Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
Quercus Publishing The Night Alphabet
Book SynopsisComposed of interconnecting stories, The Night Alphabet is a mesmerising debut from one of the most talented literary stylists writing today.
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers The Surf House
Book Synopsis**PRE-ORDER NOW THE BRAND NEW SUN-SOAKED THRILLER FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER**_________________________________________________________________WISH YOU WERE HERE? THINK AGAINHigh on the wave-pounded cliffs, far from the bustling souks of Marrakesh, sits The Surf House.A hidden gem on Morocco's shores, the house is a sanctuary for the surfers, travellers and dreamers who wash in.But the idyll is built on something rotten.And when Bea arrives, relieved to find refuge after a dangerous encounter in a Marrakesh alleyway, she soon gets caught in the swell of a deep, dark mystery.Because another young woman went missing one year ago and the last place she was sighted was The Surf House.Readers love getting swept away with Lucy Clarke's destination thrillers:Had me on the edge of my seat' ?????Brilliant kept me guessing the whole way through' ?????Twists & turns galore, couldn't put it down. Highly recommend!' ?????''Very clever and I was gripped throughout. Will be reading more from
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Owl Was a Bakers Daughter
Book SynopsisWitty, resilient, and fiercely intelligent, Judith emerges as a heroine for the ages. Her journey, rich in historical authenticity and imaginative storytelling, offers insights that resonate across the centuries.?Christina Baker Kline,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe ExilesFor readers of Hilary Mantel and Madeline Miller, a deeply engrossing work of historical fiction?a tale about a woman of the Shakespeare family struggling to manage both her private grief and public danger.At the age of sixty-one, Judith Shakespeare, a midwife-apothecary and twin of the long-dead Hamnet, must flee provincial Stratford on horseback to avoid arrest for witchcraft. Her traveling companions are a zealous Puritan woman and child who have been displaced by civil war?the bloody seventeenth-century strife between Royalists and Roundheads. Judith is also leaving her marriage, which has foundered since the wrenching loss of two adult sons to the plague.The sequel to the author?s My Father Had a Daughter, a tale of Judith in her youth, The Owl Was a Baker?s Daughter revisits this character for the ages?Shakespeare?s sharp-tongued, witty youngest child, no less feisty in her maturity. Four-hundred years after Judith?s death, Grace Tiffany brings her back onto center stage. Judith?s latest tale offers profound insights?into friendship, motherhood, marriage, religious extremism, and war?which remain resoundingly true today.
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers Scotch on the Rocks
Book SynopsisA spicy, small-town, enemies-to-lovers romance set on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, from the author of TikTok sensation Whisky BusinessWhen you live on a tiny island, it''s easy to stir up a scandalFor Callum Macabe, there''s no one better than Juniper Ross. She''s razor-tongued, sarcastic, elusive. And not to mention drop-dead gorgeous.There''s just one problem: his brother got there first.And even though Juniper and Alistair split up five years ago, Callum knows he could never break the actual bro code. Or could he?A compulsively readable contemporary romance that goes down smooth' Kirkus?????Readers are obsessed ?????''Definitely one of the top reads this yearscratch thattop reads ever ?? At this point I will read anything Elliot Fletcher decides to write!''''This is a sexy, spicy Scottish romance that you seriously can't miss''''Elliot Fletcher's writing is beyond marvellous. Another 5 stars book from her!! This book was so amazing and I'm in an awe with this author and how wonderful her stories are''''Fletcher''s writing is witty, emotional, and thoroughly enjoyable, making Scotch on the Rocks a must-read for romance enthusiasts. Highly recommended!''''Callum had me giggling, swooning and contemplating''
£8.54
Whitefox Publishing Ltd No Mans Land
Book Synopsis
£18.00
Zondervan Now and Always
Book SynopsisVery few things distract Katie Addison when she’s on a mission, whether it’s opening her home to abused women, rehabilitating injured horses, or helping tall, gorgeous Warren Tate mend his broken heart. But when financial difficulties pile up for her, Katie hesitantly admits she herself may need help. Since his fiancé left him, Warren is done with women—especially independent women, which he’d guess describes Katie Addison to a tee. Reluctantly he agrees to help Katie with her financial troubles. But when his budget doesn’t include Katie’s daily lattes, Warren realizes he may have a challenging client on his hands. Meanwhile, Sheriff Ben O''Keefe can’t seem to get Katie’s attention. Everyone in town knows he has had a longstanding crush on her. But to Katie, Ben is just Ben. When mysterious events turn Katie to him for help, is it the chance Ben has been waiting for?
