Contemporary Fiction

Two men meet for a pint in a Dublin pub...In 2012, Roddy Doyle showed us the world anew: through the back-and-forth of two Dublin pub-dwellers. They chewed the fat, set the world to rights, slagged each other unmercifully. And along the way, they chased the ebb and flow and stupidity of the year right to the bottom of their pints.Today, they're still at it - even over Zoom, if needs be. Collected for the first time, here is almost a decade's worth of elections and referendums, births and deaths, football, financial crashes, pandemics and the philosophical questions of life, as told through the wit and warmth of Roddy Doyle's comic genius.Includes: Two Pints, Two More Pints, Two for the Road - and, for the first time in print, Two Pints: The Play and The Zoom Pints

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A teenage girl's difficult journey towards adulthood in a time of war."A school story for grownups that is also about our inability or refusal to protect children from history" SARAH MOSS"Of all Szabo's novels, Abigail deserves the widest readership. It's an adventure story, brilliantly written" TIBOR FISCHEROf all her novels, Magda Szabó's Abigail is indeed the most widely read in her native Hungary. Now, fifty years after it was written, it appears for the first time in English, joining Katalin Street and The Door in a loose trilogy about the impact of war on those who have to live with the consequences. It is late 1943 and Hitler, exasperated by the slowness of his Hungarian ally to act on the "Jewish question" and alarmed by the weakness on his southern flank, is preparing to occupy the country. Foreseeing this, and concerned for his daughter's safety, a Budapest father decides to send her to a boarding school away from the capital. A lively, sophisticated, somewhat spoiled teenager, she is not impressed by the reasons she is given, and when the school turns out to be a fiercely Puritanical one in a provincial city a long way from home, she rebels outright. Her superior attitude offends her new classmates and things quickly turn sour.It is the start of a long and bitter learning curve that will open her eyes to her arrogant blindness to other people's true motives and feelings. Exposed for the first time to the realities of life for those less privileged than herself, and increasingly confronted by evidence of the more sinister purposes of the war, she learns lessons about the nature of loyalty, courage, sacrifice and love.Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix

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The exciting end to The Poppy War trilogy, R. F. Kuang's acclaimed, award-winning epic fantasy that combines the history of twentieth-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating, enthralling effect.After saving her nation of Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress Su Daji in a brutal civil war, Fang Runin was betrayed by allies and left for dead. Despite her losses, Rin hasn't given up on those for whom she has sacrificed so much-the people of the southern provinces and especially Tikany, the village that is her home. Returning to her roots, Rin meets difficult challenges-and unexpected opportunities. While her new allies in the Southern Coalition leadership are sly and untrustworthy, Rin quickly realizes that the real power in Nikan lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation. Backed by the masses and her Southern Army, Rin will use every weapon to defeat the Dragon Republic, the colonizing Hesperians, and all who threaten the shamanic arts and their practitioners. As her power and influence grows, though, will she be strong enough to resist the Phoenix's intoxicating voice urging her to burn the world and everything in it

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1970. Fourteen-year-old Tony is seduced by the skinhead movement, sucked into a world of racist violence and bizarre ritual. It's a milieu in which he must hide his homosexuality, in which every encounter is explosively risky. 2003. James a young TV researcher, becomes obsessed with Neo Nazis and British Movement activist Nicky Crane in particular. As he becomes immersed in research, he begins to receive threatening phone calls. Two different worlds, two different eras but two lives that will ultimately and unforgettably collide.

