Reading Groups Collection
The Ocean at the End of the Lane |
One August Night |
Open Secret |
The Other Hoffmann Sister |
The Paris Wife |
The Passenger |
The Paying Guests |
Platform Seven |
The Plot |
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
This is what he remembers, as he sits by the ocean at the end of the
lane:
A dead man on the back seat of the car, and warm milk at the farmhouse;
An ancient little girl, and an old woman Who saw the moon being made;
A beautiful housekeeper with a monstrous smile;
And dark forces woken that were best left undisturbed.
They are memories hard to believe, waiting at the edges of things. The recollections of a man who thought he was lost but is now, perhaps, remembering a time
when he was saved...
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One August Night by Victoria Hislop
After many
thousands of years, a cure for leprosy has finally been found. On 25th August 1957, a great celebration is held in Plaka to celebrate the closure of Spinalonga, a night which marks the
beginning of liberation for the hundreds of sick who have been imprisoned there. But a cataclysmic event that same night turns it into a very different occasion. For some, it will mean
a lifelong loss of liberty.
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Open Secret by Stella Rimington
Stella Rimington was the
first female Director-General of MI5. Open Secret is her autobiography. Following her retirement from MI5 in 1996, she has become a Non-Executive Director of Marks & Spencer, BG Group plc
and Whitehead Mann GKR. She is also Chairman of the Institute of Cancer Research.
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The Other Hoffmann Sister by Ben Fergusson
Ingrid
Hoffmann has always felt responsible for her sister Margarete and when their family moves to German Southwest Africa in 1902, her anxieties only increase. The
casual racism that pervades the German community, the strange relationship between her parents and Baron von Ketz, from whom they bought their land, and the
tension with the local tribes all culminate in tragedy when Baron von Ketz is murdered. Baroness von Ketz and their son, Emil, flee with the Hoffmanns as the
Baron's attackers burn down the family's farm. Both families return to Berlin and Ingrid's concerns about Margarete are assuaged when she and Emil become
engaged on the eve of the First World War. But Margarete disappears on her wedding night at the von Ketz's country house. The mystery of what happened to her
sister haunts Ingrid, but as Europe descends into chaos, her hope of discovering the truth becomes ever more distant.
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The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Chicago,
1920:
Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his
energy, intensity and burning ambition. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France.
But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists
and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity.
Ernest and Hadley’s marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a
beloved son only drives them further apart.
Then, at last, Ernest’s ferocious literary endeavours bring him recognition –
not least from a woman intent on making him her own...
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The The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
.jpg "Book cover of The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz")
Germany,
November 1938: Otto Silbermann receives a knock on his door and realises he must flee. A respected German-Jewish businessman, he has managed to evade the escalating brutality of the Nazi
regime. But now, as he and his wife plan to leave, all avenues are shut down and he is forced to abandon his home amid the untrammelled violence of Kristallnacht. With all the money he
can gather stuffed into a suitcase, Otto takes train after train across Germany, desperately seeking to cross the border, every moment terrified a fellow passenger will discover his Jewish
identity.
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The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
It is 1922,
and in a hushed south London villa life is about to be transformed, as genteel widow Mrs Wray and her discontented daughter Frances are obliged to take in lodgers.
Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the ’clerk class’, bring with them gramophone music, colour, fun – and dangerous desires.
The most ordinary of lives, it seems, can explode into passion and drama... A love story that is also a crime story, this is vintage Sarah Waters.
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Platform Seven by Louise Doughty
Platform Seven at 4am:
Peterborough Railway Station is deserted. The man crossing the covered walkway on this freezing November morning is confident he's alone. As he sits on the metal bench at the far end of the
platform it is clear his choice is strategic - he's as far away from the night staff as he can get. What the man doesn't realise is that he has company. Lisa Evans knows what he has decided.
She knows what he is about to do as she tries and fails to stop him walking to the platform edge. Two deaths on Platform Seven. Two fatalities in eighteen months - surely they're connected?
No one is more desperate to understand what connects them than Lisa Evans herself. After all, she was the first of the two to die.
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The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
When a young writer dies before
completing his first novel, his teacher, Jake, (himself a failed novelist) helps himself to its plot. The resulting book is a phenomenal success, but Jake worries: what if somebody out
there knows? Somebody does. As Jake is increasingly tormented by accusations and threats, he learns more about his former student and the source of his marvellous plot - one that, it
transpires, is an actual person's actual story. That actual person is furious. The closer Jake gets to the real people he's fictionalised, the more violence he unearths; if he can't
figure out who he's dealing with, he risks something far worse than the loss of his career.
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Page last updated: 1st November 2023