Most Popular Books by Helen Dunmore

In a collection of short works, a cafeteria cook confronts her pen pal, a boastful writer is put in his place, a future government ruthlessly controls conception, and a soulful woman remembers her past.

In a seaside town of sandy beaches and ocean breezes, Sapphy has never felt so far from the sea. The crowded shore at St. Pirans is nothing like the cove at Sapphy''s old home, where she first found her way into the underwater world of Ingo. But Ingo''s pull is strong, and it always finds a way. Soon Sapphy and her brother, Conor, are swimming beneath the waves again, riding the currents and teasing their Mer friend Faro. As Sapphy goes deeper into Ingo, she learns to feel more at home in the sea—even as she begins to be aware of its dangers. There''s the danger of going in too deep, and breaking the delicate balance between Sapphy''s life on land and her life in Ingo. There''s the mysterious disappearance of Sapphy''s father, an experienced sailor who should never have drowned. And then there''s Ingo itself—a restless power as old as the world, as strong as the tides, and more dangerous than anything Sapphy has ever known.

Sapphire lives in two worlds. On land she walks the rocky shores of the Cornwall coast—but under the sea she can swim like a seal by the side of her Mer friend Faro. Now both of Sapphy''s worlds are threatened. In the profound depths of the ocean, where the Mer cannot go, a monster called the Kraken is stirring. He has the power to sweep Ingo away and shake the land from its foundation. Because of her mixed blood, Sapphire can enter the Deep. With a great whale as her guide, she will journey to a place so far from the sun, no light can find it—and confront an evil that''s even darker.

Abandoned by their parents, Catherine and her brother, Rob, are left to the care of their mysterious grandfather, living in an enclosed and stifling world, where their only solace is their relationship with each other.

I wish I was away in IngoFar across the briny sea,Sailing over deepest watersWhere love nor care never trouble me. . . . By the Cornwall coast where Sapphire lives with her family, it''s easy to hear the call of the sea. Too easy. When the sea called to Sapphy''s father, he vanished from her life. When the sea called to her brother, he started disappearing for hours on end. And now the sea is calling to Sapphy, and she feels its pull more strongly than she''s ever felt anything in her life. In a novel full of longing, mystery, and magic, Helen Dunmore takes us to a new world that has the power both to captivate and to destroy. At the waterline, the two worlds of Air and Ingo meet. Sapphy and her brother, Conor, find themselves at the boundary between these worlds, in a place of danger and amazing discoveries.

Called "elegantly, starkly beautiful" by "The New York Times Book Review, The Siege" is Dunmore''s masterpiece. Her canvas is monumental--the Nazi''s 1941 winter siege on Leningrad that killed 600,000--but her focus is heartrendingly intimate.

From the award-winning author of The Siege, Helen Dunmore, comes The Lie; a spellbinding tale of love, remembrance, and deception, set against the backdrop of World War I. Cornwall, 1920. Daniel Branwell has survived the First World War and returned to the small fishing town where he was born. Behind him lie the trenches and the most intense relationship of his life. As he works on the land, struggling to make a living in the aftermath of war, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the traumas of the past and memories of his dearest friend and his first love. Above all, as the drama unfolds, Daniel is haunted by the terrible, unforeseen consequences of a lie. Set in France during the First World War and in post-war Cornwall, this is a deeply moving and mesmerizing story of the “men who marched away”.

A "magnificent, brave, tender" novel of post-WWII Russia from the author of The Siege— shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Commonwealth Writers'' Prize ( The Independent on Sunday). Leningrad 1952. Andrei, a young doctor, and Anna, a nursery school teacher, have forged a life together in the postwar, post-siege wreckage. But they know their happiness is precarious, like that of millions of Russians who must avoid the claws of Stalin''s merciless Ministry of State Security. When Andrei is forced to treat the sick child of a senior secret police officer, his every move is scrutinized, making it painfully clear that his own fate—and that of his family—is bound to the child''s. Trapped in an impossible game of life and death, Andrei and Anna must avoid the whispers and watchful eyes of those who will say and do anything to save themselves . . . With The Betrayal, internationally acclaimed author Helen Dunmore "vividly depicts the difficulty of living by principle in a tyrannical society, in which paranoia infects every act, and even ordinary citizens become instruments of terror" ( The New Yorker). "An emotionally charged thriller, The Betrayal unfolds breathlessly and with great skill. . . . You don''t want to put it down. . . . Elegant yet devastating." — The Seattle Times "With precise period detail and astute psychological insight, Dunmore brings the last months of Stalin''s reign to life and reminds us why some eras shouldn''t be forgotten." — Publishers Weekly

"An unconventional thriller [and] a page turner . . . As much a surprising love story as it is a tale of spies" ( The New York Times Book Review). In 1960 London, the Cold War is at its height, and a spy may be a friend or neighbor, colleague or lover. Two colleagues, Giles Holloway and Simon Callington, face a terrible dilemma over a missing top-secret file. At the end of a suburban garden, in the pouring rain, Simon''s wife, Lily, buries a briefcase containing the file deep in the earth. She believes that in doing so she is protecting her family. What she will learn is that no one is immune from betrayal or the devastating consequences of exposure. "Dunmore''s strategy, placing a triangle of past and present loves within a spy novel, yields an unexpected dividend. Even the most ordinary elements of life—the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children, meeting someone special, what remains unsaid within a marriage—become viscerally exciting." — The New Yorker " Exposure is many things at once—an espionage thriller, a forbidden-love story, an immigrant''s tale . . . A novel you won''t be able to shake." — Entertainment Weekly "One of those books that you read with your heart in your mouth, your mind fully engaged, and with a sense of desolation as you note the dwindling number of pages left before it comes to an end." — Chicago Tribune

