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
Vintage Publishing The American Lover
Book SynopsisRose Tremain's novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence) the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina in France (Sacred Country) and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Lily, a Richard and Judy Book Club selection. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.Trade ReviewPowerful, involving, wide-ranging collection -- Gerard Woodward * Guardian *Tremain presents a large cast of ill-starred characters, each laid low by their heart… But even in the most melancholy stories, Tremain delivers slivers of hope or humour to temper the tragedies… This collection highlights with subtlety and grace just how human it is to get things wrong * Daily Telegraph *Warm, moving, often humorous and sometimes heartbreaking -- Michelle Margherita, 5 stars * Stylist *A seemingly effortless performance... the writing glides along, elegantly dropping details that suggest a whole way of life -- Phil Baker * The Sunday Times *The American Lover is…superb, each story a perfectly cut jewel -- Neel Mukherjee * Irish Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Look at the Birdie Unpublished Short Fiction.
Book SynopsisKurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and studied biochemistry at Cornell University. During WWII, as a prisoner of war in Germany, he witnessed the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers, an experience which inspired Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut's black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and according to Harper's Magazine, established him as 'a true artist' with Cat's Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, 'one of the best living American writers'. Vonnegut died in April 2007.Trade ReviewThe wittiest man since Groucho Marx and the wisest since Karl Marx * The Times *For the last years of his life, Vonnegut was our sage and chain-smoking truth teller... Why these stories went unpublished is hard to answer. They're polished, they're relentlessly fun to read, and every last one of them comes to a neat and satisfying end -- Dave Eggers * New York Times Review of Books *These [stories] date from early in his literary career in the early to mid-Fifties, but already they show the hallmarks of Vonnegut's distinctive voice and style - that unique mixture of knowingness and wide-eyed innocence, warmth and cynicism, guile and simplicity.... Not too difficult to see why he didn't manage to place these stories at the time - the early Fifties wasn't ready for such darkness and lightly-worn subversion. Terrific * Daily Mail *What is surprising about these 14 short stories written by the master satirist during the 1950s, is that not one has been published before. it is not for want of quality: they are rather wonderful... They are uncharacterisable, but so was Vonnegut (The New York Times said it best in calling him the laughing proophet of doom). The opening tale, Confido, starts the collection as it means to go on: it is mischievious, nutty and astute -- David Hayles * The Times *The fourteen unpublished stories in Look at the Birdie are as outlandish and well turned as anything he wrote, displaying his impish playfulness. Most authors spend a lifetime finding their voice. Here we see that Vonnegut's was well-established at the start of his career: tightly plotted yet loose in style; spry; sporadic if not downright acerbic, yet with plenty of laughter in the dark. [...] warm, generous and uncompromising spirit behind this collection. -- Neil Fitzgerald * Times Literary Supplement *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Milkman in the Night
Book Synopsis''Good-hearted and brutal at the same time, The Milkman in the Night is a complex, unsettling mixture of bleakness and warmth'' Sunday TimesRead this eccentric epic from the author of cult classic Death and the PenguinSemyon is disturbed. He has woken up in the living room with blood on his shirt, an angry wife and no idea where he was the night before. When this happens several mornings in a row, he realises he needs to investigate. After his friend Volodka follows him one night, they discover he''s meeting a tall, blonde woman and accompanying her to her apartment. In the daytime he doesn''t know this woman or where her apartment is and, odder yet, someone is watching Volodka watching Semyon. Meanwhile, there are some strange goings-on in Kyiv - an unemployed sniffer-dog handler makes a dangerous discovery, a single mother is providing breast milk for an unusual recipient and a vengeful cat is on the loose...Trade ReviewA glorious, epic, eccentric and often hilarious satire, heavily tinged with Russian melancholy -- Kate Saunders * The Times *There is much to enjoy in this book. Kurkov works in the tradition of Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov, blending folkloric characters, magical realism and political satire to reveal a society riddled with greed, stupidity and corruption -- Marina Lewycka * Financial Times *Good-hearted and brutal at the same time, The Milkman in the Night is a complex, unsettling mixture of bleakness and warmth * Sunday Times *Kurkov is hugely talented * Time Out *This book is a joyride... Kurkov has a rollercoaster of fun between zig and zag. He defies the reader not to join him * Scotsman *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Hotel Iris
Book SynopsisIn a crumbling, seaside hotel on the coast of Japan, quiet, seventeen-year-old Mari works the front desk as her mother fusses over the off-season customers. When, one night, they are forced to eject a prostitute and a middle-aged man from his room, Mari finds herself drawn to the man''s voice, in what will become the first gesture of a long seduction. Mari begins to visit the mysterious man at his island home, and he initiates her into a dark realm of both pain and pleasure. As Mari''s mother and the police begin to close in on the illicit affair, events move to a dramatic climax.By the author of The Housekeeper and the Professor Trade ReviewIt's brave territory for Ogawa, and she manages in with sharp focus; she creates moments of breathtaking ugliness, often when least expected...but also sometimes a longing that is touching and tender * Independent *Both very weird and very good... Image by perfect image, we are led down into a mysterious and gripping universe, simultaneously beautiful and terrifying... From the opening sentences of Hotel Iris you know that every word will count and that every scene will be the occasion for strong and strange feeling * Times Literary Supplement *To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare... She possesses an effortless, glassy, eerie brilliance * Guardian *Precisely written, this dreamlike narrative expands into an ambiguous story of sexual dependency and damage. Ogawa's exact prose glitters as menacingly as the surrounding sea * Independent *Exploring dark desires is something at which Ogawa has become disconcertingly adept * New York Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing 1Q84 Books 1 and 2
Book Synopsis*PRE-ORDER HARUKI MURAKAMI'S NEW NOVEL, THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS, NOW*Read this imaginative masterpiece from the internationally bestselling author of Norwegian WoodThe year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo.Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a stand-still, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a top-secret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.Meanwhile, Tengo wishes to become a writer. He inadvertently becomes involved in a strange affair surrounding a literary prize to which a mysterious seventeen-year-old girl has submitted her remarkable first novel. It seems to be based on her own experiences and moves readers in unusual ways. Can her story really be true?Both Aomame and Tengo notice that the world has grown strange; both realise that they are indispensable to each other. While their stories influence one another, at times by accident and at times intentionally, the two come closer and closer to intertwining.''It is a work of maddening brilliance and gripping originality, deceptively casual in style, but vibrating with wit, intellect and ambition'' The TimesTrade ReviewA surreal and fractured dose of storytelling that only Murakami cold write. -- Graham Morrison, five stars * Linux Voice *A surreal and fractured dose of storytelling that only Murakami cold write. -- Graham Morrison, five stars * Linux Voice *It’s pure, uncut Murakami. * Business Insider *Murakami's magnum opus * Japan Times *1Q84 has a range and sophistication that surpasses anything else in his oeuvre. It is his most achieved novel; an epic in which form and content are neatly aligned... So like Murakami himself, I'll borrow from Orwell: 1Q84 is quite simply doubleplusgood * Independent on Sunday *
£10.44
Cornerstone Toys
Book SynopsisJAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. Among his creations are some of the world's most popular series including Alex Cross, the Women's Murder Club, Michael Bennett and the Private novels. He has written many other number one bestsellers including collaborations with President Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton, stand-alone thrillers and non-fiction. James has donated millions in grants to independent bookshops and has been the most borrowed adult author in UK libraries for the past fourteen years in a row. He lives in Florida with his family.
