Random House Inc.

Mikael Blomkvist recherchiert in einem besonders brisanten. Fall von Mädchenhandel, die Hintermänner bekleiden höchste Regierungsämter. Als sein Informant tot aufgefunden wird, fällt der Verdacht auf Blomkvists Partnerin Lisbeth Salander. Eine mörderische Hetzjagd beginnt. Der neue große Roman des preisgekrönten Bestsellerautors Stieg Larsson.Ein ehrgeiziger junger Journalist bietet Mikael Blomkvist für sein Magazin «Millennium» eine Story an, die skandalöser nicht sein könnte. Amts — und Würdenträger der schwedischen Gesellschaft vergehen sich an jungen russischen Frauen, die gewaltsam ins Land geschafft und zur Prostitution gezwungen werden. Als sich Lisbeth Salander in die Recherchen einschaltet, stößt sie auf ein besonders pikantes Detail: Nils Bjurman, ihr ehemaliger Betreuer, scheint in den Mädchenhandel involviert zu sein. Wenig später werden der Journalist und Nils Bjurman tot aufgefunden. Die Tatwaffe trägt Lisbeths Fingerabdrücke. Sie wird an den Pranger gestellt und flüchtet. Nur Mikael Blomkvist glaubt an ihre Unschuld und beginnt, auf eigene Faust zu ermitteln. Seine Nachforschungen führen in Lisbeths Vergangenheit. Eine Vergangenheit, die ihn bald das Fürchten lehrt.»Blomkvist und Salander — ein Ermittler-Dreamteam.»WDR»Stieg Larssons Romane sind so mitreißend, dass sie eine Gefahr für das öffentliche Leben darstellen. Lesende Menschen werden Fußgängerzonen und Parks besetzen, die Arbeitswelt wird lahmgelegt — alles wegen Larssons Romanen, die man nicht aus der Hand legen kann.»Bild am Sonntag»Selten hat es in skandinavischer Krimiliteratur eine so originelle, widersprüchliche und packende Hauptfigur gegeben wie die gegen den Strich lebende Lisbeth Salander. «Hamburger Abendblatt.

Uncle Fred is one of the hottest earls that ever donned a coronet. Or as he crisply said, 'There are no limits, literally none, to what I can achieve in the springtime.' Even so, his gifts are stretched to the limit when he is urged by Lord Emsworth to save his prize pig, the Empress of Blandings, from the enforced slimming cure of the haughty Duke of Dunstable. Pongo Twistleton knows his debonair but wild uncle shouldn't really be allowed at large — especially when disguised as a brain surgeon. He fears the worst. And his fears are amply justified.

Charles Frieth, pre-eminent composer, conductor and prodigious womaniser, is preparing for a performance of one of his early works, and the world premiere of Demonic Aubade. Obstinate and myopic, he is oblivious to the growing turmoil around him; his wife's poor health and dissatisfaction; the exhausted efforts of his secretary; and, the disquieting diligence of his housekeeper, Maria. As the first performance draws near, the maestro is suddenly awoken to the chaos, and as Charles struggles to regain control of his life, a terrible tragedy begins to unfold. For You is a beautifully wrought and compelling libretto — It is Ian McEwan at his very best.

The narrator, Samson Young, enters the Black Cross, a thoroughly undesirable public house, and finds the main players of his drama assembled, just waiting to begin. It's a gift of a story from real life...all Samson has to do is to write it as it happens. Taking a small pocket of time and a richly diverse part of London, Martin Amis dissects the nature of a society as it hurtles towards the millennium.

Em adores her funny, glamorous dad — who cares if he's not her real father? He's wonderful to her, and to her little brother and sister. True to form at Christmas, Dad gives them fantastic presents, including a real emerald ring for his little Princess Em Unfortunately, he's got another surprise in store — he's leaving them.