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The captivating Sunday Times bestseller from the author of The Familiars.Don't miss Stacey Halls' incredible new novel THE HOUSEHOLD - available to pre-order now!Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . .London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, Bess is astonished to be told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.Less than a mile from Bess's lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.From the bestselling author of The Familiars comes this captivating story of mothers and daughters, class and power, and love against the greatest of odds . . .'The new Hilary Mantel' COSMOPOLITAN'Stacey Halls is a writer of great originality, great imagination and great sense of place. Atmospheric, intelligent, accessible, every novel is worth reading, then reading again and again' KATE MOSSEAnother gripping, immersive, intelligent work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Familiars' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of THE MERCIESA moving, atmospheric chiller' INDEPENDENT'A breathtaking achievement' SUNDAY EXPRESS'Enjoyable and atmospheric' THE TIMES'Historical drama at its very best' MY WEEKLY **THE HOUSEHOLD, the brand new novel from Stacey Halls, is available to pre-order now***Sunday Times bestseller February and September 2020**Winner of Women's Prize for Fiction x Good Housekeeping Futures award - Good Housekeeping 14 Oct 2022*

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'A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.' ALI SMITH'Entirely original.'STYLIST'Oyeyemi has mastered the art of bold, expansive storytelling.'IRENOSEN OKOJIE'A writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.'INDEPENDENTThe new novel from the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Helen Oyeyemi.Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions.This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.

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An Observer Best Debut of the YearA Granta Best Young British NovelistI loved this book' JULIA ARMFIELDExhilarating' MONICA HEISEY''Astonishing'' ANDREA LAWLOR''Should be on everyone''s summer reading list'' iNEWSA powerful, sensual novel of the forbidden love between a young woman and the headmaster's wife, unfolding across a single a heatwave summer.In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a young Australian woman arrives to take up the antiquated role of matron'. There she meets Mrs S, the headmaster's wife, a woman who is her polar opposite: assured, sophisticated, a paragon of femininity.Over the course of a long, restless heatwave, the matron finds herself irresistibly drawn ever closer into the older woman's world with their unspoken desire blooming into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer begins to fade, both know that a choice must finally be made.Atmospheric and dar

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When she arrives at her long lost relative's French estate, Serenity Smith is greeted with cold politeness by the Comtesse de Kergallen and her darkly handsome grandson, Christophe. Refusing to believe their scandalous stories about her late parents, Serenity sets out to prove they were false. But getting the enigmatic and demanding Christophe to change his mind about her will prove an equally worthy challenge.

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When Isla Wintergreen unexpectedly inherits her reclusive grandfather's cottage on the Isle of Skye, she cannot resist the opportunity to escape her purposeless life. As she learns more about the family she never knew, her mother also reflects on her own past, and both hope to find new freedom - but can family patterns ever really be broken?

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Sometimes you can't resist the forces of natureA classic romance novel from Nora Roberts - the world's greatest storyteller Olympic gymnast Samantha Evans and her twin sister Sabrina have chosen very different directions in life, but they are still as close as sisters can be. So when Sabrina begs her twin to help out during her pregnancy, Sam leaves her big city life behind for the countryside.Sam thought she knew what to expect on her sister's ranch. But she wasn't expecting to find gorgeous but infuriating Jake Tanner - or have to deal with his teasing. Sam tries to keep her distance but something keeps pulling her back. When they're stranded together in a blizzard, Sam begins to wonder if there's more to Jake than meets the eye . . .'Nora Roberts is, quite simply, a one-woman phenomenon'Heat

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What kind of man kills his own family?A gripping, tender novel about fathers and sons from the highly acclaimed authorA Guardian crime and thriller book of the year 2020'This is a beautifully realised novel, touching on the fallibility of memory and the unknowability of families, and gripping in its intensity. Outstanding' Mail on Sunday'A spectacular novel' SpectatorWhen Tom was eight years old, his father took a shotgun and shot his family: his wife, his son and baby daughter, before turning the gun on himself. Only Tom survived.He left his tiny, shocked community on the island of Litta and the strained silence of his Uncle Malcolm's house while still a young boy. For twenty years he's tried to escape his past. Until now.Without knowing how to ask, he needs answers - from his uncle, who should have known. From his neighbours, who think his father a decent man who 'just snapped'. From the memories that haunt the wild landscape of the Hebrides. And from the silent ones who know more about what happened - and why - than they have ever dared admit.By turns gripping, beautiful, devastating and tender, Our Fathers is a story about violence and redemption, control and love. With understated compassion and humour, Rebecca Wait gives a voice to the silenced and to the silences between men of few words.

