On the 26th of December 2004, an earthquake under the Indian Ocean created a series of devastating tsunami waves. Over 150,000 people have been reported dead so far, and many survivors have lost everything. In the aftermath of this terrifying natural catastrophe, the need for help remains urgent. For this collection, celebrated international writers have donated work from their forthcoming and eagerly anticipated new books, including Stephen King, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Mark Haddon, Nick Hornby, Maeve Binchy, Alexander McCall Smith, Tracy Chevalier, Paulo Coelho, Nicholas Evans, Vikram Seth, Marian Keyes, J.M. Coetzee, Harlan Coben, Joanna Trollope and Scott Turow . All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Indian Ocean tsunami earthquake charities.
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than thirty internationally acclaimed works of fiction, poetry and critical essays, including the Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin. Her books have been translated into numerous languages.
Maeve Binchy is the author of several volumes of short stories, and the novels Light a Penny Candle, Echoes, Firefly Summer and Circle of Friends among others. Her latest bestseller is Nights of Rain and Stars.
Tracy Chevalier is the author of The Virgin Blue, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Angels and The Lady and the Unicorn. She is currently researching and writing her fifth novel, which will be about the painter and poet William Blake.
Nicholas Evans's first novel, The Horse Whisperer, sold more than ten million copies worldwide since its publication in 1995 and has been translated into a total of thirty-six languages. His following novels, The Loop and The Smoke Jumper, were also international bestsellers.
Mark Haddon is a writer for television and radio as well as a bestselling novelist. He has written many books for children, and his novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, was an international bestseller and the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
Nick Hornby is the author of the bestsellers Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy, all of which were successfully adapted into hit films. How To Be Good, his third novel, won the WH Smith Award for Fiction. His fourth novel A Long Way Down is published by Viking in April 2005.
Marian Keyes is the internationally bestselling author of seven novels, including Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners, Angels and most recently The Other Side of the Story. She is published in twenty-nine different languages.
Stephen King is the author of more than forty worldwide bestsellers, including Misery, The Green Mile, Bag of Bones, and Dreamcatcher. Most recently, he completed his Dark Tower series, which he began writing in 1970. In 2003, King was given the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Alexander McCall Smith is also the author of over fifty books. In 1999 The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was published. Sales of the series exceed three million in the USA alone and translation rights have so far been sold in thirty countries.
Ian McEwan is an acclaimed and Booker Prize-winning author. His most recent novel, Atonement, was published in 2002. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and went on to be a huge bestseller in both hardback and paperback.
Joanna Trollope is the bestselling author of the novels A Village Affair, The Rector’s Wife and Marrying the Mistress. She also writes under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her latest novel, Second Honeymoon, will be published in 2006.
Harlan Coben has won the Edgar Award, Shamus Award and Anthony Award — the first author to win all three. His most recent novels, Just One Look, No Second Chance, Tell No One and Gone For Good are international bestsellers.
Paulo Coelho is renowned for his international bestsellers The Alchemist and Eleven Minutes. His books have been translated into fifty-nine languages and published in 150 countries. He was inducted at the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 2002.
J.M. Coetzee is the author of eight works of fiction, four collections of essays, and several works of indeterminate genre, as well as of translations from the Dutch and Afrikaans. Among the literary prizes he has won are the Booker Prize (twice), the Commonwealth Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. He lives in Australia.
Vikram Seth is the author of The Golden Gate, From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang And Tibet, A Suitable Boy, Arion and the Dolphin (a libretto) and four volumes of poetry, including Beastly Tales.
Scott Turow is the author of six bestselling novels, including his first, Presumed Innocent and his most recent novel, Reversible Errors published in 2002. He has also written two non-fiction books: one about his experience as a law student, and his newest book, Ultimate Punishment, a reflection on capital punishment.
