Francis Chisholm is a compassionate and humble priest whose individuality and directness make him unpopular with other clergy. Considered a failure by his superiors, he is sent to China to maintain a mission amid desperate poverty, civil war, plague, and the hostility of his superiors. In the face of this constant danger and hardship, Father Chisholm finds the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Recognized as A. J. Cronin’s best novel, The Keys of the Kingdom is an enthralling, fast-moving, colorful tale of a deeply spiritual man called to do good in an imperfect world.

"Dr Finlay's Casebook" is a delightful collection of episodic stories of Dr Finlay and his life in the fictional Scottish village of Tannochbrae during the inter-war years and based on A.J. Cronin's own experiences as a doctor. The BBC went on to dramatise these stories on both television and radio during the 1960s and '70s, with the television adaption drawing weekly audiences of 12 million viewers. The characters were revived by ITV from 1993-96 and were adapted again for BBC radio in 2001 and 2002. This omnibus edition of "Doctor Finlay of Tannochbrae and Adventures of a Black Bag" revive Cronin's masterpiece for a contemporary audience - stories which are tragic, funny and wry and which a celebration of Cronin's tremendous talent.

In a story of wide and fascinating detail A. J. Cronin tells of Dr. David Morey who tries to atone for his desertion of the woman he loved. Beguiled by the prospect of riches he goes on to marry Dottie, a spoiled but beautiful neurotic who brings him almost constant misery, until a chance remark makes him seek retribution in memories of the past and a return to his native Scotland. In the magnificent narrative tradition of "The Citadel," "The Stars Look Down" and Cronin's other classic novels, "The Judas Tree" is a great book by a much-loved author.

Henry Page, owner of The Northern Light, the oldest and most respected newspaper in Tynecastle, is offered a vast sum to turn over control to a mass-circulation group based in London. He refuses - despite entreaties by his wife to accept - and so begins his fight with the Chronicle, an almost defunct newspaper in the same area which is given new life by London-thinking and London men. Against Henry Page, a journalist who believes in honest presentation of news without bringing in sensationalism, the Chronicle pulls every dirty trick in the trade. And Henry, brought eventually almost to his knees, stoically holds on to his principles and The Northern Light. It is only when he has won the battle that tragedy robs him of the most important thing in his life. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, The Northern Light is a great book by a much-loved author.

Dr. Robert Shannon is a dedicated medical scientist who must learn to master his own temptations before he can vanquish human suffering. Sequel to The Green Years (1944).

Da anni il pubblico aspettava un romanzo <> di A.J. Cronin: ed ecco Ma il cielo non risponde, dove l’autore stesso si fa personaggio, testimone e commentatore morale della lacerante, spasmodica, contraddittoria vicenda umana di Desmonde Fitzgerald, il bellissimo giovane, l’uomo di Dio, il cantore, l’essere umano risucchiato in un insondabile baratro erotico, l’avventuriero, l’innocente, l’attore… Lungo un arco di tempo che va dai primi del secolo a oggi, in una varietà d’ambiente che include la Dublino degli anni intorno alla prima guerra mondiale, la Hollywood dell’età dell’oro del cinema, un Oriente favoloso e enigmaticamente lussurioso, s’intesse la vicenda parallela di due vite che tendono a farsi <>, cariche si significati universali, di tensione esistenziale, di <>. Due vite su cu incombe l’ombra torbida e misteriosamente fascinosa di un grande personaggio femminile: Claire, frivola, irresistibile, alcolizzata, travolta da un bisogno irrefrenabile di perdizione: una figura di donna assolutamente indimenticabile… Ma il cielo non risponde è una grande interrogazione e una grande riuscita romanzesca.

The poignant sequel to "A Song of Sixpence." The clinic stood high on an Alpine slope. Lush meadows, studded with autumn crocus, sloped steeply down. Across the valley, above the pinewoods, the high peaks were already dusted with snow. Like a toy railway, the line to Davos twisted and turned up along the mountain side. Laurence Carroll breathed in the pure, clear air. A wonderful place, a not-too-demanding job as resident doctor to the convalescent children flown out from England; it was a million miles from his Scottish childhood, the struggles to qualify and the grinding, poverty-stricken years as a young GP in the Welsh mining valleys. He was relaxed. Happy. But, soon to arrive at Zurich, a woman he had once known well, now a widowed mother, was to bring with her all the turmoil and anguish of his early years, flooding back into his casually ordered life.

Story about a woman who has a complex past who comes back to her hometown to start over and rekindle the love she had for her childhood sweetheart. But the small town society doesn't leave her alone and the past comes back to haunt her.

"Cronin's distinguished achievement....No one could have written as fine, honest, and moving a study of a young doctor as The Citadel without possessing great literary taste and skill." --*The Atlantic Monthly A groundbreaking novel of its time and a National Book Award winner. The Citadel follows the life of Andrew Manson, a young and idealistic Scottish doctor, as he navigates the challenges of practicing medicine across interwar Wales and England. Based on Cronin's own experiences as a physician, The Citadel boldly confronts traditional medical ethics, and has been noted as one of the inspirations for the formation of the National Health Service. The Citadel* has been adapted into several successful film, radio, and television productions around the world, including the Oscar-nominated 1938 film starring Ralph Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, and Rex Harrison.