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At the tail end of the 1960s, the thirteen-year-old Michelino spends his summers at his grandparents' modest estate in Nasca, near Lake Maggiore, losing himself in the tales of horror, adventure, and mystery shelved in his grandfather's library. The greatest mystery he's ever encountered, however, doesn't come from a book - it's the groundskeeper, Felice, a sometimes frightening, sometimes gentle, always colourful man of uncertain age who speaks an enchanting dialect and whose memory gets worse with each passing day. When Michelino volunteers to help the old man by providing him with clever mnemonic devices to keep his memory alive, the boy soon finds himself obsessed with piecing together the eerie hodgepodge of Felice's biography . . . a quest that leads to the uncovering of skeletons in Nazi uniforms in the attic, to Felice's admission that he can hear the voices of the dead, and to a new perspective on Felice's endless war against the insatiable local slugs, who are by no means merely a horticultural threat. And yet nothing could be more fascinating to Michelino than Felice's own secret origins. Where did he come from? Is he the victim or the villain of his story? Is he a noble hero, a holy fool, or perhaps the very thing that Michelino most wants and fears: a real-life monster.

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In this latest enchanting novel from bestselling magical realism author Jennifer Moorman, a treasure hunt through the past reveals one woman’s extraordinary gift for arranging the future.The Russell women have always lived in a house that is as special as they are—a century-old Victorian with a radio that tunes itself to the listener’s mood and a pantry that rearranges to provide just the right ingredients for any baking need. Lilith Russell was the exception. She left the family home in Ivy Ridge, Georgia, and has been flitting like a hummingbird from place to place with her daughter, Mattie, in the decades since, only returning each summer to drop Mattie off with Lilith’s sister, Penelope.When Lilith dies suddenly, Mattie is left without her sole companion and the captain who steered her ship. That is, until she visits Ivy Ridge and learns Lilith charted one last course for Mattie: a series of tasks that she must complete to e

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'A fresh, funny new voice. Ella Griffin can make you laugh and then cry in the turn of a page' MARIAN KEYESLife is looking up for Saffy. She has a great job, a gorgeous flat in the most desirable part of Dublin and - after six years - it looks like her boyfriend, Greg, is going to propose. Greg (just voted the 9th most eligible man in Ireland) is on a high, too - he's about to swap his part as a heart-throb in an Irish soap for a break in Hollywood. His best mate Conor wakes up every morning with Jess, the most beautiful woman on the planet but, even after seven years and two kids, she won't marry him. He spends his days teaching teenagers and his nights writing the book he hopes will change everything, including Jess's mind.But their happy endings are playing hard to get. It seems everyone's keeping secrets - one night stands, heartbreak, grief and loss are all in the mix. It's going to take some tough questions and even tougher answers before anyone's being honest - even with themselves.

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Life is good. You have a job, an apartment in a nice part of town, and an online dating profile that’s recently yielded as many as three matches. From the outside, it would appear you’re a human man who has all the elements of a stable and functional life. But you also have a horrible secret. You’re not a human man at all. You're a WOLF.Assume the role of one of nature’s greatest predators, just barely maintaining a fake identity as a part of the human workforce. Each choice you make in this interactive story is crucial to your survival and, more importantly, your burgeoning graphic design career. Will you navigate water-cooler gossip without arousing suspicion? Can you go on a date without bringing up how much you love ham? Or is it perhaps time to throw this human life to the wind and return to the woods from whence you came? These choices and many, many more await you in I AM NOT A WOLF.

