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
Cornerstone The Panopticon
Book SynopsisJENNI FAGAN HAS BEEN NAMED AS ONE OF GRANTA MAGAZINE''S BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2013SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTION AND THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2013''One of the most cunning and spirited novels I''ve read for years'' Ali Smith''An utterly magnificent achievement'' Irvine WelshFifteen-year old Anais Hendricks is smart, funny and fierce, but she is also a child who has been let down, or worse, by just about every adult she has ever met. Sitting in the back of a police car, she finds herself headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders where the social workers are as suspicious as its residents. But Anais can''t remember the events that have led her there, or why she has blood on her school uniform...Trade ReviewIt’s in the Margaret Atwood/The Handmaid’s Tale vein – very literary and suspenseful…Set in an altered reality – one that feels familiar and yet deeply unfamiliar, that embodies some of the dailiness of life, and yet slowly reveals itself to be a very different, much more sinister place. -- Gillian Flynn, author of GONE GIRLEach page sparkles with the ebullient and sinister magic of great storytelling ... An utterly magnificent achievement. * Irvine Welsh *Not just uncompromising and courageous. I think it's one of the most cunning and spirited novels I've read for years... An intelligent and deeply literary novel. -- Ali SmithWritten with great verve and brio ... An astonishing debut, I have a feeling that Fagan is a name we will hear more of. -- Jackie KayThe 15-year-old heroine and narrator, has a rough, raw, joyous voice that leaps right off the page and grabs you by the throat…This punkish young philosopher is struggling with a terrible past, while battling sinister social workers…The glorious Anais is unforgettable. * The Times *
£999.99
Cornerstone The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
Book SynopsisA NEW EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVELAn Oprah''s Book Club Pick''Remarkable'' Sunday Times''Ms. Mathis has a gift for imbuing her characters'' stories with an epic dimension that recalls Toni Morrison''s writing'' New York Times''Vibrant and compassionate . . . a work of great humanity'' Marilynne Robinson1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a better life. When Hattie marries and gives birth to her children, she raises them with grit and mettle, preparing them for a world that will challenge and wound them. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie tells the story of a mother''s monumental courage, the resilience of human spirit and the myth of the American dream.Trade ReviewMathis traces the fates of Hattie's 12 children and grandchildren over the course of the 20th century, simultaneously capturing the voices and daily minutiae of every one of her characters ... A complex and engrossing work that has huge commercial hit written all over ... Remarkable. * Sunday Times *This fresh, powerful first novel turns the lives of Hattie's children into an epic of America in the 20th century. Tough, truthful, wonderfully controlled writing. * The Times *Ms. Mathis has a gift for imbuing her characters' stories with an epic dimension that recalls Toni Morrison's writing, and her sense of time and place and family will remind some of Louise Erdrich, but her elastic voice is thoroughly her own - both lyrical and unsparing, meditative and visceral, and capable of giving the reader nearly complete access to her characters' minds and hearts. * New York Times *A vibrant and compassionate portrait of a family hardened and scattered by circumstance and yet deeply a family. Its language is elegant in its purity and rigor. The characters are full of life, mingled thing that it is, and dignified by the writer's judicious tenderness towards them. This first novel is a work of rare maturity.Beautiful and necessary from the very first sentence. The human lives it renders are on every page lowdown and glorious, fallen and redeemed, and all at the same time. They would be too heartbreaking to follow, in fact, were they not observed in such a generous and artful spirit of hope, in a spirit of mercy, in the spirit of love. A treasure of a novel.
£9.49
Cornerstone Clandestine
Book SynopsisJames Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed 'LA Quartet': The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz. His most recent novel, Blood's a Rover, completes the magisterial 'Underworld USA Trilogy' - the first two volumes of which (American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand) were both Sunday Times bestsellers.Trade ReviewOne of the most original and daring writers alive * Independent on Sunday *The most distinctive crime writer of his generation * Sunday Times *Ellroy is a unique voice in American fiction * Jonathan Kellerman *One of the most important popular fiction writers in America, whose best books take their readers to the darkest places of the human condition - a Tinseltown Dostoevsky * Time Out *
£10.44
Cornerstone Before I Met You
Book SynopsisLisa Jewell is the No. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two novels, including The Family Upstairs, Then She Was Gone and her latest novel, None of This is True. Her novels have sold over 10 million copies in the UK and internationally, and her work has been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in London with her husband, two daughters, an amazing Romanian rescue dog called Daisy, and Ivy the mad orange kitten.Trade ReviewBeautiful, moving and unputdownable * Jojo Moyes *Heartbreakingly good * Marie Claire *Must read * Express *Warm and moving with a nostalgic touch * Star *Lisa Jewell just gets better and better * Grazia *
£9.49
Cornerstone The Third Wife
Book SynopsisLisa Jewell is the No. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two novels, including The Family Upstairs, Then She Was Gone and her latest novel, None of This is True. Her novels have sold over 10 million copies in the UK and internationally, and her work has been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in London with her husband, two daughters, an amazing Romanian rescue dog called Daisy, and Ivy the mad orange kitten.Trade ReviewAn emotionally intelligent, brilliantly plotted and beautifully written examination of a very modern family that will keep you gripped until the end. * Daily Mail, Books of the Year *Something of a moral fable about modern relationships, this is a smart and enjoyable story * Sunday Mirror *The narrative dips back and forth with various points of view from stunningly drawn characters and I devoured it in one long sitting. Take this to the beach, or indeed anywhere — I promise you won’t regret it. * Daily Mail *Prepare to totally forget about your family as you become immersed in someone else’s. * Stellar Magazine *There are so many psychological thrillers around right now – but this is one of the best. * Sun *
£9.49
Cornerstone Skipping Christmas
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 ReviewGrisham may well be the best American storyteller writing today * The Philadelphia Inquirer *Grisham is an absolute master * The Washington Post *You can take the adventure out of Grisham, but you can’t take Grisham out of his adventures . . . an impressive read * The Observer *A great story-teller * Daily Telegraph *A giant of the thriller genre * Time Out *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Phantom of the Opera
Book SynopsisDiscover the classic Gothic horror novel of haunted cellars, opera, murder and unrequited love that inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber''s long-running west end hit.Christine is a beautiful young singer at the Paris Opera. She is watched by the Opera''s ''phantom'' - a mysterious masked figure who terrorises the Opera''s management and players. With the Phantom''s help, Christine rises to become the Opera''s star performer, but when the Phantom demands her heart in return, Christine is torn between gratitude and pity for her strange benefactor, and love for her childhood sweetheart, Raoul.Trade ReviewA Gothic novel of romance, honour and tragedy with a creepy, obsessive underbelly * Daily Telegraph *A venerable, much-adapted story of grand, delicate feelings and gothic creepiness * New York Times *Mixes horror and romance in equal measure * Guardian *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Ghost Stories
