A monastic murder mystery, medieval history lesson and microcosmic parable in one. Probably the most erudite book I've actually enjoyed.

Read it first when I was 14 and have read it every few years since as it becomes ever more thought-provoking.

Don't scoff at the 'children's book' tag - this trilogy gets you right in the gut, whatever age you are.

Only a Canadian could have written this - a disturbing portrait of sex and puritanism in a totalitarian America in the not-too-distant future.

A jungle-set fictional history of a family tree, with a vein of the supernatural running through it. Magic.

As the Great War disappears into time immemorial, a heartbreaking reminder of its cruelty, as seen through the eyes of both the privileged officer and the conscripted man.

A breathless first-hand account of how the Soviets took control of Russia in 1917, written by the only American to have been buried in the Kremlin.

Far from being a dry account, this gets right to the heart of it - the stories of the astronauts, technicians and directors who together achieved the greatest scientific feat of the twentieth century.

An eccentric and multi-stranded love story set in Cephallonia near the end of World War 2. Once the first few pages are successfully navigated, it's brilliant plain sailing.

Neurologist Oliver Sacks relates some of his odder clinical tales. Compassionately observed and a wonderful insight into the complexities of the human brain.