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"St Paul's cathedral stands like a cornered beast on Ludgate hill, taking deep breaths above the smoke. The fire has made terrifying progress in the night and is closing in on the ancient monument from three directions. Built of massive stones, the cathedral is held to be invincible, but suddenly Pegge sees what the flames covet: the two hundred and fifty feet of scaffolding erected around the broken tower. Once the flames have a foothold on the wooden scaffolds, they can jump to the lead roof, and once the timbers burn and the vaulting cracks, the cathedral will be toppled by its own mass, a royal bear brought down by common dogs." (p.9) It is the Great Fire of 1666. The imposing edifice of...
"With Muse, Novik has crafted a heroine who pushes against the constraints of her time and station, placing her in a richly imagined world that thrums with life." --The Globe and Mail Solange begins life in the poor streets of 14th century Avignon. When her mother, a harlot, dies in childbirth, Solange is raised by nuns who believe she has the gift of clairvoyance. But after several years in the nunnery where she learns how to write and how to have visions, she escapes to become a scribe in the dirty streets of Avignon, where she meets the poet Petrarch and becomes not only his muse, but his lover. Later, when her gift for prophecy catches the Pope's ear, Solange becomes Clement VI's mistress and confidante in the most celebrated court in Europe. When the plague kills over a third of Avignon's population and Solange is accused of witchcraft, she's forced yet again to reinvent herself and fight against a final, mortal conspiracy. This is a sweeping historical epic that magically evokes the Renaissance, capturing a time and place caught between the shadows of the past and the promise of a new cultural awakening.
Sequel to the Sunday Times bestselling and Lodestar award-nominated A Deadly Education 'The dark school of magic I have been waiting for' Katherine Arden, author of The Bear and the Nightingale 'Fantasy that delights on every level' Stephanie Garber, author of Caraval ____________ Return to the Scholomance - and face an even deadlier graduation - in the stunning sequel to the ground-breaking, Sunday Times bestselling A Deadly Education. The dark school of magic has always done its best to devour its students, but now that El has reached her final year -- and somehow won herself a handful of allies along the way -- it's suddenly developed a very particular craving . . . For her. As the savage...
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the first book of the Scholomance trilogy, the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic. FINALIST FOR THE LODESTAR AWARD • “The dark school of magic I’ve been waiting for.”—Katherine Arden, author of the Winternight Trilogy I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life. Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters...
The 20th anniversary edition of the fantasy classic, with an introduction by V E Schwab Over 4 million copies sold 'One of the greatest fantasy writers of her generation' New York Times 'The book I wish I'd written' R F Kuang 'Susanna Clarke writes with an intelligence and beauty that seems at times miraculous' Katherine Rundell 'A modern masterpiece' Spectator 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war, and centuries have passed since magicians faded from view. But one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell. Proceeding to London, he raises a woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician. Young, handsome and daring, Jonathan Strange is his very antithesis. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men – which overwhelms that between England and France. And soon their own secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine... 'Like Hilary Mantel, Clarke has made the very notion of genre seem quaint' Guardian
Nineteen fiery dragon stories from the world’s best fantasy writers Whether portrayed as fire-breathing reptilian beasts at war with humanity or as noble creatures capable of speech and mystically bonded to the warriors who ride them, dragons have been found in nearly every culture's mythology. In modern times, they can be found far from their medieval settings in locales as mundane as suburbia or as barren as post-apocalyptic landscapes - and in THE DRAGON BOOK, today's greatest fantasists reignite the fire with legendary tales that will consume readers' imaginations.With stories by NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors Jonathan Stroud, Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Diana Gabaldon, Tamora Pierce, Harry Turtledove, Sean Williams and Tad Williams as well as tales by Naomi Novik, Peter Beagle, Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, Cecelia Holland, Kage Baker, Samuel Sykes, Diana Wynne Jones, Mary Rosenblum, Tanith Lee, Andy Duncan and Bruce Coville.
In the tradition of Amy Tan and Jhumpa Lahiri, a moving portrait of three generations of family living in Vancouver's Chinatown From Knopf Canada's New Face of Fiction program--launching grounds for Yann Martel's Life of Pi and Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees--comes this powerfully evocative novel. At age eighteen, Seid Quan is the first in the Chan family to emigrate from China to Vancover in 1913. Paving the way for a wife and son, he is profoundly lonely, even as he joins the Chinatown community. Weaving in and out of the past and the present, The End of East pieces together the spellbinding tale of Seid Quan's family: his wife Shew Lin, whose hope for her family are threatened b...
Everyone knows the story of Rapunzel in her tower, but do you know the story of the witch who put her there? Mary McMyne’s spellbinding debut reveals the truth behind the fairy tale—the truth they never wanted you to know, as only a witch might tell it. "Smart, swift, sure-footed and fleet-winged, The Book of Gothel launches its magic from a most reliable source: the troubled heart. Mary McMyne is a magician."—Gregory Maguire, NYT bestselling author of Wicked Germany, 1156. With her strange black eyes and even stranger fainting spells, young Haelewise has never quite fit in. Shunned by her village, her only solace lies in the stories her mother tells of child-stealing witches, of princ...
'A funny, realistic teen crime caper. This book sings.' Jesse Andrews, author of ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (praise for TROUBLE IS A FRIEND OF MINE) A brilliantly funny romantic comedy - with infectious characters, wry humour, and breakneck dialogue, this sequel to Trouble is a Friend of Mine is perfect for fans of John Green, Jesse Andrews and Ally Carter. After a fall semester of fiascos: getting arrested, then kidnapped, then blown up in an explosion (all thanks to the weird, but brilliant Philip Digby), Zoe Webster is looking forward to a quiet spring. Now that Digby has left town, she's finally built a regular high school life for herself. She's dating Miles; she knows girls she con...
In 1937, courageous and independent Martha Gellhorn travels to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, and finds herself drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly - and uncontrollably - falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man already on his way to being a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Hemingway made their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Hemingway publishes the biggest literary success of his career, they are no longer equals, and Martha...