The Gardener of Baghdad

After the tragic death of her son and the seeming collapse of her marriage, Charlotte Napier flees to Portugal in the hopes of finding guidance from her mentor: her mother-in-law, Violet. Instead, she finds solace in the letters of Mariana Alcoforado, a seventeenth-century nun. Charlotte and Mariana's stories may be different in origin, but they share the same inner turmoil. As she reads the letters, Mariana's spiritual journey sheds light on Charlotte's own crisis.

When her boss tells her about the discoveries in a cramped, decrepit apartment in the ninth arrondissement, Sotheby' s continental furniture specialist April Vaught does not hear "dust" or "rats" or "shuttered for 70 years". She hears Paris. She hears escape. She cannot board the plane fast enough. When she arrives, April quickly learns the apartment is more than just some rich hoarder' s repository. Beneath the dust and cobwebs and stale perfumed air is a literal goldmine - and not just in terms of actual dollars.

Caretta Rutledge thought she’d left her Southern roots and troubled family far behind. But an unusual request from her mother – coming just as her own life is spinning out of control – has Cara heading back to the scenic Lowcountry of her childhood summers. Before long, the rhythms of the island open her heart in wonderful ways as she repairs the family beach house, becomes a bona fide “turtle lady” and renews old acquaintances long thought lost.

Secretly treasured memories of her eccentric grandmother’s Tuscan house are very special for Carrie Stowe; for not only do they recall the happy childhood summers before the Great War, they are her only escape from the suffocating routine of her life with Arthur, her repressive husband. When she unexpectedly inherits the house, Arthur, predictably, insists it be sold. But while disposing of the effects, Carrie is drawn to an enigmatic young man embarked on an ideological quest….

First published in 1963, James A. Michener's gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever. Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears.

From the author of The Last Testament comes the true love of Bonnie Prince Charlie, her adventures in America, and her lasting legacy. In the popular genre trail-blazed by Antonia Fraser and Phillippa Gregory, The Pretender's Lady, Alan Gold's meticulously researched novel, accurately opens history's pages on a peerless woman who helped change the course of history and whose legend lives on in Scotland today - Flora MacDonald.

When two girls find a baby abandoned in a phone box, the event casts a long shadow over their lives. 

For nearly 300, the cryptic journal of Mary Dundas has kept its secrets. Now, amateur codebreaker Sara Thomas travels to Paris to crack the cipher. Jacobite exile Mary Dundas is filled with longing - for freedom, for adventure, for the family she lost. When fate opens the door, Mary dares to set her foot on a path far more surprising and dangerous than she ever could have dreamed.

Two great loves. One shattering betrayal. A war that changes everything. Harriet and Mae Grafton are 20-year-old identical twins born from a scandalous affair. They grew up in India slighted by gossip and ostracised from polite society. They had each other and that was enough. But when their wealthy benefactor sends them to Singapore, they meet the mysterious Alex Blake and their relationship fractures with devastating consequences. Ivy Harcourt is posted to wartime Singapore amid the looming threat of Japanese invasion. Ivy knows the island will be a far cry from war-torn London, but she is totally unprepared for what awaits her.... 

Vanessa “Michael” Munroe deals in information - expensive information - working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back. Until now....

Ginny is flat out dangerous and not the kind of dangerous that threatens mortal harm, though at times death might be preferred. It's far worse than that, especially if you cross her in one of her moods. Sallee learns early on to rely on stealth and a watchful eye-skills absolutely essential to living with her family. The one grown-up exception might be Ethel, the black maid who has been with the family for two generations. But even Ethel has secrets.

With over 10 million copies sold, best-selling author Robert James Waller returns with the haunting, evocative story of a small town, a beautiful and mysterious woman, and the man forever changed by both.

Jenny Trelawney is no ordinary thief. Forced by poverty to live in the Devon forest, she becomes a successful highway woman - until her luck runs out. Transported to Australia, pregnant and alone, Jenny must face harsh challenges in an unforgiving land. When famine hits the new colony, Jenny becomes convinced that those she most cares about will not survive. She becomes the leader in a grand plot of escape. Setting sail in a small open boat on an unknown ocean, she will do anything for freedom, but at what cost? 

Young and unassuming Rabbi David Small sorts through puzzling pieces of mysteries with logic straight from the Talmud. In Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, a shocking discovery on the temple grounds threatens to ruin both the diligent rabbi and the entire Jewish community at Barnard’s Crossing. Unaware that his congregation is grumbling about his rumpled appearance and absent-minded manner, Rabbi Small spends long hours poring over scholarly books.

Virginia, 1852: Seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to run from the failing tobacco farm where she is a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, the aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. New York City, 2004: Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that could make her career: she must find the "perfect plaintiff" to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves.