Meet Ignatius J. Reilly—flatulent, eloquent, and pretty much unemployable. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged as well. Ignatius ignores them as he heaves his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity, and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him. Ignatius must get a...

From the rolling countryside of Kent to the colourful souks of Morocco, this is a heart-stopping novel of romance, intrigue and danger - and a passion to risk dying for. MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR Impoverished Stella Myles meets the enigmatic Montgomery in a Piccadilly ballroom and he orchestrates a job for her as governess with the wealthy, secretive Ainsworth family...

Tandia sat waiting anxiously for the fight to begin between the man she loved the most and the man she hated the most in the world. Tandia is a child of Africa - half Indian, half African, beautiful and intelligent. She is only sixteen when she is first brutalised by the police. Her fear of the white man leads her...

In the vaulted Gothic towers of Notre-Dame lives Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer. Mocked and shunned for his appearance, he is pitied only by Esmerelda, a beautiful gypsy dancer to whom he becomes completely devoted. Esmerelda, however, has also attracted the attention of the sinister archdeacon Claude Frollo, and when she rejects his lecherous approaches, Frollo hatches a plot to destroy...

Drums Of Autumn is the fourth novel in the bestselling Outlander series. How far will a woman travel to find a father, a lover, a destiny? Across seas, across time - across the grave itself. It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle. Claire Randall was swept through time into the arms of James Fraser, whose love for her...

The Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller from the author of HAMNET and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT 'Insightful and emotionally raw' Daily Telegraph ______ When Lily moves into Marcus's flat, she is intrigued by signs of his recently departed ex-lover. A single dress left hanging in the wardrobe, a mysterious mark on the wall, the lingering odour of jasmine. Who was this...

Part of the Vintage Classics Austen Series— all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed by writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton and introduced by our finest contemporary writers. "Beautifully designed... Perfect collectable gift for Austen fans and design devotees" - So Darling Elinor is as prudent as her sister Marianne is impetuous. Each must learn from the other after...

Vintage Classics brings you one of the most admired, best loved and most influential novels in the history of English literature. Discover one of the most admired, best loved and influential novels in the history of English literature. The perfect long read to lose yourself in. 'If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life.' Dorothea...

Discover the magic of The Twilight Garden, the brand new novel from Sara Nisha Adams – available to buy now A finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Fiction, discover this year’s most uplifting and heart-warming debut ‘Absolutely gorgeous’ RUTH WARE‘A joyful, uplifting read!’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING‘A captivating debut’ HEIDI SWAIN A faded list.Nine favourite stories.For two strangers, friendship is only...

Stephanie Plum's life is ready to explode in the pulse-pounding new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich! She said yes to Morelli. She said yes to Ranger. Now Stephanie Plum has two fiancés and no plan. But the way things are going, she might not live long enough to marry anyone. Stalling for time, Stephanie buries...

A highlight for 2024 for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, i, Observer, Grazia, GQ, Irish Times, Sunday Independent, Prima, Good Housekeeping. 'Magnificent' — Marian Keyes 'A beautiful book' — Tracy Chevalier 'Genius . . . another classic and funny love story' — Matt Haig 'I don't know how he does it, but he's the only person who can'...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022 PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE NIGHT WATCHMAN ----------------------------------------------------- In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage and of a woman's relentless errors. Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we...

A blisteringly fast, fresh, funny and hugely entertaining novel of mothers, daughters and one gutsy wild colonial girl who gets caught up in Australia's last female bushranger's quest for revenge. Think Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife meets Trent Dalton. 1918: Australia's last bushranger, Dulcie James, holds up Anna King's falling-down farmhouse. There's a scrawny unloved infant on the floor, Anna...

By Command of The Queen, you are hereby directed to be present at - There's a lot to get done ahead of the Queen's Coronation, and even more so when your livelihood is at stake. Lucy Jones is Junior Wardrobe Assistant to the Queen, but dreams of being a singer. Caroline Brimstone loves her role as the Queen's Assistant Dresser,...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library and The Librarians of Rue de Picardie comes a charming and cinematic novel following a young woman from Montana who lands a job in the American Library in Paris, where she discovers the power of storytelling and writes her own Parisian chapter.'Stirring and rich with detail' New York Times...

