Random House Inc.

A wonderfully rich and vibrant novel that tells the story of one of Russia's post-Communist Oligarchs and the two women who marry him, from impoverished boyhood, through unimaginable power and wealth, to the moment when he finally overreaches himself.

A glorious historical novel based on the 17th century life of Eleanor Glanville who was destined to become one of the most famous entomologists in history. But not before she had endured a life of extraordinary vicissitude: two marriages and an all-consuming love which would prove her undoing.

It is Midwinter's Eve, the night before Will's eleventh birthday. But there is an atmosphere of fear in the familiar countryside around him. Will is about to make a shocking discovery — that he is the last person to be born with the power of the Old Ones, and as a guardian of the Light he must begin a dangerous journey to vanquish the terrifyingly evil magic of the Dark.

In their desperate quest to find the grail, stolen by the forces of the Dark, the Drew children have returned to Trewissick. One night, in a strange ceremony, Jane watches the village women construct the Greenwitch: an ancient offering to the sea. Overcome by the Greenwitch's power, Jane makes a perilous wish — one that will tip the balance in the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future — between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death? Carrie Ryan lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE The first full account of how the Cold War arms race finally came to a close, this riveting narrative history sheds new light on the people who struggled to end this era of massive overkill, and examines the legacy of the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that remain a threat today. Drawing on memoirs, interviews in both Russia and the US, and classified documents from deep inside the Kremlin, David E. Hoffman examines the inner motives and secret decisions of each side and details the deadly stockpiles that remained unsecured as the Soviet Union collapsed. This is the fascinating story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and a previously unheralded collection of scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies changed the course of history.

Out on a hunting trip, Arthur kills a unicorn. Merlin rushes to the animal's side, obviously upset, as the knights cheer Arthur for killing this most highly-prized of beasts. But, it seems that by killing the magical creature Arthur has cursed Camelot and until he makes amends for his actions the great city will be damned. Could this be the end of Camelot and her people?

Gwen is mistaken for Morgana and kidnapped by the savage outlaw Hengist. Uther refuses to pay her ransom so Arthur defies his father, heading out into dangerous enemy territory to fight for Gwen's freedom. Merlin suspects Arthur's devotion to Gwen is more than just that of a prince to one of his subjects. But how will Arthur react when he finds Gwen is not alone in Hengist's castle? She and Lancelot have found each other again, and powerful feelings have been rekindled...

This is a spellbinding, action-packed book covering three exciting episodes of the hit TV show! The powerful enchantress Morgause arrives in Camelot, set on destroying the bond between Uther and his son. She tells Arthur the tragic tale behind his mother's death, but against his better judgement, Merlin decides to deny her story, thwarting her plans and preventing a fierce civil war — for now. But Morgause is not so easily defeated. She revives the seven deadly Knights of Medhir, once-powerful warriors enchanted by an evil magic. Arthur and Merlin ride out to face the Knights, and barely escape with their lives. Returning to Camelot, they find everyone in a deep, impenetrable sleep — everyone but Morgana. She's terrified and confused, but Merlin is suspicious. Desperate for a cure, Merlin is forced to beg for the Great Dragon's help, but it comes at a price: the Dragon demands his freedom. Now Morgana has vanished and the Dragon is free to unleash a vicious attack on Camelot. Merlin is gripped with guilt. But Gaius reveals that one man may be able to help — the last Dragonlord, who hasn't been seen for many years. Arthur and Merlin set out to find him, and Merlin is about to make a shocking discovery about the mysterious Balinor — one which will lead him into battle against the Dragon himself.

This the official guide contains facts and profiles from the hit TV show. Enter the magical world of Merlin! In a land of myth and a time of magic the world is in need of heroes. Meet the brave champions of Camelot in this official guide. Filled with tales of bravery, fascinating facts and fun activities this is the must-have guide for all Merlin fans.

This the official guide contains facts and profiles from the hit TV show. In a land of myth and a time of magic there is a constant battle to maintain the balance of the world. Evil forces are at work to destabilize the kingdom. Meet the villains out to destroy Camelot in this official guide. Filled with tales of dreadful deeds, fascinating facts and fun activities this is the must-have guide for all Merlin fans.

