When Charles Sainte-Beuve, a French journalist, met Victor Hugo, an ambitious young writer, he was swept into a world of grand emotions, a world where words can become swords. But Charles' attraction moves on from Victor, to his wife Adele. Soon the two lovers are on the edge of a scandal and a wounded Victor must exact his price for betrayal.

The ruins of the Forum in Rome, the centre of its ancient Empire, are one of the best known wonders of antiquity and a highpoint of the tourist route round the Eternal City, but the Forum remains for many visitors a baffling and unwelcoming place. This book helps us to rediscover its rich history.

Ru: In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow - of tears, blood, and money. This book presents a lullaby of Vietnam and a love letter to a new homeland.

Set in Paris and Kotelnich, a small post-Soviet town, this title traces Carrere's pursuit of two obsessions: the disappearance of his Russian grandfather and his fascination with a woman he loves but cannot keep from destroying.

An ingenious novel that imagines the life and times of Mazie Philips, a real-life saint from New York City, by the highly acclaimed author of The Middlesteins.

'Michael Gordin's excellent Scientific Babel asks what drives the languages science uses, and how English came to dominate.' - New Scientist

Reveals the attempts by Britain to cultivate relations with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt after the fall of Mubarak, the military intervention on the side of Libyan rebel forces which include pro-al-Qaeda elements, and the reliance on the region's ultimate fundamentalist state, Saudi Arabia, to safeguard its interest in the Middle East.