£9.49
Random House Losing You
Book SynopsisLauren Scott is bright, talented and beautiful. At eighteen, she is the most precious gift in the world to her mother, and has a dazzling career ahead of her. Oliver Lomax is a young man full of promise, despite the shadow his own, deeply troubled, mother casts over him. Then one fateful night, Oliver makes a decision that tears their worlds apart. Until then, Lauren and Oliver had never met, but now they become so closely bound together that their families are forced to confront truths they hoped they''d never have to face, secrets they''d never even imagined...
£16.19
Cornerstone Dont Let Me Go
Book SynopsisTHE SECOND NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING No Child of Mine TRILOGY*Books one and three - No Child of Mine and You Said Forever - are available to buy in paperback and ebook NOW*Charlotte Nicholls has a secret that haunts her.She and three-year-old Chloe have left their home and friends, and are now building a new life for themselves elsewhere.All Charlotte wants to do is to forget the past, to blot out what went before, and to look only to the future.At last she and Chloe feel safe.Then, suddenly, their nightmare returns, and Charlotte finds she has no power to prevent what comes next . . .Trade ReviewThis atmospheric, spellbinding sequel to the novel No Child of Mine is an original and thought-provoking tale. * The Lady *A master storyteller. -- Diane Chamberlain
£10.44
Cornerstone London
Book SynopsisA grand, epic story that tells the history of the greatest city in the world, from Roman times to the present day.London has perhaps the most remarkable history of any city in the world.Trade ReviewEdward Rutherfurd's grand novel weaves together the great events of English history ... he pulls off some remarkable effects * New York Times *Few literary novels tell us as much about the history of modern humans, or have such clarity * Daily Telegraph *London could hook you on history for life ... 800 pages of hold-your-breath suspense, buccaneering adventure, and passionate tales of love and war set in London from the birth of time to the present day * The Times *
£14.24
Vintage Publishing The Method
Book SynopsisMia Holl lives in a state governed by The Method, where good health is the highest duty of the citizen. Everyone must submit medical data and sleep records to the authorities on a monthly basis, and regular exercise is mandatory.Mia is young and beautiful, a successful scientist who is outwardly obedient but with an intellect that marks her as subversive. Convinced that her brother has been wrongfully convicted of a terrible crime, Mia comes up against the full force of a regime determined to control every aspect of its citizens'' lives.Trade ReviewThis is a brilliant, disturbing and wildly imaginative picture of the nanny state run mad; how far should the State be allowed to poke its nose into a citizen's business? -- Kate Saunders * Times *Zeh seems to have won every European literary prize going...Three years since its first publication in German (it is translated here with tremendous gusto by Sally-Ann Spencer), Zeh’s novel is even more relevant to our over-structure, over-quantified times. -- Simon Ings * Guardian *An impressively plausible account of a conformist society disguised as a utopia -- Lucy Popescu * Independent *In Sally-Ann Spencer's superb translation from German, Juli Zeh's novel gives form to a dystopia that remains hauntingly recognizable -- Charlotte Ryland * Times Literary Supplement *Thoughtful and intelligent...her main character Mia is an intellectual heroine as much as a physical rebel. -- Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The London Train
Book SynopsisTessa Hadley is the author of eight highly praised novels, Accidents in the Home, which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Everything Will Be All Right, The Master Bedroom, The London Train, Clever Girl, The Past, Late in the Day, Free Love and three collections of stories, Sunstroke, Married Love and Bad Dreams. She won the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction in 2016, The Past won the Hawthornden Prize for 2016, and Bad Dreams won the 2018 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her stories appear regularly in the New Yorker.Trade ReviewFew writers give me such consistent pleasure -- Zadie SmithShe has such great psychological insights into human beings, which is rare. She is one of the best fiction writers writing today -- Chimamanda Ngozie AdichieThis beautifully evoked fourth novel is a further example of her talents -- Rachel Hore * Literary Review *Darkly elegant...Hadley writes with grace and intensity, moving from careful, beautiful delineation of character and place...to moments of haunting power. She is brilliant, too, at offering us different perspectives * Financial Times *Tessa Hadley is an understated writer whose concentration on the details of everyday life belies a breathtaking acuity and articulateness... She once again visualizes the monochrome mundanity of ordinary existence in glorious Technicolor... Hadley captures shades of almost imperceptible grey that the reader only recognizes after reading... Hadley shows, with dizzying aplomb, that the distinction between "literary" fiction and the best domestic fiction is spurious. -- Leyla Sani * Independent *
£9.49
Random House The Smile of the Lamb. David Grossman
Book SynopsisUri and Katzman are Israeli soldiers occupying a Palestinian village in the West Bank. Uri is idealistic and full of hope, feels the injustice of the occupation keenly, and becomes close to Khilmi, the village storyteller. Katzman on the other hand is ''a contracted muscle'' - he has taught himself not to feel. And Shosh, Uri''s wife, daughter of liberal immigrant parents and juvenile psychiastrist, is succumbing to her own struggles with power and truth. When Khilmi''s adopted son is killed in a ''security operation'' and when Uri discovers how far deception and injustice have penetrated into his own life, their reactions are drastic and unforseen.Trade ReviewAn extraordinary achievement...moving, many-layered, powerful, yet written with beautiful delicacy of touch, is a work of redemption... Combining the compassionate wisdom of the moralist with a true artist's creative imagination, this book deserves the widest possible audience * Indepdendent *Bold, grand, mad, an astonishing meditation on art, religion, love, politics and war, despatched in language which is funny, ferocious and enraptured * Observer *A courageous novel, the first attempt by an Israeli author of the post-1967 generation to come to terms with the consequences of the Occupation, to articulate how 'the conqueror is also the conquered, and injustice has teeth in its tail' * Guardian *Extreme, enormous, almost embarrassingly good, a first novel whose very last page somehow fuses together the political and spiritual currents running through modern day Israel * Time Out *At once sensitive, humane, elegiac and devoid of optimism, save a vague faith in love * Sunday Times *
£14.39
Vintage Publishing W or The Memory of Childhood
