Recommendations based on "Babel"

Enemies-to-lovers doesn't get more high stakes than a witch and a witch hunter falling in love in bestselling author Kristen Ciccarelli's latest romantic fantasy.On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can't help but find herself falling for.Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?Kristen Ciccarelli’s The Crimson Moth is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch…is falling in love.

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs...

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come.That girl didn’t want to die. She just wanted out of that house. She wanted out of that decorating scheme.The five Lisbon sisters – beautiful, eccentric and, now, gone –had always been a point of obsession for the entire neighbourhood.Although the boys that once loved them from afar have grown up, they remain determined to understand a tragedy that has defied explanation. The question persists – why did all five of the Lisbon girls take their own lives?This lyrical and timless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life announced the arrival of one of the greatest American novelists of the last thirty years.‘A flare from my own secret world, all the inchoate longings and obsessions of being a teenager somehow rendered into book form’ Emma Cline, author of The Girls

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 'I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me ... Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day - mock me horribly!' A story of evil, debauchery and scandal, Oscar Wilde's only novel tells of Dorian Gray, a beautiful yet corrupt man. When he wishes that a perfect portrait of himself would bear the signs of ageing in his place, the picture becomes his hideous secret, as it follows Dorian's own downward spiral into cruelty and depravity. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a masterpiece of the evil in men's hearts, and is as controversial and alluring as Wilde himself. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

A New York Times Bestseller“At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art….A book I could not put down.” —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch HouseA thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War from the bestselling author of CirceA tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.“A captivating retelling of The Iliad and events leading up to it through the point of view of Patroclus: it’s a hard book to put down, and any classicist will be enthralled by her characterisation of the goddess Thetis, which carries the true savagery and chill of antiquity.” — Donna Tartt, The Times

The exciting end to The Poppy War trilogy, R.F. Kuang's acclaimed, award-winning epic fantasy that combines the history of 20th-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating, enthralling effect.After saving her nation of Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress Su Daji in a brutal civil war, Fang Runin was betrayed by allies and left for dead.Despite her losses, Rin hasn't given up on those for whom she has sacrificed so much – the people of the southern provinces and especially Tikany, the village that is her home. Returning to her roots, Rin meets difficult challenges – and unexpected opportunities. While her new allies in the Southern Coalition leadership are sly and untrustworthy, Rin quickly realizes that the real power in Nikan lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation.Backed by the masses and her Southern Army, Rin will use every weapon to defeat the Dragon Republic, the colonizing Hesperians, and all who threaten the shamanic arts and their practitioners.As her power and influence grows, will she be strong enough to resist the Phoenix's voice, urging her to burn the world and everything in it?R.F. Kuang's book 'Babel' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 05-09-2022.

Rin’s story continues in this acclaimed sequel to The Poppy War—an epic fantasy combining the history of twentieth-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters.The war is over.The war has just begun.Three times throughout its history, Nikan has fought for its survival in the bloody Poppy Wars. Though the third battle has just ended, shaman and warrior Rin cannot forget the atrocity she committed to save her people. Now she is on the run from her guilt, the opium addiction that holds her like a vice, and the murderous commands of the fiery Phoenix—the vengeful god who has blessed Rin with her fearsome power.Though she does not want to live, she refuses to die until she avenges the traitorous Empress who betrayed Rin’s homeland to its enemies. Her only hope is to join forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who plots to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new republic.But neither the Empress nor the Dragon Warlord are what they seem. The more Rin witnesses, the more she fears her love for Nikan will force her to use the Phoenix’s deadly power once more.Because there is nothing Rin won’t sacrifice to save her country . . . and exact her vengeance.

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF 2024 WINNER OF GOODREADS MYSTERY & THRILLER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 'I was totally gripped' DOUGLAS STUART 'Immersive and enthralling' PAULA HAWKINS 'At first hard to put down. By page 200, impossible' STEPHEN KING ---------------------------------------------------- When their thirteen-year-old daughter Barbara goes missing at summer camp, all eyes fall on the Van Laar family. They're cold, rich people. They own the camp. And it's happened to them before. Fourteen years ago their little boy, Bear, vanished without a trace. Two children lost to the same wilderness. Is it a tragedy... or a crime? ----------------------------------------------------- 'Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced ... I can't remember the last time I felt so entangled in a novelist's coils' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'A beguiling novel with a relentless grip. You won't be able to put it down' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground 'At once an immersive family saga and utterly propulsive mystery. Beautifully written' Emilia Hart, author of Weyward 'A masterful literary thriller' Lucy Clarke, author of The Hike 'Riveting from page one to the last breathless word ... This book flew by at lightning speed, but will stick with me for a very long time' Rebecca Makkai, author of I Have Some Questions For You 'Dickensian in scope ... Very entertaining' Vogue, Best Picks for Summer 2024 The God of the Woods debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list on 21 July 2024. READERS ARE SAYING... 'I simply couldn't put it down!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'An excellent page-turner' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I didn't see the end coming' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I strongly urge everyone to read it and experience the magic for themselves' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'My top read for 2024 so far. Actually, top read full stop' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A fascinating story with lots of ups and downs... I did like the conclusion, very clever!!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Loved this book from page one! ... A book not to be missed!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I cannot think of when I have read anything so evocative' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A riveting read. If you're looking for intriguing characters, a beautifully crafted, slow and atmospheric mystery that feels incredibly intense, then this is the one for you' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:The story of a hero’s descent to the underworldAlice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.