Anthea Bell

Two boys from very different backgrounds are thrown together by magic, mayhem, and a common foe as they battle deadly dragons in the wilderness of Nepal.

"Petronius is the funniest clown in the world, but he's tired of being told what to do by the ringmaster. He would rather tell stories for children and poets! The animals are tired of being bossed around too. So, Theodore the donkey, Ferdinand the horse, Gustav the lion, Luise the giraffe, and Otto the dog follow him to realize their dream of their own circus, in which no one is forced to perform. Will the band of friends perform the show they've...

ADVENTURE / THRILLER. Munich, in the late thirties, the first years of fascism--the last before the war--is a dangerous place. Kathie is desperate to leave her sheltered village life and sets out for the city, determined that she'll get by, one way or another. She is dark-haired, buxom and pretty, like the women who recently disappeared without a trace. Young women are being found around Munich, abused and murdered. Josef Kalteis has been arrested,...

Ben and his adopted parents are devoting their lives to protecting rare and fabulous creatures (like dragons) and at the moment they are trying to save the last of the winged horses, Pegasus unicus; there are three eggs, but without their mother they willnot survive and the only hope is to obtain a Griffin feather--but Griffins are enemies of the dragons, and may not be willing to help.

Sold to be the eighth wife of a rich and cruel merchant, Safia, also called Raka, tries to escape her fate by telling stories of Farhad the thief, his companion Nitish the white tiger, and their travels across India to retrieve a famous jewel that will save a kidnapped princess from becoming the bride of a demon king.

This expansive family saga, set against the backdrop of the collapse of East German communism, begins in September 2001 as Alexander Umnitzer, who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, leaves behind his ailing father to fly to Mexico, where his grandparents lived as exiles in the 1940s. The novel then takes us both forward and back in time, creating a panoramic view of the family's history: from Alexander's grandparents' return to the German...