Contemporary fiction: literary and general

Book Synopsis‘Sometimes I wonder, if I had known that it was going to take me fourteen years to paint this painting of the Crucifixion with Douglas as Jesus, and what it would take for me to paint this painting, would I have been as happy as I was then?’ Susan Alison MacLeod, a Glasgow School of Art graduate with a dark sense of humour, first lays eyes on Douglas MacDougal at a party in 1988, and resolves to put him on the cross in the Crucifixion painting she’s been sketching out, but her desire to create ‘good’ art and a powerful, beautiful portrayal means that a final painting doesn’t see the light of day for fourteen years. Over the same years, Douglas’s ever-more elaborately designed urine-based installations bring him increasing fame, prizes and commissions, while his modelling for Susan Alison, who continues to work pain and suffering on to the canvas, takes place mostly in the shadows. This Good Book is a wickedly funny, brilliantly observed novel that spins the moral compass and plays with notions of creating art.Trade Review'Nineteen-eighties Glasgow is evoked well… [and] the realisation of where the duo’s commitment to their art is taking them is genuinely chilling. Hood’s debut has a dark, compelling urgency.' (Alastair Mabbott, The Herald) 'The work of a true poet, this book is as dark and psychotic as it is beautiful and delicate… No book has ever reminded me of The Picture of Dorian Gray quite like this…' (Amelia Bashford, The Publishing Post) 'Highly original, darkly funny… a compulsive read.' (Leigh Chambers) 'This Good Book works as a commentary on the ‘art is life, life is art’ idea… it’s also funny and has an offbeat writing style, which utilises Scottish dialect. Whether one is into religion or not, This Good Book’s innovative use of art is definitely worth a read.' (Robert Pisani) 'A novel about Glasgow, about art, and about obsession. This Good Book will have you gripped from the opening chapter to its disturbing conclusion. Iain Hood is an original new voice in Scottish fiction.' (Colette Paul)

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Book SynopsisSet in the valleys of South Wales at the tail end of Thatcher's Britain, The Green Indian Problem is the story of Green, a seven year-old with intelligence beyond his years - an ordinary boy with an extraordinary problem: everyone thinks he's a girl. Green sets out to try and solve the mystery of his identity, but other issues keep cropping up - God, Father Christmas, cancer - and one day his best friend goes missing, leaving a rift in the community and even more unanswered questions. Dealing with deep themes of friendship, identity, child abuse and grief, The Green Indian Problem is, at heart, an all-too-real story of a young boy trying to find out why he's not like the other boys in his class. Longlisted for the Bridport Prize (in the Peggy Chapman-Andrews category)

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Book Synopsis'The glow of my cigarette picks out a dark shape lying on the ground. I bend down to take a closer look. It's a dead sparrow. I wondered if I had become that bird, disoriented and lost.' Young, handsome and contemptuous of his father's traditional ways, PK Malik leaves Bombay to start a new life in America. Stopping in Manchester to visit an old friend, he thinks he sees a business opportunity, and decides to stay on. Now fifty-five, PK has fallen out of love with life. His business is struggling and his wife Geeta is lonely, pining for the India she's left behind. One day PK crosses the path of Esther, the wife of his business competitor, and they launch into an affair conducted in shabby hotel rooms, with the fear of discovery forever hanging in the air. Still Lives is a tightly woven, haunting work that pulls apart the threads of a family and plays with notions of identity. Shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize, Winner of the Reader's Choice Award at the Diverse Book Awards 2023Trade Review'An expertly crafted novel, filled with light-touch prose and inhabitable scenes, threaded with compelling and believable dialogue. It's a book you can lose yourself in, and I did.' (Adam Farrer, author of Cold Fish Soup) 'Through small moments and big changes Still Lives captures beautifully and painfully how it is to live across two countries, nowhere feeling quite like home.' (Laura Besley, author of 100nehundred and The Almost Mothers) 'Ruia's extraordinary skill lies in capturing the landscape of diasporic lives... Still Lives is a heart-rending evocation of a life in crisis. This is your must-read book for the summer.' (Selma Carvalho, Joao-Roque Literary Journal) 'This book grabs you from the get-go. Compelling characters, fantastic prose, sexy, funny and wise.' (Heidi James, author of The Sound Mirror and So the Doves) 'This book had my attention from the first page. Stunning. Heartbreaking. And so very real.' (Khurrum Rahman, author of East of Hounslow and Homegrown Hero) 'Lyrical, funny and at times haunting, Still Lives is an urgent novel that deserves to be read widely. It had me reading well into the night. Beautiful!' (Awais Khan, author of No Honour and In the Company of Strangers)

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Book SynopsisIn 1935 a small boy is found in a mine in what is known as the Belgian Congo. It is a time of ferment; nefarious forces are at play. Against this backdrop, the boy’s discovery draws the attention of men of distinction across the globe – scientists, politicians and army men. Soon enough a race begins, to bring the boy into safe custody. After a tortuous journey by train through the continent of Africa, the boy travels by ship to New York, where he is taken into the care of the United States Army. From here our diminutive hero will become swept up in a narrative not of his own making, a narrative that will lead him into the heart of one of the most devastating events of the twentieth century.Audacious in its conceit, thrillingly readable and profoundly humane, Little Boy is a novel of science and politics, of men and war, of compassion and becoming. In prose of baffled grace, it weaves a path through some of the darkest moments in our collective history. Its ending will leave you, like its protagonist, suspended in mid-air, stunned by the awful things that men have put forth into the world.

