Showing results by narrator "Justin Avoth" in All Categories

In this riveting historical thriller, a deadly plot unfolds aboard a train hurtling towards Paris. From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Room, Emma Donoghue takes you on a heart-pounding ride in The Paris Express. 'Ratchets up the pace until it's hurtling along as fast as the train itself'...

Brought to you by Penguin. Florence, New Year’s Day 1557. As dawn breaks, a painter is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart. Above him, the paintings he laboured over for more than a decade. At his home, a hidden painting scandalously depicting Maria de Medici...

Romance and anarchist violence collide in this thought-provoking thriller about the London underworld and the political unrest that seethes there. Set in the late 19th century and written in James’s elegant, impressionistic style, The Princess Casamassima follows the life of bookbinder Hyacinth Robinson. The illegitimate son of a French woman imprisoned for murdering his father, Hyacinth is raised by an impoverished seamstress in a poor area of London.

A whirlwind of unrepentant nihilism charged with raw, colloquial language that shocked the listeners of its day, Journey to the End of the Night is a bitter symphony of violence, human cruelty, greed and chaos. Based on the author’s life, Journey follows the antihero Bardamu, Céline’s alter ego, in a relentless adventure that pulls us further and further into an endless night.

Hauntingly read by Justin Avoth. 'Robert Dinsdale mixes history and mythology with great panache . . . Richly textured and with an appropriately labyrinthine plot, this is a book that explores the monster inside man — and vice versa. Book of the Month' Sunday Times Man or monster? Hero or...

436 AD. The Burgundars are confident of destroying Rome's legions. Their forces are strong and they have beaten the Romans in battle before. But they are annihilated, their king killed, his people scattered. Their fabled treasure is lost. For Rome has new allies: the Huns, whose taste for bloodshed knows no bounds.

Our ancestors didn't just take the piss They used it too. The human body leaks. It oozes. It sweats and spits. It bursts, it bleeds and it squirts. Over the history of humanity, our bodies have evolved into sophisticated vessels for survival, leaving a long trail of fluids in our wake. Whether...

The heroic story of the siege of Troy is as enthralling today as it ever was. The Greeks are entering the tenth year of their war with the Trojans, but their armies are fractured and their best warrior Achilles has abandoned the battle on a mission of revenge. Only the death of his best friend Patroclus persuades Achilles to return to battle and confront the Trojan leader Hector in single combat.

In this witty fantasy romance, a widow blackmails her rakish necromancer neighbor to bring her husband back to life and save her home . . . only to find herself falling for him instead. Lady Hildegarde Croft is accustomed to changes in position. After all, she rose from maidservant to lady of...

Forced by her parents to take holy orders, 16-year-old Suzanne is trapped in a monastic life and endures harrowing physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The depiction of her struggle for autonomy is coated in the mysticism and madness of her environment, as the overwhelming effects of power are laid bare. Diderot, a key figure of the Enlightenment, uses the novel to question the moral authority of the Church and pour scorn on its complicity in oppression and intolerance.

In the hauntingly beautiful Welsh Elan Valley, a house once beloved of the poet Shelley stands in the way of Birmingham’s need for water. It is the Tregaron family’s ancestral home, and the flamboyant, strutting Griffith Tregaron is determined to profit from progress while his daughter Philippa is beside herself at its sacrifice. A young engineer is torn between ambition and conscience; a local girl’s innocence is tested by change.

Brought to you by Penguin. How the modern world has understood the ancient Greeks and why they matter today The study of ancient Greek history has been central to the western conception of history since the Renaissance. The Muse of History traces the shifting patterns of this preoccupation in...

Breaking a long silence, Oliver, a young Englishman, writes to his elder brother, Patrick. Oliver, the idealistic younger brother, is living in a Hindu monastery and has decided to take his final monastic vows. Patrick, a successful, long-married publisher, newly in love with a boy in Los Angeles, decides to visit Oliver to persuade him not to renounce the world.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline thunders out from the grave with this long-lost novel. Looted by the Resistance during the liberation of Paris and resurfacing only in 2020, War is a major rediscovery. It begins in the chaotic battlefields of Flanders, with Bardamu (Céline’s fictional alter ego) surrounded by corpses. Wounded and shell-shocked, he wanders in hallucination, finding refuge at a hospital in Peurdu-sur-la-Lys and striking up a friendship with a Parisian pimp – however, the war continues to drive itself under his skin and destroy him.

Drawing from two political and several literary homelands, this collection presents a remarkable series of trenchant essays, demonstrating the full range and force of Salman Rushdie's remarkable imaginative and observational powers. With candour, eloquence and indignation he carefully examines an expanse of topics; including the politics of India and Pakistan, censorship, the Labour Party, Palestinian identity, contemporary film and late-20th century race, religion and politics.

A unique and unbelievable first-hand account of how one man fought his way to the top of the criminal underworld... and what he needed to do to stay there. As you read this, someone somewhere is buying drugs. Across the globe, millions of people are involved in the brutal, cold-blooded world of...

The Fable of the Bees—a satirical poem, prose discussion, three essays and six dialogues completed in 1729—exposes human vices but defends them as a necessity within a wealthy society. Mandeville’s bees thrive until they start living by honesty and virtue… then they are impoverished. Mandeville did not play by the rules: he satirized the sins of society but also ridiculed the widespread hypocrisy of deploring these sins whilst reaping their benefits. He and his work were attacked for the rest of the century.

A thrilling and haunting tale of love, obsession, and madness set against the dark and dramatic backdrop of Paris's legendary opera house. Christine Daaé, a beautiful and talented young singer, finds herself caught between two men: the charming Raoul, her childhood love, and the enigmatic Phantom, a mysterious and disfigured genius who lives in the shadows beneath the opera house. As the Phantom's obsession with Christine grows, he manipulates the world around her, creating chaos and terror in the opera house in a desperate bid for her affection.

The 18th Century Classics Collection steps into the vibrant and tumultuous world of 18th century Europe. With this captivating anthology of some of the most influential works of 1700s literature, we encounter biting satire, passionate romance, and political tumultuousness. From the philosophical musings of Candide to the dark, gothic suspense of The Monk, this collection provides an eclectic mix of narrative styles and genres, capturing the essence of an age marked by intellectual revolution, social upheaval, and profound artistic expression.

'Trees in Winter by Richard Shimell is a wonderful, beautiful book for anyone who loves printmaking and nature. In this book Richard demonstrates his great skill as a printmaker, artist and writer, with the story of the paths taken to find his art as engaging as the images themselves.' ANGELA...