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
Penguin Books Ltd Wide Sargasso Sea
Book SynopsisOne of the BBC''s ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World''A gorgeous clothbound edition of Jean Rhys''s great masterpiece of desire and madness in the Caribbean, published for the novel''s fiftieth anniversary. Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel''s heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys''s brief, beautiful masterpiece.''She took one of the works of genius of the nineteenth century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the twentieth century''Michele Roberts, The Times
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd Naked Lunch
Book SynopsisA stunning clothbound edition of William S. Burroughs''s cult classic, designed by the acclaimed Coralie-Bickford Smith. Nightmarish and fiercely funny, William Burroughs'' virtuoso, taboo-breaking masterpiece Naked Lunch follows Bill Lee through Interzone: a surreal, orgiastic wasteland of drugs, depravity, political plots, paranoia, sadistic medical experiments and endless, gnawing addiction. One of the most shocking novels ever written, Naked Lunch is a cultural landmark, now in a restored edition incorporating Burroughs'' notes on the text, alternate drafts and outtakes from the original.''A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire'' Newsweek ''Naked Lunch is a banquet you will never forget'' J. G. Ballard
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd A Confederacy of Dunces
Book SynopsisOne of the BBC''s ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World''''My favourite book of all time... it stays with you long after you have read it - for your whole life, in fact'' Billy ConnollyA monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city''s fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission - and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with...This stunning clothbound edition of John Kennedy Toole''s savagely funny, satirical masterpiece is designed by the acclaimed Coralie-Bickford Smith.''A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities ... it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue''The New York TimesTrade ReviewMy favourite book of all time. I've read it so many times and I still go back to it today. -- Billy Connolly
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd Your Face Tomorrow Volume 1
Book Synopsis''Your Face Tomorrow is already being compared with Proust and rightly so'' Observer''One of contemporary literature''s major works ... you have to open this book'' Ali Smith''I am myself my own fever and pain''Jacques Deza has been told he has a gift: he can see through people; guess just from their faces what will become of them. When he encounters the enigmatic Bertram Tupra at a party, Deza is persuaded to join a mysterious underground group. His task: to observe an assortment of people - politicians, celebrities, seemingly ordinary citizens - and predict their next move. But where will Deza''s descent into this twilight world eventually take him? The first part of Javier Marias'' masterly trilogy asks how well we truly know and understand those around us.Translated by Margaret Jull CostaTrade ReviewYou are dazzled by the author's intelligence and understanding of human nature * Scotsman *Your Face Tomorrow is already being compared with Proust and rightly so. It is a novel of extraordinary subtlety and pathos. The next thing Marias deserves is the Nobel Prize * Observer *He has as gift for the wickedly comic set piece...He seems incapable of writing a thoughtless or throwaway sentence.We need more novelists like Marias * Independent on Sunday *An intriguing and audacious experiment * Sunday Times *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Your Face Tomorrow Volume 2
Book Synopsis''Unquestionably the most significant Spanish writer of his generation ... Your Face Tomorrow is rich, haunting, intriguing'' Observer''This trilogy must be one of the greatest novels of our age'' Antony Beevor''Fear is the greatest force that exists, as long as you can adapt to it''Jacques Deza has been recruited into an undercover spy network by the inscrutable Bertram Tupra. But when he is forced to witness an act of horrifying brutality in a night-club, he finds himself falling apart, haunted by his own memories of the bloodshed of the Spanish Civil War. As Deza tries to disentangle himself from an increasingly disturbing world, the second volume in Javier Marias'' magnificent trilogy explores violence, corruption and what we are capable of.Translated by Margaret Jull CostaTrade ReviewOne of contemporary literature's major works... You have to open this book -- Ali SmithFantastically funny... As a practitioner of the novel, Marías has few peers at the moment...Marías is a deeply necessary writer, a crusader, funny, pungent, full of wrath and love * Guardian *Unquestionably the most significant Spanish writer of his generation... Your Face Tomorrow is a rich, haunting, intriguing, sometimes frustrating meditation on the significance of our lives that also shines an unforgiving light on a too-often forgotten bloodshed * Observer *By turns ebullient, snappish, lyrical, self-delighting and chilling... Marías's fiercely perceptive novels are among the best work being produced anywhere at the moment * Independent on Sunday *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Closely Watched Trains
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewHrabal bounces and floats. His mode is a sort of dancing realism, somewhere between fairy tale and satire. He is a most sophisticated novelist, with a gusting humour and a hushed tenderness of detail. We should read him -- Julian BarnesHrabal, to my mind, is one of the greatest European prose writers -- Philip RothOne of the most authentic incarnations of magical Prague; an incredible union of earthy humour and baroque imagination... What is unique about Hrabal is his capacity for joy -- Milan KunderaHrabal's comedy is completely paradoxical. Holding in balance limitless desire and limited satisfaction, it is both rebellious and fatalistic, restless and wise -- James Wood * London Review of Books *A poignant, humorous tale * New York Times Book Review *
£9.25
Penguin Books Ltd The Little Town Where Time Stood Still
Book Synopsis
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Cutting It Short
Book Synopsis
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd The Tailor of Panama
Book Synopsis''A work of rare brilliance'' The TimesCharmer, fabulist and tailor to Panama''s rich and powerful, Harry Pendel loves to tell stories. But when the British spy Andrew Osnard - a man of large appetites, for women, information and above all money - walks into his shop, Harry''s fantastical inventions take on a life of their own. Soon he finds himself out of his depth in an international game he can never hope to win. Le Carré''s savage satire on the espionage trade is set in a corrupt universe without heroes or honour, where the innocent are collateral damage and treachery plays out as tragic farce. ''A tour de force in which almost every convention of the classic spy novel is violated'' The New York Times Book Review
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Trio