Book SynopsisWritten in alternating chapters, W or the Memory of Childhood, tells two parallel tales, in two parts. One is a story created in childhood and about childhood. The other story is about two people called Gaspard Winckler: one an eight-year-old deaf-mute lost in a shipwreck, the other a man despatched to search for him, who discovers W, an island state based on the rules of sport. As the two tales move in and out of focus, the disturbing truth about the island of W reveals itself. Perec combines fiction and autobiography in unprecedented ways, allowing no easy escape from these stories, or from history.Trade ReviewPerec was a haunted writer, haunted by his Jewish ancestry, by the Holocaust that coincided with his own orphaned childhood, by the death of his father in 1940 and his mother's disappearance in Auschwitz. Writing, for him, was an act of exorcism * Sunday Times *A strange and complicated book, a work of tremendous, silenced emotion * Observer *His brilliant and profound memoir-fantasy deserves to be recognised for what it is: a masterpiece * Guardian *The childhood story of 'W' carries Perec's confused conception of the concentration camps...bewilderingly sad * Independent *Perec was a polymathic genius, and his early death in 1982 (he was only 45) robbed France of its most dazzling experimental writer, one who tried everything and failed at nothing...He has, deservedly, become a cult in France, particularly with young Parisians, who instinctively (and rightly) identify him as the super-zapper, the biographer of their fragmented consumer culture, of which he was himself the creation. * Glasgow Herald *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Echoland
Book SynopsisPetterson''s debut novel, published in English for the first time.Twelve-year-old Arvid and his family are on holiday, staying with his grandparents on the coast of Denmark. Dimly aware of the tension building between his mother and grandmother, Arvid is on the cusp of becoming a teenager: feeling awkward in his own skin, but adamant that he can take care of himself.As Arvid cycles down to the beach with its view of the lighthouse, he meets Mogens, an older boy who lives nearby, and together they set out to find fresh experiences in this strange new world. Echoland is a breathtaking read, capturing the unique drift of childhood summers, filled with unarticulated anxiety.Trade ReviewA compelling mix of fable with the day-to-day account of a working-class boy… It is hard to think of a novel that so precisely and vividly conveys the pain and disorientation of puberty -- John Burnside * Guardian *Is there a living writer better at conveying the disconcerting relationship between time and memory?... There is pleasure, too, in watching Petterson shift through the gears from pleasure to unease in one of those gloriously sinuous sentences that have become something of a trademark -- Adrian Turpin * Financial Times *Petterson is remarkably gifted -- James Wood * New Yorker *It packs a powerful punch… A clear-cut jewel of nameless dread and nagging anxiety: Scandinavian gloom par excellence. -- Andrew Van Loon * Sunday Telegraph *His eerily terse prose luxuriates in the hazy strangeness of the Danish landscape and is particularly brilliant at nailing adolescence as an inchoate, restless state in which life is felt much more fiercely than it is understood. -- Claire Allfree * Mail on Sunday *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Damned
Book Synopsis''Are you there, Satan? It''s me, Madison''Meet Madison, whip-tongued daughter of a narcissistic film star and a billionaire, abandoned at a Swiss boarding school over Christmas while her parents are off adopting more orphans. Madison dies of a marijuana overdose and awakes to find herself in Hell, sharing her cell with a motley crew of young sinners that''s almost too good to be true. Welcome to the afterlife as only Palahniuk could imagine it - he makes eternal torment, well, simply divine.Trade ReviewThe Lovely Bones meets The Shawshank Redemption via Judy Blume. Expect to be appalled * Vogue *True to Palahniuk form, Damned is gross in parts, scandalous in others and funny throughout * Time Out *Gleefully riffing on Judy Blume's 1970 coming-of-age classic Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, Palahniuk's dead heroine must traverse the infernal landscape in search of Satan - and of her true self - as she tries to discover exactly how she died * Financial Times *Vintage chuck - as dark as it gets * Dazed *The vistas of his underworld are engrossing * Metro *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Spring
Book SynopsisDavid Szalay is the author of five previous works of fiction: Spring, The Innocent, London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Turbulence, which won the Edge Hill Prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Vienna. His work has been translated into over twenty languages.Trade ReviewSpring confirms that [Szalay] is a writer with the whole range of talents... Often outstanding -- Theo Tait * Sunday Times *A brave and intelligent novel... This is one of those books that leaves you not only with admiration for the novelist, but also with a sense of wonder about the precision of the novel form itself -- Chris Cleave * Guardian *A texture of truthfulness quite unlike that of any other fiction about London that I know...a very beautifully poised novel -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *The forensic scrutiny of every aspect of a fledgling relationship, from both points of view, is one of the many delights of Spring... Devastatingly powerful...also extremely funny, in that understated, unexpected way that makes you burst into sudden noise in public places and alarm those around you. Szalay's dialogue is pithy and sharp; his peripheral characters lip-smackingly delicious -- Leyla Sanai * Independent on Sunday *The lives of two disconsolately unfulfilled people start to blaze, thanks to Szalay's often brutal honesty...formidable ear for dialogue - which transforms the most mundane exchanges into comedy, a la Mike Leigh - and seductively sensuous descriptions -- Siobhan Murphy * Metro *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing The Artist of Disappearance
Book SynopsisA triptych of beautifully crafted novellas make up Anita Desai''s exquisite new book. Set in modern India, but where history still casts a long shadow, the stories move beyond the cities to places still haunted by the past, and to characters who are, each in their own way, masters of self-effacement.Rich and evocative, remarkable in their clarity and sensuous in their telling, these stories remind us of the extraordinary yet delicate power of this pre-eminent writer.Trade ReviewProfoundly elegiac -- Margaret Drabble * New Statesman *From a web of connections, Desai spins stories of history and loss that move the reader not with epiphanies, but through the sheer beauty of her storytelling * Time Out *Elegantly paced and smartly crafted -- Fatima Bhutto * Financial Times *Anita Desai writes exquisitely -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *Bewitchingly beautiful * The Times *
£11.69
Vintage Publishing The Doll Princess
Book SynopsisWinner of the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year AwardIt''s Manchester, July 1996, the month after the IRA bomb, and the Evening News is carrying reports of two murders. On the front page is a glamorous Egyptian woman, a socialite and heiress to an oil fortune, whose partially clothed body has been found in a basement. In the back pages there is a fifty-word piece on the murder of a young prostitute found dumped on a roadside.For Henry Bane, fixer, loanshark and legman for one of Manchester''s established ganglords, it''s the second piece of news that hits hardest. Determined to find out what happened to his childhood sweetheart he searches his bombed city for answers, finding that these two stories belong on the same page, and that Bane''s world belongs to others - those willing to profit from guns, human trafficking and a Manchester in decay.Trade ReviewTom Benn, Stockport born and bred, is that rare thing. A startlingly new, ridiculously stylish, home-grown voice. Despite more than a casual nod to a rain-sodden Hulme dialect, Benn's debut is so full of energy and sharp one-liners, it will travel far and wide -- Henry Sutton * Daily Mirror *I've never wanted to listen to the soundtrack to a book so much. Another element that stands out in the madly bloody but sometimes brilliant book is how the characters speak. Accents are notoriously tricky on the page, but Benn captures the south Manchester patter impressively -- Rebecca Armstrong * Independent *Tom Benn is set to be one of the distinctive crime writers of his generation. In Henry Bane he has created a sharp, sarcastic anti-hero with his own warped sense of honour and a narrative voice that is truly distinctive -- Adam Colclough * Shots *A new name in the crime fiction section, is about to give us another hero of the genre -- Sarah Walters * Manchester Evening News *A grisly thriller catches the feel and fear of Manchester on the slide -- Christopher Bray * World Magazine *
