ACHEBE, Chinua

Things Fall Apart

Okonkwo, a man of the Ibo tribe in Nigeria at the end of the last century, is a man of substance and character, but he and his people are doomed to be destroyed - both from within the tribe and by the arrival of the white man.

ALDISS, Brian

Hothouse

In the far distant future when the sun is dying, man, lowly and easily killed, is the last animal species surviving in the all-conquering vegetable world.

ANGELOU, Maya

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (920.ANG)

The moving story of the author's childhood in the American South of the 1930s. When her mother decides that she and her two young children should move to California to live with her and her lover, the experience brings many traumas.

ATWOOD, Margaret

The Handmaid's Tale

In the North America of the future an authoritarian state has abolished individual choice and allotted its people a narrow prescribed role. This is the story of the Handmaid, whose job is to conceive children on behalf of her mistress. A nightmare story by a Canadian writer.

ATWOOD, Margaret

The Robber Bride

This novel follows three women in Toronto whose lives are badly affected by the mischief of their former university friend. When she dies they assume that their troubles are over, but then she reappears, apparently more malevolent than ever.

BALLARD, J G

Empire of the Sun

The Second World War as seen through the eyes of a 10 year old boy stranded in Shanghai.

BANKS, Iain

Excession

Two and a half millenia ago, the artefact appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion year old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back.

BANKS, Iain

The Bridge

A man with no memory but a powerful dream life is living in The Bridge - a structure that outwardly resembles the Forth Bridge but inwardly resembles?a hospital? A hotel? It has a hierarchy - a dream doctor - a foul mouthed barbarian who speaks in Glasgow dialect. The strands come together in a brilliantly inventive Scottish novel.

BANKS, Iain

The Wasp Factory

The story of Frank, an unconventional 16 year old. Frank has already killed three people, but was that just a stage he was going through?

BANKS, Lynne Reid

The L-Shaped Room

Jane is unmarried and pregnant when she is turned out by her father. She finds a room at the top of a squalid house. She cares nothing for it or her neighbours. But it is these neighbours who draw her back into life.

BANKS, Lynne Reid

The Dark Quartet

The story of the Brontes

BARKER, Elspeth

O Caledonia

Halfway up the stone staircase in a Scottish castle, 16 year old Janet is found dead. The book traces her past life leading to her brutal and untimely end.

BEEVOR, Anthony

Stalingrad (940.54)

A gripping account of the epic Second World War Battle on the Eastern Front. It focuses on the experiences of soldiers on both sides, driven beyond the limits of physical and mental endurance.

BENNETT, Alan

Talking Heads (822)

A collection of monologues from Alan Bennett?s television series, characterised by understatement, observation and knowing irony.

BRADBURY, Ray

The Illustrated Man

The Illustrated Man is covered with tiny illustrations which quiver and come to life in the dark. Each illustration becomes one short story and each story gives us a vivid picture of the future and a disturbing glimpse into the minds of those who live there.

BROWN, Dee

Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (970.1)

Chronicles the American West in the later half of the nineteenth century, telling the story from the American Indians? point of view with accounts of famous chieftains such as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo.

BRYSON, Bill

Neither Here nor There (914)

Starting from the Hammerfest, the northernmost town on the European continent, the author travels to Istanbul. In doing so, he retraces his steps as a student 20 years before.

BUCHAN, John

The Thirty-Nine Steps

Richard Hannay, falsely accused of murder, has only a few days to discover the secret of the thirty-nine steps and thwart a German spy ring.

BURGESS, Anthony

A Clockwork Orange

Society has become attuned to violence and to a state which relies on this violence. Typical of this society is the adolescent Alex and his droogs.

BURROUGHS, William

Junkie

Autobiographical account of the reality of being a heroin addict.

BYATT, A S

Possession

An unfinished letter hidden inside a book sets a young research fellow in pursuit of a missing chapter in the life of a Victorian poet.

CHAMBERS, Aidan

The Toll Bridge

Three teenagers, thrown together by chance, each face a turning point. For one of them the effect is traumatic and it changes all their lives.

CHANDLER, Raymond

The Big Sleep

Operating in the lawless underworld of California, Philip Marlowe hunts down a millionaire?s blackmailers with the doubtful assistance of his two beautiful daughters.

CHANG, Jung

Wild Swans

The true story of three generation of Chinese women from 1909 to the late 1970s. An absorbing account of Chinese history seen through the eyes of three women, covering such traumatic events as the Japanese occupation, Communist takeover, and the Cultural Revolution.

CHATWIN, Bruce

The Black Hill

Lewis and Benjamin Jones are identical twins destined to live out their lives together on their farm on the Black Hill in Wales.

COLLINS, Wilkie

The Woman in White

Nineteenth century novel, narrated in turn by Walter Hartright and other characters in the story, starts with Hartright's midnight encounter on a lonely road with a mysterious woman dressed entirely in white, whom he helps to escape from pursuers.