The son of one of New York's wealthiest families is snatched off the street and held hostage. His parents can't save him, because this kidnapper isn't demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury. In this exam, wrong answers are fatal. Detective Michael Bennett leads the investigation. With ten kids of his own, he can't begin to understand what could lead someone to target anyone's children. As another student disappears, one powerful family after another uses their leverage and connections to turn up the heat on the mayor, the press, anyone who will listen, to stop this killer. Their reach extends all the way to the FBI, who send their top Abduction Specialist, Agent Emily Parker. Bennett's work life — and love life — suddenly get even more complicated. Before Bennett has a chance to protest the FBI's intrusion on his case, the mastermind changes his routine. His plan leads up to the most deadly demonstration yet — one that could bring cataclysmic devastation to every inch of New York.

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire — to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.

Why are readers so fascinated by Jane Austen's novels? In essays culled from the last 100 years of criticism, great authors and literary critics of the past and present offer insights into her writing and her unique appeal to readers across generations.

With the insight, humor, and compassion we have come to expect from her, Maeve Binchy tells a story of family, friends, patients, and staff who are part of a heart clinic in a community caught between the old and the new Ireland. Dr. Clara Casey has been offered the thankless job of establishing the underfunded clinic and agrees to take it on for a year. She has plenty on her plate already — two difficult adult daughters and the unwanted attentions of her ex-husband — but she assembles a wonderfully diverse staff devoted to helping their demanding, often difficult patients. Before long the clinic is established as an essential part of the community, and Clara must decide whether or not to leave a place where lives are saved, courage is rewarded, and humor and optimism triumph over greed and self-pity. Heart and Soul is Maeve Binchy at her storytelling best.

The Empire has been toppled by the triumphant Rebel Alliance. But the struggle against the dark side and the Sith Order is not over. Powerful remnants of the vanquished Empire, hungry for retaliation, are still at large, and it's up to Luke and his comrades to stop.

As darkness falls each night, demons surface from the ground. They possess supernatural strength and burn with a hatred of humanity. Three young survivors of vicious demon attacks dare to risk everything in a desperate quest to regain the secrets of the past.

In a spellbinding blend of suspense and human drama, Steel tells a powerful and unusual story of one woman's journey from darkness into light, as she fights to escape a mesmerizing sociopath who holds her in his thrall.

In 'the stifling heat of equatorial Newark', a terrifying epidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey city with maiming, paralysis, life-long disability, even death. This is the startling and surprising theme of Roth's wrenching new book: a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect it has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children. At the centre of Nemesis is a vigorous, dutiful, twenty-three-year old playground director, Bucky Cantor, a javelin thrower and a weightlifter, who is devoted to his charges and disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. Focusing on Cantor's dilemmas as polio begins to ravage his playground — and on the everyday realities he faces — Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: the fear, the panic, the anger, the bewilderment, the suffering, and the pain. Moving between the smouldering, malodorous streets of besieged Newark and Indian Hill, a pristine children's summer camp high in the Poconos — whose 'mountain air was purified of all contaminants' — Roth depicts a decent, energetic man with the best intentions struggling in his own private war against the epidemic. Roth is tenderly exact at every point about Cantor's passage into personal disaster and no less exact about the condition of childhood. Through this story runs the dark question that haunts all four of Roth's late short novels, Everyman, Indignation, The Humbling, and now, Nemesis: what choices fatally shape a life? How powerless is each of us up against the force of circumstances?

Following the massive success of Pride Prejudice and Zombies, and the impressive pre-pub sales of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, we have Quirk Classic 3. Like 1 and 2 the suspense will build as we discover what new monster mayhem will descend upon us this Spring. Certain to create the same buzz and excitement as the previous Quirk Classic titles.

This is a must-have selection of timeless classics, brought gloriously to life by the award-winning Tony Ross. The collection includes favourites such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Henny-Penny, The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs, The Enormous Turnip, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. The stories have been specially selected for their read-aloud qualities. The large type and full colour, integrated illustrations on every page make this a wonderful book to share with even the very youngest child.

