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Braille, fiction for adults - New Books November 2008

Summary: Your regular update of new titles available for loan and sale from RNIB

• A to M
• N to Z

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All braille books are available for loan and sale unless otherwise stated. Some titles may not be available to overseas readers.

A to M

Adair, Gilbert
Buenas noches, buenos aires. 2005. 2v. Price: £6.99. Order No: 21512003. General fiction
Gideon is a lonely, horny young Englishman who arrives in Paris to take up a teaching post in the local Berlitz, and becomes increasingly fascinated by the intoxicating atmosphere of erotic banter and bragging in the school's all-male and virtually all-gay common room. Some passages of a sexual nature may be considered offensive.

Allen, Woody
Mere anarchy. 2007. 2v. Price: £12.99. Order No: 21511704. Humorous fiction.
18 comic pieces - includes tales of a body double – mistaken for the film's star - kidnapped by outlaws; a pretentious writer forced to work on the novelisation of a "Three Stooges" film; a nanny secretly writing an expose of her Manhattan employers; crooks selling bespoke prayers on eBay; and how to react when you're asked to finance a Broadway play about the invention and manufacture of the adjustable showerhead.

Allende, Isabel
The house of the spirits; translated from the Spanish by Magda Bogin. 1986. 8v. Price: £8.99. Order No: 21511603. General fiction
Against a backdrop of revolution and counter-revolution, Allende portrays the Trueba family whose private bonds of love and hatred are more complex and enduring than the political allegiances that set them at odds. Contains language and some passages of a sexual nature that may be considered offensive.

Andrews, V.C
Broken flower. 2006. 5v. For loan only. General fiction.
Part of the Early Spring series. Living with her parents and brother Ian in her Grandmother Emma’s enormous mansion, Jordan March tries to be a good girl and follow her grandmother’s strict rules. But one day, without warning, Jordan’s body begins to change and everyone notices her in a way that seems dark, dangerous, and threatening.

Arnott, Jake
Johnny come home. 2006. 4v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21512703. General fiction.
London, 1972, and a charismatic anarchist called O'Connell dies of an overdose, leaving his artist boyfriend, Pearson, and fellow activist Nina in shock. It also leaves a spare room in their squat, so Pearson moves in Sweet Thing, a streetwise yet vulnerable young rent boy he initially picks up but then tries to help. Pearson isn't the only one who's interested though - glam rock star Johnny Chrome is on the brink of a breakdown and is convinced that Sweet Thing is the only one who can bring him back. As Sweet Thing gets drawn further into Johnny Chrome's dangerous orbit, Pearson and Nina discover that O'Connell was not all he seemed.

Atkinson, Kate
One good turn. 2006. 8v. Price: £17.99. Order No: 20926901. Crime fiction.
Part of the Jackson Brodie series. It is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander - until he becomes a suspect.

Baker, Anne
Let the bells ring. 2006. 5v. General fiction. For loan only.
Hannah and her mother Esme are lucky to escape when their home is destroyed during a bombing raid. Forced to move in with Esme's difficult sister-in-law, Hannah falls for the boy next door, Eric Goodwin. Is innocent Hannah being drawn into an unpredictable and dangerous world of crime?

Banks, Iain
The crow road. 1992. 9v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21510103. Family Stories.
Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his family in Scotland. Full of questions about the family's past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God and illegal substances.

Barnes, Jonathan
The somnambulist. 2007. 4v. Fantasy. For loan only.
The extraordinary tale of Edward Moon, detective, his silent associate the Somnambulist, and a devilish plot to recreate the apocalyptic prophecies of William Blake and bring the British Empire crashing down. With a gallery of vividly grotesque characters, a richly evoked setting, poetry, secret societies, travelling circuses and walking dead set in a richly realised Victorian London.

Bellow, Saul
The victim: a novel. 1996. 6v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21573903. Psychological fiction.
Leventhal is a natural victim; a man uncertain of himself, never free from the nagging suspicion that the other guy may be right. So when he meets a down-at-heel stranger in the park one day and finds himself being accused of ruining the man's life, he half believes it.

Bennett, Alan
The uncommon reader. 2007. 1v. Price: £10.99. Order No: 21442401. Humorous fiction.
When the Royal Corgis strayed through the grounds of Buckingham Palace, the Queen discovered the City of Westminster travelling library. One book leads to another and the Queen is soon engrossed in the delights of reading. The royal household dislikes the Queen's new interest, because books are devices that ignite the imagination. Contains language which might be considered offensive.