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Poisonwood Bible
Book SynopsisNew York Times Bestseller Pulitzer Prize Finalist An Oprah's Book Club SelectionPowerful . . . [Kingsolver] has with infinitely steady hands worked the prickly threads of religion, politics, race, sin and redemption into a thing of terrible beauty. Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThe Poisonwood Bible established Barbara Kingsolver, recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, it is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in Africa. The story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they beli
£16.99
Penguin Putnam Inc Once Upon a Time in Dollywood
Book Synopsis
£13.59
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Portrait of a Spy
Book Synopsis“A bona fide thrill ride.”—Miami Herald “Silva builds tension with breathtaking double and triple turns of plot.”—People Portrait of a Spy is Silva’s eleventh thriller to feature art restorer and master spy Gabriel Allon as he races from Great Britain to Washington to New York to the Middle East on the trail of a deadly and elusive terrorist network responsible for massacres in Paris, Copenhagen, and at London’s Covent Garden.
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers Spiralling
Book Synopsis
£9.49
HarperCollins The Raft
Book Synopsis
£7.99
Penguin Books Ltd A Confederacy of Dunces
Book SynopsisONE OF THE BBC'S 100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD 'This is probably my favourite book of all time' Billy Connolly A pithy, laugh-out-loud story following John Kennedy Toole's larger-than-life Ignatius J. Reilly, floundering his way through 1960s New Orleans, beautifully resigned with cover art by Gary Taxali_____________ 'This city is famous for its gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts, fetishists, onanists, pornographers, frauds, jades, litterbugs, and lesbians . . . don't make the mistake of bothering me.' Ignatius J. Reilly: fat, flatulent, eloquent and almost unemployable. By the standards of ordinary folk he is pretty much unhinged, too. But is he bothered by this? No. For this misanthropic crusader against an America fallen into vice and ignorance has a mission: to rescue a naked female philosopher in distress. And he has a pirate costume and hot-dTrade ReviewI succumbed, stunned and seduced, page after page, vocal with delight. A masterwork of comedy * New York Times *A fine funny novel. This is the kind of book one wants to keep quoting from -- Anthony BurgessEvery reviewer has loved it. For once, everyone is right * Rolling Stone *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd For Esme with Love and Squalor
Book SynopsisA collection of nine exceptional stories from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye''This is the squalid, or moving, part of the story, and the scene changes. The people change, too. I''m still around, but from here on in, for reasons I''m not at liberty to disclose, I''ve disguised myself so cunningly that even the cleverest reader will fail to recognize me.''This collection of nine stories includes the first appearance of J. D. Salinger''s fictional Glass family, introducing Seymour Glass in the unforgettable ''A Perfect Day for Bananafish''.''The most perfectly balanced collection of stories I know'' Ann Patchett
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Let Me Tell You Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisFrom the peerless author of The Lottery and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, this is a treasure trove of deliciously dark and funny stories, essays, lectures, letters and drawings.Let Me Tell You brings together the brilliantly eerie short stories Jackson is best known for with frank and inspiring lectures on writing; comic essays she wrote about her large, rowdy family; and revelatory personal letters and drawings. Jackson''s landscape here is most frequently domestic - dinner parties, children''s games and neighbourly gossip - but one that is continually threatened and subverted in her unsettling, inimitable prose. This collection is the first opportunity to see Shirley Jackson''s radically different modes of writing side by side, revealing her to be a magnificent storyteller, a sharp, sly humorist and a powerful feminist.''The stories range from sketches and anecdotes to complete and genuinely unsettling tales, somewhat alarming and Trade ReviewLike a lot of people I read 'The Lottery' when I was young, in an anthology of short stories from the New Yorker, and never forgot it. Let Me Tell You is a rich, enjoyable compendium of Jackson's unpublished short fiction and occasional writings, kicking off with a story of a dozen pages, 'Paranoia', which I won't forget, either -- Tom Stoppard * TLS Books of the Year *The stories range from sketches and anecdotes to complete and genuinely unsettling tales, somewhat alarming and very creepy ... For those of us whose imaginations, and creative ambitions, were ignited by 'The Lottery', Jackson remains one of the great practitioners of the literature of the darker impulses -- Paul Theroux * New York Times *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Why Mummy Drinks at Christmas
Book SynopsisI romped through Why Mummy Drinks at Christmas', and I absolutely adored it' Jilly CooperTis' the season to get trollied!Mummy has always loved Christmas. Sure, the kids turn into demons, the dinner gets burnt to a crisp and Aunt Louisa's general staggering inappropriateness sends Mummy reaching for the nearest maximum-strength festive tipple, but nevertheless, for her, Christmas is always special.This year, she wants nothing more than to perfectly fig up the pudding and sit by the fire reading aloud from A Christmas Carol to a rapt, rosy-cheeked audience. But, just like all Mummy's best-laid plans, this year's Festive Vision is in danger of being totally derailed by her chaotic family. There's not much chance of any action under the mistletoe, and the kids are just not playing ball.Can Mummy find her silver lining after all and bring the whole family together for one moment of harmony, so they can finally proclaim Verily You Are the Queen of Christmas'? Or should she get stuck into the festive spirits and just let it all go?