Glamour, intrigue and two women who will gamble their lives to survive ... the compelling new Tasmanian historical fiction from a bestselling Australian author. December 1939: The grand opening of Australia's most glamorous and talked about hotel, the Wrest Point Riviera.The equally glamorous Sabine Winters, recently arrived in Hobart from the Continent, anticipates a safe port from the storm that...

From the two-time Emmy Award–winning producer and host of the Black & Published podcast comes a sweeping multi-generational epic following seven generations of Dupree women as they navigate love, loss, and the unyielding ties of family in the tradition of Homegoing and The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. It’s 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity...

The Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller ‘Brutal yet beautiful, heartfelt yet harrowing, this is one compulsive read’ – Susan Stokes-Chapman Amara has escaped her life as a slave in Pompeii’s most notorious brothel. She now has a house, fine clothes, servants – but all are gifts from her patron, hers for as long as she keeps her place in his...

Poet Darby Hudson presents an expanded collection of his viral Instagram posts, in which he offers a deeply human glimpse into his mother's unique way of looking at the world, inspiring readers to find joy in every moment.Darby, Love . . . is equal parts wonder, chaos, and humanity. It's a conversation between the living and the dead, mom and son,...

The final instalment in Elodie Harper's Sunday Times bestselling Wolf Den Trilogy 'Beautiful, moving, captivating.' Jennifer Saint 'Vivid, unsentimental and compelling.' The Times The Temple of Fortuna follows Amara's journey which has taken her far; from a slave in Pompeii's wolf den to a high-powered courtesan in Rome... though her story is not over yet. While Amara plays for power...

Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...

A teenage girl's difficult journey towards adulthood in a time of war. Abigail is described as "A school story for grownups that is also about our inability or refusal to protect children from history" by SARAH MOSS. "Of all Szabo's novels, Abigail deserves the widest readership. It's an adventure story, brilliantly written" — TIBOR FISCHER. Of all her novels, Magda...

Witi Ihimaera's first published book—Pounamu Pounamu—translated into te reo Māori. Published in collaboration with Kotahi Rau Pukapuka. E rima tekau tau ki muri, ka puta mai a Pounamu Pounamu hei kai ma te ao pānui reo Pākehā. Ko te whakataunga a ngā mana mātauranga o Aotearoa o taua wā, he pukapuka tēnei mā ngā tamariki i ngā kura o te...

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. 'The illegible signature of teetering disaster' Three great stories—The Aurelian, Signs and Symbols, and Lance—the latter is both a derisive attack on science fiction and an attempt to imagine the real pain and horror that would...

In all her twenty-five years, lovely Venetia Lanyon has never been further than Harrogate, nor enjoyed the attentions of any but her two wearisomely persistent suitors. Then, in one extraordinary encounter, she meets a neighbour she only knows by reputation – the infamous Lord Damerel – and before she knows better, is egging on a libertine whose way of life...

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ’I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two’ A London lawyer is drawn into a series of strange occurrences concerning his old friend Henry Jekyll and the...

This international bestseller has sold over three million copies worldwide. An extraordinarily clever, funny, and moving book about being comfortable with who you are and what you're good at. I'm sending copies to several friends and hope to re-read it later this year. This is one of the most profound novels I've read in a long time. – Bill Gates...

Maybe it's the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma's offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance. Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine—her work, watching movies with her boyfriend, avoiding thoughts of her recently deceased...

The hugely anticipated fifth and final novel in the multimillion bestselling Crossfire series, by Sunday Times bestselling author Sylvia Day. Gideon Cross. Falling in love with him was the easiest thing I've ever done. It happened instantly. Completely. Irrevocably. Marrying him was a dream come true. Staying married to him is the fight of my life. Love transforms. Ours is...

Nausea is both the story of the troubled life of a young writer, Antoine Roquentin, and an exposition of one of the most influential and significant philosophical attitudes of modern times – existentialism. The book chronicles his struggle with the realisation that he is an entirely free agent in a world devoid of meaning; a world in which he must...

Virginia Woolf's masterpiece, now in a beautiful clothbound edition. On a June morning in 1923, Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party and remembering her past. Elsewhere in London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the party reaches its glittering climax. Here, Virginia Woolf perfected the...

