'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.' He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.'

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation.

Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?

Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY.

Reviews

'It's rare to find a novel which ranges over the recent past with such authority, and even rarer to find one in which the two leading characters are drawn with such solidity, such painful fidelity, to real life that you really do put the book down with the hallucinatory feeling that they've become as well known to you as your closest friends. Hard to imagine anyone encountering characters as well drawn as this and not recognizing the extraordinary talent of the writer who has created them.' -- Jonathan Coe Guardian Books of the Year

'I finished it last night and I'm still quite wobbly and affected by it. It was BRILLIANT... the jealously nearly made me puke. I wish I'd written this book' -- Marian Keyes

'The ultimate zeitgeist love story for anyone who ever wanted someone they couldn't have' -- Adele Parks

'Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable ... brilliant on the details of the last couple of decades of British cultural and political life' -- Nick Hornby

'The novel of the year - a brilliantly funny and moving will-they, won't-they romance tracing a relationship on the same day each day for two decades' -- Heat

'It is a cleverly and astutely constructed book - but that is worthy of a mere footnote compared with its emotional impact. I am not ashamed to say that upon finishing it I pressed it to my chest as a big fat tear splashed onto its upturned spine' -- The Times Book Club

List Price: R115.00
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At the dawn of the Roman Empire, when tyranny ruled, a daughter of Egypt and a son of Rome found each other...

Selene's parents are gone, her country has been taken from her and she has been brought to the city of Rome in chains, with only her twin brother, Alexander, to remind her of home and all she once had.

Paraded as captives and brought to live among the ruling family, Selene and her brother attend lessons, learning how to be Roman and where allegiances lie.

Devoting herself to her artistic skill and training as an architect, she tries to make herself useful, in hope of staying alive and being allowed to return to Egypt.

But before long, she is distracted by the young and handsome heir to the empire.

But all is not well in the city and when the elusive 'Red Eagle' starts calling for the end of slavery, causing riots and murder, and the Roman army goes to war, Selene and Alexander, the children of Mark Antony, Rome's lost son and greatest rival, find their lives in grave danger.

Reviews

'Throughout her meticulous research, Moran, a rising star in the world of historical fiction, has drawn a vivid picture of the horrors and glories of life in ancient Rome. This is an intelligent historical novel, which like Moran's previous two titles draws you in from the outset' Daily Express.

Thanks Michelle! You gave me a great time. Hope more will come. This is historic novel writing at its best. - Amelrode

List Price: R130.00
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Russia, 1910.

Young Valentina Ivanova charms St Petersburg's aristocracy with her classic Russian beauty and her talent as a pianist.

She scandalises society when she begins a romance with Jens Friis, a Danish engineer. He brings to her life a passion and an intimacy she has never known.

Unbending in their opposition, her parents push her into a loveless engagement with a Russian count. Valentina struggles for independence and to protect her young sister from the tumult sweeping the city, as Russia is bound for rebellion.

The Tsar, the Duma and the Bolsheviks are at each other's throats. Valentina is forced to make a choice that changes her life for ever ...

List Price: R220.00
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It is summer and a stranger has come to quiet Rathmoye.

He is noticed by Ellie, the young convent girl, who is married to Dillahan, a farmer still mourning his first wife.

Over the long and warm days, Ellie and the stranger form an illicit attachment.

And those in the town can only watch, holding their tongues, as passion, love and fate take their inevitable course.

Reviews:

'Beautiful and entrancing, a love affair captured with compassion and sadness' - The Times

'A great writer, Love and Summers is something timeless' - Sebastian Barry, The Guardian

'Trevor beutifully succeeds in describing the emotionally charged dilemmas that surge in the hearts of the quietest of people' Marie Claire

List Price: R130.00
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Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger.

Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child.

Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi.

She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job.

Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.

And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another.

A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

List Price: R130.00
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Since her divorce a year ago, Kit Hargrove feels she has finally got her life back on track.

Gone is the lonely Wall Street widow she used to be, and in her place is a happier, more fulfilled woman, with a new job she loves - working for uberfamous novelist Robert McClore - a small but cosy new home with her children, andthe beginnings of a tentative friendship with her ex husband.

