Paola Merla Libros

Entre el cabo de Creus y Gibraltar, a comienzos del siglo XIX se suceden los combates de la Armada Inglesa contra navíos de vela que atraviesan el Mediterráneo, especialmente los franceses, en plena expansión napoleónica. La Shopie -corbeta un tanto rechoncha y desvencijada al servicio de su majestad-, con sus dos palos, doce cañones y una tripulación que deja bastante que desear, ha de escoltar a doce barcos mercantes. A bordo también se enfrentan distintas formas de afrontar la guerra y la vida en el mar. Mientras el capitán Jack Aubrey le mueve su ansia por conseguir botines, al cirujano Maturín le interesa la ciencia, y el impecable oficial Dillons lucha por honor.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. H.M.S. Surprise follows the variable fortunes of Captain Jack Aubrey's career in Nelson's navy as he attempts to hold his ground against admirals, colleagues and the enemy, accepting a mission to convey a British ambassador to the East Indies. The voyage takes him and his friend Stephen Maturin to the strange sights and smells of the Indian sub-continent, and through the archipelago of spice islands where the French have a near-overwhelming superiority. Rarely has a novel managed to convey more vividly the fragility of a sailing ship in a wild sea. Rarely has a historical novelist combined action and lyricism of style in the way that O' Brian does. His superb sense of place, brilliant characterisation, and a vigour and joy of writing lift O'Brian above any but the most exalted of comparisons.

The first book in the Treasures of the Nile series Anippe has grown up in the shadows of Egypt’s good god Pharaoh, aware that Anubis, god of the afterlife, may take her--or her siblings--at any moment. She watched him snatch her mother and infant brother during childbirth, a moment which awakens in her a terrible dread of ever bearing a child. When she learns that she is to be become the bride of Sebak, a kind but quick-tempered Captain of Pharaoh Tut’s army, Anippe launches a series of deceptions with the help of the Hebrew midwives—women ordered by Tut to drown the sons of their own people in the Nile—in order to provide Sebak the heir he deserves and yet protect herself from the underworld gods. When she finds a baby floating in a basket on the great river, Anippe believes Egypt’s gods have answered her pleas, entrenching her more deeply in deception and placing her and her son Mehy, whom handmaiden Miriam calls Moses, in mortal danger. As bloodshed and savage politics shift the balance of power in Egypt, the gods reveal their fickle natures and Anippe wonders if her son, a boy of Hebrew blood, could one day become king. Or does the god of her Hebrew servants, the one they call El Shaddai, have a different plan for them all?

1786. Il comandante di vascello William Rennie e il suo secondo James Hayter sono a terra, desiderosi di tornare a navigare dopo una preoccupante pausa nella loro carriera nella marina militare, quando ricevono una missione particolarmente importante: la messa a punto della nave di Sua Maestà Expedient, una fregata da trentasei cannoni. Dopo un varo difficile e l'ancor più complessa organizzazione di un equipaggio non proprio di prim'ordine, superano il mitico capo Horn e veleggiano nel Pacifico, apparentemente incaricati di svolgere una missione scientifica. Ma gli ordini segreti, rivelati solo in mare aperto, sono differenti...

A primera vista, Margrave parece uno de esos pueblos apacibles donde nunca pasa nada. Jack Reacher, un exmilitar convertido en trotamundos, acaba de llegar allí y tarda menos de una hora en comprobar que las apariencias engañan. Detenido mientras desayunaba en una cafetería, Reacher, el único forastero de la ciudad, es acusado de asesinato. A pesar de su inocencia, los indicios empiezan a acumularse en su contra. Si quiere escapar con vida del nido de serpientes en el que se encuentra, tendrá que aguzar sus sentidos y demostrar por qué es un superviviente nato. La primera novela protagonizada por Jack Reacher es una poderosa muestra del talento de Lee Child para narrar historias que atrapan desde la primera página.

The bestselling author of "A Small Death in Lisbon" tells a gripping tale of a grisly murder that leads a police detective to the seamy side of his famous father's life.

Jonathan Strange y el seǫr Norrell es una novela fabulosa en todos los sentidos: por su ambicin̤ narrativa y por las historias extraordinarias que cuenta. Mezcla prodigiosa de fantasa̕ e Historia, de caballeros magos y personajes reales como el duque de Wellington, Jorge III o lord Byron, la novela plantea una versin̤ alternativa de la historia de Inglaterra, una versin̤ en la que la magia, una magia seria de carc̀ter casi cientf̕ico, desempeą un papel destacado. El resultado es absolutamente convincente, y el asombroso despliegue de personajes y aventuras hipnotiza al lector desde la primera pg̀ina hasta la l︢tima

Graham Greene's The Third Man meets Paul Auster as the Cold War heats up amidst the ruins of occupied Berlin.

A romantic historical adventure, set in the tyrannical court of King Ismail, the17th-century ruler of Morocco.