When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the hoodlums who have raped his ten-year-old child, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal. But when extremists outside Clanton hear that a black man has killed two white men, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice. Jake Brigance has been hired to defend Hailey. It's the kind of case that can make or break a young lawyer. But in the maelstrom of Clanton, it is also the kind of case that could get a young lawyer killed. 'The best thriller writer alive' — Ken Follett, «Evening Standard». 'Grisham is a natural storyteller' — «Daily Telegraph». 'A giant of the thriller genre' — «Time Out». 'Leaves one eager for more' — «Spectator».

In the spring of 1970, Ralph Steadman went to America in search of work and found more than he bargained for. In Kentucky to cover the Derby, he met a former Hells Angel called Hunter S. Thompson. Their meeting resulted in a working relationship and a friendship that lasted for more than thirty years and spanned the turbulent years of the Civil Rights movement, Nixon and Watergate, and the decay of the American Dream. Few people knew Thompson as well as Ralph Steadman did. In this unique memoir Steadman tells his story for the first time, the story — in words and pictures — of Ralph and Hunter, a great British original on a great American original, Butch and Sundance on acid...

This book features pregnant women, students and journalists; farmers and birdwatchers, ex-wives, adolescent lovers — and dancing girls. All ordinary people or are they? In this collection of short stories, Margaret Atwood maps human motivation we scarcely know we have.

Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D. C. firm with 800 lawyers. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star, with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers, no time to walk around them on the sidewalk, and no time for a conscience. But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant did not. Who was this homeless man? Michael did some digging and learned that he was a mentally ill veteran who'd been in and out of shelters for twenty years. Then, Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney. The fast track derailed; and the ladder collapsed. Michael bolted from the firm, and took a top secret file with him. He landed in the streets, a poverty lawyer, a street lawyer, an advocate for the homeless, and a thief.

When Poppy and her best friend Honey go to Riverside Stables, they fall in love with a gorgeous chesnut pony called Twinkletoes. But poor Twinkletoes is not well, and the girls must help to get him better before they can ride him. But it takes for ever. Will Poppy and Honey ever get to be proper pony princesses?

With a little help from the Cat in the Hat, Sally and Dick observe a small miracle in their own backyard — the metamorphosis of an egg into a caterpillar into a chrysalis into a bright new butterfly Along the way, beginning readers will find out how butterflies see thousands of images at once, drink nectar from flowers, avoid predators, and can be identified by size, shape, and color. Readers will also follow the amazing migration of millions of monarchs.

In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron's home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death — in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man's already broken life... and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grisham's first work of nonfiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence — a book no American can afford to miss.

Annabelle has had many names in her life — Sally, Cindy, Lucille. Every few months she had to pack a single bag, as her father moved the family from city to city, changing names, houses, careers and histories. But Annabelle never knew what they were running from. Now in her thirties, with both parents dead, she's settled in Boston. But old habits die hard and she still looks over her shoulder when she leaves her apartment, still blends in with the crowd on the subway. Then at the Boston State Mental Hospital a multiple grave is discovered. Six young girls were left to die in an underground chamber decades ago, while their captor looked on. When her original name appears in the paper, wrongly identifying her as one of the dead girls, Annabelle finally knows why her father kept running. But the killer is still on the loose. And he's been looking for her for a very long time. Bobby Dodge has been haunted by the Catherine Gagnon case for years. It nearly cost him his job and his sanity. As a child, Catherine was also held prisoner underground, like the victims in this latest case. But Catherine's captor was in prison when these girls were taken. Yet the similarities are too numerous to be just coincidence...