Book Synopsis ''An elating read'' Sunday TimesA producer. A novelist. An actress.It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. There are riots in Paris and the Vietnam War is out of control. While the world is reeling our three characters are involved in making a Swingin'' Sixties movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. Elfrida is drowning her writer''s block in vodka; Talbot, coping with the daily dysfunction of making a film, is hiding something in a secret apartment; and the glamorous Anny is wondering why the CIA is suddenly so interested in her.But the show must go on and, as it does, the trio''s private worlds begin to take over their public ones. Pressures build inexorably - someone''s going to crack. Or maybe they all will.From one of Britain''s best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel that asks the vital questions: what makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn''t?_______________________________________________PRAISE FOR WILLIAM BOYD''The ultimate in immersive fiction . . . magnificent'' Sunday Times''A finely judged performance: a deft and resonant alchemy of fact and fiction, of literary myth and imagination'' Guardian on Love is Blind''William Boyd has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries'' Daily Telegraph''Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation'' Sebastian FaulksTrade ReviewA middle-aged film producer, a novelist with writer's block and a glamorous young actress come together to make a Swinging Sixties movie in this jaunty page-turner. But everyone is living a double life. Even names can't be taken on trust. Full of neat phrases and quirkily funny scenes, it's an elating read * The Times, Best Paperbacks of 2021 *What could be more reassuring in troubling times than a new William Boyd novel? Trio is immensely readable, its descriptions full of light and colour, its humour spot on, its mood a perfect mix of frolicsome and melancholy * Sunday Telegraph *An absorbing novel about lives spiralling out of control and the drastic measures required to right them * Economist *The characters are wonderfully written and I loved escaping to the gossipy world of the film set * Good Housekeeping, Book of the Month *Boyd keeps the plot racing along, yet for all the twists, the real delight is in William Boyd's wry portrait of a bygone age . . . Boyd's usual sure touch is evident throughout this tender, gently comic work * Independent *One of our best contemporary storytellers. . . Trio embraces comedy, tragedy and redemption. It succeeds impressively because of its dramatic, often sensational, revelations * Spectator *I am a huge fan of William Boyd and the tender way he writes about the flaws and frailties of his characters. Trio is his best novel in years * Red, The Best Books to Read this October *Reading William Boyd's Trio is like shrugging on a worn leather jacket on the first brisk morning of autumn: cosy but cool . . . He has enormous fun with the worlds - and egos - of page and screen * The Times *Enormous fun . . . Boyd's characters are vibrant, his prose elegant, comedy excellent: the result is a book that's compassionate and compelling * Tatler *Boyd's writing is as fluent as ever but it's the ideas pulsing beneath the surface that distinguish Trio * Financial Times *Trio is an intricate set of variations on the idea of alternative selves, well beyond the title's trio, unobtrusively elegant in its formal beauty * New Statesman, Books of the Year *Sending an affably satiric shimmer over the ceaseless rewrites, grotesque miscastings and behind-the-scenes chicanery, William Boyd simultaneously explores deeper issues of duplicity and divided personality * Sunday Times, Best Fiction Books of the Year *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd In the Castle of My Skin
Book Synopsis''They won''t know you, the you that''s hidden somewhere in the castle of your skin''Nine-year-old G. leads a life of quiet mischief crab catching, teasing preachers and playing among the pumpkin vines. His sleepy fishing village in 1930s Barbados is overseen by the English landlord who lives on the hill, just as their ''Little England'' is watched over by the Mother Country. Yet gradually, G. finds himself awakening to the violence and injustice that lurk beneath the apparent order of things. As the world he knows begins to crumble, revealing the bruising secret at its heart, he is spurred ever closer to a life-changing decision. Lyrical and unsettling, George Lamming''s autobiographical coming-of-age novel is a story of tragic innocence amid the collapse of colonial rule.''Rich and riotous'' The Times''Its poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed'' TribuneTrade ReviewIts poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed * Tribune *Rich and riotous * The Times *Fluent, poetical, sophisticated * Sunday Times *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Liars Room
Book SynopsisTHE DARKLY ADDICTIVE THRILLER THAT READERS CAN''T STOP TALKING ABOUT. IF YOU LIKED WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, YOU''LL LOVE THIS ________________________________''Brilliantly chilling'' Cara Hunter, author of Close to Home and In the Dark''You''ll try to outguess the plot but always be one step behind'' C J Tudor________________________________ One Room. Two Liars. No Way Out FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE HOUSE, COMES THE NEW SPINE-TINGLING THRILLER YOU WON''T BE ABLE TO PUT DOWNSusanna Fenton has a secret. Fourteen years ago she left her identity behind, reinventing herself as a counsellor and starting a new life. It was the only way to keep her daughter safe. But everything changes when Adam Geraghty walks into her office. She''s never met this young man before - so why does she feel like she knows him?Then AdamTrade ReviewSIMON LELIC WRITES BEAUTIFULLY AND HE HAS A REAL TALENT FOR CHILLING STORIES THAT PLAY MERCILESSLY ON OUR MOST MOST DISTURBING FEARS -- Cara HunterA SUPERBLY WRITTEN AND WELL-CRAFTED THRILLER ... SIMON LELIC FUELS EACH PAGE WITH SUSPENSE AND INTRIGUE. IT WILL HAVE YOU UP ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT ... JUST FABULOUS! -- Kathryn CroftA TENSE, ATMOSPHERIC THRILLER IN WHICH THE PAST HAUNTS THE PRESENT - AND THE LIES WE TELL OURSELVES COME BACK WITH A VENGEANCE. TAUT, UNSETTLING AND BRILLIANTLY DONE -- TM Logan, author of 'Lies'A WONDERFULLY CLAUSTROPHOBIC READ EXPOSING THE FAULT LINES IN FAMILIES AND THE TERRIBLE DANGER OF SECRETS -- Cath StaincliffeHAD ME IN A HEADLOCK FROM THE START & WOULDN'T LOOSEN ITS GRIP TILL THE LAST PAGE' -- John MarrsTENSE AND UNPUTDOWNABLE AS ANYTHING. A FANTASTIC READ -- Luca VesteBRILLIANT ... COMPLEX CHARACTERS THAT DRAW YOU IN AND WON'T LET YOU GO -- Amy Lloyd, author of 'The Innocent Wife'THE LIAR'S ROOM IS A BOOK YOU CAN'T WALK AWAY FROM -- Emma KavanaghBRILLIANTLY TENSE...YOU'LL TRY TO OUTGUESS THE PLOT BUT ALWAYS BE ONE STEP BEHIND AS THE SECRETS AND LIES GRADUALLY UNFOLD IN EVER MORE DARK AND DISTURBING WAYS -- C J Tudor'A DARKLY DISTURBING THRILLER THAT HOOKED ME FROM THE FIRST PAGE. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!' -- Nuala Ellwood, author of 'My Sister's Bones'AN INTRICATE AND POWERFUL THRILLER -- Tana French on 'The House'HUGELY GRIPPING AND SPOOKY AS HELL -- Mark Billingham on 'The House'TAUGHT, TENSE AND TERRIFYING, I LOVED IT -- Sharon Bolton on 'The House'PACKS IN THE CHILLS...READ IT -- Thriller of the Month * Observer *
£7.59
Penguin Books Ltd The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories PENGUIN