Before the smash hit movie Serenity came Firefly, the cult TV series which started it all and became a DVD phenomenon, selling almost half a million copies. Set 500 years in the future, Firefly centres around Mal Reynolds, captain of the ship-for-hire Serenity and its eclectic crew of galactic misfits. When he takes on two passengers, a young doctor and his mysterious, telepathic sister, he gets much more than he bargained for... This third official companion in the much-loved series is packed with unseen photos, costume designs, behind the scenes secrets and much more.

With the release of Avatar in December 2009, James Cameron cements his reputation as king of sci-fi and blockbuster filmmaking. It's a distinction he's long been building, through a directing career that includes such cinematic landmarks as The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, and the highest grossing movie of all time, Titanic. The Futurist is the first in-depth look at every aspect of this audacious creative genius — culminating in an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of Avatar, the movie that promises to utterly transform the way motion pictures are created and perceived. As decisive a break with the past as the transition from silents to talkies, Avatar pushes 3-D, live action, and photo-realistic CGI to a new level. It rips through the emotional barrier of the screen to transport the audience to a fabulous new virtual world. With cooperation from the often reclusive Cameron, author Rebecca Keegan has crafted a singularly revealing portrait of the director's life and work. We meet the young truck driver who sees Star Wars and sets out to learn how to make even better movies himself — starting by taking apart the first 35mm camera he rented to see how it works. We observe the neophyte director deciding over lunch with Arnold Schwarzenegger that the ex-body builder turned actor is wrong in every way for the Terminator role as written, but perfect regardless. After the success of The Terminator, Cameron refines his special-effects wizardry with a big-time Hollywood budget in the creation of the relentlessly exciting Aliens. He builds an immense underwater set for The Abyss in the massive containment vessel of an abandoned nuclear power plant — where he pushes his scuba-breathing cast to and sometimes past their physical and emotional breaking points (including a white rat that Cameron saved from drowning by performing CPR). And on the set of Titanic, the director struggles to stay in charge when someone maliciously spikes craft services' mussel chowder with a massive dose of PCP, rendering most of the cast and crew temporarily psychotic. Now, after his movies have earned over $5 billion at the box office, James Cameron is astounding the world with the most expensive, innovative, and ambitious movie of his career. For decades the moviemaker has been ready to tell the Avatar story but was forced to hold off his ambitions until technology caught up with his vision. Going beyond the technical ingenuity and narrative power that Cameron has long demonstrated, Avatar shatters old cinematic paradigms and ushers in a new era of storytelling.

Ein verwunschener Garten, eine adlige Familie, ein dunkles Geheimnis. Als die junge Australierin Cassandra von ihrer Großmutter ein kleines Cottage an der Küste Cornwalls erbt, ahnt sie nichts von dem unheilvollen Versprechen, das zwei Freundinnen ein Jahrhundert zuvor an jenem Ort einlösten. Auf den Spuren der Vergangenheit entdeckt Cassandra ein Geheimnis, das seinen Anfang in den Gärten von Blackhurst Manor nahm und seit Generationen das Schicksal ihrer Familie bestimmt. Blackhurst Manor, Cornwall, Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts: Nach dem Tod ihrer Eltern wächst Eliza bei ihrem Onkel auf Blackhurst Manor, dem Familienbesitz der Mountrachets, auf. Sie und ihre Cousine Rose werden schnell unzertrennlich. Um der Welt der Erwachsenen zu entfliehen, erkunden sie das geheimnisvolle Anwesen und entdecken einen verborgenen Garten mit einem Cottage — ein Ort, an den sich die fantasievolle Eliza immer wieder zurückziehen kann. Doch als die Mädchen erwachsen werden, zerbricht ihre einstige Freundschaft. Rose verliebt sich in Nathaniel, und als die beiden heiraten, zieht sich Eliza in das Cottage zurück, um sich ganz dem Schreiben von Geschichten zu widmen. So ahnt sie nicht, dass Rose zutiefst unglücklich ist, weil ihre Ehe kinderlos bleibt. In ihrer Verzweiflung bittet sie Eliza um Hilfe. Ein unheilvoller Plan wird in die Tat umgesetzt und bestimmt fortan das Schicksal der nachfolgenden Generationen.