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Book SynopsisByobu reveals a rich inner world, one driven by its meticulous attention to our rich outer one."a story’s existence, even if not well defined or well assigned, even if only in its formative stage, just barely latent, emits vague but urgent emanations."Byobu's every interaction trembles with possibility and faint menace. A crack in the walls of his house, marring it forever, means he must burn it down. A stoplight asks what the value of obedience is, what hopefulness it contains, and what insensible anarchy it defies. In brief episodes, aphorisms, and moments of spiritual turbulence and gentle scrutiny, reside a wealth of habits, worries, curiosities, pleasures, peculiarities, and efforts to understand.Representative of the modesty and complexity of Ida Vitale’s poetic universe, Byobu flushes the world with meaning and playfully offers another way of inhabiting the every day.Trade Review"the best book of 2021 just arrived. Search no further. All the other contenders tapped out while this masterpiece was being completed." —ABC Cultural"Vitale’s prose is drop dead gorgeous and Byobu an enchanting mix of the wise, the ruminative, and the poetic." —Jeremy Garber, Powell's Bookshop"A fascinating glimpse into the poet’s intricate world." —Morning Star"Extraordinary... giving due attention to Vitale’s prose will bring you reassurance and optimism" —Lunate**********Praise for Ida Vitale Winner of Miguel de Cervantes Prize (2018). Named by BBC as one of the 100 most influential women of 2019. Winner of Reina Sofía Prize for Latin American Poetry (2015). ‘In Byobu , the veteran Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale gives us a holy fool for the twenty-first century. The responses of her childish everyman to the contemporary life she’s constructed for him are puzzled yet direct, wry yet fresh. A series of exquisitely rendered vignettes see him struggle, existentially alone, to make sense of park life, insomnia, or a conference roundtable. But behind the humour and pathos rumbles the entire western philosophical tradition. This complex late masterpiece, published when Vitale was 95, offers plenty of questions but – of course – no answers.’Fiona Sampson MBE FRSL‘An alchemical abecedary in which the ever-insubordinate imagination of Ida Vitale fashions delicate miniatures, origami animals, to a rebellious horology set by tourbillon. The eye as instrument coalesces words into a double play: classical forms and experimentation, contradictio in adiecto , the paradox of language paints the colored screen, biombo , byobú, between ourselves and the mystery. Odilon Redon, Queneau and Calvino meet Voltaire in the hands of master watchmaker Vitale who whispers: linear time is but an illusion.’Valerie Miles‘Byobu offers a journey both mysterious and epiphanic. Signposted by exquisite vocabulary and writing that is not simple, where each word possesses its own weight and music’Babelia‘Ida Vitale is a woman of almost legendary courage. Due to her long and intense life, she has become an exceptional witness of Latin America and its literature.’Salient Women‘Ida Vitale’s writing succeeds like few others in encountering that harmonious figure (…) hidden and woven between the hurtful protrusions of reality, among the amorphous noise of chaos.’El País

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Book SynopsisHow do you keep a friendship intact, when Alzheimer's has stolen the common ground of language, memory, and experience, that unites you?In brief, sharply drawn moments, Sylvia Molloy’s Dislocations records the gradual loss of a beloved friend, M.L., a disappearance in ways expected (forgotten names, forgotten moments) and painfully surprising (the reversion to a formal, proper Spanish from their previous shared vernacular). There are occasions of wonder, too—M.L. can no longer find the words to say she is dizzy, but can translate that message from Spanish to English, when it's passed along by a friend. This loss holds Molloy’s sense of herself too—the person she is in relation to M.L. fades as her friend’s memory does. But the writer remains: 'I’m not writing to patch up holes and make people (or myself) think that there’s nothing to see here, but rather to bear witness to unintelligibilities and breaches and silences. That is my continuity, that of the scribe.'Trade Review"Argentine novelist and critic Molloy examines the nature and significance of memory in her gleaming English-language fiction debut. . . . A graceful study of memory, identity, and relationships, this is one to cherish." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"A masterclass in writing, with a brevity and clarity which is both rare and welcome, and firmly situates Molloy as an outstanding talent." —The Skinny

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Book SynopsisUpper-class teen Sara flees her parents' middle-England mansion after a disastrous party. She happens upon Nork, a mysterious young, orphan boy seemingly from nowhere. Together they go on the run. Evading the authorities and becoming ever more inter-dependent during their long journey, they finally land up in the Scottish wilderness. They find themselves in a small loch-side town, but will they become the victims of the ruthless, hotel owner McTavish – or can they discover a new life and purpose there? This is a coming-of-age story with comedy, romance and sexual references, that is both thought-provoking and amusing.

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Book SynopsisHazel has never felt normal. Struggling with OCD and anxiety, she isolates herself from others and sticks to rigid routines in order to cope with everyday life. But when she forms an unlikely friendship with Virginia, a church minister, Hazel begins to venture outside her comfort zone. Having rebuilt her own life after a traumatic loss, Virginia has become the backbone of her community, caring for those in need and mentoring disadvantaged young people. Yet a shock accusation threatens to unravel everything she has worked for. Told with warmth, compassion and gentle humour, 'Braver' is an uplifting story about the strength that can be drawn from friendship and community.Trade Review'Deborah Jenkins wonderfully uplifting novel deftly captures the impact of fear, guilt, loneliness and shame on the lives of her characters [...] Utterly human, and deeply compassionate' —Loree Westron, author of 'Missing Words'; 'A charming, lyrical read for fans of good fiction that combines skilful writing with a story that makes you feel hopeful' —Fran Hill, author of 'Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean?'; 'A heart-warming book about how you can change your life, and that of those around you [...] A wonderful story which shows us how it feels to be different and still accepted' —Debbi Voisey, author of 'Only About Love'; 'An inspiring and heart-warming story' —People's Friend; 'A feel-good story. Easy, heart-warming’ —LoveReading

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Book Synopsis'There is a fish on the sand; I see it clearly. But it is not on its side, lying still. It is partly upright. It moves. I can see its gills, off the ground and wide open. It looks as though it's standing up.' A few decades into the twenty-first century, in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall, Cathy and her wife Ephie give up on their vegetable patch and plant a paddy field instead. Thousands of miles away, expat Margaret is struggling to adjust to life in Kuala Lumpur, now a coastal city. In New Zealand, two teenagers marvel at the extreme storms hitting their island. But they are not the only ones adapting to the changing climate. The starfish on Cathy's kitchen window are just the start. As all manner of sea creatures begin to leave the oceans and invade the land, the new normal becomes increasingly hard to accept.Trade Review'Joanne Stubbs is a brilliant storyteller. Courageous, confident and intelligent, she explores the horrors of a fading planet in denial of its own guilt. Important and unputdownable' —Fay Weldon; 'Stubbs skillfully captures the tension and uncertainty of living under a slowly unfolding disaster and the pressure it puts on relationships on the way to a masterful, bittersweet ending. Readers are sure to be drawn into this page-turning speculative tragedy' —Publishers Weekly; 'Haunting' —Evening Standard; 'Set in a vividly imagined, watery near future, where the boundaries between the inhabitants of land and sea are increasingly blurred, this debut novel is an original and powerful exploration of the devastation climate change wreaks on ordinary lives. The Fish is a wonderfully absorbing and skilful work by a highly talented writer' —Emma Timpany, author of 'Travelling in the Dark'; 'An impressive debut: beautifully written, immersive, prophetic, terrifying and wonderful. I could not put it down!' —Melanie Golding, author of The Replacement; 'The Fish is a finely tuned, subliminal commentary on how good we are at ignoring the damage we inflict on our precious earth. The writing is slick, the world is bizarre, and the impending doom is palpable. Brilliant, clever, and important; READ IT!' —Karla Neblett, author of 'King of Rabbits'