Book SynopsisA landmark collection of stories--nearly half appearing in English for the first time--selected and introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa LahiriA Penguin ClassicWhen Jhumpa Lahiri decided to read exclusively in Italian, a language she had studied for many years, her life as a reader--and writer--took a surprising turn. Complete immersion in this rich literary heritage brought fresh insight andunexpected freedom.This collection brings together forty writers who have shaped her love of the Italian language and profound appreciation for its literature. More than half of the stories featured in this volume have been translated into English for the first time, and the wide-ranging selection includes well-known authors such as Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante, and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating rediscoveries.Poets, journalists, visual artists, musicians, editors, critics, teachers, scientists, politicians, translators: the writers that Trade ReviewA fantastically rich - and beautiful - anthology that's teaching me a lot -- Chris PowerThe best anthology of its kind I've read -- John Self * Observer *A feast . . . her choice of 40 authors embraces familiar greats and sows them with fascinating additions . . . they remind us of the short story's playfulness, it's ability to move us with unexpected sharpness while it experiments with voices, styles and boundaries * Telegraph *Jhumpa Lahiri has pulled off something quite striking here: a literary anthology that sparkles with invention and variety, makes a remarkably convincing case for the vitality of the modern Italian short story and also beguiles, thanks to her sharp-eyed work as editor, compiler and part-translator. * Literary Review *Taken one by one, each story in this volume is a jewel. Taken all together, the book is a remarkable introduction to Italian literature and a great gift to the English-speaking reader. Remarkable stories from a wide range of writers describe the mundane and the fantastic, the everyday and the sublime. * Kirkus *An enticing collection . . . a remarkable sample of the literary form . . . the tales are by turns startling, moving, intriguing and provocative; they bring melancholy, humour and a dose of the uncanny. -- Vilma de Gasperin * TLS *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Flight to Canada Penguin Modern Classics
Book Synopsis''Reinvents the particulars of slavery in America with a comic rage ... The book explodes. Reed''s special grace is anger ... a muscular, luminous prose'' The New York Times''It always was, and will always be the most fearlessly original, most viciously political, most rambunctiously funny epic of slavery ever written. America almost doesn''t deserve it'' - Marlon James (2015 Man Booker Prize Winner)''I loves it here ... We gets whipped with a velvet whip, and there''s free dentalcare''Three slaves are on the run in the deep South, with their former master hot on their heels and the Civil War raging.One of them arms himself for a final showdown; one sells his body for pornographic movies; while the last, Raven Quickskill - hero, poet, heartbreaker - swigs champagne on a non-stop jumbo jet to Canada. Taking us on a wild ride through a nineteenth century littered with limousines, waterbeds and colour TVs, Flight to Canada<Trade ReviewGroundbreaking ... Ishmael Reed is a major figure in American letters * The Paris Review *A remorseless satire of America's appetite for slavery fantasies * New Yorker *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Six Foot Six
Book SynopsisIt''s an exciting day for Timothy Flowers. It''s the third of November, and it''s Friday, and it''s his twenty-first birthday. When Timothy walks to his usual street corner to see his favourite special bus, he meets Charlie. Charlie is a builder who is desperate for Timothy''s help because Timothy is very tall, six feet six inches. Timothy has never had a job before - or no work that he''s kept for more than a day. But when Timothy and Charlie have to collect money from a local thug, things don''t exactly go according to plan...Over the course of one day, Timothy''s life will change for ever.Trade ReviewAuthentic and beautiful, urgent and honest, this novel does what only the best do: it quietly makes room in your heart -- Chris Cleave on 'My Name is Leon'Tender and heart-breaking -- Rachel Joyce on 'My Name is Leon'Startlingly funny. Balances the gritty with the feel good -- Observer on 'My Name is Leon'Beautiful and heartbreaking -- Cathy Rentzenbrink on 'My Name is Leon'A beautiful story told with compassion, urgency and wit -- Stephen Kelman on 'My Name is Leon'A touching, thought-provoking debut -- Guardian on 'My Name is Leon'Vivid and endearing - a very powerful book -- Emma Healey on My Name is Leon
£4.41
Penguin Books Ltd A Most Wanted Man
Book Synopsis''One of the most sophisticated fictional responses to the war on terror yet published'' GuardianAn illegal Muslim immigrant arrives in Hamburg with a traumatic past and the key to a fortune held in a private bank. He says his name is Issa. To the idealistic young human rights lawyer Annabel, determined to save him from deportation, he is a worthy cause. To the intelligence services of Britain, Germany and America, however, he is a potential jihadist - and a pawn between them as they seek to make a kill in the war on terror. A Most Wanted Man is a gripping and disquieting story of paranoia, disillusionment and betrayal in the moral no-man''s land of the post-9/11 world. ''A first-class novel about the most pressing concerns of our time'' Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewOne of the most sophisticated fictional responses to the war on terror yet published * Guardian *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Naive and Sentimental Lover
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd Whistle in the Dark
Book SynopsisJen has finally got her daughter home.But why does fifteen-year-old Lana still feel lost?When Lana goes missing for four desperate days and returns refusing to speak of what happened, Jen fears the very worst. She thinks she''s failed as a mother, that her daughter is beyond reach and that she must do something - anything - to bring her back.The family returns to London where everyone but Jen seems happy to carry on as normal. Jen''s husband Hugh thinks she''s going crazy - and their eldest daughter Meg is tired of Lana getting all the attention. But Jen knows Lana has changed, and can''t understand why. Does the answer lie in those four missing days? And how can Jen find out?''As gripping as Elizabeth is Missing'' Elle''Utterly compelling'' Rosamund Lupton ''[A] satisfying, cathartic mystery'' Jenny Colgan''A compelling modern family drama with witty and wonderful characters. UtTrade ReviewCourageous...intriguing...entertaining * Observer *As gripping as its predecessor * Elle *A compelling modern family drama with witty and wonderful characters. Utter bliss. -- Nina StibbeGripping, deeply affecting * Irish Times *A beautiful exploration of mental health and love * Stylist *Utterly compelling and insightful, I was drawn into this family in crisis from the first chapter of this unflinchingly honest and beautifully written novel -- Rosamund Lupton, bestselling author of 'Sister'I adored the forensic detail of Healey's writing and the wry, sharp take on millenial family life * Daily Mail *A fast-paced, gripping read * Closer *Oozing with tension and written with captivating brilliance * Heat *At once an absorbing thriller and a beautifully observed study of the relationship between mother and teenage daughter * Refinery29 *I don't know anyone else who writes like this. Emma Healey's voice soars, sings and startles as she takes you right under the skin of her characters. She 'magics' the ordinary into the extraordinary and, just as impressively, transposes the extraordinary to the ordinary. Unforgettable. -- Jane Corry, bestselling author of 'My Husband's Wife'This novel is a beautiful and rare thing - a page turning thriller with all the pain, warmth and humour of authentic family life portrayed. I absolutely loved it. -- Kate Hamer, author of 'The Girl in the Red Coat'Healey is a natural story-teller -- Claire Fuller, author of 'Our Endless Numbered Days'
