Music and Silence

Rose Tremain

Vintage, 2000

Paperback. 454pp.

£6.99

In the year 1629 a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death.

Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided between duty and passion, how can Peter Claire find the path that will realise his hopes and save his soul?

Other books by Rose Tremain include The Way I Found Her, Sacred Country and The Cupboard.

The Shipping News

Annie Proulx

Fourth Estate, 1994

Paperback. 337pp.

£7.99

Quoyle is a hapless, hopeless hack journalist living and working in New York. When his no-good wife is killed in a spectacular road accident, Quoyle, taken in hand by his aunt, heads for the land of his forefathers - the remotest corner of far-flung Newfoundland. With his delinquent daughters, Bunny and Sunshine, in tow, Quoyle finds himself part of an unfolding, exhilerating Atlantic drama. The Shipping News is an irresistible comedy of human life and possibility.

Other books by Annie Proulx include Close Range and Accordian Crimes.

The Pilot's Wife

Anita Shreve

Abacus, 1999

Paperback. 293pp.

£6.99

As a pilot's wife in the New England mill town of her birth, Kathryn Lyons has learned to expect intense exhilaration, occasional boredom and long spells apart from her husband - but nothing prepares Kathryn for the late-night knock at the door informing her that he has died in a crash.

Even before the plane is located in waters off the coast of Ireland, the tragedy becomes the subject of a media feeding frenzy. Could there be any truth to the bizarre, disturbing rumours that Jack Lyons led a secret life? Struggling with her grief, and fighting the urge to protect herself and her precocious daughter from the mystery surrounding the crash, Kathryn is determined to learn who her husband really was, whatever that knowledge may cost.

Other books by Anita Shreve include The Weight of Water, Eden Close and Fortune's Rocks.

Miss Garnet's Angel

Salley Vickers

HarperCollins, 2000

Paperback. 342pp.

£6.99

When a friend dies, Julia Garnet goes to stay in Venice, where a lifetime of caution is challenged. She encounters the paintings in the local church which tell the story of Tobias and the Angel. The ancient tale of Tobias, who travels to media unaware he is accompanied by the Archangel Raphael, unfolds alongside Julia Garnet's contemporary journey. As she unravels the story's history, Julia's own life is thrown into question - for, like the shifting sea-light of venice, nothing here is quite as it seems.

The Bonesetter's Daughter

Amy Tan

HarperCollins, 2001

Paperback. 339pp.

£6.99

LuLing Young is getting old and, while she still can, she begins to write down her memories of life as a girl in 1930s China. One day, while tending to her ailing mother, LuLing's daughter Ruth uncovers this extraordinary memoir of a childhood spent in the remote mountain village known as Immortal Heart. In this ancient world, steeped in magic and superstition, lie the deep secrets of LuLing's heart and the tragic events that changed the path of her life. As Ruth's understanding grows, mother and daughter discover together that what they share in their bones through history and heredity is priceless beyond measure.

Other books by Amy Tan include The Hundred Secret Senses and The Kitchen God's Wife.

The Stone Diaries

Carol Shields

Fourth Estate, 1993

Paperback. 362pp.

£6.99

This is the story of Daisy Goodwill, from her birth on a kitchen floor in Manitoba, Canade, to her death in a Florida nuring home nearly ninety years later. Her ordinary life is made extraordinary in the telling.

Other books by Carol Shields include Larry's Party, Dressing Up For the Carnival and A Celibate Season.