She even has time for yoga classes with her new best friend Tracy.

The only thing missing is a man. And when Tracy introduces her to Steve - charming, romantic and attentive - Kit wonders if he could be the final piece of the jigsaw.

But Kit doesn't know that Tracy is hiding a secret, one that could destroy their friendship, her happiness with Steve, even her new life.

Torn between suspicion and love, Kit doesn't know which way to turn.

For there are some betrayals that a friendship can't survive....

Review

'A corker of a story, sharply and elegantly told' - Heat

'Sheer, unadulterated light entertainment!sassy, warm and wise' - Glamour

'Compulsively readable' - The Sunday Times

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He changed her life, now he's going to take it.

'While the bath was filling up, my eye fell on the razor in its case. Not the disposable kind, a handmade cutthroat razor.

My heart skipped a beat. Then I shook my head. No. Stick to the plan. There's always next time.'

Leon's partner died in his bath, and although the police report said she committed suicide... she didn't.

When he meets Margot, recently separated and vulnerable, he sees an opportunity. Her life's a mess. Who better to help her put it back together than a man who's recovering from his own girlfriend's tragic demise?

Dragging her into a very intense, sexual relationship, which is one giant power game, Leon moves her into his flat and sets her up with a new career. How could she ever manage without him?

If his ideas go to plan, she'll never need to worry about that.

List Price: R140.00
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Fate takes many forms. When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist.

As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey named Beatrice and Virgil and the epic journey they undertake together.

With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so treasured, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey.

On the way Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity.

About the author

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963. After studying philosophy at university, he worked at odd jobs and travelled before turning to writing at the age of twenty-six.

He is the author of the internationally acclaimed 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, which was translated into thirty-eight languages and spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.

His collection of short stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and his first novel, Self, both received critical acclaim. Yann Martel lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

List Price: R200.00
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January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.

The society's members are quirky and lovable, their friendships touching and the letters so funny and moving that by the time she's considering a visit to the island we are desperate to go with her.

Reviews

'Charming one to lift even the most cynical of spirits' - THE TIMES

'Thronging with lovable people golden comedy' - THE GUARDIAN

'What a gorgeous book - very touching and funny' - JOANNA LUMLEY

'Delightfully spirited and quirky novel-of-letters You'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to fall under its spell' - DAILY MAIL BOOKS OF THE YEAR

List Price: R135.00
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The stunning new novel from Lesley.

Will Lotte and Dale ever discovered the truth behind Lotte's stolen past?

Find out in Lesley Pearse's new novel, Stolen.

When a beautiful blonde girl is found half-drowned on a beach, she has no memory of who she is or what horrors have left her there.

But an article about her in a Brighton newspaper rings alarm bells for beautician Dale, who shows the police photographs of Lotte Wainright.

The girls met working on a cruise ship and their friendship blossomed as they sailed the seas of South America, until Lotte fell under the sinister influence of an older American couple.

To her regret, Dale hasn't seen Lotte since leaving the ship months earlier... but the girl on the beach - although badly bruised - is indeed her much missed friend.

Their reunion only marks the beginning of a dangerous tidal wave of secrets, lies and nightmares. Where has Lotte been? Who is the man who seems to want to kill her? And what has become of the baby she's recently given birth to?

Dale and Lotte must dig deep and find the strength to hold on against the odds if they are to rebuild their friendship and survive Lotte's stolen - and deadly - past...

List Price: R230.00
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At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love , Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe - a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met.

Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.)

But providence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government, who - after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing - gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again.

Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving completely into this topic, trying with all her might to discover (through historical research, interviews and much personal reflection) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is.

The result is Committed - a witty and intelligent contemplation of marriage that debunks myths, unthreads fears and suggests that sometimes even the most romantic of souls must trade in her amorous fantasies for the humbling responsibility of adulthood.

Gilbert's memoir - destined to become a cherished handbook for any thinking person hovering on the verge of marriage - is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love, with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.