£999.99
Vintage Publishing How Far Can You Go
Book SynopsisDavid Lodge (CBE)'s novels include Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work (shortlisted for the Booker) and, most recently, A Man of Parts. He has also written plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Trade ReviewHilarious...a magnificent book -- Graham GreeneHuge, bitterly funny and superbly presented montage of the false nostrums that assailed Christianity like worms * Sunday Times *Funny, sad, knowledgeable * Irish Times *Brilliant and intricate black comedy * Time Out *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Small World
Book SynopsisDavid Lodge (CBE)'s novels include Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work (shortlisted for the Booker) and, most recently, A Man of Parts. He has also written plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Trade ReviewThe most brilliant and also the funniest novel that he has written * London Review of Books *Ingenious and proliferate plotting...a new comic debacle over every page * The Times *Academic infightings, couplings, touching, funny and frightful set pieces, dark humour, sharp wit and plain farce - here is everything one expects from this author but thricefold and three times as entertaining as anything he has written before * Sunday Telegraph *A wonderful tissue of outrageous coincidences and correspondences, teasing elevations of suspense and delayed climaxes * Observer *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The British Museum Is Falling Down
Book SynopsisDavid Lodge (CBE)'s novels include Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work (shortlisted for the Booker) and, most recently, A Man of Parts. He has also written plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Trade ReviewBrilliantly funny * Guardian *A comic tour de force...the hapless Appleby remains one of his most keenly observed characters * Observer *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Paradise News
Book SynopsisBernard Walsh, agnostic theologian, has a professional interest in heaven. But when he travels to Hawaii with his reluctant father Jack, to visit Jack''s dying, estranged sister it feels more like purgatory than paradise. Surrounded by quarrelling honeymooners, a freeloading anthropologist and assorted tourists in search of their own personal paradise, and with his father whisked off to hospital after an unfortunate accident, Bernard is beginning to regret ever coming to Haiwaii. Until, that is, he stumbles on something he had given up hope of finding: the astonishing possibility of love.Trade ReviewExtremely funny and sharply perceptive * Evening Standard *The poignant personal relations and the Hawaiian way of life are recorded with the sardonic perception of a latter-day Evelyn Waugh * Spectator *Further proof that Lodge is master of subtle scintillating satire * Daily Mail *Amusing, accessible, intelligent * Financial Times *
£13.49
Vintage Publishing West
Book SynopsisScientist Nelly Senff is desperate to escape her life in East Berlin. The father of her two children has supposedly committed suicide, and she wants to leave behind the prying eyes of the Stasi.But the West is not all she hoped for. Nelly and her children are held in Marienfelde, a refugee processing centre and no-man's-land between East and West. There she meets Krystyna, a Polish woman who hopes that medical treatment in the West will save her dying brother; Hans, a troubled actor released from prison in the East; and John, a CIA man monitoring the refugees for possible Stasi spies. All lives cross here, in this gateway to a new life.Now an award-winning filmTrade ReviewFranck’s spare prose evokes an atmosphere of claustrophobic menace. Her unflinching gaze at lives in limbo…is a compelling and resonant read * Independent *This is…a powerful novel by an impressive prose stylist and one that throws a spotlight, arrestingly, on a gloomy corner of history -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail *Franck’s bleak novel excels in the portrayal of the camp’s oppressive no-man’s-land atmosphere -- Rebecca K. Morrison * The Times Literary Supplement *Seamlessly translated by Anthea Bell * Independent *A powerful and often moving novel, bleak and atmospheric -- Mandy Jenkinson * Nudge *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Cats Table
Book SynopsisFrom the acclaimed author of The English Patient comes a stunningly beautiful novel about a boy's life-changing journey from Ceylon to England in the 1950s.What had there been before such a ship in my life?Trade ReviewOne of the most admirable and enthralling literary novels of the year * Daily Mail *Extraordinary * Guardian *Superbly poised between the magic of innocence and the melancholy of experience * The Economist *Michael Ondaatje's impressive new novel, containing dreams and fantasy between a ship's flanks...is, in the most etymological way, a wonderful novel: one full of wonders -- Philip Hensher * Daily Telegraph *Atmospheric, elegiac and at times, like Ondaatje's most famous novel, The English Patient, unbearably poignant -- Sebastian Shakespeare * Tatler *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The Lives of Others
Book SynopsisNeel Mukherjee is the author of two previous novels, A Life Apart (2010), which won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for best novel, and The Lives of Others (2014), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Costa Best Novel Award, and won the Encore Prize for best second novel.Trade ReviewMasterful … His fierce intelligence and sophisticated storytelling combine to produce an unforgettable portrait of one family riven by the forces of history and their own desires. -- Patrick Flanery * Daily Telegraph *Rich and engrossing … Consistently vivid and well realised, it confidently covers a great deal of varied social terrain. … Unfailingly interesting -- Theo Tait * Sunday Times *Very ambitious and very successful. … One of Mukherjee's great gifts is precisely his capacity to imagine the lives of others. … Neel Mukherjee terrifies and delights us simultaneously -- A S Byatt * Guardian *Deeply affecting and ambitious ... In startling imagery that sears itself into the mind, The Lives of Others excellently exposes the gulf between rich and poor, young and old, tradition and modernity, us and them, showing how acts of empathy are urgently needed to bridge the divides. -- Anita Sethi * Observer *Neel Mukherjee has written an outstanding novel: compelling, compassionate and complex, vivid, musical and fierce. * Rose Tremain *Full of acute, often uncomfortable and angry, observations, The Lives of Others is a picture of a family in all its disunity, and beyond it a city and country, on the brink of disaster. * The Times *A Seth-ian narrative feast with dishes to spare ... a graphic reminder that the bourgeois Indian culture western readers so readily idealize is sustained at terrible human cost -- Patrick Gale * Independent *Expansive and often brilliant… Mukherjee spares the reader nothing…yet his command of storytelling is so astounding, he draws the reader into places they would prefer not to look -- Claire Allfree * Metro *The writing is unfailingly beautiful … Resembles a tone poem in its dazzling orchestration of the crescendo of domestic racket. His eye is as acute