Alphabet House (50 page)
Authors: Jussi Adler-Olsen
by Jonas Jonasson
Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he doesn’t want to begin. His one-hundredth birthday party to be precise. The Mayor will be there. The press will be there. But, as it turns out, Allan will not…
Escaping (in his slippers) through his bedroom window, into the flowerbed, Allan makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, Allan’s earlier life is revealed. A life in which – remarkably – he played a key role behind the scenes in some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.
‘Arguably the biggest word-of-mouth literary sensation of the decade’
The Independent
‘Imaginative, laugh-out-loud bestseller’
Daily Telegraph
‘Should carry a health warning for spouses or partners who are easily irritated by the sounds of helpless chortling’
The Irish Times
NOW AVAILABLE
by Lucía Puenzo
José is hiding a terrifying secret. A seemingly charming doctor, behind his cool exterior lies a calculating, sadistic character.
On the run from his native Germany, José finds himself in South America where he plans to continue with his secret genetic experimentation. But his vision is put on hold when he meets Lilith in a small, run-down village. Although vivacious and beautifully blonde, she has a growth defect and, for José, represents all that he would like to exterminate from humankind. An anomaly amongst her perfect Aryan siblings, Lilith’s existence intrigues him, and when he discovers that her mother is pregnant again, potentially with twins, the temptation to meddle in their lives and test his medical theories is strong.
Dark times lie ahead for Lilith and with few places to turn to for comfort, she clings ever tighter to her mysterious doll Wakolda.
And so begins a dark relationship between the doctor and little girl, the kind of love that simply cannot end well – for José is concealing the fact that he is the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, infamous for performing experiments on humans at Auschwitz. And sooner or later his past is going to catch up with him.
NOW AVAILABLE
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