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The Devil Wears Prada meets The Assistants in this compulsively readable debut following a young woman who takes a job working for an enigmatic influencer and quickly discovers there’s an ugly side to being a #GirlBoss.After a series of go-nowhere jobs in the New York publishing world, Harper Cruz is broke, lonely, and desperate for a salary that won’t leave her scrambling to make rent each month. So when she stumbles across a job posting from an influencer offering triple her last paycheck, she automatically submits her résumé. Harper may not be familiar with self-help guru Charlotte Green, but her relentless optimism and charismatic can-do spirit has created a cult-like following of women across the country. When she selects Harper among thousands of other applicants in less than twenty-four hours, it’s obvious she sees something she likes. Despite the pressure to accept the offer just as quickly as she’s been giv

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Two women, brought together by tragedy, strive to find themselves on Martha’s Vineyard. But it’s not easy to heal old wounds in a powerful novel about family, secrets, motherhood, and the cold grip of the past.A desperate murder committed by Angela Miller’s mother tore Angela’s life apart and brought her to Martha’s Vineyard to live with her wealthy grandparents. It’s where her cousin, Kiki King, was born and raised, and Kiki now wants nothing more than to see the world beyond its sandy perimeter. Kiki’s mother escaped it. She took a late-night swim off Tashmoo Beach and was never seen again.Once bound by broken childhoods, Angela and Kiki have grown up divided—by their obsessions, their love for the same man, and their own conflicted journeys of motherhood. But when a small box of bones is unearthed in the woods, Angela and Kiki discover there’s so much more to learn about each other, their families, and the

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Catharine's trajectory in life is accompanied by failures in love, family traumas and an incredible romance with handsome Sinisa. The novel takes us through turbulent times in the Balkan region, from the eighties to the present day, portraying growing up in the twilight of communism, and giving intimate insights into all that happened to the region after that. Carefully crafted characters and masterful, dynamic storytelling place Catherine the Great and the Small in the company of the very best of novels, which speak about the reality of their geographic setting and are remembered for their convincing, strong, maladjusted characters. Catherine is certainly one of them: a powerful female voice seeking her place within her family, among friends, in the cities she lives in, and constructing her unique identity as a daughter, granddaughter, friend, mistress, wife and a mother.

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A “propulsive and moving story of a family torn asunder by their mother’s disappearance” (Bookreporter) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Story of Mina Lee. 1999: At the end of the millennium, the Kim family is struggling to move on after their mother, Sunny, vanished a year ago. Sixty-one-year-old John Kim feels more isolated from his grown children than ever before. One evening, their fragile lives are further upended when John finds the body of an unhoused stranger in the backyard with a letter to Sunny, leaving the family with more questions than ever. 1977: Newly married, Sunny is pregnant and has just moved to Los Angeles from Korea with her hardworking and often-absent husband. America is not turning out the way she had dreamed it to be, and the loneliness and isolation are broken only by a fateful encounter with a veteran at a bus stop. The unexpected connection spans decades and echoes into the

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It is 1943, and a month into their service as Land Girls, Bee, Anne and Pauline are dispatched to a remote farm in rural Scotland. Here they are introduced to the realities of 'lending a hand on the land', as back-breaking work and inhospitable weather mean they struggle to keep their spirits high. Soon one of the girls falters, and Bee and Pauline receive a new posting to a Northumberland dairy farm. Detailing their friendship, daily struggles and romantic intrigues with a lightness of touch, Barbara Whitton's autobiographical novel paints a sometimes funny, sometimes bleak picture of time spent in the Women's Land Army during the Second World War.

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'De Botton is a national treasure.' - Susan Hill, author of The Woman in BlackA unique love story and a classic work of philosophy, rooted in the mysterious workings of the human heart and mind.Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved.A man and woman on a flight from Paris to London, and so begins their love story. From first kiss to first argument, infatuation to heartbreak, de Botton illuminates each stage of their relationship with a clarity both startling and tender.With the verve of a novelist and the insight of a philosopher, Essays in Love unveils the mysteries of the human heart. It is essential reading for anyone seeking instruction in the art of love.