as his ear: the physicality of people and objects is delineated with a hyper-aesthetic vividness …. -- Jane Shilling * New Statesman *Neel Mukherjee has given us a picture of India that cuts through history, social classes and regions but centers on a nouveau pauvre family. Every scene is rendered with a Tolstoyan clarity and compassion. * Edmund White *A devastating portrayal of a decadent society and the inevitably violent uprising against it, in the tradition of such politically charged Indian literature as the work of Prem Chand, Manto and Mulk Raj Anand. It is ferocious, unsparing and brutally honest. * Anita Desai *Brilliant -- Alexander Gilmour * FT *Powerful… Mukherjee’s depiction of the tangled system…that develops when so many members of a family live under one roof is superb… In clear yet lyrical prose, Mukherjee carefully explores not just what it means to be part of a family, but what it means to be part of an unequal society… It’s impossible not to be utterly engaged by this intelligent and moving epic -- Anna Carey * Sunday Business Post *Compelling, affecting, intelligent and surprising… Bold and striking… Worked out with precision and gracefulness… Ambitious and eloquent, and in forgoing exoticism captures genuine humanity -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *The Lives of Others is searing, savage and deeply moving: an unforgettably vivid picture of a time of turmoil. * Amitav Ghosh (www.amitavghosh.com/blog) *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The Map and the Territory
Book SynopsisArtist Jed Martin emerges from a ten-year hiatus with good news. It has nothing to do with his broken boiler, the approach of another lamentably awkward Christmas dinner with his father or the memory of his doomed love affair with the beautiful Olga. It is that, for his new exhibition, he has secured the involvement of none other than celebrated novelist Michel Houellebecq. The exhibition brings Jed new levels of global fame. But, his boiler is still broken, his ailing father flirts with oblivion and, worst of all, he is contacted by an inspector requiring his help in solving an unspeakable, atrocious and gruesome crime, involving none other than celebrated novelist Michel Houellebecq...Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2013.Trade ReviewA delicious exercise in satire and self-parody... His best ever * Daily Telegraph *The outlaw of French letters returns with an acerbic riff on art and celebrity... witty, wildly erudite * The Times *A dark master of invention... From the very first paragraph of this brilliant novel, the reader can be in no doubt that they're in the blisteringly bleak, darkly inventive grand massif that is Houellebeqc land * Evening Standard *This book, so beautifully written, so inspiriting for all its pessimism, is the new novel I have loved best this year. We have not his equal -- David Sexton * Spectator *Impressive... Beguiling... He is a true original * Observer *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Tony Hogan Bought Me an Icecream Float Before He
Book SynopsisWinner of the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust First Book Award 2013, Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Sky Arts Awards, the Authors'' Club Best First Novel Award, the Saltire Scottish First Book of the Year, the Portsmouth First Fiction Award, the Green Carnation Prize and the Polari Prize More than just one of the best debuts of the year; one of the best books of the year. It should do for Aberdeen what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh' Louise Welsh, HeraldWhen Janie Ryan is born, she is destined to be the latest in a long line of Aberdeen fishwives.Ahead of her lies a life filled with feckless men, filthy council flats and bread & marge sandwiches.But Janie isn't like the rest of them. She wants a different life.And Janie, born and bred for combat, is ready to fight for it.Trade ReviewColourful, funny, joyful and compelling * Observer *There's little doubt that this young writer is going to be a star... In the course of this picaresque and haunting tale, Hudson achieves something rare and remarkable. While comparison will inevitably be made between her work and that of Irvine Welsh or Alan Warner, she is wholly individual -- Rosemary Goring * Herald Scotland *Kerry Hudson’s fine, eloquent debut novel traces the peripatetic childhood of Janie Ryan...her tale is full of warmth and bittersweet humour * Financial Times *Real and heartfelt... Hudson avoids the usual sentimental clichés and gives us, without a shred of hipster cynicism, the hope and tough warmth for which she has such a sharp eye -- Jenn Ashworth * Guardian *A gritty, tough, sweet , sad, funny story of urban survival. Recommended * Diva *A sympathetic coming-of-age tale and a valuable counterpoint to widespread social attitudes to women in poverty -- Anthony Cummins * Metro *Concurrently very funny and incredibly sad. The writing sizzles, and the words jump off the page as Hudson describes a world of fags, booze, bingo and worse. We watch our heroine Janie Ryan struggle through it all with humour and a will to survive. I was cheering her on all the way, and I'm sure you will, too -- Cathy Rentzenbrink * Waterstone's, Bookseller *A laugh out loud read * In Style *Told with such an honest and engaging voice that you can’t help but turn the page * ReadBetweenTheLines *This is a remarkable debut novel of love and loyalty, of fierce passion and scabrous wit, full of characters whose broad vernacular is direct and expressive. This is about a culture with just as much right to be called British as that of middle-class suburbia * Foyles.co.uk *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing A Man In Full
Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIESA dissection of greed-obsessed America a decade after The Bonfire of the Vanities and on the cusp of the millennium, from the master chronicler of American culture Tom WolfeCharlie Croker, once a fabled college football star, is now a late-middle-aged Atlanta real estate entrepreneur-turned conglomerate king. His expansionist ambitions and outsize ego have at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 28,000 acre quail shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife and a half-empty downtown tower with a staggering load of debt. Wolfe shows us contemporary America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our most admired novelist.Enthralling enough even to satisfy The Bonfire of the Vanities devotees...humane and redemptive' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewA hugely enjoyable and impressive read, 800-odd pages of splendid plot, terrific characterization and astounding detail... Dickens would have approved -- Harry Ritchie * The Times Books of the Year *Enthralling enough even to satisfy The Bonfire of the Vanities devotees...humane and redemptive -- Ruth Rendell * Sunday Times Books of the Year *Fiercely and instantly addictive...this book will be a good friend to you -- Martin Amis * Guardian *Powerful... Beautiful... As funny as anything Wolfe has ever written; at the same time it is also deeply, strangely affecting * New York Times Book Review *A masterpiece...the difference between seeing the world in slices and seeing it in full -- Andrew Ferguson * Wall Street Journal *
£11.69
Vintage Publishing Phantom
