Charles Lambert Books In Order

Novels

Little Monsters (2008)
Any Human Face (2010)
The View from the Tower (2013)
The Folding World (2014)
The Children’s Home (2016)
Prodigal (2018)
The Bone Flower (2022)
Birthright (2022)

Collections

The Scent of Cinnamon (2008)
Jack Squat (2017)

Novellas

The Slave House (2017)

Non fiction

With a Zero at its Heart (2014)

Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Novellas Book Covers

The Slave House
(2017)

Non fiction Book Covers

With a Zero at its Heart
(2014)

Charles Lambert Books Overview

Any Human Face

Andrew Caruso has been a second hand book dealer in Rome for thirty years when a collection of old photographs changes his life forever. He finds the photos among the possessions of his ex lover, Michel; the images possibly from police archives are fascinating, but when Andrew and his art critic friend Daniela decide to launch an exhibition, the shop is raided the day before the opening and the display seized with surprising violence. In his quest to understand the significance of the pictures, Andrew crosses paths with Alessandro, a journalist who knows more about their history than Andrew can imagine. But Alessandro offers hope, as well as information: hope, in a world where kidnap, subterfuge and even murder are the norm; a world of criminal intrigue in which no one is safe, or above suspicion. Meanwhile, in a cellar, a kidnapped girl hopes desperately for rescue. Part thriller, part love story, Charles Lambert’s second novel is both gripping and exhilarating; brilliant and hard edged, it clearly marks Lambert as a name to note.

The Scent of Cinnamon

These prize-winning stories deal with life, love, loneliness, delusion, misunderstanding and death. An office worker wakes to find his body invaded by a mysterious parasite. A desperate woman seeks escape through fire. A girl who knows only the forest is taken to the city for the first time. A solitary young boy conjures a girl from leaves to replace his twin sister. In one story a governess is forced to come to terms with the truth of the family she has loved and served, and the world in which she lives. In another, a one-night stand with a sad*ist triggers a meditation on sexual pleasure and serial killers. Some characters look for work, for ways to change their lives, for somewhere new to live; others for someone to love or be loved by, or to hurt. Not everyone is good. Not everyone is honest with himself or herself. Not everyone gets what they want, or deserve. The stories’ settings range across time and space, from the colonial outback in the late nineteenth century to contemporary urban life in London and Rome and Paris, to both warring sides of the Second World War. The tone is comic, dry, satirical, vivid, magical, disturbing, poignant and spare. Not a word is wasted in these stories, which describe the world not only as it is and was, but also as it might be.