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Book SynopsisTucked away in a near-derelict library in the centre of London, The House of Marvellous Books is a publishing house on the brink of financial disaster. With assistant Ursula asleep at her desk, head publisher Gerard going health and safety mad, and chief editor Drusilla focused on finding a supposedly priceless but famously missing manuscript, there is hardly anyone left to steer the ship. Young Mortimer Blakeley-Smith, junior editor, charts the descent of the House in his logbook as it lurches from one failure to the next. Will mysterious Russian buyers, lurking in the wings, finally sink the ship? Or will Drusilla find the legendary Daybreak Manuscript and save the day?Trade Review'A joyride of a novel ripe with delightful irony and a flurry of colourful characters. It will have its readers smiling throughout' -Jac Shreeves-Lee, author of 'Broadwater'; 'A book full of funny lines, set pieces and memorable characters - Fiona Vigo Marshall's bookish jeu d'esprit is hugely entertaining' -Gill Darling, author of 'Erringby'; 'A must-read, rib-tickling, uproarious satire' -Peter Tyler, Emeritus Professor of Community Psychiatry and Consultant in Transformation Psychiatry, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; 'Amusing satire of the publishing industry' -The Independent; 'a hilarious and charming must-read for anyone who loves books - it deserves to be a massive word-of-mouth bestseller' -Red Magazine; 'This is a must-read for anyone who loves books' -Sarra Manning, author of 'Rescue Me'

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Book SynopsisStarling can trap a rabbit, cook a meal from a hedge and hear a bailiff coming from a mile off. All she has ever known is a nomadic existence, travelling in a converted van with Mar, her strong-willed mother. But Mar has cut them off from their community, and this winter they're stuck in deep mud in a wood, with no fuel, no money and no friends. One morning, without explanation, Mar leaves and doesn't come back. Utterly alone, Starling must learn to survive without her mother and build a life on her own terms. An offer to stay with an old friend draws her into a more conventional way of living - but can rootless Starling ever find a place where she truly belongs?Trade Review'A beautifully written debut. Sarah Jane Butler explores the challenges of treading lightly in this modern world, the power of community and the process of recovering from a difficult mothering' -Katherine May, author of 'Wintering'; 'A beautiful tale of wandering and searching, full of gorgeous nature writing that illuminates our complex and varied relationships with the natural world. Starling reminds us that there are many ways to be free and wild, and we must find our own' -Zoe Gilbert, author of 'Mischief Acts'; 'Starling is both a hymn to the English landscape and an exploration of what it takes to live together and apart. Sarah Jane Butler writes with a visceral lyricism; she doesn't so much observe the natural world as plunge us into its ditches, woods and rivers. A profound, gripping and deeply humane story about the choices we make in relation to the land and each other' -Judith Heneghan, author of 'Snegurochka'; 'Starling is a love letter to the natural world, a celebration of the threads that bind us to the land and to each other' -Peggy Riley, author of 'Amity & Sorrow'; 'Sarah Jane Butler is an author to watch' -Times of Tunbridge Wells; 'Starling is so immersed in nature you can literally smell it jumping off the pages' -BBC Radio

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Book Synopsis'There's a gap where my sense of place should be. It's quite a useful one sometimes. It allows me to sit on the cusp of an opinion.' Following a move to the Netherlands, a young woman dissects the developments of her new life: awkward exchanges with the people she meets, days spent alone freelancing in her apartment, her confrontation with boredom and unease. In her newfound isolation, she develops an unusual friendship with Colette, a woman she neither likes nor can keep away from. As her feelings of dislocation grow, larger anxieties about her purpose - or lack of it - begin to encroach. And underneath it all, a burgeoning frustration bubbles. Intimate, incisive and brilliantly observed, Temper explores loneliness, self-worth and disconnection with head-nodding accuracy.Trade Review'Temper explores loneliness, alienation and transience in lucid, gorgeous prose. Walker's observations on the nature of work and the hollowness of modern life are stark and brilliant; a must-read for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider' -Jessica Andrews, author of 'Saltwater' and 'Milk Teeth'; 'An intimate portrait of a young woman dislocated and adrift, Temper is at once subtle and full of force, deeply relatable and coolly unfamiliar' -Chloe Ashby, author of 'Wet Paint'; 'Phoebe Walker's prose is subtle, incisive, and rich in dark surprises. In Temper, she provides an unsettling and highly intimate account of loneliness, disconnection and malignant relationships. This is a quietly devastating debut' -Naomi Booth, author of 'Exit Management' and 'Animals at Night';

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Book SynopsisIn an island community facing extinction, can hope rise stronger than grief? Sisi de Mathilde lives on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. With the seas rising, the birth rate plummeting and her community under threat, she works as a scientist, reporting on local climate conditions to help protect her island home. But her life is thrown into turmoil when she finds herself newly widowed and unexpectedly pregnant. When a group of outsiders arrive and try to persuade her community to abandon the island, Sisi is caught between the sacred 'old ways' of her ancestors and the possibilities offered by the outside world. As tensions rise and the islanders turn on one another, Sisi must fight to save her home, her people and her unborn child.Trade Review'Lyrical, moving, and at times haunting, Mother Sea proves that Wilson is an author to watch out for. The prose drew me in immediately, and I found it hard to tear my eyes away, reading well into the night. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time. Just brilliant!' -Awais Khan, author of 'No Honour'; 'With prose as vivid and colourful as a sunset, Wilson paints a tale that is both timeless and intensely topical. I was mesmerised and moved by the unfolding story and I have never read anything where climate change is felt so corporeally - it affects our environment, but also our bodies, our children' -Maria Turtschaninoff, author of the 'Red Abbey Chronicles' and 'Inherited Land'; 'Complex, rich and beautifully crafted' -Claire North, author of 'The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August'; 'Wilson's novel is rooted in a deep sense of place, beautifully evoking the history and magic of Scotland. A fantasy-tinged story about the hole grief makes, complicated family relationships, and the road to healing' -A.C. Wise author of 'Wendy, Darling' on 'The Way the Light Bends'; 'Wilson's prose moves at a relaxed pace - sticky, sweet and abundant' -The Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisOn a remote Indian Ocean island, with the seas rising and the birth rate plummeting, climate scientist Sisi is working hard to protect her home. But her resolve founders when she finds herself widowed and unexpectedly pregnant. With her community under threat, Sisi must fight to save her home, her people and her unborn child.