£9.49
Quercus Publishing Yeonnamdongs Smiley Laundromat
Book Synopsis*THE HEARTWARMING KOREAN BESTSELLER**A new book from Shanna Tan, translator of Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop*Situated at the heart of a rapidly gentrifying district of Seoul, the Yeonnam-dong Smiley Laundromat is a place where the extraordinary stories of ordinary residents unfold. It is already a haven of tranquility and reflection for locals, but when someone leaves a notebook behind, the laundromat becomes a place that brings people together. One by one, customers start jotting down candid diary entries, opening their hearts and inviting acts of kindness from neighbours who were once just faces in the crowd. But there is more to the diary than first appears, and before long the laundromat''s regulars are teaming up to solve a mystery and help the notebook''s former owner find peace. A heartwarming, healing debut that instantly captured the hearts of Korean readers, this is a novel about the preciousness of human relationships and the power of solidarity in a world that is increasingly cold, fast-paced and virtual.Readers love this cosy, slice-of-life K-drama:"Talk to someone. Help someone. Do a good deed. If this book doesn''t inspire you, nothing will. A true testament to the power of books.""This is a wonderfully comforting read, and one that makes you truly believe in the goodness of others""Very similar to Before The Coffee Gets Cold or The Kamogawa Food Detectives. So if that''s your vibe, you''ll enjoy this one too!"Translated from the Korean by Shanna Tan
£9.49
Salt Publishing Shams
Book SynopsisShams is young Syrian refugee woman who lives in Shatila, one of the world's oldest refugee camps. She dreams of education and living a better life in Europe. But there are no schools in the camp, and her family opposes her dreams.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Kiss Kiss
Book SynopsisRoald Dahl, the best-loved of children's writers, was born in 1916 in Wales of Norwegian parents. He was educated in England before starting work for the Shell Oil Company in Africa, and began writing after a 'monumental bash on the head' sustained as an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. He worked in a tiny hut in the apple orchard of his house in Buckinghamshire until his death in 1990 at the age of 74. Roald Dahl's many books continue to be read by children the world over who delight in the magic of his marvellous storytelling. His books continue to be bestsellers, despite his death in 1990, and total sales are 100 million worldwide!Trade ReviewUnnerving bedtime stories, subtle, proficient, hair-raising and done to a turn * San Francisco Chronicle *Roald Dahl is one of the few writers I know whose work can accurately be described as addictive * Irish Times *
£10.44
Orion Publishing Co Gloves Off
Book SynopsisPerfect for fans of Icebreaker and Monica Murphy, this spicy pro hockey romance will feature more of every romance reader's favourite tropes!
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Adrian Mole The Prostrate Years
Book SynopsisThe sensational final instalment in comic legend Sue Townsend''s hilarious and iconic Adrian Mole series''Effortlessly hilarious. Brilliant satire and tragedy'' Times''My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me'' ADAM KAYRead as Adrian continues to struggle with his love life, endures a painfully awkward school play and contemplates the unsettling prospect of applying genital poultice . . .__________Sunday 1st JulyNO SMOKING DAY. A momentous day! Smoking in a public place or place of work is forbidden in England. Though if you are a prisoner, an MP or a member of the Royal Family you are exempt.Adrian Mole is thirty-nine and a quarter. He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter. His parents George and Pauline live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is Trade ReviewSue Townsend was simply one of the funniest writes who ever wore socks, and her Adrian Mole series is a satirical gem that follows her hapless protagonist from adolescence to middle age, revealing some sharp home truths about British society in the process. At thirty-nine and a half, Adrian is convinced he's too young to have prostrate problems. He's wrong. If anyone can shake a comic first at cancer, it's Townsend. * Independent *Couldn't be funnier * Gillian Reynolds, Sunday Times *An exquisite social comedy * Daily Telegraph *In this book the comedy is all the sharper, and more poignant, for its melancholy contrasts, the emotional danger and the sense that time is always running out. * The Guardian *Sue Townsend has always had an unflinching sense of humour - the more incongruously awful the situation, the more she can make us laugh...this is a seriously lovely book. * Sunday Times *Like Evelyn Waugh's Captain Grimes, Adrian is 'one of the immortals' and the series of his diaries the comic masterpiece of our time * The Scotsman *This hilarious and poignant tale of Adrian Mole's early middle age reaffirms that Sue Townsend has created 'one of the great comic characters of our time' * The Scotsman *The funniest person in the world * Caitlin Moran *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd How It All Began