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Sally Gunnar has withdrawn from the world. She spends her days alone at home, reading drugstore mysteries, polishing the doorknobs, waxing the floors. Her only companions are a vase of goldfish, a garden toad, and the door-to-door salesman who sells her cleaning supplies once a month. She broods over her deepest regrets: her blighted romances with self-important men, her lifelong struggle to feel at home in her own body, and her wayward early twenties, when she was a fish out of water among a group of eccentric, privileged young people at a liberal arts college. There was Sam, an unabashed collector of other people’s stories; Carlotta, a troubled free spirit; and Rennel, a self-obsessed philosophy student. Self-deprecating and sardonic, Sally recounts their misadventures, up to the tragedy that tore them apart. Colourful, crass, and profound, Toad is Katherine Dunn’s ode to her time as a student at Reed College in the late 1960s. It is filled with the same mordant observations about the darkest aspects of human nature that made Geek Love a cult classic and Dunn a misfit hero. Daring and bizarre, Toad demonstrates her genius for black humour and her ecstatic celebration of the grotesque. Fifty-some years after it was written, Toad is a timely story about the ravages of womanhood and a powerful addition to the canon of feminist fiction.

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A strikingly original first novel, from the author of A Little Life.‘The world Yanagihara conjures up, full of dark pockets of mystery, is magical.’ – The TimesIn 1950 Norton Perina, a young doctor, embarks on an expedition to a remote Micronesian island in search of a rumoured lost tribe. There he encounters a strange group of forest dwellers who appear to have attained a form of immortality that preserves the body but not the mind. Perina uncovers their secret and returns with it to America, where he soon finds great success. But his discovery has come at a terrible cost, not only for the islanders, but for Perina himself.Hanya Yanagihara's The People in the Trees marked the debut of a remarkable voice in American fiction.‘Impossible to resist’ – Daily MailPart of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.

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Em''s nineteen years old and pregnant. Her boyfriend Pablo has gone out ''to take care of something'' and hasn''t returned. Her mother, who raised Emily alone, moves into the little apartment to help. Meanwhile, Em''s neighbour, who may or may not be a clergyman, wonders if it''s normal to be so infatuated with someone you''ve never spoken to. Em''s boss at the supermarket might have feelings for her too, if only she''d notice. Emily Forever is a poignant, achingly hard-hitting book about class and about digging deep to find what it takes to get by. At the same time, it''s a deeply original exploration of how a girl like Emily is seen from the outside, by those who think they know who she is and how her life is supposed to pan out. Empathetic and quizzical, and scathingly humorous, Emily Forever is a novel of unyielding solidarity and smouldering social dissent, by a new star of Scandinavian literature.

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From the International Booker Prizewinning translator and Women's Prize finalist, a propulsive, beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing. Eight translators arrive at a house in a forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the writer Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Grey Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace. The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. They explore this ancient, wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime moulds and lichens and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues. But doing so reveals secrets and deceptions of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for. Forced to face their differences as they grow increasingly paranoid in this fever dream of isolation and

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‘You shall read this with unadulterated pleasure’ Scotland on Sunday ‘A beautiful, funny, heartfelt analysis of what it means to be human’ Simon Pegg Set in a 2054 where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, Set My Heart To Five is the hilarious yet profoundly moving story of one android’s emotional awakening. Unhappy with his programmed job of dentistry and inspired by a love of classic movies, Jared sets out on a bold mission: to use the power of his burgeoning feelings to forever change the world for him and all his kind. Unfortunately, Jared intends to do this by writing his own movie, and things do not proceed according to plan… Unlike anything you have ever read before, Set My Heart To Five is a book for anybody who has feelings, loves movies, and likes to laugh and cry and sometimes do both at the same time. It comes uniquely guaranteed to make its readers weep a minimum of 29mls of tears.* *Book must be read in controlled laboratory conditions arranged at reader’s own expense. Other terms and conditions may apply to this offer.