Darkly handsome with an arrogant edge, architectural engineer Scout Ritland is the kind of American man who spells trouble. Chantal duPont should know, for she has experienced the best and worst of the country and its people-including one who broke her heart. Yet here she is, home on sultry Parrish Island, putting herself in the way of another bold Yankee. This time, however, it’s for a good cause: Scout is the one man who can help her village, and she’s not about to let him get the better of her-no matter how much she may want to. Fresh from completing his work on the island’s new luxury resort, Scout’s ready for a little recreation-though being kidnapped and shot isn’t on his agenda. But when he catches sight of an exotic beauty with electric blue eyes, events quickly spin out of control. Scout should be outraged to find himself held captive, but an abductor as alluring as Chantal makes it hard to stay angry. Soon Scout is swept up by Chantal’s need to help her people-and the role he is to play in her ambitious plan. With each passing day, the work and the woman present him with challenges he could never find at home. But as the project progresses, intrigue and adventure burn hotter than the island’s volcano-and two people who have met their match in each other face a future that could tear them apart....

When Margaret Thatcher unexpectedly emerged to challenge Edward Heath for the Conservative leadership in 1975, the public knew her only as the archetypal Home Counties Tory Lady, more famous for her hats than for any outstanding talent. Yes almost overnight she reinvented herself. Journalists who set out to discover where she came from were amazed to find that she had grown up above a grocer's shop in Grantham. Within weeks of her becoming Tory leader an entirely new image was in place, based around the now famous corner shop beside the Great North Road; the strict Methodist upbringing; and her father, who taught her the 'Victorian values' which were the foundations of her subsequent career.

A young woman's dream, an old man's gift, and the surprises that await us behind every closed door... The house on the hill outside San Francisco was magnificent, built in 1923 by a wealthy man for the woman he adored. When Sarah, a perfectly sensible lawyer, walks through its empty rooms, she is drawn to the once-grand mansion in a way she cannot explain — to a drama that first unfolded in war-torn France, and to a history she never knew she had. Using an unexpected legacy, Sarah takes on the dilapidated house and its mysteries. With the help of architect Jeff Parker, Sarah brings the exquisite house back to life, and as one relationship shatters and another begins, she discovers a whole new future. A novel of daring and hope, of embracing life and taking chances...

Much of Russian literature is St. Petersburg literature: set in the city, about the city, or written by writers who lived there. For each of the fifteen profiled writers, there is a biographical sketch focusing on his or her relationship to the city and a sense of his or her work, along with a list of St. Petersburg sites associated with the writer and the literary works. Travelers can wander through the museum where a teenage Vladimir Nabokov romanced his girlfriend and see the prison where Anna Akhmatova was inspired to write her poem about the Great Terror. They can find the statue that comes to life in Pushkin's poem «The Bronze Horseman» and visit the square where «Crime and Punishment»'s murderer/hero kneels to ask God's forgiveness. The images included are particularly striking: a photo taken in the courtroom where the young Joseph Brodsky made his electrifying defense of his credentials as a poet; a portrait of Akhmatova, a symbol of artistic integrity in the face of the most severe persecution; and documentary photographs spanning the upheavals of twentieth century Russia. Authors included are: Anna Akhmatova, Andrei Bely, Aleksandr Blok, Joseph Brodsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Daniil Kharms, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Osip Mandelstam, Vladimir Nabokov, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Mikhail Zoshchenko.

Emotional Intelligence was an international phenomenon, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide. Now, once again, Daniel Goleman has written a groundbreaking synthesis of the latest findings in biology and brain science, revealing that we are ‘wired to connect’ and the surprisingly deep impact of our relationships on every aspect our lives. Far more than we are consciously aware, our daily encounters with parents, spouses, bosses, and even strangers, shape our brains and affect cells throughout our bodies, down to the level of our genes — for good or ill. In Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman explores an emerging new science with startling implications for our interpersonal world. Its most fundamental discovery: we are designed for sociability, constantly engaged in a ‘neural ballet’ that connects us brain-to-brain with those around us. Our reactions to others — and theirs to us — have far-reaching biological impact, sending out cascades of hormones that regulate everything from our hearts to our immune systems, making good relationships act like vitamins — and bad relationships like poisons. We can ‘catch’ other people’s emotions the way we catch a cold, and the consequences of isolation or relentless social stress can be life-shortening. Goleman explains the surprising accuracy of first impressions, the basis of charisma and emotional power, the complexity of sexual attraction, and how we detect lies. He describes the ‘dark side’ of social intelligence, from narcissism to Machiavellianism and psychopathy. He also reveals our astonishing capacity for ‘mindsight’, as well as the tragedy of those, like autistic children, whose mindsight is impaired. Is there a way to raise our children to be happy? What is the basis of a nourishing marriage? How can business leaders and teachers inspire the best in those they lead and teach? How can groups divided by prejudice and hatred come to live together in peace? The answers to these questions may not be as elusive as we once thought. And Goleman delivers his most heartening news with powerful conviction: we humans have a built-in bias toward empathy, cooperation and altruism — provided we develop the social intelligence to nurture these capacities in ourselves and others.