DE BERNIERE, Louis

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Set on the Greek island of Cephallonia during World War II, this is the story of the developing relationship between local girl and an Italian captain.

DEWAR, Isla

Women Talking Dirty

Ellen and Cora are total opposites. Ellen has ended up married to Daniel but knows something is missing. Cora is outrageous and outspoken, but her vividness is a fa?ade; she's keeping her secrets to herself. They have plenty to learn about life, but always have vodka and each other to talk to.

DOYLE, Roddy

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Winner of the 1993 Booker prize, the novel is set in Barrytown, Eire in 1968; life as seen through the eyes of 10 year old Paddy Clarke.

Try also the Trilogy about the Rabbitte family of Barrytown: The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van.

ELIOT, George

The Mill on the Floss

Classic story of a brother and sister which ends tragically.

EQUIANO, Olaudah

The African (920.EQU)

First published in 1789, Equiano tells the story of his life in Nigeria, his capture by slave traders and his subsequent life as a slave and freedman.

FAULKS, Sebastian

Birdsong

20 year old soldier, Stephen Wraysford, serving in Amiens during the First World War, falls for a glamourous and married French woman, and persuades her to break free of her claustrophic and unfulfilled marriage to a wealthy textile merchant. The novel follows the course of the doomed relationship.

FITZGERALD, F Scott

The Great Gatsby

A novel depicting wealthy American society in the 1930s.

FORSTER, E M

Passage to India

Set in the days of the British Raj, the book tells of the incident at the Marabar Caves involving Adela Quested, newly arrived from England, and Dr Aziz - and its consequences.

FORSYTH, Frederick

The Odessa File

A package of documents, containing a list of names, arrives anonymously at the Ministry of Justice in Bonn in 1984. This thriller features the consequent life and death hunt for a notorious Nazi criminal, against a background of international arms deals.

FRASER, Eugenie

The House by the Dvina

Eugenie Fraser describes childhood in Russia, brought to an end by the Bolshevik Revolution when she fled to her Scottish grandparents.

GALLOWAY, Janice

Foreign Parts

Old friends Rona and Cassie travel round France on holiday that promises to leave them frazzled, frustrated but possibly a little wiser.

Try also The Trick is to keep breathing

GARDAM, Jane

Bilgewater

Bilgewater is the nickname for the plain, slow unappealing daughter of a teacher at a boys' boarding school. As if that was not bad enough she has to compete with the headmaster's dazzling daughter Grace.

GORDIMER, Nadine

July's People

Set in South Africa during the apartheid era, this is the story of a middle class family forced to seek refuge in the village of their black manservant, July.

GRAVES, Robert

Goodbye to all That (940.3)

The anger and frustration of a generation sickened by war and the nightmares of slaughter are captured by Graves in this autobiographical account of his experiences in the First World War.

GRAY, Alasdair

Poor Things

Set in and around Glasgow and the Mediterranean of the early 1880s, this novel describes the triangle affection between two doctors and a clever woman who has been created - not born - at the age of 25.

GREENE, Graham

Brighton Rock

The sad, blighted life of Pinkie, the young gangster.

GRISHAM, Graham

The Client

A US senator has been murdered and 11 year old Mark Sway knows where the body is hidden. He is under pressure from the FBI to reveal his knowledge and danger - when the killer finds out and wants him silenced.

GUNN, Neil

The Silver Darlings

The story of a boy growing up among the herring fishers of the Scottish coast.

HELLER, Joseph

Catch 22

A hilarious and tragic novel in which an American airforce base on a small island off Italy becomes a microcosm of the modern world as it might look to someone dangerously sane.

HILL, Susan

I'm the King of the Castle

Two boys who could be friends become deadly enemies. Hooper learns to turn every object in the house into a source of terror and Kingshaw briefly runs. The tables are briefly turned but Kingshaw knows that he cannot win. He knows it and so does Hooper.

HIGGINS, Jack

Thunderpoint

In 1992 the wreck of a German U-Boat is found near the Virgin Islands. It contains proof of Martin Borman's escape from Hitler's bunker at the end of the war, and still dangerous secret documents from the Third Reich.

HINES, Barry

The Blinder

Lenny Hawk has a brilliant future as a footballer - if he can sort out his personal life.



HORNBY, Nick

About a Boy

Will Behr lives on his own and does not want children, but he does see the point of single mothers, especially if they look like Julie Christie. Then he meets Marcus, whose parents have split up and who is being persecuted by bullies. Marcus discovers that Will has a lot to teach him about life.

ISHIGURU, Kashio

The Remains of Day

A butler devotes his life to his master at the cost of his own chance of happiness.

JAMES, P D

Original Sin

Murder at a London publishing House means a case for Adam Dalgliesh.