Book SynopsisMalignant forces and supernatural visitors hauntthese superbly spooky tales, selected and introduced by Ruth RendellM. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernize a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognizable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying. Sheets, pictures, carvings, a doll''s house, a lonely beach, a branch tapping on a window?ordinary things take on more than a tinge of dread in the hands of the original master of suspense. James''s prescription for his ghost stories was to let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage.Trade ReviewIn M.R. James' stories, the ordinary tips over into an alternative existence that is just as believable * Guardian *An original and powerful storyteller.... A gnawing sense of unease, a steady accumulation of sounds, shadows and images finally meet in a single moment of sensational physical horror * Daily Telegraph *M R James, who ushered the ghost story into our century, is still quite simply the craftiest * Independent *M R James is quite simply the finest writer of ghost stories ever. They're always set in an academic context, about university chaps who find out very nasty things while they're researching. They uncork the wrong bottle, unearth the wrong papers, dig up the wrong place. . . James was provost of Eton and a fellow of Kings College, and the stories have this wonderful candlelit, academic atmosphere, surrounded by incredible nastiness. Tweedy, but unpleasant -- Christopher FraylingA master class in creepiness from the Edwardian-era Provost of King's College, Cambridge. James delivers brilliant atmospherics, gnawing disquiet and (above all) horrific denouements created by suggestion rather than ghoulish spectacle * Independent *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing The Concert
Book SynopsisIsmail Kadare, born in 1936 in the mountain town of Gjirokastër, near the Greek border, is Albania's best-known poet and novelist. Since the appearance of The General of the Dead Army in 1965, Kadare has published scores of stories and novels that make up a panorama of Albanian history linked by a constant meditation on the nature of the human consequences of dictatorship. Kadare's works brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities from 1945 to 1985. In 1990 he sought political asylum in France, and now divides his time between Paris and Tirana. He is the winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize.Trade ReviewHis finest book is The Concert, an epic study of the Albanians when living under the thumb of their sole world ally, the Chinese. It is half realism, half Borgesian, and the form and content jointly stun * Independent *The Concert is a splendidly deep and serious novel that entirely transcends, as it were, its unremarkable outer garment… Kadare's achievement is to dramatise truthfully throughout. This is a book to read and re-read * Guardian *It is Shakespearian in its sweep of history with its insertions of poetic and theatrical farce and its description of the contortions Albanians had to perform to survive Marxist doctrine * Sydney Morning Herald *The Concert is among the richest, most complex and most challenging works of his fictional cycle… Kadare's achievement is to have found once again the set of tricks that create the illusion of real life on the printed page * Sydney Morning Herald *He has been compared to Gogol, Kafka and Orwell. But Kadare’s is an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil * Independent on Sunday *
£11.69
Vintage Publishing The Pyramid
Book SynopsisWhen the new Egyptian Pharaoh decrees that he does not want a pyramid built in his honour his advisers are aghast. So the Pharaoh agrees to the construction of a pyramid colossal beyond imagining, an edifice that crushes dozens of people as each block is added and which inexorably drains the lifeblood from the country.Trade Review[Kadare] chronicled the dark years of dictatorship in masterpieces such as The Pyramid * Independent *A haunting sense of time moving backwards and forwards like a train at a terminus, an authentic sense of adventure, and an extraordinary facility with metaphor take over… Kadare's new novel is mesmerising. * Sydney Morning Herald *A vast, deep, obsessive parable. Like every parable, its fundamental significance transcends its apparent meaning * Figaro *A masterpiece... A hauntingly beautiful parable woven from the fabric of history yet timeless in its reach * San Francisco Chronicle Book Review *In the end, this book - which does not have (or need) a conventional plot, protagonist or conflict - adds up to a haunting meditation on the matter-of-fact brutality of political despotism, the harshness of life among the humble and powerless, and the vastness, ubiquity and stonelike permanence of death, which treats all humanity as equals. * New York Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing All the Conspirators
Book SynopsisThe scene is 1920s Kensington and Philip and Joan are testing the very limits of politeness and restraint as they fight to expunge the oppression of their mother - by whatever means necessary. In his first novel, Christopher Isherwood paints an intimate portrait of the battle between old and young as he explores the destruction of a son by a domineering parent.Trade ReviewIn Isherwood's work, a magic potion of history and invention, the voice is clear, and, no matter how many times we hear it, it always seems to be speaking for the first time * New York Times *Christopher Isherwood is back in vogue * Independent *That young man holds the future of the English novel in his hands -- Somerset W. Maugham
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Down There on a Visit
Book SynopsisChristopher Isherwood was born in 1904. He began to write at university and later moved to Berlin, where he gave English lessons to support himself. He witnessed first hand the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany and some of his best works, such as Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, draw on these experiences. He created the character of Sally Bowles, later made famous as the heroine of the musical Cabaret. Isherwood travelled with W.H. Auden to China in the late 1930s before going with him to America in 1939. He died on 4 January 1986. His novel A Single Man was made into an award-winning film by Tom Ford, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.Trade ReviewIn several respects this is probably Isherwood's best novel. It offers the sheer pleasure of writing completely personal and yet completely controlled, radiant with observation, never wasting a word, funny and sympathetic -- Stephen Spender * New Republic *This excellent novel may be the best Christopher Isherwood has written. A deeply intelligent and quietly compelling story * New York Times *Few writers have so unsparingly scrutinized their worlds. Down There on a Visit is outrageous, bitter, bleak, angry, wry, revealing, infuriating, and at times marvellously comic. An offbeat classic * Saturday Review *A bemused, sometimes acid portrait of people caught in private sexual hells of their own making. Its four episodes are connected by four narrators. All are called "Christopher Isherwood, " but each is a different character inhabiting a new setting: Berlin in 1928, the Greek Isles in 1933, London in 1938, and California in 1940. Down There on a Visit is a major work that shows Isherwood at the height of his literary powers. * Powells.com *That young man holds the future of the English novel in his hands -- Somerset W. Maugham
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Prater Violet
Book SynopsisChristopher Isherwood was born in 1904. He began to write at university and later moved to Berlin, where he gave English lessons to support himself. He witnessed first hand the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany and some of his best works, such as Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, draw on these experiences. He created the character of Sally Bowles, later made famous as the heroine of the musical Cabaret. Isherwood travelled with W.H Auden to China in the late 1930s before going with him to America in 1939. He died on 4 January 1986. His novel A Single Man was recently made into an award-winning film by Tom Ford, starring Colin Firth and Julianne MooreTrade ReviewThat young man holds the future of the English novel in his hands -- Somerset MaughamIsherwood’s prose fizzes and bubbles lightly like an alka-seltzer in water before sinking like a brick in the pit of your stomach. It sits with you and stays with you. * Dust for Prints.com *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The World in the Evening