List Price: R200.00
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Available from Middle January 2010

Backlist titles available

1. Eat, Pray, Love - R108.00
2. Pilgrims - R50.00
3. Stern Men - R50.00
4. Last American Man - R50.00

Oprah has just made her new selection for her book club and it is Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them (winner of the Best First Book, African Region - 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize)

These extraordinary stories centre on African conflicts as seen through the eyes of children, and describes their resilience and endurance in heartbreaking detail.

From child trafficking to inter-religious conflicts, Uwem reveals in beautiful prose the resilience and endurance of children faced with the harsh consequences of deprivation and terror.

'Akpan reveals Africa's pain, pity, joy and grace, and comes closer to the truth about modern Africa than the entire outpourings of the Western Mass Media' - GUARDIAN

List Price: R140.00
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Available from October 2009

Follow, Smoky Barrett, Head of the Violent Crimes Unit in Los Angeles, as she is dragged through the dark and terrifying reality of Sarah Kingley. A sixteen year old who has seen the face of death more than once, for someone out there is slowly taking everything she loves way and she is powerless to stop it. As Smoky battles with her own violent past, she tries to unravel the mystery of why one man's murder victim is the one he left alive...

Amy's Comment

A gripping, harrowing read that will leave your heart and hand shaking as you turn the page. Gripping and lyrical right to the last page

Rating *****

Review by Eileen Bulpin

I found the book a very good read and a good book for book clubs.
I would suggest that you read the first Clare Hart novel 'Like Clockworks' first, because the main character started in the first book, continues in the second book.

The first book is set in and about Cape Town, Sea Point area and the second book is set in Nambia, Windhoek.

If you enjoy reading books by international authors like Martina Cole and Kathy Reichs you will love reading Margie Orford. Blood Rose shows some great writing talent and another great kick ass woman character is revisited with delight.

Review by Eileen Bulpin

I had the pleasure of reading this memoir book before it is launched (now available at our store) and I must say that it is a very exciting read. I enjoyed it very much. I found myself laughing, smiling and also having one or two tears.

I could relate to a lot of things in the book, as when my Gran came to South Africa for the first time and how excited we were .Also when we got big boxes of goodies sent by her and my aunt. Getting gifts that nobody else had, made us shake with excitement.

I found it also nice to read about places and things I remember as a child. Walking to old promenade in Muizenberg.  Swimming in the sea and using a beach house box to store our umbrellas and chairs, going for beach picnics.

It made me relate to the authors mother character in the story. Feeling lonely in a country without her sister's and mother being with her. It was a bittersweet memoir to read and I suggest if you enjoy reading books on peoples memories then add this one to your next read.

Review by Eileen Bulpin

I read this book and thought it was a very good read. The book follows the lives of two sisters and how they were their for one another while growing up.

You read about the heart ships they endured during the Apartheid years in South Africa as children.
I found the book to be interesting in how it described places in Cape Town that are no longer there. The book brought a smile to my face while reading. Ideal reading for book clubs.

This best-selling haunting novel is also available in Afrikaans at our store from September 2007 with the title of Morester.

Review by Eileen Bulpin

I found the book to be very interesting in relation to my brother.

He has been in the army and has done his military service, so I found a relation with my brother and the main character on an emotional side.

I also found it sad in how things can shape a persons life with growing up during the time in the book.
It was also very interesting that the author describes not one character but a handful and their lives from World War 2 to the dismantling of Apartheid in the nineties. A book recommended to read.

Review by Staff

This was such an interesting novel.

There is at once a tender presence making you wonder why the characters made the choice they did, and leaving you trying to find out why they have so many secrets.

It's engaging and takes you into the heart of each characters world, making for interesting moments of great reading.

Laura has had quiet a journey. Difficult at times, other times desperate, but she always had faith. Her life though is one that carries many life lessons.

A read definitely recommended, showing that every conversation, every thought, every encounter and every action has a consequence, good or bad.

Cnr Bark and Main Road: Tokai : Cape Town, 8001, South Africa - Opposite Builder's Warehouse.

ON PROMOTION

'Incredibly Moving' Marian Keyes

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