Book SynopsisFrom Penelope Lively, winner of the Booker PrizeWhen . . . Charlotte is mugged and breaks her hip, her daughter Rose cannot accompany her employer Lord Peters to Manchester, which means his niece Marion has to go instead, which means she sends a text to her lover which is intercepted by his wife, which is . . . just the beginning in the ensuing chain of life-altering events.In this engaging, utterly absorbing and brilliantly told novel, Penelope Lively shows us how one random event can cause marriages to fracture and heal themselves, opportunities to appear and disappear, lovers who might never have met to find each other and entire lives to become irrevocably changed.Funny, humane, touching, sly and sympathetic, How It All Began is a brilliant sleight of hand from an author at the top of her game.''Contains some of Lively''s funniest and most enjoyable character studies . . . she remains a sublime storyteller''Guardian''Deeply comical, essentially kind-hearted, wonderfully written and seasoned with a rare wisdom'' Literary Review''More stylish than many writers half her age . . . Lively knows a thing or two about storytelling . . . her candour is refreshing, and reminds us that you don''t have to lie to yourself to live life finely until the very end'' The TimesTrade ReviewMore stylish than many writers half her age . . . Lively knows a thing or two about storytelling . . . her candour is refreshing, and reminds us that you don't have to lie to yourself to live life finely until the very end * The Times *Contains some of Lively's funniest and most enjoyable character studies . . . she remains a sublime storyteller * Guardian *Elegant and engrossing, this is a gently funny and touching portrait of the complex path life can take * Easy Living *Deeply comical, essentially kind-hearted, wonderfully written and seasoned with a rare wisdom * Literary Review *Witty and astute * Daily Mail *An engaging read * Woman's Own *Lively's prose is indeed lively, her humour wry and her insights into the human condition both wise and moving * Sunday Express *As always, Lively has a precise control of the comic, and an ear for dialogue honed over more than 40 years of writing * Independent on Sunday *A deftly constructed, always enjoyable novel * Sunday Times *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Queen and I
Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR TV ADAPTATION STARRING DAVID WALLIAMS & SAMANTHA BONDThe Queen and I is a hilarious satire on modern Britain and an exploration of what it really means to be human, by the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series.____________The Royals, they''re just like us . . . THE MONARCHY HAS BEEN DISMANTLEDWhen a Republican party wins the General Election, their first act in power is to strip the royal family of their assets and titles and send them to live on a housing estate in the Midlands. Exchanging Buckingham Palace for a two-bedroomed semi in Hell Close (as the locals dub it), caviar for boiled eggs, servants for a social worker named Trish, the Queen and her family learn what it means to be poor among the great unwashed. But is their breeding sufficient to allow them to rise above their changed circumstance or deep down are they really just like everyone else?____________''No other author could imagine this so graphically, demolish the institution so wittily and yet leave the family with its human dignity intact'' The Times''Absorbing, entertaining . . . the funniest thing in print since Adrian Mole'' Daily Telegraph''Kept me rolling about until the last page'' Daily MailTrade ReviewNo other author could imagine this so graphically, demolish the institution so wittily and yet leave the family with its human dignity intact * The Times *Kept me rolling about until the last page * Daily Mail *Laugh-out-loud funny * Sunday Telegraph *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd An Icecream War William Boyd Penguin Essentials
Book SynopsisAn Ice-Cream War is William Boyd''s sparkling debut novel on the grimly comic side of conflict, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.''What do you think would happen if I shot an elephant in the balls?''''I think it would hurt a great deal.''Millions die on the Western Front but in East Africa a quite different war is being waged - one with little point and which is so ignored that it will carry on after the Armistice because no one bothers to tell both sides to stop.As the conflict sweeps up natives and colonials, so those left at home and those fighting abroad find themselves unable to escape the tide of history bearing down on them.