Book SynopsisAt a party in the Hollywood Hills, Stephen Monk finds his wife in the arms of another man. Betrayed and furious, he packs his belongings and returns to the home he was born in. There he begins to retrace the steps that have brought him to this crisis. He is reminded of his own betrayals and weaknesses. But most of all, the memory of his lost love, Elizabeth Rydal, haunts him. Can he forgive his wife, and most importantly, himself?Trade ReviewA brilliant enigma. -- New York TimesW H AUDEN, Louis MacNeice, Stephen Spender, Christopher Isherwood, C Day Lewis. The brat-pack of their day. They are still considered by many to have been the great writers of the 1930s... Isherwood alone produced his greatest work during the thirties - Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935), Lions and Shadows (1938), Goodbye to Berlin (1939) - and yet more than any of the others he deserves to be regarded as a quintessentially modern writer, a writer with whom we can identify, a writer whose life was his work, and vice-versa. -- Guardian
£10.44
Vintage Publishing My Guru and His Disciple
Book SynopsisChristopher Isherwood was born in 1904. He began to write at university and later moved to Berlin, where he gave English lessons to support himself. He witnessed first hand the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany and some of his best works, such as Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, draw on these experiences. He created the character of Sally Bowles, later made famous as the heroine of the musical Cabaret. Isherwood travelled with W.H Auden to China in the late 1930s before going with him to America in 1939. He died on 4 January 1986. His novel A Single Man was recently made into an award-winning film by Tom Ford, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.Trade ReviewIsherwood has reinvented the spirit of devotion for the modern reader. If I had to propose a candidate for canonization, Isherwood - wry, self-conscious, scrupulously honest - would get my vote -- Edmund White * New York Times *A masterpiece of spiritual memoir * Los Angeles Times *What emerges is a record of a religious adventure that would have delighted Kierkegaard... Isherwood rejects conventional piety - all the humdrum apparatus of worship - in favor of a direct, even jaunty appreciation of how preposterous, certainly precarious, spirituality can be today. * New York Times *The sacred and the profane collide like never before -- Giles Foden * Conde Nast Traveller *
£11.69
Cornerstone The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken
Book SynopsisVish Puri is as fond of butter chicken as the next Punjabi. And when there''s plenty on offer at the Delhi Durbar hotel where he''s attending an India Premier League cricket match dinner, he''s the first to tuck in. Irfan Khan, father of Pakistani star cricketer Kamran Khan, can''t resist either. But the creamy dish proves his undoing. After a few mouthfuls, he collapses on the floor, dead.Clearly this isn''t a case of Delhi Belly.But who amongst the Bollywood stars, politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists poisoned Khan is a mystery. And with the capital''s police chief proving as incompetent as ever, it falls to Most Private Investigators to find out the truth.Puri is soon able to link Khan to a bald bookie called Full Moon and all the clues point to the involvement of a gambling syndicate that controls the illegal billion dollar betting industry.The answers seem to lie in Surat, the diamond cutting and polishing capital of the world (where Puri''s cTrade ReviewThis book is written with a wry sense of humour and a light touch . . . The author perfectly captures the cadences of Anglo-Indian English and the glossary of Indian terms at the back of the book is invaluable. This is the third in the Vish Puri series of books and I eagerly await the fourth. * Crime Review *The Punjabi Poirot is dogged by calamities in this comic tale * Woman *Outstanding third mystery . . . Well drawn, colorful characters bolster a whodunit sure to appeal to those who enjoy a dash of humor with their crime. * Publishers Weekly *This lovely series is a great example of crime fiction functioning as a foreign holiday for the armchair traveler. Hall’s readers become happily immersed in the glorious rhythms and neologism of ‘Dilli’ language, while the cuisine is so well described you can almost smell it. * Morning Star *I love Hall’s blend of inventive plot and Ealing-Comedy eccentricity. * Saga magazine *
£13.49
Vintage Publishing Bird Brain
Book SynopsisIt begins for Basil ''Banger'' Peyton-Crumbe the day he dies in a pheasant-shooting incident.A tragic accident, thinks the local constable, but Banger''s gundogs and Buck, the police dog, exhibiting a level of intelligence vastly superior to that of their owners, suspect murder. And for Basil, proud slayer of over 41,000 birds with the cheap old 12-bore he''s had since childhood, things go from bad to very bad.Trade ReviewOnly a Briton could have written Bird Brain. Eccentric and anthropomorphic, you’ll either love or hate this book. I loved it. It’s high-spirited, subversive and full of wry social observation and excellent jokes. Think Paul Torday meets Chicken Run * Daily Mail *A bloody brilliant book * Spectator *I loved it... It's a book I've been waiting for all my adult life, for it feels to me like nothing so much as a rather adult version of that other great pheasant story, Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *A wonderfully astute satire with full confidence in its own eccentricity... Ripe, rich, fun, this is a beautifully turned story, good to the very last drop * Sunday Times *Tom Sharpe meets Watership Down in the hugely enjoyable story of Basil “Banger” Peyton-Crumbe, a man who, having exulted in the slaughter of game birds all his life, is killed in a shooting accident and reincarnated as a pheasant…. It would not be quite accurate to say the book anthropomorphizes animals because they all retain, quite brilliantly, their animal natures, but at the same time Banger, even as a dim bird begins to gain insight into his shortcomings as a human being.Funny, astute and completely absorbing * Guardian *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Uninvited Guests
Book SynopsisA sinister tale of haunting beauty, from The Outcast author Sadie Jones.It is the eve of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday and the family has assembled at Sterne, the once grand, now crumbling, family seat. The cake is iced, the wine decanted, the house gleams invitingly.But before the first dish can be served, a mysterious group of strangers arrives at the door. Victims of a local train accident they are seeking shelter at the house.The Torringtons welcome them in but there is something unsettling about the group and, as night falls and a storm rages outside, the family begins to wonder if something more malevolent than stranded travellers is in their home...Trade ReviewDazzlingly well-written. The style is exuberant and extremely funny. This is a midsummer's night dream of a book, mythic and unforgettable * Financial Times *What a delicious literary cocktail Sadie Jones's latest novel is: part suspense, part Edwardian romcom, richly evocative of time and place... It's a spiffing tale and, even though it is at bottom a metaphysical love story, it is far more believable than Downton Abbey -- Sebastian Shakespeare * Tatler *Highly entertaining… An elegant comedy of manners with the usual undercurrents of jealousy, desire and conflicting loyalties… Jones shows that she can turn her talent for storytelling to a more stylised form with a light and playful touch, and without compromising her sharp insights into the human heart -- Stephanie Merritt * Observer *Fans of The Outcast and Small Wars won't be disappointed. Wonderfully spooky and atmospheric -- Viv Groskop * Red *With its Mitfordesque dialogue and pacy plot, this is a deliciously fun read -- Beatrice Hodgkin * Easy Living *
£9.49
Random House UK Gypsy Wedding
