Dominique Lapierre Except for walking on the moon, spending time in the City of Joy is the most fascinating experience a man can have at the end of the twentieth...

William Dalrymple As the author of the best travel book of recent years at the intensely irritating age of twenty-two, William Dalrymple has now shown that In Xanadu was no fluke. City of...

Murong Leave Me A Novel of Chengdu is an unflinching, darkly funny take on love and life in modern China. It's the story of three young men, Chen Zhong, Li...

Alex Garland A 20th anniversary edition of this million copy bestseller, with a new introduction by John Niven: a classic story of paradise found - and lost.Richard lands in East...

Lesley Downer  Today when the summer thrushCame to sing at Heron’s NestI crossed the Bridge of Dreams.Have decided on the title for my new book: Across a Bridge of Dreams....

Christopher Robbins Closed to foreigners under Tsar and Soviet rule, Kazakhstan has remained largely hidden from the world, a remarkable feat for a country the size of Western Europe. Few...

Vikas Swarup Vicky Rai, the son of a high-profile Minister, has been shot dead by one of the guests at his own party. They are a glitzy bunch, but among...

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a novelist of unequalled insight, grace and emotional power. My Nine Lives represents a new and fascinating strand in her outstanding output canon...

Whitney Otto The bestselling author of How to Make an American Quilt transports us to San Francisco in the early 1980s, a magical, fog-shrouded city suffused—as are many of its denizens—with possibility...

Any Tan   January 1, 2006 by Harper

Jeet Thayil The Book of Chocolate Saints follows the unforgettable character Francis Newton Xavier and his journey towards salvation - or damnation - or perhaps both. In the swooning, hypnotic...

John Hay