Eefje Bosch Knihy

Elizabeth Zottová je neobyčejná žena. Jenže je začátek šedesátých let a její výhradně mužský tým v Hastingsově výzkumném ústavu zastává nevědecký názor na rovnoprávnost. Až na jednu výjimku: Calvina Evanse, osamělého, geniálního, na Nobelovu cenu nominovaného záštiplného člověka, který se zamiluje – ze všeho nejvíc – do její mysli. A výsledkem je skutečná chemie. Stejně jako věda je ale i život nepředvídatelný. A proto se o pár let později Elizabeth Zottová ocitá v roli svobodné matky a vedle toho i nedobrovolné hvězdy Večeře v šest, nejoblíbenějšího amerického pořadu o vaření. Elizabethin neobvyklý přístup k vaření se totiž ukazuje jako revoluční. Přestože sledovanost jejího pořadu roste, ne všichni jsou nadšení. Zdá se totiž, že Elizabeth Zottová neučí ženy jen vařit. Vyzývá je, aby změnily status quo.

Beatrice Kizza, a woman in flight from a homeland that condemned her for daring to love, flees to London. There, she shields her sorrow from the indifference of her adopted city, and navigates a night-time world of shift-work and bedsits. Howard Pink is a self-made millionaire who has risen from Petticoat Lane to the mansions of Kensington on a tide of determination and bluster. Yet self-doubt still snaps at his heels and his life is shadowed by the terrible loss that has shaken him to his foundations. Carol Hetherington, recently widowed, is living the quiet life in Wandsworth with her cat and The Jeremy Kyle Show for company. As she tries to come to terms with the absence her husband has left on the other side of the bed, she frets over her daughter's prospects and wonders if she'll ever be happy again. Esme Reade is a young journalist learning to muck-rake and doorstep in pursuit of the elusive scoop, even as she longs to find some greater meaning and leave her imprint on the world. Four strangers, each inhabitants of the same city, where the gulf between those who have too much and those who will never have enough is impossibly vast. But when the glass that separates Howard's and Beatrice's worlds is shattered by an inexcusable act, they discover that the capital has connected them in ways they could never have imagined.

'He did kill. Kill and kill and kill.' Tess's number one priority has always been her three-year-old daughter Poppy. But splitting up with Poppy's father Jason means that she cannot always be there to keep her daughter safe. When she finds a disturbing drawing, dark and menacing, among her daughter's brightly coloured paintings, Tess is convinced that Poppy has witnessed something terrible. Something that her young mind is struggling to put into words. But no one will listen. It's only a child's drawing, isn't it? Tess will protect Poppy, whatever the price. But when she doesn't know what, or who, she is protecting her from, how can she possibly know who to trust . . . ?

De jonge Marie-Laure is blind. Ze woont met haar vader in Parijs naast het natuurhistorisch museum waar hij werkt als curator. Als ze twaalf is bezetten de nazi's Parijs en vader en dochter vluchten naar het Bretonse Saint-Malo. Ze hebben de grootste en meest waardevolle schat van het museum meegenomen. In een mijnstadje in Duitsland groeit Werner Pfennig samen met zijn jongere zusje Jutta op in een weeshuis. Werner belandt bij de Hitlerjeugd en wordt vervolgens naar het front gestuurd. Via Rusland komt hij ten slotte in Saint-Malo terecht, waar zijn verhaal en dat van Marie-Laure samenkomen.