Book SynopsisJo Nesbo is one of the world's bestselling crime writers, with The Leopard, Phantom, Police, The Son, The Thirst, Macbeth and Knife all topping the Sunday Times bestseller charts. He's an international number one bestseller and his books are published in 50 languages, selling over 50 million copies around the world. Before becoming a crime writer, Nesbo played football for Norway's premier league team Molde, but his dream of playing professionally for Spurs was dashed when he tore ligaments in his knee at the age of eighteen. After three years military service he attended business school and formed the band Di Derre ('Them There'). They topped the charts in Norway, but Nesbo continued working as a financial analyst, crunching numbers during the day and gigging at night. When commissioned by a publisher to write a memoir about life on the road with his band, he instead came up with the plot for his first Harry Hole crime novel,Trade ReviewExpertly plotted and structured...relentlessly paced...a compulsive page turner * Independent on Sunday *Nesbo wrings out the tension, by turns painful and delicious, with consummate skill. The surprises come like an avalanche as the end nears * Sunday Express *A first-class thriller...and the complex plot...contains several twists some of which will make you gasp and at least one of which will make you cry * Evening Standard *The relationship between Harry and Rakel is truly multifaceted, and richer in nuance than anything else in the crime genre. Phantom will maintain Jo Nesbo's unstoppable momentum * Independent *Jo Nesbo writes tightly plotted, claustrophobic thrillers with plenty of snow and a brutal yet hopelessly romantic policeman hero... They're also exuberantly, ingeniously gruesome * Sunday Telegraph *
£8.99
Vintage Publishing A Question of Identity
Book Synopsis''Serrailler, Hill''s brilliant detective, is the central character in the great writer''s crime fiction novels'' CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALLHow do you catch a killer who doesn''t exist? One snowy night in the cathedral city of Lafferton, an old woman is dragged from her bed and strangled with a length of flex.DCS Simon Serrailler and his team search desperately for clues to her murderer. All they know is that the killer will strike again, and will once more leave the same tell-tale signature.Then they track down a name: Alan Keyes. But Alan Keyes has no birth certificate, no address, no job, no family, no passport, no dental records. Nothing. Their killer does not exist.''As addictive as Rankin'' ScotsmanTrade ReviewNot all great novelists can write crime fiction but when one like Susan Hill does the result is stunningEagerly awaited by all aficionados of crime fictionThe real joy of the Serrailler series is Serrailler himself…rich in incident and intrigue * Express *Arguably one of the UK’s best crime fiction writers * Pride Magazine *Hill is, as ever, a true writer and a true storyteller… Her writing, never fancy or over-elaborate, is sweet and and clear and true, lifting the story above mass-market mass-killer lit * Spectator *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Lemon Table
Book SynopsisJulian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and three books of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and Nothing To Be Frightened Of, which won the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize in Russia. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.Trade ReviewAll [the stories] are a joy to read as Barnes glides between forms...Each story is distinct and indelible, a tribute to the form. Above all they make you think about growing old and what, if anything, can be done about it. * Glasgow Herald *All have a photographic clarity, a psychological realism that embraces extremes of feeling...with a deliciously wry streak * Observer *Barnes's steely wit finds best expression when inhabiting the anguished and angry... Their brilliance rather plays upon our petty furies and failures, embellishing them with self-deprecatory wryness...entrancing and curiously cheering * New Statesman *Masterly...his best stories have a strong air of Maupassant about them...extraordinarily effective...a compelling series of vignettes of old age, executed with great skill * Daily Telegraph *Splendid, beautiful...reads like Turgenev * Spectator *
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Vintage Publishing A Man in Love
Book SynopsisKarl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle cycle has been heralded as a masterpiece all over the world. From A Death in the Family to The End, the novels move through childhood into adulthood and, together, form an enthralling portrait of human life. Knausgaard has been awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, the Brage Prize and the Jerusalem Prize. His work, which also includes the Seasons Quartet and the Morning Star series (The Morning Star, The Wolves of Eternity and The Third Realm) is published in thirty-five languages.Trade ReviewA stunningly eloquent set of reflections on masculinity, domesticity and the artist's itch to escape -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Compelling, rewarding, maddening...breathtaking * Observer *My favourite book of the year… He has the ability to make the small details of his life fascinating -- William Leith * Spectator *Shocking and compulsive * Dazed & Confused *This is a reading experience like no other. Fearless in its truth-telling and as real as life, it is an epic study of what it feels like to be alive -- Carys Davies * Metro *
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Vintage Publishing My Policeman
Book Synopsis**NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING HARRY STYLES**This love is all-consumingIt is in 1950s'' Brighton that Marion first catches sight of the handsome and enigmatic Tom. He teaches her to swim in the shadow of the pier and Marion is smitten - determined her love will be enough for them both.A few years later in Brighton Museum Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted with Tom and opens his eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world.Tom is their policeman, and in this age it is safer for him to marry Marion. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.''A sensitive, sweeping novel'' VOGUE''Tense, romantic, smart...I loved it. Devoured it!'' RUSSELL T. DAVIES''A powerful story of forbidden love, regret, and living as your true self'' VANITY FAIR''A moving story of longing and frustration'' OBSERVERTrade ReviewThe era and the seaside locale are beautifully rendered and observed, not least the social and sexual undercurrents of the time * Sunday Times *A humane and evocative portrait of a time when lives were destroyed by intolerance * Guardian *This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read * Independent *Pitch perfect * Marie Claire *A moving story of longing and frustration * Observer *Stunning...fraught and honest * New York Times Book Review *
£8.54
Random House Mother Island
Book SynopsisThis is the story of two women, Nula and Maggie, joined by old family history and love for the same little boy.Nula, struggling with her new baby and feeling alone in her marriage, employs her cousin Maggie as a nanny when she returns to work. But it''s not long before Nula finds herself theatened by Maggie''s close bond with her son, Samuel. Nula''s outwardly perfect house crackles with unspoken jealousies and rivalry until Maggie''s intense love for Samuel tips into obsession and she decides her only option is to abduct the child. As Maggie makes her desperate bid for safety, the women''s shared past of trauma and loss comes to the fore once more. WINNER OF THE JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE 2015.Trade ReviewRoberts writes fantastically well about motherhood and the magical, other-worldly atmosphere of Anglesey * The Times *More than just a piece of mummy lit, it's particularly good on the multiple tiny stories of hurt and resentments that can make up a family history. * Metro *There's little more engrossing than a top-notch psychological thriller. Bethan Roberts's latest novel doesn't disappoint – it's satisfyingly creepy and stimulates that delicious paradox: goose-pimples in summer. * The Independent *A sharp examination of what it means to be a mother...What makes Mother Island stand out from the crowd, though, is the compassion the author shows for her central characters...A thoroughly cracking read * Big Issue *Cleverly constructed… Skilful unravelling of events… Uncomfortable and gripping in equal measures -- Juanita Coulson * Lady *
