Fiction

A short, brilliantly evocative novel set in the bleak eastern European borderlands before the First World War An artillery officer is persuaded by his resentful wife to leave the Austro-Hungarian...

The last novel in Simenon's celebrated series When an elegant but nervous woman appears in Inspector Maigret's office and reports her rich and successful husband missing, Maigret and Lapointe find...

In the penultimate novel in the series Maigret investigates a crime in Paris's seedy red light district The body of a well-known Parisian restaurateur turns up on Avenue Junot in...

Maigret is called to investigate the stabbing of a young man When a tape recorder is found on a murder victim, Inspector Maigret hopes this will be the clue he...

A visit from an old school-friend leads Maigret to a murderous affair When a long lost friend pays a visit to Maigret's office, he is shocked to learn that the...

When Maigret becomes the accused he must rely on his investigative skills to prove his innocence For the first time in his career Inspector Maigret receives written summons to the...

When a colleague is injured in an undercover operation Maigret takes over and becomes embroiled in the dark underbelly of the Parisian art scene During an undercover case Inspector Lognon...

Inspector Maigret investigates an attack on a Parisian tramp When a tramp is recovered from the Seine, after being badly beaten, Maigret must delve into the man's personal circumstances to...

Maigret has a visitor who admits his intentions to commit murder but when he goes missing Maigret worries that he himself has become the victim Inspector Maigret is followed home...

When a man is found dead at home Maigret must look past the seemingly good intentions of the victim's family to figure out just who the culprit is A retired...

Thirteen strangely wrought stories make up Nabokov's baker's dozen. In some of these stories shadowy people pass through, cooped up by life, mangled by it, with nowhere to escape to....

Maigret heads to a small seaside town where the residents are closing ranks to hide the truth When a school teacher from near La Rochelle asks Maigret for help to...

The discovery of a dismembered body leads Maigret into one of his strangest cases yet When a man's headless body is pulled from the Canal Saint Martin, Maigret and his...

The bestselling epic novel of family, treachery, rivalry, religious fervour and the turbulent fate of a people The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing. The people...

The latest title from the bestselling author John le Carre to come into Penguin Modern Classics Harry Pendel is the charismatic proprietor of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada of Panama, through...

Volume one of Javier Marias's acclaimed and evocative 'novel in parts' Recently divorced, Jacques Deza moves from Madrid to London to start anew. At a party held by retired don,...

A gripping novel about the corrupt and avaricious world of politics, newly translated as part of the Maigret series. Was Maigret wrong? From one point of view, certainly, because he...

A well-to-do Paris surgeon and his down-at-heel neighbour become the focus of Maigret's investigation Maigret had questioned thousands, tens of thousands of people in the course of his career, some...

An impromptu visit to an old school friend in the Vendee draws Maigret into a disturbing local investigation The mood of the town was still jittery. It was all very...

Maigret goes to London on the trail of a young man on the run The most exasperating of all was the head clerk at reception, in his elegant morning coat...

A new translation of Calvino's influential last work Italo Calvino was due to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard in 1985-86, but they were left unfinished at his...

A haunting history of the Chernobyl disaster by the winner of the Nobel prize in literature On 26 April 1986 the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occured in Chernobyl...

'A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age' The New York Times 'On one side of the ducats was stamped the radiant profile of Archithorius, on the other - an...

A selection of the most inspiring and influential writings from groundbreaking Norwegian environmentalist Arne Naess, in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time Philosopher, mountaineer and visionary Arne Naess was...

Maigret gets tangled up with some notorious American Gangsters in this new translation Maigret was less angry in fact than he seemed. Pozzo was a tough customer, but he didn't...

For the first time, the phenomenal bestselling literary memoir will be published in Penguin Modern Classics Every Thursday morning in a living room in Iran, over tea and pastries, eight...

A jazz novel, a sermon and a song of praise to the richness of African-American experience From Ralph Ellison - author of the classic novel, Invisible Man - the long-awaited...

A new translation in the Penguin Maigret series- the inspector uncovers some poisonous family politics. The moon must have risen above the mist, which was now faintly incandescent, and, when...

From the peerless author of The Lottery, a spectacular new volume of unpublished and newly discovered stories, essays, letters and drawings Let Me Tell You brings together the deliciously eerie...

Kafka's last great, unfinished novel - the book that hangs over the whole modern era like a nightmare The Castle is the story of K., the unwanted Land Surveyor who...

Baldwin's last, unrealized project comes to life, using his original words to create a radical, powerful and poetic work on race in the United States To compose his stunning documentary...

When a toy salesman confides in Maigret he quickly becomes caught up in a poisonous feud between husband and wife An unusually quiet day for Maigret at the Quai des...

During a much-needed holiday Maigret pulls a prank on colleague Janvier When Maigret's holiday plans go awry he and his wife spend their vacation in Paris, on the condition that...

New to Penguin Classics, the remarkable, devastating collected stories by the author of Wide Sargasso Sea Some of Jean Rhys's most powerful writing is to be found in this rich,...

A gripping, vivid novel which brings to life Europe in the Middle Ages, in all its beauty and horror One of Hermann Hesse's greatest novels, Narcissus and Goldmund is an...

An enlightening anthology of George Orwell's journalism and non-fiction writing Famous for his novels and essays, Orwell remains one of our very best journalists and commentators. Confronting social, political and...

Extraordinary stories about Soviet children's experiences in the Second World War, from Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich What did it mean to grow up in the Soviet Union during the Second...

A remarkable collection of dark, funny and haunting short stories from the inimitable author of 'The Lottery' An anxious devil, a malicious old woman and a mid-century Jack the Ripper;...

An extraordinary collection of Nabokov's little-known published material from across his life - from student essays to his last interviews The last major collection of Nabokov's published material, Think, Write,...

Written by a Communist insider, a candid portrait of one of the most dangerous men in history This extraordinarily vivid and unnerving book three meetings held with Stalin during and...

Clarice Lispector's audacious and haunting last novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a living as a typist, Macabea loves movies, Coca-Cola...

An unsettling story of a teenage girl's self-destruction from the author of The Lottery Natalie Waite, daughter of a mediocre writer and a neurotic housewife, is increasingly unsure of her...

One of 'the best artistic jokes of the century', this is both madcap cookbook and Futurist manifesto Part manifesto, part artistic joke, Fillippo Marinetti's Futurist Cookbook is a provocative work...

A breathtaking international bestselling novel about family secrets, and Javier Marias's masterpiece In the middle of a family lunch Teresa, just married, goes to the bathroom, unbuttons her blouse and...

A gripping tale of espionage and deceit from the master of the spy novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel...

Kerouac's stunningly vivid and gritty second novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics In 1960 Jack Kerouac was near breaking point. Driven mad by constant press attention in the wake of...

A brilliantly atmospheric and gripping portrayal of the dark heart of a killer, new to Penguin Modern Classics At the Universal Advertising Agency on the Strand, London, a murder is...

A masterly work of art, which rearranges language and plays in the gaps between reality and fiction In gua Viva Clarice Lispector aims to 'capture the present'. Her direct, confessional...