Orchid is a lower-ranking concubine of the Emperor. As Orchid steels herself against the other concubines' jealousies and foul play, China collapses around her, and she becomes its last Empress

Istanbul, the 1590s. The Sultan secretly commissions a great book, to be decorated in the forbidden European manner. When one of the artists goes missing, their master seeks outside help.

Swarup's Q & A is a beguiling blend of high comedy, drama, and romance that reveals how we know what we know not just about trivia, but about life itself. Cutting across humanity in all its squalor and glory, Vikas Swarup presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle between good and evil and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive.

1975, India. Mrs. Dina Dalal, a widow, takes in a boarder and two Hindu tailors to sew for her. When tragedy strikes the four, their newfound kinship is threatened.

Stuck in a loveless marriage, Mariam befriends teenager Laila. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love overcomes all obstacles.

Murakami writes of contemporary Japan, urban alienation and journey's of self-discovery, and in this book he combines recollections of the war with metaphysics, dreams and hallucinations into a powerful and impressionistic work.

Young Peony is betrothed to a complete stranger. But when she falls in love with an elegant young man, she embarks on a perilous journey of love, desire and sorrow.

A novel which tells the story of a well-educated and ambitious Muslim man torn between staying true to his roots, and all that the American way of life has to offer him.