First new English translation since 1959 by acclaimed translator Robin Buss. When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring and charisma. But when Meaulnes disappears for several days, and returns with tales of a strange party at a mysterious house and a beautiful girl hidden within it, he has been...

The ultimate Rome story The young Julius Caesar is serving on board a war galley, gaining a fearsome reputation. Then his ship is captured, and he is abandoned on the North African coast. After gathering a legion of men powerful enough to gain vengeance on his captors and to suppress an uprising in Greece, he returns to Rome a hero....

'Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was...

When Will There Be Good News? is the third Jackson Brodie novel, winner of Richard & Judy's Best Read. This literary crime work comes from the number-one bestselling author of Big Sky and Transcription. Daily Mail praises the novel as "An exhilarating read. Her wry humour, sharp eye for the quirks of human behaviour and subtle characterisation are a constant...

A stunning new series look for one of the greatest writers of the 20th century in Penguin Modern Classics. Steinbeck's first major critical and commercial success, Tortilla Flat is also his funniest novel. Danny is a paisano, descended from the original Spanish settlers who arrived in Monterey, California, centuries before. He values friendship above money and possessions, so that when...

Hartley's classic novel of innocence lost, now reissued with a new jacket. When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of...

A woman arrives in Athens in the height of the summer to teach a writing course. Once there, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives. Beginning with the neighbouring passenger on the flight out and his tales of fast boats and failed marriages,...

The notorious dark, modern-day fable of New York from this cult master, new to Penguin Modern Classics. Harry Goldfarb, heroin addict and son of lonely widow Sara, cares only about enjoying the good life with girlfriend Marion and best friend Tyrone C Love, and making the most of all the hash, poppers, and dope they can get. Sara Goldfarb sits...

The rhapsodic, ground-breaking cult classic about a young woman's battle with schizophrenia. With a Foreword by Esme Weijun Wang and an Afterword by the author 'She fought them with her head and her teeth while the restraints were being tied, trying, doglike, to bite herself.' Sixteen-year-old Deborah's identity is shattering as she retreats further and further from the 'normal' world...

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic tale - beloved by children and adults alike - now in a beautiful clothbound edition. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his plane vanished over the Mediterranean Sea during a reconnaissance mission. Nearly eighty years later, this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power....

The alpacas are nervous. Accusations are flying about a rigged election, a mysterious illness is spreading, the Alpaca News is being censored by higher powers, and skullduggery is threatening the Breeders Showcase. Amidst a mass of self-interested parties, a forthright vet and a diplomatic engineer strive to protect the herds and restore democracy. By turns vital, farcical, heartbreaking and chilling,...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. I had sent my heroine straight down a rabbit-hole without the least idea what was to happen afterwards, wrote Dodgson, describing how Alice was...

Solving the world's most puzzling mystery novel just got even more fiendish in this gorgeous new hardback collector’s edition – with the final solution sealed in an envelope at the back of the book! Can you crack all the clues and catch the killer before you unseal the ending? Agatha Christie's masterpiece Spectator Ten strangers are lured to an island...

Like a long winter's dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history. Beginning one morning in December, We Do Not Part traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to...

Having got rid of their human master, the animals in this political fable look forward to a life of freedom and plenty. But as a clever, ruthless elite takes control, the other animals find themselves hopelessly ensnared in the same old way. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a powerful allegory that explores the dynamics of power and corruption, leaving...

The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes is a captivating tour-de-force from one of the UK's most beloved authors of women's fiction. Delving into the depths of human emotion with razor-sharp wit and a compelling narrative, this is a novel that promises to linger in your thoughts long after the final page is turned. At the heart of the...

In Albert Camus’s world-renowned fable of fear and courage, The Plague, the serene town of Oran on the Algerian coast is unexpectedly torn by the outbreak of a deadly disease. Panic spreads as death infiltrates their daily lives, forcing the townspeople into a harsh quarantine. The once bustling town descends into isolation and despair, as its inhabitants grapple with the...

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is an enthralling and thought-provoking exploration of civilisation and savagery, challenging the very essence of our humanity. As Marlow, a seafaring wanderer, recounts his harrowing expedition into the African Congo, readers are whisked through rivers choked with danger and into the unknown depths of an unforgiving jungle. His assignment, to captain a steamer upriver,...