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd After the Party
Book Synopsis''I always wanted to be friends with both my sisters. Perhaps that was the source, really, of all the troubles of my life...''It is the summer of 1938 and Phyllis Forrester has returned to England after years abroad. Moving into her sister''s grand country house, she soon finds herself entangled in a new world of idealistic beliefs and seemingly innocent friendships. Fevered talk of another war infiltrates their small, privileged circle, giving way to a thrilling solution: a great and charismatic leader, who will restore England to its former glory. At a party hosted by her new friends, Phyllis lets down her guard for a single moment, with devastating consequences. Years later, Phyllis, alone and embittered, recounts the dramatic events which led to her imprisonment and changed the course of her life forever.''Wonderfully subtle and compelling'' Linda Grant''Uncanny, evocative, atmospheric'' Sunday Times''Connolly is a Trade ReviewProfound and moving and completely original, with a storyline that is completely satisfying. It'll be one of those novels that stays in my mind forever... it's a work of art -- Craig BrownI finished it in two days flat and I've never read anything quite like it. Everything about the book rings true, politically, psychologically, and in period detail, from the sunny beginnings to the grim end -- Hilary SpurlingA wonderfully subtle and interesting account of the Mosley women, with a compelling voice -- Linda GrantWonderful, tragicomic... beautifully researched -- Kate Saunders * The Times *One of the best books published this year * The Lady *Uncanny, evocative.... Connolly skilfully sets scenes in pared yet atmospheric prose * Sunday Times *Connolly gives an object lesson in how to tell a story in a non-judgmental way. The result is a brave, engrossing and unexpectedly moving novel * Mail on Sunday *Polished and reflective... a salutary masterclass on the values that really matter * Country Life *This historical novel is an absorbing, nuanced look at extremism dressed up with social niceties and class privilege, and is sure to resonate today * Stylist *In her latest novel, Cressida Connolly expertly evokes a changing nation, and a woman whose life is altered forever * Vogue *Connolly [is] an unerring storyteller who excels at both period and place * Daily Mail *[A] virtuoso novel * Telegraph Magazine *A wonderfully acute writer -- Allison Pearson * Sunday Telegraph Summer Reads *Connolly has tremendous fun with her posh characters' class-obsessed milieu, but the privations of Holloway Prison, with its rope-thick dust, bone-chilling cold and maggoty food, are equally sharply drawn * Daily Mail Summer Reads *Deeply impressive.... quietly devastating tale of world affairs played out on an intimate scale * Metro *Connolly is a terrifically subtle writer... [she] slyly sweeps her readers into the period drama as tensions tauten between families and social classes * Daily Telegraph, Five Stars *Chilling * Spectator *Extraordinary, gripping... Exquisitely written with lyricism and a stiletto-sharp and humorous pen, Connolly takes on a subject which resonates powerfully with current politics -- Sofka Zinovieff * The Lady *Beautifully written... Connolly's perfect control of tone and detail makes this very compelling. Excellent * Evening Standard *Connolly's research is immaculate... well-imagined * The Times Saturday Review *In pared yet atmospheric prose, Connolly skilfully evokes the scents of an English summer and hedonistic parties * Sunday Times Culture *Connolly has an ear for how people really speak. It's the gift of a proper writer * Daily Telegraph *Cressida Connolly's flawless new novel After the Party, for all its darkness, seems suffused with the "soft, buttery" light of an English summer afternoon. But in June of 1938, infernal shadows lengthen. Ms. Connolly is a master, revealing character while sustaining an effect of lightness and ease. We follow Phyllis through an indolent prewar season beautifully conjured, often in heady, sensual detail. Ms. Connolly is too astute and compassionate a novelist to provide neat conclusions. The novel leaves us with the mysterious sense of having inhabited a time and a life whose emotional gravity holds us still. * Wall Street Journal *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Librarian
Book Synopsis*A Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller*''Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand; she''s a presence worth cherishing in the ranks of modern novelists.'' Philip PullmanIn 1958, Sylvia Blackwell, fresh from one of the new post-war Library Schools, takes up a job as children''s librarian in a run down library in the market town of East Mole. Her mission is to fire the enthusiasm of the children of East Mole for reading. But her love affair with the local married GP, and her befriending of his precious daughter, her neighbour''s son and her landlady''s neglected grandchild, ignite the prejudices of the town, threatening her job and the very existence of the library with dramatic consequences for them all.The Librarian is a moving testament to the joy of reading and the power of books to change and inspire us all. ''Underneath the delightful patina of nostalgia for post-War England, there are stern and spiky quTrade ReviewA nostalgic treat...involving and hopeful * Mail on Sunday *Excellent... a period tale of sentimental education, it's deliciously readable, with a clever epilogue zooming into the present day for a last gasp surprise * Daily Mail *No one can dig down into the shrouded recesses of the human heart quite as forensically as Vickers * Sunday Times *Vickers writes of relationships with undaunted clarity -- Adam PhillipsQuirky and charming * Love It! *This beautifully crafted novel is a tribute to the power of books * S Magazine, Sunday Express *The Librarian will wring the heart of anyone who fell in love with books as a child. It is a hymn to the power of children's literature...delightful * The Times *Vickers lays bare the inner workings of one family, possibly every family, with an often disconcerting clarity * The Times on 'Cousins' *Vickers' real skill as a story teller is in allowing each distinct voice to contribute to a complete, or as complete as can be, picture of one family... the pace gathers, making for a deeply poignant climax * Financial Times on 'Cousins' *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Jagua Nana
Book SynopsisBold, moving, entertaining and controversial, this is the great novel of 1960s Lagos life - with one of the most unforgettable heroines in literature. Jagua Nana, no longer young but still irresistible, lives a life of hedonism in Lagos: men, parties, fights, wild nights in the Tropicana with her handsome young boyfriend Freddie. Rushing from one experience to the next in search of something she can''t quite grasp, Jagua finds herself embroiled in shady politics, caught up in village feuds and a source of drama wherever she goes. In this vivid depiction of 1960s Nigeria, everyone is hustling and everyone is on the make - and a woman like Jagua must find her own unconventional path to fulfilment.Trade ReviewA joy to read; his glorious imagination captured ours ... Jagua Nana is my favourite of his novels -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie * Guardian *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd A Murder of Quality
