Massimo Ortelio Ordre des livres (chronologique)

FROM THE GLOBALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING 'A triumph... a brilliant idea carried out with confidence and brio and a deep love of an extraordinary city. The ingenuity of the time-skipping is beyond admiration' PHILIP PULLMAN 'Spellbinding.... Chevalier at her fabulous best. A rich, vivid and gently enchanting novel' ELIF SHAFAK Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here - like the glass the island's maestros spend their lives learning to handle. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime. Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss. The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna - but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her? Tracy Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is vivid, inventive, spellbinding: a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.

There is a fine line between coincidence and fate... In London 1799, Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist who lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents' famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle's suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young man seeking acceptance into the Society of Antiquaries. Edward sees the ancient vase as key to unlocking his academic future. Dora sees it as a chance to restore her parents' shop to its former glory, and to escape her uncle. But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has ever known, about her life, her family and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth she starts to realise that some mysteries are buried, and some doors are locked, for a reason. Gorgeously atmospheric and deliciously page-turning, Pandora deals with themes of secrets and deception, love and fulfilment, fate and hope.

It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiance and her brother and regarded by society as a 'surplus woman' unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. A new life awaits her in Winchester. Yes, it is one of draughty boarding-houses and sidelong glances at her naked ring finger from younger colleagues; but it is also a life gleaming with independence and opportunity. Violet falls in with the broderers, a disparate group of women charged with embroidering kneelers for the Cathedral, and is soon entwined in their lives and their secrets. As the almost unthinkable threat of a second Great War appears on the horizon Violet collects a few secrets of her own that could just change everything... Warm, vivid and beautifully orchestrated, A Single Thread reveals one of our finest modern writers at the peak of her powers.

A set of bewitching medieval tapestries hangs today in a protected chamber in Paris. They appear to portray a woman's seduction of a unicorn, but the story behind their making is unknown - until now. Paris, 1490. A shrewd French nobleman commissions six lavish tapestries celebrating his rising status at Court. He hires the charismatic, arrogant, sublimely talented Nicolas des Innocents to design them. Nicolas creates havoc among the women in the house - mother and daughter, servant and lady-in-waiting - before taking his designs north to the Brussels workshop where the tapestries are to be woven. There, master-weaver Georges de la Chapelle risks everything he has on finishing the tapestries - his finest, most intricate work - on time for his exacting French client. Ill-prepared for temptation and seduction, he and his family are consumed by the project and by their dealings with the hot-blooded painter from Paris. The results change all their lives - lives that have been captured in the tapestries, for those who know where to look.

"One life-changing summer Charlie meets Fran... In 1997, Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don't remember in the school photograph. His exams have not gone well. At home he is looking after his father, when surely it should be the other way round, and if he thinks about the future at all, it is with a kind of dread. Then Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie begins to hope. But if Charlie wants to be with Fran, he must take on a challenge that could lose him the respect of his friends and require him to become a different person. He must join the Company. And if the Company sounds like a cult, the truth is even more appalling. The price of hope, it seems, is Shakespeare."--Publisher description

From the author of the bestselling The Essex Serpent comes a darkly inventive and deeply moving novel that speaks urgently to our times.

Liv ha trascorso i suoi primi tre anni a Oslo, ma non ricorda nulla di quel periodo. La sua vita è legata a Kvaløya, un'isola nel circolo polare artico, scelta da sua madre, pittrice, per rifugiarsi e dipingere. Vivono in una baita grigia affacciata sul fiordo di Malangen, in un luogo isolato, ad eccezione della casa e della hytte di Kyrre Opdahl, un rifugio usato in passato per la caccia. Qui, il tempo sembra scorrere diversamente, intriso di leggende che raccontano di eventi sinistri. Kyrre narra storie di ragazzi che, tornati da una notte di pesca, portano con sé una presenza inquietante. Nella tradizione popolare, i troll sono mostri e la huldra è una fata seducente, ma Kyrre percepisce queste entità come forze maligne legate a eventi reali. Liv, pur affascinata dai racconti, non crede in tali forze. Tuttavia, l'estate del suo diciottesimo compleanno porta eventi tragici che mettono in discussione le sue convinzioni. Mats e Harald Sigfridsson, due fratelli inseparabili, muoiono in circostanze misteriose dopo una notte di festa. Le loro morti, insieme a quella di Marti Crosbie, inquietano Kvaløya e colpiscono profondamente Liv, soprattutto quando osserva Kyrre e Maia svanire nel nulla, lasciando solo polvere dietro di sé. In quest'opera, l'autore esplora la fusione di follia, mistero e mito con una scrittura magistrale.

Dans les années 1810, sur la côte du Dorset, Mary Anning découvre ses premiers fossiles et se passionne pour ces "prodigieuses créatures" dont l'existence remet en question les théories sur la création du monde. Elle se heurte aux préjugés de la communauté scientifique, entièrement composée d'hommes, qui la confine dans un rôle de figuration. Elle trouve heureusement une alliée en la personne d'Elizabeth Philpot, vieille fille intelligente, qui l'accompagne dans ses explorations

Biochimiste de 54 ans, Douglas Petersen imagine déjà sa retraite auprès de Connie, sa femme artiste, dans leur maison londonienne. Mais celle-ci lui apprend brusquement qu’elle n’est plus certaine de l’aimer. Pathologiquement maladroit et réservé, Douglas va devoir déployer toute son énergie pour reconquérir sa femme et tenter de tisser des liens avec cet inconnu qu’est devenu son fils adolescent. Douglas entraîne alors sa famille sur les traces de leur passé, dans un tour très balisé de l’Europe. Qu’est ce qui pourrait mal tourner ?