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A story that's as furious as it is tender' EMILY HENRY on The Change* * *From the author of The Change, comes a novel about book banning and those brave enough to stand up against this censorship.In Troy, Georgia, Lula Dean has decided to cleanse the town's reading habits. All banned books have been removed from public spaces, and the townspeople are only allowed to read books Lula has deemed appropriate'.But a small group refuse to be told what they can and can't read.The revolution is coming * * *Praise for Kirsten Miller:Kirsten Miller has that rare ability to take a serious subject and make it very, very funny. I enjoyed this novel and you will too' JAMES PATTERSON A roar of rage I loved it' MARIAN KEYESI couldn't put it down' ERIN KELLYBewitching and satisfying' THE INDEPENDENT

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It’s the last place she wants to be. It’s the only place left to go . . . ‘Hugely entertaining…an instantly engaging read, what you might get if you mixed Jojo Moyes with Marian Keyes’ Sunday Independent ‘A fabulous read…you’re immediately immersed’ Sheila O’Flanagan, bestselling author of The Women Who Ran Away ’A superb writer – the Irish Jojo Moyes’ Irish Examiner ‘Ciara Geraghty is a wonderful writer’ Hazel Gaynor, author of the Irish Times bestseller, The Bird in the Bamboo Cage Marianne left home when she was fifteen following a family tragedy, one that changed all their lives. She never planned to return. But when her carefully controlled life falls apart, she has no choice but to return to Ancaire, the ramshackle house overlooking the Irish Sea, where her mother, Rita, a flamboyant artist and recovering alcoholic still lives. As her mother invites her to pull up a chair and make herself at home, alongside the friends, family and neighbours who wander its rooms. Marianne discovers that sometimes home isn’t a house, it’s a place in your heart. Set on the wild Irish coast, with an unforgettable cast of characters, this deeply emotional novel is full of Ciara Geraghty’s trademark heart and poignancy.

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In this highly-anticipated new action manga, a young boy is framed for murder and cast off the edge of a floating city into the abyss, where he grapples with the monsters that the elite high above would rather forget.The more the rich glitter, the higher the price paid by the poor...With a premise that recallsBattle Angel Alitaand kinetic battles reminiscent ofAttack on Titan,Gachiakutais a must-read for fans of dark, dystopian fantasies likeDeadman Wonderland!Rudo lives in the slums of a floating town, where the poor scrape by under the shadow of the rich who live a sumptuous life, simply casting their garbage off the side, into the abyss. Then one day, he''s falsely accused of murder, and his wrongful conviction leads to an unimaginable punishment--exile off the edge, with the rest of the trash. Down on the surface, the cast-off waste of humanity has bred vicious monsters, and if Rudo wants to have any hope of discovering the truth and seeking vengeanc

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A young couple are entangled in a nightmare spiral of lies when they pretend to be someone else …Exquisitely dark psychological suspense by the international bestselling author of The Bird Tribunal ‘A delightfully insightful and wicked little read … Like the cabin, it's so minimalist and stark and at the same time so compelling’ Elizabeth Haynes ________It started with a lie… Married couple Karin and Kai are looking for a pleasant escape from their busy lives, and reluctantly accept an offer to stay in a luxurious holiday home in the Norwegian fjords. Instead of finding a relaxing retreat, however, their trip becomes a reminder of everything lacking in their own lives, and in a less-than-friendly meeting with their new neighbours, Karin tells a little white lie… Against the backdrop of the glistening water and within the claustrophobic walls of the ultra-modern house, Karin’s insecurities blossom, and her lie grows ever bigger, entangling her and her husband in a nightmare spiral of deceits with absolutely no means of escape… Simmering with suspense and dark humour, The Guests is a gripping psychological drama about envy and aspiration … and something more menacing, hiding just below that glittering surface… _____ Praise for Agnes Ravatn **Shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award****A BBC Book at Bedtime****Shortlisted for the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Fiction****Winner of an English PEN Translation Award** 'A clever, quirky mystery, full of twists and reminiscent of Agatha Christie at her best' The Times 'Ravatn, one of Norway's premier crime writers, manages to conjure up an extra level of chilling atmosphere that will make you want to put the heating on' The Sun 'An unrelenting atmosphere of doom fails to prepare readers for the surprising resolution' Publishers Weekly 'Unfolds in an austere style that perfectly captures the bleakly beautiful landscape of Norway's far north' Irish Times 'Reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith and I can't offer higher praise than that. Agnes Ravatn is an author to watch' Philip Ardagh 'A tense and riveting read' Financial Times 'Crackling, fraught and hugely compulsive slice of Nordic Noir tremendously impressive' Big Issue 'Intriguing … enrapturing' Sarah Hilary ‘A masterclass in suspense and delayed terror' Rod Reynolds