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Noonday
Book SynopsisFrom the Booker Prize-winning and Women''s Prize-shortlisted author of The Silence of the Girls The final novel in Pat Barker''s acclaimed ''Life Class'' trilogy - an unforgettable story of art and war, from one of our greatest writers on war and the human heart''Bold, hard-hitting, unforgettable, with luminous and unsparing insight'' Independent on Sunday''Barker''s command of detail and gift for metaphor are as sharp as ever... Noonday is in the first rank'' Mail on Sunday''[There is] no end to her talent in describing how conflicts rupture the soul'' Arifa Akbar, IndependentLondon, the Blitz, autumn 1940. As the bombs fall on the blacked-out city, ambulance driver Elinor Brooke races from bomb sites to hospitals trying to save the lives of injured survivors, working alongside former friend Kit Neville, while her husband Paul works as an air-raid warden. As the bombing intensifies, the constant risk of deatTrade ReviewPublisher's description. Pat Barker brings the besieged and haunted city of Blitz-era London to electrifying life in Noonday, the third and final novel in her 'Life Class Trilogy'. Bombs are falling on London and, still suffering from the losses of the Great War, Elinor, Paul and Kit must face war's horrors once again... * Penguin *Barker's command of detail and gift for metaphor are as sharp as ever: her evocation of the bombed city is steeped in drama... Noonday is in the first rank * Mail on Sunday *Tremendously good * Daily Mail *This is the first time the author of the Regeneration Trilogy has written about the Second World War and it's a triumph * Stylist *Many strokes of genius from Barker... accessible and moving * Sunday Times *Noonday's Blitz-era setting gives Barker ample opportunity to do what she does best * Spectator *Powerful and vivid, with nuanced characters and Barker's unerring eye for detail * Women and Home *Bold, hard-hitting, unforgettable... a virtuoso rendition of the bombing, as huge swathes of London blaze away with the brightest of bright lights... Barker shows us how the city's finest moment was indubitably also its most terrifying, with luminous and unsparing insight * Independent on Sunday *Ambitious, vivid, sharp... The closer you get to the end, the more lives need saving and the more thwarted and complicated the domestic backdrop... Barker's chronological leap is a sophisticated bridge between the drama of the present and the haunted history of the past * Daily Telegraph *Colourfully alive, fizzes with energy... the novel's point of view swivel[s] like a torchbeam to illuminate London's devastated streets * Independent *The book has its own inherent power thanks to Barker's skilful rendering of the texture of the period but it is richer and more rewarding if read with the other two volumes of this beautifully crafted trilogy * Daily Express *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd How to be Good
Book SynopsisTHE MILLION-COPY NO.1 BESTSELLER''Enormously powerful'' Guardian''Hilarious, sophisticated, compulsive'' The Times___________________''I am in a car park in Leeds when I tell my husband I don''t want to be married to him any more. . . ''London GP Katie Carr always thought she was a good person. With her husband David making a living as ''The Angriest Man in Holloway'', she figured she could put up with anything. Until, that is, David meets DJ Goodnews and becomes a good person too. A far-too-good person who starts committing crimes of charity like taking in the homeless and giving their kids'' toys away. Suddenly Katie''s feeling very bad about herself, and thinking that if charity begins at home, then maybe it''s time to move. . . This laugh-out-loud novel, from the bestselling author of About a Boy and High Fidelity, will have you gripped from start to finish and will appeal to fans of David Nicholls and Jonathan Coe, as well as readers in need of a moral compass everywhere.___________________''Pins you in your armchair and won''t let go . . . How to be Good? How to be bloody marvellous, more like'' Mail on Sunday''It does exactly what it says on the cover. Hornby''s prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut'' Independent''The writing is so funny, and the set-pieces so brilliant . . . Hornby''s best book since Fever Pitch'' Lynn Truss, The Times Trade ReviewVintage Nick Hornby. Very funny and very clever, and packed with wit and brilliance * Spectator *
£8.99
Penguin Books Ltd A Long Way Down
Book Synopsis''Extremely funny . . . and wise'' Sunday TimesNOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE__________________________''Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?''For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer''s pretty simple: he has, in his own words, ''pissed his life away''. And on New Year''s Eve he''s going to end it all . . . but not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin''s private party. They''ve stolen his idea - but brought their own reasons.Yet it''s hard to jump when you''ve got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices if cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living?Shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, A Long Way Down is a darkly hilarious and moving novel by bestselling author Nick Hornby. __________________________''Hornby''s best yet'' Literary Review''Impossible to put down'' Ruth Rendell, Guardian''Some of the finest writing I''ve ever had the pleasure of reading'' Johnny DeppTrade ReviewImpossible to put down . . . enthralling * Guardian *Extremely funny . . . and wise * Sunday Times *A page-turning plot and rich, funny characters with several big laughs on every page . . . Hornby's best yet * Literary Review *Hornby pins down the age in which we live with precision and comic brilliance * Guardian *Hugely enjoyable * Irish Times *Masterful . . . some of the finest writing, and some of the most outstanding characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading -- Johnny DeppHornby's portrayal of four characters who accidentally meet on top of a tower block, all ready to jump to their death on New Year's Eve, manages to be sensitive and empathetic, but damn funny as well. My new Hornby favourite -- Adam Phillips * Observer *Brilliant, smart and funny . . . a cello suite about how to go on living. It's hard to imagine a novel more darkly and sublimely devoted to life * Boston Globe *Generous and wise. Right from the opening pages, a smile played continually across my face * GQ *
£8.54
Kensington Publishing Whispers of the Lake
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Random House USA Inc A Visit from the Goon Squad
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER • With music pulsing on every page, this startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption “features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn't, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human” (The Chicago Tribune).One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 YearsBennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. “Pitch perfect . . . Darkly, rippingly funny . . . Egan possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart.”—The New York Times Book Review
£31.50
HarperCollins Down And Out In Paris And London
Book SynopsisFrom the author of 1984, the classic semi-autobiographical story about the adventures of a penniless British writer in two cities.Down and Out in Paris and London follows the journey of a writer among the down-and-out in two great cities.
