Virago modern classics

Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel discovers that her husband is in love with another woman. Food is her consolation, and since Rachel is a cookery writer, and between trying to win Mark back and wishing him dead, she offers us some of her favourite recipes. 'Heartburn' is a roller coaster of love, betrayal, loss and - most satisfyingly - revenge.

Joanna Burton was born in South Africa but sent by her missionary father to be raised in Yorkshire. There she dreams of the far-off lands she will visit and adventures to come. The magic land turns out to be the harsh reality of motherhood and life on a Yorkshire farm. Yet still she dares to dream.

Tracy Quinn, daughter of a screen star and raised on film sets around the world, returns to her adored family home, a country house named China Court. Her grandmother's recent death has set in motion events that threaten Tracy's future and the very existence of China Court.

Alexias, a young Athenian, grows up just as the Peloponnesian War is drawing to a close. The adult world he enters is one in which the power and influence of his class have been undermined by the war, and Alexias finds himself drawn to the controversial teachings of Sokrates. Among the followers, Alexias meets Lysis, and the two youths become inseparable. Their relationship captures vividly the intricacies of classical Greek culture.

Lonely and rootless Jenny finds herself in Naples after the war. Here her close friendship with the talented Gioconda expands to make room for a dour Scotsman and for Gioconda’s lover, Gianni.

After forty years Janina Bauman is ready to tell the story of her life and experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto during the holocaust.

Making a vow to go native in a way the natives never had the stamina for, Sally Jay Gorce is in Paris busy getting drunk, having affairs, and losing her money, passport and pearls. A timeless account of a woman hell-bent on living.

The Group follows eight graduates from exclusive Vassar College as they find love and heartbreak, forge careers, gossip and party in 1930s Manhattan. It is the first novel to frankly portray women's real lives, exploring subjects such as sex, contraception, motherhood and marriage.

Clara is the beloved daughter of a devoted, though authoritarian father and an imperious, devout Catholic mother. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, Clara experiences the vagaries of adolescence and, faced with the first tragedy of her adult life, she realises that neither parents, nor faith can protect her from change.

When, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before she finally meets the man of her dreams – who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds.

It is 1933 and Rebecca arrives alone on a small Caribbean island. Here she encounters voices from the past and the spirit of Sibyl Jardine. The voices remind her of the girl she once was and the woman she could become.