When a mysterious woman is washed up on the shore of the island where Hetty lives, the close-knit community are suspicious. But there's a bond between Hetty and the woman - a bond which means that Hetty must go to extraordinary lengths to keep her safe. A storm is breaking and the voices of the sea are whispering to Hetty . . .

Drawn by an ancient family legend, Elara Thorne seeks the guidance of Madame Seraphina, the renowned fortune teller. The mysterious seer reveals a destiny entwined with the ethereal. The fortune teller foretells of a forgotten relic, hidden beneath the waves, holding the key to unlocking the mysteries of the afterlife. Intrigued and compelled by the prophecy, Elara sets sail with Captain Ambrose Blackthorn, a brooding sea captain with a dark past. Together, they embark on a perilous journey to unravel the secrets that lie beneath the surface of Eldritch Haven and the thin veil that separates the living from the dead. Unknown to them, the shadows of the past are awakened, and ancient forces begin to stir, watching their every move. Setting the stage for a tale of forbidden knowledge, spectral encounters, and a quest that transcends the boundaries of life and death.

Of the Deepest Shadows and The Prisons of Fire is a literary canvas of leaders who have affected humanity in very serious and unquestionable ways. The core of this artistic engagement is the destiny of the black world. There are tangential departures into territories with crises the world cannot afford to ignore. The poet visits each leader, living or dead, with equal passion. His curious brush is delicate, ecstatic, melancholic or even celebratory depending on what image or circumstance he pans into view. This corpus comes with the characteristic anguish and tenderness of a very sensitive and caring mind...

The land of Condel is blessed, and Gaernod is not. Eofyn is king, and Spyre most certainly isn’t. When Spyre’s king threatens Eofyn’s kingdom and the source of its people’s power, Spyre sets out on a journey to save the Blessed Kingdom, not because he wants to, but because the other creatures of Curnen have threatened to kill him if he doesn't. It’s a long road ahead to save a kingdom he’s sure will hate him, and he’ll have to brave the many realms of Curnen to reach Condel and, regrettably, beyond to do it. The Fyre is going out, and the crystals are fading. The dragons are coming, and the king has fled. Only one thing is certain: Spyre did not sign up for this.

In the first book-length study of Valerie Martin's fiction, Veronica Makowsky explores the work of this lauded, but often overlooked, contemporary novelist. Winner of the Orange Prize for her novel Property (2003), Martin also won the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly (1990), which was then translated into sixteen languages and made into a popular film. Despite these successes, her critically acclaimed novels and stories have yet to attain a broad readership. Makowsky addresses this disconnect through a detailed critical study of Martin's distinguished oeuvre, grounding each work in its historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts. Makowsky begins with a sketch of Martin's life and then considers each of her ten novels and four collections of short stories. Throughout, Makowsky's deft critique reveals Martin to be an astute observer of people and places. Pointing to both early works, like A Recent Martyr (1987), and recent books, such as The Ghost of the Mary Celeste (2014), Makowsky identifies a potent mixture of pleasure and fear in Martin's writing that emphasizes the author's nuanced exploration of human imagination. Notable, too, are Martin's literary techniques -- especially point of view -- and her allusions to masterpieces in Western literature. The works of Henry and William James in particular influenced Martin's thematic blend of intellectualism and empathy evident in her rounded depictions of women in works like Italian Fever (1999) and The Great Divorce (1994). A rich and substantive study, The Fiction of Valerie Martin demonstrates and deconstructs the mastery of this thought-provoking author, in turn firmly establishing Martin's place in the canon of contemporary writers.

Guantánamo sits at the center of two of the most vexing issues of US policy of the past century: relations with Cuba and the Global War on Terror. It is a contested, extralegal space. In A New No-Man’s-Land, Esther Whitfield explores a multilingual archive of materials produced both at the US naval base and in neighboring Cuban communities and proposes an understanding of Guantánamo as a coherent borderland region, where experiences of isolation are opportunities to find common ground. She analyzes poetry, art, memoirs, and documentary films produced on both sides of the border. Authors and artists include prisoners, guards, linguists, chaplains, lawyers, and journalists, as well as Cuban artists and dissidents. Their work reveals surprising similarities: limited access to power and self-representation, mobility restricted by geography if not captivity, and immersion in political languages that have ascribed them rigid roles. Read together, the work of these disparate communities traces networks that extend among individuals in the Guantánamo region, inward to Cuba, and outward to the Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East.