Book SynopsisJohn le Carré''s second novel is an ingenious puzzle featuring his best-loved character George Smiley. Now available in a collector''s hardback edition.Stella Rode has twice disturbed the ancient cloisters of Carne School: firstly by being the wrong sort, with her doilies and china ducks, and secondly by being murdered. George Smiley, who has his own connection with the school, is asked by an old Service friend to investigate. Smiley knows that Stella feared her husband would murder her, but as he probes further beneath Carne''s respectable veneer, he uncovers far more than a simple crime of passion. In his second George Smiley novel, le Carré moves outside the world of espionage to reveal the secrets at the heart of another particularly English institution. The result is a pitch-perfect murder mystery, with Smiley as master detective.THE SECOND GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL''Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty'' Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewA book of rare and great power * Financial Times *A devastating and tragic record of human, not glamour, spies * New York Herald Tribune *
£999.99
Penguin Books Ltd Our Game
Book SynopsisLe Carré''s post-Cold War masterpiece, filled with suspense, betrayal, desire and dramaThe Cold War is over and retired secret servant Tim Cranmer has been put out to pasture, spending his days making wine on his Somerset estate. But then he discovers that his former double agent Larry - dreamer, dissolute, philanderer and disloyal friend - has vanished, along with Tim''s mistress. As their trail takes him to the lawless wilds of Russia and the North Caucasus, he is forced to question everything he stood for.Set in a fragmented, uncertain post-Soviet world, le Carré''s brutal story of falsehoods and betrayal shows men playing dangerous games beyond their control.Trade ReviewA wonderful book, absolutely in tune with the le Carré canon. I cannot think of a more compelling read. * The Financial Times *
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd A Most Wanted Man
Book Synopsis''One of the most sophisticated fictional responses to the war on terror yet published'' GuardianAn illegal Muslim immigrant arrives in Hamburg with a traumatic past and the key to a fortune held in a private bank. He says his name is Issa. To the idealistic young human rights lawyer Annabel, determined to save him from deportation, he is a worthy cause. To the intelligence services of Britain, Germany and America, however, he is a potential jihadist - and a pawn between them as they seek to make a kill in the war on terror. A Most Wanted Man is a gripping and disquieting story of paranoia, disillusionment and betrayal in the moral no-man''s land of the post-9/11 world. ''A first-class novel about the most pressing concerns of our time'' Daily Telegraph
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Naive and Sentimental Lover
Book Synopsis''Splendid ... le Carré shows how endowed he is with the gift of storytelling'' The TimesAldo Cassidy is a cautious man. He has a pleasant family, drives a safe, expensive car and wears luxurious clothes. But his soothing existence is upended when he meets Shamus and Helen - a dazzling, bohemian couple who are everything he is not. As he is drawn into their reckless and unpredictable orbit, all that Cassidy thought he understood about his orderly life begins to unravel.Told with le Carré''s lacerating wit and penetrating observation, The Naive and Sentimental Lover is an acerbic satire of middle-class hypocrisies.''Le Carré is the equal of any novelist now writing'' Guardian
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd Your Face Tomorrow Volume 3
Book Synopsis''Your Face Tomorrow is already being compared with Proust and rightly so'' Observer''One of contemporary literature''s major works ... you have to open this book'' Ali SmithThe concluding part in Javier Marías'' spy trilogy masterwork Jacques Deza is back in London and once again working for the secret intelligence agency run by Bertram Tupra. Deza finds himself forced to watch Tupra''s collection of incriminating videotapes of important public figures. The recordings document unconventional private lives - and horrific acts. The scenes enter him like a poison, contaminating everything good, yet he is powerless to counteract them. Set against a background of brutality, Poison, Shadow and Farewell asks whether violence can ever be justified and completes the extraordinary journey that has led us on a descent into hell and a re-emergence, not entirely unscathed, into life.Trade ReviewYour Face Tomorrow is already being compared with Proust and rightly so. It is a novel of extraordinary subtlety and pathos. The next thing Marias deserves is the Nobel Prize * Observer *
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd Berger J Red Tenda of Bologna
Book Synopsis''It''s an improbable city, Bologna - like one you might walk through after you have died.''A dreamlike meditation on memory, food, paintings, a fond uncle and the improbable beauty of Bologna, from the visionary thinker and art critic.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.63
Penguin Books Ltd The Breakthrough
Book SynopsisDispatch the maimed, the old, the weak, destroy the very world itself, for what is the point of life if the promise of fulfilment lies elsewhere?On the windswept coast of rural Suffolk, a deranged scientist attempts to extract the essence of life itself.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.63
Penguin Books Ltd Madame du Deffand and the Idiots
Book Synopsis''She was bored and fought against her boredom, which only bored her still more.''Five sparkling, irreverent brief portraits of famous literary figures (including libertines, eccentrics and rogues) from Spain''s greatest living writer.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£4.42
Penguin Books Ltd Lance
Book Synopsis''The illegible signature of teetering disaster'' Three great stories--The Aurelian, Signs and Symbols and Lance--the last both a derisive attack on science-fiction and an attempt to imagine the real pain and horror that would accompany space travel. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.63
Penguin Books Ltd An American Dream
Book SynopsisAs Stephen Rojack, a decorated war hero and former congressman who murders his wife in a fashionable New York City high-rise, runs amok through the city in which he was once a privileged citizen, Mailer peels away the layers of our social norms to reveal a world of pure appetite and relentless cruelty. One part Nietzsche, one part de Sade, and one part Charlie Parker, An American Dream grabs the reader by the throat and refuses to let go.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The ThirtyNine Steps
Book Synopsis''My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor''Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot which could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers'' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.
