Muriel Spark’sThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie tells the story of the special education that Miss Jean Brodie gives her students at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh in the 1930s and the lessons she learned in return. Set against the backdrop of fascism and the Spanish Civil War.

The first in a four-volume series, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.

Described as an outstanding thriller “that is as dark and chilling as the Scottish seas on a winter night” (Daily Record), Peter May’s The Black House introduces us to Detective Fin McLeod and weaves together two stories, eighteen years apart, as Fin returns to the island where he was born and raised, facing painful encounters with his past as he struggles to come to terms with recent tragedy.

Kidnapped is set in Scotland in the mid 1700s. It is written in the first person, narrated by the main character, Davie Balfour. The recently orphaned Davie leaves rural Essendean to seek his fortune with his relatives, the Balfours of the House of Shaws. Things don’t go according to plan and young Davie finds himself on a great and dangerous adventure which includes kidnap, shipwreck, political murder and flight through the Scottish Highlands. The author very cleverly weaves fact and fiction into this classic adventure story.

Myth and reality intertwine in The Invisible Guardian, a gritty and clever thriller by Spanish author Dolores Redondo. Homicide inspector Amaia Salazar returns home to investigate the murder of teenage girls and has her beliefs in logic challenged by traditions of her own Basque culture.

The story revolves around the comings and goings at 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious tenement in a real street in the New Town of Edinburgh. 44 Scotland Street is home to some of Edinburgh’s most colourful characters who come to vivid life in this gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive novel.

Set in the Eternal City of Rome, The Raphael Affair is the first in a series of mystery novels by Ian Pears that intertwine art, history, literature, and local culture. Protagonist Jonathan Argyll, an English art scholar, is in search of a long-lost work of art by the incomparable Italian painter of the Renaissance, Raphael. After the work suddenly “resurfaces” in a small Roman church, a disturbing chain of events is triggered, including vandalism and murder.

The Pilgrimage is a first-person narrative of the autobiographical adventures of the Paulo Coelho during his trek along Spain’s “ Camino de Santiago” or “The Way of St. James”—the pilgrimage route across the northern portion of the country that dates back to more than one thousand years ago. The novel is a parable about the need to find our own way in life and become better people through a higher spiritual growth. It fully encapsulates Coelho’s humanist philosophy and superbly reflects the human need to search for life’s deeper meaning.

The Habsburgs rank among the most celebrated ruling dynasties in history. At one point, their territories stretched not only across Europe but across the globe, into Asia, Africa and the Americas. By virtue of their long pre-eminence, the family made an indelible mark on European affairs, shaping the course of international politics and diplomacy, and knitting together the diverse peoples of Central Europe.

Marcel Pagnol’s epic two-part novel The Water of the Hills: Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources transports readers to the Provence of the early 20th century. With lush descriptions of the landscape and complex, clever characters, this book will draw you in completely.

The first in a series of comically thrilling and brutally witty Sicilian crime novels, Andrea Camillerii’s The Shape of Water follows the adventures of Inspector Salvo Montalbano as he seeks the truth in the mean streets of fictional Vigata, Sicily about the real cause death of engineer Silvio Luparello.

Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, inspired by his first trip to Pamplona and his fascination with bullfighting culture, is considered by many to be his greatest. Full of sharp prose, this novel tackles love and lust, integrity, masculinity, the struggles of the Lost Generation, and ex-pat culture in Paris and Pamplona.

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