'Beautifully written and gripping'. Sunday Mirror When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless. Soon she was feted as the most elegant woman in the city. A dancer who shocked and delighted audiences, as a confidante and courtesan she bewitched the era's richest and most powerful men. But as paranoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari's lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1917 she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs Elysees and accused of espionage. Told in Mata Hari's voice through her final letter, The Spy is the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to break the conventions of her time, and paid the price.
Rita Desti Book order (chronological)






Пещера
- 352 pages
- 13 hours of reading
«Пещера» — последний из романов Жозе Сарамаго, до сих пор остававшийся не переведенным на русский язык. Сиприано Алгору шестьдесят четыре года, по профессии он гончар. Живет он вместе с дочерью Мартой и ее мужем по имени Марсал, который работает охранником в исполинской торговой организации, известной как Центр. Когда Центр отказывается покупать у Сиприано его миски и горшки, тот решает заняться изготовлением глиняных кукол — и вдруг департамент закупок Центра заказывает ему огромную партию кукол, по двести единиц каждой модели. А затем Марсала переводят из внешней охраны во внутреннюю — и все семейство переселяется в Центр. Но однажды ночью Сиприано слышит шум таинственных механизмов, как будто доносящийся из-под земли, и решает во что бы то ни стало найти разгадку…
After killing his brother Abel, Cain must wander for ever. He witnesses Noah's ark, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf. He is there in time to save Abraham from sacrificing Isaac when God's angel arrives late after a wing malfunction. Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cainwittily tackles many of the moral and logical non sequiturs created by a wilful, authoritarain God, forming part of Saramago's long argument with God and recalling his provocative novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.
An extraordinary mixture of adventure story and guide to self-knowledge, this book recounts the spectacular trials of Paulo and his mentor, Petrus, as they journey across Spain in search of a miraculous sword.
The witch of Portobello
- 346 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Paulo Coelho, one of the world's best loved storytellers, is back with a riveting novel tracing the mysterious life and disappearance of Athena dubbed 'the Witch of Portobello', which was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller in hardback.
Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. This is such a book - a magical fable about learning to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life's path and, above, all follow your dreams.
Death at Intervals
- 196 pages
- 7 hours of reading
In an unnamed country on the first day of the new year, people stop dying. For several months undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local 'maphia' smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally.
A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An opthamologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the text books. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped.
A divorced, depressed history teacher becomes obsessed with pursuing a man who looks exactly like he did five years ago after seeing him in a video recommended by a friend.
The Gospel according to Jesus Christ
- 352 pages
- 13 hours of reading
A retelling of the Gospel following the life of Christ from his conception to his crucifixion. A naive Jesus is the son not of God, but of Joseph. In the desert it is not Satan, but God that Christ tussles with, an autocrat with whom he has an unbalanced and unsettled relationship.
Lisbon circa 1935 comes to life in this story of a doctor who forsakes medicine to recite poetry in the streets, the women in his life, and the ghost who occasionally accompanies him
By the river Piedra i sat down and wept
- 224 pages
- 8 hours of reading
This is the story of Pilar, an independent and practical yet restless young woman, whose life is forever changed by an encounter with a childhood friend.
Stone Raft
- 272 pages
- 10 hours of reading
What if, one day, Europe was to crack along the length of the Pyrenees, separating the Iberian peninsula? Travelling at first packed into a car, then into a wagon, they take to the road to explore the limits of their now finite land, adrift in a world made new by this radical shift in perspective. schovat popis
The Alchemist
Anniversary Edition