£7.99
Penguin Books Ltd Tell Me How Long the Trains Been Gone
Book SynopsisIn this tender, impassioned fourth novel, James Baldwin created one of his most striking characters: a man struggling to become himself.''Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it''At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, we see the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo''s childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the world of the theatre lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. And everywhere there is the anguish of being black in a society that seems poised on the brink of racial war. In this tender, angry 1968 novel, James Baldwin created one of his most striking characters: a man struggling to become himself.''The emotion surrounding family attachment... is deeply felt and is one reasons he continues to be read with such intensity'' Colm TóibínTrade ReviewTruth-telling, witness bearing, soul stirring writing -- Cornel WestThe emotion surrounding family attachment... is deeply felt and is one of the reasons he continues to be read with such intensity -- Colm TóibínTimeless . . . a visionary writer * Guardian *A jazzlike reconfiguration of Baldwin's own life, with existing parts examined and rearranged and new parts added -- Clifford Thompson * LA Review of Books *One of the few essential novelists of our time * New Statesman *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Girl on the Via Flaminia
Book SynopsisA dark love story set in wartime Rome from the author of In Love and Your Face for the World to SeeRome, 1944. Robert is a lonely American soldier looking for a girl. Lisa is cold and hungry, obliged to seek work at Mamma Pulcini''s house on the Via Flaminia. Their lives come together in what should be a simple exchange, a temporary arrangement without love or complication. But in a city broken by war, its people defeated, nothing is simple. Based on Alfred Hayes''own experiences of wartime Italy, this spare, searing novel exposes the dark complexities of the relationship between men and women, victor and vanquished. ''Hayes has done for bruised men what Jean Rhys does for bruised women, and they both write heartbreakingly beautiful sentences'' Paul Bailey, Guardian''Rings true as gold ... every single character in the book is sharp with the infallible stroke of art'' Daily MailTrade ReviewA superb short novel ... The Hemingway influence is clear, but Hayes is his own man, a master of irony and ambiguity ... An enthralling narrative, and art of a high order * Kirkus Reviews *It is a bigger story than it seems to be, for it has implications that spread through the city and the world * The New York Times *Hayes has done for bruised men what Jean Rhys does for bruised women, and they both write heartbreakingly beautiful sentences * Guardian *A sensitive and gorgeously wrought study of connections and misconnections, this masterpiece of the period perfectly captures a short, but unique, period in history * Mostly Fiction *Hayes balances a bitter depiction of an unforgiving world with sympathy for the sad evasive manoeuvres of the human psyche... His novels perfectly capture the texture of midcentury American life ... His work must come back to us in all its brutal honesty * Los Angeles Review of Books *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Sugar Man
Book SynopsisA serial killer in a small religious cult. A detective who has waited decades for justice. The gripping and heart-breaking new mystery from an exciting breakthrough crime talent - available for pre-order now...Dakota Finch never really recovered from the day her best friend was murdered. Dakota and Flora were best friends and Dakota has never confessed her own dark secret about what she did that day. Years later, Dakota has become a detective, hiding her broken heart behind a rock-hard shell. When her latest misdemeanour sees her re-assigned back to her small home town, she can't help but think it could be her chance to finally catch Flora's killer a man who's only ever be known as the Sugar Man. When another body is found, stirring up memories of her last summer with Flora, Dakota realises the truth may be hiding in the secretive Amish-like cult based in the nearby woodland. But this is a killer who has stayed hidden for decades, and they
£18.00
Penguin Books Ltd The Kites
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Kites is indeed a treasure, capable of accessing an enormous node of insight and almost-overwhelming beauty spliced with bittersweet candor... we are lucky to have it at last. We're going to need it. * BOMB Magazine *This final work by a maverick genius of modern French fiction tells a story of love and war that's both charming and moving. It's a perfect introduction to the unique imagination of Romain Gary -- Boyd TonkinRomain Gary has created a gallery of heroes who are willing to die for liberty but have to settle for the lesser victory of self-knowledge * Time *A major literary star ... whose life was stranger than fiction * Guardian *A rebel French writer ... a brilliant storyteller, a master craftsman and one of France's most original writers * Independent *What talent, most certainly, how many ideas and passions too. You seize us and shake us. Ah! -- Charles de GaulleWhat a gold mine! -- Jean Paul SartreA truly beautiful novel -- David BellosGary is brilliant at capturing the existential emotion for which the title of "The Kites" is an obvious metaphor -- sky-bound yet tethered by that string. -- Gal Beckerman * New York Times Book Review *More than a humorist, more than a storyteller, he's a moralist, an independent and significant student of the struggle to tell right from wrong, good conduct from bad. This struggle took place within a life that was, as people like to say, itself as good a story as any novel that he wrote -- Adam Gopnik * The New Yorker *An extraordinary novel about lost love, memory, resistance to tyranny and individual lives caught up in the rush of history -- D. J. TaylorWhat struck me the most on reading The Kites was the energy and fervour needed to write such a text at a time when the author was so close to ending his own life. How do you create such an explosion of life and love when you are overwhelmed with the desire to die? The Kites is a novel touched from beginning to end with grace, a great saga about the innate dignity of love that succeeds in the feat of being funny and poetic, tender and sharp, committed and fierce, with a touch of brilliance in the art of dialogue and situations that avoid the twofold temptation of sentimentality and moral lesson. He mixes the spirit of childhood with the acute intelligence of the mature man. He utilises frivolity and virtuous irony to give the tragedy of life its depth and greatness - and this eloquence, this taste for language and beauty in the shadow of death demonstrates the power of literature. So, after having mixed with a memorable crowd of truculent, touching, spectacular and comical characters, you finish the text with a lingering feeling of enchantment in spite of all the bereavements and adversities. -- Muriel BarberyWhat emerges, overwhelmingly, is the sense that, in Gary's hands, fiction itself is a form of resistance. * The Guardian *A hugely enjoyable read * Spectator *Captures [Romain Gary's] slightly absurd gallantry, his humor and compassion, and his love of all things French. * Haaretz *We can weep while reading this joyful novel -- Alan Moses * The Times Literary Supplement *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Dharma Bums
Book SynopsisJack Kerouac''s classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of natureA witty, moving philosophical novel, Jack Kerouac''s The Dharma Bums is a journey of self-discovery through the lens of Zen Buddhist thought. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Ann Douglas.Following the explosive energy of On the Road, the book that put the Beat Genration on the literary map - and Jack Kerouac on the bestseller list - comes The Dharma Bums, in which Kerouac charts the spiritual quest of a group of friends in search of Dharma, or Truth. Ray Smith and his friend Japhy, along with Morley the yodeller, head off into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude and experience the Zen way of life. But in wildly Bohemian San Francisco, with its poetry jam sessions, marathon drinking bouts and experiments in ''yabyum'', they find the ascetic route distinctly hard to follow.
