Blood River by Tim Butcher

Tim Butcher's extraordinary, audacious journey through the Congo is worthy of the great 19th century explorers. Completely enthralling but also a thoughtful and sobering portrait of modern Africa.

A Quiet Belief In Angels by RJ Ellory

Once again R.J. Ellory shows off his special talents... This isn't your standard shock and bore serial killer novel. It's an impassioned story of a man's life told in Ellory's distinctive voice, and it confirms his place in the top flight of crime writing.

Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

In this wildly funny debut from former ad man Ferris, a group of copywriters and designers at a Chicago ad agency face layoffs at the end of the '90s boom. At once delightfully freakish and entirely credible.

Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Notes from an exhibition is about a Bi-Polar artist who dies suddenly, leaving her family to discover who she really was and where she came from. Every character is fully developed and their individual stories will intrigue you, from Garfield who is different to the rest of his quirky family, to Morwenna,who shares her mother's instability and artistic talent.

The Welsh Girl by Pete Ho Davies

Following two widely praised short-story collections, Peter Ho Davies's first novel, The Welsh Girl, deserves to be equally well received. It carefully examines two great themes, dislocation and cowardice, through the stories of a WWII POW camp built by the British in the remote mountains of northern Wales.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. A moving read.

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Mister Pip is a coming of age story set in a New Guinea island. The island is caught up in conflict between the local population (black), the mine owners (white) and the Niugini government (redskins).

The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon

Set during the Crimean War (1854/55) it is a first person narrative by Mariella Lingwood, an obedient daughter who spends her life sewing and writing letters to her fiance, Henry, a young surgeon caught up in the war. Events draw Mariella inexorably towards that war and what she finds there is both devastating on a grand and also on a personal level.

Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann

Can love outwit death? A heartbreaking epic story of two lives sustained by the memory of love. Two stories run parallel here Leo Deakin in 1992 and Moritz Daniecki in 1917. Cinematic and brimming with raw emotions, it is the magnificent and emotive debut from a remarkable new writer.

Visible World by Mark Slouka

Slouka's urgent second novel (following God's Fool) comes in three parts. The first relates the nameless narrator's growing up in postwar New York and Pennsylvania as the child of college journalism instructor Antonín and Ivana Sedlák, Czech émigrés whose marriage is slowly disintegrating. The suspense is well paced, and the action scenes are vividly recounted. Slouka's novel has a poignant verve.