campus America. Battling with American life and language, Pnin must face great hazards in this new world.

The Queen of Spades, one of his most popular and chilling short stories, tells of an inveterate card player who develops a dangerous obsession with the secret of an old lady's luck, which he believes will bring him the wealth he craves. The Negro of Peter the Great, a story based on the life Pushkin's own great-grandfather, is a vivid depiction — and criticism — of both French and Russian society, while Dubrovsky is the Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer. The Captain's Daughter tells of a young man sent to military service — based on the actual events of the rebellion against Catherine II, it demonstrates Pushkin's unparalleled skill at blending fiction and history. Together these four stories display the versatility and innovation that earned Pushkin his reputation as a master of prose and established him as the towering figure in Russian literature.

The «New York Times» — bestselling author of «Just Listen» explores the heart of a gutsy, complex girl dealing with unforeseen circumstances and learning to trust again.

»It's shocking and sinful, and I couldn't put it down!» — Joan Rivers. The strange, startling, and utterly fascinating stories behind the world's most notorious celebrity deaths. Was Jayne Mansfield really decapitated? Which manly appendage of Napoleon's was cut off during his autopsy? (And where did it go?) What went to the grave (literally) with River Phoenix, Frank Sinatra, and Princess Diana? Death is fascinating. Just think about the last time you slowed down as you passed the scene of a car accident. When a public figure bites the dust, the curiosity only increases. From Attila the Hun to Marie Antoinette, from Heath Ledger to Anna Nicole Smith, the deaths of the rich and famous spark endless speculation and tabloid fodder. Their lives — and deaths — are grave matters.

In Joe and Kate Keller's family garden, an apple tree — a memorial to their son Larry, lost in the Second World War — has been torn down by a storm. But his loss is not the only part of the family's past they can't put behind them. Not everybody's forgotten the court case that put Joe's partner in jail, or the cracked engine heads his factory produced which caused it and dropped twenty-one pilots out of the sky!

What makes a house a home? For Eve Gallagher, home is miles away in England since she and her husband relocated to an apartment building on New York's Upper East Side. And life isn't remotely coming up roses. What makes a neighbour a friend? Violet has lived in the building for decades but she's always kept herself apart.

Quentin Blake is one of the best loved of children's illustrators. This book selects and illustrates his favourite comic verse. His unique style of drawing brings a fresh perspective to each poem. It combines classic writers such as Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear with more contemporary talents such as Roger McGough, Margaret Mahy and Russell Hoban.

Written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa — one of Japan's foremost stylists and a modernist master whose short stories are marked by imagery, cynicism, beauty, and wild humour. His other works include: Rashomon; In a Bamboo Grove; The Nose; O-Gin; Loyalty; Death Register; The Life of a Stupid Man; and Spinning Gears.

Resurrection (1899) tells the story of a nobleman's attempt to redeem the suffering his youthful philandering inflicted on a peasant girl who ends up a prisoner in Siberia. Tolstoy's vision of redemption achieved through loving forgiveness, and his condemnation of violence, dominate the novel. An intimate, psychological tale of guilt, anger and forgiveness, Resurrection is at the same time a panoramic description of social life in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, reflecting its author's outrage at the social injustices of the world in which he lived.