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Lonesome Traveler
Book SynopsisA timeless travelogue from the leading light of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac''s Lonesome Traveller is a jubilant celebration of human discoveryAs he roams the US, Mexico, Morocco, Paris and London, Kerouac records, in prose of pure poetry, life on the road. Standing on the engine of a train as it rushes past fields of prickly cactus; witnessing his first bullfight in Mexico while high on opium; catching up with the beat nightlife in New York; burying himself in the snow-capped mountains of north-west America; meditating on a sunlit roof in Tangiers; or falling in love with Montmartre and the huge white basilica of Sacré-Coeur - Kerouac reveals both the endless diversity of human life and his own high-spirited philosophy of self-fulfilment.''Full of startling and beautiful things ... one sees, hears and feels'' Sunday Times
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd The Haven
Book Synopsis''A brilliant character led thriller that explores universal issues'' Lisa Jewell, bestselling author of The Family Upstairs''A smart, fierce thriller about an unravelling family, a corrupted utopia, and the wild hearts of teenage girls. I couldn''t look away' Lauren Beukes, internationally bestselling author of The Shining Girls---Sixteen year old Cass Sawyer wakes up in the woods with a head injury.She has no recollection of what happened.But she recognises where she is. The Haven. The idyllic, off-grid retreat her parents claimed would heal their broken family.As Cass searches the now deserted buildings, memories begin to trickle through.Her father's erratic behaviour. Her mother's pleas that they go back to town. The Haven's charismatic, free-spirited leader. The strange girls that hang on his every word.And a nagging feeling: that Cass has done so
£17.09
Penguin Books Ltd The Memoir of an AntiHero
Book SynopsisThe Second World War. Poland. Our narrator has no intention of being a hero. He plans to survive this war, whatever it takes.Meticulously he recounts his experiences: the slow unravelling of national events as well as uncomfortable personal encounters on the street, in the café, at the office, in his love affairs. He is intimate but reserved; conversational but careful; reflective but determined. As he becomes increasingly and chillingly alienated from other people, the reader is drawn into complicit acquiescence. We are forced to consider what it means to be heroic and how we ourselves would behave in the same circumstances.Written in 1961, this is the masterpiece of one of the great Polish writers of the twentieth century.Trade Reviewprovocative, troubling, awkward . . . a proper classic * The Sunday Times *
£9.25
Penguin Books Ltd Great Expectations
Book Synopsis''New York City is very peaceful and quiet, and the pale grey mists are slowly rising, to show me the world''Pip switches identities, sexes and centuries in this punk, fairytale reimagining of Charles Dickens''s original Great Expectations. Both familiar and unfamiliar, our orphaned narrator is transplanted to New York City in the 1980s; becoming, by turns, a sailor, a pirate, a rebel and an outlaw, through adventures incorporating desire, creativity, porn, sadism and art. This ribald explosion of literature, sex and violence shows the literary anarchist Kathy Acker at her most brilliant and brave. ''Acker''s most accomplished experimental work'' The Village Voice''A postmodern Colette with echoes of Cleland''s Fanny Hill'' William S. BurroughsTrade ReviewAcker's most accomplished experimental work... As she says in Great Expectations, 'A narrative is an emotional moving.' It should be, but she's one of the few people writing today who manage to blend that kind of warmth, gutsiness, and skill. -- Sally O’Driscoll * The Village Voice *Acker's most ambitious, most exciting and masterful novel to date... The novel is as revolutionary in form as it is in content. -- Steve Abbot * Poetry Flash *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Lady and the Little Fox Fur
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewLeduc's short book is magnificently disproportionate to its length. A moving, beautiful and authentic classic. We must be grateful to the Penguin European Writers series, a precious venture in these dark times, for bringing it back to us. -- John BanvilleA forceful affirmation of the human spirit * Guardian *Violette Leduc's novels are works of genius and also a bit peculiar -- Deborah Levy, from the introductionShe can capture the smells of a country childhood, dazzle with the lights of the Place de la Concorde or make you feel the silky slither of her eel-grey suit * Observer *This book is as richly humane as anything else you're likely to read * Independent *What is important about Violette Leduc is the extraordinary perfection she brings to experience and the exquisite skill she uses to describe it * Daily Mail *The great French feminist writer we need to remember * Guardian *A vastly under-read author -- Lauren Elkin, author of Flaneuse
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Search Sweet Country
Book SynopsisAccra, Ghana, the 1970s. In the streets, marketplaces and crowded houses of this sprawling city, an unforgettable cast of characters live, love and try to get by: an idealistic professor, a beautiful young witch, a wide-eyed student, a corrupt politician, a healer and a man intent on founding his own village. Through their stories, and those of the living, breathing city itself, Kojo Laing''s dazzling novel creates a portrait of a place caught between colonialism and freedom, eternity and the present. ''The finest novel written in English ever to come out of the African continent'' Binyavanga WainainaTrade ReviewSurreal and satirical ... Laing has found an original voice that is all the stronger for making few concessions to the Western reader: wild, sophisticated, sorrowful * New York Times *Gleefully energetic ... there is an extravagant hopefulness in Kojo Laing * London Review of Books *Laing pushed the English language to its limits and beyond, by fusing Oxbridge English with West African Pidgin, elements from African languages and his own coinings, aiming at creating one gigantic, living and truly cosmopolitan language ... A treasure trove of imagery and refelctions which are just as amusing, relevant and thought-provoking as when they were written * The Voice *Kojo Laing is one of the unsung heroes of African fiction. His prose is poetic, densely packed with strange juxtapositions and more ideas on one page than most writers use for several books. Search Sweet Country is an amazing achievement * Johannesburg Review of Books *Reading Search Sweet Country is like reading a dream ... Each page delivers an intense blast of vivid imagery, a world in which landscapes come to life when inanimate objects receive human characterization ... Laing is a master stylist, and Search Sweet Country delivers an absorbing, if demanding, world for both its characters and the reader -- Uzodinma Iweala * Slate Magazine *An intricate, beautifully rambling novel ... a compelling and rewarding read * Publishers Weekly *Search Sweet Country can be read over and over, continually surprising with a fresh turn of phrase or nuance in character, always engaging, always beautiful. The search is worthwhile * Pittsburgh Gazette *Exuberantly reels with language and imagery reminiscent of the early Joyce * Library Journal *A figurative, comic treat, filled with wild characters and dizzy, wink-filled prose * FlavorWire *African literature's greatest linguistic innovator * Brittle Paper Magazine *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Lispector C Chandelier