Book SynopsisBrought up in a caravan on a settled trailer park, Vicky could not be happier with her life. At 15 she is engaged to her childhood friend Liam, the handsomest man on the park. Not only that, but she can''t help feeling she''s got the balance of her life just right. She''s doing well at school and if she works hard she might even fulfill her dream of becoming a dressmaker.But as she turns 17 the pressure is on for her and Liam to set a date for the wedding, and suddenly Vicky is not so sure. How can she give up her dreams and spend the rest of her life looking after Liam? Especially as her classmate Jordan seems a far more exciting prospect...What on earth is a girl to do? She loves Liam, but Jordan makes her feel things she''s never felt before, and her best friend Kelly''s life seems so much more fun than her own limited options. But can she really turn her back on her friends and family and survive in a hostile world?In the year running up to her wedding, V
£5.99
Vintage Publishing The Sense of an Ending
Book Synopsis''A masterpiece... I would urge you to read - and re-read '' Daily Telegraph**Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011**Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.Now Tony is retired. He''s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He''s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer''s letter is about to prove. Now a major film Trade ReviewA masterpiece... I would urge you to read - and re-read - The Sense of an Ending * Daily Telegraph *Mesmerising... the concluding scenes grip like a thriller - a whodunit of memory and morality * Independent *A very fine book, skilfully plotted, boldly conceived... Barnes has achieved...something of universal importance -- Justin Cartwright * Observer *A precise, poignant portrait of the costs and benefits of time passing, of friendship, of love. A small masterpiece -- Erica Wagner * The Times *A wonderful story that is all too human and all so real * Irish Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing When the Devil Holds the Candle
Book SynopsisAndreas''s disappearance is a mystery to all, including his inseparable friend Zipp. But as much as the police question him, its not easy for Zipp to come forward with details of the last time he saw his friend: following an old woman into her home, brandishing his knife. Zipp waited anxiously outside but Andreas failed to reappear.Inspector Sejer and his colleague Skarre are baffled but while the confusion in the outside world continues, a chilling and heart-stopping drama is unfolding inside the old woman''s home. In a plot in the tradition of Stephen King, Fossum deploys her trademark skill of looking realistically, terrifyingly, into the minds of criminal and victim. Appearances aren''t always to be believed, and people are not always what they seem.Trade ReviewLike the best Rendell...she tackles the reasons people commit crimes and the devastating effect it has on the protagonists' lives * Good Book Guide *Explores the process of scapegoating, and the awful human cost of false accusations ... may well bring the half-Swedish Ruth Rendell irresistibly to mind -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Fossum's elucidation of the criminally degenerate mind is first-rate * Mail on Sunday *An engrossing pyschological thriller * Sunday Telegraph *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Smiler With The Knife
Book SynopsisDetective Nigel Strangeways, and his explorer wife Georgia have taken a cottage in the countryside. They are slowly beginning to adjust to a more relaxed way of life when Georgia finds a mysterious locket in their garden and unwittingly sets the couple on a collision course with a power-hungry movement aimed at overthrowing the government.It will take all of Nigel''s brilliance and Georgia''s bravery if they are to infiltrate the order and unmask the conspirators.Trade ReviewGeorgia Cavendish Strangeways is one of the most complex and likeable characters in the crime fiction of the so-called Golden Age -- Sara Paretsky * Guardian *Nicholas Blake at the very top of his form * Woman’s Journal *An extraordinarily well written and entertaining thriller * Saturday Review of Literature *The Nicholas Blake books are something quite by themselves in English detective fiction -- Elizabeth BowenHis plots are ingenious * Times Literary Supplement *
£14.39
Vintage Publishing Malice in Wonderland
Book SynopsisA VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERYPrivate detective Nigel Strangeways receives a call for help from Wonderland, a new holiday camp that has recently opened only to be plagued by a series of cruel practical jokes conducted by someone calling themselves ''The Mad Hatter''. The camp''s owners are convinced a rival firm, desperate to put them out of business, are behind the events. Or could it be a disgruntled employee, or even one of the four hundred guests currently staying at the camp? As the pranks become increasingly dangerous and tensions rise, Nigel must do all he can to uncover the Mad Hatter''s true identity - before it''s too late.A Nigel Strangeways murder mystery - the perfect introduction to the most charming and erudite detective in Golden Age crime fiction.Trade ReviewThe Nicholas Blake books are something quite by themselves in English detective fiction -- Elizabeth BowenHis plots are ingenious * Times Literary Supplement *A master of detective fiction * Daily Telegraph *
£999.99
Random House All is Song
Book SynopsisSamantha Harvey is the author of the novels Orbital, The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping. Orbital was the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, and her other work has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, the Women's Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness was awarded the Betty Trask Prize. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.Trade ReviewIntense, rewarding and bracingly serious -- Adrian Turpin * Financial Times *Profoundly beautiful, cathartic writing. -- Catherine Taylor * Daily Telegraph *A fine study of the nature and strength of family ties and the morality, or otherwise, of conforming where it matters -- Kate Saunders * The Times *This beautifully written composition does that rare thing, of provoking free thought, while scrutinising the far-reaching repercussions of such rebellious activity -- Freya McClelland * Independent *Harvey's slow, intense thoughtfulness feels positively Woolfean at times. She thinks deeply, and writes beautifully about these thoughts. -- Lucy Atkins * Sunday Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Four Books
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2016''One of China''s greatest living authors and fiercest satirists'' GuardianIn the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling labour camp, the Author, Musician, Scholar, Theologian and Technician - and hundreds just like them - are undergoing Re-education, to restore their revolutionary zeal and credentials. In charge of this process is the Child, who delights in draconian rules, monitoring behaviour and confiscating treasured books. But when bad weather arrives, followed by the three bitter years', the intellectuals are abandoned by the regime and left on their own to survive. Divided into four narratives, The Four Books tells the story of the Great Famine, one of China's most devastating and controversial periods. WINNER OF THE FRANZ KAFKA PRIZE 2014NOMINATED FOR CZECH AWARD MAGNESIA LITERA 2014HUA ZHONG WORLD CHINESE LITERATURE PRIZE 2013Trade ReviewArch and playful... [Yan Lianke] deploys offbeat humour, anarchic set pieces and surreal imagery to shed new light on dark episodes from modern Chinese history... A brave, brilliant novel -- David Evans * Financial Times *It’s a Chinese novel hailed across the planet as a masterpiece, and I’m normally the first to resist such an imposition before I’ve even opened the thing – but for once, the hype doesn’t go far enough... a devastating, brilliant slice of living history -- Kate Saunders * The Times *No other writer in today's China has so consistently explored, dissected and mocked the past six and a half decades of Chinese communist rule... it is an extraordinary novel -- Isobel Hilton * Observer *One of the masters of modern Chinese literature -- Jung ChangStark, powerful and compelling... A privilege * Independent *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Innocents