£15.29
Vintage Publishing Submergence
Book SynopsisIn a room with no windows on the eastern coast of Africa, an Englishman, James More, is held captive by jihadist fighters.Thousands of miles away on the Greenland Sea, Danielle Flinders prepares to dive in a submersive to the ocean floor.In their confines they are drawn back to the Christmas of the previous year, where a chance encounter on a beach in France led to an intense and enduring romance...Trade ReviewAn ambitious narrative that is stark, serene and contemplative...[it] achieves the ultimate goal of any writer: it makes us pause and think, and think again * Irish Times *it's the only fiction I've read in the last few years that has left me open-mouthed -- David Hepworth * Word *Writing of awesome power. In a profound meditation on cruelty, pity, belief, art, science, hope, love and mortality, the novel's truths settle in your consciousness, perhaps never to be forgotten * Independent *JM Ledgard's eclectic and philosophical novel ranges far wider than this latest manifestation of the 'war on terror'... Ledgard creates a prose poem of ideas and images that hops and flits with inspiration * Metro *Submergence succeeds, and is immensely pleasurable, because Ledgard's magnetic north - though incessantly insisted on - is such an uncanny, inhuman and deathly place -- Toby Litt * New Statesman *
£13.49
Vintage Publishing Scenes from Provincial Life
Book SynopsisScenes from Provincial Life brings together, in one volume, J.M. Coetzee's majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir, Boyhood, Youth and SummertimeIt opens in a small town in the South Africa of the 1940s. We meet a young boy who, at home, is ill at ease with his father and stifled by his mother's unconditional love. At school he passes every test that is set for him, but he remains wary of his fellow pupils. Later, as a student of mathematics in Cape Town he prepares to escape to Europe and turn himself into an artist. Once in London, however, the reality is dispiriting. Decades on, an English biographer researches a book about the late writer, John Coetzee. As he interviews important figures in Coetzee's life, a portrait emerges of an awkward outsider who even after death remains dogged by rumours.Trade ReviewDescribed with such skill, such exactitude and such relentlessness that I found myself gasping for air... Coetzee has achieved something universal in his work... A fine book, probably the best description of a childhood I have ever read * The Times (on Boyhood) *A memorable picture of the harshness London can offer to incomers... Youth is a wonderful book: a portrait of the artist as a young man, to rank with any in the canon * Evening Standard (on Youth) *This is the third instalment of a life so reserved, so repressed, so seething with polite rage and restrained despair that it could only be approached through a third-person voice...it is wonderful stuff * Irish Times (on Summertime) *The publication of Coetzee's trilogy of fictionalised memoir - Boyhood, Youth and Summertime - in one handsome volume highlights the uneasy relationship between the reality of his life and the fiction of his books -- Alex Preston * New Statesman *
£17.09
Vintage Publishing God Help the Child
Book SynopsisToni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was the author of many novels, including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved, Paradise and Love. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour, in 2012 by Barack Obama. Toni Morrison died on 5 August 2019 at the age of eighty-eight.Trade ReviewIt is so beautifully written, full of perfect sentences…with such profound understanding of sympathy for her damaged characters… This is a wise, humane, enriching novel. If it should prove to be Toni Morrison’s last, it is quite a finale -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *Slim but powerful… A tale that is as forceful as it is affecting, as fierce as it is resonant -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *Morrison ... proves with God Help the Child that her writing is still as fresh, adventurous and vigorous as ever. ... Morrison’s characteristically deft temporal shifts and precisely honed language deliver literary riches galore. And which this novel is very readable, the pleasure is in working for its deeper rewards. -- Bernadine Evaristo * Observer *And the writing. Oh wow, the writing. Not for nothing has Morrison been garlanded with a Novel Prize, Pulitzer and National Book Critics Circle Award. There’s always a sense of grand occasion when Morrison releases a book, and with good reason: the journey is always vivid, dazzling and rich, each paragraph a mealy morsel in its own right. A highly personal and affecting tale that manages to be deftly political, God Help the Child is emotionally rousing and gut-wrenching -- Tanya Sweeney * Irish Independent *A piece of mastery ... Sensitive to legacies of abuse, to pressures of racism, image, taboo and economics, and to the harmful fictions and common social madnesses of the modern Western world, it found an impossible-seeming, myth-like form to reveal the interconnections between these, never losing its streetwise footing in the process. -- Ali Smith * New Statesman, Books of the Year *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing A Man of Parts
Book SynopsisDavid Lodge (CBE)'s novels include Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work (shortlisted for the Booker) and, most recently, A Man of Parts. He has also written plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Trade ReviewThis is his best book in years: sprawling, funny, touching, a near-perfect fusion of story and scholarship * Mail on Sunday *Excellent... scrupulous and scholarly... It bounds along terrifically * Guardian *Lodge's robust approach, his insights, energy and humour, enable him to present HG as a man not only for his own times but also for ours -- Patricia Craig * Irish Times *Absorbing and thoroughly enjoyable -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *David Lodge's novel goes straight to the heart of the story... It is pure fun -- Claire Harman * Evening Standard *
£10.44
Cornerstone Airframe
Book SynopsisBorn in 1942 in Chicago, Michael Crichton trained as a doctor and went on to become one of the most successful writers in the world. In 1994 he achieved a feat unmatched by any other writer: that of having simultaneously a number one TV series, book and movie: with, respectively, ER (which he created), Disclosure and Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, on its release the highest-grossing film of all time. He also directed several movies, including The Great Railway Robbery with Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. His high-concept thrillers were international bestsellers, and in total his books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide. He died in 2008.Trade ReviewHis best since Jurassic Park * New Yorker *A deftly-woven tale of corporate skulduggery, media deceit and sleuthing * Daily Express *A first rate thriller * Sunday Times *A compulsive page-turner ... Crichton dazzles the reader * Financial Times *
£9.49
Random House The Increment
Chris Ryan was born near Newcastle in 1961. He joined the SAS in 1984. During his ten years he was involved in overt and covert operations and was also Sniper team commander of the anti-terrorist team. During the Gulf War, Chris was the only member of an eight-man team to escape from Iraq, of which three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. For his last two years he was selecting and training potential recruits for the SAS.