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Book SynopsisEngland, 1926. Lady Isobel Farrar, an ageing widow with a colourful past, has returned home after years of living abroad. As she moves back into Halcyon Hill, her beloved country house, she finds herself dwelling on a long-buried secret. In the wake of a terrible tragedy when she was young, Isobel gave up a child for adoption, and now she can't help but wonder what became of him. Life has not been kind to Frank Brodie. Cruelly mistreated by his adoptive parents, he spent his young adulthood struggling to survive on the harsh streets of London, before the Great War took him away to the trenches. Now he has found safety with Arthur, an older man who loves and protects him. But something is still missing from Frank's life. When mother and son are finally reunited, will they be able to lay the past to rest?Trade Review'A beautiful tale of love, and family - a magnificent read by a truly fine storyteller' -Ami Rao, author of 'David and Ameena' and 'Boundary Road'; 'An absorbing read from start to finish. Well plotted and beautifully narrated. Heartwarming' -Melanie Levensohn, author of 'A Jewish Girl in Paris'; 'Clark writes with intelligence, warmth, bravery and wit' -Sue Townsend, author of the 'Adrian Mole' series

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Book SynopsisA new edition of the best-selling, award-winning first book.When the Beltrán brothers came to this Andean valley, they found behind barred windows beautiful twin sisters - last in the line of an illustrious conquistador. Through them the Beltrán dynasty was born - a dynasty that ruled the valley for 200 years and was now returning to the dust.Two centuries later, Lydia Sinclair was scarcely out of school when she fell in love with Don Diego Beltrán and left England behind for her husband's Andean estate. Benito, the family's oldest retainer, said that through her the valley would not be forgotten: 'Fate has brought you here to us, to chronicle our decline.'In the night's stillness he told her of romance and battle, drought and pestilence, splendour and suffering.The characters in the valley's tumultuous history rose up before Lydia as if they still roamed the dusty slopes: Admiral Silence who enjoyed no one's company so decided never to speak again; General Mario who prophesied the ruin of their valley as he decayed from leprosy behind a mask; María Candelaria whose beauty and wildness caused the massacre of nearly half of the Beltráns; La Comadre Matilide, the peasant woman of striking ugliness whom people bribed to stay in their houses because her departure left a sense of ill omen; the aged sisters who sat amidst hoards of china and gambled at cards for their every move. Finally there was Cristóbal Beltrán, who sifted the sand in the hourglass, ageless and all-knowing and indestructable.Out of the upheaval and decay come a narrative and language astonishing in their fertility. This new edition accompanies the publication of Lisa's new memoir, Better Broken Than New.Trade Review"A genuine and haunting and unforgettable work of art. It is this novel's triumph to be consistently exhilarating, never less than a pleasure to read." - Standard"Has something of Márquez's power of depicting in microcosm the cruelties and catastrophes, the endemic corruption, and the feudal relationship with death and the supernatural that characterises South American life." -- New Statesman"Richly evocative and cunningly crafted." - Observer"This is an account - particularly gripping because of the quality of the writing and the esoteric setting - of a strong-willed young woman's education by experience." -- Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisA new edition of the best-selling fourth novel.It all appears innocent enough: a handsome couple in their thirties - she an actress, he a successful graphic designer - revisiting Sestri Levante on the Italian Riviera where they once spent their honeymoon. But it is not at all innocent. The couple have been driven here by paranoia - by a slow dread of what will happen to the two of them and to their daughters if anyone finds out about their baby Amadeo, whose identity, and even whose existence, is at the heart of the schizophrenic illness from which Rosalind has long suffered. Two people hiding the world from each other, Rosalind and William cannot escape the chilling truth that lies at the centre of Lisa St Aubin de Terán's compelling novel.The resort of Sestri Levante has twin, Janus-facing bays: one which Hans Christian Andersen called the Bay of Fairytales and another which the local people have long called the Bay of Silence. It is to the Bay of Silence that Rosalind now retraces her steps - to the spot where she first encountered the exotic golden stranger Angelo who was to play such a seductive and haunting role on her honeymoon and in her marriage. Both she and her husband independently try to make sense of the tragic events which have engulfed their lives. They each try to analyse the pressure placed on their marriage - which has allowed distressing events to be forgotten and self-delusion to herald the unthinkable.In her fourth novel, Lisa St Aubin de Terán creates an atmosphere which is profoundly unsettling. She weaves an escalating story of tension and human drama, combining the depth of character analysis which was so admired in The Tiger, with a striking new sense of pace and menace.Lisa St Aubin de Terán is the prize-winning Anglo-Guyanese London-born author of 20 books, including novels, short stories and nonfiction. Much of her writing draws on her varied life experiences. And time warps, rural communities, isolation and grace under pressure are still the dominant themes in both her life and work.Trade Review"She has the surrealist's gift for making the mundane exotic." -- Financial Times"Combines a powerful sense of place with an unusually compassionate understanding of human complexity." -- Daily Telegraph

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Book Synopsis"Precise and illuminating." - Bernardine Evaristo OBE.Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Saboteur Awards, the Shirley Jackson Award and the Jhalak Prize.Lovelorn aliens abduct innocent coffee shop waitresses. Ghosts of errant Londoners haunt the Underground, caught between here and the hereafter. Brave young women seek erotic empowerment... at their own peril.These are the worlds of Speak Gigantular, the startling debut short story collection from acclaimed author Irenosen Okojie MBE. Understated in her humour and razor-sharp in her observations of humankind, Okojie's eclectic anthology offers an unflinching gaze into the darkest corners of the human experience.Sexy, serious, and often downright disturbing, this brilliant debut collection sizzles with originality."A work of rare confidence, luminous imagery and full of hidden sharp edges." - Nina Allan, winner of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire."Irenosen Okojie's Speak Gigantular should, if there is any literary justice, place her in a circle with writers like Shirley Jackson, Margaret Atwood, and Angela Carter." - New Orleans Review.Trade ReviewEach story featured is original, dark and with a witty but dark humour which disturbs and forces the reader to question exactly what a social norm is. This is fiction at its best, enacting change, driving the reader to act and it is spectacular. * The Reading Passport *Each story featured is original, dark and with a witty but dark humour which disturbs and forces the reader to question exactly what a social norm is. This is fiction at its best, enacting change, driving the reader to act and it is spectacular. * The Reading Passport *Speak Gigantular is a work of rare confidence, luminous imagery and full of hidden sharp edges. There are few things that bring greater joy in reading than coming upon a talent so delightful, so penetrating, so scandalous. Okojie's stories are magical in all the most interesting senses of that word: devious, enthralling, unexpected. * Nina Allan, winner of the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire *A beautiful, sombre collection with deep shadows and dazzling highlights. * Mslexia *Okojie delves into the painful, the unsayable, the unknowable. Her prose is precise and illuminating: love and loneliness are recurrent themes. * Bernardine Evaristo, The Guardian *A liberatingly odd, seductive and fearless talent. * Laline Paull, author of The Bees, shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction *