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo is a masterful tapestry of interconnected lives spanning over a century of British history and culture. This novel bursts with energy, humour, and heart as it explores the multifaceted experiences of twelve distinctive characters. A rich narrative ensemble, it captures the voices of mostly Black and British women who navigate the complexities of their...

Jane Austen's classic novel with cover artwork from the major new feature film starring Daisy Edgar-Jones. The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much! Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the...

A stunning and uplifting debut from a powerful new voice, perfect for fans of Alice Winn and Clare Chambers. ‘An assured debut written with considerable flair, The Ruins is a sweeping story of self-discovery in the face of adversity, which takes the reader on a memorable journey from pre-war Devon to the central highlands of 1950s Sri Lanka' Anita Frank...

Melody has vowed never to fall in love again. Al is a hopeless romantic. So, when they quite literally bump into each other, there's no reason sparks should fly. But the world seems a little upside down lately. A few weeks ago, Al ordered the removal of all the lovers’ padlocks from one of Dublin's beautiful bridges. Ever since then,...

Crackling with the tension of a thriller, Mother Waters is a deeply beautiful and strange debut about ambition, grief, love and the myths we weave – both about ourselves and the natural world – by a hauntingly powerful new voice. On the morning of her wedding anniversary, Charlie walks out of her house and her marriage. Free for the first...

From award-winning, bestselling writer Leah Swann comes a lyrical, powerful, dark and devastating novel. Warning: once you start reading, you will not be able to put this novel down. Jack Wolfe, a complicated and difficult old man, retreats to his remote shack in The Otways to grieve his wife's death in a car crash where he was the driver. Half...

It’s the 1990s, and Paper Husbands are finally making headway – they’ve got a song on high rotation on student radio and have been given the opportunity of a lifetime to open for UK legends, Shimmer. The disappearance of frontman Pete shatters those plans, leaving the rest of the band to lead decidedly non-rock ’n’ roll lives in the years...

From the bestselling author of The Radio Hour comes this charming yet pointed look at the tumultuous, extraordinary decade of the 1960s. It explores the effects of the pill, rebellion, and new ideas on ordinary Australian women who, alongside shorter skirts and the Beatles, embrace freedom. 1960s Adelaide: The Langley family—Olive, Len, and their two daughters, twenty-year-old Cathy and ten-year-old...

For librarian Joyce Haddington, the pages of her favourite novels have always felt more compelling than her own life. But when war breaks out on her doorstep and a call for help rings out across the libraries of London, she knows she must act. Taking matters into her own hands, Joyce invites a young Jewish girl to stay with her,...

The bond between Yoshiki and Hikaru is a welcome escape from their isolated village. But one day when the two boys meet up, Yoshiki can immediately tell something is off. Though the person standing before him looks and acts exactly like Hikaru, Yoshiki knows that his friend is...gone. Someone-no, something has taken Hikaru's place. And with so many eerie incidents...

From #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Jennifer Niven, a novel about America's favourite TV family, whose perfect façade starts to crack, for fans of Lessons in Chemistry and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America's Favourite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every...

Beautifully written, spare and elegiac, This, My Second Life is a literary debut novel set in Cornwall in which a young man comes to terms with a life-changing injury. After a near-death experience and life-changing injury, twenty-year-old Jago Trevarno goes to stay with his uncle on his small coastal farm a few miles from St Ives in Cornwall. Their existence...

A breathtaking and cinematic novel about the lust for gold and its bloody consequences, set in the unforgiving landscape of the sub-Arctic Canadian wilderness, from the acclaimed author of The North Water. A ragged fur peddler arrives at a remote outpost of the Hudson Bay Company in the winter of 1766 with a lump of gold, claiming that there is...

VINTAGE EARTH - A series of transformative novels with the environment at their heart. The Man Who Planted Trees 'And so, with great care, he planted his hundred acorns.' While hiking through the wild lavender in a wind-swept, desolate valley in Provence, a man comes across a solitary shepherd called Elzeard Bouffier. Staying with him, he watches Elzeard sorting and...

