Read a heart-breaking love story – one that will transcend decades, continents and the workings of fate. There’s also a gripping mystery and a page-turning next instalment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Next up is a tale that illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces – potent magic, forbidden love – that boldly attempt to bridge that divide. Finally, go through the story of a young boy destined to lead his countrymen — not without any struggles, however.
The IANS bookshelf has a bunch of tales by well-known writers from the UK and the US for this weekend.
1. Book: Every Breath;
Author: Nicholas Sparks;
Publisher: Sphere;
Price: Rs 399; Pages: 320
Hope Anderson is at a crossroads. After six years with her boyfriend, she is no longer sure what she wants and when her father becomes ill she heads to her family’s cottage at Sunset Beach in North Carolina to make some difficult decisions.
Tru Walls has been summoned across an ocean from where he was born and raised in Zimbabwe by a letter from a man claiming to be his father. In journeying to Sunset Beach, Tru hopes to unravel the mystery surrounding his mother’s life, but the letter will lead him in an unexpected direction.
When these two strangers’ paths cross, their chance encounter sets in motion a heart-breaking story – one that will transcend decades, continents and the workings of fate.
2. Book: Lethal White;
Author: Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) ;
Publisher: Sphere;
Price: Rs 699; Pages: 656
‘I seen a kid killed … He strangled it, up by the horse.’
When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.
Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott – once his assistant, now a partner in the agency – set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.
During this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: His newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been – Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much more tricky than that.
The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, Lethal White is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next instalment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.
3. Book: The Last Watchman Of Old Cairo;
Author: Michael David Lukas;
Publisher: Penguin Random House;
Price: Rs 399; Pages: 267
In this “wonderfully rich” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel, a young man journeys from California to Cairo to unravel centuries-old family secrets.
It’s been named One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2018 by The Millions online literary magazine.
Joseph, a literature student at Berkeley, is the son of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. One day, a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep, pulling him into a mesmerising adventure to uncover the tangled history that binds the two sides of his family.
For generations, the men of the al-Raqb family have served as watchmen of the storied Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, built at the site where the infant Moses was taken from the Nile. Joseph learns of his ancestor Ali, a Muslim orphan who nearly a thousand years earlier was entrusted as the first watchman of the synagogue and became enchanted by its legendary – perhaps magical – Ezra Scroll. The story of Joseph’s family is entwined with that of the British twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 depart their hallowed Cambridge halls on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue.
‘The Last Watchman of Old Cairo’’ is a moving page-turner of a novel from acclaimed storyteller Michael David Lukas. This tightly-woven multi-generational tale illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces – potent magic, forbidden love – that boldly attempt to bridge that divide.
4. Book: Heads You Win;
Author: Jeffrey Archer;
Price: Rs 399;
Pages: 480
Leningrad, Russia, 1968.
Alexander Karpenko is no ordinary child, and from an early age, it is clear he is destined to lead his countrymen. But when his father is assassinated by the KGB for defying the state, he and his mother will have to escape from Russia if they hope to survive. At the docks, they are confronted with an irreversible choice: should they board a container ship bound for America, or Great Britain? Alexander leaves that choice to the toss of a coin.
In a single moment, a double twist decides Alexander’s future. During an epic tale of fate and fortune, spanning two continents and thirty years, we follow his triumphs and defeats as he struggles as an immigrant to conquer his new world. As this unique story unfolds, Alexander comes to realize where his destiny lies, and accepts that he must face the past he left behind in Russia.
