Showing results by author "Ros Schwartz" in All Categories

Deep underground, 39 women are kept in isolation in a cage. Aboveground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus? Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the 40th prisoner - sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them aboveground.

One by one the lighted windows went dark. The silhouette of the dead man could still be seen through the frosted glass like a Chinese shadow puppet. A taxi pulled up. It wasn't the public prosecutor yet. A young woman crossed the courtyard with hurried steps, leaving a whiff of perfume in her wake. Summoned to the dimly-lit Place des Vosges one night, where he sees shadowy figures at apartment windows, Maigret uncovers a tragic story of desperate lives, unhappy families, addiction and a terrible, fatal greed.

An irresistible French sensation - Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore meets Amélie. The Reader on the 6.27 explores the power of books through the lives of the people they save. It is sure to capture the hearts of book lovers everywhere. Guylain Vignolles leads a dull and solitary life. He hates his job, and his only company at home is a goldfish. Every morning he takes the 6.27 to his tedious job at a book pulping factory.

When Juliette takes the métro to her loathed office job each morning, her only escape is in books - she avidly reads on her journey and imagines what her fellow commuters’ choices might say about them. But when, one day, she decides to alight the train a few stops early and meets Soliman - the mysterious owner of the most enchanting bookshop Juliette has ever seen - she is sure her life will never be the same again....

Thelma is the busy single mum of 12-year-old Louis. When he is hit by a lorry one morning, their lives are changed for ever. Louis falls into a coma, and if he doesn't regain consciousness in the next four weeks, he may never wake up again. At home in Louis' bedroom, a devastated Thelma finds a list of all the things he wants to accomplish in his life and suddenly sees a way to survive: she will fulfil her son's dreams, in the hope that it will bring him back.

It's difficult to find love in a profession like Ambroise's - even his father despises what he does.... And while Manelle, a home-help for the elderly in the same small French town, adores her days spent with her eccentric clients, she too often ends her evenings alone. So when an unusual request from Manelle's favourite client - 82-year-old retired chef gourmand Samuel - brings the two of them together for an unlikely road trip to Switzerland, along with Ambroise's cake-loving grandmother, it might just be time for the rest of their lives to begin....