£12.80
Cengage Learning, Inc Orlando a Biography
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£14.24
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Old Yeller
Book Synopsis
£20.70
Faber & Faber The Blind Mans Garden
Book SynopsisLove is not consolation, it is light.''From the author of Maps for Lost Lovers comes a searing, exquisitely written novel set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months following 9/11 - a story of war, of one family''s losses, and of the simplest, most enduring human impulses.Jeo and Mikal, foster-brothers from a small Pakistani city, secretly enter Afghanistan: not to fight with the Taliban, but to help and care for wounded civilians. But it soon becomes apparent that good intentions can''t keep them out of harm''s way...From the wilds of Afghanistan to the heart of the family left behind - their blind father haunted for years by the death of his wife, by the mistakes he may have made in the name of Islam and nationhood, Jeo''s steadfast wife and her superstitious mother - Aslam''s prose takes us on an extraordinary journey.
£7.59
Faber & Faber Seven Types of Ambiguity
Book SynopsisAt once a psychological thriller and a social critique, Seven Types of Ambiguity is a novel of obsessive love in an age of obsessive materialism.Following years of unrequited love, an out-of-work schoolteacher decides to take matters into his own hands, triggering a chain of events no one could have anticipated.This is a story of impulse and paralysis, of empty marriages, lovers and a small boy, gambling and the market, of adult children and their parents, of poetry and prostitution, psychiatry and the law.Published to huge acclaim in the author''s native Australia, Seven Types of Ambiguity was hailed as ''a tour de force'' (The Age) and described as ''Perlman''s achingly humane, richly layered and seamlessly constructed masterpiece'' (Canberra Times).Trade Review"'A complex and perfectly nuanced study of idealised love turned sour.' Daily Mail; 'Perlman's novel is a colossal achievement' Observer; 'Seven Types of Ambiguity shows Elliot Perlman to be Australia's outstanding social novelist' TLS"
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Honour
Book SynopsisFrom Booker-shortlisted author Elif Shafak, Honour is a gripping tale of love, betrayal and clashing cultures.''My mother died twice. I promised myself I would not let her story be forgotten''Pembe and Adem Toprak leave Turkey for London. There they make new lives for their family. Yet the traditions and beliefs of their home come with them - carried in the blood of their children, Iskender and Esma. Trapped by past mistakes, the Toprak children find their lives torn apart and transformed by a brutal and chilling crime.Set in Turkey and London in the 1970s, Honour explores pain and loss, loyalty and betrayal, the clash of tradition and modernity, as well as the love and heartbreak that can tear any family apart.''One of the best writers in the world today'' Hanif Kureishi''Vivid storytelling... that explores the darkest aspects of faith and love'' Sunday Telegraph *** ELIF SHAFAK''S NTrade ReviewA powerful book; thoughtful, provoking and compassionate * Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat *Fascinating and gripping - a wonderful novel * Rosamund Lupton, author of Sister *Elif Shafak has woven with masterful care and compassion one immigrant family's heartbreaking story - a story nurtured in the terrible silences between men and women * Sarah Blake, author of The Postmistress *Honour is a powerful tale of family connection and heartbreak, offering us insight and delight in equal measure . . . an exquisite and deep rendering of the fullness of life. * Aurelie Sheehan, author of The Anxiety of Everyday Objects *[Elif Shafak] joins writers such as Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Aamer Hussein, Andrea Levy, Hanan al-Shakyh and Leila Aboulela, who offer us fictional glimpses of London's Others * The Independent *An honour killing is at the centre of this stunning novel . . . Exotic, evocative and utterly gripping * The Times *Lushly and memorably magic-realist . . . This is an extraordinarily skilfully crafted and ambitious narrative * The Independent *Shafak treats an important, absorbing subject in a fast-paced, internationally familiar style that will make it accessible to a wide readership * Sunday Times *Compelling -- Mariella Frostrup
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Perfume
Book SynopsisPatrick Süskind''s Perfume is a classic novel of death and sensuality in Paris, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. ''In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent . . .''''An astonishing tour de force both in concept and execution'' Guardian''A fantastic tale of murder and twisted eroticism controlled by a disgusted loathing of humanity ... Clever, stylish, absorbing and well worth reading'' Literary Review''A meditation on the nature of death, desire and decay ... a remarkable début'' Peter Ackroyd, The New York Times Book Review''Unlike anything else one has read. A phenomenon ... Everyone seems to want to get a whiff of this strange perfume, which will remain unique in contemporary literature'' Figaro''An ingenious and totally absorbing fantasy'' Daily Telegraph''Witty, stylish and ferociously absorbing'' Observer
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Our Kind of Traitor
