Showing results by narrator "Lara Sawalha" in All Categories

If you’ve ever wondered why Squibs are never offered a place at Hogwarts, what happened when Vernon Dursley first met James Potter, or how Dumbledore and McGonagall formed their lifelong friendship, From the Wizarding Archive should go straight to the top of your wish list. Containing 80 articles written by J.K. Rowling for the original Pottermore website and available for the first time in audio, exclusively from Audible, Harry Potter fans everywhere are in for a treat.

THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author - the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family...

From Onjali Q. Raúf, author of The Boy at the Back of the Class, comes a collection of seven unique fables, filled with humour, heart and messages of hope. Have you heard the story about the bird that turned to stone? Did your parents warn you about the...

Morocco, 1968. As she stands at the window, Mathilde reflects on the opportunities before her. Looking out at her garden, the roses - brought in from Marrakech - have bloomed and their sweet, fresh scent pervades the garden. Anything feels possible, and she is determined to celebrate it. Don't they have the right to enjoy life, after dedicating their best years to the war and then to this farm?

Nour is a young Syrian girl who has lost her father to cancer. Wanting to be close to her relatives, Nour's mother - a cartographer who makes beautiful hand-painted maps - moves her family back to the city of Homs. Nour's father was a real storyteller, and he told her that the roots of the trees connect to the ground across the world. She knows they left her father in the ground back in America, so she starts telling him the ancient fable of Rawiya, whispering it into the ground so he might hear. Rawiya left her home dressed as a boy in order to explore the world. 

Have you ever imagined a different life? Have you ever stood at a crossroads, undecided…Have you ever had a moment when you wanted to roar? Now an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ A story for every woman. A story for every moment. Whether you want to laugh To be moved To love To feel less...

Aya is 11 years old and has just arrived in Britain with her mum and baby brother, seeking asylum from war in Syria. When Aya stumbles across a local ballet class, the formidable dance teacher spots her exceptional talent and believes that Aya has the potential to earn a prestigious ballet scholarship. But at the same time, Aya and her family must fight to be allowed to remain in the country, to make a home for themselves and to find Aya's father - separated from the rest of the family during the journey from Syria.

In August 2014, Farida Abbas was just a normal Yazidi girl living in a village high in the mountains of Northern Iraq. Then her village was attacked and swiftly taken by ISIS fighters, and her whole world changed. The jihadists murdered the men and the boys of her village, including her father and brothers, before taking Farida prisoner along with the rest of the women. This is the story of what happened to Farida after she was captured: the beatings, the rapes, the markets where ISIS sold their female prisoners like cattle.

This is the story of two sisters, Mia and Inés. Two girls enveloped in love, trapped by social conventions of Casablanca at the dawn of the 21st century and silenced by the political 'truths' that envelop their lives. Mia - the older sister, a warrior and a pariah, her sexuality a matter of scorn, a truth to be erased. Inés - the little sister, a woman trying to carve out an identity in a Paris that derides and erases her with no way back to Morocco, a homeland her father has warned her never to return to for her own sake.

A World Book Day 2020 Author 'I've always wanted to be a Star Hunter. But I don't want to be the kind that looks for old stars that have already been burning for millions of years. I want to find the brand new ones - the ones that have only just been born and are searching for the people they've...

Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, We Hunt the Flame is a breathtaking story of magic, conquering fear and taking identity into your own hands. From Hafsah Faizal, the number one bestselling author of A Tempest of Tea. There was nothing more respectable and dangerous than...

The epic sequel to the bestselling TikTok sensation We Hunt the Flame , by the #1 bestselling author of A Tempest of Tea This is YA fantasy at it's best. Lush, hopeful and devestating, We Free the Stars is Hafsah Faizal's spellbinding conclusion to the Sands of Arawiya duology, set in a world...

A big-hearted, captivating, modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice, with hijabs instead of top hats and kurtas instead of corsets. Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been overtaken by a demanding teaching job. Her boisterous Muslim family, and numerous (interfering) aunties, are professional naggers. And her flighty young cousin, about to reject her 100th marriage proposal, is a constant reminder that Ayesha is still single.

The Safina is a city ship, two hundred years into its voyage from the ruins of Earth towards a new habitable world. Its crew maintain the ship, generation after generation, while protecting their 'ancestors' - the final remnants of Earth's doomed Network Empire - by keeping them alive in...

Assyria, in the reign of Ashurbanipal. For Aurya and her daydreaming brother, Sharo, every day is a struggle for survival, as they dodge the beatings of their drunken father and scrabble for scraps of food. One violent evening, everything changes. Soon, they are on the barge of King Ashurbanipal, bound for the beautiful, near-mythical city of Nineveh.  

No topic has gripped the public imagination so dramatically as the spectre of global jihadism. While much has been said about the way jihadists behave, their ideology remains poorly understood. Shiraz Maher charts the intellectual underpinnings of Salafi-jihadism from its origins in the mountains of the Hindu Kush to the jihadist insurgencies of the 1990s and the 9/11 wars.

On an orange-tinted evening in September 1905, Scheherazade is born to an opium-dazed mother in the ancient city of Smyrna. At the very same moment, a dashing Indian spy arrives in the harbour with a secret mission from the British Empire. He sails in to golden-hued spires and minarets, scents of fig and sycamore and the cries of street hawkers selling their wares. When he leaves, 17 years later, it will be to the heavy smell of kerosene and smoke as the city, and its people, are engulfed in flames.

WINNER OF CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARD 2025 WINNER OF VIKKI ORVICE AWARD FOR WOMEN'S SPORTS WRITING 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST SUMMER BOOKS OF 2024 'Riveting, heart-wrenching and incredibly important . . . an inspirational story...

Safiya and her mum have never seen eye to eye. Her mum doesn’t understand Safiya’s love of gaming, and Safiya doesn't think they have anything in common. As Safiya struggles to fit in at school, she wonders if her mum wishes she was more like her confident best friend, Elle. But then her mum falls into a coma and, when Safiya waits by her bedside, she finds herself in a strange alternative world that looks a bit like one of her games. And there’s a rebellious teenage girl, with a secret, who looks suspiciously familiar....

In between dating, shopping, drinking, dancing and having fun, the girls of Riyadh live by Saudi Arabia’s strict cultural traditions. Well, not quite... They’re still trying to be good Muslims and please their families. But can you be a 21st century woman and a Saudi woman? A full-cast dramatisation of Rajaa Alsanea's best-selling novel, revealing the social, romantic, and sexual tribulations of four young women from the elite classes of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.