Book SynopsisFrancesca Segal was born in London in 1980. Brought up in the UK and America, she studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, before becoming a journalist and critic. Her work has appeared in Granta, the Guardian, the Financial Times and both American and British Vogue, amongst others. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction Column in the Observer and she has been a Features Writer at Tatler. The Innocents is her first novel.Trade ReviewDelightful… Segal’s writing is wise, witty and observant. -- Kate Saunders * The Times *Wonderful...witty…an astonishingly accomplished debut which will draw comparisons between Segal and Zadie Smith and Monica Ali. * Stylist *An impressive debut...the struggle to achieve true adulthood, the loss of innocence and the consequences of adapting to a culture that levies certain expectations on its members, are all cleverly worked into a poised text -- Elizabeth Buchan * Sunday Times *A subtle, witty and acutely observed study of a narrow but very recognisable world. * The Observer *Witty and touching... An assured and audacious debut -- Michael Arditti * Daily Mail *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Awkward Age
Book Synopsis''A very smart, soulful, compelling novel'' Nick HornbyWhat does it take to be a family?Julia has fallen deeply, unexpectedly in love. James is her second chance, and everything she never knew she wanted. It's perfect but for two things: their children.Julia's beloved daughter Gwen loathes James and James's son Nathan takes pleasure in antagonising his new stepsister. Uniting two households is never easy, but the teenagers' unexpected actions will eventually threaten everyone's hard-won happiness.Trade ReviewIt’s beautifully written -- Victoria Hislop * Good Housekeeping *A very smart, soulful, compelling, elegantly written domestic novel -- Nick Hornby * Observer *Francesca Segal is incisive on modern lives, penetrating and thoughtful - and yet always joyfully entertaining and stylishly readable. * Naomi Alderman *Segal’s wit and intelligence are entirely her own and the moral dilemmas of her characters could not be more modern… Segal has a superb eye for the lies that the middle-aged lovers tell themselves, and they are jolted back to reality when it all goes spectacularly wrong. It is nearly a tragedy, but not quite; she’s just too funny -- Kate Saunders * The Times *Elegant… an entertaining look at the messy business of trying to be in a family in emotionally trying circumstances… Irresistible -- Eithne Farry * Mail on Sunday *A story that is equal parts hilarious and devastating * Vogue *Francesa Segal is precise and funny, and The Awkward Age is brimming with keen observations of the highest order--the clever, the sore, and the sublime. * Emma Straub *Segal… is a sharp observer of the tribulations of teenage love and modern relationships. Particularly strong on how blind parents are towards their ghastly offspring’s flaws, this book is a lively, quick-witted performance * The Sunday Times *In Francesca Segal’s magnificent new novel The Awkward Age, romantic and parental love go head to head, stress-testing loyalties and bonds with heartbreaking consequences… Genius… An impressively nuanced and convincing portrait of maternal love… a painful delight to read, invoking a perfectly balanced oscillation between compassion and frustration -- Lucy Scholes * Independent *Themes of non-nuclear family life, the everyday fractures and renovations inherent to relationships of any kind, amid moments of pitch-perfect comic tension… Segal navigates these re-drawn battle lines with skill and sensitivity… There is no precise time, we are reminded, at which life becomes less tangled, at which personalities are formed as in aspic: we can see that all ages are awkward, but some are more awkward than others -- Zoë Apostolides * Financial Times *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing The Quick
Book SynopsisLauren Owen was born in 1985 and grew up in the grounds of an old country house in Yorkshire. Her first attempts at writing as a teenager were Harry Potter fan fictions. She is a graduate of St Hilda's, Oxford, holds an MA in Victorian Literature, is completing a PhD on Gothic writing and fan culture, and is the recipient of the Curtis Brown Prize for best writer on the UEA creative-writing programme. The Quick is her first novel.Trade ReviewA sly and glittering addition to the literature of the macabre . . . As soon as you have breathed with relief, much worse horrors begin. It's a skilled, assured performance, and it's hard to believe it is a first novel. -- HILARY MANTELA Gothic blockbuster. * Independent *Energetically throwing together real history and gothic fantasy, Owen has produced a novel that is macabre, readable and atmospheric. -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *A suspenseful, gloriously atmospheric first novel, and a feast of gothic storytelling that is impossible to resist. -- KATE ATKINSONDebut gothic mystery from a new British talent. -- Kate Figes * Mail on Sunday *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The Red House
Book SynopsisMark Haddon is a writer and artist. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, was published simultaneously by Jonathan Cape and David Fickling in 2003. It won seventeen literary prizes, including the Whitbread Award. In 2012, a stage adaptation by Simon Stephens was produced by the National Theatre and went on to win 7 Olivier Awards in 2013 and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play. In 2005 his poetry collection, The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea, was published by Picador, and his play, Polar Bears, was produced by the Donmar Warehouse in 2010. The Pier Falls, a collection of short stories, was also published by Cape in 2016. To commemorate the centenary of the Hogarth Press he wrote and illustrated a short story that appeared alongside Virginia Woolf's first story for the press in Two Stories (Hogarth, 2017). His most recent novel, The Porpoise, was published by Chatto & Windus in 20Trade ReviewEvery bit as charmingly idiosyncratic as his brilliant The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -- Henry Sutton * Daily Mirror *A hugely enjoyable, sympathetic novel...a tremendous pleasure...we have been absorbed, entertained and moved -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *Mark Haddon is terrifyingly talented... The Red House is thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable entertainment -- Angus Clarke * The Times *Shockingly well-observed, gut-wrenchingly familiar and even heartbreaking at times * Stylist *A masterly evocation of two dysfunctional, yet outwardly respectable families -- Jane Clinton * Sunday Express *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Married Love
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 AdichieThe stories collected in Married Love tend to announced themselves with a crash ... before resolving into quieter reflections, like musical overtures in which strings follow brass. Whether it is in examining the mellowing of a marriage in the title piece, or recounting the progress of a one night stand ("In the Cave"), Hadley writes of ordinary lives with a gracefulness unequalled among her peers * Independent on Sunday *Occasionally – very occasionally – a book feels like a gift, something unexpected, exhilarating, life-enhancing. Tessa Hadley’s second collection of short stories is such a book * The Times *One of the most subtle and sublime contemporary writers * Vogue *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing In the Springtime of the Year
Book SynopsisSUSAN HILL has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and a Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I'm the King of the Castle, In the Springtime of the Year and The Mist in the Mirror. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels. The play of her ghost story The Woman in Black is one of the longest running in the history of London's West End. In 2020 she was awarded a damehood (DBE) for services to literature. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.Trade ReviewOne of those novels you never forget * The Times *I love this wonderful book... Just read it -- Jo Brand * BBC Radio 4, A Good Read *One of Hill’s earlier, quieter masterpieces -- Emma Hagestadt * Independent *Immediately arresting…you come away affected, but there is a quiet, unhurried pace which is, incongruously, a lovely and fitting touch * bookgeeks.co.uk *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Hadley T Clever Girl