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Book SynopsisIt all starts with a fire. Seven children, asleep in a big house in the Italian countryside. A forgotten candle. Their parents are not there. They are in a different country, a different continent, Africa, where other siblings are growing as part of the same family but in an entirely different life. Without their parents, the children feel dispersed, trying to keep hold of each other.Now in his forties, Redesof works as an acupuncturist in post-Brexit London. From his balcony in Hackney he talks to his beautiful neighbour Telma telling her his story; of his childhood of migration from Congo to Italy to Britain, hoping to come to some sort of resolution with his past.A heartfelt tale of displacement, family, and home, Ground delivers a story with international scope that is vital in today''s world.

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Book SynopsisAn incisive novel laying bare the contradictory societal response to gender, sex and redemption. Rinsing Mukami''s Soul looks at revenge as a powerful tool for reclamation when young Mukami''s carefully ordered life is cruelly thrust into scandal.Njambi McGrath, award winning author of Through the Leopard''s Gaze, delivers this stunning debut novel examining the validity of fury as response when a young Kenyan girl''s mistakes in first love are ruthlessly held against her by a paternalistic society.Mukami is a young scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school. She has a clear path ahead of her, but a deceptive smile, a school expulsion and an impossible pregnancy see her well ordered life hurtling towards complete and utter disarray.Facing disappointment from her family and finding that innocence is not a strong enough place from which to mount a defence, she declares revenge. This charged novel asks us to question why girls and women a

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Book SynopsisTen tragicomic tales of environmental and personal disaster from the margins of town and country. A troubled hipster is seduced by an electricity pylon. Sinister omens manifest in a supermarket car park. A motorway bridge becomes a father. Malevolent bacteria plague a polar icebreaker. A bioengineered abomination lurks in a Gloucestershire railway terminus The weekly bin collection pushes a man over the edge. A former squatter clings to her home on a crumbling cliff. Joyriders are foiled by Anglo Saxon floodwaters. Vampiric entities stalk B&Q. And fiery catastrophe comes to the zoo. Gareth E. Rees's first collection of short fiction explores lives on the verge of breakdown, where ordinary people are driven to extremes by the effects of late capitalism and ecological collapse.

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Book SynopsisIn this genre-bending debut collection merging horror, fairy tales, pop culture, and science-fiction, women challenge the boundaries placed on their bodies while living in a world among animals', where violence is intertwined with bizarre ecological disruptions.

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Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES 2023 SUMMER READ Meet Tony: the first Indian to set foot on American soil. Among the settlers, slaves, and indentured servants that make the treacherous journey across the Atlantic to the New World in the early 1600s — for some, an exciting opportunity, for others, a brutal abduction — there is also Tony. As a child, his homeland on the Coromandel Coast of India becomes a trading outpost for the English; as an orphaned teenager, he finds himself kidnapped from the streets of London and bound to servitude on a Virginia plantation. But Tony is not giving up on his dreams just yet. Under the rule of a sadistic plantation owner, he forms a tender bond with a young boy who will haunt his nightmares; on an exploration inland alongside a trader and Native Americans, he realises the world is vaster and more mysterious than he could have imagined; and in Jamestown, he finally earns himself a position as a physician’s apprentice, an ambition he has long harboured. The East Indian is a Dickensian-style yarn about family, friendship, and finding oneself in the seeds of a new world.Trade Review‘Spins a drama of hardship, dislocation, and love … This sweeping coming-of-age tale is more than a little Dickensian.’ -- James Smart * The Guardian *‘A fascinating novel.’ -- Alida Becker * The New York Times *‘A sweeping coming-of-age story which heads from the jasmine-scented air of the Coromandel Coast in 1635 via the teeming streets of London to arrive in the gruelling tobacco plantations of Jamestown, Virginia, in the charismatic company of orphaned Tony.’ -- Eithne Farry * The Daily Mail *‘Marvellous … Richly imagined characters and keen explorations of identity, place, and the power of imagination drive this luminous achievement.’ * Publisher’s Weekly, starred review *‘Charry’s most remarkable feat with this novel is that she wears her enormous learning and research lightly throughout. Her cinematic worldbuilding ensures spectacle and substance as it sweeps us along the Coromandel coast, London streets, and the Virginian countryside. The characters are detailed with care and attention so that we find humanity even in the worst of them. Tony’s voice, in first-person point of view, is earnest and endearing, especially when he is filled with wonder about human biology, the beauty and curative qualities of various plants and flowers, and the powerful mystery of falling in love … Just over the last four decades, there has been a slew of books about South Asian or East Indian immigrants — both fiction and nonfiction. Several have won awards. Almost all of them have centred on contemporary stories. Charry’s “Tony East Indian” plants his own flag in this literary landscape. Through this fictional first East Indian immigrant story, Brinda Charry has also beautifully pioneered a much-needed path forward into rich, new literary territory.’ -- Jenny Bhatt * NPR *‘History comes alive in this brilliant, highly-imaginative, and vivid novel. Immersive and revelatory — a stellar achievement.’ -- E. C. Osondu, winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, author of This House is Not for Sale‘Tony, the “East Indian” of the title of Brinda Charry’s utterly enjoyable debut novel, reads like a character straight out of Dickens. Based on an actual historical figure, the first person from India documented in the records of Colonial Virginia, Tony ventures into the entangled richness of a nascent America — a place he calls, “this precarious edge of the world.” It is peopled by “servants” — both white and black, female and male — who find themselves as bound to the New World as they are to the Englishmen who rule it. Picaresque in style, lyrical of voice, gripping and authentic, The East Indian is a real treat.’ -- David Wright Falade, author of Black Cloud Rising‘Filled with memorable characters, The East Indian grapples with the brutal colonialism and indentured labour of the 1600s with warmth and wit. An entertaining novel that adds more heft to Brinda Charry’s already impressive oeuvre.’ -- Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire and Why I Am a Hindu‘What a vast and wondrous ocean of a novel this is — throwing up the unexpected and startling, the horrifying and utterly beautiful, moving from shore to shore with spectacularly skilful narrative poise. To journey with The East Indian is to journey through a world shape-shifting into the modern, a world being ravaged and transformed. It is to be reminded that amidst the rough sweep and scour of history, what remains precious are these timeless, enduring things — friendship, kindness, healing.’ -- Janice Pariat, author of The Nine-Chambered Heart and Everything the Light Touches‘A debut novel about the first native of the Indian subcontinent to live in the American colonies, Charry’s stirring coming-of-age tale centres on Tony, whose kidnapping resulted in a voyage to England and later to the new colony of Virginia.’ * The Washington Post *‘[D]azzling … Brinda Charry, a specialist in English Renaissance literature, brings all her tremendous knowledge of colonial history to these pages. Her writing is poised, polished and beautifully crafted. Most outstanding, however, is the joy and wonder she breathes into her eminently loveable characters. Charry provides insight into issues of class, wealth, welfare and racism through the eyes of our bright-eyed, innocent and compelling protagonist.’ -- Cheryl Akle * The Australian *‘The East Indian is a vivid, meticulously detailed novel that benefits from the erudition of a specialist historian.’ -- Cameron Woodhead * The Sydney Morning Herald *‘Epic … special mention must be made of the beauty of the translation … The attention to historical detail is impressive and the characterisation is superb. This is an extraordinary novel.’ -- Bob Moore, Good Reading Magazine, starred review‘A wonderful look at the formative years of the new world through the eyes of Tony, the son of a Tamil courtesan, as we follow his journey into adulthood. Set in the 1600s, a young Tony leaves what would become Madras for London after the death of his mother. There he is press-ganged into becoming an indentured servant in Virginia, then a new colony of the British in America. It’s through Tony’s compassion, curiosity, bonds of friendship, and yearning to become a physician that this story unfolds — a historical sweep across the perhaps familiar literary terrain of early America, but imagined anew through the experiences of an Indian boy. We are all familiar with the NRI dream and modern aspirations of immigrants, but few of us know just how deeply entwined some Indian lives were with the building of America. Brinda Charry does a remarkable job of painting this world with finely observed brush strokes and individual stories to build an evocative global picture.’ -- JCB PrizePraise for Brinda Charry: ‘Brinda Charry is the real thing, a master at the top of her game. Her work engages the human condition and the personal with an intensity and authority that can only be explained by literary grace.’ -- Arthur R. Flowers

