The Garden of Rama by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee

Published: 1991
Summary (taken from blurb):
In the year 2130 a mysterious spaceship, Rama, arrived in the solar system. It was huge - big enough to contain a city and a sea - and empty, apparently abandoned. By the time Rama departed for its next, unknown, destination many wonders had been uncovered, but few mysteries solved. Only [...]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Published: 1890
Summary (taken from blurb):
Dorian is a good-natured young man until he discovers the power of his own exceptional beauty. As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamourous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt lifestyle and untouched by age. But up in his attic, hidden [...]

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Published: 2003
Summary (taken from blurb):
Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once called Jimmy, now calls himself Snowman and lives in a tree, wrapped in old bed sheets. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children [...]

The Third Man & The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene

Published: 1950
Summary (taken from blurb):
The Third Man is Graham Greene’s brilliant recreation of post-War Vienna, a ’smashed dreary city’ occupied by the four Allied powers. Rollo Martins, a second-rate novelist, arrives penniless to visit his friend and hero, Harry Lime. But Harry has died in suspicious circumstances, and the police are closing in on his [...]

A Fortunate Life by AB Facey

Published: 1981
Summary (taken from blurb):
Bert Facey sees himself as an ordinary man, but his remarkable story reveals a winner against impossible odds. At eight, his ‘childhood’ ended and he went out to work - clearing, ploughing, fencing, droving, sinking dams, boxing with a travelling troupe. He survived Gallipoli to become a farmer, but was forced [...]

The Book of Evidence by John Banville

Published: 1989
Summary (taken from blurb):
Freddie Montgomery has committed two crimes. He stole a small Dutch master from a wealthy family friend, and he murdered a chambermaid who caught him in the act.
He has little to say about the dead girl. He killed her, he says, because he was physically capable of doing so. It made [...]

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Date published: 1872
Summary (taken from Amazon.com):
A chilling tale of the un-dead, Carmilla is a beautifully written example of the gothic genre. The story takes the reader into the dark, mysterious world of a girl and her family tormented by visitations and nightmares. While the continual reoccurrence of a beautiful woman, unknown, yet familiar, meanders through [...]

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Date published: 1962
Summary (taken from blurb):
Fifteen-year-old Alex doesn’t just like ultra-violence - he also enjoys rape, drugs and Beethoven’s Ninth. He and his gang rampage through a dystopian future, hunting for terrible thrills. But when Alex finds himself at the mercy of the state and subject to the ministrations of Dr Brodsky, the government psychologist, [...]

The Explorers by Tim Flannery

Date published: 1993
Summary (taken from blurb):
The explorers of Australia tell an epic story of courage and suffering, of dispossession and conquest. This bestselling anthology, brilliantly edited and introduced by Tim Flannery, documents almost four centuries of exploration and takes us beyond the frontier into a world of danger, compassion, humour, brutality and death.
The Explorers includes [...]

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Date published: 1993
Summary (taken from blurb):
Paulo Coelho’s enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusion shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. [...]