Tricia Wastvedt is an Orange Prize nominated author and a tutor on Bath Spa University's renowned Creative Writing MA course. The German Boy is her second novel.

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January, 1937: Peking is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, lavish cocktail bars and opium dens, warlords and corruption, rumours and superstition - and the clock is ticking down on all of it.

In the exclusive Legation Quarter, the foreign residents wait nervously for the axe to fall. Japanese troops have already occupied Manchuria and are poised to advance south. Word has it that Chiang Kai-shek and his shaky government, long since fled to Nanking, are ready to cut a deal with Tokyo and leave Peking to its fate.

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Our Norfolk based book group review The German Boy by Tricia Wastvedt.

Our book group found it 'hard to get going but persevered' and although some members have yet to finish the book they agree that they're 'enthralled' by the story and can't wait to get to the end to see what happens'.

» Read more about the Readers' Group Review here

Juliet Annan, Publishing Director, Fig Tree chose How It All Began by Penelope Lively.  She thinks that 'she has written some of her best novels in the past five years' and 'this wonderful novel is no exception'. It shows what can happen as the consequence of one random event that will change the lives of unconnected people extraordinarily and tells a funny, often affecting story about disparate lives that unknowingly touch each other.

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We asked our Featured Author, Tricia Wastvedt, author of The German Boy to recommend her favourite books to our readers. She's included Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and Jorge Luis Borges' Labyrinths

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In the village of Gastmere, this has shocking consequences for servant girl Elena. Unwittingly drawn into a macabre scheme to absolve dying Lord Gerard of his crimes, death and betrayal haunt her dreams like a curse.

We have 10 copies of The Gallows Curse to give away. See below for details.

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Summer brings both a season of sports and the Diamond Jubilee; a time for celebration. What books on celebrations, private and public, would you recommend? Tell us on the Penguin Readers' Forum. In the spirit of the Jubilee, we like Sarah Bradford's book Queen Elizabeth II Her Life in Our Times

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