Vintage Publishing

Tales of upheaval and confusion, longing and love in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake. For the characters in after the quake, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago.

Set against the backdrop of Russian high society, this novel charts the course of the doomed love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer who pursues Anna after becoming infatuated with her at a ball.

Anna is a beautiful, intelligent woman whose passionate affair with the dashing Count Vronsky leads her to ruin. Her story is also about a search for meaning, and by twinning it with that of Levin, an awkward idealist whose happy marriage and domestic trials form the backdrop for a similar quest.

You might think I'd have grown out of getting myself into scrapes now that I'm half past sixteen. But between being vexed by my freckles, taunted by a brazen Jersey cow and kept on my toes by the new twins, Dora and Davy, life at Green Gables is just as eventful as ever. I do try to be a little more grown-up now that I'm a school teacher.

'It's a million times nicer to be Anne of Green Gables than Anne of nowhere in particular, isn't it?' My dislikes: Being an orphan, having red hair, being called 'carrots' by Gilbert Blythe. My likes: Living at the Green Gables with Marilla and Matthew, my bosom-friend Diana, dresses with puff sleeves. My regrets: Dying my hair green.