In the heat of Rome''s long summer, the poet Catullus and his older married lover, Clodia Metelli, meet in secret. Living at the heart of sophisticated, brittle and brutal Roman society at the time of Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar, Catullus is obsessed with Clodia, the Lesbia of his most passionate poems. He is jealous of her husband, of her maid, even of her pet sparrow. And Clodia? Catullus is ''her dear poet'', but possibly not her only interest . . . Catallus'' relationship with Clodia is one of the most intense, passionate, tormented and candid in history. In love and in hate, their story exposes the beauty and terrors of Roman life in the late Republic.

Penguin Specials are designed to fill a gap. Written to be read over a long commute or a short journey, they are original and exclusively in digital form. This is a chilling tale by Helen Dunmore. ''It was nothing, she tells herself, but her body knows better.'' Florence lives in the country, lapped by miles and miles of darkness. She feels safe there - until a noise wakes her in the middle of the night. Protection is a short story by bestselling author Helen Dunmore that will cause your skin to prickle and make you ask yourself how far you would go to protect your family.

The crossing of Ingo is an ancient and dangerous coming-of-age ritual: a journey to the bottom of the world. Sapphy and Conor have been called to take part, the first of human blood ever to make an attempt. But Ervys and his followers are determined to stop them: dead or alive. Helen Dunmore builds her classic, much-loved series up to a breathtaking finale.

The love affair between a neglected wife and a mysterious soldier is "a perfect ghost story" from the acclaimed author of The Siege and The Betrayal ( The Independent). In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her new husband, Philip, a doctor. While he spends long hours on call, Isabel finds herself lonely and vulnerable, trying to adjust to the realities of being a country housewife. One evening, Isabel is woken by intense cold. Hunting for extra blankets, she discovers an old Royal Air Force greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under the coat for warmth, she starts to dream and is soon startled by a knock at her window—where a young RAF pilot stands outside, wearing that same coat. His powerful presence both disturbs and excites Isabel. And soon, their unexpected connection sparks an affair that will change them both irreparably. "Written in crisp, enthralling prose," The Greatcoat is an atmospheric tale of love and war that blurs the line between the real and the imaginary ( The New Yorker). "Dunmore''s gift, familiar from The Siege and The Betrayal, is to use a finely drawn domestic setting to show the great events of European history on a human scale. She doesn''t need ''horror'' to spook her readers; our past is bad enough." — The Guardian "The most elegant flesh-creeper since The Woman in Black." — The Times (London) "The sense of déjà vu surrounding the story makes it all the more chilling . . . Tense and engaging." — The New Yorker

**FROM THE AUTHOR OF INSIDE THE WAVE, THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017** Rebecca was abandoned by her mother in a shoebox in the backyard of an Italian restaurant when she was two days old. Her life begins without history, in the dark outdoors. Who is she, where has she come from and what can she become? Thirty years later, married to Adam, she gives birth to Ruby, and to a new life for herself. But when sudden tragedy changed the course of that life for ever, and all the lives that touch hers, Rebecca is out in the world again, searching . . . Mourning Ruby explores identity and maternal ties and is bestselling author Helen Dunmore''s eighth novel. ''Moments that bring the reader to tears . . . a fascinating - often brilliant - novel'' The Times ''Bold and unusual . . . miraculously written, Dunmore''s drama of loss and regeneration pieces together shattered lives'' Daily Mail ''Emotionally restrained, beautifully observed'' Daily Telegraph Helen Dunmore has published eleven novels with Penguin: Zennor in Darkness , which won the McKitterick Prize; Burning Bright; A Spell of Winter, which won the Orange Prize; Talking to the Dead ; Your Blue-Eyed Boy; With Your Crooked Heart; The Siege, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002; Mourning Ruby; House of Orphan; Counting the Stars and The Betrayal, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010. She is also a poet, children''s novelist and short-story writer.

Twenty-five years after the death of their baby brother in his crib, a death that stills haunts them both, sisters Isabel and Nina are brought back together by the birth of Isabel''s son, unlocking searing hidden memories and prompting ultimate betrayal and a shocking tragedy.

Despite her romantic dreams of travelling in exotic countries, Colette finds herself on holiday in a small coastal town with little to get excited about. But she soon finds that it''s not where you go, it''s the people you meet that really matters.

The story of Simone, a district judge whose husband is on the brink of bankruptcy and breakdown. Then a letter arrives from New York. Simone''s private history is about to collide with her public world.

Bestselling British author Helen Dunmore--novelist, poet, and first-ever winner of the Orange Prize for the year''s best fiction by a woman--delivers a "haunting . . . twisting, sensually written tale" ("The New York Times Book Review") of betrayal and fierce love. It is the story of Louise, a tough and introspective Londoner, trapped in a subtle battle between two brothers.

As they search for their missing father near their Cornwall home, Sapphy and her brother Conor learn about their family''s connection to the domains of air and of water.