Nobody knows she's checked into Room 706. Caught in the wrong place at precisely the worst time, Kate must face the most confronting situation of her life— and discover what matters most— in this deeply suspenseful and thought-provoking debut novel. If she knew it would end this way, would it ever have begun? 'I devoured it. I had goosebumps at...

Just read it...Outstanding Matt Haig To say I love this book is an understatement... It moved me to tears Reese Witherspoon Beautifully written, completely charming, and extremely wise on the subject of adolescence and influence Nick Hornby Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the...

The first book in the breathtaking Delirium trilogy. They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years suffocated by a lie. There was a time...

Joan is an unforgettable anti-heroine. I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about her – ELIZABETH DAY So insanely good and true and twisted it’ll make your teeth sweat – OLIVIA WILDE One of my favourite writers of all time – DUA LIPA Like a series of grenades exploding – MARIAN KEYES I drove myself out of New York City...

Yo ho ho! All across the city, the pirates are getting restless and long for a party. So when a retired pirate comes to babysit for the Terrapin family, they are in for quite a surprise... From the rumbustious author and artist team of Margaret Mahy, winner of the Carnegie medal, and Quentin Blake, the first Children's Laureate, and best...

‘An enchanting timeslip novel that kept me spellbound’ CHRISTINA COURTENAY ‘Fascinating and captivating’ SARAH MORGAN ‘Glorious… I adored it’ KATHLEEN MCGURL ‘This atmospheric novel is such an absorbing read’ MY WEEKLY Remember, remember, the fifth of November… 1605: Anne Catesby fears for her family. Her son, the darkly charismatic Robert, is secretly plotting to kill the King, placing his wife...

An exhilarating, suspenseful naval thriller set in the Second World War, as gripping as Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea. Now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks. Set in the early days of WWII, The Good Shepherd tells the story of an international convoy of 37 Allied ships, led by Captain Ernest Krause (Hanks) in his first command of a...

A rich, passionate, multi-layered portrayal of family strength and endurance in the New York frontier of the 19th century. The spring of 1824 is a challenging one for the inhabitants of Paradise when a flood devastates the village. But for Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner, it's also a time of reunion as their children return from far-off places—Lily from Italy and...

The epic tale of love and adventure, which captured the hearts of readers all over the world in Into the Wilderness and Dawn on a Distant Shore, continues... In spring 1802, the village of Paradise is still reeling from a typhoid epidemic when the spirited Elizabeth and her beloved frontiersman Nathaniel Bonner are forced to embark on a perilous new...

‘Sophie Irwin is an exciting and original voice. She's a must-buy author for me.’ Taylor Jenkins Reid ‘A delicious Regency romp for fans of Bridgerton.’ Red ‘Scandal, art and romance – this is the best Regency romp set in Bath since Persuasion!’ Good Housekeeping A lifetime of duty Widowed at just seven-and-twenty from her marriage of convenience, Eliza, now Countess...

In New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur palace in a tale rich in character, atmosphere, intrigue and lavish storytelling. Malik, now twenty and finished with his private school education, has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. Every step the Scarlet Pimpernel takes on French soil is fraught with danger. The French Terror is raging, and few are safe from the threat of the guillotine. Sir Percy Blakeney, a foppish Englishman, decides to rescue imprisoned aristocrats before they can be executed. Showing great daring...

The House of God is a wild and raunchily irreverent novel that teaches you the not-so-gentle arts of healing and tells you what your doctor never wanted you to know. It is the best medicine since MAS*H, and does for the doctor's art what Catch-22 did for the art of war. As in all hospitals, the medical hierarchy of The...

No library's complete without the classics! This new, enhanced leather-bound edition collects the legendary fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. They are the stories we've known since we were children. Rapunzel. Hansel and Gretel. Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty. But the works originally collected by the Brothers Grimm in the early 1800s are not necessarily the versions we heard before bedtime. They're...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. The animals at Manor Farm have had enough of Farmer Jones – he’s drunk, reckless and cares little for their welfare. When the boar, Old Major, shares his revolutionary plans, the animals are convinced they can...

This brutal glimpse of Russia under Stalin shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, and the ingenious possibilities of simple items like a nail, a piece of string, or a single match in a time where survival is all. Enter...