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Book SynopsisOne morning, high in the Dolomite mountains, two hikers are some distance apart. The path in places is narrow and perilous. One man falls to his death. The other sounds the alarm. But these men are not strangers. Members of the same revolutionary group forty years earlier, the first had betrayed the second, who must now hold his own against a young magistrate intent upon having him tried for murder.Was their meeting an improbable encounter, or an impossible coincidence?Impossible is a brilliant hymn to the lure of the mountains, an engrossing illumination of political brotherhood, and also the subtlest of detective stories.

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Book SynopsisQueen of French Noir, Johana Gustawsson returns with a spell-binding, dazzlingly dark gothic thriller that swings from Belle Époque France to 21st-century Quebec, with an extraordinary mystery at its heart … FIRST in a bewitching new series **Shortlisted for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger** `A wonderfully dark, intricately woven historical thriller spanning three generations … it will have you hooked from the very first page' B A Paris `A gripping story of murder and black magic …Gustawsson slowly weaves together three seemingly disparate strands of her narrative with a skill that shows why she is such an admired crime writer in her native France´ The Times BOOK OF THE MONTH `Intriguingly dark and vivid, and so cleverly told through three different time frames´ Essie Fox ________________ Three women Three eras One extraordinary mystery…1899, Belle Époque Paris. Lucienne’s two daughters are believed dead when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist community to find them. 1949, Post-War Québec. Teenager Lina’s father has died in the French Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina’s life in the darkest way imaginable. 2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband – a famous university professor – to death. Detective Maxine Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation. Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and murder, secret societies and spiritism … and women at breaking point, who will stop at nothing to protect the ones they love… _________________ `This novel is a whirlpool that draws you irresistibly into levels of darkness so much deeper than you can possibly be ready for´ Ambrose Parry `I found myself racing through the book, always wanting one more page, one more chapter. A wonderfully creepy, unsettling read, with a superb twist in its tail´ James Oswald `Gustawsson’s writing is so vivid, it’s electrifying. Utterly compelling´ Peter James `I was hooked from the first page – a stunning and beautifully written gothic thriller full of atmosphere, intrigue and delight´ Alexandra Benedict `Brilliant … the last chapters knocked me sideways, and it’s a long time since that’s happened´ Lisa Hall `A dark world of elegance and grotesque … mesmeric´ Matt Wesolowski `Harrowing, compelling, haunting, vivid, twisty and shocking! ´ Noelle Holten `A powerful page-turner´ Livres Hebdo ***NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER IN FRANCE*** FOR FANS OF Laura Purcell, Stacey Halls, Bridget Collins, Anna Mazzola, Essie Fox, Ambrose Parry and Laura Shepherd-Robinson Praise for Johana Gustawsson `A satisfying, full-fat mystery´ The Times `Assured telling of a complex story´ Sunday Times `A real page-turner, I loved it´ Martina Cole `A bold and intelligent read´ Guardian `Utterly compelling´ Woman’s Own `Cleverly plotted, simply excellent´ Ragnar Jónasson `A must-read´ Daily Express `Gritty, bone-chilling, and harrowing – it’s not for the faint of heart, and not to be missed´ Crime by the Book `A relentless heart-stopping masterpiece´ New York Journal of Book