Born in Ukraine on the first day of the century, a Jewish anti-Semite, Pyat careered through three decades like a runaway train. Bisexual, cocaine-loving engineer/inventor/spy, he enthusiastically embraces Fascism. Hero-worshipping Mussolini, he enters the dictator's circle, enjoys a close friendship with Mussolini's wife and is sent by the Duce on a secret mission to Munich, becoming intimate with Ernst Rohm, the homosexual stormtrooper leader. His crucial role in the Nazi Party's struggle for power has him performing perverted sex acts with 'Alf', as the Fuhrer's friends call him. Pyat's extraordinary luck leaves him after he witnesses Hitler's massacre of Rohm and the SA. At last he is swallowed up in Dachau concentration camp. Thirty years later, having survived the Spanish civil war, he is living in Portobello Road and telling his tale to a writer called Moorcock.

Dolphin adores her mother, Marigold. She's got wonderful clothes, bright hair and vivid tattoos all over her body — a colourful lady, to match her colourful life. But Dolphin's older sister, Star, is beginning to wonder if living with Marigold's fiery, unpredictable moods is the best thing for the girls...

Alison Weir, our pre-eminent popular historian, has now fulfilled a life's ambition to write historical fiction. She has chosen as her subject the bravest, most sympathetic and wronged heroine of Tudor England, Lady Jane Grey. Lady Jane Grey was born into times of extreme danger. Child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she was merely a pawn in a dynastic power game with the highest stakes, she lived a life in thrall to political machinations and lethal religious fervour. Jane's astonishing and essentially tragic story was played out during one of the most momentous periods of English history. As a great-niece of Henry VIII, and the cousin of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, she grew up to realize that she could never throw off the chains of her destiny. Her honesty, intelligence and strength of character carry the reader through all the vicious twists of Tudor power politics, to her nine-day reign and its unbearably poignant conclusion.

When life with Jayni's violent-tempered father becomes too frightening to cope with, Jayni, her mum and her little brother Kenny are forced to escape in the middle of the night. Slipping out of the house unseen, travelling up to London by train and checking into a hotel — it's almost like playing an elaborate game. They even make up false identities to protect their secret, and Jayni becomes the glamorous-sounding Lola Rose. But when money runs out and reality bites, what will they do next?

One of the most powerful monarchs in British history, Henry VIII ruled England in unprecedented splendour. In this remarkable composite biography, Alison Weir brings Henry's six wives vividly to life, revealing each as a distinct and compelling personality in her own right. Drawing upon the rich fund of documentary material from the Tudor period, «The Six Wives of Henry VIII» shows us a court where personal needs frequently influenced public events and where a life of gorgeously ritualised pleasure was shot through with ambition, treason and violence.

You look as if you've seen a ghost!' Jade is so used to living in the shadow of Vicky, her loud, confident best friend, that when a tragic accident occurs, she can hardly believe that Vicky's no longer around. But Vicky's a sparky girl who's not going to let a small thing like being dead stop her from living life to the full! Whether Jade is in lessons, out running or tentatively trying to make new friends, Vicky is determined to make her presence felt...