Showing results by narrator "Tania Rodrigues" in All Categories

Meili, a young peasant woman living in the remote heart of China, is married to Kongzi, a distant descendant of Confucius. Desperate for a son to carry on his illustrious family line, Kongzi gets Meili pregnant without waiting for official permission. When family planning officers storm the village to arrest violators of the population control policy, the family escape to the Yangtze River and begin a fugitive life.

Tanya Tania is a story about two young women coming of age in two countries that are coming of age. Tanya Talati in Karachi and Tania Ghosh in Bombay, daughters of college best friends, write to each other of what cannot be said to anyone else: a mother who has gone from quiet to silent, sex that has become a weapon, a servant with unforgettably soft hands and a country beginning to play with religion.

In 1950s Bengal, Henna Rub, a precocious, wayward teenager, brings off a brilliant marriage to a wealthy romantic, Ricky Karim, trapping him with a web of lies that she has spun with her wheeler-dealer father. And so on his wedding night, believing himself married to an educated, sonnet-reading, tennis-playing soul mate, Ricky is horrified to discover that his new bride is in fact a lazy, illiterate, shopkeeper's daughter.

Set in London and Tuscany, Someone Wonderful casts a magical net around the lives of six people: Grace Teape; her orphaned niece, Lily; her young lover, sculptor Johnny Cochrane; her photographer brother, Oliver Cary; his journalist wife, Melissa; and their blind son, Sebastian. With irony, elegance, and insight, Barbara Neil explores the limits of our capacity to protect our own in this joyous and heartbreaking novel.

Following the death of their father, sisters Bramble, Felicity and Helena have their sights on their inheritance. Felicity, the eldest, never healed the rift with her father following an argument; Helena, the middle sister, is a self-cantered actress; and Bramble, dreams of Olympic glory. Family secrets are uncovered as the sisters battle their father's enemies - and each other - to discover the real value of the Beaumont inheritance.

China, 1923. Evangeline English arrives with her sister to help establish a Christian mission. As they attempt to navigate their new home and are met with resistance, Eva commences work on her book, A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar… In present-day London, Frieda, a young woman adrift in her own life, opens her front door one night to find a man sleeping on the landing. In the morning he is gone, leaving on the wall an exquisite drawing of a long-tailed bird and a line of Arabic script…

As night falls in Delhi, a mother spins tales from her past for her sleeping daughter. Her now grown-up child is a puzzle with a million pieces whom she hopes, through her words and her love, to somehow make whole again. Meanwhile, as the last train from Rajiv Chowk Station pulls away, a young man rides the metro and dreams of murder. In another corner of the city, a newborn wrapped in a blood-red towel lies on the steps of an orphanage as his mother walks away.

Aisha is a 13-year-old refugee. When she finds she’s being sent to a new foster family, she runs away, seeking shelter in the nearby woods. Twelve-year-old Zak is trying to cope with his parents' divorce. He starts researching the history behind his house, which leads him to an old air-raid shelter in the same woods. Both children meet in the heart of the ancient woodland, and unexpected bonds are formed....

Sara, a therapist, always thought her husband, Mike, died in Afghanistan - but when she learns he was actually killed in India, her desire to uncover the truth leads her to a clinic in New Delhi. Once in India Sara is dazzled by the country's culture and its people. At the clinic she grows close to both her patient Pritti and a bewitching, low-caste driver named Hemant. Yet Sara finds herself increasingly appalled at the treatment of women; in this country of old traditions and new opportunities, so much remains shocking or forbidden.

We all go through patches when we find it hard to sleep. Either we have problems dropping off at night or we wake in the early hours with thoughts buzzing round in our minds. Sometimes it seems impossible to get that elusive night's sleep we so badly crave, but this book will show you how to break negative patterns, get more rest and improve your wellbeing.

In Ruth Davidson's Yes She Can we meet world-beating women from fields as diverse as science, politics, the military, business and sport. They share their own journeys to the top - whether that's becoming Prime Minister, winning an Olympic gold medal or teaching male special forces how to fight. They share the bad times, too, the challenges faced and difficulties to hurdle, explaining what they've learned along the way. We also see the author's own path as she tracks the societal shifts that have seen women advance - and discuss how far we've still got to go.

Long captivated by the solid yet impermanent nature of ice, by its stark, rugged beauty, acclaimed poet and writer Nancy Campbell sets out from the world’s northernmost museum - at Upernavik in Greenland - to explore it in all its facets. From the Bodleian Library archives to the traces left by the great polar expeditions, from remote Arctic settlements to the ice houses of Calcutta, she examines the impact of ice on our lives at a time when it is itself under threat from climate change.

Bedi and Sushma's marriage is arranged. When they first meet, they stumble through a faltering conversation about happiness and hope and agree to go in search of these things together. But even after their children Selena, Tara, and Rohan are grown up and have their own families, Bedi and Sushma are still searching.

Leor Zmigrod reveals the deep connection between political beliefs and the biology of the brain. Drawing on her own pioneering research, she uncovers the complex interplay between biology and environment that predisposes some individuals to rigid ways of thinking, and explains how ideologies take hold of our brains, fundamentally changing the way we think, act and interact with others.

Usha is devastated when her grandmother Kali Ma passes away. Not quite fitting in at school, with her best friend moving away and with an annoying new adoptive sister arriving, Usha feels lost. That is until Kali Ma's ghost appears...with a task for her. Usha and Emtiaz must work together on a quest through London, accompanied by two bickering ghosts, to find a series of objects that shine a magical light on their family's past and hold the clues to securing their future.

Diana Parks is a beautician with a temper, and she's not the only member of Ottersea WI who's had enough of bullies and slimeballs. When the body of lecherous landlord, Raj Sumal, washes up on the beach, it's up to Detectives Jim Paddon and Grace Brown to solve the mystery. They start to suspect Raj's wife, Sukhi, who likes walking on the cliffs. Meanwhile, at Ottersea Oceanworld, Jane the Octopus hears people's secrets and understands everything during a sweltering summer of strange deaths, new friendships, and a whole lot of ice cream.

Aphra Behn was a prolific and well-established poet and playwright but facts about her life remain scant and difficult to confirm. What can safely be said is that Aphra Behn is regarded as a key English playwright and a major figure in Restoration theatre. Her poetry is now far more appreciated and seen as a breakthrough for women of the 17th Century and beyond. Her first play, ‘The Forc’d Marriage’, was staged in 1670, and thereafter many followed, including her later comic works, which were more commercially successful.

Shifa and her brother, Themba, live in Kairos City with their father, Nabil. The few live in luxury whilst the millions like them crowd together in compounds, surviving on meagre rations and governed by Freedom Fields - the organisation that looks after you, as long as you opt in. The bees have long disappeared; instead children must labour on farms, pollinating crops so that the nation can eat.

Salma Khatun is extremely hopeful about Blenheim, the safe suburban development to which she, her husband and their son have just moved. Their family is in desperate need of a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like the place to make that happen. Not long after they move in, Salma spots her neighbour, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in their front garden. She chooses not to confront Tom because she wants to fit in. It's a small thing, really. No need to make a fuss.