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Book SynopsisA young man arrives in a small town, hoping to leave his past behind him, but when he takes a job in a peculiar old shop, and meets a lonely single mother, everything changes … with devastating consequences. A chillingly hypnotic gothic thriller and a mesmerising study of identity and obsession. ‘This chilling gothic tale explores the dark corners of identity … beautifully written and a real page-turner' C J Cooke 'Dark, lyrical and intriguing' Fiona Cummins ‘Like Stephen King on crack … the most accomplished book I’ve read this year. Dark, gothic as hell, and genuinely scary’ M W Craven 'Eerily atmospheric, with brilliant characterisation … really gets under your skin' Culturefly –––––––––––––––––––––––––––Fear blisters through this town like a fever… When Teddy Colne arrives in the small town of Rye, he believes he will be able to settle down and leave his past behind him. Little does he know that fear blisters through the streets like a fever. The locals tell him to stay away from an establishment known only as Berry & Vincent, that those who rub too closely to its proprietor risk a bad end. Despite their warnings, Teddy is desperate to understand why Rye has come to fear this one man, and to see what really hides behind the doors of his shop. Ada moved to Rye with her young son to escape a damaged childhood and years of never fitting in, but she’s lonely, and ostracised by the community. Ada is ripe for affection and friendship, and everyone knows it. As old secrets bleed out into this town, so too will a mystery about a family who vanished fifty years earlier, and a community living on a knife edge. Teddy looks for answers, thinking he is safe, but some truths are better left undisturbed, and his past will find him here, just as it has always found him before. And before long, it will find Ada too. –––––––––––––––––––––– ‘An utterly chilling psychological horror of modern-day witchcraft, possession, murder and madness’ Essie Fox ‘Compelling and dark – draws you in from the very first page’ Heather Darwent ‘Twisted, toxic and deeply dark, this gives off Needful Things vibes – and that ending is just *perfect*’ Lisa Hall ‘This book sucks you in from the first spine-tingling chapter and weaves a dark, twisted and compelling sense of foreboding' Claire AllanWhat readers are saying… ***** ‘I’m shook. This book is a force … a masterpiece’ ‘An ending that left me slightly dumbstruck’ ‘As delightful as it is dark, with beautiful turns of phrase that can be at once both buttery soft and sharp as a knife’ ‘Intense, creepy and utterly chilling’ ‘A story that will creep under your skin and leave you desperately unnerved' ‘Startling and incredibly intense’ ‘Exactly what I look for in a gothic thriller!’ ‘Deliciously dark’ ‘It shook me to the core’ ‘Dark, chilling, with a touch of genius’ ‘Twisted and unnerving’ ‘Beautiful and lyrical prose brings the setting to life and creates a pulsing tension’ ‘This book creeps up on you…’ ‘Captivating and claustrophobic’

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Book SynopsisSex, murder, and a devastating, humour mark these three novellas that Gwyn Thomas wrote in 1946. In Oscar, the narrator of death and exploitation fails to fend off the evil that envelops him. InSimeon, the abuse of sexual and family power ends with violent death, and in The Dark Philosophers itself, the grimly humorous philosophers gather in an Italian café to tell the tragic tale of revenge and manslaughter that they engineer.

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Book SynopsisTwo sisters, two nuclear power stations, one child caught in the middle... When Helen, a self-taught prepper and single mother, leaves her young son Jack with her sister for a few days so she can visit Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone, they both know the situation will be tense. Helen opposes plans for a new power station on the coast of Ynys Mon that will take over the family's farmland, and Jennifer works for the nuclear industry and welcomes the plans for the good of the economy. But blood is thicker than heavy water, and both want to reconnect somehow, with Jack perhaps the key to a new understanding of one another. Yet while Helen's is forced to face up to childhood traumas, and her worst fears regarding nuclear disaster, during a trip that sees her caught up in political violence and trapped in Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone during the 2014 Euromaidan revolution,, Jennifer too must discover that even the smallest decision can have catastrophic and long-lasting effects, both within the nuclear industry, and within the home. And Jack isn't like other five-year olds...as they will both discover with devastating consequences.Trade Review'A careful, tender and arresting story that explores how we're formed by the places we think we own - I was moved by this suspenseful and delicate novel.' Jenn Ashworth, author of Ghosted and Notes Made While Falling; 'Holloway has written a novel that shimmers with compassion, one that crosses borders of both nations and emotions. In telling the story of a mother's love for her son and an intimate, searing portrayal of survival set amidst the Ukrainian Maidan Revolution of 2014, the author has crafted a tale that will linger longer than the half-life of many other books you will read this year. Holloway's fascination with the intersection of where history meets everyday life has given us a story told with great skill, weaving together the legacy of Chernobyl and the tragedy of human arrogance. She gives us hope that each of us can act with grace and love even in the face of overwhelming disaster and a precarious world. Sadly for us, it is even more necessary for us to hear these stories today.' Alex Lockwood, author of The Chernobyl Privileges; 'I was drawn in and held until the final sentences ... a prescient, powerful and disturbing read.' Dr Phil Smith, psychogeographer; The Half-Life of Snails is that wonderful thing, a novel that can be read in several different ways. On the surface it is a gripping thriller, ripe for transfer to the big screen. But it also excels as an exploration of the geography of the human heart, which Holloway shows to be as difficult to navigate as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, for which there is no detailed and reliable map available.' Lunate; 'The author has crafted a beautiful yet unsettling story with a strong sense of place, accentuating the bond between humans and the landscapes they live in. The Half-Life Of Snails is a book to reflect on that will undoubtedly linger long after finishing.' Buzz; 'The Half-Life of Snails is a gripping story which speaks to a universal anxiety, not just about nuclear power, but about the environment as a whole. It explores the way we respond in crisis, and the things we hold onto most when everything seems under threat. More than that, it captures the genuine love of a family who, despite their flaws, care about one another deeply. A transformative read in a time of heightened complexity and division.' Wales Arts Review

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Book SynopsisThe first anthology of its kind in Wales, which finally sheds light on a largely hidden queer cultural history with the careful selection of over 40 short stories (1837-2018) including work by John Sam Jones, Sian James, Rhys Davies, Deborah Kay Davies, Aled Islwyn, and Kate North. New translations of Kate Roberts, Mihangel Morgan, Jane Edwards, Pennar Davies and Dylan Huw make available their compelling stories for the first time to a non-Welsh speaking readership. An accessible but scholarly introduction places the writers and their stories in their historical and literary contexts. In these stories gender refuses to be fixed: a dashing travelling companion is not quite who he seems in the intimate darkness of a mail coach, a girl on the cusp of adulthood gamely takes her father's place as head of the house, and an actor and patron are caught up in dangerous game-playing. In the more fantastical tales there are talking rats, flirtations with fascism, and escape from a post-virus 'utopia'. These are stories of sexual awakening, coming out and redefining one's place in the world. Release and a certain heady license may be found in the distant cities of Europe or north Africa, but the stories are for the most part located in familiar Welsh settings - a schoolroom, a provincial town, a mining village, a tourist resort, a sacred island. The intensity of desire, whether overt, playful, or coded, makes this a rich and often surprising collection that reimagines what being queer and Welsh has meant in different times and places.Trade Review"An impressive book " Nation.Cymru; "Successfully anthologises a queer Welsh canon" Wales Arts Review

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Book SynopsisA small Welsh valley community come together to form a carnival marching band in Gwyn Thomas' farcical exploration of the social, economic and political turbulence abound in twentieth century Wales.

