Classics

In a single afternoon's walk, Virginia Woolf captures the infinite life of a garden… In Kew Gardens, couples stroll, children chatter, and an old man mutters. Around them, dragonflies hover and flowers gleam. With luminous brushstrokes, Virginia...

Three supernatural tales of longing and loss from the grand-dame of Gothic fiction, Mary Shelly When a storm drives their boat towards the rocks, a group of sailors is saved by the light of a ruined tower. The locals speak of the Invisible Girl who...

When the woman you love may be dead, or worse - unknowable - obsession takes over.A young woman is found dead in her Manhattan apartment. In the aftermath, the men who knew her begin to tell their stories: a possessive mentor, a devoted fiancé, a...

In the decaying hills of Dunwich, something monstrous stirs beneath the earth…  The monstrous offspring of a sorcerous rite grows unchecked, bringing with it horrors beyond imagination. Only ancient knowledge and desperate courage can stand...

Vivid and alive, this powerful novella about one woman's belated rebellion against the powers that be is Anita Desai at her finest.Nanda Kaul retreats to a quiet house in the hills, determined to live out her days in solitude. But the arrival of her...

Two literary giants take to the road, and what follows is comic, chaotic, and unforgettable Two young men set out on a rambling journey through the north of England. Based on Dickens and Collins's own adventures, the story blends sharp observation,...

Graham Greene’s iconic thriller – a shocking tale of espionage and deceit, told from amongst the smouldering ruins of war-torn Europe.Rollo Martins, a second-rate novelist, arrives penniless in post-war Vienna to visit his friend and hero,...

One of Cinema's great masters revisits his childhood - and the end of his parent's marriage - in a novella of awakeningOver the course of one summer, eight-year-old Pu Bergman realises that his parents are no longer in love. Surrounded by the quiet idyll...

The life of a poet becomes a parable of hope in Yi Mun-yol’s searching novella of art, status and selfhood. With their family condemned as traitors, two young brothers are sent away in disguise to save their lives. One grows up by his wits,...

Masks is Enchi's elegant, seductive story of sexual deception, revenge, and the haunting legacy of the past.Ibuki loves widow Yasuko, who is young, charming and sparkling with intelligence. His friend, Mikame, desires her too but that is not the...

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's stories of rebellion and sacrifice, where ordinary lives burn with extraordinary courageIn these tales of rebellion and sacrifice, ordinary lives burn with extraordinary courage. From fighters taking up arms against colonial rule to...

Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cain is a controversial and witty story of a wilful, authoritarian God.After killing his brother, Cain is condemned to wander the earth. As he moves through time, he encounters moments from the Old...

Dylan Thomas’s vivid, affectionate portrait of youth - and the journey towards finding one’s own artistic voiceA boy grows up in a small Welsh town, moving through school, family life and first encounters with the wider world in moments of...

Colette’s elegant, unsettling study of love turned hostile - and all because of a cat.A young marriage begins to sour, poisoned by rivalry and resentment. At its centre is a cat – adored by the husband, despised by the wife –...

A fever-dream journal documenting the making of cinema’s most infamous production, from the world's most infamously visionary director: Werner Herzog.In 1982, the visionary film director, Werner Herzog, released Fitzcarraldo, a lavish film...

Embark on a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Angela Carter, weird fiction’s most influential pioneer, and her transformative stories of finding oneself in the face of another world. Five stories of desire and discovery set in 1970s Japan, from weird...

Reality bends all the more acutely with lack of sleep in this stunning novel from the master of the surreal.Eyes mark the shape of the cityThe midnight hour approaches in an almost-empty diner. Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude...

A mystery story about love, the cosmos and other fictional universes.Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. Miu is glamorous and successful. Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots...

In November 1974, when Werner Herzog was told that his mentor Lotte Eisner, the film-maker and critic, was dying in Paris, he set off to walk there from Munich, "in full faith, believing that she would stay alive if I came on foot." Along the way he...

One September, the writer and explorer Peter Matthiessen set out with field biologist George Schaller to journey 250 miles through the Himalayas to the Crystal Mountain on the Tibetan plateau. They wanted to study the wild blue sheep, the bharal, but...