Showing results by publisher "John Murray" in Historical Fiction

​*****AMAZON'S BOOK OF THE YEAR​​​***** INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER REESE WITHERSPOON'S BOOK CLUB PICK FEARNE COTTON'S HAPPY PLACE BOOK CLUB PICK AMANDA LAMB BOOK CLUB PICK 'An unforgettable story of love, loss, and the choices that shape our lives . . . but it's...

'This shape-shifting, time-stitching novel grants us special kinds of double-vision: across eras and between species. Under its spell, Amitav Ghosh helps us begin to live multiple lives - to become aware of the porosity and mystery of being, rather than of its fortifications and frontiers'...

WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT PRIZE 2025 LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 2026 A RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME A TELEGRAPH AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A furiously romantic, sun-drenched mystery . . . The...

Gun Island is a beautifully realised novel which effortlessly spans space and time. It is the story of a world on the brink, of increasing displacement and unstoppable transition. But it is also a story of hope, of a man whose faith in the world and the future is restored by two remarkable women. 

Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando.

A kiss, a touch. A smile and a beating heart. Love and sex and dreams, art and drugs and the madness of youth. Betrayal and heartbreak, regret and pain, the melancholy of age. Katerina, the explosive new novel by America's most controversial writer, is a sweeping love story alternating between 1992 Paris and Los Angeles in 2018. At its centre are a young writer and a young model on the verge of fame, both reckless, impulsive, addicted, and deeply in love. 

***A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK 2025*** 'Perfect to read whilst curled up by the fire demanding people bring you hot tea and biscuits to dunk' Sara Cox, Radio 2 Book Club 'One of the most imaginative and ambitious books I have read all year' Scotsman 'Magical in every sense' Saga Magazine 'A...

The Seljuk Empire is on fire and the king is on a rampage after learning of his wife's infidelity. Unsated by her execution, he has gone on to wed and behead a new wife night after night. Fear spreads through the city and Shaherazade must do something, anything, to halt the horror she has set in motion. When the king starts searching for his next bride, Shaherazade steps forward. As the sun sets on her wedding night, she begins to weave a tale that will go down in history.

This extraordinary novel is seen through the eyes of Johannes, an avid member of the Hitler Youth in the 1940s. After he is severely injured in a raid, he discovers his parents are hiding a Jewish girl called Elsa behind a false wall in their large house in Vienna. His initial horror turns to interest, then love and obsession. After the disappearance of his parents, Johannes finds he is the only one aware of Elsa's existence in the house, the only one responsible for her survival. 

'As disturbing as it is empathetic, as beautiful as it is riveting' Eimear McBride, New Statesman 'A literary triumph' Adam Thorpe, Guardian 1066. The Norman invasion has brutally seized the country that the Buccmaster of Holland, a proud landowning farmer in Lincolnshire, once knew. Bereft of...

LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE An ambitious noble and his three serving men travel through the Irish countryside in the stifling summer of 1348, using the advantage of the plague which has collapsed society to buy up large swathes...

'Inventive, intimate, often devastating . . . packs a heavy emotional punch, producing a deeply affecting account of power and connection and its ability to entrap us, even in love' Irish Times 'Smart, formally playful, and psychologically astute, Rousseau's Lost Children is a novel of ideas...

1884. In a tenement room and kitchen in the town of Rutherglen, near Glasgow, a woman with stark injuries to her face and her mind, and a man who has recently arrived from America, spend the night together. As the night progresses, the couple discover that their past lives were once entwined in ways they hadn't realised, and that they are linked by a shared past; the eviction of Greenyards, Strathcarron in 1854.

A clever reimagining of Jane Austen's novella Lady Susan by acclaimed filmmaker Whit Stillman. Jane Austen's funniest novel is also her least known - until now. A sharp comedy of manners set in the 1790s, Love & Friendship centres on Lady Susan Vernon: impossibly beautiful, charming, witty and completely self-absorbed. Recently widowed, Lady Susan arrives unannounced at her brother-in-law's estate to wait out colourful rumours about her dalliances circulating through polite society.

Set in the decades between the two World Wars, the captivating story of one man who banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything. In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves Stockholm to seek adventure in...

*A story of greed, revenge, and love from the author of Nobber - 'A writer out to do whatever the hell he wants' Observer* 'Visceral, propulsive, kinetic . . . An unforgettable odyssey from one of the most daring writers at work today' Colin Walsh, author of the bestselling debut Kala 'Wild...

Best Debut, The Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award 2017 'Thrilling, unnerving, clever and beautiful' Fredrik Backman The year is 1793, Stockholm. King Gustav of Sweden has been assassinated, years of foreign wars have emptied the treasuries, and the realm is governed by a self-interested...

No evidence is yielded from the river. Unable to communicate with their silent prisoner, the authorities move Jean to the decaying Edinburgh Tolbooth in order to prise the story from her. The High Court calls in Robert Kinniburgh, a talented teacher from the Deaf & Dumb Institution, in the hope that he will interpret for them and determine if Jean is fit for trial. If found guilty she faces one of two fates; death by hanging or incarceration in an insane asylum.

'A captivating story of love and adventure, thrumming with secrets' Lucy Steeds, author of The Artist 'Moves elegantly back and forwards in time, and across the world from Paris and London to the Antipodes . . . beautifully written' Sunday Times 'A compelling tale . . . blends historical fiction...

'Mesmeric from the first page. A twisting, haunting tale.' Lucy Steeds, author of THE ARTIST 'A searing debut' Sunday Times *THE POP CULTURE MOMENTS EVERYONE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT IN 2026* The Knock hill is a carcass unintelligible as any dream. Wouldn't you rather be a witch than a victim? I...