A House for Mr. Biswas by Naipaul V S

River of Smoke
by Amitav Ghosh

In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured labourers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared-two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton. And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall. Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces.

On the grand scale of an historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbours of China. There, despite efforts of the emperor to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes of tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Bahram Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant out of Bombay, his estranged half-Chinese son Ah Fatt, the orphaned amateur botanist Paulette and a motley collection of others in pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower. All struggle to cope with their losses-and, for some, unimaginable freedoms-in the alleys and crowded waterways of nineteenth-century Canton.

As transporting and mesmerizing as an opiate induced dream, River of Smoke, book two in Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy, will soon be heralded as a masterpiece of twenty-first century literature.

Honor Among Thieves
by Jeffrey Archer

Spring, 1994, Washington, D.C. -- While the Clinton Administration grapples with its domestic policies, a sinister plot is being masterminded six thousand miles away in Baghdad. By using $100 million as bait and spinning a deadly web of corruption, forgery, and terror, Saddam Hussein seeks to embarrass the U.S. with the ultimate revenge: to steal a treasured historical document and then destroy it before the world's media -- on July 4, 1994. As the countdown to Independence day begins, two agents stand in the way of his nearly flawless plan: Scott Bradley, a rising star in the CIA who is desperate to prove his patriotism, and Hannah Kopec, the stunning Mossad operative who has already lost so much that she fears nothing and trusts no one. Their unrelenting quest to prevent what would undoubtedly be the most humiliating day in U.S. history takes them across four continents and climaxes in a dramatic, triple-twist ending.

Veronica Decides to Die
by Paulo Coelho

Veronica seems to have everything she could wish for.She is young and pretty,has plenty of attractive boyfriends,goes dancing,has a steady job,aloving family.Yet Veronica is not happy;something is lacking in her life.On the morning of November 11th,1997,she decides to die.She takes an overdose of sleeping pills,only to wake up sometime later in Vilette,the local hospital.There she is told that although she is alive now ,her heart is damaged and she only has a few more days to live...

This story follows Veronica through these intense days as her experiences lead her to question the whole idea of what madness is,before she comes to realise that every second of existence is a choice we all make between living and dying.This is a moving and uplifting song to life,one that reminds us that every moment in our lives is special and precious.