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 and Free Love, and four collections of stories: Sunstroke, Married Love, Bad Dreams and After the Funeral. She won the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction in 2016, The Past won the Hawthornden Prize for 2016 and she has twice been awarded the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, for 2018 and for 2024. 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 AdichieAs discrete entities, Hadley’s short stories are intense, miniature novels in themselves; bound together in a novel, they become quietly brilliant, offering an incisive exploration into how life’s individuals episodes add up to a meaningful whole. -- Francesca Angelini * Sunday Times *Hadley is a writer of exceptional intelligence and skill and, for all the apparent conventionality of her vision, hers is a subtly subversive talent. -- Edmund Gordon * Observer *There is something reassuring yet deliciously unexpected about a Tessa Hadley novel. -- Helen Brown * Daily Telegraph *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Dogs of Riga
Book SynopsisSweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead.The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect. Wallander travels across the Baltic Sea, to Riga in Latvia, where he is plunged into a frozen, alien world of police surveillance, scarcely veiled threats, and lies. Doomed always to be one step behind the shadowy figures he pursues, only Wallander''s obstinate desire to see that justice is done brings the truth to light.Trade ReviewRiga is a haunted place, and Mankell describes it with the sort of creepy detail that one shudders to believe is accurate -- Donna LeonMankell could turn you to crime * Daily Telegraph *Mankell is a powerful writer * Independent *Wallander is among the very best fictional crimebusters * Daily Telegraph *
£9.49
Cornerstone Unseen
Book SynopsisDiscover the seventh book in the gripping Will Trent series, from the Sunday Times bestselling crime and thriller author.Slaughter's best yet by far' LEE CHILD''One of the boldest thriller writers working today!'' TESS GERRITSENNow a major TV Series on Disney+-----------Special Agent Will Trent has something to hide. Something he doesn''t want Dr Sara Linton - the woman he loves - to find out.He''s gone undercover in Macon, Georgia and put his life at risk. And he knows Sara will never forgive him if she discovers the truth.But when a young patrolman is shot and left for dead, Sara is forced to confront the past and a woman she hoped never to see again.Without even knowing it, she becomes involved in the same case Will is working on.And now both their lives are in danger...-----------Crime and thriller masters know there''s nothing
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Beginners Goodbye
Book SynopsisWhen Dorothy came back from the dead, it seemed to Aaron that some people simply didn''t notice.The accident that killed Dorothy - involving an oak tree, a sun porch and some elusive biscuits - leaves Aaron bereft and the house a wreck. As those around him fuss and flap and bring him casserole after casserole, Aaron ploughs on. But then Dorothy starts to materialise in the oddest places. At first, she only comes for a short while, leaving Aaron longing for more. Gradually she stays for longer, and as they talk, they also bicker and the cracks that were present in their perfectly ordinary marriage start to reappear...**ANNE TYLER HAS SOLD OVER 8 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE**''Anne Tyler takes the ordinary, the small, and makes them sing'' Rachel Joyce''She knows all the secrets of the human heart'' Monica Ali ''A masterly author'' Sebastian Faulks''I love Anne Tyler. I''ve read every single book she''s writtenTrade ReviewA terrific writer... She's changed my perception on life'Deeply rewarding novel about grief and hope, infused with gentle humour * Sunday Times *A near flawless novel of love and loss ... exquisitely poignant but unsentimental * Sunday Herald *She's a master storyteller and inventor of character * Daily Express *This novel's great achievement is to capture the tensions and subtleties of a married life cut short… I read it virtually in one sitting, but that's a fairly common experience with Anne Tyler books… I didn't want it to end. Which is also a fairly common Tyler thing * Independent on Sunday *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing All the Birds Singing
Book SynopsisJake Whyte is the sole resident of an old farmhouse on an unnamed British island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. It's just her, her untamed companion, Dog, and a flock of sheep. Which is how she wanted it to be. But something is coming for the sheep - every few nights it picks one off, leaves it in rags. It could be anything.Trade ReviewUnsettling, dark and extraordinarily fresh. It feels eccentrically, wonderfully British… An inimitable, original new voice. Can’t wait to read more. * The Times *Wyld is a writer who reconfigures the conventions of storytelling with a sure-footedness and ambition which belie her age... What makes the book so outstanding is the beauty and simplicity of the writing. -- Cressida Connolly * Spectator *One feels the influence of an early Ian McEwan or Iain Banks… But All the Birds, Singing, is also powerfully original, strongest in its handling of the human and animal worlds, and the thin line between the two. -- Sophie Ratcliffe * Times Literary Supplement *All The Birds, Singing is extraordinarily accomplished, one of those books that tears around in your cerebellum like a dark firework, and which, upon finishing, you immediately want to pick up again -- Melissa Harrison * Financial Times *The closest cousin to All the Birds, Singing is Iain Banks' masterly first novel, The Wasp Factory… Evie Wyld's two books are quite as good as Ian McEwan's early fiction. Expect to hear her name often from now on. * Spectator *Her writing is precise, intense, haunting and poetic… A nuanced exploration of human suffering and resilience. Wyld’s writing seems to come from somewhere deep; somewhere a little big unnerving and odd. For once, the hype matches the talent. -- Lucy Atkins * Sunday Times *Evie Wyld’s All the Birds, Singing is an astonishing novel … The story is compelling, the structure ambitious and the imagery vivid. This is one talented young writer. -- Meaghan Delahunt * Scotsman *Oozes, drips and throbs with menace… A thoughtful and intense account of a young woman seemingly determined to disappear from the world’s radar… All the Birds, Singing should enhance [Wyld's] reputation as one of our most gifted novelists. -- Tim Lewis * Observer *A hair-prickling thriller… It's the quality of [Wyld's] prose that really blows your mind. * Metro *Unsettling, beautiful, horrifying and moving in equal parts, I haven't read anything quite like All the Birds, Singing for a long time… An extraordinary book. -- Victoria MacCallum * Stylist *A voice indebted to Banks and every bit as compelling. -- Alex Preston * Observer *Some novels are crafted with such care that it seems a shame reviewers should get to paw them before readers have the chance to admire their intricacy... Ingeniously constructed narrative. -- Anthony Cummins * Literary Review *Beautifully written. -- Neil Stewart * Civilian *Wyld's writing...is exquisite. An unusual novel that should win its author even more prizes. * The Simple Things *Admirably original. -- Louise Jury * Evening Standard *Compelling. * Sunday Telegraph *There is a fantastically handled creeping dread to the narrative flow… The ambiguity of Jake's story and her history are played with brilliantly throughout, making this an eerie, creepy kind of existential thriller. -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue *Tim Winton [is] a writer with whom the fearless Wyld deserves serious comparison. -- Catherine Taylor * Sunday Telegraph *Completely and utterly monumental. Powerful and beautiful written... I was a fan of Evie Wyld beforehand and this is such a leap forwards. An important book. -- Bidisha * Saturday Review, Radio 4 *Thriller, beast-fable and fantasy, Evie Wyld’s second novel is a sparky, dark yarn set in a georgic world of sheep husbandry where things have gone spectacularly awry. -- Stevie Davies * Independent *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Diary of a Social Butterfly
