For her first novel in more than nine years, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has written a most unusual book in a career of distinctive and unique accomplishments. My Nine Lives is "Chapters of a Possible Past," as the subtitle declares. It is, as the author has commented, a book filled with "invented memories." Nine vignettes are linked to portray a rich life filled with searching, from London to Delhi, from Hollywood to New York. Each chapter gathers a different cast of characters, some new and some vaguely familiar, and the linked assembly is as exciting and illuminating as an artist's first show at a Soho gallery or a new play at the Studio Theater. After seventeen books, now in her 77th year, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala takes on as her subject herself, the life she may have or may have wished to live.

My Nine Lives is a powerful and stirring memoir of one of the greatest pianists of the postwar era—an inspiring tale of courage, compassion, and triumph over outstanding odds. At the peak of his career, celebrated pianist Leon Fleisher suddenly lost the use of two fingers on his right hand. Miraculously, at the age of sixty-six, he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, and learned to manage it through a combination of physical therapy and experimental Botox injections. In 2003 Fleisher returned to Carnegie Hall to give his first two-handed performance in over three decades and brought down the house. With his coauthor, celebrated music critic Anne Midgette, Fleisher reveals here for the first time the depression that threatened to engulf him as his condition worsened, and the sheer love of music that rescued him from complete self-destruction.

As one of Al Qaeda's most respected scholars and bomb-makers, Aimen Dean rubbed shoulders with the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and met Osama Bin Laden himself. His job was already one of the most dangerous in the world. But what the others didn't know was that he was working undercover for MI6.

It all begins when Comet walks away from the lighthouse close to his birthplace on Nantucket Island. He visits a garden, a bookstore, a boat, and a party, and at each place he gets into trouble and loses one of his lives. Comet starts to worry. He longs for a home, a place where he’ll be safe. Will he find one before he uses up all nine lives?

"As Marciano is descended from Ludwig Bemelmans, so might Alexander Baddenfield be descended from Madeline's nemesis-turned-friend Pepito 'The Bad Hat.'"* Alexander Baddenfield is a horrible boy—a really horrible boy—who is the last in a long line of lying, thieving scoundrels. One day, Alexander has an astonishing idea. Why not transplant the nine lives from his cat into himself? Suddenly, Alexander has lives to spare, and goes about using them up, attempting the most outrageous feats he can imagine. Only when his lives start running out, and he is left with only one just like everyone else, does he realize how reckless he has been. With its wickedly funny story and equally clever illustrations, this is dark humor at its most delicious. *Review from School LIbrary Journal

The book depicts the life of Benjamin Neiger, a Jewish inventor who was born in Krakow, Poland. As a very young boy he became a witness to the horror of the Holocaust. At an age of 13 he was separated from his parents and spent many months alone in a large Hungarian forest, trying to survive. After the war he became a passenger on the famous ship, the EXODUS, heading for Palestine, and at an age of seventeen, he joined the Israeli army. The book comprises the most fascinating events of his life, some very sad and shocking, some hilarious and almost unbelievable... In the second part of the book the author reveals very openly his most secret love affairs and describes his life in America as well as his professional career. My Nine Lives is the captivating story of atrocities of war, a mans struggle for survival and his constant craving for love. Once you start reading it, you will not be able to tear yourself away

A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet - then spends the rest of his life trying to atone for the violence by hand printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve herself to death. Nine people, nine lives; each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. William Dalrymple delves deep into the heart of a nation torn between the relentless onslaught of modernity and the ancient traditions that endure to this day. LONGLISTED FOR THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE