Roser’s son is the child of Victor’s brother, Guillem, killed in the war, and when Victor decides to take care of them, what begins as a practical arrangement gradually develops into a tender, lasting commitment to each other. Spanning 60 years and two continents, Allende’s latest novel follows two young Spanish republicans – Victor Dalmau and Roser Bruguera – from the Spanish civil war, through French detention camps and finally to Chile and Venezuela. Isabel Allende (translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor) Fascinating and informative, it is popular science at its best. Drawing on the latest scientific research, and debunking plenty of myths along the way, Barrett tackles everything from child and infant development to managing the divisiveness in contemporary politics.

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brainīarrett, a leading American neuroscientist, offers a series of highly accessible, content-rich and eminently readable essays about the workings of the human brain. Keane portrays the complex and, at times, challenging lives of these working-class women over the following decades with tenderness and compassion. In 1956, sisters Greta and Johanna Cahill are growing up in a remote, almost deserted hamlet on the west coast of Ireland, before departing for the US as teenagers. In the wake of the critical acclaim for her third novel, Ask Again, Yes, comes the UK publication of Keane’s debut, an epic story about immigration, identity and family.

A long petal to the sea