Bennett, Anne
A sister's promise. 2007. 7v. Price: £6.99. Order No: 21351801. Family Stories.
Molly's life changes forever when her parents are killed in a horrific accident. Although her grandfather wants to keep both her and little brother Kevin with him, the authorities disagree and send Molly to live with her grandmother. Years later, war breaks out and she sets off to find Kevin and her grandfather not knowing what perils are to befall her before she can discover their fate.

Borges, Jorge Luis
Fictions; translated with an after word by Andrew Hurley. 2000. 4v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21574403. Short Stories.
Seventeen stories. The author was born in Buenos Aires in 1899 and yet has so contemporary an appeal that his works have become best sellers in England as well as in native Latin America.

Cornwell, Bernard
The pale horseman. 2006. 5v. Historical fiction. For loan only.
Part of the Saxon Chronicles series. It is the lowest time for the Saxons. Defeated comprehensively by the Vikings who now occupy most of England, Alfred and his very small group of surviving followers retreat to the trackless marshlands of Somerset. Uhtred, determined to discover the enemy's strategies, draws once again on his Viking upbringing, and attempts to enter the Viking camps and become accepted by their leaders in an attempt to uncover their plans but he is drawn back to his allegiance to the Vikings.

Cornwell, Bernard
The Lords of the North. 2007. 5v. Historical fiction. For loan only.
Part of the Saxon Chronicles series. The year is 878 and the Vikings have been thrown out of Wessex. Uhtred travels north to seek revenge on renegade Danish lord, Kjartan for his father's death. Together with a small band of warriors, Uhtred plans his attack on his enemy, revenge fuelling his anger, resolute on bloody retribution. But, he finds himself betrayed and ends up on a desperate slave voyage to Iceland.

Cox, Josephine
The loner. 2007. 4v. General fiction. For loan only.
After a tragic accident involving his mother, and the disappearance of his father, young Davie flees his home town of Blackburn. Devastated, he must escape the memories of the worst night in his young life. With little more than the shirt on his back and a fierce determination to find his father, he sets off on a lonely, friendless road. Back home, those Davie has left behind wait anxiously: Judy, his childhood friend who has held a secret close to her heart
these past few years, and Joseph, his grandfather whose guilt at the events of that dreadful night burns right to his soul. Will they ever see Davie again?

Cussler, Clive and Cussler, Dirk
Treasure of Khan: a novel. 2006. 7v. Thriller. For loan only.
Part of the Dirk Pitt series. A mysterious Mongolian mogul harbours a dream of restoring the great empire of ancient Mongolia. He holds a dark secret about Genghis Khan, his grandson Kublai Khan and the treasures of Xanadu - treasures of gold and also much, much more. His relentless ambition will cause devastation to millions ...unless Dirk Pitt can somehow find a way to stop him. Dirk Pitt and the NUMA crew are about to come head to head with their most dangerous enemy ever.

Donnelly, Jennifer
The winter rose. 2006. 13v. General fiction. For loan only.
Part of the Rose series. In London and Africa in the early days of the twentieth century, India Selwyn-Jones is one of a rare new breed: a lady doctor. In London's East End she meets a gangland boss called Sid Malone. Criminal he may be but he also has a hidden charm, and a devastatingly attractive personality, and when India is called to treat him after a dockside brawl, their friendship becomes more intense. But Sid Malone is not his real name and he has a past and enemies by the score.

Ellory, R J
A quiet belief in angels. 2007. 7v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21480101. Thriller.
1939. In the small, rural community of Augusta Falls, twelve-year-old Joseph Vaughan hears of the brutal assault and murder of a young girl, the first in a series of killings that will blight the community over the next decade. Joseph and his friends are determined to protect Augusta Falls against the evil in their midst and form The Guardians. But the murderer evades them and they watch helplessly as one child after another is taken. Fifty years later, Joseph must confront the nightmare that has overshadowed his entire life.

Ferris, Joshua
Then we came to the end: a novel. 2008. 6v. Order No: 21442701. Price: £7.99. General fiction.
They spend their days - and too many of their nights - at work. There's Chris Yop, clinging to his ergonomic chair; Lynn Mason, the boss, whose breast cancer everyone pretends not to talk about; Carl Garbedian, secretly taking someone else's medication; Marcia Dwyer, whose hair is stuck in the eighties; and Benny, who's just - well, just Benny. Amidst the boredom, redundancies, water cooler moments, meetings, flirtations and pure rage, life is happening, to their great surprise, all around them.

