Brother William turns detective in medieval Italy when seven bizarre deaths take place in seven days and nights.

"19th-century Europe--from Turin to Prague to Paris--abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. In Italy, republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. In France, during the Paris Commune, people eat mice, plan bombings and rebellions in the streets, and celebrate Black Masses. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating conspiracies and even massacres. There are false beards, false lawyers, false...

"The Betrothed is an inextricable thread in the fabric of Italian culture, one of the most influential works in the Italian literary canon, and required reading in Italian schools. Published in 1827 but set two hundred years earlier, it is considered the first iteration of the historical novel; Edgar Allen Poe declared it "a work which promises to be the commencement of a new style in novel-writing" in 1835. But, until now, it has remained relatively...

"The New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Montalbano series brings us back to Vigàta in the nineteenth century for a rip-roaring comic novel. 1870s Sicily. Much to the displeasure of Vigàta's stubborn populace, the town has just been unified under the Kingdom of Italy. They're now in the hands of a new government they don't understand, and they definitely don't like. Eugenio Bortuzzi has been named Prefect for Vigàta, a regional representative...

The true story of Enaiatollah Akbari, a young boy whose agonizing struggle begins after his native Afghanistan becomes a dangerous place to live.

Forced to risk her life every day as a taster at Hitler's secret headquarters, Rosa and a growing sisterhood of involuntary women conscripts navigate Nazi fanatics, an SS guard's unwanted attentions, and the escalating war.

Samuele is twelve and lives on an island in the Mediterranean, far away from the mainland. Like all boys of his age he does not always enjoy going to school. He would much rather climb the rocks by the shore, play with his slingshot or mooch about the port. But his home is not like other islands. For years, it has been the destination of men, women and children trying to make the crossing from Africa in boats that are far too small and decrepit. The...

"Silvia Ferrara leads a code cracking mission to decipher the hidden truths and histories of our greatest invention-the art of writing"-- Ferrara takes a profound look at how-- and how many times-- human beings have managed to produce the miracle of written language around the world. Readers will examine the enigmas of undeciphered scripts; study the turtle shells and ox scapulae that bear the earliest Chinese inscriptions, and venture to the cutting...