The novel Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn – by Mark Twain is redolent of life in the Mississippi River towns in the 19th century, in which Mark Twain spent his own youth.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin‘s haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality and a classic of gay literature.

Occupied by Joss Sheldon is a step into a world which is both magically fictitious and shockingly real, to follow the lives of Tamsin, Ellie, Arun and Charlie; a refugee, native, occupier and economic migrant. Watch them grow up during a halcyon past, an everyday present, and a dystopian future. And be prepared to be amazed.

Hard Times by Charles Dickens considered Dickens’ harshest indictment of mid-19th-century industrial practices and their dehumanizing effects, this novel offers a fascinating tapestry of Victorian life, filled with the richness of detail, brilliant characterization, and passionate social concern that typify the novelist’s finest creations.

Vintage Munro by Alice Munro includes stories from throughout her career: The title stories from her collections The Moons of Jupiter; The Progress of Love; Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage; “Differently,” from Selected Stories, and “Carried Away,” from Open Secrets.

All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo:

The Moons of Jupiter by Alice Munro. The characters who populate an Alice Munro story live and breathe. Passions hopelessly conceived, affections betrayed, marriages made and broken: the joys, fears, loves and awakenings of women echo throughout