JENKINS, Robin

The Cone Gatherers

This story of violence and love features the brothers Calum and Neil, working in the forest of a large Scottish estate. The obsessive hatred of the gamekeeper, Duror, shadows their life.

JONES, Toeckey

Go Well, Stay Well

Set in South Africa in the 1970s this book tells the story of Candy, a white girl and her friendship with a black girl who lives in Soweto. The novel portrays the tension and difficulties of growing up under apartheid.

KAY, Jackie

Trumpet

Trumpeter Joss Moody has died and the jazz world is mourning. But his death, Joss can no longer guard the secret he kept all his life, and Colman, his adopted son, must confront the truth: the man whom he believed to be his father was, in fact, a woman.

KEILLOR, Garrison

Leaving Home

Tales of the American country town of Lake Woebegon unfold in the laid back, weary but always wondering voice of their narrator.

KENEALLY, Thomas

Schindler's Ark

The true story of Oskar Schindler who used his factory in Poland to protect Jews from the concentration camps.

KENNEDY, A L

Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains

A collection of short stories about 'sex, death and public transport'.

KESEY, Ken

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

The attempts of the authorities to tame and subdue McMurphy, who refuses to conform to life in a mental institution.



KESSON, Jessie

Another Time, Another Place

Italian prisoners of War in the North of the Scotland change the heroine's life.

LEE, Harper

To Kill a Mocking Bird

A moving and powerful indictment of racial hatred in America's deep South. Scout and Jem become involved in their lawyer father's defence of a negro accused of rape.

LOCHHEAD, Liz

Mary Queen of Scots got her Head Chopped (N822)

Liz Lochhead's play reinterprets Mary's life, drawing twentieth century parallels.

McARTHUR and LONG

No Mean City

This novel shows the crude brutality of Glasgow's pre-war slum world. It describes a city where life was cheap, and poverty and unemployment widespread.

McEWAN, Ian

The Child in Time

For two years after his three year old daughter goes missing, Stephen Lewis struggles to come to terms with his loss - to find a meaning and purpose to his life.

McEWAN, Iain

Enduring Love

The story of how an ordinary man can be driven to the brink of murder and madness by the delusions of another.

McILLVANNEY, William

The Big Man

The big man is Dan Scoular, a legend of physical prowess in a decaying Ayrshire mining community. Dan gets the chance to make money in the rough world of bare knuckle fights in Glasgow.

MacLAVERTY, Bernard

Cal

Cal becomes obsessed with Marcella, a librarian. The novel is set against the background of a troubled Northern Ireland where relationships often end before they have truly begun.

MacLAVERTY, Bernard

Grace Notes

A novel about coming to terms with the past and the healing power of music. Catherine McKenna, a young composer, returns to Belfast after a long absence, to attend her father's funeral - and - recalls exactly why she left.

MALAMUD, Bernard

The Fixer

A Russian Jew in Tsarist times is falsely accused of rape and fights for justice.

MANDELA, Nelson

A Long Walk to Freedom (N968)

The autobiography of Nelson Mandela, describing his role in the anti-apartheid movement, imprisonment and eventual election as South Africa's first black president.

MARQUEZ, Gabriel

One Hundred Years of Solitude

A magical novel telling the history of the Buendias family, the founders of Macondo, a remote South American settlement.

MARQUEZ, Gabriel

Love in the Time of Cholera

The story of Florentino Ariza who has loved Fermina Daza for 50 years. When her husband dies, his chance for happiness comes.

MARTELL. Yann

Life of Pi

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyene, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang utan, a Royal Bengal tiger and Pi - a sixteen year old Indian boy.

MILLER, Christie

Childhood in Scotland (920.MIL)

Christie Miller recalls her upper class childhood in Scotland in the 1920s, where shooting came second only to religion, questions were frowned on, toys discouraged, and reading looked on as a waste of time.

MITCHELL, Leslie

Three Go Back

A science fiction story by the author of Sunset Song (writing under his real name). When an airship crashes in mid Atlantic, the three survivors find they have travelled back in time twenty five thousand years to the lost continent of Atlantis.

MO, Timothy

Sour Sweet

A Chinese family struggle to make their way in Britain, while the husband falls foul of the Tongs.

MORRISON, Blake

And When Did you Last See Your Father? (306.8742)

This is Blake Morrison's memoir of his father, Dr Arthur Morrison. It shows a son asking who his father really was.

MORRISON, Toni

The Bluest Eye

The chronicle of the tragic lives of a poor black family in 1940s America. Every night Pecola, unlovely and unloved, prays for blue eyes like those of her white schoolfellows. She becomes the focus of the mingled love and hatred engendered by her family's frailty and the world's cruelty.

