Recommendations based on "Sharpe's Rifles Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809"

In this haunting second installment of the Regeneration Trilogy, a World War I officer grapples with the complex realities of PTSD, identity, sexuality, and society’s perceptions of mental illness.It is the spring of 1918, and Britain is faced with the possibility of defeat by Germany. A beleaguered government and a vengeful public target two groups as scapegoats: pacifists and homosexuals. Many are jailed, others lead dangerous double lives, the “the eye in the door” becomes a symbol of the paranoia that threatens to destroy the very fabric of British society.Central to this novel are such compelling, richly imagined characters as the brilliant and compassionate Dr. William Rivers; his most famous patient, the poet Siegfried Sassoon; and Lieutenant Billy Prior, who plays a central role as a domestic intelligence agent. With compelling, realistic dialogue and a keen eye for the social issues that have gone overlooked in mainstream media, The Eye in the Door is a triumph that equals Regeneration and the third novel in the trilogy, the 1995 Booker Prize-winning The Ghost Road, establishing Pat Barker's place in the very forefront of contemporary novelists.

The incredible final book in the phenomenon fantasy series described as “future classics" follows one man's dangerous journey through a labyrinthine world and the mysteries he uncovers along the way. (Los Angeles Times). "Josiah Bancroft is a magician. His books are that rare alchemy: gracefully written, deliriously imaginative, action packed, warm, witty, and thought provoking." —Madeline Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Circe As Marat's siege engine bores through the Tower, erupting inside ringdoms and leaving chaos in its wake, Senlin can do nothing but observe the mayhem from inside the belly of the beast. Caught in a charade, Senlin desperately tries to sabotage the rampaging Hod King, even as Marat's objective grows increasingly clear. The leader of the zealots is bound for the Sphinx's lair and the unimaginable power it contains.  In the city under glass at the Tower's summit, Adam discovers a utopia where everyone inexplicably knows the details of his past. As Adam unravels the mystery of his fame, he soon discovers the crowning ringdom conceals a much darker secret. Aboard the State of Art, Edith and her crew adjust to the reality that Voleta has awoken from death changed. She seems to share more in common with the Red Hand now than her former self. While Edith wars for the soul of the young woman, a greater crisis looms: They will have to face Marat on unequal footing and with Senlin caught in the crossfire.  And when the Bridge of Babel is finally opened, and the Brick Layer's true ambition revealed, neither they nor the Tower will ever be the same again. Also by Josiah Bancroft: The Books of Babel Senlin Ascends Arm of the Sphinx The Hod King The Fall of Babel

Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon Line. Here is their story as re-imagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, and major caffeine abuse. We follow the mismatched pair--one rollicking, the other depressive; one Gothic, the other pre-Romantic--from their first journey together to the Cape of Good Hope, to pre-Revolutionary America and back, through the strange yet redemptive turns of fortune in their later lives, on a grand tour of the Enlightenment's dark hemisphere, as they observe and participate in the many opportunities for insanity presented them by the Age of Reason.

The sweeping new novel from the bestselling author of LADY OF HAY switches between Roman Britain and the present day where history dramatically impacts on the lives of three women.The Romans are landing in Britannia…Cartimandua, the young woman destined to rule the great Brigantes tribe, watches the invaders come ever closer. Her life has always been a maelstrom of love, conflict and revenge, but it only becomes more turbulent and complicated with power. Her political skills are threatened by her personal choices, and Cartimandua finds she has made formidable enemies on all sides as she faces a decision which will change the futures of all around her.In the present day, historian Viv Lloyd Rees has immersed herself in the legends surrounding the Celtic queen. Viv struggles to hide her visions of Cartimandua and her conviction that they are real. But her obsession becomes more persistent when she finds an ancient brooch that carries a curse. Bitter rivalries and overwhelming passions are reawakened as past envelops present and Viv finds herself in the greatest danger of her life.Readers LOVE Barbara Erskine:‘Atmospheric’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Enthralling’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Spellbinding’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Another fabulous read from the mistress of the genre’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Immensely and deeply immersive fiction’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I loved every minute’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘An exceptional writer of great books’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘You can rely on this author to keep you wanting more’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘A joy to read’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Captivating and engrossing’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024 'One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years' Irish Times 'Bold and totally unexpected ... I was hooked from the first page' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain 'Brilliant ... Hilarious, moving, and profound' R. F. Kuang, author of Yellowface *** Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover. Enter LAMPO: lovesick, jobless, in need of a distraction. Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads. They're fading in the baking heat, but not everything is lost: they can still recite lines from Greek tragedy when tempted by Lampo and Gelon with goatskins of wine and scraps of food. And so an idea is born. Because, after all, you can hate the invaders but still love their poetry. It's audacious. It might even be dangerous. But like all the best things in life - love, friendship, art itself - it will reveal the very worst, and the very best, of what humans are capable of. What could possibly go wrong? *** 'Fierce, funny, fast-paced ... Brings the ancient world roaring to life' Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre 'Love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph ... A delicious treat of a read. I loved it' Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand

“[Pynchon's] funniest and arguably his most accessible novel.” —The New York Times Book Review“Raunchy, funny, digressive, brilliant.” —USA Today“Rich and sweeping, wild and thrilling.” —The Boston GlobeSpanning the era between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, and constantly moving between locations across the globe (and to a few places not strictly speaking on the map at all), Against the Day unfolds with a phantasmagoria of characters that includes anarchists, balloonists, drug enthusiasts, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, spies, and hired guns. As an era of uncertainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.

The Seventh Scroll, an ancient papyrus written by the slave Taita, holds the secret to the location of the Pharaoh's hidden tomb and his staggering untold wealth. Untouched for thousands of years, the scroll is accidentally discovered and instantly becomes something people will kill to obtain. In a race against an unknown enemy, Royan Al Simma, a beautiful Egyptologist who has deciphered the scrolls, and Nicholas Quentin-Harper, an English adventurer who risks his fortune, search the Ethiopian highlands for the whereabouts of the Pharaoh's treasure. As they close in on the tomb, the brilliant Taita's ancient traps become deadly while their enemy brings his ruthlessness and power to bear.

'Tis done.The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory.Everything that was will be changed forever ...The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion.

A volume containing two of the Bolitho stories of 18th-century naval adventures - Richard Bolitho - Midshipman , involving an encounter off the west coast of Africa, and Midshipman Bolitho and the `Avenger' , in which the 16-year-old faces danger from smugglers in Cornish waters.