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‘I absolutely adored Under Your Spell the sweetest, sexiest, funniest romance. It was such a treat!’ Marian Keyes 'So witty and smart. I am thoroughly under Laura Wood’s spell' Hannah Grace 'For any fans of Emily Henry, this is a romantic read supreme' - Stylist 'A fizzy, magical romcom featuring a heroine to root for and a hero to swoon over. Fans of Emily Henry will adore this sexy, tender and funny story' Sarra Manning, Red MagazineShe only wants three things. He isn't one of them...  Dumped by her cheating ex, fired from her dream job, about to lose her flat: Clementine Monroe is not having a good day. So when her sisters get her drunk and suggest reviving a childhood ritual called the breakup spell, she doesn’t see the harm in it.   But now Clemmie has accidentally ru

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Hannah Tate can hardly believe her sleep-deprived eyes when she finds an engagement ring hidden in the closet. Killian, her super responsible, incredibly attractive boyfriendand the father of her new baby, Bowieis finally going to propose. But a romantic night out goes horribly wrong when Killian reveals he's dumping Hannah, not proposing. Furious and heartbroken, Hannah takes Bowie and moves in with her mama and stepdaddy in the mountains of Blue Ridge, Georgia. Hannah realizes that her parents' cabin has vacation property gold written all over itand could save her mama from going broke. Again. Only problem? The cabin's décor is . . . mildly terrifying and it's in desperate need of renovation. Hannah hires the hot carpenter living in the treehouse next door to fix up the place. Not only does River respect Hannah's business acumen, he looks at her like she's a woman, not a hot mess. And Hannah can't deny that River awakens something new inside her. Can Hannah embrace a future

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A Guardian Best Book of the YearA Dazed Best Novel of 2023An unmissable banger.' ALICE SLATERA meta-meditation on the mysteries, malice, and minutiae of adolescence.' TOM BENNYou've never read anything like this.' JULIA ARMFIELDDo you know what happened already? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did you listen to a podcast? Did the hosts make jokes?Did you see the pictures of the body? Did you look for them?It's been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked the small seaside town of Crow-on-Sea. Based on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, and even correspondence with the killers themselves, journalist Alec Z. Carelli has constructed what he claims is the definitive account' of the crime. It's a riveting snapshot of lives scarred by tragedy, and a town left in

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THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF DYMOCKS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2021 A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK WINNER OF THE INWORDS LITERARY AWARD ‘Sheer joy' Graham Norton ‘Utterly beautiful … filled with hope’ Joanna Cannon, author of Three Things About Elsie ‘A bear-hug of a book’ Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson’s Beetle From the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of people brought together by love, war, art and the ghost of E.M. Forster. 1944, in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa, as bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening. Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner is a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy. She has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the wreckage and relive memories of the time she encountered EM Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view. Evelyn’s talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses’ mind that will shape the trajectory of his life – and of those who love him – for the next four decades. Moving from the Tuscan Hills and piazzas of Florence, to the smog of London’s East End, Still Life is a sweeping, joyful novel about beauty, love, family and fate. ‘Four course nourishment for all Winman fans’ Patrick Gale, author of Take Nothing With You ‘Extraordinary . . . my book of the year’ Liz Nugent, author of Our Little Cruelties ‘The kind of story that bolsters the heart and soul’ Donal Ryan, author of Strange Flowers Sunday Times bestseller 09/06/2021