Book SynopsisClarice Lispector''s masterly second novel, now available in English for the first time''She found the best clay that one could desire: white, supple, sticky, cold ... She would get a clear and tender material from which she could shape a world''Like the clay from which she sculpts figurines as a girl, Virginia is constantly shifting and changing. From her dreamlike childhood on Quiet Farm with her adored brother Daniel, through an adulthood where the past continues to pull her back and shape her, she moves through life, grasping for the truth of existence. Illuminating Virginia''s progress through intense flashes of image, sensation and perception, The Chandelier, Lispector''s landmark second novel, is a disorienting and exhilarating portrait of one woman''s inner life. ''Utterly original and brilliant, haunting and disturbing'' Colm TóibínTranslated by Benjamin Moser and Magdalena EdwardsTrade ReviewProlific and peerless ... a Brazilian national treasure ... Clarice sought a knowledge beyond knowledge, a wisdom that left wisdom behind ... through her texts emerges the struggle of life: how to live each day, what the painful process of loving is, why one should pick up a pen and respond to indignity in the first place -- Carlos Valladares * Gagosian Quarterly *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Apple in the Dark
Book SynopsisDescribed by Clarice Lispector as ''the best one'', this intoxicating portrayal of a man searching for his destiny is her mystical, enigmatic masterpiece''All I''ve got is hunger. And that instable way of grasping an apple in the dark-without letting it fall''Martim, believing that he has committed a murder, flees the city and escapes into the night. Wandering through the vastness of nature he arrives, in a state of fear and wonder, at a remote ranch run by two women. There Martim finds work and, as he labours in the blistering heat of the Brazilian summer, becomes transfigured; remade into something else entirely.Translated by Benjamin Moser ''The most important Brazilian woman writer of the twentieth century... The richness of The Apple in the Dark defies the explanatory power of any single interpretation'' TLSTrade ReviewLispector is the premier Latin American woman prose writer of this century * The New York Times Book Review *Clarice Lispector left behind an astounding body of work that has no real corollary inside literature or outside it -- Rachel Kushner * Bookforum *Brilliant and unclassifiable: glamorous, cultured, moody, Lispector is an emblematic twentieth-century artist who belongs in the same pantheon as Kafka and Joyce -- Edmund WhiteOne of the true originals of Latin American literature -- Terrence Rafferty * The New York Times Book Review *A genius on the level of Nabokov -- Jeff VanderMeer * Slate *Sphinx, sorceress, sacred monster. The revival of the hypnotic Clarice Lispector has been one of the true literary events of the twenty-first century -- Parul Seghal * The New York Times *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Grandmothers
Book SynopsisThe new novel from Salley Vickers, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Librarian''Heart-warming... Grandmothers is a beautifully written and moving celebration of this love, too often unsung, that reaches out across the generations'' The TimesGrandmothers is the story of three very different women and their relationship with the younger generation: fiercely independent Nan, who leads a secret life as an award-winning poet when she is not teaching her grandson Billy how to lie; glamorous Blanche, deprived of the company of her beloved granddaughter Kitty by her hostile daughter-in-law, who finds solace in rebelliously taking to drink and shop lifting; and shy, bookish Minna who in the safety of shepherd''s hut shares with her surrogate granddaughter Rose her passion for reading. The outlook of all three women subtly alters when through their encounters with each other they discover that the past is always with us andTrade ReviewA fond portrait of what it is to love a child, both yours and not... a tonic for the overlooked modern grandmother * Sunday Times *Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand. She's a presence worth cherishing in the ranks of modern novelists -- Philip PullmanVickers writes of relationships with undaunted clarity -- Adam PhillipsNo one can dig down into the shrouded recesses of the human heart quite as forensically as Vickers * Sunday Times *The Librarian will wring the heart of anyone who fell in love with books as a child. It is a hymn to the power of literature...delightful * The Times on 'The Librarian' *A nostalgic treat...involving and hopeful * Mail on Sunday on 'The Librarian' *
£8.99
Penguin Books Ltd Orlando
Book SynopsisTrade Review'I read this book and believed it was a hallucinogenic, interactive biography of my own life and future' -- Tilda SwintonA book that refuses all constraints: historical, fantastical, metaphysical, sociological -- Jeanette Winterson * New Statesman *A fantasy, impossible but delicious ... an exuberance of life and wit * The Times Literary Supplement *
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Between the Acts Virginia Woolf Penguin classics
Book Synopsis''One of the great writers of the twentieth century'' GuardianIt is June in 1939, and the inhabitants of a country house prepare to host the annual village pageant in its grounds. It will tell the stories of English history, as it does every year. Yet the coming of war broods over the whole community, changing the meaning of past and present, and heralding a new act. Through her characters'' passionate musings and private dramas, and through the enigmatic figure of the pageant''s author, Miss La Trobe, Virginia Woolf''s playful final novel both celebrates and mocks Englishness, and re-creates the elusive role of the artist.Edited by Stella McNichol with an Introduction and Notes by Gillian Beer
£7.59
