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From the author of THE PERFECT STORM and WAR comes a book about why men miss war, why Londoners missed the Blitz, and what we can all learn from American Indian captives who refused to go home. 

 Tribe is a look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the challenges veterans face returning to society. Using his background in anthropology, Sebastian Junger argues that the problem lies not with vets or with the trauma they’ve suffered, but with the society to which they are trying to return.

One of the most puzzling things about veterans who experience PTSD is that the majority never even saw combat—and yet they feel deeply alienated and out of place back home. The reason may lie in our natural inclination, as a species, to live in groups of thirty to fifty people who are entirely reliant on one another for safety, comfort and a sense of meaning: in short, the life of a soldier.

It is one of the ironies of the modern age that as affluence rises in a society, so do rates of suicide, depression and of course PTSD. In a wealthy society people don’t need to cooperate with one another, so they often lead much lonelier lives that lead to psychological distress. There is a way for modern society to reverse this trend, however, and studying how veterans react to coming home may provide a clue to how to do it. But it won’t be easy.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, By Sebastian Junger, Read by Nick Landrum

Unforgettable tale of an orphan in Victorian London, based on the boy whose plight inspired Dr Barnardo to found his famous children’s homes. 

 When his mother dies, Jim Jarvis is left all alone in London. He is sent to the workhouse but quickly escapes, choosing a hard life on the streets of the city over the confines of the workhouse walls.

Struggling to survive, Jim finally finds some friends… only to be snatched away and made to work for the remorselessly cruel Grimy Nick, constantly guarded by his vicious dog, Snipe.

Will Jim ever manage to be free?

Street Child, By Berlie Doherty, Read by Antonia Beamish

‘I love Robert Thorogood’s writing’ - Peter James

An original story from the creator and writer of the hit BBC One TV series, Death in Paradise, featuring on-screen favourite detective, DI Richard Poole. 

 Supermodel Polly Carter was famed for her looks and party-girl lifestyle. Now she's dead, apparently having thrown herself from the clifftop near her home on the island of Saint-Marie. Those who knew her say Polly would never have killed herself…and when he is called in to investigate, DI Richard Poole is inclined to agree there is more to Polly’s death than meets the eye.

Already fighting a losing battle against the intense summer heat of the Caribbean, Richard now faces fresh adversaries: a stream of alibis; a host of conflicting motives; and, worst of all, a visit from his mother. A frenzy which would surely allow a murderer to slip away unnoticed…yet Richard is certain that the guilty party is still on the island.

As his team closes in on Polly’s household, Richard becomes convinced that the model’s death was an inside job. And he's determined to prove who planned the killing of Polly Carter, and why…

Praise for Robert Thorogood:

‘Very funny and very dark with great pace. I love Robert Thorogood’s writing’ – Peter James

‘For fans of Agatha Christie’ – Mail on Sunday

‘A treat’ – Radio Times

‘Plenty of red herrings and twists to keep readers guessing’ – Daily Express

‘Fans of the Agatha Christie style BBC drama Death in Paradise will enjoy this book from the show’s creator’ – Mail on Sunday

'Fans will enjoy returning to DI Richard Poole… just switch off and relax' – Love Reading

'An absolute delight from start to finish.' – Entertainment Outlook

‘A brilliant whodunnit’ – Woman

The Killing Of Polly Carter, By Robert Thorogood, Read by Phil Fox

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author of ‘Backlash’, an astonishing confrontation with the enigma of her father and the larger riddle of identity consuming our age. 

 “In the summer of 2004 I set out to investigate someone I scarcely knew, my father. The project began with a grievance, the grievance of a daughter whose parent had absconded from her life. I was in pursuit of a scofflaw, an artful dodger who had skipped out on so many things – obligation, affection, culpability, contrition. I was preparing an indictment, amassing discovery for a trial. But somewhere along the line, the prosecutor became a witness…”

So begins Susan Faludi’s extraordinary inquiry into the meaning of identity in the modern world and her own haunted family saga. When the feminist writer learned that her 76-year-old father – long estranged and living in Hungary – had undergone sex reassignment surgery, that investigation would turn personal and urgent. How was this new parent who claimed to be ‘a complete woman now’ connect to the silent, explosive and ultimately violent father that she had known, the photographer who’d built his career on the alteration of images?

Faludi chases that mystery into the recesses of her suburban childhood and her father’s many previous incarnations: American dad, Alpine mountaineer, swashbuckling adventurer in the Amazon outback, Jewish fugitive in Holocaust Budapest. When the author travels to Hungary to reunite with her father, she drops into a labyrinth of dark histories and dangerous politics in a country hell-bent on repressing its past and constructing a fanciful – and virulent – nationhood. The search for identity that has transfixed our century was proving as treacherous for nations as for individuals.

Faludi’s struggle to come to grips with her father’s reinvented self takes her across borders – historical, political, religious, sexual – to bring her face to face with the question of the age: Is identity something you ‘choose’ or is it the very thing that you can’t escape?

In the Darkroom, By Susan Faludi, Read by Laurel Lefkow

As the clouds of war gather over Cavendon Hall, the next generation must step forward… 

 The great house of Cavendon Hall has stood on the Yorkshire moors for centuries. Two families, the aristocratic Inghams and the Swanns who serve them, have been bound by loyalty since the first stone was laid.

But when war looms, the survival of the great Cavendon estate must rest with the Earl’s eldest daughter, Daphne, and her sister in-law Cecily Swann.

Sons, husbands and brothers are called up to fight; trials and tragedies strike the great house itself, but the women of every generation and background rise to meet the terrible threat posed by Hitler.

The Cavendon Luck has held for a long time. Can it hold in the face of this greatest threat of all – and can it protect the next generation?

The Cavendon Luck, By Barbara Taylor Bradford, Read by Anna Bentinck

‘One of the greatest American writers’ Independent

From Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-¬winning author of The Shipping News and “Brokeback Mountain,” comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking down of the world’s forests. 

 In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a “seigneur,” for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters – barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a Mi’kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years – their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand, under stunningly brutal conditions; the revenge of rivals; accidents; pestilence; Indian attacks; and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.

Proulx’s inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid – in their greed, lust, vengefulness, or their simple compassion and hope – that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable and compelling American writers, and Barkskins is her greatest novel, a magnificent marriage of history and imagination.

Barkskins, By Annie Proulx, Read by Robert Petkoff

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*A stunning new unabridged recording, available on audio download*

The acclaimed international bestseller of the Tudor court, during the years of Henry VIII’s pursuit of Anne Boleyn – and the revolutionary sequence of events that followed.


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1521. Young Mary Boleyn arrives at court, maid in waiting and favourite to Queen Katherine of Aragon.

Yet Mary catches the eye of the capricious king and – propelled by the ambitions of the powerful Boleyn family – she betrays her queen, and takes her place as Henry VIII’s new mistress.

But while Mary is in childbed, a rival comes to court – her sister Anne, a young woman ruthless in her drive to become queen.

With her own destiny unknown, and the Boleyn enemies gathering, Mary must defy her family – and command her own fate.

With an exclusive afterword written and read by Philippa Gregory, exploring the inspiration behind Mary’s story.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory - Exclusive Extract 2

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory - Exclusive Extract 5

Publishers of award-winning fiction and non-fiction audiobooks for adults and children. Listen to exclusive clips from our books and free audioook extracts here on Soundcloud.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, By Sebastian Junger, Read by Nick Landrum

HarperCollins Publishers

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