Fforde, Jasper
First among sequels. 2007. 7v. Price: £12.99. Order No: 21404903. Fantasy.
Part of the Thursday Next series. Fourteen years after Thursday Next pegged out at Superhoop '88, her Jurisfiction job has been downgraded due to a potential conflict of interest, since her previous adventures are now themselves in print. Thursday's time is spent worrying about her teenage son Friday and tutoring new recruits. This being fiction, however, jeopardy is never far away.

Flynn, Katie
Little girl lost. 2006. 5v. Family stories. For loan only.
It is a cold night and Sylvie Dugdale is weeping as she walks by the Mersey. A figure approaches and, dodging aside to avoid him, she falls into the river. Constable Brendon O’Hara, just coming off duty, sees the girl’s plight and dives in to rescue her. He is dazzled by her beauty, but Sylvie’s husband is in prison and the closeness that Brendan soon longs for is impossible. Sylvie has to escape from Liverpool and meets Maeve, a crippled girl from the slums who will change all their lives when a little girl is lost.

Gale, Patrick
Notes from an exhibition. 2008. 5v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21442101. Psychological fiction.
Gifted artist Rachel Kelly is a whirlwind of creative highs and anguished, crippling lows. She's also something of an enigma to her husband and four children. So when she is found dead in her Penzance studio, leaving behind some extraordinary new paintings, there's a painful need for answers. The fragments of a
shattered life slowly come to light, and it becomes clear that bohemian Rachel has left her children not only a gift for art - but also her haunting demons.

Greene, Graham
Our man in Havana. 2001. 4v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21053801. Spy stories.
Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, was short of money. His daughter had reached an expensive age - so he accepted Hawthorne's offer of 300 dollars plus a month and became Agent 59200/5, M. I.6's man in Havana. To keep the job, Wormold pretends to recruit sub-agents and sends fake stories. Then
the stories start coming disturbingly true.

Harris, Joanne
The lollipop shoes. 2007. 6v. General fiction. For loan only.
Chocolat series; book 2. Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Yanne and her daughters, Rosette and Annie, live peacefully above their little chocolate shop. Then into their lives blows Zozie de l'Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes, and everything begins to change. But this new friendship is not what it seems. Ruthless, devious and seductive, Zozie de l'Alba has plans of her own - plans that will shake their world to pieces.

Harris, Robert
The ghost. 2007. 5v. Price: £18.99. Order No: 21389501. Thriller.
The narrator of this novel is a professional ghost writer who jumps at the chance to ghost the memoirs of Britain's former prime minister. But it doesn't take him long to realise he has made a terrible mistake. His predecessor on the project died in circumstances that were distinctly suspicious, and the ex-prime minister turns out to be a man with secrets in his past.

Harry, Lilian.
Keep smiling through. 1996. 8v. Price: £6.99. Order No: 21389101. Family stories.
Part of the April Grove series. May 1941 - and the people of April Grove in Portsmouth are beginning to feel the war will never end. While Betty faces conflict at home over her love for the pacifist Dennis, Carol's bid to escape her carping mother has far-reaching consequences; and Micky, at odds with authority and yearning to be a hero, nearly brings tragedy to them all.

Hill, Reginald.
The death of Dalziel. 2007. 6v. Crime fiction. For loan only.
Part of the Dalziel and Pascoe series. After being caught in the blast of a huge Semtex explosion, Superintendent Andy Dalziel lies in a hospital bed. It falls on DCI Peter Pascoe to seek justice for Andy. Pascoe is certain of a conspiracy and the attempted murder of Yorkshire Police's most inept officer only convinces him further.

Johnson, Milly
The Yorkshire pudding club. 2007. 5v. General fiction. For loan only.
Three South Yorkshire friends, all on the cusp of 40, fall pregnant at the same time following a visit to an ancient fertility symbol. For Helen, it's a dream come true, although her husband is not as thrilled about it as she had hoped. For Janey, it is an unmitigated disaster as she has just been offered the career break of a life-time. For Elizabeth, it is mind-numbing, because she knows people like her shouldn't have children. Damaged by her dysfunctional
childhood and emotionally lost, she not only has to contend with carrying a child she doubts she can ever love, but she also has to deal with the return to her life of a man whose love she must deny herself.

