Book: The Blind Assassin
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Hachette Essentials
Laura Chase's older sister Iris, married at 18 to a politically prominent industrialist but now poor and 82, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by their once-prosperous family before the First War. While coping with her unreliable body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death. Chief among these was the publication of The Blind Assassin, a novel which earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following.
Book: Schindler’s Ark
Author: Thomas Keneally
Publisher: Hachette Essentials
In the shadow of Auschwitz, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He was a womaniser, a heavy-drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. This is the extraordinary story of Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Book: Gilead
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Publisher: Hachette Essentials
In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, a kind of last testament to his remarkable forebears. Pulitzer Prize winner, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is a heartw-warming tale.
Book: The Sympathizer
Author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
Publisher: Hachette Essentials
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army with the help of his trusted captain is drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that the captain is secretly reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong.
Book: The Color Purple
Author: Alice Walker
Publisher: Hachette Essentials
Set in the deep American South between the wars, this book is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls 'father', she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage.