Louis de Bernières

As the Ottoman Empire collapses there is a bitter struggle between Greeks and Turks, Christians and Muslims. In one small settlement in Anatolia the two communities had co-existed peacefully for centuries, but as war is declared and the forces of the outside world intrude on the village, the peaceful fabric of life is destroyed.

When Captain Antonio Corelli, an Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia in 1941 he is ostracised by the locals, but he proves to be a civilised and far from fanatical soldier and an accomplished musician. However, his attraction for the local doctor’s daughter is soon threatened as the lines are drawn between invader and defender. Contains some strong language and explicit sex.

In the brief golden years of King Edward VII’s reign, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of war that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood.

Bored, lonely, and trapped in a loveless marriage, forty-something Chris is a stranger to London's 1970s youth culture, when he propositions Roza, a Yugoslavian newcomer who spends the next few months telling Chris the story of her past. But is Roza telling the truth? Does Chris hear the stories through the filter of his own need? Does it even matter?