Celia Imrie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Marlon James and Dinah Jefferies
Orphans of the Storm - Celia Imrie
Nice, 1911: After three years of marriage, young seamstress Marcela Caretto has finally had enough. Her husband, Michael, an ambitious tailor, has become cruel and controlling and she determines to get a divorce. Meanwhile, fun-loving New York socialite Margaret Hays is touring Europe with some friends.
Restless, she resolves to head home aboard the most celebrated steamer in the world - RMS Titanic. As the ship sets sail for America, carrying two infants bearing false names, the paths of Marcela and Margaret cross.
An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
The year is 1948. Japan is rebuilding her cities after the calamity of WW2. Masuji Ono, the celebrated painter, reflects on a life and career touched by the rise of Japanese militarism.
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
This novel tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her.
Moon Witch Spider King – Marlon James
Part adventure story, part tale of an indomitable woman, Moon Witch, Spider King chronicles the antagonist-turned-antihero's journey from an ostracised no-name girl, hated by her brothers and made to live in a termite hill, to a woman with fully developed powers engaged in a long-standing feud with the Aesi, chancellor to the king.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf - Marlon James
racker is a hunter, known throughout the thirteen kingdoms as one who has a nose - and he always works alone. But he breaks his own rule when, hired to find a lost child, he finds himself part of a group of hunters all searching for the same boy. Each of these companions is stranger and more dangerous than the last, from a giant to a witch to a shape-shifting Leopard, and each has secrets of their own.
The Separation - Dinah Jefferies
1953, the eve of the Cartwright's departure from Malaya. 11-year-old Emma can't understand why they're leaving without their mother; why her taciturn father is refusing to answer questions. Lydia arrives home to an empty house - there's no sign of her husband Alec or her daughters.
Panic stricken, she embarks on a dangerous journey to find them through the hot and civil-war-torn Malayan jungle - one that only the power of a mother's love can help her survive.