Kazantzakis, Nikos
Saint Francis. 2005. 11v. Biographical fiction. For loan only.
Nikos Kazantzakis retells the story of Francis of Assisi. He portrays the saint as a great lover and inspiring leader who embraced radical poverty in the face of many obstacles and temptations while
achieving a way of life marked by epic generosity. Donated by the Guild of Church Braillists.

Lessing, Doris
The cleft. 2007. 3v. Price: £16.99. Order No: 21068501. General fiction.
An old Roman senator, contemplative at his late stage of life, embarks on what will likely be his last endeavour: the retelling of the story of human creation. He recounts the history of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic, coastal wilderness, confined within the valley of an overshadowing mountain; a society free from men.

Mariner, Carl K
Beyond limits. 1997. 5v. Price: £5.99. Order No: 21176401. Erotic fiction.
It's not a phenomenon Special Agent Tom Hannah has encountered before. Respectable single women who adopt a promiscuous lifestyle overnight – and then vanish. Among the missing are an elected county judge, a high-school teacher, a Wall Street banker - and Felice Cody, a US government scientist. And
now the government wants her back. Some passages of a sexual nature may be considered offensive.

McCarthy, Cormac
The road. 2007. 3v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21423701. Science fiction.
A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscapes save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other.

Milton, Giles
Edward Trencom's nose: a novel of history, dark intrigue and cheese. 2007. 5v. Order No: 21337001. Price: £6.99. Humorous fiction.
Edward Trencom has bumbled through life, relying on his trusty nose to turn the family cheese shop into the most celebrated fromagerie in England. But his world is turned upside down when he stumbles across a crate of family papers. To his horror, Edward discovers that nine previous generations of his family have come to sticky ends because of their noses.

Morton, Kate
The house at Riverton. 2007. 8v. Price: £7.99. Order No: 21408503. Romance.
Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long-consigned to the dark, begin to sneak back through the cracks.

Mosse, Kate
Sepulchre. 2007. 10v. Price: £18.99. Order No: 21421801. Crime fiction.
October 1891: A young girl, Leonie Vernier, and her brother, Anatole, are invited to leave the gas-lit streets of Paris and travel south to a mysterious country house. There, Leonie is drawn into a century's old mystery of murder, ghosts and a strange set of tarot cards that seem to hold enormous power over life and death. October 2007: Meredith Martin decides to take a break from her research trip in Paris and head down south to a beautiful hotel in the woods. She becomes fascinated by the history of the place. But it is only when she too stumbles over a secluded glade in the forest that she realises that the secrets it contains are far from dead and buried.

N to Z

Nera, Frances
All that glitters.1999. 5v. Price: £6.99. Order No: 21176501. Erotic fiction.
Marta Broderick is a beautiful, successful art dealer and London lesbian. Marta inherits an art empire from the man who managed to spirit her out of East Berlin in the 1960s, and she seeks to solve his unfinished business. Marta has many secrets - for starters, she's dating a sexy married woman, Anne. But things get complicated when she meets the gorgeous but mysterious Judith Compton. Some passages of a sexual nature may be considered offensive.

Smith, Dodie
I capture the castle. 2003. 7v. Price: £6.99. Order No: 21404803. Romance.
When the Cassandra Mortmain and her family move into a ruinous castle, they don't really see why everyone regards them as profoundly eccentric. Then the American heirs to the castle turn up and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time.

Smith, Wilbur
The quest. 2007. 9v. Adventure. For loan only.
Part of the River God series. Egypt is struck by a series of terrible plagues. In desperation Pharaoh sends for Taita, the only man who might be able to win through to the source of the Nile and discover the cause of all their woes. None of them can have any idea of what a terrible enemy lies in ambush for "The Warlock" in those mysterious lands at the end of their world.

Stott, Rebecca
Ghostwalk. 2007. 6v. Price: £12.99. Order No: 21406803. Ghost stories.
Cambridge historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang, is found drowned, clutching a glass prism in her hand. The book she was writing about Isaac Newton’s involvement with alchemy remains unfinished. Lydia Brooke agrees to ghost write the missing final chapters of his mother’s book, and moves into Elizabeth’s house. Soon Lydia discovers that the shadow of violence that has fallen across present-day Cambridge, which escalates to a series of murders, may have its origins in the troubling evidence that Elizabeth’s research has unearthed.

Tremain, Rose
The road home. 2007. 6v. General fiction. For loan only.
Like so many others, Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to Eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter. Now, in front of him, lies the deep strangeness of the British: their hostile streets, their obsession with celebrity, their clannish pubs and their lonely flats.

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Content author: cservices@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 24/11/2008 16:43