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From the National Book Award-winning author of The Friend, the moving and eerily relevant novel that imagines the aftermath of a flu pandemic as seen through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy uncertain of his destiny.In an America devastated by a flu pandemic, orphaned thirteen-year-old C ole finds safety and stability with an evangelical pastor and his wife. Happiness becomes disquiet as he realises the cost at which this peace comes, and the extent to which it challenges everything he knows.Salvation City is a story of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, blending a deeply affecting portrait of one young boy's transformation with a profound meditation on belief, heroism, and the true meaning of salvation.'A tale of an American near-apocalypse that ... reads beautifully, at time joyously, and makes one reconsider the ordering of our world' Gary Shteyngart'Not only timely and thought-provoking but also generous in its understanding of human nature. When the apocalypse comes, I want Nunez in my lifeboat' Vanity Fair'Nunez's writing is gorgeously spare, and she gets the life and the lingo of a teenage boy just right.... A gorgeously strange novel' Boston Globe'A satisfying, provocative and very plausible novel' Abraham Verghese, New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice'A wise and richly humane coming-of-age novel' O Magazine

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'Heartstopping... doesn't let up... you will urge them on, fists clenched' The TimesAn extraordinary story of the lengths a mother will go to to save her son, AMERICAN DIRT has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. It's time to read what you've been missing.Lydia Perez owns a bookshop in Acapulco, Mexico, and is married to a fearless journalist. Luca, their eight-year-old son, completes the picture. But it only takes a bullet to rip them apart.In a city in the grip of a drug cartel, friends become enemies overnight, and Lydia has no choice but to flee with Luca at her side. North for the border... whatever it takes to stay alive. The journey is dangerous - not only for them, but for those they encounter along the way. Who can be trusted? And what sacrifices is Lydia prepared to make?*An Instant New York Times #1 Bestseller 2020**An Instant Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller 2020**Over 2 million copies sold globally**A Richard and Judy Bookclub Pick**An Oprah's Book Club Pick**A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime*

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‘A gifted and determined stylist, Colum McCann seems to have taken a vow never to write a dull line’ New York Times Book Review 'Orwell would have been proud to journey with a writer as good as Colum McCann' Irish Sunday Independent ______________________ An ageing nun is tracked to ground by her sister; a garrulous beautician must lay out the corpse of a loved one. These are eloquent tales of exile and displacement, of characters always in search of a way back home or of a way to leave it. Mischievous, assured and versatile, Colum McCann's collection of short stories marks him out as one of our best contemporary writers.

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'Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore' JOJO MOYESPure escapism on every page, The Distant Shores tells the story of a family torn apart, and the woman who will bring them back together. Margot Hart travels to Ireland to write a biography of the famous Deverill family. She knows she must speak to the current Lord Deverill – JP – if she is to uncover the secrets of the past. A notorious recluse, JP won’t be an easy man to crack. But Margot is determined – and she is not a woman who is easily put off. What she never expected was to form a close bond with JP and be drawn into his family disputes. Shouldering the blame for running up debts that forced him to sell the family castle, JP is isolated and vulnerable. With help from his handsome son Colm, it seems as though Margot might be the only one who can restore JP’s fortunes. Will the family ever succeed in healing rifts that have been centuries in the making? Praise for Santa Montefiore: 'An enchanting read, overflowing with deliciously poignant moments' DINAH JEFFERIES 'Santa Montefiore hits the spot for me like few other writers' SARRA MANNING 'One of our personal favourites' The Times ‘Funny, sad, poignant and heart-warming’ Choice Magazine

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