Book SynopsisIn John le Carré''s electrifying novel Our Kind of Traitor, innocents abroad are drawn into the darkest recesses of the financial world.Britain is in the depths of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis.What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain''s Intelligence Establishment.''If you want to know about the state of Britain today, forget the Booker shortlist. Just read John le Carré''s latest thriller'' Evening Standard''Few recent plays have had dialogue as good, and few recent literary novels can boast a set of characters so vividly imagined. Our Kind of Traitor is a teasing, beguiling, masterly performance'' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewA remarkable book by the master. Reading it is a great experience -- Henning Mankell * Daily Telegraph *A compelling tale of deceit, dialogue and the author's own despair . . . This is a story with frenzy at its heart -- James Naughtie * Daily Telegraph *John le Carré's bullet train of a new thriller is part vintage John le Carré and part Alfred Hitchcock . . . The author's most thrilling thriller in years * The New York Times *If you want to know about the state of Britain today, forget the Booker shortlist. Just read John le Carré's latest thriller * Evening Standard *Few recent plays have had dialogue as good, and few recent literary novels can boast a set of characters so vividly imagined. Our Kind of Traitor is a teasing, beguiling, masterly performance * Sunday Times *A compelling tale of deceit, dialogue and the author's own despair John le Carré's greatest gift may be his ear, which allows him to pick up a tremor of fear in the softest voice or a false note in any exchange of words and play with them to his heart's content. He can therefore create, in dialogue, a trembling soundscape that has a pitch-perfect quality * Sunday Telegraph *Chilling and astute . . . In Our Kind of Traitor, there is not a hair out of place . . . le Carré has done it again for our nasty new age * The Times *
£8.99
Penguin Books Ltd The House of Sleep Jonathan Coe
Book SynopsisThe House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe''s comic tale of love and obsessionSarah is a narcoleptic who has dreams so vivid she mistakes them for real events; Robert has his life changed for ever by the misunderstandings arising from her condition; Terry, the insomniac, spends his wakeful nights fuelling his obsession with movies; and the increasingly unstable Dr Gregory Dudden sees sleep as a life-shortening disease which must be eradicated. . .A group of students sharing a house. They fall in and out of love, they drift apart. Yet a decade later they are drawn back together by a series of coincidences involving their obsession with sleep - and each other. . . Winner of the 1998 Prix Médicis Étranger, The House of Sleep is an intensely moving and frequently hilarious novel about love, obsession and sleep.''Moving, clever, pleasurable, smart...one of the best books of the year'' Malcolm Bradbury, The Times''There are bits that mak
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Closed Circle
Book SynopsisDiscover bestselling author Jonathan Coe''s hilarious sequel to The Rotters'' Club!It''s the end of the century and Benjamin Trotter and friends are all grown up. Life is a ceaseless whirl of jobs, marriages, kids - and self-inflicted angst. Despite the shiny optimism of Blair''s Britain, youthful hopes and dreams feel betrayed. Is the Government (and by extension Benjamin''s MP brother Paul) to blame? Or are the ''rotters'' themselves - only passingly faithful to their dreams - really at fault? The Closed Circle depicts a group of former school friends as older, wiser and disillusioned in Blair''s Britain at the turn of the millennium, proving that the present can never truly be disentangled from the past.THE STORY CONTINUES IN MIDDLE ENGLAND.__________ ''Terrific. An incisive portrait of Britain at the turn of the century'' Spectator ''Coe''s finest achievement since What a Carve up!'' Time Out ''Popular fiction at its best'' Daily MailWritten with his signature wit, Jonathan Coe''s unmissable new novel, The Proof of My Innocence, is available to order now!
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Elizabeth is Missing
Book SynopsisTHE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE MAJOR BBC DRAMA STARRING BAFTA AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS GLENDA JACKSON How do you solve a mystery when you can''t remember the clues?Maud is forgetful. She makes a cup of tea and doesn''t remember to drink it. She goes to the shops and forgets why she went. Sometimes her home is unrecognizable - or her daughter Helen seems a total stranger.But there''s one thing Maud is sure of: her friend Elizabeth is missing. The note in her pocket tells her so. And no matter who tells her to stop going on about it, to leave it alone, to shut up, Maud will get to the bottom of it.Because somewhere in Maud''s damaged mind lies the answer to an unsolved seventy-year-old mystery. One everyone has forgotten about.Everyone, except Maud . . .''A thrillingly assured, haunting and unsettling novel, I read it at a gulp'' Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel''Elizabeth Is Missing will stir and shake you: the most likeably unreliable of narrators, real mystery at its compassionate core...'' Emma Donoghue, author of Room''Resembling a version of Memento written by Alan Bennett'' Daily Telegraph''One of those mythical beasts, the book you cannot put down'' Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotters Club''Every bit as compelling as the frenzied hype suggests. Gripping, haunting'' ObserverTrade ReviewThe novel is both a gripping detective yarn and a haunting depiction of mental illness, but also more poignant and blackly comic than you might expect from that description... perhaps Healey's greatest achievement is the flawless voice she creates for Maud. * The Observer *A compelling mystery that capture the experience of Maud, a highly memorable elderly woman losing her memory * Sunday Express *Riveting psychological thriller * Stylist's Best Books of 2014 *A thrillingly assured, haunting and unsettling novel, I read it at a gulp -- Deborah Moggach
£9.49
Random House USA Inc The Woman in Black
Book Synopsis
£13.60
Faber & Faber A Pagan Place
Book SynopsisFrom the iconic author of The Country Girls trilogy, a modern Irish coming-of-age classic.''The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose there''s no one like Edna O''Brien.'' Anne Enright''Novels of heart-breaking empathy, rigorous honesty and peerless beauty.'' Eimear McBride''A profound intelligence spurred on by a tangible, fizzing joy.'' Megan Nolan''Brilliant and brave.'' Ann Patchett ''Glittering energy.'' Colm TóibínAfter leaving for a religious community in Belgium, a young woman becomes lost in memories of her childhood in rural Ireland, reflecting on the rituals of village life, the people she encountered, the enchanting beauty of the landscape, the concept of home - and the shocking event that led to her departure ...
