From the creative genius and author of the modern classic 'Sophie's World' comes a novel about loneliness and the power of words. Jakop is a lonely man. Divorced from his wife and with no friends apart from his constant companion Pelle, he spends his life attending the funerals of people he doesn't know, obscuring his identity in a web of improbable lies. As his addiction spirals out of control, he is forced to reconcile his love of language and stories with the ever more urgent need for human connection. The book is written in the form of a long letter by Jakop to a woman named Agnes about his life and encounters with the members of the Lundin family through the years. Jakop is a university professor with poor social skills and the use of Pelle allows us to question our own styles of communication and understanding of ourselves. A poignant and funny book for our times, full of life and hope. 321pp, paperback.

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, this fascinating debut is about a gifted artist with cerebral palsy and his young carer Janet who is struggling to find her way in the world. Brutal, tender, philosophical, visceral, complex and so well written, it is a deft exploration of two entwined lives. The character of Janet is incredible, utterly believable and this is one of those books that sneaks under your skin and expands you. Thoughtfully devised, it is a disquieting and unsettling read about the balance of power, cruelty and compassion, a multi-layered exploration of the able and the disabled body. Through the experiences of Janet who shares with us her enthusiasm and disappointment, love and loss, care for others and self-loathing, we discover the possibilities a disabled body offers which is far from incomplete or needing to be fixed. Beyond describing in vivid detail Sean's disability, Alex Allison uses it to pave new literary ground, making use of unusual figures of speech that allow the reader access to another way of looking at the world. Janet is caught between care work and caring for herself and her life revolves around Sean, a talented fine art student living and working with cerebral palsy. Both are new to London and far from their families, finding a means of escape through pushing their bodies to the limit. When Sean is faced with an unexpected and deeply personal tragedy, Janet must let her guard down at last and discover what she's prepared to fight for. 259pp, paperback.

What if you had an 'undo' button? Arlo Knott develops the mysterious ability to reverse his last action which makes him able to experience anything, to charm any woman, and impress any friend. His is a life free of mistakes, a life without regret, but second chances aren't all they're cracked up to be. As wonderful as Arlo's new life is, a mistake in his traumatic childhood still haunts him, and the temptation to undo, undo and keep undoing could be too much to resist. 'One of the most intelligent and readable high concept British novels of the last ten years' - Starburst. We meet a deeply flawed yet lovable protagonist who is utterly believable as we follow him from age 13 to adulthood, from success to success through luck more than his ability, the novel has echoes of 'A Time Traveller's Wife'. 436pp, paperback.

Detective Alex Cross has lost everything and everyone he has ever cared about. His enemy Thierry Mulch is holding his family hostage. Driven by feelings of hatred and revenge, Mulch is threatening to kill them all, and break Cross forever, but Cross is fighting back. In a race against time he must defeat Mulch and find his wife and children, no matter what it takes. The end-game has begun. 496 thrilling pages, paperback.

Detective Alex Cross is hunting three killers, but is someone hunting him? They are on the rampage in the capital and dead bodies are piling up. Alex is in charge of all three investigations and has never been under more pressure, but with a crisis at home that threatens to tear his family apart, his attention is divided. While Cross tracks the killers, he doesn't notice that someone is tracking him. Can he unravel the cases and find the killers in time, or will he be the next dead body on the list? A thrilling thriller. 505pp, paperback.

Alex Cross's whole world is crashing down around him. He has been hunted, stalked like prey, his predator priming himself for the kill. Cross has devoted his life to protecting others. Now he's unable to protect even those closest to him. As a police detective he has made many enemies, but never like this. Everything he loves is being taken from him and soon he will have nothing and no one left. This is James Patterson at the top of his game. 518pp, paperback.

The President's son and daughter have been kidnapped and Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene. Just days later a deadly contagion in the DC water supply threatens to cripple the capital, and Alex fears that these events could signal the beginning of the most devastating terrorist attack the US has ever experienced. With each passing hour the window for solving both crimes narrow, and Alex must make a desperate decision that goes against everything he believes in. High octane stuff and relentlessly exciting. 500 page paperback.

Stalin's daughter was a difficult, complicated and deeply sympathetic woman. In one of the most momentous events of the Cold War, Svetlana Alliluyeve, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, abandoned her life in Moscow in 1967, arriving in New York to a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side is Peter Horvath, a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle Svetlana into America. She is a contradictory celebrity, charismatic and headstrong, lonely and alienated by her adopted country's radically different society. Persuading herself that all she yearns for is a simple American life, she attempts to settle into a suburban existence, but when this dream ends in disillusionment, she reaches out to Peter. He is the one person who understands how the chains of her past still hold her prisoner. As their relationship deepens, unfolding under the eyes of her CIA minders, their private lives cease to be their own. The author's father was in fact that young lawyer who escorted Svetlana to the US, and he has drawn upon private papers and years of extensive research to recreate this story of one woman's search for a place to belong. Fictionalised into an excellent novel. 268pp, paperback.

Bernice Rubens was the first woman to win the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1970 with this, her fifth novel. The Zweck family are a disturbing bunch, and none more so than Norman, whose brilliant career as a barrister has been curtailed by a depressive illness and an addiction to tranquillisers. His father Rabbi Zweck is at a loss to help him, and his unmarried sister Bella tries hard to help him when she's not working behind the till in the grocery shop below their flat. Norman is the clever one of this close-knit Jewish family in the East End of London. Infant prodigy, brilliant barrister, the apple of his parents' eyes, until at 41 he becomes a drug addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of his hallucinations and paranoia. For Norman his committal to a mental hospital represents the ultimate act of betrayal. For his rabbi father, his son's deterioration is a bitter reminder of his own guilt and failure. Only Bella, the unmarried sister, still in her childhood white ankle socks, can reach across the abyss of pain to bring father and son the elusive peace which they both desperately crave. The novel has the Yiddish-based rhythms of the Zwecks's way of speaking. 218pp, paperback facsimile reprint of the 1969 original.

The location of the glymera's notorious prison camp was lost after the raids. When a freak accident provides Nyx with clues to where her sister may still be doing time, she becomes determined to find the secret subterranean labyrinth and embarks on a journey under the earth to learn a terrible truth, and meet a male who changes everything forever. The Jackal has been in the camp for so long he cannot recall anything of the freedom he once knew. He helps Nyx because he cannot help himself and after she discovers what happened to her sister, getting her back out becomes a deadly mission for them both. United by passion they work together on an escape plan for Nyx even though their destiny is to be forever apart, and as the Black Dagger Brotherhood is called upon for help, and Rhage discovers he has a half-brother who is falsely imprisoned, someone is plotting the deaths of them all. Sexy and unique, 'utterly absorbing and deliciously erotic', Ward builds an elaborate world of its own mythology, with a strong female lead character. This series has achieved cult popularity with its archaic language and solid back stories. 351pp, large softback.