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Book SynopsisA compelling thriller, The Volunteers is also an engrossing reminder of the conflict between moral choice and political loyalty, for through his obsessive pursuit of justice Redfern finally encounters the truth about himself.

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Book Synopsis'THE MOST RIVETING AND UNFLINCHING HE SAID/SHE SAID NOVEL TO DATE ... ABSOLUTELY STAGGERING, INSANELY GRIPPING AND WHOLLY UNPUTDOWNABLE.' MAY COBB, AUTHOR OF THE HUNTING WIVES Jess, Priyanka and Stephanie are all happily married to men they think they know inside out. Then each woman receives a letter accusing her husband of involvement in a sexual assault that took place 20 years ago. Who do they believe, what should they do and can they come together as their lives are upended? A compelling, beautifully crafted thriller about consent, friendship and prejudice which asks - would you sacrifice your family life in support of another woman? 'In AN EMOTIONAL AND POWERFULLY EVOCATIVE STORY, three women grapple with a discovery that could shatter their lives. Ray has expertly crafted A THOUGHTFUL AND IMPORTANT READ THAT ENDS WITH A STUNNING SURPRISE.' LIV CONSTANTINE, AUTHOR OF THE LAST MRS PARRISH

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Book Synopsis'Needing Napoleon' is a remarkably original feat of imagination: an irresistible adventure that spirits the reader from present-day Paris to the battle of Waterloo and beyond. Can you change what has already happened? As a history teacher, Richard Davey knows the answer. At least, he thinks he does. On holiday in Paris, he stumbles across a curious antiques shop. The eccentric owner reveals a secret Richard dares not believe. Richard's conviction that Napoleon Bonaparte should have won the Battle of Waterloo could be put to the test. Accurate historical detail collides with the paradox of time travel as an ordinary twenty-first-century man is plunged into the death throes of the French empire.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThere were some very good novels this year, but they came from surprising directions. It is astonishing that one as original as Kate Barker-Mawjee’s The Coldest Place on Earth (Conrad Press, £9.99) couldn’t find a major publisher. A friend recommended this wonderfully controlled and evocatively written novel about a heart coming to life in the depths of Siberia. Philip Hensher – The Spectator. --- A sad tale’s best for winter, and tales don’t come more wintry than Kate Barker-Mawjee’s debut novel The Coldest Place on Earth (Conrad Press, £9.99), set in a remote Siberian town whose only claim to fame is its record-breaking sub-zero temperatures. These are regularly reported to Moscow from its weather station by Irina, the manager of the local motel, who is trapped in a marriage as frozen and failing as the town itself. This may sound forbiddingly bleak, but Irina’s fears and dreams are so vividly evoked that I found the book unputdownable and unforgettable. Francis Wheen – The Spectator.

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Book Synopsis'Home Truths with Lady Grey' is an evocative, moving story about the power of friendship to unlock new ways of seeing life and self. 'My world is narrowing, constricting down to the thin end of a funnel.' When normally capable, career-minded Jennifer crumbles under a debilitating disease, she struggles with no longer being in control of her life. In the meantime, Mona, a family-oriented mother of Iranian heritage, finds out that her husband is gambling and hiding the truth from her. Can she move beyond betrayal to action? When Mona goes to work for Jennifer as a carer, Jennifer is initially defensive, but the two soon discover that despite their differences they have so much to learn from one another. Will Mona discover how to balance the conflicting loyalties of family and self? Will Jennifer learn to let others in? And most importantly, will they both survive?

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Book Synopsis‘The Magnificent Moustache and other stories’ is a collection of six delightful tales full of wit, quirky characters and an abundance of welcome nonsense. These innovative short stories will take you from a national moustache-growing competition to the Queen’s vexation when her usual cuppa fails to appear; and to the challenges of having a name so lengthy that it takes forever to simply introduce yourself. A 200-year-old business faces imminent collapse unless a solution can be found; a kingdom has been cut off from civilisation for 100 years; and what happened in that bitterly cold winter of 1740 in north west Wales?Table of ContentsThe Magnificent Moustache 11 Tea’s The Thing! 53 What’s In A Name? 99 Bommington’s Biscuits 137 The King And i 175 The Red Dragon Of Wales 215

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Book Synopsis‘Love in Fragments’ describes the psycho-sexual journey of Ralph Edwards, a successful barrister who has just applied to become a Queen’s Counsel, and is happily married to Virginia, an attractive and popular GP. When he meets a younger woman, Tina, he is surprised to find himself immediately physically attracted to her and then, to his bewilderment, he falls in love with her. He decides to leave his wife - who perceives a simple mid-life crisis. The narrative charts the breakdown of Ralph’s marriage, his new relationship with Tina, their respective divorces and the consequences. The story develops in parallel with an account of their formative and later sexual experiences, which suggests that, not only are they not honest with each other, but they have difficulty being honest even with themselves. The novel explores their respective issues of fidelity, possession, and jealousy. Pat Llewellyn, the creator and producer of ‘Two Fat Ladies’, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ etc said she found the novel, ‘dark, chilling and occasionally repulsive’. Malcolm McCulloch, Emeritus Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, and expert witness in the Yorkshire Ripper trial, commented, ‘below the bodice-ripping surface the reader is treated to a master class of psychological description. Ralph’s journey through life turns into a tragedy which touches all his circle. Those of a sensitive disposition should not reflect too deeply in front of this particular looking-glass’. Sian Reeves, the television actress, said, ‘I loved every moment’.

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Book SynopsisThe reader arrives in Adam Bodor's world, the periphery of civilization, at the break of dawn. Adam, the foster son of Brigadier Anatol Korkodus is waiting at the dilapidated station for a boy who is arriving from a reformatory. Soon afterwards, Korkodus is arrested for unfathomable reasons. Yet this decaying and sinister world is not devoid of a certain joie de vivre: people eat gourmet dishes, point out their interlocutor's hidden motives with incredibly dark humor and enjoy the region's stunning natural beauty.

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