£15.29
Cornerstone Ryan C Strike Back
Book SynopsisTwo soldiers: Britain''s most celebrated military hero and a broken veteran living in the gutters of London. Their paths last crossed nearly twenty years ago. Now, amidst a hostage crisis in the Middle East, their lives are about to collide again. And the Strike Back is about to begin. John Porter was involved in a hostage raid in Lebanon in 1989. The raid went disastrously wrong, several regiment men died, John spared the life of a Lebanese fighter and blames himself for the deaths. Struggling to come to terms with the past, John has hit the bottle and is sleeping rough.Colonel Peregrine Collinson was involved in the same raid. He was awarded a Military Cross and is heralded as a military hero.After the disastrous raid, their lives couldn''t have been further apart. Until now. A hostage crisis in the Middle East draws the enemies back together for the first time. Who will be the hero this time?Trade ReviewHard as nails * Mirror *Chock full of military fat to chew on...will keep you awake until dawn * Irish Times *Hard to put down...There's plenty of action, loads of claret, emotional and physical kickings a-plenty. It's a rock-solid story which is soundly told by Ryan * Daily Sport *Explosive plot...gritted teeth adrenaline * Financial Times *
£9.99
Cornerstone Bleachers
Book SynopsisJohn Grisham is the author of forty works of fiction and one of non-fiction. His works are translated into forty-two languages. He lives in Virginia.Trade ReviewAn easy going, but not over-sentimental read, Grisham touches the soul and scores a winning touchdown with his sixteenth novel * Evening Standard *I defy even the hardest jock not to shed a tear * The Mirror *John Grisham is a copper-bottomed promise of reliable storytelling * Independent *
£9.49
Cornerstone Tara
Book SynopsisIn the East End, twelve-year-old Tara witnesses her villain of a father almost kill her mother. She forges a determination then and there to change her life. This is the story of three beautiful and talented women. Mabel, whose great love for a gambling man has brought her close to insanity; gentle Amy, who marries a man brutalised by war and failure; and Tara, who is hungry for success and life on her own terms. To have both, she must battle against the legacy these two women have left her, the deep prejudices and dangers of Whitechapel in the 1960s - with its gang leaders, rogues, market traders and dolly birds - and the passionate love she has had since girlhood for the charming wideboy and villain, Harry Collins.
£8.54
Cornerstone Georgia
Book SynopsisLesley Pearse was born in Rochester, Kent, but has lived in the West Country for over thirty years. She has three daughters and two grandsons. She is the author of twenty novels and now writes full-time. Like her heroine Georgia she spent some years in an orphanage, and she learned about the Soho club scene and the music business during the Sixties with the late John Pritchard.
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Cornerstone Ellie
Book SynopsisEllie is a sweet-natured brunette, generous of heart with a sparkling smile and an accent which reveals her East End background. Bonny is beautiful and spoilt, with cascades of blonde hair, the brightest pair of blue eyes and a mouth like Cupid''s bow. The two girls meet in London at the end of the war when, seduced by two American airmen, they pool their wits and resources and set off to make a living on the stage. Set against the hardship and austerity of post-war Britain, and the glamour and ruthlessness of life in variety theatre, their story is one of sacrifice and burning ambition. But most of all of a powerful friendship that lasts against all odds.
£11.07
Cornerstone The Rule Of Four
Book SynopsisTom Sullivan, about to graduate from Princeton, is haunted by the violent death of his father, an academic who devoted his life to studying one of the rarest, most complex and most valuable books in the world. Coded in seven languages, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, an intricate mathematical mystery and a tale of love and arcane brutality, has baffled scholars since 1499. Tom''s friend Paul is similarly obsessed and when a long-lost diary surfaces, they finally seem to make a breakthrough. But only hours later, a fellow researcher is murdered and the two friends suddenly find themselves in great danger. Working desperately to expose the book''s secret, they slowly uncover a Renaissance tale of passion and blood, a hidden crypt and a secret worth dying to protect.Trade ReviewThis year's biggest publishing sensation * Guardian *One part The Da Vinci Code, one part The Name of the Rose - A blazingly good yarn [and] an exceptional piece of scholarship ... A smart, swift, multitextured tale that both entertains and informs * San Francisco Chronicle *The Da Vinci Code for people with brains * Independent *A stunning first novel ... if Scott Fitzgerald, Umberto Eco, and Dan Brown teamed up to write a novel, the result would be The Rule of Four. An extraordinary and brilliant accomplishment - a must read * Nelson DeMille *An assured piece of fiction that weaves together the past and the present seamlessly ... I enjoyed it tremendously * Observer *
£15.29
Cornerstone The Dark Arena
Book SynopsisMario Puzo was born in New York. He is the author of the bestselling novel The Godfather and many other acclaimed novels. Puzo also wrote many screenplays, including those for the three Godfather movies, for which he won two academy awards. He died at his home in Long Island, New York, at the age of seventy-eight.Trade ReviewThe book reveals Mr Puzo to be a writer of power and precision ... This grim, gruff-mouthed, stiff-souled fellow [Mosca] overcomes the reader not with muscle but with the humanity and tenderness of his tragedy * New York Herald Tribune *
£9.49
Cornerstone The Fortunate Pilgrim
Book SynopsisMario Puzo was born in New York. He is the author of the bestselling novel The Godfather and many other acclaimed novels. Puzo also wrote many screenplays, including those for the three Godfather movies, for which he won two academy awards. He died at his home in Long Island, New York, at the age of seventy-eight.Trade ReviewPuzo has written a chronicle of Italian immigrant life which is a small classic ... The novel is lifted into literature by its highly charged language, its penetrating insights and its mixture of tenderness and rage * New York Times *
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