This is a collection of short stories which bring to life the sounds and smells of Mexico - with breathtaking range and authority, whose characters give life to the varied life on both sides of the Mexican border. From a young girl revealing secrets only an eleven-year-old can know, to a witch woman circling above the village on a pre-dawn flight, the women in these stories offer tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom.

And what can Richard Gere, a beautiful librarian, a struggling priest and a foul-mouthed and troubled young man teach Bartholomew about finding love and happiness?Whatever it is, Bartholomew is in for a lot more than he bargained for . . .'The Good Luck of Right Now is original, compelling, and uplifting . . . His writing is shot through with wit and humanity' Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project

George Bernard Shaw's witty comedy of manners, Pygmalion includes an introduction by Nicholas Grene in Penguin Classics. Pygmalion both delighted and scandalized its first audiences in 1914. A brilliantly witty reworking of the classical tale of the sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with his perfect female statue, it is also a barbed attack on the British class system and a statement of Shaw's feminist views.

Everybody who is anybody is seen at the glittering parties held in millionaire Jay Gatsby's mansion in West Egg, east of New York. The riotous throng congregates in his sumptuous garden, coolly debating Gatsby's origins and mysterious past. None of the frivolous socialites understands him and among various rumours is the conviction that 'he killed a man'. A detached onlooker, Gatsby is oblivious to the speculation he creates, but always seems to be watching and waiting, though no one knows wh...

'A modern classic.' Guardian'A near-perfect work of art.' Joyce Carol OatesSylvia Plath is a major cultural icon who continues to inspire new generations of female readers. The Bell Jar is one of the defining novels of the 20th century. I was supposed to be having the time of my life .

. . Working as an intern for a New York fashion magazine in the summer of 1953, Esther Greenwood is on the brink of her future.

Yet she is also on the edge of a darkness that makes her world increasingly unreal...

Step into the unsettling world of Shirley Jackson with a collection of her finest, creepiest short stories, revealing the queen of American gothic at her mesmerising best. This selection includes 'The Lottery', Jackson's masterpiece and one of the most terrifying and iconic stories of the twentieth century. 'An amazing writer ...

If you haven't read her you have missed out on something marvellous' Neil Gaiman

This Norton Critical Edition is again based on the first edition text (1722), the only text known to be Defoe's own. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and the editor's essay outlining the novel's textual history. "Contexts" collects related documents on criminal transport, contemporary accounts of lives of crime, and colonial laws as they applied to servants, slaves, and runaways.

"Criticism" includes eleven interpretations by Juliet McMaster, Everett Zimmerman, Maximillia...

A hugely-acclaimed black comedy exposing the dark side of the Midwestern American family. When the large Weston family is reunited in Oklahoma after the disappearance of their father, they let loose a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Tracy Letts's play August: Osage County was first performed by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in June 2007.

It was first staged in the UK at the National Theatre in 2008. August: Osage County won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony...

'UTTERLY ENGAGING. FROM THE VERY FIRST PAGE IT IS A HUGELY INVOLVING READ...A HEARTBREAKER: TRAGIC, FUNNY, INTENSELY MOVING' SPECTATORIn a vase in a closet, a couple of years after his father died in 9/11, nine-year-old Oskar discovers a key...The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But which of New York's 162 million locks does it open?So begins a quest that takes Oskar - inventor, letter-writer and amateur detective - across New York's five boroughs and into the jumbled lives of ...

Down at the Front, on a cold winter's night in 1914, amidst the worst war the world had ever seen, an inexplicable silence spread from man to man. Belief was in the air. Then the soldiers ceased fire and the magic of Christmas took hold .

. . Carol Ann Duffy's brilliant poem celebrates the miraculous truce between the trenches, when enemy shook hands with enemy, shared songs, swapped gifts, even played football, and peace found a place in No Man's Land.

With gorgeous colour illustrations by D...