Finding the theatre of the 1920s lacking in bite and conviction, Thornton Wilder set out to bring back realism and to celebrate the innocent, simple and religious. This title includes "Our Town"; "The Skin of our Teeth"; and "The Matchmaker".

Meursault, his anti-hero, will not lie. When his mother dies, he refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of violence on a sun-drenched beach near Algiers, his lack of remorse compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Yet he is as much a victim as a criminal.

Hylas is only a boy but he knows three things: The Gods exist. Magic is real. Somebody wants him dead. Hunted and alone, Hylas is desperate to find his missing sister. His quest takes him across the hostile mountains and treacherous seas of Ancient Greece. His only friend is a girl on the run. His only guide is a wild dolphin.

'Miss, who's that funny man at the back of the classroom? So begins school-inspector Gervase Phinn's second year among the frankly spoken pupils and teachers of North Yorkshire - the sight of Gervase with his notebook and pen provokes unexpected reactions from the children and adults alike.

A collection that gathers together Pulitzer Prize-winning short fiction, including "Pale Horse, Pale Rider", where a young woman lies in a fever during the influenza epidemic, her childhood memories mingling with fears for her fiance on his way to war, and "Noon Wine", a haunting story of tragedy and scandal on a small dairy farm in Texas.