In the heat of late afternoon, a young boy waits at the station for his father. A plume of steam, white against the purple-heathered hills, marks the train. Beyond, blooming along the shoreline, the flowers of high summer, as a tall-funnelled paddle steamer beats and froths down the wide Clyde estuary . . . A narrative in the great Cronin tradition, this is the stirring chronicle of Laurence Carroll as he grows from childhood to adult years in Scotland. The tale of his struggles - early illness, a widowed mother, poverty, the uncles who try to help him, and the women who have such an unhappy effect upon him, is told with warm humour and with that intense and sympathetic realism for which A J Cronin is known. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin's other classic novels, A Song of Sixpence is a great book by a much-loved author.

From the author of The Stars Look Down and The Citadel, and the creator of Dr Finlay's Casebook A J Cronin was commissioned by The American Weekly to write a Christmas story for the December 21st issue in 1958. His vision for the story is described in his letter of acceptance: “It came to me very strongly that to achieve the highest and most profoundly touching results I should go back to the first Christmas of all and create a vivid reconstruction of the effects of the birth of the Child upon certain characters, notably the wife of the innkeeper where no room was found for Mary and Joseph. The title of the story would be The Innkeper’s Wife, for she, as I imagine her, is the central human character—a good and tender-hearted woman, childless herself, and bullied by an assertive and miserly husband.” Here now is the alternative story of Christmas, narrated with great skill, by the author of The Citadel, Hatter’s Castle and The Stars Look Down**

The story of Stephen Desmonde, an English painter who struggles for recognition in a conventional world, sacrificing everything for his passion for art. The title is a reference to John Keats' 1818 poem, Endymion, which begins, "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."

Lady with Carnations is not only the traditional name of a famous Holbein miniature which unexpectedly comes into a London salesroom in the mid-thirties: it is also the soubriquet by which some of her close friends think of the antique-dealer who buys it. Katharine Lorimer, by hard work, flair and courage, has worked her way to the top of a trade that traditionally belongs to men. Yet, having acquired the Holbein despite fierce competition, she feels not triumph but a terrible anxiety and desolation. The antique business is going through the doldrums, and she herself is reaching the limit of her resources. Worse still, she feels appallingly alone in the world. Reserved and fastidious, she keeps a certain distance from even her dearest friends, and the person she loves most, her niece Nancy, is bound up in her own ambitions to become a famous actress. Katharine has bought the miniature as a gigantic gamble, hoping to sell it to a wealthy American collector, and she sets off for New York with Nancy and her niece’s fiancé. What happens to them all there, and how their lives are altered, makes an engrossing tale, a delightful love story, showing at its best Dr Cronin’s gifts as a novelist. Every Cronin ‘fan’, every reader who enjoys a novel with the old-fashioned virtues of a well-worked-out plot, sympathetic characters, and humanity, will find it absorbing. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin’s other classic novels, Lady With Carnations is a great book by a much-loved author.**

A daring masterwork by Javier Marias: "Spain's most subtle and gifted writer." (The Boston Globe) Part spy novel, part romance, part Henry James, Your Face Tomorrow is a wholly remarkable display of the immense gifts of Javier Marias. With Fever and Spear, Volume One of his unfolding novel Your Face Tomorrow, he returns us to the rarified world of Oxford (the delightful setting of All Souls and Dark Back of Time), while introducing us to territory entirely new--espionage. Our hero, Jaime Deza, separated from his wife in Madrid, is a bit adrift in London until his old friend Sir Peter Wheeler--retired Oxford don and semi-retired master spy--recruits him for a new career in British Intelligence. Deza possesses a rare gift for seeing behind the masks people wear. He is soon observing interviews conducted by Her Majesty's secret service: variously shady international businessmen one day, would-be coup leaders the next. Seductively, this metaphysical thriller explores past, present, and future in the ever-more-perilous 21st century. This compelling and enigmatic tour de force from one of Europe's greatest writers continues with Volume Two, Dance and Dream.

Award-winning author Javier Marías examines a household living unhappy in the shadow of history, and explores the cruel, tender punishments we exact on those we love. As a young man, Juan de Vere takes a job that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Eduardo Muriel is a famous film director - urbane, discreet, irreproachable - an irresistible idol to a young man. Muriel's wife Beatriz is a soft, ripe woman who slips through her husband's home like an unwanted ghost, finding solace in other beds. And on the periphery of all their lives stands Dr. Jorge Van Vechten, a shadowy family friend implicated in unsavoury rumours that Muriel cannot bear to pursue himself - rumours he asks Juan to investigate instead. But as Juan draws closer to the truth, he uncovers more questions, ones his employer has not asked and would rather not answer. Why does Muriel hate Beatriz? How did Beatriz meet Van Vechten? And what happened during the war? As Juan learns more about his employers, he begins to understand the conflicting pulls of desire, power and guilt that govern their lives - and his own. Marias presents a study of the infinitely permeable boundaries between private and public selves, between observer and participant, between the deceptions we suffer from others and those we enact upon ourselves.