£10.44
Penguin Putnam Inc If I Built a Car
Book Synopsis
£16.19
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Last Anniversary
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Faber & Faber Golden Hill
Book Synopsis** Cahokia Jazz, the new novel from Francis Spufford, is available for preorder now. ** ''Best book of the century.'' Richard Osman''Just wonderful.'' Jan Morris''A marvel.'' Zadie Smith ''Every bit as superb as everyone says.'' Sarah PerryWinner of the Costa First Novel Award 2016Winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2017Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2017Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2017Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2017Shortlisted for the Authors'' Club Best First Novel Award 2017Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year 2017A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURYNew York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger fresh off the boat from England pitches up to a countin
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Transworld Publishers Ltd Remember Me
Book SynopsisThe hilarious romantic comedy from NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR Sophie KinsellaLexi wakes up in a hospital bed after a car accident, thinking she''s twenty-five with crooked teeth and a disastrous love life. But, to her disbelief, she learns it''s actually three years later - she''s a super-toned twenty-eight-year-old, her teeth are straight, she''s the boss of her department - and she''s married to a good-looking millionaire! She can''t believe her luck - especially when she sees her stunning new loft apartment. And she''ll definitely have a fantastic marriage once she gets to know her husband again. He''s drawn up a ''marriage manual'', which should help.But soon she realises her perfect life isn''t all it seems. All her old friends hate her. A rival is after her job. Then a dishevelled, sexy guy turns up... and lands a new bombshell. What the **** happened to her? Will she ever remember? And what will happen if she does?***** Trade Review"Sophie Kinsella returns with another cracker...A page-turner by arguably the best pop-fiction novelist" MAIL ON SUNDAY "A gripping romantic read - we loved it!" COSMOPOLITAN "A superb tale *****" HEAT "A deliciously intriguing and hilarious novel that will have you hooked til the end" EVE "If easy-to-read girly humour is your bag, Kinsella certainly ticks the right boxes." -- Helen Bonthrone SHE magazine
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Lesser Bohemians
Book SynopsisAN IRISH TIMES TOP 100 BEST IRISH BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURYWINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZEThe vibrant energy of 1990s London. A year of passion and discovery. The anxiety and intensity of new love.An eighteen-year-old Irish girl arrives in London to study drama and falls violently in love with an older actor. While she is naive and thrilled by life in the big city, he is haunted by demons. The clamorous relationship that ensues risks undoing them both. At once epic and exquisitely intimate, The Lesser Bohemians is a celebration of the dark and the light in love.
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Border Town
Book SynopsisThe granddaughter of a poor ferryman, Cuicui grows up in Chadong, a small town in China's exotic southwestern frontier, where she is sheltered from the warlord fighting that was prevalent in China in the 1920s. She's caught up in the spell of the local custom of nighttime serenades, but she is also haunted by her grandfather's imminent death.
£8.99
Random House USA Inc The Decay of the Angel
Book SynopsisThe final installment of the masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility, finds Shigekuni Honda an elderly wealthy man in the 1960s, adopting a teenage orphan whom he is convinced is the reincarnation of his childhood friend. • One of the best final scenes in the history of the novel.” —David Mitchell, The New York Times Book Review Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, once more encounters a person he believes to be a reincarnation of his friend, Kiyoaki Matsugae—this time restored to life as a teenage orphan, Tōru. Adopting the boy as his heir, Honda quickly finds that Tōru is a force to be reckoned with. The final novel of this celebrated tetralogy weaves together the dominant themes of the previous three novels in the series: the decay of Japan’s courtly tradition; the essence and value of Buddhist philosophy and aesthetics; and, underlying all, Mishima’s apocalyptic vision of the modern era.
£13.60