You could also try Beloved

NEWBY, Eric

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (915.81)

The author travels from Mayfair to the wild mountains of the Hindu Kush, north east of Kabul. Afghanistan can be an inhospitable place but it is also one of the most beautiful.

ONDAATJE, Michael

The English Patient

Set at the end of World War II, this novel explores the lives of four very disparate people who find themselves holed up together in a ruined villa north of Florence as the war retreats around them.

PLATH, Sylvia

The Bell Jar

Novel about an adolescent girl?s relationships, depression and attempted suicide.

PROULX, E Annie

The Shipping News

After the suicide of his parents and the death of his wife in a car crash, Quale returns to the Newfoundland wasteland with his two children and his aunt.

REMARQUE, Erich

All Quiet on the Western Front

This novel of the first World War is a German author's attempt to tell - through the persona of a young "unknown soldier" - of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were betrayed and destroyed by the war.

RICE, Anne

Interview with the Vampire

After two centuries of self searching, Louis gifted and cursed with eternal life, reveals the macabre and exotic wonders of a vampire's nature to a na?ve young journalist - but why?

ROY, Arundahati

The God of Small Things

Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, this novel tells of twins of Esthappen and Rahel. Against the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory they try to make a childhood of themselves amidst what constitutes their family.

SEYMOUR, Gerald

Harry's Game

Harry's Game is a deadly one, played to the death - one in which Harry holds none of the cards. Sent to Ireland as an undercover man after the assassination of a British cabinet minister, Harry has to get the killer - before the Provos get him.

SOLZHENITSYN, Alexander

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch

Description of a Russian prison camp in Siberia.

SOUTAR, William

Diaries of a Dying Man (920.SOU)

The Perthshire poet, William Soutar suffered from chronic ill-health for most of his adult life, and was confined to bed with a spinal disease for the last thirteen years of his life. This book contains selections from his dairies.

SPENCE, Alan

It?s Colours They are Fine

13 interlinked stories about growing up in Glasgow.

SPENCE, Alan

The Magic Flute

Set in Glasgow, this novel follows the lives of four boys over two decades.

STEINBECK, John

The Grapes of Wrath

Classic story of the Joad family who move to California to seek their fortune, but only find poverty and oppression.

SUSKIND, Patrick

Perfume

A fable about an 18th Century foundling, Jean Baptiste Grenouille ? a monster, a murderer obsessed with smell.

SWIFT, Graham

Waterland

Family saga set in the fens of England.

SYAL, Meera

Anita and Me

Set in the 1960s the novel explores the clash of cultures (Indian and West Midland) and generations seen throught the eyes of a 9-year-old girl.

THEROUX, Paul

The Old Patagonian Express (917.04)

The Old Patagonian Express is the last train take by the author on a journey from Boston Patagonia. This is his account of that journey full of contrasts in people, temperature, scenery altitudes and attitudes.

TYLER, Anne

The Accidental Tourist

How does a man addicted to routine cope with the chaos of everyday life? Macon?s attempts to do so are tragically and comically undone.

Try also Dinner at Homesick Restaurant,

VONNEGUT, Kurt

Slaughter House Five

Soldier, Billy Pilgrim, escapes from the holocaust of Dresden. He is captured by creatures from another planet where he is exhibited naked with a female earthling with whom he is forced to mate before being returned to earth.

WALKER, Alice

The Color Purple

Told in the form of letters, this is the brutal story of a young girl growing up in the segregated South of the United States in between the wars.

WALTERS, Minette

The Scold?s Bridle

An old woman is found dead in her bath, her wrists slashed: an apparent suicide. But she is wearing a scold?s bridle on her head, adorned with a garland of flowers. What could have driven her to such desperate act? Then rumours start to spread that her death was not suicide but murder.

WATERS, Sarah

Fingersmith

Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, is born among petty thieves - fingersmiths - in London's Borough. From the moment she draws breath, her fate is linked to another orphan, growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.

WELDON, Fay

The Life and Loves of a She Devil

When Ruth Pratchett discovers that her husband is having an affair with romantic novelist, Mary Fisher, her envy drives her to a diabolic course of destruction to bring those around her to their just deserts.

WELLS, H G

The War of the Worlds

Classic science fiction story telling the invasion of earth by Martians.

WHARTON, William

Birdy

A soldier who is kept in a military hospital believes he is a bird. He and his friend, Al, tell the story of his past and present life. Can the reader accept why Birdy feels he has become a canary?

WINTON, Tim

The Riders

Fred Scully leaves Australia to carve a new life for his family in Europe. He and his wife, Jennifer buy an old cottage in Ireland and Scully works to make it habitable whilst waiting for Jennifer and their daughter to join him. But at the airport, only his daughter steps off the plane.

WOLFE, Tom

The Right Stuff

The author looks at the experiences of some of the first astronauts in order to ascertain what makes them tick and why they were prepared to put their lives at such enormous risk.