Book SynopsisJane Austen meets Bridget Jones Hilarious' GlamourMeet Butterfly loveable socialite, avid party-goer, inspired shopper and unwittingly acute observer. Of course everyone thinks her life is perfect but having to contend with a conniving mother-in-law, a husband who doesn't like parties, and a circle of friends who bring new meaning to the word competitive, Butterfly thinks her life is far from enviable. And as she lurches from crisis to crisis, trailing Jimmy Choos and pearls of wisdom along the way, it seems she might have a little more on her plate than she's first realised... Wicked, irreverent and hugely entertaining, The Diary of a Social Butterfly gives you a delicious glimpse into the parallel universe of the have-musts.Trade ReviewLight but not shallow ... Highlighting the rich-poor divide this is political as well as social satire. Funny and entertaining, Butterfly's misuse of English lifts the character off the page * Big Issue in the North *Witty and intelligent * North East Lifestyle *
£13.49
Vintage Publishing Ulverton
Book SynopsisAdam Thorpe was born in Paris in 1956. His first novel, Ulverton, appeared in 1992, and he has published two books of stories, six poetry collections, and nine further novels, most recently Flight (2012). www.adamthorpe.netTrade ReviewIf you believe English fiction is jaded, you must read Adam Thorpe... Tender, precise, tragicomic and unsentimental. -- Hilary Mantel * Independent on Sunday *We arent used to the many deep matters Thorpe touches on, not to such a thorough grasp of the complex nature of our rural past, and through it, of all existence itself... Suddenly English lives again -- John Fowles * Guardian *These stories sing like psalms, robust and vibrant - a poet's novel and a celebration that no social historian would dare attempt * Observer *A superb and moving meditation on history, fate and the nature of time, Ulverton is at once a traditional fiction and a wholly successful testing of the limits of literary art -- John BanvilleSpanning three centuries and encompassing a startling variety of lives, this debut novel from poet Adam Thorpe is nothing less than a bravura performance... With Ulverton, Thorpe has woven his own enticing 'secret web'. This is no mere promising first novel, but a major work, heralding a brillant new voice in British fiction * Washington Post *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Chateau
Book SynopsisWilliam Maxwell was born in Illinois in 1908. He was the author of a distinguished body of work: six novels, three short story collections, an autobiographical memoir and a collection of literary essays and reviews. A New Yorker editor for forty years, he helped to shape the prose and careers of John Updike, John Cheever, John O'Hara and Eudora Welty. So Long, See You Tomorrow won the American Book Award, and he received the PEN/Malamud Award. He died in New York in 2000.Trade ReviewNot just a book of the year but now one of my desert island books. -- Adrian Turpin * Herald Scotland *Delicious and dead-on... All the embarrassments and gratifications of European travel are preserved in the amber of Maxwell's much pondered, seemingly casual prose. * New Yorker *As the voices of Austen, Turgenev and Tolstoy have survived, so will Maxwell's. There aren't many truly great writers among us. William Maxwell is one of them * The Times *It's hard not to see it as a work of genius * Times Literary Supplement *His gentle urbanity is a joy * Sunday Telegraph *
£999.99
Cornerstone Unlucky 13
Book Synopsis''Smart characters, shocking twists'' Lisa Gardner''A compelling read with great set pieces and, most of all, that charismatic cast of characters'' Sun''I couldn''t turn the pages quick enough'' Heidi Perks''Terrific, high-octane, really pacy'' Jo Spain______________The Sunday Times bestsellerDID YOU MISS ME?When two dead bodies are found inside a wrecked car on the Golden Gate Bridge, Detective Lindsay Boxer knows it''s no accident.As she investigates, disturbing news reaches her ears: a former police colleague, now unmasked as a ruthless murderer, is back in San Francisco after escaping custody, bent on paying a visit to some old friends...______________More praise for the Women''s Murder Club''Fast-moving, intricately plotted . . . Boxer steals the show as the tough cop with a good heart'' Mirror''I have neve
£9.49
Random House Sacrifice
Book SynopsisLet bestselling author Will Jordan take you on a break-neck speed ride with CIA agent Ryan Drake in this compelling and unmissable thriller. Fans of Lee Child, Vince Flynn and David Baldacci will love this!''Entertaining'' - The Telegraph''Engrossing'' -- ***** Reader review''A real page-turner'' -- ***** Reader review''From the start Mr Jordan weaves a spell - the action is fast and believable'' -- ***** Reader review''Creative plot played out at a relentless pace - great stuff, Mr Jordan!'' -- ***** Reader review''Great book that will have you keep turning the pages'' -- ***** Reader review''Superb from start to finish'' -- ***** Reader review*******************************************************************A MISSING MAN. A BRUTAL CONFLICT.Afghanistan, 2008: a Black Hawk helicopter carrying a senior CIA operative is shot down by a surfaTrade Review • "A high-octane and fast paced tale of derring-do set in the world of elite investigation and black-ops that had me hooked throughout... One of the strongest aspects of this book is Jordan's grasp of characterisation as Drake is a compelling and empathetic protagonist... Overall a very creditable debut and bodes well for a long running series featuring this new action-hero." --Raven Crime Reads
£15.29
Vintage Publishing Invisible Monsters Remix
Book SynopsisShe''s a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But a sudden motor ''accident'' leaves her an ''invisible monster'', so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, who will teach her that reinventing yourself sometimes means erasing your past and making up something better...Injected with new material and special design elements, Invisible Monsters Remix is a radically refashioned ''director''s cut'' of a favourite Chuck Palahniuk novel, turning a daring satire on beauty and the fashion industry into an even more wildly unique reading experience.Trade ReviewMaybe our generation has found its Don Delillo * Bret Easton Ellis *This is a wild ride of a novel * Booklist *A clever, comical pell-mell through gender politics and stereotyped expectations, to explore the extremes of will-power, and of living as one wishes -- John Lloyd * thebookbag.co.uk *Readers can either disregard the author and read it in the conventional way or follow his instructions and jump to the chapter you are told. The thrill of defiance in the former almost matches the same show-like excitement of the latter – both are exhilarating and rewarding options -- Antonia Charlesworth * Big Issue *Twelve years on, Palahniuk revisits this work – mashing up its linear narrative to recreate the pre-Internet thrill of flicking through Vogue or the Sears catalogue -- Emma Hagestadt * Independent *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Cancer Ward
Book SynopsisFROM THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGOSolzhenitsyn is one of the towering figures of the age, as a writer, as moralist, as hero' Edward CrankshawAfter years in enforced exile on the Kazakhstan steppes, a cancer diagnosis brings Oleg Kostoglotov to Ward 13. Brutally treated in squalid conditions, and faced with ward staff and other patients from across the Soviet Union, Kostoglotov finds himself thrown once again into the gruelling mechanics of a state still haunted by Stalinism. One of the great allegorical masterpieces of world literature, Cancer Ward is both a deeply compassionate study of people facing terminal illness and a brilliant dissection of the cancerous Soviet police state. Withdrawn from publication in Russia in 1964, it became, along with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a work that awoke the conscience of the world.Trade ReviewPerhaps the most famous work of fiction dealing directly with the disease * Guardian *And what does Solzhenitsyn say about cancer? How does he reach me, in Australia, with his Russian book? He shows me something valuable that I discovered during my own medical treatment. The people who are involved in cancer -- the sufferer, the doctors, the nurses, the orderlies -- are often occupied less with the cancer than with each other. There are small societies of patients and medical workers in a hospital ward, and in those societies people share what they have: their love and resentment, their stories and observations. -- Brenda Walker * The Australian *Solzhenitsyn was a great writer as the result of the collision of a particular personality and an awesome subject matter -- Henry Porter * Observer *Solzhenitsyn is a man of genius…it is a privilege to be Solzhenitsyn’s contemporary * Observer *There has been no such analysis of the corrupting power of the police state in Soviet literature * Listener *
