This month, three lucky winners will receive sets of:

• True Things About Me, by Deborah Kay Davies (Canongate)
• The Lost City of Z, by David Grann (Simon & Schuster)
• When a Billion Chinese Jump, by Jonathan Watts (Faber)
• The Predator of Batignolles, by Claude Izner (Gallic Books)
• One Day, by David Nicholls (Hodder Paperbacks)

True Things About Me, by Deborah Kay Davies

This is the story of a woman brave enough to risk it all. She understands better than most the things that we keep hidden. She comes to learn how the heart is usually stronger than the head. And she cannot help, despite her better instincts, being drawn into a sexually charged and highly volatile relationship. True Things About Me is a brilliantly written novel of survival that reveals simultaneously the strength and vulnerability of one ordinary woman.

With great honesty and unexpected humour, Deborah Kay Davies takes us deep into the mind of her unforgettable protagonist, and in doing so asks us to consider seriously what we might sacrifice for our desires.

The Lost City of Z, by David Grann

Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was the last of a breed of great British explorers who ventured into ‘blank spots’ on the map with little more than a machete, a compass and unwavering sense of purpose. In 1925, one of the few remaining blank spots in the world was in the Amazon. Fawcett believed the impenetrable jungle held a secret to a large, complex civilization like El Dorado, which he christened the ‘City of Z’. When he and his son set out to find it, hoping to make one of the most important archeological discoveries in history, they warned that none should follow them in the event that they did not return. They vanished without a trace. For the next eighty years, hordes of explorers — shocked that a man many deemed invincible could disappear in a land he knew better than anyone, and drawn by the centuries-old myth of El Dorado — searched for the expedition and the city. Many died from starvation, disease, attacks by wild animals, and poisonous arrows. Others simply vanished.

• David Grann discusses The Lost City of Z

When a Billion Chinese Jump, by Jonathan Watts

When a Billion Chinese Jump tells the story of China’s – and the world’s – greatest crisis. With filthy water, choking emissions and an unsustainable appetite for resources, China’s development has taken our planet to the environmental edge. Now it faces a stark choice that will affect us all: accept catastrophe or make radical change.

To explore the response, award-winning correspondent Jonathan Watts travels from mountain paradise to blasted desert, through eco-cities, coal mines and industrial wastelands, examining the challenges facing those at the top of society and the problems and hopes of those below. His travelogue will interest anyone concerned with economic development, energy security, globalisation or climate activism. At heart, it is not a call for panic, but an expression of hope that – despite political constraints – individual choices can make a difference.

Consistently attentive to human detail, Watts vividly portrays the diversity of a country too often viewed as a faceless machine. No reader of his book – no consumer in the world – can be unaffected by what he presents.

The Predator of Batignolles, by Claude Izner

In the turbulent Parisian summer of 1893,Victor Legris has vowed to give up the dangerous hobby of amateur sleuthing to concentrate on selling books.

But a murderer is at large in Paris, intent on revenge for events that took place many years before during the Commune.

And when a bookbinder friend of Victor’s becomes the latest victim of the mysterious Leopard, the young bookseller feels impelled to resume his detective work and uncover the identity of the Batignolles predator.

One Day, by David Nicholls

`I can imagine you at forty,` she said, a hint of malice in her voice. `I can picture it right now.`

He smiled without opening his eyes. `Go on then.`

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.

So where will they be on this one day next year?

And the year after that? And every year that follows?

Twenty years, two people, One Day. From the author of the massive bestseller Starter For Ten.

The Question

To win, answer one simple question, the answer to which can be found somewhere on Bookhugger…

• Question 1: In whose foootsteps does David Grann follow deep into the heart of the Amazon jungle in The Lost City of Z?

Terms and conditions

1. Closing date for entries: 5th August 2010.
2. Open to residents of the United Kingdom only.
3. Entry to the competition is by completion of the above form only. Anyone submitting multiple entries will be disqualified.
4. The winners will be selected at random from those correct entries received before the closing date.
5. Only the winning entrants will be contacted by Bookhugger. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
6. The winner’s name(s) may be published on the Bookhugger website after the closing date of the competition.
7. The competition is not open to Bookhugger employees and their families, or to employees of Bookhugger publishers and their families.

1. Joan Morrice Says:
   July 24th, 2010 at 12:58 pm

   lovely list of books .. be a good holiday read!

2. j Says:
   July 24th, 2010 at 4:46 pm

   great selection

3. Sue Says:
   July 24th, 2010 at 5:23 pm

   brilliant choice of books this month

4. priya Says:
   July 28th, 2010 at 5:16 pm

   excellent summer books selected here.

5. Geoff Wickens Says:
   August 1st, 2010 at 3:17 pm

   superb selection . something for everyone

6. Geri Says:
   August 4th, 2010 at 8:09 pm

   Fabulous set of books to win..Hope I get lucky

7. Martin Dalzell Says:
   August 5th, 2010 at 10:50 pm

   Just finshed One Day by David Nicholls. A great read (though I preferred the Understudy).
   Martin

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