£11.69
Vintage Publishing A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Book Synopsis*** Granta Best of Young American Novelists 2017 ***In a snow-covered village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as her father is abducted in the middle of the night by Russian soldiers. Their life-long friend and neighbour, Akhmed, has also been watching, and when he finds Havaa he knows of only one person who might be able to help. For tough-minded doctor Sonja Rabina, it's just another day of trying to keep her bombed-out, abandoned hospital going. When Akhmed arrives with Havaa, asking Sonja for shelter, she has no idea who the pair are. But over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja's world will shift on its axis, revealing the intricate pattern of connections that binds these three unlikely companions together and unexpectedly decides their fate.''A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is simply spectacular'' Ann PatchettTrade ReviewA Constellation of Vital Phenomena is simply spectacular. Not since Everything is Illuminated have I read a first novel so ambitious and fully realized. If this is where Anthony Marra begins his career, I can't imagine how far he will go * Ann Patchett *Storytelling of magical purity, illuminated by hope... Marra is a magnificent writer -- Vanora Bennett * The Times *An extraordinary first novel... A 21st-century War and Peace * New York Times *Both heart-wrenching and uplifting, a stunning, intricately plotted, brilliantly written, tour-de-force of a novel that burns into the memory * Choice *A powerful tale... rivals anything Michael Ondaatje has written in its emotional force -- John Freeman * Boston Globe *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing Bad Blood
Book SynopsisDetective Paul Hjelm and his team receive an urgent call from the FBI. A murderer whose methods bear a frightening resemblance to a serial killer they believed long dead is on his way to Sweden. For years the FBI hunted the so-called Kentucky Killer', their agents haunted by the terrible injuries he inflicted on his victims through his signature device: a weapon that squeezed the vocal cords shut. Has he somehow returned from beyond the grave to torture a new generation, or do they have a copy-cat on their hands? And what do they want in Sweden?If they are to capture the killer, the team must collaborate with their colleagues in the FBI on a desperate hunt that will take them from rainswept city streets to deserted Kentucky farmhouses, and will push them to the limits of their endurance.Trade ReviewCrime fiction of genuine authority with a sinewy, uncompromising structure * Good Book Guide *
£13.49
Cornerstone The Kings of Cool
Book SynopsisTHE HIGH-OCTANE PREQUEL TO SAVAGESIn Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twentysomething best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O.This is the story of how Ben, Chon and O became the people they are. Spanning fifty years forward from 1960s Southern California, The Kings of Cool is an intergenerational epic of drug dealers and crooked cops, friends and lovers, blood and death - and a young generation''s future inextricably linked with their parents'' history.A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon and O to choose between their real families - or each other...Trade Review[Winslow] is an excellent crime writer. He writes in the simplest, clearest, most spare way of anybody I’ve read. He’s been honing it for years. * Evening Standard *Packing more of an emotional heft than Savages, it’s written in the leanest prose possible, with a single-word paragraph being nothing unusual but managing to say more than you’d expect. -- Alastair Mabbot * Herald *A brilliant, hypnotic novel…A considerably more ambitious book than Savages, seeking to map out not only the history of Savages’ weird love triangle, but also to cast a panoramic eye over the whole history of the drug trade in California from the 1960s onwards. And Winslow fulfils those ambitions fantastically well, with a stylistic swagger and bucketloads of empathy to go with a scintillating, perfectly executed crime-novel plot…Delivered in the sleekest, most sinewy prose you’re ever likely to read. At times, The Kings of Cool verges on a kind of steel-tipped poetry, providing flashes of insight from perfectly carved sentences. It is a simply stunning novel. -- Doug Johnstone * Independent on Sunday *An epic prequel to Don Winslow's Savages . . . Winslow writes the kind of books that Tarantino might- if he had a heart. -- Julia Handford * The Telegraph *American author Don Winslow is so good at capturing LA slacker speak…[His books] are always superb and The Kings of Cool – a new prequel to the brilliant Savages may be his best yet * The Sun *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Promised Land Vintage Classics
Book SynopsisThe final, previously unpublished novel by the author of All Quiet on the Western Front - a dreamlike, powerfully moving account of an emigrant''s experience of New York during World War II. From the detention centre on Ellis Island, Ludwig Somner looks across a small stretch of water to the glittering towers of New York, which whisper seductively of freedom after so many years of wandering through a perlious, suffering Europe. Remarque''s final novel, left unfinished at his death, tells of the precarious life of the refugee life lived in hotel lobbies, on false passports, the strange, ill-assorted refugee community held together by an unspeakable past. For Somner, each new luxury - ice cream served in drugstores, bright shop windows, art, a new suit, a new romance - has a bittersweet eTrade ReviewRemarque died before he could complete The Promised Land, but the four hundred pages he produced, superbly translated by the redoubtable Michael Hofmann, are enough to tell a fascinating and poignant tale about identity, adaptability and the trials of starting afresh -- Malcolm Forbes * Herald *The Promised Land has been both beautifully penned and thoughtfully translated… The Promised Land is a compulsively readable, and rather marvellous historical novel -- Kirsty Hewitt * Nudge *Remarque is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank * New York Times Book Review *A moving and compelling story...thoughtful reflection on the inhumanity of warfare and the emigrant's predicament, deft characterisation, colourful accounts of life in New York during World War II...readers will readily engage with the rich detail and sympathetic portrayal * New Books in German *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The Wreck of the Mary Deare
Book SynopsisThe battered hulk of a huge ship looms out of the stinging spray of a furious gale. Only one man, half-mad, remains aboard, working without sleep or sustenance to save her from sinking.But this man is no hero, and this ship was not meant to be saved. As Hammond Innes'' classic tale moves from desperate struggles on the sea to a nail-biting courtroom controversy, the murky truth about the last voyage of the Mary Deare finally comes to light.Trade ReviewA chap who writes books for other chaps gets a welcome reissue...The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a cracker * Irish Times *Original in its plot and extraordinarily clever in its constant succession of mysterious twists and surprising revelations, it is an utterly engrossing tale * New York Times *The Wreck of the Mary Deare gave me a total love of thrillers and Hammond Innes is an absolutely brilliant writer -- Minette WaltersHammond Innes… surely the doyen of the well-made modern thriller * Daily Telegraph *They say people can’t write stories anymore. Tell that to Hammond Innes * Sunday Times *
£9.49
